Actress. Dancer. Singer. Songwriter. Is there anything in the entertainment field that Lizzy Small can't do? From the precocious tyke who played the baker elf in THE SANTA CLAUSE 3 to the studious collegian who distributes her distinct sound on SoundCloud, Lizzy has established herself as a creative force in the industry.

This coming Wednesday, August 23, Lizzy is preparing to rock the house at The Mint at 6010 Pico Blvd in Los Angeles. We caught up with the artist on the phone to ask her a few questions about her music and her upcoming acting performances.

There isn't any clear cut division between the music and the acting--you grew up doing both at pretty much the same time. Was there a family influence in the performing arts at work?

The '60s gave us "in-crowds," "be-ins" and "love-ins," and starting in 1968, the happening place for free-form comedy was ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN, broadcast from beautiful downtown Burbank. Straight man Dan Rowan and wisecracking Dick Martin led a gaggle of goofballs through a rapid-fire assault of one-liners, skits, bits and non-sequiturs that left viewers in hysterics and disbelief. Anything and anyone in the public eye was a target. Political correctness? Forget it! The groundbreaking, Emmy Award-winning show anchored the Monday 8pm time slot on NBC until March 12, 1973.

Now the first season of this hit series can be yours. Just check out our obligatory Rules & Regulations, then proceed to the Rafflecopter form below and take one or more options. And don't forget to say "Sock it to me!" out loud with each one. We can hear you!

Huge news from Wizard World, Inc. today!
 

As the saying goes: “Nothing stays dead in comics.” Pop-Culture leader Wizard World, Inc. (OTCBB: WIZD) today announced the digital re-imagination, re-conception and re-launch of Wizard, as part of a new digital initiative which includes WizPop, a daily pop-culture news service reporting on the biggest stories of the day in pop-culture, entertainment, and fandom. WizPop will also feature a weekly round-table reviewing the relevant news of the week. Bridging video, editorial and convention operations, the revitalized Wizard digital initiatives will speak to fans worldwide in Wizard’s distinctive snarkily-smart voice.

So there's this movie about a guy named Arthur. He's the rightful son of a guy named Uther, who was the King. But Uther got dethroned, and nobody knew where Arthur was. There was a sword in a stone that nobody could pull out, and some stuff about fights with Merlin and Modred.

And if you squinted at it, you might think you were watching a remake of the story of King Arthur. But Guy Ritchie's KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD has pretty much an "in name only" acquaintance with the works of Thomas Mallory or T.H. White.

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it!

In news that may very well break the Internet, if not classic television itself, Warner Bros. Animation has announced that the late ADAM WEST can be heard one last time voicing the Caped Crusader in BATMAN VS. TWO-FACE, with none other that STAR TREK's WILLIAM SHATNER voicing the duplicitous double-profiled double-dealer, Harvey Dent!

Here's the news released earlier today:

DC deciced to take a page out of Marvel's playbook, and leaked some huge news to the Washington Post this morning.

Dream from Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN will be appearing in DARK NIGHTS: METAL #1,  

From the WASHINGTON POST:

As special as “Metal” was shaping up to be, [Scott] Snyder was aiming to make the story unforgettable.

That was the moment he decided to reach out to writer and comic-book legend Neil Gaiman.

Jess’s voice has a wonderful humanness to it that puts her in the same room with you on solos.

These are sad and strange times we are living in. As the forces of unpatriotic fascism clash with the forces of unpatriotic fascism (and no, that is not a typographical error), resulting in a woman's death in Charlottesville, VA, people are lining up to take sides and throw blame.

Meanwhile, in the Twittersphere, the self-righteous lose their sense of self-awareness as they tweet from the safety of their keyboards. The most egregious instance of this occurred over the weekend when vlog-warrior Keith Olbermann, host of GQ Magazine's political web show, The Resistance, took issue with Omarosa Manigault, former contestant on Donald Trump's THE APPRENTICE reality show and current political aide in President Trump's administration.

Apparently not liking Omarosa's response to a question, the former sports analyst sent out the following tweet:

Over the last few months, I’ve been doing quite a bit of coverage of Disney’s DUCKTALES relaunch.  I have to admit, a big part of me was very concerned that I was overhyping it to the point where there was no way I could enjoy it.  On Saturday, August 12th, they aired the premiere episode, “WOO-OO!” repeating it for 24 hours straight.  Probably a bit excessive, but I am here to review the episode itself, NOT the marketing strategy.

What did we talk about on Critical Blast this week?

Game Jab

I’ve been covering New Line Theatre for several years running, and the one thing I can always count on is to expect the unexpected. When I heard that director Scott Miller closing his 26^th season with Out On Broadway: The Third Coming, I thought to myself, “Hmmm…never heard of the first two comings but I assume it’s about gay actors on Broadway?” and yep, that’s pretty much it. Five musical veterans: Dominic Dowdy-Winsor, his real-life husband Mike Dowdy-Windsor, Ken Haller, Sean Michael, and Keith Thompson, along with Nate Jackson on the piano, cover a range of songs from a wide variety of musicals. It’s not a musical in and of itself as it doesn’t have a plot; it’s more of a revue, a five-part cabaret without the introspection between numbers. It’s as stripped down to the bone as a New Line production will likely ever get, and that’s perfectly fine, because the music is pretty great.

Like I said about CAPTAIN AMERICA #25, this comic felt really special. Everything is moving in a real positive direction with the heroes all rallying together for a final battle led by Sam Wilson. It made me exciting to read the last two issues of SECRET EMPIRE and really curious where Marvel is going to head in LEGACY. A few years ago, it seemed like Marvel was heading in this direction with THE HEROIC AGE, but that sort of fell to the wayside. Hopefully, this time they follow through entirely. 

I know a lot of people are down on Marvel for a lot of reasons.  But there are always a lot of Marvel books I enjoy each month.  That said, this issue promises a bold new optimistic direction for the Marvel universe.  I definitely hope they follow through with that.  If so LEGECY will truly be something special.

A SOLAR ECLIPSE IS IMMINENT!
On Monday, August 21, 2017, a solar eclipse will be visible across all of North America. The whole continent will experience a partial eclipse lasting 2 to 3 hours. If you care about the well-being of Earth and you're a space-head like us, check out COMET's...

"When The Moon Throws Shade"
Ultimate Guide to Eclipsing

http://www.CometTV.com/eclipse/

The MONTY PYTHON FAQ: ALL THAT'S LEFT TO KNOW ABOUT SPAM, GRAILS, SPAM, NUDGING, BRUCES AND SPAM, written by Chris Barsanti, Brian Cogan, and Jeff Massey, is one of a series FAQ books from Applause Theater and Cinema Books.

When I first heard about the book, I thought, "Wow! A book that answers the most frequently asked questions about Monty Python!" After all, that is what the acronym “FAQ” stands for. But upon opening it to read, it is actually something completely different…in a good way!