Timur PANKOV
ALMATY, Jan 14
(THE GLOBE)
One thing I hope I�ll never be is drunk with my own power. And anybody who says I am
will never work in this town again.
Jim Carrey
FOREMOST among the more improbable success stories in the history of Hollywood is the
meteoric rise to fame of actor
Jim Carrey, who transformed himself from B-grade wannabe to A-list leading man in the span
of just one remarkable
year. With only the spottiest of cinematic oeuvres and national name recognition
equivalent to that of your average North
Dakota congressperson, Carrey descended on the box office like a ton of bricks in February
of 1994 as the title character
of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, a low-rent Miami snoop whose butt-soliloquizing shenanigans
busted pre-adolescent guts
to the unanticipated tune of $72 million. As the limber-limbed actor himself later put it,
�Until Ace Ventura, no actor had
considered talking through his ass.� And how. By the end of the year, Carrey had logged
two more smash hits, The Mask
and Dumb and Dumber, each of which easily exceeded the $100 million mark in domestic
grosses. His mind-blowing
breakthrough was confirmed in 1995 when Sony coughed up $20 million�at the time the
largest straight sum ever paid
any actor for one movie�to secure his services for The Cable Guy.
By most accounts (including his own), Carrey was exactly the sort of youth you�d
imagine: a rambunctious and fearlessly
extroverted child with a wildly active imagination. When he was 10, he sent a r�sum� to
The Carol Burnett Show. The
youngest of four siblings, Carrey was born and raised in the suburbs of Toronto. As a
youngster he developed his sense
of humor by pulling faces in front of the mirror and by doing impersonations of his
alcoholic grandparents; he made his
stage debut in the role of Santa Claus in a third grade Christmas pageant at the Blessed
Trinity School. Later on, he did
standup comedy for his schoolmates, most notably in the seventh grade, when his teacher
induced her irrepressibly
comic pupil to behave by allowing him to do impromptu 15-minute routines for the class at
the end of each day.
Perhaps the most defining period of Carrey�s young life commenced shortly after his 14th
birthday, when his father, an
aspiring jazz saxophonist who had worked for years as an accountant to feed the family,
lost his job. The Carreys were
forced to relocate to Scarborough, where both parents and all four children took jobs as
janitors and security personnel at
the Titan Wheels factory. Already acutely conscious of his father�s abandoned artistic
ambitions, Carrey was deeply
embittered by this second denial of fortune, and working eight-hour shifts at the factory
in addition to taking classes at a
new high school did little to improve his disposition. His grades plummeted from straight
A�s into the D and F range�not
surprising, considering he slept through most of his classes.
Carrey ultimately dropped out of high school, and the family dropped out of Titan Wheels;
after abandoning their factory-
subsidized apartment, they lived in a VW camper van and drifted back to Toronto, staying
at campgrounds or with
relatives along the way. In Toronto, Carrey sought an outlet for his anger by performing
at comedy clubs. With material
supplied by his father, and dressed by his mother in a yellow polyester suit, he made his
debut at Yuk Yuk�s in Toronto,
where both his attire and his delivery were booed mercilessly. Demonstrating a spiritual
resilience that mirrored his
astoundingly elastic physique, Carrey doggedly honed his shtick in Toronto clubs�and
even briefly immigrated to Los
Angeles for a short run at the Comedy Store�and became particularly reputed for his
impersonations of such notables
as Michael Landon, Gandhi, and Jimmy Stewart.
In 1979, Carrey relocated to L.A. for good, and nailed down a regular gig at the Comedy
Store, where his act drew
favorable reviews from such notables as Rodney Dangerfield, who signed the confrontational
comic on for a season as
his opening act, and David Letterman, who hosted him on Late Night. On the strength of
such widening exposure, NBC
offered Carrey a series lead in The Duck Factory, a 1983 mid-season replacement that was
ultimately canceled after 13
little-seen episodes. Fearful of becoming a career comedian in the Vegas mode, and having
gained some exposure to
filmmaking in several Canadian movies, Carrey shifted his energies to pursuing a career in
acting. After making his
American debut in the Richard Lester-directed farce Finders Keepers, Carrey assembled a
string of supporting
appearances in such films as Francis Ford Coppola�s Peggy Sue Got Married and Clint
Eastwood�s fifth Dirty Harry flick,
The Dead Pool.
Carrey�s first major film role came along in the 1989 sex farce Earth Girls Are Easy,
which featured him, Jeff Goldblum,
and Damon Wayans as sex-starved extraterrestrials who hit on Geena Davis. An impressed
Wayans referred Carrey to
brother Keenen Ivory, who at the time was assembling an African-American-flavored comedy
revue for Fox called In
Living Color. Carrey was subsequently hired as one of the show�s two white cast members.
His Fire Marshal Bill and
Vera De Milo characters gained him a reasonable measure of national exposure, and when the
show�s four-season run
ended in 1994, Carrey was primed for the stunningly successful rebirth of his film career
in Ace Ventura.
Carrey�s run of winners peaked in 1995 with Batman Forever (in which he portrayed the
Riddler) and the butt-blabbing
redux Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, following which the lithe star took a stumble with
the dark comedy The Cable
Guy, a decided misfire that originally had been penned as a light-hearted vehicle for
Chris Farley. Fans and critics alike
forgave Carrey his fall from grace when he returned to his trademark straightforward
goofiness with 1997�s Liar Liar, a
film which solidly reestablished his phenomenal drawing power by grossing nearly $200
million; his performance also
garnered a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination. Thereafter audiences were treated to an
entirely different sort of Jim
Carrey with the release of 1998�s The Truman Show, which marked his first starring
appearance in a serious dramatic
film.
Shortly following his Ace Ventura breakthrough, Carrey endured a costly and messy divorce
from first wife Melissa
Womer, a waitress he�d met during his Comedy Store days. Almost immediately thereafter
he hooked up with his Dumb
and Dumber leading lady, Lauren Holly, and, in fine Hollywood fashion, the two eventually
signed the requisite prenup,
wed, and divorced. In addition to tracking future romantic ups and downs, Carrey fans can
look forward to seeing their
hero in several films: He�ll star as a top secret Navy operative in a remake of the Don
Knotts farce The Incredible Mr.
Limpet; and take on the role made famous by Danny Kaye in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
In a more serious vein,
he�s wrapped a supporting role in the Ashley Judd starrer Simon Birch, and he�ll take
on the lead role in Man in the
Moon, Milos Forman�s biopic of the late Andy Kaufman, a part for which Carrey beat out
the likes of Nicolas Cage, John
Cusack, Kevin Spacey, and Edward Norton.
January 15
The Kasteyev National Museum
Opening of the exhibition of German artists with participation of the German Embassy. 02.
00 p. m.
January 16
The Kazakh Concert Hall
Opera �Yevgeniy Onegin� of P. Chaykovskiy, 06. 00 p. m.
January 17
The State Philharmonic society
Concert of the State String Quartet with participation of the professor of the Kazakh
National Musical Academy of Astana
city V. Uzbekov (piano) 06. 00 p. m.
Students� Palace
Meeting with poets Yevgeniy Yevtushenko (Russia) and Mukhtar Shamakhanov (free entrance)
04. 00 p. m.
TRIBUNA Gallery
Exhibition of Kazakstan�s artists: graphics, painting, batik, sculpture.
The Kazakh Concert Hall: 83, Ablay Khan avenue; Tel: 621026
The State Philharmonic Society: - the Kazakh State Philharmonic Society named after
Dzhambul: 35, Kaldayakova,
corner Tole bi Street; Tel: 61 75 41
Students� Palace: located on the territory of Al Farabi National University 43
Timiryazev Street, Tel: 47 26 03
The Kosteyev National Museum: 30-a, Satpayev Street, Tel: 47 83 56
TRIBUNA Gallery: 14 a, The Novaya Square, the Republic Square, the tribune building; Tel:
69 46 28
11/01/1913 - The first sedan-type car was unveiled at the National Automobile Show in
New York City. The car was
manufactured by the Hudson Motor Company. 11/01/1964 - Surgeon General Luther Terry
released a report that said
that (cough) smoking cig (cough, cough) arettes is a (cough) definite health hazard.
Isn�t that like saying that driving with
your eyes closed can be dangerous to your health? 13/01/1942 - Henry Ford patented the
plastic automobile which
allowed for a 30% decrease in car weight. Of course, it didn�t cost any less to buy a
plastic car. Just ask Corvette
owners...
14/01/1914 - Henry Ford announced the newest advance in assembly line production of
�modern� cars, on this day. The
new continuous motion method reduced assembly time of a car from 12 1/2 hours to 93
minutes. With the stuff wrong
with our car, we think it was built in about 3 minutes... And, could we talk to somebody
about the pop bottle found rattling
around inside our car door?
14/01/1954 - Marilyn Monroe married baseball great, Joe DiMaggio, on this day. The
marriage lasted nine months. Since
her death, DiMaggio has sent roses to her grave site each day.
14/01/1979 - On this date, the Census Bureau reported that 95% of all Americans were
married or will get married. Also,
most people who are divorced eventually remarry. This is fascinating stuff...
15/01/1936 - The first, all glass, windowless building was completed in Toledo, Ohio as
the home of the Owens-Illinois
Glass Company Laboratory. No wonder it was all glass! Not to be outdone, some fifty years
later, Pittsburgh Plate Glass
Co. (PPG) built an award-winning, all glass, towering, castle-like skyscraper, complete
with turrets, in downtown
Pittsburgh. It is now a landmark on the skyline.
16/01/1957 - The Cavern Club opened for business in Liverpool, England. The rock club was
just a hangout for
commoners. Then, things changed � big time. It all started in the early �60s when four
kids from the neighborhood
popped in to jam. They, of course, turned out to be... The Beatles.
16/01/1984 - Michael Jackson didn�t get to sit down much at the 11th annual American
Music Awards this night. �The
Gloved One� got up and down to receive eight awards, including: favorite pop and soul
male vocalist, pop and soul
album winner for �Thriller�, pop and soul video winner for �Beat It� and best pop song
for �Billie Jean�.
17/01/1899 - Al Capone (gangster, head of crime empire during Prohibition)
17/01/1942 - Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) (boxer: former heavyweight champ: the only man to
have regained this title
twice)
17/01/1962 - Jim Carrey (actor, comedian: $20 million for Cable Man makes him highest paid
comedian ever; Ace
Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, Batman Forever, Finders Keepers, The Duck Factory)