Avery Brooks
Quite the whackjob on "The Captains".
shareYeah, but the good kind.
shareI agree with Shatner. He's out there. That has to be one of the weirdest interviews I've ever seen. I know that some people use music to aid in their communication but seriously?! I almost cringed when it came to his segments. Not that I think he's a bad person by any means, just very....out there....
shareI always liked him on DS9, but ended up fast forwarding through his segments after I watched the first two or three.
"I don't want Fop! I'm a Dapper Dan man!"
Yeah, those interviews were sometime completely different, but maybe for him that was the only way he could relate to Shatner's type-A aggressiveness, and if so it was a very graceful performance actually. It was his way of getting a word in edgewise maybe ;-)
shareI met him at Wizard World Philadelphia in June 2010.
He's quite the whackjob in person, too.
Damn fine actor, though.
Aquaman: 15% Off, you say? By Poseidon, those savings are OUTRAGEOUS!
He's a professor at Rutgers. Can you imagine trying to keep up with him? I wonder what he teaches...
shareHe is an associate professor in Theater Arts at the New Brunswick Rutgers campus.
Maria
He came across as barmy, but sadly a little arrogant aswell. I always liked him on DS9 but I don't think he actually mentioned anything about the show in the interview, an what made it worse was Shatner tried to keep up with him, just go silent until he starts talking bloody sense.
shareHe teaches drama and I had him as a prof (this was way before DS9, though). He was an excellent, strict, disciplined professor and a kind, really caring person.
He *is* a bit wierd but, as someone else said upthread, in a good way.
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"Fear not for the future; weep not for the past." -- Percy Bysshe Shelley
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I have to admit that at times I was afraid he was senile, or worse. I also can't help but wonder if Shatner considered cutting his part altogether, considering that the rest of the documentary is just so good. Brooks' musical wise man act was the only weak part of the film. Bummer too, cos I loved him on DS9.
shareHe's out there, but I think cutting him out would have been criminal and completely against the grain of the documentary. It was about discovering the kind of people the captains were and are today.
I think Shatner handled himself really quite well considering some of the topics.
"It's ok to play with dolls!"
It was problematic that he was the only one that did not kiss Shatner's ring, so to speak. Shatner is so type-A that I would not be surprised if he did that documentary to own Kirk and dis Christopher Pine a bit. Maybe that is why Nimoy was not in it as well ... interesting as the man is, he is very out there ... perhaps overbearing ... but hey, he's William Tiberius Shatner. Tiberius, got it!?
shareLOL, I thought the same thing. Did he completely lose his mind as soon as the director called "Cut! That's a wrap!" on the final episode of DS9?
shareAvery Brooks was boldly going where Shatner didn't even know. You could tell Shatner was uncomfortable...hell I was while I was watching it.
shareFunny, I thought Shatner was sort of impressed with his ability to gently wrest the control of the talk away from him. He did not see uncomfortable, just "discomfitted" a bit because he could not take total control of the interview. I think Shatner now has enough confidence to have the ability to be genuinely amused by this stuff and hold back ... in other words he apprears to show growth in his character arc ... at least in this documentary.
shareI don't believe anybody is that "eccentric" and then just "gets it together" in front of the camera. That dude was either ON something, or has been on so much that reality is a speck in his rearview mirror.
Shatner could have asked him for a cornbread recipe and he'd have replied with 5 random syllables and 10 minutes of loose soft jazz.
www.thefreething.com/indyruss
Geez, the lot of you really need to get out more.
"We are all more alike than not alike." Sci-fi action/adventure novel Omicron Crisis by D. L. Smith
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Yeah, he seemed a bit out there, but as others said, in a good way. I really enjoyed the Avery segments and found a lot of what he said to be inspiring.
shareHe came off as being pretty eccentric, but like others have said, in a good way. He seems to be having a blast in life, and really that's a pretty good example to set.
shareI figured he's a creative type with his improvisaional jazz and stuff, and I've known many musicians, so it's not hard for me to believe he really is like that. Musicians and actors tend to be sort of "out there" when they are not performing.
For me, it was kind of refreshing to see someone who could so easily throw Shatner off, and kind of dangle him along like that, when usually it's Shat screwing with someone else, i.e. hiding in a box like a homeless man when Kate Mulgrew comes along.
I agree with hobbit mania, Brooks just seems to be bopping along enjoying life. I think that's great.
He seemed perfectly normal in the Comic Con panel interview that took place after The Captains was released.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGMUq07dF1s
So either he was on drugs, or he was trying to mess with Shatner.
// C64K
He was either stoned out of his gourd or is just looney. That was a really bizarre sections of interviews.
He is a really good jazz pianist though.
http://www.13tongimp.com/
IMHO, he was out there in a bad way. This was a charming documentary. Star Trek, as a phenomenon, is larger than any of its component actors, even the iconic James Tiberius. While I thought Shatner came off way more human and "real" than I would have thought him to be, each of the persons interviewed -- both the captains and the supporting players -- realized how ingrained the Star Trek franchises have become, not just to Trekies, but to mainstream fans as well. But Brooks was just, again, in my opinion, being a supreme a-hole. His freeform jazz approach may serve him well on campus, but it seemed arrogant to me. Just answer the freakin' questions, Avery! We don't want your riff and jazzbabble. I had been a big fan of his before this documentary, but he came off documentally unbalanced. Boo, hiss. BTW, Shatner's moment with the severely handicapped young man brought tears to my eyes. What a mensch! Bill, you rule. What could have been a treacle filled self-serving ego trip was just the opposite. It's nice to know WS in the kind of guy any of us could sit down and have a beer with and enjoy the experience.
shareBrooks isn't into Trek--or sci-fi @ all. He's deeply into African culture, heritage & jazz (& opera). He's a stage actor (& Rutgers professor) who took a job w/ DS9.
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Carpe Noctem!
How strange. He seems only mildly eccentric on here, but completely together. Totally different from how he seemed in the documentary. Definitely makes me feel like he must have been stoned. Which is pretty hilarious.
shareI thought he did come off as a bit "out there", POSSIBLY stoned, though not necessarily. Before watching the documentary, I saw a Youtube video that was edited dishonestly to make him come across ad COMPLETELY out of it. He was however perfectly lucid at points. At other points, I felt he could only giggle as someone who was high MIGHT at Shatner's over-reaching B.S. As opposed to how Stewart's raised eyebrows and how he had to cover his mouth when Shatner described the "Holocaust play" he performed in at the age of 5.
As far as Brooks' demeanor on the piano, it reminded me of how Buddy Rich would look when playing the drums or Burt Bacharach singing at the piano (esp. from that awesome "I hope I don't get hit in the rear" Geico commercial). The part of the brain that is activated when a musician is performing DOES make some people come off as being high. I think Shatner was out of his element with Brooks, and to read through this thread, some of the audience was as well.
I dont know if it was "out there" - I think that Avery wanted to bank some cash without providing the stock cliche answers. I think that what he was doing was telling us, that he was done with star trek and didnt want to infringe on the character - by showing us what he looks like with the mask off.
shareGuy came across as eccentic, but not any kind of nutjob - he seems the "creative" type, which some artists are.
Brooks's segments were an embarrassment. He's demented, senile, stoned, or all three. Spouting off a line of jazzbabble does not make him a musician, just a poser. Comparisons to the great Buddy Rich are ridiculous.
shareNot necessarily stoned.......but, beautiful?
I'm still going with batsh*t insane.