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Jewish World Review April 28, 2010 / 14 Iyar 5770 Charlie Rose interviews the world's number one spewer of cliches By Lewis Grossberger
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Rose: The latest edition of Guinness World Records lists Clanton Gentry of Pocatello, Idaho, as the world's number one spewer of cliches. He's here with us tonight. Clanton Gentry, thanks for coming. Gentry: No problem. Rose: I'm told you make your living as a baker, running a shop that specializes in jellyrolls. Gentry: Yeah, that's how I roll. Rose: Do you bake anything else? Croissants or bear claws, for instance? Perhaps the occasional glazed cruller? Gentry: All that good stuff. Check it out. Rose: When it comes to pastry, I personally enjoy beignets. I love the way the powdered sugar clings to my chin and sprinkles onto my hands and cuffs and then I can lick it off. Gentry: (chuckles) That's too much information, Charlie. But it's all good. Rose: How did you come to be such a prodigious spewer of cliches, Clanton? Gentry: Well, I hail from a family that used them to excess so I decided I'd just go with the flow. That being said, I should also point out that I'm a very unoriginal guy. I suck at creativity. Rose: You have no creativity at all? Gentry: Trust me. At the end of the day, it comes down to zero. That's the takeaway. That's what I'm talking about. Rose: But my lackeys tell me that you popularized the cliche, "It is what it is." Gentry: OK, that's the exception, you know, the elephant in the room. Rose: Was that the high point of your cliche career? Gentry: It was a game changer. I'm just sayin' Rose: How did it come about? Gentry: This was back in the day. During the Lewinsky scandal when Clinton said, "It depends what the definition of is is." Rose: Yes, I well remember it. Gentry: My wife turned to me and said, "So what is the definition of is?" And I said, wait for it… Rose: You said, "It is what it is." Gentry: Hey, I asked you to wait for it. Rose: Sorry, I'm irrepressible. Speaking of your wife, does she mind the endless cascade of the trite, the hackneyed and the banal pouring from your lips? Gentry: Long story short, no, she doesn't. Sure, once in a while she gets bent out of shape and she's like, "Get a life, dude." But I just say, "Hey, tell us how you really feel." Rose: Isn't it true that sometimes you even spew cliches during the act of sexual intercourse? Gentry: Don't go there, man. Do. Not. Go. There. Rose: But you yourself revealed that sordid detail in your autobiography, Good to Go: A Life Spent Trying to Get a Clue. Gentry: That's really setting the bar low, Charlie.
Rose: Setting the bar low? That makes no sense. Gentry: Hellooooo? cliches don't have to make sense. Sometimes I just spew them at random. That's the beauty of cliches. They're no brainers. Rose: You don't like to think? Gentry: Been there, done that. Rose: How many cliches do you estimate you've uttered during the course of your long career? Gentry: Well, do the math. I'm 53 years old. I've spewed at least 500 cliches every day. Bottom line: Some ginormous number. Rose: So you're not good at math then? Gentry: Not so much. But the total must be awesome. Rose: Our time is almost up here so is there anything you'd like to say in farewell? Gentry: Yeah, have a nice day. Rose: Thank you, Clanton Gentry. And that's our program for tonight. Gentry: No, it ain't over. Rose: It ain't? Gentry: Not till the fat lady sings. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
© 2009, Lewis Grossberger |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||||
