@OmSigDAVID,
David, Michael Gross is too uptight and urbane-acting to play Bipolar Bear. Michael Gross always plays the slightly OCD acting rich guy with an evil secret in his tv movies and on Law and Order. Apparently Bipolar Bear is a free-spirited, head-banging rocker. Michael Gross?! No.
I also don't see Osso as Angela Lansbury. Angela Lansbury isn't quirky enough to play Osso. Angela Lansbury's thinking and method of communication are too linear and practical and Osso's is more free-ranging and creative.
Chai reminds me Kathy Bates (that's a compliment) - very straightforward and she- Kathy Bates- even does a good Texas accent.
And POM is much more intellectual (at least as she writes) than Phyllis Diller.
I don't know any priest, rabbi, or hippie jokes either - but I met a hippie who told me a funny priest joke this week-end.
This guy was handsome - beautiful teeth and smile and he was wearing cargo shorts and flip-flops - longish, thick chestnut color hair.
I was talking to my friend Pia and he heard my American accent, asked, 'Are you American or Canadian?' and when I answered, 'American' he sat down next to me and proceeded to tell me (in a thickly slurred voice- he was very drunk) that he'd lived in a van in Hawaii for a while doing nothing but beachcombing and surfing.
I said, 'That sounds like a pretty nice life...' He said, 'You think so? Most people think it's irresponsible - me being a vagrant and all.' I said, 'Well, I wouldn't mind living in a van on a beach in Hawaii - I wouldn't even call it being a vagrant.' He said, 'Well, I was a vagrant - in fact, I'm still a vagrant - but I'm a very well-mannered and educated vagrant.'
Then he told me this joke:
Question: 'What did the priest call the new low-calorie communion wafers?'
Answer: 'I can't believe they're not Jesus'.
If he was a vagrant, he was a very handsome and funny vagrant- although sad to say with a pretty obvious drinking problem.