Jaxon, who was heard on WMMR (93.3 FM) for 18 years from 2004 to 2022 before being cut in one of the early layoffs in the market, returns to Philadelphia radio Jan. 20 as host of the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. midday show on WRFF (104.5 FM), also known as Alt 104.5.
Jaxon’s career this decade found him zigzagging on Philly radio even while based in Washington.
He left ‘MMR in 2022 and landed at DC’s WBIG (100.3 FM), called BIG 100 in 2023.
While doing middays at BIG, owned by iHeart Radio, he was also heard in Philadelphia on Alt 104.5, doing the “Post-Modern Radio” segment between noon and 1 p.m.
Both his BIG 100 and Alt 104.5 jobs disappeared via iHeart layoffs in 2025.
Radio has a way of reviving its favorites. Hence, Jaxon’s new Alt 104.5 show, which includes the hour of “Post-Modern Radio” he’d already done for a few years.
As its name implies Alt 104.5 plays classic rock with an alternative twist. While I was writing, it played songs by Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters.
Don’t miss Darren Criss
The date is Sunday, May 31, more than four months away, but it may not be too early to secure tickets is you want to see “Glee” star and Emmy and Tony recipient Darren Criss in concert at Wilmington’s Playhouse on Rodney Square in the Hotel DuPont.
Criss earned his Tony in June playing a helper-bot — yes, an advanced robot — who falls in love with a fellow helper-bot in the musical, “Maybe Happy Ending,” which originated in South Korea but was the ranking hit of last year’s Broadway season.
Criss actually has two Tonys because he was one of the producers of the show.
His Emmy for Best Actor in Limited Series came in 2018 when he starred in the “American Crime Story” anthology series as Andrew Cunanan, the spree killer who murdered internationally famous designer Gianni Versace on a Miami street.
Criss became famous when he joined the popular Fox series, “Glee,” in the middle of its second season, playing Blaine Anderson, the openly gay lead singer of a group that was in competition with New Directions, the choir from the school at which “Glee” was set.
The romance that ensues between Blaine and Kurt (Chris Colfer) from New Directions became one of “Glee’s” more important plot lines.
Criss’s Playhouse concert, part of a national tour, begins at 7 p.m. on May 31.
He will be doing songs he wrote for “Glee” and “Starkid,” including “This Time,” which earned him a 2015Emmy nomination, along with numbers he’s performed on Broadway.
Tickets can be obtained by visiting www.TheGrandWilmington.org or by calling 1-302-652-5577 or 1-302-888-0200.
Mel Brooks documentary this week on HBO
When I was a teen and saw Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft individually on talk shows, I decidedI’d like to be a fly on the wall of their house just to see if they are hilarious at home as they areas television guests.
Brooks’ direct style of humor flies in the face of current sensitivity, which is why I like it more than ever. Irreverence mixed with observation and a knack for the accessible absurd is Brook’s meat.
You don’t have to know much about the man himself to appreciate the broad, laugh-out-loud humor in “The Producers,” “The Twelve Chairs,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Silent Movie” and many more.
Any time I want to laugh, all I have to do is think of the sequence in “Silent Movie,” in which Brooks shows Henry Youngman sitting down to eat in an outdoor restaurant, cuts to a shot of an exterminator truck with a huge fly on its roof working its way through heavy traffic, cuts back to Youngman being served a bowl of soup, cuts back to the exterminator truck being rear-ended, propelling the fly in mid-air, cuts then to the fly landing in Youngman’s soup, at which time Youngman summons the waiter, to say one of his most famouslines, except he doesn’t say it because the movie is silent.
Anticipating the fly landing in Youngman’s soup cracks me up every time.
Whether writing for Sid Caesar, working with Carl Reiner on their “200-Year-Old-Man” albums, or doing his own routines, Mel Brooks is flat-out funny.
Brooks turns 100 on June 28 this year.
He is the subject of a documentary called “The 99-Year-Old-Man” that airs in two parts, 8 p.m. on consecutive nights, Jan. 22 and 23, on HBO Max.
Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio are the producer-directors of the programs which chronicle Brooks’ life and comedy.
Glaser and the Globes
Nikki Glaser’s second pathetic stint as host of the Golden Globes makes it a sincere hope she is not invited back for a third debacle.
The woman just isn’t funny or insightful.
A monologue that simply mentions celebrities in a room chocked full of them holds no humor. At least we know Glaser loves everyone she cited without the slightest pithy comment or semblance of wit.
Where is Neil Patrick Harris, Hugh Jackman, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien or Billy Crystal when he need them?
Surely, their track record proves they are stalwarts as emcees.
Glaser isn’t a plausible substitute for any of them.
To be positive for a second, Glaser does have better taste in gowns than most of the nominees, presenters or recipients.
I always wonder why actors and actresses, who don’t have to think about clothing on camera or stage because they are dressed by costume designers, don’t go to one of those designers instead of choosing for themselves.
Among so many wretched selections, I can’t remember who looked good.
In general, the Globes did a decent job in selected this year’s recipients.
Rose Byrne for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” and Jessie Buckley for “Hamnet,” who were given Globes for best female actor in a comedy and drama — although “If I Had Legs” is not really a comedy — should be the main contenders for this year’s Oscar.
The Motion Picture Academy does not differentiate between comedy and drama.
Kate Hudson for “Song Sung Blue,” Renate Reinsve for “Sentimental Value” and either Cynthia Erivo for “Wicked: For Good” or Emma Stone for “Bugonia” should round the category.
The “Secret Agent’s” Wagner Moura, whom the Globes named best actor in a drama has a chance to repeat as an Oscar recipient in March.
He’ll have some competition from Oscar Isaac from “Frankenstein,” Leonardo Di Caprio from “One Battle After Another, and Timothée Chalamet, the Globe’s best actor in a comedy, but only Chalamet may prevail.
That would be a shame. I am in a minority for thinking “Marty Supreme” is a jumble of comic ideas that smack of calamity for calamity sake and never coalesce into as story that makes you care about or root for the scuzzy title character Chalamet plays.
The sentimental closing scene does not come close to making up for the boring two hours leading up to it, and Chalamet, for all the reviews contradicting me, manages no charm or comic flare to make the film or the character enjoyable.
“If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You” has the same problem, one invented catastrophe after another, but it has the advantage of Rose Byrne’s textured performance and the story of a woman who has too much real to cope with, let alone the overload the writer/director feels compelled to heap on.
The sad part is Jesse Plemons from “Begonia,” who would be my choice for best actor among those whose names are being mentioned, may be the odd person out in a five-person race that would probably find Michael B. Jordan for his dual role in “Sinners” or Ethan Hawke for his marathon in “Blue Moon, getting preference.
And how in all in of the post-year award buzz did Russell Crowe get tossed aside for a performance as Hermann Goering in “Nuremberg” that towers in wit, intensity and evil revealed opposite any of the others mentioned?
The supporting actor award, conferred upon Stellan Skarsgård for “Sentimental Value” could have just as easily have gone to Benicio del Toro for “One Battle After Another” or Jacob Elordi as the Creature in “Frankenstein.” They, along with Paul Mescal in “Hamnet,’ all delivered fine work.
That said, I was happy to see Skarsgård receive the Globe. He presented so much as a lauded director loved by the film world but distant from and feared by his family.
Del Toro would also be a great choice. He alone understood the balance between satire and looniness in “One Battle After Another,” another movie I take a different view of that just about every other critic and award voter.
I think, except for Del Toro, and strong word from Texans Taylor and Chase Infiniti, the movie totally misses its mark as satire.
It only qualifies as comedy when it goes too far in trying to be one.
Which is why I was happy Sean Penn, whose large and interesting performance amounts more to caricature than del Toro’s wise and knowing take, is not receiving many post-year awards.
Inga Ibsdotter Lileaas from “Sentimental Value” or Amy Madigan from “Weapons” could have easily been given the Globe for best female supporting actor, but I was warmed seeing it go to Teyana Taylor, who breathed some life into “One Battle After Another.”
When I previewed the Globes, I said “Sentimental Value” was the lone 2025 movie I’d consider excellent.
I’ve revised that assessment. Two other movies qualify, and I still have to catch up with South Korea’s “No Other Choice.”
Those two are Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” which embellishes on Mary Shelley’s narrative but captures the essence of what the genuine “Frankenstein” story has to say about nature and responsibility, and “Sinners,” which seems to damage itself in the middle by adding a supernatural element even though it’s succeeding as a slice of life, but which justifies that detour thematically in a way many directors can’t make happen.
Bravo to you, Ryan Coogler for making a tricky transition work.
On the television side, few could argue with the attention given to “The Pitt,” “Adolescence,” and their stars, Noah Wyle, Stephen Graham, Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty.
The series and their actors were that extraordinary.
The same goes for the umpteenth consecutive best female actor in a comedy nod to Jean Smart for “Hacks” and the kudo to her best actor in a comedy counterpart, Seth Rogen, for “The Studio.”
I also enjoyed Rhea Seehorn, overlooked in general for her wonderful work in “Better Call Saul,” being recognized for her equally excellent turn in Apple TV’s “Pluribus,” like “Better Call Saul,” captained by Vince Gilligan.
Thank almost everyone at the Globes for keeping politics to a minimum and for not making partisan speeches.
That said, I truly enjoyed Wanda Sykes tweaking Ricky Gervais when she, as a presenter, was in a position to accept his award for best TV comedy special is his absence.
I also appreciated Stellan Skarsgård touting people going to see movies “at the cinema.”
I admit to watching some movies on my television for convenience sake. I have “One Battle After Another” scheduled for a second look this week.
For the most part, I prefer to go to the movies to see works in the environment for which they were intended and to be with other people having a parallel experience.
Good advice, Stellan.