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6
SUNDAY
“I hope you did not all think that I was going to be funny, because I am a uniquely unfunny person. I usually climb into a corner and am a quiet sort of person.” So said Peter Sellers to a Cambridge University gathering in 1962—when he was rightly considered the funniest man alive. Though Sellers’ assessment is undoubtedly correct on a personal level, it is equally true that his tortured quest to lose himself in his many uncanny characters rewarded audiences with comic brilliance. Indeed, in his book A Great, Silly Grin: The British Satire Boom of the 1960s, author Humphrey Carpenter quotes many of the best and brightest in the humor field as crediting Sellers with being a major, often “subversive,” influence. Today, Steve “Mr. Movie” Friedman properly devotes half a day to a seminar examining “Peter Sellers—Troubled Genius,” featuring film clips—and maybe even an explanation for why Sellers didn’t win an Oscar for Being There. It begins at 1 p.m. at the Ripley Center, 1100 Jefferson Drive SW. $37. For reservations call (202) 357-3030. (Dave Nuttycombe)