producing satire for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered in 2002, after their initial attempts at collaboration— brokering a Mideast peace accord and mapping the human genome—proved unsuccessful.
from Dick Cheney and Mel Gibson to such vaunted institutions as the Supreme Court,the United Nations and Major League Baseball. Their “Brookings Institution for Kids” was replayed at Brookings’ 2003 national convention; and their presidential primary parody, “Six Democratic Friends” (set to the theme song from Friends) prompted an animated Internet version that was selected by CNN’s Crossfire as its “Picture of the Day” (which, though nice, did nothing to change their opinion of Robert Novak). Other ATC highlights have included “Obama on Demand” (an eavesdrop on Sen. Barack Obama’s telephone answering machine); “Iraqi II” (a Saddam-meets-Stallone movie trailer);
pivotal albeit silent role), “The Zogbys” (an imaginary sitcom promo, which real-life pollster John Zogby found unanimously funny); and an eight-part send-up of campaign attack ads, which aired during the 2002 midterm elections.
including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and dozens of newspapers in the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service. On the Internet, their work has been featured on The Huffington Post (where they are invited bloggers), Alternet.org and countless web sites and blogs that continue to cut-and-paste their work with no remuneration to the authors whatsoever. Additionally, Kluger and Slavin created the popular “Memo to George” column for Salon.com, in which they imagined secret correspondences to President Bush from his Chief of Staff. The media web site Cursor.org called the series “pitch-perfect satire” (which might have been a feather in their caps had anyone known what Cursor.org was). Prior to their collaboration, Bruce Kluger was an editor of Playboy Magazine for 13 years, and is currently a member of USA Today’s Board of Contributors and frequent contributor to Parenting magazine. He is the co-author, with David Tabatsky, of the newly released, Dear President Obama: Letters of Hope from Children Across America (Beckham Publications Group, Inc.). Additionally, he has written for and/or co-edited Marlo Thomas’ last three best-selling books, The Right Words at the Right Time, Vols. 1 and 2 (Atria) and the children’s collection, Thanks & Giving: All Year Long (Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing). Both Kluger and Slavin wrote stories that appeared in the latter, as well as on the Grammy- winning companion CD. For the past decade, David Slavin has worked on television and radio as a voice- over artist, providing narration for hundreds of national and regional commercials, as well as for The Late Show with David Letterman, and documentaries produced by National Geographic, PBS and the BBC. He was also a contributor to the special 35th Anniversary re-release of Marlo Thomas' landmark children's book Free to Be...You and Me. Bruce Kluger and David Slavin live one block from each other in New York City, a geographical imperative since neither would go much further than that to work. Their books include Young Dick Cheney: Great American (illustrated by Tim Foley; AlterNet Books, 2008), 'Twas the Night Before Christmas: 21st Century Edition (Andrews McMeel, 2010) and Dog on the Roof! On the Road With Mitt & the Mutt (illustrated by Colleen Clapp; Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 2012). Both are married, and both have two daughters. |
| brucekluger.com |
Photos: Sarina Finkelstein
| (Click arrow to play slide show.) |
