Um, anyway, so that's what bugged us about . (Well, that and its anamorphic distortion; the movie was shot in 16:9 but that wacky Women's Building projected it in 4:3, which meant that everyone looked goofily tall.) Steven's appeared briefly in approximately eight billion movies, generally playing the role of Minor Pompous Bald Nerd. His Nerd-Acting skills are, of course, unmatched, but his ability to absolutely captivate a room with an incredible story is even more ... um ... unmatchy. So on a recent birthday, somebody just plopped a camera down in front of him, said "tell us some stories," and away he went with some gems. Some are sad (there's a very somber dead-baby story, ick), but most are funny -- we laughed so hard we cried at two stories, one about lobsters and the other about the effects of smoking ammonia-tainted pot -- and they almost always end with a poignant pause and a grandiose statement about Life. So if you don't mind getting poked in the nose with a Profundity Stick every now and then, there's a lot to love here. Almost too much.

Steven Tobolowsky's Birthday Party