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"I've got a leg, three breasts and a wing," remarks Monica (Courteney Cox) digging into a deformed turkey. "Well, how do you find clothes that fit?" replies Chandler (Matthew Perry).
You get the feeling that when the studio audience on Friends laughs at gags like this, they're doing so not because of the big studio sign that says APPLAUSE, but because they want to.
Little wonder Matthew Perry has become one of the funniest men on TV.
At a recent Press conference for the show, Perry stole the limelight from his glam co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Cox, Matt Le Blanc and David Schwimmer. Even the producers have a hard time getting a look in.
The Press loves Perry, the fans have devoted pages to him on the World Wide Web and even though his debut as a leading man - Fools Rush In - crashed and burned, fans are over the moon to see him back on the box.
Born in Massachusetts and raised in Canada, Perry originally went to the States to play professional tennis. He caught the acting bug at the age of 18 when he was cast in a role opposite River Phoenix in the film A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. Around the same time, he appeared in his first television series, Boys Will Be Boys, and went on to star in the shows Sydney and Home Free - both of which died a death. However, Perry learned more than a few tips on the art of sitcom writing. The wise-cracking thesp and his friend Andrew Hill Newman have sold their first pilot, Maxwell's House, to Universal TV and have written the movie Imagining Emily for Warner Bros.
Perry looks a lot better this series, which is a marked contrast from last year when his pale appearance generated rumors of a drug addiction. The reports were confirmed when Perry checked into the Hazelden Foundation rehab centre in June 1997.
Perry remarked recently that he has no regrets about seeking help, and considers rehab one of his biggest life achievements. "I know that given a really difficult situation, I stepped up and swung the bat and helped myself," he says. "Anything can come at me now, and I feel like I can take it because I got myself through that."
The Big Apple in 1980. An 11-year-old Greek girl looks over her drawings and ponders her future as many a young artist has in the past. But these are no mere junior school sketches. They're on show at the New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and word of mouth is good. She's keen to go on to become a famous sculptor but after a few words with Kojak star Telly Savalas, she changes her mind. Jennifer Anistonapoulous wants to be famous and thanks to a little help from Savalas (who also happens to be her god father) she makes it happen.
"I'm glad he talked me into it," Jennifer says of the actor she idolised. At one point, she even took up cigar smoking to be like the famous baldy actor. Eighteen years later, Jennifer has given up cigars, dropped the 'apoulous' and, thanks to the hit sitcom Friends, is one of the richest stars on the box, commanding the sort of attention usually reserved for rock stars and delivering lines such as: "I look at you in your crappy apartments with no doormen and used furniture, working just to make rent and I think... that is so great."
Born in Sherman Oaks, California, and raised in New York City, Jennifer was exposed to acting from an early age by her father, John Aniston who starred for several years on the daytime drama Days of Our Lives. She graduated from the New York High School of Performing Arts - yes, the same place that launched a million leg warmers during the Fame craze of 1982.
The "walking haircut" as some critics have called her has paid her dues doing "bit parts in bad shows." Roles in short-lived series such as Ferris Bueller, The Edge and Herman's Head led to the Nineties comedy phenomenon that is Friends. As soon as she accepted the role of rich girl Rachel Green, her life was never the same again.
What does Jennifer make of polite British audiences compared to the whooping, appreciative crowds of America? "Over here there's a whole different audience and that's exciting," she remarks. I hope the UK audiences really appreciate it and laugh really hard. I know how reserved you all are."
Well, quite. But for Channel 4, Friends marks one of its least reserved smashes. Over 4million fans tune in every week, marking one of its biggest hits since it began.
The show's success has made free time something of a rarity for the whole cast. When she gets time to herself, Jennifer takes it easy hiking and camping or just watching TV.
"I love Seinfeld, ER, News Radio, Veronica's Closet but obviously with my schedule I don't have a lot of time to watch TV." What about unwrapping the millions of gifts from fans. A full-time job, surely? "I don't get anything," she admits, rather forlornly.
"The public reaction to that was incredible," she recalls. "We had no idea how much people had invested in these two characters. The studio audience was cheering and it was all quite emotional.
"Sadly, David and I will be never more than friends," she says. "He's my type but it's hard to get romantically involved with a person you've seen as a friend."
Off screen, Jennifer has dated Tate Donovan, the ex-fiancee of Sandra Bullock. She's also been seen on the town with ER's Noah Wyle, actor Jonathan Silverman and her co-star Matthew Perry. "Fans were shocked to see me dating anyone other than Ross," she says. "However, we were never engaged."
You don't need to be a financial whiz to realise Jennifer is not short of a bob or two. She's doing rather nicely thank you on a reported $100,000 an episode and while her movies She's the One and Picture Perfect failed to set the box office on fire, one person not complaining about their calibre is her bank manager.
While Aniston's small screen alter ego is a clothes addict, Jennifer is happy pottering around the house in sneakers and tee shirts.
She's lost weight too. Aniston is now 30lbs slimmer than a few years ago when he dad used to say she had "an ass you could serve tea off." Jennifer turned 30 last February and is signed up to make Friends until 2000 - whether the fans want it or not. The media recently speculated that the show has lost a lot of its appeal and was on the wane.
Whether the show is hot or not, with enough money in the bank to keep her comfortable for a dozen lifetimes, at least now this is one actress who won't have to suffer for her art.
© 1999 Roger Crow
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