I had the rare opportunity to spend a few minutes with Bob Odenkirk and David Cross right after their first new sketch show together at the Just For Laughs Chicago comedy festival. It wasn't quite Mr. Show, but it had that same fun, loose vibe, as Bob & David, with little time to rehearse, put on competing one-man shows (including a Blues Brothers bit, managing to tie in references to both their host city and one of David's comedy nemeses), riffs against the overly corporate nature of their hosts, a funny play on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire called "Cash or Check," a sketch at the "first annual LGBTBBQ barbecue" gone awry, and a comedy club within the show that hosted the likes of John Mulaney, Nick Thune and Team Submarine. Bob & David used local Chicago improvisers from iO, Second City and Annoyance to help fill out their ranks for the sketches. The fans at the Lakeshore Theater loved it all. Backstage, I asked them what most fans want to know. When can we see more of Bob & David on our TVs?
They obliged with their thoughts about reuniting onstage, their own instant-review of their show, working with Chicago improvisers, how they're like the new Carol Burnett Show, what they learned from the David's Situation pilot they shot for HBO, what they have tried to pitch to HBO and Showtime, and Bob's sitcom script for NBC. "David and I continue to write so well, and enjoy working and writing together, that it's definitely a possibility," Bob told me, then turning to David: "In fact, I told you I wrote a part for you in the NBC thing." His idea at the Peacock network would have Bob & David working with Jeff Garlin and Andy Richter, at least in Bob's mind. Just in case NBC needs some primetime programming for midseason, maybe? Just maybe??? Watch the video and let Bob & David explain themselves:
I'm making my plans to jet over to Chicago on Wednesday for the start of the inaugural Just For Laughs Chicago comedy festival, and guess who else will be there? Bob Odenkirk and Andy Dick! Bob's teaming up with his longtime comedy partner David Cross for something special, while Andy is going back to his comedy roots. What better way to get in the mood than a video featuring both of these guys, as Bob stops by the second-season premiere of Andy's Internet talk show, House Arrest. It's on Atom.com, Comedy Central's home for original online comedy productions. Enjoy!
Some of you comedy nerds already knew about this, because comedy nerds are more likely to spend time debating who's funnier or sending fan mail to a comedian via message boards such as A Special Thing (who am I kidding here? obviously this is going to sound loony the minute I decide to launch my own message board and pander/beg for you all to contribute to it). Did you make it this far? Great. Here's the news: A Special Thing's home page is now a comedy blog. At least I don't have to update my blogroll for that. (But if I am missing your page on my blogroll, please let me know!)
One of the first things AST did on the blog was shoot its own YouTube video, this one promoting Dana Gould's latest stand-up DVD via a backstage conversation with director Bob Odenkirk.
For those of you who think my home page has too many embedded videos, I've placed it after the jump!
For some reason, this season of American Idol has been the first in many years that's failing to hold my attention. Don't get me wrong, I still know enough to know that Megan changed her last name and looked purty the other night, and that there's a teen finalist who looks like someone I know, and that the TV doesn't know what to do with the blind guy, that there's a guy who's so fierce he's like Constantine and Clay made a supergay baby, there's seriously someone named "Lil," there's a widow who everyone already thinks has won and that Anoop, Anoop, Anoop is on fire. But even with a new judge that I like (Team Kara) and perhaps despite that new judge's opening sequence, it all seems a little tired. Are they trying too hard this year? How would I know? What I do know, however, is that the folks over at Funny or Die have constructed a far more entertaining parallel universe called American Contestant. And in episode three, Matt Braunger tells Jon Daly he's ready for his audition, and yet, somehow, judges Bob Odenkirk, Natasha Leggero and company are not having it. And I want more of this. Thank you.
The credits say Eric Appel directs, with appearances also by Brandon Johnson, Angela Trimbur, John Bowie. Background: Tiffany Haddish auditioned in episode one.
Here's another thing to be thankful for this holiday season, tis the end of an unmistakably mistake-ridden era in American politics as President George W. Bush prepares to leave the White House. Bob Odenkirk directs this series of exit interviews with W. called "Face to Bush" on Atom.com, with James Adomian as the lamest of lame ducks and Stephanie Courtney as your host, Mary McQueegle. You may recognize Courtney, a Groundlings company mainstager, as the cashier Flo in a popular TV ad for Progressive auto insurance (among other ad gigs, as well as a recurring role in the ad shows of ad shows, Mad Men). As for Adomian, he has auditioned in the past year for SNL, and if he doesn't get called up there, some other shrewd producer and creator of a future TV sketch show will find room for him and his many character studies. Here is the interview in which W. weighs whether he was the "Worst President Ever":
Bob Odenkirk talks about a newly released clip from the HBO sitcom David's Situation, which he and comedy collaborator David Cross self-aborted before it could ever debut. The clip features Zach Galifianakis visiting Cross, only to find he's the subject of a TV experiment called "Good Morning, Predator." That's OK by Zach, so long as he can sing for his supper. Or something like that. It's amusing and slightly NSFW, but I can see why Bob and David probably looked at it and said, let's go back to the anti-sitcom sitcom drawing board. As Odenkirk writes on Bob and David: "We all had such a good time that David and I are working on a new show that will let us kick ass. I put this video up because I think it kicks ass." So here it is. Do you think they made the right call?
Bob Odenkirk laid down the news tonight that he and David Cross have decided to scrap their own HBO pilot that played with sitcom conventions, called "David's Situation." Although they all thought the pilot succeeded, they felt that the format they had created, well, why don't I just let Odenkirk say it himself: We "lost interest in the overall concept. The show was a strange hybrid
with a "sit-com" base. We used the actual set from Everybody Loves
Raymond. The sitcom framework really felt like a drag on our energy
and sensibility. This was fairly obvious to us and not as disappointing
as it might sound because the whole experience energized us to create
something new and more better." Maybe it was the Curse of Raymond?! At any rate, Odenkirk promises he and Cross will try to figure out what their next TV project should be and give the fans something to see and laugh at.
The early words are all good surrounding Mike Birbiglia's sitcom for CBS. L.A. Weekly's Nikki Finke reported last week that the network suits were "very happy with how reading went" and thought the pilot looked strong, though that they'd like change the name of the show from its initial title, Mike Birbiglia's Secret Public Journal. Audience members at the pilot taping also weighed in with positive reviews, saying that Birbiglia filmed intro to the scenes, which include funny turns from Bob Odenkirk playing his brother (renamed Don), as well as parts for Nick Kroll and Rob Corddry. Hooray on all fronts. Network upfront presentations are only a couple of weeks away, so stay tuned.
While most people today probably will visit Vanity Fair online to get all pervy over Miley Cyrus, please allow me to redirect you to this VF online interview with Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, in which Bob and David rehash Mr. Show and then some, talking about dealing with obsessive fans, the networks, and how their new show, David's Situation (pilot taping May 9, with a cast including Matt Besser, Eric Hoffman and Mo Collins), will be unlike both Mr. Show and The Ben Stiller Show.
