the comic's comic

No Prior Knowledge: Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica begins its fourth and final season April 4 on SciFi, and comedian/vlogger Sean Crespo has a pretty good idea of what you should expect to learn as the immensely popular remake nears its epic conclusion. Even though he hasn't seen a single episode from season four. That's why his new Television Without Pity vlog series is called "No Prior Knowledge." Crespo gets an assist here from Baron Vaughn, Carol Hartsell and Sara Jo Allocco.

Note: Currently experiencing embedding difficulties. Please try this link instead. Thanks for your patience.

Mon Dieu! Horrible People #8

If it's Monday, it must be time to check in on the satirical, definitely NSFW soap opera, Horrible People. Now with subtitles! Pardon my French, s'il vous plait. Merci. I mean, mercy! With a bilingual bit from Bobby Tisdale, as well.

Meet Myq Kaplan

Perhaps you've already met Myq Kaplan. Or, if you're like many millions more who haven't yet made his acquaintance, and only read on my site that he is becoming quite the stand-up comedian, perhaps you need more of an introduction. Kaplan is one of those up-and-coming comedians from Boston that I really wanted to write about while working at the Boston Herald, but kept waiting for that right moment when he'd hit that sweet spot -- the moment when an aspiring comedian jumps up to an entirely new level of professional growth in terms of material, delivery and stage presence and you know that you need to tell everyone you know to go check him out. In the past year, Kaplan came oh-so-close to winning the Boston Comedy Festival's contest, frequently opened on the road for Mike Birbiglia, and reached the finals of Comedy Central's Open Mic Fight.

Three weeks ago, he taped a set for Comedy Central's Live at Gotham, which certainly turned heads from the audience, industry and other comedians. Earlier that week, he performed a similar set at the Comedy Studio in Cambridge, Mass., that earned him kudos from Eddie Brill and a spot in this summer's Great American Comedy Festival. And here is that set. Ladies and gentlemen, Myq Kaplan!

Check out this video: Myq Kaplan at the Comedy Studio

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Family Ties compared to Final Four squad

After watching hours upon hours of college basketball this month, Gary David Goldberg sees a similarity between winning hoops teams and his 1980s sitcom, Family Ties. Do you agree? If so, what position did Skippy play, team manager? Would that make Nick the sixth man? I've already read too much into this. It's madness, I tells ya! (Huffington Post)

Tracey Ullman's State of the Union

The first of five episodes of Tracey Ullman's new Showtime series, Tracey Ullman's State of the Union, debuted last night. It's her third go on TV with her multi-character comedy sketches, following previous Emmy-winning runs on FOX in the late 1980s and HBO in the late 1990s. Once again, she's got a lot of voices in her head just waiting to come out, and thanks to hair and makeup, she melds into many varied roles here, too.

This time, the show's structure, a narrated mocumentary that follows a day in the life of America and Americans, hops and leaps from one scene to the next -- in the debut episode alone, Ullman introduces 16 different characters in 24 minutes (39 characters overall this season). Some are real people (Laurie David, Arianna Huffington, Nancy Pelosi, Tony Sirico, Rita Cosby, David Beckham, Campbell Brown and Dina Lohan) while others are imagined impressions on everyday and not-so-everyday folk to comment upon the issues of the day. Here's a clip of Ullman as Huffington:

The debut kicks off with a Bangladeshi woman who has to work three jobs, and returns to her at episode's end, with narrator Peter Strauss intoning, "There are approximately 12 million undocumented workers ni the United States. Nine hundred joined us within the last 24 hours. Good night, America." Other voiceovers aren't quite so serious. Nor are all of Ullman's characters. There's Padma Perkesh, the pharmacist in Oak Ridge, Tenn., who doles out prescriptions in song-and-dance that looks and sounds like Bollywood meets Oompa Loompa. Gretchen Pincus is a serial death-row wife-turned-author out to make a buck off her convicted companions. Sally Knox appears in four of the episodes as an investment banker involved in an affair with her boss (played by Scott Bakula). Chanel Monticello is a sassy black TSA worker. And Linda Alvarez is a self-involved morning TV anchor from Buffalo.

A recurring feature mocks celebrities and movie press junkets. Ullman plays Tony "Paulie Walnuts" Sirico in the debut trying to stretch as an actor in "I'm With This Inuit." Future pairings likewise have Renee Zellweger in "Home Frontal Lobe" ("Oh, doctor, anything but my right frontal lobe! How bad is this squint gonna be?"), Dame Judi Dench playing an Alzheimer's victim in a Martin Scorcese film, "Who The F*ck Was I?", a belching Cameron Diaz in "That Terrible Time of the Month" and Helen Mirren stars in "Fish Out Those Old Teats."

Ullman gets repeated laughs and digs out of Dina Lohan, Arianna Huffington and Linda Alvarez. Highlights in the second episode include that Zellweger bit and a look at an Army solider and mother who takes a film crew with her to visit her son while on a very limited leave from Iraq.

Not everything works. Perhaps that's OK when some scenes barely last a minute. But I also felt that at times, Ullman is approaching the work more as an actress and a performance artist than as a comedian. Translation: Few big laughs. Even watching the first two episodes with my parents, who were fans of Ullman's previous TV offerings, elicited only a few audible laughs. They still like her, calling her unique and talented. But funny? Then I saw this TV Guide interview with Ullman, and I began to understand it better.

TVGuide.com: Who are your greatest influences?
Ullman: Peter Sellers. I'm not a stand-up comedian — I don't tell jokes. But I really like incredible character actors like Sellers, who would just get into characters and see the endearing, sad side of people. He wasn't just trying to do funny, on-the-surface impersonations, but also to get into a character. I also used to watch The Carol Burnett Show, and she's an extraordinary actress. She was always real. Even though that show is wacky and zany, she is just so true. People who can really become someone else I find very exciting.

After the jump, another video from the program, plus a full list of all the characters Tracey Ullman takes on, so to speak, in Tracey Ullman's State of the Union.

ESPN Bracketologists: Dave Hill, Ben Schwartz

Watching the March Madness today on the TV and seeing if my Final Four brackets hold up, and thinking about these ESPN Bracketologists videos that feature my friends, comedians Dave Hill and Ben Schwartz. Enjoy!

Other videos, from future friends(?) Bobby Moynihan and Eugene Cordero, after the jump.

The New York Times on Shoot the Messenger

The Sunday edition of the New York Times has a lengthy and well, fairly accurate, depiction of Shoot the Messenger. Read the feature story here. The show has updated its online presence here.

Preview: Steve Byrne's Happy Hour

At 11 p.m. tonight, Comedy Central will debut a new hourlong special from Steve Byrne, Steve Byrne's Happy Hour. Byrne got some online space via Comedy Central Insider to talk up his special and noted that you'll either love it or loathe it. Really? Byrne reveals: "There are some jokes I absolutely love in this special and others I really have no idea what I was thinking at the time, but it seemed to work." More here. We've got three clips from the special to share with you. One here, two after the jump.

And if you want the full DVD, it's out April 1.

The Unfunniest Comic!?

Good God. Just spotted this on Gawker and cannot believe one of my Boston friends hadn't alerted me of this sooner, but WBCN-FM afternoon radio jocks Toucher & Rich are conducting a March Madness contest to determine "The Unfunniest Comic." Please note the delicious irony of having radio jocks who attempt humor every weekday passing judgment on actual professional comedy. Somehow I don't think Opie & Anthony -- major supporters of live stand-up comedy that they are -- would do this, or if they did, they'd somehow be a little more creative about it. That said, where is Pauly Shore on this Unsweet Sixteen? Of course, my recent experience has to put odds on Gallagher. Here is their bracket, and so far, two guys from the Boston area already have advanced (nice hometown boosterism, fellas!):

Behind the CCP: Dan Mintz

I made two distinct notes while watching Dan Mintz tape his first Comedy Central Presents half-hour special last summer. First, Mintz seems to go for a lot of awkward silences. Is that a stylistic choice? I must ask him someday. Second, this was the first time I'd seen him do a half-hour set, and I wondered if his offbeat voice and highly witty material could hold an audience's attention as well as he does in five to seven minutes, or say, on Conan. Of course, since this is Comedy Central, the actual program will get broken up into easier-to-digest portions. Also, there was an even more amusing and awkward point in Mintz's set in which he asked: "Can I get a volunteer from the audience?" Well, could he? I'll be interested to see if and how they edit that sequence. In the meantime, here is a segment from Dan Mintz on Comedy Central, which debuts tonight!

More video after the jump. Spaceman suit? "But you dress the job you want, not the job you have!"

The state of the standup sitcom

Brian Lowry's column last week in Variety ("Why standups are sitting out primetime") certainly got my fellow comedy bloggers boiling their blood. Read what Shecky Magazine had to say here, while Punchline Magazine weighed in more recently here. Lowry lays down a couple of whoppers...mostly in the middle of valid points, though. Are comedians with failed sitcoms "scurrying back to the clubs"? Well, probably not scurrying so much as using the TV credit to get more money from the clubs. Are comedians "relegated to hosting game shows"? Again, I wouldn't say relegated so much as relishing the easy paychecks and the opportunity to leverage the TV gig with, read it with me now, more money from future club and theater dates. And I think what Lowry means by "second-tier comedians" isn't so much that they're of lesser quality but of lesser-known status than, say, Jerry Seinfeld or Chris Rock. Likewise, when he talks of comedians getting sitcoms "with slim resumes," he's most likely talking about the lack of TV credits, since he is, after all, a TV critic. There's a reference to Dane Cook just to make a dig at him.

But Lowry is correct in pointing out that most sitcoms on the air in 2008 focus on writer/producers instead of stand-up comedians. Anyone in the industry can tell you that comedy festivals such as Aspen and Montreal used to be treated as a shopping spree by the networks, doling out development deals here and there and sometimes everywhere to promising stand-up comedians with a distinct point of view that could translate to TV. That's not happening anymore.

Want evidence? Just turn on your TV. Or take a trip with me back over the past two decades, where we can see how standup-based sitcoms have ebbed and flowed over recent years, by their debut years.

1984

AKA Pablo (Paul Rodriguez), ABC; The Cosby Show (Bill Cosby), NBC; Night Court (Harry Anderson), NBC

1985

-----

1986

It's Garry Shandling's Show (Garry Shandling), Showtime (later on FOX); Robert Klein Time (Robert Klein), USA; What A Country (Yakoff Smirnoff), syndicated

1987

Full House (Bob Saget), ABC; Pursuit of Happiness (Paul Provenza), ABC; Tracey Ullman Show* (Tracey Ullman), FOX

1988

Roseanne (Roseanne Barr), ABC; Trial & Error (Paul Rodriguez), CBS

1989

Anything But Love (Richard Lewis), ABC

1990

Good Grief! (Howie Mandel), FOX; Lenny (Lenny Clarke), CBS; Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld), NBC

1991

Home Improvement (Tim Allen), ABC

1992

Billy (Billy Connolly), ABC; Hanging with Mr. Cooper (Mark Curry), ABC; Howie (Howie Mandel), CBS; The Jackie Thomas Show (Tom Arnold), ABC; Mad About You (Paul Reiser), NBC; Martin (Martin Lawrence), FOX

1993

Grace Under Fire (Brett Butler), ABC; The Paula Poundstone Show* (Paula Poundstone), ABC; Second Half (John Mendoza), NBC; The Sinbad Show (Sinbad), FOX; Thea (Thea Vidale), ABC; Where I Live (Doug E. Doug), ABC

1994

All-American Girl (Margaret Cho), ABC; Ellen (Ellen DeGeneres), ABC; The Good Life (John Caponera), NBC; The George Carlin Show (George Carlin), FOX; Tom (Tom Arnold), CBS

1995

Bringing Up Jack (Jack Gallagher), ABC; Cleghorne! (Ellen Cleghorne), WB; The Drew Carey Show (Drew Carey), ABC; Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist (Jonathan Katz), Comedy Central; House of Buggin'* (John Leguizamo), FOX; The Jeff Foxworthy Show (Jeff Foxworthy), ABC; Platypus Man (Richard Jeni), UPN; The Preston Episodes (David Alan Grier), FOX; Simon (Harland Williams), WB; The Wayans Bros (Shawn and Marlon Wayans), WB

1996

Boston Common (Anthony Clark), NBC;  Common Law (Greg Giraldo), ABC; Mr. Rhodes (Tom Rhodes), NBC; The Dana Carvey Show* (Dana Carvey), ABC; Everybody Loves Raymond (Ray Romano), CBS; The Jamie Foxx Show (Jamie Foxx), WB; The Louie Show (Louie Anderson), CBS; Malcolm and Eddie (Eddie Griffin), UPN; The Show (Sam Seder), FOX; The Steve Harvey Show (Steve Harvey), WB

1997

Alright Already (Carol Leifer), WB; Apt. 2F (Sklar Brothers), MTV; Arsenio (Arsenio Hall), ABC; Austin Stories (Howard Kremer), MTV; Built to Last (Royale Watkins), NBC; Claude's Crib (Claude Brooks), USA; Life...and Stuff (Rick Reynolds), CBS; The Pauly Shore Show (Pauly Shore), FOX; The Tom Show (Tom Arnold), WB

1998

Costello (Sue Costello), FOX; Damon (Damon Wayans), FOX; The Hughleys (D.L. Hughley), ABC; The King of Queens (Kevin James), CBS; That's Life (Gerry Red Wilson), ABC; DiResta (John DiResta), UPN

1999

Home Movies (Brendon Small), UPN; Norm (Norm MacDonald), ABC

2000

Curb Your Enthusiasm (Larry David), HBO; DAG (David Alan Grier), NBC; Welcome to New York (Jim Gaffigan), CBS; Titus (Christopher Titus), FOX

2001

The Bernie Mac Show (Bernie Mac), FOX; The Ellen Show (Ellen DeGeneres), CBS; The Job (Denis Leary), ABC; My Wife and Kids (Damon Wayans), ABC; One on One (Flex Alexander), UPN

2002

Cedric The Entertainer Presents* (Cedric the Entertainer), FOX; George Lopez (George Lopez), ABC

2003

Chappelle's Show* (Dave Chappelle), Comedy Central; Wanda At Large (Wanda Sykes), FOX

2004

Blue Collar TV* (Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall), WB; Come to Papa (Tom Papa), NBC; Rodney (Rodney Carrington), ABC; Wanda Does It (Wanda Sykes), Comedy Central

2005

Everybody Hates Chris (Chris Rock, as a child), CW; Mind of Mencia* (Carlos Mencia), Comedy Central

2006

Lucky Louie (Louis CK), HBO; Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman (Laura Kightlinger), IFC

2007

The Bill Engvall Show (Bill Engvall), TBS; Flight of the Conchords (Flight of the Conchords), HBO; Frank TV* (Frank Caliendo), TBS; King of Miami (Dave Hill), MOJO-HD; Sarah Silverman Program (Sarah Silverman), Comedy Central

*More sketch-based than stand-up.

A few things jump out looking at the list. The mid-to-late 1990s really did see a sharp increase in the number of pilot greenlights for stand-up comedians to get on TV, helped in part, no doubt, to the addition of two new networks in the WB and UPN. That in the past couple of years, not only have the broadcast networks passed on stand-up sitcoms, they didn't even look at one pilot in 2007 featuring a stand-up comedian. The closest, perhaps, was ABC in picking up Carpoolers (where TJ Miller gets to steal scenes) and Cavemen (in which Nick Kroll provided most of the funny lines). So stand-ups have gone to cable to stand out.

All of which makes Mike Birbiglia's CBS pilot for Mike Birbiglia's Secret Public Journal, in production for April for possible greenlighting this fall, all the more remarkable.

If you've read one Brian Posehn interview...

Brian Posehn gets his second Comedy Central Presents on the air tonight, and coincidentally, he'll be headlining Comix in New York City this weekend. When I saw him at the tapings in August, Posehn was very nice, and even watched the comedians the night before him perform. In his set (which has a heavy metal themed backdrop, in case you couldn't guess that), he swore a lot, so expect several bleeps.

When Posehn works the road, though, he must get a little weary of reading his own press. Because it all reads, well, so familiar...

The opening lines from recent Posehn interviews:
March 6, Peoria Journal Star: "You might not know Brian Posehn's name, but you probably recognize his face."

March 21, Tallahassee Democrat: "You may not immediately know his name, but it's hard to forget his face."

From back in the day, via Kittenpants: "You may not recognize the name, but you'll never forget the face of Brian Posehn, comedy's tallest, deepest-voiced, dearest nerd."

So apparently, all you need to know about Brian Posehn is his face. Got it? Good. Now forget it. And watch these videos from Posehn's Comedy Central Presents and his recent SXSW appearance.

More videos with Posehn after the jump.

Hear me relive Gallagher on the radio

Want to hear more about the infamous Gallagher show in New York City two weeks ago? I was on the radio last night (along with The Onion's Amelie Gillette) talking with Luke Burbank about it on his Seattle radio program, Too Beautiful To Live, on KIRO 710 AM. You can listen to it via the archives (go to the 7 p.m. hour of March 26 and download the MP3, or you can find it as a podcast on iTunes!) Good times.

Charlie Rose's comedian interviews, organized

When a comedian asked me a few months ago if I'd seen Charlie Rose's interview with Steve Martin and his new book, I said no, sorry. The comedian replied, no worries, it's all online, along with everyone else who's chatted with Rose. Great, I thought. Until I tried to navigate the Charlie Rose site. It's all there, thousands and thousands of clips and full episodes. But it may take a while to find the exact interview you're looking for. Comedian Matt Ruby has gone ahead and sorted through it all and compiled the comedian interviews by last name first, on his site, Sandpaper Suit.

Related: Ruby hosts a monthly show at Rififi called Flying Carpet (next date: April 1).

Cash Cabbie speaks to other top hacks

Ben Bailey, photographed by The Comic's Comic last summer cleaning up on a Comedy Cellar cruise, spoke today at an event honoring New York City's best taxi drivers. Wait. Did you think I meant comedy hacks? Nope. Hacks as in cabbies. The New York Daily News published a brief profile of Bailey today.

Related: Discovery Channel's Cash Cab site.

More: Catch plenty of Cash Cab videos and contest spoofs on You Tube.

Alex Blagg vs. Rampage Jackson: The Rematch

Ultimate blogger Alex Blagg (currently steering the ship that is Best Week Ever online) blogged today about how he and Ultimate Fighting champ Rampage Jackson once wrestled each other in high school in Memphis. And that Blagg had prevailed. Jackson has bulked up a bit since then. And become a UFC fighter. Whereas Blagg blogs. Here is Blagg's post setting up the video clip. Here is the hilarious footage. I love how Blagg manages to keep saying, "Never Back Down!" Even when Jackson clearly is half-jokingly kicking Blagg's butt.

Video: NBC chief Jeff Zucker disses the writers?!

I saw this story today on the Huffington Post and couldn't believe it was possible (headline: NBC President Mocks Writers, Strike In Upcoming 'My Name is Earl' Commercial), but then I saw the attached video. Yikes. What is Jeff Zucker thinking exactly? Especially since they uploaded the video early on NBC.com. Oh. Wait a second. I know exactly what he's thinking? Clicks, clicks, clicks, equals $ in the bank, courtesy of ad-within-the-ad from eSurance. Oh no. I just helped Zucker out a bit. I met Jeff Zucker last November at Carolines during the New York Comedy Festival -- he acted very wary around me because I'm a journalist, but his wife Caryn Zucker couldn't have been nicer. So I suppose I'll post the video, too, and let you be the judge.

UPDATED! Nikki Finke got the show's creator, Greg Garcia, to acknowledge it was his idea.

Ronna and Bev interview a lesbian

All the way from Swampscott, Mass., here comes Ronna Glickman and Beverly Kahn, aka Ronna and Bev...or is it Beverly and Ronna from Marblehead?....at any rate, the duo (Jessica Chaffin and Jamie Denbo) will host a live show at the UCB Theatre in New York City on April 10 with Village Voice columnist Michael Musto as their special guest. They've already co-authored a book, You'll Do a Little Better Next Time: A Guide to Marriage and Re-marriage for Jewish Singles. Now, here is a new video (new to the Internets, anyhow) of Ronna and Bev interviewing a lesbian. Enjoy.

Comedy Central picks up two new shows

Comedy Central announced today it would go forward with two new shows, and neither is the show you're probably thinking about.

The first? David Alan Grier's Chocolate News (working title). A fake newsmagazine show. The folks behind it: The series will be executive produced by Grier ("Little Man"), Robert Morton ("Mind of Mencia"), Fax Bahr and Adam Small ("MADtv") and Generate's Peter Aronson and Jordan Levin. Debut in early 2009.

The second? Reality Bites (also working title). A reality spoof. If that's possible anymore. With comedians competing. Get it? Here's the rest of the description, straight from Comedy Central: "The show features comedians in an elimination-style "reality" competition where every episode is a self-contained spoof of one of the major reality formats, such as "Are You Smarter Than A Monkey?," "So You Think You Can Dive!," "Almost American Gladiators" and "The Amazing Disgrace." The winner will end up being the "last comic standing" and will win a cash prize. "Reality Bites" is executive produced by 3Ball Production’s ("The Biggest Loser") J.D. Roth, Todd Nelson and Adam Greener." Debuting this summer.

Perhaps you were hoping, as I were, for a pickup of Speed Freaks (featuring A.D. Miles and Zach Galifianakis) or The Scariest Show on Television (hosted by Paul F. Tompkins and exec produced by Brett Gelman and Jon Daly, among others). Well, those will have to wait for another press release.

Related: The official press release.

Limited offer: Free tickets to Matt Kirshen!

Hey, readers! I've been on the road -- literally -- so I haven't been able to update much in the past day. To make it up to you while I get my bearings back, I'd like to offer you some free tickets to see Matt Kirshen next week at Ars Nova (list price: $20). Kirshen is a witty Brit who appeared last year as a finalist on NBC's Last Comic Standing. He'll bring his one-man show to the cozy Ars Nova venue on March 31 and April 2. Both shows start at 8 p.m.

The first 10 people to email Ars Nova at rsvp@arsnovanyc.com can get free pairs of tickets. Just put "RSVP from The Comic's Comic" in the subject line and tell them which night you want to see Matt Kirshen, March 31 or April 2.

Here is a video from Kirshen's TV days oh so not long ago...