the comic's comic

Last Comic Standing 6: The Final Five Revealed!

Looky looky! It's Bill Bellamy and Brit Lady (Cotton Fearne!), back together for the audience finale vote on Last Comic Standing! This doesn't look taped at all, except I know it's taped because finalist Jeff Dye is in Chattanooga, Tenn., right now performing at a comedy club...all I know for sure at this moment is that Marcus will be around for the finale next week, and that all of the top 12 will be there for one reason or another...

What's this? The Dan Band? These audience cutaways seem as if they do not fit. Or the audience has gotten more than plenty of a serving of happy juice! All of the finalists are coming up with one-liners for why they'll be the last comic standing...ooh! "I'm Ron G and I'll be the last comic standing because I make this microphone look sexy!" "I'm Adam Hunter, and I'm going to be the last comic standing because I want to prove that blondes have more fun!" "I'm Jeff Dye, I'm going to be the last comic standing because I can do 17 push-ups in an hour...believe it!" "I am Jim Tavare, and I am going to be the last comic standing because I am the new Miley Cyrus of comedy!" "I'm Marcus, and I'll be the last comic standing, because just like Jack Black, I keep things rocking! Let's go!" "I'm Iliza Shlesinger, and I'll be the last comic standing, because out of all of these guys, I'm the most experienced...winning!" "I'm Louis Ramey, and I'll be the last comic standing, because I'm huggable. Come to daddy, America!" "I'm Sean Cullen, and I'll be the last comic standing, because I've dreamed about it...since I was a little girl!" OK. This was taped. But Brit Lady is here, so I have no need to fear. Right?

No. Fear. Fear! Strange but true, this year's competition is coming down to a five-way vote. Which means this year's Last Comic Standing will win based on at least 21 percent of America's phone and online voting tendencies...congratulations, comedy!

Marcus, guaranteed a spot in the final five, goes first. He reveals that he worked at a radio station for two years for no pay (!) and that the local club in Utah, Wiseguys, eventually asked him to come down and perform after hearing all of his impersonations and whatnots. His "live" set focuses on the things you can and cannot bring on a plane (you can bring a wrench!), the lyrical stylings of Eddie Vedder, Aaron Neville's multiple syllables, Motown nostalgia, and versus new songs, such as "lady humps." It's very engaging for the crowd in Las Vegas, with broad appeal to whomever may be watching at home. Do you like music? Any kind of music? This set is for you. He gets a standing ovation. Will everyone this night?

Next up, Ron G, who goes home again. Onstage, he has a vest and a tie, so you know he's serious about this night. How are you supposed to be a thug with a retainer in your mouth? Um, I don't know. Church isn't the same with a Bluetooth in Hollywood. Love the graphics reminding me not to change the channel and stick around to vote. He has a series of jokes about the various commercials you may see on late-night television. But Ron G has been eliminated from the competition. Dunzo! He tells Brit Lady he appreciates the chance and the fans.

Last Comic Driving? Remember that? You don't? Oh, here was a very very very quick reminder. Hope you didn't fast forward through it.

Brit Lady gets more hosting duties, yay! Here comes Jim Tavare, with double references for you audience members (The Hills Are Alive, or Uncle Fester, you pick). He calls for a rescue dog. One-liners aplenty. What's wrong with his Hendrix impersonation? But can he play the bass? Brit Lady delivers the news...and...he's in the top five! Hooray for the U.K., Brit Lady!

Oh, Brit Lady is hosting so we can have Bill Bellamy do stand-up...he jokes about visiting Idaho and being in the outdoors...cut to white people having fun...phew. That's over.

But now we get an extended preview of an upcoming NBC competition...America's Toughest Jobs. It's not supposed to be comedy, so stop laughing.

Louis Ramey gets the childhood photo treatment next, and Ramey does a pretend version of running around on the New York City club circuit for the cameras makey nicey. The Amish pay in cheese? His jacket looks like it fits better this week. He jokes about Amish gangs. Also about Houma, Louisiana. And a twist on a terrorist alert joke. A big redneck twist. And he's still in it to win it!

Adam Hunter wrestled in high school. This news does not surprise me. He attacks the stage and looks like a scrapper. No, that's a good thing. Right? Jokes about San Francisco, cocaine, pot, rappers, George Bush Speak N Spell, Obama is black, McCain is old, more drugs, sex, strip clubs. All over the place. He is a New York guy doing Los Angeles comedy. Does that make sense to anyone? He has been eliminated. The crowd boos.

Jeff Dye. They show lots of clips from Seattle, so that gets my vote. Gives a shout-out to his parents, then proceeds to joke about them. Before and afterward, he delivers the set he gave earlier this month at Montreal New Faces. Pan out to show the audience clapping enthusiastically. We're thinking he goes through...and...he did!

So that leaves Iliza Shlesinger and Sean Cullen for the fifth and final spot.

Cullen goes back to Toronto, where they love him already. Wow. Did you see some of those flashback stage shots. Did he have long curly hair at one point? We believe he did. He threatens to spin into the crowd with his pinwheels and fists of death. Jokes about Sean Connery and his amazing ability with accents. Why Australia can never have a James Bond villain. Why Neil Young and REM won't do Bond theme songs, which lets him sing some more.

Shlesinger, too, goes home again. She jokes about her Olympic experience being limited to Beer Pong. She wears a tight red shirt, which explains the pervy Google searches already heading this way (calm down, people). Why did you send that 40-page blank fax, again? Jokes about former co-workers. Iliza isn't as energetic as usual in this performance, slowing things down just a bit. A poised, confident five minutes.

And the final spot goes to...Iliza Shlesinger! Which means your final five for season six are: Marcus, Jim Tavare, Louis Ramey, Jeff Dye and Iliza Shlesinger. Would it have turned out this way with additional weeks of challenges? We'll never find out. Nor will we get to see the final five whittle down, one by one. Instead, come back next week and find out who won.

Rififi's Last Night: The photos

Mindy Tucker took photomographs (it's a technical term) of the final night at Rififi. Enjoy the full 46-photo slideshow at Tucker's site, With Reservation. Here is a taste, fittingly featuring Eugene Mirman, who had the brainiac idea to put comedy in this hole in the first place, and John Mulaney, who can even tell new jokes at Rififi's last night and kill...

Garfield Minus Garfield to become book!

While I was out documenting live comedy shows, Dan Walsh was taking Garfield comic strips, removing Garfield, and giving them new comedic and philosophic meaning, enough so that Ballantine Books (publishers of Garfield books) will publish the "Garfield Minus Garfield" book with a foreward from Walsh, and the original and Garfield-less strips published side-by-side for comparisons. (thanks, Gawker)

“I think it’s an inspired thing to do,” Garfield's creator, Jim Davis said. “I want to thank Dan for enabling me to see another side of Garfield. Some of the strips he chose were slappers: ‘Oh, I could have left that out.’ It would have been funnier.”

Example:

As the site's tagline reads: "Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb." Coming to a bookstore near you.

Rififi: This is the end, the end my friends, the end

Why would anyone mourn a venue that's essentially a dive bar with inconsistent air conditioning, horribly horrible bathrooms, a movie screen that had a massive tear in it (until, ha-ha, this past week!) for a place that still had a sign outside boasting it was Cinema Classics, and really, all of the fun that the East Village had to offer? Then again, the independently-produced comedy community of New York City has been through this before, whether it was last year at Mo Pitkins or years ago with Luna Lounge. So there we were, after an abrupt email sent out in the wee hours yesterday morning, trying to figure out if it really would be the final hours for comedy at Rififi. Spoiler alert: It was.

While rumors flew about what made July 30 the last night for Rififi (a month-to-month lease that finally found someone willing to pay the increasingly high East Village rents seemed to be the leading speculation), the indie comedy scene hastily recast the weekly Gelmania show originally scheduled for this Wednesday night. The hosts from Thursday's Totally J/K (Joe and Noah) and Friday's Greg Johnson and Larry Murphy Show certainly would be there. So, too, would many others come to pay final respects. The Whitest Kids U Know, Andy Blitz and Todd Barry showed up as spectators. The final bill would see Joe Mande and Noah Garfinkel take over first-half hosting duties, with one final "List of Nothing" and a joke Mande had uttered earlier in the day via Facebook, that the current Rififi owner would be fleeing on Thursday and taking all of the Glade air-fresheners with him to "Molester Town." Gabe and Jenny (Gabe Liedman and Jenny Slate) returned to host the second half. The final schedule will show that Adam Newman, Pete Holmes, "John McCain," Baron Vaughn, John Gemberling, Slightly Known People, Hannibal Buress, Tom McCaffrey, Chelsea Peretti, Greg Johnson and Larry Murphy, Jon Glaser, John Mulaney, Leo Allen and Eugene Mirman took part in this last Rififi effort. There was a one-woman lip-synch effort to Les Miz with Pez, or is that called Pez Miz? Mirman shouted out requests to Glaser to "do some oldies!" Mulaney even used the opportunity to try new jokes! The show began auspiciously late (?) at 9:11 p.m. and lasted past midnight, with Mirman taking the stage at 12:01 a.m., getting all rock 'n' roll by play-real trashing the stage, and Leo Allen rejoining him onstage for some last-minute banter that was odd and appropriately poignant for the occasion.

Among the quips I quoted...

"Rough week, first Bennigan's, now Rififi!" -- Pete Holmes

"I like how the owner never learned our names," Jenny Slate said. "And we had a show here for two years," Gabe Liedman replied. "Well," Slate said, "He only knew me by who I was sleeping with."

"So, Rififi's closing...ninth time's the charm, right?" -- Tom McCaffrey

"I only saw the last episode of Seinfeld, if that makes you feel any better." -- Chelsea Peretti

"I could stand up here and tell jokes that I've told 5,000 times on this stage, and I think I might." -- Greg Johnson

"Greg Johnson and I tried to save Rififi once." -- John Mulaney, adding that they discovered at a city meeting that, at that time, Rififi didn't even have a license to host live events such as comedy. Rut-ro!

"I like Rififi because you could do things that you thought were funny, but most audiences would  disagree vehemently with you." -- Leo Allen

"When you leave, take a door with you!" Eugene Mirman said, then made some banging noises on the ceiling. "Oh, wait. The neighbors will complain...to the next landlord."

I have video of the final 13 minutes of the show, after the jump. You may think it a bit anti-climactic, but remember, comedians and fans didn't really have much of a chance to plan this out, even though we all knew this night would be coming sooner or later. Perhaps all of those false closing rumors of Rififi made some believe the dive would never change hands. This night proved us wrong. So now where does this scene hang out and perform now? Suggestions and thoughts encouraged in the comments. Don't be shy.

Obama Girl vs. McCain Girl: Candidate Olympics

Before I got a chance to upload my own video, I spotted this new entry on Dailymotion from the Barely Political team, and apparently, comedian/musician Mark Douglas now gets to play commentator with Obama Girl (and McCain Girl)? Really. Wow.

Obama Girl and McCain Girl Olympic Face Off
Uploaded by BarelyPolitical

2009 Comedy Central Presents lineups

Even though they're taping from Aug. 25-29, the next round of Comedy Central Presents half-hour stand-up specials likely won't air until 2009, if past precedents hold. That said, you can sign up now for info on free tickets to the tapings at the Hudson Theater just off Times Square in NYC.

Getting their own half-hours this year: Pete Lee, Rebecca Corry, Joe DeRosa, Brian Scolaro, Anthony Jeselnik, Doug Benson, Kurt Metzger, Tom Rhodes, Dan Levy, Jasper Redd, Eddie Ifft, Jamie Lissow, Greer Barnes, Tommy Johnagin, Jimmy Carr, Greg Warren, Josh Blue, Erin Foley, Chris Porter, John Mulaney, Kristen Schaal, Rob Stapleton, and Red Grant.

Congrats to all. Much, much more to come next month!

Carlin's ashes spread in NYC, NH

According to his wishes, George Carlin wanted to be cremated and have his ashes dispersed by his surviving family "in accordance with their knowledge of my prejudices and philosophies regarding geography and spirituality." The Keene Sentinel in New Hampshire reported today that Carlin's older brother, Patrick, and his daughter, Kelly, first spread some of the late comedian's ashes in front of nightclubs Carlin performed at in his early career in New York City's Greenwich Village, then took the rest to Camp Notre Dame, an all-boys Catholic summer camp in Spofford, N.H., that Carlin attended in his youth.

Root of All Evil, season two begins tonight

Comedy Central's Root of All Evil starts its second season tonight, with host Lewis Black and a rotating duo of comedian prosecutors arguing that (blank) is, in fact, the root of all evil. Tonight's show features Andy Daly and Patton Oswalt debating whether ultimate fighting or blogging is more eviler. Here's a trailer:

Rififi closing, again?!

Every few months, it's time for another Rififi-is-closing scare, and so we were due for a note like this one sent out to performers from the indie comedy club's manager (courtesy of Matt Ruby's Sandpaper Suit):

it's quite possible that thursday will be the last day that rififi will be open, it seems that the owner of rififi has come to an impasse with the landlord... as you might have known rififi has been occupying the space on a month-by-month basis since march and the landlord is now asking for substantially more money, it's possible that he's playing hardball but if an agreement isn't be reached by thursday then it will really be the last day that rififi is open.

i'm sorry we didn't have a couple of weeks to plan for this but the relationship between the landlord and the owner has always been somewhat unstable so it was hard to predict if and when the end would actually come... please be assured that all of the time and effort you put into producing your show has been greatly appreciated, if there is any change in the situation i will let you know as soon as i hear about it.

UPDATED! :( This time, the news appears to be legit. In fact, tonight will be the final night for Rififi, at least as we know it and love it. Which means tonight's Gelmania has become a blow-out affair, with appearances/performances by Greg Johnson (no more Fridays?!), Joe & Noah (no more Thursdays?!), Eugene Mirman, John Mulaney (after his UCB gig, I presume), Tom McCaffrey, Baron Vaughn, Adam Newman and probably more.

Hannibal Buress: Live at Gotham (and Comix!)

Hannibal Buress helped open up for Arj Barker last weekend at Comix, and he had some great jokes about the magic of the Courier font, imagining Jesus on weed, buying white babies, and wondering whether you can have tribulations without trials, or pillaging wihout raping? Of couse, he closed with thoughts about kicking a pigeon, and Barker played into his merch plea with his own merch talk, which ended up helping them both after the show. You can tell because Hannibal is smiling in this picture with me, taken by Mindy Tucker. Either that, or I'm that funny. Could be the latter.

After the jump, two clips from Hannibal's recent turn on Live at Gotham.

Owen Benjamin: Live at Gotham

Here is another outtake from last week's Live at Gotham, it's Owen Benjamin!

Mary Mack: Live at Gotham

Here is an outtake from last week's Live at Gotham that features Mary Mack. And no, stop thinking she's someone else. She's Mary Mack. That's her real voice. And this is how she reflects on visiting New York City...

Time capsule: 1995 Young Comedians Show

Just watched a rebroadcast of HBO's 1995 Young Comedians Show (it'll also air at 10 p.m. Pacific tonight), hosted by Garry Shandling from the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, and featuring a cast of, would you believe, Dave Attell, Eric Tunney, Dave Chappelle, Anthony Clark and Louis CK. Quite a lineup, eh? We know it's 1995 because Shandling jokes about the O.J. Simpson trial and Lorena Bobbitt.

First up, Dave Attell, and we see some now-classic Attell jokes, such as his take on porn ("whatever a man, a woman, another woman with a penis and a midget do..."), how women have all the power "because women have all the vaginas," why men cannot breast-feed, and on the difference between friends and best friends in moving. Only Attell reacts to and works the crowd. "Oh, I found the level?!" he says at one point. Attell jokes about starting to go bald. Smart, but dark stuff. Still true today. And that's why so many comedians love him.

Eric Tunney is a Canadian, and perhaps the only one from this crop that you don't remember. Although his joke about Hitler ruining that mustache certainly has garnered more than a few fans over the years, hasn't it?

Dave Chappelle, even in early 1995, showed enormous talent, and in his opening line, paved the way for years of Aspen jokes about the lack of black people. But he played it big with a lengthy pause before asking, "Where are you hiding all of your black people?" Sharp material on race. He mentions how he spent three years in a small town in Ohio (which he liked more than he'd let on, apparently), tackles the poor choices made in fashioning Wonder Woman as a role model, and closes with his own superhero, Trick Whitey Man.

Anthony Clark, introduced as the college entertainer of the year, would get the first big break of anyone in this special, appearing in several episodes that fall on the Ellen sitcom, followed by his own sitcom the following year in Boston Common. When I saw him cracking up at his own jokes on a panel of Emerson College alums in 2006, I wondered if he had completely lost it. But here he was, back in 1995, cracking himself up as he joked at length about Oklahoma (a topic that Bill Hicks explored in his young comedians special in 1987, by the way), and being in a bad gang in Los Angeles ("the Lemon Slushies").

Louis CK closed the show, and at this point in his career, he was writing for Conan O'Brien and hadn't been married or had kids yet, so you get to see what was on his mind before his family life took over...and that was...random things about living in New York City, forgetting to have money while shopping, and not-so random (as it turns out now) thoughts about masturbation and sex. He jokes about wearing a bathing suit because he ran out of clean underwear. Which reminds me, I have to do laundry tonight.

Montreal 2008: Just for Laughs video highlights

The people at Just For Laughs in Montreal decided to recap some of their shows in video highlights, which means you can get a feel for what you saw, or what you missed. Although they don't give all of the New Faces face time (hmmm), but the Just For Laughs video portal (yes, they have their own video portal for you to upload your own funny fun-time videos) includes a highlight reel set to music and with more Galas and French Canadians than any other JFL video. So let's start with that one, with the New Faces, Amp'd and Masters after the jump!

Ridiculous comedy story bears ridiculous headline

Hey, comedy fans! How many of you were like me in wondering, "Did stand-up comedy die with George Carlin?" Oh, wait. You mean none of us, not even me, ever asked that, let alone entertained the thought for a second? Well, then, you'll love not reading this story on MSNBC.com that's so out-to-lunch that the folks at MSNBC had to relabel the news article as "commentary" because they read it and said, hey, um, no. The story's headline: "Standup comedy didn't die with Carlin." Breaking News Spoiler Alert! And the secondary headline, in case you wondered, well, tell me more, please: "Dane Cook, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart are heirs to comic's throne." With a big picture of Dane Cook. Really? Really?! If you stick a sharp object in your eye after reading this, even then, you'll have noticed that the story mentions Chris Rock (good choice, but) only in passing, doesn't even mention Jon Stewart by name, and the source for putting Dane Cook in the same sentence as Carlin is none other than Jamie Masada, who always smells when a reporter is nearby and has the good sense to introduce young boys to Michael Jackson. True story. I think Carlin threw up in his mouth a little bit. Which is a neat trick, considering he's dead. Now you probably are intrigued enough to want to read it, aren't you? If so, click here.

Eugene Mirman on Conan O'Brien

Did you miss Eugene Mirman's recent performance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien? Did you see it, but would like to relive it again? Either way, hooray! Mirman has uploaded his performance for all of us to enjoy...some classic bits he has done around the New York City club and alt circuit, as well as on the road, but here on the TV, he manages to hold his spot and stay focused on the camera. Lots of greatness. All in under five minutes.

Eugene Mirman on Late Night With Conan O'Brien

What Would You Do For A Klondike Bar? (Video)

What would you do for a Klondike bar? It's a longtime popular radio/TV commercial jingle turned contest, in which you can make a video showing what you'd do and win $100,000 for it. Here's the entry by Front Page Films, otherwise known as filmmaker Oren Brimer, Matt McCarthy and Pete Holmes, this time starring as both Ray Romano and Al Pacino. Oh, and a part for Anya Garrett, too! Video after the jump...

Tim and Eric: Season 3 debut!

The New York Times today profiled Tim and Eric (Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim) in advance of tonight's season 3 debut of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! on Adult Swim. Don't know if I'd call it "Nightmare TV," but there certainly is a bizarre aesthetic to their approach to humor -- I think their Absolut comedy comrade Zach Galifianakis helped me put them into perspective when he described what he loved about Tim and Eric, and that's how they tap into their inner children. Essentially, these guys embrace their immature adolescent former selves in an uninhibited way, and that has an appeal, particularly to the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim viewership of boys and men in their teens and early 20s. When they appeared on FOX's Talk Show with Spike Feresten, Feresten introduced them as the voice of stoner comedy. That's selling them a bit short. Not a lot, but a bit. It's more accurate to put them in with a group of currently successful comedians who rely on acting like big kids, such as John C. Reilly (who collaborates with Tim and Eric) and Will Ferrell (see this weekend's Step-Brothers in cinemas), as well as the stoner antics of Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow's crew. Of everyone in this group, Tim and Eric take the most chances. Throwing pizzas and hot dogs into audiences may inspire some fandom, but it's not exactly high comedy. Unless you're high. And tonight's episode includes such low-brow humor as a boy wondering how to fix his smelly penis. I'm also not as amused as they are at casting awful entertainers to play supporting roles solely for us to laugh at how awful they are. Nevertheless, I do appreciate their determination to mock convention.

You can judge for yourself by watching tonight's season 3 debut. It's on Adult Swim (Cartoon Network) at 12:30 a.m., and if you miss it then, or want to see it again, it's online here in multiple parts. Watch Part 1 here. Watch Part 2 (featuring John C. Reilly in a panini-making infomercial) here. Clips after the jump!

UPDATED: The Village Voice posted a lengthy and informative interview with the boys on July 29. An excerpt, in which the boys try to describe their show...

Eric Wareheim: Dave Eggers called it a nightmare—like watching a real nightmare. Which I love. Sometimes you're thrown into moments when you should not be there, and it's horrible. Tim and I love awkward moments; we love seeing people that should not be in front of a camera, that kind of sensation. Then we also like super-silly ball jokes every once in a while.

Tim Heidecker: I think that will be left to somebody years from now to put a name on it. We don't really associate with very much else, except maybe some British shows.

Louis CK's new tour: "Hilarious"

Louis CK is having his way in the U.K. this summer (well, actually not having his way every night, if you keep up with his blog, but as he already told you, a comedian learns much more from bombing than from killing). And now, he's pleased to report the cities and dates for his new tour, "Hilarious," in which he presents all-new material. All I can tell you for now is that he may mention the word diarrhea. The tour begins Sept. 19 in Atlanta and continues up to Thanksgiving. Tickets already on sale for a few dates...Click here to buy!

Live at Gotham, with host Daniel Tosh, Matt Braunger, Hannibal Buress, Owen Benjamin, Mary Mack, Nigel Lawrence, Adam Devine

Hey comedy fans, before you start weekends, know that Comedy Central has a new Live at Gotham to share with you tonight at 10 p.m. (also 3 a.m.), with host Daniel Tosh, Matt Braunger, Hannibal Buress, Owen Benjamin, Mary Mack, Nigel Lawrence and Adam Devine. The network also replays Tosh's one-hour special beforehand at 9 p.m. This taping was the spring finale, and all of the lighting equipment was so fried that it forced Braunger to have to retell his opening bit several times. Here is a preview clip from him, with more videos to come from everyone after the show airs. Enjoy!