the comic's comic

Comedian in the U.S. Senate: Al Franken!

Two of the more awkward phone interviews I have conducted over the years have been with Al Franken. Just lucky, I guess? But maybe, just maybe, Franken may have been tentative with me all of those years ago because he knew that someday, he'd become a U.S. Senator. That day, after months of legal wrangling over the votes and recounts from the 2008 election, has come today following a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling, as incumbent Republican Norm Coleman conceded the race to Franken this afternoon. Congrats, Al. The Internet already is buzzing with comments referencing the catchphrase of Franken's Saturday Night Live character, Stuart Smalley: "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!"

Let's toast this moment in time, when a comedian and satirist has joined the U.S. Senate and is now a coworker with the targets he previously mocked, with a look back at some Al Franken moments.

Here is Franken on Letterman in 2007, after he announced his Senate campaign:

Here's Al Franken with SNL co-writer Tom Davis on Solid Gold doing The Rolling Stones!? With Franken as Mick Jagger?? Believe it.

How about Al Franken roasting Chevy Chase?

For some reason, though, anything involving Stuart Smalley, Franken's character who used self-affirmation to help himself and others -- most famously, perhaps on SNL, one Michael Jordan -- is not available to view online or is not embeddable. But NBC does have this "Church Lady" sketch with Al Franken playing televangelist/politician Pat Robertson...

In other news...

What's new and making news in the comedy world? Let's take a look-see and find out.

• Jerry Lewis is going to be making his Broadway directorial debut, a musical version of The Nutty Professor, with Marvin Hamlisch composing. (Variety)
• Just For Laughs Montreal will hold a "Comedy Conference" for the second straight year during its summer fest this July 23-25. In addition to honoring Todd Phillips as "Comedy Director of the Year" for The Hangover, JFL Montreal will award Etan Cohen as "Comedy Writer of the Year." Other highlights of the upcoming Comedy Conference include panels such as Comedy's Next Generation of Writers: A Look Ahead; The Web: Comedy's New Wild West; Breaking New Ground: Adult Animation Grows Up; Producing Great Comedy: The Secret Sauce; The Business of Comedy on Television: What's Up?; and Late Night: In the Writers Room. (JFL Montreal)
• The Associated Press surveyed how some comedians, the late-night TV talkers, and The Onion, responded to Michael Jackson's death. (AP)
• Dane Cook's sister-in-law was arraigned along with her husband (Cook's half-brother) for allegedly embezzling millions from the comedian. (Boston Globe) 
• Gary Owen, hot off of a deal with Martin Lawrence and Starz to develop a sitcom based on his own life, also has signed a holding deal with Tyler Perry to develop a spinoff for his character from House of Payne. (THR)
• There's another comedy festival in Aspen this summer??? Yes, and...some of the old USCAF folks are testing out a new comedy panel talk show onstage there this week called The News Has No Clothes, with panelists including D.L. Hughley, Lewis Black and Larry Wilmore. (THR)
• Remember Chris Kattan? He's back on network TV, hired by ABC to join the cast of the new sitcom, The Middle. (THR) 
• Remember when up-and-coming stand-up comedians would get a taste of the bigger-time onstage late at night at the Comedy Cellar in NYC? Well, that's going to start happening again, late Fridays (1 a.m.), starting July 10, with The Buzz. (Upcoming)
• Maybe NYC lawyer-turned-comedian Alex Barnett might want to read up on The Buzz? He details how it ain't always easy to launch yourself a career in stand-up, particularly in the big city. (NYDN) 
• Were you wondering what the comedy scene is like around Wilmington, N.C.? Well, now you have someone providing an updated look at that. (Wrightsville Beach Magazine) 

RIP: Fred Travalena

All of the recent crazy celebrity deaths certainly got everyone talking over the weekend, but the timing of it all overshadowed the death Sunday of comedian and impersonator Fred Travalena. If Rich Little was The Guy in the 1970s and 1980s to get your celebrity impersonations, then Fred Travalena was The Other Guy. Travalena died from cancer Sunday at the age of 66, at his home in Encino, Calif. -- coincidentally home to Michael Jackson's family (after they got famous and could leave Gary, Ind.). Anyhow. I remember seeing Travalena as a frequent talk-show guest with Johnny Carson and others. Here's a clip of him on Merv Griffin's show:

You didn't see much of Travalena after Y2K, but he did show up for one of David Letterman's "Impressionist Weeks" a couple of years ago, showing that he was still trying to work in new voices such as Donald Rumsfeld. Well, maybe not all new. But the "morphing" of the past nine presidents (JFK to W.) was a nice touch.

Jon Daly smoothes jazz as "Barry R."

When you see Jon Daly get into character as smooth jazz artist "Barry R," it's quite a bizarre treat in a comedy club. What happens when he busts loose on the beach and makes a commercial for his new box set? Well, that's where Funny or Die comes in. So far, it seems as though viewers aren't sure what to make of Barry R. and "his story dreams." Warning: NSFW language and content. That's smooth jazz for you!

Barry R's - Magnum Smoothus - watch more funny videos

Movie trailer: Ricky Gervais in "The Invention of Lying"

So the directorial debut from Ricky Gervais has a new title -- it's no longer "This Side of the Truth," it's now back to original title, "The Invention of Lying" -- and a new trailer. The film imagines an alternate reality in which everyone tells the truth all of the time, until Gervais becomes the first and only person to figure out how to lie. Hijinx ensue. Louis CK plays his sidekick, Jennifer Garner his love interest, and Rob Lowe and Tina Fey are among his many foils. Watch!

Gervais also had a message for his fans and critics, wanting them to put this trailer and movie in its proper perspective. He wrote on his blog...

Steve Martin's lost 1984 parody of Michael Jackson

If you blinked in early 1984, then you may have missed The New Show, which was a primetime comedy oddity that Lorne Michaels produced during his brief stint away from the reins at SNL. And how did this show open its first telecast? With a dance parody of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," performed by Steve Martin (and also Dave Thomas). It's, um, yeah. Filled with laugh track. Kinda cute. But everyone in January 1984 was wanting to be just like Mike (before Michael Jordan made everyone want to be just like Mike again, but that's for another post). As Martin explained over the weekend on The New Yorker's blog: "I’m not sure whose idea it was; it might have been Lorne’s. Pat Birch choreographed it. The hard move was that little leg twist that he did. You really have to throw your leg. I did it a thousand times in about three days. And a couple of weeks later I noticed—er, I have a pain here. The pain lasted about two years, then it went away on its own."

So here's that video opening to the series. Stay through the end for the cast intros, which looked as though Michaels rounded up spare parts from SCTV, SNL and added a couple of newcomers (Jeff Goldblum!). Does anyone actually remember this show?

(Via AST)

Jon Lajoie's Michael Jackson video: Too soon? Too true?

Jon Lajoie is one of them there musical comedians who came upon the scene in the past couple of years due to the Internets -- that fancy thing you're looking at to read this -- and he whipped up a very NSFW tune yesterday to respond to all of the hypocrites who joked about Wacko Jacko, only to turn around after Michael Jackson's accidental death at 50 to say how much they loved him. Too soon? Too true? Lajoie doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who cares. Watch it yourselves:

Previously: After all, Jon Lajoie has earned millions of views over the past two years for his earlier NSFW raps, such as...

Show Me Your Genitals (more than 15 millions views as of this writing)

Everyday Normal Guy (10.1 million views and counting)

I Kill People (2.7 million views and counting)

Ellen's Bigger, Longer, and Wider audience Q&A

Ellen DeGeneres took questions from the audience at the end of her latest variety special, which taped last week in Chicago at the Just For Laughs fest, and Ellen's Bigger, Longer and Wider Show debuts tonight on TBS. Not all of this footage from the Q&A makes it into the special. So if you'd like to hear Ellen talk about her marriage to Portia de Rossi and more, watch this:

I was at the taping, so if you'd like to know what happened, read my behind-the-scenes review of Ellen's Bigger, Longer and Wider Show. The show featured a live performance by Chicago's own Kanye West, a taped routine with David Blaine, stand-up comedy from Boston newcomer Joe Wong, and a variety of amazing acrobatic and just plain silly human tricks.

Review: "Let Freedom Hum" with Martin Short (TBS)

The TBS broadcasts from the inaugural Just For Laughs Chicago festival kick off tonight with Let Freedom Hum, a stand-up showcase hosted by a Canadian sketch actor, Martin Short, and featuring very little in the way of humming and nothing that we heard about the joys of freedom. But they put the title on the Internet and your TV listings, so let's just get to it.

As I mentioned last week, Martin Short certainly did his part to enliven the proceedings -- in addition to taped bits that brought back Ed Grimley (without pants!), Jiminy Glick and Lawrence Orbach, Short's opening monologue was both topical and edgy. The audience gasped at a number of his zingers, including one joke in which he called Adam Lambert a fruit, and another in which, in front of several TBS executives, he zinged the network by saying: "Meanwhile, TBS viewers are saying, who knew Tyler Perry was so light-skinned!"

But what about the stand-ups? Chicago native John Roy warmed up the crowd beforehand and delivered one of the better sets of the night, joking about how the locals are tougher because of the city's frigid winters and are fatter because of what they eat (though you'll see none of this on TV tonight, Roy did tape a performance at Zanies last weekend for a new stand-up series TBS will debut later this year).

Earlier in the day, I caught up with Tom Papa and Kathleen Madigan as they ran through their promotional photo shoots. Through the magic of my Flip cam and the snapshot function, this moment in time has been captured for posterity. I think Papa had powder in his eye. Or he's winking at us! Either way, Papa got things rolling on the right note once he hit the stage, mocking billionaires who have been killing themselves because, having lost their money in the recession, they could not stand to live like the rest of us. He also poked fun at his own life as a husband and father, and had the audience in stitches as he recounted trying to have a conversation with his parents online via Skype. Madigan was next up, and wanted us all to know how not to be jealous of her for having to visit her parents outside of St. Louis, and how much drinking must be involved to cope with life as a Madigan. She also curiously was eager to revisit the 2008 presidential election and Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama (did I mention we were in Chicago?) and expressed the fact that she was too cynical for hope.

Louis CK films a standup comedy pilot for FX

We have a lot of catching up to do. First, let's share this news with you about Louis CK, who in addition to recording plenty of "Hilarious" stand-up for a new CD in March and following that up by filming his set for a new DVD, has a potential stand-up comedy/sitcom hybrid that he's working on for cable network FX.

Here's what Louis CK had to say about it to the AST message board: "I'm doing a pilot for FX. It's autobiographical. I do some standup on the show and some of it is in narrative film form and some of it gets weird. It's kind of hard to describe. It doesn't follow the pattern of any show I've seen. It's not like Seinfeld or Pulp Comics. I really hope it gets picked up because I'm getting to direct in New York again with my little independent film crew that I started with and if I could just keep doing that, and using my standup in this way, I'd be a very happy idiot." The pilot shooting also has included roles for Todd Barry, Nick DiPaolo and Rick Shapiro, and he should know more about whether FX will pick it up in a matter of weeks.

Matt Ruby over at Sandpaper Suit (who took the pic here) was at the taping Wednesday at the Comedy Cellar and filed a report, while Videogum's Gabe expressed his feelings about the adventure at greater length.

Want to know what the fuss is about? You can see Louis CK live in NYC at the end of July at Carolines, just after his latest stops at Just For Laughs fests in Toronto and Montreal.

Joe Mande mocks hipsters in blog-to-book deal

Joe Mande already has proven himself to be someone to watch on the New York City comedy circuit -- earning himself "emerging comic" honors in 2008 at the ECNYs -- and now one of his new blogs has earned him a book deal!

His blog is a photo-based Tumblr called, LATFH (or "Look at this f***ing hipster"), with photos of said hipsters followed by Mande's snarky captions. He started it a couple of months ago, and he's already sold the book rights. Here's the Publishers Weekly blurb. Yep. That's it. Bet you're kicking yourself for not thinking of it first! The book will come out in spring 2010, or as Mande wrote to Gawker yesterday: "Unless people suddenly stop doing cocaine during the day, in which case it may take a bit longer." Mande had previously given an "anonymous" interview about the blog to fellow NYC comedian Max Silvestri when Silvestri was guest-blogging on Gawker in May.

Mande and comedy partner Noah Garfinkel also continue to co-host the popular "Totally J/K" showcase (currently monthly at the UCB, including tonight). They're also co-hosting this Thursday's "Comedy Below Canal" showcase at the 92YTribeca.

He couldn't say much more about the book, so I asked him how his hipster idea succeeded so much more quickly than his "Andy Rooney Game." We chatted briefly about this on Facebook. If you'd like to see that, it's after the jump...

Jimmy Fallon, more comfortable as an impersonator than as himself?

It's still perhaps a bit too early to issue a final verdict on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, although with more than 70 episodes in the can, it can be said that The Roots remain a great hip-hop band with a great sense of humor, that Jimmy Fallon also has surrounded himself with funny comedians to write for him, and that their taped bits are generally far funnier than the sketches and "game shows" they have Fallon do with and in front of the live audience, many of which fall flat. As for Fallon himself? Well, after seeing him live in Chicago last weekend at the Just For Laughs Chicago comedy festival, I have developed a new theory on what makes Jimmy Fallon work (and what's holding him back) as a performer and as a late-night TV host. (On a brief tangent, you probably didn't know -- I didn't -- that Jimmy Fallon ripped his pants during his show Saturday in Chicago, as he explained in this clip during Monday night's show)

Jimmy Fallon seems most at ease when he's pretending to be someone else.

That's it. It's that simple. Fallon is uncomfortable interviewing people he doesn't know, but it's not so much because he needs to learn that skill (though he really does), as much as it's because he has not yet figured out how to be at ease just being himself on camera. Here's what he told the crowd Saturday in Chicago: "I don't watch myself (at night on TV)...I'm not that much of an egomaniac," he said. "But I do TiVo myself...and watch it all on Sundays...(to see) how much I sweat during an interview." Any discomfort he has on-air behind the desk (and we all end up sharing as viewers) goes away, it seems, whenever he can slip into a character. Any character. And it turns out he has a lot of impersonations in his arsenal -- which, when combined with his musical talent, reminds you how he first got that SNL gig, and eventually his own NBC late-night showcase.

On Monday night, Fallon interviewed Nick Cannon with both of them doing Bill Cosby:

At Just For Laughs, he unleashed several more voices, including John Travolta, the Barry Gibb Talk Show (he really does love that sketch, incorporating it into an audience bit), Ty Pennington, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Norm MacDonald, Yakoff Smirnoff, Mitch Hedberg, Gilbert Gottfried, Andrew Dice Clay, Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, Steven Wright and Adam Sandler -- as well as musical parodies of Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Snoop Dogg, Green Day, Maroon 5, Amy Winehouse and a full medley of 1980s pop hits. Here is an edited version of most of that from Fallon's show the previous weekend in Bonnaroo (wearing the same plaid shirt and not-yet-ripped khakis he sported in Chicago -- his lucky outfit?), after the jump...

Martin Lawrence developing Starz sitcom based on Gary Owen

The trades report that Starz has given a script commitment to Martin Lawrence to develop a half-hour comedy based on the life of stand-up comedian Gary Owen, who previously was featured on the pay cable network's Martin Lawrence Presents 1st Amendment Stand-up. Here is a clip, conveniently enough, of Owen from that very show last year (note: language is NSFW):

Lawrence also has a deal with FOX to develop a half-hour animated program based on his own childhood growing up in and around Washington, D.C., (sounds like his own, cartoonish version of Chris Rock's Everybody Hates Chris).

Kermet Apio wins 2nd Great American Comedy Fest

Congrats also go out to Seattle's Kermet Apio, who won the second annual contest for the Great American Comedy Festival, held last weekend in Johnny Carson's hometown of Norfolk, Nebraska. Born and raised in Hawaii, Apio has been working comedy clubs for the past two decades, with a number of TV appearances and the 1991 Seattle Comedy Competition title to his credit. Sam Adams finished second, while Joe Larson took third place in the contest that's coordinated by David Letterman's booker, Eddie Brill. I had the pleasure of opening for Apio years ago when I used to live in Seattle. A nice guy and a funny guy. Here's a clip to get you acquainted with Kermet Apio. Enjoy!

Myq Kaplan wins "New York Comedy Contest"

Myq Kaplan is having himself a good year when it comes to competing in short-set stand-up comedy contests in Manhattan, winning the inaugural "New York Comedy Contest" last weekend. The weeklong contest included 96 comics, who performed at Comic Strip Live, Laugh Lounge, Stand-Up NY, Eastville, Broadway and The Green Room. Kaplan won the "March Madness" contest this spring at Carolines, and last fall, was a finalist in the "New York's Funniest Stand-Up" contest and third-place finisher in the Boston Comedy Festival contest.

Speaking of Boston, this New York stand-up comedy contest is an odd duck, because in addition to the $5,000 cash prize, the eight finalists (Kaplan, Ira Proctor, Tony Boswell, Brian Babylon, Josh Homer, Joe List, David Foster, Dan St. Germain) are rewarded with automatic invites to this year's Boston Comedy Festival. Not to knock Boston, but that's a little backward. Especially considering Kaplan, Proctor and List are from Boston and already have performed there on multiple occasions. So. Congrats? Note: I'm not surprised that this contest was designed to give attention to Boston's fest, because it was put together by that fest's organizer. That doesn't make it any less weird.

Jamie Foxx reunites with In Living Color writers & MADtv creators for new MTV sketch comedy series

This might not be the news anyone was expecting, but as soon as I get done with an obligatory "blame it on the alcohol" reference, it's time to tell you that MTV has added Jamie Foxx's "Untitled Sketch Comedy Show" to its development slate of upcoming TV series (read the press release). The logline reads: "Jamie Foxx executive produces the next generation of In Living Color." And he'll be doing it alongside Fax Bahr & Adam Small, who wrote for In Living Color and are also responsible for The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, Blue Collar TV, Chocolate News, as well as co-creating, executive producing and writing MADtv. It had been said that Bahr & Small were shopping MADtv after its demise earlier this year on FOX, but lacking any news to report on that, perhaps we can speculate that reuniting with Foxx on an MTV series will take the top spot on their priority list now.

Bill Murray channels "Caddyshack" at 2009 U.S. Open

The recurring downpours last weekend at the 2009 U.S. Open tournament on Long Island didn't scare off comedian Bill Murray. During this interview with WPIX-TV, Murray, long known for his love of golf, also briefly channels his famous movie golf character from Caddyshack, greens superintendent Carl Spackler. Wait for it. Enjoy!

And here it is, Bill Murray's "Cinderella story" scene from Caddyshack.

Ed McMahon's Star Search legacy to comedy

Ed McMahon died earlier today at the age of 86, and while most will remember him as the affable sidekick to Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show (or as the pitchman for Publisher's Clearing House, or even as cohort in TV bloopers and practical jokes with Dick Clark), we should also pause for a moment to reflect on the legacy he had on stand-up comedy by presiding over TV's Star Search from 1983 to 1995.

Among the many comedians who got introduced to America by McMahon and Star Search: Eddie Brill, Drew Carey, Dave Chappelle, Kim Coles, Bill Engvall, Brad Garrett, Dana Gould, Jenny Jones, Kevin James, Richard Jeni, John Kassir, Martin Lawrence, Norm MacDonald, Jackie Martling, Kevin Meaney, Carlos Mencia, Dennis Miller, Steve Mittleman, John Mulrooney, Rosie O'Donnell, Ken Ober, Steve Oedekerk, Ray Romano, Adam Sandler, Frank Santorelli, Sinbad, Joe Yannetty. If I'm missing anyone, please let me know.

As a teen, I can remember seeing several of these stand-ups. Aspiring comedians had many places to showcase themselves on TV during the 1980s, but none of those allowed stand-ups to stand out quite like Star Search did.

Here is a clip of Ed McMahon introducing a young mullet-wearing Bill Engvall:

Video series: Stand-Up Apartment

This serves as your very own pop quiz on comedy. In the online series, "Stand-Up Apartment," Brown Levinson-Butler and King Ace are two New York City stand-up comedians who decided to turn their apartment into a comedy club. In reality, it's Greg Johnson (who hosts a Sunday night show at Pianos in NYC) and Kenny Zimlinghaus (who hosts a morning comedy show on Sirius XM satellite radio, wherever you have the ability to access satellites). Three episodes are up so far, and see how many of the references and names you can recognize. I scored a perfect 100! But I'm The Comic's Comic. How about you? This may be very inside, very meta, but it's also a funny look at how comedians feel about the show business. How were they tonight? "They were weird." FYI, if you need help, Greg's the one wearing a different baseball cap in each episode. Enjoy:

The first two episodes are after the jump...

Get to know Brody Stevens, Chelsea Lately's warm-up guy

The residents of Seattle got to know the madness that comes from the mind of comedian Brody Stevens in the 1990s when he co-hosted a cable access show and made fellow stand-ups laugh with his regular outbursts at the Comedy Underground. A decade later, he's living larger in Los Angeles, where he has contributed to the Best Damn Sports Show Period and now also warms up the audiences for Chelsea Handler's late-night E! talker, Chelsea Lately. And he also plays a cop in The Hangover. Perhaps you've seen that movie? You can follow Brody on Twitter @BrodyismeFriend.

Meanwhile, Handler's show has launched a series of videos featuring Stevens, hard at work. Let's begin at the beginning:

More with Brody after the jump...