Comedy Central boasts that Larry the Cable Guy's latest CD/DVD, "Tailgate Party," played to the largest-ever live audience for a recorded stand-up comedy special. With a low ticket price and Fourth of July fireworks for a finale, Larry got 50,000 fans to turn out in the University of Nebraska's football stadium to hear him "Git-R-Done."
Hey kids! The past few years, Comedy Central inadvertently leaked the results of their annual "Stand-Up Showdown." Not so this year. They're learning!
So we all really do need to tune in today to find out, if we really care who gets an extra broadcast of their old half-hour comedy specials. Do we? Who knows. You know.
Jon Hamm hosted one of the best episodes of the 34th season, so why wouldn't he host one of the best this season? Well, er, um, hmmm. As this week's episode of Saturday Night Live got underway, I found myself thinking we were living the exact opposite of the popular saying that it's not about the destination but about enjoying the journey. Wait. What? WTF? Who is reviewing this show anyhow? Some sort of dingleberry? What's a dingleberry? Let's try doing this like a normal person and not some comedy nerd. I'd try that this week, but this week's SNL offered comedy gold for comedy nerds, so maybe next time when Twittertard Ashton Kutcher hosts we can try reviewing this show for people who don't know what words mean. This week is for the rest of us.
The cold open. Oh, SNL. Why do you insist on writing political sketches that are so inside baseball that even baseball players cannot find the humor in it? There were funny things that everyone agreed happened this week, from Apple's overhyped iPad, to President Obama's showdown with Republican Congress members, but what we got was a version of the State of the Union address that took seven minutes before it got to a single joke. Seriously? Seriously. The vast majority of it was about what? As VP Joe Biden (Sudeikis) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Kristen Wiig) looked on and said nothing, Obama (Fred Armisen) ranted against Martha Coakley for losing the special U.S. Senate race to fill the late Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts seat. Also, for some reason a look back at where he was a year ago, he talked about how the Bushes literally left the White House a mess, with dishes piled up and wrappers left on the ground, and an unpaid cable bill. When they cut to Supreme Court Justice Alito shaking his head, this time, I agreed with his decision. But when they’d lost me, Armisen got me interested minutes later by reading individual job listings. I liked this. Just wish it had gotten here quicker. And the random cut to Brendan Fraser’s Golden Globes yippee-yay clappity clap was a nice surprise. But still. Seven minutes for this? It would have been funny at two minutes. Ominous.
Jon Hamm was back for round two, after a spirited hosting effort last year. That was a dream come true, he said: “So honestly, this time it’s just for the paycheck.” He said people connect him so much with Don Draper, they do not realize he had acting roles for years before this. If they had pulled together real clips, this could have been really funny. Instead, they wrote some fake clips for him. Here’s “Late For Class,” a teen show with Andy Samberg, Abby Elliott, and Hamm as Bonzo, who is more like Don Draper. See where this is headed. Or when he did QVC, with Kristen Wiig selling turquoise, and Hamm as, well as a domestic abuser. “I actually had sex with that woman.” Or Def Comedy Jam, smoking a butt with a glass of scotch in his other hand, in which Hamm’s bit is eerily reminiscent of Martin Lawrence’s SNL monologue from 1994 that got him banned. It's one of SNL's 10 most outrageous moments. Again, I liked the ending, but not how they got there.
The second segment opened at an apartment party in NYC from 1928. Kristen Wiig hosts it as Lydia in a voice I feel I’ve heard before but cannot place. The guests include Elliott, Bill Hader, Will Forte, Fred Armisen and Hamm. There’s a piano. They all want Hamm to play a song. Lydia keeps begging no one in particular not to force her to sing. “You’re making me sing?” Except she really does not hit her cues after willing it to happen, and blaming it on Hamm. Is this an allegory for Jay Leno? I’m stretching. Or am I? Oh, don’t make her dance? If this isn’t an allegory for Leno, then it’s most certainly an allegory for every character Wiig plays on SNL. Tell me I'm wrong.
Now we have an SNL Digital Short – ooh! After seeing Landline TV try to take Samberg on this week, I wondered if SNL would respond, and if so, how. I don't know if you'd consider this a response, but they definitely didn't fall into one of the two major categories Landline had accused them of, and went for the weird. Samberg steps out of a limo in a suit and breaks a sacred talisman, and Armisen’s sidewalk squatter curses him. At a business meeting, Samberg is interrupted by a topless Hamm in a ponytail playing the sax. Sergio! I love it. Samberg on a date with Jenny Slate. Sergio! With his therapist, Jason Sudeikis. Sergio! Samberg tries to reverse the curse. And…well…Wiig and Hader are there, but. SERGIO! FTW. Even funnier was how quickly my friends found a pop culture inspiration for Sergio. From The Lost Boys, even.
I've been getting more emails regarding comedy benefits for Haiti this week, so I thought I'd try to give you an update on some shows that have happened in NYC in the past few nights, as well as links to upcoming shows in and around Los Angeles.
NYC recaps
Spin magazine attended the Brooklyn Vegan-produced benefit in Williamsburg last weekend that featured several musical acts, plus Zach Galifianakis and Janeane Garofalo; Black Book magazine checked in and out of the benefit at the Bell House in Brooklyn's Gowanus/Park Slope neighborhood hosted by Todd Barry with many music and comedy acts; Carolines and Power 105.1 FM have many snaps from their benefit; and The Huffington Post recapped last night's show at Comix, with photo sets from Mindy Tucker as well as Kirill Was Here.
LOS ANGELES shows to come
Tonight, Jan. 29: The Laugh Factory, Stars for Haiti featuring PK, Earthquake, Tony Rock, Natasha Leggero
But what gives it a double-dose of extra fun watching it now in 2010? For one thing, Conan had no problems calling that prostitute "Coco," five years before he'd get tabbed with it as his own nickname. And if you keep watching, you'll see Donald Glover (now co-starring in NBC's Community) in what quite possibly is his first TV credit. Just the kind of fun and informative thing to watch on a Friday afternoon. Roll it!
Like I said, Sarah Silverman took part in a conference call this afternoon to talk about season three of The Sarah Silverman Program, which debuts Feb. 4 on Comedy Central -- and also on Logo, the gay and lesbian cable channel that helped fund production costs for the third season.
The first episode, "The Proof is in the Penis," has a more cinematic sweep and tone to it, even if it may set a new record for the number of times the word "penis" is said in 22 minutes -- including one scene in which Silverman screams "I swallowed my penis!" over and over. You'll also find out that Silverman's donning of a mustache at the Emmys might not have been a prank as much as it was a tease. But the look and feel of the third-season debut definitely feels like a movie, and with a sisterly duet thrown in, reminded me of Silverman's movie, Jesus is Magic. The second episode, "The Silverman and the Pillows," written by comedian Chelsea Peretti, also opens with a musical number, and might have some people mistakenly trying to draw a parallel to the Leno/Conan debacle at NBC. That'd be silly, although Silverman said she's on Team Conan.
"I think the first one, 'Proof is in the Penis,' feels really cinematic to me," Silverman told me today. "We haven't been on the air in 14 months." With such a long wait for new episodes, she wanted to return to the air with something big and "special" for the fans. "We weren't on the air in 2009 at all," she said. "You'd think we were The Sopranos or Lost with all of the gaps in production, and not a 21-and-a-half-minute show about fart jokes."
As for the added musical element, Silverman said there's no hard and fast rules about it this season. "It's very uneven," she said. "I think the second episode has three songs. It's just however it works with the story and however we were moved...Usually in the (writers) room, someone will get a snag in their brain. There's an episode where Steve writes a song that becomes famous called 'I'm Glad You Hurt Your Hand.' That just came from me, and Rob Schrab hurt his hand, and I just started singing, (singing) 'I'm glad you hurt your hand. I'm glad you hurt your hand.'"
Sarah Silverman held a conference call with the "media" this afternoon to help promote the third season of The Sarah Silverman Program, which debuts Feb. 4 on Comedy Central. Many questions asked of her, and a few even had to do with the TV show. One question for her that most certainly had nothing to do with it asked who was the cute guy Silverman was seen dining with earlier this week.
She revealed she has a new boyfriend, and his name is Alec Sulkin. Sulkin is a writer and producer on FOX's animated hit, Family Guy, and also has brought his voice to that show as well as spin-off The Cleveland Show. You can tell she digs him, not just because she told all of us about him on the conference call, but also because, well, just check out Sarah Silverman's list of Favorites on Twitter.
When someone else asked Silverman what she looks for in a guy, she said, among other things: "He's got to be funny." Obviously. Silverman added: "Also, we enjoy a lot of 'Modern Warfare'" and playing the video games. "What I'm saying is: I'm 10."
OK. This ends your salacious comedy "news" item. Now back to some actual news about comedy.
If you attended last night's packed taping of Comedy Death-Ray Radio inside New York's UCB Theatre, you were treated to the mostly improvised antics of Todd Barry, David Cross, Zach Galifianakis and Winny the whiny baby (John Gemberling) with host Scott Aukerman.
David Cross, sporting a red, knee-length sweatshirt, joked when Aukerman asked him about a potential third squeakquel to Alvin and the Chipmunks. "I'm so at piece with it," Cross said, adding later: "There's no accounting for the taste of 5-year-olds." He then said that within 12 hours, he'd be flying off to London where he'd be working until August. He didn't elaborate. But he doesn't have to.
Cross is starring in a new sitcom for Britain's Channel 4 called The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, in which he plays an American beverage salesman who gets promoted above his skill level to become the boss of the London office. The pilot's cast included brief appearances by Will Arnett and Cross' girlfriend, Amber Tamblyn, and Cross wrote it with British comedian Shaun Pye. Channel 4 has ordered six episodes, so off to the UK for Mr. Cross and company. Great news for the Brits! Don't worry, though, Yanks...
The Comic's Comic has learned that IFC has a deal in the works to rebroadcast the first seven-episode season here in the United States. Don't have a date certain just yet. But still. Hoorays all around!
Want to watch the pilot? Here you go. It's NSFW, but it'll give you something to look forward to later in 2010. Did I say hooray yet? Where can I get some Thunder Muscle? "It's like drinking ten lightnings!" The title is self-explanatory, methinks. Poor Todd Margaret, what with his increasingly poor decisions. See how it all started to go wrong. Roll it!
Malkoff's latest task was much simpler, which, naturally, made it much more difficult to accomplish. His task: Traverse the length of Manhattan, from the southern tip of the island north. Not by subway, by taxi, by bus nor even by foot -- but on the backs, shoulders and arms of his fellow New Yorkers. Yes. You got it. Malkoff wanted to test the kindess of New Yorkers -- they're not really that rude and mean, are they? -- by asking them to carry him uptown. He did this over the course of two cold and snowy days in December. Seemingly helping his case: He's not that big (130 pounds), and he had a microphone and a cameraperson with him, so the innocent bystanders knew they were being filmed, although not necessarily for what.
Let's roll the evidence.
In the end, Malkoff convinced 155 people (and a couple of friends via Twitter when he felt most helpless in his cause) to haul him 188 city blocks (9.4 miles) from the Staten Island Ferry terminal north via Broadway to the corner of Broadway and 141st Street.
"All I did was ask people if they'd be willing to carry me, which they did," he says. "To me, that proves the people of New York are indeed a friendly bunch."
You may not know the Fine Brothers by name, but if I told you that Benny and Rafi Fine previously had published YouTube videos that spoiled 100 movie twists in five minutes, you'd go, oh, yeah, those guys! Well, they're at it again. This time with the ABC-TV wonder that is Lost. Only this time, the Fines don't want to spoil the ending for you. They don't even know anything about the the final season, which begins Feb. 2. But they do have lots of questions. And they want answers. Just like a lot of fans.
These boys put their questions to the music of the standard, "Downtown." I'd argue that a couple of these questions already have been answered (yes, I'm also posting this because I have this show permanently recorded on my DVR), and the Fines replied to me: "some keep saying they were answered, but we always have a small aspect of it that we feel isn't quite answered...gotta love LOST." Ready, set, roll it!
Perhaps you heard that Apple announced its latest "tablet" super-sized version of the iPhone, except it's not a phone, but it still runs on 3G courtesy of AT&T, and it's called the iPad. So many jokes. So. Many. Jokes. Most people made the same joke. But what would happen when Pee-wee Herman got his hands on one of the first available iPads and showed it off to his friends, including one Magic Screen? Roll this "chosen one" clip from Funny or Die and find out?
Meanwhile, more people than you might think hit iPad into Google and found out that MADtv already spoofed a potential Apple iPad product a few years ago, with Arden Myrin using it as a tampon. Someone else used the computer technology to make it the real deal, though, so Steve Jobs actually was in on the joke this time. Roll the clip and you'll see what I mean.
There is a new trailer for HBO's collaboration with Funny or Die went online today, and the way this stuff sneaks out in small doses really just makes you ramp up your anticipation for it. Well, if you're like me and like funny things, anyhow.
We already know that one of the shorts in the HBO/FoD series has met with wider approval, as Drunk History: Douglass & Lincoln, featuring Will Ferrell and Don Cheadle re-enacting the Illinois Senate debates as retold through the drunken commentary of Jen Kirkman, won the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Jury Prize for Short Filmmaking. The Sundance guide also reveals another new Drunk History installment on the way with comedian Duncan Trussell getting drunk and talking about Tesla and Edison (with John C. Reilly and Crispin Glover?).
But what else is there? Watch the trailer closely and you'll see lots of hints. Roll it!
Heck, just check out this poster that Conan himself signed that will go up for auction tonight during the show, hosted by Seth Herzog with performances by Dave Attell, Janeane Garofalo, Todd Barry, Wyatt Cenac, John Mulaney, Wil Sylvince, Anthony Jeselnik, Jeff Kreisler, Eugene Mirman, Aasif Mandvi and the writers of The Onion.
But. If you didn't get tickets to show or cannot make it, you can still help and also win a cool prize for your time.
That's because Comix has set aside three of its auction items for public bidding via eBay. Which ones are up for grabs?
And finally, how would you like to own a Washington Generals uniform signed by Andy Richter. The Washington Generals? That'd be the team that travels with (and almost always loses to) the Harlem Globetrotters. Lovable losers, just like Andy? Awwwww.
Andy Samberg and his fellow comedians from The Lonely Island made their mark as new Saturday Night Live cast members by reinvigorating the SNL Digital Short for the digital video-sharing age (that's the brand-nonspecific alternative to saying YouTube age, right?). Their "Lazy Sunday" rap earned SNL a new generation of fans via YouTube, and they've since won an Emmy for "Dick in a Box," and their "I'm on a Boat" rap collaboration with T-Pain is up for a Grammy this weekend.
Plenty of people have tried replying or duplicating what they do with their own YouTube videos, but mostly in admiration.
That said, Samberg and his crew have definitely settled into a couple of very comfortable thematic devices that could themselves be ripe for comedy, and the folks at Landline TV have fired a shot across their bow with this one. Roll the clip!
Ustream has hosted millions of live streaming Web shows and series. A quick look at Ustream's entertainment section pulled up 251,628 separate listings, with plenty of comedians among them. They've all been free, but that will change Feb. 6 with the first pay-per-view offering, which takes fans behind-the-scenes of Dane Cook's final stop on his current stand-up comedy tour.
The one-time offer "for his special fans" at http://www.ustream.tv/danecook boasts "5 hours of Exclusive LIVE COVERAGE for only $5," presumably from the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla., where Cook and his opening acts will close down his Isolated Incident Global Thermo Comedy Tour. I'm also going to go ahead and guess that Cook will be chatting with fans from backstage before and after the show -- and maybe even during it for a few minutes? -- as well as getting his opening acts into the mix.
Would you pay $5 for something other people are offering currently for free? That has been the question of the Internet age for anyone who provides unique content.
How much would you pay to watch a live online show?
How much would you pay to read an online blog?
I'm asking for my imaginary friend. Obviously.
UPDATED:Dane Cook posted some additional news on this front. He has turned it into a contest, even, with people who buy tickets by Jan. 29 eligible for prizes. Prizes? Yes, prizes. The prize being a free trip for two to attend the show in person with all-access privileges. For everyone else, if you watch the Ustream feed, you'll get to see Cook's sound check, participate in a live Facebook chat (couldn't you do that part on Facebook? anyhow), pre-show chatter, access to his opening acts, the full show, and an after-party.
I hadn't written much about Alonzo Bodden in a long while, but I hadn't forgotten about him. Neither had Bob Read and Ross Mark, the comedy bookers for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the show that it's called currently, who also put Bodden on the national scene as part of the second and third seasons of Last Comic Standing.
They brought Alonzo Bodden back to the show on Monday night, wherein he delivered a sharply focused set devoted to all of the contagious diseases we've been told would be pandemics, and how the media loves to scare us to death about it -- until something else comes along such as Michael Jackson. So sit back and take a nostalgic ride back through the swine flu, tomatoes, spinach, bird flu, SARS, Mad Cow and the killer bees. Did he mention Y2K? Because that was scary, too. Bodden also mentions the worries about illegal aliens, and he walks right up to the Mexican border wall joke but does not go for the hack punchline that has befallen other comedians. Thank goodness for the fresh take on that. As well as the local "carpool lane on the 405" reference for the Angelenos. Roll it!
Earlier this month, Eddie Brill performed stand-up on The Late Show with David Letterman. If you're an aspiring comedian who wants to get your own spot on Letterman, you might want to take extra notice of this because Brill also books the comedians for the show.
Which is one of a couple of complications for Brill. If he's booking himself, that's one less spot for everybody else. Also, Brill serves as the daily warm-up comic for Letterman's studio audience. If you've ever been to a comedy club where you later see the doorman or the ticket-taker onstage, it's that disconnect, multiplied by the factor of network television. Brill told me that of the nine times he has done Letterman (he has worked on the show for more than 12 years), he's dealt with the audience in a variety of ways beforehand -- from not mentioning he'd also be introduced by Letterman during the show (awkward surprise!), to not doing the warm-up (regular surprise!), to what he did this most recent time, which was to get any awkwardness out of the way during the warm-up. He told me Letterman was interested to hear his latest stand-up set and gave him kudos afterward. Let's roll the clip so you can see him in action:
You might take some solace in knowing that just like many of you comics out there, Brill told me he second-guessed a couple of things he said and how he worded things, knowing that he'd already have a better take on it for the next headlining set when he's on the road. I gave him a bit of his own medicine, too, by exchanging a couple of notes I would have had for him had I been Eddie Brill counseling him on his Letterman set. If you guessed that one of them had to do with cutting out part of the bit on Noah and the Ark, then you win the imaginary prize of your choice. Now. Everybody back to work.
At first, I confused the New York Nightlife Awards with the MAC Awards, which also are NYC-based and honor the same three subgenres of the performing arts scene in cabaret, jazz and comedy. How are they different? Well, let's look at the recent comedy winners of each contest.
The New York Nightlife Awards have three comedy categories: Outstanding Comedian in a Major Engagement, Outstanding Comedian, and Outstanding Comedy Duo or Group. This year, those awards went to Louis CK, John Mulaney, and Slovin & Allen, respectively. All of those winners are certainly funny. But. Not to quibble (cue the quibbling), I'm fairly certain that Slovin & Allen's 2009 work together consisted of writing and producing sketches in Los Angeles for broadcast on HBO in 2010. Their duo/group winners last year were a tie between Improvised Shakespeare and Kurt Braunohler & Kristen Schaal. Also, they've named Mulaney outstanding comedian three years in a row, and CK outstanding major comedian two of the past three years (bracketing Mike Birbiglia's win last year). Not that any of these winners aren't worthy; it's just that the judging panel needs to get out more.
As for the MAC Awards, they just closed nomination applications for 2010 awards this past Saturday, Jan. 23. They have a few more comedy categories, with separate awards for men and women (the NY Nightlife Awards used to do that before 2007, apparently). Last year, MAC Awards went to these comedians: Maureen Langan, Rick Younger, Jackie Hoffman, Mario Cantone, and Chicago City Limits. In 2008, those same awards went to the following: Poppi Kramer, Michael Brill, Susie Essman, Jim David, and Chicago City Limits again. In 2007? Poppi Kramer and Michael Brill again, Greg Giraldo, Julie Goldman, and The Next Big Broadway Musical.
But if you want real proof of how many different comedy circles operate within New York City, take a look at the ECNY Awards. This year's awards are in the middle phase in which the "Industry Committee" winnows down the field of open nominations in several categories, and has until the end of this week to do so (Note: I'm an Industry Committee member, and also was nominated for an ECNY last year). Want to know how wide and varied the NYC comedy scene is? There were more than 2,500 unique acts nominated in the 15 categories (there are 263 different comedy hosts in the city?!).
While word slowly spreads about the return of NBC's Last Comic Standing, Improv owner Budd Friedman is helping preside over a lesser-known contest for aspiring talent that's tied to the video release of Funny People.
The search for "The Next Funniest Person in America" accepted submissions online at Friedman's iJoke.com, and judges picked their top five which went to an online public vote. The top three vote-getters earned a trip to Las Vegas, where they'll perform tomorrow, Jan. 27, at the Improv at Harrah's Las Vegas. The winner gets? A paid six-night run at the same club later in 2010.
You don't have to be on Team Coco to realize that Leno-bashing has reached a hyperbolic pitch. Just pick up the current issue of Entertainment Weekly, which put a photo illustration of Jay Leno on its cover and named him TV's biggest bomb ever. Ever? Forever ever? Clearly the mag went with the chin to win in an effort to move print copies, because if you look at their top 50 TV bombs list, several of them stand out as much worse things to have appeared on America's television sets. It's not as if Leno is Hitler, as the Wall Street Journal's Joe Queenan suggested in a crass satire yesterday designed to generate page views. They're both wrong, of course, because Leno has never wanted anything more than to hold onto his 11:35 p.m. (10:35 p.m. Central/Mountain) time slot, and he'll be getting it back soon enough.
But how did it come to this, where conventional wisdom and anyone who's funny clearly aligned against Jay Leno? He cannot really be that bad, can he? And if he were, why do all of those people still show up at tapings of The Jay Leno Show and rush up to shake his hand at the start of every show? For the latter question, I think the answer is one part tourists on a Los Angeles vacation who are just happy to be up close and personal with a very famous person, and one part Leno providing the same below-the-belt jokes about sex and stereotypes that has earned Jeff Dunham millions of fans. Leno has said that in terms of personal appearances and stand-up gigs, he's doing better than ever. Before I digress even more, let's get back to Leno.
When I watched him sit down with Emily Blunt at the start of last week's run, Leno seemed to enjoy a natural and genuine conversation with the actress. For a moment, I almost did not want to shake my fists at him. What has become of me?
How did it get to this? I used to like Jay Leno -- he was the first headlining stand-up comedian I remember seeing live, when he performed in a packed gymnasium at my college. My parents used to live in, and my mother still works in Andover, Mass., Leno's hometown. Where did my goodwill for him go?
Jay Leno brought this upon himself, I thought. No. I knew.
He said that night that he still has no manager, no agent, no publicist, but he desperately needs someone to tell him that he has handled this latest round of NBC late-night disasters so so poorly.
For one thing. For the main thing, really: Jay Leno has no idea what it means to be fired from a job.
The last time I checked, getting fired means you no longer work for the company you're working for. When your bosses tell you they're replacing you, but before your contract is over, they give you a promotion, that's not being fired. When the people who control your pursestrings decide you're awful at your next job, and your bosses decide the best option is to give you your old job back, that's also not getting fired.
It's like this guy has no self-awareness, or is so self-aware that he's playing a prank on himself. Which is another way of saying, he needs someone to tell him how much of an idiot he is.
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