When I met Andy Kindler in Montreal
this summer after his "State of the Industry" address, Kindler paused when he
heard I'd named my site The Comic's Comic. Because, after all, when you think
of the proverbial "comic's comic," don't you think of Kindler?
We talked again earlier this month, and Kindler pointed out
that that video shows up among the top Google hits for Kindler. Huzzah!
So I tried posing the question to him that I had posited
earlier.
"Posited…what is this, some egghead Website?!" Kindler
replied. "Is this for physicists? What are you trying to pull here? You're
messing with the comedy demographic."
A full minute or two of riffing ensued before we got back to
our inquiry: How would Kindler define a comic's comic (or, if you're that kind
of person, a comedian's comedian).
"I would think that anyone who's called a comic's comic is someone
who is doing stuff, that is not, they say it's inside baseball. I have this
joke about the book 'Ball Four,' but a lot of people didn't like it because it
was too inside baseball."
Zing!
Kindler and I laugh. This happens a lot.
"The other comics would, maybe because of their familiarity
with comedy might laugh more at something than the typical audience member. But
I've out comic comic'd The Comic's Comic. I'll reference a comic that nobody
remembers in the 80s but me," he said. "It's hard to put a definition on it, because different
people are called a comic's comic for different reasons," he says. "For me it's
because I deconstruct stuff, like I just do a thing like a sound effect of the
airplane pilot voice…so I take that joke, 'this is your pilot speaking if you
look out on the right side of the plane, it's 1989 and someone is doing a McNugget
joke, and if you look out at the left side of the plane it's 1984 and someone
is doing a ridiculous Jack Nicholson impression."
Tell me more about your gig as a correspondent on Late Show
with David Letterman. How often do you get to do that?
"I've been doing, like, I want to say six, seven times a
year, but more this year, because I did three days in a row at the Republican
National Convention. We did like a live satellite remote which was really fun. That
was the first time I had done a live satellite. Nailed it! A delay doesn't
affect my comedy."
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:
Doug Stanhope, who set up his Slamdance to their Sundance, aka Just For Spite festival with shows Friday and Saturday at Club Chaos, told me on Saturday night that he'd been offered a paltry $1,100 to perform 10 nights of one-man shows at the fest (or as he added, less than what he earned during his first trip to Montreal's JFL), which prompted his fury. Much of the buzz about Stanhope during the fest itself centered around two incidents, both of which Stanhope wrote about online. He first aired his grievances on Wednesday via 236.com, then on Friday night, after getting kicked out of a JFL venue by fest organizer Bruce Hills, Stanhope went to his MySpace to fill us in on the details.
Most pleasant surprise in a one-man show:Patrice Oneal. Here's a guy who seems so in your face and so not safe for work that, well, that's how his career even began in Boston, challenging another comedian. And he has made his name on the club circuit as that guy who won't take no gruff. But you take him out of the comedy clubs and put him in an intimate theater setting, give him a stool or a chair and just let him speak...wow. As I noted earlier, his one-man show, Positivity, is positively brilliant. He may think he's not getting any smarter. But this show is the smartest thing he has done.
The lucky New Faces bump? Last year, Tom Papa hosted all of the New Faces showcases and handled himself with such professionalism and managed to bring the funny, that I recall singling him out and hoping he'd get a show of his own. This year, Papa got the special one-man showcase named after the late Richard Jeni and earned nightly standing ovations for his show, Only Human. Here's the Montreal Gazette review to chew on. I saw similar magic coming from Greg Giraldo this year in hosting New Faces, and hope he gets a similar promotion in 2009. Giraldo always has mastered the art of topical social commentary, but there also has been so much going on in his world, both professionally and personally, that could be mined for a one-man show. Let's make that happen.
Funniest comic-on-comic impersonation:Greg Behrendt, who introduced himself to the audience as "a 45-year-old alternative comic," doing Russell Brand at the midnight Alternative showcase, slinking his way around the stage and joking about Brand having sex with Kate Moss.
Toughest ticket for a show I wished I'd seen: They say you mock the ones you love (some do), so Behrendt must have been paying tribute to Russell Brand's status as the hot comic of the moment. You had to sweet talk your way into his sold-out performances. Thankfully, I got to see Brand a couple of days later in New York City (my review of Russell Brand).
Toughest ticket for a show I'm not sorry I missed: Apatow For Destruction. Movie producers and movie stars should not always be confused for great stand-up comedians.
How young is he, again?Bo Burnham, at 17, is the new sensation, already signed to Gersh with a Comedy Central EP that zoomed up the iTunes charts. Where did he come from? Outside of Boston, since you asked. He generated some "heat" as they say in the bidness. I saw him the previous weekend open up for Joel McHale at Carolines and deliver an amazingly proficient and efficient 13-minute musical set of songs and rap. How did this tall, scrawny high-school kid making YouTube videos gain so much poise onstage with less than 20 live performances to his credit? He told me. "I'm young, dumb and fearless." Here's a recent fairly NSFW video from Bo fo yo (argh, I just really typed that and didn't backspace backspace delete, didn't I?):
State of the Industry vs. Comedy Person of the Year:Andy Kindler wins in a walk-off, as Kindler filled the room to more than capacity, with people standing in the foyer, then half of them walking out to skip the festival's awarding of "Comedy Person of the Year" to Judd Apatow. Having Apatow did guarantee that all his famous friends and industry associates would show up in Montreal, though, leading to some heartfelt words from Apatow himself, and a funny quip from Seth Rogen: "Look at us. We're a parade of bad fashion...It's like we're at the rehearsal for the award."
Just Comedy? Remember the days when you didn't have to pay $500 to attend a festival thrown on your behalf? Oh, those were days. But Just Comedy's two-day confab proved to be kind of eh. As I joked to Andy Kindler in our short video interview, I only stayed at the Webisode to Episode panel for about five minutes, because that's as long as that panel should have been. Don't they know this already? Because of that, I missed out on perhaps the liveliest panel of the confab, as club owners kvetched at length about the business of live touring.
All-around favorites: You couldn't go anywhere in Montreal without someone reminding you how great John Mulaney and Brent Weinbach were at the festival. I shall sing Mulaney's praises to anyone who asks, and it was great to see him knock it out of the park (that's a baseball term) at JFL, with people especially rapt over his tale of playing a joke on a restaurant at age 11. Mind you, he's only 25 now. He will tape a Comedy Central Presents next month and you will enjoy it. He's also co-headlining at Comix next month (Aug. 22-23) with Nick Kroll. As for Weinbach, he won the Andy Kaufman Award in Vegas last year for a reason, and showed why in Montreal with an over-the-top performance at the alternative showcases.
New Faces recaps: My favorites or yours? Brendon Walsh stood out for me with his cleverness, while Sean Patton surprised me because I had never seen him in a mainstream club before. Harris Wittels delivered the ballsiest set, ending a routine that included misnamed bands and masturbation issues with a joke about racism. Ira Proctor turned it around so much from the first set to the second that veteran Larry Miller couldn't stop complimenting him. Mo Mandel was the singular standout from the other group. Although truth be told, most people I talked to from the industry were relatively underwhelmed by this year's crop of New Faces as a whole. Then again, they were relatively underwhelmed in general.
State of the New Faces Industry: What does it say about the comedy industry and Montreal's New Faces that two of them, Iliza Shlesinger and Jeff Dye, are among the finalists for this season on NBC's Last Comic Standing? A few things. Among them: The NBC producers prefer fresh-faced comedians, even if they're relatively inexperienced, because it allows them to have control (read: earn money) by launching their careers nationally. Also, it means tough luck for industry wanting a piece, as NBC and the producers have them under its contractual spell already. Anyone want to guess whether Shlesinger and Dye already are locked up for the nationwide club/theater tour that follows the season finale?
The Masters: Speaking of Larry Miller, what a class act he proved to be in Montreal, not just for actually watching younger comedians and saying nice things to them, but also for being the consummate host for the Masters showcases. Miller has been one of the more amusing voices of reason on Bill Maher's HBO chat show, Real Time, and it's so nice to be able to see Miller onstage again doing stand-up. As he told audiences, "Almost everyone on the show is someone I've known for years and respect -- and they're all good." Well, I'll be the judge of that. Henry Cho, a Korean raised in Tennesee, "so I'm South Korean." If you didn't enjoy Esther Ku's jokes about getting Koreans confused for each other, what would you make of this master's trip to the homeland with his father: "When we went to Korea, he walked 20 feet away and I lost him!" Hal Sparks continues to sport his Criss Angel hair and magician look, despite how it looks. It looks like Criss Angel. Instead, Sparks ranted against people who miss his short hair, talked about losing his Kentucky accent, and did a big act-out about sexually peaking. Cathy Ladman hates her New York voice, and Montreal audiences weren't exactly thrilled with it, either. Another trip to the therapist and everything will be OK. Henry Phillips and his guitar? Well, here's a little number you may have heard before, "Sweet Little Blossom of Mine." Todd Glass: I hadn't seen him live in four years, and man, how I missed seeing his energetic self. Glass is a guy who's always on, even when he's not on he's on. What a bundle of fun! Remember when Glass was on Last Comic Standing and kept mugging for everyone at everytime...good times. At the Masters, Glass riffed on both Sparks and Phillips and then himself, and destroyed with a bit about how easy recipes are, such as corn pudding! Meantime, here's an oldie but a goodie from Glass. Thea Vidale and I sat next to each other on the "regional jet" up from New York City, and regional jet means really small plane, which means I actually should have and could have used the phrase, "C'mon and sit on Daddy's lap!" And Billy Gardell closed by focusing on how kids have changed and how we've all changed because of anti-depressants, with a presence that shows you what a veteran stand-up headliner's set is all about.
Shuttle buddies: Don't know how it worked out like this, because we didn't see other during the fest and came from different cities, but Kent from Ask A Ninja and I ended up on the same shuttles to and from the airport in Montreal. Serendipity?
But what about next year: What about 2009? As noted or hinted at previously, several industry folks grumbled openly about wondering why they'd come to Montreal again in the first place. The festival certainly didn't dispel stereotypes about the friendliness of French Canadians, as they tried every manner in the book to get industry up to Montreal -- including their annual withholding of the New Faces and Masters names until two days before most would arrive, adding this two-day Just Comedy confab and charging industry $500 to show up -- then giving industry folks multiple hassles once they made it to Montreal. And that's not to mention the outrageous prices in the Hyatt Regency ($3 for a Coca-Cola, $10 for a bottle of beer), the attitude of the Hyatt toward the industry (even though the festival encouraged them to stay in the Hyatt) and the fact that some Hyatt workers were picketing outside made for a big barrel of not-fun. Stanhope wasn't the only one to openly ask if Montreal has become more about making a profit off of comedy fans and less about being a place for discovering and launching comedy careers. So what will happen in 2009 when JFL joins up with TBS to host a comedy festival in Chicago the month before Montreal? Will the industry go to Chicago and skip Montreal entirely? It only served to make me miss the atmosphere in Aspen, a festival run by people who really wanted it to be a home for the comedy industry (even if it proved too expensive and snowy). It also makes me want to start up my own comedy festival, a true showcase to bring industry to the talents worth watching, both new and old. If anyone wants to help me make that come true, please holler my way. Thanks.
Where would The Comic's Comic be in Montreal without an interview with one of the comic's comics, Andy Kindler? A meeting of the minds was in order after Kindler delivered his annual State of the Industry address on Friday afternoon at the Just For Laughs fest, which this year moved downstairs to the Grand Salon and even with the larger space, still saw an even larger audience that overflowed into the foyer. What does it say about the state of the comedy industry that Kindler more than packed the room, while Judd Apatow, awarded "Comedy Person of the Year" afterward, got his honors to an audience half that size? So I asked Kindler about that. Hilarity ensues.
"I think this speech peaked five years ago," Kindler said.
Here are some other choice nuggets from this year's speech, which tackled familiar targets Jay Leno and Scrubs, but also the Writers Guild strike, the possible SAG strike, the Golden Globes, Cavemen and Carpoolers, Evan Almighty, Vegas shows, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, George Lucas, and the industry itself, starting off by mocking the new Just Comedy confab.
"Who got to take a decision-maker to lunch? And what did they decide on, the chicken or the salmon?"
"When the writers went on strike and Jay Leno went off the air, I thought, that's a good start. Can't we just declare victory and move on?"
On the Independent Spirit Awards, "a chance for the small guy," you know, Paramount Vantage and Fox Searchlight.
On Scrubs: "That's a show that really should have a laugh track..Is it a comment on comedy? Please, tell me!"
On the shortened Golden Globes: "I still feel it went a little long."
His pitch for Cavemen: "Watch the Cavemen...it's pre-hysterical!"
On how no one seems to put sitcoms on TV any more. "CBS. Wow. A second night of comedy. Don't you people go dark Tuesdays to Sundays now?"
"Did you know you can't contact anyone at 3 Arts directly, even when you're on the phone with 3 Arts...directly?"
Whoopi Goldberg defended Robin Williams and joke theft on The View. "You'd think he'd do something with it if he took it!"
On networks looking for younger viewers. "I heard the History Channel wants to go younger." And later: "This isn't your father's Game Show Network! Actually, it is my father's Game Show Network."
This year, Montreal's Just For Laughs festival has expanded to include a two-day Just Comedy industry confab to discuss the state of comedy and network and do all of those things that someone interested in taking their comedy career to the next step should be doing.
Over the next two days (July 17-18), there will be keynote addresses, panels, workshops, pitch meetings, the customary Andy Kindler State of the Industry speech, celebrity discussions and a special fete for Judd Apatow, since the mainstream median and the comedy business clearly have anointed him as the guy who knows how to sell big-screen movies to the masses these days. Which makes it that much more worth noting, or, rather, looking back on the year so far in movies showcasing comedians. By the numbers. Because that's how these industry types roll the dice, so to speak. The figures come courtesy of Box Office Mojo.
The highest-grossing live-action comedy film of 2008 so far is...did you guess it yet? Get Smart. Oh, you probably missed it by that much, didn't you? $112.6 million and still counting. Steve Carell, take a bow. Though it's only the 11th most popular movie at the box office this year overall, and we still have some big flicks on the way.
Adam Sandler's You Don't Mess With The Zohan didn't exactly make Hollywood yearn for more Israeli spy hairdressing heroes, although his movie has earned $97 million.
Apatow had a hand in the next comedy on our list, with a producer credit on Forgetting Sarah Marshall (breakout supporting star Russell Brand is here in Montreal), and with just under $63 million, that's good enough to put it a slot above Baby Mama, ($60 million) the movie that would prove that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler can make and sell a female buddy comedy.
Martin Lawrence? Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins earned $42 million, but that looks like a lot of money to Will Ferrell and Mike Myers, who saw their big promotional efforts in Semi-Pro ($33 million) and The Love Guru ($31 million), respectively, go for naught. Myers even took his Guru to the #1 TV show in America, American Idol, and still couldn't get anyone to pay to see his epic fail of a film. Myers would wish that his stinker had taken a cue from the much more relatively successful film, What Happens in Vegas, which earned $79 million despite horrid reviews and Ashton Kutcher in the lead role. As for Ferrell, hopefully all of those recycled TV ads he did during the NBA playoffs helped move some DVDs, at least. And certainly it means everyone is wondering how his upcoming comedy, Step Brothers, with John C. Reilly will fare next weekend...funny? Or die? In between those two disappointments was Drillbit Taylor, Apatow's other early 2008 comedy ($32.8 millon) that had the misfortune of marketing Owen Wilson to an audience that knew he wasn't exactly spreading good cheer at the time.
Do we count Run Fat Boy Run? Best not to.
But we do have to acknowledge that $5 million is not a good opening weekend for an Eddie Murphy multiple-role comedy in Meet Dave. It's not a complete failure, as some reviewers have suggested it as good family fare. So chalk it up to, what then? Bad timing? A ill-conceived pitch? Either way, it still already ranks as a more popular film than Murphy's epic epic fail, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, which only earned $4.4 million in its here-and-gone release in 2002.
And Larry the Cable Guy better stick to animated films for the time being. His Witless Protection earned $4.1 million and sent anyone who saw the movie into, well, witless protection. It couldn't scrape up half the money that his woeful Delta Farce earned, which in turn was only half the movie at the box office that Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector was.
While Ferrell and Adam McKay also get lauded along with their Funny or Die cohort Apatow, it would appear that their golden touch could not help The Foot Fist Way. They pushed it into theaters and promoted it heavily via appearances on Conan and Funny or Die (and even MySpace messages from Patton Oswalt). All of that has helped bring it $227,458 in box-office receipts.
So, industry, what did we learn from all of this? Anything? Nothing? Maybe I'll be able to tell you more in two days.
The folks at Just For Laughs announced part of its 2008 slate for Montreal yesterday (proving once again, that a blogger cannot take a day off!)...
This year, Montreal introduces its first "industry conference" -- Just Comedy -- with Ivan and Jason Reitman talking father-son comedy shop on July 17, and Judd Apatow getting honored as "comedy person of the year" (year unspecified) on July 18.
The Galas (the biggest shows in size and scope) include hosts Craig Ferguson (July 18), Jimmy Fallon (July 19) and an "all-star" gala with Ron White, Paula Poundstone and Larry Miller (July 20).
Special events listed include: Stiles & Proops: Unplanned (July 15) featuring, well, whatever Ryan Stiles and Greg Proops feel like doing that night; South Park Live (July 16) with Matt Stone and Trey Parker; Omid Djalili (July 17); and Apatow For Destruction (July 18) featuring the aforementioned Apatow with cohorts Seth Rogen, Craig Robinson, Russell Brand and others.
Tom Papa gets promoted from New Faces host in 2007 to the "Richard Jeni One-Person Show Series" with his show, "Only Human" (July 14-20).
Of course, the real treats for fans and the industry come in the New Faces showcases (to be hosted by Greg Giraldo and Dana Gould), and we won't know who makes it to Montreal until this weekend's final New York City auditions: May 1 at Comic Strip Live, May 2 at Stand-Up NY and May 3 at Broadway Comedy Club.
What I like about Lewis Black's new Comedy Central show, Root of All Evil: It takes the Tough Crowd formula, stand-up comedians talking smack about issues of the day, and refines it with tight focus without watering down the concept. These planned bits, the mock trial arguments, work better in a 22-minute TV format than the spontaneous conversations from Tough Crowd, which were hit and miss precisely because they relied so much on the ad-lib chatter. We want the highlights. And when you give great social commentating comedic minds such as Greg Giraldo and Paul F. Tompkins some advance notice, you're going to get highlights. Here's one:
In related news, Comedy Central unleashed a "Weekly Evil" segment online that gives several stand-up comedians a chance to weigh in on a topic (in the style made famous by VH1's Best Week Ever). This week's evil? St. Patrick's Day. (Psst: Can you find the typo?)
The show is taping as I type this, but my sources have informed me that in addition to comedian TJ Miller showing up tonight to talk Cloverfield with Letterman (and maybe Carpoolers, too), that comedian and Letterman regular Andy Kindler will appear on the program, as well. Kindler closed out last night's Invite Them Up show at Rififi, told me afterward he'd be in NYC through Friday. Kindler also says he hopes to make more trips to New York City in the coming months, so keep an eye out. Here's why you might see him tonight...
UPDATED (Friday): So yes, Andy Kindler introduced a taped segment in which he tries to get a life coach, but instead learns what's so so wrong about him. That should relieve some stress! And could TJ Miller have been more excited to be on the show? It's a rhetorical question. Most comedians want a spot on Letterman, but they usually first get on the show performing stand-up. Miller skipped right to "panel" (for those of you not already in the know, that's TV lingo for sitting in the chair for chat with the host) because of his role in the movie, Cloverfield. Miller was so excited that about midway through panel, he even exclaimed how cool it was to be on Letterman. Then, at the end of the segment, Miller tried to (and eventually did) squeeze out the words that he's a stand-up comic, and you can see him. Where? "Everywhere." Actually, he did mention performing at Comix here in NYC next month. What if he'd said come to Rififi on Friday?!?!?
Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, HBO produced and broadcast a special devoted to young comedians. Not all of them hold up quite so well. One year introduced Steven Wright, but the rest of the hour makes you wonder what happened to America's sense of humor. Then there was 1992, and the 15th annual special, taped at the Tempe Improv, hosted by Dana Carvey, introduced Judd Apatow, Bill Bellamy, Nick DiPaolo, Janeane Garofalo, Andy Kindler and Ray Romano.
As host, Carvey managed to trot out most of his SNL character voices and impersonations for easy crowd pleasing. Bellamy is wearing a red suit, as if to make viewers think of Eddie Murphy. Apatow, whom you know now as a big-shot comedy producer and writer, wore a buttoned-up shirt without a tie. Romano noted up front that he was 34 at the time and asked if that still counted as young. Watching them all, you can see that Romano, Kindler and Garofalo had found their comedic voices that still make you laugh today. And if you think DiPaolo sounds bitter onstage today, just watch and hear his mood on the night of his big break! A few circumstantial pieces of evidence of HBO special bonding: A) Apatow and Garofalo immediately worked together on The Ben Stiller Show, B) they again worked on The Larry Sanders Show, with Apatow also writing an episode that had a part in it for Kindler, C) who also showed up a decade later as a recurring character on Everybody Loves Raymond.
Also filed under fun facts, the pre-show interviews with the comedians, which knowing where they all are 16 years later, is why these quotes should be filed under fun facts...
DiPaolo: "It means a lot. It means I'm going to be a big star someday. Either that, or I'm going to be next week working in St. Louis at Yuk Yuk's again. For minimum wage."
Garofalo: "I have no self-esteem left, and I hate to be the girl comic that talks about those types of things and I never thought I would be, but I'm a beaten man."
Kindler: "I'm going to do a new thing where I just sell my paintings after the show. Along with the T-shirts and the coffee cups and the Andy Kindler signature crock pots that are available, in the lobby, and the Andy Kindler comedy video, which is always available, in the lobby, after the show. And I'd leave the record tab in, so if you want tape Murder, She Wrote over it, who really cares."
Just finished watching my advance copy of Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project, which debuts tonight at 8 p.m. on HBO (re-airing several Tuesday, Friday and several other times this month), and I've got to say, it's great that director John Landis took the time to get this documentary done while we can still enjoy Rickles live on the road or in Vegas. If only every comedian who has lasted as long as Rickles -- he's 81 and still touring -- got their proper due. They should. Thank goodness we get this look back at Rickles and his career.
Landis notes up front that he first encountered Rickles when Landis was a gofer on the set of Kelly's Heroes in the former Yugoslavia in 1969. Many people weigh in with thoughts and comments in the doc, including Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro, Richard Lewis, Chris Rock, Sarah Silverman, longtime friend Bob Newhart (and you see footage of the Newharts and Rickles vacationing together over decades), Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Lawrence, Roseanne Barr, Dave Attell, Christopher Guest, Billy Crystal, Regis Philbin, Sidney Poitier, Penn Jillette, Bobby Slayton, Mario Cantone, Kathy Griffin, Ed McMahon, Jeffrey Ross, Geroge Wallace, Martin Scorsese, George Lopez, Jay Leno, Larry King, Ernest Borgnine, Carl Reiner, Debbie Reynolds, Jack Carter, Roger Corman, his wife Barbara Rickles, Joan Rivers, James Caan, Jimmy Kimmel, Keely Smith, Harry Shearer, the Smothers Brothers, John Stamos and Bob Saget.
HBO provided a preview clip here:
Here is an incident involving Rickles and Johnny Carson that's referenced also in the doc:
It'd be easy to call Don Rickles the original insult comic. But he's more than that. Just look at how many comedians he has influenced, how many celebrities who have befriended him over the decades. He revolutionized how comedians work a crowd (for better, and in some cases, for worse, as you've seen some comedians who lack material rely on crowd work to pad their sets). And Rickles even now remains decidedly old-school, and by old-school I mean a guy in his 80s who'll still talk about "colored" people, "chinks" and "queers" and the Nazis and his WWII experiences with the Japanese. Richard Lewis says in the doc that Rickles "is fearlessly honest." I like how Chris Rock described Rickles and his offensive humor, how he gets away with it as if he's "a pretty girl."
Who comes close to Rickles among my contemporaries? I cannot think of many who do, although Andy Kindler (whose State of the Industry speeches at Montreal have become the most-anticipated performance of Just For Laughs) and Brody Stevens come to mind first.
As they say in France, que sera sera, je ne sais quoi -- which translates into not one but two cliches. As for French Canada and Montreal, what better way to close out the 25th anniversary of Just For Laughs than with a gala hosted by native son William Shatner. What's that? You didn't know the Shatner came from Montreal? Neither did I, my dear readers. Neither did I. The fest's grand finale (though the festival continues with a couple of shows on Sunday, Saturday night represented the blow-out of blow-out spectacular shows across the board) had the city's streets teeming with comedy fans, and other people, too. Let me share a few salient points and thoughts from Saturday night...
Is there a stage past post-ironic to describe the public persona of William Shatner, especially when he "sings" Canada's rock hits? Or is that simply called ironic? Where is Alanis when you need her?
Zach Galifianakis doesn't need a piano to be funny, although it certainly adds a little something something (perhaps that je ne sais quoi?) to observations such as: "At what age do you tell a highway it was adopted?"
I now have very mixed feelings about Canadian stand-up Gerry Dee. Why? Dee rocked the televised gala audience with his set Saturday night, but I had the strange sense that I had seen and heard it all before -- mostly because I had seen and heard it all before, as his 6-7 minute set virtually echoed the televised sets he had performed this year for both Comedy Central's "Live at Gotham" and NBC's "Last Comic Standing." Most stand-ups understand that any set they've done on national TV gets "burned" (aka retired), so what does this say (or what should I take it to mean) about the rest of Dee's material? Like I wrote, mixed feelings.
Bill Burr deserves a development deal, or a big break. I saw him crush both at the Shatner gala and much much later, past 2 a.m. Sunday, as the final comic in the "state of the fest" showcase, devoted to (as the program says) "this year's breakout acts and must-see talent." He actually closed both shows, for good reason. He literally is sincerely funny and brutally honest onstage.
What are the odds that out of several hundred patrons, the most drunken and annoying one gets seated front and center? Most comedy club customers will say they may fear sitting there for fear of getting picked on by the comedian. But the same is true for the performers, as the New Faces 2 showcase demonstrated Saturday night at Kola Note, with a guy talking to (and sometimes blurting out and yelling at) each of the comedians, publicly apologizing each time until he got kicked out of the show. As host Tom Papa discovered, every square inch of that customer's table was occupied by empty beer bottles. "Two hundred beers and a sailor with low self-esteem equals chaos!" Papa said.
The name "LaQuisha" always seems to get a laugh (New Face comedian Geoff Keith proved that again). Must be the "qu" sound. At least that's what the comedy textbooks say.
New York stand-up Kurt Metzger politely informed the Canadians "why America is like, the best country": We own the moon. "Where is the weird Quebec separatist flag on the moon?" Eh? Metzger also made a somewhat compelling case for why God could be a woman. I shan't dare repeat it here and now.
As New York stand-up Matt McCarthy (no relation, well, not to me, anyhow) and I decided, Montreal is like the French Texas of Canada. Just a little bit different. Acts like it's its own country. And as the other McCarthy said during his New Face showcase, "I have never seen so many churches and strip clubs in my life. Make up your minds!"
Speaking of Texas, New Face stand-up Lucas Molandes showed yet again that Austin breeds very smart and clever comedians. His closing bit on the war in Iraq involved a sexual conundrum between a raccoon and a cat, but he apologized by saying, "Sorry folks, I just read 'Animal Farm.'" A couple of his other touchy observations: Native Americans made the dreamcatcher, "but the one dream they couldn't catch was the American Dream." And reading Anne Frank's diary "taught me you can't hide from your problems." Yikes! Still quite funny, though.
Also quite funny: Tommy Johnagin. His performance could be used as evidence that "Last Comic Standing" does indeed find and put promising comedians on TV.
Andy Kindler really is the comedian's comedian.
Joey Kola's and Bobby Kelly's impersonations of a female voice sound oddly similar to an impersonation of Joe Pesci. I don't mean that as a funny like a clown way, either. Just funny. And that's a wrap for now. Time to catch a plane back to JFK.
Here I am, north of the border, where I'll be reporting to you live, semi-live, and semi-awake for the next couple of days from Montreal, home to the 25th anniversary celebration of Just For Laughs, one of the biggest comedy confabs in the world. Lots going on already as the festival hits the homestretch tonight and Saturday.
But first, time for Andy Kindler to deliver his annual "State of the Industry" speech. It's known throughout the comedy world as a must-see event, not only because Kindler is hilarious, but also because this is the one time each year that the industry allows one of its own to say all of the things that many comedians would like to see about the funny business but fear saying aloud.
As Dave Foley said in introducing Kindler to the stage shortly after 2 p.m. today, "It's great that he comes out here and sabotages his career."
Quickly, the bullet-point highlights from Kindler's speech...
On the Laugh Factory owner: "Jamie Masada, younger every year?" On his own career: "I am ready to sell out...If I need to git-r-done, I'll git-r-done!" His potential catchphrases? "Same-old, same-old!" "Smell ya later!" On the Michael Richards incident from last year: "Where is Carlos Mencia's apology? Where is Lisa Lampanelli's letter of resignation? Where is Larry the Cable Guy's mea culpa? If you believe in the power of threes..." (applause) He then imagined Henny Youngman having to issue lengthy apologies for all of his one-liners about his wife.
On Mencia's stereotyping about his parents: "Margaret Cho thinks he should take it down a notch -- Dat Phan called!" On the film "Delta Farce," in which Larry the Cable Guy stars as a soldier in the Iraq war who ends up in Mexico, combining an unpopular war and immigration issues: "Who better to tastefully navigate these waters?" On Imus: "I hated Imus before hating Imus was cool." On the late-night TV show, "Comics Unleashed": "How about Comics Uncomfortable?" "Byron Allen is known as a comedy cooler." On his book ideas: "If I Killed," kinda like the O.J. book, imagining Kindler having a great set in a mainstream comedy club, opening with local references, including a local gay bar that he doesn't know is a gay bar. Or "The Comedy Secret," in which he tells you how to look in the mirror and say, "I am hilarious. I am hilarious." "Actually that's how Dane Cook's career got started." He also ribbed Wayne Brady's "improv" genius, the editing of his Comedy Central hosting gig for "Live at Gotham," the fact that he has to ask for residual payments from his HBO Young Comedians special now that it's On Demand. "Even Bill Bellamy let it go!" But he added: "Judd Apatow tried to get writing credit for all the acts." He ribbed "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," "The View," FOX News' "Half-Hour News Hour" ("It's about time they stuck it to the ACLU." And he noted that Dennis Miller has a segment. "It's called Career Killer.") He hit an awkward moment, though, just afterward by making fun of "Family Guy," which has a huge show in the festival this weekend. But he kept going. He ribbed the end of "King of Queens," the end of "Scrubs," and really went into "Last Comic Standing," a show that already has many comics taking sides. Kindler said the show "makes American Idol look like a Pulitzer Prize award committee." He ridiculed Ant for being on the show, and a judge on it, or celebrity talent scout. "Two of those three words don't apply." Kindler read the intricate small-print rules about the contest that appear over the end credits. "If it was completely rigged, it would require a higher level of competence." He suggested comedy clubs ban bachelorette parties, and wondered what other industry would make it OK to sell you on gigs that offered no or little pay in unlikely environments. On current topics, he got in digs at "Evan Almighty," "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry," the fact that Robin Williams' acting career hasn't slowed down, the American version of "The Office," the upcoming "Cavemen" sitcom, Entertainment Weekly, and the show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader." "If you're smarter than a fifth-grader, you're probably not a Jeff Foxworthy fan."
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