the comic's comic

As seen on TV: Brent Weinbach for Honda

Even comedians need to find a sensible car to get around from gig to gig. Here's Brent Weinbach in a national TV ad for Honda. Roll it!

 

Brent Weinbach wins over "Lopez Tonight" audience with self-deprecation, slang and song

If you were to tell me that Brent Weinbach was performing last night on Lopez Tonight, I might have worried about the young man.

After all, Weinbach, a past winner of the Andy Kaufman Award, is quite an eclectic performer. The whooping loud crowd in George Lopez's audience might not get him. But Weinbach also is a talented enough stand-up to know that, and he served up a set that hit right from the start by tapping into his past as a substitute teacher in Oakland, Calif., another bit about gangstas, used the word "shnip" to replace a profanity, and even sang Doritos ingredients as Catholic Mass. Well done, sir. Well done.

Roll the clip!

 

On Valentine's Day: Maron, Delaney, Klausner, The Axis of Awesome, Weinbach and Kasher

Calling all romantics. It's Valentine's Day today, and some comedians are ready to help and serve you with advice both real and really funny.

Marc Maron wrote an essay for the New York Post about how all men can learn from his past mistakes. Stick with chocolate and flowers, please. "Another thing, you might be tempted to get something cute and creative, like a cool rock, a daisy, an ironic vinyl record and a card you made out of a diner menu and used Metrocards. This is only okay if you are 14 to 25 (or emotionally that old)."

Rob Delaney has a few choice words for Funny or Die about the day, and his dream date: Jennifer Hudson.

If you wrote in to The A.V. Club looking for advice today, then Julie Klausner has some for you.

The Axis of Awesome knows that even down under, it's still Valentine's Day, and what better time to teach you how to write a love song:

 

When you think of romantic men, the first two names to pop up were Moshe Kasher and Brent Weinbach. Obvs. This short film on dating etiquette has a 25% funny rating! Which means three out of every four people have no idea what's going on here.

 

Brent Weinbach's original "My Buddy" TV commercial, even creepier than you remember

The original TV ads for the My Buddy doll was creepy enough, lest I need to remind you, but comedian Brent Weinbach has reminded us all by showing us what the original ad really looked like. What's even weirder? I used to think Brent Weinbach was a grown-up My Buddy doll.

Roll it.

Are iTunes top comedy albums of 2009 on your list?

The only thing people love making more than year-end list are decade-end lists, and some of them seem as much about generating page-views as they are about subjectively ranking things that should not be ranked. That's rank! So where are my lists? I've got something else up my sleeves for this December, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share with you the iTunes list of their choices of the 20 best comedy discs from 2009, along with my thoughts on said list.

For one thing, it's really across the board. Any list that puts Brent Weinbach side-by-side with Katt Williams is looking to appeal to all sorts. I'm not exactly sure I agree with everything on here, but then again, I haven't quite listened to all of them just yet -- there are stacks of CDs and DVDs in my apartment, and I hope to get through them all by year's end and share my own thoughts on them with you. I have listened to and reviewed eight of the iTunes 20; most of the rest are waiting in my queue, and a few I don't even have my hands on just yet? My loss or yours? Also, iTunes missed some great ones from the past year. No John Mulaney? I haven't heard Paul F. Tompkins new disc yet, but would presume it's worthy. And no ladies on the list? Not even Maria Bamford? Harumph. Here, then, are the iTunes choices from the year in comedy -- I'm not sure if they have a ranking order from iTunes, so I'll list them alphabetically:

Doug Benson, Unbalanced Load

Matt Braunger, Soak Up The Night

Bo Burnham, Bo Burnham

John Caparulo, Meet Cap

Christian Finnegan, Au Contraire!

Flight of the Conchords, I Told You I Was Freaky

Jim Gaffigan, King Baby

Greg Giraldo, Midlife Vices

Kyle Grooms, The Legend of the Jersey Devil

Moshe Kasher, Everyone You Know Is Going To Die, and Then You Are!

Jon Lajoie, You Want Some of This?

Artie Lange, Jack and Coke

The Lonely Island, Incredibad

Eugene Mirman, God Is A 12-Year-Old Boy with Asperger's

Patton Oswalt, My Weakness Is Strong

Jon Reep, Metro Jethro

Nick Swardson, Seriously, Who Farted?

Brent Weinbach, The Night Shift

Katt Williams, It's Pimpin' Pimpin'

Weird Al Yankovic, Internet Leaks

On "The Night Shift" with Brent Weinbach's new CD

Just who is Brent Weinbach? He's a stand-up comedian from the Bay Area of Northern California. That's true enough. But if your first experience with Weinbach is through his new CD, The Night Shift, then you might find yourself asking what it is exactly that this has to do with stand-up comedy. It's weird. It's not for everybody. And that's how Weinbach likes it. He did win the 2007 Andy Kaufman Award, after all, so putting out a conceptual comedy album that's a mix of phone calls, sketches, songs he plays on the piano, and portions of his stand-up makes perfectly absurdist sense. Even the stand-up, recorded earlier this year at The Purple Onion in San Francisco, keeps the audience on its guard.

There's a sketch playing off of his former life as a substitute teacher in East Oakland. He recounts his early experiences with women, and in front of a live audience, serenades a woman for her birthday. There's a song or two that sounds like he's auditioning for the Muppets. At one point, he turns his love for language into an extended satire on dick jokes. And there's an even longer piece that I've heard him do live before on the intricacies of the Russian alphabet. Instead of me trying to explain it further, why don't I just play for you a couple of short videos?

Yes, that joke was for the birds. And here's how he goes out on dates. Ladies?

Weinbach kicks off a fall tour tonight at the Verdi Club in San Francisco with Moshe Kasher and Alex Koll, with another CD release party on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at the Comedy Death-Ray show at the UCB in Los Angeles. Click here for more upcoming dates with Brett Weinbach.

BONUS: Brent Weinbach also recently talked to Jesse Thorn on his radio program, The Sound of Young America. Listen!

The Sound of Young America

Steve White wins 2008 SF Comedy Competition

Steve White won the 2008 San Francisco Comedy Competition, which ended Saturday night. White returned to stand-up after several years of acting. Here are the overall results and a note from producer Jon Fox, wholly reblogged from the fine friends at SFstandup.com.

1. Steve White
2. Derick Lengwenus
3. Tyler Boeh
4. Brent Weinbach
5. Leif Skyving

2008 SF Comedy Competition: Finalists

And here, ladies and gentlemen, are your five finalists competing this week for the title of the 2008 San Francisco Comedy Competition, including a veteran comedian/actor, the 2007 winner of the Andy Kaufman Award, a beatboxer from Boston by way of Portland, and two guys who prove that living in the Mountain West makes you have to be funny. In alphabetical order: Tyler Boeh (Boston, via Portland, Ore.), Derick Lengwenus (Wyoming), Leif Skyving (Idaho), Brent Weinbach (San Francisco), and Steve White (Las Vegas). Finals begin Tuesday in Mill Valley. Winner named Saturday in Brooks. Good luck, fellas!

Clockwise from bottom: Boeh, Lengwenus, White, Skyving, Weinbach.
Photo thanks to SFstandup.com and Stanovision Productions

2008 SF Comedy Competition: Week One winners

And now, the five comedians advancing from the first week of preliminary competition in and around San Francisco this year are...
1) Tyler Boeh, 2) Brent Weinbach, 3) Murv Seymour, 4) Jose Sarduy, 5) Dax Jordan

Week Two of the San Francisco Comedy Competition begins Wednesday.

2008 SF Comedy Competition (Week One)

The 2008 San Francisco Comedy Competition began the first of two preliminary weeks on Wednesday. Comedians begin in groups, performing six shows in six cities across Northern California in five nights! Each comic gets 5-7 minutes in the prelims. The top five of 16 in each group advance to a week of semis (where they get 10-12 minutes), and the top five from there get another week of final competition (sets up to 15-20 minutes), with a winner crowned Oct. 4 (see schedule).

The folks at SFstandup will be keeping track in their forums.

Brent Weinbach has won the first two nights of preliminary action. Anyone surprised at all by this? Anyone? Expect to see him in California for the rest of the month.

Week One contestants: Tyler Boeh, Boston; Boone, San Francisco; Rick D'Elia, Reno; Jason Downs, San Francisco; Peter Greyy, Seattle; Kyle Harbert, Portland; Dax Jordan, Portland; Chris Karney, San Francisco; Tracey MacDonald, Los Angeles; Jason Resler, Sacramento; Christian Reyes, Reno; Andrew Santino, Los Angeles; Jose Sarduy, Miami; Murv Seymour, Tampa; Bethany Therese, Los Angeles; Brent Weinbach, San Francisco

Montreal 2008: News, notes, highlights, quotes

It's time for one last look around the 2008 Montreal Just For Laughs festival, which Variety reports raked in $10 million (which is about the same in Canadian as it is in U.S. dollars these days!) this July. Which means this final recap must begin with the guy who buzzed about the festival...

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.

Live at Gotham: Brent Weinbach

Tonight on Live at Gotham, Brent Weinbach explains his ideal woman.

After the jump, Weinbach sings about bubble gum and more (nsfw)...

The 2007 Andy Kaufman Award finals

Through methods not entirely spelled out -- although, really, anything associated with the late Andy Kaufman should go without any easy explanations -- eight comedians from across America got invites to Las Vegas to perform in front of Kaufman's dad, Stanley, and his manager, George Shapiro, for the coveted award named for the eccentric performer. This was the contest's first visit to Vegas, having been conducted the first three years in New York City. How would it play in a ballroom of Caesars Palace during The Comedy Festival?

Well...you can watch the video submissions of all eight finalists here...

Past winners Kristen Schaal and Reggie Watts co-hosted the affair with their usual pluck and delight.

Chad Fogland chose a clowning mime striptease for his act, disrobing 12 pairs of pants, three pairs of boxers and a pair of briefs to reveal...another pair of briefs. Impressive enough, but far from extraordinary.

Mary Mack made her case with a washboard that she plays in her day job as a one-woman Eagles cover band. "This is where the show really amps up," she said. Certainly off the beaten path.

Nick Gibbons used a lie detector during his act that prompted him to change his answers repeatedly, almost exactly like an improv game my old troupe used to perform with bells and buzzers. Even Gibbons said on his blog later that the bit was "pretty tame," so I'm wondering if he could've chosen something different for the finals?

Brent Weinbach (spoiler alert: he won!) talked about being a substitute teacher in Oakland, Calif., then offered interpretations of "gay" and "psychotic" eyes, then ripped on the idea of "being natural" onstage by calling back to Gibbons' bit, then ripped on those who'd talk of him "being too creepy onstage" by being creepier, then offered three dance moves. Here was his contest submission:

Kate Micucci had a drum and cymbals to sing about being a librarian, put on a puppet love triangle show in a cardboard box, then sang a sexy song about sleeping. Adorably odd and funny.

Mitch Magee operated a slideshow of fruit photos with a low-key understated delivery, with commentary and music cutting in to enforce the idea that it's all an ode to his late grandmother.

Paul Rust, seen earlier in the weekend as part of the Unprotected Sketch! show, had a tech mishap (or did he? in an Andy Kaufman show, it's often difficult to know what's true onstage) and said, "Mistakes are God's way of telling you, 'Just quit the business!'" So instead, he played an anti-drugs song on the keyboard that just so happened to also be onstage.

Will Franken told me beforehand that he had something different planned for this show. He walked onstage as a waiter in a play with an unsuspecting audience memner who, of course, didn't know any of his lines, which only made Franken angrier and angrier. Decidedly risky, so kudos for that, even if he didn't win.