the comic's comic

Well-known comedians in well-beloved TV dramas

If you're watching AMC's Breaking Bad, or just catching up to this Emmy-winning drama, then you're well-aware of Bob Odenkirk's rascally role as attorney Saul Goodman. In season four (which premiered last night), Saul has hired himself a bodyguard, Huell, who is played by none other than stand-up comedian Lavell Crawford.

Here's a clip of their first scenes together in Breaking Bad. Not spoilery!

 

Crawford has been a touring stand-up for years, and finished runner-up to Jon Reep in the 2007 season of NBC's Last Comic Standing. He has a new comedy CD out this month called Can A Brother Get Some Love?, which also will debut on Comedy Central on Aug. 12, 2011.

It's always interesting to see popular comedians cast in TV dramas. Enough stand-ups have done the trick on Law & Order that you could host a full night's show and then some with them.

But how many comedians have made the successful transition from stand-up stage to small screen drama, particularly when it's a critical and commercial TV hit?

Let's take a look back...

In other news, blogs...

Yesterday, people wore shorts. Today, it's snowing. Am I in Las Vegas? Good guess, but no, this all has happened right here in Brooklyn (aka The Comic's Comic HQ). Yet another sign that up is down, down is up, and there must be news going on in comedyland. Let's catch up.

Anyone who still thinks the National Lampoon has anything to do with the landmark magazine or company of the same name that produced Animal House and Vacation a generation ago probably got snookered by the stock market scheme that landed the current Lampoon execs in court (NYT).

Rob Corddry took over Comedy.com yesterday because he could, and he shows you his favorite clips, and his favorite stand-ups.

NBC has promos up for Howie Mandel's new TV prank show, Howie Do It. Premieres Friday, Jan. 9, 2009. Hello, Larry.

Punchline Magazine is helping Marc Maron get a new one-man show off the ground, launching Scorching the Earth, on Jan. 3, 2009, at The Green Room at the Bleecker Street Theater in NYC.

The Apiary catches up with my friend DJ Hazard to see what's going on in his noggin. It's almost always stimulating stuff.

Which reminds me, up in Boston, they're throwing the Greater Boston Alternative Comedy Festival tonight, which is weird, because last time I checked, that's mostly everyone in Boston comedy these days. Read a new interview with The Walsh Brothers, back home for the holidays. Meaanwhile, the brand-new Boston Comedy Hall of Fame inducted Steven Wright last night in that alternative of venues, Showcase Live next to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough (you say Foxboro, I write Foxborough, let's call the whole thing off).

Flashback: HBO's Sixth Annual Young Comedians Show

Set your DVR/TiVos for tonight. It's HBO's Sixth Annual Young Comedians Show (9:30 p.m. EDT on HBO-Comedy, also repeats twice on Saturday, March 22, and the early morning of March 28).

The Smothers Brothers host and provide a lengthy 15-minute warmup session, then announce that the young comedians this year have written their own intros. Which makes it funnier when, in the first intro, they say, "Please welcome, Jerry Steinfeld!" How's that for your big intro, future billionaire? Yes, the 1981 collection of young stand-ups includes not just Jerry Seinfeld, but also Harry Anderson, Howie Mandel, Richard Lewis, Rick Overton and Maureen Murphy.

How does it hold up 27 years later? Seinfeld's early observational topics include the TV weather reports, pajamas, slippers, socks, the piano store at the mall, greeting cards, the post office and the fattest man in the world. It's all very familiar now, isn't it. Which lends yet another perspective on a scene from his documentary, Comedian, in which other stand-ups talk to Seinfeld about the prospects of writing new jokes.

Next up: Australian Maureen Murphy. She had made six appearances on The Tonight Show before this. Since then, not a lot according to the IMDB, though she currently is writing and directing a movie about Caravaggio. So there.

Harry Anderson was best known for his street magic, and that attitude and skill carried him into a recurring role on Cheers, then later his own sitcom, Night Court (Brooklyn!). The New York Times caught up with him in New Orleans, which he was leaving at the end of August, 2006. Yes, because of Katrina. Interestingly, on the HBO show description, he still gets the biggest credit. Still. Check out his props! Where's Gallagher now? Oh. Right. Anderson's set here really gets an odd crowd reaction.

Rick Overton is a name I certainly recall seeing and hearing when I first got into comedy in the 1990s. But seeing him on my TV (circa 1981) still came as a surprise. Why was that? Google, help me! Oh, geez, he's had a lot of character roles over the years. He also won an Emmy for writing for Dennis Miller. And he's still writing politically on the Huffington Post. This Star Wars routine, though, where was this going, exactly? By the way, fun fact: In the East Village, working-man skinny-tie apparently was the rule back then.

As for Richard Lewis. It was all there from the beginning, wasn't it? The paranoia. The hair. The onstage therapy session turned comedic. The relationship issues. It was all there, even back then.

Howie Mandel sure didn't look like an obsessive-compulsive germophobe in 1981! Check out his handbag! Props! (Where's Gallagher?) The memories of that condom hat come rushing back, and suddenly you remember why everyone made such a fuss when he got the big break in the NBC drama, St. Elsewhere. And then you remember again why everyone said, really?, when Mandel showed up again more recently as the host of the silliest success on TV, Deal or No Deal. "What? What, what?!"