This just in from the offices of Comedy Central's Tosh.0. They call it "Most Perfect Internet Video Ever." Ingredients include kittens, creepy weirdos, skateboarders, accidents, Asian girls, Godzilla, and the inevitable groin injury. Pictured: Daniel Tosh, Chris Fairbanks. Pictured but in disguise: Joselyn Hughes.
Roll it!
It's fairly well accepted that to be a great comedian, you need to get onstage as much as possible. Perform every night, multiple times if you can, to as many kinds of audiences. Learn what works, what's funny, how to adapt to situations. I bring all of this up today because last night's edition of Nightline on ABC opened with a feature on talented people and why they're talented. They talk about singers, musicians and athletes. It's something worth watching for comedians and bloggers alike. Which reminds me. Time to get us all back in the loop with the latest headlines and subplots in the comedy world:
Plenty of good new material we can laugh with and learn about Pete Holmes today. There's a new interview up on Buzzine, and here is an excerpt that illustrates just how unique his performances can be since he tends to acknowledge the uniqueness of each performance:
That’s actually something TJ (Miller) and I have specifically talked about because I’ll call him feeling guilty and I’ll say, “I did all this stuff, but I didn’t record it or write it down, but I let it all out.” He’ll remind me of something I think is quite true, which is that some jokes are just for that crowd. Some jokes are just for that night. And there’s something kind of beautiful, almost like Tibetan Monk sand sculptures, like, do it once, throw it away, let that be a gift for people that came out for a live performance. And I’m not talking about making fun of somebody’s shirt. I’m talking about the whole experience can really be its own type of event, and ideally it is. At the end, I’ve stopped beating myself up by thinking, “Oh, I should remember that thing that I said when I called that guy blah blah blah,” or said this about a sound I heard. That’s not really the point, necessarily. Every show should be made unique, and the degree to which it’s made unique is often the degree to which it’s enjoyable for me and the degree to which it’s memorable for the crowd. Even tonight, after the show, people were saying to me, “My favorite part was this, when you said this to me, or when you called this group this,” or whatever. And that happens every time. No one, tomorrow even, will remember any of my jokes, no matter how memorable they might seem at the time or how well they do. They will remember that I said some off-the-cuff thing that brought them into the show and kind of made the whole thing our experience, instead of my experience being given to them. The more it’s “our” show, the better.
And here is brand-new video from Holmes and his team at Front Page Films, featuring Joselyn Hughes and Matt McCarthy. It's a "wine date." Enjoy!
Oh, and they also have a video in the Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl" contest.
Something I couldn't help but notice Wednesday night at Rififi...aside from the huge crowds seeming to want to bask in this comedy's scenes last gasps of glory...were all of the new short hairdos! Aziz Ansari. Kumail Nanjiani. Joselyn Hughes. Brooke Van Poppelen. All newly shorn and clean-cut. That Hughes and Van Poppelen sported nearly identical bobs made for an even more amusing sight earlier Wednesday when they co-hosted Slumber Party at Ochi's Lounge in Comix.
Here is Joselyn Hughes, pre-cut, in the new Dunkin Donuts commercial for Milky Way hot chocolate:
Ah, life in the city that never sleeps, which for comedians, means a midnight show at the UCB, followed by a wait for the F train back to Brooklyn. Even then, though, the show doesn't stop. At least according to Joselyn Hughes, who thinks like I do, that hanging out with comedians always provides insight and amusement. So why not capture some of that on camera? Here we're waiting with Kumail and Emily at West 4th Street for a transfer. Joselyn explains...
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