Leo Allen
November 28, 2011
June 14, 2011
Jon Benjamin Has A Van: So funny, it may be too funny for Comedy Central?
Forget everything you thought you knew about the new Comedy Central series, Jon Benjamin Has A Van. Oh, wait. You didn't know much of anything? Well, good.
Because the series that Benjamin and Leo Allen have co-created -- with Funny or Die, Andrew Steele and Abso Lutely's Dave Kneebone also executive producing -- is the funniest thing I've seen on Comedy Central in years.
It's so funny, in fact, that I'm not sure how it'll play with the network's target demographic of young man-boys aged 18-24. The network does have enough faith and trust in the show that it's launching JBHV tonight after an all-new episode of Tosh.0, with a second episode to air the following evening.
You should place your faith and trust in JBHV, too. Because if you do, you will be duly rewarded for it. Absurdist. Silly. Ridiculous.
It can be high-brow, but also very low-brow -- one real-life bit is called "Ca$h Stall," a parody of Cash Cab that Benjamin tries to pull off in a public men's room. It's also very meta at times (see: "You Can't Shoot Here"). In "Project Poor Farm," there's a long stretch that will test your willingness to buy into a joke that also challenges the very conventions of television. And all the while, it's spot-on funny. I just hope the audience is smart enough to get it and hang on for the ride.
Continue reading "Jon Benjamin Has A Van: So funny, it may be too funny for Comedy Central?" »
September 19, 2010
January 22, 2010
May 08, 2009
Live from Wainy Days Live at 92YTribeca
When you throw a party for a TV show, much less a Web series, you're never quite sure how it will translate as a live experience for audiences to sit and enjoy. No such worries last night at the 92YTribeca, which hosted "Wainy Days Live," a party that not only marked the start of the fourth season for David Wain's amusing ode to seeking love and finding plenty of sex jokes along the way, but also the relaunch of a newly designed My Damn Channel, which made Wainy Days possible.
Rob Barnett, head of the small, plucky crew at My Damn Channel, told the audience at the start: "My Damn Channel is a brand-new thing today." The redesigned site features a larger player and a cleaner design. Barnett told me that his strategy all along has been to focus on a small group of talented performers and give them free reign to do what they do. That's how My Damn Channel can stand out from the many other players in Web comedy. He told me that Sam Seder's "Pilot Season" had gotten two million views in its first two weeks as a reborn Web series. So far, so good.
David Wain kept the live show moving at a nice pace last night. In between video clips of this week's latest episode (Amanda Peet has a curious fetish in #27, "Jill") and a snippet from #28 that features Lake Bell -- Wain warned before screening it, "If it shows up on YouTube, I will kill you!" -- he treated the crowd to several musical performances from Wainy Days (Wain has skills both on the drums and piano), readings and an anti-chat.
Leo Allen and Callie Thorne re-enacted their performances from Episode #4: Cyrano d'Bluetooth, with Joe Lo Truglio playing Wain's part. Live, the pacing was a bit slower and the reactions a bit more animated. But still quite amusing and over-the-top NSFW. Amy Miles sang selections from an upcoming "two-part epic rock opera" that may not be epic, but certainly provided reason enough to bring Paul Rudd onstage. The crowd also got a sort-of Stella reunion when Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter arrived to perform a sketch the Michaels claim Comedy Central does not want them to produce for their upcoming series, Michael and Michael Have Issues. Though for the life of me, I could not see what could be so wrong about having "extra farts" with dinner. "Can you believe it? They don't want us to do that one," Ian Black said. "But we're going to tell them that the f---ers at 92YTribeca f---ing loved it!" Wain got most of the actors from Wainy Days, plus Thorne and Rudd, to stage a reading of what Wain claimed was his first draft of the series, written when he was 12 (but most likely last week). Let's just say that even as a middle-schooler, he was preoccupied with sex. Best offensively funny line: "That's cool. What's the point of Roe v. Wade if we're not going to use it?" The "Stella" trio also got the audience to indulge them in their own spin on Mad-Libs. And he topped off the evening with an anti-chat segment with Rudd (sample topics: How much fun must it be on a Judd Apatow set? And the cast of Friends really are friends!).
Videos after the jump:
Continue reading "Live from Wainy Days Live at 92YTribeca" »
March 31, 2009
The Birthday Roast of Pete Holmes
When I heard that Pete Holmes wanted to celebrate his 30th birthday by having his friends and fellow stand-up comedians roast him, my first thought was that he had lost his mind. And then I attended the roast last night at the UCB, and was quickly reminded that this is a rare opportunity for comedians to unleash not only their mocking jabs at one another, but also some heartfelt tender moments. But you didn't click here looking for heartfelt or tender, did you? As Holmes himself said during the show: "I want it to be meaner!"
Leo Allen, the regular host of Monday night's Whiplash, served as the roastmaster (pictured here by Mindy Tucker) -- and despite allegedly forgetting that the roast was happening, managed to find several zingers up his sleeves. The dais was a regular who's who of New York City's current crop of up-and-coming comedians, with John Mulaney, Anthony Jeselnik and Kumail Nanjiani represented. Also on board: TJ Miller, who flew in for the event, Jared Logan, David Angelo, Nate Fernald, Seth Herzog, a tardy Julian McCullough and Holmes' girlfriend, Jamie Lee. Here are a few of the many zingers I managed to jot down for posterity:
I wondered how many of the audience members knew what they were in for (there were a dozen or two other comics scattered in the seats, too), and I knew it'd be something when one young woman, when asked by Allen if she knew who Holmes was, shouted: "Security in the basement!" Yeah, that's a Greg Johnson bit. ROASTED!
February 04, 2009
December 12, 2008
September 26, 2008
Why you need a little Whiplash
The UCB Theatre in New York City has a tradition of offering great stand-up comedy showcases for free late-night Mondays. For a while, Aziz Ansari hosted the showcase under the name Crash Test. Then Ansari got all Human Giant, and the showcases took a break. Leo Allen has taken over hosting duties in the 11 p.m. Monday timeslot, now known as Whiplash. This week, audiences got treated to Allen, Sean Patton, Eugene Mirman, Janeane Garofalo, John Mulaney and Hannibal Buress. For free! (Well, there is the "Bucket of Truth" to accept your comedy donations afterward, but still...) So imagine my surprise this week to see the house only half full?! You're missing out, people!
Janeane Garofalo, pictured here resting her bad back. "Mama's got a bum stem!" she told the crowd. Photo by Mindy Tucker. More photos at With Reservation.
September 16, 2008
July 31, 2008
June 18, 2008
June 16, 2008
May 04, 2008
Inside The Wizard's Lounge
If you're reading this, it's a Sunday morning, and probably not the time you're thinking about seeing a comedy show. Unless you have kids. And then you may want to hear about a limited-time production called The Wizard's Lounge, which offers performances today and next Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at the UCB Theatre in New York.
Billed as "part PeeWee's Playhouse and part Harry Potter," the hourlong show built for small children is the work of comedians/animators Matt Hall and Patrick Borelli, with wizards, knights, odd guests, riddles, magic orbs and more. They're helped by a cast of comedians that you'd normally see producing comedy for adults and adults who feel more like kids on Saturday night instead of Sunday morning, including Brett Gelman, Jenny Slate, Jon Benjamin, Jon Glaser, Larry Murphy and Leo Allen. But there they were last Sunday, performing for an audience at the UCB that consisted almost entirely of small children (ages ranged from toddlers to around 8) and their parents. Last week, Gelman helped open the show and warm up the kids as Samuel Squire. Hall hosted as Dr. Carl Manteesean, Wizard's Order 3rd Class. His sidekicks included Prince Mando, who, turned into a raven, was played by the voice of Glaser, and Wrangleswift the Sleepy Knight, played by Borelli. The knight is on hand to protect the show from getting taken over by the bad, evil wizard (played last week by Allen), except his sleeping fits meant he'd need the kids to wake him up early and often. Over the course of the show, Hall used animated displays to lead the children through a series of riddles and games that alternated between silly and slightly educational. The show also would see several drop-in guests, including Lady Flufferton (Slate) to play a version of the memory game, and the Rollin' Yogi (Benjamin) to display his "magic" talents of perception.
With kids in the audience, you always/never know quite what to expect (and I know this all too well from a year I spent working as a professional clown at birthday parties and company picnics in Seattle back in 1997). Last week, the performers realized they had to watch their language even more than simply avoiding profanity when one of the children in the audience blurted out in reply: "Stupid is a bad word!" There were giggles all around. Also the kids really latched onto Glaser's raven and his sales pitch for his potential nightclub, "The Bird's Nest," and somehow picked up on it themselves as a natural callback throughout last week's show. The kids loved Buzz the bee's song last week, yet hated it the week before. And the kids did manage to hold off throwing their magic orbs until properly cued, at which point Allen's evil wizard hat made for a surprisingly easy target. All in all, the show did offer laughs for both children and adults alike. It still felt like a work in progress, though, as I mentioned earlier, most of these performers are probably more used to dealing with subversive college-age crowds than innocent and attention-starved children. They told me afterward that if all goes well this week and next, they may decide to mount the show again later this year. It'll be interesting to see how it develops as both the performers and the audience get more and more accustomed to the framework of the show.
March 21, 2008
Bishop and Douch, live and unrehearsed?
When I met the UK duo Bishop and Douch (rhymes with couch, not the other word) in New York City on Wednesday night, they seemed pleasant enough, but told me they couldn't quite explain what they had planned for their UCB show the following night. They weren't joking.
Their sketch show was all over the place, with segues happening onstage, and comedians Dave Hill and Leo Allen and musician Andrew Thompson participating in the sketches in addition to providing stand-up buffers. In one scene, Bishop played Jesus Christ as a hapless stand-up who shared a flat with King Herod, which culminated in a musical number, which then had Bishop disrobing to become a guy complaining to Douch and his friend about problems at Disneyland, or something to that effect, with Allen dressed up as a princess and the self-knowing repetition of the line that this scene was "perhaps a little too ridiculous!" Also ridiculous, the next sketch in which Bishop and Douche try to steal candy, with Hill as an overly aggressive security officer, superheroes and theme songs. It was all so bizzare that afterward, they had Hill and Allen question the entire show onstage. Maybe a Beatles song or the Benny Hill theme would've helped ease the audience into this, Allen suggested. Another sketch had Bishop and Douche looking for their replacements and getting upended in the process.
Twas all quite whimsical. Reminded me very much of the Monty Python phrase: "And now for something completely different!"
In fact, that's what Bishop and Douch said they were going for, with Douch telling me later last night: "Every show is different." Bishop said they wrote these sketches specifically for New York City, and that when they watch the video back, they'll be surprised to see what they came up with themselves. They'll also perform Sunday at Pianos before heading back to the U.K. on Monday. And expect to see them in Edinburgh this summer.
And in fact, they didn't even rehearse any of it properly beforehand. So Leo Allen and Dave Hill walked into last night's show pretty blind (they did great, considering). "A sketch show with no rehearsal -- I haven't done that in a while!" Allen told me. Hill, I thought, had it even tougher, considering he was hosting his own talk show at the UCB immediately afterward.
February 25, 2008
January 25, 2008
January 19, 2008
Emo Philips: Comedy Genius
In my 36 years on the planet Earth, not to mention my many years inhabiting other celestial bodies and spirits, I've seen plenty of great comedy shows, hundreds more live comedy shows that provided more than a few laughs, and some clunkers. Never have I laughed so hard, so often, and wanted to see a performer again, then I have last night watching and listening to Emo Philips at Comix in New York City.
Of course, Emo and I go way back (not that he knew this) more than two decades, to the moment when a cassette tape of "E=MO2" fell into my possession. I don't know when it happened. The cassette's liner notes say that he recorded that set live at Carolines in NYC and released it to the world at large in 1985. At some point, in a series of coincidences and events reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings, this one comedy cassette to rule them all arrived in my hands, and then when I acquired a driver's license and a car in 1987, into my car's cassette deck with auto-reverse, wherein it made me laugh on a continuous basis for the better part of a year. One of those formative teenage experience deals that finds a spot in your long-term memory banks, so 20 years later, when your life path finally crosses Emo's, you say there is nowhere else you're going to be on Friday night at 10:45 p.m. but sitting inside Comix, barely paying attention to the two opening acts of stand-up because the expectation is building up inside you, much as it did in October 2004 when you saw the Boston Red Sox do something your grandfather and father had never seen them do and you're thinking, is this really possible? It is. It was.
And yet. Emo Philips, older, grayer, wiser, did not disappoint in the slightest. The same lilting voice, the same bouncy mannerisms, and strikingly, it all seemed to become more magical on this aged Emo. It just fit. With Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones, you're amazed at how they maintain the same energy and precision after all these years, but at the same time, when they play a new song, you're like, eh, that's nice and all but bring us another nostalgic hit, Mick and Keith. With Emo, it's all new. Sure, he says, "you guys are really cheering me up" (which when I used to perform stand-up, I'd find myself saying at some point in my set as my own Emo tribute) and closed his hourlong set with a request, but he has jokes about the 2008 presidential candidates, about everything, really. It's not just his precision as a writer of jokes, but also his mastery of timing and delivery that has you howling in approval.
I tried in vain to write down some of them for you, but often found my pen hand so jittery from the rest of my body laughing to get it down right. Here are but a few I managed to scribble...please keep in mind, that reading them doesn't do them the same justice as hearing and seeing Emo deliver them...
A conversation with a Mormon friend about drinking coffee. Emo: "Drinking a cup of coffee a day gives you many benefits. He said, 'Name one, mwuah mwuah mwuah.' Well, for one thing, it keeps you from being Mormon."
On coming back to NYC, where he once lived: "I miss New York so much sometimes I fill my humidifier with urine."
On President Bush: "He outlawed human cloning. Now we'll never find out how many of him it takes to screw in a light bulb."
On living in Los Angeles: "We have a lot more homeless people there, because the weather doesn't kill them off."
On his aging: "I feel sorry, because I let my hair go gray...for a movie...I wanted to get into cheaper."
On alcoholics drinking nonalcoholic beer: "I don't get it. If you're a pedophile, they don't give you a midget in a Cub Scout's uniform."
And this one: "Cell phones are like a dog's genitals. You don't have to shout into them."
In a word: Riveting! You must see Emo Philips perform live. He's at Comix again tonight, the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif., on Feb. 2, the Punchline in San Francisco from Feb. 6-9. More tour dates located on Emo's site.
Eugene Mirman and Leo Allen went to Emo's early show last night and got to hang with him backstage for a while between shows. Jealous! I spotted comedian Shane Webb in the audience at the late show. The Onion's Marianne Ways had seen the first show and was glowing even more when I offered her my extra ticket, and still glowing after a repeat viewing. I stood awestruck with a face in a permasmile, like a 4-year-old who just saw Santa for the first time. Ventriloquist Carla Rhodes said she had a huge crush on Emo. I shot a video of Marianne and Carla meeting and posing with Emo, which is funny just because. Waiting my turn, I still found myself awestruck. Direct evidence: Holding that E=MO2 cassette in my left hand, I never managed to utter the appropriate words before Emo offered, "Do you want me to sign that for you?" My only reply: "Uh huh." It was like the scene in A Christmas Story when Ralphie finally gets his chance at Santa to ask for the Red Ryder BB Gun, only to freeze when the moment arrived. Emo and I sat down and I mumbled something about how I used to perform stand-up and now write about it as a journalist and something something how it's all because of this cassette making me laugh so hard 20 years ago, and Emo was so nice and sincere. Even if he declined Carla's offer to come out with his for banana cream pie (and I think she actually meant pie, not a euphemism) because he was losing his voice. He didn't need worry keeping up the Emo voice. About an hour later, I realized I got his autograph but not an actual photo of me with him. Ack. Next time. Next time.
A short video. "We're going to make an Emo sandwich." "OK, snap it!"
July 30, 2007
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