the comic's comic

Artie Lange tells TMZ about possible full-time return to radio, with or without Howard Stern

Looks like the one-night pairing of Nick DiPaolo and Artie Lange on FOX Sports Radio was enough of a success that the duo is looking to make it a full-time deal.

TMZ.com caught up with Lange and DiPaolo yesterday and asked what's up. TMZ says the duo is in talks with FOX Sports Radio and DirecTV for their own show.

Lange's reply: "We're definitely going to be having some chicken parmesan in 10 minutes, but we don't know about the air yet."

Asked what Howard Stern would make of this, Lange added: "Howard's the greatest guy in the world. He's been supportive of everything that's happened and he's been a good man to me, so hopefully he'll be supportive of this, but you never know."

Artie Lange back on the radio? One night only, with guest co-host Nick DiPaolo? Hear how. Hear now!

Artie Lange fans will be heartened to know that Lange will talk on the radio tonight live, but it's not on Stern. Nope. Lange and fellow comedian Nick DiPaolo will be filling in for Tony Bruno on the 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. shift (times Eastern) on Fox Sports Radio.

Let's hope that this is as an encouraging turn of events as it seems.

Related: Listen to FOX Sports Radio online.

(Via The Laugh Button)

UPDATED: With a photo from inside the FOX Sports Radio studios of Lange and DiPaolo together, quotes, and audio in case you missed it live tonight!

Nick DiPaolo talks about hitting the "Raw Nerve" with audiences for his new CD and Showtime special

After 23 years in stand-up comedy, Nick DiPaolo only just now has put out his first hourlong special, "Raw Nerve," which premiered last weekend on Showtime and is available now on CD.

I talked to DiPaolo after it aired. But first, let's take a look at the special. Here's a timely clip about DiPaolo's take on the Obama Administration and torture. Timely, right? Roll it.

 

Big weekend, eh? Your special is on Showtime, sandwiched in between President Barack Obama's White House dinner hijinx and killing Osama bin Laden. "Obama's a real cowboy, huh? I think it's way overdo, don't you? It didn't take me that long to find my wife's g-spot. Enjoy that virgin pussy, fucker."

Did you also catch the White House Correspondents Dinner video? "I caught clips here and there on the news. Some of it was really funny. Obama's got a great delivery. He's a great speaker. He does it real smooth, so he sticks the knife in real smooth. It was funny when he was zinging Trump. I thought Seth Meyers did a great job zinging Trump, too. I thought it was a cardboard cutout. (Trump) didn't move. He wasn't blinking. He was just staring. That's pretty ballsy, isn't it? To question the whole president birther thing and then show up? I think that's all good. And Seth Meyers is good, too. I like him. It must be hard sitting in a room like that. But I'm sure the president got the best jokes -- Daily Show, or whomever, sent him the best stuff. But you know he's going to deliver them beautifully."

Let's get to you, though. In your new special, which is also available as a CD, you talk about the differences between doing stand-up at age 25 vs. now at 48.

"This is what I do. I still like it. I still enjoy comedy. I liked it better when I first got into it, when I was 25 years old. I was single. It was about getting laid after the show. You know? I'd go on the road, check into the hotel, run to the nearest drug store, buy candles, condoms, bottle of wine, maybe a box of hot pockets, in case I picked up a fat one. Now I'm married, I go on the road, check into the hotel, I run to the nearest drug store, it's not about getting laid, I buy like hair coloring, baby wipes, jigsaw puzzles. It's 4 in the morning, I'm laying in the hotel bed by myself with pitch-black hair, sparkling clean asshole, trying to find the corner piece to a covered bridge. What's sadder than a comedian sitting in a hot tub at a four-star hotel at 3 in the morning by himself cutting fart bubbles and giggling, you know? I remember when those were pussy farts. I gotta get back on TV!"

How much of that rings too close to home for you? "It's all close to home. It's supposed to be. It's all true. Just what the bit says. When you're young, after the show it's about getting laid, you're single. That's all true. When you should go back to the room and work on a script like Adam Sandler did. That's so disciplined. Although this weekend was great. One show in Minneapolis, get in and get out. Make a month's money in a single night. That all comes with exposure. And this Showtime thing will help."

You've never been concerned about being politically correct. How do you feel about the difference between going for the laugh versus getting applause for your material? "You don't have control over how they respond to it. That comes down to where you are politically. Look, the last 30, 40 years people have been conditioned to laugh at liberal stuff. Because that's who writes the jokes. Saturday Night Live. Making fun of old people, that's safe. But when you're on the other side like me and making fun of Obama or the First Lady, people are taught not to laugh. And I'm not even a political comic. People call it political correctness. I call it TV correctness because they get their material all sanitized and clean. But my audiences get what I do and come out to see me."

Have you been back on Louie for the second season of Louis CK's FX show?

Louis CK wants you to watch his "Louie" poker scene with Crom, DiPaolo, Norton, Buress, Brill

Louis CK created, wrote, directed and edited most of his new TV comedy on FX, Louie, but he has fought with YouTube and FOX this weekend over sharing his content with the masses. After a couple of attempts, he says this comedian poker roundtable scene -- which if you didn't catch it last week, aired in a cold open for the second episode -- is available for your viewing pleasure.

In it, comedian Rick Crom has to defend his homosexuality after several barbed comments from Nick DiPaolo and jokes from others at the table: Jim Norton, Hannibal Buress, Eddie Brill and Louis CK. Crom also answers CK's question about the use of the word "faggot" onstage with a history lesson. Needless to say, language therein is Not Safe For Work. Roll it. Fun fact: In real life, Brill has been hosting the long-running weekly comedian poker game for 17 years now; William Stephenson (not pictured here, but pictured in the Louie premiere) acts as the banker and writes the weekly newsletter "The Hammadown!".   

Louis CK talks about making the most original and honest comedy on TV with FX's "Louie"

When FX and Louis CK announced that they'd be collaborating on a sitcom that consisted of stand-up routines followed by vignettes based on his stand-up routines, it'd be fair of you to think that Louis CK was doing his version of Seinfeld. But this is not a show about nothing. This is a show about something. Actually, Louie, which debuts June 29, is more than something. Louie is the most original, honest comedy on TV in a generation. Think of everything you've liked about All in the Family and Curb Your Enthusiasm, then remove the live studio audience and the cringe factor, and then you're prepared to have your thoughts provoked.

After debuting the first two episodes at a red-carpet premiere at Carolines on Monday night, Louis CK talked to me about the series Tuesday on his way to the airport to California for his Leno and Lopez appearances.

But first, here's a short scene from the pilot, in which Louis CK jokes about volunteering for his daughters at their NYC public school, followed by comedian William Stephenson as an aloof bus driver hired to take the field trip to the Bronx Botanical Gardens:

In the third episode, we see Louis CK get into a fight with Nick DiPaolo at the Comedy Cellar after both had performed downstairs -- a fake fight that some people were duped into thinking was real.

"I was really pleased with the reaction. I wanted it to feel like a real fight. It's filmed like a real scene. The camera pushes in and then when we start, the camera has to look up to find us...I didn't want to fool people...but that's what i wanted it to be...and then when this guy put it on YouTube and Howard Stern talked about it. Nick is really that good of an actor. Nick is a fucking good actor. I was fucking pissed that this extra put this clip up on YouTube. It's one thing if a fan walking by...that's obnoxious, but it's a fan, it's hard for you to stop...but an extra, a professional actor who works for you, that's absurd. We had to get a lawyer."

Louis CK also gets naked in two of the first three episodes, showing his ass. Is that symbolic of the naked honesty you were aiming for in the series? Or do you just like getting naked on camera? "That was necessary for a proper level of humiliation. I don't do it for nothing. I do think that nudity should have a reason story-wise. I remember when I was on Lucky Louie and I was naked once, and so was Rick Shapiro. I was on a radio show in Cleveland. It was one of my worst experiences ever...One of them goes, 'Why are you naked on your show? I don't want to see that! Why isn't the chick naked? Why can't I see her titties?'...The premium people put on that shit..."

The tone of Louie -- short films done without an audience, as opposed to a multi-camera sitcom filmed in front of a live studio audience -- is the polar opposite of Lucky Louie. Was that intentional? "It wasn't a reaction at all in any way to Lucky Louie. This was its own idea. I've been making short films for years. Features. I love directing. And shooting on location in New York. I've kind of been able to do everything I want with this show."

For fans who have seen your earlier shorts, is that the same helicopter in the pilot that you used for your short stealing the ice cream from the kid? "It sure is. It's the same guy. We have this friend who has this cheap helicopter. He's been really good to us. I don't want to say his name because he's been so good to us....When we shot this HBO stuff a couple of years ago, when I did that helicopter thing, we did other helicopter shots..He said, 'I can't go anywhere near a building or a bridge.' I said OK, we'll get a long lens. And then he was hovering two feet above me. It was so good. I was very proud of Chelsea (Peretti), she got in there and he took off. She was fine with it."

At the premiere, FX's John Landgraf said: "When you say original programming, and you attribute it to Louis, you get really original programming." How important was it to you to do something completely original? I know some people early on wanted to compare Louie to Seinfeld.

Can Louis CK film a scene with Nick DiPaolo for his FX sitcom without a paid extra ruining it, please?

Why did some people run to YouTube and Howard Stern to claim that comedians Louis CK and Nick DiPaolo had gotten into a fight last night at The Comedy Cellar? Beats me! Louis CK had said he was filming scenes for his upcoming FX sitcom yesterday, telling anyone who wanted to know this on Twitter. And DiPaolo, who appeared on CK's HBO show Lucky Louie, also has a role in his FX version, called Louie. So why, oh why, was there all this fuss (and many people coming to my site looking for info about this so-called fight)???

It's because people are idiots, jerks and sometimes both. Louis CK himself felt he had to weigh in on the message board for the "relevant" thread on A Special Thing, letting everyone know that someone who was a paid extra at the filming decided to record part of the dialogue between him and DiPaolo, manipulate it via audio and video, then circulate it via YouTube, and then it got picked up by Stern on the radio this morning. Seriously? Seriously.

As Louis CK said:

"Anyway, I'm happy that we played the scene real enough for folks to believe it, but it's a drag to have this contamination of the project. Everything in the show should be unexpected and certainly this was supposed to be."

Are you happy now? 

They saw the Larry the Cable Guy Roast so that you could live

Comedy Central's Roast of Larry the Cable Guy taped its raucous proceedings last night in the greater Los Angeles area, and through the power of the Internets, we already know the best parts. Thanks go to The Laugh Track, the Tweets of @dougbenson, and CCInsider's Matt Tobey for providing us with their picks of the best zingers and photos from inside the taping. Does this mean we don't have to tune in on March 15. Or does this tease you enough to set your DVRs and TiVos already? That's up to you, isn't it?

Video previews already up from Lisa Lampanelli, Greg Giraldo, and (big gulp) Maureen McCormick!

Montreal rolls out initial fest schedule; final auditions for New Faces this weekend

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.

Club shows, which often get grouped into themes, include The Nasty Show with hosts Nick DiPaolo and Patrice Oneal; The Ethnic Heroes of Comedy hosted by Frank Spadone with Steve Byrne, Gabriel Iglesias, Maz Jobrani and others; AMP'd, the Music Comedy Show with host Craig Robinson; Laugh-rodisiacs, the Relationship Show hosted by Greg Behrendt; the midnight Alternative Comedy Show hosted once again by Andy Kindler; the Best of the Uptown Comics which in Canadian means "urban" which means "black," hosted by Bruce Bruce with JB Smoove, Craig Robinson 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.

Artie Lange to reveal all? Watch/listen to Nick DiPaolo tonight to find out

What in the world has happened to Artie Lange? He recently quit his job as Howard Stern's sidekick, only to reappear Monday after the show's weeklong vacation. Lots of drama. Maybe tonight, some answers. Lange appears as a special guest on Nick DiPaolo's BlogTV talk show, broadcasting live from DiPaolo's house starting at 9 p.m. tonight. So if you want to know what's going on, tune in tonight to find out!

Review: Gerry Red Wilson benefit

If the lineup for the 7th annual Gerry Red Wilson Foundation comedy benefit didn't warn me, then the crowd waiting outside Town Hall on March 5 should have...as much as the comedians onstage wanted to celebrate and honor their late friend, the audience in the seats wanted jokes about sex and hating their girlfriends/wives.

Host Greg Fitzsimmons, who serves on the foundation board and noted onstage that both his wife and his son have contracted meningitis since Wilson died, had to face the rowdy crowd first. When he said he'd moved to Los Angeles, the crowd booed. "Great. Fine. Boo a city," Fitzsimmons replied. "I hate living there, too. You don't have to tell me." He then surveyed the crowd and found more than a few Opie and Anthony fans, and even more Howard Stern fans. "Why can't they get the (Sirius-XM) merger done?" he wondered. Having surveyed them thusly, Fitzsimmons went straight into dick jokes and stripper jokes and porn jokes. He did get a strong adlib riff out about the spotlight guy's gaffe after a joke about how nobody's having sex with Asian men.

Pete Correale saw the afterwork party crowd and addressed them immediately with bits about drinking and partying, then veered into material about being married and having single friends. He ended his 16-minute set with airplane jokes.

Jim Norton didn't care what the audience wanted. He spent the bulk of his 16 minutes on the 2008 presidential campaign, with thoughts on Hillary Clinton ("She's not a good enough actress to hide what a fraud she is"), Barack Obama, John Edwards, John McCain ("Do you really trust a Vietnam vet with the button?") and Rudy Giuliani. Norton also weighed in on the San Francisco tiger attack from Christmas. These choice bits had immediate repercussions for Nick DiPaolo, who had to follow Norton and still wanted to make his set political. DiPaolo has recently started an online talk radio show, but he managed to remain bitter enough onstage to unleash some questionable bits on race, homosexuality and women. And in case you're wondering, he's also nostalgic for drunk driving and cocaine.

Which proved enough of a transition for Artie Lange. "Do I look tired?" Lange asked. "This is one of those cocaine nights." Lange really needs to get it together. Sure, his fans might be appeased by seeing this mess play out on the radio and onstage, but Lange has to regain some focus on making himself better, not just comedy-wise but also health-wise. He joked about his gambling habits and winning big on the Giants, saying he should've bet that he'd live longer than Heath Ledger. Then he segued into old and beyond hack material on Brokeback Mountain. At least he apologized for it. "Yep. That's the most updated bit I have. I had to use Heath Ledger to get there," he said. Dozens of people stood up and walked out once Lange finished, not to protest him, but because Lange was the only reason they'd come to this show.

Dave Attell, up next, tried to get their attention with: "Who leaves a benefit early? A c*nt, that's who!" Attell tried tackling the tiger attack but the crowd had already heard that from Norton. But Attell turned it around with some choice one-liners and a strong bit about presidential candidates withdrawing early "for the good of the party."

That left it to Louis CK to bring the show home. After an opening line about masturbation, he had the audience in his hands for the next half-hour, with several of the honestly raw hits you'll see in his next "Chewed Up" special.

Fitzsimmons returned with a cardboard checking representing a $50,000 donation to the Meningitis Foundation of America, and said they should have another $20,000 to donate in the coming week. If you'd like to make a donation or learn more:
GRWF
17 Battery Place, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10004
212-480-1319
http://www.grwf.org

Nick DiPaolo takes his blogtalk daily

As my readers have pointed out, Nick DiPaolo has gone online daily with his new talk-radio effort, and this morning he went on Opie & Anthony to spread the word. Most days he's been on at 2 p.m., but today it appears he'll go on around 6 p.m. You can press this button to access his show and archived broadcasts.

Nick DiPaolo on BlogTalkRadio

Nick DiPaolo went on the Opie & Anthony show this morning to promote his new Internet talk show on BlogTalkRadio. I caught the last 10 minutes or so. An interesting return to the airwaves for DiPaolo, who had a so-called "terrestrial" radio program based in NYC on 92.3 FM in those early post-Stern, Free FM, pre-K-Rock days when David Lee Roth held court in the mornings. Anyhow. Tangent over. DiPaolo loves to talk about politics and the issues of the day, and in this new format, he takes calls and also talks back to the Internet chatters on his site.

Don't know if he plans a regular weekday schedule or not.

At the end of this afternoon's show, which you can listen to in the archives (and also on iTunes), he did announce he'll be back on the air for at 2 p.m. Tuesday and again at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Pre-sale ticket offer today!

Starting this afternoon, you can get your hands on tickets before anyone else for the Gerry Red Wilson Comedy Benefit show, to be held March 5 at Town Hall in NYC with performances by Dave Attell, Louis CK, Pete Correale, Nick DiPaolo, Greg Fitzsimmons, Artie Lange, Kevin Meaney and Jim Norton. That's a heckuva lineup.

Tickets for the general public go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday. But you can get them now via The Comic's Comic's Comic's Comic's (wait, that's too many comic's) promotional Ticketmaster offer. Click here!

This was Gerry Red Wilson. A member of the New York Friars Club, Wilson died Nov. 22, 1998 at the age of 37 from spinal meningitis.

An aspiring TV and stand-up career cut far too short. A native New Yorker, Wilson graduated from Queens College and began teaching in the city's public schools. On nights and weekends, he pursued a career in comedy. He got his first big TV break with ABC and the 1998 midseason replacement sitcom That's Life, and had a development deal with FOX that he was working on another sitcom for when he contracted the disease that took his life.

Seven comedy benefit shows have been held since then, raising more than $200,000 for organizations such as The Meningitis Association of America. Tickets for the March 5 show run from $44.25-$74.25. Donations also can be made directly to the Gerry Red Wilson Foundation by check.

Time capsule: HBO's 15th Annual Young Comedians

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.

Yeah. Quite a lineup there. I mention it because the special aired over the weekend and shows up on HBO Comedy again tonight, then again on Jan. 24 so you can take a look for yourself.

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."

Artie Lange and friends, at Town Hall

Artie Lange told me just a couple of weeks ago how happy he is doing comedy since he joined the Howard Stern show. I wish I could say the same about attempting to watch him perform in front of a Town Hall crowd full of Stern listeners. Imagine hundreds of hecklers, shouting insults and catchphrases throughout the show. The entire show. Unbearable.

As for Lange, he's not as sharp as I remember him from a few years ago. He's out of shape in more ways than one. Perhaps it's from coming to terms with the Stern factor, knowing that most shows will attract these hecklers and fans who just want to hear him talk about things that have happened on the radio program. But this show wasn't all about Lange. In fact, he came out first and acted as the host of the evening, delivering a half-hour of jokes and inside Stern stuff before bringing out three of his favorite comedians: Joe Matarese, Jim Florentine and Nick DiPaolo. With his 20 minutes, Matarese made a big effort to make himself known and remembered by the Stern crowd. Florentine, who just started dating longtime Stern sidekick Robin Quivers, knew his limitations. "I played a retard on TV. What'd you expect out of me? Did you think I was going to be highbrow?" He walked the entire row in front of me. Lange said DiPaolo is funniest when he's angry, and I'd agree, though I'd add that DiPaolo tends to play to the back of the room. His opener: "Tonight, Town Hall, in front of 1,000 people. Tomorrow, Banana's in Poughkeepsie. F--k this business!" Lange then introduced his "surprise guest," who turned out to be Stern regular Beetlejuice. The little guy tried out a few minutes of material that made no sense at all, in part because you couldn't make out what he was saying other than "Did you see the guy...?"

Louis CK on Lucky Louie, Boston roots

Louis CK had just gotten finished with his controversial appearance on The View when he got on the phone with me to talk about his new HBO show, Lucky Louie.

The View's female panel took him by surprise with their stinging criticism. "All of a sudden, I'm watching life and they're having this f---ing debate over my show," he told me. "I'm about to go out there, and I'm supposed to tell jokes? To have Fonzie and Baba Wawa debate the social merits of my TV show, that's insane! That's great." As for Barbara Walters' accusation that CK's show is racist, he countered, "That's just ignorant. That just means somebody's uncomfortable about it."

CK, the 38-year-old longtime writing partner of Chris Rock, said he'd read most of the critical reviews of his show. "I like reading ones where they're really upset," he said. "A lot of people who write bad reviews, in the description of the show, pay it great service. People magazine -- they ended it with, 'It's like David Mamet doing a parody of Roseanne.' Who wouldn't want to watch that? Thank you! I actually wanted to put that on the poster."

He cares more what viewers think of his show, anyhow. "This show is very honest. It's very raw. All we're really doing is letting this show be a limitless expression of the characters. We're just letting it hang out," he said. That's the only way CK knows how to be. "I've been doing comedy for 22 years, and this is my first shot. This is my first TV show. And there's a reason it's this one and it's on HBO. If people want to see a family where the parents only make great decisions and no one speaks badly in a house that has a kid in it...then stay away."

Nick DiPaolo, off the air

Nick DiPaolo sometimes give off the impression of an anti-comic, or perhaps a rather extreme example of the comic's comic, playing to his fellow comedians more than he does his audience. When I talked to him in June 2006, we began by talking about his online home, which, at the time, needed some updating.

"Trying to use a computer, I feel like I'm 78," he said.

Is it always that way? "Only when I'm on MySpace, trying to meet underage girls! Then I feel like an unemployed electrician from Woburn."

Him and everyone else, right? "Worked for Dane Cook, didn't it?" he joked.

Does he miss being on Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn? You bet. "A lot of people miss it. I get 20 emails a day saying, 'What happened? Why isn't it on the air?' People come up to me, pissed off." So why isn't he still on Comedy Central? "You can only take so much Mind of Mencia, (expletive expletive)." DiPaolo cusses quite a bit, but creatively enough -- as a guy from New York City via Danvers, Mass., might be -- so fill in the blanks with your own expletives. "I still talk to Quinn every night on the phone, bust his balls," he told me. "Me and Quinn auditioned for a job, radio job on 92.3, the station (in New York) that hired David Lee Roth They offered us 10 to 2...for some reason, Quinn didn't want the job. I wanted to murder the (expletive)." But DiPaolo still went on the radio for time to time as a sub, and after our chat, even had a regular hosting gig for a while. "I did a week with Keith Robinson. You remember him. He was the black fella. It was even funnier, I thought, but they couldn't handle the racial material."

DiPaolo made his big move to New York City toward the end of 1989. "I did my first open mic in '87. So I did two years of one-nighters...Frank's Mexican Restaurant in Franklin...These are actual gigs? Dick Doherty's Comedy Vault. He gave me my first paying gig. I did Stitches...Dick came in...it was me, Vinny Favorito, Flynn...in '87, '88, '89, every pub and restaurant in Boston had a comedy night. It's weird. You never forget your roots. That sense of humor, that Boston, that vicious sarcasm. Even now...most people think I'm from New York. In Dublin, Ohio, they don't think any Italians exist outside of New York."

At the time, he had tested for a Comedy Central show that never made the air, but got to co-star on several episodes of HBO's Lucky Louie with Louis CK. "We were roommates," DiPaolo said. "We moved down to New York together. He's an eccentric funny bastard...I remember, the phone would ring and he'd actually write the message on the kitchen window in magic marker." He took credit for massive bruises seen on CK's arms in one episode. "Did you notice the bruises on his arms? That was from me! We filmed these (episodes) out of sequence...every time we walked up, we'd smack each other...every time he wasn't paying attention, I'd run up to him and smack him. While I was watching (that week's episode), I was saying, 'What, does he have AIDS? Why would she sleep with him?' He's got like melanoma!"