the comic's comic: Super Deluxe

This year, to entice the industry who no longer can hobnob on the ski slopes of Aspen each February, the folks at Montreal's Just For Laughs created a spinoff two-day confab called Just Comedy, which formally kicked off this morning with a keynote address from Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks/TBS. The schedule billed it as a chance for Koonin to talk about the state of comedy and reaching the youth market. What it really turned out to be was a chance for Koonin to trumpet the rebranding of TBS from Ted Turner's UHF "SuperStation" into the "Very Funny" channel and take a few shots across the bow of Comedy Central.

And don't forget a stereotypical laugher. Koonin opened his address by talking about the health benefits of laughter, including stress reduction. "Obviously, those doctors never a met a Jew," Koonin said. HEY-O! Koonin also publicly called out the Variety reporter in the room to beg her not to write about something painfully silly he said about the fact that TBS bought the 1-800 VERY FUNNY number from a porn company (that's not the silly part from his story) and someone being uptight or something, yawn yawn yawn.

We learned, too, all about TBS, and how just as Turner did in ye olden times, Koonin's channel is rebuilding itself upon the backs of successful syndicated programs, using Family Guy, The Office, Seinfeld and Friends to launch new original comedies such as The Bill Engvall Show, My Boys, Frank TV and 10 Items or Less. "We're not edgy, we're not snarky," Koonin said, but the network is family-friendly and with broad strokes, getting 75 percent more viewers than Comedy Central in primetime. Note to selves: Comedy Central's "primetime" consists of reruns until 10 p.m. Koonin also gave a compliment (?) to Comedy Central earlier in his address by saying that network does very well in speaking to "young men." Whereas at TBS, he said, "we in cable look for underserved audiences," and pointed to Engvall for family-friendly sitcoms and Tyler Perry and his House of Payne for black audiences. TBS also has lowered its average-aged viewer from 40 to 33. And don't you worry, advertisers, because TBS is helping you escape the threat from DVRs and TiVos by introducing "bitcoms" in which comedians deliver 30-second routines based on actual commercial products, "microseries" of two minutes that feature advertisers, and even creating a series such as 10 Items, which, since it's based in a supermarket, can use food and household products at will in any plotline. We got to see one example of this. If I name the product in the example, do I get paid, too? Oh, and Koonin closed by talking about how TBS has gotten into the comedy festival business, both in Las Vegas but more importantly working with Just For Laughs to introduce a new fest in Chicago in summer 2009.

Hope you all took good notes and now know the present and future state of comedy.

My favorite part was when he talked about Super Deluxe.*

Continue reading "Montreal 2008: Just Comedy's opening keynote" »

Crackle arrived on the scene during the great online comedy video gold rush of 2007 in which many sites appeared but few managed to grab permanent hold on our collective consciousness. Remember This Just In (HBO/AOL) and Dot Comedy (NBC)? Of course you don't, unless you worked for those sites or knew someone who did. Not your fault. A flood of online comedy videos have arrived, all vying for your short attention spans. When you're looking for a funny video, or merely a distraction from work or study, where do you go? And if you're hoping to attract those viewers, how do you go about it and whom do you have on your team to represent you? The calculated and sometimes mad dash to scoop up talent was on. (CollegeHumor and The Onion already had built-in readerships they could turn into viewerships.)

The new sites that remain all rely on the comedic weight of their talent rosters.

My Damn Channel found crossover success in Harry Shearer's Found Objects series that shows how big shots can seem rather small when the cameras continue to roll, and carved out a niche with series from David Wain and A.D. Miles. Wainy Days is up for a Webby Award, too.

Funny or Die went the celebrity route and made a big splash with Will Ferrell. Their continued use of celebrities keeps it in daily contention.

Super Deluxe (TBS) hoped that dedicating money and long-term series commitments to up-and-coming comedians would pay off. That big score hasn't quite happened yet, though you can find many performers on the site who certainly deserve the exposure.

What was supposed to make Crackle stand out amid the competition was the backing of Sony Pictures Entertainment, as well as "the hottest emerging talent on the web and beyond" (Where is this beyond? Is it the near the bed and the bath? Oh nose.) Except Crackle didn't quite, well, pop. Snap? The Minisode Network did and does have its merits. Anyhow. Crackle went back to the online drawing board and returned in the past month with a slate of new series and a new channel to showcase them: CSpot. Mondays see Hot Hot Los Angeles (a Southern Californian soap spoof); Tuesdays, The Writers Room (featuring actual TV writers and a weekly conference call from Kevin Pollak discussing his not-so-actual show); Wednesdays, Gaytown (Owen Benjamin's travails in a town ruled by gay people); Thursdays, the animated Roadents; Fridays, Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show (spoofing Asian stereotypes). The Los Angeles Times liked what it saw, and reports that the series get to work with a $10,000 budget per episode. The series all have small viewerships so far, though they're finding more success over on YouTube. There's also channels for Penn Jillette and The Purple Onion. I'm not sure the CSpot is quite as unique as the LAT reporter found it to be, but there are jewels to be found in this rough.