Tonight, the PBS Show “America at the Crossroads” will take a look at Muslim performers and stand-up comedy. The focus of the series is the war on terror and the many aspects of American culture that have changed since 9/11, so naturally much of the show will be how these artists have responded to the events.
If you’re familiar at all with the Axis of Evil comedy tour and special, you’ll recognize some of the names and the comedy from this documentary, including Ahmed Ahmed. Here’s a look at Ahmed Ahmed doing something that’s, sadly, fertile ground for Muslims who perform stand-up… checking into the airport.
But there’s a look at other performers in an earlier spot in their careers. Here’s Maysoon Zayid talking particularly about the challenges on the other side of being a Muslim stand-up - those from her own community.
America at the Crossroads look at Muslim comics premieres tonight. It’s on at 10PM in most places, but check your local listings for times.
I put this is the news feed before, but I’m a little disappointed with Nerve’s list of 50 Greatest Commercial Parodies. Nerve’s a sex site, they’re not claiming to be experts on comedy. But still, it’s glaring that nothing from Mr. Show or Tim & Eric didn’t make it on there. Saturday Night Live has done some brilliant commercial parodies, but they don’t own the form as much as the list suggests.
Any future list writers should pick up the first season of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, which just came to DVD last month. Here’s a brilliant ad from their first episode called B’Owl, a Cinco toy. It’s #40 on that list at least.
Bob Odenkirk is a comedy writer I admire not only for his work, but for his unflinching words about his work. It’s in evidence in this recent interview with Bob (with David Cross) on Vanity Fair on their upcoming HBO sitcom David’s Situation. The interviewer brings up The Ben Stiller Show as a show – like Arrested Development or Mr. Show – that was canceled too early by the network. Odenkirk instantly objects, stating:
The Ben Stiller Show was a complete fucking mess. Watch that show. Just watch that show. Please!
and…
It was not a cohesive show. The voice of one scene was completely different from the voice of another.
and…
Look, I think the show was not completely realized, and we were all very young and we didn’t know what the hell we were doing. None of it held together. I mean, c’mon, what was your favorite moment of Ben hanging out with celebrities between scenes? Was that non-stop hilarity for you? People talk about that show like it was comedy genius, but in my opinion it never even came close. It had some high points and sometimes it could be offbeat, but it was mostly a lot of comedy sludge.
And generally you can trust his own self assessments. This weekend I caught part of the Odenkirk directed “Let’s Go to Prison.” I watched the first half hour and was pleasantly surprised how much I was enjoying it. I had remembered Odenkirk admitting some troubles with the film in an AV Club Interview. I had some run and ended up recording the rest on the DVR while I was out. Picking up where I left off, the prison setting started swallowing the humor, black comedy turning into bleak comedy. I had to go find what Odenkirk said in that AV Club interview. Sure enough, he described the film as lacking a target and ending up as “darkness to no end.”
There’s a reason why people think of Odenkirk as a premiere comedy mind. He doesn’t romanticize his own writing. He’s able to be unsparing critical and at the same time incredibly productive. So much of comedy - or any bit of creativity - requires some tunnel vision and denial just to get it done. How Odenkirk can create with such a powerful critic inside is remarkable. (Not that it saved Let’s Go to Prison, but you can be sure that he won’t make the same mistake next time.)
Bonnaroo is coming up June 12 to the 15th with performances by lots of Dead-Frog fave comics including Cross, Galifianakis and Garofalo. But with Fabrcie Fabrice’s doppelganger Nick Kroll not on the bill, who will handle the craft services for all these funny folks?
Here’s a vid from last year’s fest which shows how good Fabrice Fabrice is at getting those soggy vegetable plates to stand-ups.
Aspen and comedy will keep their somewhat surprising association thanks to the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival, which fills in for the recently abandoned U.S. Comedy Arts Festival run by HBO. The new fest takes place at the end of this month on the 30th and 31st.
I’m not sure about keeping up a comedy fest in Aspen, other than the sentimental and promotional reasons. The place is still expensive. But on the plus side, the fest is not being held during ski season which should help. it also kind of ensures that the people coming are there for the talent, not as an excuse for a ski vacation on the company dime.
Stand-up: Kathleen O’Brien, Tim Ball, Reid Faylor and Mary Sasson
Short Film: Icescraper! by Mark Potts, The Breakup by Amos Vernon, Actor Hunters: Ep. 1 Pt. 1 by Matthew Schwartz and Car Phone by Dan Perrault.
Previously, there was the suggestion that the stand-ups would perform in a show at the Wheeler Opera House in a show headlined by David Brenner, but no schedule has yet show up. (The other piece of news at the time - that this might be a cleaner festival that the HBO one - is also not clear as well.)
While all the details aren’t clear yet, the invite I received from Rooftop did make one thing clear. Right after the award ceremony, they listed “Games & Cake.” Yea! and Yum!
The last in Mo Diggs series which gives a broader take on alternative comedy looks at the current comedy movement we most typically associate with the term.
A Scene Is Born: ‘90s–Today
After the comedy bust of the early ‘90s, comedians like David Cross, Andy Kindler and Janeane Garofalo would stop by a room started by performance artist-turned-comedian Beth Lapides. Much as Carlin grew impatient with the unctuous nightclubs like the Copacabana, Lapides was repulsed by the homophobia and racism she found at venues like The Comedy Store and The Improv. Unlike Carlin--or any other American comedian before--Lapides made her own show as an alternative to this style of comedy. Starting in 1993 and continuing for seven years, Lapides would produce Un-Cabaret on Sunday nights at Luna Park.
Un-Cabaret’s brand of alternative comedy was based in storytelling and stream-of-consciousness rants, and added a structural innovation: a second microphone in the back of the room that Lapides used to talk to other performers while they were onstage. This ensured an informal, conversational and spontaneous performance situation in keeping with Un-Cabaret’s insistence that performers never “do their act.” (Wikipedia)
And so the LA alternative comedy scene began. David Cross and Bob Odenkirk would try out Mr. Show sketches before airing them. Patton Oswalt and Dana Gould would talk about comic books. Janeane Garofalo would read from her notebook onstage. Lapides would urge comedians to be unflinchingly honest onstage and to not do their act. TV writers like Larry Charles and Judd Apatow would do Un-Cabaret at night.
Thus, the alternative comedy business model was born: music venues would have non-mainstream comedians who often wrote for TV in the day.
The first television show to reflect the new comedic sensibility was The Ben Stiller Show (Fox, 1992-93), which featured Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller, Bob Odenkirk as actor and writer as well as the writing debut of David Cross.
In downtown New York, comedy flourishes outside of the stand-up club circuit. Theatres that are more known for improv or sketch comedy, like the Upright Citizens’ Brigade Theater (UCB), and The People’s Improv Theater (PIT), as well as cabarets that do not exclusively offer any kind of comedy, like Rififi, have weekly comedy shows.... The comedians at these shows offer character-based humour or surreal humour as opposed to observations of everyday life or more polemical themes. A growing number of comics (Demetri Martin, Slovin and Allen, Andres du Bouchet) do not only tell jokes, opting to play music, give Powerpoint presentations or act out sketches as well. It’s rare to see these performers in a traditional New York comedy club much like it’s rare to see a traditional “club comic” in an underground room. A few alternative comics (David Cross, Todd Barry, Patton Oswalt) have enough crossover appeal to play in more mainstream venues.
Comedy group Stella (Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black and David Wain) and the sketch group Upright Citizens’ Brigade were heavily influential on the current New York alternative comedy scene. Stella—a trio whose absurdist humour has been compared to the Marx Brothers—began doing their shows (in which they would perform along with other comics and sketch groups like Eugene Mirman and the Upright Citizens’ Brigade) at the NY club Fez in 1997. In 1999, the original Upright Citizens’ Brigade Theater opened in Chelsea. Four years later, in 2003, several performers at the UCB spun off their own theatre, and formed the PIT.
(Wikipedia) (Disclosure: I wrote almost all of this text.)
There were also shows like Eating It at the Luna Lounge, where Todd Barry would perform along with East Village stars like Reverend Jen. The now-defunct club Surf Reality would feature Janeane Garofalo, Marc Maron, The Sklar Brothers, Rick and Rob Shapiro and the Upright Citizens Brigade alongside performance-art comedians. (PDF)
“Michael Ian Black once laid down a sheet, put a bunch of belongings down and just sold them one by one. Interesting? Definitely. Funny? Who cares?” - Seth Herzog in The Apiary
In this decade, Eugene Mirman, Human Giant and Jonathan Coulton have all used the web to further their careers and many alternative comedians today use the web the way Hope and Benny used radio to embolden their efforts to forging new comic ground.Eugene Mirman’s surreal, bizarre comedic imagery has proven particularly effective on the nascent indie comedy scene, which has seen an increasing amount of comedians getting signed to indie rock labels and performing at music festivals. Perhaps a new form of comedy will emerge, making stand-up comedians look as obsolete as vaudevillians. More likely, stand-up will adapt through transformation yet again.
I have to second VideoGum. Why aren’t all the good unaired SNL clips online? Particularly after seeing this one, where Shaq protects and cares for (and carries) a picked-upon Will Ferrell.
They probably aren’t all as wonderfully ridiculous as this one. But there must be some more gems they regret we haven’t seen.
Reportedly: SuperDeluxe to be folded into AdultSwim. SuperDeluxe did some brilliant stuff - hopefully some level of web content will continue under the AdultSwim brand.
Comix publicist Kambri Crews foils a scammer posing as stand-up Todd Barry. Con man, as Barry, claimed he needed money to get his car out of the impound lot. Barry does not even own a car.
comedy.com | 
Digg |
del.icio.us |
Stumble It!
, which just came to DVD last month. Here’s a brilliant ad from their first episode called B’Owl, a Cinco toy. It’s #40 on that list at least.
