Sep272005
Filed Under Sketch Comedy
Interesting articles on comedy is this week’s New York magazine. I’ll have many more comments tomorrow, but one quote from Lorne Michaels caught my eye (possibly because it indirectly crucifies my blog, as if the quote top right isn’t enough of a warning that I’m wasting my time). He says:
“I don’t want to get into any theoretical ideas about comedy. Anybody who talks about comedy for more than two minutes is not funny.”
Of course, I remembered the seminal book on SNL, the far too long out of print Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live
, where authors describe Lorne Michaels as:
He analyzed comedy endlessly, theorizing, with an acid head’s attention to the underlying dynamics of it all, about what worked, what didn’t, and why. One of his favorite themes was the expressionistic barrnness of the old Honeymooners set; later he would become an advocate of realism, saying that humor derived from the one off-center element in a setting of absolute normality.”
Guess you weren’t too funny in ‘75 huh, Lorne?
Sep222005
Filed Under Stand-Up Comedy
In an act that’ll send thousands of fledgling comics to the front rows of their favorite stand-up’s shows, last weekend Dave Chappelle tapped a young audience member and stand-up of six months to be his opening act at the Pittsburgh Improv. Clyde Toledano was found by Chappelle while he was conversing with the audience. Toledano asked Chappelle to sign his joke notebook, which brought cheers from the audience to read it. Chappelle didn’t want to embarass Toledano as he had once been, but was inspired to have Toledano open for him right there.
It all sounds too good to be true, as some on aspecialthing have mentioned. But with Toledano’s blog offering copious evidence and online new sources corroborating, it’s pretty obvious that Chappelle’s not only funny, but incredibly nice. Toledano entitled one of his blog entries featuring a photo of him and Chappelle, “ Life Begins To Suck From Here.” With a chance like this, let’s hope not.
Hmm… maybe Chappelle could pick someone to do a third season of his show this way. Aspiring comics, if you want to open for Chappelle, try these dates:
- 9/23 - Davis, CA @ UC Davis
- 9/24 - Fresno, CA @ Save Mart Center
- 9/30 - Ypsilanti, MI @ Eastern Michigan University
- 10/1 - Lexington, KY @ Rupp Arena
- 11/12 - San Antonio, TX @ Municipal Auditorium
- 11/13 - Austin, TX @ Frank Erwin Center
- 11/14-16 - Denver, CO @ Comedy Works
- 11/17 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Jon M Huntsman Center
- 11/18 - Reno, NV @ Silver Legacy Casino
- 11/19 - Las Vegas, NV @ Caesars
- 11/20 - Tucson, AZ @ Anselmo Amphitheater
Sep202005
Filed Under Improv, Live Events
This past Saturday, the People’s Improv Theater and this site held our first Aristocontent, an evening of the filthiest joke told over and over again. Even with the joke told in a variety of differing ways (in song, as political satire and a tagteam telling featuring one player censoring the other), I had to admit I was a little worried people would be sick of it after a while. But the show went for an hour and forty five minutes and I didn’t detect any audience fatigue at all.
Thanks to all the participants: Andres du Bouchet (read his version), Joe Lipari, Shayna Ferm and Katherine Bryant from Fearsome, the sketch group Meat, Bob Powers (whose telling made me a little sick), Nate Kushner and PIT founder’s Ali Farahnakian who naturally segued into his version, casting himself as the agent.
Many thanks especially to Alex Zalben from Elephant Larry (who you should see if you haven’t yet), who came to me with the idea. So much fun. We’re talking about doing another one mid October. Watch this space or the Aristocrats Joke Database for more details.
Sep132005
Filed Under Humor Magazine
Though I’m no longer as rabid about it as I was in the 90s when I first discovered a discarded copy of the print version in my building’s vestibule, I still dread that The Onion will, simply, start to suck. They’ll forget the lessons of Spy and National Lampoon, become tone-death and start picking targets that don’t merit the satire. An unfortunate harbinger of the downfall of both of those previous humor giants was a redesign, usually indicating that the editors and writers are bored or confused, uncertain of what was the magazine’s original appeal.
The Onion’s new redesign avoided that mistake entirely. As documented in “The Funniest Grid You Ever Saw” and “Making New Fake News”, The Onion gets that the closer they simulate the look of a real newspaper, the better the comedy is. I’ve heard some believe the print version is superior simply because it more closely mimics the USA Today-local paper hybrid world each issue creates. Thanks the explosion in online news, after this redesign I don’t think many could argue that the online version is not the definitive way to read the Onion.
I particularly enjoy the right hand column, which has new stuff every weekday… including a fake cover for a typical Sunday insert “The Onion Weekender”, something that’s great for creating more quick jokes stabbing at the pedestrian feel-good content that’s less valuable than the 25¢ coupon for Tide it’s stuffed next to.
I was also pleased to see them drop of the subscription service - as a humor magazine junkie, even I couldn’t see clear to paying online for the content. Good stuff it all was to be sure, but I generally think, like most people, I read the headlines alone and then if one article seems promising, I’ll click to continue. Paying for material that I’m likely to just scan for a chuckle was just pointless. With the archives completely opened up and the right column going to fresh daily content, the paper becomes more than my late Tuesday distraction. It’s a regular weekday read.
Sep062005
Filed Under Improv
My good friend Mike Sacks recently conducted a fascinating interview with authors of a new (and only) biography of Paul Lynde. Most know Paul as the “Center Square” on the original Hollywood Squares, where he became famous for winking hilariously at his sexuality. Though it’s obvious that the quip are scripted for the game show, what struck me most about this interview was how the tension of only implying his gayness repressed many of Lynde’s natual improvisational gifts. It must have a special kind of hell for someone who was so good at tossing out written material as his own. Which probably explains why such explosive (and, in retrospect, hilarious) anger might result. Anyone who’d yell at a mother of a screaming toddler, “You keep this little girl quiet or I’m gonna fuck her!” is definitely worth a second look.
Aug232005
Filed Under Humor Magazine
MAD Magazine recently announced two magazines, one a standard reprint entitled Mad Classics and the second entitled MADKIDS, aimed for ages 6-11. As you might notice from the link, some wonder if the original MAD wasn’t already hitting the tykes. The two times in recent memory I’ve seen MAD read in public it was by children (one of them, awesomely, being female). That proves nothing since one could argue reading MAD in public isn’t something adults do. There’s definitely a market however, since Nickelodeon Magazine has been smartly making fake product labels and gelatinous green goo gross out humor for this set for a while.
Some hope this means the original MAD will tip more adult, but I have a hard time seeing that as the bridge ages of 12-18 are still being served by that edition (a group that would be suspicious of anything labeled “kids” or “teens” anyway). I don’t see MAD needing to be the National Lampoon. The humor already goes after topics that you have to be a bit more up on the world than your average eight-year-old to get. Though it may sound like “A Mad Look at Cheating” is perfect for this set, the actual March 2005 article was about cheating on your spouse. Not something you do until you’re at least twelve.
MADKIDS premieres in 2006 and appears quarterly afterwards.
Aug192005
Filed Under Movies
Recently I had a long conversation with the director of The Aristocrats, Paul Provenza. We covered a lot of topics about the film and comedy in general, enough to make me regret that I don’t own a tape recorder, as my pen failed to catch all of our discussion. But what I did get was just grand. It’s all after the jump.
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