Here’s a look at virtual Ricky Gervais performing stand-up at Split Sides, the comedy club inside Rockstar Games latest satirical video game Grand Theft Auto IV. The audio takes a while to come in, but after a moment you can hear Gervais’s routine, which is about being fat not being a disease. (Watch while you can, GTA IV video, at least today, has a way of disappearing fast.)
That virtual crowd’s laughter is a little creepy, huh?
The bit is kind perfect for the game - the developers love to make fun of American gluttony. This isn’t the previous unreleased material mentioned before, but, according to Pilkipedia, a bit from Gervais’s special “Fame.” (Patrice O’Neal has a similar bit, but I suppose might have been a bit more difficult to render in polygons.) This is only an excerpt, so I kind of wonder how long Gervais’s set is (and if has an opener and a middle).
If any of you folks are getting the game at midnight tonight, Split Sides is located in the Algonquin borough (the stand-in for Manhattan). If you heckle, try to do it with words, not machine gun fire.
Update: According to this Wired report, Katt Williams is also in the game.
At the previously mentioned Friars Club event, I talked to Drink at Work’s Carol Hartsell a little bit about the following clip. I found it on Mark Evanier’s website. It features Charlie Callas in a bit from Johnny Carson era of the Tonight Show. Mark says he was there on the night of the taping and had never seen a human being laugh as hard as Carson did at the following bit.
Callas pretty much goes nuts on stage there, exaggerating the physicality of the bit to the nth degree. No wonder it hit Carson so hard. Callas fucking committed. One of the things I voiced to Carol was how I worried that some alternative comics today, in order to not appear desperate for a laugh, wouldn’t go for broke like this.
And then I saw Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler‘s appearance at the 2008 Melbourne Comedy Festival gala. They did “Kristin Schaal is a Horse"…
Last week, I dropped by a book “warming” at the Friars’ Club for “Milt & Marty” - a fake memoir for an unsuccessful comedy writing team. The book was penned by Tom Leopold and Bob Sand, two veteran comedy writers themselves (but far more successful, much to the consternation of Milt and Marty, who took the pair under their diseased racist wing).
At the warming, Milt and Marty made an appearance via video, in this interview was conducted by the funny (but playing it straight here) Frank Santopadre. There’s more than a little joy watching some old pros biting the hand of the generation before them, packing jokes in the rapid clip of that time, sometimes dropping a reference you might have to look up on Wikipedia.
The event was held in the club’s Milton Berle room, jokingly described as appropriately the biggest room at the Friar’s Club (the room is actually a little small, doing no justice to the comic’s legendary shvantz). The Friars seem probably to most like the echo of a bygone era, but there’s still something a little amazing about the place - a private club where comedians could be funny uncensored among each other, doing the stuff they couldn’t on stage. That sense of fraternity doesn’t seem necessary today, but it’s still more than a little attractive. Might need to find myself a membership application.
Here’s a look at the story of Ricky Gervais’ first time performing stand-up comedy, from a British show called “Comedy Map.” Gervais, despite being known on TV as a comedian, felt he needed to put some time in front of a live audience. (I sort of love/hate the aside from the club owner about how he set up Gervais first show. Yeah, no pressure.)
Meanwhile, can you believe there’s a TV Show featuring landmarks in the history of British comedians. Is the whole country full of comedy nerds?
Not only are we in a renaissance for stand-up, but some favorites of sketch comedy gone through some incredible revival this year. And we all get to enjoy them on web video.
Kids in the Hall A version of this sketch was part of their Just For Laughs show. I’m not sure it’s still part of their current live tour, but they definitely go further here than they could on stage…
The State What’s a little pantomime between manly construction workers? This is from the UCB LA reunion show. No tour or other shows have been announced, but perhaps a successful KitH tour will inspire more from The State?
Like a few people, sometimes my first exposure to a comic is their TV special. The first time I saw Dov Davidoff was through his Comedy Central Presents special. A lot can be lost with transferring a comic from the club to the TV, but there was an amazing energy with Dov that gave me that moment where I move to the edge of the couch, leaning forward to make sure I catch it all. The folks at Comedy Central were impressed as well, as his first CD entitled “The Point Is...” comes out on the CC Records label just next week.
The following are pieces from two tracks from the upcoming album. The first is entitled “The Gay Man” and the second “Magnum.” One of my favorite tricks of Dov’s is on display in the first, where he’ll ask an audience member’s name and continually return to deliver his jokes to that person, almost like he’s having a conversation with them rather than doing a routine for a room of strangers.
Lewis Black had a water bottle throw at him during the 2007 Bonnaroo Music Festival. At the time it appeared to be the act of one stupid audience member. But was it something more? This video looks into the truth behind what a bit of seemingly innocent asshole-ry.
Hmm… many questions were raised, but very few answers. Will more be revealed in the 2008 Bonnaroo Music Fest? Probably not.
But hopefully nobody will conspire against this year’s comedy lineup at Bonnaroo, which includes David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, Zach Galifianakis, Jim Norton, Brian Posehn, Mike Birbiglia, John Mulaney and Michelle Buteau. Plus, Chris Rock will make a one hour performance on the main stage. Bonnaroo takes place from June 12th to the 15th.
This list of five awful Saturday Night Live hosts can't entirely be proven, since Lorne Michaels won't let the Milton Berle-hosted episode see the light of day again. Which is probably a good thing.
The trailer for Ghost Town, the "Ricky Gervais plays a dick who learns to be a better person thanks to dead people" movie, just went up. That's probably all you need to see of it.
Paul Scheer says there's going to be a third season of Human Giant, they just got to work around Aziz Ansari's schedule, now that's he's a character in the Office spin-off. (Best Week Ever)
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- a fake memoir for an unsuccessful comedy writing team. The book was penned by Tom Leopold and Bob Sand, two veteran comedy writers themselves (but far more successful, much to the consternation of Milt and Marty, who took the pair under their diseased racist wing).
comes out on the CC Records label just next week.
