When the 2008 Grammy nominations were announced, I was happy but skeptical about the Flight of the Conchords (Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement) chance to win. Alternative stuff is rarely nodded in the comedy category so I was just pleased that their EP “The Distant Future” got that far. I also kind of thought that a record with only five songs - five brilliant songs, but five nonetheless—would be at a disadvantage.
Well, it turns out they did pull out the Grammy, beating my favorite Steven Wright, who after more than 25 years performing, had only released his second album last year. Apparently 22 years between albums is trumped by 24 years between Grammys for New Zealand, home to the Conchords. Hopefully Wright will be more prolific in the future. Not to win Grammys, but just because it’d be nice to have more of his work on my stereo, or rather, ripped from the CD and encoded as mp3s in my iTunes playlist.
finally renders pointless all the inexpert fan-made audio transfers (the modern day equivalent of holding a microphone up to the television speaker and shouting at your mom to be quiet), which have bloated hard drives the world over.
The release date is only two months away: April 22, 2008. Something to look forward to, eh?
First off, I’m glad the Flight of the Conchords are in there. Awesome. While I think they have no shot of winning (but would be happy to be proven wrong), it’s still nice to see a nominee in a more alternative vein. I think that’s the first time something in that spirit has been nominated in that category since David Cross’s “Shut Up You Fucking Baby.” Considering we’re in a resurgence of the comedy album, it’s a little bit of a bummer to not see Patton Oswalt get a nod, his “Werewolves and Lollipops” release being one of the most highly anticipated this year. The man is prolific and at the top of his form. Though I don’t believe in awards for comedy, if we’re going to have awards one of ‘em should be put in Patton’s paws.
My choice to win: Steven Wright. The man’s practically a legend and this is only his second album. The amount of jokes of his that have been lost because they were never recorded almost bums me out when I think about it. Give him the Grammy, if only to encourage him to make the follow-up album “That Pony? Yeah, I still have her.” I think he will win too, but I got a funny feeling about George Lopez…
Besting the likes of George Carlin and Weird Al, Lewis Black took home the Grammy for his album, “The Carnegie Hall Performance.” I have to admit that I am a little surprised by this one - not because of Lewis Black’s album but because Weird Al had a top ten single and Ron White‘s on the ballot twice (once for himself, once for Blue Collar Comedy Tour). The latter one is sort of victory in itself and I actually thought it might give him a surprise win, considering he’s the one Blue Collar Comic that’s liked even by their detractors.
Of course, in a year where the Dixie Chicks win all five awards they were up for, it makes sense that a comedian who equally outspoken about the failures of the Bush administration would win. It’s also a big victory for Comedy Central Records because “The Carnegie Hall Performance” is the first album on the label to earn a Grammy. Big congrats to Comedy Central Records Jack Vaughn - who’s pretty much the architect of the whole shebang over there. (Also deserving of applause is Stand-Up Records Dan Schlissel - who produced the album.)
Measuring an entertainer from today that lives up to the talents and spirit of Andy Kaufman seems to me to be an almost impossible task. Andy Kaufman was a master of misdirection and the core of the comedic arts: surprise. How can you possibly say that one performer is the most unpredictable?
But the event judges showed themselves equal to the task, following up last year’s selection of Kristen Schaal with Reggie Watts, a comedian/musician who uses sound as a comic canvas. He began his set by speaking completely unintelligibly but hilariously for several sentences until he said clearly, “and that’s why I got into comedy.” Then ‘starting off by starting”, he went into one of his two songs which featured some incredible beatboxing into equally impressive verbal tap dancing. A later number was introduced as a “gentle” song about an elf, with the first lyric being a raucous “Hell yeah.” One of his most dazzling feats to me was watching him turn his confession that he had gone “gay” and was meeting with “gay integration counselors” that seem right out of a right-winger imagination into the blandest of corporate speak. (Check this clip called “Scrotor” to get a better idea of what Reggie is capable of.)
One of my favorites from the show were the especially fascinating Charlyne Yi, who collected some valuables from the audiences including some change, gold earrings and a camera and offer that along with the $125 in her pocket for someone to come up and punch her in the face. It was an incredibly beautiful awkward moment that despite the promises of it being “a very good trick” the diminutive Yi had a hard time finding a taker. (You can find some videos of hers on You Tube here.) Another interesting performer was Red Bastard, who resembles a devil with several disturbing bulbous implants on his belly and ass. His honesty at the hopes of being “plucked out of these dumps to be some place reputable like the American Airlines Theatre” was biting at both ends. Also enjoyable was Ken Barnard, who gave us a reading, in character, from his favorite novel - Rocky 3 ("The third is a series of five. Well, the author is working on a sixth). Ambrose Martos got the audience laughing for several uncomfortable seconds while he sat silent waiting for someone to ring a bell that launched him into a spontaneous birthday party for the bell ringer - complete with favor, present, party hat and cake.
One note: performers were asked to keep it clean, because Andy always did. And I have to say, that this show had the most kids I’ve ever seen at a comedy club and, even in environment where more conceptual and bizarre comedy reigned, they didn’t seem out of place at all.
There’s been a little discussion that it was insensitive to start the Emmys with a plane crash bit, considering the Comair crash that had occurred only hours before. I can see why they didn’t cut it - the crash is really incidental to the rest of the sketch but necessary to set up the Lost bit. (I’m sure that there was no time to shoot another bit at the same production value probably factored in as well.) It’s obvious their intentions are to parody Lost not attack a recent tragedy. I don’t think they had to cut it for that reason alone. Intentions trump an uncomfortable setup.
But perhaps the setup wasn’t necessary - could the skit have worked just as well if it began with Conan wandering out of the ocean? After all, anyone watching the Emmys probably knows how the Lost castways got there. What do you think?
Update: Well, NBC apologized. No real need to - nobody was making fun of the victims. Everybody feel better now?
I’m going to be wrapping up all the shows and events I saw in Aspen below, but I wanted to give you the winners from 2006 now:
Best Stand-up – Aziz Ansari and Mitch Fatel
Best Alternative – Kristen Schaal
Best Sketch – Whitest Kids U Know
Best One Person Show – Rick Cleveland, “My Buddy Bill”
Entertainment Weekly Breakout Award – Eliza Coupe
As you can tell, there’s a huge representation from both New York and UCB (a fact Matt Besser pointed out to me with deserved pride). Film winners after the jump.
We’re not too far away from Oscar time now. It’s been fascinating to watch how much media coverage there’s been around Jon Stewart hosting the show this year, every question being ”Are you nervous?How about now?Now are you nervous? Now? NOW?”
Jon’s handled every single one of these incredibly well but my favorite responses have been from his interview Monday with Larry King. On bombing:
“I bombed in front of, you know, a lot of different audiences. This will just be the most famous audience that I bombed in front of.”
His defense of Letterman’s stint as Oscar host was also interesting. I remember nothing of it save for the “Oprah? Uma?” bit. He points out that his follow up line, “Oh, and also I want to introduce you to my friend Keanu” killed. The memory is different from the event itself. If I remember anything of previous Oscar’s host performances, it’s only a single bite. All I can think of from Chris Rock’s appearance was his line about how few stars there are and how Jude Law is just a “popular person.” Jon, of all people, from satirizing how the media reduces the political process to a bite, knows that he can’t control which of his lines he’ll be remembered for. So his conclusion: do the show and enjoy it.
Onion local print editions in trouble? Rex Sorgatz shares a rumor that some of the humor paper's city editions are underperforming and may be shut down.
Tom Smothers on his landmark satirical comedy hour: "...the funny thing was that I didn’t know that we were saying…that the show was saying anything important…until they said, 'You can’t say it.' And I said, 'Well, that must be important!'" (Bullz-Eye)
When the 2008 Grammy nominations were announced, I was happy but skeptical about the Flight of the Conchords (Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement) chance to win. Alternative stuff is rarely nodded in the comedy category so I was just pleased that their EP “The Distant Future”
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Besting the likes of George Carlin and Weird Al, Lewis Black took home the Grammy for his album, 
Measuring an entertainer from today that lives up to the talents and spirit of Andy Kaufman seems to me to be an almost impossible task. Andy Kaufman was a master of misdirection and the core of the comedic arts: surprise. How can you possibly say that one performer is the most unpredictable?
We’re not too far away from Oscar time now. It’s been fascinating to watch how much media coverage there’s been around Jon Stewart hosting the show this year, every question being ”
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