Records
Jul132004
Filed Under Funny 2.0, Records, Stand-Up Comedy
While ordering Patton Oswalt’s album over iTunes, I noticed that a search for Genre:Comedy does not work on the store. Currently it just takes you to back to the main iTunes page. Don’t know if it’s always been this way or not, but it’s rather frustrating. The return of the comedy album has been pursued heavily by people like Uproar Comedy, Laugh.com and, most notably, Comedy Central Records.
The absence of a main comedy landing page on iTunes probably impedes online distribution of comedy records. With comedy such a spontaneous buy, the ability to have the “celestial jukebox” featuring a wide range of comedy may be exactly what the comedy album needs. Of course, iTunes has brought a lot of changes to the music industry itself, including returning emphasis on the single. Is there an equivalent to the single for comedy albums? Maybe having the first few tracks of Feelin’ Kinda Patton seeming isolated from the whole is a good thing in the new online distribution model?
Jul102004
Filed Under Records, Stand-Up Comedy
Out o’ curiosity, I ended up on iTunes looking for Patton Oswalt’s Feelin’ Kinda Patton and lo and behold, there it was. I gave it a listen and found it incredibly entertaining.
Apparently the 80 or so minutes of the CD were taken from a two and a half hour set at Athens’ 40 Watt Club. So it feels a little choppy at first and thus a little setup/punch, setup/punch initially. To me, I like getting inside comics’ minds and finding how they arrive at stuff… the tangents are sometimes much better than the jokes themselves, so I was a little disappointed at first. But soon the tracks begin to connect together and create that sense you’re inside another mind. A highlight for me was Oswalt’s near verbatim description of a Stella D’oro Breakfast Treat commercial from the 70s that renders a marriage so vile and vicious, you wonder why anyone would imagine it would sell cookies. All very funny stuff. I read Patton’s taking some time off to make new material. Hopefully, this CD is building an audience ready for more.
Jul082004
Filed Under Records, Stand-Up Comedy
Neglected to mention I listened to David Cross’s It’s Not Funny while on vacation too. There’s nothing like driving through the deep woods in Larry the Cable Guy country and listening to a commie-terrorist like David Cross spew his filthy joo mouth at decent God-fearing people. Thank Beelzebub!
I seriously loved how David Cross imagined the journey of exploitation it took to make the gold shavings for his fancy restaurant dessert. I imagine some would take David Cross to task for being in such a restaurant in the first place. I just find it amazing they could fit both their head and a stick in their rectum.
Though I do loves me a good comedy record, I ain’t so fond of listening to them over and over and over again. Even new masterpieces like Cross’s. That said, I’m planning on getting myself Patton Oswalt‘s Feelin’ Kinda Patton as soon as possible. The man has been a fave of mine for a while. He does stand-up for stand-up’s sake and, unlike a lot of comedians, unironically loves lots of pop culture ephemera. (And make it too, the guy wrote a well-regarded JLA comic last year.)
One of my favorite things about Patton has been how communicative he is with fans… particularly on what’s becoming alternative (for lack of a better name) comedy’s biggest message board, Mr. Show and Other Comedy on the Tenacious D “A Special Thing” Board. Check out this thread and see Patton be unfailingly honest not only about why MADtv doesn’t work but why he doesn’t work for MADtv, among other stuff.
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