Category: Live Events

This is a fun ad for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (in Australia, if you failed geography). (thanks Adrants)

First off, it’s great that a comedy festival is a big enough to advertise on TV. And then, it’s even better than it can hire great creatives to make a spot like this. I kinda wish I was goin’ now.

Folks performing at the Melbourne Fest include Dylan Moran, Ardal O’Hanlan, Rich Hall and Jim Henson’s Puppet Up!, which was part of 2006’s Aspen and Vegas Fest. There’s also a course in comedy appreciation called Dissecting the Frog.

Hmm…

I’m not in San Francisco for the Sketchfest, but Dead-Frog tendrils reach pretty far. In this case, to writer Ian Lendler, a friend who knows funny. Here’s what he saw:

An auspicious start to the evening: The opening act for Red Wine Boys was Triplette, a 3-woman sketch group. The actresses themselves were extremely talented; the material was middling. But comedy is about the element of surprise, and there’s nothing like live theater to introduce that.

While running off stage, one of the actresses managed to smack face-first into an iron railing holding up a curtain. She then performed the rest of the act while bleeding profusely and holding a cold compress to her head. It became such a funny gag that Your Frog Abroad Correspondent (YFAC) became convinced that the whole thing had been faked.  YFAC then revised his opinion after the show when the actress was escorted off to, what was assumed to be the hospital, with a large bandage on her head. The fact that it was real did nothing dispel the fact that a bit of the ol’ ultra-violence goes a long way to breaking up the monotony of basic sketch-comedy.  There’s possibly a lesson in that for any sketch groups out there.

But on with the show: It was almost like a night back in Luna Lounge, NYC, with the Red Wine Boys Todd Barry and Jon Benjamin acting as hosts for a series of quick stand-ups by Mirman and Showalter. Barry and Benjamin (of Coach McGuirk fame) are two of the funniest human beings in America this side of pre-breakdown Dave Chappelle. And together, they’re even funnier. But it’s worth asking “Why?”

They don’t do punch-lines. They don’t have a shtick or props, although they did occasionally gyrate erotically with their glasses of red wine to thumping techno music. This show was as shticky as they get in that they were imitating fine-wine lovers, but that hardly mattered. They could just as easily have been the Pet Rock Boys or ‘65 Ford Mustang Boys. This show was just Barry and Benjamin riffing off each other.  They are pure stage presence.

They took questions from the crowd. YFAC dared to ask what was wrong with white wine. He was informed by the Red Wine Boys that he was not, in fact, a man. And where were his balls? And would he be leaving his balls on the seat when he left the theater? And how could one leave one’s balls behind as that seems a physical impossibility?

They then handed out samples of their own line of wines (sample styles: “Cum-thumping Cabernet” and “Less Funding For AIDS Shiraz”). After this, they introduced the acts, each of whom kept their bits short.

Eugene Mirman showed the audience the false-bottomed can of shaving cream he’d snuck onto his flight to San Fran. Its contents were a picture of George Bush and a pack of condoms. He then read from an e-mail exchange he had with a band that invited him to one of their shows through Myspace.  An exact quote from his e-mail response to the band: “I’d love to come to your show…I often like to send my dick on vacation…blah blah blah…your mouth.”

For his act, Michael Showalter pulled a page from the Cringe shows that have made their way around America. He read a faux-Kerouac poem he had written while in high school in suburban New Jersey. Sample passages: “I smoked a reefer with two unemployed actors across the hall of my apartment building. They don’t know shit about fuck.” “In my room is a 6-string guitar…it only has 3 strings.”

Everyone then joined together on stage to sing “It’s Raining Wine” while sipping copious amounts of said beverage. Todd Barry in particular seemed to enjoy this product in large amounts throughout the night.  A great night of comedy.

Ian’s also particularly qualified to judge anything even tangentially related to alcohol as he’s the author of Alcoholica Esoterica, a collection of lore and info about booze. It’s informative enough that you’ll feel smarter talking about inhibition-lowering beverages, but not so much that you turn into Cliff Clavin. Check it out.

I’m very pleased to say that Dead-Frog will be one of the sponsors of this year’s San Francsico Sketchfest. The line-up this year is very impressive right from the beginning with an opening night gala on January 11 featuring the comedy team Stella.

I won’t be able to be there, as I’m grounded in New York for a bit, but here’s some of the highlights I see on the schedule:

• RiffTrax Live This show will feature that missing comedic commentary track that all DVDs should have, as delivered by Mystery Science Theater 3000 vets Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy And Bill Corbett. The target: a major motion picture not yet announced!
• Match Game Live The game show I always used to love to stay home and watch when I was sick will be hosted by Jimmy Pardo and feature the panel of David Cross, Maria Bamford, Paul F. Tompkins, Doug Benson, Todd Glass, Scott Aukerman and B.J. Porter.
• Upright Citizens Brigade: A.S.S.S.S.C.A.T. The original brigade nearly reunite save for Amy Poehler. Standing in for her is the perhaps not lovely but insanely talented Sean Conroy. And better yet the monologues will be provided by Bob Odenkirk
• and a Tribute to Paul Reubens Pee-Wee’s progenitor will talk with legendary journalist Ben Fong-Torres about his amazing career.

There’s more. A lot more. Including shows from sketch comedy groups Elephant Larry, Killing My Lobster, Troop and Kasper Hauser. Plus, the Benson Interruption, Invite Them Up, Comedy Death-Ray, Naked Babies and a Tribute to Mitch Hedberg with rarely seen footage. Simply if you’re in the bay area, you’d be a fool not to gorge yourself on as much comedy as you can stand. Check the SF Sketchfest site for more details. Enjoy.

In New York City? Dead-Frog is proud to give its reader’s a chance to attend “In the Spirit of Bill: A Tribute to Bill Hicks” .  On what would have been the late comic’s 45th birthday, the show will celebrate his legacy with rarely seen footage of him as well appearances by comics like Lucky Louie’s Rick Shapiro and the 2006 winner of the Bill Hicks Award, Jeff Kreisler. The show is also a fundraiser for The Bill Hicks Foundation for Wildlife Rehabilitation. The show takes place this Sunday, December 17 at 9:30 PM at Comix.

Dead-Frog has tickets for two for a lucky reader. For a chance at these free tickets, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) before Midnight EST December 16, 2006.

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.

From November 15 to the 18th, I’m going to Las Vegas to cover The Comedy Festival in its second year. Unlike Montreal or Aspen, this festival doesn’t focus on new talent as much on putting on big shows from some very big names. And best of all, one of my readers and a friend can win tickets to see three of the bigger shows - shows I’ll be at myself. (Don’t worry - you don’t gotta sit next to me or nothin’)

The first is Triumph’s Poopapalooza II which besides the Insult Comic Dog features Jim Gaffigan and Frank Caliendo on Wednesday Nov. 15th. The second is a Thursday stand-up show with Dave Attell, Louis CK and Daniel Tosh. And the third is Saturday’s Sarah Silverman and Her Magical Friends show (Weirdo and Beardo, better known as Brian Posehn and Zach Galifinakis). You get tickets to all three of these shows.

Now, two caveats… I ain’t got hotel rooms or plane tickets for you. This is just a humble blog so all I can provide you with a three pairs of tickets to some amazing comedy shows. How you get there and where you sleep will be up to you. But it’s Vegas - hotel rooms are there on the cheap for anyone who might drop their paycheck in a slot machine. Plane tickets ain’t so bad either, last I checked.

To enter:

Write me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) before Midnight PST November 8, 2006.

I’ll randomly pick a winner and inform them on November 9 so that you can make your travel arrangements (if you weren’t already planning on being in Vegas). If you don’t want to wait to see if you win tickets, you can buy them now by checking out Ticketmaster or The Comedy Festival’s own site. They have their own contest too if you want to double your chances.

Good luck!

Yesterday’s Letterman Auditions were a bit fun, although watching TV ready sets in a comedy club sort of loses the reasons why people go see live comedy anyway… to see what you can’t on TV. Plus, with a two hour length, it’s a bit of a march after an hour and a half. Even I find it hard to judge how funny someone is at that point. (No wonder most comedy films clock in at 90 minutes.) Do the talent bookers have that much endurance or do they just want to get ‘em all done at once?

I still had a few favorites at this show, one of these being Roy Wood Jr. - who had a great bit about all other races gaining equality in this country but only after they go through their turn picking fruit. His Septupalet bit (which you can see here) is pretty good too. My favorite joke from the night came from Liam McEneaney about being raised Nerd rather than Catholic or Jewish - instead of a conformation or a bar mitzvah, he’s taken to a murder mystery as part of a Star Trek convention. I also liked Myq Kaplan, who had a great bit about women breastfeeding in movie theater (they said no outside food!). (You can see this and another good bit of his about pyramid schemes here).

It was also fun to see Todd Barry open to warm up the room for what was to come - but judging from the laughter coming from where the comics were congregating, it was even better for them.