Sketch Comedy
Jul252007
Filed Under Sketch Comedy, Stand-Up Comedy
A while back, Max Goldberg wrote me about promoting a show of his. Noticng he was from Emerson, a college notorious for graduating a great many professional comics, I asked if he could tell me a bit of what its like to study comedy there. What he sent me, you’ll find below. Recent high school grads considering studying comedy, read and decide for yourself: If you want to see Max perform and you’re in Los Angeles, Max will be playing the Hollywood Improv, tomorrow, July 26 at 8PM.
Todd,
They (those negative people in your life) say you can’t teach someone how to be funny. I don’t know if they’re right, but I feel like I just got out of school for it. I’m back home in California now after graduating from Emerson in Boston this past May (that’s why it took this long to get back to you). I’m not sure how to describe going there… I guess people who know of it know it’s a pretty good, smallish school mostly known for getting alumni starter jobs in the entertainment industry. Cool thing: they seem to really dig comedy.
Comedy isn’t usually associated with an institution; it’s not something you need to go to college for. Nonetheless, if you consider the size of the student body (barely over three thousand), a surprising amount of content comes out of Emerson. The school has had some part in the birth of a significant number of major comedy careers—in terms of comics, students have included Steven Wright, Denis Leary and Mario Cantone (who were roommates), Jay Leno, David Cross, Laura Kightlinger, and Jen Kirkman (full disclosure: not all listed graduated, but were accepted and attended for a time). A bunch of others write on The Tonight Show, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report. Comedy businessmen Doug Herzog (president of Comedy Central), and Eddie Brill (comedy booker for Letterman) attended the school. Remember that Brokeback to the Future youtube video with fourish million hits? It was from one of Emerson’s sketch troupes, Chocolate Cake City, with other videos from school troupes regularly in the 300,000+ views range. These and other comedy people from the school, collectively, are referred to as the “Emerson Mafia.”
Can you actually *study* comedy at Emerson? Sort of—there are some classes in sketch, improv, stand-up, comedic acting, comedic screenwriting, and a slew of SGA-endowed troupes. The closest I could find was double-majoring in Theater Studies and Dramatic Writing, and minoring in Entrepreneurship. Combine that with getting on stage four or five nights per week, and four years later it’s a reasonably balanced comedy education. There’s no formal major for it (though it’s rumored to happen sometime in the next five years), but that’s certainly in the realm of possibilities.
Emerson might be more appropriately viewed as a talent draft than a college; that is, instead of building scholars, its purpose seems to be selecting a choice group of amateurs with the goal of allowing them to turn into professionals on their own terms—and helping them milk alumni dry.
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Jun132007
Filed Under Funny 2.0, Sketch Comedy
I think it’s very easy to misjudge Patrice O’Neal as a comic, I certainly never expected to like him as much as I do. But the first time I saw Patrice perform live, I had that moment when you lean forward in your chair, transfixed. I had the same sensation when he did his HBO Special a couple years ago. He’s brutally funny - honest in ways that make a lot of people uncomfortable. One of my favorite parts of his act is how loose it is. I’m sure he has an act built in his head, but he’s one of the few comics I’ve ever seen who can create the illusion that everything he’s saying is off the top of his head. It makes the funny stuff all the more surprising because he appears to have just thought of it - he could be surprising himself.
In the spirit of the age, Patrice O’Neal has hooked up with some white people to do a podcast. It wisely appears to be more about the making of a sketch than a sketch itself - Patrice riffing with his comedy buddies, cracking on their ideas and slips of the tongue. The second installment is below, featuring Patrice and his sketch players working out a sketch about cockfights. And they ain’t talking chickens. Do I need to say it’s NSFW?
The point Patrice O’Neal makes about not being clever about it reminds me a lot of what Louis CK said when he was working on Lucky Louie. Dancing around a topic rather than bluntly dealing with it comedically. (BTW, I dig For Your Imagination’s player - the bar using a condensed picture of the video to create a timeline. It makes very easy to seek and find parts of it.)
If you enjoy this, you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. Or just visit Patrice’s website for future installments.
After the jump is Patrice’s self-effacing introduction to the whole enterprise.
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Jun122007
Filed Under Sketch Comedy
I didn’t go to Aspen, so Saturday’s Sketchfest was my chance to catch the winning sketch group fpr 2007 - Summer of Tears. They didn’t disappoint. There was a fair amount of celeb skewering in the show - but all of it a bit more twisted and surreal. Matthew McConaughey as a monster in a closet and Edward James Olmos saying “holes” are the ultimate rush.
Fortunately for you, one of the funnier parts of the show is out there on YouTube. The people who actually pursue getting on America’s Funniest Home Videos - the ones without dogs, children or hurt genitalia, I mean - what’s their creative process like? This video answers that. Wonderful editing in this.
Sadly, part of the attention to detail in the sketch is obscured by the YouTube logo - the indication that the video was shot on “8 12 91.” (It’s a problem I’ve been noticing in a lot of comedy shows lately - the little “bug” in the corner obscuring or muddying a joke. Networks and web folks - try and stay out of the way of the performers.)
May162007
Filed Under Funny 2.0, Sketch Comedy
Super Deluxe debuts the first installment of “Derek and Simon” - the Bob Odenkirk directed and produced series. “Derek and Simon” started off as a TV Show for HBO, turned into a pair of shorts for Sundance after the network failed to pick it up. I like how “Derek and Simon” has a Maxim-ish bros-before-hos feel and then turns into something far more nuanced and uncomfortable. The silent movie style titles are also right—for a reason I can’t put a finger on.
I love how the buddy “forgot” that little detail about his girlfriend - it looks like a regular world, but logic doesn’t get in the way of a good joke (and even becomes the foundation for another).
May082007
Filed Under Sketch Comedy
Despite my own disinterest in its frequent high vote getter Mr. Sprinkles, this first season of Acceptable TV has been a great joy to watch. There’s been some great premises that have been left on the floor - I’d love to see them them do a small little “save our show” campaign over the break between episodes. Take all the first season videos that didn’t make it past one episode and do some March Madness tourney-style voting. Which ever gets voted at the top gets another episode on the first season of the show. Personally, I’d love to see more Shady Acres or The High Fiver.
My favorite from this weekend’s episode was Sin Trek, a Star Trek parody that only uses the form to get some good jokes in at the expense of some of the ridiculous rapture fiction that seems to mark fundamentalist’s fantasies these days.
Sadly, I’ve “time-shifted” my viewing of the episode, so I can’t encourage you to vote for it. But I can tell you to watch their season finale because they teased an animated segment called Cosbees, a flagrant tweaking of House of Cosbys. That show was part of the birthplace of Acceptable TV --Channel 101. Or it was until Bill Cosby‘s lawyers threatened to sue. Nice to see Dan Harmon and the other creators have good memories and aren’t letting this silly threat go unchallenged.
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