Jun052006

Interview: Alex Zalben, Sketchfest NYC

Filed Under Live Events, Sketch Comedy

New York City’s second annual Sketchfest starts this Thursday with three days of performances from the best groups not only in the Big Apple, but across the country. I talked to Alex Zalben about what people can expect from this year’s fest and how to enjoyably endure seeing every show in the festival.

It’s like you’re asking me to choose one baby over the other… But I’ll try. Cody Rivers show is fantastic. They’ve been performing together for only a short while (relatively speaking), but have blown up on the sketch scene in the past year, and I can see why. Their show walks this incredible line between ridiculously surreal premises that could be mistaken for experimental theater, except for the fact that they each have a clearly defined idea behind them, which brings them into the realm of sketch. Fempyre is a rock duo from LA, and they are hilarious, rocking, and not to be missed. Slow Children at Play are awesome. They’re still in college (at Boston University), but are so polished and funny, we had to take them into the festival. I think their tape made me laugh the hardest out of the over 100 submissions we got. And American Dream from Chicago are excellent, just really well done, solid sketches.

Are there any targets that seem to be common across sketch groups this year? Does anything thematically tie some groups together?

I think that comedy targets are in a little bit of a transition period right now. Two years ago, it was definitely political humor. Last year, people were all abuzz with The Aristocrats about dirty or blue humor. With that faded away, I think something new hasn’t filled that void yet. If I was to guess, I would say that it’s not a target, but an approach that’s on the horizon. The rise of shorter form programming on the web has been an incredible boon to sketch comedy. People don’t want to see 22 minute shows, or ever 15 minute shows. They want three to five minute content. Who has that? Sketch comedy groups. That’s how we structure everything. It’s yet to be seen how it will fall out, but people are catching on very quickly that what they want for their next-gen programming in sketch. Conversely, I think there’s a huge push in the sketch community to embrace the theatrical aspects of comedy. It’s fine and good to stand their and tell jokes, but people are realizing that what makes sketch different is that it’s theater. You have props, characters… Why not take it to the logical extreme, and actually work on blocking, stage presence, pauses, etc. They’re two very different directions people are going in, and I’m excited to see how both go. Also, lots of jokes about bears.

Does the potential for industry attention change the tone of the fest at all?

I think it certainly puts the heat on the performers to put on the best show they can, which is not necessarily a bad thing at all. That being said, there’s a concerted effort on the producers part to not make this an industry supermarket. When we first decided about the festival, we picked and chose pieces from other SketchFests around the country, and what we enjoyed about each of them. The one constant is that they are full of a great, supportive, positive community of people who, more than anything are there to check out as many shows as possible, and laugh and clap whenever they can. So that was our number one priority: making this a great experience for the performers, making sure that all they have to worry about is performing, and we can take care of the rest (getting them into the shows, feeding them, being as prepared technically as possible, etc.) So to that end, we take care of the industry and press behind the scenes, in the same way, and just let the artists deal with the positive fall out.

More>>

Posted by Todd Jackson at 11:16 AM | Send to Friend | Comments (0)
Share: Digg | del.icio.us | Stumble It!

May302006

Lost Chappelle’s Show Hits DVD First(?)

Filed Under Sketch Comedy

Comedy Central just announced via press release that the sketches that Dave Chappelle completed prior to leaving the network will be coming to DVD as “Chappelle’s Show: The Lost Episodes Uncensored.” The DVD will contain three lost episodes along with another hour of unaired sketches, musical performances from John Legend and Dead Prez and a “making of” doc. There are also commentaries from Charlie Murphy, Donnel Rawlings and Neal Brennan, who I imagine has an interesting perspective on the sketches, as he butted heads with Chappelle over the comic’s discomfort about the racial impact of the bits.

There’s no word in the release whether they’ll see air beforehand (the previous airdate was potentially mentioned as July 9), but my best bet they aren’t going to so that the DVD makes the maximum splash possible. Fans may have to pay for their curiosity about what might have been. Chappelle vowed not to work with Comedy Central again if the lost episodes saw air describing it as a “bully move” that would damage their relationship. He also stated he would be pleased if his fans boycotted them.

“Chappelle’s Show: The Lost Episodes Uncensored.” hits stores July 25th.

Update: I did the math and airing three episodes starting Sunday July 9th, followed by a quick DVD release immediate after the third does seem to be the plan here. The desire to hit DVD hard is there, but not at the expense at ad dollars.

Posted by Todd Jackson at 02:38 PM | Send to Friend | Comments (0)
Share: Digg | del.icio.us | Stumble It!

May172006

Who Jumped First? Lonely Island & SNL vs. Improv Everywhere

Filed Under Sketch Comedy

A post on Time Warner’s new humor offering Office Pirates highlights the similarities between a prank from Improv Everywhere and a SNL Digital Short created by the Lonely Island boys that aired on the 5/13 episode. Both feature a man threatening to jump from a very low ledge with others taking it a wee bit too seriously. Both Gothamist and the Apiary have picked up the story, wondering if the sketch is a ripoff.

According to the Lonely Island blog, the sketch was actually filmed for the Alec Baldwin show, which aired the week of December 3, 2005. It’s just seeing the light of day now. The date of the sketch puts it at least a week before the Improv Everywhere sketch, which was pulled off according to the website of December 10th. 

The post on the Lonely Island blog was made on Monday, so it doesn’t appear to be in defense of their sketch since the Office Pirates observation didn’t appear until Tuesday.

It does make some sense that we did not see the sketch until now, since the date of its creation does place it before the explosive “Lazy Sunday”, which made the Lonely Island boys more likely to actually get these short video bits on. Is it possible the comedy muse just struck two people at the same time?

Posted by Todd Jackson at 10:00 PM | Send to Friend | Comments (0)
Share: Digg | del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Mar292006

Wonder Showzen Crew Party: Pregreting Already

Filed Under Animation, Sketch Comedy

I was fortunate enough to attend last night’s crew party for “Wonder Showzen” at Pianos. I arrived just before 8, in time to watch an episode from the upcoming series (don’t think it’ll be the first episode - it was numbered 203). They had to restart the episode once because the show wasn’t playing downstairs. Right before they ran it again, creator John Lee mentioned in passing, “Oh, and the President was just stabbed in the neck.”

As for the episode, there’s lots of fantastic work I don’t want to spoil, but my favorite segment was the already talked-about “Beat Kids” at Ground Zero, which might be one of the funniest things committed to tape ever. Hearing people talk about how they feel about the events of 9/11 while wearing groucho glasses or with radio zoo crew sound effects punctuating what they say is devastating. An animated segment involving peer pressure was also incredible ("Provide for your family! Provide for your family!"). Another great segment where Clarence asks homeless people about their “American Dreams” can be seen here.

Afterwards I thanked John and Vernon Chatman separately for the recent interview they did with the site, both of whom unnecessarily told me they were sorry they couldn’t answer more seriously but they don’t have it in them. Soon after, partygoers were actively encouraged to head downstairs to witness a performance by “Lumber Rob” - billing them as the best band in the world next to PFFR, of course. It’s would probably surprise some people to see how good the creators are with the kids from the show, but watching John Lee shepherd the lone Beat Kid in attendance downstairs to watch the performance impressed me. John promised the boy that seeing Lumber Rob “could change your life.”

Lumber Rob is almost indescribable - taped beats combined with whatever live noise he could make with his mouth, both of which occassionally took him enough to begin convulsive dancing. Some were unsure of what to make of it, but the Beat Kid was telling John between songs “that should be the theme song for season 2!”

I also managed to catch David Cross at the party and quickly thanked him for using my Larry the Cable Guy Interview as part of his Open Letter to Larry last year. I also told him I was looking forward to his animated “Freak Show”, which he mentioned he just got back from doing some work on and is thinking it may be the funniest thing he done since “Mr. Show.” As critical as he can be about his own work (see “Run, Ronnie Run” or even some episodes of “Mr. Show"), if he’s liking it this much, it’s probably a comedy nerd’s dream.

I dashed pretty soon after, but not before snagging a T-shirt with the image you see at the top of the post. Prepare to Pregret 4-19-08 indeed.

Posted by Todd Jackson at 09:30 PM | Send to Friend | Comments (0)
Share: Digg | del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Mar282006

Interview: Wonder Showzen’s Vernon Chatman and John Lee

Filed Under Animation, Sketch Comedy

Vernon Chatman and John Lee are the creators of “Wonder Showzen”, which is quite simply, brilliant. The show is much more than a parody of a kids show. The darkness of the content, like a segment where children will talk about a trip to the hotdog factory that turns into taking heroin with the workers, is played against the kid’s-show form ("I got to ride the black pony!") in a way that leads to explosive laughs. This season they might run a segment when children ask people to recount their Sept. 11 experiences while wearing Groucho glasses. Wonder Showzen’s first season DVD was released today and its second season begins on MTV2 this Friday (9:30 EST). A preview segment can be seen here.

I interviewed the creators Vernon and John over email. I asked them about horror and humor, what children can get away with and, of course, patience. They answered me with… well, just read it.

Matt and Trey have often said while describing South Park that “Children are assholes.” What do you think of children?

Children are the magical glue that keeps our society hurtling towards guaranteed destruction.  Every morning we force feverish miscreants (selves) to huff that glue, before we translate their death spasms into morse code, and then into English.  We lay it out into script format and shoot. Children’s assholes have almost nothing to do with it.  What Matt and Trey were probably trying to say was that they are so rich, they can afford to shit from children.

Wonder Showzen attaches a lot of horrific elements to the humor – blood, screams, decomposing and dying animals. How close are horror and humor in your minds?

Our minds are so tiny and so symmetrical, everything is crammed equally close to everything else up in there.  That said, anyone who has watched helplessly as their entire family was mercilessly and methodically butchered before their eyes knows firsthand how delightfully interchangeable horror and humor truly are. 

Some of the performances by children in the show are absolutely spot-on in terms of inflection – they’ll say the line exactly as an adult might. How hard is it to get these performances?

Have you ever placed a medicinal lozenge in the mouth of a dead mule and then attempted to pull it back out from the other end of the beast?  You have?  I’m jealous of you.  Because you’ve had it easy.  Also, you smell nice. Especially your hands.

More>>

Posted by Todd Jackson at 05:10 AM | Send to Friend | Comments (10)
Share: Digg | del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Mar092006

Eliza Coupe’s “Patriots” / Whitest Kids U Know

Filed Under Aspen Comedy Festival, Sketch Comedy

This double bill was my favorite show so far. Eliza Coupe‘s “Patriots” was first, appearing as five different characters, each uniquely American in some way. My favorites are a working class Boston woman who’s at Wallmart in search of an engagement ring ( “Fricking gays can get married, this one right here can get her own frickin’ ring.") and an Irish girl who wants to be adopted by an American couple for all the wrong reasons. Each character is rendered completely whole, completely recognizable and perfect in tone.

Then the Whitest Kids U Know come on and tore the place up. Combining some of their popular video segments with live sketches, the show grabbed the audience immediately and did not let go. There’s so many highlights here: an overwrought inspiring line leader who leads his charges to recess and into “worse horrors cannot be conjured by R.L. Stine”, a grossout sketch where one of the WKUK joins the audience screaming at another to not drink from a bucket of “boners” and a scene that intentionally doesn’t play funny until it’s revealed to be written as a vendetta against one of the player’s girlfriend. And that’s a small sampling of what we saw.

The WKUK have no dogma about making a sketch last a certain length. One sketch which involves a pirate captain trying to get the attention of his fellow “yarrr!"-ing pirates plays at a perfect and surprising length. Another sketch holds for an almost uncomfortable length on two character crying over the discover that one is afflcted with a brain tumor, culminating in a wonderful payoff that’s enhanced by the tension.

To see some of the video segments from this show, including “Pregnancy Test” and “We Gon’ Make Love”, check out the clip archive on the WKUK site. As one audience member said between sketches, “Wow!” Somebody, give ‘em a deal now.

Posted by Todd Jackson at 01:06 PM | Send to Friend | Comments (0)
Share: Digg | del.icio.us | Stumble It!

Jan312006

Comedy Central Gets with Sarah Silverman’s “Programme”

Filed Under Sketch Comedy

Comedy Central announced they’re ordering six episodes of the “Sarah Silverman Progamme” (love the archaic spelling) to air this summer. I’ve already read someone wondering whether Sarah’s show will be the next Chappelle’s Show. From the description, it sounds pretty close to the sketches and songs that interspersed Jesus is Magic, but with a bit more a narrative thread. In the example episode given, Sarah leaves her apartment to find batteries for her TV remote to avoid watching a day-and-a-half long telethon about starving kids.

Best part about the order is it breaks producers Dan Harmond’s and Rob Schrab’s record for TV pilots, this being the first to get past the first installment, in a sort of sick version of their monthly Channel 101 event. Dan and Rob are responsible for the legendary failed pilot Heat Vision and Jack, a parody of late 70s/early 80s high concept action shows featuring Jack Black as a super-intelligent astronaut but only when the sun rises ("I know everything!") and Owen Wilson as a slacker friend turned into a motorcycle. It’s as genius as it sounds.

Dan and Rob, through their myspace blogs, detailed some of the production of the pilot in October of last year. Rob Schrab reveals Jesus director Liam Lynch went to bat for him to direct the show. On the first day of shooting, Dan talks about how the show is “experiemental”, and most importantly to him, “being shot as conceived and written.” He also later shares that the show didn’t test well with focus groups:

“What a surprise.  You’re blowing my mind, here, society.  I really thought that if you teamed up the guys that wrote the most famous failed pilot in TV history with the girl that said “chink” on Conan, the resultant product would score through the roof.  I mean, that’s what I kept repeating to myself on the set: “this is going to be a real triumph in numerically measurable mainstream accessibility.” That was my goal.  I write for the numbers.  I’m a numbers man.”

Personally, failing grades like these make me want to see it more. Hmm, maybe if the “Sarah Silverman Programme” does well, they’ll have to adjust Channel 101 so the ones with the least votes are the ones who gets renewed. Just a thought.

Posted by Todd Jackson at 09:37 PM | Send to Friend | Comments (0)
Share: Digg | del.icio.us | Stumble It!