Sketch Comedy
Mar302006
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.
Mar282006
Filed Under Animation, Interview, 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.
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Mar092006
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.
Feb012006
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.
Jan232006
Filed Under Interview, Sketch Comedy
Since 2002, Janet Varney has been one of the co-organizers of San Francisco Sketchfest. For over two weeks, San Francisco’s funny per capita takes a huge spike from the large descent of talent on the bay area, this year including Mr. Show, Fred Armisen, UCB, Michael Showalter & David Wain. The festival is in its last week now, with many great shows to come. I talked with Janet about San Francisco’s and sketch comedy’s place in the industry right now.
When I think of some of the most beloved comedy from the past 20 years, sketch comedy takes up a large amount of it. But most comedy festivals center firmly on stand-up. Why do you think that is?
For one thing, it’s much more expensive to put up and pay a group of people at a festival, opposed to flying out and compensating just one person. Then there’s also the matter of the “Industry” wanting to make development deals with solo stand-up comedians rather than with conceptual sketch groups. But the festival situation is also a reflection of the day-to-day problem sketch groups can face, which is that there are generally far fewer sketch comedy venues than traditional stand-up clubs. James Reichmuth of Kasper Hauser made a great point when we did “Fresh Air” on KQED this morning (along with Rob Baedeker and Cole Stratton): if you’re a developing stand-up comedian, there are a series of steps you can take to get seen, work on your material, and potentially make money playing gigs. It doesn’t really work that way for sketch comedians. Sketch comedy doesn’t typically get booked at comedy clubs, and it can be very expensive for a group to rent a theatre (which is often a better environment for the way sketch works). That’s why places like the Mock Cafe, or the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in NY & LA, are so important. And finally, despite the large number of sketch shows and groups that can be cited as hugely influential in comedy, some people still don’t quite “get” the sketch thing. For example, somehow, year after year, we keep having to explain to people that sketch isn’t improv. Of course sketch can derive from improv, but… you get the idea.
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Dec272005
Filed Under Sketch Comedy
Though I know it’s not true, I still wonder if Lorne Michaels didn’t know the popularity of the Chronicles of Narnia rap until he read about it in the New York Times story today. The Times story covers the video’s viral success, along with mentioning how the Lonely Island dudes have used the Internet from the beginning to build their careers. (Particularly in building other rap parodies - see Just2Guyz, My Pants, Kablamo and The Bing Bong Brothers on their site.) The account of its production also makes it sound a bit like it was outside the usual gut-wrenching process SNL goes through - did it even have to be table read? Is that what it takes?
I take a different tack than the New York Times story, which makes it sound like the short was written to be aggressively nerdy. Like rappers who’ve write about the dangerous experiences they’ve had, I get the feeling that the Lonely Island guys spend their Sundays refueling for SNL by going to a movie and indulging their sweet tooth. They keep true to who to they are, which makes the bit all the funnier, rather than any exaggerated dorkiness. They just contrast their lives against a hardcore music style. (Similar thoughts play out in this Village Voice article, which talks about the merits of Chronicles as rap.)
I think a lot of the passion and excitement for the video comes from the goodwill people still have for SNL. They want it to be good. When they get something that inarguably funny, it brings all the feelings of the first time they discovered the show. I doubt SNL will ever be cancelled, with its history, it’s only a few sketches away from turning from an institution into a “beloved” institution. Chronicles is one. Now, what else you got?
Dec212005
Filed Under Comedy Writers, Sketch Comedy
What is the Chappelle Theory? According to the site, It’s a film with Charlie Murphy, written by Neal Brennan (though I suspect that might just be wrong). Just got dropped this in my mail box - uncertain of source yet. Visit http://www.chappelletheory.com/next. The video links are not working (possibly because they don’t exist).
(Picture of Chappelle Theory movie page removed because the site is complete bullshit)
More to come. Considering I’ve heard Neal Brennan was bothered by Chappelle believing the sketches for the third season were racist, perhaps this is a pointed satire of that.
It may instead also seems to be the coming out party for anti-social.com (another weblinc domain), which has added this disclaimer to the site (though not in an easy place to find), asking peeps, particularly Cosby, not to sue. See my earlier speculation. It may just also mean that it’s not a film and the whole site, including this update, is a hilarious parody. (Yes, I did just swallow the red pill.)
UPDATE: Site has been changed to show the link to the disclaimer and the logo updated with the addition of word “Bullshit.” I’m impressed - they didn’t get me with the first thing, but they did with the reveal of the fake film. I’ll have to check out anti-social whenever it launches.
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