Larry the Cable Guy: So I went up there, had a great set… killed as they say. And…
Bob Simon: That’s what they say, killed?
Obviously, I do a blog about comedy, so I try and be up on terminology. But am I short-sighted or isn’t the description “killed’ basic cultural literacy? Or a sign that a reporter might not know enough to talk to a performer? Just saying.
Anyway, the report’s mostly gloss. But the fascinating part, besides hearing a subtler version of the “Larry” accent fall out of Dan’s mouth, was the mention of J.P. Williams, the architect behind much of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour and Larry the Cable Guy’s success. At one point he declares that that most of Hollywood doesn’t get his success, “because they don’t understand much outside of Los Angeles and New York. And that’s the problem.” And he’s right. It is a problem.
So much of culture is about culture itself or up it’s own ass, that there’s very little common ground to embrace (I’m fully aware, as always, the irony of saying this on a comedy blog). Much as many don’t like it, “Larry” is reaching a broad big audience in a world that’s become more and more narrowcasted. And they’re not all bumpkins and rednecks. There’s a lesson here to be taken from the Blue Collar success and I hope that even if comedians can’t stomach all of Dan’s material, they find spots where their work intersects enough to broaden their own appeal. And for those of us who are fans, to recognize that a friend who likes “Larry” might be, depending on their tastes, turned onto other comics like Brian Regan, Louis CK or Dave Attell. “Larry” as gateway drug if you will.
I’m not saying anyone has to do a wholesale transformation like Dan Whitney…
But Larry the Cable Guy’s a reality. Use it to comedy’s advantage.
After Pauly Shore’s weekend set in Odessa, Texas at the 8th Street Comedy Club, a video started spreading around the internet featuring Pauly getting punched out by a cowboy-hatted heckler. Some folks called fake immediately and there was an even an early clue that it was just an act from a comment on the comedy club owner’s myspace page, but after I read some insistence by comic Joe Rogan on his message board that it was 100% real, I thought I’d post about it sometime today. Here’s the clip if you haven’t seen it yet:
But TMZ has just revealed a police statement that an off-duty office was asked to participate in “a skit” where they were pretend to cart away the assailant after he appeared to hit Pauly Shore. Apparently, everyone in the audience ended up in on the joke too, because Pauly Shore did an autograph session with the man he dubs “Hoss” in the video prior to (not) getting punched in the face. Defamer even reports that they received an anonymous email that the punch was rehearsed for the final show. That seems even more obvious now, due to fact that everybody in the club was laughing after the punch - strange behavior for people who are supposedly not in on the joke. (In old Andy Kaufman clips, you can definitely feel the room change after something like this.)
It’s an obvious attempt to get press after the Michael Richards fiasco and, much of the mainstream media didn’t bite (or perhaps didn’t have time to bite). I get why someone would try something like this but stunts aren’t going to make any of us reconsider Pauly Shore as Andy Kaufman. Many will just find him pathetic.
But there definitely can be real ugliness in comedy clubs today. A couple of weekends ago, I saw the aforementioned Rogan at Caroline’s and after the show, a brawl broke out among patrons (Caroline’s staff were great about getting in there immediately to contain it).
Though perhaps best known for his many appearances on vh1’s “Best Week Ever,” Christian Finnegan is a stand-up comedian and a very funny one at that. In late October, Christian Finnegan released his first CD entitled “Two for Flinching.” One of the things I find very interesting about Christian is that he’s attempting a balancing act that stays true to the alternative world while appearing in comedy clubs, looking for ways to make his specific experiences and observations universal and yet unique. I talked to Christian about how comedy waits for nobody, specificity when being dirty and why maybe having a piece of paper to refer to while performing was maybe once a good thing.
One of the things that Kambri (Christian’s wife and publicist) mentioned to me is that you know a town’s level of sophistication through salad dressing? Could you share what the theory is?
My theory about whether a town is a valid place – culturally – is if the restaurant serves balsamic vinaigrette. That for me is what will separate a culturally valid place from a shithole.
It’s all or nothing. There’s no staggers in between?
Listen, I don’t trust people who see shades of grey. (laughs) I’m like our President, I see right and I see wrong.
There’s balsamic vinaigrette and then there’s evil.
Generally, I’ll go to these places and I’ll ask about salad dressings and they’ll say, “Well we have ranch and blue cheese.” I’ll ask if they have anything not goopy and they’ll say, “I think we have creamy Italian.”
So to me balsamic vinaigrette is a hallmark of civilization.
Now this may sound ridiculous and silly, but I over-think this, so what the hell? Do little cues like this tell you what kind of audience you might be facing?
Well it depends, most of the time, these are colleges – college towns… the ones that don’t have balsamic vinaigrette… so in depth on balsamic vinaigrette here. That’s gonna be my tag, my hook – “Christian Finnegan: the balsamic vinaigrette comedian.”
But usually these are college towns (that I’m performing in). And a lot of college towns that are perfect valid and have perfectly intelligent people will be in the middle of nowhere. Not always.
Before I started traveling a lot, I really didn’t know how many colleges were out there and just how wide the pendulum swings from smart college to dumb college. There are a lot of people out there that are in college who I would not trust to park a car. Everybody goes to college now. No matter who you are. No matter what you do.
This is gonna sound so culturally elite. I went to a school and one of the girls who picked me up at the airport was studying horse grooming.
Horse grooming as a college major?
Yeah. A horse trainer tech or something like that.
That’s what apprenticeship programs used to be.
Exactly. You wanted to be a wizard, you met a wizard and learned his craft. You wanted to be a blacksmith; you didn’t have to go to University of Rhode Island to forge steel.
The reason I kind of explored these little cues is that when a comedian talks about reading a crowd and saying that they wanted this kind of material, I’m not really sure I understand what that is.
I kind of see both points of view. I think sometimes, as a comedian, you can fall prey to assuming an audience wants dumber material than maybe they do. That they don’t initially laugh at maybe one of your more obscure references and you just kind of throw in the towel and go all boobies and beer.
Like Greg Giraldo, tomorrow Christian Finnegan will also be celebrating his first comedy album release with Two for Flinching. In this track entitled “TPM” Christian shares what the future of computers might be in the wake of rampant internet pornography. It also features the second of two great font jokes as part of his DC Improv performance. (Fun fact: stand-up Todd Levin named Christian Finnegan’s CD beating out titles such as “Straight Outta Drama Club” and “Christina Finnefag’s Revenge")
Here’s a track from the first comedy album by Greg Giraldo entitled Good Day to Cross a River. This clip involves America and its eating habits and it’s one of my favorites ever since I first saw Giraldo perform it as part of the Insomniac Tour. The CD will be released tomorrow, October 24.
Steven Wright, to my mind, is probably the most influential comic of our time. His unique delivery of one-liners can be traced like a family tree to many comedians both directly and indirectly. To me, it’s hard to imagine that there’s a young audience out there who may have never seen him perform stand-up. That’s about the change this Saturday at 9PM with Steven Wright’s first comedy special in 15 years entitled “When the Leaves Blow Away” airs on Comedy Central. (If you haven’t seen it yet, you can see a clip of Steven Wright’s performance here.) I talked to Steven about his style being just him, the logic of jokes and Johnny Carson as someone he never want to be measured against.
It’s funny how many reporters ask you how your style developed. Why do you think so many of them are flummoxed by the way you talk because that’s always your answer: “This is how I talk.”
I think that somehow… I don’t know. They think I’m making it up. I don’t know why though. I’m so used to the question because of so many years of that question. I used to think, “What do they think I’m making up?” Not only I’m making the jokes up I’m making a whole way of talking up too. And I didn’t understand why they ask me.
All I can think of is maybe in their mind because it’s distinct – the style of my voice is distinct that they think that it’s not real. I’m only guessing.
It always sounds like that to me that they assume that is where the humor is coming from. That it is what is making the material funny. Or funnier.
I think that too. I think that they think that. I don’t know if that’s true because I’ve only ever talked this one way my whole life. (laughs)
Part of me thinks by accidentally that is making it work and good. But it might have worked with other voices too. I think that definitely it’s a good match.
But I didn’t decide. That’s just how I wrote jokes. This is just how I speak. There’s no big meeting. There’s no game plan.
Later this week, we’ll have my interview with Steven Wright. But first, an exclusive clip from his upcoming stand-up special “Steven Wright: When the Leaves Blow Away”, his first in sixteen years. It airs this Saturday the 21st at 9PM.
A visit to the set of "Extract", Mike Judge's next comedy. It involves a factory owner's life going awry after one of his employees loses a testicle. He filming it independently, so no studio idiocracy this time.
Oct2
Starting tomorrow in Los Angeles at the New Beverly Cinema is Patton Oswalt's month of films. The first weekend's theme is "Walter Mathau Saves the World."
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Though perhaps best known for his many appearances on vh1’s “Best Week Ever,” Christian Finnegan is a stand-up comedian and a very funny one at that. In late October, Christian Finnegan released his first CD entitled “Two for Flinching.” One of the things I find very interesting about Christian is that he’s attempting a balancing act that stays true to the alternative world while appearing in comedy clubs, looking for ways to make his specific experiences and observations universal and yet unique. I talked to Christian about how comedy waits for nobody, specificity when being dirty and why maybe having a piece of paper to refer to while performing was maybe once a good thing.
. In this track entitled “TPM” Christian shares what the future of computers might be in the wake of rampant internet pornography. It also features the second of two great font jokes as part of his DC Improv performance. (Fun fact: stand-up 
. This clip involves America and its eating habits and it’s one of my favorites ever since I first saw Giraldo perform it as part of the 
. The CD will be released tomorrow, October 24.
Steven Wright, to my mind, is probably the most influential comic of our time. His unique delivery of one-liners can be traced like a family tree to many comedians both directly and indirectly. To me, it’s hard to imagine that there’s a young audience out there who may have never seen him perform stand-up. That’s about the change this Saturday at 9PM with Steven Wright’s first comedy special in 15 years entitled “When the Leaves Blow Away” airs on Comedy Central. (If you haven’t seen it yet, you can 
