Stand-Up Comedy
Jan102006
Filed Under Stand-Up Comedy
Gawker reported that comedian Demetri Martin’s apartment was among those damaged in a fire in the West Village yesterday. Although Gawker says in the headline that Demetri’s stuff is all gone, I’ve since corresponded with the comic who said:
thanks for writing to me.
i was pretty lucky in the whole fire situation.
some of my neighbors lost everything. i lost only part of my roof.
i have to find a new place to live for a while, but other than that i didn’t lose any stuff.
demetri.
Obviously, it’s good to hear he’s OK and hopefully, so are his neighbors, despite their loses.
Jan062006
Filed Under Stand-Up Comedy
“January is Stand-Up Month” proclaims Comedy Central, with a big feature their annual online Dane Cook-takes-first-again Stand-Up Showdown. I doubt Dane Cook will be ousted this year… his huge fanbase is already getting the word with his big flash-intensive website asking them to vote for him right in the loading message.
A bit more interesting is that two of the more prominent comics in the current top 25 disliked their Comedy Central Presents performances - Patton Oswalt and the late Mitch Hedberg. Patton in talking about the forthcoming DVD of his one-hour special “No Reason to Complain”
said:
...they’re putting my half-hour special [from 1999] on my DVD. I’m going to have a thing on my website saying, “If you want to see how NOT to do a stand-up special, I’m including this bonus feature: a bad stand-up special,” which is what my half-hour is.
And Mitch described how much his performance had to be edited:
[The editors] changed a guy yelling, “You ain’t Chris Rock!” into “Encore! Encore!” That’s how bad it was. It was a weird experience. I wanted to bury that thing.
He later states that the sweetening made the show work. Even if they weren’t in love with their performances, they definitely deserve votes anyway - the Showdown’s more of a quick popular vote on who’s funny now than a measure of the stand-up performances themselves. But when you watch the full countdown on Sunday, January 29th and wonder “how did this comic ever get this high in the countdown?” - maybe their fans just love ‘em despite their off night.
Dec272005
Filed Under Stand-Up Comedy
Apparently Spin Magazine has confirmed that Mitch Hedberg died of a drug overdose, including cocaine and heroin. It’s not surprising news, but it doesn’t change how funny the man was. I think the best thought I ever read on this was from Doug Stanhope back in March:
I don’t know how Mitch died. I know how Mitch lived and he lived brilliantly and by his own rules. The number of years next to his name is trivia. The contents of those years is inspiration.
More of Doug Stanhope’s words on Mitch Hedberg’s death here.
UPDATE: Peter Hyman, author of the Spin piece, has commentary on his reporting on his blog.
Dec142005
Filed Under Sketch Comedy, Stand-Up Comedy
Inspired by his talk with Bob Newhart at the Aspen Comedy Festival, comedian and director David Steinberg is repeating the experience with Newhart and five others in Sit Down Comedy, a talk show about comedians and comedy premiering tonight on TV Land at 10 PM. All of the episodes can be previewed with podcasts available through iTunes, with full episodes available later as streaming video. The comics to be featured along with Newhart are Mike Meyers, Larry David, George Lopez, Martin Short and Jon Lovitz.
From my viewing of the podcast clips, you can see how Steinberg likes to keep things loose, even admiting he hasn’t done any research. So insights into the craft of comedy are more like discoveries within a mass of pretty enjoyable banter. (In other words, this isn’t Inside Joke.) Still, hearing Larry David giving his first hand account of how he famously abandoned a stand-up set before he said the first joke is pretty priceless. (it’s also kinda fun for Meyers admit, though it is practically common knowledge by now, that Monty Python is an anti-aphrodisiac.)
At times, it’s seems Steinberg isn’t interested in the details of how his guests became and learned to be comics, but rather in them performing their greatest hits (or in the case of Jon Lovitz, encouraging him to perform one of Woody Allen’s bits). But the forum is so relaxed and friendly, the subjects are comfortable enough to talk about whatever. With someone who’s an interview shy as Larry David, it’s a real opportunity. If you’re interested in the comic Steinberg’s talking to, it’s worth watching.
Dec122005
Filed Under Stand-Up Comedy
I believe there’s a tendency to shrink people’s legacies. I’ve heard it said that black comedians owe a great deal to Richard Pryor, which is true, but only because all comedians owe so much to Richard. Richard taught everybody how to be real. How to find humor in yourself on stage, not just in the rhythms of setup and punch but in stories of experiences. He said it all, never afraid of honesty and truth. I don’t think it’s wrong to say the black comics have a great debt to Richard, I just don’t think they’re the only ones who owe Richard. We are all living in the shadow of this great comic and his influence will continue for a long time.
It’s pretty much impossible to sum up Richard Pryor’s influence and contribution to the world of Comedy in one blog post, so I’m just going to keep posting links to tributes and sites, along with my impressions as they come. Previous tributes/links can be found here.
The LA Times obituary
USA Today has a big package, including an obituary, a timeline of the big events in Richard’s life and highlights from his movie career.
Richard’s daughter Rain, a comic herself, says goodbye to her father on her web page.
Richard Pryor’s official site is now encouraging people to post to Richard’s myspace page, along with, in lieu of flowers, to his charity for animals, Pryor’s Planet.
Dec102005
Filed Under Stand-Up Comedy
This post will be updated as more stories/retrospectives come in. Carson & Pryor in the same year. Ugh.
Life:
Work:
Richard Pryor’s Homepage is currently down once you get past the gateway page, either it’s slammed from traffic or an update is in progress. Back up, though the forums are naturally gone, encouraging people to send their best wishes to .
Dec062005
Filed Under Stand-Up Comedy
Though comics like Patton Oswalt hate the one-size-fits-all format, for right now Comedy Central’s Premium Blend is the first TV stand-up performance for many a comic. (I imagine with all the VH1 “Nostalgia-ago-go!” shows, most stand-ups first TV experience is now commenting on Paris Hilton or her 80’s doppelganger.)
Anyway, Todd Levin made his Premium Blend appearance this past Friday and thanks to his quite enjoyable blog Tremble, you can read through his discovery that the laughs in his set have rankings, his negotiations with Comedy Central’s standards and practices and how he copes with the career and monetary expectations of panhandlers he happens to be friendly with. You can even read about how shocked he was to discover he was smiling so broadly for publicity photos. In an interview, Levin mentioned that that are “several years of performing that lead up to those seven minutes”, but these several blog entries are a pretty good lesson on how many things go into a comic preparing to perform for 500 people for the first time.
If you missed it, you can catch a clip of the Todd Levin’s performance here.
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