I only got to drop by for the second half of the last Invite Them Up and ended up watching most of it was the bar because Rififi was appropriately packed for this last show. Some highlights of what I saw:
The last 30 Seconds of Stand-Up, which had no stand-up but instead had the chanting theme remixed. Audience members (mostly male, causing Craig Baldo to actually request girls) came on stage and they had a little dance party, including Bobby Tisdale reaching under some dancers to placing the microphone on their groins. (It was a repeat bit from Monday night’s show - they loved it that much.)
Mike Birbiglia delivering a set that reminisced and skewered (he referred to the previous dance party as what was so great about alternative comedy - “it’s not funny. But it makes you smile.")
Eugene Mirman having some fun with a recent email correspondence. I unfortunately heard very little of due to the loudness at the bar. Many sssh-es made, but to little avail.
Jon Glazer and Jon Benjamin as a pair of Chicago brothers named Dave who are relations of TV Cops Dennis Ferrina and Dennis Franz. They urged the audience to consider a vote for Mike Huckabee with an almost meditation-like song. It had Todd Barry in stitches.
Demetri Martin, who like Birbiglia, had some fun with the show and a couple of jabs at Rififi’s expense. He tore down one of the pieces of paper that cover one of the most stained/destroyed parts of the movie screen behind the stage.
Another thing I saw: a sign informing the audience that they were shooting the show for a documentary. A lot of early movements in comedy there’s been very little documentation, other than the writings of some folks who were there. So you see the end product - what makes it to TV. Not the inspiration and work that made it. All I have of the landmark show “Eating It” are memories - being at Rebar, watching Louis CK threaten to throw a stool at people to discover if it was funny or not. With Invite Them Up, along with the CD/DVD set put out by Comedy Central Records and various web video, there might be a documentary of this final night. (I’ll catch that Eugene Mirman bit then.)
Afterwards, I made my way to the performance space and stood in the room for a minute. Nothing’s really changing - both the venue and the performers will be around. But it was a moment in time. I wanted to feel the shift in the scene for a second.
Here’s a quick look at an album forthcoming from Todd Barry. “From Heaven” is Barry’s third album and was recorded in front of a very raucous and appreciative crowd at Boston’s The Comedy Studio.
This track features Barry sharing how this some information he does not need to know about his partner’s anal sex history and why you should plan to sleep in if you have sex with him.
In the Summer of 2009, Just For Laughs and TBS will pair up for the “Just For Laughs: A Very Funny Festival” which will be held in Chicago. The only top line talent mentioned right now isEllen Degeneres, but there’s also the obvious tie of working together with Second City. No exact dates have been set for the five-day fest as of yet.
A while back I talked about if we need a new festival after the loss of Aspen’s US Comedy Arts Festival. Although I’ve seen some suggest that this is the replacement for that, but from my read the Very Funny Festival seems far more consumer oriented. Also, considering the likely closeness to the industry heavy 2009 Montreal Festival also produced by Just For Laughs, I don’t see this as an Aspen replacement.
TBS will also be taking “The Comedy Festival” off HBO’s hands. With that fest and this new Chicago festival, TBS is making a big play to be Comedy Central’s main competitor. The “very funny” theme has been a part of TBS for a while and with its concentration on sitcoms, to me it marked itself as the less-edgy competitor for Comedy Central. With both fests under TBS, this could be a big play to become a major player in stand-up on TV, something which Comedy Central has had mostly to itself for quite a while.
Comedy Central, of course, wouldn’t let their territory go easily. They have their own fest now, the South Beach Comedy Festival. It’ll be interesting to see if Comedy Central takes on a second fest as well.
When I questioned the need for an Aspen Comedy Festival, I wondered about the point of holding a fest when the web seems to bring comedy talent out of the woodwork. These latest developments have answered my question: comedy festivals are branding opportunities for networks. They’re to say to the public, particularly in TBS case, “Hey, we’re where you can find the funny!” Hence almost all the big USA fests having a more consumer appeal. They’re not deal making events, they’re a synergistic diversification of a business model.
But don’t be disappointed for the Big Easy, one of those old-fashioned homegrown fests is currently in the works. The New Orleans Comedy Arts Festival will be taking place on April 3rd to the 5th at the La Nuit Theater. How quaint!
I have two (2) copies of the recently released Comic Relief: The Greatest… and the Latest DVD to give away. There’s two disk in this, the first collecting some highlights from the 20 years of the benefit shows and the second has the full 2006 show.
I actually was in the audience for the 2006 show, which was pretty amazing though a long show (this was also have four days of a comedy festival for me, so I may have been under a little laughter fatigue). DVD is kind of ideal here, where you can move directly to Louis CK‘s great saddest handjob in the world bit or, in your case, perhaps, your favorite comic. There’s a lot of them on there: Sarah Silverman, Lewis Black, Katt Williams, George Lopez, Bill Maher, et ceterea.
The first disk might possibly be your favorite though, if you grew up watching a couple of these shows like I did. Though in abbreviated forms, there’s footage of Bobcat Goldthwait drinking squid juice and the Bob and David naked improv game. Plus George Carlin‘s “Place to put your stuff” routine, some proto-bits from Dave Chappelle and Garry Shandling, Elayne Boosler, Steven Wright. All that and Dane Cook with an “achy breaky heart” mullet during his 1996 appearance on “American Comedy Festival.”
To win, all you have to do is write me an email at by March 1 with your address. I’ll inform the lucky winners by email.
A reader named Chase turned me on to this. Earlier this week at the 2008 Grammys, George Lopez did a joke that seemed very familiar to fans of Dave Chappelle. The joke revolves around how a minority candidate can protect themselves from assassination. Here’s the video:
It looks pretty similar and Dave Chappelle definitely did it first. But, considering the race for the Democratic nomination, I can see an argument could be made that this is a joke that any comic could observe. It is in the realm of current events now.
The extra wrinkle on this is that George Lopez has been an outspoken critic of Carlos Mencia, who Lopez once accused of lifting nearly 13 minutes of his material for Mencia’s HBO Comedy Half Hour. He even went to the extent of having a physical confrontation with Mencia at Los Angeles’ Laugh Factory. (Though Lopez made the accusation, no comparison video between their material has ever been made.) If you’re accusing other comics, you probably should be very aware of where your material might intersect with another comic, particularly a prominent one like Chappelle.
I think also should be noted that we can’t be sure this was Lopez’s material. The Grammys were allowed to use WGA writers and perhaps one of them scripted this line. I think this is unlikely - Lopez is a good comic and can easily bring in his own material. But it’s still possible that someone else scripted the line for Lopez.
So what do you think? Is this joke stealing? Or just a current events joke?
Mike Birbiglia has grown as a comedians since my first interview with the comic. He’s changing his style to rely more on sharing a great story that holds an audience, eliciting a diversity of reactions that inevitably lead back to laughter. His first one-hour special entitled “What I Should Have Said Was Nothing” shares many of the stories that he has told on his immensely popular Secret Public Journal.
Another new trait to his comedy is his unique way of framing political material, trying to make it as friendly to all audience as possible, but doing it in places where he’s not preaching to the converted. I talked to Mike about the special and storytelling, audience reactions and his one criticism of the special, if he was held to just one.
“What I Should Have Said Was Nothing”
Premieres Saturday, February 9th at Midnight on Comedy Central
”What I Should Have Said Was Nothing” is presented a little bit more like a one man show than a stand-up special. Does that change how an audience responds to material?
Well, it’s funny. Because I’ve been changing my focus over the last few years from joketelling to storytelling. Kind of in the tradition of Cosby and Pryor, as models… I’m not comparing myself to them. (laughs)
My agent, Mike Berkowitz… I’ll totally be outing him by saying this but I really trust his opinion. He listened to the CD and said, “Your CD is only CD that I listen to and I don’t shut it off every five minutes. I’m actually engaged and I want to hear what’s going to happen next. And it keeps me there.”
That’s all I’m trying to do. I want to have comedy albums that you feel like are an experiences rather than, “that’s funny… that’s funny… that’s funny… I’m going to go get a sandwich.” (laughs) And you come back a couple of days later and go, “oh, that’s funny… that’s funny… that’s funny… I’m going to go for a jog.”
There’s definitely a lot of great, very funny CDs out there. And what I’m trying to do is have CDs that are full kind of concert experiences rather than just funny.
It is kind of a problem with some comedy CDs. They don’t repeat well. But something like what you’re doing, you can experience them over and over again. It’s more like reading a book or a short story – you get put into the same place and have the same feelings.
Absolutely. I’m playing Carolines March 27-30. I’m doing four nights and I’m doing four different shows. Thursday night, I’m doing “Two Drink Mike.” Friday night, I’m doing “Secret Public Journal Live.” Saturday night, I’m doing “Sleepwalk with Me.” And Sunday night, I’m doing a best of and requests and kind of a fun free-for-all show. B-sides if you will.
And somebody said to me, do you think the audience will be bored because they’re one step ahead of you on “Two Drink Mike.” I actually think that if you call it out before you do it. And there’s an understanding of what you’re doing, you’re in the clear.
If I walked out on stage and said, “You know I was just thinking the other day, I should call myself a cracker.” (laughs) People would be like, “No, you didn’t. You were thinking that four years ago.”
Exactly. But if you come out and say, “A few years ago I was recording this album ‘Two Drink Mike.’ Here’s what I was thinking about at the time.” And then you go into the stuff. And people are, “Yea. Yea. I remember this one. This one’s great.”
Tomorrow, I’ll have a new interview with Mike Birbiglia on his first one-hour special, but for now here’s are two clips from “What I Should Have Said Was Nothing.”
Mike Judge tells MTV he's kinda warmed up to the idea of doing a live action Beavis and Butt-Head movie. He just animated a short segment with the duo for the upcoming "The Animation Show."
Andrew Dice Clay: "I think girl comics are doing better than guy comics today. They're more exciting than guy comics." Later, tells interviewer about a girl coming over who a "10-and-a-half." (AV Club)
The good: CBS adds two sitcoms to schedule. The bad: Mike Birbiglia's show appears to have not been picked up. You can watch previews of what they did order.
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is Barry’s third album and was recorded in front of a very raucous and appreciative crowd at Boston’s 
In the Summer of 2009, Just For Laughs and TBS will pair up for the 
I have two (2) copies of the recently released 
to give away. There’s two disk in this, the first collecting some highlights from the 20 years of the benefit shows and the second has the full 2006 show.
