Here’s a look at virtual Ricky Gervais performing stand-up at Split Sides, the comedy club inside Rockstar Games latest satirical video game Grand Theft Auto IV. The audio takes a while to come in, but after a moment you can hear Gervais’s routine, which is about being fat not being a disease. (Watch while you can, GTA IV video, at least today, has a way of disappearing fast.)
That virtual crowd’s laughter is a little creepy, huh?
The bit is kind perfect for the game - the developers love to make fun of American gluttony. This isn’t the previous unreleased material mentioned before, but, according to Pilkipedia, a bit from Gervais’s special “Fame.” (Patrice O’Neal has a similar bit, but I suppose might have been a bit more difficult to render in polygons.) This is only an excerpt, so I kind of wonder how long Gervais’s set is (and if has an opener and a middle).
If any of you folks are getting the game at midnight tonight, Split Sides is located in the Algonquin borough (the stand-in for Manhattan). If you heckle, try to do it with words, not machine gun fire.
Update: According to this Wired report, Katt Williams is also in the game.
At the previously mentioned Friars Club event, I talked to Drink at Work’s Carol Hartsell a little bit about the following clip. I found it on Mark Evanier’s website. It features Charlie Callas in a bit from Johnny Carson era of the Tonight Show. Mark says he was there on the night of the taping and had never seen a human being laugh as hard as Carson did at the following bit.
Callas pretty much goes nuts on stage there, exaggerating the physicality of the bit to the nth degree. No wonder it hit Carson so hard. Callas fucking committed. One of the things I voiced to Carol was how I worried that some alternative comics today, in order to not appear desperate for a laugh, wouldn’t go for broke like this.
And then I saw Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler‘s appearance at the 2008 Melbourne Comedy Festival gala. They did “Kristin Schaal is a Horse"…
Here’s a look at the story of Ricky Gervais’ first time performing stand-up comedy, from a British show called “Comedy Map.” Gervais, despite being known on TV as a comedian, felt he needed to put some time in front of a live audience. (I sort of love/hate the aside from the club owner about how he set up Gervais first show. Yeah, no pressure.)
Meanwhile, can you believe there’s a TV Show featuring landmarks in the history of British comedians. Is the whole country full of comedy nerds?
Like a few people, sometimes my first exposure to a comic is their TV special. The first time I saw Dov Davidoff was through his Comedy Central Presents special. A lot can be lost with transferring a comic from the club to the TV, but there was an amazing energy with Dov that gave me that moment where I move to the edge of the couch, leaning forward to make sure I catch it all. The folks at Comedy Central were impressed as well, as his first CD entitled “The Point Is...” comes out on the CC Records label just next week.
The following are pieces from two tracks from the upcoming album. The first is entitled “The Gay Man” and the second “Magnum.” One of my favorite tricks of Dov’s is on display in the first, where he’ll ask an audience member’s name and continually return to deliver his jokes to that person, almost like he’s having a conversation with them rather than doing a routine for a room of strangers.
Lewis Black had a water bottle throw at him during the 2007 Bonnaroo Music Festival. At the time it appeared to be the act of one stupid audience member. But was it something more? This video looks into the truth behind what a bit of seemingly innocent asshole-ry.
Hmm… many questions were raised, but very few answers. Will more be revealed in the 2008 Bonnaroo Music Fest? Probably not.
But hopefully nobody will conspire against this year’s comedy lineup at Bonnaroo, which includes David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, Zach Galifianakis, Jim Norton, Brian Posehn, Mike Birbiglia, John Mulaney and Michelle Buteau. Plus, Chris Rock will make a one hour performance on the main stage. Bonnaroo takes place from June 12th to the 15th.
The following interview with Maria was conducted over email.
A female comedian friend of mine was a little bothered that you weren’t part of Vanity Fair’s Funny Women issue. I was bummed that you weren’t on there too. Did you feel like it was an oversight?
Oh no! Not at all. I’m not at all in that league- there were tons of lots more relevant ladies left out because they probably didn’t have the room in the picture.
That Vanity Fair issue was focused more on comedy on TV or movies. Like a lot of mainstream media, they kind of ignored live comedy. Is being a stand-up like stealth show business?
Stand-up is listed with Karaoke in most newspapers- but, once people can get your emails and myspaces it gets better as far as letting people know about your showbiz. I love the internet.
I’ve heard you mention the book The Artist Way helped you pursue stand- up as a career. Self-help books are very sincere and comedy is very cynical by nature. Was getting through the book a little hard as your comic mind grew – that you found more in the book to make fun of the more it helped you?
I LOVE SELF HELP. Help me to help me help me help ME help ME. I have a hard time being sincere on stage, but off stage- it’s all solid eye contact, low voice and a deep yearning to understand. I love to make fun of that book but I also LOVE THAT BOOK.
There’s a little under 15 minutes of the upcoming sixth season of Last Comic Standing in this post. A couple of interesting things about it:
It’s all stuff too filthy for network TV, so it’s unlikely you’d see any of it on LCS anyway.
Since it’s raw footage, there’s none of LCS’s typical tells about the funniness of the performer. No music, no judge commentary, no sandwiching between bad or good comics. Just the stand-up, so you can judge for yourself whether the comic is funny. What a novel concept!
With the later in mind, I’m not going to comment on any of these videos. You can decide on the hilarity or lack thereof of the comics within.
I suspect this is an attempt at that old viral marketing, but I think I’m the first person to stumble on the footage. They’re were all uploaded a couple of days ago but none of them even 50 views yet. So NBC may have no idea this shit is out there. They might disappear quick. Watch while you can. The first two are below:
Susie Essman: "I don't get heckled that much. Most hecklers are men... When I'm on stage, I'm in control and I don't think men want to be humiliated by a woman. Where with other guys, it's a mano y mano thing, with me I don't think they want to go there." (AintItCool)
Digg |
del.icio.us |
Stumble It!
comes out on the CC Records label just next week.
The following interview with Maria was conducted over email.
.
