Mo’s History of American Alternative Comedy, Part 5

The last in Mo Diggs series which gives a broader take on alternative comedy looks at the current comedy movement we most typically associate with the term.

A Scene Is Born: ‘90s–Today

After the comedy bust of the early ‘90s, comedians like David Cross, Andy Kindler and Janeane Garofalo would stop by a room started by performance artist-turned-comedian Beth Lapides. Much as Carlin grew impatient with the unctuous nightclubs like the Copacabana, Lapides was repulsed by the homophobia and racism she found at venues like The Comedy Store and The Improv. Unlike Carlin—or any other American comedian before—Lapides made her own show as an alternative to this style of comedy. Starting in 1993 and continuing for seven years, Lapides would produce Un-Cabaret on Sunday nights at Luna Park.

Un-Cabaret’s brand of alternative comedy was based in storytelling and stream-of-consciousness rants, and added a structural innovation: a second microphone in the back of the room that Lapides used to talk to other performers while they were onstage. This ensured an informal, conversational and spontaneous performance situation in keeping with Un-Cabaret’s insistence that performers never “do their act.” (Wikipedia)

And so the LA alternative comedy scene began. David Cross and Bob Odenkirk would try out Mr. Show sketches before airing them. Patton Oswalt and Dana Gould would talk about comic books. Janeane Garofalo would read from her notebook onstage. Lapides would urge comedians to be unflinchingly honest onstage and to not do their act. TV writers like Larry Charles and Judd Apatow would do Un-Cabaret at night.

Thus, the alternative comedy business model was born: music venues would have non-mainstream comedians who often wrote for TV in the day.

The first television show to reflect the new comedic sensibility was The Ben Stiller Show (Fox, 1992-93), which featured Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller, Bob Odenkirk as actor and writer as well as the writing debut of David Cross.

In downtown New York, comedy flourishes outside of the stand-up club circuit. Theatres that are more known for improv or sketch comedy, like the Upright Citizens’ Brigade Theater (UCB), and The People’s Improv Theater (PIT), as well as cabarets that do not exclusively offer any kind of comedy, like Rififi, have weekly comedy shows…. The comedians at these shows offer character-based humour or surreal humour as opposed to observations of everyday life or more polemical themes. A growing number of comics (Demetri Martin, Slovin and Allen, Andres du Bouchet) do not only tell jokes, opting to play music, give Powerpoint presentations or act out sketches as well. It’s rare to see these performers in a traditional New York comedy club much like it’s rare to see a traditional “club comic” in an underground room. A few alternative comics (David Cross, Todd Barry, Patton Oswalt) have enough crossover appeal to play in more mainstream venues.

Comedy group Stella (Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black and David Wain) and the sketch group Upright Citizens’ Brigade were heavily influential on the current New York alternative comedy scene. Stella—a trio whose absurdist humour has been compared to the Marx Brothers—began doing their shows (in which they would perform along with other comics and sketch groups like Eugene Mirman and the Upright Citizens’ Brigade) at the NY club Fez in 1997. In 1999, the original Upright Citizens’ Brigade Theater opened in Chelsea. Four years later, in 2003, several performers at the UCB spun off their own theatre, and formed the PIT.
(Wikipedia) (Disclosure: I wrote almost all of this text.)

There were also shows like Eating It at the Luna Lounge, where Todd Barry would perform along with East Village stars like Reverend Jen. The now-defunct club Surf Reality would feature Janeane Garofalo, Marc Maron, The Sklar Brothers, Rick and Rob Shapiro and the Upright Citizens Brigade alongside performance-art comedians. (PDF)

“Michael Ian Black once laid down a sheet, put a bunch of belongings down and just sold them one by one. Interesting? Definitely. Funny? Who cares?” - Seth Herzog in The Apiary

In this decade, Eugene Mirman, Human Giant and Jonathan Coulton have all used the web to further their careers and many alternative comedians today use the web the way Hope and Benny used radio to embolden their efforts to forging new comic ground.Eugene Mirman’s surreal, bizarre comedic imagery has proven particularly effective on the nascent indie comedy scene, which has seen an increasing amount of comedians getting signed to indie rock labels and performing at music festivals. Perhaps a new form of comedy will emerge, making stand-up comedians look as obsolete as vaudevillians. More likely, stand-up will adapt through transformation yet again.