Dec132007
Semi-Pro Tour Has Some Real Pro Stand-Ups
Filed Under Movies, Stand-Up Comedy
It’s a little strange when you’re more excited by the promotional efforts for a movie, rather than the movie itself. I suppose it’s common in our culture for action films (”Cloverfield Happy Meal - with Hazy Photos of the Monster Inside!"), but this is the first time I’ve ever experienced with a comedy.
For Semi-Pro, an upcoming sports comedy from Will Ferrell, they’re going to promote the movie with a stand-up tour entitled “Will Ferrell’s Funny or Die Comedy Tour Presented by Semi-Pro.” Included on the tour are some favorites of mine(and yours too) including Zach Galifianakis, Nick Swardson and Demetri Martin.
And the bizarre thing, at least according to the cast list, none of those guys are in Semi-Pro. It’s almost completely tangential. I can even see how some might argue that comedians like Demetri and Zach aren’t comics that Ferrell fans know or love. From the look of the trailer (included below), Semi-Pro doesn’t excite me, but it does look a lot like what people want from Will Ferrell. Nobody knows anything, but I wouldn’t be surprised if stand-up comedy tour or no stand-up comedy tour, the film would make exactly the same box office.
So with the film’s likely strength and the completely unrelated talent, I really think this tour is going to more for stand-up than it will for the movie. And considering the top-notch talent involved who will get that bump, I think I love Semi-Pro.
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and the South Park collection 
Not too sure what I feel about this film since it seems like it’s really a bit ‘hack’ in some respects. Will Ferrell is great but how many sports comedys are there? This seems a bit like the oversaturation of “Dorf on [Sport]” videos from the 1980s.
But…
What doesn’t seem hack at all is Andy Daly’s character. This guy is very underrated and reminds me of the button-down classic comedians of the 1960s.
“It’s almost as if you are in some sort of basketball trance!”