It Doesn’t Take a Village.
Filed Under Stand-Up Comedy
A brand new blog about comedy The Apiary, makes a good point that the Village Voice ignores comedy including a search for young comic Aziz Ansari which brings up nothing. To be fair the Village Voice does give a comprehensive listing of venues that can be found right off the home page. These don’t get down to the specifics of who’s playing where, but at least you know where to look.
It wasn’t always this way. Back during the 80s boom, Laurie Stone had a column in The Village Voice entitled “Laughing in the Dark” which covered stand-up comedy. It was later collected into a book with the same title
But what The Apiary is talking about is listings. It is rather puzzling The Village Voice doesn’t talk about comedy more, but the alt weekly seems to take itself so seriously, why would anybody who was interested in something funny read it. TimeOutNY and The Onion do a fine job with the scene. Comedy doesn’t really need The Village Voice.
You should strive to be more pedantic Todd, because live comedy isn’t going to get out of the ghetto without establishing critics and meaningful dialogue. Think about it… you can go to any college and get a degree in Art History or Music or Theatre or Dance or Film Studies. But what about Comedy? Why is comedy shunned on an academic level yet so pervasive within our culture?
Yes, comedy does need the Village Voice—it’s sophomoric to brush off the impact media can bring to the form. It needs validation as an art, and it needs someone to set the pace. But, before society can validate it, we have to make it visible. It might be as simple as pitching your local newspaper and telling them, “Hey! I know things about the comedy beat that you don’t and I have important things to say.”
Perhaps that’s what the Voice is waiting for.