Think Tank: Best in Breed

Think Tank (our video series for MSN's Postbox) is back. This week we tackle the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden.

Labels: think tank

Permalink | 2/10/2012 | 0 comment(s)

Hot Soup comes to Friday night

I'm hosting a special FRIDAY NIGHT edition of Hot Soup on Feb 10 at 9pm. The lineup:

Jordan Carlos
Jared Logan
Sean Donnelly
Emily Heller
David Cope
Mark Normand

Friday, Feb 10
HOT SOUP! at UCB-East
155 E. 3rd Street (at Avenue A)
Doors at 8:45pm, showtime at 9pm. $10 tickets.
Produced by David Cope, Mark Normand, and Matt Ruby.
Make a reservation.

Labels: hot soup, shows

Permalink | 2/09/2012 | 0 comment(s)

The musicality and rhythm of funny

See this a lot: A newer comic is hosting a show and asks the audience a question or encourages them to applaud. But gets nothing in return. And then he tells the audience they're crappy.

But a lot of times the problem is in the way the request was delivered: the rhythm of how you say it, whether or not you raise your voice, your body language, how/when you pause, etc. Those things are all telling the audience you want a response. Your actual words are just a small part of the equation:

Only a small percentage of communication involves actual words: 7%, to be exact. In fact, 55% of communication is visual (body language, eye contact) and 38% is vocal (pitch, speed, volume, tone of voice).

The same problem happens with punchlines too. Unless you're going for a deadpan thing or a Steve Martin "they decide when to laugh" approach, you should be "telling" the audience when to laugh with your delivery. There should be an implied rim shot at your punchlines. If not, jokes won't hit hard. And you may mistakenly blame the audience or the joke when, in reality, it was the way you said it.

Anyway, all that's a lead in to this clip where I talk about the musicality and rhythm of funny...



That clip is from my 2011 interview with Erik Michielsen of Capture Your Flag. You can watch the entire interview here. (And the interview we did in 2010 here.)

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 2/06/2012 | 0 comment(s)

What would it be like if Don Draper did standup comedy?

Ad legend David Ogilvy's notes on his work habits as a copywriter.

8. I am terrified of producing a lousy advertisement. This causes me to throw away the first 20 attempts.

9. If all else fails, I drink half a bottle of rum and play a Handel oratorio on the gramophone. This generally produces an uncontrollable gush of copy.

10. The next morning I get up early and edit the gush.

Coming up with a catchy tagline sounds a lot like coming up with a punchline.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 2/03/2012 | 0 comment(s)

Marvin Gaye does some "crowdwork"

Bummer about Don Cornelius (Soul Train founder found dead from gunshot wound). He's the man responsible for this, one of my favorite things to watch ever: Marvin Gaye doing "Let's Get It On" on Soul Train in 1974.



Talk about, um, connecting with an audience. The 2:40-3:05 interview part is pretty fun too.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 2/01/2012 | 1 comment(s)

Why The Creek is a special place

The Creek and The Cave Kickstarter project.

NYC isn't a very nurturing place. And the comedy scene is pretty heartless too. That's what makes a place like The Creek so special. Rebecca Trent has set up an environment where people feel like they belong as opposed to somewhere that's trying to milk them.

The Creek was the first comedy venue that ever felt like home to me. I was doing shows at clubs in NYC and felt sick of the toxic environment of those places. It felt like everything was based on some hierarchy instead of talent. And the people there seemed more inclined to insult each other than be friends.

When I showed up to perform at Kingdom of Heaven, it felt completely different. It felt like hanging out with friends. I got to see great comics like Sean Patton, Jesse Popp, Nick Turner (who has a great writeup on The Creek too), and lots more take off. And I got to feel like part of a group doing comedy, something I hadn't felt before.

Eventually I wound up starting We're All Friends Here there with Mark and then hanging out there even more. There were Thanksgivings with deep fried turkey for "orphans," Christmas dinners for Jews, Super Bowls (Who Dat!), shows with substances, shows with nearly naked ladies, shows with film crews, JFL auditions, podcasts, burritos, long nights in the basement, fun afternoons on the back patio, and some of the best comedy nights I've ever seen. And also tons of shitty shows too. But the shitty ones were ok because the place encourages comics to experiment and take chances. How many venues in NYC can say that?

Running a comedy venue is a bad way to make money. Rebecca does it because she loves comedy and the scene and the group of people who hang out there all the time. And that's a special thing. People like Rebecca and venues like The Creek are what keep the comedy scene spinning. Rick Jenkins at The Studio in Boston and Mark Geary at The Lincoln Lodge in Chicago have a similar impact. Us comics owe them a lot. We should express our gratitude. So Rebecca: Thanks. You've built something amazing there and it's really helped out the NYC comedy community a ton. It's a special place and people will be talking about it years from now as the Ding Ho of our scene.

Now The Creek wants some help putting up a marquee and advertising the venue so they can put more butts in seats. It's a cause worth supporting. I encourage you to give what you can.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 1/31/2012 | 0 comment(s)

#koreatownkaraoke

Karaoke is a mutual hostage situation. "I'll let you suck if you let me suck!" But alas, I was coerced into attending a friend's bday Karaoke extravaganza in Koreatown on Sat night. Went ahead and live tweeted it at #koreatownkaraoke. Follow along to experience the pain/wonder of it all. Now let's take these lies and make them true somehow.

Labels: funny stuff

Permalink | 1/30/2012 | 0 comment(s)

The thing you’re most reluctant to tell

Birbigs movie in EW.

The movie is about “the concept you can talk about these things your ashamed of, and more often than not, you find a deeper connection with people,” Birbiglia tells EW. “The one thing you’re most reluctant to tell, that’s where the comedy is.”

Heard Howard Stern say the same thing before too. Howard's version: If he felt like he shouldn't talk about something on the air, then he knew that's exactly what should talk about.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 1/27/2012 | 0 comment(s)

Friends, Soup, JFL show, and more

We're All Friends Here - Friday 1/27
Special time slot for this month's We're All Friends Here. And some groovy guests:

Jim Tews
Ilana Glazer
Emily Heller

Friday, Jan 27 - 10:00pm
We're All Friends Here
The comedy chat show with boundary issues!
FREE
The Creek and The Cave
10-93 Jackson Avenue
Long Island City, NY
Facebook invite

Hot Soup - Sunday 1/29
Get your Hot Soup on Sunday. Reservations avail here. Lineup:

Seaton Smith
Brooke Van Poppelen
Dan Goodman
Matt Ruby
...and more

Sunday, Jan 29
HOT SOUP! at UCB-East
155 E. 3rd Street (at Avenue A)
Doors at 8:45pm, showtime at 9pm. $5 tickets.
Produced by David Cope, Mark Normand, and Matt Ruby.

Note: This will be our last Sunday show at UCB-East. Next one will be Friday, Feb 10 at 9pm.

Montreal JFL Showcase - Tuesday 1/31
I'll be doing a spot at the Montreal Just For Laughs Comedy Festival showcase at The Creek. It'll feature comics bringing their A game and should be a really fun show.

Tuesday, Jan 31 - 8pm
FREE
Montreal JFL Showcase
The Creek and The Cave
10-93 Jackson Ave
Long Island City, NY

More
Other upcoming shows:

Thu 1/26 - 9pm - CSL @ Kabin
Fri 1/27 - 7pm - Eastville Comedy Club
Fri 1/27 - 8pm - Beers @ O'Hanlons
Wed 2/1 - 9pm - Tribeca Comedy Club

Labels: hot soup, shows, we're all friends here

Permalink | 1/26/2012 | 0 comment(s)

Steve Martin, Ellen Degeneres, and true lies

Re: "standups should be authentic," two greats who were 100% inauthentic: Steve Martin and Ellen Degeneres. Listen to Let's Get Small; Every word is a lie. And it's great. For example...

I'm not into drugs any more. I quit completely, and I hate people who are still into it. Well.. I do take one drug now - for fun - and, maybe you've heard of it, it's a new thing, I don't know if you have or not. It's a new thing, it makes you small. [ indicates size with fingers ] About this big. And, you know, I'll be home, sitting with my friends, and, uh.. we'll be sitting around, and somebody will say, "Heeeyyy.. let's get small!" So, you know, we get small, and uh.. the only bad thing is if some tall people come over. You're walking around going, "Ah hahaha..!" Now, I know I shouldn't get small when I'm driving.. but I was driving around the other day, and I said, "What the heck?" You know? So I'm driving like.. [ extends arms high in the air like he's reaching up to a giant steering wheel ] And, uh.. a cop pulls me over. And he makes me get out, he looks at me and he says, "Heyyy.. are you small"? I said, "No-o-o! I'm not!" He said, "Well, I'm gonna have to measure you." They have this little test they give you - they give you a balloon.. and if you can get inside of it, they know you're small.

...Same thing with most of Ellen's early material too.



Sometimes the way you lie is more real than the truth. Or at least more interesting.

Also, it's interesting how well this material holds up over time. I find that Martin album way more listenable than almost anything else from that era. Most comedy ages like cheese in the sun, but these jokes have Happy Meal-esque shelf lives.

It probably gets fatiguing to lie like that all the time though. Perhaps that's why both of these comedians eventually moved away from standup?

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 1/24/2012 | 5 comment(s)

LA trip photos

I'm back from LA. Great time out there. I think my fave place there was the coffeeshop in Hollywood I camped out at for a bit. There was a woman on phone loudly discussing "teamwork" and using Eddie Murphy/Brett Ratner leaving the Oscars as her example of "loyalty." She left and was replaced by a social media consultant teaching an aspiring actress how to use Twitter. I kept looking for a camera. Some photos...


LA!


Shot of Greg Fitzsimmons at packed out Comedy Bang Bang show. Super crowd and great show. Also saw Greg tape his podcast live there a few nights later with Nick Swardson. There's a phone call during it that is phenomenal. Check it when it goes live.


Staring at footprints outside Mann's Chinese Theater. Cheesy but still cool.


Fuzzy Hannibal at Tiger Lily. Did a bunch of shows with him while out there and, man, he destroys everywhere.


DC and Dominic onstage at Magic Bag. Seems like there are lots more cool venues/theaters to choose from out there since space isn't at such a premium like it is in NYC.


The Frolic Show in Little Tokyo.


I know how this dog owner feels. I named my cat "Dirty Slut" and she almost never responds when I call her name.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 1/23/2012 | 0 comment(s)

Brian Eno and Leonard Cohen on soul and laments

Couple of quotes from two great musicians...

1. Brian Eno was interviewed on Sound Opinions. He said this about what he looks for in music:

If it's just clever or loud or has all the right software or something, I'm not that interested. I'm looking always for soul. If I'm not moved at that level, if I'm not feeling at some point that it's possible that this could move me to tears or to dancing or to something where I've slightly surrendered to it – if that doesn't happen, it just stays on the shelf. It's an experiment until then.

As applies to comedy: I think that's what the talk about stakes, emotional risks, authenticity, etc. comes down to. The search for soul. That someone is giving themselves to you a little bit.

2. Leonard Cohen said this while accepting an award recently:

As I grew older, I understood that instructions came with this voice. And the instructions were these...Never to lament casually. And if one is to express the great inevitable defeat that awaits us all, it must be done within the strict confines of dignity and beauty.

Never lament casually. If you're going to complain, make it beautiful. Part of why I like comedy so much: I think it's the most beautiful way to complain.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 1/19/2012 | 1 comment(s)

Storytelling tips from The Moth

Went to a Moth storytelling slam in NYC the other week. Packed! Hundreds of people. So supportive of each other. Felt like a bizarro version of the standup world where everyone is polite and pays attention and is encouraging to each other. I kinda hated it. But it was interesting.

FYI, The Moth site offers up these storytelling tips:

Have some stakes.
Stakes are essential in live storytelling. What do you stand to gain or lose? Why is what happens in the story important to you? If you can’t answer this, then think of a different story. A story without stakes is an essay and is best experienced on the page, not the stage.

Start in the action.
Have a great first line that sets up the stakes or grabs attention.

No: “So I was thinking about climbing this mountain. But then I watched a little TV and made a snack and took a nap and my mom called and vented about her psoriasis then I did a little laundry (a whites load) (I lost another sock, darn it!) and then I thought about it again and decided I’d climb the mountain the next morning.”

Yes: “The mountain loomed before me. I had my hunting knife, some trail mix and snow boots. I had to make it to the little cabin and start a fire before sundown or freeze to death for sure.”

Here's a sample Moth story from a comic: Colin Quinn - Toast. ("When asked to perform at Robert DeNiro's birthday party, Colin finds himself in over his head.")

Related: Stakes [Sandpaper Suit]

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 1/18/2012 | 0 comment(s)

MTV, Tiger Lily, and Good Magazine mentions

MTV listed 5 Web Comedies To Watch In 2012 and "Made With Love" (with Brooke Van Poppelen and me) makes the list.

I'm out in LA and last night I performed on the terrific show What's Up Tiger Lily? The Tiger Lily team also mentioned me in a post called TigerLily’s Guide to Pilot Season Pt. 1 aka Don’t Miss These Hilarious People…

And Hustlin': Inside the Podcast Renaissance is an article by Gaby Dunn about comedy podcasts that includes some quotes from me. Also included in the piece: Marc Maron, Pete Holmes, and Molly Knefel.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 1/17/2012 | 0 comment(s)

Los Angeles shows: Bang Bang, Tiger Lily, Josh & Josh, etc.

I'm in LA this week. Y'know, the life of a west side playa where cowards die and it's all ball, etc. Got a great week of shows lined up. Come on out and say hey.

Sat 1/14 - 8:00pm - Hand Shucked @ Moving Arts Theater (1822 Hyperion Ave)
Sat 1/14 - 10:00pm - Magic Bag @ Underground Theater (1308 N Wilton)
Sun 1/15 - 8:00pm - French Toast @ Taix (1911 W Sunset Blvd)
Mon 1/16 - 8:00pm - What's Up Tiger Lily? @ Hollywood Studio Bar & Grill (6122 Sunset Blvd)
Mon 1/16 - 10:30pm - Keep It Clean @ Public House (1739 N. Vermont Ave.)
Tue 1/17 - 8:30pm - Comedy Bang Bang @ UCB-LA (5919 Franklin Ave.)
Wed 1/18 - 9:00pm - The Frolic Show @ Far Bar (347 E. 1st Street)
Thu 1/19 - 8:00pm - Josh and Josh Show @ Bar Lubitsch (7702 Santa Monica Blvd)

Labels: shows

Permalink | 1/13/2012 | 0 comment(s)

Tapping into shame and indefensible ideas

Frank Chimero argues shame is the undercurrent of Louis CK's comedy [via MA]:

Louis CK has jokes because he is ashamed of his body, ashamed of his thoughts, his culture, his whiteness, whatever. Every joke seems to be about shame in some way. Ashamed of the things he doesn’t do that he knows he should. Ashamed of the things that he does do that he knows he shouldn’t. Ashamed of his privilege, and ashamed of how he doesn’t do anything to help others who don’t have it. All of these things are about the way Louis lives his life (or the stories he tells about how he does), but they’re also about the lines we draw, the tension of those meeting points of acceptable, common, and desirable behavior, and when our thoughts or actions only meet a couple of those qualifications. For instance, in his newest special, Louis talks about how mind-numbingly boring it is to play board games with his daughter and how much he wants to yell at her for it. Common impulse? Yes. Desirable? Probably, on a very base level to diffuse frustration. Acceptable? Nope. So, we’re ashamed by the those dark thoughts, and Louis is there to give the shameful inclinations credence through his routine. We laugh because we know, and we hear others laugh, so we can hear how we are not alone. The thought gets aired, so there’s less shame to feel...Someone once asked Allen Ginsberg how one becomes a prophet, and he simply replied, “Tell your secrets”...

Articulating our impulses is dirty business, and maybe this is why Louis’ been able to tread in a territory others haven’t been able to navigate. As Fran Lebowitz said, “If you’re going to tell the truth, you better be funny. Otherwise, they will kill you.”

Louis C.K.: The Man Who Loves to Hate Himself is a recent profile of CK in Rolling Stone.

C.K. describes his approach as “deconstruction to a point where you’re left with a fucking mess of unanswered questions. It can be a bit painful and scary. That’s fun for me.” He doesn’t want to come off like some moralizing gasbag, of course, so he’ll throw in something “totally indefensible.” “I’m fucking around with a lot of big ideas, and I don’t have the authority to seriously talk about them. So when I make a joke about a baby with a tree branch growing out of its head being the same thing as a Chinese baby, I don’t expect you to believe any of this. I’m just being a dick.”

Reminds me of his dog phone bit.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 1/13/2012 | 1 comment(s)

Where the ladies at (on Comedy Central)?

New York Magazine wonders why Comedy Central isn't building shows around gals...

Basic cable channels tend to know their audience and then relentlessly target their programming at that niche (just look at the new Lifetime lineup, for example). Still, we can't help but peruseComedy Central's newly announced 2012 development slate, which features twenty potential series projects and seven stand-up specials, and wonder where all the comediennes are. Only one of those shows (and none of those stand-up specials) stars a woman, the Untitled Amy Schumer Project, and in a cinematic year filled with female-fronted comedies like Bridesmaids, Bad Teacher, andYoung Adult, that seems like an out-of-step move for Comedy Central to take. We can't be mad at any network developing shows for Wyatt Cenac, Matt Braunger, and Nick Kroll, but surely there are some comic actresses out there besides Whitney Cummings whom TV shows can be built around?

In the comments, Erin Judge writes, "It's simple. The channels that focus on comedy also focus on advertising to guys. Dudes, specifically." And she points to this article to back up her point.

The bull’s-eye for Comedy Central is the audience of males ages 18 to 34. Any younger, and the beer and car advertisers would be off target. Any older, and there are a dozen other channels advertisers could choose.

So basically: Follow the money.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 1/12/2012 | 0 comment(s)

Tonight Show with Don Rickles and Charo

Labels: other people's funny stuff, videos

Permalink | 1/11/2012 | 0 comment(s)

Pete Holmes is keeping it crispy with You Made It Weird

I have a new favorite comedy podcast: Pete Holmes' You Made It Weird (iTunes). We all know Pete's a great comedian but I didn't know he'd be such a great interviewer too. He's a self-described comedy nerd and he dives deep with the guests and their approach to doing standup, coming up with a persona, writing, evolving onstage, etc. You can tell he's got a genuine curiosity about standup and loves the whole process of creating laughter.

Also, he seems genuinely close with each interviewee so the conversations feel like old friends catching up. Plus, he always makes a point of discussing two topics with each guest that I find intriguing: 1) how to have a healthy relationship while doing comedy and 2) god/religion. Seriously, each episode I've listened to has been fascinating.

If you're looking for a starting point, I'd suggest the Jim Gaffigan, Neal Brennan, and Kumail episodes. Looking forward to more.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 1/10/2012 | 1 comment(s)

Hot Soup is back on Sunday

The lineup for Sunday, Jan 8....

Mike Lawrence
Nick Turner
Mike Recine
Matt Ruby
David Cope

HOT SOUP! at UCB-East
155 E. 3rd Street (at Avenue A)
Every Sunday. Doors at 8:45pm, showtime at 9pm. $5 tickets.
Make reservations now
Produced by David Cope, Mark Normand, and Matt Ruby.

Labels: hot soup

Permalink | 1/06/2012 | 0 comment(s)

Capture Your Flag interview: What gets easier/harder?

From my recent interview with Erik Michielsen of Capture Your Flag. You can watch the entire interview here. (And the interview we did in 2010 here.)

Labels: about standup, videos

Permalink | 1/05/2012 | 0 comment(s)

Bill Hicks: The comic is the antithesis of the mob mentality

The Goat Boy Rises is a great Bill Hicks profile from The New Yorker.

Hicks thinks against society and insists on the importance of this intellectual freedom as a way to inspire others to think for themselves. “To me, the comic is the guy who says ‘Wait a minute’ as the consensus forms,” Hicks told me as we climbed the stairs to his dressing room. “He’s the antithesis of the mob mentality. The comic is a flame—like Shiva the Destroyer, toppling idols no matter what they are. He keeps cutting everything back to the moment.”

More on Shiva:

All that has a beginning by necessity must have an end. In destruction, truly nothing is destroyed but the illusion of individuality. Thus the power of destruction associated with Lord Shiva has great purifying power, both on a more personal level when problems make us see reality more clearly, as on a more universal level. Destruction opens the path for a new creation of the universe, a new opportunity for the beauty and drama of universal illusion to unfold. As Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram or Truth, Goodness and Beauty, Shiva represents the most essential goodness.

Destruction that purifies. That sounds like a good way to get the new year rolling.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 1/04/2012 | 1 comment(s)

Holidaze

Jews love watching a movie and eating Chinese food on Xmas Eve. But I'm a self-loathing Jew, so I watched Passion of the Christ and ate Pork Fried Rice.

Ah, good times. Merry Xmas. Happy Hannukah. Blah blah blah. There are no Hot Soup shows tonight or on New Year's Day. We return on Jan 8. And I'll be in LA from Jan 14 - 20 doing shows so stay tuned for updates on that.

Also, this blog will be dormant until the New Year. You can handle it.

Labels: funny stuff

Permalink | 12/25/2011 | 0 comment(s)

The press conferences of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Andy Warhol

Press conferences in the sixties sure were strange. The vibe was less reporter/artist and more zoologist/caged-animal. No wonder that clever subjects decided to handle it by being funny, absurd, and/or combative. For example...

The Beatles:



Bob Dylan:



Andy Warhol:

Labels: about standup, other people's funny stuff

Permalink | 12/21/2011 | 0 comment(s)

Steve Martin: "I never let them know I was bombing"

A computer scientist talks about lessons learned from Steve Martin's "Born Standing Up."

Paying your dues is overrated. Simply putting in the time is not enough. Martin’s story is one of a constant urge to innovate. He was trying to figure out the essence of “funny.” He then yielded these insights to move beyond the static structure of the punchline that dominated performance comedy at the time. This restless urge to understand then innovate led him to be outstanding. Without it, he would have just become another good comedian. Like hundreds of others.

Being Funny is an article where Martin summarizes his comedy philosophy.

What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it? What if I headed for a climax, but all I delivered was an anticlimax? What would the audience do with all that tension? Theoretically, it would have to come out sometime. But if I kept denying them the formality of a punch line, the audience would eventually pick their own place to laugh, essentially out of desperation. This type of laugh seemed stronger to me, as they would be laughing at something they chose, rather than being told exactly when to laugh...

Now that I had assigned myself to an act without jokes, I gave myself a rule. Never let them know I was bombing: this is funny, you just haven't gotten it yet. If I wasn't offering punch lines, I'd never be standing there with egg on my face. It was essential that I never show doubt about what I was doing. I would move through my act without pausing for the laugh, as though everything were an aside. Eventually, I thought, the laughs would be playing catch-up to what I was doing. Everything would be either delivered in passing, or the opposite, an elaborate presentation that climaxed in pointlessness. Another rule was to make the audience believe that I thought I was fantastic, that my confidence could not be shattered. They had to believe that I didn't care if they laughed at all and that this act was going on with or without them.

Related: Excerpts from "Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life."

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 12/20/2011 | 0 comment(s)

Where's your family from?

With all this Xmas talk and the long beard I've grown, I'm feeling extra Jewy these days. Even got jealous of a friend's conversation I overheard. He's Italian and this is how it went down:

Friend: Are you Italian?
Stranger: Yeah.
Friend: Where's your family from?
Stranger: Sicily?
Friend: [raises fist] Paisan!

And then they high fived. Which all bummed me out. Because as a Jew, you never get to have an exchange like that. With us, it's more like this:

Jew 1: Are you Jewish?
Jew 2: Yeah.
Jew 1: Where's your family from?
Jew 2: Poland.
Jew 1: Oh. Um. Never forget.

Jews! "Never forget" is like our Jingle Bells.

Labels: funny stuff

Permalink | 12/19/2011 | 0 comment(s)

Christopher Hitchens on the fuel for material

Christopher Hitchens passes away. His views on debauchery reminds me of things I've heard Doug Stanhope say too; That basically, living a long life is less important than living an interesting one.

He also professed to have no regrets for a lifetime of heavy smoking and drinking. "Writing is what's important to me, and anything that helps me do that - or enhances and prolongs and deepens and sometimes intensifies argument and conversation - is worth it to me," he told Charlie Rose in a television interview in 2010, adding that it was "impossible for me to imagine having my life without going to those parties, without having those late nights, without that second bottle."

Here's a compilation of Hitch's smackdowns on religion. For a counterpoint: "Gotta Serve Somebody" by Bob Dylan.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 12/16/2011 | 1 comment(s)

Sunday 12/18: Hot Soup with McCarthy, O'Connor, and Angelo

It's the last Hot Soup of the year. And it's Andy's last show before he splits for the west coast. And after the show, Stephen Merchant, co-creator of The Office and Extras, will be performing standup at his own show. So do it.

Hot Soup lineup:

Matt McCarthy (“a Belushi-like mad man” -NY Times)
Sean O'Connor (Conan)
David Angelo (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)
Andy Haynes (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)
Special holiday guests

I'm hosting.

HOT SOUP! at UCB-East
155 E. 3rd Street (at Avenue A)
Every Sunday. Doors at 8:45pm, showtime at 9pm. $5 tickets.
Produced by David Cope, Andy Haynes, Mark Normand, and Matt Ruby.

Labels: hot soup, shows

Permalink | 12/15/2011 | 0 comment(s)

"Comics who are green try to be more blue to appear less yellow"

"Comics who are green try to be more blue to appear less yellow." Andy Sandford quoted that line to me the other night when we were talking about cursing onstage.

It rang true for me. I used to curse onstage a lot when I started. But eventually it started to bug me when I realized a punchline was hitting because I threw a "fuck" in there. If I took the "fuck" out and it didn't get a laugh, I didn't feel like it was actually a funny joke.

Plus, I've had to do clean shows (church show, opening for headliner who wanted me to stay clean, etc.) and it sucked to sit down and have to eliminate jokes. I don't want to have to think about which material I can or can't do at a show. If everything in my arsenal is clean, it's one less thing to worry about. Not to mention, it was disheartening to vet material before a show and realize a big chunk of my stuff relied on talking about sex or cursing.

Anyway, already discussed this a while back but the green/blue/yellow line was clever enough that I thought I'd bring it up one more time.

Btw, here's Stanhope's defense of cursing (“that’s just how I talk”) which I get; Being who you are offstage when you're onstage makes sense. But I'm not a guy who curses all the time in real-life so it feels like doing it onstage a lot would be solely for shock value.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 12/14/2011 | 0 comment(s)

CK and el Duque

CK answers reader questions at Reddit.

You need to get on stage as much as possible and vary your stage experience as much as possible and not quit and take care of yourself and always question why you say the things you say and enjoy yourself...

i don't know about "Supposed to" I think there's a million ways to do things. there was a pitcher for the Yankees once named Orlando Hernandez or "el Duque" he was a cuban exile. A thing they said about him was he was hard to hit cause he had so many arm angles and release points. a hitter studies a pitcher and watches for the ball so he can time it, but with el duque, you don't even know where the fucker is coming from. Nine o clock? Eleven? And does he let go of it up top or out front? Impossible. I sometimes think of comedy in those terms.

The baseball reference reminded me of his talk about "brushback pitch" jokes a few years back.

And if you don't know already, his new special is avail online for $5.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 12/13/2011 | 0 comment(s)

Sandpaper Suit Podcast Episode 4 - Myq Kaplan and Josh Gondelman

It's back. Three Jews with beards — Myq Kaplan, Josh Gondelman, and me — share a car ride from NYC to Boston and talk about fame, comedy, philosophy, girls, and more. Listen below or get it at iTunes or download the MP3.

Labels: funny stuff, podcasts, sandpaper suit podcast

Permalink | 12/12/2011 | 0 comment(s)

A special We're All Friends Here with Mark and me in the hot seat

Saturday 12/10: We're All Friends Here
It's been requested for years. Now it's happening! Mark and I sit on the hot seat and answer questions from each other and guest co-host Neal Stastny. It's gonna be intense. Dan Soder does a set to open up.

Saturday, Dec 10 - 8:00pm
FREE
The Creek and The Cave
10-93 Jackson Avenue
Long Island City, NY

...

Sunday 12/11: Hot Soup
Harrison Greenbaum
Phoebe Robinson
Jessi Klein
Bryson Turner
David Cope

HOT SOUP! at UCB-East
155 E. 3rd Street (at Avenue A)
Every Sunday. Doors at 8:45pm, showtime at 9pm. $5 tickets.
Make reservations now
Produced by David Cope, Andy Haynes, Mark Normand, and Matt Ruby.

Also, check out David Cope's new web series Strung Out, a comedy about playing harp in the big city. Here's the first episode, featuring Reggie Watts.

Labels: hot soup, shows, we're all friends here

Permalink | 12/09/2011 | 0 comment(s)

Anthony Jeselnik's Dane Cook impression

Soem guys write jokes and stand there and tell 'em. Some guys rely on physicality and act outs to get laughs. Here's what happens when the former impersonates the latter:

Labels: about standup, other people's funny stuff, videos

Permalink | 12/07/2011 | 1 comment(s)

What Comedy Central Records looks for in a comedian

An interview with Comedy Central Records' Founder/Vice President Jack Vaughn [thx OE]. He's asked, "How do you discover talent?"

Ultimately, there are basically two criteria for who we sign to the label:

1. You have to be really funny.
2. You have to have a distinctive voice or point of view.

That’s it. Things like having a strong following or being on TV or in movies is great, but those two criteria are the main things we look for.

And he also discusses the recording process.

One of the quirks of this genre is that the audience tends to be the most important part of the recording, and how the audience reacts can drastically change how the jokes are perceived by the listener. Jokes seem funnier the harder people are laughing at them — this is the reason sitcoms customarily use laugh tracks — which may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised just how important it is.

By the time of the album recording, the comic has gotten so good at doing the material that the differences in delivery among the sets are usually minimal. But the difference between an intelligent, raucous audience in a packed room, and a sober one in a half-empty club is staggering. We’ll re-record shows if the audience isn’t good enough.

I hadn't really realized that CCR almost singlehandedly brought comedy albums, which hadn’t sold much since the late seventies/early eighties, back into vogue.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 12/06/2011 | 0 comment(s)

Being self-effacing and why male comics obsess about their weight

Why Are These Hip Male Comedians All Talking About Their Weight? is an article that claims "talking about this publicly is their way of pushing the envelope. "

[Marc] Maron’s not the only male comedian who’s been talking about his food issues lately—a topic that’s culturally associated with, well, teenage girls. Louis C.K. talks constantly about his weight...Patton Oswalt talks about his struggles with weight on his latest album, Finest Hour—and on this recent appearance on Conan. Oswalt jokes about getting out of breath when he dances with his toddler daughter—and about joining, then leaving, Weight Watchers, because the meetings didn’t have the same frisson as AA gatherings. “They're very helpful, but all my friends who are drug addicts and drunks, their meetings are awesome—they have all these dark stories: ‘I T-boned a school bus.’” Meanwhile, the stories at Weight Watchers are about being embarrassed in a bathing suit and trying to avoid pie...

It’s still at least somewhat taboo for men to be seen as obsessing about their weight, so talking about this publicly is their way of pushing the envelope. When they were younger, rebelling meant challenging the ruling paradigm or the trappings of middle-class life. “Now the enemy is really ourselves, and the struggle between accepting ourselves or hating ourselves,” Maron said.

Funny to me how this piece describes talking about weight as pushing the envelope. Was it pushing the envelope when Louie Anderson did it decades ago?



(Love this line: "When I go camping, the bears put their food up in the trees.")

I'd argue that "pushing the envelope" and "fighting taboos" is only a tiny part of why comics talk about being fat, single, balding, ugly, or other self-effacing stuff. They do it because 1) it gets laughs since it's the opposite of how people usually present themselves and 2) it disarms an audience.

I think it's tough to underestimate that second reason. I feel like being mean to myself onstage gives me more room to be mean to others too. After all, I'm willing to point the finger at myself so why not at the rest of the world too? Without self-effacing material, you start to seem like a pretentious, know-it-all asshole who thinks he's better than everyone else. Show some flaws and you humanize yourself.

Or, as Eddie Brill put it, get out of "you suck" territory and bring it into "we suck." That helps get an audience on your side. Then you can go wherever you want with them.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 12/05/2011 | 0 comment(s)

Gary Gulman on when an audience's laughter isn't important

Gary Gulman is asked, "Are there jokes that you do just for you?"

For me at this point I do all the jokes for me, not in a self-indulgent way, but there's nothing I say just to get a laugh. I do a joke because it's funny or clever or meaningful to me.

That hasn't always been the case. For years it was a mixed bag. I did some jokes just because they worked and gave me that oxygen we need. I was looking to get hired, which is a terrible motivator for an artist, but I've evolved, hopefully.

The greatest thing I ever heard related to this was in the Curb Your Enthusiasm pilot. Someone, it may have been Jerry Seinfeld, said that Larry had unwavering convictions as to what he thought was funny. That's essential to becoming unique/original and it's hard to stay true to in an environment where the audience's laughter is (wrongly I feel) considered so important in measuring a performer's talents.

Part of the series Comedy Writing by Mike Bent which looks pretty decent. Below, an excerpt from Everything You Know is Wrong by Bent.

The members of Firesign Theater said it all when they named their 1974 album “Everything You Know is Wrong.” That's the attitude you have to take. You need to question everything around you. You can't just accept things as they are; you need to consistently challenge the status quo. That doesn't mean you have to be an outcast from society; it just means you need to look at things differently.

The full "Comedy Writing" series.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 12/01/2011 | 0 comment(s)

Capture Your Flag interview: Writing comedy for yourself vs. other people

Below, another clip from my recent interview with Erik Michielsen of Capture Your Flag. We discuss writing comedy for yourself vs. other people.



You can watch the entire interview here. (And the interview we did a year ago here.)

Labels: about standup, videos

Permalink | 11/30/2011 | 0 comment(s)

Two great interviews with Patrice O'Neal about love, dating, riffing, and synergy

R.I.P. Patrice O'Neal. First Giraldo, now this. Fuck. Can we please stop losing the BEST comedians around!?

I actually talked to Patrice a few months back for the first Sandpaper Suit Podcast. (Unrelated note: The hibernating podcast will be reemerging soon.) It was a great conversation about dating and relationships, a topic he always had fascinating opinions about. You can listen or download it at iTunes.

A Shot of Yager interviewed Patrice in October. He talked about how he weaved from material to riffing.

To be able to go off the cuff, you have to have a synergy with the crowd and they gotta love you, but then at the same time you have the structure of your act that helps you go off to the left. It's like having a GPS. It's a place where you generally know where you're going and you take a left or a right. You don't have to be that worried you won't get back on the road.

If you don't know where you're going, you gotta rely on the GPS. Meaning you rely on just going off the cuff or just being funny, you can wind up in a bad place. Ad you got no place else to go because you took a wrong turn and you gotta be able to have your professionalism and your preparedness and material to get you back on the road.

I love doing crowdwork because I think people are interesting. I've gotten a lot of material from audiences. I've gotten a response I didn't think I was gonna get and you really embrace that response.

The GPS analogy is great. It's also interesting to hear how often Patrice used the word synergy in the interview.

If you haven't checked out Patrice's terrific Elephant in the Room special, stream it on Netflix. Still nothing like seeing him push buttons live though. It was joyous watching him fuck with people. His presence will be missed. Don't know what else to say. Damn.

Related: Patrice O'Neal: "It's a mob dynamic"

Labels: about standup, podcasts, sandpaper suit podcast

Permalink | 11/29/2011 | 0 comment(s)

The spiritual lessons of Groundhog Day

Oh neat, Roger Ebert thanked me (via Twitter) for quoting him about Rodney and Groucho. Love that guy. (Actually, all those guys.)

Speaking of films, while reading "And Here's the Kicker," I was surprised to find out the movie Groundhog Day is hailed by religious leaders as the most spiritual film of all time.

"At first I would get mail saying, 'Oh, you must be a Christian because the movie so beautifully expresses Christian belief'," the film's director Harold Ramis recently told The New York Times. "Then rabbis started calling from all over, saying they were preaching the film as their next sermon. And the Buddhists!"...Professor Angela Zito, the co-director of the Centre for Religion and Media at New York University, told me that Groundhog Day illustrated the Buddhist notion of samsara, the continuing cycle of rebirth that individuals try to escape. In the older form of Buddhist belief, she said, no one can escape to nirvana unless they work hard and lead a very good life...

[Rabbi] Niles Goldstein recently said that there was a resonance in Murray's character being rewarded by being returned to earth to perform more good deeds, or mitzvahs. This was in contrast to gaining a place in heaven (the Christian reward) or else achieving nirvana (the Buddhist reward). He is considering using the film as an allegory when he speaks to his congregation. "The movie tells us, as Judaism does, that the work doesn't end until the world has been perfected," he said.

As Ramis has been told by Jesuit priests among others, the film clearly also contains themes found within the Christian tradition. Michael Bronski, a film critic with the magazine Forward and a visiting professor at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, where he teaches a course in film history, said: "The groundhog is clearly the resurrected Christ, the ever-hopeful renewal of life at springtime, at a time of pagan-Christian holidays. And when I say that the groundhog is Jesus, I say that with great respect."

Pretty special when a story can speak to so many different types of people on a spiritual level. Reminds me of Joseph Campbell's discussions of the need for modern myths and the storytelling formulas that show up throughout different times, places, and cultures. If you're not familiar with Campbell, check out this interview he did with Bill Moyers on Netflix. It's fascinating.



Oh, and to bring it all full circle: I got turned on to Campbell by my mom, who had him as a professor decades ago.

Labels: about standup

Permalink | 11/28/2011 | 0 comment(s)

This weekend's lineups for We're All Friends Here and Hot Soup (Gulman, Kaplan, Hamilton)

Saturday 11/26: We're All Friends Here
Chris Distefano
Adam Newman
Justy Dodge

Saturday, Nov 26 - 8:00pm
FREE
The Creek and The Cave
10-93 Jackson Avenue
Long Island City, NY
Hosted by Matt Ruby and Mark Normand

...

Sunday 11/27: Hot Soup
Gary Gulman (Comedy Central 1-hour special)
Myq Kaplan (Letterman, Comedy Central presents)
Ryan Hamilton (Last Comic Standing)
Karl Hess (Montreal's JFL Festival)
Mark Normand (Last Comic Standing)

I'm hosting.

HOT SOUP! at UCB-East
155 E. 3rd Street (at Avenue A)
Every Sunday. Doors at 8:45pm, showtime at 9pm. $5 tickets.
Make reservations now
Produced by David Cope, Andy Haynes, Mark Normand, and Matt Ruby.

Labels: hot soup, shows, we're all friends here

Permalink | 11/23/2011 | 0 comment(s)

Roger Ebert on the pathos of Rodney Dangerfield, W.C. Fields, and Groucho Marx

Roger Ebert's review of Back To School talks about Rodney Dangerfield and the hurt that seems to lie beneath his one-liners:

Yet in Dangerfield, there has always been something else in addition to the comedian. This is a man who has failed at everything, even comedy. Rodney Dangerfield is his third name in show business; he flopped under two earlier names as well as his real name. Who is really at home inside that red, sweating face and that knowing leer? The most interesting thing about "Back to School," which is otherwise a pleasant but routine comedy, is the puzzle of Rodney Dangerfield. Here is a man who reminds us of some of the great comedians of the early days of the talkies - of Groucho Marx and W. C. Fields - because, like them, he projects a certain mystery. Marx and Fields were never just being funny. There was the sense that they were getting even for hurts so deep that all they could do was laugh about them. It's the same with Dangerfield.

This is exactly the sort of plot Marx or Fields could have appeared in. Dangerfield brings it something they might also have brought along: a certain pathos. Beneath his loud manner, under his studied obnoxiousness, there is a real need. He laughs that he may not cry.

Speaking of W.C. Fields, Ebert discusses his appeal in a different piece too: "It is the appeal of the man who cheerfully embraces a life of antisocial hedonism, basking in serene contentment with his own flaws. He is self-contained." Cue Groucho...

"I knew Fields well," Groucho Marx told me in 1972. "He used to sit in the bushes in front of his house with a BB gun and shoot at people. Today he'd probably be arrested. He invited me over to his house. He had a girlfriend there. I think her name was Carlotta Monti. Car-lot-ta MON-ti! That's the kind of a name a girl of Fields would have. He had a ladder leading up to his attic. Without exaggeration, there was $50,000 in liquor up there. Crated up like a wharf. I'm standing there and Fields is standing there, and nobody says anything. The silence is oppressive. Finally he speaks: This will carry me 25 years."

Labels: about standup, best of, videos

Permalink | 11/22/2011 | 2 comment(s)