Think Tank: NYC taxis and colleges

Mark and I keep giving our take on various NYC subjects every week at MSN's Postbox site for New York. Two of the latest videos below.

Nick Vatterott on tapping into the stream

Slava Yaryshkin interviews Nick Vatterott and asks him, "Do you have a favorite topic to talk about on stage?"

My favorite topic to talk about on stage is whatever stream of conscious is happening. But sometimes, something hits you while you're on stage. Every day we have a thousand thoughts, and some of those thoughts we feel would be worth exploring on stage. And every once in awhile, we have one of those thoughts, WHILE we're on stage. And exploring those ideas in that moment, whatever the topic is, are my favorite to talk about.

I was at an outdoor show recently at a food festival. The type of show you roll your eyes at as a comic. Two in the afternoon, on the hottest day of the year. The whole point of the festival was for people to try foods they never had before, and I was supposed to perform in this comedy tent, for people to take a break from food. I asked everyone if they enjoyed all the unique foods, they all said 'YEAH!!!' What's been your favorite so far? And this very sweet old man in the front row, in complete honestly yelled, "Corn!"

And that killed me, that this guy had never had corn before. Every tent had funnel cakes, and pate, and sushimi, and this guy was blown away by the corn. And there is, for the next ten minutes I just get to riff about a guy who is blown away by corn, amazed by water, and was scared of the future technology of forks...those moments feel like you're just joking around with your buddies, as opposed to being on stage telling a joke that 'you're working on', or a joke that doesn't work because you can't recreate the moment when its circumstances occurred. And those spontaneous topics are my favorite.

A well crafted joke gets told over and over in front of lots of audiences. But a spontaneous one can only be shared by the people in that room at that time. I think that's a big part of why audiences respond so strongly to in-the-moment riffs.

The "mutual tolerance" of Charles Grodin and Johnny Carson

Charles Grodin and Johnny Carson doing the whole awkward tension interview thing decades before Between Two Ferns.

Free promo code to see me at Caroline's "Comics To Watch" show

I'll be performing at Caroline's on Tuesday's (9/27) Comics To Watch showcase. Call up the box office (212.757.4100) and mention promo code "CTW" and you will receive complimentary admission. (2 drink minimum still applies though.) More about the show:

COMEDY CENTRAL AND THE NEW YORK COMEDY FESTIVAL TEAM UP TO LAUNCH A SHOWCASE OF THE HOTTEST UP-AND-COMING COMEDIANS

‘COMICS TO WATCH’ TO TAKE PLACE AT CAROLINES ON BROADWAY AS PART OF THE 2011 NYCF, WHICH RUNS NOVEMBER 9 – 13, 2011 ‘”

COMEDY CENTRAL, the preeminent brand in comedy, is teaming up with the New York Comedy Festival, to produce ‘Comics To Watch,’ a live show featuring the best up-and-coming young comedians from across the country. The comedians, selected by the all-comedy network and the festival organizers, will be chosen for their unique strengths including writing, delivery to stage persona. The showcase will take place at the famed comedy venue Carolines on Broadway during the 2011 New York Comedy Festival, which runs November 9 – 13.

I've also got shows in Seattle and Victoria, BC next week in case you're a PacNWer. Full show calendar here.

And though I won't be doing a spot at it, there's a great lineup at Hot Soup on Sunday at UCB East with James Adomian, Nick Vatterott, and Michael Che (Facebook event).

Comedians' affinity for shockingly toxic ideas

Just Like That but Funny by Conan writer Todd Levin.

If there were a late-night comedy show completely run by comedy writers, without any interference from a host, producer, or network, that show would probably be called The Darkest and Most Impossibly Horrible Things You Can Imagine, Presented as Comedy. Every sketch would end with a gunshot or an infant’s stroller engulfed in flames, and the show would be canceled halfway through its opening titles. That’s because most comedy writers are so inured by humor that only the most shockingly toxic ideas can achieve the proper velocity to penetrate their indifference.

It's why using mics (or comics in the back of the room) as an arbiter of whether something is funny can be dangerous. What's funny to us ain't always the way the rest of the world sees it.

Human iPhone (silent movie starring Nick Vatterott, Matt Ruby, and Alice Wetterlund)

A Sandpaper Suit production — A hobo breaks an iPhone and has to make up for it. Starring Nick Vatterott, Alice Wetterlund, and yours truly. Written and directed by me. Shot and edited by Lars Rasmussen. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Here come the elites

Comments from "MTV Greenlights Comedy Pilot Starring Young Comedian Bo Burnham":



I'm siding with these intelectules.

Carlin on NYC vs. LA

I lived in Chicago before moving to NYC. When people ask me about how the two cities compare, I tell 'em it depends if you prefer boring nice people or interesting assholes.

So I said that onstage the other night and afterwards someone mentioned to me George Carlin's comparison of NYC and LA (from Brain Droppings):

The problem most New Yorkers have with Los Angeles is that it is fragmented and lacks a vital center. The people have no common experience. Instead, they exude a kind of bemused detachment that renders them intensely uninteresting. the West Coast experience is soft and peripheral, New York is hard and concentrated. California is a small woman saying, "Fuck me." New York is a large man saying, "Fuck you!"...

Most outsiders can't handle New York, so they wind up back in Big Loins, Arkansas, badmouthing The City for the rest of their lives. Actually, most of the people who run New York down have never been there. And if they ever went, we would destroy them in nine minutes. People hate New York, because that's where the action is, and they know it's passing them by. Most of the decisions that control people's lives are made in New York City. Not in Washington, not on Pennsylvania Avenue. In New York City! Madison Avenue and Wall Street. People can't handle that. Pisses 'em off. Fuck 'em!...

Concerning L.A. versus New York: I have now lived half my life in each of America's two most hated, feared, and envied cities, and you want to know something? There's no comparison. New York even has a better class of assholes. Even the lames in New York have a certain appealing, dangerous quality.

So why did Carlin live in LA? "Because the sun goes down a block from my house," he wrote.

John Mulaney on his career path

Mulaney talks about working at SNL, writing for Demetri Martin's show, working with Nick Kroll, etc. [via MN]

Larry David on why he started doing standup

From Larry David's WGA Awards acceptance speech:

One night I went to The Improv and saw a bunch of comedians and I thought, "Jesus these people seem just like me." They're complete losers who get up and do nothing but talk about how miserable they are. Are you kidding? I can do that.

Next Hot Soup and other upcoming shows (Bar 82, Red Star, Three of Cups, Kabin, etc.)

So yeah, UCB-East is open and we had a fun first show. Here's a peek at the new space:



We'll be back this Sunday and I'll be hosting. It's Mark's birthday so I'm sure there will be lots of "jews" there. Lineup for 9/18:

John F. O'Donnell
Ben Kronberg
Brooke Van Poppelen
Phil Hanley
Mark Normand
Matt Ruby

HOT SOUP! at UCB-East
155 E. 3rd Street (at Avenue A)
Sundays at 9pm - $5
Make reservations now

I've got a bunch of other upcoming shows too...

9/13 Tue - 8:00pm - Crime and Punishment @ Cakeshop
9/13 Tue - 9:00pm - Sage Comedy @ Bar 82
9/15 Thu - 8:00pm - The Shit Show @ The Fifth Estate
9/16 Fri - 8:00pm - Too Cool @ Red Star
9/17 Sat - 8:00pm - Get Lucky @ O'Hanlons
9/17 Sat - 8:00pm - Strawberry Hanukkah @ Bar 82
9/18 Sun - 8:00pm - Sunday Night Standup @ Three of Cups
9/18 Sun - 9:00pm - Hot Soup @ UCBeast
9/19 Mon - 8:30pm - Recess @ King's Cross
9/20 Tue - 9:30pm - Super Live Adventure @ Full Cup (Staten Island)
9/21 Wed - 7:00pm - Connotation @ Luca Lounge
9/21 Wed - 9:00pm - Smith's Tavern
9/22 Thu - 9:30pm - CSL @ Kabin

Ted Alexandro's favorite comedy rants

Great having Ted Alexandro last night at our debut UCB East version of Hot Soup. Here's an interview with Ted. He's asked, "What is your all-time favorite comedy rant?

That’s a tough question. I don’t have one all-time favorite. I’ll name a few I love.
George Carlin’s rant about “The American Dream.”
Bill Cosby’s rant about “The Dentist.”
Louis CK’s rant about “Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy.”
Dave Attell’s rant about “Love/The Lonely Bug”
It’s not a rant per se but Woody Allen’s story “The Moose” is so brilliant and hilarious.

Show photos: One and One, Beat Kitchen, Holiday, etc.

One and One


Beat Kitchen


Holiday Cocktail Lounge


Jazz on the Park


Cole’s


O’Hanlons

More at SandpaperSuit.tumblr.com.

This weekend: Hot Soup at UCBeast (!) with Ted Alexandro and We're All Friends Here at The Creek with Gary Gulman

Sunday: The debut of Hot Soup at UCBeast
UCBeast, UCB’s long awaited East Village venue, is now open (lineup of shows) and I'm happy to say Hot Soup will be moving to Sunday nights at 9pm there. Lineup for the first one this Sunday (9/11):

Ted Alexandro
Jared Logan
Joe Mande
and the Hot Soup players

HOT SOUP! at UCBeast
155 E. 3rd Street (at Avenue A)
Sundays at 9pm - $5

Hot Soup is a weekly standup comedy showcase every Sunday at UCBeast. It's produced by David Cope, Andy Haynes, Mark Normand, Matt Ruby, and Sachi Ezura.

Saturday: We're All Friends Here
The comedy chat show with boundary issues is back again on Saturday. The lineup:

Gary Gulman
Josh Rabinowitz
Kevin McCaffrey

Saturday, September 10 - 8:00pm
FREE
The Creek and The Cave (directions)
10-93 Jackson Avenue
Long Island City, NY
Just one stop from Manhattan and Brooklyn

You can listen to the last episode of the show at BreakThru Radio. Guests on that one are Tim Dimond, Nore Davis, and Jeff Wesselschmidt.

Carlin on deliberately crossing the line

Funny People at 92nd Street Y offers up audio interviews with Steve Martin, George Carlin, Richard Lewis, and more. A quote from from the Carlin talk:

Anything about religion and God and belief is good territory. You can hear the sphincters tighten as you begin. "Let's see how he's gonna handle this!" I try to sense and know where the line is. Where the line we're drawing these days is. And then I deliberately cross it. And I try to bring them with me across the line and enjoy the experience. I do it in service of ideas. It's not just for its own sake, to bother or annoy or shock. I have ideas and though the logic sometimes is nicely twisted, there's a good structure underneath it. I use the language or the topics to vent this personality of mine that's out of step and really doesn't buy all this stuff...If all I ever do for the rest of my career is fill up coffee houses on a Friday and Saturday night, I'll be happy. And when you're not reaching real hard for something — I think when you're not pursing something relentlessly, I think it may come to you a little more easily.

A couple of great examples of Carlin bringing people with him over the line: His "Fuck the Children" bit...



...and this great rant on Politically Incorrect post-Katrina.



Here's a great speech CK gave honoring Carlin [via Laughspin].



There were similar themes in Goodbye George Carlin, a piece CK wrote about Carlin after he died.

Patton Oswalt on pointing fingers and building tension

Long Patton Oswalt interview at the AV Club:

It’s one thing to be angry at something, like, “Oh, this is stupid,” and point it out. But then I think it’s important that I go, “Why would I, particularly, think this thing is stupid and get wound up about it?” and turn it back on me, which, to me, is just as fascinating. “Oh, this actually comes from this embarrassing thing, and that’s why I don’t like that.” Like the romantic-comedy [bit]. As disparaging as I’m being about romantic comedies, and how I know all of their beats, and especially how all the gay characters talk in these movies, all that comes from the fact that I still am a sucker and go see all these goddamn movies. I can bitch about it all I want, but I’ve given them my money. That’s why I’m so well-versed in this stuff. [Laughs.] I also bitch about all these stupid action movies, and I go to see every fucking one!

Advice I read somewhere recently that stuck with me: Start with the word "I." Begin a joke or premise with "I" and you're talking about you, how you feel, or something that happened to you. Immediately guides you toward the personal and self-examination as opposed to just pointing fingers at the rest of the world.

And here's Patton on building tension:

You want laughs! Silence, if you’re doing a comedy, or no reaction when you’re doing some other kind of movie, is really scary. And you want those. Sometimes you get fuckin’ greedy as a comedian. I know from the times when you just don’t know when to let go and you want to jump in over other people. It’s just fear. Fear and greed...

The show "Louie" is a master class of how to be a confident comedian. That’s really what it is. It’s a master class in, “We can go for a little while and then let this thing go ‘boom.’ We can string people along.” Because it’s never uninteresting. You know what I mean? People mistake no laughs for, “Oh, it’s boring!” No, no. People aren’t laughing because they’re listening. Seeing where this is gonna go. So let this fucking happen!

One thing We're All Friends Here has taught me is the value of tension and engagement. Yes, laughs is the goal. But if people are on the edge of their seats, no one's complaining. If people are engaged and can't wait to hear what happens next, you're still winning.

And then, if you can pierce that tension with something funny, you can get a truly deep, cathartic laugh out of 'em. You've taken them on a roller coaster ride instead of over a speed bump.

Caveat though: Those kind of laughs are addictive. After you get that deeper sort of response, it's tough to go back to, say, clever little misdirections. Once you've gone deep, those sorts of jokes feel like you're returning to the kiddie table.

Make more bullets

Three lessons from Anthony King, outgoing Artistic Director of the UCB Theatre, to performers:

1. Stop trying to get an agent.

If show business is war, agents have the guns. It’s your job to make ammunition. So while it’s great that you wrote that sketch show or have five tight minutes of stand-up or that you finally finished your Modern Family spec script — you have to make more. The guys with the guns may gawk at your one shiny bullet, but they’re not going to start firing unless they know there’s more where that came from. Because, well, war is hell and no one knows what they’re shooting at. So stop worrying about getting a gun you’re not ready to use and focus on making more bullets. Trust me — the guys with the guns need good ammunition. When you’re ready — they’ll find you.

2. Don’t be bitter. Be better.

Too many people seem to think that really wanting something is actually a reason they should get it. It’s not. As Steve Martin once said, the key for any aspiring comedian is, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” So sure, you could make a hundred excuses for why you’re not as successful as you want to be. And some of them may even be true. But the comedians who make it are the ones who keep pushing themselves and take advantage of every opportunity. The gatekeeper who rejects you may indeed be an idiot, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be better.

3. Be nice.

That intern taking out the garbage may be on SNL one day. And that guy in your improv class who you don’t think is funny may end up working in development at a studio. But more importantly this business is filled with rejection and it’s a lot less lonely if you’ve got a community of like-minded, supportive people around you who understand what you’re going through. Another person’s success is not your failure.

Good words. Here's the full Steve Martin quote btw.

CK: “I never write anything down"

Couple of quotes from Just for Laughs: In Conversation with Louis C.K.. On writing onstage:

“I never write anything down… I think comedy’s a spoken form, and if you’re writing it down you’re putting a bunch of filters on it…. If you write standup, you’re generating it on paper, and then you’re reading it, and then using your memory, and then…”

On killing old jokes:

“The way to improve is to reject everything you’re doing. You have to create a void by destroying everything. You have to kill it. Otherwise you’ll just say the same jokes every night for years and years. And I did that.”

Fun to compare his first appearance on Letterman, in 1995, to where he's at now.

Video: "Haters Gonna Hate" Guy (Live Action) - featuring Jared Logan

I've always loved this "Haters Gonna Hate" animated GIF popular on the 'ol internet.



Part of what I loved: Every time I saw it, the guy reminded me of Jared Logan. I always thought it'd be hilarious to see Jared acting out that guy's strut. Well folks, dreams do come true!



Here's an animated GIF version too. Careful, it's kinda hypnotizing.

On not sacrificing your relationship for your career

Recently heard a comic refer to having a girlfriend as a "career killer." In response to that, here's Emily Gordon (self-described "freelance writer/comedy producer married to a comedian") with Eight Tips on Keeping Work From Being the Death of Your Relationship.

Sacrificing your relationship for your career sounds noble and romantic from the outside, but the reality is that it can create a pattern of self-destruction that will ultimately burn you out on the career you've worked so hard to build. It's a trap, and for some, an easy way out of having to maintain relationships under stress.

Anyone who tells you "You have to be single to be a _______" is wrong.

One of Emily's tips: For every one thing you do for your career outside of normal, day-to-day tasks, do one thing for your relationship.

This is a good, concrete tip to help you keep track of who's winning--your career or your relationship. If you set up an evening meeting, make breakfast with your partner the next day. If you have to catch up on emails on a Saturday, do a household chore. It not only makes your partner feel valued, but it will help you to realize that making a meal with the person you love is just as important as any meeting--both are tasks that should make you feel fulfilled.

If you're aiming to keep both a relationship with a significant other and a life in comedy (or anything else really) afloat, it's worth a read.

Think Tank: On Broadway

Adam Conover talks about his UCB sketch writing class

Comic Adam Conover also teaches a sketch comedy writing class at UCB. I asked him about it and here's his reply which he agreed to let me publish here. Adam's next class will begin in October.

It all depends on what you want to get out of it. I'd say the benefits of taking a class are, in order:

1) Forcing you to write every week. You leave class having written six sketches in eight weeks, all of which you've received notes on.
2) Getting extensive notes from an experienced comedy writer.
3) The curriculum itself; that is, the specific vocabulary and philosophy of the UCB approach to sketch writing.

and maybe

4) meeting other comedians and writers who you might want to work with, though my sense is that this happens less in sketch classes than in improv, simply because the work is less collaborative. (In improv classes, I'd rank meeting other comedians as least the number two benefit.)

The first two -- writing constantly and getting feedback on what you've written -- are essential to being a writer. That doesn't mean UCB classes are the only place to get them, of course -- you could join or start a sketch group that commits to writing and performing a lot -- this is what I did in college, and what groups such as Meatsteak have done, to great success. Or you could simply force yourself to sit down at the computer and grind it out every day, then force your friends and co-workers to give you notes, but I don't recommend it. If these options aren't open to you but you still want to improve your writing, taking a UCB class will give you the structure you need. It also gives you access to an experienced comedy writer who will tell you how to improve your work and help you isolate the areas in which you can improve. The other teachers and myself have each written and given notes on hundreds of sketches, so we're able to give fast and effective answers to the question, "How can I make this sketch better?"

The third benefit, the curriculum, is definitely useful, but not strictly necessary. The UCB curriculum crystallizes a lot of useful nuggets of sketch wisdom -- the differences between parody and satire, for instance -- but a lot of it is stuff you could figure out yourself by trial and error if you wrote sketches constantly for five years, like I did. Maybe think of it as listening to the WTF podcast every week -- by doing so you learn a lot of great stuff about comedy that can give you a leg up, but hey, you can learn the same stuff by doing spots every night for five years. That said, taking a class can help you quickly pick up a lot of wisdom that you would have had to learn the hard way otherwise.

The last consideration is that if you complete the sketch program at UCB, you may be eligible to apply to join one of the theatre's Maude Teams. These are the house sketches teams at the theatre, analogous to Harold Teams for improv. These teams are hard to get on -- a ton of people submit -- but if you make it onto one you'll be writing and producing a new sketch show every month on the UCB stage in front of one of the greatest comedy audiences in the world. It's a constant trial by fire, which will make you a really strong writer really fast.

So: Is it worth $350? If you're already writing, revising, and getting feedback on your work every week, maybe not. But if you wish you were writing more than you are and are interested in comedy writing in general, AND you can afford it, then totally. And, as opposed to improv classes, where you can leave without anything tangible, (especially if all you do is take Improv 101, then call it quits), if you take a single sketch class you'll leave those eight weeks with six scripts you've written and an armful of information about the structure of comedy and comedy writing in general.

How the Donner Party inspired Charlie Chaplin

Quote from Charlie Chaplin's autobiography:

"In the creation of comedy, it is paradoxical that tragedy stimulates the spirit of ridicule, because ridicule, I suppose, is an attitude of defiance: we must laugh in the face of helplessness against the forces of nature - or go insane. I read a book about the Donner Party, who, on the way to California, missed the route and were snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Out of 160 pioneers, only 18 survived, most of them dying of hunger and cold. Some resorted to cannibalism, eating their dead, others roasted their moccasins to relieve their hunger. Out of this harrowing tragedy, I conceived one of our funniest scenes. In dire hunger, I boil my shoe and eat it."

Video: The Zenmasters answer questions from readers of Seventeen Magazine

Seventeen Magazine readers have questions about sexting, virginity, and hair care. The Zenmasters have answers. Featuring Sagar Bhatt and me.

Hot Soup w/ Joseph and Zimmerman

Friday (8/25) night's lineup:

Jeffrey Joseph
Joe Zimmerman
Sean Donnelly
Amber Nelson
Danny Solomon
Mark Normand
Matt Ruby (hosting)

Hot Soup!
Every Friday at 8pm
FREE SHOW
O'Hanlon's (back room)
349 E 14th St between 1st and 2nd Ave. (map)
Produced by Matt Ruby, Mark Normand, Andy Haynes, and David Cope

Dave Chappelle's reluctant symposium on the n-word

In Heaven Hell Dave Chappelle, a 2006 Esquire piece, Chappelle talks about how Viacom's purchase of Comedy Central led to a symposium on how far you can go with the n-word.

Chappelle straightens his back and mimics the voice of an older white executive: ”‘Dave, we’re having a symposium on the n-word, and we wanted you to speak about your use of it. It’s just for our information.’ And I did it, but afterward I was like, That was real stupid of me. Why the fuck would I explain to a room full of white people why I say the word nigga? Why on earth would I put myself in a position like that? So you got me on a panel, me and all of these, like, Harvard-educated, you know, upper-echelon authors, me, and a rapper. So here I am explaining, and I was real defensive ‘cause of what was going on at the show at the time—we had just shot the Niggar Family sketch, and I was at a symposium on the word nigger. So I’m feeling like I’m fighting censorship. They say, ‘We just want to know how far we should go with something like that.’ And the subtext of it is, ‘Do you want to know, or do you want to tell me something?’

“You have all these Harvard-educated people saying, ‘I think the word is reprehensible’ and talking about the destructive nature of blah, blah, blah… . You know, pontificating.”

Silence. A sigh.

"But the bottom line was, white people own everything, and where can a black person go and be himself or say something that's familiar to him and not have to explain or apologize? Why don't I just take the show to BET--oh, wait a minute, you own that, too, don't you? Same thing happened with the Rick James episode. They gave us the notes and there were like forty-six or some insane number of bleeps that we would've had to put over it. 'Well, Dave, then why don't you go in and explain to them yourself.' So now I'm sitting in a room, again, with some white people, explaining why they say the n-word, and it's a sketch about Rick James, and I don't want to air a sketch with that many bleeps over it; it will render it completely ineffective. Give me another week and I'll just come up with something else. Run a rerun. 'No, we can't run a rerun, we've got ad buy-ins' and blah, blah, blah. Okay, well then, fine, I don't want to do it then. And so then there was a compromise. It was the only episode that aired with a disclaimer. But again, it was a position where I was explaining to white people why the n-word. It's an awful, awful position to put yourself in.

"I'm just saying it's a dilemma. It's something that is unique to us. White people, white artists, are allowed to be individuals. But we always have this greater struggle that we at least have to keep in mind somewhere."

Author Kevin Powell also recalls what it was like seeing Chappelle back in 1993 in New York City.

I remember being at the Boston Comedy Club in Greenwich Village and watching this tall, bone-thin young man with the contagious, toothy smile, the deep-socket, saucerlike eyes, and the perfectly oval head atop a twig of a neck wreck the mic, the stage, and the room like an old-school rapper. Only nineteen at the time, Chappelle was nicknamed by Whoopi Goldberg “the Kid.” Even then there was a razor-sharp racial consciousness to Chappelle’s material—he had a keen eye for that gray area between social satire and pop culture—and on that occasion I was lucky to witness something very special. Here was the classic working-class intellect of Charlie Chaplin’s conniving tramp, the jazzy, in-your-face audacity of Lenny Bruce’s birth-of-cool bebopper, and the gut-bucket, bluesy aches and pains of Richard Pryor’s dead-on mimes, all in one. There are comedians who have to work at being funny, but Chappelle seemed born to it.

Helluva description. [via Deadspin]

A look at how much comics make doing commercials

The Funny People Behind the Famous Ads looks at how much comics make when they're in commercials.

Most performers in commercials don't make life-changing money. They often work for scale, a minimum negotiated by the Screen Actors Guild: $592.20 per day of work, plus a declining fraction in residuals as the commercial airs, down to $51.65 per showing. There are separate rate schedules for network, local and cable TV, and it can add up to a healthy middle-class lifestyle. But celebrities—and performers in long-term campaigns like Stephanie Courtney and Pete Holmes—may graduate to more lucrative deals, says Doug Ely, a commercial agent at AKA Talent.

"I'm sure Stephanie has a multiyear contract," Mr. Ely says. "Let's say she gets $100,000 per year, though I'm sure she gets substantially more than that at this point. They'd contract for x amount of work that includes commercials, print ads, radio, personal appearances."

Ms. Courtney declined to talk about her deal, but concedes, "It's definitely changed from where I was. But where I was, was a one-room studio, really hand-to-mouthing it. Now, to not freak out if you have to go to the dentist or something, it's made life a little easier."

Mr. Holmes also didn't want to be specific, but added: "When it's all said and done—many recording sessions, many rewrites, rerecords, and after they've all aired for a year— you're looking at about the starting salary of an ophthalmologist."

Brian Baker, a former Second City improv actor who played the "trench-coat guy" in Sprint ads for six years, says the role was like hitting the lottery. Bobby Collins, a Los Angeles comedian, says he got more than $300,000 for appearing as himself in four Certs commercials.

Also worth mentioning: All those auditions ya have to go on that lead nowhere.

Mitch before he was fully Mitch

Mitch Hedberg back in '95 doing an early TV spot: [thx MN]

Maron: "The best thing you can do as a comic is make someone feel less alone"

Guest host Mike Birbiglia interviewed Marc Maron on episode 200 of WTF and hit up past WTF guests for questions. It's a great convo. Here's Maron on the best thing you can do as a comic:

The best thing you can do as a comic is make someone feel less alone...There are two things that I think are essential with good comedy: That you actually make somebody see something in a different way completely. Or that you make people feel less alone.

I also loved this line from Birbigs when he was talking about how Stanhope is his fave comic right now: "He's got a new hour every fifteen minutes." Heh.

Speaking of, I just relistened to Deadbeat Hero. Man is it fucking good. Watch below...

Lemon Hot Soup on Friday

Friday (8/19) night's lineup:

Damien Lemon
Brooke Van Poppelen
Matt Wayne
Nick Flanagan

Hot Soup!
Every Friday at 8pm
FREE SHOW
O'Hanlon's (back room)
349 E 14th St between 1st and 2nd Ave. (map)
Produced by Matt Ruby, Mark Normand, Andy Haynes, and David Cope

Chuck Klosterman on Louie's 'brilliance"

Louie's Brilliant Second Season:

What’s so distinctly compelling about this season of Louie is how everyone seems to collectively realize that what C.K. is doing is not only cool, but also authentically artful and unnaturally profound. There’s no debate over its value because there’s no contradictory position to take. It’s not polarizing in any important way: If you’re watching this show, you intuitively know it's fantastic (and substantially unlike the way fantastic TV typically is)...

Right now, Louie is like the Beatles in ’66, or maybe Joe DiMaggio in ’41. These half-hour explorations are not just deftly written, but formally inventive....The level of insight and weirdness C.K. is jamming into these shows is flat-out unimpeachable, and I somehow get the sense that his entire audience is having the same experience as me. It’s a shared recognition of perfection, happening in the present tense...This is someone working on the most radical edge of mainstream culture and succeeding brilliantly without ever doing the same thing twice. There is no antecedent.

The most powerful feeling I get from watching Louie is the sense that it isn't made by a committee. It feels so different to see a TV show that is actually one person's vision. Big teams homogenize things. You watch Louie and you feel like you're watching a single filmmaker, not a writing room.

"Jokes?" by Scott Moran

Scott Moran's "Jokes?": [via SS]



Neat to see someone taking a different approach than the typical "here's me doing standup" video. Really nice editing job too.

You can catch Scott (and me) telling jokes at the final Rubber Bullets show on Wednesday night.

Follow Sandpaper Suit at Facebook

New option for following along: "Like" Sandpaper Suit at Facebook and you'll be able to see Sandpaper Suit post in yours Facebook news feed.

Also, an eagle eyed commenter wrote:

I really enjoy the blog! Just wanted to let you know that "The Pocket" has disappeared since all the videos went up. I find that section pretty invaluable and hope you're not getting rid of it altogether.

The Pocket is indeed gone from the sidebar but that's just 'cuz I'm moving those occasional links into the regular flow of the site. You can view old links from The Pocket here. Carry on.

Comedy Week at Deadspin has posts on Hedberg, Woody, Kaufman, Norm, and more

Sports blog Deadspin just wrapped up its Comedy Week 2011 and it was curated excellently by F.O.S.S. (friend of Sandpaper Suit) Luke Cunningham. Luke profiled a bunch of below-the-radar comedians and put together a bunch of other interesting comedy stories too.

In I Never Want To Work On A Goddamn TV Show Again: A Week In LA With Norm Macdonald, A.J. Daulerio talks about watching Norm rant:

He also went into this bizarre rant about a conversation he'd had with a guy about time travel and the concept of altering history and how this individual said he would go back in time and if not kill Hitler, he'd at least punch him in the face. Norm began to build on this notion: "Everyone uses Hitler as an example. They always say they'd go back and attack Hitler. But this was one of the most charismatic and convincing people in history and you're telling me that if you're standing two feet away from Hitler, you'd try to fight him? I doubt that. You'd probably try to blow him. That's what the end result would be. You'd go up to him to try to punch him and then Hitler would turn on the Hitler charm and instead of punching him, you'd most likely end up blowing him. I'd probably blow Hitler if I were in that situation. Why not? It's Hitler!" He went on for about two minutes and explored every subtle nuance of the joke's potential and context and weaved in both cerebral observations and mundane filth to perfection. The room was awestruck. He may have been testing out material or just showing off, but it was a pure joy to watch, as if he'd just opened up his head and pulled his brain out to tap-dance on the table for everyone there in a one-time-only performance.

Some other notable pieces: Profiles of Andy Kaufman and Mitch Hedberg. Five For Fighting: Comics Vs. Hecklers offers videos of comics taking down loudmouth crowd members. And SportsFeat’s Guide To Funny People (And Chris Farley) has excerpts from longform profiles of Richard Pryor, Woody Allen, and Tina Fey.

Related: Luke talked about writing on Norm MacDonald's new sports-themed show here a while back.

Woody Allen standup from '65

Think Tank at MSN's Postbox site

Remember Think Tank? That's the video series Mark Normand and I used to do where we sit on a couch and discuss random crap (for example: Dawkins).

Well now we're churning out one a week for MSN's Postbox site for New York City (via Rooftop Comedy) where we discuss different NYC-related topics. Here's a few we've done...

Skate or Die:



NYC Subway:



NY Baseball (Yankees/Mets):



Street Food:



NYC Pizza:



More to come. You can watch the older episodes here.

Marc Maron on stakes and emotional risk

Marc Maron in a 2010 interview:

Well, I think, how much of their humanity is being made available. That is the emotional risk of it. It’s how much of that person, how much of their heart is involved. It’s like watching Pryor. Everyone talks about Pryor, but the reason Pryor was so exceptional was you felt a real visceral sense that he was taking emotional risks. That his vulnerability was genuine. And I think that’s at the heart of great comedy...

There are plenty of clowns. There are plenty of people who are spectacles. I think people love spectacle. So I think success is not judged or decided by how much people put their vulnerability or sensitivity into something. People like train wrecks. People like things blowing up. It’s just a school of thought. It’s a different way of engaging the craft. It’s just a preference, really. And I think in comedy, people who are too sensitive and too vulnerable are more likely to crash and burn than become great successes.

So great comedy is about taking emotional risks, but you're more likely to crash and burn if you do it. Pick your poison.

Jimmy Pardo on doing crowd work

Jimmy Pardo on doing crowd work:

There’s nothing worse than polling the audience. So many comics think that’s crowd work. Again, all they’re really doing is burning a topic, if they’re not going to follow up on it. We all have different skill sets. And if you’re a great joke writer, don’t think you need to add crowd work into your mix. You don’t need to. Just like how I don’t need to add one-liners into my act because I see somebody that’s great doing one-liners. So many young comics after they see me, or Todd Glass or Steve Iott, who’s more local, they’ll go, “Oh I got to start doing more crowd work.” No, no you don’t. Stick with what you’re doing, stick with what works for you. If eventually you figure out that’s what you want to do, then great. But don’t go out of your way to try crowd work if that’s not in your DNA.

In a way, it’s a little insulting to the guys who do it well. Like just the idea that you’re a comedian, “Yeah I’m gonna try doing crowd work too…” Why do you think you can do that? Because you saw somebody do it well? It’s the one thing that does kind of drive me nuts, when you see somebody really great at it, “Yeah I want to do that too.” That’s not what you do, so what are you talking about? I’d like to write great jokes too, I just don’t have that skill set.

Interesting to hear this p.o.v. from such a crowd work master. I get what he's saying, but a comic who's got ZERO crowd work skills is missing a tool on the tool belt IMO. And the only way you get better at it is by giving it a go.

It's especially helpful if you're frequently hosting shows or doing small/shitty rooms. When people are cold, it's nice to be able to do some non-material conversing that gets a few laughs and warms 'em up a bit. A little back-and-forth banter can serve as the foreplay that helps, um, grease the wheels.

Discount on Laughing Skull Comedy Festival submissions

Courtesy of Steve Hofstetter of the Laughing Skull Comedy Festival: Any comic that registers for the 2012 Laughing Skull festival can use the promo code FEST6343 and save $5 off the $40 registration fee. Deadline is September 1, 2011. A description of the fest from Steve:

Last year, first round judges included JoAnn Grigioni (VP Talent, Comedy Central), Ian Arougheti (Agent, Paradigm), Emilie Laford (Booker, Melrose Improv) and more. College agents, club owners, film directors, etc - even if you don't make it out of the first round, you will be seen by some BIG industry. And if you win the whole thing, the prize package includes cash, offers of representation, and a few months of club work, all routed and booked ahead of time.

I wish there was a site that listed all the upcoming comedy fests and their submission deadlines. Oh well. If ya know of any other festival submission deadlines coming up, go ahead and post 'em in the comments.

How life on the road can drive you crazy

9 Hours Til Show Time by Nick Di Paolo explains how life on the road can "drive you fuckin’ crazy."

Ask any comedian who has done this for a while and they will tell you – and I agree with this – comedy clubs pay us not to make people laugh, but to stand in line at airports, take long miserable flights, eat food they wouldn’t allow on the set of “Fear Factor” and stay in hotel rooms so dingy, the only place you’ll find a “do not disturb” sign is around the maid’s necks. They do not pay us for telling jokes.

I know a few fellow comics, usually young ones, who haven’t grasped this theory yet. They’re like “I can’t believe I get paid to make people laugh!!” You don’t stupid. You get paid to kill five days in Davenport without killing yourself. You get paid to get undressed in public at airport security. You get paid to run the length of O’Hare, carrying a fifty pound suitcase, just to find out your flight has been cancelled. You get paid to listen to the couple in the hotel room next to you bang away until four in the morning, while you sit in the dark watching porn banging away by yourself. You get paid to each lunch alone at some food court in some mall in Livonia. You get paid to stand outside in the cold for a half an hour at baggage claim, waiting for you “limo”, that usually ends up being the club owner’s Mom – a 60 year old woman with a two pack a day cough and a 1983 County Squire station wagon. And oh yeah, you get paid to wake up at six am, on a minus 18 degree morning, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to do the Morning Zoo radio show. Making people laugh? Nah, that’s strictly pro bono.

If you've ever glamorized the life of a road dog, this is a must read. [via DA]

Made With Love at CNN, Huffington Post, NY Magazine, and TruTV

Here are some mentions of Made With Love: Baked Parsnip Chips from around the web...

Huffington Post:

We hope stand-up comedian Matt Ruby has more episodes up his sleeve... if the relationship between the fictional couple doesn't get too sour, that is.

CNN Eatocracy:

A fictional cooking show where the couple's relationship is crumbling just like the cookies.

NY Magazine:

Anyone who has ever watched a cooking show just knowing that when the cameras turn off the hosts are not the chipper, everything-is-yummy people they appear to be is probably not alone. Everyone feels that way. But what happens when the hosts' frustrations are so strong that they sort of start to crop up in the actual show? Well, if it happened and it were funny, it'd possibly be like this faux–Food Network segment, "Made With Love."

TruTV:

This new cooking show needs to be picked up by The Emotional Eating Channel...Made with Love is the kind of food program that I would watch. It has everything you could want: handy information about making healthy snack foods, a pair of knowledgeable hosts, and a passive-aggressive subtext!

Another episode is on the way too. Stay tuned.

Curb Larry David vs. real Larry David

Rolling Stone takes a look at Curb Your Enthusiasm in its latest issue with a few pieces.

1) Larry David Talks Dating Post-Divorce, 'Seinfeld' and Wealth.

He notes that his Curb character is "my version of Superman. The character really is me, but I just couldn't possibly behave like that. If I had my druthers, that would be me all the time, but you can't do that. We're always doing things we don't want to do, we never say what we really feel, and so this is an idealized version of how I want to be. As crazy as this person is, I could step into those shoes right now, but I would be arrested or I'd be hit or whatever."

2) The 'Curb' Effect: How Larry David Changed Comedy Forever.

Some comedians say the things that everyone else is thinking; Larry David says the things that nobody realizes they’re allowed to think. Deep down, most people would probably prefer to quietly bow out of the grand tour of a friend’s new home, or not sing the Happy Birthday song. It takes actually seeing someone else blow off such social niceties before a person begins to question the logic of simply going along to get along. Throughout his career, Larry David has had a similar effect on his peers and his heirs – after seeing what boundaries he pushes, others begin to figure out what they too can get away with.

The piece goes on to explain how Louis CK, Sacha Baron-Cohen, Ricky Gervais, and others have been influenced by LD.

3) Comedian Susie Essman Explains Larry David's Genius (it's all about justice).

What do you remember about Larry from the stand-up days?
He was legendary, the ultimate comic’s comic. His material was just brilliant, as you can imagine. But there were also nights when he would just walk on stage, look at the audience and be like, “Nuh-uh, I don’t think so,” and just walk off. Nobody did that! I used to emcee all the time at Catch a Rising Star, so there was always that moment when we’re ready to go, “And please welcome Larry David!” – that moment where we’re passing each other and he’s going on and I’m coming off and he’d always say to me, “Stay close, stay close.” With Larry you always had to stay in the room ‘cause you never knew if he was just gonna do two minutes, he could just walk off the stage. What’s interesting is if I said to all the comics back then – Chris Rock, Colin Quinn, Jon Stewart, Joy Behar – “Larry’s going to be more successful than any of us,” nobody would have believed it. Not that he wasn’t brilliant – he was – he just didn’t have that kind of driving ambition...

What is the essence of his genius, if we’re going to say that?
I think that it’s the thumbing his nose at social conventions, and he’s completely baffled by social conventions. He doesn’t see the world that way. And the thing that you have to realize is that Larry's very concerned about justice. This is right, this is wrong. And he’s concerned about that in the world. He’s very political, and cares, always cares about the little guy and the underdog and how people are being treated. It’s one of the reasons why the crew loves him so much. But he really, really has a tremendous sense of morality, and the injustices of the world I think are something that really disturb him. That life isn’t fair, I think really bothers him, and I think that that is one of his driving forces. And you know what, he’s absolutely correct. You don’t act like a pig and take up two parking spots. It’s also piggishness that I think really disturbs him. He doesn’t like rudeness, he doesn’t like piggishness, he doesn’t like injustice. And he’s right, and I think that that’s what people respond to. He just goes about saying it wrong, tactlessly.

Here's a montage of LD's standup from the Curb pilot. Too bad ya can't find any of his older standup online.

Nice rescue of a joke that didn't hit hard

Love this saver line from Tim Harmston...

My jokes are like The New Kids on The Block. Individually, not always successful. But as a group, they provide a homoerotic fantasy.

...at 3:40 in to this video.

I'm hosting Hot Soup and We're All Friends Here this weekend

Friday: Hot Soup
I'm hosting Friday (8/5) night's show. Lineup:

Carmen Lynch
Team Submarine
Sam Morril
Joe Pera
Brandon Wardell

Hot Soup!
Every Friday at 8pm
FREE SHOW
O'Hanlon's (back room)
349 E 14th St between 1st and 2nd Ave. (map)
Produced by Matt Ruby, Mark Normand, Andy Haynes, and David Cope

Saturday: We're All Friends Here
The lineup:

Tim Dimond
Nore Davis
Jeff Wesselschmidt

Saturday, August 6 - 8:00pm
FREE
The Creek and The Cave
10-93 Jackson Avenue
Long Island City, NY
Facebook invite

Next weekend I'll be in the DC area. See upcoming shows list for info.

PFT explains how therapy "took away the fear" of going personal

Paul F. Tompkins on hard work and therapy:

In Philadelphia, I was considered a better-than-average comedian. People thought I was smart and clever and all that. Coming to Los Angeles eight years later, I fell in with a very smart, hip crowd and got a lot of credit for being a “smart, cool” comedian. I did not realize I was coasting on that. And then after doing it for a while, I realized, ‘you know, I could work a lot harder than this...’

Going to therapy took away the fear that I had of being able to talk about personal stuff onstage. Talking about that stuff, I did not realize that I could make it humorous. I didn’t realize how much humor there is the human condition

A manager gives his ideal trajectory for a comedian’s career

Interview With Manager And Producer Reg Tigerman:

If I could map out an ideal trajectory for a comedian’s career, I would say they should start in New York, where there are endless places to do stand-up, especially where there aren’t creepy industry folks lurking around.

They can hone their craft in obscurity, bombing without having to worry about who might see them. Once they’re ready, they can move to LA, complain about how bad the stand-up scene is compared to New York, but enter the casting world and be introduced to other club managers as a well-groomed, finely tuned comedian.

While starting in NYC has its pros and cons, I'd say the best path is to get stagetime in a smaller town (Boston, Chicago, or SF for example) first. Good luck getting 30 minute sets in NYC, ya know? Plus, you get to develop under the radar in other places. Here, people judge you and make up their minds. Once that call is made, it can take a long time to turn it around. Then again, this guy's name is Reg Tigerman which is a pretty great name so maybe just listen to him.

Video of We're All Friends Here

If you haven't seen a We're All Friends Here show yet, you're really missing something. Here's a taste:



Topics covered in the video include depression, the n-word, suicide, Paula Abdul, gunshot wounds, and tranny sex. Y'know, the usual.

Into it? The next We're All Friends Here is Saturday, August 6 at 8pm at The Creek in LIC (Facebook event). Guests: Tim Dimond, Nore Davis, and Jeff Wesselschmidt. We'll be digging deep again.

You can listen to the full audio episodes online at BreakThru Radio or via iTunes (5/18/10 episode). Here's the complete list of episodes.

The audience picks someone to whom they relate

Story Structure 104: The Juicy Details is pre-Community Dan Harmon's advice on storytelling. (He's talking about it in terms of the five minute pilot format that Channel 101 used.)

The audience is floating freely, like a ghost, until you give them a place to land...If there are choices, the audience picks someone to whom they relate. When in doubt, they follow their pity. Fade in on a raccoon being chased by a bear, we are the raccoon. Fade in on a room full of ambassadors. The President walks in and trips on the carpet. We are the President. When you feel sorry for someone, you're using the same part of your brain you use to identify with them.

For standup, this is probably a big part of why self-effacing jokes work so well as openers and get the audience on your side.

More of Dan's articles at the Channel 101 Wiki.

Marc Maron's advice to younger comics

Marc Maron's advice to younger comics from his keynote address at Montreal’s JFL 2011:

1. Show business is not your parents. When you get to Hollywood you should have something more than, “Hey! I’m here! When do we go on the rides?”


2. Try to tap into your authentic voice, your genuine funny and build from there.


3. Try to find a manager that gets you.


4. Nurturing and developing talent is no longer relevant. Don’t expect it. If you want to hear about that talk to an agent, manager or comic from back in the day….but don’t get sucked in. They’ll pay for the meal but they’ll feed on you naïvete to fuel their diminishing relevance and that can be a soul suck.


5. If you have a manager there is a language spoken by them and their assistants that you should begin to understand. For example when an assistant says: He’s on a call or I’ll try to get her in the car or he just stepped out or I don’t have her right now or their in a meeting or he’s at lunch or she’s on set or or or…. All of those mean: They’ve got no time for you. You have nothing going on. Go make something happen so they can take credit for it.


6. Sometimes a ‘general meeting’ just means that executives had an open day, needed to fill out their schedule and want to be entertained. Don’t get your hopes up.


7. If your manager says any of these: We’re trading calls or I have a call in to them or they said you killed it or they love you or their having a meeting about you or we’re waiting to hear back or they’re big fans. These usually mean: You didn’t get it and someone will tell you second hand.


8. There is really no business like show business. Except maybe prostitution. There’s a bit of overlap there.


9. This is not a meritocracy. Get over yourself.


10. Dave Rath will be you manager

Nice shoutouts to Giraldo, Schimmel, and DeStefano at the end too.

The Johnny Cash of comedy, mushroom trips, and The Green Room

Dave Attell and Doug Stanhope exchange [via SM]:

Stanhope: Here’s a Dave Attell story: Dave always talks in the same cadence, so you never know if he’s kidding or not. So he’s like, “I’m going to New Orleans. Remember when we were in New Orleans, and we got drunk and did an open mic, and then you hopped a freight train?” And it sounded like a joke, and I laughed, but he’s like, “No, I’m serious.” I’m like, “I’ve never played New Orleans.” What happened is Andy Andrist and I drove like hell to see Lewis Black, Dave Attell, and Mitch Hedberg on the same bill. We had played Georgia, drove 12 hours to be there, saw the show, got s***-faced, and we ended up at an open mic, and then, evidently, I jumped on a freight train by the (?) place, just to see if I… But I thought he was kidding. And he’s like, “No, you jumped a freight train…” [Laughs]

Attell: He’s great. He’s the Johnny Cash of comedy.

Stanhope: Yeah, I went one hundred yards.

Attell: He actually took a hobo trip to the next gig.

Stanhope: One hundred yards, and then I ran back going, “I jumped a freight train!”

This video also goes behind the scenes during season two of The Green Room with Paul Provenza. Quote from Joe Rogan: "If you want to write a new hour, you need at least one big mushroom trip in the mix." And here's the Belzer book Stanhope goes after up top.

Hot Soup w/ Gary Gulman

The lineup for Friday (July 29) night's show:

Gary Gulman
Calise Hawkins
Seaton Smith
Jason Saenz
Andy Hendrickson
Mark Normand
Matt Ruby

Hot Soup!
Every Friday at 8pm
FREE SHOW
O'Hanlon's (back room)
349 E 14th St between 1st and 2nd Ave. (map)
Produced by Matt Ruby, Mark Normand, Andy Haynes, and David Cope

Funny comebacks from Tom Petty, Phil Spector, and Elvis Costello

A few good music lines...

1) Joe List told me the first one: Bruce Springsteen headlined a concert in the 70s that also featured Tom Petty, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and some others. The crowd was riled up to see Springsteen. Raitt told Petty not to worry if he was onstage and thought he was getting booed because they were actually shouting, "Bruuuuuce." Petty's reply: "As if that's any better."

2) The second one was told by songwriters Cythia Weil and Barry Mann during this interview on Sound Opinions. They wrote “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” and presented it to producer Phil Spector, who thought it'd be great for The Righteous Brothers (Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield).

When they got together and played the song for Bill and Bobby, Phil explained the arrangement: Bill would sing the verses, Bobby would do harmonies on the chorus, and they'd trade off on the bridge. Bobby wasn't used to sitting out parts of their songs though. So he asked Phil, "What am I supposed to do while the big guy's singing?" Phil didn't miss a beat and replied, "You'll go to the bank." (Insert joke here about how Phil Spector really knows how to kill.)

3) And then there's one of my favorite quotes ever. It's from Elvis Costello (or maybe not) when he was asked, in 1983, how he felt about music critics. His reply: "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture — it's a really stupid thing to want to do."

Nick DiPaolo's first Letterman set

This joke is a thing of beauty:

I can never get quiet people living above me. It's never an old lady by herself. It's always like three Sumo wrestlers wearing clogs learning to tap dance. I'm coming down the stairs they're headed up with a gallon of Häagen-Dazs and a Gregory Hines album.

More DiPaolo.

Bottle episodes

On a recent episode of Community (written by Megan Ganz), Abed announced it was a “bottle episode.” So what's that? Bottle episodes are shows produced on the cheap using zero (or very few) non-regular cast members, effects, and sets as possible.

Example: The Seinfeld episode that takes place entirely in a Chinese restaurant. (The AV Club has a list of 19 TV episodes largely confined to one location.) Not sure if it technically qualifies, but I always like the restraint of how each Party Down episode takes place in just one location: the party they're catering.

Anyway, good inspiration for making web videos (or other stuff) on the cheap. Proves you can still make compelling fare without using tons of locations, sets, actors, etc.

Old Richard Lewis panels on Letterman

It was interesting listening to Richard Lewis talk about his Carson and Letterman appearances on his recent WTF interview. Here's a couple of his Letterman panels:





Hadn't watched Lewis in a while. It's interesting how he's a high energy, physical guy yet he's always talking about how depressed and neurotic he is. It's like Woody Allen on meth.

You can watch of couple of his full specials online: I'm In Pain and I'm Exhausted.

Why Letterman keeps his studio so cool

Never been to a Letterman taping. But I've heard the studio is chilly due to Dave's orders.

Was talking about it the other day with someone who knows the show well. His version: The studio is actually kept at 55 degrees. Audience members are warned in advance so they can bring additional clothing.

Why 55? Apparently back in the 80s, Dave experimented with different temperatures on different shows. He tried 75 one day. 65 another day. The day he went with 55, jokes really hit and from then on that was the temperature.

There's even an article about the Letterman studio on the site of Multistack, the company that makes the theater's chillers.

Some folks say David Letterman doesn’t want to break into a sweat during intense interviews under hot studio lights. But, according to George Clarke, Theater and Building Engineer for CBS, the cool air makes the sound crisper and keeps the audience more alert. “Crowd reaction is very important in this business, and the comedy stays fresh in the cold, too” says Clarke...

At about 5 o’clock each week night, Clarke and his boss, Joe Soldano, Building Manager, must make sure that the temperature of the Ed Sullivan Theater is pulled down to 50° F before the audience arrives. The MULTISTACK chiller has never failed to cool things down. “The stagehands call this place ‘the refrigerator’.” In the filming rooms everyone sits around in winter coats, hats and gloves. They, too, are kept crisp and alert by the cool temperature.

Related: Comedy Feng Shui: 10 things that ruin comedy shows [Sandpaper Suit]

Latest We're All Friends Here episodes are alive

The newest We're All Friends Here episode on Breakthru Radio is up. We're taking off this month so it's a clip show featuring juicy stuff from James Adomian, Michael Che, and Tom Sibley. Thanks to Marcus Parks for getting 'er up. Next WAFH show will be at The Creek on August 6 at 8pm.

Oh, and I forgot to post the previous episode here: BTR episode 06/21/2011: Jason Good, Rae Sanni, Thomas Dale. It's another good one.

Previous episodes. Subscribe via iTunes or RSS feed.

The guy with the neck brace during Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon's History Of Rap, Part 2

Oh man, I can't get enough of this dude in the audience with a neck brace when Timberlake and Fallon go into the crowd (4:20 into video).





I'm happier believing he's a plant so let me think that. Here's the clip [via Splitsider]:

Grand Unified Theory of humor?

Peter McGraw is a professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Colorado. He thinks he's found the Grand Unified Theory of humor. It starts with the idea that tickling is only funny when it's done by someone you know.

McGraw and Caleb Warren, a doctoral student, presented their elegantly simple formulation in the August 2010 issue of the journal Psychological Science. Their paper, “Benign Violations: Making Immoral Behavior Funny,” cited scores of philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists (as well as Mel Brooks and Carol Burnett). The theory they lay out: “Laughter and amusement result from violations that are simultaneously seen as benign.” That is, they perceive a violation—”of personal dignity (e.g., slapstick, physical deformities), linguistic norms (e.g., unusual accents, malapropisms), social norms (e.g., eating from a sterile bedpan, strange behaviors), and even moral norms (e.g., bestiality, disrespectful behaviors)”—while simultaneously recognizing that the violation doesn’t pose a threat to them or their worldview. The theory is ludicrously, vaporously simple. But extensive field tests revealed nuances, variables that determined exactly how funny a joke was perceived to be...

The ultimate takeaway of McGraw’s paper was that the evolutionary purpose of laughter and amusement is to “signal to the world that a violation is indeed OK.” Building on the work of behavioral neurologist V. S. Ramachandran, McGraw believes that laughter developed as an instinctual way to signal that a threat is actually a false alarm—say, that a rustle in the bushes is the wind, not a saber-toothed tiger. “Organisms that could separate benign violations from real threats benefited greatly,” McGraw says.

The professor was able to plug the BVT into every form of humor. Dirty jokes violate social norms in a benign way because the traveling salesmen and farmers’ daughters that populate them are not real. Punch lines make people laugh because they gently violate the expectations that the jokes set up. The BVT also explains Sarah Silverman, McGraw says; the appalling things that come out of her mouth register as benign because she seems so oblivious to their offensiveness, and “because she’s so darn cute.” Even tickling, long a stumbling block for humor theorists, appears to fit. Tickling yourself can’t be a violation, because you can’t take yourself by surprise. Being tickled by a stranger in a trench coat isn’t benign; it’s creepy. Only tickling by someone you know and trust can be a benign violation.

He managed to ask Louis CK about his theory. CK's response: “I don’t think it’s that simple. There are thousands of kinds of jokes. I just don’t believe that there’s one explanation.”

One takeaway from this "benign violation" idea (if true) is the importance of making an audience feel comfortable and safe. This is the problem with so many mics and crappy shows where there's only a few people in the room and there's some dude onstage telling jokes about rape or whatever. At that point, things stop feeling benign and start to feel genuinely creepy. It starts to enter "tickled by a stranger" zone.

If that's the energy of the room, your first job becomes getting everyone unified and feeling like they're in "a happy place." It's sort of like being the host for your own set.

The article ran in Wired's recent Humor issue which also has a Q&A between Chris Hardwick and Andy Samberg and The Secrets to Lonely Island’s Success.

(Video) Made With Love: Baked Parsnip Chips

A Sandpaper Suit production: When Gideon and Vanessa Schwartz cook, everything is made simply, made with fresh ingredients, and made with love! In this episode, the couple shows you how to prepare baked parsnip chips.

Credits
Matt Ruby - Gideon Schwartz, Writer
Brooke Van Poppelen - Vanessa Schwartz, Writer
Matt Lament - Director, Editor
Christian Olson - Director of Photography

The secret to Eddie Murphy's SNL success

A profile of Eddie Murphy from 1982, right after he finished shooting 48 Hours. [via JK]

In the piece, there's a good performance/auditioning tip: Think of the camera as just another person.



Ah, the ol' "smile with your eyes." Joe Piscopo also talks about Murphy's smile/vulnerability.



Here's some vintage Eddie from those days:





More clips of Eddie on SNL.

Adam Carolla on being neutral