Chris Rock's final step in putting together new material

Chris Rock & David Spade interviewed by Howard Stern. Howard asks them if they use writers for their standup. Interesting answer from Rock where he talks about how he writes two hours of material and then brings in five guys to watch him work for a week in Florida and offer up tags. He uses comics he knows and new guys too: "Sometimes I'll see a new guy on Comedy Central or something and I'll go, 'Let me see what that guy's got.'" That'd be some call to get.



At 56:10, he talks about working out new material in small clubs and going to Hannibal's show at Knitting Factory. He says, "You can manage a little place on just attitude. 300 people, I can just kinda bullshit my way through this. Experience will kick in."

Speaking of, Hannibal's show was super fun last night. Standing room only/line-outside-the-door packed. Hot crowd too. Here's a shot of Joyelle Nicole hosting.

Hot Soup + upcoming shows at Knitting Factory, Caroline's, & Union Hall

HOT SOUP on Wed (3/20) has a super lineup. And ya also get 1/2-off drinks.

LINEUP
Wyatt Cenac (The Daily Show)
Ryan Hamilton (Conan)
Dan Soder (Conan)
Mike Drucker (Jimmy Fallon writer)
...and more!

RSVP to confirm your spot:
FREECOMEDYWEDNESDAYS@gmail.com

If you RSVP with 4 or more people, everyone in your group will get a FREE DRINK at the show!

Doors: 8pm - Seating: 8:30pm - Show: 9pm
Ella Lounge
Downstairs room
9 Avenue A (between First and Second Street)
FREE - RSVP: FREECOMEDYWEDNESDAYS@gmail.com

Produced by Mark Normand, Matt Ruby, Gary Vider, and Sachi Ezura. (Can't make it? Our next show after this one is at Ella on Wednesday, April 3 at 8:30pm.)

I've got a bunch of cool upcoming shows too. Check it out...

March 16 - Underbelly @ The Creek
March 17 - Hannibal Show @ Knitting Factory
March 19 - Late Show Standup Showcase @ Caroline's
March 20 - March Madness (Final 8) @ Caroline's
March 22 - BE Show @ St. Vitus
March 23 - Laughing Devil
March 24 - Creaghead & Company @ Union Hall
March 25 - Sack Magic @ Legion Bar

And at the end of March, I'm headed down to ATL for the Laughing Skull fest and then will be doing a couple of shows in Athens afterwards. (That's B-52s Athens, not Socrates Athens.) Full show details here.

Newest We're All Friends Here podcast with Dan Soder

Newest We're All Friends Here podcast is up. Dan Soder in the hot seat this time. Hosted by Mark Normand and me. Giddyup. Listen at iTunes or Cave Comedy Radio.

Can you be fake yet authentic?

When judging comics, there's lots of talk about being "authentic" onstage. But what's that really mean? Can you be fake and authentic at the same time? Isn't that what being a great performer is all about? Is there anything "authentic" about doing the same set every night but pretending it's stream of consciousness?

Thought about that kinda stuff while reading this piece where Chuck Klosterman discusses David Bowie and the concept of authenticity.

And I know we shouldn't talk about "authenticity" here, because (a) that subject tends to derail everything else, and (b) we're now supposed to pretend like it doesn't matter. But it DOES matter, and I think critics who refuse to worry about authenticity are actively ignoring something profound. The problem is that people misapply the term. Authenticity is not about literal honesty. If an artist says, "I'm a fake person who makes fake art as an extension of my fake experience within a fake world," I view that artist as deeply real. And I'm not arguing that this is how David Bowie thought about himself, because I have no idea how he thought about himself. But it's how I thought of him. I think he was way more authentic than most rock musicians.

Sometimes the mask is more real than actual reality. Ya see this occasionally with a comic who's doing a character. The fake version somehow feels more real than when the same guy talks about his actual life.

Author George Saunders mentions something kinda similar in the preface to CivilWarLand, his book of short stories:

I set foot in my first theme park in 1969. It was Six Flags over Texas, outside Dallas. I loved it so thoroughly that, all the way back to Chicago in the car, I conspired with my sister to build a scale model of it.

Well, that never happened. But I still remember the baffled joy I felt on leaving the place, thinking: Wow, someone did this, someone made all this, some grown-up sat down and designed the little Mexican back alleys and cowboy boardwalks, the fake bird sounds.

In a sense, these stories were that scale model, much delayed.

But also, while working on “The Wavemaker Falters,” I noticed something: if I put a theme park in a story, my prose improved, the faux-Hemingway element having been disallowed by the setting. Placing a story in a theme park became a way of ensuring that the story would lurch over into the realm of the comic, which meant I would be able to finish it, and it would not collapse under the conceptual/thematic weight I tended to put on a so-called realist story.

Reality has conceptual/thematic weight, but fakery can be light as a feather.

Lenny Bruce and Bill Hicks talk Jesus

Some Lenny Bruce quotes. Like "Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God."

And this one...

Bruce: "If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses."

...reminded me of Bill Hicks' classic bit about Jackie and JFK:

Hicks: "A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. You think when Jesus comes back he ever wants to see a fucking cross? It's like going up to Jackie Onassis wearing a rifle pendant."

Structuring a showcase set

Ross Fitzpatrick emailed me:

I'm about a year and a half in and have an audition-type set for a local booker who could help me get to a lot of different, new stages...

I'm wondering about structuring it, a 6 minute set. The advice I most often hear is start with your second best and close with your best, then basically alternate by perceived strength of the jokes: 2,4,6,8,10,9,7,5,3,1

I can't really do that. My best two jokes are both about a minute and a half long. They both work well and get 3-4 good laughs. Problem is my 2nd best joke is about Hitler and includes an impression and I just can't open with it.

Is it suicide to open with your best joke? Are you bound to be a let down for the rest of the set? I've done it before (to get attention from the getgo) and it felt a little flat until the close. I could open with my more mediocre stuff that can come off as persona building and then close super strong with my two best, but wonder if this risks losing the audience/booker's attention before I get to the real meat?

My response (as always, take any advice I give with an ocean of salt):

i think you're overthinking it. i never heard of that alternating thing before. but yeah, you wanna open and close strong. and i wouldn't open with a hitler impression or whatever. heh.

it is not suicide to open with your best joke. it builds confidence in the crowd (and in you). also good: if the opener joke explains who you are or your p.o.v. of the world or makes you seem self-effacing. all those things help get a crowd on your site.

if you're not feeling ready to be seen, you could always tell the booker that. he might be impressed that you wanna wait a lil' bit to get more material together.

overall, i wouldn't sweat it too much. oh, one other thing you can do: watch late night sets to see how people structure those if you really wanna suss out if there's a "formula" that works.

good luck!

Ross replied:

I'm wondering if you've opened a show before with what you felt was your best material and if you found it had any significant positive or negative effect on how the rest of your act went? I mean, I realize this can be a pretty subjective thing and to get a sound read would probably necessitate a good number of reps with it - basically, I realize that it's kind of a silly question.

What's in the back of my mind as I wonder about this is the Talking Funny show on HBO (Gervais, Seinfeld, Rock, and CK were talkin about being comics) and CK mentioned how he would start to open with his closing material in an effort to strengthen the rest of his shit (it's in the first 10 minutes of the show.) Just raise stakes and put the onus on more. Maybe this applies only to a certain level? The 5-minute-set level guys should just focus on working on X plus Y and not bother worrying about higher mathematics? Like, focus on crawling to get on your feet before you begin to worry about a sprint or jumping hurdles?

Me:

I've never found a negative consequence to opening a set strongly. If you can kill up top, do it. If you can kill at the end, do it. If you have to choose between just one of those, I'd choose to end strong.

Re: CK, he does that to make his material better. That can be a good idea if that's your goal. When you're trying to improve a set, you do different things than when you're showcasing. When it's time to showcase or record or "be your best," then you should prob close with your strongest (or close) material.

One other thing I'd add: Think about how your jokes flow into one another. If you can go from one bit to another naturally, do it. It gives your set an organic flow instead of joke-reset-joke-reset-etc.

Podcast: We're All Friends Here with James Adomian

Y'know, it's just an interview with James Adomian while he is on mushrooms. That's how we roll at We're All Friends Here. Oh btw, we set up a Facebook page for WAFH.

iTunes Podcast: We're All Friends Here with James Adomian

We recently rebooted the podcast so each episode features just one guest. Easier to consume. Right now, there are interviews up with Donald Glover, Yannis Pappas, Michael Che, Ali Wong, Erik Bergstrom, & Jermaine Fowler. Juicy stuff. Hosted by Mark Normand & me. Produced by Marcus Parks for Cave Comedy Radio. More on the way too.

My fave quotes from "The Annotated Wisdom of Louis C.K."

Splitsider did a nice job coming up with The Annotated Wisdom of Louis C.K. Quotes that stuck out to me:

My uncles were all funny. My dad wasn’t funny, but my uncles were all funny. Now I go back and I like him better than them, they were manipulative funny. [AST, 2006]

Manipulative funny is an interesting frame. My interpretation of that in the standup world: Bait and switch/misdirection vs. an IDEA that's actually funny.

When you write from your gut and let the stuff stay flawed and don’t let anybody tell you to make it better, it can end up looking like nothing else. [Pitchfork, 2010]

Leaving the rough edges in makes it more, not less, beautiful. Wabi sabi!

Well, I think “likability” is an overused word. I don’t watch people ‘cause I like them; I watch them because they’re compelling. Sympathetic is a little different … Likable just thins you out. Working to make a character likable is what kills most TV shows. [Vulture, 2010]

Sympathetic vs. likable is an interesting split. Lets you move away from the whole "trying too hard" thing.

In case you missed, here's a big collection of Louis CK quotes and articles (mostly about his standup) I've mentioned in the past.

HOT SOUP returns on Wed (3/6)

HOT SOUP all over ya again on Wed (3/6). With 1/2-off drinks. I'm sitting this one out but we'll have this fun lineup:

Phil Hanley
Sam Morrill
Mike Recine
Brooke Van Poppelen
...and more!

RSVP to confirm your spot:
FREECOMEDYWEDNESDAYS@gmail.com

If you RSVP with 4 or more people, everyone in your group will get a FREE DRINK at the show!

Doors: 8pm
Seating: 8:30pm
Show: 9pm

Ella Lounge
Downstairs room
9 Avenue A (between First and Second Street)
FREE
RSVP: FREECOMEDYWEDNESDAYS@gmail.com

Produced by Mark Normand, Matt Ruby, Gary Vider, and Sachi Ezura.

HOT SOUP ON FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/hotsoupcomedy
HOT SOUP EMAIL LIST: http://eepurl.com/sX5j5

(Can't make it? Our next show after this one is at Ella on Wednesday, March 20 at 8:30pm.)

Brett Gelman's One Thousand Cats

Commitment!

Weird buzzwords from the writer's room

Raphael Bob-Waksberg writes on a TV show and decided to define some of the more esoteric buzzwords from that world. [via AC]

My fave:

Nakamora - not sure about the spelling of this one, but this is named for a line in a Taxi episode — “Paging Dr. Nakamora” — that got a huge laugh at the table read (for some reason beyond my understanding), so the writers added a bunch of callbacks to it throughout the script. At the taping of the show though, the first mention of Dr. Nakamora got no laugh, and every subsequent mention was increasingly painful for the writers, and the actors, and the audience. If your episode has a joke that dies immediately, but you know it has several callbacks yet to come, that’s a Nakamora.

Also included: bananas on bananas, hanging a lantern on it, and schmuck bait. Those all sound like good names for racehorses.

What if you took the jokes out?

In Aziz Ansari gets candid about love: “elusive and sadly ephemeral”, Aziz talks about the difference between jokes that just get a laugh and ones that elicit an "I'm glad someone said said it" response.

With my stand-up now, I’ve realized there are two types of jokes. One type is me talking about miscellaneous topics and getting laughs. That would be how I feel my first two stand-up specials come off. The second type is, you get a laugh, but you also get the feeling that the audience is saying, “Thank you for saying that!” I find the second type way more satisfying. I found it in Buried Alive, where after the show, so many people around my age said, “I’m glad you said that, I don’t feel ready to get married, I’m scared of my friends having babies, and yes, it is hard to meet someone you really like.”

With this new material about texting and stuff, this has been even more pronounced. So many people have come up to me and talked about how they and their friends have been going through this same shit. I almost write stuff with two goals now: to have it be really, really funny, but also have ideas that resonate with people. When people come up to me and say, “Holy shit, man, I can’t believe you said that, that’s exactly what I’m going through, and I hate that shit too.” That’s way more meaningful than, “Funny shit, dude!”

Reminds me of something Bill Maher said about George Carlin:

It is what I try to emulate. I try to do a show where if you took the jokes out it would still be an interesting speech. And that's where that comes from.

Good question to ask yourself: Would anyone still care what you're talking about if you took the jokes out?

Going to outer space is like taking shrooms

Love this video. Features astronauts talking about The Overview Effect, interconnectedness, and how going to space changes the way you see the world. Cosmic! Keep an eye out for whenever Edward Mitchell talks – he's a special guy.



(via PC)

Robin Williams livens up a Jack Nicholson acceptance speech

At the 8th Annual Critics' Choice Awards a few years back, Daniel Day Lewis and Jack Nicholson both won for Best Actor. And then Jack invited Robin Williams up to help out.



(via BB)

Jack White explains why he feels like a standup comedian onstage

Rocker Jack White on Serious Jibber-Jabber with Conan O'Brien. Cool guys, cool interview. At 11min in they start talking about the importance of hard work. Conan says:

I think talent is overrated. Talent's important but the real accelerant, the real coefficient that's the mystery number is hard, hard frickin' work.

And then Jack talks about reading Steve Martin's autobiography and why he feels like a standup comedian. He works with no set list and is very "off the cuff" onstage.

I've always felt about my stuff that I'm like a standup comedian onstage. I treat the scenario exactly like they do. Every time I hear a standup comedian talk about his craft or what he's doing, like that comedian was ripping off my jokes or taking my material or I did this joke and it bombed and I took it out of the set or the next joke i told murdered, I think, "That's exactly how I play music onstage."

Later on in the interview, they discuss Jack's favorite song...



...the lack of instrumentation reminds me of a White Stripes song that returns to my brain a lot as relevant to standup (or any creative thing really): "Little Room."

Well you're in your little room
And you're working on something good
But if it's really good
You're gonna need a bigger room
And when you're in the bigger room
You might not know what to do
You might have to think of
How you got started in your little room

Da da da

Mark Normand's Conan set & WAFH on Saturday

Snooki & JWOWW were on Conan last night! Oh, and this guy killed it too. Love the grab-the-tie move at the end.

We'll talk all about it at Saturday night's We're All Friends Here (details). 10pm at The Creek. Guests: Chesley Calloway, Joel Walkowski, and Nick Naney.

Facebook scam girl thinks I have nice pics

HOT SOUP with Gulman/Schaefer/more and Mark does Conan

Mark Normand is gonna be on Conan on Wed night! Hot damn. Make sure to check it out.

Meanwhile, our show goes on earlier on Wed eve...HOT SOUP with 1/2-off drinks and this great LINEUP:

Gary Gulman (Tonight Show, Letterman)
Sara Schaefer (MTV)
Dave Ross (LA/Holy F*ck)
Jeff Wesselschmidt
...and more!

RSVP to confirm your spot:
FREECOMEDYWEDNESDAYS@gmail.com

If you RSVP with 4 or more people, everyone in your group will get a FREE DRINK at the show.

Doors: 8pm
Seating: 8:30pm
Show: 9:00pm sharp

Ella Lounge
Downstairs room
9 Avenue A (between First and Second Street)
FREE
RSVP: FREECOMEDYWEDNESDAYS@gmail.com

Produced by Mark Normand, Matt Ruby, Gary Vider, and Sachi Ezura.

(Can't make it? Our next show after this one is at Ella on Wednesday, March 6 at 8:30pm.)

Vooza video on pitching is featured at The Next Web

Vooza is featured at The Next Web (it's a big tech blog): The keys to a great startup pitch are storytelling, passion and Mongolian monks [Video]. The clip features Steve and I discussing the secrets to pitching:

A big collection of Louis CK quotes and articles (mostly about his standup)

Nice to see that everyone loves Louis CK now. I've been hitting readers over the head with CK quotes/articles/recaps here for years – way before his FX show hit the air. So I decided to search through the 'ol Sandpaper Suit archives (lots of microfiche!) and bust out a COLLECTION POST of choice cuts. Most of these are about CK's standup though there's a few pieces on the FX show thrown in. Lots of good, meaty stuff in here for folks who care about the nuts and bolts of standup. It's neat how frequently and openly CK discusses his approach. OK, enjoy. (Ya can click through on the links to read the full piece. Any unattributed quote is from CK.)

Highlights from the great commentary on Louis CK's "Chewed Up" DVD
"Now I tend to just keep glomming onto something and adding more and more layers and pieces and then taking away stuff that was weak...It's like the way they make Samurai swords. They fold a piece of steel and bang it until it's thin. And then they fold it again and bang it again until it's thin until it's just compact and all the air and impurities are just leaving and it's just this pure, dense steel. So that's what I try to do."

Great Louis CK interview on XM Unmasked
"When you bomb, it's like a murder happened to you. And you've got data. You've got evidence. It's like forensics. You walk around poking things with a pencil and go, 'Well, if you hadn't said this after that, it wouldn't have gone so bad.' And you learn. You have a huge wealth of information."

Louis CK on saying the things that are gnawing at his head
"I decided I'm not gonna come up with jokes anymore. I'm not going to try to think of funny things to say. I'm going to say the things that are gnawing at my head. Any thought that I've been having a lot, I'm just gonna say it. And all of a sudden, a huge amount of lifelong fear was just gone. I just didn't care."

What makes CK so good?
He gets off on walking that line. And those provocative topics and setups get people paying attention. Tell an audience that your young daughter is an asshole, and they're really gonna want to hear what comes next. When an audience is locked in like that, it's a lot easier to get laughs.

Louis CK at Comix = most impressive standup show I've ever seen
At one point, he lost his place (maybe intentionally?) and went in reverse describing the last 6 topics he'd discussed in order to remember his point. The crowd burst out in applause. His response: "People will clap at any list." And then that smirk again. Great.

The pros to writing onstage
"An audience is a target, it's a guide. You can't really generate stand up material without an audience. They gotta tell you how to say it. And then once it's been said in front of an audience, it lives. And every time I say it, it changes, develops or gets worse."

The fascination with hecklers
"I usually respond sincerely to hecklers. It doesn't happen to me very often but when someone yells something out, I usually grind the show to a halt, focus on them, and I say very seriously 'It really makes it hard for me to do the show when you talk. will you please stop?' They usually get very very embarassed and stop talking."

Louis CK tees off on heckler
CK says, "When you talk, I hear it in my ear and it fucks up my timing and it makes my job hard. So could you not talk during my act please?" Guy decides to go back at him. Big mistake. CK rips him. Crowd boos the guy. CK: "People that don't know you hate you. That can't feel very good."

The evolution from clever to truth teller
Myq Kaplan: "louis CK did ridiculous, absurd jokes for years and years, and he was a genius at That, long before he started doing what he's doing now"

Ted Alexandro on letting jokes breathe
Ted Alexandro: "I learned a lot from working with Louis CK that being interesting, being intriguing, and engaging the listener is as important as being funny. "

"When you perfect, you go in the same direction as everybody else"
CK explains how his show is made up of first drafts. "I like this show to feel like it's right out of my gut or brain or balls," he says.

CK on writers’ rooms
"'Everybody wants to improve the material, so they will comb over it, take out abnormalities,' he says of the traditional writers’ room. 'It’s like certain kinds of food: You like them to be chunky and irregular. And they’ll just keeping puréeing and puréeing till it’s perfect, and who the fuck wants it?...They get to this place where it gets really madcap, and I just smell a roomful of writers getting off.'"

Carlin on deliberately crossing the line
Includes a great speech CK gave honoring Carlin.

Louis CK on "brushback pitch" jokes
"I like jokes that are brushback pitches. There's a mix of laughter and people going, 'Oh, Jesus!' But that turns into laughter. I like taking people to an area in their minds or their culture that they don't think they should be thinking about or laughing at, and then getting them to laugh there. That's a great thing to be able to do that. Take people to a place they're afraid of and say there's something funny here."

The advice Louis CK and Chris Rock gave to Hannibal Buress
"Louie would tell me not to curse so much," said Hannibal. "He'd say, "Take out the 'fucks,' you're six less 'fucks' away from being a millionaire."

CK: “I never write anything down"
“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.”

The Bill Clinton speech that Louis CK calls "one of the greatest things I ever saw"
"One of the greatest things I ever saw was [Bill Clinton] at Coretta Scott King's funeral. Jimmy Carter, George Bush Senior, Hillary — all these people making speeches, and then Bill Clinton goes on and he says, 'Let's all remember that that is a woman lying right there.' And he points at her."

Chuck Klosterman on Louie's 'brilliance"
Klosterman: "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."

Behind the scenes as Louis CK films a new TV pilot
He did some Q&A with the crowd while cameras were setting up. I asked him what the narrative of the show was and he replied, "You want me to tell you the entire story now, you motherfucker?" Oddly, that word seems almost like a term of endearment coming from him.

A highbrow justification for telling dick jokes
Adam Wilson: "If you can stomach the scatology, you’ll see that these jokes are meant to make you laugh, but more so to open a candid investigation into corporeality; into what it’s like to live in a body that disobeys, decays, and will one day cease to exist."

Tapping into shame and indefensible ideas
"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."

Chatting with CK after one of his sets
It was striking to me because so many comics seem so obsessed with hierarchy BS that they won't even talk to comics who they think are "beneath" them. Or they'll just crack on them. Yet Louis, who's got HBO specials, didn't give a shit. He just came over and said hey and was a regular guy willing to talk, even though we're just three comics starting out.

It has to be a calling

There's a kerfluffle in the lit world about whether writing is just an awful pain in the ass not worth the effort or something to be celebrated (Elizabeth Gilbert says writing allows you to “get to live within the realm of your own mind”).

It all began when Philip Roth told a young writer this:

“I would quit while you’re ahead. Really. It’s an awful field. Just torture. Awful. You write and you write, and you have to throw almost all of it away because it’s not any good. I would say just stop now. You don’t want to do this to yourself. That’s my advice to you.”

Similar convos happen around comedy. My take on it to folks who ask: I think it has to be a calling. If you can do something else, do it. Trying to do standup is such a grind that it just ain't worth it unless you just HAVE to do it. It's for people who have no choice. But if that is you, there's a deep, meaningful satisfaction that you can get from it. (Thx Lawson for the link.)

Joan kills it

Now that's how ya come out firing.

Talking about stakes and being a chameleon vs. being one-dimensional

I've talked a lot about stakes here before...

Stakes
Judd Apatow on adding stakes
Marc Maron on stakes and emotional risk
Storytelling tips from The Moth

...and here's me discussing 'em in an interview. Also covers why I think being a chameleon makes things tougher.



It's from Capture Your Flag's Erik Michielsen latest interview with me. Third year in a row we've done a Q&A like this. Here's the full playlist from this year's interview at YouTube. And here's Year 2 and Year 1.

Phil Davidson's interviews with comedians (Mulaney, Brennan, etc.) at Splitsider

Phil Davidson is a comic who lives up in Vermont and runs some fun shows there. I got to do a set with him in Burlington recently and beforehand we were discussing some of the interviews with comics he does at Splitsider. Subjects include Ted Alexandro, Rory Scovel, Anthony Jeselnik, Patton Oswalt, and lots more. They're worth checking out. Smart, detailed interviews that dive deep on standup and the process.

In Talking to John Mulaney About SNL, Standup and Growing Up a Comedy Nerd, Mulaney talks about why he goes for personal stories over jokey jokes ("because you believe what you’re saying and it doesn’t feel as detached").

With your stand-up, a lot of the material is personal stories. Is that something that evolves over time? It seems like the personal stuff is common among the more established comics. As a comic, is that where you eventually want to get to?

Yeah. When I started off, I was very premise-based and I would say an outright lie about my life just to get to a joke. I would do that kind of stuff at open mics. A couple things happened. One was I realized I’m not a great pure joke writer like a Dan Mintz or Anthony Jeselnik, let alone like Emo Philips or someone. So I was like “well, I can’t sustain this.” And more, I have things that I think are funny and it’s more of my take on them that appeal to me. I knew I wasn’t going to write an hour of very tight, impersonal jokes. The second thing was I was opening for Mike Birbiglia a lot. He took me on the road in 2005 and I opened for him on and off for like two years. Opening for him was huge for me cause I was going across the country every week. He and I did 30 days on the road together straight on a bus. I had to do stand-up every night, sometimes two shows a night. I was doing 30 minutes in places like Columbia, MO and I wasn’t ready to do a half-hour. Those things were big for me. Watching him and how he was able to dissolve mining real life for comedy, I just liked it. And then watching Paul F. Tompkins at Bumbershoot in 2006, I remember seeing him tell just three stories from his half-hour set and how many jokes he pulled out of those stories. Just the amount of jokes from the set-up to the whole story, it was packed. That really appealed to me. So I just started doing that. And then it becomes just more comfortable on stage because you believe what you’re saying and it doesn’t feel as detached. I still talk about TV shows and bullshit, though.

In Talking to Neal Brennan About 'Chappelle's Show', Standup, Podcasts and More, Brennan explains how standups are a hybrid of entertainer/writer/philosopher/pastor.

Where you do want to go with stand-up? Do you have an end goal in mind?

I would like to do theaters. That’s my goal. I said this to [Parks and Rec creator] Mike Schur, who’s an old friend of mine, when he asked why I was performing so much. I said “Cause I’d rather make Bring the Pain than The Hangover.”

Why is that?

It’s more personally satisfying. Bring the Pain means more to me than The Hangover does. Raw and Delirious mean more to me than 48 Hours and Trading Places and The Nutty Professor. The other thing with movies is, if George Carlin’s act was a movie, it would be a dystopian post-apocalyptic thriller. There’s something about movies that’s so cooperative and so fake. There’s something about movies where they’re upholding Judeo-Christian values that I just think is corny. I like movies, but with stand-up you can really affect people’s thought process. You’re not just an entertainer, you’re a writer, you’re a philosopher, you’re a pastor, you’re so many things. Dave’s act, Chris Rock’s act, Billy Burr’s act, Stanhope, Attell, shit is dark, man. But it’s a real reflection of the world that you just don’t get anywhere else. So that’s what I like about stand-up. If someone said to me you could be a really successful comedian or you could be a really successful TV and filmmaker, I’d pick stand-up every time…I just think stand-up’s the coolest thing ever. That’s the bottom line. I love Chappelle’s Show, but I think what I love most about it is how much it’s like stand-up. Stand-up’s just really interesting. So hopefully I’ll be in theaters based on this mixtape.

More of Phil's interviews at Splitsider.

HOT SOUP with Conniff/Heller/List/Vatterott and 1/2-off drinks

Next HOT SOUP is on Wed at Ella. Hmm, Wed at Ella...Maybe we should call that Wella. As in wella, wella, wella, ugh, tell me more tell me more...like that song in Grease. Maybe not. Anyway. Great venue, funny comics, & 1/2-off drinks. C'mon.

LINEUP
Frank Conniff (Mystery Science Theater 3000)
Nick Vatterott (Conan, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)
Emily Heller (Comedy Central)
Joe List (Comedy Central)
...and more!

RSVP to confirm your spot:
FREECOMEDYWEDNESDAYS@gmail.com

If you RSVP with 4 or more people, everyone in your group will get a FREE DRINK at the show.

Doors: 8pm
Seating: 8:30pm
Show: 9:00pm sharp

Ella Lounge
Downstairs room
9 Avenue A (between First and Second Street)
FREE
RSVP: FREECOMEDYWEDNESDAYS@gmail.com

Produced by Mark Normand, Matt Ruby, Gary Vider, and Sachi Ezura. (Can't make it? Our next show after this one is at Ella on Wednesday, Feb 20 at 8:30pm.) Sign up for Hot Soup email list.

The first cut of Spinal Tap was 7 hours long

There's a fine line between stupid and clever.

"The greatest ending line in movies" just popped out

In this interview, Billy Wilder discusses his writing partner I.A.L. Diamond and how they came up with the final line of "Some Like it Hot."

We had a great deal of trust in each other. But sometimes with writing you just can’t tell, especially if you’re writing under pressure. Diamond and I were writing the final scene of Some Like It Hot the week before we shot it. We’d come to the situation where Lemmon tries to convince Joe B. Brown that he cannot marry him.

“Why?” Brown says.

“Because I smoke!”

“That’s all right as far as I’m concerned.”

Finally Lemmon rips his wig off and yells at him, “I’m a boy! Because I’m a boy!”

Diamond and I were in our room working together, waiting for the next line—Joe B. Brown’s response, the final line, the curtain line of the film—to come to us. Then I heard Diamond say, “Nobody’s perfect.” I thought about it and I said, Well, let’s put in “Nobody’s perfect” for now. But only for the time being. We have a whole week to think about it. We thought about it all week. Neither of us could come up with anything better, so we shot that line, still not entirely satisfied. When we screened the movie, that line got one of the biggest laughs I’ve ever heard in the theater. But we just hadn’t trusted it when we wrote it; we just didn’t see it. “Nobody’s perfect.” The line had come too easily, just popped out.

The easy stuff that just pops out seems like it's not worth as much. But sometimes it's the effortless stuff that's actually gold. And maybe it just seemed easy but your subconscious was grinding on it for a while.

Btw, the "let's put it in for now" into "that's actually really good" turn of that story reminds me of how John convinced Paul to keep an odd lyric in "Hey Jude."

I finished it all up in Cavendish and I was in the music room upstairs when John and Yoko came to visit and they were right behind me over my right shoulder, standing up, listening to it as I played it to them, and when I got to the line, 'The movement you need is on your shoulder,' I looked over my shoulder and I said, 'I'll change that, it's a bit crummy. I was just blocking it out,' and John said, 'You won't, you know. That's the best line in it!' That's collaboration. When someone's that firm about a line that you're going to junk, and he said, 'No, keep it in.' So of course you love that line twice as much because it's a little stray, it's a little mutt that you were about to put down and it was reprieved and so it's more beautiful than ever. I love those words now...

Time lends a little credence to things. You can't knock it, it just did so well. But when I'm singing it, that is when I think of John, when I hear myself singing that line; it's an emotional point in the song.

Key & Peele director was ready to quit rather than put laugh track on show

Comedy folks hate laugh tracks. Yet every highly rated (I'm talking Nielsen ratings, not indie cred) comedy throughout history has had a laugh track. (Remember how Chappelle show had Dave introducing sketches and playing 'em in front of a crowd?)

But maybe the spread of YouTube videos and shows like The Office & Curb are a sign of the laugh track's decline? Peter Atencio, the director of Key & Peele, discusses the big push from Comedy Central to begin using audience laughs over the show's sketches.

Finally, about a week before we went to air, and the night before our final sound mix on episode 201, they relented. I can’t say what exactly changed their minds, but I suspect it was mostly the collective passion on the subject from the creative team. While we were certainly not unanimous in how much we were opposed to the choice (I was ready to quit entirely, others were more willing to just make the network happy), we all agreed that is was not going to feel like the same show we had aired the first season...

for me, it was a lesson in standing up for what you feel is creatively the right decision. Would the show be getting better ratings with laughs on the sketches? Perhaps. But it would no longer have been the same show for me personally, and I would not have returned for our third season, which we’re currently in pre-production on.

Related: Louis C.K. and the Rise of the Laptop Loners ("Not only does Louie's audience not know when to laugh, they don't even know if what they're watching is supposed to be funny.")

When hunting for the truth, the first thing you have to kill is your own ego

In second half of this clip, I talk about inward vs. outward material and the difference between "here's why you're a jerk," "here's why we're all jerks," and "here's why I'm a jerk."



It's from Capture Your Flag's Erik Michielsen latest interview with me. Third year in a row we've done a Q&A like this. Here's the full playlist from this year's interview at YouTube. And here's Year 2 and Year 1.

Nick Griffin is so damn good

I don't think Nick Griffin gets enough props. Soulful, honest, observational, personal. He does it all. And with immaculately crafted jokes too. Not a single wasted word. This Letterman set is a thing to behold. So tight.

Breaking Bad creator explains why bleak topics need humor

Breaking Bad showrunner Vince Gilligan talks about putting humor in drama in this interview.

You need a much humour as possible in a show like this. That was something I leaned from working on the X-Files. I learned so much from Chris Carter, who was the creator of Millennium about serial killers. It was hard to watch, and depressingly dark and I knew for Breaking Bad - a bleak show with cancer and criminality - that it would need to be leavened with humour. So we go for moments of absurdest humour but the moments have to feel real and derive from behaviour that the characters would perform.

So Gilligan is saying that something really bleak needs to be leavened with humor and absurdity. Is the opposite true too? Does something really silly/absurd need to be brought down with some bleakness in order to be full-bodied?

Reminds me of an Apatow quote I mentioned recently: "All great drama has some comedy and all great comedy has some drama."

WED 1/23: HOT SOUP at Ella Lounge with Kaplan/Vatterott/Lemon/Klein & 1/2 priced drinks

HOT SOUP down your throat one more time – half-off drinks too...

LINEUP
Myq Kaplan (Letterman, Conan)
Nick Vatterott (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Conan)
Damien Lemon (MTV)
Jessi Klein (VH1, Comedy Central)
...and more!

RSVP to confirm your spot:
FREECOMEDYWEDNESDAYS@gmail.com

If you RSVP with 4 or more people, everyone in your group will get a FREE DRINK at the show.

Doors: 8pm
Seating: 8:30pm
Show: 9:00pm sharp

Ella Lounge
Downstairs room
9 Avenue A (between First and Second Street)
FREE
RSVP: FREECOMEDYWEDNESDAYS@gmail.com

Produced by Mark Normand, Matt Ruby, Gary Vider, and Sachi Ezura.

(Can't make it? Our next show after this one is at Ella on Wednesday, Feb 6 at 8:30pm.)

Photos from last night at Caroline's

Amazing time last night at Caroline's. Thanks to everyone who came out and packed the place. It was a blast. Most fun I've ever had doing standup actually. And thanks to Jonathan, Kate, and Sagar for ripping it up before me. Comedy!

Comedic integrity as defined by Colin Quinn

Comedic integrity - the ability to critique all the hypocrisies in society but also to be real enough to see you're as guilty as everybody else in the game

(as defined by Colin Quinn)

The solution to Lance Armstrong and steroids in sports

I'm fine with Lance Armstrong doing all those steroids.

My theory: Performance enhancing drugs should be fine in sports as long as the athlete is also doing performance worsening drugs. Go ahead, you can do steroids as long as you are ALSO on shrooms. That way it all evens out.

Is that version of Lance Armstrong really gonna win the Tour de France – or is he going to stare at his own shadow for 3 hours? Tough call.

Is a tripping Barry Bonds gonna jack all those home runs? It's pretty tough to hit a major league curveball thrown by a DRAGON. That's a real flamethrower.

Imagine Ray Lewis on SHROIDS. His coach is yelling at him and he's crying and saying, "Coach, I was gonna tackle that guy and then I realized: We're the SAME PERSON. There is no end zone...it just keeps beginning!"

I HEADLINE at Caroline's on Broadway Tue (Jan 15) at 7:30pm

Love. Death. Religion. Sex. Drugs. Diseases. Kids. The Internet. 

Those are just a few of the things I'll discuss next Tuesday (Jan 15) when I HEADLINE at Caroline's on Broadway as part of the club's Breakout Artist Comedy Series. Gonna be a fun night.

I'm psyched to be able to do a full 45+ minute set there. I rarely get to do a set that long in NYC so if ya ever wanted to see me dive deep, here's your chance. Plus, it's only $5 if you use the promo code "BREAKOUT" at this link: http://tktwb.tw/Ypvd0F

Also on the lineup are these funny folks: 

Kate Hendricks

Jonathan Morvay

Sagar Bhatt (hosting)

Will be a grand ol' time and we'll do drinks after nearby. Giddy up. And if you know anyone else in NYC who might be into it, please do forward the info along to 'em.

Details:
Tuesday, Jan 15
Caroline's on Broadway
1626 Broadway (Directions)
Doors: 7pm
Showtime: 7:30pm

$5 tix if you use the promo code 

"BREAKOUT" at this link.

Two jews and a mormon walk into a podcast

Fun podcast: Hang out with Myq hanging out with Ryan Hamilton and Matt Ruby.

The advice Patton Oswalt gave Joe DeRosa that changed his whole perspective on writing jokes

In this You Made It Weird with Joe DeRosa, Joe explains some advice he got from Patton Oswalt (48min in to podcast) after running a bit by him in the green room at Caroline's a while back. The bit was about how much Joe hates people on reality shows. Joe paraphrases Patton's response:

I don't see what the purpose of the bit is...All your doing is just saying that to the audience. You know you think that. You know they think that. What's the point?...What I think you need to do in bits is – and what I try to do is – have a moment of discovery. I try to have that moment in the bit where I go, "I used to think this but now I realize it's that."

Derosa then comments:

Which if you watch Patton, he does that a lot. "When I was 35, I used to think..." and he hits the funny from that side and then he goes, "Now I'm 42 and let me tell you people, I was wrong!"...From that moment on, I realized that I don't want to be the guy who gets up and just barks at the audience...I have a lot of bits where I try to turn it on myself and ask why do I feel that way? Oh, it's because here's my flaw that makes me see the situation like this.

Here's a Patton bit about moving away from the world of drugs/alcohol.



This idea reminds me of Eddie Brill's advice to comics: "It's never 'you suck.' It's 'we suck.'" If you're discovering something, it puts you in the same boat as the audience as opposed to talking down to 'em.

Soup's on

HOT SOUP with Lawrence/Sandford/Hawkins & half-priced drinks tonight (Wed) at Ella Lounge. Full details at Facebook event.

"When you perfect, you go in the same direction as everybody else"

In clip below, Louis CK explains how his show is made up of first drafts. "I like this show to feel like it's right out of my gut or brain or balls," he says.



In David Chase Doesn’t Care About the Russian, the Sopranos creator describes a similar approach when discussing why that show ended the way it did.

“It just seemed right,” he suggests. “You go on instinct. I don’t know. As an artist, are you supposed to know every reason for every brush stroke? Do you have to know the reason behind every little tiny thing? It’s not a science; it’s an art. It comes from your emotions, from your unconscious, from your subconscious. I try not to argue with it too much. I mean, I do: I have a huge editor in my head who’s always making me miserable. But sometimes, I try to let my unconscious act out. So why did I do it that way? I thought everyone would feel it. That even if they couldn’t say what it meant, that they would feel it.”

Viva el gut.

This Patrice Oneal documentary is great

"You can't fuck with the truth. Be the truth. Always."

Tue 15 Jan: I will headline at Caroline's

$5 tix if you use the promo code "BREAKOUT" at this link.

I'm everyone on Facebook

Hey! I'm everyone on Facebook. I'm grateful for how amazing this year was. I use a photo of my child as my profile picture. My identity is wrapped up 100% in this other human being and that is totally healthy. Kimye!!!! Gun control!!!!! Jay Z talking to an old lady on the subway!!!! Exclamation points!!!!!!

Here's what I'm listening to on Spotify. I have GOOD TASTE. Did you see that proposal where the guy hired a marching band? I cried! I bet that marriage will last FOREVER because the best way to show you truly love someone is to use them as a prop in your bid to make a video go viral since your improv group didn't really go anywhere. Watch this documentary on animal dictators. We NEED to do something about that issue I just forgot about. I don't understand economics but here's a link to a Paul Krugman editorial.

LOOK AT ME. At a wedding I went to. At a vacation I went on. At dinner. With my girls doing karaoke last night! I heart karaoke because it's like being a performer and people pay attention to you but you don't have to work hard or be talented. Afterward, we all commented on each other's photos: "You look gorgeous." "No, YOU look gorgeous." I just changed my status to IN A RELATIONSHIP. I hope people who rejected me in the past see that and feel bad. I am THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY. There is an icon of a heart next to my name now. That is the same as love.

I am OFFENDED by what someone said. Delta airlines lost my bag. I have OPINIONS about the news. This is my good side. Baby photo! Go local sports team! Beyoncé. The Elders of Zion are meeting at the Denver Airport. I just invited you to an event. Breaking Bad!! I find privacy settings confusing. I am a human being desperate for connection. Instagram wants to sell my photos to Al Qaeda.

I am SO grateful to you. I have edited out all the bad stuff from my life and presented the rest here. I am a Disney version of myself. Tag me! LIKE me! LIKE THIS! I'm worthwhile! Validate me, internet! VALIDATE ME! I am TRYING. Happy New Year!!!!!!

COME TO MY SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. I forgot to mention: Someone famous DIED recently. I am SAD about this and this is my way of making it ALL ABOUT ME.

P.P.S. Whoops, forgot this too: Please vote for me in this online voting contest for a publication/corporation that is using me as a shill to increase its page views/social media exposure. Also, don't forget to donate to my Kickstarter project where I ask you to support my "art" that no actual consumer is willing to pay for. Thanks! You guyz rock!!!!

Saturday We're All Friends Here, Wednesday Hot Soup

Saturday (12/22): We're All Friends Here
9:30pm at The Creek and The Cave in LIC - FREE

It's the comedy chat show with boundary issues! In the hot seat this time:

Nick Vatterott
Kara Klenk
Charles Gould

Hosted by Matt Ruby and Mark Normand.

Listen to the podcast.

Wednesday (12/26): Hot Soup
8:30pm at ELLA LOUNGE - FREE

Twas the night AFTER Xmas and all through the East Village all the creatures were laughing and even a mouse and whatever the rest of that is ANYWAY we have a comedy show that night and it'll be a good way to laugh off that holiday ham. Half-price drinks too!

LINEUP:
Michael Che (Letterman)
Sean O'Connor (Conan)
Andy Haynes (Fallon)
...and more!

RSVP to confirm your spot:
FREECOMEDYWEDNESDAYS@gmail.com

Doors: 8pm
Seating: 8:30pm
Show: 9:00pm sharp

Ella Lounge
Downstairs room
9 Avenue A (between First and Second Street)
FREE
RSVP: FREECOMEDYWEDNESDAYS@gmail.com

Produced by Mark Normand, Matt Ruby, Gary Vider, and Sachi Ezura.

(Can't make it? Our next show at Ella is Wednesday, Jan 9 at 8:30pm.)

Why Seinfeld still performs all the time

Jerry Seinfeld Intends to Die Standing Up talks about why comics need to get up all the time...

When he can't tinker, he grows anxious. "If I don't do a set in two weeks, I feel it," he said. "I read an article a few years ago that said when you practice a sport a lot, you literally become a broadband: the nerve pathway in your brain contains a lot more information. As soon as you stop practicing, the pathway begins shrinking back down. Reading that changed my life. I used to wonder, Why am I doing these sets, getting on a stage? Don't I know how to do this already? The answer is no. You must keep doing it. The broadband starts to narrow the moment you stop."

...and why he thinks small bits are harder to make...

Seinfeld likens his fine-bore interest in jokes to his longstanding infatuation with Porsches, of which he owns “a few dozen.” “People ask me, Why Porsches? A lot of it is the size, same as with bits. The smaller something is, the harder it is to make, because there’s less room for error.” In high school he took shop classes, even after a counselor told him that collegebound kids didn’t need to, because he wanted to know how machines fit together. “I have this old ’57 Porsche Speedster, and the way the door closes, I’ll just sit there and listen to the sound of the latch going, cluh-CLICK-click,” Seinfeld said. “That door! I live for that door. Whatever the opposite of planned obsolescence is, that’s what I’m into.”

...and how there are different kinds of jokes in a set.

“There’s different kinds of laughs,” he explained. “It’s like a baseball lineup: this guy’s your power hitter, this guy gets on base, this guy works out walks. If everybody does their job, we’re gonna win.”

The baseball analogy reminded me of Louis CK discussing "brushback pitch" jokes.

It's worth checking this accompanying video too. In it, Seinfeld describes the anatomy of a Pop-Tart joke and shows his longhand writing process.

Chris Rock on bullet control

Turns out that US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan introduced a bill in 1993 to the Senate that would have levied a 10,000% tax on hollow-point bullets. The bill would have raised the price from $20 a box to $2,000.

Six years later, Chris Rock offered up a similar idea in this classic bit:



[via Kottke.org and @joffley]

Video: Turning the crowd against a heckler

So the comedy gods gave me a texter/heckler (teckler?) the other night at HOT SOUP at Ella Lounge. She thought I was ugly. I had some fun with that. Then the rest of the crowd shouted at her to leave. Here it is on tape.



BTW, next HOT SOUP will be Wed, Dec 26 at Ella Lounge at 8:30pm. Details.

Chris Rock's real wife vs. his comedy wife

Chris Rock is interviewed by Judd Apatow via email in Vanity Fair. He argues that comics were better when they had to perform in front of all kinds of crowds.

Do I think comedians are better now? Hell fuckin’ no. Show me one guy or woman as funny as Rodney Dangerfield or as good as George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, or Joan Rivers. There are a lot of good comics out there, no doubt, but as far as the quality of the comics goes, I think what you have is a bunch of situational comics. What we have now is black comics that work only black crowds, gay comics that do only gay crowds, and southern comics that only work down South, and so on with Asian, Latino, Indian, midgets, etc. The previous generation’s comics were better because they had to make everybody laugh. Richard Pryor could do The Ed Sullivan Show and play the Apollo. Seinfeld can work any crowd. Ellen can work any crowd. Lopez can work any crowd. And a few more, but the rest of them are just situational comics.

He also talks about his real wife vs. his comedy wife.

What isn’t O.K. to say onstage? Any of your family’s personal business. No experience that is just theirs. I don’t really worry about what they are thinking. Anything I say about women, I try to make sure that at least five or six friends of mine are going through a similar situation. That way I’m not picking on my wife. We like to say I have my real wife, who’s a lovely woman, mother to my children. Then I have my comedy wife, who’s a crazy bitch.

Interesting split. Seems like the tricky part would be getting real wife to be ok with comedy wife. [via JH]

PFT and Aziz on observational material vs. more personal bits

Paul F. Tompkins and Aziz Ansari discuss the qualitative difference in the laughs/connection you get from observational material vs. more personal bits. On the latter, PFT says, "There's a deeper connectivity there that's very rewarding."



Neat to see PFT doing a longer interview format. I like when he talks and wish people would pay him to do it more.

A collection of Judd Apatow podcasts, articles, and quotes

It's Judd Apatow podcast season! Apatow seems to hibernate from media until he's got a new flick (this time: This is 40) and then hits the interwaves to plug it and drop comedy knowledge. Good for us since he's a fascinating guy to listen to discuss comedy. For example, I keep thinking about a (paraphrased) line he used in a recent interview: "All great drama has some comedy and all great comedy has some drama."

A rundown of some of his recent appearances:

Adan Carolla Show: Judd Apatow
Judd Apatow's podcast appearances on Earwolf
Fresh Air Weekend: Judd Apatow
Fitzdog Radio: Judd Apatow
Nerdist: Judd Apatow

Making jokes work
He also called this Chicago Tribune piece "a very good article that shows how Leslie and I work together." It's interesting because it feels like he brings lessons learned from honing a standup set to editing a movie.

They had test-screened cuts of the movie the previous evening at a San Fernando Valley multiplex, running two different versions in separate theaters and recording the audiences' reactions throughout. Now White was cueing up versions A and B of a scene in which Annie Mumolo, who co-wrote the Apatow-produced “Bridesmaids” and here plays the best friend of Leslie Mann's lead character, Debbie, describes the after-effects of losing all feeling in a certain lower region of her body.

In one version Mumolo cites two examples of her numbness before a punch line that involves a shower head. In the other version, she offers more and more examples before reaching the payoff. As the editor played back the scenes synced up to the test-screening laugh tracks, it was clear that the audience responded more enthusiastically to version B, the one that took more time to set up the gag.

“We can actually look at the joke when we showed it this week and when we showed it two weeks ago (at an earlier screening) and see if we've either made it work better or actually hurt the joke by surrounding it with different variations of lines and stuff like that,” White said.

Sounds like a familiar process. “I know where to give a pause and let the audience’s laughter die down and not bury the next line,” he once said. Once a standup, always a standup.

There's no sound for drama
That doesn't mean it's all just about getting the funny stuff though. The drama matters more. But it's also trickier for a basic reason: Good drama doesn't make an audience erupt aloud the way comedy does. He explains in this interview:

“We feel the movie's working when it's getting laughs, but that's actually not true,” said Apatow, who turned 45 Thursday. “The audience is actually following the drama, and sometimes we have to think hard and go: ‘It's OK that they're not laughing here because this is a heartfelt moment or a devastating moment.' It's still not my strongest suit understanding all of that. I always say I wish there was a noise people made that let me know that drama was working.”

Don't obsess over likability
He also explained that the audience doesn't need to like a character.

With Mann and Apatow both using the word “crazy” to describe Pete and Debbie's behavior at times, the movie is willing to make its leads unsympathetic in the quest for some greater truth, if not humor.

“I like when people don't try so hard to obsess over likability,” Apatow said. “I wanted it to be balanced. I wanted Pete and Debbie to have an equal amount of good qualities and bad qualities. But it was helpful working with Lena Dunham on ‘Girls' (the HBO series that Apatow executive-produces) while I was working on this, because she doesn't care at all if you like her character. It just doesn't even occur to her that that's part of what you factor in. And so just talking about the script with her — and she's such a great cheerleader of this film — put me in a good frame of mind to not polish things up.”

Talked about something similar here recently, but from a standup perspective: Trying too hard to please the audience. I don't think it's just a "greater truth" that results from this approach. Sometimes when someone doesn't care if they're sympathetic/likable, that just makes them that much more appealing. At least you know you're not being pandered to.

The gods of comedy
As for the neuroses that comes with making funny stuff, he feels the good and bad come together.

There’s a fine line between what’s healthy about being a comedian and what’s really sick and demented about it. And usually both of those things are happening at exactly the same time. When I’m doing good work, there’s a part of me that feels like it’s a positive contribution to society. I’m making people laugh and helping them think about their lives in a positive and life-affirming way. But at the same time, there’s a sick, wounded part of me that’s looking for acceptance, and just wants to know that there’s somebody out there who likes me. I serve both gods simultaneously.

The rest
But wait, there's more! There's a good rundown of his history at Brobible's 45 Unforgettable Moments from Judd Apatow’s Career. And he guest edited Vanity Fair's comedy issue (he did something similar with the book I Found This Funny a while back). And I've written about him previously in these Sandpaper Suit posts:

Judd Apatow on adding stakes
Judd Apatow's "most personal moment" on Freaks and Geeks
The three funniest "in theater" movies Judd Apatow's seen

The HOT SOUP Holiday Spectavaganza Comedy Show – Free at Ella Lounge Dec. 12

Hot Soup returns on Wednesday night with our big holiday show! We're at Ella Lounge, a super venue in the East Village - it's got a downstairs room perfect for comedy, half-off drinks for our audience, and a Bossa Nova band upstairs after the show. And it's all FREE. Come on out and we'll mistle your toe.

Lineup:
Janeane Garafolo (24, SNL, Reality Bites)
James Adomian (Comedy Bang Bang, Last Comic Standing)
Kurt Metzger (Last Comic Standing)
Jared Logan (Comedy Central)
Mark Normand (Comedy Central)
Matt Ruby (MTV, SxSW)



RSVP to confirm your spot:
FREECOMEDYWEDNESDAYS@gmail.com

Doors: 8pm
Seating: 8:30pm
Show: 9:00pm sharp

Ella Lounge
Downstairs room
9 Avenue A (between 1st and 2nd St)
FREE
RSVP: FREECOMEDYWEDNESDAYS@gmail.com

Produced by Mark Normand, Matt Ruby, Gary Vider, and Sachi Ezura.



(Can't make it? Our next show at Ella is Wednesday, December 26 at 8:30pm.)

My Joke of the Week in Time Out NY

Joke of the week!



Thanks to the great Mindy Tucker for the swell photo. I told her to use her "soulful eyes" filter.

A screenplay and comedy-centric look at "making it" in the entertainment industry

Here's What People Won't Tell You About How to Make it In the Entertainment Industry But I Will by Mandy Stadtmiller offers up a screenplay and comedy-centric look at "making it."

As for making a splash online, think of something catchy, new, strong, simple, bold, authentic and calling-it-out true — like the viral gold standard “Stuff White People Like” — which is hilarious. Then do a Tumblr and Twitter of the same name and YouTube if you can. Boom, you just created your brand. Think: “Texts From Last Night.” One idea. Stick to that, and see if it’s fun and takes off. Nowadays anyone can become a brand or entrepreneur this way...

You can network your brains out, but if you haven't produced/created/completed/delivered the project -- as in, written the book, started the blog, written the screenplay, shot the video, staged the one-person-show or developed the tight five minutes of material of standup -- you'll get nowhere.

Concentrate on creating something that you are passionate and excited about, and you'll be blown away by what happens. Even if it doesn't land you the exact career you dreamed of, you'll have created something that you love. I know it'd be cooler if it were guaranteed that it would make your career, but creating something you love will change and influence you in ways you never dreamed of...

Podcasting is changing the industry; so is someone like Louis C.K. who is selling direct to fans. So is Twitter. As Seth Godin says: The way the industry is nowadays, no one is going to pick you. Pick yourself instead.

I agree with the idea that making something you think is great comes with some nice side benefits, even if it doesn't rocket you to stardom. Plus, the opposite is even scarier. As I've said before, there's nothing worse than selling out without selling anything.

Podcast: We're All Friends Here with Yannis Pappas

It's another WAFH episode. This time, one of our fave guests Yannis Pappas talks about his transgendered character Mauricia Rodriquez, 9/11 conspiracy theories, and inbreeding. Download at iTunes or listen at Cave Comedy Radio.

"Conviction" by Manolo Blahnik?

Tough to tell whether this is a shot of Lindsay Lohan doing a perp walk or an ad for fancy shoes in Vogue.

Easy vs. hard

Easy: Being cool.
Hard: Being nice.

Easy: Having "something to say."
Hard: Working at your craft.

Easy: Trivia.
Hard: Wisdom.

Easy: Fashion.
Hard: Style.

Easy: Curating.
Hard: Inventing.

Easy: Cynical.
Hard: Romantic.

Easy: 0s and 1s.
Hard: Analog.

Easy: Autotune.
Hard: Billie Holliday.

Easy: Snap to grid.
Hard: Drawn by hand.

Easy: Exciting!
Hard: Interesting.

Easy: Breaking the rules.
Hard: Knowing how to do it right (and then choosing when to do it wrong).

Easy: Texting.
Hard: Talking.

Easy: Internet bandwidth.
Hard: Emotional bandwidth.

Easy: "I have a disorder."
Hard: "It's my fault."

Easy: The part that fits in.
Hard: The part that's like no one else.

Easy: Stream of consciousness.
Hard: Spending time on it.

Easy: Being anonymous.
Hard: Putting your name on it.

Easy: Clever.
Hard: Soulful.

Easy: Making people think.
Hard: Making 'em feel.

Easy: Talking about it.
Hard: Doing it.

Easy: Lists.
Hard: Life.

The Bible vs. internet terms

A while back I talked about "nailed it" jokes. One to add to the list is Pat Dixon on the Bible:

The Bible is like those long disclaimers that you see on the Internet because nobody reads those either. You just scroll to the bottom and click, 'I agree.'

Reminded of it by Myq's podcast with Yannis and Ted Alexandro where they all commented on what a great joke it is.

Related: Pat Dixon on walking the line

Reboot of the We're All Friends Here podcast, first one up: Donald Glover

We've rebooted the We're All Friends Here podcast. It's now on Cave Comedy Radio (with the help of Mr. Marcus Parks). We're digging into the archives, picking out the best interviews, and posting 'em again (this time with just one guest at a time). Plus our iTunes listings give ya full details now so it's easy to listen to the peoples ya want.

It's the comedy chat show with boundary issues! Join hosts Mark Normand and Matt Ruby as they bring New York City's best comedians onstage to open up about their personal lives, sex, drugs, religion, race and more.

Episode 1 features comic/actor/rapper Donald Glover. I hear you mumbling, "So what? I can watch him on Fallon." Well ya won't hear him like this. We discuss why Jews are neurotic, why black people have good teeth, why he doesn't do well with black girls, and how people with AIDS can be assholes. See, different! (And fyi, we were doing this all way before Maron had a podcast.)

If ya never got onboard the WAFH train, now's the time. Other episodes are posted there too and more on the way.

iTunes listen/subscribe.
Listen to WAFH with Donald Glover at Cave Comedy Radio.

If ya dig it, please leave a comment/rating at iTunes. Thanks.

The three funniest "in theater" movies Judd Apatow's seen

This episode of Serious Jibber-Jabber is a great talk between Conan O’Brien and Judd Apatow. Apatow lists the three funniest "this film is destroying" movies he's ever seen in the theater: Airplane, Young Frankenstein, and There's Something About Mary.

He also talks about The Cable Guy and how this beatdown scene...



...created problems since the audience became scared of Jim Carrey's character and couldn't laugh at him afterwards – because they feared he might actually kill someone. According to Apatow, that's why the film plays better the second time you see it.

Which led me to think: It'd be great if there was a podcast/talkshow where film and tv directors talk about flaws in their work. Everyone's always hyping everything. Let's hear about what could have been done better or what went wrong.

Best man wedding speech from Mitchell and Webb

So good.

Ken Burns on storytelling: "All story is manipulation"

Burns says a great story is one where 1+1=3. Sounds similar to the A-C thinking that makes good punchlines.

Ken Burns: On Story from Redglass Pictures on Vimeo.

Rush Limbaugh and "speaks so well"

Silly Rush Limbaugh said Repubs should get more credit for minorities like Condi Rice, and mentions that she's "well-spoken."

But we're not getting the votes that Obama got last night because we have Condoleeza Rice – and she is a pinnacle of achievement, and intelligent, and well-spoken...

Matt Taibbi comments:

He again asks the "isn't it enough to have Condoleeza Rice" question, and here even supplies an answer – it should be enough, because, get this: she's not just black and a woman, she's WELL-SPOKEN! He actually plays the "well-spoken" card.

Cue Chris Rock's great bit on why saying someone "speaks so well" ain't much of a compliment.

Patrice O'neal's (last?) interview

Jay Mohr and Patrice O'neal wrestle over integrity and getting paid. Pretty fascinating.

Schtick or Treat (year 5) photos are up

Schtick or Treat photos are up! Great job, as always, by Mindy Tucker.

We're All Friends Here has a new podcast home and a show on Sat night as part of The New York Comedy Festival

Saturday night show
Got a special blockbuster edition of our We're All Friends Here show (the talk show with boundary issues) coming up as part of The New York Comedy Festival. It's hosted by Mark Normand and yours truly and has this sweet lineup:

Kurt Metzger (Comedy Central)
Jeff Dye (MTV's Money From Strangers)
Myq Kaplan (Last Comic Standing)

We're All Friends Here
Saturday, November 10 - 8:00pm
The Creek and The Cave
10-93 Jackson Avenue in LIC
$10 - Advance tix are available here

The podcast gets a reboot
And big podcast news, we're rebooting the WAFH podcast on the Cave Comedy Radio Podcast Network.

We've dipped into the archive to bring back some of the best interviews. (We were doing this before WTF was a twinkle in Maron's mustache.) Each episode is just one guest so it's a faster listen and you can cherry pick your faves.

First one is the Donald Glover ep and we discuss AIDS, handicapped people, sex tips, Blacks, Asians, and Jews. We really covered it all! The others have more along those lines. Here's the first four episodes which are up now:

Donald Glover
On this, the first episode of We're All Friends Here on CCR: we travel all the way back to 2009 as Mark Normand and Matt Ruby ask comedy superstar Donald Glover about the most personal and embarrassing moments of his life before the man was famous. More episodes from the archives of famous peeps to come!

Ali Wong
On this WAFH: Ali Wong talks about being a dirty, dirty girl in as many different ways as she can.

Michael Che
On this WAFH: Michael Che sits down to talk about growing up the Lower East Side, how having older siblings shaped his sexual views, and bad vaginas.

Erik Bergstrom
On this WAFH: Erik Bergstrom talks about growing up above a porn store in Minnesota, the time he was dumped for a dude in a band called Angel Spit, and much more.

Listen/subscribe at iTunes or at Cave Comedy Radio.

Schtick was a blast

Gotta be honest. We were worried that Sandy would kill Schtick or Treat's mojo. But the rescheduled version last night at Littlefield was a blast. Great pics from Mindy Tucker coming soon.

Partial lineup of what went down...

Adam Conover - John Mulaney
Adam Newman - Rob Schneider
Bill Stiteler - Seth Galifianakis
Chesley Calloway - Amy Schumer
Gonzalo Cordova - Tig Notaro
Greg Stone - Rodney Bane-gerfield
James Adomian - Louis CK
Jason Saenz - Joey Gladstone
Jay Welch - Redd Foxx
Jeff Wesselschmidt - Martin Lawrence
Jessica Watkins - Lily Tomlin
Jim Van Blaricum - Matt McCarthy
Joe List - Kenny Bannion
Joe Pera & Dan Licata - George Lopez & Pitbull
Josh Gondelman - Todd Barry
Kate Hendricks & Jamie Lee - Chelsea Handler & Kim Kardashian
Katie Hannigan - Ricky Gervais
Mara Herron - Dana Carvey
Mark Normand - Krusty
Matt Maragno & Charles Gould - Joe Rogan & Woody Allen
Matt Wayne - Tim Allen
Matt Ruby - Daniel Tosh
Michelle Wolf - Kathy Griffin
Myq Kaplan - Pete Holmes
Nick Vatterott - Darrel Bluett
Peter Moses - Jim Gaffigan
Reformed Whores - Flight of the Conchords
Robbie Collier - Norm MacDonald
Robert Dean - Mike Birbiglia
Sachi - Weird Al
Selena Coppock - Lisa Lampanelli
Tony Zaret - Steve Harvey
Travis Irvine - Bill Hicks
Zach Broussard - Katt Williams
Abbi Crutchfield - Wanda Sykes

@curlycomedy @marknorm @mattruby @misstrionics One of my favorite shows of the year. Great job, Wanda!

— mindy tucker (@withreservation) November 5, 2012

Schtick or Treat was a blast tonight.Thanks @marknorm and @mattruby!The most fun!

— Robbie Collier (@CollierRobbie) November 5, 2012

And faux Birbigs (Robert Dean) had a video...

Seth Meyers, steroids, and global warming

Seth Meyers had a great segment on Fallon the other night (the one with no crowd). In it, he made a great analogy between global warming and the steroid era in baseball (at 1:55 in)...

None of the debates did they mention climate change. And I feel like every six months the worst thing that’s ever happend in the world happens weather-wise. And I feel like we’re going to look back on this time the way baseball fans in the 90s were like “No, nobody’s using steroids.” We are in the Steroid Era of storms and yet there are more people in Congress who probably think this is because, like, gays are marrying… Than the fact that the world is just dying.

Maybe that influenced Eric Pooley, senior vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund, who offered up a baseball analogy in this It's Global Warming, Stupid article.

We can’t say that steroids caused any one home run by Barry Bonds, but steroids sure helped him hit more and hit them farther. Now we have weather on steroids.

Btw, I kinda enjoyed the crowd-less late night shows. Felt more human and less AMPED UP!!!

Schtick or Treat rescheduled to this Sunday!

This is a Schtick up(date)!

Sandy rained us out the first time but we're going for it on Sunday at 8pm at Littlefield.

Showtime: 8:00PM (Doors: 7:30PM)
Littlefield
622 Degraw St (between 3rd and 4th Ave) in Park Slope, Brooklyn
Tickets: $8 advance/$10 at door
Advance tix are available here.
Facebook event