WTF with Marc Maron (it's a podcast)

His stand-up is great, but I don't like his pre-interview bits.

his digression into self-aggrandizing political rants during the interview

tbf, that's the first time he's done that in eons.

I dug the Chris Rock interview. Not really anything necessarily new...I just liked hearing him talk at length, I guess.

Really want to watch footage of his dinner with Woody Allen though....

I really dug the Rock and Hamm interviews I listened to last night, need to catch up with like the past 10 though.

One thing I'd like to say- I don't give a shit about American stand up, bar a few guys, I just don't find it funny. I mostly just listen because I like the stories and whatever. Anyone else feel that?

yeah, pretty much

I don't give a shit about American stand up, bar a few guys, I just don't find it funny

so you're into...british standup? canadian?

loved the chris rock one btw.

Norwegian stand-up is where its at.

well for me i like oswalt and louis CK but im not hugely into stand up or anything. a lot of the names he mentions dont register with me at all. ive never heard dave atell's stand up or jim norton for instance.

Atell is funny, but in a "omg I can't believe I'm laughing at this awful shit" funny. Jim Norton is just an asshole.

*way

i don't pay attention to stand-up at all, but i have always liked comedian shop talk and behind the scenes hollywood stories, which is why i listen

I don't really watch any stand-up these days. I think I prefer to encounter people like Oswalt, CK, or Nick Kroll on Comedy Bang Bang or Parks & Rec than to seek out their stand-up. (Though I'd likely go to a Paul F. Tompkins live show.) Too much insistent loud voice stuff. But I watched a lot of Comedy Central in the early 90s, so I know who most of Maron's guests are.

Too much insistent loud voice stuff.

^^This. I kinda like Doug Stanhope as well though

I just watched a bit of Jim Norton on youtube. An asshole indeed.

The Chris Rock episode bored me almost to sleep until about the 45 minute mark, when he gets into, "When you have know ambition, you don't really feel racism. When you start wanting to do shit..." That's where the interview got interesting for me. Before that, it was just blah blah Eddie Murphy blah blah.

Um, make that, "NO ambition."

lol @ "NOTHING is blacker than james brown." (when talking about crossover appeal back in the day vs now)

Well I much prefer guys like Lee & Herring and guys who challange the audience to think, as opposed to 'hey guys ever wondered why [observation] isnt that crazy?' that is p much 99% of american humour (and has unfortunately taken over british comedy recently). i guess it is 'why did american comedy have to make seinfeld their jesus instead of some weirdo meth freak like pryor'.

Pryor not being a meth freak notwithstanding, he wasn't American comedy's Jesus. He was God. He was the Miles Davis of Comedy. Seinfeld's the Dave Brubeck of comedy.

sorry freebase freak.

Seinfeld's the Dave Brubeck of comedy.

yes and then everyone made shit soft jazz comedy records instead of challanging themselves.

Cosby = Louis Armstrong?

and Bob Hope is obv WC Handy.

Even the more broad, mainstream-friendly comics like Seinfeld and Foxworthy aren't complete wastes of time imo. There's enough comedy out there at this point that you can go from one thing to the other just like music without having to choose teams.

i don't pay attention to stand-up at all, but i have always liked comedian shop talk and behind the scenes hollywood stories, which is why i listen

― mizzell, Friday, November 4, 2011 11:08 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

u might like "making it" w/ riki lindhome. good stories of how ppl start out in the biz, etc. the one w/ ben schwartz is partic entertaining & he talks basically breathlessly for an hour+

Johnny Fever otm. Also there's a lot more variety once you actually start looking. Check out someone like, I dunno, Reggie Watts if observational's not your gig.

Also, the comics who closely follow Seinfeld in tone/content seem to be in it as much (or more) for the sitcom-down-the-road as for the standup. It's like Rock telling Maron about his ambition to be at the level of Richard Jeni or George Wallace; Rock truly loves standup, and never saw it as a necessary evil on his way to something bigger. Pryor's massive influence on comedy is inescapable; it's just not necessarily going to be found within a narrow swath of popular mainstream tv shows.

lol never spoke about sitcoms in my lack-of-caring-about-american-comedy

i feel like stand up may be the thing that closest resembles my love of wrestling tho. there isnt much else where you could have a weird passive aggresive dude like maron succeed in an entertaining way actively berating the audience and challanging people to dispise him or think about what a mess he has created. and maybe thats why i dislike most american stand up i see. everyone wants to be the next seinfeld (hogan) on top, you never see a guy try to be comedy's version of terry funk.

something something andy kaufman something something

I know. What I was addressing was the influence of Seinfeld vs. that of Pryor, and how it plays/played out in the culture. The comics who wanted to be like Seinfeld were naturally going to be more accessible in mainstream terms (because of the material and because of careerist aspirations) than comics heavily influenced by Pryor.

xxp

No-one really seems heavily influenced by Pryor though imo. You don't ever really find people doing updated versions of weird things like the Prison Play bit or whatever. Most you usually get is the 'oh shit that's gonna piss off cosby' influence.

I can't think of anyone now who's a direct descendent of Pryor's style, but the thing Pryor did was open the back door of stand-up and sneak all these individual freestyle comics in who took comedy in so many different directions. Seinfeld/Romano/Foxworthy/etc. are all traditionalists for the most part, the kind who could end up in Vegas if they wanted to and are welcome on late night tv. Other guys like Oswalt/Burress/Louis CK/etc. are the kind that will be revered one day like Pryor is now.

I've seen none of those dudes live cept Oswalt, but oh my, "revered one day like Pryor" is a tall order.

True. Some hyperbole/wishful thinking on my part.

You guys are peddling some strange analogies today.

Pryor's influence today is less about direct echoes of his work (although, that's a large part of it: Sykes, Rock, Morgan, CK, etc.) and more about how he allowed comics to do things they wouldn't have thought to do otherwise.

It's like how Miles Davis' style was so pervasive that trumpeters in symphony orchestras had to change their way of playing; they may not be playing like Miles, necessarily, but they're approaching the trumpet differently because of Miles.

Who is the Carrot Top of jazz?

^ that's what I was trying to say, but I'm stupid. xp

Other guys like Oswalt/Burress/Louis CK/etc. are the kind that will be revered one day like Pryor is now.

Maybe CK.

Who is the Carrot Top of jazz?

John Zorn

Kenny G?

lol @ "NOTHING is blacker than james brown." (when talking about crossover appeal back in the day vs now)

― this is unusual for batman. (Jordan), Friday, November 4, 2011 4:48 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

could james brown write a song so black even he could not riff on it

Seinfeld's the Dave Brubeck of comedy.

yes and then everyone made shit soft jazz comedy records instead of challanging themselves.

― a hoy hoy, Friday, November 4, 2011 12:53 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

super talented and unfairly maligned by cool ppl?

The only stand-up I've seen done live is George Carlin and Lewis Black. The Carlin show was absolutely sublime, just so thrilled I got a chance to see him in person.

I saw Bill Cosby live. The material wasn't as good as "Himself" (which is probably the best set of stand-up material ever put together in one place ever, so the comparison is almost unfair), but he worked the crowd in a way I will never forget. I don't remember any one punchline, but I was sore from laughing the next morning. He absolutely slayed the Houston Astrodome. When you can work a crowd of 62,000 people, brother, you know what you're doing.

Cosby = Louis Armstrong?

Maybe, except instead of getting all righteous (self-righteous?) in his old age, Louis Armstrong discovered the magic of laxatives.

And weed.

Rainn Wilson is a good guy. I'd kick it with him anytime. The WTF interview today wasn't eye-opening or anything, but wholly pleasant.

there will always be middle-of-the-roaders in comedy (and i happen to think seinfeld is a pretty great standup, even if his material is i dunno mild). its not like if he never existed everyone would be richard pryors

Cosby = Louis Armstrong?

Read this as Cosby = Louie Anderson -- really confused for a sec and tried REAL hard to make the comparison "work" in my head