Rolling Stand-Up Comedy 2012

here's the hotel thing. lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7aXDD8UGS8

I saw a Mitch Hedburg clip from 1995 (!) - he was actually really handsome then! Not as funny as his later stuff but some of the same stuff appeared and he definitely had his awkward style worked out already

I probably watch the same clip, he looked way different! Of course, I'm sure the drugs took thier toll. I hesitate to really call him "brilliant", but his sense of humor aligns so closely with mine that he just slays me every time.

I do think he's brilliant in his way, maybe as close to the second coming of Steven Wright as we'll ever get. I had a friend who was nuts over him and drove 3 hours to see him live and came back super dejected (this was like a month or so before he died) because he was barely coherant, not in the way he usually is, but unable to even form a real joke. Stuff like that kinda makes me glad that Ween broke up, y'know?

i love Steven Wright. never liked Hedberg remotely as much, kinda resented the comparisons.

Came into work one day and the escalator in my building was not working, and had an "out of order" sign in front of it, and I just reflexively heard Hedberg's voice in my head. "It just turned into stairs!"

hey guys, i have a pass to the just for laughs festival here in mtl next week what should i go see?

http://hahaha.com/en/montreal/overview

that's a pretty good bill! if i were you i'd just wander around at random and catch as much as i could of everything.

ya that's kinda the plan!

i have a pass too - everything i want to see at jfl and zoofest happens within the last 6 days of the festival, with much overlap/conflict! (plus i will be away for some of that week, but that's okay because vacation!)

as far as zoofest goes, i'd go for: rob delaney, amy schumer, paul f thomkins, deanne smith, daniel sloss, hot tub with kurt and kristen, mike ward

with JFL, there's a Talk of the Fest showcase hosted Jack McBrayer, the actor who plays Kenneth on 30 Rock, which i would go to if i were in town, and the showcase with Bill Hader.
the Bob Saget and Joel McHale galas should also be good. but these galas... i don't know, v hit and miss in my experience... the British and Australian showcases hav been good in the past though!
ah WTF with Marc Maron and Patton Oswalt?

(^ two separate shows obv)

what exactly is a comedy gala, anyway?

a show in a big theatre (and taped for tv broadcast) hosted by a big-name comedian, who does bits between several other comedians' sets, which aren't all that long really (which is good when you're not into them...)

these ones do look good:
http://www.hahaha.com/en/montreal/act/3296
http://www.hahaha.com/en/montreal/act/3301

oh and everyone is freaking out about the Muppets gala

i mean, it'll be fun, i'm sure, in its own way

Really reminding me how big the split is between the US/Canadian and the UK/Australian - like three biggest festivals are Montreal / Edinburgh / Melbourne, and from a quick look at the programmes, the overlap between the last two is much larger than between the either of them and the first.

my movie is playing jfl (+ i'm throwing a party after) on sat july 28, rrrrobyn you should come, though i'll be missing some good stuff

i would totally come to the movie and the party but i won't be in town!

s1ocki, when r u throwing a party in NY?

NY Times on comics and hecklers:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/arts/television/when-the-comic-and-the-heckler-both-take-offense.html?pagewanted=all

as soon as i can!

Mike Kaiser's a friend of a friend who just left Atlanta for Brooklyn. I think the dude is legit funny, and not just local kinda-know-you funny.
http://www.rooftopcomedy.com/comics/MikeKaiser

http://www.avclub.com/articles/maria-bamford-visits-the-morning-zoo,82570/

goddamn I love Bamford so much it hurts

haha i saw her last year here and almost died due to a case of silent laughter because she was so painfully weirdly funny. but then i started laughing out loud, totally alive.

I've not had the pleasure of seeing her live!

I liked her little story in that link a lot but that animation was SO AWFUL.

They should turn that series over to whoever's in charge of the StoryCorps cartoons.

Also Patton Oswalt's story in that same AV Club series really made me cringe, I like that guy less and less every time I interact with something outside his stage routine.

I don't care if she does a mean pug impression, I do not like her. :/ I want to get into her but I just can't.

The GOOD thing about the bad animation + bad Patton Oswalt story is the illustrator made Patton's head/neck weirdly shaped and too big so it looked kind of like a malformed penis. So I could think 'your story is awful but it's made up for by your fetal penis head.'

fetal penis head

http://media.avclub.com/images/409/409046/4x3/136.jpg

fetal penis head

and terrifyingly long spider arms

Also Patton Oswalt's story in that same AV Club series really made me cringe, I like that guy less and less every time I interact with something outside his stage routine.

― Team Safeword (Abbbottt), Thursday, 19 July 2012 17:59 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm. i think he had some weird reinvention upon getting famous that tinged all of his stuff w/a new-agey post-mushrooms enlightenment.

I just feel like maybe he was always shitty and we didn't realize.

it used to be so satisfying to hear him be like YYEAAH HASIL ADKINS & have him satisfy your demographic needs (I THOUGHT THEY COULD REALLY ROCK IN SHELBYVILLE). but the last couple of records are all gratuitously casual mentions of listening to pixies records & revelling in the humour of sweatpants. i didn't see his book but his written stuff all seems so intent on stories with mystical human moments & awareness-of-the-universe sentiment, it's schlocky i think.

I tried reading his book and got maybe 10 pages in...it was so bad.

He's the only comic I've seen live though, and he had a good show.

kevin james > patton oswalt

Two Patton albums were really funny, but then it became apparent it's really easy to ape Patton's style if you just throw a bunch of midgets, goblins, old sci-fi and hollywood references, pie, cake, oatmeal, a roast beef sandwich, and a beloved album from 1984 in a bowl and stir it up.

Like all of Patton's records, but yeah, the last two weren't nearly as replayable as the two prior ones (Werewolves and Lollipops is his masterpiece, and possibly, I'd argue, the great modern stand up record). Still some great bits there, though, like the spam museum and "i hate."

the great modern stand up record

It's up there for me, but Marc Maron's Not Sold Out from 2002 is head and shoulders above everyone else's shit in the last 10 years imo.

(Was Killin' Them Softly ever a proper comedy record? I guess the fact it wasn't is just a technicality, since everyone has audio of that hour anyway. Since I'm counting it, there's a two-way tie.)

I'll check out Not Sold Out. Who's was Killin' Them Softly? Patrice O'Neil?

Chappelle

Werewolves and Lollipops is his masterpiece, and possibly, I'd argue, the great modern stand up record

That seems like quite an overstatement. I do like Patton's style but IMO his first album is better; I think W&L made me laugh maybe three times?

Then again I would say America's Funnyman is my pick for "the great modern stand up record" so take that with a grain of salt

Killin' Them Softly in its entirety: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1215958813529322429

xpost

Neil Hamburger?