Comedy Is Dead

Comedy Death Ray This Week: Superb Edition

2010-04-20T23:34:00.000-07:00

Because we needed to get out, we caught Comedy Death Ray in Los Angeles this week! The lineup was indeed fantastic. Statistically speaking, you missed the show, so here's who you didn't get to see (and the entire lineup meets our standards of worth seeing):

Hugh Moore hosted the show and did a bang-up job at being exciting and low-key all at once. The man puts on a good set.
The first comic was the delightful Jen Kirkman and she, in her own words, basically managed to turn what was essentially a "Cathy" strip into something funny. Rarely do comics bring visual aids to show how fat they have gotten, but hey, here it is.
Famed "Republican senator" and now tea party representative Richard Martin (also known as Paul Gilmartin) showed up, giving us our first in-person glimpse of the character. You may have heard his stints on various radio or podcast programs, and as a one-man act he managed to hold up quite nicely. If you're like us and listen to a lot of podcasts, odds are you'll want to be sure to seek him out just to see what he looks like.
From New York, Jamie Lee put on a too-short but great set.
Another too-short set from Greg Behrendt went amazingly well and his tone seemed different from some of his other performances. If you are ever in a position to make a request of him, his dissection of the GQ photo spread was well worth the price of admission.
Character genius Paul Scheer assembled a one-man show bit combining the boring life of a TSA worker and pretty much every stereotype you might expect from a pretentious one-man show. It was brilliant, the kind of thing you wish you saw more of on television but most likely won't since Human Giant is seemingly on permanent hiatus. With tons of musical and light cues, it went off seemingly perfectly. Genuinely great funny.
For fans of surprises, the unannounced Patton Oswalt brought in some new (to us) material as well as some dusted-off jokes which he self-consciously delivered. Can you trot out an Avatar joke at the end of your set if it has just been released on iTunes? The answer is yes, and it still works. Other material (for those of you comedy nerds wondering what may or may not make his next album) included a riff on babies pooping themselves and rich people. We dare not spoil it for you but in the off chance you're looking for evidence of great lost Oswalt bits, well, enjoy that last sentence.

So there you have it! Another great week and $5 well spent.

David Cross: DVD+CD Bigger and Blackerer Coming Soon

2010-03-25T19:46:00.001-07:00

Hitting stores or elsewhere May 25, 2010, "Bigger and Blackerer" is the latest effort-- and third proper album-- from the very recognizable and even more funny David Cross. It's coming from Sub Pop Records, like his previous recordings.

Brian Posehn's "Fart & Weiner Jokes" Out on April 27

2010-03-10T20:03:00.001-08:00

Brian Posehn's next album, Fart & Weiner Jokes, is up for pre-order on Relapse Records right now. It's $12 or available in bundles with his first album or one of two t-shirts. Since Posehn is a funny dude, odds are you'll want to go ahead and order this.

Also, big points for making a nice retro metal album cover. We can't wait to hear it!

Road Trip Album Picks: "Death of the Party" from Kyle Kinane

2010-03-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

WHAT: Kyle Kinane's first comedy album
LABEL: A Special Thing Records, 2010
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Quality modern comedy albums, the world's finest bathroom joke
WHERE TO FIND IT: Online or bust
LENGTH: 65 minutes

AST Records is fast becoming everything Comedy Central Records really needs to be. Which is, you know, relevant and cheap. While releases like Kyle Kinane's Death of the Party are unquestionably awesome, even on the label's home turf in Los Angeles, you won't easily find these recordings.

We've often pointed to an album's ability to be easily heard as what makes it good for the road-- which this is-- but this also has that awesome "you must play this for everyone you visit" aspect. "The House Is Rocking" (track #3) is one of these tracks, and it's a marvelous tale of using a strange bathroom and the chaos that ensues shortly after, we presume, one gets the poop sweats. While not exactly what you would call high-brow, and the sort of thing that we're probably supposed to roll our eyes at, we found it gutbustingly fantastic and surprisingly quotable.

The crazed mindset of insomnia is explored in new and exciting ways, plus you get the usual wonderment by way of Kinane's head. Like Thin Pig this is one of those albums you really ought to be ashamed of yourself for not having heard yet. While we haven't yet had the fortune of seeing Kinane in person, we hope to change this soon. Get this album.

Weekly Comedy: The Prodigal Shit Returns

2010-03-01T18:03:00.000-08:00

The Olympics are over, which means one good thing and one very bad thing. The good news is that Community, Parks & Rec and The Office are all back with new episodes this week. The very very bad news is detailed at the end of this post. All you can do is shake your head in disappointment.

DVD

Cold Souls – Paul Giamatti’s black comedy involving his soul being put in cold storage so he could become a better actor came out quietly last year and is out on DVD this week, where people might actually see it. Set your Netflix queues!

Gentlemen Broncos – Pretty much every single critic out there thought this thing – which is from the people responsible for Napoleon Dynamite (is it time to start ironically wearing Vote for Pedro shirts yet?) – was a total disaster, and so 20^th Century Fox actually cancelled its theatrical release. It also features Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement and Sam Rockwell, and that might be enough for some to roll the dice.

Rifftrax Double Feature – Best of Shorts vol. 1 packaged with Night of the Living Dead for cheap. THRILLING!

Players – A new comedy from Matt Walsh airing on Spike TV Tuesday night, Players is being advertised as kind of an obnoxious sitcommy spin on Waiting…, set in a sportsbar. The commercials are probably not doing it justice based on the talent involved, but this is Spike, so who the hell knows. Check it out for yourself and judge away.

Big Downer of the Week

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno returns March 1^st, which is today. A nation mourns.

Road Trip Album Picks: "Thin Pig" from Todd Glass

2010-02-24T09:00:00.000-08:00

WHAT: Todd Glass' first album of 100% stand-up
LABEL: Comedy Central Records, 2009
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Quality modern comedy albums
WHERE TO FIND IT: Online or bust
LENGTH: 60 minutes

Comedy Central Records should be ashamed of themselves for releasing this record. That is, they should be ashamed of releasing this album as a download-exclusive. Todd Glass' superb Thin Pig is one of the best albums we've heard in the past few years. Glass' second album, this release covers material from his whole career and a gag or two first shown on his original album which nobody ever heard in the first place. (Including you, our statistics show.)

His former podcast Comedy and Everything Else does influence his material slightly, in between the bits going for big laughs are a few attempts at applause lines. For example, he has a marvelous routine about K-Mart and Target, pointing out that the former is, essentially, something of a shithole. (If you live in Los Angeles and can still find one, odds are you can verify this.) His outrage is real, and really funny if you, like Glass, understand the importance of things like clean floors. Spoiler: they're important.

My one big beef with this release is that it wasn't put in stores. Comedy Central Records releases a ton of albums, many of which may sport bigger names but this is easily one of the funniest. Also, Glass has a fantastic voice which carries well in a car, which is the most important thing about a good road trip comedy album. Aside, you know, from being great. Get this one. Oh, and it was recorded at the Tempe Improv in Arizona, in case you were curious.

Weekly Comedy: Amazing News That Will Amaze You

2010-02-21T17:23:00.000-08:00

This week’s comedy offerings are a mixed bag with some excellent stuff, some promising stuff and some crap, as usual. But that's not why we're here today - there is some STUNNING NEWS to be found at the end of this post!

IN THEATERS

Cop Out – Kevin “Southwest Airlines” Smith is now directing movies he didn’t write, which could be a really good thing. The premise of this is simple: it’s a buddy cop movie where one of the cops is Tracy Jordan from 30 Rock, as portrayed by Tracy Morgan. Looks like it could be fun. We’ll have a review up on Friday.

DVD

The Informant! – Easily the best thing out this week. This is a really unique comedy wherein Soderbergh has cast a bunch of recognizable comedians – Paul F. Tompkins, Patton Oswalt, Joel McHale – in serious roles as FBI agents and lawyers surrounding Matt Damon’s comic performance as a corporate whistleblower. There’s a lot more to this film than just that, though; it’s very entertaining and funny and ultimately a really fascinating true story. So go rent it already.

Superjail! Season One - Superviolent abstract comedy from Adult Swim. This one doesn't seem to have nearly as many fans as Metalocalypse or even Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, but hey, here it is on DVD if you're curious.

Night Court Season 3 – WHO is buying Night Court DVDs? Seriously, who? Is there one sad old guy sitting in his crappy apartment, coffee table littered with divorce papers and beer cans, scratching his gut and chuckling at Night Court Season 3? Answer: probably.

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead – Some Troma thing that fans of Evil Dead or whatever will probably like. Sounds z-z-z-zany!

HOLY SHIT

Sinbad: Where U Been? – And now your promised BREAKING NEWS!

Sinbad is not dead or in rehab or the subject of a depressing VH1 reality TV show - he has a new Comedy Central special out on DVD this week.

REPEAT: 90s COMEDIAN “SINBAD” IS NOT DEAD OR IN REHAB OR THE SUBJECT OF A DEPRESSING REALITY TV SERIES ON VH1. PLEASE ALLOW YOUR MIND TO BE BLOWN.

Weekly Comedy: The HBOpocalypse

2010-02-14T15:34:00.001-08:00

There aren’t a whole lot of exciting new DVD releases this week, but there’s enough new stuff on Friday night alone to keep you busy for a while. HBO is doubling down on comedy programming and the winner is (potentially) us (maybe).

DVD

Black Dynamite – Surely to be the most-played DVD in college dorms for the next 3 years, this blaxploitation spoof has gotten pretty mixed notices from critics. Basically, if you saw the trailer, you’ve pretty much seen the film. Or so I’ve heard.

Good Hair – Chris Rock’s amusing but admittedly thin documentary about the African-American hair industry. It’s certainly eye-opening and actually pretty funny; worth a rent for sure, or catch it on cable in a month or two.

The Ricky Gervais Show – HBO is launching their new Friday night comedy lineup with this, which seems like a really weak premise – they’ve taken the old Ricky Gervais podcasts and animated them in Flash with Hanna-Barberra-esque cartoon versions of Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington. If you’ve heard those podcasts – and millions of people have – then you’ve seen this material already (and frankly it was funnier when Pilkington's nonsense wasn't visualized Shorties Watchin' Shorties-style). Hopefully there’s some original stuff in here and it isn’t 100 percent rehashed, but we’ll see.

Funny or Die Presents – This is the highlight of the week and is not to be missed by any discerning comedy fan. It’s not clear if this is going to be all original material – the trailers suggest it’s a mix of stuff from the website, with more new stuff than old – but it seems every talented comedian and comic actor is taking part in this sketch show, including most of Human Giant, Zach Galifianakis and more. It’s on at midnight on Friday after Real Time.

The Life and Times of Tim: Season 2 – More of the somewhat-animated comedy series I haven’t seen nearly enough of to comment on. Time to rent season one!

Real Time with Bill Maher – The world’s smuggest (and probably most entertaining and interesting) talk show is back after a long hiatus this week. Last season Maher experimented with his format a lot; sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, and he seemed to be running low on interesting guests (every panel should probably have at least one person whose job it is to be entertaining), but it was certainly more hit than miss.

WHHHHHYYYYYYYY

Small Wonder Season One – Shout! Factory has given unto us many marvelous things on DVD; Mystery Science Theater 3000, Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared and a whole bunch of other great, somewhat obscure shows.

They have decided to abuse this magical power they have and are releasing the first season of one of the worst sitcoms of all time, Small Wonder. Feel free to give this a rent at some point and make sure you have a stopwatch handy so you’ll know exactly how many minutes you were able to tolerate how horribly, embarrassingly bad this show is.

Weekly Comedy: A Rollercoaster of Quality

2010-02-09T17:23:00.000-08:00

One of the best movies of 2009 is released this week alongside one of the worst and they’re both in this column! Fancy that!

DVD

A Serious Man – Even though this black-as-pitch comedy was nominated for Best Picture, it still feels underappreciated. The Coens have constructed something special with this movie; it's structured almost like a traditional joke with a really hilarious punchline at the end. It’s probably one of the darkest comedies ever made, and it’s certainly not for everyone, but since you’re reading this on a site aimed at nerdy comedy snobs, odds are you’ll dig the hell out of it.

The Life and Times of Tim: Season One – The barely-animated HBO series featuring the likes of Nick Kroll and Eddie Pepitone is out on DVD now, so if you missed the initial airing, here’s your chance to catch up. It’s definitely hit and miss, but there are some really funny episodes in here. Worth a rent, at least.

The Sarah Silverman Program: Season 2 Part 2 – Sarah Silverman’s sitcom had a pretty strong season 3 premiere last week, and the rest of season 2 is (finally) out this week, so there’s enough Silverman material for you to figuratively roll around in. If that’s your sort of thing.

Gary Unmarried Season One – wait a second how did this escape the toxic waste pit

COMEDY TOXIC WASTE OF THE WEEK

Valentine’s Day – Gary Marshall rises from his cursed crypt to once again inflict his particular brand of focus-group-tested “romantic comedy” treacle on the unsuspecting public, this time with every shiny-faced actor and actress accepted as “pretty” by empty-headed housewives who snap up new episodes of People Magazine as though its foul pages provide them with the very putrid nutrients they need to keep their black blood flowing.

Anyway it looks pretty bad.

Couples Retreat – But it’s hard to tell if it’s as bad as this fucking nightmare, the latest from the now-untrustworthy Vince Vaughn –Peter Billingsley duo who are now responsible not only for this unfunny pile of laugh-free white bread bullshit but also Four Christmases and Fred Claus. Fuuuucccckkkk

Mike Birbiglia: Sleepwalk Unplugged

2010-02-04T23:38:00.000-08:00

The show was held at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles on February 4, 2010. It was great.

If you're a comedy dork and also an NPR dork, there's a very good chance you're already familiar with Mike Birbiglia. He frequently contributes to This American Life, and also has a couple of albums under his belt in addition to some Comedy Central specials. He's what you call "good." So good, in fact, Nathan Lane came along and saw some of his stuff and went on to finance a show in New York where he told the audience the perils of a sleepwalking disorder mixed in with tons of jokes. And tonight, he brought it to Los Angeles for five bucks a head.

Having not seen the regular Sleepwalk With Me show, but having heard bits and pieces of it on the radio and elsewhere, I can't say how much this show is like the regular show, particularly because through an unfortunate directional issue we stumbled into the show just a couple of minutes late. For all I know, he said what was different, but the entire tale of woe and why you should date someone who will demand you go to the doctor when you have a potentially crippling sleep disorder were all here.

Since he's based in New York and tours a lot, Birbiglia coming to your town is kind of like an eclipse. In that you probably won't know until it's too late, unless you're paying attention to this sort of thing, which you absolutely should. As one of the most likable comics working today, this is an act you can absolutely take your parents and, most likely, teenish or older kids to without fear of looking like a horrible, horrible parent. The audience was quite respectful and the show was excellent. If you have the means to see Birbiglia-- this show in particular-- let me suggest that you do so. (Unless there's like a DVD of it you can just score, in which case you can probably just go ahead and get that.)

Weekly Comedy: Not Half Bad

2010-01-31T17:29:00.000-08:00

Not a whole lot of stuff out this week but what is there is generally of high quality, which hey, let’s call that a win!

DVD

Zombieland – This wasn’t really marketed as a straight comedy per se but it absolutely is, and it’s one of the funniest films of 2009 (not to mention it features one of the best cameo appearances in, uh, forever). Zombies are kinda played out these days, but this movie feels fresh and doesn’t pander too much to the nerd audience. Definitely worth a rent.

Insert joke about Jesse Eisenberg amusement park movies here.

TV

The Sarah Silverman Program Season 3 – After what feels like a multi-year hiatus, Sarah Silverman’s sitcom is back. According to the many, many, many podcast interviews I’ve heard with the show’s cast since they wrapped filming last year, this is the best season yet! Also, there is apparently more screen time for Brian Poshen and Steve Agee, which can only be a good thing. Check it out at 10:30pm Thursday on Comedy Central.

Important Things with Demitri Martin Season 2 – Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Mitch Hedburg hosted Chappelle’s Show? Now’s your chance!

Seriously though, Martin’s show is a little hit-and-miss but generally the first season was pretty funny and had plenty of good material in it, so here’s hoping season 2 at least maintains that level of quality. Premieres at 10pm Thursday on Comedy Central.

TOXIC WASTE OF THE WEEK

Larry the Cable Guy: Tailgate Party – If you actually know anyone who wants this, I pity you. My deepest sympathies.

Comedy Death Ray This Week: Extra Awesome Edition

2010-01-26T23:46:00.000-08:00

This was one of those shows you just wish you could see. In the Los Angeles Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, those that braved the weather-- which wasn't that bad-- were treated to one heck of a great set.

The always delightful Chris Fairbanks held hosting duties, and did great. Really great. The musically inclined Baron Von (don't worry, we've never heard of him before either) extolled the virtues of a Christmas in Vegas when your mom and family live there, and April Richardson took a big ol' dump on Tori Amos, because, well, someone should. Jerry Minor appeared as his character "Cyber Thug," told some jokes, and sang along to a sideshow filled with raccoons-- some living, some roadkill, some taxidermy. Arguably, funnier than it sounded.

The two highlights of the night were sets by some of the best comics working today. Todd Glass killed with new material and some great stuff which you may have heard on the Comedy Death Ray Podcast last week. He also had some great sound effect/song bits which are best left seen rather than described, plus his crazy rantings from the audience tend to bring in a lot of laughs. If he comes to your town, and we've said this before, you simply must see him.

We put the same advice out to anyone given a shot to see Patton Oswalt who just flew in from Vancouver and let us all know about the trials of slowly getting old while first class is available on Alaska Airlines. Or rather, his brain slowly sabotaging himself. He also cribbed Todd Glass' CD, and did various bits on the fly with random tracks from the album to varying degrees of success. (That is to say, he didn't seem happy with it, but it was pretty damned funny.) Given the comedian's recent album, it's great to see this set of new (and possibly first-time-out) jokes, particularly with such a great group of people. And it was jam-packed too, so if you ever have the chance to come out to LA to see the show, you totally should.

PSA: Neil Hamburger's "Hot February Night" Available Again

2010-01-25T22:58:00.000-08:00

If you missed the greatest comedy album we've heard in years, Neil Hamburger's Hot February Night, then we have some good news for you. The comic's web store has the disc up for sale for a mere $10, and let us assure you, it is worth it. Click here to check availability and click here for our review. This is not a paid plug, we just loves us this album.

Weekly Comedy: Bad Things from Good People

2010-01-24T17:24:00.000-08:00

It isn’t listed here, but just in case you’re not sick of Tracy Ullman’s shtick, her Showtime series is back this week for a third season chock full of high-pitched impressions and fat suits. So yeah, that’s also happening.

DVD

A Boatload of Rifftrax – A bunch of new Rifftrax DVDs are out this week, which include such gems from the public domain as Planet of Dinosaurs, Voodoo Man (featuring Bela Lugosi, who no one gives two fucks for) and yet another Plan 9 from Outer Space release, this time with the new “live” version from the theatrical events they held last year. There’s also a new DVD full of shorts, which are usually really good. In any case they’re all criminally cheap so there are worse ways to blow your money (although if there are honestly still people out there who want to sit through Plan 9 again regardless of new jokes, color me surprised).

Whitest Kids U Know Season 2 – The Whitest Kids U Know have had some absolutely stellar sketch material over the past few years, and if you completely ignore their theatrical disaster Miss March (which you should), they’re still one of the most promising new sketch comedy groups to emerge in recent memory.

That said, pretty much none of that great material can be found in Season 2, which is out on DVD this week. If you’re looking to get in to the Whitest Kids, who are worth getting in to, check out season one or season three and skip this one completely. You’ll be much happier for it.

Parker Lewis Can’t Lose season 2 – I find it completely amazing that enough people bought Parker Lewis Can’t Lose Season One on DVD to warrant the release of the second season.

COMEDY TOXIC WASTE

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell – This dubious “comedy”, based on a book by the odious Tucker Max, was unceremoniously dumped into theaters at some point last year. Here’s the premise: unbelievably misogynistic douchebag Tucker Max, who sleeps with a ton of women because he treats them like shit and they just can’t resist him, fucks up his life by being a complete asshole to everyone around him. He is then redeemed at the end by saying “I’m sorry guys, aren’t I a lovable rapscallion?”

The “comedy” in this movie is supposed to come from all the hyper-misogynistic dialogue about how all women are dumb skanky whorish sluts and aren’t really people and all that bullshit fratboy “humor” that isn’t funny if you’ve got more than two brain cells to rub together. Avoid this shit like the plague it is and if anyone tells you it’s an undiscovered gem you just have to see, stop being friends with them.

Comedy Death Ray and I Love Movies This Week

2010-01-19T23:22:00.000-08:00

Boy oh boy, did you miss a great night of comedy in Los Angeles! It may be cold and rainy, but the crowds certainly didn't seem to mind. First up, Doug Benson's I Love Movies podcast (which you will be able to hear on iTunes shortly) had special guests Sarah Silverman and Steve Agee, promoting the upcoming third season of The Sarah Silverman Program and doing their usual thing. You know, being funny. As always, the show was funny although significantly more... multi-directional than usual. Good times. It's still a crying shame this isn't videotaped and aired on TV.

Comedy Death Ray had a fantastic lineup where everybody seemed to have a really funny set. Hosted by Matt Ruby, the brisk show went through a lot of comics really fast. Gabe Liebman and Hannibal Buress should be both added to your "go see these guys" lists if you keep one. The latter is an SNL writer with some fantastic material that he's clearly not sharing with the show this season. (Good on him.) Matt Walsh came out as "Tony Stella," an anti-intellectual comic character with a bit on how one might be an egghead. Great stuff, although the audience didn't seem to be buying it.

Next up was Jeff Garlin (of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame) who riffed on important matters such as sparkly clean penises. There were other things as well, plus something to the effect of "you think I have an act? I just make this stuff up." Which, if true, means this person is far more gifted than any of us will ever hope to be. The reason we jumped at tickets this week was John Mulaney, whose album we looked at last year and who is also a writer on SNL. With tons of new (to us) material, as always, he was a lot of fun to watch. Headlining this week's show were the Sklar Brothers who, as far as we know, are the only funny folk working today with a bit about CJ from District 9. They just recorded a new Comedy Central special, and it's unknown to us if these bits will be in said show, but if they are you probably should make it a point to catch it whenever it airs. (Which, based on what we've seen as incubation times go, could be really late 2010.)

So there you have it! Another fantastic week to remind you of just how spoiled you are to be able to see this kind of comedy for $5 in Los Angeles.

Hi-Def Comedy: This Is Spinal Tap (Blu-Ray, 2009)

2010-01-17T23:52:00.000-08:00

WHAT: First (and only) Blu-Ray release of the movie
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Comedy that ages well, Christopher Guest movies
WHERE TO FIND IT: Some smaller movie and record shops, online

The 1984 movie is, without a doubt, one of the most enduring comedies of the 1980s. If you've seen it, you'll no doubt admire how rewatchable it is, and how the bulk of the film has actually aged quite nicely. Thankfully, the very marketable movie has made the transition to Blu-Ray and the good news is that it looks just as good as it ever has. More or less.

In short: if you have never seen This Is Spinal Tap you are a bad person and may as well get this version to make amends. Comedy dorks will find a lot to like here, although it's not nearly as robust as the LaserDisc or Criterion DVD.

On DVD, this was a pretty popular release as the Criterion release turned out to be quite rare, and the later release was sold for bargain prices at big box stores everywhere. This release picks up the latter of the two DVDs and runs with it-- the various Criterion-only commentaries and scenes aren't all here, which is unfortunate, as they were quite amusing. A commentary is present, as are a number of features and deleted scenes which seem to be a mix of previous releases.

A suite of commercials for "Rock & Rolls" exist-- think Hot Pockets-- which are based off the scene in which they get lost backstage before a concert. While cute, these seem to have taken the place of any sort of theatrical trailer. Other existing extras come from the vault like "Catching Up with Marty DiBergi." It's a new (in 2000) interview with Rob Reiner's character from the movie, with lots of vintage footage of the band mixed in-- so deleted scene fans, you'll spot some new old stuff here. The vintage "Flower People" press conference is here, there's a Joe Franklin show interview, and a smattering of music videos. (Well, at least "Hell Hole" is a bit more than movie footage.)

And there are many deleted scenes, some of which were not on the previous special editions.

The one really strange thing about this Blu-Ray is the inclusion of a bonus DVD with new material-- a 2007 Live Earth concert with Rob Reiner and the group, plus a National Geographic interview with Nigel Tufnel, but focusing on Stonehenge. (Mostly the song.) Why this material was not included directly on the Blu-Ray itself, which has a number of low-resolution bonus features, is not known to us.

Is it worth the upgrade? Basically, yes-- we got a copy (new, sealed) off eBay for $15. That was worth it, but we're also still holding on to our Criterion DVD because it still has exclusive features.
Is it worth it as your only copy? Yes. The main reason to get this is for the film itself, the extras are nice but all the best stuff made the final cut.

(This is the "Cheese Rolling" trailer which is included in the SD aspect ratio on the Blu-Ray disc.)

The Late Shift 2010: Kimmel does Leno

2010-01-13T14:57:00.000-08:00

Last night on ABC, we saw a delightful high-concept show from Jimmy Kimmel once again on his late-night gabfest Jimmy Kimmel Live. In the past he's had Quentin Tarantino as a guest director, and as late-night goes he's game for a lot. As you can see here.

Kimmel did the entire show in-character as Jay, with his bandleader Cleto playing the role of Kevin Eubanks. The band's cues were spot-on to the point of preposterous, once again proving that the rule of threes isn't enough-- sometimes you need the rule of fourteens.

The Late Shift 2010: The Coco Letters

2010-01-12T19:39:00.000-08:00

The continued shake-up/feud/brouhaha over at NBC concerning its Late Night Schedule continues, and today there was a pretty fantastic statement appearing around the web, which says:

"...I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is [the Tonight Show's] destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet, a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the “Tonight Show,” I believe nothing could matter more."

In short, he won't take the 12:05 AM slot, which makes sense, as that's technically "The Tomorrow Show" and Tom Snyder already had that gig. Twitter and social media outlets erupted in support of Mr. O'Brien, and while you all know we're big fans, we can't help but wonder how many of these people actually watch the show given the reports of Tonight's ratings as of late.

But Wait, What About Jay?
Over on The Naughty But Nice Blog, Mr. Leno may also be considering departing NBC, which raises all sorts of questions. (For example, "is any of this true?") It's an exciting time for comedy gossip, is it not?

File Under Rumor Mill
Another rumor going around, one we have yet to find a credit for beyond it appearing on a single blog and being repeated, is that NBC is talking to possible "guest hosts" for The Tonight Show in the near-term, which is something we haven't seen since the Carson era.

Weekly Comedy is Back!

2010-01-10T15:11:00.000-08:00

Weekly Comedy hasn’t been around for a few weeks, but that’s because there really wasn’t anything out there to bother listing. This week is marginally better!

DVD

The Simpsons: Season 20 – Released in time for the “official 20th anniversary of The Simpsons”, this is the first season of the show available on bluray and the first to have been animated in anamorphic widescreen. It’s really too bad there isn’t a single decent episode on the set, because it’s season fucking twenty of a show everyone agrees stopped being funny 12 years ago. It also includes a “sneak peek” of the 20th Anniversary TV special, which will have aired before this set comes out. Lovely.

In The Loop – A supposedly excellent war satire featuring James Gandolfini. Worth checking out according to everyone with decent taste.

Last Action Hero (bluray) – Speaking of satire, this much-maligned and yet woefully underappreciated movie is out on bluray this week. Sure, the comedy’s a little on the nose, but this was much sharper and funnier than anyone really ever gave it credit for.

The Simpsons: 20th Anniversary Special In 3D! On Ice! – Morgan Spurlock talks about how great The Simpsons is for an hour. And here I thought The Simpsons Movie was supposed to be the official anniversary project and we wouldn’t have to really hear more about how influential the show has been. I was wrong!

Aziz Ansari: Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening – Aziz’s new special airs Sunday, January 17th on Comedy Central, and then the DVD streets the following Tuesday. This will probably be a lot like Patton Oswalt’s last special, where the Comedy Central version was shortened and censored, so consider this a “preview” for when you buy the DVD.

John Oliver’s New York Standup Show – This new weekly standup series debuted last week to little fanfare, but it’s pretty good. The premiere episode featured Maria Bamford, Nick Kroll (in character) and Eugene Mirman. Sure, they were all doing album material any comedy nerd likely has memorized by now, but this is high quality standup, vastly superior to the other standup series Comedy Central airs. John Oliver’s a good host, too.

NOT A COMEDY BUT YOU SHOULD SEE IT ANYWAY

Big Fan – Patton Oswalt’s dramatic debut is out on DVD this week (no bluray edition, sadly), and since you missed it when it was in theaters (okay, when it was in 3 theaters in LA and New York), now’s your chance to see it. It’s a great film – a 1970s style dark character piece – and a really brilliant performance from Oswalt. See this.

Review: Youth in Revolt

2010-01-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

So the trailers for Youth in Revolt really didn't look all that appealing; Michael Cera playing "Michael Cera" in yet another Superbad-esque edgy teen comedy.

As it turns out, Youth in Revolt is really nothing like that at all. In fact, given the amount of footage in the trailers that isn't in the film, it's no surprise; selling this film for what it is to its intended audience might not've worked. This is a very literary, deliberately-paced and surprisingly unique comedy from first-time director Miguel Arteta. It's tough to figure out what to compare it to, really.

The film follows Nick Twisp, a nerd in the classical sense - he watches obscure foreign films, reads a lot of books, listens to Frank Sinatra on vinyl and is an aspiring novelist (of course). Naturally he is also desperate to lose his virginity, and so meets a rebellious girl name Sheeni who is trapped in a trailer park with her extremely religious family. Nick's personality is just too shy and quiet to truly attract Sheeni's affections, and so he develops a secondary persona named Francois Dillinger, who wears a pencil-thin French moustache, smokes, and is basically a complete sociopath. As you may have guessed, hijinks ensue.

But while in the hands of another director - or perhaps with a less excessively mannered screenplay - this could've been yet another tiresome crude teenage sex comedy. Instead, Youth in Revolt feels a lot like reading an intelligent comic novel; most of that is due to the dialogue, which is written exactly as though you were reading a book rather than listening to people talk. Here's an example:

Sheeni: "I'd invite you to go hiking with me, but you have no hiking boots or supplies or a compass..."

Twisp: "Oh, that's okay; I do all of my hiking freeform. I'm like John Muir in that I enter the wilderness with only my journal and a childlike sense of wonder."

Normally dialogue that obviously "written" would be both obnoxious and far too preciously pretentious to be funny, but the magic here is all in the delivery - Michael Cera is note-perfect in this role, and the uniformly excellent supporting cast (Cera is backed up by folks like Zach Galifianakis, Steve Buscemi and Fred Willard) is no slouch either. As a result, and perhaps most importantly, Youth in Revolt is hilarious.

In fact, even if you're sick of Michael Cera's shy-awkward-teenager routine (which still feels diluted enough here to not be quite as much of a distraction as it's been in the past), this film proves that he definitely has acting chops. The Francois Dillinger character is really, really funny; Cera delivers all his lines with a low-pitched sense of nihilistic purpose. It's a home run, and the movie's biggest failing is that there simply isn't enough Francois. I'd watch an entire movie with this character as the star. Here's hoping there are more filmmakers out there willing to give Cera some real character work. He is clearly capable of more than looking uncomfortable while wearing a hoodie.

So ignore the trailers and check this out. It is unlike any other mainstream comedy from the past few years. Attempts to compare it to anything else fall short; there are some obvious influences, notably Wes Anderson, Freaks & Geeks (which the director worked on) and perhaps Ghost World, but Youth in Revolt really is its own thing. It'll be very interesting to see what the director does next.

The Late Shift 2010: NBC Shuffles Late Night?

2010-01-07T20:01:00.000-08:00

A big bomb hit the web today with rumors of a big shakeup on NBC's late night roster. Would Leno be dropped, or replace Conan? Well, apparently one great thing about the internet is that rumors travel fast and NBC was quick to dispel the disinformation. That is, if the New York Times is on your list of reliable sources. Here's the scoop, and it's weird.

Today:
Leno at 10:00 PM
Conan at 11:35 PM
Fallon at 12:35 AM
Carson Daly at 1:05 AM

Soon:
Leno at 11:35 PM
Conan at 12:05 AM
Fallon at 1:05 AM
Carson Daly...???

So basically, Leno gets his old slot back, Conan goes on later than now (but earlier than before), and Fallon and Carson Daly get pretty hosed. Will America stand for what might be about a sold hour of monologue and desk jokes each night?

New RiffTrax DVDs Coming

2010-01-04T22:46:00.001-08:00

If you're as much a fan of physical media as we are, you'll be happy to know that Bill Corbett, Mike Nelson, and Kevin Murphy are releasing another batch of RiffTrax DVDs on January 26, 2010. These include:

RiffTrax Live: Plan 9 From Outer Space
Planet of the Dinosaurs
Voodoo Man
Shorts-tacular Shorts-stravaganza
Wide World of Shorts

Each is going to be about $10-$15, and most likely will not be available at a store near you. We suggest going online for these. It's worth noting a non-live Plan 9 DVD is on the market already, however this "live" one has added extras and, we assume, different jokes.

News: The Jeff Dunham Show Not Picked Up

2009-12-30T20:16:00.000-08:00

Numerous media outlets including the New York Times confirmed that Comedy Central's The Jeff Dunham Show has not been picked up for a second season, or as the kids say it, "shitcanned."

...not that any of our five readers watch the show that we know of anyway. The show, which had Comedy Central's highest premiere ratings in history, dropped off quickly and was also reportedly a very expensive show to produce. Hence, no more show. There will, of course, be additional TV specials and merchandise to ironically gift your relatives come the holidays, only for you to be shocked and saddened to discover they're actually quite happy with the gifts.

Review: The High Road with Doug Benson

2009-12-29T10:01:00.000-08:00

WHAT: Two episodes of a series bundled as a special
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: The comedy and twitter stylings of Doug Benson
WHERE TO FIND IT: G4TV, airing seemingly at random

So the story behind The High Road with Doug Benson is that G4TV had been airing Benson's movie, Super High Me, nonstop for a few years and it generated decent ratings and feedback so they basically asked for more of that.

The High Road isn't really quite that; while Super High Me was a fairly focused documentary, this series just follows Benson and fellow (yet sober) comedian Graham Elwood on the road together. It's kind of an odd mashup of standup appearances and run-ins with the locals in the towns they're performing in, all punctuated by Benson's many tweets. As far as structure goes, it's kinda all over the place, but the whole thing is so laid back and easygoing it's difficult to fault it for lacking focus.

There have been many documentaries and miniseries about comedians on the road over the years -among them the now-classic Comedians of Comedy, the passable Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Tour, Ray Romano's 95 Miles to Go and the odious Dane Cook's Tourgasm; the appeal of these things seems to boil down to how interesting, funny and likable the comedian(s) you're following are. Nobody likes Dane Cook, for example, because he seems like he's kind of an asshole, and his road documentary just fuels that notion. Ray Romano seems sort of oppressively normal and sedate, and so his (very boring) road movie reinforces that. With The High Road, Doug Benson's half-lidded, witty appeal is what carries the entire thing and prevents it from being dull or uninteresting. If you like Benson's personality - which you have ample access to thanks to his many podcast appearances, his I Love Movies show or even just following his Twitter account - then this will feel very familiar and pleasant. There's very little about it that seems forced or gimmicky; it is very basic in premise and execution. And that's fine. The utter lack of pretension or "intensity" makes it a lot more palatable than many of the other "comedians on the road" projects out there.

As this thing presently exists, it's 2 half-hour episodes of what is obviously intended to be a series, packaged together as one hourlong special. Notably they didn't edit out the "previously on" segment at the half-hour mark, and the second episode doesn't offer any sort of a "conclusion", you're just left waiting for more. Hopefully G4 will reach whatever ratings benchmark they're looking for with this and just air the rest of the episodes. The High Road isn't anything groundbreaking, but it is funny and entertaining and engaging in an easygoing way, and really that's all anyone could ever want.

Road Trip Album Picks: "R.O. Magic: The Best of R.O. Manse"

2009-12-25T11:24:00.000-08:00

WHAT: Comedy album with music and sketches
LABEL: A Special Thing Records, 2008
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: 80s music, novelty albums, fighting
WHERE TO FIND IT: Online or bust
LENGTH: 63 minutes

The novelty record is experiencing something of a revival. Every few years "Weird Al" Yankovic puts out something new that burns up the charts, and the Conchords had a great run on TV. Rather than go with parodies, R.O. Manse has some sketches, some faux interviews, some songs, and more to make what basically amounts to a pretty great CD of character development. We learn who this guy is, we hear some highlights from his career, we meet his ex-wife... this is a fleshed-out guy.

With numerous special guests and all sorts of gags, this album is pretty all over the place. With 26 tracks spanning a variety of styles, there are a surprising number of great gags here-- the suite of 1980s movie theme songs, for example, are pretty fantastic. The album has a couple of songs which qualify as "hit singles" of sorts, awesome little ditties that work really well outside the context of the album. "Ladyboy" and "I Have a Synthesizer" are clearly the two shining stars of the album, were you to play them for a friend, the former of which is a surprisingly catchy song that-- unlike many novelty songs-- manages to play it straight. (As it were.)

If you can pick up a few tracks odds are you'll enjoy this-- it's a few steps beyond the recordings from various tunesmiths you'd here on Dr. Demento, and while pretty goofy, tracks like "Ladyboy" take comedy songwriting in a direction where it's funny without being overtly jokey-- that's quite a challenge. Well done! Pick this up if you're looking for comedy mixed with 1980s synthesized new wave songs, because it manages to pull it off nicely.

Tonight Show Highlights: Dumbledore, Twitter Tracker

2009-12-24T18:48:00.000-08:00

Because of the short week, or perhaps because of a sense of giving the audience what they want, The Tonight Show rolled out three of their most popular recurring bits this week. If you haven't been watching what Conan has been doing, here you are.

Twitter Tracker

Dumbledore Rides Again

Noches De Pasion con Señor O'Brien

Happy Holidays from Comedy is Dead!

2009-12-22T20:00:00.000-08:00

As a special gift for you this year, Comedy is Dead has received a sneak peak at the Big Dogs tee-shirt product catalog for 2010. Here's a look at next year's hottest Big Dogs shirt designs!

Now you can plan all your Big Dogs shopping needs in advance! Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Road Trip Album Picks: Bill Cosby's "Revenge"

2009-12-17T10:03:00.000-08:00

WHAT: Cosby's fifth comedy album
LABEL: Warner Bros. Records, 1967
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Bill Cosby
WHERE TO FIND IT: Your local library, some record stores
LENGTH: 42 minutes

If you're roughly 30 years old, odds are your parents raised you in a home with albums from Bill Cosby. My dad had several, but I didn't hear Revenge until just last month. It's a little looser than some of his other stuff and much more personal in the sense that it's about his person rather than Noah's Ark or bad drivers. Tales include "Revenge," a classic bit about saving a snowball for summer, and "Buck, Buck" which is seemingly the genesis of another famous character, namely Fat Albert.

In this disc you'll get all sorts of tales, and it's a little slower-- and naturally, significantly cleaner-- than the sort of things we usually cover in this column. Cosby, like Steve Martin or George Carlin, is one of the few comedians that works on some higher ethereal plane and his older albums, like this one, were a big part of the wave of fame he continues to ride to this very day. Sure, he's done great new stuff since then, but these things were bought and kept in homes in the pre-VCR era when records were the only way to play back your favorite people and shows for most people.

Cosby's voice carries well and it's a pretty great release overall. There's clearly a missing visual component which rears its head when you hear some of the laughter on the album, which was recorded at Harrah's nearly a million years ago ago, but it's worth hearing. It's worth picking up a Cosby album or two to see how the form evolved over the past half-century. A lot of things have changed, but the funniest stuff tends to resonate the longest.

Weekly Comedy - Ho, Ho Ho I'm Ha, Ha Hungry!

2009-12-14T00:44:00.001-08:00

I think that's the worst title Weekly Comedy has ever had and probably ever will have.

And yet, I feel proud.

DVD

The Hangover – Did your friends and family love this movie, guffawing at every zany plot development and recurring joke while you sat in mild amusement and oddly disconnected silence? You’re not alone! Even though this movie employs the comedic talents of our favorite bearded comedian Zach Galifianakis, it’s pretty lukewarm. Apparently this is the most financially successful comedy of all time, which is.. well, alright, I guess. If it gets Galifianakis and Ed Helms more work (preferably in movies funnier than this one), then great.

It just wasn’t that funny, is all I’m saying.

Robot Chicken Season 4 – Here’s the formula: cartoon characters from the 80’s murder

eachother after making boner and/or retard jokes. And now there’s more of it. Rejoice.

The Goods – Live Hard, Sell Hard – There is no Bluray release for this movie and it was a Redbox exclusive for a while.

Redbox is the DVD vending machine you find out in front of grocery stores, gas stations and pawn shops. So that tells you most of what you need to know.

In all fairness this wasn’t that bad; it has its moments. It’s also pretty confused and doesn’t really seem to know what it’s trying to be. Rent at your own risk.

The Mel Brooks Collection (Bluray) - A whole shitload of Mel Brooks movies in a big Planet of the Apes-style hardcover book set, minus a few glaring omissions (most notably The Producers) but if you’re a Brooks fan this is a must-get. After all, Spaceballs wasn’t available in 1080p before now.

COMEDY SKIPPABLES

Did You Hear About The Morgans? – Why, yes I did! And I’ll be staying away from this toxic shit as a result!

Road Trip Album Picks: Neil Hamburger's "50 States 50 Laughs"

2009-12-10T13:19:00.000-08:00

WHAT: Another tour-only CD from America's Funnyman, no audience
LABEL: Million Dollar Performances, 2000
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Early Neil Hamburger
WHERE TO FIND IT: Good freaking luck, on tour if he still has them
LENGTH: 27 minutes

It's no secret, we love Neil Hamburger-- especially his new stuff. His earlier recordings, like 50 States 50 Laughs, use his slightly less gruff earlier persona in which he's more of a sad sack than an increasingly spiteful comedian. The theme is a joke for each state, which sometimes works out as a pun, something about the local fare, or... well, we won't spoil it all for you.

"Have you ever looked in the trash can at a Long John Silvers? It's full of pieces of fish, each with exactly one bite taken out of it, and then all these napkins rolled up into little balls and in the center of each one is the corresponding piece of chewed-up fish!"

The entire album is particularly unique in that it's a stand-up album, more or less, recorded completely without an audience. This guarantees every joke sounds like it's being delivered to an unresponsive room, which actually makes it even funnier.

Like his other work, this album is brilliant-- but in increasingly unexpected ways. This is one of few albums which criticizes itself, and is built around a pretty clever idea. Due to how Hamburger's early voice projects, it may not be the best pick for your car rides as his low voice sometimes gets drowned out by the road sounds-- but that's really dependant on what you're driving. Either way, it's an album worth checking out simply because you've probably heard very little like it.

MST3K Hits Hulu

2009-12-08T21:26:00.001-08:00

If you love Joel and the Bots, Hulu added five episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 today. Secret Agent Super Dragon, The Starfighters, Monster A-Go-Go, The Rebel Set, and The Giant Gila Monster are up for your enjoyment.

Free Maria Bamford Christmas Special

2009-12-03T22:56:00.000-08:00

We just downloaded (but not yet have started watching) Maria Bamford's One-Hour Homemade Christmas Stand-Up Special over on her web site.

There are pugs. There is a couch. Presumably, this will be awesome. We're quite impressed, a lot of comics are putting out some great YouTube videos but this is the first time I've seen a gigantic long special.

Road Trip Album Picks: Eugene Mirman's "God Is A Twelve-Year-Old Boy With Asperger's"

2009-12-03T14:14:00.000-08:00

WHAT: Third proper album from comedian of comedy
LABEL: Sub Pop Records, 2009
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Pretty much anything vaguely resembling alternative comedy
WHERE TO FIND IT: Tons of places, this got a wide release
LENGTH: 42 minutes

How Sub Pop got into comedy we'll never know, but it's good to see top-notch talent getting decent distribution for a change. Eugene Mirman's God Is A Twelve-Year-Old Boy With Asperger's (the title) comes from a tale on his book tour, specifically track #8. In it, you hear about a kid asking aloud why Eugene doesn't worship him as his God-- if you don't find that funny, well, stop reading now. The always funny, sometimes spiteful, but genuinely hilarious ramblings are just as good if not better than his previous albums.

The album's material gets increasingly personal, culminating in a bit on airplanes losing his luggage that crosses over from a mere joke to some higher level of performance art. Not only are we treated to transcripts of his calls, but we also find out that he wants his audience in on the act-- he printed up a bunch of postcards to send to the airline, enlisting his audience as troops on his quest against his lost pants and whatnot. Truly, this should be the stuff of tomorrow's comedy legends.

Like his other recordings, this is a great road trip album, and is also good pretty much any other time. If you haven't heard his material, this is a good of a place to start as any,

Also notable: His first two albums are "The Absurd Nightclub Comedy of Eugene Mirman" and "En Garde, Society". Eugene appears on "The Pennsylvania Macaroni Company" with Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, and Maria Bamford. The comic has a mini tour CD from the Comedians of Comedy as well, some of which seeped into his other releases-- so it's more of a collectible than it is a must-own disc of rarities. (But we'll look at it later.)

New Brian Posehn Album in 2010

2009-12-02T20:27:00.000-08:00

From Henry Owings and the Chunklet Newsletter:

"NEW BRIAN POSEHN ALBUM!:
You got that right! And much like the most recent Patton Oswalt, yours truly was the producer. Brian's told me that it'll be out in February on Relapse with much promotion and touring to support it. I call him BROsehn. Get it? Because we're bros!"

There you go! So in the past year or so, all of the Comedians of Comedy made a new album except Zach Galifianakis.

Neil Hamburger: The Plush Doll

2009-12-01T23:46:00.000-08:00

Today Neil Hamburger announced that Neil Hamburger plush dolls now exist. They're pretty low-rent as toys go but nearly no comedians that don't have collars that are blue do much in the way of quasi-figural merchandise, making this particularly unique. America's funnyman is available for about $20. We approve.

If we could get a USB figure that spouts out jokes, that'd just be fantastic. We'd pay up for that.

Comedy Death Ray and I Love Movies This Week

2009-12-01T23:31:00.000-08:00

Wow, was this a heck of an amazing show! You really missed out by not going. What's wrong with you? Both shows were at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles.

I Love Movies

Doug Benson once again proves that he's being robbed by the fools running television for not having the foresight to give him his own show. This week his guests were "Weird Al" Yankovic and Chris Hardwick, and they were fantastic. As always, the show will be available via iTunes or whatever podcatching service you use in a few days, and this is one you won't want to miss. (Despite a tiny chunk of it being three men Twittering at once.)

Comedy Death Ray

A fantastic show. Hosted by Mike Kaplan, who we have not seen previously, but will now go out of our way to see. Excellent work. Also on deck:

Dave Anthony
Charlyne & Armen (seemingly improvised musical act/sniper spitting)
Rory Scovel (stand-up plus something involving clowns that courtesy prevents us from spoiling)
Zach Galifianakis (a few jokes, a whole lotta great crowd work)
Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak (a conceptual piece about Tom Bergeron's kids)
Chris Hardwick

Hardwick brought a lot of brand new (to us) material, and never disappoints as a headliner. Mr. Galifianakis was fantastic to see, particularly because his ticket price probably just quintupled since the summer-- great stuff, very funny. We were expecting Hardwick to come out in a yarn beard in-character.

The evening was fantastic, the pacing was great, we're pretty sure you would enjoy it if you were there. Some kid in the front row was taping most of it so it wouldn't be a stunner to see this on the web some day, if we find out about it we'll link to it.

Book Review: Tracy Morgan's "I Am The New Black"

2009-11-30T00:20:00.000-08:00

WHAT: Collection of stories in book form, very of-the-moment
GOOD IF YOU LIKED: Tracy Morgan's career thus far
WHERE TO FIND IT: Throw a rock, you'll find it
PUBLISHER: Spiegel & Grau, 224 pages
BY: Tracy Morgan with Anthony Bozza

I Am The New Black is, in effect, less an autobiography and more of an ongoing talk show transcript. Covering the comic's personal life and vast career, which includes SNL and 30 Rock, you get a really strong feeling of what Morgan's life is like. Basically, the story of his life is this: Come from nothing. Become something. Succeed wildly. Fail. Repeat.

The book's writing is very much in the voice of Morgan, with allusions to robots and other craziness, which really does prove that the writers on 30 Rock aren't kidding when they say they follow Tracy around for a day to come up with episode ideas. The man's a factory of strangeness, and is clearly some sort of manic genius.

At a very breezy 200+ pages with pictures and illustrations, the book goes by in a flash. It feels like it could almost have been posted via Twitter, in that there are a number of brief anecdotes that all go by quite quickly. Also like Twitter, this book is very now-- there are references to real-world events, which season of 30 Rock just finished, and so on, making this book already feel a little dated. You can pinpoint when certain sections were drafted, which is really all the more reason to read it now if you're going to at all.

There's not a lot here that feels like some amazing revelation-- if anything, it shows that his affable, eccentric persona on TV is pretty much spot-on. Stories about his days in sports, his upbringing, and why you need to move out of a bad neighborhood in the middle of the night after achieving success ring true, as do the many stories of his early TV gigs. Particularly engaging are the tales of his first attempts on the stage, succeeding one week and then bombing the next because he trotted out new, untested material that the audience didn't seem to go for.

Like many books about the business, there's a clear journey here, although it seems each chapter is pretty scattered. It starts off being about one thing, than jumps into his personal life or a friend or something else entirely. With the numerous references to his drinking and partying, plus the health-related danger of an alcohol monitoring bracelet, you're likely to learn some interesting trivia if nothing else. Assuming, of course, you don't have to wear one of the bracelets yourself.

If you need something to read on the plane, this is a great and fast read. Just be sure to read it sooner than later, as the narrative was clearly meant to be read during 2009. In 2010 it's going to feel like it came from a time capsule.

Patton Oswalt vs. The Room

2009-11-29T23:09:00.000-08:00

If you live in Los Angeles and/or live and breathe watching bad movies for fun, you are no doubt aware of Tommy Wiseau's The Room. Also, if you read this site, you are aware of Patton Oswalt. Words cannot express how fantastic this short video by Oswalt is, so just watch it-- and if you don't get it, ask your hipster movie fan friends to loan you their The Room DVD:

Weekly Comedy: Commander Wharf

2009-11-29T19:31:00.000-08:00

Any week that includes both a new Mystery Science Theater release and a new CD from Paul F Tompkins is a good week. Period. No questions asked. Not even if that same week includes one of the most tiresome sequels in movie history. Nope. No-siree. Good week, right here. For serious, count your blessings.

DVD

Mystery Science Theater XVI – This limited edition set comes with a little bust of Tom Servo, who can accompany Crow T. Robot from the 20th Anniversary set. As usual, you get four episodes:

105: The Corpse Vanishes
501: Warrior of the Lost World
521: Santa Claus
701: Night of the Blood Beast

So that’s two Joels and two Mikes. I’m a Mike Nelson man myself, but the Joel episodes included here ain’t half bad. Plus you get two shorts and a bevy of extras included in the box. What’s not to love?

Better Off Ted Season One – Some people love this show, most have never heard of it. Here’s the complete first season. Might be worth checking out if you have a spare afternoon and a couple empty slots in the ol’ Netflix queue.

Paper Heart – Do you enjoy the awkward comedy stylings of Charlyne Yi? Here’s her faux-documentary about what love is wherein she and Michael Cera fall in love and pretend to flee from the camera crew. Yi and Cera actually did fall in love during the filming of this, and may have become America’s first couple to get married in hoodies and skinny jeans had they not broken up a few months later.

Pale Force – Jim Gaffigan’s animated shorts wherein he and Conan O’Brien are extremely pale superheroes. It’s a running gag from Late Night, wherein Gaffigan basically humiliates the Conan character over and over again. Can’t imagine this has a lot of rewatch value, but hey, here it is.

CD

Paul F. Tompkins: Freak Wharf – NEW PAUL F TOMPKINS CD BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY

COMEDY SKIPPABLES

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian – Probably one of the most obnoxious sequels ever made. Lots of jokes for the cheap seats, Hank Azaria seems to voice every animated character AND gets to adlib as the lisping Egyptian villain for minutes at a time. This movie also wastes the comic talents of Jonah Hill and Bill Hader. There are some nifty moments at the beginning involving some living paintings, and Amy Adams looks pretty great in those aviator pants, but sweet jesus this movie is annoying from start to finish. See if you can make it all the way to the Einstein bobbleheads singing “That’s the way I like it”! If that doesn’t get you to shut it off, maybe the endless sequences involving Ben Stiller being slapped by monkeys will!

Stuff You Probably Missed: Fallon Edition Mark II

2009-11-27T16:33:00.000-08:00

Every now and then we post some of the best bits from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which you are likely not watching. Which is a shame, because in the last 9 months Fallon's show has turned into a worthy successor to Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Anyway, here are some of the best recent bits:

Seriously, it's good stuff.

DVD Review: Andy Barker PI

2009-11-26T20:05:00.000-08:00

WHAT: Short-lived 6-episode sitcom created by Conan O’Brien, starring Andy Richter and Tony Hale

LABEL: Shout! Factory, 2009

GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Arrested Development

WHERE TO FIND IT: Amazon. Retail stores seem to be shunning it.

LENGTH: 132 minutes

Andy Barker PI aired for only a couple of episodes in 2007 before quickly being cancelled by NBC; the remaining 3 or 4 episodes aired online only, and now we’ve got the whole shebang on DVD thanks to Shout! Factory, who seem increasingly dedicated to putting every great piece of television comedy on DVD.

The show itself was created by Conan O’Brien and Jonathan Groff, and the premise is pretty simple: guileless, straight-laced accountant Andy Barker find himself unwittingly thrust into the gritty world of Private Dick-ism when a femme fatale shows up in his CPA office, mistaking Andy for crusty old PI Lew Staziak (who is probably the funniest character in the show, played by the late Harve Presnell). Since his accountant business is struggling, he finds himself taking more and more detective work to pay the bills. Along for the ride is video store clerk-slash-eccentric nerd Simon (Tony Hale, best known as Buster in Arrested Development) and kebab shop owner Wally (Marshall Manesh, reliable sitcom character actor).

The show is, for lack of a better phrase, really damn good. Every episode – probably due to the show’s short life – is incredibly solid from start to finish, and rare is the gag that falls short. The cast gels immediately, and every one of the supporting characters gets time to shine. The show’s sense of humor is clearly very informed by Conan O’Brien, which means there are a whole lot of jokes about old people and a lot of subdued absurdism. Tone-wise it’s very much like the comedy bits on Late Night and Conan’s version of the Tonight Show.

In typical Shout! Factory fashion, the DVD set is loaded with about as much extra material as you could possibly expect from a 6-episode cancelled sitcom. There are two documentaries – one focusing on the show’s writing staff, and the other a complete history of the series. There are commentaries on every episode – the pilot commentary features Conan himself – and a gag reel. It’s really all anyone could ask for.

Andy Barker PI, like so many solid, funny sitcoms for smart people with good senses of humor, was probably never meant to last in a TV landscape that nurtures the likes of Jenna Elfman, but it’s great to have it archived on DVD. Now it’s up to you to see if you have the Mike ‘n Ikes to pick it up.

The Bammer Hits Target

2009-11-26T12:58:00.000-08:00

In what may be the most perfect or most twisted ad campaign of the year, Target stores have recruited the fantastic Maria Bamford to do a series of TV spots for the retail giant. Here's one of them.

And here's another one.

So it's not just your imagination, you really are seeing her on TV. After the Target Devo spots it seems they've got some subversive advertising people. Now, does this mean Target will start stocking her albums? We hope so.

Road Trip Album Picks: Dana Gould's "Let Me Put My Thoughts In You"

2009-11-26T12:46:00.000-08:00

WHAT: The second album from one of the best comics you probably don't know yet, former Simpsons scribe, the voice of Gex
LABEL: Shout! Factory, 2009
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Likeable, awkward funny dudes
WHERE TO FIND IT: iTunes, Amazon, some record shops
LENGTH: 39 minutes

Dana Gould has been around for a while, and is one of the comedians that managed to stick in my head nearly 20 years after first seeing him on the Sunday Comics TV show. He went to do writing for The Simpsons and has returned to stand-up comedy in a big way, with Let Me Put My Thoughts In You on CD and, of course, DVD. (We're bigger fans of the CDs, call us old-fashioned.)

If you have not had the luxury of hearing a Dana Gould album allow me to save you a few minutes and just tell you to go get it. Like Doug Benson Paul F. Tompkins, Gould should be on your "just go see/hear everything they do" list. You'll probably be glad you heard routines like "Timely Son of Sam Bit" which involves what the dog in the case probably would have actually said, "Pickup Lines & Ice Cream" which nicely sets the tone of dealing with people you'll never agree with, and "Creative Racism..." to describe it would be to ruin your laughs.

Gould has a fantastic approach to comedy and nearly everything he's done should be handed down to new generations of comedy nerds until the references become so dated you'll need a college professor to explain them to you. (But we should be good for a few more decades here.) This is a great pick for your next extended drive, if you have a way of getting it before you return from Thanksgiving travels, you should.

Book Review: Chunklet's The Rock Bible

2009-11-23T00:50:00.000-08:00

WHAT: Collection of jokes and anecdotes to challenge your taste in music
GOOD IF YOU LIKED: Les Savy Fav, the greater works of Steve Albini, and rock in general
WHERE TO FIND IT: Better record stores, online book stores, Chunklet's web store
BY: Henry Owings, Patton Oswalt, Brian Teasley, Andrew Earles, many others

It's often been said the musicians want to be comedians, and comedians want to be musicians. The Rock Bible bridges this gap with an excellent piece of work aimed at a very specific kind of person who may not be you. This collection of jokes and essays takes the form of the Bible in its structure, with the required amount of sneering and accuracy that hits the nail on the head. Truly, it is funny because it's true... and born from Chunklet, arguably the finest publication on paper today.

"If you want to die while in a famous rock band, there are four options. 1. Suicide. 2. Car or plane crash. 3. Drug overdose. 4. Murdered by a crazy relative. Just pick one and stick with it."

The one problem about the book is that it seems to be a very funny collection written mostly with people that are cooler than you/me in mind. If you see a lot of shows or play in a band yourself, there's a good chance that this book may mirror experiences in your own life. For the squares, there's a lot of great advice as to how not be a putz at a rock show-- which may seem obvious, and it really should be. There's also a bunch of stories, in-jokes, and lists of things which are or are not acceptable in rock today. This may sound like a snobby pursuit, and it probably is, but it's damned funny.

If you like music a lot-- specifically forms of rock from its roots to today-- odds are you'll enjoy this a great deal. If you're in college and have this on a table during a party, it's going to get stolen. That's how good it is. If you've got a music fan in your life, or you are one, get it. Read it. You'll love it. It's virtually the ideal bathroom book.

Weekly Comedy: It's A Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit Week

2009-11-22T22:48:00.000-08:00

Holy hell, what did we do to deserve this?

So the feature-packed edition of one of the best comedy-nerd movies ever made comes out earlier than expected, and because the universe hates us all, there is also a mountain of unbelievable shit released in the same week.

This is the price we pay.

DVD

Funny People – A complex, surprisingly compelling and really unique drama-that-happened-to-also-be-really-funny about comedians that was misunderstood by a lot of people (and was, admittedly, flawed when it came to pacing). Absolutely the must-buy release of the week, if only for the ridiculous wealth of supplemental material included here.

It is also the lone bright spot this week. Fuck. FUCK.
COMEDY TOXIC WASTE

Old Dogs – I’m not sure if this is a sequel to the bullshit that was Wild Hogs but they’re sorta-kinda marketing it that way. Seth Green is in it for some reason. Seems to be geared toward the same middle-aged white guys who chortle their way through Two and a Half Men every week and beat off to The Real Housewives of Orange County.

Four Christmases – One of the most criminally unfunny holiday comedies ever. After this abortion and Couples Retreat, someone needs to go slap Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau and Peter Billingsley and tell them to please stop just making lame-ass easy comedies designed to appeal to the Sunday night Olive Garden crowd. These people were responsible for Swingers and Made, they can do a lot better than this safe, trite garbage.

Bill Engvall: Aged and Confused – Hey look it’s a new Bill Engvall special. Perhaps he will make jokes about his wife being a nag or his kids being a pain in the ass or how he just wants to crack a beer and watch some football. WHO KNOWS WHAT UNPREDICTABLE COMEDY GOLD HE HAS IN STORE

Larry the Cable Guy’s Hula-Palooza Christmas Luau

Larry the Cable Guy’s Hula-Palooza Christmas Luau

Larry the Cable Guy’s Hula-Palooza Christmas Luau

LARRY THE FUCKING CABLE GUY'S HULA-PALOOZA CHRISTMAS FUCKING LUAU

FFFFUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKKKK

Road Trip Album Picks: Mike Birbiglia's "Two Drink Mike"

2009-11-19T00:02:00.000-08:00

WHAT: The second album from the comedian and This American Life contributor
LABEL: Comedy Central Records, 2006
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Likeable, awkward funny dudes
WHERE TO FIND IT: iTunes, Amazon, some record shops
LENGTH: 60 minutes

You may know Mike Birbiglia from his many comedy specials or from his numerous appearances on PRI's This American Life, often discussing his terrifying bout with sleepwalking. Which involves window-jumping and bleeding unintentionally. This resulted in a one-man show called "Sleepwalk With Me", where he relates his horrifying medical condition for your amusement. This is a man who truly knows how to make art out of misery and do a great job.

Birbiglia's persona on Two Drink Mike is that of a likeable, somewhat troubled guy. His comedy is mostly completely clean, going so far as to bleep a couple of curses on his albums over the years. (This is a stark contrast to, say, the entire recorded comedy album industry.)

Most of the stuff we review here is comedy for generally die-hard comedy fans, and Birbiglia is comedy for die-hard comedy fans and their parents. It's not easy to make a totally clean album with both jokes about rape and how much fun you become after a lot of drinks, but this is it.

It almost sounds like a slam to call the album nice or good-natured, but it really is both funny and very inoffensive. There's a routine on the phrase "No, But I Heard About It" that tells you everything you need to know about this comic, which is that he's funny and wants to be liked. You can totally hand this to mom and/or dad as the anti-Jeff Dunham and odds are they'll really enjoy it, and you don't have to hang your head in shame if you're not into comedians with acts that come on sticks. (No offense if you're a Dunham fan. Well, maybe a little offense.)

The album provides an ideal driving companion, as Birbiglia's voice carries despite not exactly being the highest-energy guy. You'll laugh a lot, most likely, so give this one a whirl over the coming Thanksgiving holiday. It should make the travel go down slightly easier.

A note if you're looking to buy this: it's on CD, and on multiple digital formats. Amazon sells an "Audible" version for $12 and a standard MP3 version for $10. It's the same thing, so buyer be aware!

Review: Bear Down Podcast

2009-11-16T12:26:00.000-08:00

Do you like Chicago Bears football and UCB Theater? Well, not surprisingly, the podcast world has you covered.

The podcast runs weekly and features Matt Walsh of Upright Citizen's Brigade fame, screenwriter Scot Armstrong (he wrote Old School and a variety of other films) talking about the Chicago Bears football team, along with some friends of theirs who are Chicago bears fans.

This podcast is about 75% football, occasionally diverting into football-related topics, which is entertaining for the rest of us who don't follow football at all.

One example of these discussions would be which football team mascot would win in a fight were they to be real; for instance, could a bear actually fight a jet travelling 200 miles an hour? One theory - the bear could gnaw on the wheels during takeoff.

Also, stories about Evel Knievel punching out a golfer, only to be restrained by Joe Namath? Done.

I should point out that the football discussion is genuine, with Walsh and the rest really discussing the minutia of the game, from plays, to players to coaches, and a bunch of other things I do not understand because I do not follow football.

They still make it interesting for the non-fan, though, which counts. For the comedy/Chicago Bears fan, this will probably be ideal, and perhaps group therapy for this season for how badly the Bears seem to be doing right now.

website: http://www.beardownpodcast.com/

Weekly Comedy: Equal Parts Crap to Good

2009-11-15T20:25:00.000-08:00

Whoa, sorry we missed Weekly Comedy last week! Luckily nothing of interest came out. This week there’s a ton of stuff out and like half of it is total garbage! Hooray!

DVD

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas – The straight-to-DVD Sunny Christmas special is out this week, and if you’re a fan, it’s a must-get. This will likely air on FX at some point, probably uncensored, but there are plenty of extras on this disc.

Galaxy Quest (bluray) – This movie was surprisingly funny when it came out and it’s held up pretty well over the years (and has somehow escaped the curse of geeks over-quoting and referencing it, thereby ruining it for everyone). It’ll also probably hit bargain prices pretty soon so holding out for a sale might be a good idea.

Bruno – Sacha Baron Cohen’s disappointing follow-up to Borat is out on DVD, just in time to let down your comedy-loving friends for Christmas! The disc is pretty loaded with extra content, and it’s probably worth a rent for the curious, but it’s hard not to remember how underwhelming this thing was.

The Kevin Smith Collection: Clerks, Chasing Amy, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back – Everyone generally outgrows Kevin Smith movies once they graduate college, but if you’re one of the few left who can still honestly laugh at any of the dialogue in Clerks (or can sit through even a half hour of the odious Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back), this box set is for you!

Don’t get me wrong – Kevin Smith is still a funny guy, his podcast is great and it’s nice to see him moving on to direct films he didn’t write – but his “Askewniverse” comedies really haven’t aged well. Rent ‘em on Bluray and see if you agree.

COMEDY TOXIC WASTE

Oh man there sure is a lot of horrible crap out this week!

Dane Cook: Isolated Incident – It’s the comedian everyone loves to hate, with a new awful special that won’t change anyone’s mind! It’s the DVD destined to be stained with bongwater and buried under a pile of old Xbox games in the corner of some shitty dorm room!

Scrubs: Season 8 – FUCK YOU SCRUBS

Drawn Together: The Complete Series – Every single unfunny episode of this unfunny show in one big unfunny box set. The perfect gift for your friends who like bad comedy or someone you hate.

Road Trip Album Picks: "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase"

2009-11-06T00:43:00.000-08:00

WHAT: The first-ever anything in the popular Douglas Adams franchise
LABEL: BBC, 1978
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Monty Python, science fiction, non-standup comedy albums
WHERE TO FIND IT: iTunes, BBC, better book stores
LENGTH: 4 hours, give or take

Depending on how much research you've done, you may be surprised that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy started as a BBC radio program, and not as a novel or a TV miniseries. A generation of kids has been handed these by their dads, and a bunch of people have discovered it on their own-- but the radio show is where it all got started, and it's one of very few comedy/sci-fi radio shows out there to be made with any real significance.

If you're on the internet, odds are you've heard some dork come at you with the number 42. This is where that came from. The six-episode series is very similar to the book and TV show as far as plot is concerned, and many of the actors on this radio drama would go on to be stars of the television series. (Peter Jones, Simon Jones, Mark Wing-Davey, for example.) But enough of that-- is this thing worth listening to?

Ultimately, yes. This is a pop cultural milestone well worth searching out, mostly because the author Douglas Adams hung out with the boys from Monty Python and this feels like something of a spiritual successor to that form of humor. The episodes are extremely frantic, jumping between the main story and whatever strange tangents the author comes up with, be it the ins and outs of designer planets, the banality of the "B Ark," or even the notion of infinite improbability.

It's possible you're already sick of Marvin the Paranoid Android or jokes concerning the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything... but if these are new to you, you positively need to check out this show. (And be sure to get the BBC Radio Drama, and not the audiobook. The extra actors make for great entertainment.)

Additional phases of the radio series were produced after this one, coinciding with the first five books of the series. (To date, they haven't done one for And Another Thing. The first two were made in 1978 and 1979, with the others coming in 2004 and 2005.

This series should be some sort of standard issue for young nerds of all sorts-- comedy nerds, sci-fi nerds, and so on. It's clever, fun, and goes by far too quickly. (It does get a little less fun by the fourth phase, where they adapt So Long and Thanks for All The Fish.)

Album Announcement: Paul F. Tompkins' "Freak Wharf"

2009-11-02T22:59:00.000-08:00

AST Records confirmed the new PFT album will be out December 1, 2009. AST's releases are widely available online via their own record label or via digital distribution, but finding them at retail is, of course, somewhat difficult.

The label has a news post on this new release, which we expect to be nothing short of awesome. (After all, the man can do no wrong.) Pre-orders to start soonish. We cannot wait.

Weekly Comedy: Wasteland Edition

2009-11-01T14:35:00.000-08:00

There’s pretty much nothing out this week, comedy-wise; it’s pretty bleak out there. Rather than focus on the comedy wasteland that is traditional media, we’re also offering a guide to the best comedy web series that you probably either haven’t heard of or keep putting off. Handy!

IN THEATERS

The Men Who Stare At Goats – World’s most beloved man George Clooney and world’s saddest Star Wars Career Syndrome sufferer Ewan McGregor star in this “war comedy” about a field reporter who discovers a military program in Iraq that centers around psychic soldiers. Trailer looks decent; maybe a little reminiscent, tone-wise, of Three Kings. Probably worth checking out.

DVD

Eddie Izzard: Live From Wembley – Eddie Izzard’s new special. You should know by now

whether or not you’re interested in seeing this.

WEB SERIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

Since there’s so little out this week, here’s a quick guide to some of the better web comedy series out there. Something's gotta fill that void.

Childrens’ Hospital – This is probably the strongest web series out there; Rob Corddry’s very funny and sometimes shocking satire of medical dramas, set in a childrens’ hospital for maximum inappropriate comedy potential. If you haven’t seen this – or heard of it but never got around to it – be sure to check it out. Hopefully one day they’ll release a DVD.

Clark and Michael – Hyper-awkward buddy comedy featuring everyone’s favorite nervous nerd Michael Cera and Clark Duke, who is probably best known these days for playing lapsed conservative Christian Dale on Greek. The show is a little too mannered, but there’s plenty of good stuff in here.

Back on Topps – More than a little sports-centric but still pretty funny, this series – written by and starring the Sklar Brothers – follows the “new owners” of the Topps trading card company. Matt Besser shows up, too.

Review: The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History

2009-10-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

WHAT: An unofficial oral history of The Simpsons, with interviews from ex-staff, by journalist John Ortved.
GOOD IF YOU LIKED: ‘Live from New York’, which is the same basic thing for SNL.
WHERE TO FIND IT: Major bookstores, Amazon
The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History is basically a series of interviews with ex-staff who were willing to dish about the show’s 21-year history, without the first-hand participation from any of the series’ major players. Sure, there are excerpts from interviews other people did with Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, Sam Simon and Mike Scully, but none were conducted for this book specifically, which of course is immediately suspect.
Then again, in the (vastly superior) Live from New York, there were no direct interviews with Lorne Michaels, either, so it’s easy to just forget all that and dig in. This book is, firstly, really fascinating stuff. Although a little too much time is spent in the show’s early days (probably due to the fact that the author’s stated thesis is that The Simpsons did not “spring forth whole from Groening’s brain” but instead was a massive collaboration and was probably built more by raging eccentric Sam Simon and his writing staff than Groening himself) but the interviews with the staff members they could get to talk are excellent. For the first two-thirds or so of this thing, it’s an engrossing look at what is probably the most influential sitcom of the last 30 years or so, and there are plenty of revelations to be had, including:
Matt Groening was always way more interested in approving licensed Simpsons merchandise than working on the show itself
Conan O’Brien had to fight Groening to get the Leonard Nimoy ‘beam out’ gag at the end of Marge Vs. The Monorail because Groening was still completely opposed to any gags that felt “too cartoony”
Sam Simon is likely directly responsible for the show being what it is
Pretty much everyone except Al Jean will admit the show has sucked pretty hard for the last 10 years and bears little resemblance to the show’s golden years
The Simpsons has generated over 3 billion dollars for News Corp.
However, in the last third, the author basically throws out any attempt at objectivity and starts injecting his often surprisingly blunt personal opinions into the non-interview bits. The endless comparisons to South Park and Family Guy are particularly pointed and it’s like he’s trying to compose a theory that one of them is the successor to The Simpsons but never really comes to a conclusion. He also spends a weird amount of time bashing The Simpsons Movie, which most fans (and critics) who grew up on the show in the 1990s felt was close enough to a long and generally good episode of the series. But it wasn’t good enough for John Ortved, I guess. Basically the last few chapters feel like someone’s disorganized blog post rather than a proper oral history, but it’s still amusing and interesting enough to keep going. Worth picking up if you find it cheap.

Road Trip Halloween Party Album Picks: "Eban Schletter's Witching Hour"

2009-10-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

WHAT: Spooky music from the guy who did a lot of Mr. Show's score with some funny lyrics, but largely instrumental
NOTABLE GUESTS: Jill Sobule, Dave Allen, Paul F. Tompkins, Dave Foley, Scott Aukerman, Tom Kenny, Samm Levine
LABEL: Oglio Records, 2008
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Mr. Show's soundtrack and/or Halloween CDs
WHERE TO FIND IT: Some record stores, Best Buy has it for $7.99
LENGTH: 1 hour, 32 seconds

If you listen to the Comedy Death Ray Radio show/podcast, you no doubt recently heard a spot promoting Eban Schletter's Witching Hour with Paul F. Tompkins. As I'm a sucker for PFT and anything he touches, I had to go track this one down. So who is this guy? It turns out that Eban Schletter is not some spooky character like the Cryptkeeper or Colonel Sanders, but is in fact an actual person responsible for composing numerous soundtracks.

This is something to throw on at parties or, if you were a bit of a dork for this sort of thing, a decent enough listen. Most of the songs fade into the background nicely and seem to borrow from cartoon soundtracks and surf music, which is where you want to be. It's not like the Cryptkeeper Christmas CD in the sense that this isn't likely to ever make it on any torture tape mixes-- it's just decent and for the most part, pleasant enough to add some noise to an otherwise quiet evening. A spooky story by Dave Foley is indeed delightfully spooky, and the songs range from mostly somber to a more upbeat number with Scott Aukerman. In short, nothing to be ashamed of.

If you're looking for a collection of goofy novelty songs this isn't it. If you keep the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack or Haunted House sound CDs on a loop this time of year at get-togethers, this is probably a better alternative.

...so to answer your question, no, this isn't good for road trips.

Sitcom Report Card: Fall 2009

2009-10-26T07:49:00.000-07:00

Sitcoms are often called the lowest form of comedy, simplistic repetitive garbage designed to amuse the drooling plebs among us while the world melts into a steaming heap of shit outside.

Okay, so maybe they haven't been called that, but some of them certainly are. There are a boatload of sitcoms on the air this season, and since we have a terrifying television addiction and the urgent need to cast judgment on everything we see, here's a report on what's worth your precious DVR space and what you can brutally mock others for openly enjoying.

Note: calling HBO series like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Bored to Death "sitcoms" seems kind of wrong, so they're not included here, but you should be watching them, as they are excellent and completely worth your time.

THE HIGHS

Community – Easily the best new series this season, Community is really refreshing after a mountain of Office-alikes that directly copied the single-camera documentary-style, relying way too heavily on cringing awkwardness rather than just being funny. Community, on the other hand, is sharp, sarcastic, mean-spirited, biting and meta (without being too cute about it). It takes the best elements of the single-camera style (meaning no laugh track) and has a pretty great cast lead by Joel McHale. Hard to say if this will still be as good as it is now 2 or 3 seasons in, but for now, it’s great stuff.

GRADE: A

30 Rock – Nobody needs to be told that 30 Rock is the best sitcom on the air and one of the best shows on TV period. Perhaps the mountain of Emmys will convince anyone who isn’t already watching this.

GRADE: A+

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia– Several years after this modern-era "Three Stooges"/"Marx Brothers" started airing on FX, it remains funny. Sunny's manic energy has spilled out and is slowly eroding at the fourth wall in episodes like "The World Series Defense," in which the cast invents horrifying revelations under a hotel to keep the audience and judge interested in a story which basically goes nowhere. Most of the episodes can be watched in any order, which is rare in TV these days, so if you haven't started watching yet this is as good of a place as any. Also: Riot Punch, Box of Hornets.
GRADE: A-

Parks & Recreation – This started out as “Hey, you kids like The Office, here’s The Government Office!” and has slowly become a solid, funny show in its own right. It’s all in the characters – the cast is diverse enough to where all comparisons to The Office are purely surface-level. Aziz Ansari is particularly good, and the lead character isn’t grating or annoyingly stupid and awkward. It really has developed into its own thing, and it only seems to be getting better in the second season; there hasn’t been a bad episode yet.

Also Louis CK has a recurring role. Which really would elevate pretty much anything to "great" status.

Well, except for that Jenna Elfman shit on CBS.

GRADE: A-

THE LOWS

Almost Everything on CBS – CBS continues to be the Old People Network, as is evidenced by their sitcom lineup (with two exceptions). Look at this shit – Gary Unmarried, Two and a Half Men and The New Adventures of Old Christine all on the same channel. Most of these shows seem to have been designed specifically to be inoffensive enough so your parents can fall asleep during them without being rudely awoken by something funny happening. They are painfully generic and patently unfunny to their very core.

To add insult to injury, CBS actually cast professional comedy repellant Jenna Elfman in Accidentally on Purpose, which is literally just Knocked Up: The Sitcom. It’s fucking terrible. All this shit gets an F, avoid it.

Modern Family – It’s hard to put this in this category because it’s so completely unremarkable, but ultimately, this show falls short. It’s yet another documentary-style sitcom, this time about an extended family split into three chunks – divorcee grampa with young latina wife, standard family with standard kids, and then gay couple with adopted baby. It’s trying to be sort of an unflinching look at family life, but it’s just too safe and isn’t particularly funny or clever or really anything.

GRADE: D

THE CREAMY MIDDLES

The Big Bang Theory – Odds are every generic self-proclaimed “nerd” you know goes on and on about how funny this show is, and it does have plenty of moments and some good characters, but this is as standard as sitcom fare gets. Oddballs living across the hall from stereotypical “normal” hot girl, who’da thunk their worlds would collide? It’s chock full of dork-pandering jokes (comic book references, science jokes, you name it, it’s in here) and the laugh track is hyperactive, but it has gotten better over the years and in its’ third season it’s still genuinely amusing often enough to warrant renting the DVDs when you’re bored or hung over.

GRADE: B-

How I Met Your Mother – Now in its fifth season, How I Met Your Mother is basically Friends with a better cast and much better writing. It is unabashedly a show about generic white people for generic white people, but it has its own absurdist sense of humor and some seriously good running gags. While on its surface the show looks and feels like it belongs lumped in with the Two and a Half Mens of the world, the writing elevates it beyond that. If you do decide to pick this one up, rent the first season and shotgun it in a marathon session; otherwise you’ll be turned off by the first few bland episodes and will never really get why the show has a small but dedicated comedy nerd following.

GRADE: B

The Office – This show is still on and is now more than a hundred episodes longer than the original series, and it’s still funny from time to time but it’s also getting pretty tired. The “wedding” episode was old-school sitcom smarm at its smarmiest, and the whole “Jim and Michael are both the boss now!” thing doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere. Still, the show has Kevin. Which is enough for a mild, continued recommendation.

That said it's time for them to own up to the show's premise and let us know which season they're finally going to stop filming and release the documentary, which is really the only big plot point left that seems like it has any juice in it.

GRADE: C+

Weekly Comedy: Leslie Nielsen Rises from the Grave

2009-10-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot out this week, unless you’re really excited about yet another Ice Age movie. Which you really shouldn’t be. At all.

DVD

Monty Python: Almost The Truth – Easily the highlight this week, IFC’s 6-part in-depth and surprisingly candid documentary featuring all of the remaining Pythons (although it is a little strange to continue referring to them as “the remaining Pythons” considering only one of them is dead and according to this doc, it’s a shock he lived as long as he did). Interviews with a huge range of comics and comic actors are included; everyone from Simon Pegg to Russell Brand to Ricky Gervais to… OK so it’s mostly British comics but still, pretty fascinating stuff. Definitely worth a rental, or catch it in reruns on IFC.

Whatever Works – Woody Allen’s latest attempt to wring comedy out of a creepy May – December romance, featuring Larry David doing his best Larry David impression. Sounds like fun, right? This thing got pretty mixed reviews, but many said it was the best thing Allen’s done since Match Point, so who knows. Oh, and for the record, the poster for this is awful.

Adult Swim in a Box – This is a pretty odd box set; kind of a “best of” Adult Swim seasons (ironically missing Venture Bros., the best show on the network). You get: Aqua Teen Hunger Force season 2, Space Ghost Coast to Coast season 3, Moral Orel season 1, Robot Chicken season 2, Metalocalypse season 1, and Sealab season 2. It’s kind of a motley collection of episodes, but I suppose someone at Williams Street just cherry-picked what they thought were the best seasons they had. Probably makes a good gift for.. uh… someone who loves absurdist humor but somehow doesn’t own or hasn’t seen any of these.

Stan Helsing – Someone exhumed the corpse of Leslie Nielsen for this tired, sad-looking horror spoof about a video clerk who does battle with parody versions of famous movie monsters (Freddy, Chucky, maybe some Critters or Ghoulies show up, who gives a shit). This thing went straight to video, so yeah, now you know.

Road Trip Album Picks: "NPR Funniest Driveway Moments"

2009-10-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

WHAT: Collection of interviews with comedians and amusing interviews from NPR
LABEL: HighBridge Company, 2008
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: NPR, but don't listen to it much, and comedy new or old
WHERE TO FIND IT: Your library, book stores, online
LENGTH: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Depending on your entertainment affiliations, you may listen to either a massive amount of NPR or none at all. As I listen to a lot, much of NPR Funniest Driveway Moments had already graced my iPod through podcasts of shows like Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and others. If you permanently have your tuner set to your local NPR affiliate, odds are you've heard many of these, and the bulk of the collection is pretty timely. Some of these segments were older, some are newer, and there's a really good mix of the new generation of comedians with some of the older ones, plus a segment with Richard Pryor that sort of sticks out because he's not really involved as such. Also sticking out is a bit with Justice Stephen Breyer, who is not a comedian so much as a member of the judiciary. It's not so much a comedy thing, it certainly qualifies as amusing but it also doesn't fit here particularly well.

Since this is a collection of radio broadcasts with new segments introducing them, what you have here is essentially a perfect driving companion for fans of comedy. It isn't always funny so much as it is informative, but there's quite a bit to enjoy here if you're already a fan of the personalities on the discs, like Demetri Martin or Phyllis Diller or Sarah Silverman. Or Dame Edna. (Which we are not.) If you already have it in for these people, clearly, skip that segment-- but the whole collection is great. It's a delight to hear Steve Martin's early stories about making two cents at Disneyland, or how Mel Brooks used to play music with comedians before getting involved with Your Show of Shows.

Unlike most things I post here, this is one of very few family-friendly collections in the sense that if you're reading this, odds are you could pass it along to your parents and they probably wouldn't have a problem with it unless Lily Tomlin really pissed them off for some reason. Besides, they're going to need an introduction to Larry David, and this collection has all that and more. Heck, it's worth hearing just to hear another interview with LD, so be sure to track this one down for your next road trip. Just do it soon as it's starting to feel a little dated as some comedians go on to new things or, in some cases, retire from the business.

Pip pip cheerio bob's your uncle Weekly Comedy!

2009-10-19T18:48:00.000-07:00

Hey, there’s actually a lot of stuff out this week! Glory be! Depending on your taste!

DVD

It’s Garry Shandling’s Show: The Complete Series – Garry Shandling’s beloved fourth-wall-breaking surrealist sitcom on Showtime is now finally available as a single box set containing the entire series from Shout! Factory, the fine people who are apparently responsible for bringing everything that was ever awesome to DVD. If you’ve never seen it, now’s your chance, and it’s also your chance to start pestering them to pick up the Larry Sanders series.

Fawlty Towers: The Complete Collection Remastered – One of the only classic Britcoms most people seem to appreciate, now remastered and available in one cheap boxset. Considering all previous releases of Fawlty Towers have looked like they were “remastered” by someone’s anus thanks to the BBC’s firm policy of not taking care of their television archives, this set promises to look decent. Here’s hoping.

Black Adder: The Complete Collection Remastered – It must be British comedy week! Either that or we’re getting close to Christmas, and what better gift for your PBS-loving dad than 895 minutes of Rowan Atkinson. Perhaps next week we’ll get a complete remastered collection of Are You Being Served!

Smothers Brothers: Best of Season 2 – There must be no market for complete season releases of the Smothers Brothers, so here’s the “good stuff”. Not sure how well this act has aged, but again, this is “Christmas presents for your parents” week, it seems.

SNL: Best of Amy Poehler – Hope you like Hillary Clinton impressions! Actually, I'm a fan of Poehler, but if you're not creeped out a little by that hellaciously over-photoshopped pic of her on the cover of this DVD, something's wrong with you.

Greg Giraldo: Midlife Vices – Greg Giraldo’s sorta-OK Comedy Central special. Worth a rent if you’re a fan but it isn’t really Giraldo’s greatest material ever.

This happened on Sunday, but don't forget The Venture Bros. is back on, and it is glorious. You can watch the Season 4 premiere right here.

Comedy Challenge: Secret Girlfriend

2009-10-19T00:01:00.000-07:00

Now and then, I will be challenged to view something that our world puts out that is presented as funny, but is most likely horrifically unfunny, and live to write about it.

Secret Girlfriend

now playing on Comedy Central

Here now is a show that you won't like even if it is the sort of thing you like.

Secret Girlfriend on Comedy Central has a concept of this: you, the viewer, are presented as a character in the show in which your two loser friends (Sam and Phil) help you try to get away from your current girlfriend and on to a girlfriend on the side.

This was originally a show on the Internet (from Atomic Wedgie TV) and it certainly shows it, with the episodes consisting of two 15-minute episodes within and probably the lowest production value of any show on Comedy Central.

So, where does the humor in this show come in? It makes attempts with your loser friends being dumb and doing dumb things but they aren't "funny" dumb, just "dumb" dumb. For instance, in one episode, Sam, never having a wet dream in his life but wanting to have one, decides the best course of action would be not to masturbate or Interact with women so he can have a wet dream. He eventually has a wet dream, and of course, it's at a party, which everyone films with their phones. Fat guy having a wet dream. There's your comedy.

For women, certainly this is not a show for you. Even if you are a lesbian. The women are portrayed as all hot and dumb as a lukewarm glass of tap water. Women are shown as easily wooed by men with cute dogs or strip naked to signs that say "Nude Beach" hastily tacked up to public pools and so on and so forth. If you have a boyfriend and see him watching this, watch it with him, and see how quickly you start hitting him.

For men, I don't know if this is a show for you. Clearly it's aiming for someone who liked The Man Show, but that show had at slightly more nuance and much greater production values. This doesn't have anything appealing for such types except half-naked women. In this day in age, when you can go on the Internet and the other half of the naked women, putting things here and there, why watch something that is not the full experience? This show features no nipples and even the swearing is bleeped out, so why bother?

Overall, it's a show that is insulting to women, not satisfying to women who might like a show that is insulting to women, and perhaps an ominous portent for future comedy program in a recession, where the cheapest is appealing, even if it isn't funny.

HBO: Wanda Sykes' "I'ma Be Me"

2009-10-11T22:33:00.000-07:00

The Special: Wanda Sykes' "I'ma Be Me"
Runtime: 90 minutes
As seen on: HBO October 10, 2009 (and repeated until the start of the zombie apocalypse)

She's been a sitcom actress, a famous stand-up comic, a maker of prank phone calls. Tonight, she's the star of I'ma Be Me, a rather large collection of jokes and other material. Watching the special, it's clear that what you're seeing is a mix of monologue-style jokes on recent events like Obama and other political happenings with a series of personal stories about the goings-on for her life.

Most HBO specials, particularly George Carlin's, were about an hour long. This length was about perfect because it didn't ever feel like it had been going on for too long, plus it had the added bonus of being the appropriate length for a cassette or CD. In the MP3 era, time has no meaning, and should this ever see release on an audio format, well, length isn't an issue. The material is enjoyable, Wanda's clearly having a good time, and seems to have a great rapport with her Washington D.C. crowd.

Other topics covered include: waxing, babies, aging, and what appears to be the female equivalent of being kicked in the balls. At 90 minutes the show is about 30 minutes too long-- none of the material is bad, it's just that our MTV-addled brains are used to shorter bursts of comedy. She had enough material to do two specials here, so this is more of a king-sized mega-performance that her fans will no doubt love and fans of comedy in general will likely enjoy.

Worth seeing! Just budget some time or watch it in pieces.

Also notable: She reveals her age during the performance. I personally would not have guessed this one. Also, she's getting her own talk show on Fox shortly, if what she's done here carries over to broadcast TV she's probably going to have a great run.

Weekly Comedy: Now We're Into the Dregs

2009-10-11T16:34:00.000-07:00

It’s yet another light week. You could call it ‘WEAKLY COMEDY’. Get it? Eh?

Eh?

DVD

Land of the Lost – This spectacular failure probably belongs in Comedy Skippables, but it’s such a weird-ass, completely unhinged flaming trainwreck that it’s hard not to recommend it only as an oddity and to experience just how unfunny two normally funny people (Ferrell and McBride) can be when they’re clearly improvising more than 2/3rds of the film and nobody’s telling them that what they’re doing isn’t funny.

Mighty Boosh Special Edition – All three seasons of The Mighty Boosh in limited edition packaging. A must-have for those seeking to define ‘acquired taste’.

Married… With Children Season 11 – This is still coming out.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Bluray) – The movie that has absolutely no need to be seen in high definition, in high definition. Although this film has held up pretty well over the years and is still pretty good – certainly much funnier than most recent episodes of the series.

Futurama: Complete Collection – Every single piece of Futurama, in a plastic Bender head. You get all four seasons and all four “movies”, a collection rendered incomplete the second the new episodes hit next year.

COMEDY SKIPPABLES

The Proposal – Although I have not seen this film, I can tell based just on the DVD cover that at least one (1) wedding cake gets destroyed and perhaps we then see a dog reaction shot wherein the dog either (A) covers one eye with its paw and whimpers or (B) cocks its brow and gives a quizzical grunt.

Comedy Death Ray This Week: All Singing, All Dancing

2009-10-06T23:48:00.000-07:00

It seems music is increasingly the order of the day at Comedy Death Ray here in Los Angeles, as tonight's packed show was hosted by The Devil's Purse, or "a band with Charlyne Yi and Paul Rust." Dial up the quirk to 9, and you pretty much get the band's sound.

Kicking off the show is Donald Glover, who you may have seen on NBC's Community as one of the students in the core study group. While not given a ton to do on the show's episodes which have aired so far, tonight's set shows that he's a fountain of material and should be absolutely handed some more screen time. This was the first of a three-week residency, meaning if you're in the neighborhood you can see him again next week. And you probably should.
From Australia and/or the UK, Brendon Burns had a strong set with his new catchphrase "it's not racist where I'm from," which basically set the tone of the set nicely. Offering insight on the wonderful differences between the English-speaking nations of the world, the set was enjoyed by the audience and this is probably someone to see if you also enjoyed the works of Jim Jeffries.
Maria Bamford held up the middle of the show with a ton of new stuff and a couple of classics, which, it turn out, have a strong visual component. If you've only heard her albums, you may be unaware that she does a great deal with her hands. (You've only been getting like half the show as a result, you poor schmuck.) The rapid-fire set was firing like crazy, with so many jokes you might have missed a few. Given Bamford just released a new album earlier this year, it looks like she's well on her way to having enough material for another one in the not-too-distant-future, and we're totally game if she decides to crank one out. Good stuff.
Reginald D. Hunter-- a comic orignally from the south and then from the U.K.-- managed to slay the audience, repeatedly, and while we'd like to reprint the jokes here decorum (and the desire to not ruin his act) prevent us from doing so. If you have not previously seen him, make sure you do so. It's rare to see a set open with "I'm from the South" and "I have a very British sense of humor," particularly when the comic manages to destroy the audience. Well done, sir.
Special surprise unannounced guest Aziz Ansari came in to do some material, most of which-- while excellent-- was performed at a recent show which we covered a few weeks ago, with a couple of new bits at the end. Very funny stuff, including an exchange/fight with someone online regarding the quality and price of the popular Gmail service. He does not disappoint, but he did allude to lengthening his set to make time for Nick Kroll, who did not end up showing. More on that in a jiffy.
Ending the evening was Garfunkel and Oates, who played three songs in a very brief concert-let. As many of their songs are regularly featured on Comedy Death Ray Radio, a great podcast/streaming program, you may recognize a tune or two. The set included "Fuck You," "One Night Stand," and a third song, the name of which we didn't quite get. Ah well. The audience loved it, and they seemed to totally dig the entire show tonight.

So, about Nick Kroll-- he and comedy partner dude Jon Daly posted a new video to Funny or Die earlier in the morning and I assume the plan was for to have them come to the show and play it for the audience. Since I'm making a guess here, I have no way to know for sure, but I can embed it here for your amusement either way. Behold, The Ed Hardy Boyz!

The Ed Hardy Boyz: The Case of the Missing Sick Belt Buckle from Jon Daly

Weekly Comedy: Kind of a Crappy Week, Really

2009-10-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

Wow. Not a whole hell of a lot this week. There's a ton of great stuff in theaters, though, so go to the movies instead.

IN THEATERS

Good Hair – Not entirely certain how funny this is (or is supposed to be) but Chris Rock has a new documentary out about how black people do their hair like this and white people do their hair like that (content assumed based on trailer and Chris Rock’s entire career). Might be worth checking out once it hits cable.

DVD

Year One – Spectacularly unfunny “historical” comedy starring Michael Cera and Jack Black, directed by Harold Ramis. Even though there’s a ton of great talent in this – David Cross, Paul Rudd, all those folks – it’s a pretty awful movie. Ramis was aiming for a movie that questions the tenets of faith while farting and pointing to its weiner, which I guess is what this is supposed to be, but it isn’t funny.

Red Dwarf: Back to Earth – I don’t watch Red Dwarf but people who get all excited about Monty Python re-releases and new Rowan Atkinson projects seem to love it (Johnny English 2, anyone?). This is apparently the final final final end end end of the series, which is fine with me.

Eugene Mirman: God is a 12-Year Old Boy with Asperger’s – New Mirman CD. The only must-have release of the week. So go get it.

This Week in Late Night: Post-Post-Letterman Edition

2009-10-05T12:59:00.000-07:00

Everybody's on TV this week, making the rounds throughout the late night suit-and-tie circuit. This week's big winner is clearly Jimmy Fallon, although the battle between Regis Philbin and Larry David on Live! might be well worth seeing tomorrow. Set your DVRs, productive and employed people!

THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O'BRIEN
10.5 Kevin Nealon
10.7 Jason Bateman

LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON
10.5 Kristen Wiig
10.6 Lewis Black, They Might Be Giants
10.7 Chevy Chase
10.9 Martin Short

LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY
10.5 Seth Green
10.9 Glenn Howerton

THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN
10.5 Steve Martin
10.9 Jon Hamm, Andy Kindler

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE
10.5 David Alan Grier
10.7 Joel McHale

THE JAY LENO SHOW
10.7 Wanda Sykes
10.8 Jack Black

THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART
10.5 Sarah Vowell

TELEVISION FOR THE UNEMPLOYED

THE VIEW
10.6 Steve Martin, David Alan Grier
10.7 Chris Rock

LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY
10.6 Larry David
10.7 Chevy Chase

THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW
10.5 Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Schwartzman
10.7 Kevin Nealon
10.9 Jason Bateman

Road Trip Album Picks: Neil Hamburger's "Hot February Night"

2009-10-05T02:26:00.000-07:00

WHAT: Live comedy concert recorded before a Tenacious D show
LABEL: Off-Price Value Center, 2007
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Neil Hamburger, audience baiting
WHERE TO FIND IT: Heck if we know, it's a rare promotional album
LENGTH: 33 minutes

While we do not advocate media piracy, we are huge advocates of artists making money off of things. And if you can't buy it, well, borrow it or something. Neil Hamburger's Hot February Night is pretty much impossible to get, it's a crying shame that this recording is something of a rarity. Eschewing the usual quasi-sad sack comic motif in favor of full-blown confrontation, we see moments of delighted anger that rarely come across in a comic performer's albums, much less in one of the biggest shows he may ever play.

Tenacious D fans, apparently, to not have a sense of humor. The album kicks off with some of the most vicious jabs at the audience I've ever heard on an album this side of a live show from The Stooges in the 1970s, railing against uninterested observers calling them pigs, cocksuckers, and other terrible things. It's hysterical.

This too-short live recording includes other versions of things like "Cranberry Sauce" and "The Jackson Five," plus some of the best jokes about Santa Claus you will ever hope to hear. Assuming, of course, you enjoy Mr. Hamburger's style, otherwise you'll likely consider this the worst thing you've ever heard. It's just so astoundingly venomous that you can really taste the hatred the audience has for its opener, who may have recorded one of the finest live recordings we're likely to hear. He even tailored some bits to the music audience with knocks against Pink Floyd and the Beatles, which will likely slay you if you aren't a boomer. (And maybe if you're a boomer.)

Clearly, Neil Hamburger knows this is not his audience, and he fires back to chants for "D! D!" with something to the effect of what their grades in school were. Oh, and numerous references to additional opening acts to follow, including the then-timely and much disliked Kevin Federline.

"Hot February Nights" is too good to save for a road trip or journey somewhere. If you can find it, get it, pay whatever you have to pay, borrow whatever you have to borrow. Other albums like "Raw Hamburger" and "America's Funnyman" are funny and enjoyable, but odds are you've never heard anything like "Hot February Nights." Hopefully Neil will perform other shows like this one in the future. We positively do not suggest this album to all of you, but if you already like this amazing artist, this will likely be a holy grail recording that we hope to see released to iTunes some day.

Comedy Death Ray This Week: All The Ham

2009-09-29T23:54:00.000-07:00

If you were one of the billions of people not in attendance at the Los Angeles UCB Theatre this week, you missed one of the finest nights of comedy to grace any stage, anywhere, ever. Hot damn. It was also a night of Doug Benson's I Love Movies, which makes it even more awesome.

I Love Movies
Doug Benson's [Twitter] guests were Paul F. Tompkins [Twitter] and Brett Gelman [Twitter]. Games were played. Lottery commercials were discussed. Tom Lennon was mentioned as having canceled due to some movie project. This should be on his iTunes feed in a few days, most likely, so do be sure to check it out.

Comedy Death Ray
Kyle Kinane was not the host, as advertised, but rather Chris Fairbanks [Web]. Very funny. Most of his opening was seemingly him winging it, hysterical stuff, and he also let drop that he's recording a comedy album in San Francisco this week which we fully intend on picking up when the chance comes up. The comedy bounced around from all sorts of styles, so it's pretty much right up our alley. Because it was funny, which is what we go for.

First up: Paul F. Tompkins [Twitter]. When your opener is PFT, the show has to be awesome, and it was. Paul told tales of drunk, rude, and annoying Canadians while sharing road stories from the recent comedy festival in Vancouver. It's hard to tell how much of this was material or just sharing genuinely funny life experiences, but it sounds like he had a terrible audience that he screwed with the entire time. This is why Paul, formerly of Best Week Ever and numerous other projects, is one of the finest comics working today. We're big fans, and as I like to say, make sure you see him if the chance ever arrives. Seriously, if it's $40 a whack to see him, go do it.
Next up was Susan Burke [MySpace], who brought a number of great jokes focusing on things that, were we to describe them, we would crush the punchlines. So we won't. But do see her if you get the chance.
Jon Daly [Twitter] came out next doing another character bit, of which he is something of a genius. Why this man does not have a TV deal, I do not know. If you've heard of the rule of threes, he managed to take a Bill Cosby persona infomercial gag to the rule of 14s. I would describe it at length, but I don't know if you'll have the chance to see it and I'd hate to ruin it for you. It may be the single funniest thing of the evening, as it certainly seemed that the audience was laughing harder and longer than at any other bit we've seen in quite a while. To say he killed may be an understatement-- if the night was a competition, this man was the clear winner. All hail Jon Daly.
The great Patton Oswalt [MySpace]-- who from here on out must be referred to as great-- pulled out tons of new material in the wake of his recent CD release, which we reviewed here a while back. As one of the funniest (and therefore best) standups working today, Oswalt and Tompkins made this a real winning evening for their fans, and anyone that wandered in from off the streets. Topics included Halloween decorations (specifically, a tree), ham, a new baby, and more. Let us know if you hear these bits in rotation, all were really strong and it's a shame Patton doesn't release albums every few months so you can hear all of this material.
The audience was surprised to see another comic follow Oswalt, the unannounced Reggie Watts [Twitter]. It's difficult to describe-- sort of music, definitely comic, and the performer feels like the fusion of George Clinton and Bobby McFerrin. It's difficult to describe, but it was a brief, funny mix of voices, strangeness, singing, sound effects, and... well, maybe that wasn't so difficult. It was absolutely a treat to see and a nice way to end the show.

In short, or long, another great week without any real lagging.

The Cleveland Show - first episode review

2009-09-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

The Cleveland Show, a spin-off of Family Guy takes Cleveland Brown and makes him the star. I know, it's as exciting as the previous sentence makes it out to be.

The story goes like this - Cleveland loses his house to Loretta in the divorce. He takes custody of Cleveland Jr. (now a fat teenager) and heads to California. On the way, he stops by his former hometown in Virginia, stops by his old High-School, and wouldn't ya know it, runs into his old high-school crush, Donna.

He stays for a while at her house, and gets her little child Rallo back into school and gets her daughter Roberta home on time from her date. So, of course Roberta gets back with her loser husband, Robert, until Cleveland stands up for himself. Cleveland and Donna get married and stay in Virginia. Thus the set-up for a series that will last either half a season or fifteen. You never know with television.

Oh, did I mention there was a family of anthropomorphic bears next door? HILARITY ENSUES!

I do have to wonder why this show was made. Perhaps it was a half-hearted attempt to aim at a black demographic? Could it be that they just wanted to see what else Family Guy fans would watch? Is it that Fox is looking for a suitable benign replacement for King of the Hill?

I half-think that Seth McFarlane did this on a dare, where someone said "I dare you to make a show based on your least-interesting Family Guy character!" and he said "You're on!"

Perhaps it's just that this show is like all spin-off sitcoms - something being sold to you based on the success of a previous product, changed slightly but is not something you need. It's like when you go to the store and get a big bag of chips and the clerk tells you "Would you like to get a bag of those chips in Jabanero Lime? It's free with your purchase." You consider it for a moment, but then realize, why the hell would I want that?

Weekly Comedy: A Bunch of Stuff You Might Not Like

2009-09-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

It’s another early Weekly Comedy! Ye Gods!

The big release this week is The Invention of Lying, which based on the trailers, looks pretty damn fantastic. Other than that, thanks to the overwhelming amount of decent comedy on TV right now (Curb Your Enthusiasm seems to be back to its usual quality and I was particularly impressed with Bored to Death and Community), even if the DVD + CD releases are light, there’s plenty out there to keep you busy. And by busy I mean sitting on your ass in front of the TV crassly judging performers and writers vastly more talented than you.

IN THEATERS

The Invention of Lying – Ricky Gervais’ hypothetical situation involves a world where it never occurred to anyone to speak anything other than the blunt, horrible truth about everything. So he starts lying and basically becomes a king among men, as is my understanding. Also starring Louis CK, so yeah, you pretty much have to go see this.

DVD

How I Met Your Mother Season 4 – This show isn’t particularly popular among comedy nerds – it is sometimes very cloying and overly sincere and is effectively a more clever and sarcastic version of Friends, but it does have a consistently funny internal sense of humor and some of the episodes are pretty great. It’s worth Netflixing for a boring Sunday if you’ve never seen it.

Away We Go – All of the marketing materials for this movie feature the title in a shaking, hand-drawn font and the film stars John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, so expect there to be many hoodies worn and many Regina Spektor songs on the soundtrack. It got mixed-leaning-positive reviews when it came out, so again, maybe it’s boring Sunday material.

NEW ON TV

Titan Maximum – The latest from Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich (with considerable input from Robot Chicken writer Tom Root), this new series is essentially an extended parody of Voltron and other series like it. It’s been said in interviews that the goal was to portray “what would actually happen if a bunch of whiny, emotionally broken teenagers controlled a giant godlike weapon of interstellar war”, which sounds pretty funny but based on the first two minutes it seems like an episode of Voltron where everyone swears. But hey, that’s just the first two minutes. Give the full pilot a look-see for yourself tonight at 11:30pm on Adult Swim.

The Cleveland Show – A Family Guy spinoff wherein Cleveland, the slow-talking black guy, moves out of Quahog to Virginia, meets his high school sweetheart with two kids of her own and gets married. Their neighbors are a family of bears. Sounds zany! This seems like either a mild disaster or just another version of Family Guy with the characters swapped around. It’s on tonight after The Simpsons.

COMEDY SKIPPABLES THIS WEEK

Monsters Vs. Aliens - Dreamworks tried to sell this as an all-audiences comedy, but it's really just by-the-numbers, feels long even though it's pretty short, doesn't really have any laughs in it and isn't particularly clever or worthwhile. It's trying to be an out-and-out comedy but ultimately winds up being a generic kids' movie. Avoid it.

This Is Funny, Watch It

2009-09-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

Featuring Todd Glass and Jimmy Dore.

Road Trip Album Picks: David Cross' "I Drink For a Reason" Audiobook CD

2009-09-25T01:20:00.000-07:00

WHAT: Book read by the author, with special guests
LABEL: Hachette Audio, 2009
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Comedy, David Cross' stand-up albums
WHERE TO FIND IT: Better book stores
LENGTH: 6.4 hours (6 CDs)

If you're too rude and lazy to read, or if you just really like spoken-word comedy releases, you should be glad that David Cross released "I Drink For a Reason" as a CD set as well as a printed book. If 6 hours of Cross seems like too much, he brings in special guests including Jon Benjamin, Kristin Schaal, and the band Les Savy Fav.

For you road-trippers, this is a fantastic driving companion. Each chapter is read with the tone you expect from the comic's stand-up albums, except it's missing the audience. Cross also constantly berates the listener for not having purchased the actual book version, referring to the listener as lazy, selfish, and rude. We do not dispute these claims.

The album adapts the book with numerous changes to better reflect the medium, constantly reminding you that this or that would be better on the printed page, which really adds to the whole presentation. Cross informs the listener which page they might be on, adds audio footnotes, and reminds you that the world you live in is full of awfulness and will likely never, ever become a wonderful place. (Again, this is a comedy.)

Fans of Mr. Show with Bob and David and Cross' earlier stand-up will find this to be a special treasure, loaded with venom at book signings, bloggers, and those too lazy to read. At roughly $30, comedy fans should find this a bargain. Odds are listening through it in its entirety once may be enough, but given that it's six hours long you'll probably be fine with that. David Cross the comedian and David Cross the author are two very similar creatures-- if you liked his previous comedy CDs, or you're already one of the author's devoted fans, this is an easy purchase.

If we had any gripes about the release, it would be that it's almost overstuffed. Audiobooks tend to be quite long, and this one is like listening to eight or nine stand-up albums in a row. It may be too much for you, but if hearing about scrapbooking conventions in Novi, MI doesn't do it for you the content may not be what you're after anyway.

Cross fans: get it. Everyone else: get his other albums, become a Cross fan, and then get the book or this audio book. It's basically The David Cross Manifesto, but there's clearly a good market for this.

Comedy Death Ray This Week: Pure Gould

2009-09-22T23:45:00.000-07:00

After a show with one of the longest sets we've seen, this week's installment of Comedy Death Ray at LA's UCB Theatre was a great time with lots of acts. What did you miss?

Hosts B.J. Porter and Scott Aukerman, the co-founders of the show, mastered the ceremonies with all sorts of bits from going on about how they're going to tweet all their jokes to a delightful bit involving Aukerman as "Jerry Magazine," a waiter from P.F. Chang's who decided to do comedy. Well done.
Rory Scovel came back with all sorts of meta fun, opening the show nicely. (He was here a little while ago.) A good set.
The new Comedy World Champion Matt Besser kicked all sorts of butt with the best introduction we've ever seen at the show, involving stealing booze from the audience and making out with some chick on the stage, followed by several attempts to come up with world comedy records to break. These included tons of jokes in a minute, quickest joke, and apparently he's accepting more records to break via Twitter. Matt Besser should be one of your comedy idols if he isn't already from his Comedy Central series Upright Citizens Brigade... which is where the theater comes from.
Matt Dwyer's set was quite delightful, as this podcast host and comic seems to know his audience. Truly, the finest in rape jokes. See him if you can.
Next up was Matt McCarthy, who looks sort of like an alternate-universe Louis C.K. and like Mr. C.K., he's really freaking funny. We shan't spoil it. Seek him out, true believers.
The increasingly omnipresent Charlene Yi performed a brief set with a number of jokes, a radio show bit she did on CDR Radio last week, and a quick song. Good times.
Finally, one of the greatest voices in comedy has returned to bless us all! Yes that's right, Dana Gould. Babies! Dogs! Other stuffs! He released a new CD and DVD earlier this year, and tonight's set is mostly brand new material. As we seem increasingly fond of saying about people that didn't have a CD release party during CDR last week, you must absolutely make it a point to see Dana Gould if he comes to your town, and if not, check out his albums.

So, the show was in tip-top form with a whole heck of a lot of comedy in under two hours. If it's near your area, or you're in town on a trip, do consider checking it out, like apparently the mainstream press seems to want you to.

This Week in Late Night: Get Ready to Stifle your Vomit

2009-09-21T17:37:00.000-07:00

So the fall TV season is in full swing and that means pretty much everyone is on; Letterman obviously scored the biggest guest of the week – he’s got the President on tonight (although if we’re going by girth, Leno has Rush Limbaugh on Thursday, if you want to tune in to what might be the least watchable hour of television ever broadcast)

(Seriously, Rush fucking Limbaugh on the Jay Leno Show? Can anyone name something worse than this?)

(Fucking Leno!)

Also, an update: we’re not listing Chelsea Handler’s comics anymore because it’s a rotating panel of comedians and every week it’s pretty much the same 20 people or so.

Anyway, let’s get to it.

LETTERMAN

9.24 Craig Ferguson

CONAN

9.21 Ricky Gervais

9.22 Lisa Lampanelli

9.23 Martin Short

9.24 Joel McHale

9.25 Seth MacFarlane

FERGUSON

9.24 Jason Schwartzman

9.25 Ted Danson

FALLON

9.22 Seth Meyers

9.23 Amy Poehler

9.24 Anthony Anderson

9.25 Kevin Smith

LENO

9.22 Pee Wee Herman, Amy Poehler

9.23 Vince Vaughn

Weekly Comedy: A Few Days Early

2009-09-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

So last week there was no Weekly Comedy article, and it also happened to be one of the biggest release weeks in a long while (if you’re in to network sitcoms), and so to compensate, here’s Weekly Comedy a few days early. Happy now?

DVD

Observe and Report – This pitch-black and occasionally shocking comedy from Seth Rogen came out basically at the wrong time – only a few months after Midwesterners had decided thatPaul Blart: Mall Cop would be the only mall cop-themed comedy they’d be interested in seeing this year. Observe and Report is a really solid, really daring film that pushes black comedy to strange, disturbing new places. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you’re the sort of person who can laugh at a situation no matter how utterly fucked up and broken it gets, you really shouldn’t miss this one.

30 Rock: Season Three – The third season of 30 Rock was really great and it’s out on DVD this week. This season featured Jack’s romance with Salma Hayek and the episode where Kenneth sees the world as populated by Muppets. You have no excuse to not buy this.

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto – Based on the comic book by Rob Zombie, this animated tale of a superhero luchadore who fights Nazis and shit seems like it’s tailor made for the comic book store clerk who’s also really into heavy metal. Featuring original songs by Hard ‘n Phirm and the voices of Brian Posehn and Paul Giamatti. I watched the clips on Amazon and it honestly didn’t look particularly funny; fans of Jon Krickfalusi might dig it, though. They’re definitely biting his style.

Hot Fuzz & Shaun of the Dead (Bluray) – These were available on HD-DVD before, and are now out on Bluray. Both are excellent films (although perhaps over-quoted and over-referenced by the malignant geeks who do that sort of thing). If you’ve never seen these before, then feel the proper amount of shame.

Bored to Death – Debuting tonight on HBO, Bored to Death stars Jason Schwartzman as a struggling writer who decides to moonlight as a Private Dick. Also starring Zach Galifianakis and Ted Danson; it looks particularly low-key and mannered, and might be pretty damn good. Incidentally you can watch the entire pilot right now, right here.

Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 7 – The seventh season of Larry David’s misanthrope-athon begins tonight, and promises a Seinfeld “non-reunion”, which is pretty great, but that doesn’t happen until a couple episodes in. Frankly, the last few seasons of this show have been a little weak; especially season 5, although the end of Season 6 was really great. Here’s hoping they’re going to maintain that level of quality.

COMEDY SKIPPABLES THIS WEEK

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past – Matthew McConaughey sure does bang a lot of chicks, and in this movie, it’s their turn for revenge! Shirts will be removed, wedding cakes destroyed, perhaps a dog will have a reaction shot, and in the end, McConaughey will turn out to be not as douchey as everyone thought. Until he resets his persona for the next movie where he’s a douchey ladies man who gets his comeuppance.

Comedy Death Ray This Week: CD Release Edition

2009-09-15T23:56:00.000-07:00

There's a fine line between comedy and tragedy, and at Comedy Death Ray this week it was clear that the frankly shocking variety of material being presented could go pretty much any possible way. For the sake of brevity, we're collapsing in the I Love Movies taping in here too, as it was a large evening of entertainment where comedy was not the only thing on the menu.

I Love Movies
The great Doug Benson kicked off the evening's entertainment with a recording of his twice-monthly podcast. The guests were CDR co-curator Scott Aukerman and Mr. Skin, of Mr. Skin fame. Benson and Aukerman peppered the show with jokes and puns of all sorts, cracking each other up and generally making light of what seemed to be a cross between an interesting feature on an Internet business phenomenon and an infomercial. If you heard the appearance of Mr. Skin on the Adam Carolla Podcast the other week, it's similar to that-- although it's worth noting that the two comedians bring a lot to the table so it's worth your while to listen to the new funny.

Comedy Death Ray: Brent Weinbach Release Party
There were no surprise comedians for CDR this week, but there was indeed a surprise guest. The show focused on the release of Brent Weinbach's new album, which was performed in its entirety live with a couple of technical foibles. His new album, The Night Shift, can be had on iTunes and sports a mix of music, comedy, and... well, pretty much those two things.

After being introduced by her brother, who pulled hosting duties as well, Laura Weinbach took to the stage. She played three songs, two with a gentleman with a violin. These were, as far as can be told, not comedy songs and generally put the brakes on what was advertised as an evening of comedy. She's very talented, it's just that this was the token "one of these things is not like the other."
Next up was the always delightful Todd Barry, a soft-spoken comic that's somewhat famous but not necessarily someone you'd recognize by name. He is most certainly a funny dude, always worth catching on a talk show appearance and tonight's set was a shining beacon of fun. He did a great amount of riffing on opening for the headliner, with sharp barbs about who's more famous than who. It may come off as sounding a little mean-spirited, but let me tell you, this was good times.
A star in our pantheon of comedy gods followed with the great Neil Hamburger, whose set riffed on some quasi-current events and T.G.I. Friday's. As always, the man's delivery is impeccable and our party was rolling in the aisles. Looking around the room, some people didn't seem to totally love it, but let us assure you that those people were wrong. It was a fantastic set and I wish I had an MP3 of it to share with you, or to re-listen to myself again. The last time I saw Mr. Hamburger was five years ago at a fundraiser in Phoenix and it was just as awesome tonight. Bonus points for coming up with new Michael Jackson material.
Finally, Brent Weinbach came on to perform roughly an hour-long set which was his entire album, The Night Shift. There were fake phone calls, straight comedy bits, a few characters, and for some reason, music that does not seem to be remotely comedic in nature. It's a little jarring at a comedy show as it comes off less like a traditional set of stand-up and more like a one-man show. Our party's reaction was mixed, but the audience seemed to like most of it, including Weinbach's conducting a fart orchestra as played by the audience. Depending on your funnybone, this could be the best thing you see all year or not. This was clearly more experimental than the usual comic/comic/comic sets we're used to, and the set was not entirely comic material.

There were a few walkouts over the course of the evening, but "few" is the key word. For all we know someone was having a baby. So there you have it! We loved Neil and Todd, and as always we suggest researching these performers and seeing if you might be missing out on something fantastic.

This Week in Late Night: The Beginning of the End

2009-09-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

So this week NBC’s giant potentially disastrous experiment begins, with Jay Leno and his oh-so-mayonnaise brand of comedy premiering in a cozy 10pm nightly spot, competing with, oh, every major primetime drama that airs during the week and potentially sapping both viewers and guests away from Conan and Jimmy Fallon.

There are a handful of reports out there from test show tapings and it all sounds like it’s going to be about as much fun as a stale loaf of Wonder bread, but we’ll be watching tonight to see just how blandtastic it is. At least Jerry Seinfeld is on.

To counter the Leno invasion, not only is Louis CK on Conan, this week is also the Glorious Return of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, and to make it even sweeter, Stewart has Ricky Gervais on this Thursday. So maybe that’ll wash the Leno taste out of your mouth.

CONAN

9.15 Ted Danson

9.17 Louis CK

FALLON

9.15 Anna Faris, Alan Cumming

9.18 Danny DeVito

STEWART

9.16 Ricky Gervais

KIMMEL

9.15 ‘Special Appearance’ Joel McHale

LENO

9.14 Jerry Seinfeld

9.16 Robin Williams

TELEVISION FOR THE UNEMPLOYED

THE VIEW

9.17 Joel McHale

9.18 Kathy Griffin

REGIS

9.18 Ricky Gervais

Road Trip Album Picks: "Invite Them Up"

2009-09-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

WHAT: Collection of material from numerous comedians, curated by Eugene Mirman and Bobby Tisdale
LABEL: Comedy Central Records, 2005
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Comedy
WHERE TO FIND IT: Most better record stores, select big box electronic stores, iTunes

This was basically the New York equivalent of L.A.'s Comedy Death Ray. According to our notes, the show is on some sort of permanent hiatus, which is a fancy way of saying extinct. This 4-disc (3 CD + 1 DVD) set includes a fantastic selection of New York comics performing stand-up, songs, and sketches. At over 3 hours, the plastic artifact has a lot to offer and shows you where a lot of these comics were a few years ago and where they have gone since. And in some cases, still are. But we'll leave that for you to discover.

The sound quality is great, and the references are fresh enough to be funny. Sure, you're going to hear about The Sixth Sense, but it's a solid bit. In this collection, you'll discover Jon Glaser is a genius, Bobby Tisdale is an endless ball of comic energy, and that there need to be a lot more discs just like this one.

A recurring bit-- which is a pretty good idea-- is "30 Seconds of Stand-Up," which was performed at the live event and took more than 30 seconds. Because they had to introduce it and then send it off. It's a brilliant idea to get comics out there, and it's almost a shame that it wasn't adapted into a podcast or, say, a giant collection of a hundred tracks on an audio CD.

The comedy on this album is mostly of the alt comedy variety, which means if you may self-apply the term "comedy nerd" you'll totally love this collection. You get a lot for the asking price, which is typically below $15, and most of it is really funny. And if you don't like it, you can skip to the next one. I suggest you put this one in your collection if you ever do mix tapes for road trips, because you get just so gosh darn much stuff that you will have a whole new selection of stand-ups to go see. Since a lot of these comics have gone on to TV work, and others still tour, this is a great place to go just to get a better idea of who's worth going to see.

The collection comes packaged in a fold-out cardboard case.

Comedy Death Ray This Week: Sketchy

2009-09-08T23:50:00.000-07:00

It's rare that you see an event hosted by a team made of more people than are performing in the actual show, but Comedy Death Ray is nothing if not a show about breaking down boundaries. This week's show was shockingly tight and ended in about 90 minutes, and pulled off with the kind of precision that you really don't expect in a live performance. In short, you shoulda been there.

The show was hosted by Birthday Boys, a sketch group with a few taped and live bits. While many sketch groups have a weak bit, the entire set was awesome. Bits involved a spoof of Mr. Rogers, a top-notch sketch about wearing white after labor day, and a few others we won't spoil just yet. This is a talented bunch that probably needs a TV deal.
Leo Allen kicked off the stand-up with great bit after great bit. He killed. He killed so hard we neglected to jot down notes of what he killed with.
Pete Holmes continued the evening by picking up where Leo left off and stabbing people in the neck with more funny. The young comic had tons of great material and also like Leo, should be in your queue of people to see should the chance arise. Assuming the venue is good, that is.
The great and hopefully soon to be ubiquitous Eddie Pepitone also had a great set which ping ponged between what it means to be getting older-- he informed the audience that he is 50-- and the trappings of youth, specifically the pride of getting many responses on the Facebook. You may recognize him from Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Last Comic Standing, and The Sarah Silverman Program (as well as other places.) He's a great talent with an awesome set and you should absolutely go out of your way to see him perform if you haven't already.
The winner of the oddest set of the night is Howard Kremer, which managed to take the rule of threes, throw it out, and apply the rule of fourteens. By stretching a simple phrase-- "have a summer"-- into an entire set, Kremer went from being a one-note performer to greatness. Zig-zagging between subjects of outdoor leisure and things to do throughout the year left some of the audience bewildered-- or so the looks on their faces seemed to say-- while others were laughing to the point of what one can assume is pain.
Finally, the headlining Eugene Mirman kicked ass as he is known to do. Some of his bits (presumably) will be found on his new album, and we make this assumption because the title was invoked. If you know his style of comedy, odds are you already know you like him and have made some effort to see him perform. He's enjoyable as always and has a lot of fun little things to pull out and show the audience-- or hand out, in the case of some cards he got from Linens & Things. We'll be picking up his new CD when it hits, but until then, may we suggest you pick up his earlier work? The performer had a great set.

All in all this was probably one of the stronger weeks for the show-- everything moved like clockwork and everything seemed surprisingly polished for a show where the audience is generally treated to earlier drafts. Perhaps the first passes were just really good this time? Either way, it was a solid week and if you're in LA and missing out on these shows, perhaps it's time you go drop in and check one out. As always, it's five bucks.

Weekly Comedy: In 'n Out Edition

2009-09-08T17:04:00.000-07:00

We’re running late today and it’s all DVDs this week anyway so let’s just get to it and get it over with, shall we?

DVD

The Office Season Five – Depending on your outlook on The Office, this is either something to get excited about or something to shrug at. While I’ll maintain that the quality of the show has remained fairly static (meaning good) it’s hard to ignore that it is starting to feel a bit stale. We’ll see how season six does this year.

Parks & Recreation Season One – An Office-alike that started out slow but eventually got pretty good toward the end of the season. You can shotgun the series in one sitting now thanks to the DVD. Also, anything that offers us more Aziz Ansari is a good thing.

Important Things with Demetri Martin – Demetri Martin’s mostly funny sketch-standup hybrid series is basically Chappelle’s Show for White Hipsters. He has some really funny material in here, though, so if you missed the run on Comedy Central, it’s worth a rent.

This Week in Late Night: The Final Moments Before the Lenopocalypse

2009-09-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly, even though it’s Labor Day week, pretty much everything is on this week (although we are still Daily Show and Colbert-free, which continues to suck).

Next Monday brings the first installment of NBC’s dreaded Jay Leno Show, which threatens to rip the very fabric of Late Night apart, resulting in a singular anomaly that will swallow the entire talk show circuit whole, leaving only the drifting corpses of Ellen Degeneres and Kelly Ripa behind in its terrible wake. We can only hope some last-minute act of bravery on behalf of some selfless NBC executive will stop this impending apocalypse.

LETTERMAN

9.7 Tracy Morgan, Leslie Mann

CONAN

9.8 Richard Lewis

9.11 Bill Hader

FERGUSON

9.8 Neil Patrick Harris

9.11 Drew Carey, Mindy Kaling

FALLON

9.11 Russell Brand

KIMMEL

9.8 Jeff Ross

9.9 Kathy Griffin

CHELSEA LATELY

9.7 Sarah Colonna

9.8 Josh Wolf, Renee Gauthier, Kevin Hart

9.9 John Caparulo, Donnell Rawlings, Arden Myrin

9.11 Brad Wollack, Loni Love, Scott Henry

Comedy Death Ray Movie Series: Pee-Wee's Big Adventure

2009-09-07T16:44:00.000-07:00

So the folks behind Comedy Death Ray started a CDR film series at the Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles over the summer. The premise is simple – a notable comedian presents one of his or her favorite comedies and a smattering of related material, with some live interview segments before and after. It happens once a month, and the ticket price is $14. I went on September 6th, when Paul F Tompkins was presenting Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.

I’ll be straight here – Paul F Tompkins is one of my absolute favorite comics and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure is one of my all-time favorite movies (as it should be one of yours unless you're some kind of soulless monster), so perhaps the deck was stacked for me at this particular event, but this whole thing is a great concept that is being executed beautifully.

First and foremost, the audience is immaculate. If you’ve ever been to one of those horrible midnight screenings they do at every struggling cineplex where they show the same 10 movies every Friday or Saturday at midnight – where they offer you the same tired-ass recycled cafeteria menu of overexposed 80’s movies like The Goonies, The Princess Bride, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Back to the Future, complete with totally fucked up reels that usually break or burn during the show – then you know about the people that show up for those things. It’s a bunch of asshole college kids who are there to fuck around and be annoying and call attention to themselves in the douchiest possible manner. They are not there to enjoy the film at all nor do most of them give a shit about what’s on screen, they’re there to take celphone photos of themselves watching a movie and then talk to their friends later about how CRAZY it was that they took celphone photos of themselves watching a movie they didn’t pay any attention to.

The Comedy Death Ray series at the Silent Movie Theatre is the antithesis of that. What you have here is a nice 8pm screening time with an audience that’s there to enjoy both the film and the talent that’s there to present it. It’s respectful and refreshingly sincere; people were there to laugh and enjoy themselves, not to be snarky assholes or try and make it about them. This is a huge rarity among filmgoing audiences; a bunch of appreciative people who just want to have a good time and not be dicks about it. Not a single phone went off during the entire event, if you can believe it.

Obviously, you get more than just the film, too; at this particular event, host Scott Aukerman interviewed Tompkins about why he chose this film, what it meant to him and how it’s impacted his career (although it was much funnier than that sounds). Tompkins then presented some classic Letterman Pee-Wee bits from the 80s, and then went straight into the film. The reel was a little beat-up, but in surprisingly good condition, and it’s clear the projectionist there really knows what he’s doing because it looked fantastic.

After the film there was another brief chat with Tompkins about just how well the film has aged and how amazing it is that it ever got made in the first place.

All in all, this is a great film series that is obviously bringing in the right crowd and is a great way to spend a Sunday evening. They schedule these things months in advance so check the schedule and pick a movie you’ve either never seen before or love to death. Either way you’ll enjoy yourself.

Some tips and recommendations:

The theater is a restored Los Angeles landmark without stadium seating, so if you aren’t a tall person, sit on the aisle seats and prepare to tilt if you want an unobstructed view of the screen.

You absolutely will have difficulty finding parking as it’s located in Fairfax Village, and the entire surrounding neighborhood is a maddening labyrinth of clandestine residential parking signs that resemble old Ziggy cartoons in which Ziggy is instructed to “keep left” and also “keep right” at the same time. I can’t tell you where to park because right now I’m still trying to figure out how I managed to get a parking spot without having to fight the Minotaur, beast of legend.

Next month the featured film is Top Secret! and the curator is Weird Al Yankovic. Click here for tickets. Show up if you like the film, the curator, or have never seen either.

Road Trip Album Picks: Todd Glass' "Vintage Todd Glass and Other Crap"

2009-09-04T00:49:00.000-07:00

WHAT: Collection of random material from a really funny comic/podcaster
LABEL: Self-published, mid-2000s
GOOD IF YOU LIKE: Comedy and Everything Else podcast
WHERE TO FIND IT: Second-hand CD shops. At this time ToddGlass.com is out of stock of it and the site does not presently reflect this. (We asked.)

"Hi, this is Todd Glass, thanks for buying my CD. Fifteen bucks, what a ripoff." How's that for the start of track 1? With a name like Vintage Todd Glass and Other Crap, it sounds like you're going to be getting a grab bag of stand-up, novelty songs, and what seems to be a virtual resume of a future radio personality, or rather, a Podcaster. The album starts off basically berating you if you don't like the CD, and there's a little more of that as the album goes along. To have the product criticize the audience is certainly a fun twist.

Kicking off with a number of jokes recorded in clubs, it seems that the producers hand-picked various bits which went well and fade each one in and out as they go. It's very different from most comedy CDs, which tend to be a complete performance or are bits edited to be a full hour of comedy culled from one or two performances. The first several are great. Heck, most of it is pretty funny, as is Glass, but it's just so strange to see an album that includes a multiple course meal of comedy-- it goes from stand-up to jingles and songs.

Five tracks in the middle, which comprise a "Mad About Nothing" set, seem like they were cultivated as radio spots or something you send a club promoter as a sample of what Glass' style is like. They're great, but it seems odd to include on an album like this, which was originally sold by the comic via mail order/the web.

"If four out of five people suffer from diarrhea, does that mean one guy enjoys it?"

Glass' podcast, Comedy and Everything Else, is really the logical evolution of this album. While a skilled performer and funny guy, it's clear that this guy wants to make sure you're having a good time. As such, it's good he got to scratch that itch, because this doesn't seem like a CD that would be something for frequent listening so much as it is something you pull out on a road trip or hand to your friends if they ask you who Todd Glass is.

The track "Blackout Jokes" sums up the album well-- Glass goes on about how this is a stupid, silly album and if you haven't shut it off yet that's your problem. Bravo, sir. It seems that the only way to get this right now is to find someone to loan you their copy, or if you're willing to pay through the nose on Amazon ($30 and up at press time.) Good luck finding a copy-- if you can get one cheap ($10 or less), and you're already a fan of his material, this is definitely worth a listen.

Oh-- and the packaging is pretty funny, too. On the back he calls out numerous radio stations as it reads: "Special thanks to the following radio stations for their support and air play. Some have not even played the CD yet but once they see this they might eel like they have to." Brilliant.