Comedy Death Ray and I Love Movies This Week

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.

Comedy Death Ray and I Love Movies This Week

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.

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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.)

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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.

Comedy Death Ray This Week: All The Ham

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.

Comedy Death Ray This Week: CD Release Edition

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.

I Love Movies: A Podcast: A Taping: SSP Edition

This week: Doug Benson welcomed Sarah Silverman and Brian Posehn of The Sarah Silverman Program to his podcast taping. The three originated the famous Leonard Maltin Game, which was on deck as well as a spirited discussion of the summer movie season. The entire thing should be on iTunes shortly.

Oh, and it was awesome. We won't spoil it for you but will say that if you don't already subscribe to the podcast, consider doing so.

Also, Doug confirmed the show they taped in New York with Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, and Horation Sanz will be up on A Special Thing shortly-- but not on iTunes, as the sound quality reportedly blows. Heads-up, comedy fans!

I Love Movies: A Podcast: A Taping: A Report

Note: the podcast described here is not yet available at press time. If you are from the future, however, you can ignore this disclaimer.

Hey kids, have you ever heard the I Love Movies podcast? It's the one with Doug Benson, various celebrities or funny folk, and a live studio audience, taped at Los Angeles' Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, and oh yes-- it's totally free, assuming you're already in the Los Angeles area.

Tonight I had the fortune of finally getting to see a live recording, and it's just as delightful as the audio version, but now you get to get out of the house. Tonight's (yesterday's) guests were Adam Carolla (of the podcast and Loveline fame) and Patton Oswalt, who is Dionysus in our pantheon of comedy gods. Since you can hear the show for free we won't spoil it, but here are some useful tidbits for you if you ever plan on seeing a taping. (I guessed the first Leonard Maltin movie in 0 names so I feel like a genius now.)

- The show is totally free
- Doors open around 7:30 PM
- There were open seats after the show started, and yes, they let people come in during the middle of the show
- There are typically two shows a month
- If you're as cheap as I am you can drive up a few blocks and get a free parking spot (TAKE THAT VALET)

So if you're afraid that the show might be packed, at least this one wasn't. What kind of allergy people have to free entertainment, I am not sure. It's totally worth your time to go, even though the podcast is available, mostly so you can see the rickety-ass table and the collection of chairs and audio equipment which shows that every dime of ticket sales is going directly into the show's production.

But it's damn funny and getting to see Adam Carolla, Patton Oswalt, and Doug Benson talk about movies is a head-explode moment. The only thing that could have been cooler might have involved Neil Hamburger at a Doug Benson Interruption, and you know I'm crossing my fingers for that to happen.