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

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.

Comedy Death Ray This Week: Pure Gould

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.

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.

Comedy Death Ray This Week: A Doug Benson Interruption CD Recording

At the UCB Theatre in LA this week, Comedy Death Ray deviated from its usual format. Rather than a normal Comedy Death Ray (a series of comedians perform with a host), this week's was the second part to an ongoing recording of a "The Doug Benson Interruption" CD to be released on A Special Thing Records in the future. So unlike most Comedy Death Ray shows, you may actually be able to hear this one. It's worth noting that the evening lasted about two hours, and since this was the second recording of comics for the album, odds are it's going to get trimmed down. (Unless someone's really cool and makes it a mega-MP3 download or a quad-CD set.)

So which famous or soon-to-be-famous faces did you miss by not going this week?

• Doug Benson was host and master of the mostly not-fawkward show. As usual, he had fresh material and kept the show moving despite the ever-looming deadlines. Since this was part of his big CD release party, he seemed to be high on his new album and everybody seemed to have a great time watching him interrupt other comics perform for the CD. It's a really amazing format, so many comics have to rewrite their material to awkwardly fit the talk show couch format and this lets a host interact with the comedian in a much more natural (and funny) way. This would be a good format for a TV show, if any network still airs stand-up these days.
  
• Paul Scheer of Human Giant and 30 Rock had a marvelous set focusing largely on the recent Comic-Con International in San Diego. I've never had the fortune of seeing Scheer perform before, and he did a wonderful job letting us know about all the free crap he picked up at the show, which, as someone who does exactly that, I can assure you is a marvelous bit.
  
• From Last Comic Standing is Amy Schumer. She ranked slightly higher than Doug Benson on the season they appeared on the show, and she worked her way into a bit about her time at the Special Olympics after a night of partying that, if given the chance, you need to hear. (So if it makes the cut on the CD, we'll remind you to buy it.)
  
• Curator of Comedy Death Ray (and CDR Radio), former Mr. Show performer, and I presume some sort of future talk show host Scott Aukerman brought us a great set with even more top-notch Comic-Con material and much, much more.
  
• The infamous Andy Dick showed up without a set so much as a segment which was a good mix of comedy, an interview, and a prank call to Dr. Drew, which is really a sort of amusing comic trifecta. He also introduced us to his ankle bracelet, and apparently he had a whole setlist which he didn't get to tackle yet. And he's been sober for over a year, if you were curious.
  
• The always wonderful Chris Hardwick finished off the set and he was clearly hurried along as the previous sets ran over. Despite having performed at the same venue mere weeks ago, he had completely different material which slowly burned into more of a fight on if his set should end or if there's time for one more bit. Awesome. You never fail to entertain, former host of Shipmates.

We're not sure what will make the cut for the disc(s?), but one recurring theme was that people kept getting up, walking around, and distracting the comedians who addressed the audience but those watching the show didn't have the courtesy to acknowledge the performers. Are UCB patrons now officially too cool to participate in crowd work? It looks like it. As always, we're less about spoiling the whole show and more about making you mad that you weren't there. It was fantastic and it's your own damn fault that you missed it, so be sure to go next time.