The final ten contestants are up on the site here. Did they hafta go with the giant red X's through their faces? The ten go to Hollywood where they'll tape a set that'll go up on the MySpace sit so that folks can vote.

We made some changes over the weekend...if anyone is still having problems getting the site to load, send us an email, please. We removed some possibly troublesome javascripts and eradicated some lazy HTML mistakes here and there, so things should no longer be choking your browser. Let us know what's going on out there if there's still some problems. Thanks!

We proclaimed it to be one of the ten great places in America to sit down and watch standup (in USA Today). We think it's also one of the ten great places in America to stand up and do standup.

This weekend, we venture north to Buffalo, NY, to perform at the Comix Cafe! We will be appearing Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. For reservations, tix, etc., call (716) 835-HAHA (4242).

Kathy Griffin, in the course of flogging her current 25-city tour, in the (L.A.) Daily News:

When I was starting out, there were more girls out there. Now the ratio is about 20 to 1. It's just unbelievable.

We're unclear on the point of Griffin's expression of disbelief. Just who is to blame, if that is the correct word to use? And, perhaps more importantly, what would she have us do? Bring in the EEOC? We direct Griffin to Traci Skene's column on the subject of gender and joke-telling here.

Andrea Kay, self-described "career whisperer" in the Asbury Park Press ("Don't force yourself to fit in"):

Most people, though, end up... walking through the doors of small businesses or multibillion-dollar corporations where they follow traditional work conventions and a corporate code of conduct.

But one group of workers really means it about not trying to fit in. Their job? Comedians.

Read the rest for the quotes from Jerry Seinfeld and George Wallace.

The Female Half of the Staff as a sorceress.

The Male Half of the Staff attended a reunion of Temple University News-ers. It was to celebrate the 85th anniversary of that school newspaper. TMHOTS practically live in the News offices for about two years, starting in the fall of '78, after transferring from Bowling Green State University in pursuit of a journalism degree.



His first editor was Barry Levine (pictured above at left), who went on to work for The National Star and A Current Affair. He is currently the editor of The National Enquirer.

One of The Male Half's first courses at Temple was Short Story Writing, taught by Jacqueline Steck. Steck was in attendance Friday night, having been a part of Temple's Journalism program in one capacity or another for sixty years. Upon learning that one of her former students was a comedian, she volunteered that her nephew also performed comedy from time to time. Who is that nephew? Danny Bonaduce!

Click here to get the expanded, interactive version of this:



That green arrow is the newest addition to the comedy landscape in NYC. We Googled "334 W 46th St New York, NY 10036" (the address of Martin's new club), then we clicked on "Find Businesses" and typed in "Comedy Clubs" and up popped a map of Manhattan stabbed with a startling number of Google pushpins!

Martin assures one and all that, on or about November 15, his state-of-the-art facility...

...will be available for TV, radio, film, pod casts and web streams. Just as important we will showcase not only veteran perfromers but also "New Talent" comics before the national media.

The press release also adds that:

Chicago City Limits--the longest running comedy troupe in New York City, will make make it's home at the Broadway Comedy Club as will Comedy Sportz.

Finally, Aaron Haber's "The World" will operate at the Broadway Comedy Club Cafe.

Editors note: Not being all that familiar with the NYC comedy scene, we failed to notice that the address for the Broadway Comedy Club is identical to that of the Improvisation. To put it another way, the Broadway is merely the Improv renamed.

As described on the Nick website "Funniest Mom 3 is a six-part series on Nick at Nite which follows these moms' journey to glory."

Nick at Nite is traveling across the country in search of this year's Funniest Mom in America! Real-life moms looking to try their comedic chops on those other than their kids can win a shot at this year's title. All Moms are invited to simply BE FUNNY to advance to next round of competition.

One lucky mom will win $50,000.

Glory is it?

Hop onto the site to obtain the official rules, release and waiver.

Listed under "Sightings" in the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Norm! (the gossip/news column of the R-J's Norm Clarke):

In the closing-show crowd at the Stardust, comedy icon Shecky Greene, no stranger to tough crowds, was wearing a yellow hard hat.

Thanks to Kevin Kearney.

They handed out the 2006 Canadian Comedy Awards (They call their awards "Beavers!") last night in London (Ontario, ya hoser!), according to an article in the London Free Press.

Pete Zedlacher and Laurie Elliot took the Beavers as best male and female stand-up comic, respectively, while Jon Dore drew the best newcomer prize. His win ranked as ironic since Dore, 30, has been doing professional stand-up routines for nine years and spent three seasons as the resident comic on the Canadian Idol series.

They also gave Mike McDonald a genius award. Thanks to Simon Rakoff for the alert!

We got a press release from Comedy Central crowing about the launch of two "broadband series," exclusive to ComedyCentral.com. They're launching Baxter & McGuire (a series about talking testicles!) and Good God.

The second one caught our attention. It's called Good God and it's described as "a live action comedy, a la 'The Office,' revolving around God's workplace environment." (Check out a short clip here.) The creators, writers and directors are listed as Jeffrey Sikaitis, Jeff Stamp and Jake Wheeler. And they're also listed as executive producers.

It sounded familiar... very familiar. So, we went back and checked out our Just For Laughs coverage from 2003, specifically our comments on Pitching It, and recalled that a similar project was pitched called Genesis, Inc., a clever show pitched by Canadian actors/writers/comics Russell Hamilton and John Kenower. (See a clip of that online series here.) At the time, we said that their pitch was one of only two (out of eight pitches total) that got anyone on the panel of TV execs enthused, noting that it "was immediately coveted by CBC's (George) Anthony." And an article in Playback.com, dated August 4, 2003, said that the series "could be taped in Toronto as early as next spring."

We're not that savvy when it comes to the inner workings of giant television conglomerates (Oh, sure, we like to toss around words like "interstitial" but that's all just swagger!), but we wonder how huge was the sack of cash that Comedy Central pushed across the table to these Canadian dudes to get them to walk away from this project? To the point where their names are nowhere near Good God?

The press release is packed with quotes from Lou Wallach, "senior vice president, original programming and development, COMEDY CENTRAL," who says that the two new internet-only shows "...are examples of the talent community reaching out to us to create innovative, irreverent short-form programming for the digital consumer. It is truly a compliment to the strength of the COMEDY CENTRAL brand on all platforms."

Here's something that's never made sense to us concerning this wacky television producing game (complicated even further by multiplatform this and broadband that): Wallach watched, along with 200 other folks, those boys from Canada pitch that show at Just For Laughs three years ago and saw the enthusiastic response of all present-- their pitch killed! (The CBC guy practically tackled them and had them sign the papers right there!) And the video they showed was elaborately produced-- heck, it looked like something that was already on the air! Isn't it unnecessarily complicated (and unnecessarily expensive!) to buy off the original guys, then find new guys to execute basically the same project/idea when the perfectly good original pilot (short though it may have been) was already made, practically fully-formed!?

Television! It makes our head spin.

Jay Leno, interviewed for the Miami Herald by Glenn Garvin, in anticipation of his appearance tonight at the Seminole Hard Rock:

So it's not surprising that some comedians start thinking they can save the world. But you can't be that vain. . . That's one of most dangerous things in the business, the journey from comedian to humorist to satirist to out of the business.

Leno, we're reminded, still does 150 nights a year. The interview allegedly won't be online for long, but it's worth a look.

Thanks to Tommy James!

Mere months ago, Rolling Stone named him "Hottest Comic of the Year." (Or was it "Coolest Comic of the Year?" We've read both on various websites here and there. Sounds like a thermostat problem to us.)

Anyway, Your Father's Pop Culture Shopping List/Your Daughter's Pop Culture Shopping List (Take your pick) is now having second thoughts about their previous pronouncement that Dane Cook was worthy of their readers' attention.

This is getting fascinating.

A sharp-eyed reader hipped us to RS's latest flip-flop on the hottest/coolest comic that Rolling Stone had ever seen until last Thursday. This time, Rob Sheffield is the hatchet man, dispatched to do the dirty work whatever way he can. The tools at his disposal? Cattiness, haughtiness, rumor, innuendo, implication and downright lazy journalism. Check this out:

The best line on Retaliation goes, "He was hit by a Dodge, which I found funny and ironic." I can't wait to figure out which old Emo Philips record that one comes from.

You can't wait?

Emo's got exactly two "old records." (unless we're mistaken). We figure with Amazon.com and FedEx and a few dollars from petty cash, Mr. Sheffield could solve this deep mystery in a matter of 48 hours. Surely, the demolition of Cook's reputation (and the necessary editorial backtracking on Rolling Stone's part) could have waited that long.

First, he's the hottest comic in America. Minutes later, the question posed by Rolling Stone is:

"How can any comedian get as famous as Dane Cook has with no jokes?"

The answer to that, of course, is: Capricious and superficial rags like Rolling Stone, in an effort to pander to their equally capricious and superficial readers, proclaim him the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Somewhere in between helping to elevate Cook to Numero Uno and writing the vicious screed linked above, the cynical and shallow editors at RS decide that the comedy monster they've created must be destroyed. They have an inflated notion of just how responsible they were for the upswing... and they're mistaken if they're miserable pouting might cause a downturn.

Fascinating.

A reader has informed us that he can't seem to get SHECKYmagazine.com to load on his Firefox browser, using Mac OSX. Hmmm...

Is there anyone out there who has some sort of HTML smarts who can view our source and tell us what might be casuing Firefox running on a Mac to choke on our page? Small though the segment of our audience may be that is accessing us using that particular combination of hard-/software, we like to be accessible to all.

Being that the Male Half is the Head HTM-Elf, we're at a loss as to how to determine what might be the problem.

Thanks in advance for any assistance! Feel free to post the results of your study on the comments to this posting. (And spare us the critique of the layout and design-- we merely borrowed a layout from Blogger.com and jiggered it to our specs.)

Hmmm... we just realized that anyone running Firefox with Mac OSX won't be able to see this posting. What a dilemma. Well, we trust that there are geeks out there who are running more than one computer, running more than one OS and fiddling with more than one browser at a time.

The 27th Annual Seattle International StandUp Comedy Competition begins Wednesday November 1, 2006 at the Liberty Theater in Puyallup, WA, and concludes Nov. 26, with the winner getting $5,000.

Ladies and gentlemen, your ladies and gentlemen:

WEEK ONE:
1Nicholas Anthony--Minneapolis, MN
2Tyler Boeh--Portland, OR
3Geoff Brousseau--Mountlake Terrace, WA
4Daniel Carroll--Seattle, WA
5Tony Daniel--Kent, WA
6Pavel Simsa - Bellevue, WA
7Jason James - NY, NY
8Dylan Mandlesohn--Toronto, ON
9Tim Mars--Los Angeles, CA
10Emmett Montgomery--Seattle, WA
11Dave Reinitz--Los Angeles, CA
12Rosie Tran--Los Angeles, CA
13Damonde Tschritter--Vancouver, BC
14Debbie Wooten--Tacoma, WA
15Jay Holzman--Seattle, WA

WEEK TWO:
1Jeff Dye--Seattle, WA
2Mike Agostini--Tacoma, WA
3Yoram Bauman--Seattle, WA
4Natalie Gray--Birmingham, UK
5Dustin Kaufman--Kansas City, MO
6Myq Kaplan--Boston, MA
7Paul Myrehaug--Toronto, ON
8Steve Monroe--Los Angeles, CA
9Haji Outlaw--Chicago, IL
10Victoria Pattison--Vancouver, BC
11Dan Rock--Tacoma, WA
12Rory Scovel--Washington, DC
13Arlo Stone--Portland, OR
14Manolis Zontanos--Hamilton, ON
15 Carlos Kotkin - LA

You have until October 30 to vote for Ian Bagg, Eddie Ifft, Jen Kober, Josh Sneed, Randy Kagan, Steve Wilson, Sarah Colonna, Steve Byrne, John Roy, Joe Matarese, John Wessling, Vargas Mason, Michael Loftus, Dan Cummins and Jordan Rubin. Go to MySpace and send five of them to Las Vegas. The winner gets $50,000 and a development deal.

Above, from left to right: Tom Wilson ("Biff Tannen" in the Back to the Future trilogy), David James and Kevin Avery of San Francisco, in the green room at Philadelphia's Helium Saturday night. (Not pictured: Ed McGonigal) The Male Half stopped by to snap a pic, shoot the breeze with Wilson and meet SHECKYmagazine MySpace friend Avery in the flesh.

Wilson is busy these days-- in addition to standup, he's also an artist, painting the most engaging pop art, and he's also Jane Kaczmarek's used car dealer boyfriend in the new NBC series Help Me Help You.

Read about Brian Regan's career and approach to comedy in this Ann Arbor newspaper article.

I purposely want my topics to be incredibly generic to the point of almost being bland," he said. "I'm hoping that I'm hitting on some peculiar stuff, but stuff that everyone can relate to.

"It's kind of an odd challenge, because I want to talk about topics that have been done to death, but I want to find things that everybody relates to that no one else yet has talked about."

Except for that crack about Comedy Central specials being a dime a dozen, it's worth clicking to.

October 23, on TBS, look for Pit Stop Comedy featuring the standup of J. Scott Homan, Tim Wilson, Jon Reep, Steve McGrew and Marc Ryan. At least according to the Pit Stop Comedy MySpace site. (We scoured the TBS.com site and couldn't find any evidence of it. Not even in their online program schedule. Perhaps this is all an experiment in the power of MySpace to drive people to the show. Hmmm...) Regardless, the MySpace site says that it will feature...

...the biggest, most boisterous comedy acts that you may not have heard of, but America has. Take a look under the hood and inside the comedy engine of southern comfort comics.

NASCAR and comedy. A demographic marriage made in heaven... or Atlanta, in this case. (Editors' note: The show was actually taped in Las Vegas, during the '05 Las Vegas Comedy Festival!)

In a related story, SmallTownNation.com is the creation of Jon Reep, who confesses to feeling somewhat out of place in the big city coming, as he does, from tiny Hickory, NC. He describes it thusly:

I went online and started my own small town, SmallTownNation.com. It's an online community of small towners, like MySpace for rednecks. People join up and trade pictures, video and stories about goin' to "the river," or cruisin', or trailer park parties they have, or any of the crazy stuff you do to entertain yourself in a small town. I've also got professional comedians from small towns who have their own pages here. It's fun as hell. So join the nation, and get you some Townitude.

That's A.C., as in Atlantic City, not Air Conditioning. Although there was air conditioning at the Comedy Stop at the Trop last night. And an appreciative crowd in that sparkling, nearly-new venue. And a tremendous show in addition to a competition to see who would win the right/privelege/honor to open the Bud Lite/Maxim Real Men of Comedy Tour dates in Philly, Boston and Atlantic City.



The Male Half of the Staff battled it out with the above trio-- L to R: Kevin Williams, Roy Johnson and John Razos-- each doing six-minute sets in front of a trio of judges (producer Matt Komen, Trop proprietor Bob Kephart and an editor from the Atlantic City Weekly... sorry for not getting that name!).



The contestants were sprinkled throughout last night's regularly scheduled show featuring Sam Fedele, Christine Stedman (pictured above) and Billy Garan (pictured below right).



Everybody had a blast in the green room, the crowd was enthusiastic throughout the show, all the comics-- combatants and non-combatants-- had sparkling sets. When the dust settled, it was Roy Johnson who came out on top. Congratulations to Mr. Johnson. He'll open for John Heffron, Charlie Murphy and Joe Rogan next Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Joan Rivers is at the Keswick (in suburban PHL) next weekend and at Resorts this weekend. The Philadelphia City Paper has an interview/profile. Most notable among la Rivers' quotes:

Political correctness has ruined this entire country. People are afraid to say anything.

Read the whole thing.

Lengthier video of the now infamous James Inman attack video are available here and here. The first link goes to Inman's MySpace profile. (Thanks to Eric Firth.)

Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy saw a fan emerge from the shadows during a set at the Shrine Mosque in Springfield, MO, the other night, says the website Pitchfork:

According to an anonymous Pitchfork reader, Tweedy punched a rowdy fan in the face about 30 minutes into Wilco's set yesterday evening. "So some dude jumps on the stage," the reader claims. "After he gets on stage (who really does this at a Wilco show?), he runs up to Tweedy to give him a fat smooch on his cheek.

"Tweedy... grabs the dude by his throat. While clinching to his throat, Jeff hauls off and decks him with a punch/open hand slap/shove to the face and [the] dude skirmishes away. Tweedy later apologizes (sort of) and hurries to the point of the set where they bow out before the encore."

Pat Hagin, managing partner of the firm that promoted the show said:

This guy [the fan] was an idiot. There's this video of Keith Richards taking his guitar to somebody getting on stage, it wasn't certainly anything like that. But he [Tweedy] certainly has a right and a need in my mind to feel safe onstage.

Read the entire account on PitchforkMedia.com.

Self-described "puertorican pittsburgher" Paulette F. Poullette offers her "quality homemade independent media," (which is, near as we can tell, comic books) through comic book stores in Pittsburgh.

One particular issue, called Comicore Jr., contains five signed and limited-edition prints of '80s standup comedians. Steven Wright (above) is depicted along with Bobcat Goldthwait, Judy Tenuta, Sam Kinison and Andrew Dice Clay. Comicore Jr. is also available online at USSCatastrophe.com. Visit Poullette's website to see her other offerings.

(A tip of the hat to USA Today's Whitney Matheson, whose Pop Candy pop culture blog hipped us to the existence of the above project.)

Sure! Why not! A sharp-eyed reader tipped us off to the lastest one.

What is it about Dane Cook that bothers the chatterati? Come with us one more time as yet another sputtering critic (this time it's Slate's Bryan Curtis) tries desperately to say something really bad about Dane Cook while trying to appear as though he's actually saying something good about him!

There's an inherent problem with Cook's act, however: There's doesn't (sic) seem to be anything at stake. Not every comedian needs to be explicating a high-minded moral code (like, say, Bill Hicks) or a blessedly mundane one (like Jerry Seinfeld). But every great comic must use his act to create friction—- some value must be rubbing up against another value. When Cook begins to crack wise, he seems merely to be describing the benign hang-ups of the college/post-college set rather than actually weighing in on them...

We interrupt this screed to interpret: With Dane Cook, "there doesn't seem to be anything at stake."'; Jerry Seinfeld, however, is "blessedly mundane." To rephrase it: Seinfeld-- good. Dane Cook-- bad.

Back to the piece, the author cites an example of Cook "merely to be describing the benign hang-ups of the college/post-college set":

...In Retaliation, for example, Cook confesses that he desperately wants to own a pet monkey. He would give the monkey a sword and dress him in a suit of armor, he says. "How pumped would you be driving home from work knowing that some place in your house that there's a monkey you would battle?"

Is it just us, or does that sound vaguely... alternative? Close your eyes, toss in a few $50 adjectives and work in a Dark Messiah of Might and Magic reference and the bit/concept might fit comfortably into the set of Patton Oswalt or Brian Posehn. (Note: Not a slam on either comic, just an observation and one that, we're sure you'll agree, for the sake of argument, is not that much of a stretch.)

Why do we do it? Why do we waste the ink defending Dane Cook? Well, we're not so much defending Cook as we're trying to solve the mystery of why some folks in the media are so hot and bothered about him.

And why are they so interested in a world where every comic is Bill Hicks? Imagine their universe: Every comic is "explicating a high-minded moral code" and "must use his act to create friction." It would be about as dynamic and as attractive and as commercially viable as today's folk music scene. (Oh, sure, they say that not all comics must be that way, but they so often cite Hicks-- and, to a lesser extent, Bruce and Carlin-- as their ideal, and they so often say the vilest things about Gallagher and Whitney and Cook-- that we have a hard time believing them.)

Face it. These folks just despise comics. Especially Dane Cook. They know damn well that they can't be seen as despising all comics. So they fixate on one or two or three (Larry the Cable Guy, Cook, Gallagher-- all of whom are dismissed in this essay) and weakly praise a few others while assembling the case against the main target.

To use a music analogy: The world (and the music store) would be a boring and limiting place if every artist was Yitzhak Perlman. Or every artist was Ella Fitzgerald. Or every musician/writer was a slight variation on Bob Dylan. The same can be said of the world of standup comedy. The insistence of these folks that we all be like their ideal comic is childish, to be kind. The orders are clear: Everyone must be like their hero(es). If you don't measure up (indeed, if you're perceived as not even trying to measure up), you're somehow less of an artist.

The Male Half of the Staff will be presenting The SHECKYmagazine Report on WICC, 600 on your AM dial, Central Connecticut's "Dependable News and Information Station," as a guest on The Afternoon Show with Brian Smith.

Guest-hosting for Smith today will be comedian Johnny Rizzo. This will be the third time that Rizzo has invited us on to give 'ICC listeners the lowdown on all things comedic. If you're in the area, tune in! (We'll be on for at least one segment starting at 6:45 PM today!)

The Sands is coming down. The folks who bought it, Pinnacle, are going to demolish the casino and the tower behind it and, in its place, erect a $1.5 billion resort. We only mention it because there was, briefly in the 90s, a comedy club there-- the Eddie Murphy Comedy Club. It was a dismal failure, as it was just off the casino floor and there was little to block the din of slots and merriment from the gamblers.

TFHOTS was appearing at Resorts all this week. Jerry Seinfeld was there the week before and he did a bizarre thing: He did two casinos in one night. He performed at the Hilton at the west end of the boardwalk, then performed at Resorts, up the other end. Sold out both, from what we hear. At $150 per ticket.

Atlantic City has changed a bit since TMHOTS wrote a column comparing AC to LV. For one thing, The Comedy Stop did eventually open in the latest expansion of the Trop. And the Borgata, as we all well know, opened up a beautiful new comedy room. So, at lest for the time being, A.C. has three full-time comedy rooms.

Comics booked into the two boardwalk-based clubs might want to check out the newly-opened Pier at Caesar's-- especially the top floor. They've filled in the glass-enclosed outer perimeter with sand and planted several Adirondack chairs, affording folks a spectacular view of the ocean and beach looking south. There's also a deck on the rear that's perfect for ocean-gazing, although it might be a little uncomfortable in February!

Check out this video of an incident at the Seattle Underground (at least we think it's the Seattle Underground... there's a big sign on the stage that reads "Comedy Underground," along with an illustration of the Seattle skyline. If it isn't the Seattle Underground, it's totally illogical for a club in Columbus or Austin.)

It's entitled "Comedian Attacked" but we like to call it "Where are the bouncers?"

We don't recognize the comic. Anyone out there know who it is? Anyone know any of the other circumstances? Our thanks to "Rick in Seattle" for turning us onto the clip. Says Rick: "This goes back to the need for managers to police their clubs and shut down the heckling before you have someone on stage smacking you." We concur.

From the Milford Daily News:

State police said Harland was driving in the left lane when he lost control of his Ford F10 and swerved right across three lanes of traffic, plowing into Paul Rudeen of Framingham, who was driving a Saturn.

The crash killed Rudeen, whom family members describe as a friendly and outgoing young man who enjoyed performing standup comedy.

"I never even got a chance to see him perform," said Sandra White, Rudeen's mother. "He was only 21 and he was just beginning to explore the open-mic scene in Boston."

Nobody gives interview like Joe Rogan. He's in Syracuse on Sunday, with Charlie Murphy and John Heffron, when the Bud Lite/Maxim Tour stops at that city's Landmark Theater. The interview in the Daily Orange is worth reading.

This is a very unique time in comedy, for both good and bad comedy. (It's) getting a lot of attention right now. It's a very underappreciated art form. It's hard to do it correctly, but there are a lot of people who are doing it well. It takes a long time to do comedy well. It takes about 15 years to become a good comedian, and there are a few comics who have (been doing it for that long) and they're just starting to blossom.

Rogan sounds like a man who has given this comedy thing some thought.

If you haven't had enough Rogan after reading this, check out the SHECKYmagazine.com Rogan interview.

Is it possible that Wanda Sykes is making her HBO debut this Saturday? Yes, it is. We would have guessed that she already had an HBO comedy special on her resume. (We often have trouble distinguishing between HBO and Comedy Central when it comes to these matters.) This Saturday, "Wanda Sykes: Sick and Tired", 10 PM ET. Check your paper for local times. (And sneak a chunk of it, via IFilm, if you absolutely cannot wait. All hail, multiplatformism!)

It's the future. The not-too-distant future. And the internet looks radically different than it did just 12 months earlier. How did that happen? The better question: Why would you expect it to stay the same?

According to Forbes.com, Google made money when they shelled out $1.65 billion for YouTube.

While $1.6 billion may seem like a lot to spend, it really isn't--not when the deal is all stock. Shares of Google gained $8.50 on news of the deal today, driving the company's market capitalization up by more than $2 billion. So at least for the day, Google made more than $400 million on this deal.

Sweet!

Our ears stood up when we heard that part of YouTube (GooTube? YouToogle?)'s strategy might now entail micropayments to the content providers. That's right: You sling your five minutes of comedy up there, promote the hell out of it via one or more of the social networking sites, drive eyeballs to it, and, somewhere down the line, you get a check for $12.27 signed by Sergei Brin and Larry Page. It's only right. In the future, we're all television producers.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said earlier this month that anyone who would consider buying YouTube is "a moron." The usually forward-thinking Cuban justified his harsh assessment by saying that any such purchaser would be trapped in a thicket of legal troubles, as so much of what is now up on the popular video sharing site is neither copyrighted nor posted by the legal owner. We're fairly certain, however, that Brin and Page have thought this all through.

For a mind-boggling exercise, check out that Forbes.com article-- it is a snapshot of the current WWW landscape. It is a lot like the starting gate at a high-stakes horse race. A handful of mind-bending technologies and business models are all poised, waiting for the bell-- a short and furious sprint, over almost before it begins, will sort out the winners and losers. And in 18 months or so, the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Tonight and Wired will break it down and we'll witness yet another re-arrangement of the entertainment industry that no one could have imagined. Nobody will get excited about "paradigm shifts" any more, as they will be coming on a quarterly basis.

Mash all those websites and techno doo-dads together, add several billion dollars in capital, shake well using a broadband connection and what comes out is dozens (hundreds?) of miniature television networks. They look the same as the old ones, but the content is provided by the viewers. If you're still not getting it, check out this article from the August 2005 Wired.

In the meantime, YouTube is a smashing way for comedians to display their wares, to "send out a videotape," five or six minutes at a time. Pretty soon, we won't need to assemble a press kit or visit the post office. Not soon enough, we say.

We totally forgot it was going on. Then we get the following, in a press release:

Longtime standup comic Jay Wendell Walker proved this weekend that old comedians never die – or fade away either – by winning the 31st Annual San Francisco International Comedy Competition. At 64 years of age, Walker becomes the oldest comic to win the prestigious competition.

"I had to prove I was back," Walker said when asked why he decided to tryout at this time in his comedy career. "After being sidelined this last year with heart failure and put on a transplant list for a while, people began writing me off – figuring I wouldn’t be able to survive the rigors of standup any more."

Our congratulations go to Walker. We spoke to him on the phone back in early July. We had no idea he had plans to compete. We have been meaning to interview the man ever since we heard he had appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show-- it's unusual for someone who is working the circuit these days to have that credit!

The airwaves are crackling with news that Barbra Streisand felt compelled to castigate her audience last night after the diva's skit was interrupted by hecklers in MSG. Babs has a little thing worked out with a Bush impersonator.

From an earlier Baltimore Sun review:

Of course, the famously left-leaning singer introduced political talk along the way, but with more humor than her detractors might expect, thanks to uncanny President Bush impersonator Steve Bridges.

Looks like some New Yorkers didn't dig the playlet and let la Streisand know it. Video clips of Bridges are making the news/talk shows and the wires are recounting the encounter:

She told him to "Shut the (expletive) up!" The crowd applauded wildly. Streisand added, "Shut up if you can't take a joke!" With that one F-word, the jeers ended.

Streisand later apologized to the audience for using the F-word and delivered a message of tolerance. As for the Bush impersonator, Streisand pointed out that "the artist's role is to disturb."

Oh, yeah! We have always maintained that Steve Bridges is right up there with William S. Burroughs and Willem de Kooning!

We linked to Bridges' contract in a previous post, after the presidential impersonator made a splash on the Jeff Foxworthy roast. We're sure he's negotiated new terms since that document was created.

Kicking off last night, the Sahara in Vegas is presenting Redneck Comedy Live! in their Sahara Theater.

The ensemble cast usually includes Dick Hardwick, T. Bubba Bechtol, Sam Griesbaum (pronounced "grease-bomb"), and Killer Beaz. These stars of The Nashville Network, Prime Time Country, and the Grand Ole Opry bring fresh, new entertainment to the Sahara Theater.

Can't figure out how long they intend to offer it, or what nights it's on, but it promises "All-American, down-home humor found in our everyday lives" and it's open to all ages. Obviously capitalizing on the success of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, it's interesting to see a casino offering a four-man show that is all veteran standup comics, a full-time comedy revue.

Marooned at one end of the strip with the Stratosphere, the Sahara also offers The Amazing Johnathan (variously described as "The Freddy Krueger of Comedy" or "The Madman of Comedy").

They previously offered The Divas of Comedy in their Casbar Lounge, but discontinued it in June. We ask why they didn't just put the Divas (an all-gal standup show offering three acts) in the big room? (Or, at least bring the Divas back, as the Sahara obviously has no problem being heavily associated with standup comedy!)

Anyone see tonight's episode? The hourlong drama, a fictionalization of SNL, has plenty of Aaron Sorkin's snappy, Bringing-Up-Baby dialogue and obscure references. But it must be lauded for providing at least what feels like a backstage peek at the production of a sketch comedy show.

SPOILER ALERT

Tonight's episode, however, has an A-plot that has D. L. Hughley's character reading a bit about ADHD (on their equivalent of Weekend Update) which turns out to be ripped off, word for word, from an obscure comic (named "Lenny Gold") who performed the bit a year or two earlier "at the Laugh Factory." (A video snippet of which was discovered minutes later by a reporter who is backstage, doing a feature on the show.)

Minutes after the show wraps, the head writer of the show is apprised of the theft and he immediately freaks and starts talking about reprisals from the original author and starts screaming about "get me legal," and how they're going to have to re-tape portions of the show and apologize, and how everyone connected to the show is going to be named as a defendant. (The reporter, portrayed by Christine Lahti, sniffs, "Well, if you accuse a writer of plagiarism, you might as well call him a child molester.")

Huh? We wish! Has there been a show like SNL that ever once worried about possibly ripping off a comedian? Not that this kind of thing happens that often, but, if it did, do you think they'd be waking up any attorneys or loading in a second audience or re-taping segments? We don't think so.

The eventual outcome is that Matt (Matthew Perry's character) has been putting so much pressure on the writers to produce material that one of them felt the need to submit material that was... lifted.

Turns out the whole thing is a false alarm. Turns out that Lenny Gold is contacted and cops to stealing the bit from one Ben Barkley, former writer for Studio 60. Turns out further that Barkely-- who hasn't written for the show in nine years-- wrote the bit when in the employ of the show and, therefore, the bit is the property of the show. Nothing to see here, folks. (We like how the head writers wouldn't give up the harried writer/child molester dude. They instead chose to blame the head writer for exerting too much pressure on the staff! Yeah, right!)

The show is, we assumed, eerily accurate when it comes to depicting the production of a weekly network televisione sketch show. Now, we're not so sure. Apparently, there isn't enough drama in a week of production to fill up an hourlong episode of a fictionalized version of the show and they feel compelled to make up dreck like that detailed above.

We just love how the comic in the plot was eventually found out to be a thief! Nice!

FOS Tommy James points out, quite rightly, that the role of Lenny Gold was played by real-life standup comic Fred Stoller.

Who is in town in Atlantic City this week? (Besides, of course, the Female Half of the Staff, with Peter Fogel, that is.)

Borgata: Eric McMahon, Marty Rackham, Steve Morris.

Comedy Stop at the Trop: Steve Shaffer, Jeff Norris, Rob Sherwood

We posted on October 5 about how the Sierra Mist/MySpace folks had made some changes to the contest with regard to the dates, prizes, etc. One hour and fourteen minutes later, FOS Shaun Eli commented on our posting with the following:

After reading the rules I've opted not to send anything in. My interpretation (though I am not an attorney) is that you are giving them rights to your material, including-- and this is specified rather clearly-- the rights to have others perform your material.

I suggest that people actually read what you're letting them do with your material before ever submitting material to contests or websites.

We assumed he was referring to the following passage, from the Official Contest Rules, which were revised on Oct. 3:

"By entering the Contest, you grant Sponsors a perpetual, fully-paid, irrevocable, non-exclusive license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, distribute, display, sub-license, exhibit, transmit, broadcast, televise, digitize, otherwise use, and permit others to use and perform throughout the world the Material (including without limitation, the underlying intellectual property therein to the extent necessary to exploit Material) in any manner, form, or format now or hereinafter created, including, but not limited to, on the Internet, and for any purpose, including, but not limited to, advertising or promotion of Sponsors and their services, all without further consent from or payment to you."

We can understand how this passage (and the clause we emphasized) might give someone pause. We've signed some so-called "universal releases" in our day. (And while it hasn't resulted (to our knowledge) in anyone getting rich by selling our material through truckstops or pumping our acts through a late-night, syndicated TV show, it has resulted in some pretty embarassing stuff still living on, way past its shelf life, offered through websites or maybe informercials.)

We read these releases, too but, not being lawyers, we can't say that we always fully understand what we're signing, the nuances, the clauses and sub-clauses. We pretty sure, though, that we can't recall any releases in the past that contained that bit about letting other folks use the material. And, again not being attorneys, we can't say for sure that it means what we think it might mean.

But, stepping back from the minutiae of a legal agreement, it might seem strange, even to a non-lawyer, that the rules of a contest were changed after the contest already started. Are the folks who submitted prior to the rule change still bound by the old rules as they stood prior to Oct. 3? Will they have a choice as to which set of rules they must adhere to? Was that option spelled out in the first set of rules? And what guarantee does the comic who signs up on October 7 won't have yet another set of rules when he wakes up on Oct. 8? So many questions.

This is one of the more high-profile contests to come along in a while. Winning comics will get national television exposure, the credit of a major comedy festival, a development deal slot and large gobs of cash. It would be a pity if comics missed out on this opportunity just because of some confusion over some fine print.

BTW: The folks at MySpace have extended the deadline for submissions. You now have until 11:59 PM on Oct. 11 to upload a video.

"PAIR CAUGHT CANOODLING IN A BOOTH," is the screaming headline of a NYPost Page Six item that describes Dane Cook and his Employee of the Month co-start Jessica Simpson "whispering into each other's ears" at a NYC premiere party. We despise the word "canoodle." Not sure why. We just do.

We especially like the last line of the gossip tidbit-- "They finally left with Simpson's hairdresser Ken Paves." Not sure why. We just do. No good can come of this.

(Our thanks to sharp-eyed reader Tanyalee Davis who drove us to the page.)

We get some interesting requests here.

This one seeks someone to "star" in a "reality TV show, documentary, video, and text blog." They describe the project as "Super Size Me meets MySpace." Essentially, you'd be the front man/woman for a new-media quit-smoking campaign commissioned by the American Cancer Society.

How about we let them explain it:

Casting: Man or Woman 25-– 45 (roughly) Smoker, but willing to try quitting. Must live in one of the following states: Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Prefer someone with basic computer skills. Also prefer someone who has tried to quit smoking before.

Important: This is NOT a full time project. The person chosen to star in this project will be able to do this while maintaining their normal life/routine. Person chosen to star in project will potentially need to be available for promotional opportunities.

Reality: This project will receive a PR push from the American Cancer Society. That being said, the more media buzz the project generates in and of itself, the more potential opportunities the lead will have to showcase his or her personality and talent to America. Essentially, as the hype around this project grows, so will the opportunities for the lead person.

Payment: To maintain the authenticity of the project, there is no direct cash payment. The person chosen to star in this project will receive a new laptop computer, video camera and digital camera valued at roughly $3000. If the person follows through on entire project, he or she will be able to keep the equipment. Additional, resources will be given to facilitate the project.

If all this sounds good, introduce yourself: Send us a 3-5 minute video of yourself. Let us know why we should make you the star of our project.

Talk to us about who you are. What makes you unique. Make us laugh. Make us care.

Tell us why America will want to listen to you, watch you and read what you have to say.

Upload videos to a site (any online video site will work fine) and send links to to: toddiqtv@gmail.com

If you can’t upload a video, mail the tape/DVD to:

Todd Slutzky
IQ Interactive
1950 North Park Place
Bldg 600
Atlanta, Georgia 30339

ALL TAPES/DVDs ARE DUE IN BY OCTOBER 11th. Tapes and DVDs will not be returned.

Feel free to email questions to the above address as well.

And, bless their hearts, they consider a standup comic to be living a "normal life."

Two weeks from tonight, The Male Half of the Staff will be going up against four other comics at the Comedy Stop at the Trop in Atlantic City for the right to open three shows on the Real Men of Comedy Tour. (The evening's winner will open for Charlie Murphy, John Heffron and Joe Rogan when their Anheuser-Busch/Dennis Publishing-sponsored theater tour comes to The Tower in Upper Darby, PA (PHL), the Orpheum Theater in Boston and the Borgata in Atlantic City the following weekend.)

So far, contest talent coordinators refuse to let TMHOTS know exactly who he'll be competing against(!) and we're not sure what the rationale is (if there is any!) for the secrecy. If anybody out there reading this is scheduled to perform on this bill, send us an email!!

Thursday, October 19, at the Comedy Stop at the Trop, the new club is inside the multi-million addition to the Tropicana casino in A.C. called The Quarter. Stop on by and root for your favorite!

Last month, we posted about the Sierra Mist contest being conducted via MySpace.com and we said there'd be further clarification. Well, here it is:

Judges selected by the Sponsors will judge the submissions on Creativity, Comedic Delivery, Humor and Originality and pick the top 15 comedians.

Between October 18th and the 30th, YOU'LL decide who stays or who goes as the voting begins. Here's where it really gets good: The Top 5 will perform live at The Comedy Festival in Las Vegas on November 16th and that performance will air on November 17th only on TBS at 9pm!

Immediately following the TBS broadcast, YOU'LL decide who the Grand Prize
Winner is by coming right back here and casting your vote for who is #1. The winner will be announced during the Comic Relief broadcast on TBS November 18th.

Five lucky winners will each receive a development deal and one lucky Grand Prize Winner (in addition to the development deal) will receive $50,000 in cash and a multi-city tour! Stay tuned...more details to follow.

Also, check the contest page for rules clarification and video upload verification!

They alluded, in earlier announcements, to "sending in video," but now it seems they have opted to go with the video upload model. MySpace is using this opportunity to drive people to their video upload option, no doubt in an attempt to take a bite out of YouTube's comedy video traffic. (We tried uploading a short film using the MySpace video interface and found the results to be less than spectacular. It was easy, but the clip played a little "jerky," even halting on occasion. Jerkiness is a severe impediment when displaying a comedy clip, being that comedy depends a lot on timing. And jerkiness tends to wreak havoc with timing. We hope they've ironed the bugs.)

Of course, after what we posted about Sierra Mist and our Boston Comedy Competition experience, we're pretty sure that we'll not be uploading any video to their competition any time soon!

J.P. Buck, Manager of Talent-HBO Comedy Festival/The Comedy Festival, sends along the following:

The HBO Comedy Festival will be holding an open call for comedians and comedy groups at The Cap City Comedy Club in Austin, TX on Tuesday October 17, 2006 from 11 AM to 3 PM. The Festival is looking for the best up-and-coming comedic performers, including stand-ups, sketch groups, one person shows & alternative acts. All persons wishing to be considered for the upcoming festival in Aspen, CO should prepare 2-3 minutes of material. Please bring a headshot with contact information on the back. No other materials are required; however performers can bring DVDs of longer performances to leave with the festival representative.

And, the folks who run the "original" Las Vegas Comedy Festival are looking for comics at Chicago Zanie's, October 9. From 1:00-3:00 PM audition spots will be granted on a first come, first served basis, with 8:30 PM callbacks.

Hit both of the above links for further information regarding future auditions.

Josh Sneed, in a MySpace blog entry, writes about getting booed offstage at his hometown Funny Bone.

...It wasn't a "Now that wasn't very nice" kind of boo. It was a "We don't know you, and we don't like you" kind of boo. It was the kind of boo that might have made me quit