We know-- we were stunned, too.

CNN.com is running an article in their "mental_floss" section entitled "Long line of Jewish comedians ahead of Seinfeld."

Handed down since Moses was kvetching about having to cross the desert in his bare feet, Jewish humor emanated from Eastern Europe where the Hebrews overcame some seriously hellacious circumstances on the way to the Promised Land. "Laughter through tears," they called it.

They go on to profile ten "groundbreaking Jewish comedians."

Of course, this comes as no surprise to anyone even passingly familiar with the art or the history of standup comedy. And early readers of this magazine are especially aware of the role that Jews played in standup-- we have cited on more than one occasion what we believe to be the definitive work on the subject, Lawrence J. Epstein's "The Haunted Smile," which contains the following:

The embarrassingly rich crop of American Jewish comedians defies common sense. In 1979, for example, Time estimated that whereas Jews made up only 3 percent of the American population, fully 80 percent of professional comedians were Jewish.

The real story is the startling transformation of the business of standup since the Time estimate-- the business underwent a swift and thorough diversification in the ensuing ten years. Yet the influence of the legion of Jewish comedians lives on-- it could be argued that we're all Jewish comedians. Nearly all modern comics, be they Irish-American or African-American, impressionist or monologist, male or female, can trace their comedy roots back to early Jewish performers. They are nearly all, wittingly or unwittingly, influenced by the likes of Al Jolson, Henny Youngman, Myron Cohen, Milton Berle or Weber and Fields.

Another fascinating observation on the subject comes from Gary Giddins' excellent collection of articles from 1992, "Faces In The Crowd." In his 1985 essay on Jack Benny, he writes:

Before 1900, Jewish grotesquerie was a familiar ingredient in the entertainment world, but Jewish humor that wasn't self-deflating simply didn't exist on the American stage. "There were plenty of excellent Jewish performers," according to vaudeville's chronicler Douglas Gilbert, "but they were doing Dutch, blackface, or singing and dancing acts. Some of them were good Irish comedians. Indeed, Weber and Fields at one time did a neat Irish act."

In just over a century, the situation is reversed-- in the past, we had Jewish performers imitating Dutch and Irish comics. Now we have comics of every ethnicity and nationality doing essentially Jewish schtick.

XM comedy honcho Joel Haas forwarded the following, which was submitted via their website's listener feedback mechanism from an XM subscriber whom we shall call Andy:

I listened to Brian McKim's bit about Turkey sex this AM, perhaps 11:00 CST or thereabouts. Damned near crashed my truck. If I had been drinking or eating I would have been hospitalized for ruptured sinuses. Anyway, how can I get a copy of that cut. I need to play it for a few very deserving folks, preferably while they are eating or drinking.

A nice Christmas present, says the Male Half.

We always wonder what's going on out there when our material sprays out of the satellite. It's nice to know that there are folks listening... and quite possibly sustaining injuries in fiery crashes!

Haas was nice enough to refer the fan to our website, where he can purchase the CD that contains that very Turkey Sex bit!

Daniel B. Smith, writing for the Boston Globe, has spun out a four-page article about the work of one Christopher Sprigman, a legal scholar who maintains that our recent approach to intellectual-property law has been "wrongheaded."

The article caught our eye because Sprigman cites the example of Joe Rogan's public flogging of Carlos Mencia (and the subsequent dissemination of the clip of the incident via YouTube)as an example of "a comedian enforcing respect for originality without resorting to legislation, lawyers, or the courts."

"People usually talk about how the Internet destroys intellectual property," says Sprigman. "But here the Internet enforces intellectual property. It helps to protect creativity by shaming pirates."

We read the entire article. We advise our readers to do the same. It's a nutshelling of the multiple sides of the ongoing debate about intellectual property (IP), copyright protection and the role of government in the creation and enforcement of legislation governing same.

Smith says that Sprigman, who, with UCLA prof Kal Raustiala co-authored the groundbreaking 2006 paper "The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and Intellectual Property in Fashion Design," are members of the "free culture movement" and the "Copy Left"-- "a diverse group of professors, lawyers, and activists that believes the expansion of intellectual-property rights is restricting the free flow of ideas, diminishing the nation's creativity, and flouting the explicit intentions of the Founding Fathers." (Notice anyone missing from the diverse group? If you answered "artists," you win a prize!)

Sprigman, Raustalia and other like-minded folks have come up with the interesting concept of "negative spaces." These are "industries that receive little to no legal protection for their ideas or products, yet that continue to innovate, often at a rapid clip." To bolster their argument, they cite professional magicians, creators of haute cuisine and high fashion as such negative space industries. And they most recently have advanced the argument that standup comedy is one such negative space.

And, in the above example, they cite the Rogan-Mencia brawl as proof that standup comedy continues to thrive without legal protection. We are, to say the least, skeptical of Sprigman and Raustalia's claims.

Did Rogan in fact enforce respect for originality? Did he really use the internet to enforce intellectual property? Can it honestly be said that Rogan protected creativity or shamed any pirates by doing what he did? We contend that he failed on all counts.

Does this mean that we think the courts should intervene? Certainly not. We think Rogan did exactly what a comic should do. (And he did what comics have often done-- direct confrontation with the offending party, one-to-one policing-- a time-honored tradition among standup comics.)

What we take issue with is the contention that standup is the perfect business to use as an example in their quest to provide proof of their negative space concept.

The article contains a few more rather tenuous (if not outright erroneous) conclusions or assumptions about standup comedy too numerous to mention here.

Perhaps the actual paper that Sprigman published clarifies matters, but, from what we've read in the Globe article, he might pick a better industry with which to effect a loosening of copyright control or the thwarting of further copyright extensions by lawmakers.

At one point, the authors come dangerously close to offering what we call around here the "Doritos Defense" when they excuse the rampant copying of designer dresses-- Don't worry, we'll make more! (How many times have we heard joke thievery minimized with the advice, "Let it go! Just write more material!" Indeed, often we've heard the victim say, "I don't let it bother me... I can always write more material!")

What is their game exactly? A clue might be provided by the title of a "manifesto" written by Stanford law prof Lawrence Lessig: "Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity"

It would appear that Lessig and other Copy Leftists are using magicians, fashion designers, chefs and standup comics as pawns in their game. Their ham-handed (and wildly inaccurate) depictions of the inner workings of these various milieux are being used as ammunition as they make their case against Big Media (Time Warner, UMG, Fox, Comcast, Verizon, Disney, etc.).

Their past attempts at turfing copyright legislation have been failures. We don't see this newest tack as having any more success than previous ones.

Standup comic K.P. Anderson, head writer for E! Channel's The Soup, is sending out a MySpace bulletin touting the upcoming standup dates featuring himself and Soup host Joel McHale and Chris Hardwick at the Irvine Improv Jan. 4-6 and at the San Francisco Punchline Feb. 1 and 2.

We initially figured that Anderson and McHale were hitting the boards because the writers' strike had forced them to earn their rent the old fashioned way. Turns out fresh batches of The Soup are still being cooked up though, at least according to the Seattle Times.

Happy New Year from SHECKYmagazine.com!

Our postings have been on the light side. We've been paying attention to other matters-- the holidays, entertaining, the Male Half's First Cruise (which is now history)-- and it's been a vacation within a vacation.

In prepping for Christmas, we determined that our playlist here at SHECKYmagazine HQ would be strictly drawn from our carefully selected collection of mostly mid-century Christmas recordings. We gleaned them from carefully digitized vinyl and scrupulously transcribed audio cassettes then pumped the resulting files through the stereo system using our mp3 player.

These holiday recordings by Dean Martin, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Jimmy Sturr, Les Brown, Bing Crosby raised the bar to very high level. Most of the recordings since-- the overwrought Phil Specter stuff, the novelty songs using chipmunks and grandmas and injurious reindeer and the ubiquitous bleatings of Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey and (gulp!) Natalie Cole-- are crass, calculated and cheap by comparison.

We incorporated a new album into the mix this year. We happened across a pristine copy of a cassette of Mel Tormé's "Christmas Songs" and immediately pumped it through Sound Forge, converting it into mp3's. It is a delight.

In the world of holiday music, Tormé is famous for having penned one of the more popular modern Christmas songs, "The Christmas Song." ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...") So, you'd think that an entire album featuring his treatments of Xmas standards would be as prominent on department store playlists as the wretched "Motown Christmas Album."

But, no!

Tormé's collection (recorded in 1992 for the Telarc label), with the Cincinnati Sinfoneitta, is tasteful, understated, and swingin'! It belongs right up there with the greats, perhaps even knocking off Andy Williams' aptly titled "Andy Williams Christmas Album" at the number one spot. (We have a near-mint vinyl copy of Williams' 1963 classic, recorded for Columbia, which is curiously lacking any information on its cover, other than a listing of the song titles! Is that even legal?)

Click here for a clip of Mel singing/swinging "Good King Wenceslaus"! Mel, backed by a standup bass and then a tinkling jazz piano with brushes on a snare, is at his best. He even sings the more obscure verses where most vocalists dare not go:

Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear him thither.

Page and monarch forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude wind's wild lament
And the bitter weather

Anyone who can sing a song and use the word "thither" and still maintain credibility is a master!

Sharp-eyed FOS Jouni Kallio (from Finland!) sent us a link to a Time magazine article that says that researchers have concluded that the baby of the family is more likely to find a wacky job... like comedian:

Younger siblings, by contrast, are looser cannons, less educated and less strapping, perhaps, but statistically likelier to live the exhilarating life of an artist or a comedian, an adventurer, entrepreneur, GI or firefighter.

"If you're bigger than your siblings, you punch 'em," Sulloway says.
But there are low-power strategies too, and one of the most effective ones is humor. It's awfully hard to resist the charms of someone who can make you laugh, and families abound with stories of last-borns who are the clowns of the brood, able to get their way simply by being funny or outrageous. Birth-order scholars often observe that some of history's great satirists-- Voltaire, Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain-- were among the youngest members of large families, a pattern that continues today. Faux bloviator Stephen Colbert-- who yields to no one in his ability to get a laugh-often points out that he's the last of 11 children.

The staff here at SHECKYmagazine is 100 per cent Baby of the Family. It may well be that a lot of you out there are last-born as well. We aren't sold on the reasons that the scientist above has cooked up.

The Female Half theorizes that it's a function of just how close the parents are to "giving up" by the time the baby rolls around. Siblings 1 and2? They've got New Mom and New Dad-- very serious about their roles, determined to raise a child (or two or three or more) and turn him/her/them into a responsible adult. All that grit and seriousness tends to ebb by the time the last child arrives. The other siblings may well be funny. They may have the ability to be artists or GI, but they've been charged with "making the family proud." The pressure is on to get into a legitimate line of work. For the baby? Not particularly.

An AP story written by Eric Carvin asks the question, "With talk shows returning to late night without their writers, is it time to dust off your favorite gags and submit them to the networks? In a word, no"

Amateur jokesters might wonder if this means the window is opening-- if just a crack-- for their 15 seconds of fame.

NBC's Web site makes it abundantly clear: You might as well keep your jokes to yourself.

The article wonders why, then solicits the expert opinion of Gordon Firemark, "an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles," who says "it's all about avoiding lawsuits."

"Someone submits their joke to Jay Leno's people and two weeks later-- or two years later-- Jay does a joke that's a variation, or maybe it's exactly the same joke," Firemark said, offering an example. "Maybe they did see the material that was submitted, and they should have contacted the person. But as often as not, the joke wasn't really that original to start with."

"The problem is that, because they made that submission, now the company has had access to that material," the lawyer said. "And that's the first threshold step in making a claim for copyright infringement."

This is, of course, total nonsense.

A far as we know, the talk shows have always solicited (and used and paid for) jokes submitted by non-staff, non-union writers. (We've submitted jokes in the past to Fox's Comic Strip Live, Tonight and Politically Incorrect. And we had invites from a head writer or two to submit. And the process was always the same: The jokes are submitted via fax (at least they were in the past... it is quite possible they're submitted by email now), and each and every writer is asked to sign a waiver before submitting his first joke, if he is to be accepted as a faxer. The waiver explains exactly how the process works and spells out the terms of payment. (In the past, it was $50 per joke. It probably still is.) Many a faxer has evetnually graduated to staffer via this route. If anyone else knows any different, we're all ears.

It is perplexing to see this. Are they trying to keep the backdoor faxing method of joke submission a secret? Is it no longer used?

First of all, you may be asking, who is Britt Ekland?

She's a Swedish actress mainly famous for being a Bond girl (Man With The Golden Gun) and for nearly banging Peter Sellers to death (he had a heart attack, in bed, on their wedding night).

Well, apparently, Ekland had such a wonderful time appearing in a stage version of Grumpy Old Women, her publicist is circulating the rumor that she is now ready, at the age of 65, to tackle standup comedy.

Recalling her part in the comedy, Britt reportedly mused: "There's a lot of one-liners there and it has opened up my vistas. I've done comedy before but perhaps I could do stand-up."

IMDB says the Bond flick role was the high point of her career. That was 1974. If someone thinks that doing standup can revive a career that's been moribund for 33 years, there is something totally weird going on out there. This can only end badly.

The Aspen Times has a story on the Wheeler Opera House and their plans to book a standup series-- or maybe a festival-- now that HBO has blown town.

Last week, the Wheeler unveiled a plan to keep the town in good humor this winter even without the HBO-sponsored U.S. Comedy Arts Festival (USCAF), which had become a marquis event over its 13 years in Aspen. The Wheeler will present a new four-part stand-up comedy series, "What’s So Funny?," over February and March.

(We're fairly certain they mean "marquee" event... although there are so many wealthy people in Aspen, there might be a nobleman or two in attendance.)

Also: We're told that, "Each event will conclude with Brenner doing a 20-to 30-minute set of new material, with a fresh routine planned for each show." How many times will the public be expected to fall for this scam? Brenner tells the media that he'll be doing "material taken directly from today's headlines," then he ends up doing a set cobbled together with material from his last 12 appearances on The Mike Douglas Show.

(And we add the usual disclaimer: We got no problem with old material. We do have a problem with telling the media-- and the public-- that you're going to do one thing, then doing the exact opposite.)

The article descends into that special brand of weirdness that only the presence of David Brenner brings about:

"David said to me, 'Do you realize you're going to have me working harder than I ever have in my career?" said Gram Slaton, the executive director of the Wheeler Opera House.

Does everyone have this straight by now? No one works harder than David Brenner! There are ways of getting this message out and not sounding ridiculous. Brenner has not mastered it. Nor has the Wheeler's Slaton.

Slaton manages to wedge in a bunch of the classic Brenner-isms-- the odd and slightly cranky medley of complaints, pretense and surliness that oozes from Brenner whenever he gets near a reporter's tape recorder:

"David's at the point where he's seriously considering what his legacy will be," Slaton said. "What we found is, he's passionate about stand-up as its own art form, not as a way to get a TV series."

Slaton was likewise concerned about Brenner's legacy. He observed that Brenner, though he has remained busy as a performer, was little-known to younger audiences.
"George Carlin was cool, but he went through a period of being unhip before he became cool again," Slaton said. "David's the same way-- he's so funny, but there's a generation that missed out on him.

"I was thinking, what can I do to introduce him to a younger audience? What to do about David and about the Comedy Festival?"

You better believe when we hear "younger audience," we automatically think "Aspen, CO!"

This fairy tale has it all-- A 19th century opera house, a 20th century comedian and... a 21st century Online Comedy Initiative!

A third partner in the series is Rooftop Comedy. The San Francisco entity began as a web-based comedy clearing house, a sort-of MySpace of comedy, where performers could post clips of their act. Rooftop has broken into working as an agency, and was looking for venues in which to place its comedians. While trolling the Rooftop website to look for talent, Slaton and Brenner struck up a relationship with the organization.

A splendid touch-- "While trolling the Rooftop website to look for talent..." Yeah... we're sure that's how the whole thing went down.

Read the entire thing here.

It's FOS Paul F. Tompkins singing a duet with Aimee Mann. Tompkins, you'll note, is doing his best Dean Martin impression.

The Female Half's analysis of what might be the most bizarre Christmas tune of the twentieth century invokes Tom Jones, Ricardo Montalban, Dolly Parton and many more....

In fact, that's the other great mystery of this song. Why does it attract such strange pairings? Over the years, it has been recorded by such odd couples as Alan Cumming and Liza Minnelli, Ann Margaret and Brian Setzer and, my personal bad-favorite, Bette Midler and James Caan.

Read the rest at Road Atlas Shrugged.

The Scotsman, in the obligatory "what to get for that hard-to-shop-for man" article, suggests... comedy DVD's!

Amuse him with Omid Djalili's No Agenda stand-up comedy DVD (£11.99, HMV). Billy Connolly's Was It Something I Said? (£12.99, HMV) and Peter Kay's Stand Up Ukay (£12.99, HMV) will also have him laughing.

It's a no-brainer. The guy's hafta keep the sense of humor sharp, as countless surveys have told them that the chicks rank that attribute above all others when hunting for a man.

(You'll thank us for not referring to them as "wee gifties." Oops... we just did.)

UPDATE: Cringehumor.com is sending out MySpace bulletins blaming the cancellation on the weather.

If you like a little a bit of rudeness with your standup, this year's Cringe Humor Awards will be this Sunday, December 16, at 8 PM at Comix.

Appearances by Jim Norton, Patrice Oneal, Joe Matarese, Rick Shapiro, Big Jay Oakerson, Mike Vecchione and more!

Come down and celebrate the best & worst of stand up comedy in 2007, as the annual Cringe Humor Awards debuts at its fantastic new venue, Comix. Many of New York City's top comedians are set to perform, and we will also honor a standup comedy icon as the 2007 Cringe Humor Legend.

Go here for further details. (The website says that "Many more acts will be added soon!" And it also says that Oneal and Norton are "not scheduled to perform but will be in attendance.")

FOS Rich Vos will host.

(We made extra sure that neither one of us was nominated as "Hack of the Year" before we hit "POST.")

We were wondering who was going to save standup comedy, who was going to "bring it back." We have been waiting for someone to restore comedy to its rightful place among the performing arts.

Tony Hinchcliffe is such a performer. Just ask him.

There were so many juicy quotes to choose from in the recent interview in the Youngstown Vindicator, it was hard pick just one. We may have settled on our fave:

"They liked me, even though it was my first night," Hinchcliffe said. "They said I'm better than some people who have been doing this for 10 years. And I've never seen it since or before. They have 15 [open-mic-night performers] every Sunday and Monday, and I've never seen it done."

Perhaps it's a tie. While the above quote is certainly interesting, this one is good, too:

I did a show in May when I was only a month into my career and I killed the joint for an hour and 10 minutes.

Then, of course, there's the title of this very posting (see above).

That is an actual quote from the interview. We're not making this up.

Perhaps it was Hinchcliffe who was making it up. We can only hope.

Maybe the reporter for the Vindicator was an unwitting accomplice to this bombast gone horribly out of control. That's the only thing that can make this less than nauseating.

You've seen the commercials that have been airing. They're part of the "Together We Can Prevail" series produced by Bristol Myers Squibb touting their various drugs for rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, AIDS, etc. You may have noticed the one of them featuring Lynn Redgrave that is in particularly heavy rotation.

We saw one featuring comedian Lou DiMaggio. The copy on the screen says that Lou had a heart attack in 2005 at the age of 46. The copy on the BMS website says that he's now "(taking) care of his heart with diet, exercise and medication."

We were in our hotel room, not paying attention to the TV, when, "Hey! There's Lou DiMaggio!" We remember him from the 80s on the east coast. He moved to L.A. pretty early on in the game.

Jacinta Nandi (aka "Candi Girl") is a regular in Berlin's spoken word venues. She'll be talking about that milieu in a series of monthly columns for Expatica.com, "an invaluable resource for English-speaking internationals in 5 European countries."

The Berlin English-language comedy and Spoken Word scenes are inextricably entwined, slightly incestuous even. Now, we do get criticized for this a bit -- but is that always a bad thing? In any case, we would like to thank our Spoken Word/comedy family – and invite everyone out to join us.

Scroll down to the bottom of the column for a listing of comedy nights and other, related spoken word venues in Berlin and environs.

Will Ferrell will headline a short standup tour with what Variety calls "a trio of up-and-coming comics." The February stunt will promote Ferrell's new movie, "Semi-Pro," and the online comedy venture, FunnyorDie.com.

Ferrell will hit the stage...

...with leading standups Zach Galifianakis, Demetri Martin and Nick Swardson. Event, dubbed "Will Ferrell's Funny or Die Comedy Tour Presented by Semi-Pro," will kick off Feb. 4 in Kansas City and serve as a promotional run-up to the Feb. 29 release of the pic.[...]

All of the comics involved in the FunnyorDie comedy tour have recently signed deals to produce TV programming for Comedy Central. Project was put together by CAA, which reps all of the talent involved.[...]

Tour will focus on East Coast and Midwest colleges, with stops in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Boston and North Carolina.

FunnyorDie tour is the latest example of Hollywood studios sending stars on the road to promote pics directly to consumers. John C. Reilly this week began touring the country in character as Dewey Cox in support of his pic "Walk Hard."

Notable for many reasons. Not the least of which is the understanding that standup still works on college campuses.

Also notable that, in this day and age, a good old-fashioned personal appearance can't be beat when it comes to promoting a movie. (Anyone who thought that the proliferation of broadband internet access would kill live performances or that personal appearances would be obliterated by holograms in one's living room is mistaken.) Ferrell knows that the local media in all those markets will run short, lively commercials for his movie on the 11-o'clock newscast promoting both his movie and his website.

And one more thing: Can those three comics still be said to be "up and coming?" We're pretty sure, they're up and they've already come. (Just what are Josef Adalian's criteria?!)

Sharp-eyed reader Paul sent us a link to the video below, with the short note, "Gov. Huckabee? It's Shelley Berman... he'd like his act back."

It's always fascinating to watch a politician try his hand at comedy. Campaigning politicians rarely do anything that's genuine or off the cuff. Often, it isn't until after a campaign is over that we find out that this candidate or that candidate has a real sense of humor or is "genuinely funny." That's because spontaneity is discouraged, nearly every word is scripted. As such, even the "funny" must be scripted.

Doing schtick-- or trying to pull off pre-planned, funny moments-- is risky. We're not sure if the bit below worked-- the audience isn't miked very well. One more reason to avoid comedy on the campaign trail!

Editors note: A reader has pointed out that the folks in Ghana spelled Blackson's name wrong. It has since been corrected. Blackson's website is here.

Check out this item on Ghanabase.com, a website that mainly deals with the music scene in Ghana. It's about the Night of 1005 Laughs and Music on December 22 in the capital city of Accra. And one of the featured comedians will be Michael Blackson, "is rated the King of Comedy," whose "performances are often climaxed by tears of laughter often shed by those who listen to him!" (We suspect that part of his act might involve pepper gas!)

Our absolute favorite part of the review is "Michael began to develop his comedic talent in 1992 in the unkind comedy clubs of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania." Say what? We weren't aware that the comedy clubs of Philadelphia were "unkind!"

Also appearing with Blankson will be Klint the Drunk and Julius D’Agwu , comics who are in possession of "an amazing number of rip-cracking jokes"

Go to eBay to check out/possibly bid on comedian Larry Weaver's collection of ten comedy-related books. In one shot, you can have the essential starter kit-library for aspiring comics! Just under six days before the cyber gavel comes down!

Stephen A. Smith is causing quite an uproar with his rambling response to the LADN's Tom Hoffarth's question of whether the newspaper biz is dying. Smith is the eternally cranky ESPN TV and radio personality. Here are the money quotes:

And when you look at the internet business, what’s dangerous about it is that people who are clearly unqualified get to disseminate their piece to the masses. I respect the journalism industry, and the fact of the matter is ...someone with no training should not be allowed to have any kind of format whatsoever to disseminate to the masses to the level which they can. They are not trained. Not experts. More important are the level of ethics and integrity that comes along with the quote-unqoute profession hasn’t been firmly established and entrenched in the minds of those who’ve been given that license.

Therefore, there’s a total disregard, a level of wrecklessness (sic) that ends up being a domino effect. And the people who suffer are the common viewers out there and, more importantly, those in the industry who haven’t been fortunate to get a radio or television deal and only rely on the written word. And now they’ve been sabotaged. Not because of me. Or like me. But because of the industry or the world has allowed the average joe to resemble a professional without any credentials whatsoever.

(Would it be small of us to point out that either Hoffarth or Smith (or both) spelled "recklessness" wrong? Oops! We just did!)

Anyway, the folks in the Antique Media are cracking at the seams. Every once in a while, they accidentally say out loud what they're thinking. And we find out that they believe that:

1. Bloggers are "dangerous"

2. We really should be stopped

3. The folks in the print media are totally blameless for their predicament

and

4. Things should just go back to the way they were...

...if they could only figure out how...

Well, how about we make the internet environmentally hazardous?

The following is a quote from Trewin Restorick (we're convinced that's not his real name, but merely the letters of his real name scrambled to hide his identity). Note: ICT is the Brit equivalent of our IT, or Information Technology-- the broad term that takes in computers used for communication, data storage, the internet, intranets, etc.

"ICT equipment currently accounts for 3-4 per cent of the world's carbon emissions, and 10 per cent of the UK's energy bill. The average server, for example, has roughly the same annual carbon footprint as an SUV doing 15 miles-per-gallon! With a carbon footprint now equal to the aviation industry, ICT, and how businesses utilise ICT, will increasingly come under the spotlight as governments seek to achieve carbon-cutting commitments."

Trevor is the director of Global Action Plan and chair of the EILT. (EILT is the abbreviation for the Environmental IT Leadership Team. That's right: You have an abbreviation inside of an abbreviation... this, no doubt, will result in a still smaller carbon footprint somewhere down the line.)

And the Global Action Plan insists that they're merely here to "deliver tangible financial, environmental and social improvements" and that they will "make the small changes that have a big impact on the things that matter."

They're coming after the computers now.

Is it just us, or does anyone else feel like Kevin McCarthy in the final scene from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers?"

Are some IT outfits wasting energy? We're certain that some are. But the extravagant language used by the GAP (and similar outfits) is calculated to intimidate and to stampede. (To put it another way, it might give some folks the wrong idea.)

So, to recap: Blogs, like SHECKYmagazine, are "dangerous." And the computers they're stored on are more harmful to the environment than gas-guzzling SUV's or jumbo jets! We're under assault on multiple fronts!

* * * * *

Every once in a while, we like to point out how the mainstream media misrepresents comedians. We take them to task for inaccuracies or imprecise language or the outright vilification of standup comics and the art of standup comedy. We do so with care and, most of the time, in a reasoned manner. And in some cases, we compete with the MSM when it comes to providing our readers with standup-related news or analysis or reporting. And we believe that we've always done so with attention to detail, accuracy and ethics. To suggest that we (or bloggers in general) are dangerous is lunacy.

As for the GAP, we're keeping an eye on them. We won't be blindsided!

Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.

--Miyamoto Musashi

Here's a curious item from Arutz Sheva (IsraelInternationalNews.com)

Not every new recruit can hope to be accepted for the Israeli military's newest and very exclusive assignment. Beginning with this January's military draft, just two soldiers will be able to become official IDF comedians. They will be deployed as early as the summer of 2008. Other potential assignments for the recruits of 2008 include IDF magician and IDF karaoke operator.

You read that right. And it's not from the Onion or its Israeli equivalent.

We're immediately reminded of the Monty Python's Funniest Joke in the World sketch (available here, entitled "El chiste mas gracioso del mundo" with Spanish subtitles)!



There is some explanation:

The IDF comedian is not a completely novel position, as military bands in the past included a non-musical entertainer, as well. However, the comedians disappeared from the entertainment troupes over the years. The first official army magician in Israel, however, only appeared in 2004.

The beauty of the imaginary movie in the title of this post is that absolutely anyone could sing the title song!

The box set, the entire run of the Comedy Central series created by Tom Snyder and Jonathan Katz is available. The reviews are positive:

Dr Katz Professional Therapist-- The Complete Series, is expensive, but at roughly $10 or less a disc, the laugh-per-dollar ratio is very much in the buyer’s favor considering all the comedic talent involved. If not a must-have for you, it’s an absolute must-rent.

Our own experience with the show was one of the saddest, most disappointing and most frustrating experiences in our comedy careers! We trooped up to the recording studios in Massachusetts and, for the recording session, we were asked to do something-- fight like a typical married couple-- that not only doesn't come naturally but is utterly impossible... we couldn't even fake it! It was an unqualified, uncomfortable disaster. Needless to say, we never made it onto the show.

We still like the show!

Available at Amazon.com for $111.99.

This item, about Dave Chappelle, is floating around on the internet:

The 34-year-old comedian, who broke the Laugh Factory's endurance record by taking to the stage for six hours and seven minutes in April, topped his record by telling jokes for six hours and 12 minutes on Sunday.

"Endurance record?" When we speak of an endurance record here, are we referring to the audience?

This is starting to get a little strange. We look askance at any comic who wants to be on the stage that long. Do it once, it might be one of those once-in-a-lifetime, I'm-so-glad-I-was-present kinda things. Twice? Somebody's got "issues."

If Chappelle stops into the club where you're working and asks to go on, make sure he goes on last!

The USO sent out a MySpace bulletin directing people to several sets of pics in their photo gallery depicting various celebs on recent USO tours.



Seen here (in the middle) are Wilmer Valderrama, model Mayra Veronica and Russell Peters during a stop in Greenland. The three tagged along on a six-day, six-country tour with Marine Corps General James E. Cartwright, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We figure that, as USO Tours go, tagging along with the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has to one of the sweeter gigs.

There are more galleries depicting similar tours featuring Carlos Mencia and Don King, among others.

A Seattle Times article ("Seattle's amateur stand-up comedy scene is alive and kicking"), is a nice hit for the folks who make up the People's Republic of Komedy.

We met and hung out with and performed with some of those comics when we headlined the Mainstage back in February. (Click here to read about that experience and actually see photographs of some of those mentioned in the Times piece.)

According to the Times' Haley Edwards, "the scene is led by a tight-knit group of young hipsters (most of them in their 20s) who perform for free at bars and cafes from Ballard to Kirkland."

And, of course, no article on standup comedy is complete without the headscratcher quote-- the statement that leaves one wondering the motivation behind it... or whether it may have been horribly mangled... or if it's been violently wrenched out of context... or all three! Delivered by FOS Ron Reid, this one is about the recent changes in the Seattle scene:

It's a little more indie and artsy than it's been in the past. The shows are either free or 5 bucks, so... there's not this push to be exclusive or 'make it big.' I think the hipsters like it because no one's 'selling out.'

Huh? (Ron, we luv ya... and we're glad you remain a friend, even though we're always busting your chops!)

Like we said, we met a good chunk of these comics. Some of them are good, solid, traditional standup comics (whether they want to be plastered with that odious label or not!) and they are just as interested in ditching the day job as comedians have always been since the dawn of Funny Man.

All this nonsense about "selling out" is amusing.

All you who waste your time muttering through clenched teeth about those who sell out and all those who tell reporters that you're not interested in selling out, heed this: David Cross has third billing in "Alvin And The Chipmunks."



The. Game. Is. Over.

KITFO with the selling out thing!

How did this happen?

A former stand-up comedian has been appointed as the new channel manager at The Comedy Channel, a Foxtel network based out of Melbourne, Australia.

Alex Ristevski is the bloke's name.

In an interview on NBA.com with Earl "The Pearl" Monroe, we learn that the NBA Hall of Famer dabbled in magic and in standup.

I would come out and I would do slight of hand type of stuff. After we went up and found out what we were going to do for the next half, I’d come out and do some magic tricks. I remember one instance where we played the Philadelphia 76ers and Wali Jones, who was my homeboy, came out with me and I put a sword through his neck. It was always showtime with me. I did it a few times and then as the season wore on, it got to a point where we got much more serious about everything and I kind of stopped it. But everyone always remembers that about me as well as the fact that I also did stand up comedy there. I did a couple shows with guys like Pigmeat Markham and another guy named Cliff Nobles, who had a big song out during the time called, "The Horse." So I had guys coming in from Philadelphia looking at me doing my stand up comedy act. Wes Unseld and Sonny Hill and all those guys would come in and start booing me when I was on stage doing my thing.

The occasion for the piece is the retiring of Monroe's number by the NBA's Baltimore franchise, making Monroe the only player in the league's history to have his number retired by two teams.

The Male Half of the Staff recalls Monroe fondly and often emulated the guard's syncopated, "shake and bake" dribbling and quirky playground style to limited success. Watch the Ultimate Earl Monroe Mix here (enhanced greatly by a smashing live version of James Brown's "Cold Sweat!"):

All you need to know about Imus return to radio is on Eric Deggans' TV and media blog The Feed.

Imus also announced two black cast members: standup comic and actor Tony Powell, talking sports, and Karith Foster (a comic who calls herself a Jewish African American Princess). Presumably, these two will keep Imus from some of his biggest problem areas, making stereotypical comments about black athletes, Jewish people and women. "It is a thrill to be here on the Tyler Perry version of the Imus in the Morning show," Powell said, cracking wise about his addition to the cast. "It's the Oprah-sponsored version of Imus."

The reference is to writer/director/producer Perry, who is famous for his television show and Medea series of films that cater to mainstream African-American audiences.

We saw a lot of chatter in our stats. Some folks were googling "Joe Restivo." We figured it was just more confusion from the story that ran a year and a half ago. Then we got an email from a reader.

The obituary in the Los Angeles Times confirms it.

Back in June of 2006, a guy by the name of Joe Restivo died. And we posted on it and on the ensuing confusion. The one who died in 2006 was a guy who dabbled in standup, but was primarily a restarateur-- in fact, he owned the restaurant made famous by Robert Blake. (It was the one where he "left his gun and hadda go back in to get it" while his girlfriend was being murdered.)

We got word from Joe that he was still quite alive and that he was fielding a lot of phone calls from folks who thought he had passed.

This time, it's for real.

The Male Half of the Staff fondly recalls a road trip with Restivo when the two had an idle afternoon while working at the Strip in El Paso.

We went over the border into Juarez. After a while, our curiosity got the better of us and we commandeered a cab to take us to a "donkey show." We eventually got a show... but there was no donkey involved. It sounds a lot worse than it was. It's probably only funny if you know Joe.... and me. I'll tell it to you, if we ever meet."

Restivo's obit is lengthy and handled ably by Valerie J. Nelson. An excerpt:

Over the last decade, Restivo regularly performed overseas with other comedians in USO shows staged for U.S. troops.

Last year, the comedian initially found humor in the sympathy calls he began fielding after the death of another Joe Restivo, a comedian and actor who had owned Vitello's restaurant in Studio City.

"By day four or five, it was not funny anymore," Restivo told the Associated Press after he learned that he had been replaced in a movie because the film crew thought he was dead.

A Chicago native, Restivo launched his entertainment career at 15 by winning a talent contest, which led him to record "Summer Love" and other songs in the early 1960s under the name Joey Richards.

The son of a doctor, he earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy of religion at Bradley University in Illinois. He also received a master's degree from the American Graduate School of International Management and a master's in religious philosophy from New York University.

While working in marketing for Chesebrough-Ponds in New York City, Restivo caught his first live stand-up show at the New York Improv, and he told The Times in 1990: "I felt like I was home."

He's home now. Rest in peace, Joe.