Their Tax Dollars At Work

SATURDAY

MONTREAL--"Free Beer!" screamed all the posters for the special presentation by the folks who bring us The Man Show, that endearingly and unapologetically masculine show on Comedy Central (We just wanna get through this without using the word "testoterone"...Doh!) The posters also promised Juggies (code for scantily clad, well-developed babes who are "very comfortable" with their bodies). They made good on the beer, the Juggies were a no-show. The Opus ballrooms at the Delta were nearly three-quarters full by the time Man Show hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla mounted the stage. The show's producer, former Letterman writer Daniel Kellison, was also on board for the tragically short presentation, which included video clips, anecdotes and a bit of Q & A at the end.

Kimmel and Carolla may be two of the most serene people on the planet. They were riotous. The anecdotes, mainly about the genesis of the show and mild skirmishes with censors, were hilarious. "Our goal was to create a show that could make you laugh and have an erection at the same time," said Kimmel. Does that sum it up, or what?! The clips (some of which depicted pieces that never made it to air) clearly demonstrated that the writing on the "The Man Show" is some of the most daring, most rollicking on television. Carolla's "Date With Mom" short, shown in its entirety, was howlingly funny, especially considering the subject matter.

The Hollywood Reporter party was, mercifully, held outside today. An exceedingly pleasant day on the Terasse de la Jardin mixed with free food and booze makes for a swell party. It was well-attended and it gave everyone a chance to make plans for the evening's festivities. As we departed, we ran into Eddie Brill and congratulated him on his new position, comedian wrangler for Late Show with David Letterman. Brill's just completed his first 100 days as talent coordinator and he's enthusiastic and extremely busy. It's great to see a real, live standup comic in the position of suggesting which standup comics should appear on the revered late night talk show.

While we were waiting for a shuttle to take us to the Centaur Theater for The Marijuana-Logues, Mitch Hedberg bursts out through the glass double doors of the Delta lobby. Although we'd interviewed Mitch for the October 1999 issue of SHECKYmagazine.com, we'd never met him! (That interview, one of the few that is permanently archived on our site, consistently attracts visitors from the vast reaches of cyberspace. We have concluded that Hedberg fans are the most computer-savvy of any standup fans.) We've seen Mitch on the telly, and we wanted badly to see him live, however, on Thursday, nobody here could tell us, with any certainty, when or where Mitch might be appearing. And we asked a lot of people. To compound the difficulty of spotting the elusive Hedberg, the Fest is cracking down on us (media, industry) and actually forcing us to "put in" early for tickets for those show we wish to attend. This really cuts down on spontaneity. Combine this with the "Media must have tickets" mantra of the Venue Crowd Wranglers, and it's really tough to change gears. To put it another way, even if we had eventually found out about a pending Hedberg performance, we would have probably been screwed anyway. In Fests past (all two of them, for us), we would have acted on such a tip by catching a shuttle to a venue, waiting until the real, ticket-buying crowd had been installed and then flashing our media passes to the venue personnel, who would allow us to enter, even if it meant a few square feet of linoleum in the extreme rear of the house. No longer! Too bad! It may make things smoother for Festival organizers (and we're sure they have their justification) but it's a pain in the buttocks for the rest of us.

We saw the Marijuana-Logues amidst a packed house at the Centaur. It was a well-paced, well written, well-executed 75 or 80 minutes of monologues about weed. The odes were delivered by Arj Barker, Doug Benson and Tony Camin (pronounced "cah-MEEN") Each sat on a stool, each was behind a lectern and each was shoeless(?!). It was delightful! The crowd roared! SHECKYmagazine.com gives The Marijuana-Logues FOUR JOINTS! It's fun for the entire pot-smoking family! I haven't enjoyed myself at the theater since...since...I...I can't remember... I'm hungry! Run, don't stumble to see The Marijuana-Logues! It's not just funny when you're high! (Note to the show's producers: That has "publicity blurb" written all over it!)

Then it was off to Club Soda for Bobby Slayton's Pick Of The Litter, a "best of" show that presented an eclectic assortment of acts in rapid succession. We saw Arj Barker, Jim Shubert, Dave Foley (in a sketch with Hall Kid Kevin MacDonald), Reggie McFadden and Triumph The Insult Comic Dog before departing. Club Soda was packed to le rafteurs. It was a thrill to see the Insult Dog live! (As you may or may not know, SHECKYmagazine.com was the first publication to request an interview with the prickly Rottweiler. His interview, written with an assist from Robert Smigel, continues to be one of our most requested files.) Triumph was in rare form, and was particularly ungracious toward host Slayton. "Slayton was stopped by the border patrol...they asked him 'What is the purpose of your visit?' and Slayton said, 'To SUCK!'" Although his hammering of Gabe Kaplan was a corker! ("Gabe Kaplan's career disappeared faster than my cock in a St. Bernard!") At one point, Triumph "fuck(ed) Ernie from Sesame Street up the ass." Fun for the whole family!

Then it was back to the Delta for the CBC Television Salute To Canadian Comics. (It was a party. With oodles of free beer and lots of sausage and french fried potatoes!) And, as the music pulsated and the crowd spilled from the ballroom out into the halls, the temperature inside the party made certain that the guests cooked right along with the sausage. Barring any unforeseen miracles, this would be the last huge nighttime party of the Festival 2001. Comedy Central, traditionally the throwers of the Saturday night bash, opted not to be enablers this year! Horreurs! Whatever shall we all do with ourselves on the (what always feels like the final night of the fest?! Feeble inquiries and paranoid theorizing failed to come up with any concrete answers as to why they aren't footing the bill for a giant soiree.

We gotta wrap this one up...Andy Kindler is giving his State of the Industry address at 1 and the temperature of the ballroom should be just about hot enough by now. Stay tuned.