Hey, Chucky Baby! Dig this from a Comedy Central press release:

COMEDY CENTRAL and Sony Pictures Television are bringing back a classic series with a twist. Lauren Corrao, president, original programming and development, announced the network has greenlit, The Gong Show with Dave Attell. The new series is scheduled to premiere on July 17.

Executive Produced by Happy Madison Productions and Andrew Golder (Identity and Win Ben Stein's Money) in association with Sony Pictures Television, The Gong Show with Dave Attell will consist of eight to ten off-beat and hilarious acts that will be judged by a panel of three revolving celebrity judges. The search for talent has already begun and submissions are being accepted at gongshowcasting@aol.com.

Creator and reluctant host Chuck Barris will be a hard act to follow. And now that we're hard-bitten, cynical adults, we'll have a hard time believing that any of the wacky acts aren't just some agents idea of how to get his client exposure on a cable television show (possibly leading to a reality series or guest spots on other Comedy Central productions). Of course, that's not what they were the first time around... but we weren't hard-bitten, cynical adults back then. And quite a few of us were high.

Check out the A.V. Club's tremendous interview with Murray Langston. An excerpt:

Yeah. Gallagher came from Florida with Jim Stafford. Remember Jim Stafford? "My Girl Bill" and "Spiders And Snakes?" He was a hit back then. He had his own summer show and a bunch of hit records. Gallagher was one of his best friends, and was writing his act. He walked into my club one day, and I'm going, "Jim Stafford!" Like I said, he was a big hit at this time. He says, "I'll get up and do a couple songs if you put my buddy on." I said, "Sure, who's your buddy?" The guy's name was Gallagher. He did the watermelon thing the first time he was there and floored the place. But he had done it before. That wasn't the first place he did it; him and Stafford, apparently, worked at a little place in Florida, where they were originally from. Stafford is making about $20 million a year now in Branson, Missouri. He's very, very successful.Anyway, so those couple years I had the club, I lost everything, and I was busted, broke. I had no money, and The Gong Show has been on the air maybe six months. And if you were in the union, which I was, and you appeared on The Gong Show, you got a few hundred dollars. I heard that everybody was going on who needed money—actors were making up these little bits—so I said, "Well, I could use the money." So I said, "Well, if I put a bag on my head and tell a couple jokes, nobody will know it's me." I didn't want anybody to know it was me, because I'd just been on The Sonny And Cher Show. So I was embarrassed having to do...

Southwest Airlines' in-flight magazine Spirit found a way to promote Brad Garrett's May 9-10 gig at the Mirage in their destination city Las Vegas by running an article by him (or ghost-written for him by his publicist) that lists "four works worth a laugh."

Woody Allen, The Night Club Years 1964-1968

Don Rickles, Hello Dummy!

Bill Cosby, Why Is There Air?

Jimmy Walker, Dyn-O-Mite

Go here for Spirit's online component to the article, which lists a couple more albums and includes a link or two.

We posted in November about mental health counselor David Granirer, who teaches standup to the mentally ill ("The pot calling the kettle crazy"). We're okay with someone gathering mentally ill people up and coaching them in the ways of standup comedy, but we grow weary of folks like Granirer (and his enablers in the media) who peddle this "all comics are crazy" meme.

Yet another media outlet has fallen for it. This time, it's Doug Williamson, writing for the Windsor (Ontario) Star who has spun a virtually identical tale to November's Vancouver piece, complete with the insulting roundhouse at the end:

Granirer said coaching people with mental illness can be challenging.

"The subject matter is very serious," he said, adding that some people are on medication or have cognitive impairments which can make preparation more difficult.

But then again, many professional comedians probably suffer from some form of mental illness without realizing it, he said.

"There's the diagnosed and the undiagnosed," he laughed.

"I think you've got to be a little bit nuts to do standup comedy."

The only difference between this article and the November article is that this time Granirer has added the "probably" qualifier. But, of course, he also throws in the diagnosed/undiagnosed switcheroo-- a great comfort to those who want to believe that all comics are indeed on the crazy bubble. Thanks, Dave.

(We're a bit confused: When Granirer speaks of his students, he does so in hyper-serious mode, so as to "confront and fight public prejudice" and bravely dispel the myths. Yet, when he plants the ridiculous notion about undiagnosed comedians, he does so-- at least according to Williamson-- with a laugh.)

We're still wincing over this article on Dane101.com (which is a website devoted to the happenings in Dane County and Madison, WI... Not Dane Cook... didn't the Bucks usta play at Dane County Colliseum? And they had that horn to signal the end of the periods that sounded, appropriately enough, like one of those alpine horns in the Ricola commercial? We digress).

Anyway, it's by John Mendelssohn who, according to him, has "gone on stage as an actor, an orator, a musician, and a solo comedian."

He went to an open mike, then he wrote a review of it. And it's an unrelentingly negative review. He mercifully leaves the performers anonymous in this graf:

But curb your enthusiasm. Mostly their jokes go thud, thud, and thud. One comic points out that a lot of rock singers sound as though they're being anally raped. Ta-da-DUM! Another observes that New York's new governor, David Paterson, who's legally blind, could have truthfully told his wife that he wasn't seeing any other women.

Seeing. Legally blind. Get it?

Ouch, we say! Isn't open mike night all about potential? Isn't it unfair to review the performances as if they're all fully-formed artists? Isn't it more reasonable to regard the entire evening as an experiment? Shouldn't Mendelssohn be cutting all the comics a break, rather than holding them up to an unreasonably high standard? It's kinda like sitting on a folding chair at the finish line at the Special Olympics with a stopwatch and slowly shaking your head as each pack finishes. Sure, you could measure things in hundredths or tenths of a second, but why bother? Zoom out, look at the big picture. (Did we just compare a bunch of budding standup comics to mentally handicapped children? Perhaps. But, more importantly, we just analogized a ham-handed writer to a supercilious prick.)

We could understand a review like this from someone who doesn't quite understand what an open mike is, or who has never actually gone up onstage before, but Mendelssohn fancies himself an artist. He even mentions that he was part of a sketch comedy troupe. He's written for Rolling Stone, for crying out loud. So why the unnecessary roughness?

Less annoyingly, the next generation of Madison Standup Comics is also relentlessly self-referential, forever commenting on our reactions to them. Well, that's the last time I'll tell that one, I guess. (Promises, promises!) When they forget where they are in their routine, they are likely to muse into the microphone, "What the fuck else I got?" Charming!

At times, he sounds more like an ancient, prissy NYC theater reviewer than a bi-coastal, hipster blogger. Actually, we seem to be dealing with an accomplished author-- one who wrote rock reviews for RS as far back as 1969. Which makes this scenario all the more puzzling-- A veteran rock journo, sitting in on an open mike in Madison, WI, on a Wednesday night, then penning a savage review... and all for free.

Local comedians are no less slavishly imitative of one another than their counterparts in Madison's countless dozens of indistinguishable T-shirts-'n'-guitars bands; nearly all come on stage dressed as though fresh from changing their own oil. Nearly all, as noted above, are potty-mouthed; nowhere else in life would anyone but a sociopath speak like this in front of strangers. At the Klinic, though, Fuck, shit, fuck, shit, cock, dick, pussy, menstrual period, fuck, shit, fuck seems as de rigueur as using the microphone.

Notwitstanding the sprinkling of French into his prose, the writer seems to be channeling Peter Griffin rather than Lester Bangs. Did he actually use the term "potty-mouthed?"

We hate to go all Freud on this guy's ass, but, in paragraph three of this piece, when he lays out his what's funny/what's not matrix (funniest being 10 and not funny be a 1), the 1 is "the irrepressible loudmouth kid back in high school who regarded himself as the class clown, (though everyone else regarded him the class asshole)." Mr. Mendelssohn, it seems, has "issues." Sometimes, it's just too easy!

Sure, last Tuesday we wrote about related matters, but we like to think that we did so with some restraint and that in the process, we made some observations about the business and the craft at large. (And the discussion it has set off continues to this day and is, we hope, enlightening and entertaining.)

That's a Thursday. Rather inconvenient for working comics, no? But, it's not for us, now is it? No it's for all those standup comedy fans. Speaking of which: If you're a comedy fan and you want to get tickets to tapings, click on this image:

It's from NBC's Last Comic Standing page and it'll take you to the site of one of those companies that rustle audiences for television shows. We figure if enough of our readers show up, they won't have anyone in the audience that will HECKLE!

They also have a "Where are they now" feature which allows us to catch up with Dat Phan, Matt Kirshen and other past contestants. And "ANT is back with his signature wit starting this May," teases one of the links. Signature wit? Did they say "signature wit?"

The premiere episode is a 90-minute extravaganza at 9:30 EDT. Then it will revert to its regular 8:30 PM time slot in subsequent weeks. Still inconvenient. But we will figure out a way to comment/analyze the proceedings. We'll be in Kansas City the first week. Nowhere (so far) on week two.

If you're headed to Montreal this July for Just For Laughs, check out their hahaha.com website to see who's performing and what they'll be doing.

The most interesting item is that Larry Miller will be hosting the Masters shows. We think that would be a thrill to share a bill with Miller.

Another notable presence will be that of Judd Apatow, who'll be honored for his recent film work. Many of the standup comics who appear in Apatow's movies will also be along, performing on showcases and galas and whatnot.

We also hear that South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker will be in attendance.

More comics will be announced as they're added.

The Daily Northwestern, the student paper of Northwestern University, had this article, about senior Ajay Singhvi who "wanted to leave his mark on Northwestern by putting on a stand-up comedy show."

The result was caNUstandUP.

The show was run in an Apollo-style format, allowing the audience members to boo performers they didn't like off stage.

"We want audience interaction; they're the main factor," Singhvi said. "They decide if the show goes on."

Audience interaction? How about laughter? Applause? Whooping? Silence is also a good way of "interacting" with the performer.

Encouraging booing is moronic. And, predictably, it was a shitty experience for many of the performers. "I think the Apollo style was harsh on the comedians," Reichert said. "The booing really discouraged people from continuing. Jory didn't get through his material because of it."

Of course, not everyone was unhappy with the rude behavior. The winner thought it was tremendous. "The way that it's set up, you can't blame the audience," he said. "Booing is what they were encouraged to do."

Allowing or encouraging booing at a comedy show changes the dynamic in such a fundamental way as to stunt the potential growth of any performer. Turning a set around is a crucial skill, but it's impossible when the audience starts caterwauling. Silence is enough of a rebuke. Booing is rude, plain and simple.

The Female Half, while researching an upcoming trip to Hawaii, endeavored to befriend a MySpace entity by the name of Waikiki Beach, which represented an outfit called Waikiki Beach Services.

However, when she attempted to add Waikiki Beach to our list of MySpace Friends, she was greeted with the following:



Initially, she was outraged. But, since this is America (even on cyberspace), and since folks have the right to associate (or, last time we looked, not associate) with whom they wish, her outrage turned to simply feeling hurt, rejected and confused.

She recalls that she's gotten the same message on a few occasions in the past-- like when she's tried to befriend one of MySpace's "Featured Comedians." If there is anyone who should be forced to accept a comedian as a friend, it should be a comedian who is blessed with the Featured Comedian designation. What gives? How does one even configure one's MySpace profile to automatically reject comedians? And why would anyone do such a thing?

She now wants to configure her MySpace profile to return this:

Comics based in the Northeastern U.S. in the 80s and 90s were certainly familiar with Wise Guys. The Syracuse, NY, comedy club regularly sold out five nights a week and proprietors Bruno and Jeannine Schirripa ran and booked a club that was the envy of many larger-market venues. (We worked there twice a year and regularly cited it as one of the top ten clubs in the country.)

After a change or two in location and other difficulties, Wise Guys closed and Syracusans found themselves without an A-room.

We recently received word from Bruno Schirripa that, on October 18 of last year, he re-opened Wise Guys at a "fantastic location in the heart of downtown Syracuse," and that the room is offering eight shows over five nights each week.

Along with news of the re-birth came sad news: Jeannine passed away suddenly on March 1 of last year, after a brief illness. Jeannine was very hands-on at the old club(s) and anyone who worked Wise Guys knew her well and regarded her as a friend.

We were totally unaware of the flap that arose late last month when Jay Leno asked guest Ryan Phillippe (who had portrayed a gay teen on One Life To Live) to give him his "gayest look."

Phillippe refused and threatened to walk. Not sure why, exactly, but apparently Leno's request was the height of ignorance and an insult to gay people the world over. One gossip blogger was even prompted to label Leno, "the human embodiment of suckiness."

The story made headlines all over the English-speaking world and Leno was forced to make a quick apology.

Another website was created solely for the purpose of soliciting photos of readers who were asked to give Jay their gayest look while extending their middle finger. "It's a fun way to get across a serious message," said one of the founders of the site, which "raises awareness about the fact that gay jokes really just aren't funny."

Then, there's this:



Is the "gay community" owed an apology from Ben Affleck? From Kimmel? From ABC/Cap Cities?

From an opinion piece in the Thursday, April 10, Falls Church News-Press by Wayne Besen:

Deciding when a joke is funny or anti-gay fodder is a delicate task. It does not help the gay and lesbian movement to be seen as killjoys, but, at the same time, much damage is done when we are comically killed for the joy of others. Society should be concerned whether the cumulative effect of demeaning jokes has a negative impact on gay teenagers, who are more likely to commit suicide.

So, where is the appropriate place to draw the line?

If gay individuals or groups do something that is actually amusing or absurd, it is perfectly acceptable that they be laughed at and lampooned. However, simply being gay-- or insinuating that someone is homosexual - should not be considered inherently funny. The punch line should never be: "Ha, ha, ha, you're gay." If the comedy writers can't come up with more creative jokes, they should seriously consider new jobs.

Jay Leno's interview with Ryan Phillippe was quite perfunctory and the comedian had no apparent malice. He had simply trotted out a tired industry formula that had been repeated thousands of times. But, the old routine did not elicit a routine response, signifying that gay people are finally standing up to the stand-up comics.

Emphasis ours.

Such talk makes us nervous-- "perfectly acceptable" and "should not be considered inherently funny" and implying that jokes can lead to teenage suicide.

"Deciding when a joke is funny," Besen says, "is a delicate task" But he no doubt has some idea of how to go about it. And he would be more than happy to set himself (or someone else) up as the arbiter. (Just what comedy needs-- someone to handle the "delicate task" of deciding what is and is not funny.) Or, failing that, he is more than willing to leave the whole matter vague and undefined-- the better to squelch any and all jokes about homosexuals. None of this is good for either the joker or the jokee.

When we draw a circle around a group and make them protected from comedy, we label them as victims, we deprive them of the right to laugh at themselves (and us at them) and we strip them of a useful tool for (for lack of a better word) assimilation. You can see where that might lead-- resentment, estrangement from society at large, self-pity-- all the things that humor is good at breaking down and eliminating. (For more on this very subject, see our posting from May, 2006, "'Horribly offensive' or 'satire'?")

Harry Shuldman, senior writer for Cornell's student paper The Ithican, wrote a review of Tracy Morgan's recent appearance there. Morgan apparently walked a bunch of "mortified sorority girls" and left others in attendance less than pleased with his raunchy performance.

Unless the majority of the audience was secretly bused in from Peoria and promised they were about to see the family-friendly comedic stylings of a Brian Regan or Gallagher, there's really no explanation for the shocked reactions to all of Morgan's nastiest material.

Of course, Shuldman knows that there is indeed an explanation. What he means to imply is that there is no real reason for such shocked reactions. The explanation, of course, is that a good number of us Americans are being raised to automatically display outrage at the slightest perceived bit of rudeness or incivility, especially when directed at protected groups. (And those who were not raised in this manner are being bludgeoned daily with the message.) But Shuldman knows well that college campuses are on the frontlines of such indoctrination.

Much to his credit, Morgan forges on, cranking up the offense. And, much to his credit, Shuldman defends him further:

Morgan kept repeating that the audience was just not feeling him enough and that they were judging him joke for joke. "I know you're all intellectuals," he said. "I don't give a f**k."

The people who had the best time on Sunday night were the ones who didn't either.

Comics should be aware that the bulk of the pressure on us (and on comedy audiences) to constantly "give a f**k" comes not from those groups which are traditionally seen as buzzkills (the Right, Conservatives, Christians, school marms, think the adults in "Footloose"), but from those groups traditionally seen as upholding the finest principals and practices of "progressivism" (the Left, Liberals, free spirits, think the kids in "Footloose"). We caution all comics to look both ways before crossing the line. Just so when you get smacked on the back of the head, you won't be surprised which direction it came from.

Last month, we posted about Variety's Brian Lowry and his insipid theory as to why there are no more sitcoms starring comedians ("It's a big pile of dumb!"), best summed up by this sentence:

Ultimately, the lure of TV proved too intoxicating, and the talent pool wasn't equal to the demand.

Huh? Whatever.

The Toronto Sun's Jim Slotek has a different, slightly more optimistic take on the current epoch in his article in this past Sunday's paper with the rather ungainly title, "Anybody who thinks that Canadian comedy has run out of gas should check out the brilliant standups at the local yuk-fests." In it, Slotek recounts the glory years when Canadian comics populated the airwaves of North America (particularly late-night U.S. airwaves) and sacks of cash were thrown around the Delta every July.

Then he fast-forwards to today when things have... slowed down a bit.

But all is not gloom and doom. He cites Russell Peters and Seth Rogen as two comics who could become, or who currently are, major forces in Hollywood. The skeptical among you might say that two comics does not a trend or industry turnaround make. Ah, but you must realize that all it takes is one success and the herd mentality of Hollywood takes control. One hit sitcom starring Peters accidentally makes it onto the primetime schedule and (despite the inept meddling of the boys in marketing or the bloated ego of a programming guru or two), BLAMMO-- the stampede to sign up and pilotize comedians begins. Before long, Time and Newsweek run cover stories with titles like "New generation of laugh-getters are bringing the funny to the tube!" and "Yukmeisters slay the reality dragon!"

Slotek turns the corner to optimism:

For a while, I thought the problem was us. Maybe we had stopped being funny. Maybe it was like that Clive Owen movie Children of Men, where, for reasons unexplained, the last Canadian with a sense of irony was born decades ago, and we've just been drifting along in a state of cowlike unquestioning consumerism ever since, watching Adam Sandler punch people.

But in the last year, I've actually gone out to see twentysomething comics -- as a judge for the Tim Sims Encouragement Fund and at Yuk Yuk's $25,000 Laugh Off (where for the third year in a row, a Canadian standup comic won the grand prize over competition from around the world). Many of them are actually funny, and weird, and worth hearing. And you can hear them at open mikes at places like the Eton House and Spirits and the Rivoli.

Maybe we're still effin' funny after all-- even without a U.S. development deal and a laughtrack.

Names? Not this time around. Perhaps next Sunday. And, we suspect there are a lot of thirtysomething and perhaps fortysomething comics in Canada who are "actually funny, and weird, and worth hearing," but Mr. Slotek has become-- dare we say it?-- jaded. (Hey, if it can happen to an entire generation of network executives, it can happen to entertainment reporters. Perhaps we'll take it up with him in Montreal in July!)

As a companion piece to Slotek's column, we refer readers to an article from Reuters which is burning up the RSS feeds. It's all about the recent ratings week and, although the information is hard to extract, the folks at Reuters have headlined it, "Fox wins week as viewers abandon talent shows." Viewers are abandoning talent shows? Who could have predicted that?

Well... we could have. In fact, we have done so on more than one occasion. Scroll up. We just did it again!

John Wenzel writes for the Denver Post. He pays a lot of attention to standup comedy, particularly alternative comedy. In fact, Wenzel says he's got a book coming out about that branch of comedy typified by/led by David Cross, Demetri Martin, Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt, et al.

He calls the movement "indie comedy." (In fact, there's every possibility that Wenzel actually coined that term.) Indie (short for independent) more aptly describes that genre of comedy that has developed fairly recently. It's the kind of standup that was depicted in Oswalt's Comedians of Comedy Tour (and subsequent movie about the tour).

It's actually a better way to characterize the scene-- at least from a PR standpoint. Rather than just conveying the Us Against Them implications of the "alternative" label, "Indie" implies a certain level of take-charge entrepreneurialism, an autonomy, an admirable DIY attitude that the former term lacked.

And, whereas alternative acts came about in an era when studios, agents, suits, managers and networks were calling the shots, Indie acts are all about vertical integration-- locating the venue, marketing the shows, micromanaging the audience demo, creating the vibe, booking the acts and, of course, putting yourself and your Indie buddies on the bill. Indie comics seem also to have abandoned much of the bitterness and the self-pity that inevitably made its way into the articles written about the scene and into the quotes that those articles were framed by.

It's a natural progression, a maturation of the business. Much of this maturation has been brought about by modern technology-- the WWW, MySpace, cheap printing, etc. (And it is this very same technology that has so severely eroded the power of those aforementioned studio executives and captains of the entertainment industry.)

Alts took their cues from the Entertainment Industry at large. Indies seem unbound by such restrictions. Just as some independent musical artists have thrown off the chains of major record labels and have bucked the traditional channels of distribution, so too have Indie comics sought to avoid chain clubs and people who, in Wenzel's words, "settle at candlelit tables to hear jokes from a random stand-up."

Our ruminations here on Indie/Alt comedy were spurred initially by a Wenzel article in yesterday's Denver Post on the Denver comedy collective known as Wrist Deep Productions, in which Wenzel once again makes the case for Indie comedy.

In other words, smart, aggressive stand-up that shatters expectations without spinning off into abstractions. The result is an injection of the punk-rock ethos into an art form that suffered an image crisis at the hands of the '80s comedy boom and bust — one from which Wrist Deep is helping it recover.

We can forgive the bombast. Wenzel has a book to sell. But at least he's enthusiastic and, for the most part, positive when he describes his favorite brand of standup. (And he is suprisingly restrained when he disses the non-Indie brand.)

It's very instructive and informative to go back and read Wenzel's other pieces on the subject. This article, in November of 2006, is, Wenzel admits, pretty much the book proposal, for his upcoming tome. And the opening 81 words is the elevator pitch:

Overpriced two-drink minimums. A tacky comb-over in a blazer. Sickly potato skins and drunken bachelorette parties.

These used to be the hallmarks of live comedy, an art relegated to the controlled environs of smoky, mainstream comedy clubs.

Lucky for us, a new breed of comedians has rejected the stale format. The alternative comedy movement of the 1990s has morphed into something unpredictable and cerebral. Something more akin to the visceral, anti-establishment ethos of punk and indie rock.

Call it indie comedy.

We'll overlook the "tacky comb-over in a blazer" reference (that's rather jarring in its inauthenticity!), but, once again, Wenzel manages to be upbeat when advocating for Indie. And the entire article is worth reading for its information and for his success in eliciting thoughtful, insightful quotes from Indie gods such as Cross, Martin and Brian Posehn.

We found yet another Wenzel piece, this time from his DP blog, on the occasion of his fourth visit to the South By Southwest festival in Austin last month. SXSW has, like so many other formerly strictly music festivals, incorporated standup into the program. A natural progression for indie music and, Wenzel notes, a natural progression for Indie comedy. But the evolution of Indie is not without its problems.

To be sure, indie comedy is not the largest or most diverse scene out there. Comedy nerds like myself that weekly devour Adult Swim and SuperDeluxe offerings tend to notice the same several dozen people (mostly white dudes) popping up at these fests. And if you live in L.A., New York, Chicago or Seattle you’re also likely to see the same handful of comedians at shows like Comedy Death Ray, or touring indie music venues in general, or releasing albums on indie music labels like Sub Pop, Drag City and Matador. In other words, overlapping with the indie rock sphere in a way that implies an inexorable, blessed blend of the two.

Which brings us to the piece in yesterday's Post. If you read the three pieces in order, you can follow along as the genre (the movement?) grows and evolves. And, if we were to handicap it, if we were to try and guess at which point the movement is in its history (its epoch, if you will allow us to take the evolution analogy further), we would say that it is just about to succumb to its own success. Name us a genre that hasn't. (In fact, if we're to take Wenzel's constant comparison of Indie comedy to punk rock to its logical extreme, we might be, not quite, but just about, at that point where Blondie released "Rapture.")

Out there, on the road, over the past year or two, we've seen two tracks forming among open mikers and upandcomers: Your typical open mike comic will either emulate Dane Cook or he'll present himself as an amalgam of a handful of Alt/Indie stars. There are exceptions to be sure. But the exceptions are rare.

Neither trend bodes well for the future. (In the former example, it takes an awful lot of personality and energy and cunning to pull off the Cook thing. But that's an entire post for another day.) In the latter example, it is evidenced by an army of comedians ("mostly white dudes," as Wenzel says) who dress alike and who affect similar grooming, delivery and quirks. And they reference an alarmingly similar array of words, phrases and subjects-- AIDS, rape, abortion, genocide are specifically mentioned in yesterday's DP article, with abortion being cited twice. It's what Wenzel calls "hipster catnip."

And they slather their presentations generously with Alt/Indy buzzwords and terms-- "nutsack," (and its variant, "ballsack"), "Satan's spawn," "soul-crushing," "anal rape," "fist fucking" and "Stephen Hawking." Extra points are awarded if you manage to work in the name of any mid-20th century philosopher (Sartre is okay, Nietzsche is much better. Work in Jacques Derrida and they throw you a party). And if you manage to work in one or more reference into a single joke-- i.e., Stephen Hawking getting fistfucked-- you take home the blue ribbon.

For all its talk about innovation and breathing new life into the artform, for all of its huffery and puffery about moving the boundaries and challenging old expectations, there seems to be an awful lot of regimentation and replication-- some of it self-imposed, some of it accidental. And this tendency toward imitation rather than innovation might destroy any of the good that emerges from the movement. See indie films-- they've become self-parodying, bloated, high-budget, cliche-packed havens for the same old artists, directors, producers and distributors, virtually indistinguishable from the studio product. The same might happen to Indie comedy if folks aren't careful.

(Check out MileHiComedy.com, a website curated by Denver comic Donna Ayers. She's quoted in the April 21 DP article and her site pays strict attention to the comics and comedy venues of Denver and surrounding area. Every market, big or small, needs a site like this one.)

We'd like to thank all the people who emailed or phoned or wrote or personally expressed their condolences regarding the death of the Male Half's mother. Now that we're back in the office for a few days, it'll give us a chance to personally respond to all those who sent along the kind words. It is truly appreciated.

We're back in Jersey. We spent the last 72 hours in Florida, working in Ocala at Jokeboys and then heading back down to West Palm for a show at the West Palm Improv (which was, for a number of reasons, cancelled). We headed on down to Lauderdale with our hostess, comedian Lisa Carrao (see pic below), to the Lauderdale Improv, and caught the last few minutes of the "4/20-Friendly Comedy Show" starring all the folks in the pic below. That show, held on this auspicious pot-smoking date, was to have included a screening of Doug Benson's "Super High Me," which, for a number of reasons, did not occur).


Left to right: Oni Perez, Forrest Shaw, Ricky Cruz, John Vargas, Greg DeTullio, and Adrian Mesa

The two Improvs we saw were spectacular comedy showcases-- each in relatively new, bustling entertainment/retail complexes and each state-of-the-art. An enthusiastic and near-capacity crowd enjoyed the pot-themed show at the Lauderdale club.


Lisa Corrao (l) and The Female Half at the Ft. Lauderdale Improv immediately following the 4/20 show.

Says the Male Half:

The above was shot in 1978, during my black and white phase. (And, in case you're wondering, a feeble attempt was made at hand-tinting, back when that kind of thing was all the rage.) I hung it in my swinging bachelor pad in Audubon, NJ. The story was told in the pages of this magazine that comic Dan Wilson was visiting the pad and he asked, with a straight face, why I had a photo of Roy Orbison on my wall. After ascertaining that he was serious, I told him it was my mom. Explosive laughter was the only option.

My mother appreciated the story. Or would have, if I had told her... I'm not sure if I did. She laughed at herself more readily than anyone I will know. Which made busting her chops very easy. And made for good training in the art of busting chops.

We took her and my father to Hawaii back in 1990 or so. It was the lifelong dream of many of her generation to travel to that exotic locale-- a dream no doubt stoked by seeing countless trips to Hawaii given away on game shows in the five decades following WW II.

She watched a lot of game shows. I concluded this was because, many years ago, she actually appeared on one-- a local production called "Cinderella Weekend," described by one website as "one of television's first question panel game shows." This probably occurred sometime in the 50s. Family lore had it that, though she didn't win the grand prize of a trip to NYC for a weekend of sightseeing and entertainment, she did come away with plenty of "consolation prizes"-- among which, the story goes, was an intercom system for the home, which was never installed and probably sold through a prize broker. When I heard this I was sorely disappointed. I thought that it would be coolest thing in the world to have an intercom system. Of course, our house was so small that an intercom system would have been about as useful as an elevator or a system of pneumatic mail tubes.

Helen (I addressed her and referred to her as such after I became an adult.) also was taken by the idea of celebrity and fame. In the era way before Extra! and Access Hollywood, she knew a lot about Hollywood and the people that manned the movie and television dream machine. Obscure facts, trivia, stuff that enhanced her viewing experience-- who was formerly married to whom or the real name of this actor or that. Much of it was gleaned from TV Guide, some of it was no doubt acquired via her near-obsessive crossword habit.

I think she would have been quite pleased to have been famous and would have been quite comfortable being so. As it was, she achieved a sort of fame, on a local level, in her hometown of Pennsauken-- through her church, the organizations she joined, the volunteer work she engaged in. And I, by being the youngest of her five children, shared in that fame. No matter what level of fame I may achieve/may have achieved by virtue of being a comedian, to many of the residents of Helen's hometown, that recognition will be dwarfed by my status as "Helen McKim's son."

Steven Wright, Barry Crimmins, Lenny Clarke, Steve Sweeney, Mike McDonald, Tony V, Ken Rogerson, Chance Langton, Bill Braudis and Jimmy Tingle will perform Sunday, May 4, in a benefit for Bob Lazarus at the Regents Theater in Arlington, MA .

Says the Regent site, "Lazarus was diagnosed with leukemia last summer, and has been in remission since his hospital stay in August, however he still has more outpatient treatments for the next ten months, which makes consistent work very difficult."

Last Sunday, at Gotham in NYC, many of the members of the cast of the Sopranos showed up for a benefit for Borgata proprietor (and former owner of Pip's in Brooklyn) Ray Garvey. Garvey is also undergoing treatment for cancer. Since the show was sold out (we heard a rumor that Woody Allen was supposed to show up... which is logical, since Garvey has appeared in more than one of Allen's films), details were scant. Go here to see pics from the event.

And in another benefit show (also at Gotham) on Tuesday night, Rich Francese, Colin Quinn, Dave Attell, Jim Norton, Rich Vos, Artie Lange and Goumba Johnny performed to raise money for medical bills incurred by Chris Murphy, veteran comedian, comedy coach and writer. Murphy was also recently diagnosed with cancer.

And coming up, there will be a benefit for Mike Sullivan-Irwin. Sullivan-Irwin was recently diagnosed with cancer in his jaw. If we get any details, we'll publish them here.

According to wife, Esther:

Cards and flowers can be sent to
Mike Irwin c/o
St. Mary's Hospital
427 Guy Park Ave
room 4111.

Amsterdam, NY 12010

The Ithaca Times ran an interview with Jerry Stiller after his solo performance at Statler Auditorium

Tonight, I did what I wanted to do. I've always wanted to stand up in front of a crowd of people who were willing to listen to me and tell me whether my life was worth anything as an actor. I've been in plays, movies and all that, but this is something that's always been in my mind, that I wanted to be up there as a stand up comedian, which I was never able to do. And when I stopped working on these television shows, I had the opportunity to start to put my life together for people. I started to craft the stories in such a way that they became more than just little sound bytes. And people liked it!

AP TV reporter David Bauder reports that Craig Ferguson's CBS talk show beat his NBC rival last week for the first time since he started hosting the show in January 2005.

It caps a slow and steady climb for Ferguson and raises a red flag for future Tonight show host O'Brien, although NBC says it is still happy with O'Brien's audience.

NBC suits were quick with the excuses and mitigating circumstances and the "key demo" sound bites. But all anyone hears is that Ferguson beat Conan.

The implications for Conan and for NBC are big. It is especially interesting since Jay Leno has been making noise about not exiting quietly when it comes time for his younger replacement to get behind the desk in Burbank. As those cards usta say before the commercial break on Johnny: "More to come."

We have a report that Rochester-based comedian Tiny Glover passed away. His website is here. The Rochester Democrat-Chronicle reports that Glover died Sunday. Read the whole thing.

"Unbelievable," said his fellow comic, Dan Liberto.""I've had comics calling from all over the country the last couple of days. He taught classes, he set up comedy coaching, he helped so many comics launch their careers. He toured the country, but his devotion to church and family was overwhelming."

RadarOnline.com ("Pop, Politics, Scandal, Style" says their subtitle) has an article, "The Internet Is for Scorn, Meet the Web's 10 most hated people."

The Internet may provide endless hours of productivity-killing diversion and free-ish pornography, but that's not all it offers. The Web also gives us a cloak of anonymity, allowing every man, woman, and child to expel anonymous bile on strangers—be they the real-life TV celebrities we can't stand, or infamous figures brought to the nation's attention via YouTube. Below, Radar's list of the 10 people the Web really, really loves to hate.

It merits our attention here because Number 8 (click on over to the top of page 2 of the article) is David Cross.

...when the Boston-born comedian... was offered a big paycheck in exchange for a few weeks of work on the disposable kiddie flick Alvin and the Chipmunks, he put aside his artistic integrity and took the cash. To his Internet faithful, he might as well have been the Fox executive who pulled the plug on Arrested Development. Cross was immediately branded a "smug, condescending asshole," and "a huge prick" on The Onion AV Club's blog for taking the role (more than 300 commenters chimed in, most in agreement).

Readers of SHECKYmagazine will recall that we defended Cross' decision to make the movie. (Well, we tried to pre-emptively head off any goofball talk of "selling out." Our opinion is that the whole concept is weak.)

In response to a reader's comment, who weakly defended Cross, we said the following:

We never said that Cross sold out. We said that pondering the very concept is a waste of time. That even trying to define it is a waste of time. Because those non-artists who concern themselves with such things have a tenuous grip on reality and those artists who bother to publicly contemplate the notion of selling out are either 1) Pandering to the non-artists who have a tenuous grip on reality or 2) Trying to fool themselves into believing that their art is somehow separate from commerce.

In either event, time is wasted.

It is nothing more than posturing, a New Age approach to marketing. Many amateurs who brandish the anti-selling out attitude do so as a matter of necessity. It is just as much a part of their marketing strategy as the zippered hoodie and the faux retro track shoes.

And, for some, it works.

And for some, it bites them in the ass. Hard. Witness the stinging criticism that Cross received at the hands of his "fans."

Considering that the worldwide gross for the Chipmunk flick was $356,453,805, we figure that the paycheck for the sequel (and the paycheck for the sequel to the sequel) might soothe some of that sting. (Unless his character was killed... Perhaps there'll be a prequel.)

The very funny quote on the myspace profile of the Stand Uppity Tour, headlining Andy Kindler, Eugene Mirman and Marc Maron reads:

"COMEDY THAT MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF AND SUPERIOR TO OTHERS."

Now that's funny! The trio is coming to Newport, Chicago, St Paul, Fargo, Boise, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and "George, WA." The tour is sponsored by Onion-meets-HuffPo comedy site 23/6.com.

And could there be a more polar opposite of the Stand Uppity Tour than the Night of 1,000 Guidos Tour? In terms of the sensibilities of the performers, the target demo, the approach taken to promotion and the choice of venues? The brainchild of Jim Labriola, the Guidos Tour is hyped through a slick, Flash-driven website with all the bells and whistles, including a short promo film (with a cameo by Borgata proprietor Ray Garvey). The show plays to mostly casino crowds and features the comedy of Labriola, Johnny Rizzo, Al Romero and Vic DiBitetto.

Ed Condran of the Asbury Park Press has the following exchange with Lewis Black in a recent (Mar. 21) interview to promote Black's new Comedy Central show:

Q: If Kindler is on the show, Dane Cook has to be one of the topics since Kindler hates him.

A: That won't happen. We won't be mean to comedians. That is just something I don't want to do.

We posted earlier about Clint Black's upcoming appearance on CBS's Secret Talents of the Stars, in which the country singer will attempt to do standup.

He confesses to "night terrors" at the prospect of doing standup. In an interview on CMT.com, Black says that he experiences "moments of anxiety during the day whenever I'd picture the scene."

He's actually trying out material in a live setting at local Nashville club Zanies.

Well, the club wasn't packed tonight. It was the second time I had gone on stage here at Zanies. The first time, it was packed, and it felt really great. Really great house. Tonight, it was a little thin, and it felt like a little bit more pressure. Maybe my expectations were different now. ... But I don't think probably I will go on stage anywhere and do this and just feel great. I just don't. I don't expect it.

Black's consulting comedian Wayne Federman for help in crafting a set.

We're impressed with the seriousness with which Black seems to be approaching the task. And we're also surprised at just how much he appears to understand standup-- and just how difficult coming up with original material is:

I can think of something, and it's funny to me, and I'll tell it to Wayne or another friend over the phone. And you hear the silence on the other end, look around for the crickets, and you go, "I'll call you back." You go back to work on it. I've been working on it pretty hard for two or three weeks now. I had about 30 minutes worth of material that was about 90 percent no good, and so I had to work really hard to make that 10 percent feel more like 20 or 30 percent. That's the thing: identifying the "A" material and then expanding on that and getting rid of the bulk of what was written. It's not working.

Of the comedy gauntlet he'll be forced to run, Black is realistic:

Yeah. Thanks for bringing that up. I'm going to have to have two minutes in the first show. If I make it through, I'll have to have two new completely new minutes. And the thought has occurred to me that it's not going to be easy.

Perhaps he can advise the contestants on the upcoming season of Last Comic Standing.

Nice to see someone humbled by standup. He actually acknowledges that it's not going to be easy. (And Terry Bumgarner, writing for CMT.com, actually refrained from asking about Black's enormous ego, his control issues or his dysfunctional childhood!)

Had Mephis hung on to their sizable lead... or maybe just not goofed up in the last minute... or sank a free throw or two, The Male Half would have taken the title. But they completely lost their fight in the OT.

The Female Half wins the SHECKYmagazine.com March Madness office pool. She rallied in the round of 16. It was a tie after that. It came down to the last game. We congratulate The Female Half!

Comedian Dobie Maxwell blogs for OnMilwaukee.com on his life as a comic and various side projects.

In a recent post, "Red Flag Lunch," Maxwell recounts a meeting with midwest comedy booking agent John Yoder. In among some pronouncements and theories about the current state of the industry, is this:

I stopped for lunch with John Yoder today. John is a booker out of Grand Rapids and he is one of the first people I ever worked for back when I started out on the road in the '80s. He was a staple for almost every year I've been a comedian as he has been for a lot of acts but now he's really having a hard time staying afloat. He's losing a lot of his power base.

Maxwell theorizes on the impact such a development has on him personally and to speculate on the implications for the business at large.

While we have no quarrel with this:

There are several reasons for it but the fact remains the comedy business is shifting and if I don't shift with it I'll be stuck in the position a lot of guys are that depended on Yoder for much of their work.

We take issue with his general pronouncements that comedy clubs are "having a harder time making it these days" or that there is some sort of significant, industry-wide demographic shift.

We've worked in all 50 states. In the past six months, we've worked in NC, MN, PA, WV, FL, TN, GA, MI, VA, OH, NY and NJ. If we go back 18 months, we can add NV, AZ, WA, CA, KY, RI, SC and MD. And among those dates, we've worked in many different kinds of venues-- comedy clubs (of course), country clubs, private parties, casinos and colleges. It may well appear to some comics (and some unfortunate bookers) that "the comedy business is shifting," or that crowds are skewing this way or that with regard to age, income, education or hip factor. But we can say that it has been our experience that the crowds we've been seeing are diverse in terms of age, income, education (we assume) and (in some parts of the country) ethnicity.

As for the raw numbers, we would say that the crowds are (with some not surprising exceptions) robust, the clubs are satisfied with their turnouts and, in cases where turnout is unacceptable, an attempt is made to determine the cause and plans are mapped out to take appropriate measures.

And, while we can't speak for any other comics, the customer satisfaction rating (based on our unscientific and largely anecodotal evidence) has been high. It seems to us that standup comedy patrons (regardless of venue) are very satisfied with their experience.

So why would a booking agent who was once so powerful and influential be panicked ("shell-shocked" to use Maxwell's description) and seemingly powerless to halt his decline? And what are the true implications of such a decline-- for the acts whose fortunes depend upon his and for the business at large?

First the "why." Part of it may be regional/geographical economics. Yoder's clients may well be feeling the effects of a precursory economic downturn. But we note that clubs in Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit and other midwest cities are doing quite well.

But we suspect that one of the reasons might be that the business model that worked so well in the 80s and 90s has run up against what so many other business models have run up against-- The Internet. Can we add comedy bookers and talent agents to the list of occupations whose contribution to the equation has become so minimal (and whose previous monopoly on pertinent information has been obliterated) that their clients are inclined to D.I.Y.? (Think travel agent, stock broker, real estate agent, etc.)

To be sure, many agents (some who have seen the highs and the lows over the past 20 years and some who have not) are adapting, changing, offering more of this or less of that. Some have shifted focus away from one type of venue and toward another. And, in much the same way, many comics (us included) have vowed to never again be caught with all our comedy eggs in one basket. But, we are of the opinion that the overall prospects for those who adapt-- agent and comic alike-- are bright.

It may well be that Mr. Yoder is hurting (and, along with him, the comics who fortunes are inextricably linked to his), but, from our perch, this catastrophe can not logically be extrapolated over the industry as a whole.

Editors note: That link above may not work the first four times you click on it. Not sure why. But, if you're persistent, it'll load.

From TOC's website (on April 1, of course):

Jokeaholics Anonymous, a full-time stand-up comedy club, will open this Tuesday in one of Chicago’s best areas for high foot traffic: The downstairs food court at the Thompson Center. Shows will take place at 8pm Friday and Saturday night, as well as special matinee performances Tuesday and Wednesday from noon–1pm. Tickets are $40, and require a three drink minimum (guess comedy really does come in threes…), but include "all the bourbon chicken samples you can eat" from nearby Peking Buffet, says club owner and talent booker Mitzer Friedman.

Initially, we had trouble discerning whether this was an April Fools' gag, as we have actually done standup in a food court. (We did a show at the food court in downtown Calgary as part of that city's FunnyFest a few years ago. It's no joking matter! The horror! The sense of humor is the first thing to go!)

From our coverage of the '04 FunnyFest:

The goal becomes to get up on the makeshift stage and do as little real material as possible.

And now it was our turn in the barrel, so to speak. We met fellow victims Grant Damsgaard and Tom Gregory and, with grim determination, we all agreed that we'd do what it took to endure what is, technically and aesthetically, a hellish and unwinnable situation.

When all was said and done, Fest coordinator (and standup comic) Nick DeBrey declared this day's Free Funny show "the best one of the Festival!" Mainly because we had all managed to escape with our dignity and-- wonder of wonders-- a good portion of the crowd had a good time!

What is going on out there in Comedyland? A press release from a company called Robert Wagner Marketing and Entertainment details the record-breaking performance on April 1 by a comedian named Robby Wagner.

The show was held at Toso's Sports Grill in Phoenix, Arizona, where Mr. Wagner hit the stage at 11am and continued on until 9:07pm. "It was a truly amazing and touching show to witness," said owner Dave De La Toso. "Robby had it from start to finish. I'm glad he held this event at my venue for I lost my father to heart disease."

And, on CBCNews.ca, is an account of a similar incident several hundred miles north, occurring almost simultaneously:

Winnipeg comedian Big Daddy Tazz set a new record for standup comedy Tuesday, after delivering more than eight consecutive hours onstage at the city's Gas Station Theatre.

Tazz, who began at 8:30 a.m. local time and finished at 5 p.m., wanted to break unofficial records set by U.S. comedians Dane Cook and Dave Chappelle, who have delivered seven- and six-hour sets respectively at Hollywood's famed Laugh Factory.

In a related story, last weekend in Minneapolis, MN, Brian McKim performed a 45-1/2-minute set at that city's Joke Joint Comedy Club. "That's a lot of comedy for an audience to sit through. They stayed with me, even through the check drop," McKim said, while toweling off. "At one point, I considered ordering breakfast for the entire audience. But, I got the light." McKim said he plans to break his record this week at Knuckleheads in Toms River, NJ, possibly doing as much as 47 minutes.

That's right. Hollywood Reporter says that NBC is including LCS on their Summer '09 schedule. That's what their telling potential advertisers at the upfronts.

Start looking for that special banana costume or that very special Viking outfit-- those "casting calls" will be here before you know it! All you pizza tossers and hotties better get ready as well. They're going to need ever more of you next season!

That's when we launched SHECKYmagazine.com! Can you believe we've been doing this for nine years? We started out as a monthly online magazine, uploading interviews, columns and photos on the first of every month. Those early issues also included a rudimentary blog-- years before the term was even coined-- that contained information about contests, festivals, achievements and fluff.

In our first year, we interviewed Bob Zany, Wayne Cotter, Kip Addotta, Shelley Berman and we were the first publication to interview Triumph The Insult Comic Dog! Our early columnists included Brian Whalen, Rich Williams and Jim "Klaus" Myers.

In May of 1999, with only two issues up on the WWW, we applied for (and received) press credentials to cover the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. We uploaded five daily dispatches from Canada that July-- the first-ever such coverage of the world's largest comedy festival. And our coverage of the event over nine consecutive summers is unequaled. And our near-real-time analysis of NBC's Last Comic Standing is recognized as the best on the web.

We look forward to providing our readers with much more of the news, analysis and snark they've come to know and love!

Thanks to all of you who have bookmarked SHECKYmagazine.com over the years and who have made it the place to hit on the WWW for standup comedy info and opinion!

Our extensive network of spies has fed us bits and pieces of information. We are fairly confident that we have accurate information regarding the 12 acts that have made it into the house for this season's Last Comic Standing. (That's right, there's a house this season.)

Here are the names and links of the twelve (thirteen, if you count both members of the comedy team):

God's Pottery
Adam Hunter
Jeff Dye
Ron G
Paul Foot
Iliza Shlesinger
Marcus
Jim Tavaré
Esther Ku
Louis Ramey
Sean Cullen
Papa C.J.

Foot made it in from the group who was flown from London to Miami. Marcus is the "good looking tattoed impressionist," as identified in our Feb. 29 posting. God's Pottery is a team that we saw perform in Montreal last July. Hunter made it in from the Tempe auditions. Ron G auditioned in L.A. Papa C.J., says his website, possesses, "the energy and attitude of an Indian Chris Rock." Sean Cullen "entered into the public eye in 1988 as a member of musical comedy group Corky and the Juice Pigs," says his Wikipedia entry. Esther Ku made it to Vegas via the Gotham auditions. Louis Ramey is well-known in the industry as a solid, experienced club headliner. Shlesinger is the "winner of the Myspace 'So You Think You're Funny' contest." Jeff Dye, says the copy on his Myspace, "doesn’t use profanity but is very edgy and creative humor takes you in his mind that some have described as a charmingly twisted experience." Adam Hunter "is one of the hottest young comedians around today." (We swear that's what his bio leads with.)

CORRECTION: We received two emails from helpful readers providing us with the proper name of Jim Tavaré, the British actor comic who is among the 12 finalists. (He plays the violin. He's not that guy who usta play the cello, is he? There was a British comic who played the cello and was hot here in the U.S. about 1992 or so, with appearances on Frazier. (or was it Cheers? We recall him only because he won International Star Search in 1992 and, as such, won the right to compete on the first episode of the following season of the U.S. version of the talent competition. Of course, that was the episode that featured the Male Half. The Male Half... losing, that is, in spectacular fashion to Canadian comic Herb Dixon.)

If it is him, that would give Tavaré the distinction of having appeared on both the original Star Search and Last Comic Standing. We're not sure anyone else can claim that!

We have tallied up the results so far, then re-checked our calcuations. The Female Half surged ahead of the Male Half after the weekend's games! It was the contests involving the Elite Eight that enabled TFHotS to pick up 16 points and obliterate the slim lead TMHotS had. It now stands at 97 to 87.

The only hope for the Male Half is if Memphis meets Kansas and crushes them in the final. The Female Half correctly predicted the Final Four. The Male Half put too much faith in UConn and Tennessee.

Now we wait!

Left to right: Ken Reed (Joke Joint proprietor), Brian McKim, Traci Skene, Dwight York

Dwight York showed up on the first night. We had a swell time watching York at one of the Chicago Fests in 2002 and we've heard him pop up with frequency on XMRadio.