Comedy Stray Notes October 18, 2020

• A 2020 Film Festival is obviously not going to be your typical red carpet affair.  Still, while you can never replicate the in-theater experience, with modern tech you can get pretty damn close to bringing the intimacy of a shared viewing with audience and fellow filmmakers.  Thanks to the ingenuity of founder Dominick Rancano’s All The Laughs Festivals (more laughs than Just For Laughs), I got to take part in one of these 2020 Fests and witness this type of communal screening firsthand.  Rancano’s fest, in its first year, was held this weekend and yesterday (October 17), he screened Anna Paone’s and my short sketch “At Home With A Guy From Anonymous” in a block with other comedy filmmakers and sketchepreneurs from all over the country.  While in the past we would have had to fly cross country to see our three-minute vid with an audience, thanks to this newfound type of festival, now we can see our movie and others in a chatroom that my parents, aunt and grandma can all watch with ease (my biggest fans!).  After the films in our section screened, Dominick moderated a panel of the filmmakers where I got mad pretentious (I said I was inspired by the Stephen King quote that “writing is like telepathy, a form of magic that allows two people to communicate without speaking” instead of being a human being who is inspired by their parents and wife) but I’ll take any forum that will allow me to get mad pretentious.  Special shout outs to fellow filmmakers Dylan Aames and Caryn Ruby for also participating in the panel and answering my Mom and Dad’s questions.  This wouldn’t have happened pre-2020 and was a nice momentary distraction.  Excited to see what All The Laughs 2021 looks like.  If this sounds like something you’re interested in, check the comments to see everything that screened this weekend.

• Quick props to a few NYC comics:

- Isabel Hagen put together a fantastic and funny four-episode webseries “IS A VIOLIST” about what playing the viola professionally is really like.  The first episode about a botched proposal is a perfect comedy of errors and later editions go deeper covering the competitiveness, sexism and bizarro gigs that come with playing a beautiful instrument.  I loved it and would love to see this on a larger platform ASAP.  If you want to see what it’s like to be a modern day violist, check that far, far away link.

- Dan Perlman and Kevin Iso’s excellent, interconnected multi-story web series “Flatbush Misdemeanors” was picked up by Showtime for a ten-episode series.  The series features a number of familiar NYC comedy faces and is subdued, naturalistic and absurd all at once.  Cannot wait to see what they do next.  For a quick taste (you can’t see episodes online at the moment), take a peek at their site in the comments.

• As it gets a little colder, I’ve given myself some slack for spending so much time inside watching movies.  Here’s just a few things I avoided the outside world by staying in and watching: 

“Hubie Halloween” (2020): “Uncut Gems,” this ain’t.  No, this is a film about a man child (Adam Sandler, who else?) that an entire town makes fun of...and then people start disappearing.  It is what you think it is- dumb fun.  Forget the story and let the aggressive, sophomoric jokes wash over you (my favorite was a sight gag where eggs thrown at Sandler all flew right into his trusty canteen). An added bonus is that this thing is cameo city featuring a murderer’s row of SNL alumni and Sandler collaborators (Kevin James, Dan Patrick, Shaq and Ray Liotta AKA the weirdest lineup of actors in film history) all taking bit parts but the MVP is easily the smiley Tim Meadows.  He’s a put-upon bald man with the world’s worst wig but somehow can’t stop grinning.  It should also be said that for all the screenplay’s repetitive faults, I was really taken aback by the somewhat twist ending.  I actually exclaimed, “That’s good screenwriting,” out loud.  PEAK SANDLER IS BACK (Streaming on Netflix).

“Jackie” (2012): This is the first movie I’ve seen in years that I didn’t go into with any preconceived notions.  As a trailer and review addict, it was nice to see something I’d never even heard of before (Anna discovered this one).  Since I doubt you know about this either, let’s talk about it.  Dutch twins (played by the real-life Van Houten sisters; the elder Carice is famously from “Game of Thrones”) travel to the United States to locate their surrogate birth mother.  Think “Mamma Mia” without the songs and set in New Mexico.  Upon arrival, they find their ailing mother, the eponymous “Jackie” (freaking Holly Hunter).  What follows is a true movie mashup; the sisters act as if they are in a cute, indie comedy dealing with workplace issues and mild insecurities while Jackie is in a gritty drama dealing with addiction and poverty.  They never outwardly point out their stark differences but it is a fresh take on a familiar genre.  Also, oddly enough, there was a very satisfying third act twist here too.  VERY HAPPY I WAS INTRODUCED TO THIS ONE (Streaming on GAIA which is part of Amazon Prime; Prime has a TON of seven-day streaming trials; make sure to cancel them right away or else you’ll be racking up fees for minor film libraries).

“Game 6” (2006): This movie was on Netflix for years and I started it in 2009 or so watching five minutes and thought I would get back to it.  Then, it disappeared and it was out of sight, out of mind.  In July, I read a comprehensive tell-all in The Ringer (linked below) about the trials and tribulations of bringing author Don Delillo’s only screenplay to the multiplexes.  Found out the only way to see this movie was DVD.  Made the effort to buy it that day.  It’s been sitting in my apartment ever since.  Finally, 11 years later, I have seen the glory that is this brief 83-minute retelling of one divorced Red Sox fan playwright’s (Michael Keaton) show’s opening that coincides with the famed Game Six of the 1986 World Series (THE Buckner game).  There’s a lot going on here for such a short runtime but it feels like the work of an auteur with flourishes like characters continually saying the phrase “This could be it” in different contexts and a woozy reinterpretation of how Game Six itself ended (Keaton smartly watches from the bar which somehow feels better than setting the game in the stadium; these are the fans that WISH they could be there).  If you’re still not sold, you get to see Catherine O’Hara playing it straight in a throwaway role and Robert Downey Jr. hamming it up as a rock star critic who goes to shows in disguise.  It should also be noted, Keaton watches the game with his cab driver and her grandson.  This is not an important detail but one that I can’t get out of my head.  IF YOU LIKE BASEBALL, THEATER OR 80S NEW YORK, THIS IS A NICE TRIBUTE TO ALL OF THE ABOVE (If you want to borrow the DVD, let’s figure it out).

SNL hosted by Issa Rae: I was quick to call this season’s third episode a return to form.  The first half was a lot of fun featuring dueling Town Halls (Carrey actually did a Biden impression this go-round), a purely silly go for broke French talk show and my favorite sketch of the season so far- Five Hour Empath.  If you haven’t seen it, link’s in the comments.  Too short for me to spoil here; might as well enjoy it yourself.  After a laissez faire Weekend Update where Che and Jost messed around like they were at an unruly bar show because they knew their jokes were going to get mixed reactions, the show took a bit of a nosedive.  “Your Voice Chicago” about being a single issue voter was sneaky, smart satire (the entire backhalf wasn’t bad) but both Kyle Mooney sketches (“Dancer” about dancing with Bieber and “Jack Flatts” featuring militant guys who really wanted to eat at a fake chain restaurant) left me confused and wanting more.  Doing shows five weeks in a row has to be exhausting.  There’s going to be some home runs and quiet strike outs- this week had a bit of both.

The Jeff Richards Show: This new podcast has a format I haven’t seen before.  Former SNL cast member and master impressionist Jeff Richards interviews his subjects in character (if this has been done a million times before, excuse my ignorance).  Anyhow, I couldn’t help but check out his Jesse Pinkman-hosted edition with guest new SNL’er Punkie Johnson (had no idea she was a waitress at The Comedy Store).  It starts hilariously as the concept of Jesse Pinkman hosting a pod is ripe for bits but slowly deteriorates over the course of this short 13-minutes as Richards stops committing to the bit so hard and asks standard questions like, “How did you get started in comedy?”  Still, I kinda loved it and want to hear more.  If this sounds like your cup of tea, I’ve done the legwork and linked below.

• This is a left field addition to the Stray Notes canon but I thought if you’ve gotten this far, you might be interested.  In 2010, Chuck Klosterman (predictably one of my favorite writers), put out a series of intense, open ended hypothetical questions.  It’s a fun party game that provokes conversation where you ask yourself, “What would I do if I walked into my place and Shaq was in the shower?” or “You get to stereotypical Heaven and are told there’s another place.  We can’t tell you what the other place is but 18% of people go.  You have 20 minutes to decide.  What do you do?”  This is kind of the stuff I love talking about.  So, if you’ve played every single card of Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity dozens of times, this might be a welcome change of pace.

• Finally, the biggest story in the New York comedy world this week was the untimely end for Dangerfield’s Comedy Club.  I don’t have much to add to the conversation since I only ever walked in once and never performed there but I did read many wonderful tributes and alternately scathing diatribes about the place.  If you’re in the camp that prefers wonderful tributes, I recommend browsing the pages of Harrison Greenbaum and Jason Chatfield.  Both were poignant, funny and a reminder that these clubs can have a personality on their own.

This week, you can find me at The Tiny Cupboard (for the first time) as a presenter at Marcus Cardona’s BOMBYS Awards.  Other than that, I’m trying to do sit ups more often.  Will report back when I have abs.

LET’S GO RAYS

01.) Dominick Rancano’s All The Laughs Festival:

https://www.bingewave.com/f/all-the-laughs-atl-comedy-awards

02.) Isabel Hagen’s “Is a Violist” web series: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcPMh3QZEjBgS3TmCPSTpJg

03.) Dan Perlman and Kevin Iso’s Flatbush Misdemeanors:

https://www.flatbushmisdemeanors.com/

04.) Ringer “Game 6” article: https://www.theringer.com/movies/2020/7/6/21300934/game-6-movie-don-delillo-1986-world-series

05.) Five Hour Empathy sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP0H0j4pCOg

06.) Jeff Richards podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/maybe-i-could-be-the-girl-robin/id1534672185?i=1000493725067

07.) HYPERtheticals by Chuck Klosterman: https://www.amazon.com/HYPERtheticals-50-Questions-Insane-Conversations/dp/0307587924/ref=sr_1_2?crid=ZY24WU8S9IAH&dchild=1&keywords=hypertheticals+50+questions+for+insane+conversations&qid=1603070598&sprefix=hypertheticals%2Caps%2C133&sr=8-2

Comedy Stray Notes October 11, 2020

• I am not an actor.  Never wanted to be.  I’ve acted in things but would never classify myself as such since every time I act in something, it’s really the slightest variation of just me.  However, just this week, I actually did research for a role for the first time in my life after Matt Vita, comedy’s number one creator of offbeat opportunities, generously suggested I take part in his pal Harmon Leon’s Joke-E-Oke show.  In said show, each comic is assigned an impersonation for the first of three rounds (if you advance).  I was given Andrew Dice Clay.  I’ve never been a huge fan of his.  All I really knew were the dirty nursery rhymes, but I wanted to really give it my all for once.  So, I queued up Dice’s 1990 special at Madison Square Garden and watched.  It’s a wild hour opening with a clip where a woman way out of his league will do anything to be with him, followed by racist, homophobic, misogynist, sexist bits all punctuated with an “OHHH!” at the end and closing with him getting the girl.  The reaction shots of audience members are hilarious.  They go crazy for nearly every punch and “OHH!”  I even heard a joke that I remember hearing way back when I started doing stand up in 2003 that I thought was original back then at The Comedy Spot in Phoenix (DM me if you want to know the joke- not suitable for print).  Whatever there is to be said about his audacious act, you can’t deny he had swagger.  Honestly, I couldn’t stop talking like him this Thursday.  It’s addictive.  When the show came along I brought the bravado as best I could as old Dice (I call him “Of Dice and Men”).  It was tough to stand out though because Matt Vita was also playing Dice and doing a much more committed version.   Somehow, I made it through the first round as old ADC and ended up impersonating Dave Chappelle in the second round.  Understandably, the judges (Todd Montesi playing a name-dropping D-Lister, Vita as Dice and Chris Griggs with the sharpest Norm Macdonald I’ve seen this side of Norm himself) dropped me.   Will Purpura took home the trophy doling out Don Rickles insults in the final.  Anyhow, the most important nugget of wisdom here is that this is a truly unique show that all comics/actors should stretch their muscles and try out and audience members should make it appointment viewing.  Harmon has created something really fun.  If you want to see this particular episode, check the link in the comments. 

• I’m not sure if I’ve ever met Nick Skardarasy (comedy does that) but somehow we are Facebook friends.  Since we became friends, I’ve noticed updates about a quarantine special he was shooting within his apartment complex called “Thin Walls” with folks that are technically within his quarantine pod as they are all his neighbors.  This week, I had a chance to catch it and it’s brilliantly executed.  In addition to a solid half hour of comedy (the joke about his girlfriend’s religion being “Disney” was an excellent observation) complete with callbacks, lively act outs and knowing nods to his neighbors/odd circumstances in which it’s filmed, the half hour is a fantastic portrait of a community.  Not only do we get Nick’s performance, we essentially get a mini-documentary featuring all the people in his life discussing their experiences in quarantine and relationship to the building.  I barely know my next door neighbor’s name (pretty sure it’s Trudy, has a big dog and subscribes to the Wall Street Journal) but I feel like I know Nick’s community now.  Nothing better than a slight variation on what a special can be and this is one of the best twists on the format I’ve seen in a minute.  To check it for yourself, the link can be found below.  

• In my off hours, I watch and listen to too many TV shows, movies and podcasts.  This is what I spent my time paying attention to this week instead of writing, directing or performing comedy:

 “Pen15” (2020): Along with “Eighth Grade,” this show is helping elevate the genre of middle school cringe to an art form.  In this sitcom’s recently released second season, Anna (Anna Konkle) and Maya (Maya Erskine), two 33-year-old women fully transform themselves into middle schoolers and act alongside 12 and 13-year-olds playing it completely straight.  They never wink at the camera and acknowledge how absurd it is that they’re playing tweens; they live the bold, emotional lives that those entering puberty face on a day-to-day basis.  This second season, comprised of seven episodes, is intentionally less funny than the first focusing more on slice of life storylines like the awkwardness of middle school pool parties, a girl bullying them into being their friends and buying her way into the “Best Friends” superlative, a school play that pits techies vs. actors (the scene with the glitter toss is one of the best I’ve seen in any TV show this year no question), a young boy discovering his sexuality and divorce.  That’s not to say there aren’t outwardly joke-y episodes like the one where the two leads join the wrestling squad to get closer to the boys or another where they summon the powers of a real estate agent’s business card to practice witchcraft.  It should also be noted that there are numerous AOL Instant Messenger sequences which bring back memories of lazy summer days.  On top of that, everyone says, “Sup.”  Even the pizza they eat at parties reminded me of sixth grade.  IF YOU WENT TO MIDDLE SCHOOL EVER, THIS IS THE NOSTALGIA TRIP YOU DIDN’T KNOW EXISTED (Streaming on Hulu).

“Mauvais Sang” (1986): I think “Holy Motors” is the best movie of the 2010s.  If you haven’t seen it, I have this theory that it’s the inverse “Truman Show” about the people we see in our lives on the street that never meet and how they’re all sort of giving a performance.  Let’s leave it at that.  Since I went to see that movie on back to back days in 2012, I’ve had the director Leos Carax’s canon on my list of things to see and this week, I sat down and saw his second film “Mauvais Sang” which Anna taught me translates into “Bad Blood.”  It’s a caper film where the heist isn’t what’s important (this band of criminals is actually after a vaccine); it’s all about the interpersonal relationships between those about to commit the crime.  The lead in the film, Denis Lavant, is the star of “Holy Motors” as well.  This performance isn’t quite as elastic (he plays nine parts in “HM!”) but is certainly odd and Chaplin-esque with magic tricks that reinvent what you can do with your frame.  He even dates future French starlets Juliette Binoche and Julie Delpy in the film.  It’s like the French “Dazed and Confused.”  Everyone’s in it.  The movie is famous for a scene where Lavant runs the streets to David Bowie’s “Modern Love” which Noah Baumbach aped for “Frances Ha” but man, Carax has so many more tricks up his sleeve.  There are bizarro, left field choices like having all the actors drive around shirtless which is so strange you can’t help but laugh, intimate close ups that make standard coverage look painterly and one of the coolest parachuting sequences that I’m still wondering how they shot.  This basically feels like the best film school movie of all time.  FOR FANS OF THE ABSURD OR FRENCH AUTEURS (Streaming on Amazon Prime through MUBI; it’s a foreign film channel you can cop a free seven-day-trial for and then cancel right away).

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961): The DVD for this movie has been sitting at our apartment for years but Anna and I never actually fired it up in the old DVD drive.  I honestly had no idea what it’s about.  Having seen it now, I believe it’s about a socialite escort called Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) who isn’t quite who she says she is and ends up with a male escort (also a published author somehow) who lives in her building.  The story is neither here nor there.  This is a mostly aimless movie with a multitude of subplots that makes me wonder if all the girls who have the Audrey Hepburn poster ever actually saw it.  If they have, that means they’ve seen the famously, wildly racist Mickey Rooney Japanese character.  Not only is his character offensive, it’s also extremely one-dimensional.  He only exists to tell Hepburn to keep it down or he’s calling the police.  I hate to be a snooze, but I don’t get the hype even if there are some fun sight gags like an overcrowded party, a jumping cat or a pot bursting with rice spraying all over the frame.  My favorite parts were learning about New York history from Anna- I didn’t know that JFK Airport used to be called Idlewild or what Automats were (cafeterias where meals came out of vending machines popularized in the 50s).  Also, I finally get why it’s called “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”  All these years, I just thought the character was named Tiffany and there was a big breakfast.  There is not.  IT’S SOLID (IF PROBLEMATIC) BUT I DON’T GET WHY IT’S A CLASSIC (Streaming on Amazon Prime for $3.99).

SNL with Bill Burr: Today is actually SNL’s 45th birthday.  A lot has changed since the show’s inception.  At the beginning, it was a shaggy, anything goes variety show that bit the hand that fed.  Now, it’s an institution that has flashes of irreverence but mostly plays it safe.  This week was a small step up from last week but for an election year this hasn’t been an especially inspired season.  The cold open with Maya Rudolph as Kamala and Beck Bennett as Mike Pence felt especially tame and more of a rehash of the events that transpired than satire.  The bit with Jim Carrey as Biden turning into the fly on Pence’s hair made me facepalm.  Burr’s monologue was a major source of controversy this past weekend as it was a bit all over the place.  Some jokes were met with silence which is to be expected for a light audience.  I actually inadvertently took part in this pointless debate on Twitter tweeting out, “Bill Burr after a bit not working in his monologue and saying, “Plowing ahead” is the most open mic move I’ve ever seen on TV.”  Not a super well-written sentence but somehow strangers couldn’t help but defend to Burr’s defense (wondering if they’re Bill Burr-ner accounts).  I mean, now I know that it’s a bit Burr does on his podcast but saying, “Plowing ahead” after a joke gets crickets is typically an amateur move and one I’ve done many times myself.  Plowing ahead, there were a few fun sketches like the mob boss who isn’t familiar with PC culture or the sports anchor who didn’t know there was a police shooting and was making light of the news or the influencer who didn’t know that his anti-Trump rap would come across as tone deaf were the favorites; interestingly, they were all about tone deaf white dudes.  An easy target but perhaps an essential one right now.  Weekend Update was on point as well.  Che is sharper than ever.  Say what you will about the show but a joke like, ““President Trump claimed to have survived the coronavirus.  I’m not going to say I’m disappointed, but it’s kind of like when there’s a car crash and the only survivor is the drunk driver,” has real teeth.  Jack White rules too, of course (Streaming on Hulu).

Minddog TV’s Sam Tallent Podcast: Earlier this summer, I kept seeing comics recommend Sam Tallent’s “Running the Light.”  I bought it and have had it on my shelf for awhile.  Somehow, it popped in my head that I should start reading this week.  While I’m far from finished, I’ve been finding myself unable to put it down.  Wanting to learn more about Sam (I’ve never seen him live), I found a random podcast with him recorded in August talking about the book.  It’s a delightful chat with tales of the road like sharing a one-liner with multiple headliners just to keep comedy club staffs on their toes when they hear the same joke week after week, what it’s like staying at Doug Stanhope’s place (He’s a mellow guy), how Mitch Hedberg used to give multiple comics the same jokes so they would come to realize they were hacks when fighting about jokes they thought were their own and how opening a show at the Red Rocks is more of a chore than one would expect as much as it sounds like a treat.  This is a quick listen at just over an hour and a nice intro to the book.

This coming Saturday, Anna and I are going to be featured in the All The Laughs Film Festival with our quarantine short “At Home With a Guy From Anonymous.”  Yes, the link is just a scroll away.

Be well.  Vote early.  The New York ballots are strange.  Be baffled and amused by them way in advance and get them in ASAP.

See you in the near future

01.) Harmon Leon’s Joke-e-oke: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/764704564

02.) Nick Skardarasy’s Thin Walls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfSFIrRLHfg

03.) My infamous Bill Burr Tweet: https://twitter.com/MattLevy51/status/1315137259381952513

04.) Matt Nappo’s Sam Tallent podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoUp-qm0mn4&feature=emb_title

05.) All The Laughs Film Festival Link: https://www.bingewave.com/f/all-the-laughs-atl-comedy-awards/s/unfit-the-new-guy-virtual-theater

Comedy Stray Notes October 4, 2020

• Remember “Crashing” on HBO?  That  Pete Holmes show that depicted what starting in stand up was allegedly really like in New York City? If you were at least a little bit interested in comedy from 2017-19, you had an opinion on it.  I was in the camp that found the show endearing, if a bit flawed.  Anna and I joke about the show’s divisive legacy occasionally and we got a big laugh out of the idea of her telling me the plot of the show as a bedtime story.  So, we made it a reality and shot the thing.  I made an ill-advised choice to wear a kangaroo costume that a coworker gifted me a few years ago to show how childlike I am in the sketch; it comes off a bit weird but I like it.  You don’t need to have seen the show to get the bit here- we spell it all out for you and it’s only two minutes.  Would love to hear your thoughts on this one if you have two minutes to spare.  Link below.  

• Comedy can be great at a number of lengths.  An hour of comedy is typically a great marker that you’ve made it and found your voice as a comedian.  It sounds distinguished and substantial.  Also, a TikTok like the “Da Vinky” video (Google it if you don’t know what I’m talking about) can be just as satisfying a morsel of humor.  Still, the idea of a perfectly timed comedy show where 100 comics do a single minute is certainly an enticing idea.  Todd Montesi, the mastermind showrunner, put together the performers allowing them to do their 60 seconds and cutting them off as soon as their time was up to keep the thing running smoothly.  Hosted along with co-producer Harmon Leon, the production felt like a buffet of comic tastes where some chose to work on longer form chunks (if you consider a minute long), others did tried and true strong material and some just went weird staying silent for 40 of the 60 seconds.  I went the route of trying to jam in as many one-liners as I could (“Thank you, this is my longest set of the year”) and I blew through seven of them with varying degrees of success.  Just reminded me that comedy is meant to be slow and steady.  Even the guys in the Da Vinky video take their time to get to the unintentional punch.  If you’re at all interested in watching this madcap show and seeing a number of comics you’ll recognize, the link to the show is, yes, in the comments.

• Now for a slew of TV shows, movies, podcasts and a magazine recommendation before you’re on your merry way and you can leave this “See More” manifesto:

“Detroiters” (2017-18): I am going to make a controversial comedy statement that I’ve been too afraid to go public with for too long- I think “I Think You Should Leave” is just OK.  Some sketches are great but a lot of it feels stage-y and overly silly and didn’t do a lot for me (the Will Forte screaming baby on the airplane sketch is an undisputed classic though).  So, I went into this beloved sitcom with tempered expectations.  It completely swept me off my feet.  In the pilot, our heroes, ad men Tim (Tim Robinson) and Sam (Sam Richardson) spend the night together overlooking the city of Detroit after a particularly rough day on the job.  Turns out they’re waiting for the garbage men to drive by so they can shout genuine praise at them.  They’re fans.  The rest of the show is fun but this bit is absolute comedy perfection- joy and praise for the mundane without condescension felt perfect.  We could all use cheerleaders at our jobs.   

In its brief two seasons, we see the effects of gentrification on Detroit as a start up moves into the guy’s building in a bit that traded the show’s silliness in for actual commentary (they also point out Tim’s hypocrisy; he claims he’s from Detroit but he’s from the burbs) and a commentary on the sameness of commercials with integrity (“Stay Detroit Strong” seems to be all of their competitors’ slogans no matter the product in a particularly biting segment).  There are many goofy jokes strewn throughout as well, none quite as sublime as the secret life of the aging secretary Sheila.  She still gets around and vamps it up in the office in nearly every episode showing no shame for her age.  Almost as hysterical is the newsman Mort Crim (who is a real-life Detroit anchor and Anna told me the inspiration for “Anchorman”) who records a lengthy anti-ISIS rant for a furniture company commercial for the guys.  I ENDED UP LOVING THIS THING AND WISH IT WAS STILL ON THE AIR (Streaming on Comedy Central).

SNL with Chris Rock: Last night was the long awaited return for the show to the studio.   It did disappoint.  Yeah, I’ll say it.  The show has always been at its best when it’s been mean and lean but now at 20 cast members, it has more bodies than it has ever had...in a time when we should be social distancing.  To be fair, it is nice that Lorne is creating jobs when everyone seems to be getting laid off.  I stayed for the end credits and only saw one name I didn’t recognize on the writing staff: Celeste Yim.  I don’t believe there’s been any kind of formal announcement about her yet but I’m excited to learn more.  Anyhow, let’s dig in.  

Cold Open with Jim Carrey as Biden was less entertaining than the actual debate.  There was a truly unnecessary Harry Styles cameo and while Carrey did nail Biden’s folksy, easy to anger demeanor, it played a bit too slapstick like Carrey circa 1995.  Baldwin was tamer than the actual Trump and the whole thing struggled to compensate for the fact that the real news is that Trump is in the hospital.  Rock’s monologue that followed was full of platitudes found in change.org emails (Presidents shouldn’t have four year terms!  Agreed!) which are nice but felt a bit safe for our pre-eminent social satirist (I think he’s the best around).  The sketches themselves were mostly stinkers but I did love the Kyle Mooney-led “Future Ghost.”  Well-realized jokes about how short sighted we are regarding the future (when Kyle sees himself in 2020, he doesn’t care about the virus just how cool the graphics are in his Tony Hawk game) are scary in how accurately they capture our values as selfish beings.  Major shout out to Megan Thee Stallion too for her visually adventurous appearances and strong message complete with voiceovers from Malcolm X and Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron (the latter wasn’t in Cameron’s favor).  The whole show needed that level of urgency.  Here’s hoping Pete Davidson’s “King of Staten Island” co-star Bill Burr brings it next week (Streaming on Hulu and probably Peacock).

“Haunted Mansion” (2003): One of those movies I wanted to see in theaters 17 years ago and then somehow, it’s a Saturday night and I’m watching it on my couch.  The film is fairly complex and intense as far as Disney films go and only sporadically captures the fun scares of the ride itself.  We begin with a bit of wordless exposition seeing a murder was staged within said haunted mansion long ago. Flash forward to 2003, real estate mogul Eddie Murphy is invited to the spacious scare sanctuary with his picture perfect family and things start going sideways when they meet stoic butler Ramsley (a never better Terrence Stamp) which leads to scares and their true meaning for being at the mansion.  It’s KIND OF “The Shining” for kids but with ham fisted life lessons about being scared and force fed exposition.  The movie operates at its absolute best when it feels like we’re on the ride with ghosts appearing from all angles, disembodied barbershop quartets singing whatever they’ve just heard and a jumpy underwater sequence when skulls appear out of nowhere.  Plus, there’s a “Sixth Sense” “I see dead people” joke that probably felt groan-worthy in 2003 but enough time has passed in 2020, that it made me laugh.  I understand why this didn’t turn into a billion dollar franchise like the Mouse corporation most likely envisioned a la “Pirates of the Caribbean” (there’s no Jack Sparrow to latch onto here- the leads are real estate agents) but it’s directed somewhat deftly by Rob Minkoff, the director of the original, animated “Lion King” and he gets away with characters saying “Hell” and “Damn” in a Disney film.  Plus, you got Wallace Shawn being Wallace Shawn.  THIS IS A PERFECT INTRO TO JUMP SCARES FOR KIDS (Streaming on Disney +).  

*I never do this because it’s so irritating but I actually have a better idea for this movie.  Imagine if “Haunted Mansion” was about a family that went to Disneyland and all the rides became haunted versions of themselves.  Forget the trappings of an invented world- just throw tourists into Disneyland making it a haunted version of itself.  Seems so much more fun.  

Carry on.

“Knuckleball” (2012): Sorry, I love baseball documentaries.  This one, cross-cutting between the legend Tim Wakefield and at the time phenom RA Dickey doesn’t have a whole lot to say other than these guys found a way to baffle batters with an unconventional pitch.  Perhaps, something about the resilience of marching to the beat of your own drum?  There are well-edited sequences and amusing anecdotes shared with past knuckleballers Charlie Hough and Phil Niekro (they golf and drink wine together in perhaps the most staged hang sesh ever committed to celluloid) but this is a bit of a puff piece.  ONLY FOR BASEBALL FANS (Streaming on YouTube; link in comments).

WTF with Cecily Strong: Strong, who I covered on “Good One” last week is making the rounds on the podcast circuit for her Emmy nomination.  This pod, she’s a bit more open covering her depression and being arrested in high school.  Also, learned about her going to Cal Arts with Alison Brie and how she made a concerted effort to do more physical bits on SNL which she does execute with aplomb.  Still, listening to someone as a guest on a podcast twice in a two-week span is a bit tiresome as there is a bit of overlap.  

WTF with Barry Levinson: This is a greatest hits podcast that will be fun for anyone that likes behind the scenes stories of the pictures.  I didn’t know Levinson directed “The Natural.”  I didn’t know the stories behind “Diner.”  I didn’t know how Dustin Hoffman got into character on “Rain Man.”  It’s fun, breezy and full of stories you didn’t know you needed.   

• For the holidays last year, Anna bought me a subscription to the UK-based film rag Empire Magazine after I caught an issue by chance in a library.  If you’re a film nerd, I don’t know of more engaging, nerdy writing about cinema out there.  I anxiously await each new issue and tear through them.  Sure, this feels like an ad but if you’re looking for writing outside the internet and miss the days of magazines being sent to your mailbox, I can’t recommend this enough.  The only downside is that some of the reviews are a month or two behind US releases because it is UK based.  I think it adds to its charm.

We’re less than a month from the election now.  Every time I write one of these, I think to myself, I wonder what the world will be like in seven days?  Other than when lockdown hit, this week was the biggest change with the fate of the Presidency in jeopardy.  

Times are wild and can’t wait to see what this week brings.  

TTYL

01.) A Comedian Goes To Sleep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSEVJohLMtE&list=PLoBsCsHJsKMrx6cuZ4Se8CQ_QBfOUcJ5U

02.) Todd Montesi Show: https://www.facebook.com/596857377/videos/10158697243662378/

03.) Knuckleball: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjzqUx30mos

04.) WTF with Cecily Strong: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1161-cecily-strong

05.) WTF with Barry Levinson: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1160-barry-levinson

06.) Empire Magazine: https://www.empireonline.com/

Comedy Stray Notes September 27, 2020

• Yom Kippur is a day of atonement and when you’ve done any type of comedy, you always feel a tinge of guilt about most things you’ve just said onstage.  Whether it be crowd work with a stranger that gets too personal or a joke that doesn’t sit right, there’s always room to feel like you’ve really messed things up.  Never does one feel that sense of dread that you’ve done the wrong thing more than at a roast.  Feeling inspired by my past experiences as a roaster and the breakneck pace in which Anna Paone and Catherine Lamoreaux churn out short play after short play, I decided to write a ten-minute one-act called “Just Jokes” loosely based on a roast battle I had in 2016 against Erica Spera that I shouldn’t have won.  Yeah, I used our real jokes in it too (with Erica’s permission).  

This week, I had the good fortune of Dragonfly (Anna and Catherine’s theater company) putting on a production of said one-act starring Russell Dolan as a surrogate for me (it honestly felt like I was Larry David and he was Jason Alexander playing me), Samantha Mishinski as his fierce and more skilled opponent who breathed a sensitive life into this, Matt Maran doing the best damn Matt Maran one can do playing Matt Maran and Nick Endo and Justine House as the lead’s friends who help our hero craft his bits.  It went way better than it had any right to as each performer brought the necessary venom to their dialogue making it feel like we actually were in the room at Comedy Fight Club four years ago (the show is still going strong outdoors).  Hopefully, we can stage this thing or film it someday.

Final highlight from the reading was that my parents watched.  In fact, my Dad Andy Levy, one of Dragonfly’s biggest fans, asked all the questions in the Q and A at the end.  What a mensch.  If you want to see this for yourself, the link from Dragonfly’s page is in the comments.

• David Horning and Steve Mers are two of my favorite Cleveland comics who co-host the sublime “You Can’t Laugh At That” podcast with Gheramy Demery producing remotely.  The two bring on comics who have tackled taboo topics in their material and then go into great detail about how to make these uncomfortable premises into jokes audiences feel at ease with.  This past Monday, my episode about “surviving cancer” dropped.  To be completely clear, I am a survivor of testicular cancer and am totally fine.  My situation PALES in comparison to pretty much any other cancer patient.  Still, I did jokes about it for a few years and we got to the bottom of it on this episode.  In fact, David and Steve sort of taught me the secret of writing jokes about trauma.  It felt like therapy when we discovered it (you’ll have to listen to hear said secret).  Plus, we don’t JUST talk about my cancer.  I share my theory on why spur of the moment Tweets do better than ones that sit in your drafts for weeks, jokes batting .980 meaning you’ve done a joke 50 times and it doesn’t work once and now you hate it and “Tigging.”  What is “Tigging?”  Check out the link.  Yeah, it’s the day of atonement but I’m not going to apologize for telling you to check out that pod.    That’s what friends of the pod are for.

• So many friends did cool stuff this week.  Here’s some very short recommendations for your reading, listening and viewing pleasure (all the links are in the comments):

- My friend Charlton Jon wrote the ultimate “Truman Show” fan fiction with his short story “Unreal” about an extra on the set of the Truman Show (set within the world of the movie).  Medium clocks it as a six-minute read but it goes by even faster if you’re familiar with the film.  Charlton sprinkles details from the film into the piece like Truman’s best friend’s dark backstory that implies there’s so much more to this movie than we ever knew.  

- From 2013-15, I worked at Luke’s Lobster on the Upper East Side alongside a number of incredibly gifted artists.  I couldn’t believe that everyone had a talent outside of making lobster rolls and it’s been a treat watching everyone’s careers progress.  This week, I had the pleasure of seeing a Luke’s collaboration between old pals Sean Cahill and Thomas Wynn.  Sean is the longtime frontman for the group The Next Great American Novelist and has been steadily releasing catchy music online with amazing videos to boot.  However, his linking up with Thomas Wynn was easily my favorite.  Thomas’ single take dance music video for “Ice Moon” is hypnotic, beautifully choreographed and incredibly watchable while Sean’s most accomplished vocal performance as his voice registers at an almost tribal yell toward the end.  Can’t believe I made shrimp rolls with these dudes a few years back.

- Liz Glazer makes the best funny short, confessional video diaries.  They combine archival footage from her life, monologue from the present day and stand up clips to create a collage that would feel at home on NPR.  My absolute favorite of hers was her tribute of sorts to Joan Rivers that she released this week.  The first ⅔ are hysterical with expert match cuts to Liz belting pop songs while driving to a chilling, beautiful finale.  The best comedies undercut you with emotion and the final minute here is a wallop.  

- Hattie Hayes and Matt Storrs are one of the all-time great comedy couples.  Their performing styles complement each other beautifully; Matt is droll, erudite and hilarious while Hattie is freewheeling, fearless and hilarious.  This morning, I caught their short audio video (all subtitled) of Hattie talking to Matt in her sleep and I couldn’t stop laughing.  It’s a barely coherent conversation that only gets funnier as it moves along.  Goes to show- some people really can do comedy in their sleep. 

• Yup, watched so many movies and listened to so many pods these past seven days.  I’m going to try to keep this short out of respect for YOU.

“Drowning Mona” (2000): Consistently been at the top of the “I gotta see this thing” list.  Lived up to the hype.  I don’t think it’s a spoiler to tell you that the movie begins with a grisly scene where a car flies off a mountainside into a river with poor Bette Midler as the eponymous “Mona” meeting her demise and drowning.  The rest of the movie is figuring out just how we got there which felt like dramatic irony straight out of Shakespeare.  It’s a lot of fun with Danny DeVito as the chief of police and Casey Affleck, William Fichtner and Jamie Lee Curtis as prime suspects all bringing a humanity to the proceedings while also chewing the hell out of the scenery.   On top of that, there’s a totally surprise Will Ferrell AND Melissa McCarthy cameo halfway through that made my jaw drop.  Had no idea they were in this thing.  Ferrell’s generous, goofy style wasn’t quite right for the movie but I didn’t care; I’ll watch the guy read WiFi passwords (that’s the 2020 version of reading the phonebook).  Also, the movie reintroduced me to the song “Popcorn” by Hot Butter.  It’s one of those 70s oddities you’ve heard a billion times but can’t name.  YOU HAVE TO FIND OUT WHO DROWNED MONA, TOTALLY WORTH YOUR TIME (Streaming on Amazon Prime).

“Hooking Up” (2020): Anna and I are on a bit of a “Detroiters” kick (we’re almost done) so I was crazy excited to see Sam Richardson in a lead role in a feature.  Speaking of cancer before, the movie ALSO tackles it.  I am not the first.  To get you up to speed, Richardson’s character is a survivor of testicular cancer (relatable) who crosses paths with a raunchy sex and love addict (Brittany Snow from “Pitch Perfect;” you’ll definitely recognize her) who accidently ends up in his support group for survivors.  Then, we get super high concept.  She’s a columnist who was just fired from her beat and pitches one final story to win her gig back: she wants to revisit every places she’s ever hooked up, hence the title.  She chooses our cancer survivor who has only ever been in a monogamous relationship as her guinea pig.  It’s fun.  This movie won’t change the world but it’s one of the better low budget streaming comedies I’ve seen.  Yes, there are on the nose speeches about love and battling addictions and too familiar story beats like Sam’s character wanting to be an artist but not following his dreams but the two of them are so likeable together that you forgive them for all of it.  They banter like a couple who have completely simpatico senses of humor.  GOOD, LITTLE MOVIE IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING LOW KEY (Streaming on Hulu).

“Blush” (2019): The New York Times recommends off the beaten path streaming films every so often and I make sure to prioritize their recommendations like a dutiful subscriber.  Really glad I saw this one about an unfulfilled housewife played with a familiar malaise by Wendi McClendon-Covey (from “Reno 911” AND “Bridesmaids”) married to a sad sack you’d be shocked to see in a dramedy- Steve Little from “Eastbound and Down” (his surprising third act arc is genuinely heartwarming if a bit sad).  This slice of life, semi-episodic indie feels like an attempt at an Oscar film but never got the big release it deserved.  Still, it has a lot to say and doesn’t phone it in.  It all begins with her watching her recently widowed sister’s cat.  She befriends a very liberal family living next door and somehow ends up being made out with the Mom, Dad and Son.  If it all sounds shocking, it is.  They all use the same tactic to make out with her which is equal parts disturbing and very funny.  That’s not entirely what this is about though; ultimately, this is a movie about how being a people pleaser can lead to more damage in your personal life than happiness.  THE NEW YORK TIMES KNOWS WHAT THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT (Streaming on Amazon Prime).

“Legalize Everything” (2020): Eric Andre goes places you wouldn’t even want to go.  For the first half of this special, I considered turning it off.  The whole thing seemed graphic for the sake of being graphic but I love his show so much and I know there’s something going on behind all the drugs and sex jokes that I stayed tuned in.  I’m so glad I did.  About halfway through, Andre hits a groove and his jokes start humming.  From the COPS theme song bit (not worth spoiling; it made me laugh crazy hard and was a brilliant observation) to re-enacting a kid walking on his elderly parents having sex, it got more and more bonkers so much so that you had to appreciate the audacity.  He closed by chatting with an audience member’s Mom over FaceTime and she was even more willing to go wild than Andre had anticipated.  By the end, I kinda loved this.  IT’S ALL OVER THE PLACE AND DISJOINTED BUT FULL OF LIFE (Streaming on Netflix).

“Double Threat” with Rian Johnson and Karina Longworth: I’d never listened to Tom Scharpling and Julie Klausner’s pod before.  For the first half hour, it was super jokey with them making fun of haunted paper towel dispensers and Terry Gilliam’s laugh.  I thought they had Rian Johnson and wife Karina Longworth sitting there and just not letting them talk.  Nah, they weren’t there but I could have sworn they were.  When they came on, they let their presence be known with a story from Rian about how Elvis watched “Doctor Strangelove” five times in theaters back to back to Karina, the esteemed film critic becoming a newfound basketball fan.  There wasn’t a ton of substance but it was a solid jokey podcast and the end where Scharpling and Klausner act out going to see Tenet in theaters during COVID times was my favorite part.  Rare that a podcast finishes on a high note.

“Good One” with Cecily Strong: As always, I’m a sucker for the SNL podcasts.  This was fine.  I feel like there’s still a better, deeper Cecily Strong interview to be had but I’ll settle for hearing her share her process for developing characters (in the case of Drunk Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Talked To At A Party, she was a Colin Jost creation) and her solid Idris Elba impression that she never got a chance to do on the show.  There’s the requisite tale of how she got hired from Improv Olympic for the show and both the host and subject cried discussing some tragic events she had to go through earlier this year which I have to be honest is pretty rare for comedy podcasts.  Still, I know there’s more.  Either way, not bad for fans.

Not a lot for me this week in comedy.  There’s my one-year wedding anniversary with Anna tomorrow (we finally eat the wedding cake sitting in our freezer), Yom Kippur and the Presidential Debates.  I’m officially an adult.

G’mar chatima tova, friends.

01.) Just Jokes reading: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=690312111835041&extid=qKpc21RMRYAgwBbh

02.) David Horning’s podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cancer-ft-matt-levy/id1495600197?i=1000491980899

03.) “Unreal” by Charlton Villavelez: https://medium.com/@CharltonJonV/unreal-32094b316d4b

04.) “Ice Moon” by Sean Cahill and Thomas Wynn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buVNmPPjuzo

05.) “Ghost Errands” by Liz Glazer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwrb4wT3B3Y&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR31MKRXjKFXeFBiAwlk8YlgIiPE8VrCbCzeqJtsucDq6wRjFIDu_dyNnwE 

06.) Sleep Talking with Matt Storrs and Hattie Hayes: https://www.facebook.com/100000198100389/videos/4406313829385177/?extid=MkN4qtQxDQuTkYYj

07.) Double Threat with Rian Johnson and Karina Longworth: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/now-my-wife-kicks-with-rian-johnson-karina-longworth/id1503252863?i=1000491192350

08.) “Good One” with Cecily Strong: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cecily-strongs-jeanine-pirro/id1203393721?i=1000488463298

Comedy Stray Notes September 20, 2020

• Remember the beginning of quarantine when everyone was like, “Ugh, all the movies about quarantine are going to suck?”  As a sometimes contrarian, I was one of the few dissenters that couldn’t wait to see what art would emerge from this odd historical moment.  What we make now will be an artifact of what it was like to live through probably the oddest year of all of our lives.  This is the stuff our grandkids will be curious about.  That’s why I was especially excited to hear my good friend/stand up comic/filmmaker Belton Delaine-Facey was making a documentary about comedy during the pandemic.  Man, I’d love to see a doc about comedy during the Spanish Flu (Anna Paone once told me that the Marx Brothers did shows where audience members wore masks way back when but that’s all I know) but I’ll settle with Belton’s doc.  He’s interviewing a number of comics about how their performances have changed from those who perform outside to those who prefer to make sketches inside.   I was honored to be one such talking head and I can’t wait to see this on Netflix someday.  If you’re interested in being a part of this doc and sharing your story, reach out to Belton.  Future generations may download this to their memory chips someday and you don’t want to miss out.

• My little quarantine business continued chugging along these past seven days as A Profile About You hit its milestone 50th profile.  I said, “Whoo” to myself as I hit publish on my computer and kept it to myself until now.  Anyhow, this wouldn’t have happened without all the kind people who took a chance on an untested profile writer.  It’s amazing to me that this little project keeps going.  I have no idea how people keep finding it but folks from Indonesia and Australia hit me up for write-ups.  Yeah, it’s a little braggy but I’m jazzed about it.  Anyhow, back to this week’s pieces.  The first profile I completed was about good friend, hilarious comic and comedy entrepreneur Matt Hyams.  Here’s a quick excerpt:

For the most part, Matt said he had the classic comedian upbringing. He outlined it for me as 1.) abandoned by father, 2.) a loving but absentee mom who was working to provide for her sons and 3.) left alone to watch TV. Lots of TV.

Also, Matt has a call to action embedded within his story.  He’s looking for comedy writers for his site.  Read the piece, get to know a bit about him and then reach out.  You might have a new writing gig alongside him.

The second profile I wrote this week was about accomplished playwright, producer and podcaster Anthony J. Piccione.  We haven’t met but I instantly became a fan of Anthony’s.  A ‘Fanthony” if you will.  Excited for his plays, theater festivals and everything he has planned.  Here’s a quick tidbit from his piece that I’m especially fond of:

I asked Anthony if he had a favorite story and he coyly replied, “I do. The ones I write and produce.”

The links to read both of these profiles are found in the comments.  It’s kind of my thing.  I’ll be honest.  I invented links in comments.  You heard it here first.

• Yeah, I watched movies this week and listened to a podcast.  I feel compelled to let you know what they were because I genuinely enjoy writing little blurbs.  Here goes:  

“Dave Made A Maze” (2017): Every so often, a movie comes along that inspires me so wholly that I close my laptop after finishing and can’t stop thinking about how I want to make something just like it for days.  This is one of those movies.  The story is breathtakingly simple- a 30-year-old guy Dave (played by “aww shucks average dude” Nick Thune) made a maze out of cardboard in his apartment that looks fairly basic from the outside.  However, the inside is labyrinthine and he can’t figure out how to escape.  Is it a metaphor?  Probably.  I didn’t care.  It was too fun to notice.  Dave’s girlfriend, best friend and a camera crew enter to try and help him escape but the story is besides the point here.  This is a movie that has the DIY homemade aesthetic that you so rarely see in movies post-2010.  The maze they traipse through is made entirely of cardboard, string, colored paper; we see the characters morph into stop motion, animated versions of themselves; there’s a deceptively clever shot where the titular Dave and his girlfriend transform into different versions of themselves that made me wonder “How have I never thought of that” and above all else it feels like if Michel Gondry directed an episode of “Community.”  Sure, this thing is a bit heavy-handed in places but at just 80 minutes, it breezes by.  GET LOST IN THIS MAZE (Streaming on Amazon Prime).

“Heartbreakers” (2001): Yeah, I had a crush on Jennifer Love Hewitt as a kid, teen and adult.  As a result, I’d always wanted to rent this movie as a kid at Blockbuster but I thought my parents would know just why I wanted to see it (my Hewitt fandom) so I always put it on hold and rented something dopey like “Celtic Pride” with Dan Aykroyd instead.  Well, I’m an adult now and can watch whatever I damn well please.  So, over the past two months of doing dishes and laundry, I I watched this charming movie on my phone.  For context, it’s your classic rom-con (yeah, I just invented that) wrapped into a studio-friendly package.  Sigourney Weaver and Hewitt play conniving seductresses who marry wealthy men like Ray Liotta (leaning into his Jersey persona), Gene Hackman (wheezing through the old cigarette mogul role) and Jason Lee (the wholesome bartender that Hewitt can’t decide if she really has feelings for!).  The movie has a nice three-act structure but our leads really aren’t that sympathetic even as antiheroes.  A lot of the story is resolved easily, certain threads make the viewer suspend disbelief (why is Weaver SO awful to everyone?) AND they waste Zach Galifiankis and Sarah Silverman in dopey friend roles.  Painful to see two of the funniest people on the planet say stock lines like, “I liked her.  She was right for you” to Jason Lee about Hewitt.  Nora Dunn was hardly used at all in a thankless role too which was a shame.  There is a fun Kevin Nealon cameo though.  Despite it all, this movie has its charms and seeing Sigourney put on a Russian accent to swindle Hackman for half the movie is worth it.  Above all, YOU CAN’T GO WRONG WITH LOVE-HEWITT (Streaming on Netflix).

“Vivarium” (2020): Amazon has been pushing this one hard.  When you log in, it’s at the top of the Prime page with Jesse Eisenberg staring practically into your soul saying, “Watch this movie!”  I caved.  It’s an odd duck of a film.  Very British social satire that half connects and half confounds.  We start with Imogen Poots, Eisenberg’s wife, a schoolteacher teaching her kindergarten class about wind and then all of a sudden, she and Jesse E. are buying a home out in the burbs from an eager real estate agent.  We don’t know anything about them other than they’re married and she teaches.  Zero other backstory.  This thing morphs into an odd dystopian take on the sameness of life outside the bustling city where they have to raise a child that’s delivered to them in a box.  Said child they raise is this weird demon thing that ages rapidly and speaks with unsettling affectations.  It’s the stuff of nightmares.  I don’t know exactly what this movie is trying to say other than the suburbs are...bad but it is deep and emotional in places.  Surprisingly amazing reggae soundtrack that didn’t fit this at all but I did love it.  I would call this A GOOD HEAD SCRATCHER TO SEE WITH A TON OF PEOPLE AND ASK WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST SEE (Streaming on Amazon Prime).

WTF with Martin Short: Yeah, Martin Short is undeniable.  If you like comedy, you like Martin Short.  I can’t imagine anyone disliking him.  Still, he’s one of those personalities I feel like I know so little about and rarely shows up on podcasts or anything where he speaks candidly so this was a treat (just learned he has a memoir; def gonna read that shizz).  Here, the interview begins with his clock sounding.  It goes off every hour, he said.  Love that quirkiness.  Stories about the infamous “Godspell” production he was a part of in the 70s (featuring Victor Garber, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner, Dave Thomas, and Paul Shaffer.  Seriously, WTF), how he wanted out of the infamous 84-85 season of SNL and how he lives near his SCTV friends like Catherine O’Hara to this day followed soon after.  Love the comedy history.  On top of that, some standout moments from the chat include 1.) this Lorne Michaels quote, “Canadians look like Russian spies trying to be American,” 2.) a story about Dan Aykroyd pretending to be Gilda Radner’s father at her birthday party, and 3.) Short’s joke that he’s “10% Jewish on my agent’s side.”  The only major letdown is they didn’t cover my all-time favorite Martin Short creation: Jiminy Glick.  We could all use more Jiminy.

• This week, I have something going on!  My one act micro-play “Just Jokes” about Comedy Fight Club is being featured as one of Dragonfly’s short plays put on by Catherine Lamoreaux and Anna Paone.  Yes, it features Matt Maran acting as Matt Maran.  Of course, there’s a link in the comments to where you can see it Tuesday night at 8:00 PM EST.  Got a feeling it’s gonna be pretty divisive.  See where you fall!

Signing off for the week, pals.  See you in the future

01.) Matt Hyams Profile: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/matt-hyams-is-ego-baby-and-ego-baby-is-matt-hyams-d14ed47c5af7

02.) Anthony J. Piccione Profile: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/anthony-j-piccione-will-not-stop-writing-8fe381db4f91

03.) Martin Short on WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1156-martin-short

04.) Dragonfly’s Tuesday night plays: https://www.facebook.com/events/380830916263507

Comedy Stray Notes September 13, 2020

• The new Charlie Kaufman movie “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” is not exactly a “comedy comedy” it’s more of a “cerebral, introspective puzzle with a few comic setpieces” and Charlie Kaufman isn’t exactly “funny” he’s more of an “absurdist.”  Still, the writer/director has a singular voice and finds humor in places others even look.  That was certainly the case for his movie released last week (I’m thinking of the gag with the dog who can’t stop shaking himself dry every time he appears onscreen).  This week, he did the COVID equivalent of a press junket in the form of a Zoom Q and A for Netflix (the whole thing was subtitled live; technology is so amazing sometimes it’s terrifying).  It was free and I signed up on Eventbrite to see if I would get to have my questions I submitted anonymously answered (my questions were: Will you ever work with Spike Jonze again?  What’s your favorite project of yours that never got made?  Are you going to make your feature length musical with Jack Black and Steve Carell anytime soon?) and they didn’t choose any of mine.  

This is a quick hit list of what took place in the brief 51-minute interview (they cut it short by nine minutes out of nowhere): Kaufman was interviewed by Tony Gilroy, the “Michael Clayton” and “Bourne” director.  Gilroy shared that he bought Kaufman’s new novel “Antkind” at the bookstore and when he went in to purchase it, the cashier smirked, “Oh, the Kaufman?” meaning Charlie had become a one-name entity.  Later, Kaufman shared that he never got to see the movie with an audience other than friends or family because of the pandemic; he also noted that he found the book the movie is based upon on Amazon. his agent didn’t send it to him.  He wanted to get something small, genre-y financed.  He was drawn to the dreaminess of the book. Authors, Kaufman is scouring Amazon.  Good to know.  He did also say, “When I adapt, I have to make it mine or I can’t do it.”  So, if he does choose your book, the adaptation is going through the Charlie Kaufman grinder.  

Other interesting tidbits included that he was in his high school theater program’s production of “Play It Again Sam,” he had a small speaking part in “Oklahoma,” and a story about how the author, Iain Reid, has a sister married to the President of Iceland and he got to stay at their place while writing.  The whole thing was interrupted by Tony Gilroy who went on many tangents and kinda made the thing about himself.  In fact, when they switched from the moderating to an audience Q and A, Gilroy was barely paying attention, clearly looking at his phone (another moderator also put herself on camera by accident for a second and scrambled to turn herself off which was very funny).  In the Q and A section, Charlie said that for this movie he was trying to achieve the feeling of “thoughts coming and going inside your head” (that’s exactly how it felt), this film had no storyboards due to time constraints, he doesn’t read philosophy really, almost all of the snow in the film were visual effects shots and finally you could tell he hated some of the questions like who his influences are and why he rarely has female protagonists but answered them reluctantly and a bit defensively.  I hope someday his discomfort in this interview becomes for his next screenplay.

• This week, I turned in a single profile for my site on the prolific comic and vet James Mac. Mac has quite a life story (the dude joined the military at 17, made a home in countries all over the world and after all is said and done, does comedy.  Telling jokes really is the holy grail) and was incredibly easy to write about.  He literally has war stories ready to go.  My favorite passage from the piece about him is the following:

“At the crack of dawn, Mac ran into a ‘vampire deer’ (more formally known as the Chinese water deer) which is not your typical deer. The way James tells it, ‘Imagine turning a corner in minimal daylight and you see a deer staring at you with long fangs like a sabertooth tiger. It definitely will leave an impression.’

Still, not as bad as most midtown audiences.”

If you want to read the whole piece, it’s linked in the comments, my friend.

• At the outset of quarantine, I told myself I wouldn’t watch any TV, just FILMS like the world’s most annoying pretentious guy.  Well, that’s over.  I’ve gone down the TV rabbit hole treating myself to episodes after work like I earned it or something.  Here’s a quick snapshot of the two TV shows I am totally up to date on as well as two movies I saw this week.  After that, we’re out.  You’ll be free to go back to the scroll of pithier, funnier statuses.  But for now, here goes:

“Corporate” (2018-2020): This might be a top-five all-time favorite show for me now.  When it came out, it was easy to write this off as a takeoff on “The Office” or “Workaholics” by solely looking at the marketing materials but this half hour sitcom is neither of those.  “The Office” and “Workaholics” are more about office foibles and human decency while “Corporate” is one of the most cynical, calculating representations of what office life in the 2010s is really like.  I was hooked mid-pilot when a well-meaning character showed others where all the cake in the office was.  I literally used to do that hiding the good ice cream in the office in freezers.  

The show, created by its stars Matt Ingebretson and Jake Weisman, work at the fictional conglomerate Hampton Deville as junior executives in training in their early 30s.  It’s a dead end job and Jake accepts this fate (some of his greatest nihilist quotes are: “Once you’re past Saturday, the weekend is over.  Sunday is for remembering Monday,” “I keep my job so I can afford a one-bedroom rather than follow my dreams and live in a studio apartment” and “live life in vacation mode” while buying Combos at a gas station) while Matt still tries to make more of himself taking on additional tasks like creating a powerpoint when no one else volunteers because he’s “really good at Powerpoints” and taking a vacation forced upon him by coworkers who tell him he’s “going to LOVE it.”  The best jokes in this show didn’t feel just like jokes.  They felt like they shifted my whole point of view or said something I always wanted to say but didn’t know how to express.

That’s not to say the show isn’t uneven; there are a few clunkers in the second and third seasons (the first season is unimpeachable; seriously watch Season 1 Episode 5 about the “fun company retreat”) but 21 or 22 of the 26 episodes are masterpieces.  Standouts include the making fun of everyone talking about an episode of “must see TV” a la “Game of Thrones” in the office (their bonding with the security guard about the show is a wonderful touch), the “Remember Day” episode where the company monetizes 9/11 by turning it into a meaningless holiday, the coming into work on Labor Day episode and so many others.  Plus, you have Aparna at her best as the head of HR who is happy to share any all company secrets, Adam Lustick is the next great American character actor you don’t know and Lance Reddick of “Lost” and “The Wire” is perfect as the company’s CEO, Christian Deville (that’s right, Christian Devil).  Also, Andy Richter’s cameo in Season Two nearly made me cry laughing.  This is the most criminally underseen show on TV and the height of satire in 2020.  So worth your time if only for the line about bagels in the office, “We literally do whatever they want for scraps of bread.”  (Streaming on Comedy Central).

“Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (2017- ): The comedy that wins all the important comedy awards.  I saw the first season way back when it was released in 2017 and buzzy as hell.  It’s fun and certainly captured the fizzy excitement of what it’s like to begin a career as a performer.  Yes, the complaints lobbed at the show that no one kills all the time especially when you start (true) and that the material isn’t really that great (also true) are well-founded but it had a certain kind of charm that first season.  It was exciting to see Maisel discover her voice almost immediately (still looking for my voice, folks if anyone sees it).  The second and third seasons aren’t quite as exciting, but they are pleasant, middle of the road, comfort food television.  Season two takes place largely at the Catskills, full of peppy dance sequences, Jewish jokes (the best one of all is the Catholic shiksa that married into the family is more observant than the reform family she married into) and is centered around ol’ Midge Maisel pursuing a new relationship with Zachary Levi after her near-divorce.  It’s fine.  Her manager, Suzy, played with gruff detachment by Alex Borstein (you know, from “Mad TV” and “Family Guy”) follows her upstate to keep tabs on her and they begin touring.  There are fun episodes about art collecting, late night telethons similar to what Jerry Lewis did for years and the episode where Maisel’s father (Tony Shalhoub!) sees her perform comedy unbeknownst to her.  It’s all fine but not nearly as electric as Season One.

Season three digs deeper into Suzy’s past (She has a gambling addiction!  She doesn’t get along with Maisel anymore!  She manages Jane Lynch’s sell out character who is Maisel’s rival!) and Midge goes on tour with closeted Shy Baldwin (I guessed he was based on Sam Cooke but he may be totally fictional) while reigniting old romances and her ex starts a club in Chinatown.  There are midding cameos from big names like Jason Alexander and Wanda Sykes that left me cold (Sterling K. Brown was pretty damn good though).  A Lenny Bruce surrogate is a regular on the show and it feels like an odd, ill-fitting tribute to him.  He’s funny, sure, but it feels weirdly inauthentic writing him into this historical fiction.  My biggest issue with the show is one of my greatest failings as a writer; scenes often “tell” instead of “show.”  For example, instead of showing Jason Alexander’s character’s groundbreaking play, they just talk about how it’s groundbreaking.  Man, I can do that!  Write something groundbreaking and then get back to me.  Still, the show is a damn hour instead of 30 minutes which is a major achievement for a comedy.  Don’t get me wrong, I like the show.  I want to love it (Streaming on Amazon).  

“Super Dark Times” (2017): My Christmas happens three times a year. I’m talking film festival season.  Everyone hates January, sure, but I love it.  January to me means a ton of reviews of new films premiering at Sundance.  May is Cannes.  September is TIFF.  And way back in 2017, I recall reading positive advance praises for this 90s based comedy on a few choice sites (I frequent Vulture, AVClub, The Ringer, Slashfilm and sometimes Roger Ebert’s still functional site for movie news) and had this on my radar forever.  Then, I spotted it while mindlessly scrolling Netflix.  It sat on my queue forever.  I wanted to see it but Anna doesn’t like horror films.  So, I watched this in pieces if I woke up before her or stayed up later.  It’s a perfect film and shocking that it’s someone’s freaking directorial debut.  To catch you up to speed, the story is simple- high school pals in upstate NY pal around after school, play video games, share lived in naturalistic dialogue that I would argue is as strong as “Superbad” and things move at a nice comedic pace until a wild left turn takes place at the end of the first act.  That HARD left turn is toward the titular super dark times.  We’ll leave it vague here once again for surprise factor reasons.  Anyhow, this is a perfect update to Poe’s “The Telltale Heart” told through the lens of aimless teenagers that have never really had anything to worry about before.  I’m not going to spoil a thing.  I will say this movie did teach me an important lesson about screenwriting though (that will be obvious to everyone).  Not every conflict needs to be resolved right away.  Escalate.  No need to solve things right away (this is a byproduct of my tendency to be a people pleaser).  Let things get ugly.  That’s how you build tension and keep eyes glued on the screen.  FOR GREAT NOSTALGIA, LEGIT SCARES, NATURALISTIC DIALOGUE AND A FANTASTIC ELECTRONIC SCORE, YOU CAN’T DO BETTER THAN THIS (Streaming on Netflix).

“Mulan” (1998): As a kid, the fam saw pretty much every Disney movie in theaters and then purchased the VHS which sat on a shelf next to our TV.  I must have seen “Oliver and Company” 25 times.  However, I never saw “Mulan.”  This was blasphemy to my wife Anna Paone who insisted we watch.  Right off the bat, I was surprised how specific and intellectual the exposition of the story is; I had to have Anna explain exactly what the conflict with the Huns was.  Once the tale kicks into high gear with the classic Disney gender bending genre trope, it felt like a classic crowd pleaser.  I recognized quite a few songs (had no idea that Stevie Wonder and 98 Degrees collaborated on a track here) and enjoyed the kinetic fight scenes with what felt like a moving camera as it swooped down mountains on armies rushing in.  Loved that Disney continued its trend of casting a quick witted comic icon with Eddie Murphy like they had done with Gottfried and Robin Williams in the past but I will admit his Mushu character felt a bit more tacked on for laughs here than integral to the story like Iago and Genie in “Aladdin” or even Timon and Pumba in “Lion King” were.  Also, there’s a totally out of place rap at the end.  I WISH I SAW THIS AS A KID (Streaming on Disney +).

This week, I have a mostly free schedule.  I kinda love the writing every night schedule.  It’s a bit lonelier than the days of doing stand up all the time (I am with Anna but focused on trying to write as much as I can every day), every but also kind of exciting.  Feels good to finally get to projects that had been rattling around in my head for years.

Umm, my apologies for another grab at self promotion but you read this far, so let’s do.  If you want a little self promotion for yourself or a project of yours, I would love to write A Profile About You.  Seriously, hit me up.  

Don’t be shy. 

01.) James Mac Profile https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/james-mac-is-literally-a-comedy-veteran-a3bd4a8149c0

Comedy Stray Notes September 6, 2020

• In the early part of quarantine, you know, the post “Tiger King” but pre “Last Dance” era of quarantine, my Mom sent my wife Anna Paone and me a surprise gift.  It was a “100 Movies to See Before You Die” poster.  The thing is you couldn’t see all the little logos of each movie; you had to scratch them off.  I hung it up.  A month or two later, I became obsessed with scratching these small squares.  I would treat myself to a scratch when I needed a mental break from work or just a moment of boredom.  After awhile, I thought, “There’s a sketch here.”  I compiled a list of things I thought was funny about the poster and then just wrote the thing.  Pals Dave Stolz and Barak Ziv swooped in with punch ups and soon after Anna and I shot the short on a whim on a Sunday.  It was perhaps my fattest day of the year; this sketch does not portray me in a flattering light.  Hopefully, this serves as a great “before” photo for me someday.  Anyhow, this is easily one of the best pieces Anna and I have done (and it’s only 2:47 long!).  It feels uniquely personal because it’s actually something going on in my life and if you watch, you’ll understand how it puts us in literally vulnerable positions.  If this all sounds like I’m being intentionally vague, it’s because I am.  I don’t want to spoil the bit here which is actually the title of the thing.  Your curiosity piqued yet?  Good.  You’re going to have to travel all the way to the comments to find out what this bit is.  See you there.

• It’s been inspiring to see Anna Paone and Catherine Lamoreaux’s Dragonfly shows produced EVERY single Tuesday of quarantine.  They rehearse every Monday at 5 PM EST and put on the show the following day at 8 PM EST like clockwork.  You’d think they would run out of steam but it seems like they’re really just getting started; in fact, this week, they were nominated for "Best Production of an Original Play" by the NJACT Perry Awards.  On a smaller scale, this week’s production of three short plays over Zoom was my favorite they’ve done yet.  From the first one starring the versatile Abraham Ntonya (Arizona State’s Daniel Day-Lewis circa 2009-11) as a sad sack who can’t get anything going to be inspired by his sister to the second one-act starring my friend, the comic Josef Anolin as a 16-year-old(!) awkwardly chatting with a stranger who turns out to be an age appropriate 16-year-old girl.  This play hit me like a ton of bricks because of one exchange in particular.  The two leads attempt to encourage each other to follow their passion (art and video games) but both are too insecure to actually follow through on these dreams.  Amazingly, this was written by a 16-year-old(!) who captured something about humanity that I’d never really been able to externalize: it’s a lot easier to be the metaphorical cheerleader than the quarterback.  Still, thinking about this insight and wished I wrote this well when I was 16, let alone 32.  Finally, Catherine Lamoreaux, the artistic director herself, starred in the finale as a woman set up on a date who brought friends along to lighten the mood.  It was a funny palate cleanser to finish off the night.  Looking forward to seeing what the company brings us this next Tuesday.  

• Time really flew this week so I didn’t get much of a chance to binge watch a ton of stuff like I like to BUT I did catch a few movies and podcasts of note:

“I’m Thinking Of Ending Things” (2020): All of quarantine, I’d been looking forward to September 4.  Like every film nerd out there, I’m obsessed with Charlie Kaufman.  Every movie of his seems to explore a part of my untapped mind that I didn’t even know was full of rich, profound, comedic potential.  In his latest, the logline is deceptively simple.  A proudly boring know-it-all Jesse Plemons takes his spunky, apprehensive girlfriend Jessie Buckley to meet his parents (a jittery Toni Collette and an unbelievably inappropriate and exquisitely alive David Thewlis in the performance of the year) out in the country at their farmhouse.  Of course, nothing is “quite right.”  Why not?  What seems like an uncomfortable “meet the parents” scenario is much weirder, pricklier and darker than anything I’d ever expect.  Still, there are moments of comic sui generis like a reading of Pauline Kael’s review of “A Woman Under The Influence” accompanied by a Buckley impersonation, a throwaway jab at Robert Zemeckis, an extended homage to “Oklahoma” (I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen “Oklahoma;” Anna explained this to me) and a meditation on art needing “sad subjects” in them to portray sadness.  When it’s over, you’ll read think pieces and come away shocked at what the movie is really about.  He doesn’t spell anything out.  Pretty audacious to employ a twist that viewers won’t even understand on first viewing.  Not saying anything else; in fact, I’m leaving out my most choice observation on the movie out of respect for people that haven’t seen this thing yet.  IF YOU NEED A MOVIE TO SEE FIVE TIMES TO TRULY “GET IT” THIS IS THE BEST 2020 HAS TO OFFER (Streaming on Netflix).

“Inkheart” (2008): Anna’s been trying to get me to see this favorite of hers for a really long time.  I’ll admit I fell asleep the first time we watched when we started it at like 10:30; to be fair, I haven’t started a movie at 11 PM and finished it since like 2013.  So, the second time we started much earlier and it went down easy.  Sure, this is a somewhat confusing movie about a book binder played by Brendan Fraser (wish there was a “Harry Potter” homage like, “You’re a book binder, Mo,” yes, Fraser’s character is named Mo) who can make stories come to life by reading them aloud but it has its charms.  There’s a fairly compelling story in here about how you can tear your family apart with a mistake, in this case, the mistake is that Fraser inserted his wife into the titular “Inkheart” and she’s stuck in the literary curiosity called “Inkheart.”  When I say literary curiosity, I mean it.  That’s what is really holding this thing back from being a rollicking good time- the story within the story is a mystery to the uninitiated- it’s hard to care for a narrative we were barely introduced to at all.  If they had used a fairytale we all know and love, this would have been a much easier pill to swallow.  ANNA’S REMAKE IS GOING TO BE WAY BETTER (Streaming on HBOMax).

“The Outsiders” (1983): Like most fanatics, I have a list of movies I want to see that I’ve never quite gotten around to that pretty much everyone else saw as kids while I was watching “Power Ranger” reruns.  This list grows every day.  However, “The Outsiders” has been at the top forever.  This week, I vowed to give it a looksy to at long last learn the origins of “Stay gold, pony boy.”  Based on a children’s novel and recommended to Francis Ford Coppola by a librarian to make it into a film (the world’s most influential librarian), it’s a fun period tale about the poetic bad kids that get mixed up in accidental murders and epically-scaled fights between hundreds of teens toward the end.  What’s truly amazing about this movie is to see all the famous faces of the 90s as youngsters from Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Ralph Macchio (who honestly steals the show by demonstrating that these “toughs” are not invincible), Diane Lane, a slightly older Swayze, fricking C. Thomas Howell, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and...Tom Waits.  I didn’t love it but I did love every time Coppola decided to throw on Van Morrison’s “Gloria” just for the hell of it.  IT’S COOL AND WORTH THE CURIOSITY FACTOR BUT THIS ISN’T GOING TO BLOW YOUR MIND (Streaming on Amazon Prime for $3.99).

“Danny Roane: First Time Director” (2006): I’m sorry but I’m an Andy Dick fan (yes, he is very problematic though; can’t erase that).  I can’t help it; he’s one of those fearless comics that is more than willing to go way farther to humiliate himself than the rest of us pretenders.  I stumbled across this bizarro “bottom of the Best Buy DVD bin circa 2008” type movie while browsing the comedy section of Hulu one day.  I had no idea Dick directed and starred in a movie way back when.  Threw it on my queue.  Then, when I went back to watch it was gone.  Forced myself to rent it on Prime to see if it was worth it.  Well, this just about 80-minute feature (pretty much the bare minimum to qualify as a feature) was worth it.  I laughed quite a bit at Bob Odenkirk’s shady producer that financed Dick’s half idea for a film, Ben Stiller’s sensitive former co-star that refused to act with Dick’s Danny Roane in his movie (I will say they go for some shamefully easy racist jokes that would make them wince today) and the titular Danny Roane who really had no idea what he was doing making a serious film.  More than anything, this movie is a guide on how not to make a movie.  Still, it’s packed with great film jokes like, “We’ll fix that in post,” said to the editor who repeatedly tells him the footage is unfixable, a very funny song about the perils of addiction sung by Anthony Rapp from “Rent” that can’t be fixed and a hilarious button at the end where the horrible film is accepted into the National Society of Jewish Women’s Film Festival (although once they show the movie, it loses a bit of the joke).  Honestly, this short feature has more to say about the mishandling of post-production than the making of.  IT’S SORT OF A HIDDEN COMEDY GEM (Streaming on Amazon Prime for $3.99).

“You Made It Weird” with Heidi Gardner: A quick admission- I’ll only listen to a podcast if I like the guest or am curious about what they have to say.  I’m not loyal enough to any podcast to listen to every single episode.  Most weeks, I’ll click into the “You Made It Weird” page on Wednesday and say, “Pass.”  This week, I stopped what I was doing right away to hear more about my current favorite SNL cast member to learn more about her.  She and Pete Holmes had a fairly entertaining sub-two hour conversation about a “snack draft” (Gardner and her friends literally held a draft for snacks and it genuinely sounded like a great time), how children have to do complex emotional work keeping their parents happy (at least they felt that way) and how you still have bad days even if you get your wildest dreams (apparently, working at SNL isn’t a cakewalk).  The best part of the whole thing is when Gardner said she often told her Mom as a kid that “God’s last name isn’t dammit.”  Wholesomeness like that never fails to get me.  

One note about this podcast: Pete Holmes mentions that he’s “connecting” with Heidi so many times that it’s painful.  Good lesson here- don’t talk about how good the conversation is; the listener will know.

• Saw a trailer for “The Comeback Trail” on my lunch break at work this week.  Tweeted that it looked like Robert De Niro was doing an impression of Marc Maron.  Yeah, I’ll admit I tagged Maron to see if he would catch it.  Of course he did.  This trick has worked twice now!  Folks, if you want the attention of a celebrity you like, Tweet a sincere, unique compliment and tag them.  You just might get their ear.

• Classic quarantine week planned this week.  That translates to I’ve got pretty much nothing going on.  I don’t even mind.  See ya in a week with more nonsense.

Don’t forget!  Watch that sketch.  It’s literally right below this.  Promise it’s worth your time.

01.) “100 Movies To See Before You Poop”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gswI7tMPhcY&list=PLoBsCsHJsKMrx6cuZ4Se8CQ_QBfOUcJ5U

02.) Dragonfly’s production: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1165463943848817&extid=wqdKKL5c6HXdTNjJ

03.) “You Made It Weird” with Heidi Gardner: http://youmadeitweird.nerdistind.libsynpro.com/heidi-gardner

04.) Marc Maron Tweet: https://twitter.com/marcmaron/status/1301974851456958464

Comedy Stray Notes August 30, 2020

• I was nearing the end of this week and thinking, “Damn.  I might have the least amount of stuff to write about of all time this week.”  Yes, this was a legitimate fear I had on a Thursday.  My problems are small.  Luckily, a few things came up to exacerbate this minor issue.  The first was a complete and total surprise.  A stranger with TWO followers on Twitter (I believe I was their second) messaged me saying they had found my Tweet about unemployment (“Only took me two hours of being unemployed for my Dad to suggest coding classes again”) on Buzzfeed.  That made sense because it had been getting a few random favs here and there even though I wrote it in mid-March.  I annoyingly asked said stranger if they would send me a link.  They cheerily agreed to do so.  To my surprise, there I was in the middle of a great list of Tweets about unemployment by the OG Tim Unkenholz.  Put a little spring in my step to have been included in such a great compilation of comics’ Tweets.  Unbelievably, this happened a second time this week too.  My old friend Nick Adkins reached out and let me know that he spotted a Tweet of mine on The Chive in another listicle about “You know you’re getting old when Tweets.”  Mine was “I know I’m getting old because I just said, “Nice, Diane Keaton’s in this.’”  It’s interesting to me that these sites curate Tweets into fun lists and give folks a little boost; I got a few new followers out of both.  I love that they use their platform to credit comics for jokes; the internet ain’t so bad after all.  Even better, now we can all enjoy a little more Diane Keaton-based humor thanks to this.

• Ron Howard’s putting on an open call screenplay competition for four different genres this summer through fall.  I’m happy to say I received my first rejection this week for my script “C World” that was written and conceived with Chris Crespo.  The competition was looking for “action/adventure” films and our script was more of a “satirical Biblical allegory about corporate greed at a fictional amusement park culminating in a Civil War” but I still submitted because why not?  To enter the competition is free which is nice but they really weed people out by making applicants write nine (!) pages worth of questions about their project to even submit.  I had to write a frickin’ paragraph on my antagonist’s arc.  That’s a lot to ask.  Still, thanks to this program I have completely revised and updated two feature-length screenplays of mine that I thought I would never touch again.  At the outset of the pandemic I didn’t plan on doing any revisions, just wanting to create new stuff, and now I’ve done overhauls on two 90-page stories.  Thanks, Ron Howard.  You’re making me work for free but I’m glad I am.

• While not revising a screenplay of my own this week, I cleared my mind and took in the following: 

Zombie Spaceship Wasteland (2011): I loved everything about Patton Oswalt’s book “Silver Screen Fiend” and I couldn’t wait to devour this slight hardcover collection of essays and oddities.  It didn’t hit in quite the same way as the last one.  The book drips with cynicism about...everything.  Many stories are about the vapidity of people from his hometown/advertising/people from LA rather than a probing curiosity about what makes people tick.  Still, there’s no need to write this quick read off completely.  A passage about a Hell gig in Canada when Patton was new to headlining was a genuine page turner (if not, also incredibly pessimistic and a bit victim blame-y).   One short chapter written as a graphic novel is basically “What We Do In The Shadows” lite before the film or show existed (it’s two vampires bickering about who gets to gnaw on a human’s neck), another brief one is extremely pretentious punch up notes for what sounds like the dumbest screenplay of all time.  Brilliant.  I loved his ode to Dungeons and Dragons as well.  In fact, he penned an extraordinary poem about his character that’s worth the price of admission (got it for like $2.00 on Amazon).  Paging through, you also get a separate entry about the different kind of hack 80s headliners that is less funny than it is mean-spirited and of course the title chapter about zombies, spaceships and wastelands, breaking down what kind of nerd you are based on which genre you fancied the most.  Felt like lesser Chuck Klosterman (snobbiest thing I’ve ever written right there).  Also, there’s a few slurs written in here that would not fly by 2020 standards at all.  So, yes.  It’s all over the place.  That’s what collections are.  I’d say this is for die-hard Patton fans and not a great entry into his oeuvre.  Finally, one last note!  Most of the chapters conclude with a short review of everything Patton browsed while writing said chapter like “the trivia section of the IMDb page of ‘The Breakfast Club.’”  The voyeuristic nature of these asides gave the book a fresh air and an insight into the human mind- we might be writing but rarely are we actually thinking about what we write; more often than not, the mind wanders.  

“Undone” (2019): Rafael Bob-Waksberg, the brain behind “Bojack Horseman” was given free rein to create a show on Amazon and this one is a doozy.  Employing rotoscope animation like “Waking Life” and far less comedy than “Bojack,” this eight-episode series is about free-spirited/depressed schoolteacher Alma’s life post-car crash.  She magically survives and begins communicating with her dead father (played with gravelly Bojack-ness by Bob Odenkirk) in moments where she slips out of consciousness and can see through time and space.  The overarching A-story here is that she needs to find out who murdered her father (which is actually almost the exact same story as “Upload” Amazon’s other new “comedy”).  This leads to many disorienting, non-linear but grounded scenes that make a little sense and then upon reinspection later in the episode are explained.  The B-story with Alma’s sister getting married and her sabotaging it by planting her in a game where they have to kiss teemed with comic tension.  The C-story with her boyfriend is just as tense and fantastical.  Essentially, it’s a messier “Groundhog Day” but one where every frame looks like a gorgeous painting and you have less of an idea of where it’s going.  IF YOU LIKED THE HEAVINESS OF BOJACK AND A DASH OF METAPHYSICAL SCI-FI, THIS IS THE SHORT SERIES FOR YOU (Available on Amazon Prime).

“Come To Daddy” (2020): There was an article in The AV Club (yeah, I’m a daily reader) recommending this new release that didn’t make a ton of noise upon theatrical distribution.  I wrote it off as dull horror.  That is not the case at all (thanks, AV Club for showing me the way here).  This is a wild story, that if not for “Parasite” existing, people would be calling visionary.  Here, we take a much simpler route to the action than in “Parasite.”  Off the top, the audience follows a bowl-cut sporting Elijah Wood to a remote beach home in the middle of nowhere.  His estranged father allegedly wrote him a letter to come see him.  Upon meeting, their differences are clear.  Wood is a materialistic, spoiled Millennial who lies about being friends with Elton John (this scene early in the movie is a standout and you guessed it, TEEMS WITH COMIC TENSION- my new go to phrase).  What follows in this film is not the weird, father-son dynamic being wrung for more laughs.  It’s much more sinister and unexpected.  This is the rare movie that keeps zagging when you expect it to zig.  Halfway in, I had no idea where we were going to end up which is the best feeling you can have as a viewer.   IT’S DARK, DIRTY, GOES TOO FAR AND WORTH YOUR TIME (Available on Amazon Prime).

“Down and Out In Beverly Hills” (1986): I am guilty of judging movies by their posters.  Judging a book by its cover is unfair but for a movie it’s justified, I think.  This soulful movie had the absolute wackiest marketing materials so it seemed like a silly romp.  Don’t get me wrong, this movie kind of is and reads as very preachy in 2020.  Still, impressive for 1986.  This flick tells the story of a homeless con man played by Nick Nolte who ingratiates himself in a well to do family made up of Richard Dreyfuss (basically playing a more laid back version of his character in “What About Bob” which is eerily similar), Bette Middler and their children.  Nolte lies through his teeth making up stories to endear himself to these well-meaning, out of touch suckers.  He gets them all to realize all of their dreams- to be more laid back for Dreyfuss and for literally everyone else in the family to be sexullay liberated.  Honestly, most of it works.  There’s quite a bit of commentary about how most of the hippies from the 60s became vagrants and others sold out.  I hadn’t ever seen a movie ever fully address this before.  Plus, Little Richard has a wild cameo as a neighbor which is one of the most out of left field surprise stunt casting roles I’ve ever seen.  I had to do a double take the first time he appeared onscreen.  Also of note is the soundtrack.  The movie trades in fairly dramatic scenes that are scored by the cheesiest 80s synth music which makes them unintentionally hysterical.  DON’T JUDGE A MOVIE BY ITS POSTER; IT MIGHT BE NOT HALF BAD (Available on Amazon Prime). 

“An Evening With Beverly Luff Lin” (2018): Everything about this movie looked cloyingly kitschy.  Indie for indie’s sake.  A distant relative of the “Napoleon Dynamite” aesthetic, if you will.  This movie is certainly all of those things and inhabits all of their worst characteristics.  Most notably, they have Craig Robinson as the lead (he plays Beverly) and he grunts his way through the whole performance.  Seriously.  His character mainly just grunts.  It’s supposed to be funny but falls so flat.  I digress though.  This is a bizarre little love square (not triangle) between Aubrey Plaza doing her Aubrey Plaza thing, her husband played by Emile Hirsch who fires her from her job (honestly, a painful scene), Jemaine Clement (a bumbling hitman type whom she kidnaps) and the aforementioned Robinson.  Most of it takes place in an 80s hotel manned by obese employees and inhabited by obese guests.  In fact, that’s a recurring motif in the film.  There’s even a surprising sex scene between two heavy people who are not conventionally attractive not played for laughs.  It felt extremely progressive.  However, that feeling doesn’t last because svelte characters call every overweight person who appears onscreen “fat.”  It’s disappointing.  I won’t lie- there is a great movie hiding in here.  Matt Berry is very funny as Robinson’s platonic life mate and when Robinson and Plaza have quiet moments here you realize bizarre improvised scenes don’t have the comedic power that two comedic titans have just chatting.  So, much fun stuff.  This is a waste of a fantastic cast.  Even the big finale where we see Beverly Luff Lin perform is more anti-comedy than anything truly funny.  One final note!  David Gordon Green, the “George Washington” and “Pineapple Express” director executive produced this movie.  His influence is certainly felt.  I read a long time ago that he wanted to make a movie where all of the extras didn’t have eyebrows for no reason other than to see if audiences noticed.  That’s what this entire thing felt like.  IF THIS WASN’T SO AFRAID OF BEING AUTHENTIC, THIS WOULD BE SO MUCH BETTER (Streaming on Netflix).

“Fun Size” (2012): Other than Eugene and Daniel Levy, the most successful Levy in comedy might be Jane Levy.  So, I’ve kept up with her career just in case we meet up at a family reunion of some kind and I can say, “Yeah, I saw ‘Fun Size.’  You were great in that.”  Irrational, yes.  Still, COULD happen.  Anyhow, this is a fun, little movie released by Nickelodeon studios that is a bit more mature than you might expect.  Our lead along with her best friend Jane Levy have the unfortunate task of having to shlep said lead’s little brother (who refuses to talk) around on Halloween night through Cleveland since the Mom played by Chelsea Handler is dating a much younger man and going to a house party with him.  This leads to the movie’s best sequence where Handler needs a moment to herself and walks in on the host parent’s bedroom where they’re reading.  Rather than making it uncomfortable, they bond over tea.  Perfect execution.  Later, Handler has an exceptionally emotional scene where she grieves the loss of her husband with her kids.  Wasn’t expecting such heaviness executed in a way that didn’t feel forced for a kid’s movie.  Also, there’s a nerd teenager wearing an Alexander Hamilton costume which is three years ahead of its time.  This movie may have been the inspiration (I know I’ll be corrected for this). And there’s a pre-“Silicon Valley” Thomas Middleditch from an era where he would show up in any movie that fell into the comedy genre.  He plays a serviceable Thomas Middleditch-type here using the kid to get back with a vengeful ex.  Then there’s Kerry Kenney-Silver and Ana Gasteyer as the love interest’s Moms.  Lots of talent.  Perfect teen comedy if you think you’ve seen them all.  YOU DID GOOD, JANE LEVY.  YOU DID GOOD (Available on Amazon Prime for $3.99).

• Also, of note, I saw Anna Paone rock it in Catherine Lamoreaux’s stirring adaptation of “Tennessee Women For The Vote” in Plainfield, NJ.  Really cool of them to put on a brilliantly staged outdoor reading.  Theater ain’t dead.  It’s just evolving.  

New Charlie Kaufman movie on Netflix this week, folks.  Can’t lie.  I’m stupid excited.

Keep it chill in the chat

01.) Buzzfeed List: https://www.buzzfeed.com/timunken/of-the-most-relatable-tweets-about-being-unemploye-2luzfazr9?bfseed=sodisco&distro_platform=facebook&fbclid=IwAR27DGrMKXHt9_yQe2d45iw_ZFv0m6aEzkqGhyMsP8-Y7Q6Y7mzIyzeELZA

02.) The Chive List: https://thechive.com/2020/08/27/sorry-but-youre-officially-old-if-you-can-relate-to-these-30-photos-2/

03.) Ron Howard’s competition: https://www.imagine-impact.com/

Comedy Stray Notes August 23, 2020

• My wife Anna E. Paone is an auteur; she leaves an indelible print on any of her works that make it unmistakably hers.  Steeped in her influences ranging from YA novels to fast-talking 40s screwball comedies to modern video games mixed with a hint of well-meaning wholesomeness, I can suss out an Anna project easily.  This past Tuesday, I watched as she flexed her writer/director muscles in the debut of her new theatrical Zoom adaptation of the video game “Harvest Moon.”  The story of a young country lad, Jack (gently brought to life by Nick Endo) and his journey into Flower Bud Village is filled with light tongue in cheek touches like distilling characters via humorous single line introductions.  The best of all was the Karen character played with an edge by Laura Paone who opened with, “We’re not here for your pleasure, Jack.  I want to be a dancer and leave this boring town.”  Jack replied, “She’s intoxicating.”  This reading of the original game’s text for a 2020 adult audience both honors and skewers the game all at once.  As a result, each character is a commentary on an archetype; David Rey Martinez as the omniscient, impossibly cheery Mayor and Jordan Scott Huggins as the slurring, surly drunk were two standouts for me as they maximized the comic potential of their lines making these characters pop out of the Zoom and to life.  If this sounds interesting to you, you can watch the intoxicating 30-minute reading at the link below.

• Three new profiles that I love were put up on A Profile About You this week.  It’s amazing that this project endures and exhilarating each time a new profile goes up.  In fact, I’ve been so busy at my temp gig and there’s been so many profiles that I’ve outsourced a few of the profiles to my friend Dave Stolz.  He wrote two that couldn’t be more different.  The first is all about prolific podcaster Joey Dardano; I had no idea about his pod “Help From A Hypocrite” which is a genius concept.  He’ll give advice but also tell you that he might not be the person to dispense wisdom.  Literally everyone should have that disclaimer.  Stolz’s second profile is an-character detailing of The Devil (in this case written in character as Nick Fofonoff) that plays with the format of what a profile can be about a fictional character.  I found myself laughing out loud at this one quite a bit.  My favorite line was, “Although he possesses a unique understanding for the craft, Satan believes what separates him from his comedic contemporaries is his, brand recognition.’”  This is a perfect marriage of a fascinating subject and a writer willing to go there with him.  Finally, I penned a piece on the emerging Kaili Turner who is about to break out (seriously; I’m predicting a huge 2021 for her).  Writing about her comedy was a joy but I loved rehashing the story of her son learning to snowboard.  It was a surprisingly heartfelt and funny detour in her tale that only made me understand her comedy more.  All three of these disparate portraits of young up-and-coming comedic forces can be found in the comments.

• Just a few nerdy observations on TV, specials and movies I saw this week and then I swear you can get back to your regularly scheduled scroll.  

“Upload” (2020): This 10-episode first season was released in early May and at the time, I thought, I would never get around to watching this series.  There was so much to see!  So much to do during the pandemic!  Anyway, I binged this whole thing this week like a snack.  Executive produced by Greg Daniels (Simpsons, King of the Hill, The Office, one of comedy’s Midas Touch guys), the show is about a near future where you don’t have to ever really die; your consciousness can live on through a virtual retirement home (if you have the money for it).  It’s like if “The Good Place” was more a social commentary than a philosophical one.  More than anything it reminded me of the world building in “Downsizing.”  Either way, the possibilities are endless with this universe but the A-storyline they chose is about a wealthy developer who MAY (yeah, he probably was) murdered in a self-driving car accident.  He’s put in this virtual world by a doting, materialistic girlfriend and he falls for the kind hearted customer service representative who's by his side every step of the way (they’re called angels).  The love triangle and storyline is semi-gripping but I’m here for the potential clues to what the future will be like.  It’s almost my favorite kind of joke writing formula- “What will the future bring?  This is what I think.”  Here’s a few I picked up on that were funny: an “Oprah/Kamala 2024” campaign poster (mind you, this was released in May); the people that can’t afford the virtual world are sent to live in the 2 GB world that has a lot less definition; funerals are essentially after parties and show random memories from your iPhone (also, your friends bail after ten minutes); you only have certain access to tastes in this after world (they eat to maintain a sense of normalcy or else they go insane) and when umami is added to their taste profile it’s like an upgrade; since they live in a virtual existence they’re paying for beyond the grave, pop up ads are everywhere AND finally when you can no longer afford the virtual world, you are given back to your family as a hard drive.  Won’t spoil how that last bit is paid off.  The sad thing is I kind of doubt this show will get a second season (it has that feel of trying to imitate the best of prestige TV as much as I liked it) BUT IT’S A WORTHY WAY TO SPEND FIVE HOURS (Streaming on Amazon Prime).

Ilana Glazer’s “The Planet Is Burning” special: I remember when this was released and got quite a bit of hate online.  Yes, Glazer panders to her audience (if I had a rabid fanbase, I would do the same thing, sue me) but she is a fantastic, lively performer.  Her material is a bit surface level here sounding more like complaints at brunch about the politicians in power and the differences between men and women but there was a brief interlude about how she differs from her character on the show that I found revealing and inspired.  She said when she has weed delivered, she sits in the closet scrolling Instagram while her husband takes care of the transaction for her.  IF HER NEXT SPECIAL IS MORE ABOUT THIS SIDE OF HER, IT’LL BE A CLASSIC (Streaming on Amazon Prime).

“Spirited Away” (2001): Every single “Best Of” list has this animated Miyazaki original on it and it bugs me every time I see it on a list because it’s a reminder I haven’t sat down to watch it yet.  This week, I remedied that.  I liked it.  Moments I loved.  But this was not the all-out visionary classic I was expecting based on the love it gets everywhere.  Yeah, the “Wizard of Oz” or “Alice In Wonderland-esque” hero’s journey is charming and there are certainly striking visuals.  It just didn’t move me.  Maybe I’m just old and boring now.  Anyhow, I did absolutely love the background details Miyazaki threw in the mix.  Completely absurd, overweight creatures that just exist.  He doesn’t draw attention to them; they’re extras.  Your eye may stray from the main action and imagine a world in which one of these beautifully rendered monsters is the hero.  That attention to detail is something you only get in animation and I applaud Miyazaki for putting in the extra work (even if I’m cranky about the whole thing; it might have something to do with my heightened expectations).  Also credit for the unbelievably powerful shot revealing that Chihiro’s (the hero) parents had morphed into pigs upon eating found free food.  It’s one of those images burned into my mind long after the rest of the movie has faded from view.  I’M GLAD I SAW IT AND SHOULD HAVE TEMPERED MY EXPECTATIONS (Streaming on HBO Max).

“Robin Hood: Men In Tights” (1993): One of the many weird gaps in my moviewatching history.  It’s been on streaming for as long as streaming has existed but I always skip past it for some reason.  Well, I woke up early this Saturday and said, “Why not?”  Clicked play and found your standard-fare Mel Brooks.  Self-referential gags (I counted three; one where he name checks himself, one literally stealing a joke of his from “Young Frankenstein” and a third referencing “Blazing Saddles” PLUS he cameos as a Rabbi who specializes in circumcision), visual bits (a king played by a miscast Richard Lewis using a beeper to close the gate of his castle was my favorite), puns (none worth mentioning) and parody (an extended Don Corleone bit with Dom DeLuise was a bizarre, unnecessary detour).  I’m torn about this movie.  I’d never seen the Robin Hood it was based on but it felt an awful lot like the superior “The Princess Bride” down to Cary Elwes in the lead.  It’s fascinating to see a young Dave Chappelle in action and a few sped-up old-timey jokes like a blind man accidentally battling a wooden pole then sawing it down and an archery contest where the arrow miraculously goes under the crowd unwittingly leading them to doing the wave made me laugh really hard and I’d put them with the best of his work.  Other misogynistic and racist bits made me cringe.  Also, Patrick Stewart and Isaac Hayes deserved way more than glorified walk on roles.  OVERALL, IT’S A MIXED BAG WITH MORE GOOD THAN BAD  (Streaming on Hulu).

Got quick socially distant hangs in this week with Matt Fishman and his fiancee Morgan Miller and then one the next day with Ben Miller (not related to the best of my knowledge).  Made life feel normal again.  I want more of this.  If you’re in the Queens/Astoria area, Anna Paone and I are down to just hang.  

From afar.  

01.) Anna E. Paone’s “Harvest Moon” reading: https://www.facebook.com/DragonflyMulticulturalArts/videos/638941153422421

02.) Joey Dardano Profile: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/joey-dardano-used-to-be-so-smart-what-happened-to-him-f8b7cc3b0a79

03.) Devil Profile: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/my-date-with-the-devil-c97d934522ab

04.) Kaili Turner Profile: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/kaili-y-turner-is-making-comedy-for-2020-bf02357df636

Comedy Stray Notes August 16, 2020

• Comedy festivals are an incredible amount of work.  As a participant in a few, I watched producers work tirelessly promoting shows they weren’t performing in, procuring merch bags for participants (in Detroit, they gave me Faygo which was an excellent touch) and managing personalities large and small.  Not only is it tireless, it seems thankless as well.  You have to respect the selflessness of those in comedy who pour through audition tapes, book shows and ensure they all go smoothly.  Even more impressive is that folks would expend the effort to put on a virtual festival for comics.  I’ve started seeing ads for a few online but this week, I actually did my first one, The Burbank Comedy Festival, put on by Flappers, an LA club I’ve never been to.  I was told they serve excellent pizza at the club should I ever go.  Anyhow, here’s a quick recounting of the two shows I did that were honestly pretty representative of the comedy festival experience: the first one, on Wednesday, was sparsely attended (just being real here, folks).  I believe there were five audience members (one was my Dad Andy Levy) and one comic didn’t show.  Since the comics were only doing tight five minute sets, the show legitimately only went 35 minutes.  It was over in a snap.  Still, it was done rather professionally.  All the comics showed up early to test sound, we all had consistent virtual backgrounds, there was a prerecorded video to open the show which made it feel like we were in a club and a showrunner in addition to a host.  They actually really put the time in.  The second show was a bit different.  Since the festival is on the West Coast, some of the shows are really late for East Coasters.  In fact, this one started at 12:30 AM for me.  Somehow, this was the biggest stand up crowd I’d seen on Zoom though.  20 or so people.  Since my Dad was watching a second time, I wanted to do new material I hadn’t tested (yes, I treated a fest set kind of like a mic) and I’ll admit it, I had a fairly weak set.  It ended on a fun note when I revealed that Anna was sitting behind me the whole time and she entered the frame.   As for it being a weak set, I told myself, “This is just a quiet crowd.”  Nah.  They were rowdy, ready to laugh and just waiting for better material.  I found this out when New York-based comic Onika McLean tore up the room doing an impression of people that crowd the Zoom frame and those that sit really far away.  Then, headliner Don Friesen peppered physical gags into his joke-heavy, assured set like popping in and out of frame.  Zoom comedy is evolving as a medium and it’s exciting to see its growth; it’s almost like what I imagine seeing “talkies” was like in the late 20s/early 30s.  We don’t just have to sit and talk to our cameras; it’s time to play with the mise en scene and reinvent what a set can be with all the tools a camera and our homes give us.

• The profile business is still chugging along.  This week, I published a piece on one of my favorite working comics, Erik Terrell.  On this one, I’d say come for Erik’s comedy war stories but stay for the excellent tale of how he met his wife.  I won’t spoil it.  Check the link in the comments to read all about this rising star.

• I watched an embarrassing amount of TV, stand up specials and movies this week.  Here they are in rapid fire succession:

“The Comedians” (2015): I remember somewhat abhorrent reviews for this show when it was released a few years back.  Man, reviews are toxic.  You see one or two one or two-star reviews and you immediately think that something has no value.  I’m glad I got around to seeing this show that feels like an artifact of what being “woke” meant in 2015.  Let’s start at the beginning though.  The mockumentary is about a fictional FX show within the show starring Billy Crystal and Josh Gad as co-stars on “The Billy and Josh Show.”  The season runs the gamut of stories about diversity hires, staff writers transitioning (to be fair, this was handled pretty poorly), entertaining what they think is a Make A Wish kid,  a dual arrest, hiring humorless directors and a finale where they are excited to be premiering after “Louie.”  Still, the stories are not what makes this show special.  I loved it for two main reasons: 1.) the relationship between Crystal and Gad is genuinely fascinating highlighting their generational differences (weed is much stronger now and is touched upon often) and their blossoming, awkward friendship.  They’re both incredible actors and this show is a wonderful showcase for their talents.  2.) the sketches from the show within the show.  Sure, most of them were silly but Crystal and Gad sold the Hell out of them.  I especially liked the one about the pitcher and catcher who are in a relationship but continue to talk through their gloves at the mound.  THIS SHOW IS ABOUT AS INSIDE BASEBALL AS YOU CAN GET, AND THAT’S WHY I LOVED IT  (Streaming on Hulu).

“What We Do In The Shadows” (2019): Comedy nerds Sam Zelitch, Carole Harris and Hans Harris had been recommending this half hour series to Anna and me forever.  I liked the movie alright when I saw it two or three years ago but it didn’t leave a huge impression on me.  Eventually, we caved and completely fell in love with this sitcom. Like the above, it’s a mockumentary that originally aired on FX, but it’s really unlike any mockumentary that’s come before it (other than the film it’s based on).  Four vampires, Lazslo, Nadja, Nandor and Colin Robinson live in a home that comes to life only at night in Staten Island aided by their familiar Guillermo who acts as their glorified intern.  The show trades in high concept bits such as an energy vampire (Colin Robinson masterfully played by Mark Proksch- seriously one of the most underrated character actors ever) who drains the life out of people with mundane conversation; hypnosis going too far and completely erasing one’s memory (the Super Bowl episode in Season Two is a perfect 22 minutes of comedy) and feasting on virgins that they seek out.  On top of all that, this show tells an amazingly compelling and moving story that has a narrative arc not entirely dissimilar to “Breaking Bad.”  Anna and I were sad when we finished the second season.  The two of us anxiously await a third season.  EVEN IF YOU HATE FANTASY OR HORROR, YOU WILL LIKE THIS.  THAT’S HOW GREAT IT IS (Streaming on Hulu).

Hannibal Buress’ “Miami Nights” special (2020): Hannibal’s new free hour starts with him doing well at an open mic in grainy footage that appears to be 20 years old or so.  It showcases what all already know: He’s been a natural from the very start.  That assuredness bleeds into the hour (which does have ads throughout; as he explains, he’s gotta make a buck) which had some daring technical achievements sprinkled in to give it a new flavor.  Said effects were put into motion by a wall with graphics behind him that acted almost like his hype man tagging his jokes.  For example, early in the hour, Hannibal fakes his death with a heart monitor beeping behind him.  This gives the bit a visual element that makes this feel more like an event and less like a casual hour that Hannibal just taped one night.  I appreciate the showmanship.  Other standout moments include Burress trying out auto-tune, a news report detailing his arrest that he rewinds a few times for emphasis and a finale detailing his arrest in Miami (hence the title).  I laughed loud and often.  Also, I watched the credits closely.  If you’re interested, Hannibal shares his NBA 2K gamer tag toward the end in fine print.  HANNIBAL IS FIVE YEARS AHEAD OF EVERYONE ELSE WITH SPECIALS; CHECK THIS OUT TO STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE (Streaming on YouTube; link in the comments).

Maria Bamford’s “Weakness is the Brand” special (2020): Bamford, no stranger to innovative specials, plays it relatively safe here other than the occasional fourth-wall breaking aside to the camera addressing the viewer at home.  Still, just because it’s not formally adventurous doesn’t mean that this isn’t an absolutely brilliant hour.  Maria goes hard tackling non-profits that refuse to pay her to perform (gotta say, I’m on her side), Netflix treating the extras on her set poorly and what it’s like to be a celebrity on a celebrity chef show (she worked alongside La Toya Jackson; her impression is hysterical even if you’ve never heard La Toya’s voice).  Maria concluded the set by bringing her husband onstage to sing “The Saturation Song” with her about how to mellow out when in the middle of a huge fight.  Not only was this hour funny, it was one that made me feel like I understood my own self and values better.  BAMFORD IS OPERATING ON A DIFFERENT PLANE (Streaming on Amazon Prime).

“An American Pickle” (2020): Simon Rich, this film’s screenwriter, is one of the greatest living American humorists.  Take for instance, his seminal, over too soon show “Man Seeking Woman.”  In it, he practically invents a new kind of comedy, one where a date with a troll is actually with a literal troll.  Or when you hear your ex is dating someone horrible and it’s a 100-year-old Hitler played by Bill Hader.  Or the one where a military team treats sending a text after receiving a phone number like a national emergency.  This extreme literalism made for some of my all-time favorite gags and I couldn’t believe my luck when I heard he was adapting one of my favorite short stories of his, “Sell Out” AND it would be starring Seth Rogen playing two versions of himself.  Well, as I’ve learned time and again, the things I get most excited for in life, often disappoint me the most.  If you go into this film with modest expectations, you may be pleasantly surprised because it really is an ingenious fish out of water premise.  Basically, Rogen plays Herschel, an immigrant from the made up Schlupsk in the early 20th century.  The sequences here are beautifully shot and have a Pixar-like poignancy.  Once in New York, while working at a pickle factory, he falls in a vat and is sealed shut for nearly 100 years.  When he emerges in 2020, he meets his only living descendant, also played by Rogen, an app developer.  Things start promisingly as they begin to lean on each other but when the movie takes a turn toward something that almost reads like a parody of Trump’s rise, it loses its way.  I’ll admit I was most disappointed because the moments that fell most flat felt like my own writing.  Still, this went by incredibly quickly for a 90-minute film; I was shocked when it was over.  I WISH THERE WAS A SLIGHTLY BETTER VERSION OF THIS FILM (Streaming on HBO Max).

“Hollow Man” (2000): I had no interest in this as a 12-year-old when it was released; it looked scary and kind of dumb.  Having seen it as a 32-year-old, I can confirm it is a little scary and kind of dumb.  Imagine a world where a scientist sex offendor (played coldly by Kevin Bacon) could be...invisble.  That’s pretty much the crux of this movie.  Sure, the effects were really cool but overall this felt incredibly tone deaf and does not hold up in any way.  Not even Josh Brolin or Elisabeth Shue were that good (although I guess it is interesting that the movie’s three leads were all 80s teen stars).  I CANNOT IN GOOD CONSCIENCE RECOMMEND THIS FILM (Streaming on Amazon Prime). 

“Scoop” (2006): Yes, I am the guy that has seen nearly every single thing Woody Allen has done.  I’m sorry.  I can’t help it.  This was one of my few gaps in his oeuvre, so I made it appointment viewing this week.  It’s a pleasant caper about a recently-deceased journalist who gets a scoop beyond the grave.  He delivers it to a young, impressionable student played by Scarlett Johanssen and she teams up with the Wood man (playing a crowd pleasing magician) to stop...Hugh Jackman.  Never thought I’d see two Marvel stars in a movie with a guy who has made the least action films of all time but here we are.  It’s midding late Woody; nothing spectacular but not a horrible movie either.  You have to make quite a few logical leaps to buy into the premise but IT’S A PERFECTLY FINE FORGETTABLE MOVIE (Streaming on Amazon Prime).

“The Beguiled” (2017): I’m almost certain I’ve seen this movie before.  Eh, still wanted to see it again.  This one really got slept on when it came out and deserves all the promotion it can get.  It’s a perfect, mostly one-location period, ensemble chamber piece about a stable of women living together during the Civil War (including Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning).  A Union Soldier (Colin Farrell) stumbles into their lives and attempts to con them into staying longer than he should by wooing all of these ladies of varying ages in different ways.  It’s a slick story well told by Sofia Coppola that morphs from something slimy into a triumphant tale of female empowerment.  FULL OF TWISTS, THIS ONE GOES DOWN SMOOTH  (Streaming on Cinemax via Amazon Prime).

Arkansas (2020): It’s always really exciting for me as a viewer when actors step behind the camera to direct AND act.  This movie, the feature film directorial debut of Clark Duke is an impressive Tarantino rip-off that shows tons of potential.  Featuring a cast of “Oh, yeah!  I forgot about that person!” B-listers, the movie clicks with fast-paced dialogue, a fun story about drug runners who all serve a secretive kingpin (you’ll have to see this movie to find out who it is), a nonlinear narrative split up by chapters (this is where it jumped from a Tarantino homage to ripoff for me) and a few smart, visual bits.  Also, the love interest is played by Josh Brolin’s daughter.  To be fair, she’s a lot better than Brolin in “Hollow Man.”  Even Clark Duke’s brother makes an appearance and is solid in this picture.  I liked he cast his brother; pretty righteous of him.  IF YOU’RE FIENDING FOR SOME NEW TARANTINO, THIS MIGHT BE THE FIX TO GET YOU THROUGH (Streaming on Amazon Prime). 

“Harry and the Hendersons” (1987): Growing up, this VHS box with an ape-looking thing on the cover taunted me when I debated what to check out on my weekly Blockbuster trip.  I wondered, “Will I ever rent this?  Is that an ape?  Is John Lithgow the ape in this?”  The answers to these questions are “I streamed it, that’s not an ape, that’s Bigfoot and Lithgow is the man defending Bigfoot’s right to exist.”  I’d call this movie a charming, less emotional “ET” with a dash of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” paranoia thrown in for good measure.  Simply put, it felt like a cash grab capitalizing on the “We must incorporate this creature into a society that doesn’t understand him” story.  Lithgow and his family really do commit to loving this Bigfoot though.  It’s honestly weird because he’s kind of a pain.  THIS MAY BE THE LEAST ESSENTIAL MOVIE OF ALL TIME BUT WOULD BE GOOD VIEWING IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO ROAST (Streaming on Cinemax via Amazon Prime).  

Got one little thing coming up this week.  I’ll be making my Dragonfly acting debut on Tuesday night in Anna Paone’s humorous recreation of “Harvest Moon.”  I’ll be playing her suitor.  It’s my dream role.

01.) Erik Terrell Profile: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/erik-terrell-is-a-modern-day-comedy-renaissance-man-10caaad29e16

02.) Hannibal’s “Miami Nights” special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVc4-05Agf0

Comedy Stray Notes August 9, 2020

• I might regret this but I made a sketch about the world famous hacker organization Anonymous.  Already picturing my Dad telling me to take it offline.  Well, for the time being, it is alive and well on YouTube with approximately 15 views.  The video is titled “At Home With A Guy From Anonymous” and stars yours truly as “Guy from Anonymous,”my wife Anna as his girlfriend who just wants to know the man behind that mask and Joey Melton as “guy in elevator who isn’t phased by people wearing Anonymous masks.”   This thing is an homage to a lot of things- a.) Anonymous, b.) Beck and Kyle SNL sketches, c.) “Marriage Story” d.) the wildly underrated “Delocated” e.) the works of Tony Zaret (I’ll admit I stole a lot of his editing tricks here- the guy has impeccable style) and f.) the tone of “What We Do In The Shadows.”  Then, right after I finished editing this bad boy, I watched an episode of “Corporate” that felt a lot like it.  I’m a comedy thief.  Still, I’m very happy with this- it’s 3:14 long and moves along at a really nice clip.  

Also, this is the first time I’ve ever really timed how much time I spent working on a sketch.  I’ll break it down.  IDEATION: About an hour of brainstorming joke ideas I wanted in there with Anna.   ACTUAL WRITING: First draft took about 30 minutes.  When you have all the jokes/structure laid out, it’s kind of easy to just get it all out there.  PUNCH-UPS: Another hour.  My friend Dave Stolz and I texted ideas back and forth for a good chunk of time one day and I did a really helpful rewrite session with Barak Ziv and Shenuque Tissera.  SHOOTING: Two hours.  Did a ton of pickups for the montage sequence.  EDITING: Three hours or so.  Learned how to pitch shift (much easier than expected).  SUBTITLING: Two hours!  Much more time consuming when you have a ton of dialogue and you want to stylize the subtitles so they don’t give away jokes too fast.  TOTAL: About 9.5 hours for a 3-minute sketch.  Kind of like a whole work day.  Not bad.  Would be cool if this was my job.  Anyway, the link is in the comments, of course.  Feel free to let me know if this was a worthy use of my 9.5 quarantine hours.

• I’ve always loved the concept of a spec script show where the screenwriters had never seen an episode of the show they’re writing for.  It’s a perfect canvas to paint comedy on.  Still, I’d never attended or participated in one.  One could say, I could write a Spec Script for a Spec Script show *rimshot*.  Well, that all ended yesterday when I took part in Chris Khatami’s brainchild, reading the part of entitled rich kid Adam Brody in Sarah Kennedy’s poignant coming of age/social satire episode of “The O.C.” (alongside my old “Free Fries” show co-host Veronica Garza who I haven’t seen in a minute) and a shadowy government agent in Jamie Carbone’s sly “Prison Break” spoof that dumbed the show down perfectly exploiting the absurdity of its premise.  The cast was hilarious and Shane Hosea’s perfect, sarcastic line readings of Sarah’s already funny stage directions had me rolling nailing her tone and adding even more to the proceedings.  The link is in the comments and was such a fun time.

• Got a SECOND show in last night hosted by Genevieve Rice and co-produced by O.G. comedy friend Michael Palladino.  Amazingly, Anna and her entire family watched this show.  Too kind- they already knew my bits but they put up with it anyway.  This show, The Birdcage Live, was a zippy showcase of comics I’d seen before and admire (Kwasi Mensah and Robert Buscemi have chops) alongside some comics I am a new fan of like Chad Opitz and Maryjay Berger.  As for me, my set was energetic but not necessarily perfect.  Got a little preachy about “standing up during Zoom shows” which is the worst kind of energy to project but I still did.  In the middle of my performance, as I was doing a joke about scales, I realized, “Damn, I should be a prop comic,” and ran to the bathroom and grabbed a scale for my bit.  Not sure if it added anything but Zoom shows definitely encourage props.  I couldn’t help myself.  This is a slippery slope for me to go down on.  Anyway, if you want to see me run out on my set and return with a scale, the link is a long scroll away.

• A little late to the game here but I finally saw the very funny Ethan SP’s Comedy Cellar set.  The footage taken from this show was one of the final live events in March before New York went full quarantine and his set ultimately sets the tone for what was to come for all of us in quarantine.  Ethan’s comedy is about people trying to be better versions of themselves (which is honestly a very funny concept to explore) which is what we’ve all been doing these past five months.  In this eleven-minute set, he tells relatable stories of folks crying and self actualizing in odd situations like oral sex (yeah, I tried to keep it PG-13 here) and a homeless guy realizing life is not so bad.  I’d say this clip is a perfect distillation of his voice and well worth a watch (you know where to find the link.  It’s in the comments).

• The only outdoor show I’d been to before this week was the extravagant Rebecca Trent produced Michael Che pop-up show a month or two back in Long Island City.  Just hadn’t gotten around to make it out to any others.  However, the most interesting thing I’ve noticed while observing from afar online is just how damn good the lineups for these shows are.  It’s just headliner after headliner.  So, this past Monday, I made it out to my second show of Rebecca’s, at the same location as the last one.  The lineup was out of control but due to scheduling constraints (I gots to get 10,000 steps and make dinner after work- no exceptions), I was late.  Luckily, Anna who came with, and we were still in for a treat.  The show felt like a legit show similar to the days of yesteryear.  Spaced out seats, booming speakers.  Very cool to see the outdoor form has already evolved and been improved upon.  We’re all learning to adapt and this show really has.  Anyway, to the comedy.  We came in right before Jessica Kirson headlined the thing.  I’ve been a fan forever but never had the chance to see her live.  She’s electric.  From lightning quick crowd work to well crafted act outs about the elderly to bits about wanting to do literally anything other than reading her daughter a bedtime story all hit the comedy sweet spot for me.  There’s another show tomorrow with an eclectic lineup of headliners and if you’re interested, there’s info in the comments.

• Here’s a fairly lengthy listing of books, podcasts and movies I completed this week:

“Best.  Movie. Year.  Ever. How 1999 Blew Up The Movies” by Brian Raftery: As a movie nerd, this was one of the most engrossing reads I’ve ever encountered.  Seriously, I spent many nights up until 3 AM not wanting to go to sleep, telling myself I would call it a night after “just one more chapter.”  To quickly summarize, Raftery waxes rhapsodic about 1999 as a year and all the great films were released that year (he argues quite well that it is the greatest movie year ever.  I think he’s right).  There are stories about Brad Pitt and David Fincher on a beach in Mexico ringing in Y2K (this story was so insane it shook me), the rise and fall of Harry Knowles from Ain’t It Cool News (remember that?!), the bizarre existence of the cast of “The Blair Witch Project” who were listed as “deceased” on IMDB so the movie appeared more realistic losing them acting gigs in the process, behind the scenes of “Boys Don’t Cry,” the origin of “Being John Malkovich” and “Magnolia,” plus everything you ever wanted to know about what it was like on the film set for Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” (there was something like 400 days of filming.  Makes me laugh just thinking about it).  If you’re a fan of movies or are just a pop culture junkie, this book is the perfect 300 page read.  I felt lost when it was over and started my next read.  It just wasn’t the same.  Raftery’s splashy, witty prose is hard to match.  This is a major recommendation.  Link to buy it on Amazon (sorry for promoting Amazon) is in the comments.

“Good One” podcast with Roy Wood, Jr. and Maria Bamford: Got a bit of a nostalgic kick for early April (nostalgic isn’t right; more like “Oh, yeah, that’s what it was like”) listening to this pod recorded at the beginning of quarantine on the state of comedy.  To kick things off, Jesse David Fox has an abbreviated interview with Roy Wood, Jr. who talks about things sort of returning to a sense of normalcy in June.  In a way, he was right.  That was around the time of the advent of outdoor shows.  More interestingly, he predicts an upcoming comedy boom (I hope!) and also what it was like doing comedy on 09/12/2001 (yeah, he did that).  He said, “Back then, people were asking ‘Should I laugh?’  Now, they’re asking, ‘Should I leave the house?’”  I genuinely forgot we were all afraid to even leave our apartments back then.  He eloquently added that, “Comedy is a conversation- I use words, the audience use sounds.” That’s what he misses.  Never heard it put so beautifully.  The Maria Bamford back half of the episode has her talking about what she was doing pre-quarantine, performing for strangers over coffee (literally just one one one for feedback) which is kind of brilliant.  Now, in quarantine, she finds herself eating Easter candy for breakfast (THAT reminded me of April) and how she’s doing Zoom therapy sessions with people (I guess my free comedy therapy thing was not the most original idea in the world after hearing that).  Anyhow, this episode felt like a real time capsule of when we didn’t know what the future held.  We still don’t.  Link below.

“Good One” podcast with Nikki Glaser, Jenny Yang, Nore Davis, Laurie Kilmartin and Jim Gaffigan: This second “comedy in quarantine” follow-up episode has much more quick hit interviews of comics’ varying experiences in lockdown.  Still, it’s more hopeful than the previous installment as this reality has become more normalized.  In this one, Fox speaks with  Nikki Glaser first.  She discusses how, at the beginning of quarantine, she was trying to keep up with others and realized she was addicted to stand up.  Very relatable.  Once you are removed from the scene and are away from the nonstop grinding, you realize you don’t need it as much.  Still, she talks about going to headline at a club in Salt Lake City because others were doing the same and feared being cancelled for potentially getting audience members sick since her mere existence was responsible for them being there for the show.  It was a quick and stirring chat.  Next up, Fox spoke to Jenny Yang who has been doing cosplay stand up shows on Animal Crossing.  I’ve never played but am intrigued.  Honestly, sounds really cool and kind of what it’s like to be at a show except with animated visuals.  Nore Davis was next and talks about being initially apprehensive about doing Zoom shows but now loves them.  I’m with that.  In fact, he put out a quarantine special.  I wouldn’t go that far but it’s cool to see this become a trend and that comics are writing new material at a quick clip.  Conversely, Laurie Kilmartin, the next guest, said all Zoom shows feel the same (OK, that’s fair, there is a sameness to them) but optimistically pointed out that moving to do your set in other parts of the apartment makes it feel like she’s performing in different clubs.  Brilliant.  Finally, Fox talks to Gaffigan (who was his first ever guest).   He discusses the absurdity of doing drive in shows quipping, “They speak to the question- how desperate are you to perform?”  Got a laugh when he said (paraphrasing here), “The first show was bad.  Couldn’t hear any laughs.  Thank God, the people with Range Rovers had their roofs off.”  More power to him for doing new forms of comedy.  Yes, the link is in the comments for this episode as well.

“Project X” (2012): I can’t believe this movie exists.  We all remember the viral marketing campaign and insane stunt parties that followed, right?  It didn’t seem like this was real.  Well, it is.  I’m ashamed to admit that I liked it quite a bit too.  As much as this “punches down,” (and some of it feels genuinely illegal) the leads are charismatic, the setpieces are fantastical and some of the dialogue is sharp in that “Superbad” way that we all stole from 2007-2015.  The story is typical- shy, well meaning kid (Thomas Mann) has the house to himself for his 18th birthday while his parents are out of town.  His brash friend (Oliver Cooper, apparently he went to ASU for a year according to Wikipedia) inspires him to throw an EPIC (remember epic?) get-together.  There are drugs, pyrotechnics, flying dogs and other things that shouldn’t be typed.  I’ll sadly admit I got big laughs out of the young security guards the gang hired that take their jobs very seriously.  The ending is a major let down with loose ends tied together way too easily and one of the dumbest epilogues I’ve ever seen during the credits.  Still, this whole thing is A PERVERSE GUILTY PLEASURE THAT I’LL ADMIT I ENJOYED (Streaming on Cinemax- I’ll admit it; I paid $9.99 for a one-month subscription like a sucker).

“It Started As A Joke” (2020): I’ll always be angry with myself that I never got around to going to the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival.  That’s the type of thing I moved to New York to experience but just never made it out.  Luckily, this artifact exists and I’m so glad it does.  This is a super quick 76-minute documentary featuring alt-comedy legend after legend interspersed with highlights from the Fest that made me feel like I’d been there and also simultaneously nostalgic for great shows.  Midway through the doc, it shifts gears and becomes a bit more melancholy as Mirman and his wife detail her cancer and how they process it.  I was not expecting this film to get so heavy but here we are.  The film shows the progression of Mirman doing material about his wife’s ailment which honestly felt a little strange; he should have been home with her rather than talking about her onstage but I digress.  Anyhow, the film climaxes with a fantastic scene at the final iteration of the Festival and Eugene is onstage talking about his wife’s diagnosis while she watches.  This inspires the following comic Bobcat Goldthwait to do a beautiful tribute to his best friend Robin Williams impersonating him perfectly.  Finally, Jon Glaser (who you may remember from “Delocated”), on the grief material train, tells a beautiful story about his father who he sat with while he was sick.  Glaser ended up crying onstage.  It was extremely moving.  At the end, Mirman’s wife gets a chance to shine too which is a nice touch.  The movie ends up being a love letter to her.  IF YOU LIKE COMEDY DOCS, YOU CAN’T DO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS (Streaming on Amazon Prime).

Stay Tuned (1992): Read about this flick on one of my favorite sites, Slashfilm.  It’s a cool idea for a story where a TV-obsessed man (John Ritter) and his neglected wife (Pam Dawber) are sucked into a television through their cable satellite (I think?) traipsing from channel to channel trying to survive an evil Jeffrey Jones character (the whole time I was thinking, man, Phil Hartman would have been so much better in this role) who wants to kill them for some reason.  The movie has its odd, dated tics too.  It begins with a voiceover from the nerdy son explaining the plot and then he has a reduced role- you can feel the studio saying, “Folks, we need some exposition here!  Let the kid tell everyone what’s going on!”  Then, he compares his Dad to Cosby.  Always good for an LOL.  There are  “Wayne’s World,”  “Driving Miss Daisy” and “Northern Exposure” parodies that are far from relevant (wonder if they even worked in 1992) propped up next to an outdated Salt N Pepa cameo.  I’ll admit I was excited for a brief Don Pardo voice only appearance and an extended Eugene Levy role that he did the most with, that one could.  I love the “going into a bunch of genres of movies” genre (it’s a genre unto itself!) but somehow I just got soft “Truman Show” vibes from this.  THIS MOVIE WALKED SO TRUMAN SHOW COULD RUN (Streaming on Amazon Prime).

Three Stooges (2012): I don’t think there’s a more hit and miss directorial duo in cinematic history than The Farrelly Brothers.  They’ve made sublime comedies like “Kingpin” and “There’s Something About Mary” and they also made this “Three Stooges” reboot(?).  Yes, the committed performances from Will Sasso, Sean Hayes and Chris Diamantopoulos are impressive but this thing falls flat (also, the low-profile names attached to star did not inspire confidence in the movie- the Farrellys should be getting A-listers).  I don’t understand the extended cameos from Sofia Vergara, Larry David, Jane Lynch, Jennifer Hudson and Kate Upton (OK, I get why she did it).  They must have owed a favor?  In any event, this was clearly a passion project, I get that.  I know the Farrellys love their slapstick and this was most likely an attempt to capture the magic of “Dumb and Dumber,” for which I commend them.  It just doesn’t work.  You know, it’s not good when the biggest laughs come from the “Jersey Shore” cast (but man, they act horribly).  Finally, just want to say that using the haunting music of Beirut for the climax is a crime against cinema.  DAMN, I FEEL LIKE ROGER EBERT WITH HOW ANGRY THIS MOVIE MADE ME EVEN THOUGH I COULDN’T MAKE SOMETHING BETTER (Streaming on Cinemax).

The Sugarland Express (1974): In college, I literally took a class on Steven Spielberg (thank you, Joe Fortunato- the course was also about George Lucas), but still there are a few movies of his I’ve never seen.   This curiosity always intrigued me.  This was the movie he made RIGHT before “Jaws” and you can see all his chops on display.  The only things missing are an iconic score and the spectacle of a shark.  “The Sugarland Express” is a ripped from the headlines true story about a young woman (Goldie Hawn) breaking her baby daddy out of jail and taking a policeman hostage along for the ride.  Kinda feels like a less funny “Raising Arizona.”  The expertly shot action sequences and car chases are in full effect right next to a strong lead performance from a young Goldie Hawn (she has a very funny scene where she really has to pee while they’re on the lam).  IT’S NOT “JAWS” BUT YOU CAN SEE HOW IT GOT HIM TO THE NEXT LEVEL (Streaming on Cinemax).

“Altman” (2014): One of the greatest directors of all-time was in desperate need of documentary treatment.  This brief doc (under 80 minutes) is full of talking heads where collaborators share anecdotes and talk about what makes a movie “Altmanesque;”  this is spliced with clips of Altman’s films and tales about what was going on his life when he made them.  There are no real surprises here (other than an opening shot on a beach illustrating an Altman quote that looks more like an amateurish home movie than film) but THIS IS COMFORT FOOD FOR A CINEPHILE.  BASICALLY, IT’S LIKE IF A DIRECTOR GOT A GREATEST HITS ALBUM (Streaming on Amazon Prime).

• Not comedy or film or pop culture for one second!  My Mom’s place of business, Native Health, was featured in the Arizona Republic this week (check the link in the comments).  They’re doing some really innovative things like providing boxes of food to those in need in the community along with virtual classes for young students.  As mentioned before, it’s exciting to see folks adapt to our present situation and truly make an impact.  I’m really proud of my Mom for this.

• I have a surprisingly action packed comedy week for the first time in ages.  I’ll be taking part in Flappers’ Burbank Comedy Festival (yes, my first virtual comedy festival) this coming Wednesday at 8 PM EST and Friday at 12:30 PM EST.  Expect a recap about this in seven days.  It’s coming whether you like it or not.

Finally, one last thing.

Wear a mask.

That’s it.

01.) At Home With A Guy From Anonymous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWvJqL62Ys4&t

02.) Spec Script: https://www.twitch.tv/specscript

03.) Genevieve Rice and Michael Palladino’s The Birdcage Live show: https://www.facebook.com/genevieve.rice/posts/10109291061115937

04.) Ethan SP at the Cellar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOI2N5G2HKE

05.) Rebecca Trent’s Culture Lab show: https://www.facebook.com/ratrent/posts/10158422828325928

06.) “Best. Movie. Year. Ever. How 1999 Blew Up The Movies” by Brian Raftery: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Movie-Year-Ever-Screen/dp/1501175394/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2QNVW8TFNQIKR&dchild=1&keywords=brian+raftery&qid=1596985032&s=books&sprefix=brian+rafte%2Caps%2C132&sr=1-1

07.) Good One Early Quarantine Edition: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/comedy-under-quarantine-with-roy-wood-jr-and-maria-bamford/id1203393721?i=1000470734915

08.) Good One Present Quarantine Edition: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/comedy-under-quarantine-five-months-in/id1203393721?i=1000487056312

09.) Native Health Article about my Mom: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2020/08/06/coronavirus-arizona-covid-19-forced-phoenix-urban-indian-centers-change/5459610002/

10.) Flappers Wednesday 8 PM EST Show: http://flc.cc/I4WS5JF

11.) Flappers Friday 12:30 PM EST Show: http://flc.cc/TOBPBH2

Comedy Stray Notes August 2, 2020

• What’s keeping most of us sane these days are things that we get excited about whatever that may be for you.  Baking, knitting, crossfit, crossword puzzles, writing jokes, screenwriting, whatever scratches the creative itch, I support you.  For me, yeah, I’m writing and consuming way too many movies and books (see the latter part of these notes for evidence) but what gets me most excited is making mashups.  This new 30-minute epic I crafted (yeah, I said “crafted”) this week entitled “I’m In The Club Hollerin’ Somewhere Over The Rainbow” is different from my previous editions in that it has quite a bit of comedic influence woven through.  Yeah, there are songs that wouldn’t tonally match that I would describe as humorous (we got such odd pairings as “Wannabe” by Spice Girls and “Born To Be Wild” by Steppenwolf syncing up TOO well) but I also have actual comedy drops in this one ranging from Beavis and Butthead to Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer to Bernie Mac to “You Might Be A Redneck” to the “1, 2, 10!” guy from “Home Alone.”  Honestly, it’s very fun to jam and hear classic (classic is up to your interpretation here) jokes at the same time.  Yes, this thing is 30 minutes but pop it in now from the link below and listen to it while you read the rest of this.  You just might hear “Baby Shark” in a whole new way.

• I haven’t done old material since March 11.  On the few Zoom shows I’ve done, I restructured Tweets to be said aloud basically which were met with understandably mixed reactions.  However, it’s been so long, I wanted to dust off the old bits I used to love so much.  Thanks to Rebecca Kaplan’s very fun virtual hour-long showcase, I got to get some of the rust off of what I used to love to do on stage (I legitimately had butterflies in my stomach when Rebecca sent me a private Zoom message that read “You’re next”).  It went pretty well, I put my face right up in my webcam, shadowboxed and riffed on the previous comic.  It felt like a return to normal.  The secret?  Standing up.  By sitting at my desk for the first few shows, I lost the physicality.  It really is called stand up for a reason- being on your toes, brings a new energy to a performance.  Also, Rebecca’s audience was spectacular- her Dad fact checked my jokes and after everyone’s set, people had kind words in the chat for all the performers.  I don’t know how live shows are really going but virtual comedy is slowly becoming more sophisticated and I thank Kaplan for the opportunity to let me see that.  Now go flood her DMs asking for a spot.  JK.  Don’t do that.  

• Completed just one profile this week and it’s all about my new friend Bizzy Coy.  She and I met over Twitter and I immediately became taken with her warm writing style.  It was a shock when she reached out to me to write a profile since she’s an accomplished writer in her own right.  As a result, my piece is very self aware and addresses that I’m writing about a superior talent.  In fact, it’s titled, “Bizzy Coy Is A Better Writer Than I Am.”  Highly recommend reading it as it charts Bizzy’s path toward becoming a successful freelance writer.  If that’s something that you’d be interested in, there’s a link in the comments just for you.

• I might have used a second non-family Amazon account to score a second free trial week of Cinemax.  Worth it.  Here are select highlights/brief reviews/sloppily written recounts of what I checked out these past seven days:

“A Thousand Words” (2012): Feel free to think I’m crazy for this (Anna Paone did) but I thought this was a LOT better than “Dolemite Is My Name” as cheesy, ridiculous as this movie is.  For the uninitiated, the high concept story is Eddie Murphy’s book publisher (why do characters always work boring, high powered jobs) character greenlights a book by a sage who teaches him a lesson by only giving him 1000 words before he GASP! DIES!  High stakes indeed.  There are pointless side characters (Kerry Washington plays Eddie’s wife and in one scene where she wants to spice up the marriage, a friend says something about lingerie and tequila never hurting to save a marriage which was the only time she was in the movie), a mixed tone (the whole time I was like, “OK, that’s from the original draft, that’s an Eddie ad lib, that’s a fourth draft to make the story more serious by drawing out Eddie’s Mom’s dementia, that ball joke is a punch up from a comic) and things that make no sense (why does Eddie continue going to work?  Why does he buy a banana split on a boardwalk to eat at one point while walking and this is never commented upon?).  Still, he gives a peak, charismatic performance that reminds you why he’s so damn good to begin with.  NOT ONE OF HIS BEST, BUT YOU MIGHT END UP LOVING IT (Streaming on Netflix). 

“Time Bandits” (1981): Terry Gilliam has always been a “favorite” of mine even though I find some of his stuff really inaccessible.  For some reason, I was always intimidated by this supposed kids film.  This week, I actually plunked down to watch it and it’s pretty fun!  The movie is your classic time travel hero’s journey starring an 11-year-old British kid and a pack of thieving but heroic dwarves.  The ragtag team traipses through history to the Napoleonic era (ironically, Napoleon is far more height-obsessed than the dwarves), to Greece I think and then we meet Robin Hood too.  It’s episodic and basically a less fun “Princess Bride” or if Monty Python didn’t care about being funny (apparently, the dwarves were based on each Python’s personality).  I read the Wiki after and realized I missed quite a bit but I had fun watching.  THERE MIGHT BE NO BILL AND TED’S WITHOUT THIS, GIVE IT A SHOT (Streaming on Cinemax- free seven-day trial on Prime, folks).

“The Dead Don’t Die” (2019): OK, gonna list off the cast of Jim Jarmusch’s zombie film and your jaw is going to drop: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Iggy Pop, Chloe Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, Tom Waits, Selena Gomez, Carol Kane, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, The RZA, Rosie Perez and a few other familiar faces.  It’s like a better version of a Wes Anderson cast.  You’re probably wondering why you didn’t really hear much noise about this fairly recent release.  Well, it’s not Jarmusch’s best (I vote for “Coffee and Cigarettes”) but it is fun with winning performances from all of the above and fun meta jokes throughout.  Still, there is on the nose social commentary about MAGA, global warming and how WE are all zombies with our phones.  Ya know, even Gen X icons like Jarmusch become boomer humorists.  Gotta give credit to Tilda Swinton for killing it and also to Jim Jarmusch for one very funny, running meta bit where everyone is a Sturgill Simpson fan and is aware of a lesser track of his.  Never got old for me.  THIS IS ONE OF THOSE SUBPAR MOVIES THAT YOU SHOULD PROBABLY JUST SEE FOR THE CAST (Streaming on Cinemax).

“Night Shift” (1982): I’d always heard this was the movie that MADE Michael Keaton.  I get it.  He is electric in this flick.  For starters, it’s about a morgue working stiff played by Henry Winkler (yes, the Fonz) who is relocated to, yup, the frickin’ night shift.  He’s paired with wild card Keaton who basically invented Norm MacDonald’s comedic persona with this movie doing “Notes to Self” throughout and the two of them start running a brothel out of the morgue with star woman of the night...Shelley Long.  Yup, wholesome Diane.  You also get to see a young Clint Howard (Ron Howard’s little brother that’s in all of his movies) and Richard Belzer.  It’s honestly very fun throughout (Keaton really does give a star making performance), surprisingly woke in sections (some is incredibly not woke too to be fair) and with all the ad libs feels like the precursor to the Judd Apatow/Adam McKay school of improvised dialogue comedies.  THIS IS A REALLY UNDERRATED, FORGOTTEN CLASSIC (Streaming on Cinemax).

“Reality Bites” (1994): You know those movies you’ve seen parts of but you’d be lying to yourself if you said you’d “seen the movie?”  That’s what this is for me.  I know it’s THE Gen X movie but I’d never seen it all the way through and grasped what it was really about, man.  Glad I finally did.  You get to see a young Janeane Garofalo at the height of her comedic powers, Winona Ryder bratting it up, Ethan Hawke doing the brooding, tortured artist bit, Stiller playing a corporate stiff and Steve Zahn hamming it up as Garofalo’s closeted friend.  There’s also Andy Dick and David Spade cameos.  The movie has a lot to say about a.) generational differences as exemplified in a great scene at a post-graduation dinner with Ryder’s divorced parents and b.) differences between “creatives” and “suits” when Stiller’s exec type botches Ryder’s “visionary documentary” (I preferred Stiller’s version so I must be a sell out).  Anyhow, the movie is really fun for its first ⅔ and the last part turns into a love triangle thing where there really is no right choice for Ryder between Hawke and Stiller.  IT’S A GREAT 90S TIME CAPSULE (Streaming on Cinemax).

“Hollywood Ending” (2002): This, I had seen before.  In fact, I own it for some reason.  I think it’s because I couldn’t find this movie online 15 years ago so I bought it at Best Buy when people still did stuff like that.  Anyway, I popped it into the DVD player this week to watch with Anna and we laughed at the threadbare “let’s make a movie” plot where Woody fumbles through psychosomatic blindness to make a movie while blind and a cinematographer who doesn’t speak English he can’t communicate with.  However, after further inspection, I wondered: Is this movie about Woody’s own blindness toward his actions with the Farrow family and subsequent Soon-Yi marriage?  Kinda doubt it because it ends with the opposite of self awareness as he makes out with a way out of his league Tea Leoni.  Woody’s films are interesting comedically- his movies are SO HIM.  It feels like there are no rewrites, no studio notes from anyone else, everyone is playing a version of him because that’s how he writes roles.  Essentially, his movies are open mic sets.  They don’t have “show polish,” they have a more “let’s see what sticks, this seems fun” vibe to them.  WHAT I’M SAYING IS THIS AND MOST OF WOODY’S LATER WORKS COULD USE A COLLABORATOR AND A BIT OF LOVE AND CARE RATHER THAN FEELING LIKE A TOSSED OFF IDEA HE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT THAT MUCH (I own the DVD.  No idea how you’ll find this one unless I just give you the DVD).

I listened to one podcast this week.  I’ll keep this short:

WTF with Seth Rogen: I’ll listen to Rogen talk anywhere.  He’s a live wire, wild card of an interview and is always down to be funny or insightful. Well, this was quite a convo and ended up going semi-viral controversially later in the week.  The conversation starts in a friendly manner doing a live version of the Hanukkah Song where they debate who is and isn’t Jewish and they learn Gene Hackman is NOT a member of the tribe.  There’s talk of family backgrounds and Maron acknowledges it’s hard to talk to Rogen a second time (he interviewed him in 2014) and not cover his comedy origin story for a promotional interview.  It’s these second episodes where you get real and the well has run dry on the typical podcast narrative where things go off the rails. In this case, Rogen and Maron admit they’re both a little anti-Israel.  They spell out their cases but you can’t just say that when you have all that media attention and power without it getting misinterpreted by the press.  So, Rogen will be apologizing for this casual conversation forever.  He does discuss the effectiveness of Jewish death rituals having you drink and eat while you grieve and praises the social aspect of the religion I share with him but his one slip up (I agree, not the most responsible thing to say) is all anyone will glean from this conversation.  He knows it too, saying something to the effect of, “I know I’m going to get in trouble for this.”  That’s why I always listen to podcasts he’s on- dude always keeps it entertaining.

Not a lot on the docket for this sleepy, surprisingly overcast August week for me.  On Saturday, I’m doing Chris Khatami’s Spec Script show at 4 PM EST.  The conceit of the show is someone writes a spec script for a show they’ve never seen.  This installment is an episode of “The O.C.” written by Sarah Kennedy.  I have never seen the show but I expect chill summer vibes.

Hope you’re liking the mashup.  The part with the Seinfeld theme, Mariah Carey, Coolio and the 1988 World Series Kirk Gibson home run call about 14 min in makes the hair on my leg stand up

01.) I’m In The Club Hollerin’ Somewhere Over The Rainbow: https://vimeo.com/443236188

02.) Bizzy Coy Profile: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/bizzy-coy-is-a-better-writer-than-i-am-15712630ba46

03.) WTF with Seth Rogen: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1143-seth-rogen

Comedy Stray Notes July 26, 2020

• At this point in my life, I identify as a comedy nerd more than a comedian.  I haven’t really made anyone other than my wife Anna Paone laugh in the past month.  And even then, I don’t hit comedic home runs all the time.  Luckily, I can itch the comedy nerd scratch almost daily- there are so many things to still consume.  Occasionally, there are even opportunities.  In fact, back in early May, my friend Jeremy Schaftel reached out and asked me if I wanted to be a part of a rehearsal for a Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Hollywood Squares Quarantine Edition.  I immediately said yes- Robert Smigel and Triumph are two of my all-time favorite things in comedy history and there was no way I was going to miss this.  The two of us sat in on the Zoom game show and watched Triumph process celebrity insults in real time.  To clarify, essentially, Smigel and his team of writers crafted put downs and joke answers (“funny answers” is the whole conceit of Hollywood Squares which I had to watch a few episodes of to familiarize myself with how it works) for celebrities James Carville, Kenan Thompson, Susie Essman, Anthony Scaramucci, Ken Jeong, Joey Fatone, Tom Arnold, Julie Bowen and Jason Alexander.  This was a real-life crash course into what being in a legitimate writer’s room was like and I got front row seats as a contestant on the show playing a “nurse that had COVID.”  It was unbelievable to watch incredibly high-quality jokes being pitched at rapid speed.  Most of them at Joey Fatone’s expense too.  

Well, this week I actually got to see the fruits of my labor (if you can call sitting in a Zoom for two hours labor) with the actual celebrities and it was laugh out loud funny.  Smigel and Triumph haven’t lost a step.  I won’t spoil too much but two quick favorites from the show were the joke that Ken Jeong is here because “he can’t turn anything down” and a prank Cameo that they had Tom Arnold record.  The link to the 31-minute video is in the comments and is absolutely worth your time.  

• One of my greatest obsessions is unproduced screenplays/teleplays/scripts.  There are so many dream projects that just never got made- in fact, you probably reading this have one or two sitting on your desktop as a PDF staring back at you as a glaring reminder of the ultimate to-do in your life.  Been there.  Got an idea for you though!  Stage a Zoom reading.  Seriously.  Actors will a.) read your work and become champions of your story and b.) you’ll be able to determine what works and what doesn’t for when you actually make the thing.  Alternatively, I’m fascinated by Hollywood players writing a feature-length screenplay and then it sits in development Hell for years and sometimes just never gets made.  Happens all the time.  Luckily, some of these screenplays are being staged as Zoom readings (just like I suggested above!).  In fact, last night, I paid $12.50 (funds go straight to charity) to see a reading of “The Towering Disaster,” a parody of 70s disaster films written by David Cross.  They assembled an insane star-studded ensemble cast made up of Michael Cera, Don Cheadle, David Cross, John Ennis, Will Forte, Regina Hall, David Koechner, Jack McBrayer, Michael McKean, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Silverman, Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig and Henry Winkler.  I know.  That’s my second list of famous people.  As fun as all these folks are, there’s a reason this script was unproduced.  I constantly found myself losing interest in the story even though I would laugh at jokes here and there.  Definitely enjoyed Michael Cera’s performance the most.  The guy still has insane comedic acting chops.  When the pandemic is over, we need the Michael Cera leading man comedies train to take off again.  Also, of note, about 40 minutes into this thing, David Koechner’s Zoom went out.  Just goes to show you that no matter how high you fly in the industry, Zoom still doesn’t work for everyone.

This week, I did a deep dive on the works of my peers who have actually completed feature-length films and then asked them about their experiences.  It was a truly educational process.  The first of two movies I watched was:

“We’ve Forgotten More Than We Ever Knew” (2016): I have been temping at a startup for the past two months and one day while going through Slack, I uncovered a defunct #movies channel.  In said channel, one of the company’s lead content writers promoted this feature-length film she produced and her husband wrote and directed.  I told her I would watch.  Very happy I did.  This movie checks all the boxes off of what young filmmakers are told to do: have a small cast/crew, a single, unique location and a smart, stylish screenplay.  Said story is about two post-apocalyptic travelers who come across a mysterious, timeless hotel that’s reminiscent of “The Shining” where they discover a mute, slim man who seems to have a past there.  That man?  Doug Jones, the mute, fish man from “The Shape of Water.”  An insane coup for an indie film to get such a legend. It’s really a great, small movie you can stream on Amazon but my coworker told me it simply couldn’t get distribution which makes it difficult for the filmmakers to profit from their hard work.  It’s a great film and a greater lesson that you can do everything right, get a name and still not turn a profit.  Great learning experience and great movie (Streaming on Amazon Prime- support this movie!).

The second movie was:

“This is Our Home” (2019): Had no idea my friend Jeff Ayars starred in and produced a feature film (featuring Omer Rosen too).  We had talked about the project before but I am a bad friend and had no idea it was completed and available.  This week, I made it a priority to actually see it.  “This Is Our Home” is a more traditional horror film than the above about a serious couple going to a childhood home where their relationship unravels in creepy, unexpected ways.  It’s by no means your typical indie horror film though; it’s not interested in only scares.  Relationships and backstories are fleshed out giving it the feel of an indie dramedy or a slice of life 70s film except one where everything goes impossibly wrong for the leads.  They even pulled off the near impossible Jordan Peele standard of making something that’s equal parts artsy and mainstream all at once.  Plus, they also did everything right here.  They made a genre film (read: horror) with a small cast and few locations which is what we really all should be doing if we want to make movies that have actual potential to sell to investors.  On top of that, this film goes to show that you can make a feature wisely/inexpensively and use it as a calling card to make your next dream picture.  In the meantime, you can check this out by (Streaming on Amazon Prime- support this movie as well!).

Here are a flicks made by folks I don’t know that I caught over the past seven days:

“Enchanted” (2007): This is one of Anna’s all-time favorites.  I’d never seen it or knew that it was a comedy.  Just thought it was a Disney movie.  Nope.  It’s a great fish out of water concept where animated Disney trope characters end up in modern New York City with no knowledge of the real world (Anna realized it’s quite a bit like “Elf” midway through).  Still, there are amusing setpieces with the eternally optimistic Amy Adams lead crying when she goes to Patrick Dempsey’s divorce lawyer’s office and hears that two characters are going to split up.  Still, I couldn’t stay awake for the whole thing.  That’s on me.  The last 20 minutes, I found myself struggling to keep my eyes open.  When I did finally wake up, the dance scene finale was totally ludicrous.  I mean to be fair, this is a film about an animated character coming to life so I shouldn’t have let it bother me.  So, I’ll say it’s a PERFECT HARMLESS MOVIE (Streaming for $3.99 on Amazon Prime; it was mysteriously not on Disney +).

“Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” (2004): In high school, I remember going on opening day to this movie with a friend of mine and falling asleep about 15 minutes in (for a cinephile, I fall asleep in a LOT of movies).  Needless to say, I was excited for the rewatch.  My review is: it’s another perfect harmless movie.  You get Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow bantering in front of painterly CGI art deco, a largely irrelevant plot about them thwarting an evil genius played posthumously by Sir Laurence Olivier and homages to literally all of the director’s favorite things ranging from “Star Wars” inspired shots to actual footage from “The Wizard of Oz” (this scene is perfection).  It’s one of those kitchen sink films where the director put everything they ever wanted to see all in one place.  Anna said she once read, “Treat every movie you direct like your first movie not your only movie” which is what this director did.  Ironically, it ended up being director Kerry Conran’s only film.  It’s a bummer because this was such a refreshing, weird, original vision (even if it was heavily influenced by films of the past I’d never seen anything quite like it even if I predicted some of the lines before the actors said them which happened multiple times). “Sky Captain” ended up influencing late 2000s movies like “Sin City,” “The Spirit” and other movies that look stripped out of comic books.  THEREFORE, IF YOU LIKE CLASSIC CINEMA, THIS IS A NICE SPIN ON THE CLASSICS (Streaming on Cinemax- free for seven days on Amazon Prime).

“Life Stinks” (1991): Oh, man.  Ol’ Mel Brooks has about as perfect a track record as anyone when it comes to comedy but he also has this strange, preachy movie about the homeless under his belt too.  In “Life Stinks,” we get your classic studio comedy hero’s journey here where Mel is a high powered exec who wants to take over a poor neighborhood as does another high powered exec played by Jeffrey Tambor.  Tambor bets Brooks that he can’t make it 30 days as a homeless man in this neighborhood and before you know it, Mel is on the streets.  Tasteless jokes abound.  It’s all a little tone deaf too.  I expect better from my dude.  Still, I got unintentional belly laughs from this 90-minute mess like when Tambor’s character feels a pang of guilt for his shameful actions for just a second and then immediately gives them up.  Clearly this was an undercooked third or fourth draft rewrite that either not got cleaned up or a subplot was cut.  Made me laugh damn hard.  Also, a fight scene in a construction yard at the end was genuinely cinematic.  I’ll say the film had its minor charms but PUT THIS LAST IF YOU’RE A MEL COMPLETIST (Streaming on Cinemax).

“Midnight Run” (1988): You know how there’s some movies you’ve been meaning to see forever but just never got around to it?  That’s what this movie is for me.  I’ve had it on countless lists of movies I want to see but it took a pandemic for me to get around to sitting around and seeing it.  Here’s the long and short of it if this is still on your movie watchlist: the story is a more serious-minded, action-packed “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” where you swap Robert DeNiro for Steve Martin and Charles Grodin for John Candy (Grodin is fantastic in this).  The twosome is traveling cross country to bring white collar criminal Grodin to a bail bondsman and hijinks ensue amid a silly, synth score that plays over fairly serious action scenes.  The Danny Elfman (!) score had to have come from a studio note to make this fairly intense flciks feel more like a comedy.  In any event, it’s a genuinely funny (in places) almost buddy road movie except for they hate each other’s guts before they come around and realize, “Hey, we’re not so different after all.”  There are a few impressive storytelling techniques hidden in this movie like a run in with the cops at the end of the first act that’s usually reserved for a film’s climax and a moving scene between DeNiro and his estranged daughter that is powerfully played completely straight.  His character is an awful guy who doesn’t deserve a redemption story but in 1988, he gets one.  Speaking of 1988, this movie was released one week after I was born.  I hope I’ve aged better.  IT’S GOOD BUT A LESSER PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES FOR ME (Streaming on Cinemax).

“You Made It Weird” with Billy Eichner: This was a totally engrossing podcast episode also riddled with tech issues.  I learned about Eichner’s pediatrician calling him obese (maybe technically accurate but tough for a kid to hear) and how “Difficult People” was mostly Julie Klausner’s invention.  Really refreshing to hear someone in the industry not take credit for an idea.  Another standout moment was Eichner waxing poetic on people saying they would “never raise their kids in New York.”  He said, “Space in other parts of the country is what creates isolation and close mindedness.”  Truth.  I also related to a teenage Eichner’s bizarre obsession with movies’ box office amounts and reading entertainment magazines.  The conversation shifted at the end to being about comedy gatekeepers which really is a larger conversation that needs to happen and finally a joke from an episode of “Difficult People” where Eichner’s character complained that modern comedies are basically half-hour dramas which Holmes recognized was a shot at “Crashing.”  Appreciate the self-awareness.  Finally, they teased a Judd Apatow-produced Billy Eichner movie.  I’m psyched.

WTF with George Lopez: Quick listen here.  Lopez talks about starting comedy in the 70s and he and Maron did my favorite comedy podcast thing: they talk about guys that didn’t make it admiringly teaching listeners a little bit more about forgotten comedy history. This episode, they discussed Angel Salazar (had never heard of him) who brought so many props onstage that he was often cleaning up his stuff while Eddie Murphy made his way to the stage.  George also discussed how the network president at TBS screwed him over when Conan took his time slot (this appears to have all been a Jay Leno issue) and his wife giving him a kidney before they divorced.  It was a great story.  The whole conversation was easy and made a work day go much faster while listening.

As for old me, I’ve got another slow week ahead.  I believe I’m doing Rebecca Kaplan’s Zoom show on Tuesday (I’m not an outdoor shows guy) and I literally think that’s it.  I’m all about that slow home life.

Damn, can’t believe quarantine has been going on for four-plus months.  Only 30 more years until we have a working vaccine

01.) Triumph Quarantine Special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqk4yay1uqk

02.) “You Made It Weird” with Billy Eichner: http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/a/1/5/a152bf4f53b057a3/Billy_Eichner.mp3?c_id=78926270&cs_id=78926270&destination_id=81568&expiration=1595809086&hwt=0f768c51faa8d0354732ebca1634bcd8

03.) WTF with George Lopez: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1136-george-lopez

Comedy Stray Notes July 19, 2020

• Got my birthday wish last week and staged a Zoom reading of the 89-page play I wrote based on the bizarro curiosity that is the 1980-81 season of Saturday Night Live.  There were zero rehearsals because it was a lot to ask of all the actors who were already giving up their free time to stage said birthday reading.  Still, everyone showed up and performed the Hell out of somewhat half baked second draft material.  Since everyone killed it so hard, here’s a quick shout outs to the actors who brought these words to life: Lauren Vino who played the headstrong Jean Doumanian with steely reserve and grace, Michael Margetis who made the unlikeable (how I wrote him) Dick Ebersol charming, Lawrence Paone who brought old school showbiz smarm to the Fred Silverman role, Anna Paone played eight (!) roles ranging from Denny Dillon, Charlene Tilton, Robin Duke, Gail Matthius, Catherine O'Hara, Ann Risley, a nameless female audience member and Laurie Metcalfe bringing something different to each of them which was an insane undertaking she made look easy, Jeff Ayars impersonated Don Pardo effortlessly, Steve Girard put his own spin on the already iconic voices of Gilbert Gottfried, Lorne Michaels and Chevy Chase, Gianmarco Soresi did more than justice playing the couldn’t be more different Charles Rocket, Mr. Bill and Tim Kazurinsky, Dave Columbo also used his rubbery voice to slip into the personas of Jim Carrey, Elliott Gould, Del Close, Al Franken and Tony Rosato, Neko White embodied Eddie Murphy better than anyone I could ever imagine doing it and Joey Saunders brought goofy warmth to Joe Piscopo and fiery venom to Michael O’Donoghue.  Also, major thanks to Usama Siddiquee for reading stage directions making lines like, “Jean sits down with her goopy drink” seem funny somehow.  Finally, thanks to my family, professors and friends that tuned in.  This thing went almost two hours and people were logged in the whole time.  I was high off the excitement of this highly nerdy and personal performance all week and it’s thanks to you all.  If any of this this sounds interesting to you at all, happy to send the script or a recording of the Zoom your way.  Just hit me up in da DMs.

• When I first signed up for Facebook back in 2007, it was mostly used to meet people in my college dorm.  As the platform morphed over the years into the premiere online social gathering/major corporation rather than just for small circles of peers, I picked up friends that I didn’t actually know but admired from afar.  To me, the highest profile friending was of original SNL writer, “It’s Garry Shandling Show” co-creator and “700 Sundays” writer Alan Zweibel (among many other notable achievements with a pen).  I’ve admired Alan’s writing from afar on Facebook casually liking statuses but he recently had a high profile book release and thought to myself, “Man, I’d like to know more about this guy.”  Well, thanks to the launch of his very funny and informative memoir “Laugh Lines” I now do.  I had recently heard Alan on WTF talking about the book but it was even better hearing him talk about said book on Gilbert Gottfried’s podcast which inspired me to read it right after I finished listening.  Said podcast started with jokes about how the movie “North” led to the demise of Roger Ebert (Google “Roger Ebert North” if you don’t know this story) and how the two reconciled (not gonna spoil this great bit) and led to amazing anecdotes about Lorne Michaels hiring him at SNL back in 1975 (like I said, no bit spoiling here), Bill Murray heckling him at a gig when he was just starting stand up, Garry Shandling and Rodney Dangerfield waking him up in the middle of the night with bit ideas and how he concocted the classic sketch “Lord and Lady Douchebag” which I ripped off in a sketch myself a few years back.  This all made for a great primer to the book which fleshed all these stories out fully.  Either way, the best part of the podcast and the book to me (they’re excellent companion pieces) was learning about all the forgotten comics of yesteryear.  Alan does a great service pointing out and crediting Catskills comics, NYC club comics, old TV writers who may not be household names but whose jokes we know.  The book is a breezy, well written 250-page read but more than anything it’s a love letter to comedy and a template for how to have fun hacking away at the joke slinging trade for half a century.  Definitely did not expect these exciting life lessons to be a byproduct of creating a Facebook account way back in 2007.   But here we are.  Buy his book and listen to the pod.  Well worth your time.

• One of the all-around funniest stand ups in New York City is easily Ranaan Hershberg.  He brings an infectious joy to each of his performances that makes watching him feel like a necessity.  While quarantining, he’s been very inventive with the content he’s produced but my two favorite things he’s done are a.) a video of him in an Arizona desert performing to cactus which made me laugh out loud.  It’s a great variation on the “performing to no one” video trope and a nice heightening of how distant we can be from others now.  My other favorite thing Raanan did was his b.) incredibly well-written flash fiction about an insecure comic who is racing toward the end of the world while his Tweet is going wildly viral.  It’s hysterical and a nice commentary on how braindead social media makes us toward our reality.  Honestly, it’s Simon Rich-level funny which is as high a compliment I can pay a writer.  The links to both are in the comments and are both top notch.

• I totally missed my friend Harrison Greenbaum’s edition of his “Who Books That” podcast he did with comedy hero Larry Willmore back in May.  Couldn’t believe that my pal was talking to one of my all-time favorites and I excitedly watched/listened this week learning that Willmore was an avid magician growing up (had no idea; magic is Harrison’s thing) and stories about Tommy Davidson on “In Living Color” that were then bolstered by the fact that Harrison showed clips and images from the stories which made it instantly better than your average podcast.  He did what podcasts have failed to do for so long by showing instead of telling.  Felt like I was seeing “Oz” in color for the first time with this nifty podcasting trick.  Still, Harrison had an easy rapport with Larry and they shared the nugget of wisdom, “It’s better to get famous before bitter” (I may be misquoting).  A lot of folks stake value in fame rather than the fun of creating stuff and this quote epitomizes that; no need to ever get bitter.  Finally, if you’re on the fence about checking this out, you certainly should for the high profile cameo mid-episode from Neil Degrasse Tyson.  I was shell-shocked.  That’s a big get!  Check out this episode; this is what all podcasts will look like in five years.

• Here are brief, pretentious reviews of movies, TV series and podcasts I caught this week from folks I am not friendly with on a personal level:

“Beavis and Butthead do America” (1996): I’m embarrassed to say how much I laughed at this incredibly dumb and brilliant farce.  It really holds up.  Mike Judge’s story is exceedingly simple- Beavis and Butthead’s TV is stolen which leads them on a cross country trip from Vegas to DC trying to track down said TV and “score.”   I was nearly crying laughing at Beavis and Butthead accidentally charming an elderly woman on a tour bus and Beavis’ impish Cornholio routine.  The movie goes a bit too far in places for it’s trim 81-minute runtime but it’s TOO DAMN FUNNY TO MISS (Streaming on Cinemax- free seven-day trial with Amazon Prime).

“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World” (1963): This shows up on every single “Greatest comedies of all time” lists and I had to see what the fuss was about.  For starters, it’s nearly three hours but honestly never felt long.  The movie is basically the prototype for the early 2000s “Rat Race” and the TV show “The Amazing Race.”  A killer cast of comedy legends (Jonathan Winters and Milton Berle to name just two of dozens) encounter a grisly car crash that leaves an elderly man dead.  His dying words are about a treasure he buried and the chase that ensues to find his fortune.  The rest of the movie is just a tentpole to hang hijinks upon that are fun but ratchet up 1000% in what looked like a really dangerous, practical stunt where eleven actors or so are suspended on a ladder high above onlookers.  Everyone ends up getting injured in cartoonish ways that leads to a finale where the entire cast, bandaged up laugh in unison.  While watching, I wondered if this movie invented the cliche where the entire cast laughs at something dumb to end movies or show that has been mocked for years.  I think it might be.  NOT ESSENTIAL BUT IT’S NOT BAD (Streaming for free on YouTube with ads).

“Manchurian Candidate” (1962): Did my semi-regular movie viewing with Anna and our friend Justine this week checking out this classic we’d all heard about but had never actually seen.  The first hour or so is a disorienting affair, so much so that I pulled off the rare feat of not looking at my phone once so I could make sense of it.  I’ll do my best to synopsize.  I believe the movie is about a man who has been hypnotized so deeply and manipulated by his mother that he’s led to assassinate.  This is another classic story that I know because it was brilliantly spoofed by my all-time favorite show “Stella” and once they hit the familiar beats of our hero being groomed to assassinate, I got where it was going.  Still, this movie is notable for a number of reasons.  We get to see a passable dramatic acting turn from Frank Sinatra and the rampant imagery of Abraham Lincoln who was famously assassinated.  Just a year later, JFK met the same fate.  Sinatra felt so guilty he bought the rights to the film to not further its influence (Anna told me this).  Also, there’s a crazy makeout scene where the lead (Laurence Harvey) makes out with his Mom who is played by...Angela Lansbury.  THIS ONE WAS WILD, RACIST IN PARTS AND FASCINATING (Streaming for free if you get the seven-day Cinemax trial).

“RiP: A Remix Manifesto” (2008): Longtime friend L. Ritchie recommended this little-seen open source documentary saying, “It’s about Girl Talk.”  I love the hell out of Girl Talk and was excited to see this movie to learn more about his process and concert footage.  The movie provided that all right but this is also a major political statement about copyright laws in the United States and how bizarre and convoluted they are (Girl Talk samples music to create his own spin on songs which makes him a vital central point to the story).  My favorite point the doc made was about Walt Disney blatantly being “inspired by” works of fiction like “Cinderella,” “Pinocchio” and “Steamboat Bill” only to turn around and create copyright laws.  Walt is evil.  I did wonder while watching though: would Girl Talk be angry if we sampled his samples?  Wonder how deep the rabbit hole goes with pride over one’s work even if it’s originally from the work of others.  ANY MOVIE THAT MAKES ME ASK THIS MANY QUESTIONS IS WORTH YOUR TIME (Streaming for free on YouTube).

“Sunset Strip” (2000): I lied when I said I didn’t know anyone involved with these films I’m reviewing.  I actually caught my film professor Adam Collis’ feature film for the first time this week since it’s streaming.  It was a real treat to see this; he pulled off the quintessential ensemble slice of life movie about 70s rock and roll with a sprawling cast of characters.  Plus, the movie features a young Judy Greer, Adam Goldberg, Jared Leto, Simon Baker, Mary Lynn Raskjub and a ton of other folks you’ll look up on IMDB and go, “I knew I knew them!”  It’s fun, well-directed and made me proud to say I learned how to make movies from the guy that made this.  IF YOU LIKE MUSIC FLICKS, YOU’LL LOVE THIS ONE (Streaming on Hulu).

“Supersize Me 2” (2019): Morgan Spurlock was cancelled for sexual misconduct.  In fact, I believe he called himself out and cancelled himself.  Still, he released this movie last year and I’ll admit I was a really big fan of the first “Supersize Me” so I was curious to see what direction he would take this story.  The second time around he points his aim not at McDonalds but at big chicken who lie to Americans and tell us poultry is much healthier than it actually is.  This is an eye opening story of the lives of baby chickens who are incredibly cute being pumped full of hormones and given very limited “free range” access.  Spurlock employs man on the street interviews showing just how little we all know about what organic and local really mean.  It all culminates in a genius skewering of fast food restaurants with a franchise he started called “Holy Chicken” that calls out all the corrupt things that these fast food places do to us on a daily basis.  He even gave credit to a farmer who fought Tyson Chicken and seeing said farmer get his moment in the sun made me tear up.  No joke.  LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM, THIS MOVIE WAS EYE OPENING (Streaming on YouTube).

- I do not re-watch movies.  It’s my only real rule.  I love to see new stuff more than anything.  Still, it was my birthday week and I revisited my two all-time favorites “The Goonies” and “Man on the Moon.”  Hadn’t seen either of them in years.  “Goonies” more than holds up even if some of it feels corny; it still just brings me right back to childhood.  “Man on the Moon” is great for its bombasity but rewatching as a 32-year-old dude (not that I’m that mature) I recognize just how emotionally stunted Andy was.  Wish I had caught that as a kid.  Dude was insane in maybe an unhealthy way.

“The Other Two” (2019): Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider prematurely left their SNL head writing gig to run this show at Comedy Central.  I was angry they left since they were so great but after having seen how incredible this show is, my anger has subsided.  This sitcom is one of the best I’ve ever seen (wasn’t surprised that Joel Kim Booster wrote for it).  Anyway, basically, the show is this- two aimless late 20s siblings (played by Drew Tarver and Helene Yorke) have a younger brother who blows up into a Justin Bieber-level popstar overnight.  Imagine a sophisticated and wittier “Entourage” with Molly Shannon playing their Mom.  There are so many great reasons to watch this show and I’ll list them in rapid fire succession: the emotional reveal of how their Dad dies pays off incredibly well in an emotionally satisfying and darkly funny way, a music video director teleconferences in to direct the younger sibling’s (his name is Chase Dreams) music video while eating nachos showing just how trivial a director can be, they all live together in Justin Theroux’s bizarro empty house, the episode that takes place at a school dance with kids is one of the funniest sitcom episodes of any show I’ve ever seen (featuring my favorite joke of the series too.  The dance is “Old Hollywood” themed and Old Hollywood by their definition includes “Anchorman” and “Knocked Up”), Chase’s manager Streeter ( Ken Marino) is so nuts that you can’t believe there would ever be anyone quite like him but then he’s injected with pathos at the end before you end hating him again, Tarver’s restaurant boss gets really into gay culture in a funny recurring bit, Richard Kind plays Tarver’s manager who takes gig economy jobs like driving a cab and delivering food while taking calls from clients, excellent character moments like Yorke showing her talent as a dancer and Tarver being incredibly vain after just a taste at fame.  At just ten episodes, you’ll be depressed when this is over but so elated you saw it.  MAKE THIS THE NEXT SHOW YOU BINGE (Streaming on Comedy Central).

A Crisis in Six Scenes” (2016): Anna and I joked that Woody Allen will probably be cancelled six more times before he dies (his career is a crisis in six scenes, baby!).  True.  Still, I was curious about this Amazon short-form series he released a few years back.  It got vile reviews.  I went in wanting to dislike it but this six-part series featuring Woody and Elaine May as his spouse won me over.  They take in radicalized home invader Miley Cyrus who turns them onto the revolution.  What would have seen ham fisted and preachy years ago now seems prescient as we turn on our government and systemic racism.  We are becoming radicalized again which is a good thing and makes the jokes about the enlightenment of the elderly in this show funnier.  Sure, some of this is a slog but it pays off nicely in the final episode that wraps everything together neatly in a bow putting a button on every setup we didn’t even realize were setups.  Best of all was the ending with Woody and Michael Rappaport pulling him over that bookends the first scene of the show.  WOODY, I HATE TO ADMIT IT BUT YOU DID IT AGAIN (Streaming on Amazon).

• Colin Jost was doing the rounds this week promoting his new book and I took in two of his press appearances.  First was a Zoom chat with Michael Che.  It was pretty damn funny that they were promoting his book and Che outright admitted he hadn’t read it.  The thing kicked off with a promoter reading their cringeworthy bios that praised them and watching them read aloud was a treat while the two winced hearing what PR folks had written about them.  The show got underway and Che proceeded to treat Jost with the same playful disrespect they have on Weekend Update referring to his fiancee as Scarlett “Jimhenson.”  The conversation moved to how Carmelo Anthony gets unfairly criticized and that’s why they don’t read criticism of themselves because Carmelo is great (paraphrasing big time) but it was more fun when we got to the best joke about how Jost is in the White Tang Clan with Pete Davidson and Impractical Jokers (Wu Tang is also from Staten Island like all of these comics) and how he has “Heel face” which makes sense because his book is called “A Punchable Face.”  Jost was also on WTF promoting this week and he talked about quarantining in Montauk (trying very hard to downplay his privilege) and how he didn’t talk until he was four.  Maron challenged him into saying he does not look or sound like he’s from Staten Island which is fair.  Jost deflected nicely joking that he actually pronounces “Staten” correctly.  Maron expressed resentment over Jost going to Harvard and he deflected again instead highlighting how he went to a lower income high school doing speech and debate and highlighting his Mom’s Catholicism.  The conversation moved toward the less personal and they talked about how Lorne instills confidence in performers and Kenan’s longevity on the show.  He also pointed out that “Weekend Update” is the “restart” of the show.  Never thought about it like that.  It really is the second cold open.  It should also be said there was a very moving section where Jost talks about his Mom helping out on 9/11 and how his family knew Pete Davidson’s family for years through this.  Quite a connection.

- Listened to the short, viral podcast Ben Stiller was on called “The Last Laugh” this week where he talked about being very careful making “Tropic Thunder” with the NAACP and Robert Downey Jr’s character but didn’t do damage control on how offensive Simple Jack was.  Hilarious character for sure but definitely offensive.  Good reminder to be wise thinking a few years into the future about how your writing will age.  He then went into why the podcast went viral: he refuses to edit Donald Trump out of “Zoolander” citing that no one else (Trump made a ton of cameos in the past) has done it.  Fair, but be the one that makes the change, dawg!  He then shared that he engages people on Twitter (if you’re a fan, hit him up) and it ended.  This was really short.  Only 19 minutes.  There’s another one he was on but I didn’t listen.

WTF with Jim Carrey: Carrey is in some of my all-time favorite movies (“Truman Show,” “Man on the Moon,” “Eternal Sunshine” to name just a few) but I never knew much about him other than the broad strokes about his story and how he paints now.  This podcast showed a different side that makes me like him even more now.  At the beginning, he generously offers advice on how to deal with PTSD (not what I expected from a comedy pod!) and then details cleaning toilets as a kid.  He’s basically the dude you talk to at a party with a totally different worldview that opens your third eye, man.  He goes into talking about his persona and new showbiz satire book.  This led to sporadic spot-on impressions of Dennis DeYoung from Styx and Paul Lynde and this piece of sage advice, “If you’re interested in what you’re doing, that’s what makes you interesting.”  Carrey said he stole the quote from Meisner but it still resonated in a big way.  Finally, he shared a story about meeting Richard Pryor and smoking with him in a parking lot.  Pryor said, “I’m not sure those last 40 years was me.”  Even Richard Pryor had comedy doubts.  Damn.

• For those that are cynical about the future of the comedy industry, definitely read Vulture’s piece on the direction that Comedy Central (linked in comments of course) is going.  They’re going to create more digital content AND make a ton of feature-length films.  I have no idea if this is sustainable but we should all jump aboard if we can.  

• Finally, I wrote a profile that I kept under wraps for a while.  A friend (who shall remain nameless at their request) and I collaborated on a piece about the fictional Svetlana Kenobi.  Still, it was incredibly fun to write with the freedom of not having to play by any rules.  It’s a short-ish read (like four minutes) and it’s fun to imagine a world in which this Kenobi character exists.

Don’t have much of anything going on this week.  Mostly just trying to get those 10,000 steps in.  Y’all getting 10,000 steps a day?  It’s a nice way to live.

Hope you’re well, fam 

01.) “Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast” with Alan Zweibel: https://www.gilbertpodcast.com/alan-zweifel/

02.) Raanan desert video: https://www.facebook.com/raanan.hershberg/videos/10101212881483044

03.) Raanan’s Medium story: https://medium.com/@raananhershberg/a-million-likes-6f0db2ea830a

04.) Harrison Greenbaum’s “Who Books That” with Larry Willmore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpe0u3fcfbc

05.) It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhxxGDcWWoc

06.) RiP: A Remix Manifesto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quO_Dzm4rnk

07.) Supersize Me 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSyicDf9UvI&t

08.) WTF with Colin Jost: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1139-colin-jost

09.) The Last Laugh with Ben Stiller: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ben-stiller-on-the-new-abnormal/id1456474041?i=1000482636729

10.) WTF with Jim Carrey: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1140-jim-carrey

11.) The Remaking of Comedy Central: https://www.vulture.com/article/comedy-central-reinvention-chris-mccarthy-profile.html

12.) Svetlana Kenobi profile: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/holy-shit-svetlana-kenobi-might-be-banksy-90158af8df59

Comedy Stray Notes July 12, 2020

• Well, it’s my birthday.  Honestly, there’s no other way I’d celebrate than firing up my Discover Weekly on Spotify (complete with ads because I’m not going to buy Premium) and writing Comedy Stray Notes.  On we go.

• Every year on my birthday, my dream is to make something creative happen.  It rarely happens because creativity and celebration rarely exchange hands; to make something creative happen takes effort and work and logistics and organization which are all the enemy of fun.  Last year, I wanted to shoot a sketch about a family mourning the loss of an iPhone.  Couldn’t find a location and I still haven’t shot it.  With everyone quarantining this year, I figured I would pounce and since we’re all parked at our desktops, I would make something big happen.  That “something big” is a 90-page play I wrote about the 1980-81 season of Saturday Night Live.  For those not in the know, it was a trainwreck of a season but a fascinating story.   It’s one of those rare footnotes in comedy history that I feel only true nerds really know about.  I want to end that and get it on people’s radar.  If you’re interested in attending, the show is tonight (July 12) at 6 PM EST.  Should be about two hours.  If you can’t make it, it will be recorded.  Just jump in the DMs.  No pressure at all- this is a reading of a rough draft but if this is something that interests you, I’d be happy to give you the Zoom link information.

- Also, I wanted to thank a few folks for giving me extensive notes on the play.  First of all, my wife Anna E. Paone.  She read this baby and was instrumental in helping me figure out the tone.  Next, my pals Barak Ziv, Jason Planitzer and Charlton Jon read early drafts when this thing was only 15 pages and asked important questions about the story and had me clarify details to make it more reader-friendly.  Danny Rathbun and I exchanged drafts of work we had recently completed and Danny’s micro notes for joke punch ups were instrumental in helping me clean up logic gaps and historical inaccuracies.  Darin Patterson, one of the biggest SNL fans I know, aided me in understanding what a fellow superfan would want to see in a play like this- I want this thing to feel like you’re opening a bag of Halloween candy and it’s all Reeses (or whatever your favorite type of candy is).   Matt Starr, helped me come up with a structure for this thing and gave it a framework to exist in.  I would have no idea how to have written this thing without his guidance (hire him if you have an idea but no idea how to make it feasible) and finally, Julie Mitchell who made me actually want to rewrite this thing (I rarely do second drafts of anything out of pure laziness) and make the characters feel less like stories I had read and more like people that exist.  Long way to go but I am grateful to all these folks for their notes.

• As we all know, Kanye is “running for President.”  I love the guy but now might not be the right time to influence the most important election of our lifetime.  I digress; no need to get into politics.  What’s notable Kanye running for President is he had a bizarre “interview” with Forbes.  I wasn’t aware of said interview until my friend and comedian Matt Storrs sent me a screenshot that said Kanye is running not as a Republican or Democrat but with the “Birthday Party.”  Then, he said, “If elected, ‘It’s Everybody’s Birthday.’”  Not sure if you’re aware but Jesse Swatling-Holcomb and I ran a show called “It’s Everybody’s Birthday” from 2016-2018 where the theme was that it was everyone in the audience’s birthday.  Some people have advised I sue.  Should I derail Kanye’s campaign?  Anyone know how to make this happen?  Love his music but let’s dismantle his political aspirations so he doesn’t get our sitting President a second term.

• Published a single profile this week about my friend from ASU and NYC Danny Vega.  If you’re unaware, Danny runs the very lively and engrossing Facebook group “Am I The Asshole” where folks debate who is the asshole in questionable anecdotes.  I framed this profile just like an “Am I The Asshole” debating whether or not Vega was an asshole.  You’ll have to find out what my conclusion was by clicking that little link in the comments.  

• Wanted to shout out Natan Badalov and his crew for putting together an amazing animated short called “Park West” about a young, non-believing Jewish kid in Hebrew school.  Not only was it incredibly relatable and punchy but it was also a step toward what I think the future of our entertainment is going to be.  In a time where we all have limited resources to produce content, animation is the future.  Natan is one step ahead of all of us.

Thank you for indulging me.  Figured if I get one day to get creative license to write as much as I want it would be my birthday.  I’ll keep the rest of this nice and tight, so you can get on with your life.  Let’s start with the movies I saw this week:

“Palm Springs” (2020): It’s so hard to not spoil this movie, so all I’ll say is it’s a riff on the Bill Murray classic “Groundhog Day.”  Yes, I know it’s a genre unto itself (in fact, even I made a sketch based on the trope that I released earlier this year starring David Rey Martinez) but this movie flips the whole premise on its head in a way that’s more fun and emotional than any of its predecessors like “Happy Death Day,” “Edge of Tomorrow,” “Russian Doll,” and that one with Jake Gyllenhaal that I’m too lazy to look up.  To tease it, it stars a never better Andy Samberg alongside Cristian Milioti and JK Simmons at a wedding that they’re guests at.  We’ll just leave it there.  DEFINITELY WATCH THIS; IT’S AN EARLY CONTENDER FOR MY FAVORITE MOVIE OF THE 2020S (Streaming on Hulu).

“Cinema Paradiso (1990): This is on everyone’s all-time must watch movie lists and I’d started it many times over the years but never got farther than five minutes in.  On Monday, the film’s composer, the legendary Ennio Morricone passed away at 91, and I was inspired to pay my respects by finally getting around to this movie.  I’m so glad I did.  This is a perfect love letter to cinema about a fatherless child who lives at the movie theater in the projection booth watching every movie from high up away from the audience.  The movie accurately captures what loving movies feels like, with the camera gazing on the euphoric expressions on audience member’s faces as they watch the pictures flicker on the big screen before them.  There are a few hilarious sight gags (a lot of illicit stuff secretly goes on in the theater- I’ll leave it at that) but more than anything, there’s an unbelievably beautiful moment halfway through when the projectionist Alfredo reverses the projector to a wall and the audience watches outside the theater.  This leads to tragic consequences but for a minute, everything was perfect.  IF YOU’RE A MOVIE FAN, TREAT YOURSELF TO THIS FEAST OF A FLICK (Streaming on HBOGo)

Now a quick rundown of a few podcasts I listened to while temping:

Laurie Kilmartin talking to Conan: Earlier this week, Patrick Hastie shared this video and I immediately checked it out after having read Kilmartin’s stream of conscious jokes on Twitter about the process of her mother dying from COVID.  This is only ten minutes and a sobering, tender and at times funny chat between Laurie and her boss Conan.  If you’re a fan of either of them, they’re both operating at the top of their abilities here and you can find the link below.

“You Made It Weird” with Lara Beitz: A few years ago, Sarah Kennedy asked me to help run the Devil’s Cup Comedy Festival in Manhattan and in doing so, I met a ton of comics from all over the country who have since gone onto huge things.  One of those comics was Lara Beitz, who I really only chatted to in passing but have since seen on David Spade’s Comedy Central show and hearing about as Pete Holmes’ go-to opener on the road so I was extra excited to see she was the guest on the podcast this week.  It didn’t disappoint.  They had a nice rapport that was more friendly and gossipy than one based on agents and managers having set up a conversation.  The two of them share inside jokes, discuss their relationships and then halfway through, they really struck a nerve talking about weight loss management.  Pete and Lara had some novel thoughts about how to manage weight but one particular statement stood out to a person who finds themselves overeating constantly.  Pete said, “Your highest moments don’t need to be balanced by overeating to bring you back to an equilibrium where you feel shame” (OK, I’m paraphrasing).  Now, that I know I’m not alone on this, I want to share it with everyone that’s ever experienced it.  Nice work on this podcast guys.

“Good One” with Aidy Bryant: Went to middle school with Aidy Bryant in AZ (she was the seventh grade president at Madison Meadows when I was the fifth grade president actually) and I try to keep up with everything she does.  On this podcast released this week, she’s talking about her unusual sketch from this past season of SNL called “Overnight Salad.”  It’s a fairly casual, low-key conversation about how the sketch originated as a joke on the set of “Shrill” and made it to air almost a year later when they were running out of ideas during a mid-March show.  The episode kicked into high gear when they started talking about the SNL At Home episodes.  Aidy likened the sketches to making a short film and had her husband Conner O’Malley shoot footage for her. She detailed working from home parameters saying that the costume designer mailed wigs and some were even delivered by writers walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to meet cast members in the street.  Aidy gets emotional at the end talking about her time on the show and how these episodes were special because she hadn’t seen an episode of SNL live on tv in a decade since she’s been on the show so long.  Great listen for any fan of hers.

“You Made It Weird” with Adam Sandler: Sandler always seems like a huge podcast guest.  Some celebrities just have an air of being above this kind of DIY thing even as humble as he is.  Either way, this fast pod starts with Sandler talking about how his friends that he casts in his movies have more fun on set than he does since he’s in charge (very relatable).  Then, he shared a little bit of wisdom that I’ll never forget.  He said that he and Judd Apatow always call back to the best joke in their script at the end of the movie.  Think about “You can do it!” in “Waterboy” and how that was so satisfying.  That was a formula they established while making “Billy Madison.”  Stealing it.  The podcast continued and Pete and Adam pointed out that the audience wants you to do well when you perform so you should always just have fun which I believe in, then Sandler told an anecdote about how the Safdies always give a backstory to their  actors which is another good inside filmmaking nugget, they talked quite a bit about Sandler’s “Murder Mystery” movie too which I admit I fell asleep in and then one moment of humanity happened toward the end that really surprised me.  Pete Holmes texted his gardener to not get loud because it’s irritating.  Neither of them realized just how privileged this action was.  Sure, I come from privilege but this felt painful to hear.  

Charlie Kaufman New York Times profile: One of the all-time great screenwriters is releasing a 720-page book this week called “Antkind” and on the promotional leg of the release, he did a time-hopping, all over the place profile with the Times that was originally finished mid-May but with all the changes in the world had to go through several iterations.  Yes, this is a profile on Kaufman but it’s also a nice record of how time moves and how we process things in quarantine.  Also, Kaufman shares one essential piece of writing advice.  He says, “Don’t write about being angry, write angry” (paraphrasing again).  If you write in the moment, it will shine through.  Another tip I’m stealing.  If you look for it, you can really find wisdom from established creators in PR pieces.

• Since today is my birthday, my family made me very funny hand drawn, homemade birthday posters as they do every year.  This year, they were better than ever.  Major thanks to my wife Anna, my Mom (wisely not on Facebook), my Dad Andy Levy, my brothers Ben Levy and Sam Levy and my sister in Law Tiffany Wood and Sam’s girlfriend Stephanie Ramos.  There are a lot of Kurt Vonnegut quotes hanging up which is a great thing.  Also, many of the posters are "Wheel of Fortune" fill in the blank style posters that I know I'm going to spend all year trying to figure them out.

• Lots of virtual stuff going on for me this week.  Tonight is the SNL play (6 PM EST), I’m watching Colin Jost and Michael Che in conversation tomorrow (look it up on EventBrite if this is your kind of thing) and on Tuesday, I’m watching Catherine Lamoreaux’s autobiographical pilot called “Community Theater.”  

Thank you for reading.  It’s now officially everybody’s birthday.  That's right.  I'm taking it back, Yeezy

01.) Kanye West’s Presidential Campaign Forbes article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/randalllane/2020/07/08/kanye-west-says-hes-done-with-trump-opens-up-about-white-house-bid-damaging-biden-and-everything-in-between/#12feccd047aa

02.) Danny Vega Profile: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/is-danny-vega-30m-the-asshole-7b8d994b2e63

03.) Natan Badalov’s Park West: https://www.facebook.com/natanbadalov/posts/10158218552011251

04.) Laurie Kilmartin on Team Coco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhS4EXLOTI8

05.) “You Made It Weird” with Lara Beitz: http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/0/b/a/0bae0dae478fd89c/Lara_Beitz.mp3?c_id=77737094&cs_id=77737094&destination_id=81568&expiration=1594585136&hwt=1d4683bfee57ec15700dcca4ff92b8cc

06.) “Good One” with Aidy Bryant: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aidy-bryants-overnight-salad/id1203393721?i=1000483139592

07) “You Made It Weird” with Adam Sandler: http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/b/5/9/b59eb13ff5fabe7a/Adam_Sandler.mp3?c_id=77154182&cs_id=77154182&destination_id=81568&expiration=1594579623&hwt=33746ed9720d0e645b4a972237adf159

08.) Charlie Kaufman New York Times Profile: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/magazine/charlie-kaufman.html

Comedy Stray Notes July 5, 2020

• Whenever taking on a creative project, artists of all kinds do this odd thing when talking about what they’re passionate about: they pretend like it’s nothing.  In an effort to stay humble, I find many toss off their life’s greatest achievements as “some little project I’m working on” when pressed about “what they’ve been up to.”  It’s nice but I’ll admit I love when folks get cocky about what they’ve done or are doing.  It’s the best when a creator loves whatever it is they’re making so much that they forgo humility at the risk of boring others or sounding self indulgent.  Tarantino and Scorsese come to kind and their earnest enthusiasm for their work is infectious.  I kind of did that this week as a guest on Steve Cohen’s PromoteU podcast.  Cohen’s pod is different in that it’s all about how comedians promote themselves rather than how they generate bits or got started in comedy so it’s a breath of fresh air; we’re talking about a whole different part of comedy which is “How do you market yourself?”  It’s the rare series you’ll want to go back and listen to every episode of and learn others tricks to get ahead.  In any event, in my episode I talk about my business AProfileAboutYou, the evolution of Comedy Stray Notes (damn, meta), Liz Miele’s business cards she gives out at shows, how every show of mine that I ever produced had a gimmick because I was afraid no one would come if I didn’t have something special for audience members AND we still didn’t even get to how I used to DM 500 people (maybe even you, dear friend) to promote my gimmick show “It’s Everybody’s Birthday” back in the day.  To be clear, this episode is me being completely braggadocious and when it was over I felt good that I didn’t hold back and stay humble.  Pride may be a sin but sometimes pride in what you do feels so good.  Link below if you’d like to indulge me being me for 56 minutes.

• I haven’t shot a sketch in almost two months since I got a temp gig.  The day before I was hired, Anna Paone and I did shoot a bizarre little short thing without much of a plot about how Southwest picked its hold music.  I’ve always wondered, “How do they choose the completely average song that they do that customers have to listen to on loop for hours?”  This answers that question.  Anyway, I finally finished the thing this week and it’s all over the place for two and a half minutes.  Tons of music drops, jarring jump cuts and a really out of left field button at the end.  I don’t know exactly what to make of this thing or if it’s funny to anyone but me but I do thoroughly enjoy it every time I watch if only because Anna is completely committed to playing a professional character and halfway through I do a Stitch from “Lilo and Stitch” impression for no reason at all that is never commented upon.  That’s my kind of thing.

• Only completed one profile this week but it was a doozy.  I had the honor of covering the first season of my friend Robb Coles’ podcast “Thoroughly Modern History.”  Coles’ podcast is all about life during the Gulf War Era, how he processed it as a youngster and how he processes it now after researching that time period extensively.  It’s a nice time capsule and if you want to learn more about Saddam Hussein but in a funny and entertaining way, check out the linked profile that will lead you to the podcast.

• Went hard watching movies, TV and podcasts this week as I do.  Here’s a semi-zippy rundown (OK, it’s actually very long) of what I put in my ears and eyes the past seven days:

“Hamilton” (Filmed in 2016; released in 2020): I was one of the billions of people that got to see this Broadway smash for the first time this week and it exceeded expectations of whatever I thought it would be from having heard the cast recordings so many times.  The exciting choreography (the execution of the rewind sequence alone was worth the price of admission live I imagine) and the fact that it felt like if Kanye’s song “Monster” became a 2.5 hour play with all the different rap styles from Daveed Diggs’ speed to Lin Manuel’s spoken word approach to Okieriete Onaodowan’s brash, playful demeanor culminated together for the best history lesson of all time.  On top of that, the visionary multicultural color blind casting led to something unlike I’ve ever seen effectively recontextualizing history that will be imitated for the rest of our lives.  My only gripe was with the audience at these shows- I have no idea why they laughed when they laughed.  I feel that way at every play I go to.  For someone who writes about comedy a lot, I am often confused by what makes folks laugh.  THIS IS A MUST SEE AND I CAN’T WAIT FOR WHEN THEY REALLY ADAPT IT TO THE BIG SCREEN (Streaming on Disney + obviously).

“Mr Roosevelt” (2017):  SNL has this habit of casting female impression impresarios and then not really letting them flourish if they don’t quite break out in the way that Kristen Wiig did.  Just a few examples off the top of my head include Michaela Watkins (did a killer Hoda Kotb), Noel Wells (great Bjork), Melissa Villasenor (honestly everyone but I’m partial to her Christina Aguilera) and Chloe Fineman (her Timothee Chalamet is better than Timothee Chalamet).  It’s interesting watching their careers progress outside of SNL which is the platform designed for them to flaunt their characters.  Noel Wells, especially.  She may be the lowest profile on this list and was given the least exposure on the show which seemed unfair when she was cut a few years back.  It’s nice to know that she’s still working in some capacity though, writing, directing and starring in a feature-length film.   Unfortunately, this movie doesn’t fully work as a comedy.  It starts great with her showing off her wide range of impressions at a failed audition in what feels like an “Annie Hall” homage which is exciting and fun that is completely dropped after the sequence.  Soon after, the plot kicks in and we find out her cat is sick in her hometown of Austin.  Said cat, aptly named Mr. Roosevelt, still belongs to her ex-boyfriend (comic Nick Thune who has decent moments toward the end when he plays in a band but is ultimately pretty bland which may be by design since he’s supposed to be neutered by the new girlfriend character) who is living with his aforementioned new girlfriend played by Britt Lower (very funny and ironically catty here; you might recognize her as the sister in “Man Seeking Woman” too).  She has to travel back and deal with the repercussions on a relationship with many loose ends, being the third wheel and finding herself.  By the end, it’s a treatise on anxiety and mental illness in a surprising and upsetting third act turn.  Still, this movie that started out as a promising comedy turned into a semi-depressing, navel gazing (Anna’s words!) dramedy.  Also, Doug Benson is in this for like a minute playing Wells’ jerk boss.  Majorly wasted opportunity.  IF COMING OF AGE DRAMEDIES FOR EMOTIONALLY STUNTED ADULTS IS YOUR THING, GO FOR IT (Streaming on Netflix).

Orgazmo (1997): I’m a sucker for Trey Parker and Matt Stone projects and somehow I had missed this one.  Watched it early Saturday morning and couldn’t stop laughing at how damn funny this low-budget send up of the porn industry was (kind of feels like the spiritual sequel to “Boogie Nights” which somehow came out in the same year).  The story is of a Mormon missionary (Parker; they love mocking the Mormons!) in LA who is preaching the word of the Latter Day Saints and ends up at a porn producer’s mansion.  In a hilarious turn of events, he beats up security guards in a test of his martial arts abilities and it’s determined that he would make the perfect star of the fake pornographic film within a film “Orgazmo.”  He’s torn because of his wholesome beliefs (which, amazingly, are never really looked down upon) and the potential thousands of dollars he could make (he’s oblivious to how much he’s worth in the industry).  Still, the movie is brilliant in its own way with its superhero movie within a superhero movie structure (the porn director is actually a villain!), an abundance of visual jokes (every time any female nudity is hinted at a dude’s butt fills the frame and a film crew going to fight for the director because they’ll do anything he asks), the intentionally awful porn soundtrack, and the character Choda Boy (masterfully played by Dian Bachar) who you might remember as “Squeaks” from “Baseketball.”  He might be the most underrated character actor from the 90s.  Speaking of, this movie brought me right back to the 90s and the early sensibility of the “South Park” guys and Eminem.  A bit toxic and now bordering on offensive but their hearts were always in the right place skewering people in positions of power.  IF YOU LIKE “SOUTH PARK” THIS IS ESSENTIAL (Streaming on Netflix).

“School Daze” (1988): I’m turning into a bit of a Spike Lee completist; it’s nice that so many of his movies I always wanted to see are streaming. This one was a classic, ambitious second feature where Spike tries to do so much (all of which is admittedly way ahead of its time) and ends up forgetting to throw a story into his film.  There’s a lot going on here about a fictional all-Black university with Spike trying to join the toxic fraternity run by a pre-Gus Fring Giancarlo Esposito.  On the other side, Spike's cousin is played by Laurence Fishburne, a militant leader of a political group on campus.  Along the way there are extended musical numbers that come out of nowhere, insanely stylized cinematography, an uncharacteristic Samuel L. Jackson cameo and not a single white person.  As much as I could have used a simpler hero’s journey to guide me through the two hours, this one doesn’t need it; Spike needed to make this so he could bring us “Do The Right Thing” just one year later (by the way, Bill Nunn AKA Radio Raheem has a small, throwaway role in this).  A LESSER ENTRY IN THE CANON BUT NOT INESSENTIAL (Streaming on Netflix).

Side note: Anna and I watched this with friend Justine House, who gave excellent commentary throughout the movie.

VHYes (2019): Half-watched this movie that was written and directed by Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins’ son, Jack Henry Robbins.  It’s got one of those concepts we’ve all dreamed up but never made- what if there was a movie about someone changing the channels and we watched all the different shows they flipped through?  Robbins followed through with mixed results.  Part fake infomercial, part found footage horror movie, all-shlocky late 80s/early 90s nostalgia fest, this thing never fully congealed for me as a cohesive feature but I did admire the attempt to do something different.  Especially impressive was Robbins pulling in a number of favors from well-known B-list stars like his parents, most of the cast of “Reno 911,” Charlyne Yi and John Gemberling to name just a few.  Basically, this is a good movie and a great cautionary tale for aspiring writer/directors to see what they would do given the resources that our parents were successful movie stars and we were given carte blanche and a real budget to write and direct the movies we want.  NOT FOR ME BUT GOOD FOR MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS WITH HIPSTERS (Streaming on Hulu). 

Lady Dynamite (2017-2018): Man, what a two-season run for Maria Bamford’s little show that could.  The pilot started with a meta commentary on sitcoms for stand ups (in it, Patton Oswalt tells Maria she shouldn’t do stand up because all the other shows do it; he’s right.  She still does and bombs).  The show got more gloriously weird along the way in Season One with her talking dog, hypercritical mother (played to perfection by Mary Kay Place), insecure and clueless agent (Fred Melamed is one of the best comedic actors ever and gives this role more depth than one could ever expect in a sitcom) and brash friends Bridget Everett and Lennon Parham.  At one point in Season One, I found myself having to get off the treadmill (I told you I’ve been watching this forever; haven’t been to a gym since March) because I was laughing too hard and couldn’t run anymore.  Season Two is where the show really found its stride though when it started employing every episode with an A storyline taking place in the present about her relationship with her new husband, a Past B storyline where we go to her years as a teenager in Duluth Minnesota and Future C storyline where she sold out and acts in a fictional sci-fi show directed by Ana Gasteyer, who plays one of three characters named Karen Grisham.  There’s clearly a lot going on.  Some truly amazing jokes come out of the season as well.  My two favorites were 1.) a genuine, harsh critique of Season One’s faults in the middle of an episode; it blew me away.  I’d never seen a show point out its flaws in such a direct way.  My respect for the show quadrupled after that.  The second was 2.) A character who came out of nowhere that attended Exposition U.  Just a perfect meta joke that played nicely and hit my comedy sweet spot.  On top of all that, at the end Bamford employed hundreds of Filipino actors in the series finale, had an episode with dozens of working Native American actors AND gave all of her real life friends lines.  Loved that.  This show is very much itself; the only real predecessor for it is “Arrested Development” and it makes sense because Mitch Hurwitz was one of the show runners here.  Still, I get why it was cancelled as it got more critical of Netflix in Season Two and increasingly odder with its editing rhythms but IF YOU’RE A COMEDY FAN, THIS IS A TREAT (Streaming on Netflix).

Finally, here’s a few standout podcasts from this week as well:

Boom/Bust: The Rise of HQ Trivia: As an avid HQ player along with Anna and Adam Suzan, I was very excited for this eight (!) part series.  Each episode is compact, never coming in at more than 40 minutes and it was nice to look forward to them on a weekly basis for two months.  The show is pleasant and informative with tidbits like Scott Rogowsky planning on staging an on air strike and details about planned Last Comic Standing-style spinoff of the show had it continued.  As things went on, it got a bit darker as we learn about the “who cares” attitude toward the end and the harrowing insider details behind one of the co-founder’s suicide.  However, in the final episode, things get really juicy.  A debate emerges about whether or not this podcast is journalism or entertainment when all of the interview subjects debate getting paid by The Ringer.  There’s a confrontational sequence with Rogowsky where the host asked him about going behind her back asking her boss Bill Simmons for more information about getting paid.  The whole show was worth it for that last segment; it’s up there with the most awkward exchanges I’ve ever heard.  Both of them are in the wrong and they both sort of know it.

“You Made It Weird” with Topher Grace: Fun, long episode that moved briskly.  Somehow the host and guest riffed on “Saved by the Bell” extensively which led to a great recurring bit where they did the “Extra Extra” sound effect from Mario Lopez’s “Extra.”  Other interesting nuggets from this edition include Topher Grace talking about his role in “BlackkKlansman” as David Duke which has to be extra uncomfortable now and how Topher Grace was discovered in a play and got famous out of nowhere.  As nice as that sounds, he talks about just how strange it was for him as a teen.  Would recommend this one for any fan of the podcast or Topher Grace and I am both of those things.

WTF with Carl Reiner: As we all know, Carl Reiner passed this week at the ripe, old age of 98.  He’s already sorely missed.  Luckily, we have so many artifacts of his career to sift through and discover.  This week, I dove into this podcast episode. Here are the highlights from this 75-minute interview that aren’t in every tribute of his storied career: Carl profusely praises his son Rob’s directorial career pointing out how great “Princess Bride is and still insults Rob’s famously bad movie “North,” he talks about performing for the troops in WWII, then tells the famous story of Albert Brooks being the funniest person he’s ever met and he knew this when Brooks was 16 (you read that right, Albert not Mel Brooks).  Also, it was very funny how the phone rang multiple times throughout the episode and Reiner picked up every time.  Another great curiosity was Reiner having famous manager George Shapiro tag along for the episode.  Shapiro fell asleep.  Loved that.  Finally, the best part of all was about how Carl was a Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton fan back when they were actually making movies.  The guy has been around the block.  RIP Carl.

“Good One” with Horatio Sanz: On this podcast, the host interviews the subject about a joke or comedic performance they’re proud of.  This one highlights a strange sketch I barely remember with Sanz being a pharmacist who called out people’s ailments; in 2020 speak, it comes across more as insensitive than funny.  Still, this 60-minute low-key chat had some revelatory moments like Sanz talking about why SNL employs recurring characters (it’s because people don’t watch the show all the time and they figure it might be an audience member’s first time seeing said character) and the cast fighting for scraps and doing anything they can to get airtime.  Sanz also admitted that his SNL “Best Of” DVD is basically already just Jimmy Fallon’s “Best Of” since they worked together so often which is a generous confession.  He also reflected about his time on the show where he often “broke” in sketches.  He said his laughter was a reflection of how he wanted to emphasize the live aspect of the show.  I respect that.  He wanted to go one step further conceptually and literally break sets during scenes to give audiences a closer look at the live element of the show.  Finally, the show closed out with a perfect Truman Capote impression that he did in his audition for the show.  Overall, this is hit or miss but Sanz is so much fun that it’s a good one to take on.

“The Joe Rogan Experience” with Jon Stewart: Have never actually listened to a full episode of Rogan’s podcast before even though I’d tried but never finished the Andrew Yang one.  I’ll listen to Jon Stewart talk about anything so this was the one where I finally gave it a full shot.  Gotta say, not super impressed.  Rogan is...dull.  For the first half, we’re just listening to him and Stewart, two very rich folks discussing wealth inequality in the country which felt very false.  Things picked up when Stewart talked about 9/11 responders being treated poorly and how it messed up their lives which he brought to Congress in the past.  However, the episode got great when Rogan refused to let Stewart be right about overweight people ruining their lives by being overweight.  It was intense and nice to see both of them stick to their guns rather than back down.  Finally, a real debate where the gloves come off.  Also, for the record, as an overweight person, I think they’re both right- Stewart is in the camp that folks can eat whatever they want and Rogan believes that we all really should get in shape.  Neither is wrong.

“Good One” with the “Oh, Hello” guys: Mulaney and Kroll show up completely in character for this and do not disappoint with erudite tangents about  their Princess Diana podcast and Bernie Goetz.  In fact, they’re so funny here, that host Jesse David Fox barely says anything at all.  Out of everything I listened to this week, this went down easiest- I was genuinely sad when the hour was over.  I’m excited to listen to their actual podcast soon.

WTF with Alan Zweibel: This podcast opened my week as I sat down for work on Monday and things got off to a very somber start.  Pre-interview, Marc Maron legitimately sounds unwell like he didn’t want to go on.  It was a tough pill to swallow and I imagine his life is very difficult at the moment but luckily he rebounded toward the end as he went into classic ad copy.  As for the interview itself, Zweibel was effortlessly charming as always.  The guy has so many amazing stories and has been there for everything in the past 45 years of comedy (he’s one of the original SNL writers and is still cranking out gold) but it was most interesting listening to him talk about what John Belushi was like at the end of his life and his relationship with Garry Shandling where they would talk on the phone for hours and Zweibel’s wife would have to break it up.  Very excited to read Alan’s book which is sitting on my bookshelf at the moment and is next on my list to read.

“Good One” with Paul Scheer: Always loved Paul Scheer and it’s fascinating to hear this interview from 2017 where he praises Aziz.  That’s the thing about all these cancelled celebrities; artifacts of their collaborators talking about them in a positive light exist all over the web in many different formats.  Despite that oddity in the interview, Scheer tells great stories and dispenses valuable comedy wisdom.  The most valuable lesson I learned here was differentiating between homage and parody.  Scheer contends that imbuing your work with emotion and stakes leads to evergreen, meaningful comedy rather than just jokes that don’t age well.  He also dunked on the Wayans Brothers in the episode saying he wasn’t a fan of their work.  Wish this was a real comedy feud that existed.  Also, he looked down upon “Not Another Teen Movie” which is legitimately fantastic but I’ll let it slide.  Finally, if you’re a Criss Angel fan, there’s a few very funny behind the scenes stories of him from Scheer who hung out with him quite a bit in the early 2000s (the joke covered in this episode is a Criss Angel homage- NOT a parody).  

No plans for me for the week.  Honestly, just the way I like it.

Links:

01.) PromoteU with Steve Cohen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEyWe40O76c

02.) The Origin of Southwest’s Hold Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LD-DmmnIjo&list=PLoBsCsHJsKMrx6cuZ4Se8CQ_QBfOUcJ5U

03.) Robb Coles AProfileAboutYou: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/thoroughly-modern-history-with-robb-coles-isnt-just-a-podcast-it-s-a-time-machine-4da9c7a4b4d0

04.) The Ringer’s HQ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/65F5z1u5FCLX9ddueCHJRb?t=0

05.) “You Made It Weird” with Topher Grace: http://youmadeitweird.nerdistind.libsynpro.com/topher-grace

06.) WTF with Carl Reiner: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/carl-reiner-from-2013

07.) “Good One” with Horatio Sanz: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/horatio-sanzs-dons-apothecary-sketch/id1203393721?i=1000384200615

08.) Joe Rogan Experience with Jon Stewart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXOUCRLW2UI

09.) “Good One” with the “Oh, Hello” Crew: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/oh-hello/id1203393721?i=1000475797690

10.) WTF with Alan Zweibel: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1135-alan-zweibel

11.) “Good One” with Paul Scheer: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/paul-scheer-and-human-giants-illusionators/id1203393721?i=1000382540100

Comedy Stray Notes June 28, 2020

• At the outset of quarantine, over 100 days ago now, I signed up for Slackjaw’s comedy writing competition.  I hadn’t written a “humor piece” in years but remember what we were like mid-March?  It was a time of dreaming big, exiting your comfort zone and taking on projects you otherwise would have pushed to the side.  I entered, followed all the guidelines, gave and received feedback for other projects with fellow writers in the Slackjaw community and submitted my piece, “Here At Sierra Mist, We Will Continue Assuming No One Knows About Sprite.”  I did not advance in this competition.  Instead, they very kindly published my piece on their site this week which was a nice consolation prize.  It’s brief (Medium estimates that it’s a two-minute read; I bet you’ll finish it in 90 seconds flat, you’re smart) and is linked below if you’re so inclined to check it out.  I skewer Sierra Mist pretty hard and I mean no offense in advance if you have an allegiance with that copycat soft drink.

• OK, this is a crazy idea.  I’ve had a few of these wild ideas these past few months but here goes.  I’m thinking of starting a Patreon.  It wouldn’t be for content that I release though.  No, it would be for me to be your manager (comedy, music, actors, directors, all welcome) for different pricing tiers.  Essentially, for a small amount of money, I will talk to you about your career or whatever you like (all about you) for as long as you want over the course of a month (which can be renewed if you so choose).  If this idea strikes your fancy, give this post a WOW reaction and I’ll DM you to discuss specifics to see if this is something you’d be interested in.  Just a thought and figured I’d put it into the world.

• The very funny stand up CW Headley (not on Facebook) spread his wings over quarantine and released a fantastic album called “Tomb By The Country.”  Not a comedy album by any stretch of the imagination either.  It’s an earnest, wry and catchy 15-track debut that demonstrates major promise for CW as a lyricist, singer and guitarist.  I couldn’t quite place my finger on what it sounded like- mid 2000s indie?  90s alt rock?  Nah.  It sounds completely new.  It’s worth your time and the proceeds go to NAACP and Bail out Fund.  Links in comments as always.

• Had quite a few Patton Oswalt run-ins this week.  My fandom for the guy grows every day.  First and foremost, I became completely engrossed in his love letter of a memoir to the movies “Silver Screen Fiend” which I finished in a week (it usually takes me a month or two to finish a book; couldn’t put this one down).  Basically, while reading It felt like I wrote this book but I was a better writer than I am?  Got into my head like that.  This memoir of sorts is full of wonderful stories of Patton in the mid 90s spending all of his time watching movies at LA’s New Beverly Theatre and is all about obsession with pop culture and a compulsion to consume it that I’ve never seen someone else put to paper.  Plus, there are anecdotes about young Marc Maron, Bob Odenkirk and the 90s LA comedy scene as well that don’t hold back; it’s refreshing to read someone’s writing that doesn’t feel like it was informed by an NDA.  Should also be mentioned that the final chapter is one of the coolest 15-page stretches in a book I’ve ever read (this statement will only ring true if you’re a die-hard cinephile).  

In any event, I was moved to Tweet about this book and tagged Patton saying, “I’ve never connected to anything more” and he retweeted me saying, “I’m so sorry.”  What’s amazing about this was Patton has 4.6 million followers.  Never had that kind of platform for anything in my life.  What came of it was many people not knowing this book existed.  Essentially, I did free PR for Patton.  Worth it.  Also, listened to an abbreviated episode of Oswalt on “You Made It Weird.”  It was fun but not nearly as memorable as any of the above.  My biggest takeaway other than their chatter about being stuck at home was Patton telling a tale of how he did a show at a commune he bombed at.  In fact, I barely remember that story but I remember it made me laugh.  Otherwise, a nice, short inoffensive episode in the “You Made It Weird” canon.

• Published a handful of profiles this week that turned out quite well.  The first one I completed was about the mysterious, globetrotting possibly not real Svetlana Kenobi, second featured scholar and athlete turned international comic Ben Frank and my third and final piece of the week was on humanitarian and comic writing phenom Alexa Kocinski.  All are roughly six-minute reads (once again, estimated by Medium) and are linked below.

• Anna Paone and I went hard this week watching movies after taking a brief respite from streaming last week.  Here’s what we saw:

“Mudbound” (2018): Dee Rees’ complex yet simple tale  is about two families in 1940s Mississippi who are brought together by a farm they share.  However, racial tensions run deep since the white family (featuring Jonathan Banks as an overtly racist Southern grandpa, an angry Jason Clarke, solid Carey Mulligan and a never better Garrett Hedlund) employs the Black family (with Mary J. Blige as the matriarch and an unstoppable Jason Mitchell as her son who just returned from WWII) and what animosity is at first unspoken later escalates in tragic ways.  The movie is sadly very timely and also very well done on a technical front.  The cinematography is remarkable and led to the first Oscar nomination for a female director of photography.  Plus! There’s a standout scene early in the film where a family shows up to a house they thought they bought but folks were already living in it which was something I’d never even considered getting conned on.  THIS IS A CLASSIC MOVIE THAT GOT SNUBBED FOR A BEST PICTURE NOMINATION (Streaming on Netflix).

“Eurovision” (2020): If you know me, you’re well aware that I think “A Night At The Roxbury” is the most underrated comedy of all time and I genuinely mean it.  I honestly don’t think Will Ferrell has ever been funnier.  I can quote the entire thing and I HATE rewatching movies (my reasoning being that there’s so much to see and I don’t like to see stuff a second time when I could see something new).  Anyway, that’s all a preamble to this new Netflix release starring Ferrell and Rachel McAdams that is garnering quite a bit of praise online which is weird because it’s essentially a lesser version of “Roxbury” that was famously critically reviled and never got the cult classic status it deserves.  This above average movie, about two Icelandic singers who surprisingly advance much farther than expected in the Eurovision competition is a fun romp where lessons are learned, genuine laughs are had (the biggest ones come from a life-sized hamster wheel, a troll with a knife and American tourists decked out in Arizona State gear), amazing talents are displayed (the “songalong” in the middle of the movie is a genuine showstopper), American actors attempt Icelandic accents and Pierce Brosnan and Dan Stevens give bizarre supporting turns.  IT’S GOOD BUT NOT EVEN CLOSE TO ROXBURY (Streaming on Netflix).

“She’s Gotta Have It” (1986): Spike’s a visionary.  This movie has a style all of its own, is fairly progressive regarding sexuality (some of it veers off into almost pornographic territory though) and a lot of the jokes really hold up (to be fair, some really do not but it’s hit to miss ratio for a movie that’s over 30 years old is not bad).  Most impressively, the scene where the film goes from Black and White to color shocked me more than “Wizard of Oz” ever did.  It was a jolt of energy that brought this already lively movie to a dizzying high of sensory overload.  The confrontation with all the boyfriends at Thanksgiving toward the end of the film was a perfect heightening of the movie’s conflict and made our lead character have to make a decision in a pressure cooker of a situation- truly strong screenwriting.  The final shot, while sexy, was brilliantly tragic.  My biggest takeaway of this whole 84-minute venture is I selfishly wish Spike had pursued acting even more.  The dude is so funny and I would have loved to have seen him in more movies in his prime.  DON’T SLEEP ON THIS CLASSIC (Streaming on Netflix).

“Shirley” (2020): This Sundance darling about the life of author Shirley Jackson starring Elisabeth Moss was helmed by one of my favorite up and coming directors Josephine Decker (she did the insanely brilliant “Madeline’s Madeline”) but this movie barely registered with me.  Lots of highbrow couple fights where scholars tell each other their writing is no good, infidelity among said scholars sharing a house runs rampant and bizarre imagery abounds.  I wanted to like this so much more but NOT FOR ME (Streaming on Hulu).

Here are some podcasts I listened to while I was at work:

“Good One” with Moshe Kasher: Kasher is so funny and this quick episode has him covering a multitude of topics in relation to his crowd work album he recently released.  He shared that when he started doing crowd work in his act it was like he was “Opening for myself.”  Brilliantly put.   Jesse David Fox, the podcast host, shared a story about how a comic did crowd work on him calling him Harry Potter and years later, the comic admitted he didn’t remember because he allegedly did that for every audience member wearing glasses when Fox confronted him about it which made me laugh.  Other memorable tidbits included Moshe’s first joke he ever did being so good it ended up on his album, how comedy really is all about having fun and a great industry-insider street joke that I won’t spoil.  Classic episode.

Amy Nicholson’s “Feature Presentation” with Quentin Tarantino: Nicholson, a great film critic, sat down with Tarantino to discuss his years as a video store clerk and geek before he struck it rich in Hollywood all while serving as promotion for “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.”  As a cliche Tarantino obsessive, this was ear candy.  There are excerpts from his never finished film “My Best Friend’s Birthday” and stories of his history with Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon.”  I could listen to the guy’s voice all day.  Linked below.

Conan O’Brien’s “Conan Needs A Friend” with Judd Apatow: Loved hearing Judd explain his reasoning for choosing Pete Davidson as the star for his most recent effort “The King of Staten Island” saying, “He’s the zeitgeist,” here.   Even more enjoyable was hearing him talk about how after being treated to all the best foods in the world with his celebrity privilege nothing tastes quite as good as eating Red Lobster with Sandler before they made it big.  The most interesting nugget here though was the two of them talking about rhythm comedy meaning just the way someone talks can register as funny.  Apatow gave an example doing a gibberish version of Cosby (not the greatest example) but it really hammered home the point that “talking funny” is sometimes more powerful to the comic ear than writing funny material.

WTF with Stacey Abrams: Love the humanizing of a political candidate on a podcast.  This was a fun episode where I learned that in addition to being a trailblazing politician, she was also a fiction author just a few short years ago.  Had no idea.  Still, the most shocking thing of all was learning that Abrams’ ballot was sealed shut this election go-round which made it very difficult for her to vote.  When the politicians can’t even vote, something strange is afoot.  

As for this week, got one thing planned if you want to hear my voice.  Tomorrow night, I’ll be appearing on Steven Cohen’s live podcast at 7 PM EST talking about promotion.  If you want a shout out, let me know if you’re watching and I’ll gladly shout you out!  The link is in the comments.  Let me promote you while talking about promotion to hammer home a point of some kind.

Finally, one last thing.  This is not comedy related but more important than any comedy thing.  

My friend from Central High School, Jessica O’Neil, is in the hospital battling COVID-19.  She and I did speech and debate together for years and she brought so much joy to the team and has been a great friend over the years.  The very least I can do is spread awareness of this and let you know that Jessica’s put together an Amazon wish list for her mother and daughter who can’t be with her at the hospital  If you feel so inclined, go ahead and select something for them off their wishlist.  You can make someone’s world a little brighter in this time of need for them.

Over and out.  See you next week in July.

Links:

01.) Slackjaw Story https://medium.com/slackjaw/here-at-sierra-mist-we-will-continue-assuming-no-one-knows-about-sprite-1e54250c06ba

02.) CW’s album https://cwheadley.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-by-the-country?fbclid=IwAR2WzZUGEbXeRC3JqHvd8XkV9hk7_rnjG41FkMe-Ge8RTuZKB6RkOaVoDXc

03.) Patton’s episode of “You Made It Weird”

http://youmadeitweird.nerdistind.libsynpro.com/patton-oswalt-returns

04.) Svetlana Kenobi Profile

https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/holy-shit-svetlana-kenobi-might-be-banksy-90158af8df59

05.) Ben Frank Profile

https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/no-one-could-have-predicted-ben-franks-international-comedy-career-63c9421b127e

06.) Alexa Kocinski Profile 

https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/alexa-kocinski-finds-the-small-absurd-and-mundane-and-magnifies-them-92c88981e605

07.) Moshe Kasher on “Good One” https://www.vulture.com/2020/03/good-one-podcast-moshe-kasher-on-crowd-work.html

08.) Quentin Tarantino on “Feature Presentation” 

https://www.theringer.com/quentin-tarantino-feature-presentation

09.) Judd Apatow on Conan’s “I Need A Friend” podcast

https://www.earwolf.com/episode/judd-apatow-2/

10.) Stacey Abrams on WTF

http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1130-stacey-abrams

11.) Jessica O’Neil Wish List

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3AJ3ZA2OVBQCP?ref_=wl_share

12.) Steve Cohen’s Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEyWe40O76c&fbclid=IwAR0arc1ORtGqmb0QIbFB4TROOEFfepksmMqcokwIlj4iSDrp94mvppuiP5M

Comedy Stray Notes June 21, 2020

• This was unlike any week I’ve had since 2011.  In January of that year, I had mostly finished production on my thesis film “A Portrait of the Sandwich Artist as a Young Man.”  Before you continue, please know this is going to sound extremely pretentious and grandiose and I apologize in advance but I want to spread some awareness of something I didn’t know existed.  OK, back to the movie.

It’s 2011.  I had just finished making this 14-minute movie that I was convinced was a MASTERPIECE (here it is if you want to see: https://vimeo.com/44733572).  I had used every ounce of creativity my 22-year-old self could muster to tell this made-up tale of a tortured sandwich artist.  It meant a lot to me and while making the film I reached what I thought was an elevated, enlightened state of being since I had pretty much achieved what I thought was my vision for the first time in my life; I was making art I told myself.  I was so proud of this thing it actually made me go a little insane.

This pride led me to to giving advice about filmmaking to my peers in a loving and generous way that might have been too much and forced people to get really honest with me about our friendships and relationships.  I meant well but it was fairly destructive.  I just wanted everyone to feel what I felt making that movie.  The pure, unedited, uncut expression of self.  It was too much for most and I wholly get that and I’ve repressed those few passionate weeks for years.

It should be noted, ten years removed from the short, I recognize it for what it is: a pretty good student film that’s HEAVILY influenced by Wes Anderson, a true artist.

Anyway, this past week, the overactive “elevated state of being” manifested itself again.  

I’ve been working on mashups on the weekends and I’ve gotten REALLY into it.  Most decry that it’s not a real art form and that’s fair.  I just think of it as a way to express all of the things (music and sounds) that I love all in one place.  It’s extremely fun when pieces of a disparate puzzle fit together (like “Clocks” by Coldplay and “Land Down Under” by Men at Work) and I get a bit of a fuzzy, mental high while experiencing my favorite things in new ways.

That was until I reached the final stretch of the project.  I have a bin of all the music I wanted to use in the piece and spotted one of my all-time favorite songs “The Magic of Halloween” by John Williams.  This song regularly makes me cry on its own.  The image of Elliott and ET flying over the moon is perfect and the song is 70% of why that’s true.  When it crescendos, there’s nothing more powerful and it shakes me so hard that I can’t help but emote.

I dropped the track in my timeline and started putting songs over it.  Tears started welling up within me.  Oh, no.  I was creating what I thought was important art again (even if it was John Williams’ work that more than stands on its own; does Williams cry every time he writes a song?  He must).  The elevated state of being began after I exported what I thought was something very special.

Here’s the mashup by the way.  It’s kind of long (22 minutes and 49 seconds) but a worthy listen I would say: https://vimeo.com/429030285 (good for running!)

Soon after completing the mashup, I was on that creative high again.  I put a status online this past week about wanting to be like Judd Apatow and Lorne Michaels (more on him later) where I speak with comics and treat them to what I now call “Comedy Therapy.”  This led to around 80 in-depth, intimate into the middle of the night conversations about comedy careers with my peers, folks above me in the industry and strangers on Twitter.  I learned a hell of a lot about what sets us all back in our careers.  This is insight to save for a book not just give away for a skimming on social media (obviously would not name anyone in said book for those of you reading).

Anyhow, this elevated state of being is not normal.  It’s manic.  That’s all I knew about it.  That’s as far as my self-diagnosis got.  So, nine years too late, I looked into “Mania” on Wikipedia bleary eyed at 2 AM one night.  That wasn’t quite it.

Then, I found “Hypomania.”  Wow.  This was it.  Here is the short definition from Wikipedia (with parts omitted; these were the only parts that applied to my situation):

Hypomania (literally "under mania" or "less than mania") is a mood state characterized by persistent disinhibition and mood elevation (euphoria), with behavior that is noticeably different from the person's typical behavior when in a non-depressed state. 

Characteristic behaviors of persons experiencing hypomania are a notable decrease in the need for sleep, an overall increase in energy, unusual behaviors and actions, and a markedly distinctive increase in talkativeness and confidence, commonly exhibited with a flight of creative ideas.  While hypomanic behavior often generates productivity and excitement, it can become troublesome if the subject engages in risky or otherwise inadvisable behaviors, and/or the symptoms manifest themselves in trouble with everyday life events.

Luckily, I now had the power to hone this within myself.  It’s a scary feeling flying high.  This time, I have the wonderful Anna E. Paone at my side and she helped me calm down but not fully let go of this perpetually blissful state of mind.  

Anyway, that’s where I’m coming from this week.

• This manifested itself most purely this week when I didn’t experience fear Tweeting about the greatest gatekeeper in comedy calling them out (this is where Lorne Michaels comes back).  I wrote:

To all white comedy allies of Black Lives Matter.

It is now SNL packet season.  I know a lot of you are writing.

I have a proposal and you will be angry at it.

I think no white writer should apply for SNL this year.

Let’s make it so they only have to hire POC this season

Obviously, I have no power.  I don’t work at NBC or SNL.  But this was a message I believe in.

Not the best choice of words here but I felt like in a moment I truly believed in something greater than myself or self-promotion.  How much different would comedy be if all white comics gave up their privilege and bowed down in solidarity to something greater?  A world where representation finally shifted?  Seemed cool to me and something I stand by.  Could I get cancelled in the industry for this?  I don’t know.  This was simply a plea for something that would lead to an absolutely necessary shakeup in the most seen comedy platform there is.  I stand by this message more than anything I’ve ever written (other than the poor word choice in places of course).

• Now to what I took in this week- no longer about what’s up with me.

- Dragonfly Multicultural Arts Center is a theater company run by my wife Anna and her Mom Catherine LaMoreaux.  They weren’t allowed to put on their devised play “Black and Blue” with input by members of the community in 2017 since it portrayed police in a fair, negative and honest light when it comes to how they deal with race.  This was an unjust use of censorship by their town and audiences were bummed that we would never be treated to a performance of this original work.  This week, we were over Zoom.  The play was beautifully rendered.  Matt Holbert played the lead and gave him humanity which is so hard to do over Zoom; Paul Lombardo brought the perfect amount of menace to the wannabe comic cop and the script never veered off into a preachy flight of fancy about race; these characters simply existed.  It felt real and crucial.  I hope to get to see this one live.  Dragonfly really outdid themselves here; it will be amazing to see on a stage someday.

- Learned that my college roommate Barry Rubin and Evan Sorosky edited what is being called “The greatest political attack ad” of all time by Harvard Professors.  They’re not wrong.  The ad, linked below, is footage of Lindsey Graham earnestly bashing Trump and praising Biden just a few years ago.  He is brought to tears describing his friendship with Joe.  What’s most effective about the ad though is they show the human side of Graham and what he’s capable of as a human being when he doesn’t resort to hate.  I was moved.  Proud to call these guys my friends and happy that they’re helping overthrow this current regime in an inventive yet kind way.

- I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge how insane comedy was this week.  Chris D’Elia, Jeff Ross and Joey Diaz among others were outed for horrible behavior (Check Twitter if this is news to you).  Don’t listen to me talk about this though.  Please check out the admirable work Kelsey Caine is doing on Twitter outing those who have done awful things abusing their power within the community.  You can follow her here: https://twitter.com/kelsey_caine

Also, somewhat related, I found an old video of Louis CK’s show that is now undeniably, hilariously ironic.  It’s called “Apologize” and was cut from his show.  It’s around six minutes long and viewed through the lens that he’s horrible at, you know, apologizing, it will really make you laugh.  Sometimes nothing is funnier than hypocrisy.

Only saw one movie this week (being super excited doesn’t lend itself well to watching things passively).  Here’s my review-

“Da 5 Bloods” (2020):  Man, Spike Lee made SOMETHING here.  Just released to Netflix, this sprawling, nearly three-hour epic is so many different things that you almost get sensory overload watching this movie.  For those not in the know, the movie is about four Black Vietnam vets returning to Nam to pay their respects to a friend that passed in the war and also uncover buried treasure (it felt like “The Goonies” in some places somehow).  There’s so much more.  See this movie for these crazy elements though: an electrifying scene with landmines more than halfway through (will not spoil a thing about it), searing isolated Marvin Gaye vocal tracks, stunning Vietnam archival footage from the war I’d never seen mixed with Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. speechs AND old actors playing their younger selves instead of young actors playing older versions of themselves among a million other things.  Yes, this movie would be a much tighter, Oscar-worthy 90-minute picture but Spike already got his Oscar; now he just wants to create and it’s evident.  This is AN EXPERIMENT THAT HAS A LOT TO SAY, WORTH YOUR TIME (Streaming on Netflix).

“Comedy Sex God” (2019): Yes, I am a devout Pete Holmes fan.  Almost like a simp; I’ll watch or read anything he does.  This 300-page book of his is three things as the title simply lays out.  There’s a bit about his fledgling comedy career thrown in here and there but he’s smart enough to know that’s been done to death in other memoirs.  Instead, Pete focuses on what makes him interesting: his sexual repression and his relationship with God.  The first 100 pages feel a bit joke-y but once Holmes meets Duncan Trussell halfway through the book, he gives us a Cliff Notes on Ram Dass whom he always talks about on the podcast and by the end you walk away with a totally different point of view about spirituality.  It’s mostly about “Just being.”  I liked it.  I especially loved the final chapter about having a child.  Most comedic writers emphasize the pits of child rearing; Holmes makes it sound like a wholly ebullient experience.  IF YOU LIKE PETE, PUT THIS ON YOUR SHELF. 

Grubstaker’s podcast; “Bill Gates episode”: Had been meaning to listen to this one for a while.  Boy, am I glad I did.  Yogi Paliwal, Sean McCarthy, Andy Palmer and others lampoon a new billionaire each episode and this Bill Gates episode with repeated usage of Windows sound effects regularly made me laugh out loud.  Remember the smartest kids in your honors middle school class that made jokes that were too smart for you to even participate in and you just sat back and marveled at how clever and funny they were?  That’s what this podcast was.  Highly recommended; it’s a twofer of laughs and education.  

SNL Nerds’ Dave Sirus episode: So, I had seen “King of Staten Island” and really admired the direction that Apatow and Pete took.  However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the third party that helped shape this film- former SNL writer and NYC comic Dave Sirus.  I didn’t really know his story but after listening him speak to hosts Darin Patterson and John Trumbull, I was smiling ear to ear.  Hearing his comedy origin story of being a huge SNL fan (anyone that can actually praise 90s SNL movies and find what’s good in them is A-OK in my book) leading to his start in comedy and multiple versions of the Pete movie that didn’t pan out made for a gripping 55-minute listen while I prepared dinner one night.  The hosts have a natural rapport and respect for Sirus and the conversation flowed effortlessly.  Give it a listen.

Alex Hooper headlining Medium piece: He might not remember this but I was awed to see Hooper at a New York Comedy Club mic back on New Years Day 2017; this was a well-established act I’d seen on television and here he was performing at a mic?  This level of humility is my favorite thing to see in comedy.  Always go back to your roots.  This week, I stumbled across Alex’s excellent piece on what headlining is like for someone just starting out.  How to own a stage, how to spend your time on the road.  It’s a very worthy read if you’re interested in doing road work and moving to the next stage of your career.  The link is below if you’d like to read.

Anyway, if you want to engage in comedy therapy, happy to do so.  I love it and want to share with others (I have no real qualifications as a therapist or a working comic other than I just want to help people realize how they can be the best version of themselves they can be).

Happy Father’s Day, by the way

01.) Barry Rubin’s ad: https://twitter.com/barubin/status/1273637389626486786

02.) Apologize https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2b086z

03.) Grubstakers Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/grubstakers/episode-65-bill-gates?fbclid=IwAR2RjDUeeJgzNnViryxu4D_pqNIZqJh0fv0xlSDH_J_tklV7UrajeSaQihw

04.) Dave Sirus on “SNL Nerds” https://non-productive.com/snl-nerds-bonus-episode-writer-dave-sirus-on-the-king-of-staten-island-2020/

05.) Alex Hooper Medium piece: https://medium.com/@Hooperhairpuff/im-learning-how-to-be-a-headliner-d906b922d0f9

Comedy Stray Notes June 14, 2020

• Phase one of reopening New York City is underway and comedy’s presence is already being felt.  The day before it officially opened, last Sunday, June 7, Michael Che and friends put on a secret show organized by comedy superhero Rebecca Trent in a Long Island City parking lot.  There was a cryptic Instagram post about him trying out new material and it was close to my apartment.  I texted a few folks and headed over early in an attempt to find a socially distant spot.  When the show began at 4, the entire lot was full of fans.  My pal, Jason Planitzer and I retreated to the back across the street.  This was a free show and no one knew what to expect.  Out came Cipha Sounds.  It was a bit hard to hear what he said; comedy outside is not easy especially when it’s your first set in months.  Petey DeAbreu followed.  His mic went out; David Piccolomini was running sound and stepped in to save the day.  Comics showed face; I saw Geo Perez, Robert Dean, Pat Barry and a few others.  It felt like nothing had changed.  Rosebud Baker went third and went for a tighter structure than the playful Cipha and Petey.  It worked.  Nimesh Patel went fourth and he set up the lot perfectly for Che’s headlining set.  He came out in a pink hoodie on a hot day and he cut through the silence.  What once seemed loud; felt intimate even if children and cars whizzed in front of my eyeline.  His jokes weren’t playful about quarantine; he spoke about police brutality and mental illness in the Black community.  It felt urgent, meticulous and essential.  We all needed this; folks skipped protests to be there.  He made sure it felt as much like a rallying cry as it did a show.

At the end, Che brought up Big Jay Oakerson and Joe DeRosa.  This led to Che’s incredible burn: Big Jay is so White, he frosted his tips this week (excuse me, I’m paraphrasing).  

Who knows how long this type of show is the new normal?  Either way, this one felt historic.  Like a comedy Woodstock almost.  I’ll never forget it.

Also, pro note, comics: quarantine material is pretty much done already.  I could feel it watching the crowd. Prepare your bits accordingly.

• Was that show the first show back, really?  Well, no.  As everyone is aware, Dave Chappelle released a new special on YouTube under Netflix’s umbrella.  He shot it the day before.  Chappelle’s was a different beast.  He didn’t necessarily want or need laughs; he wanted to share.  I’m so glad he did.  For 27 minutes, Dave talks about the unjust murder of George Floyd and his relation to police.  It was more than comedy.  It was commentary that we needed.  Chappelle apologizes at the beginning for this special not being as “refined as his other work.”  I disagree.  I think it’s the sharpest of all his specials.  There’s not a wasted second.  He even gets in a quick aside about his Azaelia Banks troubles these past few months.  The link is in the comments but you should have seen this already.

• Anna E. Paone and I were asked to perform on West Side Comedy Club’s Wednesday show this week in their variation on the “Newlyweds” game against Madelein Smith and her husband.  For those not familiar with the concept of Newlyweds, basically, you answer questions about yourself and your partner guesses what you wrote.  It’s a fun concept and the show was moving along at a nice clip (even though some of my bits were admittedly falling a little flat) with my family watching when out of nowhere, the show was Zoom bombed.  Slurs were said repeatedly, users were frantically muted and the show never regained its steady footing.  Anna and I stayed on and answered more questions; somehow nothing felt as funny after hearing hate speech.  Still, a great show worthy of your time.  Look up Steve if you’re interested in the show; it runs weekly on Wednesday for the foreseeable future. 

• Completed four profiles this week.  If you’re looking for pieces on up-and-coming New York comedians, please check out the new stories on the charming straight shooter Neassa Hunt, variety show hosting Artie Brennan, gregarious Steve Becker and SongPop Live host Blaze Mancillas.  They’re all 5-8 minute reads.  Perfect for your daily commute from your bedroom to your living room.

• A few quick shout outs to fellow comedians writing this week:

- First, Ben Katzner’s Insider article is a spectacle to behold.  Titled “I'm a Black man who lived near the spot George Floyd was killed. There's no more room for 'Minnesota nice' in conversations about racism” it delivers on that powerful headline in a personal, affecting way.  Ben is a gifted writer, a friend and a voice that needs to be heard.  Read this on your commute back to your bedroom from your living room.  The link is in the comments.  Take your time.  Trust me.  This one is special.

- Traveling comic and former NYer Dwight Simmons started a Medium series called “Racism on the Road.”  It blends familiar comedy stories of being a working comic in a new town and its hardships that come with audiences, staff and managers being insufferable to the talent.  The series is another special read.  My White privilege was challenged reading about how different Dwight’s experiences were.  Another highly recommended read.  Link below.

• Saw a few films and listened to a slew of podcasts this week.  Will keep this brief:

- “King of Staten Island” (2020): Yes, I was eagerly anticipating this film for way too long.  I unapologetically love Apatow.  Could care more or less about Pete.  Still, I think this was Judd’s best movie yet.  A few scenes fall a little flat that feel like sentimental first draft screenplay tropes but for the most part, the movie is simultaneously silly and heavy all at once.  Kudos to Dave Sirus.  You did something truly personal and unique.  Great turns by Bill Burr, Moises Arias (kid stole the damn movie), Derek Gaines, Liza Treyger, Steve Buscemi, Mike Vecchione, Robert Smigel (!), Jessica Kirson and so many others.  Pete had me tearing up like a damn fool a few times on my couch.  IT’S EXPENSIVE BUT SO WORTH IT (Streaming on Amazon for $20; yes, I know).

- “Ma” (2019):  Mixed reviews last year.  We all remember this one- you know, Octavia Spencer invites the cool high schoolers to her basement to party until things get dark.  An intriguing premise that reminded me of my Mom’s favorite book “The Pigman” by Paul Zindel.  I actually loved it.  Octavia gives a hell of a performance (the movie is directed by Tate Taylor who also did “The Help” and “Get On Up” the Chadwick Boseman James Brown biopic.  Octavia is in all of them; she’s the DeNiro to his Scorcese) and the movie is really about so many things all at once- race in predominantly white schools, popular kids having to own up to their regrettable actions, grudges and generational differences.  Hate on it all you want.  I thought it was gripping and an excellent addition to the BlumHouse horror canon.  Also, Allison Janney has a meaningless cameo.  Anna and I were baffled by this.  If anyone has any intel on how this happened, please let us know.  Finally, to be fair, the third act of this fairly tight film was a bit of a bummer because it became an out and out horror movie abandoning the commentary and goodwill it had built up being a smart thriller but I would still EASILY RECOMMEND (Streaming on HBOGo until the end of June 2020).

- “Murder by Death” (1976): Hadn’t even heard of this comedy classic.  It’s essentially the template for “Clue” that came a decade later.  Murdery mystery party where the murder hasn’t taken place yet in theis case.  The cast is a murderer’s row (ENJOY DAT PUN) made up of Alec Guinness (a year before Obi-Wan playing a blind butler), Peter Sellers (playing a horribly offensive Asian stereotype that feels like it really inspired Mike Myers), Maggie Smith, Peter Falk and Truman Capote who really can’t act and coasts on his personality.  Many a sight and visual gag abound; my favorite was the doorbell that was a famous Fay Wray scream.  So many jokes reminded me of future comedies but especially “Wayne’s World” with the crazy finale here.  THIS IS A GOOD FAMILY WATCH (Streaming on Amazon for $4.00).

- Jerry Seinfeld was on WTF this week.  Felt like it went a little under the radar.  This was Maron’s first interview he conducted since Lynn Shelton passed and the conversation was soulful and earnest that didn’t feel like Jerry worship at all.  The collective prickliness made it a great listen.  Maron criticized Jerry’s 2002 documentary “Comedian” (I honestly think it’s sublime), Jerry told stories about his father writing jokes down in WWII to tell his fellow soldiers, their days at Catch a Rising Star in the 70s and 80s and Marc cried talking about Jerry’s “Comedians in Cars” Shandling episode which the unfeeling Seinfeld didn’t really know what to do with this. The whole thing was like this; it felt like listening to a new comic (in this case, Maron) talking to a comedy vet (Seinfeld).  Brought me right back to that awkwardness of talking to a comic you know of but they don’t really know you.  Amazing pod.

- Listened almost exclusively to Jesse David Fox’s “Good One” podcast.  I think I’m going to try to listen to all of them.  Fox is doing something special with these.  He really researches his subjects and their material.  Here’s a few I heard these past seven days:

Judd Apatow: In addition to this pod, I read interviews of Judd’s in The Ringer and the NYT.  He’s doing that media blitz and some of the stories get told over and over but here are the highlights- Amy Schumer recommended Pete for “Trainwreck” which led to him getting hired at SNL, Apatow wants to make “Hangover 4,” and he doesn’t think his movies should be shorter.  I love his movies but I heartily disagree.

Hannah Gadsby: She made an excellent point in her interview- comics are wasting their free speech opportunity onstage on dick jokes.  So true.  Hard punchlines are important but so is having a message.  Gadsby also said she “wants to handle her recession of relevance well” meaning she’s a big deal now but wants to make she behaves herself when that goes away.  I loved that.

Kristen Schaal: Still haven’t seen her special but it was fun learning she opened for Chappelle and hearing her talk about her process developing alt comedy and feeling ostracized from the mainstream club comedy scene.  No matter how high up you go, you’re going to feel weird.

Jim Gaffigan: This was the very first episode of the series.  Kinda went in one ear and out the other.  The host and guest had a nice rapport talking about a joke where Gaffigan complained about all newscasters having to be attractive but it didn’t stick.  I think they discussed how “Hot Pockets” has stayed in the cultural consciousness?  I couldn’t tell you.

Neal Brennan: He discusses a bit from “Half Baked.”  Fun chat and my favorite nugget of comedy history I was unaware of was in the early Aughts, Chappelle would perform at Carolines doing short sets and then showing videos from “Chappelle’s Show” to gauge how funny they were for an audience.  The jokes worked. 

Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider: Former SNL headwriters chat about their “My Hungry Guys” Totino’s Super Bowl commercial trilogy.  They were very funny and it’s horrific learning about hours at SNL- shooting pre-taped sketches until 8 AM on Saturday morning sounds awful.  They imparted great wisdom as well.  They said, “Make sure to “Write fake commercials about stuff you want because those brands will send you stuff.”

Patton Oswalt: This was the best of the bunch.  He discusses grief over the passing of his wife, how there’s a “short novel on the back of cereal boxes, the in-joke about “GNDN” in “Star Wars” being an acronym for “Go nowhere, do nothing,” how he edited a joke from being about the Grateful Dead to Phish so audiences would connect, forgetting a tag he came up with for a joke on a podcast and not doing it in his special and then it ate at him the rest of the interview, how he wants to be like John Waters and sit back and become an ambassador that wants to see comedy get better while supporting new acts.  Finally, he dropped the knowledge that Lenny Bruce worked strip clubs that he received from Jerry Stiller while on set with him on “King of Queens.”  Could have listened to Patton all day.

- The Ringer had a great oral history on the two-season wonder show “Wonder Showzen.”  I had all but forgotten the show but after reading, I can’t wait to revisit.  The show’s punk rock, DIY ethos inspired the hell out of me.  Great read if you need even more longform content in your life.  I always do.  Link is nearby.

• Finally, I wanted to pay respects to comic, Carolines server and friend Ken Monreal who passed away this week at the tender age of 51.  I started at Carolines in January and Ken was the first server who greeted me on a daily basis; he was the type that regularly went out of his way to make everyone feel at ease.  He had a warm, generous laugh and was one half of the comedy musical act Jimmy Swaggers with his comedy partner and friend Bryan Hurt.  In fact, they were slated to play Carolines in mid-May.  We had them booked for May 16.  Everyone was incredibly excited; we all loved Ken and his comedy (the group is well known for the song “Big Dick” which is linked below).  We still love Ken.  Ken, it was an honor knowing you.  I already miss you.  We all do.  

Comedy resources:

01.) Dave Chappelle’s special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tR6mKcBbT4

02.) A Profile About You: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou

03.) Ben Katzner’s editorial: https://www.insider.com/theres-no-room-for-minnesota-nice-in-conversations-about-racism-2020-6?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=topbar&fbclid=IwAR1Vy4zrtMgCKuoPWJiVk2gwlV_MQAh2xqcH0hMyEfWDuXE94Ukd5N3_vpw

04.) Dwight Simmons’ Medium series: https://medium.com/@Unwellspoken

05.) Seinfeld on WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1129-jerry-seinfeld

06.) Good One podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-one-a-podcast-about-jokes/id1203393721

07.) Wonder Showzen piece: https://www.theringer.com/tv/2020/6/9/21284446/wonder-showzen-mtv-anniversary-oral-history-clarence-beat-kids

08.) Ken Monreal’s “Big Dick” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QppKPMtWx-o

Comedy Stray Notes June 7, 2020

• Not a lot to laugh at this week.  However, something is brewing in America in a way I’ve never felt in my 30+ privileged years that is righteous, angry and determined.  Black Lives Matter is the conversation we all need to be having to move toward an active, anti-racist future (as opposed to “non-racist” which is well-meaning indifference; something I’d practiced my whole life) and so this week, I will be highlighting all things comedy-adjacent to the movement along with brief props for friends and peers who had major achievements in the field of laughter this week.  

Everything else that I saw, listened to or read (mostly from Anna’s and my brand new Disney + subscription) will be featured in a longer version of this on my website (all of that stuff will be directly below where this Stray Notes ends if you navigate there) that will be linked below as well.

Let’s begin.

• As a formerly non-racist (thought it was bad, didn’t lift a finger other than the occasional petition), white guy, I miss a lot of what’s actually going on in the New York comedy scene.  I don’t see the racism or sexism behind the scenes and am often complicit in thinking people who are nice to me are good, all-around people.  This, obviously, is not always the case.  The trailblazing Neruda Wiliams brought this to light this week with his revolutionary status where he pulls an Oni Francis and #namenames.  Williams published a list of dozens of comics who are racist and expose themselves in hundreds of comments below.  It’s an eye-opening read and you should certainly click on his profile to get the tea and maybe even contribute to the fascinating, heated thread if you see fit.  

• In a time where all comedy shows should effectively be cancelled to not cloud the message of the movement, some should still go forth if they’re going to tackle what’s going on head on.  One of these shows is Ben Katzner, Chloe Radcliffe and Caitlin Peluffo’s weekly online show Something Good.  This week, they raised money for a number of causes related to the anti-racist movement and generated laughs in the process.  Their 68-minute video podcast hybrid details what it was like being on the ground for the protests in New York City and each of the hosts’ experiences the past few days.  Ben is from Minnesota which made it all the more powerful for him having been on the very street many times where George Floyd was brutally murdered by police.  Still, there are moments of levity.  It’s a nice snapshot of what we all were feeling this week and if you’re interested in a listen, I’ve linked the episode in the comments.

• I remember when Kenny DeForest moved to New York in 2013.  I was new too and immediately took a shine to him; he had a big heart and wasn’t weird about “status in the community” like so many others.  Everyone was just a friend to him.  It was a joy to see his quick rise alongside fellow funny, nice Chicagoans Will Miles and Clark Jones.  When they were anointed as the heirs to Hannibal’s Knit show they kept it alive in a way that felt vital and rejuvenating as opposed to letting something so special fall apart.  Although they no longer host, their tenure remains in our memory and it was never more apparent than this week when Kenny shared a story of the time Dave Chappelle dropped into the Knit 5.5 years ago.  Don’t let me dilute the story by telling it here.  Read the incredible Twitter thread linked below and be blown away once again by what Chappelle can do onstage.

• Although not BLM-related, wanted to prop up the ultimate hustler in comedy Usama Siddiquee for his appearance on America’s Got Talent this past week.  The clip already has nearly 1,000,000 views (it’s at 994,000- give it a watch to bump it to the seven-digit mark!) and is a nice introduction to Usama but it’s barely a taste.  Middle America is in for a treat.  Very cool to see a friend - especially one the night before he got JFL popped in at a mic I was at and stayed until the very END-  on such a large platformthat even my Dad watches.  This is well-earned and great to see someone who has worked so hard get their due.

• I’ve never met Matt Ruby but I’ve been a fan for a bit.  He and I have corresponded on occasion and after seeing his name pop up in Pete Holmes’ “Comedy Sex God” which I’m currently reading, I reached out to him and he told me he had just released a special and sent me a link.  The cool 67-minute showcase of his talents is part introspective doc, part question and answer session with a willing, friendly audience that allows for vulnerability and part his undeniable act.  The opening chunk on side groups in group texts is intricate and legendary.  The whole thing feels like an extended riff on Neal Brennan’s “Three Mics” in a way that is wholly his own.  The link is in the comments and yes, it’s free to see.

• Oscillated back and forth on writing about Vice’s show “Flophouse.”  However, it features a number of great comedians I know (recognized Yogi Paliwal, Julie Mitchell, Mara Wiles, Kevin O’Brien and a number of others I’ve seen around) that I thought it was worth getting on folks’ radars since the entire eight-episode series is on Hulu for just a few more days.  If you’re not familiar, the show is about under the radar comedy in different scenes like Atlanta, San Francisco, New Orleans, Denver and um, LA while featuring a brief cameo from Executive Producer, auteur, personal hero of mine Spike Jonze getting a haircut.  It feels like a timely introduction to this generation of comedians and features a wide array of voices ranging from pros like Moshe Kasher to folks who are just a year or two into the joke-telling trade.  Binge it fast while you still can.

• Kenya Barris on “WTF:” Hell of a podcast episode.  I’ve seen a handful of episodes of “Blackish” but didn’t really know about this enterprising comedic force.  He has quite a story and since Kenya is a major proponent of Black voices, I’d love to recommend this episode.  There are stories about his nerdiness (related to his obsessive SNL fandom), his troubled past (his Mom shot his Dad; Dad survived and then JUST died of COVID), name dropping (He’s friends with Tyra Banks and I believe went to high school with er), creative differences with his own family (his mom wants him to stay at BET instead of produce shows for ABC and Netflix but she stays on top of what he does to tell her friends) and complex thoughts on Tyler Perry, this was a breezy, fun episode untouched by the tragedy that was to follow.  Linked below.

• Anna Paone’s aunt Carole Harris sent me a 28-minute clip from a 1981 episode of “The Tonight Show” hosted by Johnny Carson with guests George Carlin and Richard Pryor.  We see a bit of Carlin’s act and a casual interview with one of the all-time greats.  Then, Richard comes out for an interview and there’s a tonal shift.  Carole pointed it out over Messenger and it’s loud and clear.  There are many subtle racial jabs that a “non-racist” might make about class and theft that come across as tone-deaf now.  Yes, this was released in 1981 but when someone like Carson has a platform like that, joke responsibly like you do with Carlin.  No need to make easy racial jokes that undermine your guest who happens to be a lot funnier than you.  Link is in the comments of course.

Finally, I’d like to recommend some excellent, very funny comedies written and directed by Black artists that don’t feel like they were sanitized by Hollywodd AND might be a little off the beaten path:

Dear White People (2014): Written and directed by Justin Simien

Hollywood Shuffle (1987): Written and directed by Robert Townsend

CB4 (1993): Written by Chris Rock

Luce (2019): Written and directed by Julius Onah

Black Dynamite (2009): Written and directed by Scott Sanders

“Little” (2019): Written and directed by Tina Gordon

“Sorry To Bother You” (2018): Written and directed by Boots Riley

“I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” (1988): Written and directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans

“Boomerang” (1992): Directed by Reginald Hudlin

“Medicine for Melancholy” (2008): Directed by Barry Jenkins

Tyrel (2018)*- not written or directed by a Black artist but a fantastic companion piece to “Get Out”

Here’s a great list of Black female comedy directors ( I haven’t seen a lot of these films and am excited to): https://www.blackwomendirectors.co/comedy-1

Please let me know of more.  Always happy to learn and see more.  Let me know of oversights from this list.  Doesn’t have to be comedy either.  

If you’re interested in reading what I wrote last week that is not at all related to what’s going on in America but is a distillation of what happened that week in comedy (this will be published on Facebook at a later date as well), you certainly can at https://www.mattlevycomedy.com/comedystraynotes/2020/5/31/comedy-stray-notes-may-31-2020

#BlackLivesMatter

For those that made it to the site, welcome.  Here’s some quick reviews of what I took in this week in addition to the above that feels slightly less important in this important moment in history:

“Onward” (2020): Many friends (well, two) have told me they cried watching this new Pixar film.  I love a good emotional, animated flick as much as the next guy and this certainly delivered.  The movie is your classic coming-of-age awkward teenager dealing with a parent they haven’t met tale that Disney specializes in but this one has unique packaging: it’s set in a world where magic exists but is hardly ever used.  Perhaps a metaphor for our tech-obsessed selves?  Either way, this element makes the story its own and we get to see our co-protagonists (cotagonists?) who happen to be brothers go on an adventure to bring their Dad fully back to life since their spell only brought his legs back.  It’s a cross between “Dungeons and Dragons” and “Weekend at Bernie’s” and is a moving ode to family.  EXCELLENT FOR ALL AGES (Streaming on Disney +).

“Bedtime Stories” (2008): Love Sandler but this is another one of his kid flicks that didn’t age well.  The story is besides the point (ironically in a movie with the word “Stories” in its title) but I’ll summarize: A hotelier is bought out and told his son (Sandler) will be in charge as an adult.  Cut to him as a lowly janitor at the hotel.  He’s estranged from his sister (Courteney Cox?) but somehow has to babysit her children for a week while she goes to Arizona for a job interview and they connect over, you guessed it, hotels.  Just kidding.  They bonded over Bedtime Stories obviously.  In any event, this movie is structured fine but is bad and watching it I realize how destructive it is to kids to have lazy jokes taking a dump on people who drive priuses and value nutrition while also casting Rob Schneider as a Native American chief.  This kind of stuff influences kids’ worldviews and feels particularly insensitive and troll-y.  Perhaps I’m a snowflake but DON’T LET YOUR KIDS SEE THIS ONE (Streaming on Disney +).

“Brothers Bloom” (2009): Love Rian Johnson and wanted to like this so bad.  For all of its remarkable production design, twisty dialogue that rhymes for the first ten minutes just because, fun casting (Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody are both great) and con man story, this one just didn’t do it for me.  Could never fully follow the story (I believe they con Rachel Weisz and then end up not conning her?  There’s a lot more than that) and found myself drifting in and out of sleep even though I watched it at 6 PM or so.  I WOULD TRY AGAIN (Streaming for free on IMDB TV with commercials).

“Fort Tilden” (2014): Anna recommended seeing this since it was directed by the co-creators of her favorite show “Search Party.”  At first, this story of two girls going from Williamsburg to deep Brooklyn felt like a disposable riff on “Girls” when that was still part of the pop culture conversation.  However, it’s really more a harsh critique on vapid 20-something Brooklynites than a fun romp through the City.  We see them avoid responsibilities, bicker and get peer pressured.  On top of that, it’s really funny and features Bridey Elliott (Chris’ daughter and Abby’s sister) crush it in a leading role alongside cameos from Reggie Watts, Neil Casey and Will Hines.  It feels like what comedy felt like six years ago and also feels very now too.  IT’LL MAKE YOU CRINGE BUT YOU SHOULD SEEK IT OUT (Streaming for $3.99 on Amazon).

“Changeland” (2019): Having always been an intermittent fan of “Robot Chicken” on Adult Swim, I was more than excited to see Seth Green’s first feature he wrote and directed show up on streaming after missing its brief theatrical run.  It was very disappointing.  Green, recently dumped, goes to Thailand with his buddy Breckin Meyer to Thailand to deal with his loss.  They learn lessons, connect with locals, Macaulay Culkin is there, etc, etc.  Every beat of a movie about a guy finding himself is here.  None of the wild wit and all of the boring choices a first time director will make.  Obviously not Seth’s fault; no movie is exactly what you expect it will be but THIS LET ME DOWN QUITE A BIT (Streaming on Hulu).   

Hannah Gadsby’s “Douglas” (2020): Gadsby kinda reinvented the special again here.  I loved what she did.  She devotes the first ten minutes of her hour telling you exactly the chunks she’s going to address in her set and even gives you her closer telling us she’ll drop the mic and somehow it all still feels surprising even when we’re waiting for the expected results.  It’s all structured like a great magic trick with callbacks we’re gleefully anticipating.  Not to mention that it’s all still really funny and feels much shorter than its runtime suggests.  EVEN IF YOU HATED “NANETTE” DON’T IGNORE THIS (Streaming on Netflix).

Mark Normand’s “Out To Lunch” (2020): This was the first of two specials streaming on YouTube I saw this week.  Normand, a fixture in the NY scene, does all the jokes I’ve heard hundreds of times at bar shows small and large and they all still work.  He’s got that re-watch value.  In fact, I tore my headphones off multiple times so Anna could hear jokes Mark had just made that I was happy to listen to a second time.  This guy writes and writes and writes and it shows.  Even his final line, “Goodnight, I’m Kevin Hart,” was perfectly calculated.  IT’S FREE AND A MASTERCLASS IN PUNCHLINES (Streaming on YouTube).

Sam Morril’s “I Got This” (2020): This has twice the views Normand’s special has and is very funny but is missing the joy that Normand’s has.  Yes, Morril is a fantastic joke writer but there’s something about his cynical, smarmy, “I don’t care” persona, I can’t get behind.  Yet, still he pokes fun at this in his set saying, “You may not like the jokes but you have to admit they’re structurally sound.”  I’ll give him that and the capper at the end is pretty fantastic to be fair with a moving story that breaks his dark streak.  GOOD, BUT I DIDN’T LOVE IT (Streaming on YouTube).

Cate Blanchett on WTF: This was one of those editions where the recording stopped 15 minutes in but Blanchett and Maron met up a second time to record and try to recapture/rehash the magic of a conversation that’s supposed to be spontaneous.  It’s fine and it’s nice to learn about Blanchett being a bit of a comedy nerd like Brad Pitt is but this one felt slight.  I did like the portion about her process when she was cast as Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes’ “I’m Not There.”

Whitmer Thomas on WTF: Saw Thomas’ special on HBO a few weeks back and wanted to learn more.  There wasn’t a ton here that isn’t already in his special since this is largely an introduction of Thomas to comedy fans but there are three tidbits that stood out to me if you’re sort of intrigued: Thomas calls Maron out for leaving before his set at a show (power to the lowest comics on the bill!), there’s discussion over fear from stealing a Bill Hicks joke which Maron says is fine because that joke about Jesus originated with Lenny Bruce (not sure how that makes it OK but interesting to hear folks who have made a name in comedy discuss intellectual property with bits) and finally how Jim Carrey always gets skipped over in stories about stand up in the 80s.  It’s a good point and we learn he just really wasn’t around all that much.  That settles that. 

Seth Green on “You Made It Weird:” This was the best pod I listened to all week easily.  Holmes and Green got along well and he was so engaging that he inspired me to see the above movie “Changeland” that disappointed me so much.  Still, give this two-hour plus convo a listen if you’re looking for an engrossing conversation.  The two guys talk about how offensive it is when someone tells them “You’ll love this” citing the creators of “South Park” being told they’ll “love” “Family Guy” (to be fair, I’m guilty of non stop recommendations here) which is a conversation that I’d never heard before.  They also lamented both being told they’ll love Christopher Guest stuff which they later admit they do enjoy but not when it’s forced on them.  This dovetails nicely into a chat about how kids don’t like their successful parents’ artistic output saying that George Lucas’ kids don’t think too highly of their Dad’s creation.  There was even more good stuff about Lucas too.  Green says he has a “Father, Son and Holy Ghost” theory for “Star Wars.”  All work that comes from his is the “Father,” all work from self-appointed successors is the “Son” and everything else in the “Star Wars” universe is the “Holy Ghost.”  They go on about Seth’s role in “Austin Powers” and how he made the incredible choice to play it straight.  Then, they talk about the movie’s influence and no matter how big it is overseas, it will always still be dwarfed by “Star Wars.”  We all will.

Lastly, this isn’t even remotely comedy but loved reading a really thoughtful Shane Carruth IndieWire interview disparaging of the entire industry and how it all means nothing, he’s getting out after his next movie and his love of promoting others.  Such a fantastic read and I’ll revisit over and over as long as IndieWire exists (I might even be like an old person and print this out for myself; it’s that good).

That’s it.

Go to protests.  Go to vigils.  Keep doing what you’re doing to support the cause even if you’re watching “Bedtime Stories” in your downtime exercising your inherent privilege in the process.

Once again, #BlackLivesMatter

Links:

01.) Ben Katzner, Chloe Radcliffe and Caitlin Peluffo’s Something Good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgc6eoAgJsU

02.) Kenny DeForest’s Dave Chappelle Tweet: https://twitter.com/KennyDeForest/status/1268288525234876416

03.) Usama on America’s Got Talent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMkiML-uFGU

04.) Matt Ruby’s “Feels Like Matt Ruby” special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0VAIjE35LA&t

05.) Kenya Barris’ WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1125-kenya-barris

06.) Johnny Carson interviewing George Carlin and Richard Pryor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jus-OaJV8E

07.) Mark Normand’s “Out To Lunch” special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDolNU89SXI

08.) Sam Morril’s “I Got This: special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xo3Fq7GGWk&t

09.) Cate Blanchett’s WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1122-cate-blanchett

10.) Whitmer Thomas’ WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1119-whitmer-thomas

11.) Seth Green’s You Made It Weird: http://youmadeitweird.nerdistind.libsynpro.com/seth-green

12.) Shane Carruth’s IndieWire article: https://www.indiewire.com/2020/05/shane-carruth-interview-quitting-filmmaking-the-wanting-mare-1202232967/