Artie Lange, comedian, actor and radio personality, is back in the spotlight with his first ever CD release titled, “Jack and Coke.” If you know anything about the comedian, you’ll know that Lange lives on the edgy side with alcohol and drugs. He also likes to offend people with his material. And although this may not be the life for you, it’s what makes Lange one of the funniest comedians working today.
In “Jack and Coke,” Lange is quick to offend listeners by opening with, “I’m glad Heath Ledger is dead so now I can get more movie roles.” He goes into the homosexual scene in “Brokeback Mountain,” and how Ledger should have warned Gyllenhaal’s character by telling him that he’s gay and going to fuck him. Lange says, “Where are the hot girls in this Western? There are no gay Cowboys except for Tony Romo.” Lange is quick to recant his words for fear of a lawsuit. This, however, leads into a hilarious bit about Romo’s relationship with Jessica Simpson, whom the comedian blames for breaking up the boy band 98 Degrees.
Lange doesn’t let down from here either. He goes on about being a fat cokehead, and keeping on the same note, anti-drug campaigns, saying that his favorite slogan was “hugs are better than drugs.” “Hugs are NOT better than drugs. I never drove four hours to Harlem to get hugs.” READ MORE »
All of us have a Christmas wish that wasn't granted over the holiday season. Chris Gethard, an improviser and stand-up comedian who is based out of the New York UCB theater, still has some unfinished business with Santa. All he wanted for Christmas was Al Roker to make an appearance on The Chris Gethard Show at the UCB Theater on January 9. After he got rejected by Roker, Gethard switched gears and moved on to Diddy…
I hope someone gets Chris Gethard a T-shirt for Christmas (cheap joke)! I completely endorse and support Gethard's attempts at landing Diddy on his show, because it sounds awesome. You can help Gethard by tweeting @iamdiddy, asking him to perform, using the #DiddyGethard hashtag. In the immortal words of Diddy himself, lets go ya'll! READ MORE »
A lot of comics are hitting mid-life right now and are turning the lens inward to write material that is a lot more personal than the snarky social criticism they threw at us as ten or twenty years ago. For example, this year Patton Oswalt recorded “My Weakness is Strong,” which contained a lot of reflection on his decision to settle down with a wife and kids. Doug Stanhope, in his album “From Across the Street,” takes a similar turn toward personal reflection, but the glaring peculiarity is that he’s probably not ever going to settle down. Part of what’s really interesting about Stanhope is that when you observe him you get to see what happens to a person who opts out of the comfortable, safe life most of us will resign to and instead just keeps going. Some men might wonder how far they would have made it if they had never given up on their adolescent football dreams, so they watch their kids at little league. The rest of us will wonder what would have happened if we kept drinking and didn’t have kids, so we watch Doug Stanhope.
“From Across the Street” is a snapshot of where the Stanhope animal is currently at on the evolution chart. Listening to this CD without having heard some of the earlier stuff or at least having any background on him is like starting the Star Wars series with “Return of the Jedi.” I think that’s why so many people listen to him and then wonder what the big deal is. There’s also the material itself that polarizes audiences. This isn’t set-up-punch-line-comedy. It’s sort of floating around in the spoken word realm, but anchored in stand-up. It’s really just someone’s angry drug-addled rambling redeemed entirely by the rambler’s natural skill for articulation and desire to insert humor into it all. If you can accept the concept of comedy as art, there is some really smart philosophy in his stuff. Philosophy made palatable with jokes. On track 11 he addresses this issue himself, describing his comedy as “fetish comedy” and likening it to weird fetish porn that will never be mainstream, but still has fans that are willing to drive a long way and pay a lot of money to see it live. He also closes out the CD with a story about a fan that committed suicide shortly after seeing a show. Where else are you going to hear something like that in a comedy context? READ MORE »
Good Lord. It's happening again. Comedy Central's Stand-Up Showdown began accepting votes online and via text messages (and now, with Facebook Connect!) for your favorite comedians who also happen to have Comedy Central specials. That's catch Number One.
Catch Number Two: The final rankings, to be revealed at the end of January, will be determined by whichever comedians care enough -- and bug you enough -- to get you to vote as many times as possible for him or her. If you don't see Zach Galifianakis or Louis CK at the top of the charts, it's because they've got better things to do than send you daily emails, Facebook messages and Twitter posts to vote for their very old specials to air one more time on Comedy Central.
Catch Number Three: Some comedians believe these rankings matter and list them as credits. Why? Because in a sick and twisted way, ranking high in this fan vote popularity contest tells Comedy Central that the comedian has a fan base worth catering to, pandering to, and then broadcasting to. Which means you really do win when you win this contest. Jeff Dunham and Kyle Cease the past two year's "winners." See the top 20 from Comedy Central's Stand-Up Showdown 2009, and 2008's Stand-Up Showdown results.
Who will win in January 2010? That's up to you to decide. And that's the rub.
To recap: Three catches, one rub, thousands of electronic messages from comedians asking you to vote for them. Tis the season!
If I had a nickel for every time I thought about my own financial plight, then I'd have enough nickels to not be in a financial plight. But enough about me. What about you and your comedy dreams? How can you make them come true in this digital age without begging, whether it be on a subway platform, a public radio/TV pledge drive or a blog? A new site called Kickstarter aims to help all sorts of artists -- comedians, among them -- get their projects off the ground, and also puts the pressure on them with a deadline to make it happen, or not.
It's new, so not everyone can sign up just yet with their own ideas. Take a look at Kickstarter's comedy projects, which show that folks such as Jesse Thorn and Steve Cooper already have met their financial benchmarks successfully. Now it's Mindy Raf's turn. She has less than a week left in her campaign to make and press her own vinyl comedy record for her feminist chick-rocker alter-ego, Leibya Rogers. On her Kickstarter page, you donate money, and if you donate certain amounts, you get a prize of your own. Watch her video pitch here:
I sat down and she sat down at our respective computers to chat a little more about how Kickstarter may be able to help a comedian out. READ MORE »
Tonight on NBC, Saturday Night Live went primetime with "A Very Gilly Christmas," with Kristen Wiig's Gilly character introducing clip packages and performing in small sketches with Will Forte as her principal foil. Some funny highlights from the vault. But here are two blasts from the past that really take the Christmas cake, courtesy of recurring guest host Alec Baldwin. First, they showed the Christmas spoof of "Glengarry Glen-Ross," with Baldwin showing up to give the elves in Santa's Workshop the business. This is from Season 31, Episode 8 (SNL #31.8), with Fred Armisen, Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers as the elves, and watch for Baldwin to make a flub so great it's almost not a flub at all. Roll the clip!
Then, toward the very end of the two-hour special, Baldwin himself introduced this clip from Season 24, Episode 9 (SNL #24.9), in which Baldwin played Pete Schweddy, owner of a store called Season's Eatings, and guest on an NPR talk show with Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon. Yes. We're going to be hearing a lot about Pete's Schweddy balls. Roll the clip! READ MORE »
The folks at Comix aren't paying me for this (note to self: get comedy clubs to pay me for this), but they've been churning out the customized video promos in the last half of this year to sell you, me and anyone else on the Internet about their live comedy shows in NYC's Meatpacking District. Just check out ComixNY's YouTube channel and see for yourself. Or look at this short video that Rory Scovel and Sean Patton came up with, directed by the club's Carol Hartsell, for their upcoming show in early January. Roll it!
When I watch it, I like to imagine what Mo'Nique must be thinking in the background. Now that's precious.
Matt Berry teaches us how to make a film. A very appropriate film that in no way is inappropriate or NSFW-y, except the opposite of all that. [Best Week Ever]
Andy Samberg is in this web video commercial for T-Pain's iPhone application. Shameless shilling is better with some auto-tune! [Funny or Die]
This Wall Street Journal headline reads, "After 50 Years, Second City Still Comedy Central." Ummm, I thought we were Comedy Central? Where is my mind?! I haven't been this confused since college. [Wall Street Journal]
Comedian Dov Davidoff wrote a piece about how the "gift exchange operation" is "absurd." Nobody send Dov Davidoff any gifts. Please send any Xboxes or The Wire season box sets to my apartment instead. [Punchline]
Here's a picture of Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr. in their upcoming film Due Date. Look at the doggy in the backseat! All great comedies have doggies in the backseat. [ONTD via Videogum]
The Derrick Comedy movie Mystery Team recently had its New York opening, and The Apiary did a lengthy video interview with the troupe. [The Apiary]
Eugene Mirman goes to a protests so important, there are protestors protesting the protest. [Punchline]
Here's some troubling news for 30 Rock fans. Grizz "Grizz" Chapman is going to be on The Dr. Oz Show tomorrow because he needs a kidney transplant.
The 6-foot-11, 378-pound actor is suffering from severe hypertension that has him on a dialysis machine three times a week.
He is on the waiting list for a kidney transplant, but must lose over 75 pounds before he's considered a viable candidate.
I wonder if he has to lose all that weight because the kidney store has a very tiny door. (I stole that joke from the book 101 Kidney Transplant Jokes for the Emotionally Retarded. It's a good book. You should put it on your Amazon Wish List.)
Oz also had Kevin Brown, aka "Dot Com," Chapman's co-star on "30 Rock," come on the show to help support his friend.
"He's getting that transplant!" Brown told the audience. "I'll lose the weight with him. For every 10 pounds he loses, I'll lose one pound. That's a deal!"
Lets give Grizz our kidneys, you guys! It's the least we can do in exchange for all the laughs he's given us.
I'll bet you've never even counted your kidneys. For all you know, you've got like nine of them in there just waiting to save Grizz's life so he can live every week like it's shark week.
Tonight is the fourth (I think??) night of Hanukkah, and here is my gift to you: Strip Dreidel!
Strip dreidel is just like strip poker, but instead of poker you play the Hanukkah top-spinning game, dreidel, and instead of playing with just any old stripper, all of your strippers are Jews!
If this sounds like fun, you are sadly, sadly mistaken. I wanted to find out whether this game needed to be labeled NSFW. After playing for nearly 30 minutes, all I saw was a couple of Jewish girls holding up their shoes.
Turns out Jews are as prude on the Internet as they are in real life.
If you really want to get some Jewish ladies to strip, try doing a "Power Manischewitz Hour" instead. I've heard the Elderberry flavored one is the real panty dropper.
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Matt Berry teaches us how to make a film. A very appropriate film that in no way is inappropriate or NSFW-y, except the opposite of all that. [
Here's some troubling news for 30 Rock fans. Grizz "Grizz" Chapman is going to be on The Dr. Oz Show tomorrow because 
