On VineI haven’t really delved into Vine, but I quickly learned that comedian Jason Nash pretty great at it.
Whether playing an overly excited Tapas waiter or a dad that’s really into soda, he manages to convey complete characters within a few seconds.
RIPWith her wacky do, wild get ups, signature voice and jokes like “Housework can’t kill you, but why take the chance?” Phyllis Diller was pretty awesome.
While working as a mother of five, she broke huge barriers in the (still) male dominated world of comedy.
She was vibrant, honest and seemed like she’d be tons of fun to drink lots of cocktails with at some old midtown haunt.
She didn’t find fame til later in life after years of being a poor and often unfulfilled housewife. She made other wives laugh and with the encouragement of her husband took steps towards a life on stage. Quite inspirational, really.
Jimmy FallonCan’t claim to be the biggest Jimmy Fallon fan, but one of TV’s greatest theme songs plus The Doors? Pretty genius.
Plus, I pretty much live in a world of Very Hungry Caterpillars and Wockets in Pockets.
Far Side CreatorFellow getting older-ers, think of all the common daily occurrences from our not too distant pasts that have simply ceased to be:
We wrote physical hand written, intricately folded notes in class and none of us had cell phones.
We’d go to the video store, stare at the wall of horror movies and hope the slasher we wanted for our sleep over wasn’t checked out. (Otherwise it was to the new releases and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape because Dazed and Confused was out).
We not only listened to the radio, we recorded our favorite songs.. on cassette!
Phone calls on corded phones could last hours even if we had seen our friends moments ago.
Paper magazines were coveted weekly glimpses at fashion that simply couldn’t be found anywhere else..
And, if you can believe it, all people in America looked forward to getting the newspaper(!) even if it was just to read the latest Far Side.
I don’t know maybe it was a nostalgic wave of how things used to be that had me bizarrely waking up this morning with my first thoughts of Gary Larson.
I mean what happened to him? He was the one funny man everyone could agree on (before Seinfeld) but no one knew his face. And then he just retired. Not Jay-Z Tom Ford “retired” but for real.
I hope he’s living fat and happy off that one-a-day calendar money because he really made a lot of people’s days better.
from The TripFor those of you, who like me, have been dying to see the BBC show, The Trip, starring Coogan and Brydon, here’s a clip of dueling Michael Caine impersonations.
I’ve just learned that the show is being made into a movie and am thrilled (though I’d still like to find a DVD of the original series).
on Youtube and Current TVFor a guy that looks like just some kid I would have been friends with in high school, or alternatively just some kid I wouldn’t have been friends with in college, Brett Erlich is one funny guy.
You might recognize him from the better than it needed to be Rotten Tomatoes TV show, but I prefer these Viral Video Film School videos, available on youtube and on current TV.
Tackling such themes as Stunt Fails, Adorable Puppies, and Scary Robots, these little shorts have also introduced me to such things as “haulers” (people who who what they just bought during a shopping trip on youtube) and “cash gifting” (a scam where people online ask you to send money for no real reason).
Mike Birbiglia (2006)While some of the material is Two Drink Mike, a stand up album from funny man and self deprecating charmer Mike Birbiglia is redundant from other performances of his I’ve recommended (What I Should Of Said Was Nothing, Sleepwalk With Me), it’s still a great listen that tackles subjects like panda sex to pizza dreams and makes me laugh out loud.
Champions of VHS Since 2004I am a huge fan of the Found Footage Festival and force anyone I can watch the dvds so when I learned they had a blog, I knew it would be golden. My only complaint is that I wish there were more.. more discontinued merchandise, more semi celebrity meetings, more guys that take hot dogs, more movies called Fart!
Click here for the rest of Found Footage Blog
The Great Stone FaceBuster Keaton has been called “as beautiful but as inhuman as a butterfly” a fitting and poetic description of my personal favorite comedian of his time and genre. While his life was not all roses (he struggled with alcoholism) his work was influential and bring happiness to many.
His heyday was the 1920s but he continued to work well into his later life. My personal favorite appearance is as one of the “Waxworks” in Sunset Boulevard.
Click here for the rest of Buster Keaton
Famed DancerWhen Jadin Wong passed away at 96 recently, it was proclaimed “the end of an era”. I was introduced to the brassy, ballsy, eccentric and spectacular woman in a clip from a Budd Mishkin interview where, at 90, she was still dancing and told the world that she “kicked tush”. From nightclubs to Broadway to comedy to film, her career was varied and pioneering.
Click here for the rest of Jadin Wong
Mike BirbigliaI’m afraid that if you didn’t heed my advice and chose to skip out on Sleepwalk with Me (Mike Birbiglia‘s hilarious and sometimes touching one-man-show), you are plain out of luck: the curtain closed on the off-off Broadway hit some time ago. But all is not lost! You can watch this great stand up show, which includes a couple of overlapping stories, on Netflix instant. It’s called What I Should Have Said Was Nothing, and I promise that once on, much laughter will ensue.
in Theaters NationwideDemonic toys come to life, pork-themed three-part harmonies are mocked by Weird Al Yankovich, a Santa of David Lynch-caliber creepiness orders around pants-less elf boys, a toy dog named Gaylord rolls over, a nude doll haunts a little girl’s dreams, the Ding-a-ling toy universe with its King Ding shocks some poor kid – this is not your typical holiday viewing, but the selections from the ever charming Mike Nelson and crew of previous MST3K and current Rifftrax fame for their RiffTrax Live Christmas Shorts-stravaganza!
Performing live in Minnesota but projected in many theaters across the country (we watched from the Chelsea location), they riffed on several Christmas shorts. If you’re familiar with any of their shows and projects, you can imagine the hilarity.
Make sure you try out their Rifftrax on many beloved films, such as Cocktail, Glitter, and The Happening on their site.
at the iTunes StoreYou don’t have to send him any money, and you don’t have to use the justcoffee.coop coupon code he keeps talking up, but this weekly, hour long podcast by comics and for comics is worth listening to. It’s true, Maron himself is a bit much and yes, he does comes on strong (though you’ll get used to him soon eventually), and yes, there are definitely times you won’t feel like listening to him talk about how he told off a jerk in the airport for lacking even the most basic human decency, but once you become familiar with Maron’s point of view and wrap your head around the show’s core concept: an angry, former alcoholic (he’s also divorced) comedian interviews some of today’s most popular comedians – some former alcoholics themselves – with an occasionally contemptuous tone and a constant self-absorption that’s so real and unnerving it cannot be faked, I think you’ll really like it.
A steady stream of really, really funny people including Patton Oswalt (whose success Maron is almost okay with), Zach Galifiakis (always charming), Sam Lipsyte (author of the novel Home Land), Jerry Stahl (who, next to founder George Dawes Green, is the best story teller I’ve heard on the Moth in awhile), David Cross, Maria Bamford (who I never really appreciated until Maron had her on the show and I took in her performance in long-form), Eugene Mirman, and Matthew get into really entertaining conversations mainly about themselves…
It may take a couple of episodes, but it’s definitely worth getting in to.
Here's what I wrote on January 19th:
They are charming, sharp, handsome, hilarious, British, amiable, neatly dressed and likely a bit of a handful.?Altogether quite my cup of tea.?I think it unfair to put here preference for one over another, so I represent them collectively as they are my earliest, enduring crush.
RUNNERS UP:
Idris Elba
Sam Elliott
Danny McBride
Warren William
Mr Darcy
Joe Dallesandro
Here's what I wrote on July 20th:
For me, Brad Neely's alternative commentary track for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone calls to mind the expressive ramblings and raspy, wild, and often despairing voice of suicidal beat poet Steven Jesse Bernstein. Inspired by the idea of retelling the popular tale from a wildly misinformed (he refers to Hagrid as Hagar the Horrible and mistakes Snape for a woman) though enthusiastic point of view, Neely has created a sort of cult phenomenon that has made Warner Brothers bristle.
Though there are curse words, it's not a low brow piece of appropriation with mere fart jokes and f-words – it's far more interesting and bizarre than that.
RUNNERS UP:
Hoogie Boogie Land
911 Warthog Call
Cool as Ice
Kid in Red Shirt Dancing
Capucine
Imaginative Sex
I vividly remember standing in front of a cardboard cutout of her in the grocery holding a pack of Coors, so in my mind I early learned that Elvira = Halloween + beer, and there's nothing wrong about that. Sure, Cassandra Peterson's shtick was not completely original, the lovely Vampira came before her, but beyond becoming the sex symbol of the scariest holiday, she's also a local girl who grew up dancing in gay bars in my hometown of Colorado Springs.
Tim Heidecker may be a bit thin on content on his tumblr page – but like usual it all makes me laugh. Listen as he strings along a speed diet pill pusher along a nearly endless conversation about his sad life as a school bus driver, his adventures in credit card theft and the one time his dad held a gun inside his mouth. Amazingly, through it all, the woman is still trying to get him to buy her product.
There's also a great AM gold song about a weatherman that includes the wonderful lyric “I said Barry when are you gonna grow up and finally put those brandies down?”
There's also a clip from the infamously short lived Chevy Chase show.