Second: I hate having to admit when I don't find something funny. It's not even out of a sense of duty to "all humor" or a respect for anyone that tries. It's just unsettling to watch something that's obviously supposed to be funny but isn't working. Unless there's a clear fix. When I don't know why a joke is failing, I feel suffocated. Probably because of some fear that I could write something and not know that it's a dud.
I haven't watched much of My Name Is Earl. Maybe 80 minutes of it all together. But not once in those 80 minutes have I even chuckled. And it's uncomfortable to admit that I can't tell you why. I can't tell you what's wrong with the show or what's missing.
And so, this isn't a critique. This is related to my comment several months ago on another post:
but when we don't laugh, and insist we do get it, we're lying, and trying to convince people that we know where our spidey sense would have picked up any traces of humor, but they didn't, and that's why the joke isn't funny.
I'm just admitting that I never got My Name Is Earl. And it's not because I'm above it. Everyone knows I'm willing to admit when I think I'm above something.
So I'm not going to say it was "unfunny." I just never laughed.
All guests as listed on shows' web sites at time of posting. Changes in schedule may be reflected in updates.
† …since I listed Baba Booey both last week and again this week.
Was Rachel Maddow's interview with Jon Stewart a success? A friend sent me a message crying out: "He wasn't funny at all," and adding "I lost all of my respect for him."
That's a lie. He wasn't crying out about the lack of humor, just noting it. And he actually wrote "I wasn't sure whether I lost all of my respect for him right then, or started respecting him for the first time ever" in response to Stewart's comment regarding the D.C. rally: "In twelve years, i'd earned a moment to tell people who i was."
So can Stewart be successful even if he isn't funny? Of course he can. Was this his first chance to show himself? I don't think so. But let's not get into an argument about whether comedy is honest, or if all art is a lie. It's pretty clear that he meant that this was a chance to say something without irony.
Stewart and Maddow debated a bit on a more interesting question: are they both 'in the game' as Maddow believes, or is Stewart right when he says he's a spectator, just booing and cheering. I was critical of Stewart several years ago when he complained that Tucker Carlson wasn't living up to a righteous journalistic standard. Stewart excused himself by arguing that on Comedy Central he's flanked by puppets and clowns. The problem I had with that argument was that TV is a single arena, and ultimately neither Stewart nor Carlson can claim to be working in a freer or more ethically liable medium than the other.
Stewart has made a good argument that some programs and organizations misrepresent themselves: that they promise a standard of credibility and a good faith effort that they knowingly don't work towards. And I'll grant him that. He doesn't claim to be important or balanced. He admits his agendas and he warns people not to trust every fact he uses in his commentary.
In this case—his criticism of MSNBC and Fox as two opposing players in a game that he's only watching—I will disagree with his claim of spectator status. They all focus on political powers. All have an agenda. All use the media to push it. All comment on each other. All influence the discourse.
Here's where I agree with Stewart: he's much better at it than the others. All are vocal observers, but as a satirist he is admitting that his take on the issues is influenced by values that not everyone needs in order to be moral. He creates, of himself, a character, and puts himself on a moral level with those he mocks. There is no claim that he is right, only that he cares about his likes or dislikes.
It's telling that Olbermann responded to Stewart's rally mission by assuring his viewers that his efforts on MSNBC are immune to criticism because he is a moral voice.
All of us here at countdown, and a lot of progressives have one major well-defined problem with the rally to restore sanity and or fear…a false equivalence between what we do here, and what Fox news and the like do there.
Well of course he believes what he does is right. That's no argument against Stewart's claim that both channels resort to escalating accusations and inflammatory appeals to the need for fear and division.
Olbermann has further defended his tactics by saying that "sticking up for the powerless is not the moral equivalent of sticking up for the powerful." And of course, hating Fox news automatically means you're sticking up for the powerless. And liking Fox news automatically means you're a racist.
So basically, Stewarts accuses MSNBC of being divisive, and Olbermann responds 'we're not divisive. we're the good guys.'
Olbermann needs to admit that 'Come over to our side' is not an olive branch. And if you think it is, you're really just saying that if the other side doesn't shut up, the disagreement is all their fault.
Stewart's current campaign isn't against ideas, but methods. He's attacking blind spots. He's making the same claim that Ted Koppel makes when he calls the current news machine "an environment that flaunts opinions as though they were facts."
Stewart's success comes from his admission that he's flaunting opinions, and getting people to listen anyway.
A friend who makes me laugh a lot, has told me that he could never be a performer. I think he could go into humor writing. But only if he learns not to get so bogged down with the morality of what he says.
So I watched a little video he made using the xtranormal video template service. And I sent him a rambling note about the power of language to connect and the human capacity to search for the other. He responded: "I was just trying to make a joke."
Yep. We humans are good at connecting.
Here's what struck me about this video. As soon as I started it, I was expecting it to follow the common template of all of these xtranormal videos. Two people talking. One of them sees things as they are. One of them is stuck in a single perspective. The joke comes from the repetition of that perspective no matter what the other person says.
A: I see things this way.
B: There are many other perspectives.
A: I don't care. I like seeing things this way.
B: You need to open your mind to other possibilities.
A: I don't want to. I like seeing things this way.
The success and draw of the template is probably because of the robotic repetition working well with the jagged and robotic intonation. And the calm frustration, or even anger, of the other talking head is stifled by the monotone delivery, creating a nice tension. But it's time for the formula to be put aside. Let's see if we can make up some funny dialogue that doesn't layer the repetition of lines on top of the repetition of a premise.
Expecting him to follow along in that mold, I was surprised and pleased to see that Casey was breaking free from the flock. (As a professor of literature who's also a political conservative, he's getting used to being the spotted lamb.) Even if I inferred a little too much sincerity in Casey's submission, the lines are pretty funny. And I laughed even when I thought he was serious. Enjoy it.
This aren't really blooper outtakes, but just unused takes. Most of them are performed without error, using language that releases evil demons, and is kept safely away from network television.
If you haven't seen the episode that made it to air, it's available on Netflix instant viewing. The simple premise: A company memo is supposed to tell employees they "must not use offensive or insulting language in the workplace." A simple typo changes it so they believe they "must NOW use offensive or insulting language."
You probably remember Myq Kaplan from his success on Last Comic Standing. He's the one the judges kept praising as a joke writer once Laurie Kilmartin was no longer on the show. His style is quick, slick, full of language play, just verging on puns. As his act has developed, he has started to move safely away from being too cute and clever.
He has a Masters in linguistics, so naturally he's drawn to playing with words. And idioms. And I'm guessing Dungeons and Dragons.
Brian Gaar, at It's Always Funny in Austin, talks with Marc Maron about comedy, fame, conversations, and controversy.
Maron:
I’ve been surprised a lot by the conversations I’ve had with a number of people - (Bob) Odenkirk and Rob Delaney and there have been some emotional moments. I mean, the second Mencia (podcast) was pretty amazing and my buddy Sam Lipsyte, who I love, and also the two Louis CK episodes this week were particularly important to me because we were able to rebuild our friendship that had become sort’ve strained and you can sort’ve hear that. So most all of them are good, the only time I’m a little disappointed - and I’m not gonna mention names - is where it’s difficult to have a conversation and that doesn’t happen too often.
The DVD, Jonathan Winters: Rare & Riotous, incudes footage from various Winters performances with other artists. Netflix Instant offers a segment of the DVD, taken from Winters' 1964 special, A Wild Winters Night, with Art Carney. The bulk of the online video features Winters and Carney doing improv prop gags, wig work and a few impressions.
The longest bit is a birthday party for Granny Maude Frickert where Winters (playing Maude, of course) is given random gifts and allowed to riff on them as he opens them. He's also fed set-up lines by the party-goers and, again, allowed to riff on them. It's all pretty obvious, and let's be honest, not always funny.
Some of Winters' better moments come in the form of comments he makes about the other players. They're all supposed to recite set-lines and he's the one that's supposed to get all the attention. One girl asks him, with great earnestness, about his most terrifying experience. At her delivery, Winters, unimpressed, remarks, "Oh, what a dramatic reading." The girl, who all along has been turning to face the camera as often as possible, does another extended reaction take for the camera. Winters, apparently catching on, puts a hand on her shoulder and has to remind her to look at him. All in character of course.
Watching these old shows is a good look at the continuity of improv. By that I mean, that when people complain that Whose Line Is It Anyway? isn't always funny, or that Robin Williams only "seems" funny because he does voices and acts goofy, watching the old masters is good reminder that improv has alway been hit-and-miss.
And the next time someone complains that product placement is taking over, or that commercialism is ruining modern entertainment, show them an old video like this. We can complain about intrusive and out-of-place commercials, but we can't call them new.
I refuse to apologize for mentioning Marc Maron's WTF so often. In my opinion, it's the best one out there, so I might as well act like it. As good as it is on a regular basis, this week stood out. Maron and Louis C.K. were finally reunited.
You don't have to be a fan of comedy to enjoy this one. Buffy only occasionally finds these things interesting (and even when she kindly listens, I can count on her eventually saying in the middle of an argument "well I had to listen to that [whatever] that you played for me a week ago!" But the several clips I played for her from these interviews, were well-received. Even when she started to roll her eyes at one of the clips that she thought was just going to be silly and crass, she soon realized that it was actually a pretty powerful moment.
Maron And C.K. are friends from way back in the last century. They started together and earned their successful careers together. From those salad days, they both developed and matured. And in the process they grew apart, as many very good friends do. The reunion ended up lasting long enough to provide enough for two episodes.
They go over the rift, their careers, the business, writing, family, anxiety… really pretty much everything. And it's not light and fluffy conversation. Maron is alway good at getting his guests to talk honestly, and this visit goes so far as to get some tears flowing on one topic, which includes a really good line from C.K. about the amazing power of water.
He holds little back, talking about the experience of being a stand-up wanting to create more than stage performances, and the doubts and roadblocks he had to walk around, plow thru, or chisel away. He discusses his time writing for Dana Carvey, and Conan O'Brien, and the frustration of doing a well-regarded, tho not always fully-understood show for HBO, Lucky Louie.
TV sitcoms are written by Harvard graduates who don't like audiences. They don't like people. They're not popular people. And so they hate the idea that audiences can tell them whether something's funny or not. So they've built a system where they shoot on a stage in front of an audience but they ignore the audience. …
Most big sitcoms don't have an audience now. And they have a man called the laugh man and he puts in the laughs. And the laughs are short enough…that the clippy dialogue can continue. Jennifer Aniston never looks aware of the audience when she's perf— She's supposed to be performing in front of an audience on Friends. (That's how old I am.)
But uh, we had to hold for laughs, and uh, it was a mess. But it was supposed to be.
C.K. has now achieved the first levels of an auteur. His work is good enough and reliable enough, and his choices are trusted enough to make his show almost completely his own. A big part of that is because he's a good writer and performer. Maybe an even bigger part of that is because he spent time learning how do his own editing and how to switch the lenses on cameras. Not every comedian will get "The Louis Deal." And very few would know what to do with it.
The last few minutes of the whole visit are about as honest an exchange as Maron has had on his podcast. C.K. begins his closing advice about friendship with "You don't have to put this in the podcast if you don't want to," then he goes on to talk about the value, pain, and challenge of friendship. Especially one with Maron. The best thing about WTF week after week, is that Maron leaves so much of that stuff in.
The folks at TMZ are something between parasite and scavenger. Or at least that's how I typically see them. They just roam around looking for bones to pick through. This video shows them being something between a predator, con-artist, and hack comic.
The worst thing about this isn't their misrepresentation of the setup (to the audience) and intention (to Yi): it's that they think it's funny. Despite Yi's complaint, their little stunt might actually help the cause because they give the website and eventually explain the purpose and all that. And who cares if they make Yi look silly? She's being silly. Oxfam doesn't need us to take her seriously.
But they're so proud of their little joke here. And it's just… meh.
This weeks Twitterer needs very little introduction. In fact, in your hearts, some of you are already following him. His name is Jesus.
His early work isn't that funny. And he did have a little scandal when he lost his temper and went crazy at the church bake sale. I'm still looking for the YouTube of that. But he's calmed down and now that he's sort of moved on from all the political stuff, he's actually pretty good.
He surpassed 144,000 followers a few months ago, but he's relaxed his policy and is still accepting fans.
Hey hey! Buckle up folks. Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford and Zach Galifianakis are a crazy foursome setting out on a wacky adventure to see America. The madcap comedy troupe is on a take-no-prisoners mission to Make You Laugh. There's no telling what you'll see when you tag along for this wild ride. These people are serious. Serious about comedy that is!
And if that sounds like the intro to something you'd like to see, then don't bother The Comedians of Comedy: The Movie. A better selling point might be the sexual tension between Zach and Brian.
At the beginning of it all, Oswalt claims to see himself at a level just below any grand blossoming of an indie/punk comedy scene.
[David] Cross has a hairy ass-crack. I have womanly man-boobs. We're not the two to do it. Someone's coming that will do it. It's not us. We're the ugly mother-fuckers that are setting it up. Someone's gonna spike it. It's not gonna be us. Sorry. I'm setting up the next guy. That's my purpose.
The movie is about five years old: not recent enough to represent the comedians' current acts or stature, but not early enough to see how far they've come.
Right now, Oswalt and Galifianakis are at the head of their lines. Oswalt, with a recognizable and mainstream presence in sitcoms and films has lost not a bit of credibility as a stand-up. Galifianakis' film trajectory is still accelerating, and his characters are getting so much love and attention that his stand-up—still respected; still sharp—is maybe the second tier of his current renown.
I have no greater shame in my history of following comedy, than my embarrassing phase of not appreciating Bamford's genius. I was convinced she was faking her voice, and I thought her entire act was "gimmicky." That's hard for me to admit. But at least it was a long time ago. Let's call it a decade. Now I love her act. I look back, and it was good then too. Even the gimmicky violin stuff.
And Posehn has moved from being "the guy on Just Shoot Me!" to one of the gay guys on The Sarah Silverman Program. But he's so much more than that. He was also on a couple episodes of NewsRadio. Hellooo? Oh yeah, also Mr. Show, Reno 911!Human Giant, Everybody Loves Raymond, and many more. He's a fellow metal head, and I think we would find each other equally awkward, even without a great set of tits.
The movie isn't about stand-up comedy. It's not really even about stand-up comedians. It's about being stand-ups. The footage switches quickly between stage, backstage and road footage. Occasional staged interviews and even some mini-film stunting fill in to shake up the pace. Oswalt's visit to the Portland morning radio show, where he's greeted with a whoopie cushion, is hard to watch, but mercifully short. Artificial interactions like that are balanced by footage at meals, in hotel rooms, of conversations on sidewalks and in the van. In those moments, not every joke that someone cracks gets a burst of laughter. The lame jokes don't elicit sheets of relentless and clever scorn. Sometimes a joke or comment just falls over, and a quiet beat passes before someone dutifully changes the topic. If you ultimately don't trust that you're seeing the comedians be themselves, the footage is at least very lifelike.
If you haven't seen much of their stage acts, there are other videos in the Comedians of Comedy series. One presents them at "the El Rey." Another at the "the Troubadour." The the El Ray show is available for instant viewing, but it doesn't include a Galifianakis set.
I had a policy of not commenting on the monologue feature. My thinking was that the jokes on their own said everything that needed to be said. And my opinion wasn't the point. My opinion wasn't likely to add anything meaningful to your experience reading the jokes and reacting to them honestly.
I got a few comments here and on Facebook saying things like 'Hey, that one wasn't so bad!' and my response was typically to ask why they thought I was only trying picking bad jokes. But let's face it: the jokes are palpable failures much of the time. And seeing that the audience laughed or even applauded (the ultimate response, right?) didn't make us question our taste in jokes. It made us wonder if democracy was really a good idea. A few times along the way, I was asked a fair question: Couldn't someone pick and choose from any late night monologue and find jokes like this? And yes, you probably could. So was I being unfair? Maybe. Most likely. But that bias was fun to work with. So I kept it up.
Let's keep this in mind: These jokes are not the last dregs of humor that one busy man, working alone, is forced to squeeze out night after night. These are a sample of the jokes churned out by a team of professional writers who are being paid a lot of money to write jokes and do nothing else. There are two possibilities then: either Leno's picking the best jokes and the writers suck, or these are not their best jokes, and Leno chooses them anyway, either because of poor taste, or because of a strange philosophy.
Usually when we say 'It's either A or B,' it ends up being C: a combination of the two.
The writers are good at writing jokes quickly, and writing them so that almost everyone can understand them. All the references are to broadly known people and events. The structure of each joke is supposed to be quick and simple. There's no winding path to getting them. There's not suppose to be any pause or wait time. Bam. Bam. Bam. Welcome our first guest.
And Leno knows good jokes. Years ago, his stand-up act was excellent. His writing and delivery were sharp. And he was occasionally provocative and even subversive. What changed was not his skill, but his role. His context. Hosting a network show is in some ways antithetical to the stand-up's creed. You have to be a company man. And Leno's not the only one that has made that choice. It's a balancing act, and it becomes more and more apparent that his weight has shifted away from humor, and comfortably into diversion and simple entertainment. Make them clap happily.
Take a look at the last several jokes posted for the feature. They were all pretty bad. Among some of the worst posted so far. And they were all taken from a single monologue, the night of September 7. That material was the bulk of one night's all-star line up of jokes written by professional writers. They were performed by a veteran comedian who has been called the King of Late Night and has been chosen, twice, as the best man to serve as host of the grandest comedy legacy in network television: The Tonight Show. This is supposed to be the pinnacle of late night comedy. And it's a hack job.
I'm sorry, but when you're placed at the top, you don't automatically get respect. You have to earn it and keep it. And if I simply present your material without comment, and it looks like I'm making fun of you, then let's go ahead and do same actual ridiculing.
From now on the feature will be at it's own space. This blog will still post a regularly refreshed link towards the top of the page.
"He was really baffled at at the fact that he could not stay off fucking drugs and alcohol. And he tried. And this was a miscalculation."
-Marc Maron
Photo Credit: Bobby Bank Posted by The Stress Factory
If you're only going to listen to or read one more remembrance of Greg Giraldo, make it Maron's tribute on his podcast. The half-hour he spends remembering Robert Schimmel and Giraldo is a pure example of his characteristic honesty and vulnerability. Maron knows fear and pain and doubt really well. But more importantly, he knows that he doesn't know it all. Calling Giraldo's overdose a "miscalculation" is about as precise a term as I can imagine. It doesn't matter what the truth is about which drugs he was using and which choices he was aware of; whatever the numbers, at some point Giraldo started adding them up wrong.
Tributes to Greg Giraldo have been going up on all sorts of sites. And they're worth reading. Some of them are simple statements of sadness and remembrance, and some of them are more detailed thoughts on the significance of Giraldo and his death.
It was a week or so after September 11th and Greg walked into Gotham Comedy Club. I was thrilled because I was curious to see if he would address the attacks and how he would handle it. I hadn't really seen anyone do it yet. Greg proceeded to launch head on into the topic with a daring and magical set that was both astoundingly funny and cathartic. I laughed so hard that I cried. I cried because maestro Giraldo had taught us all a lesson once again. Nothing stops life. Nothing is off limits. It is all fodder, it is all available to us to create something beautiful. There was something so reassuring in his cocksure presence on stage. It was like 'Okay motherfuckers, here we go!'
I'm not sure why Greg's death has knocked me down the way it has. … Could just be because he was one of the nicest stand up comedians I've met. I am a man obsessed with justice and things being right. This is just so wrong I can't wrap my head around it.
I hope he knew that I was inspired by his performances. On his albums and during his live shows, no matter how frustrated or angry he seemed while dissecting society’s foibles, there was a quiet, constant and underlying fragility that endeared him not only to me but also to all of his true fans.
One of the first things I wrote publicly about Greg Giraldo in 2006 was this: "Greg Giraldo should be a lot more famous than he is. Of all of the stand-up comedians working the circuit and talking topical, few know how to tell it like it is like Giraldo can." I still feel the same way about him today.
I was struck by his immense intelligence and good spirit. … The lesson I take away from it is one I hope I’ve been learning over the years: have gratitude for what you have and forgive yourself for what might have been.
Michael Ian Black's comments are, in part, his response to an interview Giraldo did with Psychology Today on the topic of failure.
If you're going to argue about the legalities of a case that you know very little about, you're probably not going to fare too well against a Harvard educated lawyer. Greg Giraldo's frustration with the stupid claims and inane premises of the discussion bring him just to the edge of standing up and yelling "You're all out of order! This whole show is out of order!"
Not only was Giraldo well-educated, he was a hardworking comedian who believed in writing and crafting material. He didn't imagine his unpolished take on issues was enough to merit a spot on the panel. He worked to show the platform respect. And when a bigger name tries to shit on you because you refuse to coast, you have every right to put that ego in its place. Point Giraldo.
Greg Giraldo died earlier today after having suffered what was reported to be an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.
The early report of Giraldo's death came thru a post by Jim Norton on Twitter. Michael Ian Black posted a reaction, a few websites started posting the news, and eventually Punchline Magazine posted confirmation and a statement from Giraldo's management.
Reactions to the news have been a pretty tight mix of sadness and shock. For a while Giraldo occupied both the first and second slots of trending topics on Twitter, where a very sincere and gentle tone has taken over the typically harsh and ironic exchanges.
And Giraldo's history with substance abuse reminded a few people to show concern for friends dealing with similar issues. It's no secret that drugs are a tool for a lot of comedians. Humor definitely asks for a certain brightness, and that heat can burn.
It's no mean poetic detail that Giraldo's last two tweets rhyme so bluntly with the news. His final tweet was an announcement of his shows at the Stress Factory, an engagement he wasn't able to finish; the tweet just before that, a reaction to the news of Robert Schimmel's death.
Gilbert Gottfried got right to work trying to earn the groans for a joke told too soon:
About an hour ago Jim Norton posted on Twitter that Greg Giraldo has died.
Here's the picture he posted with the tweet.
TMZ has offered confirmation of the claim, and several other comedians have posted either reactions or statements of the same sentiment. No one wants to be unnecessarily skeptical, and it's hard to direct emotions towards such a cold and unfeeling task as skepticism. All reports and outlets (including the Washington Post) are currently pointing to TMZ and twitter as the sources of the news. It would be nice to find that the sources are unreliable. But, sadly, it's looking like the news is accurate.
[Update]
Giraldo's own website has been simplified to include a link to his Facebook page, directing visitors there to leave "Notes of condolence."
Dylan Gadino at Punchline Magazine has received confirmation from Giraldo's management, The Collective, that the reports are accurate.
Andy Kindler first got my attention when he was a young comic sitting next to Conan O'Brien looking slightly nervous about the light laughs he was getting from the studio crowd, while I was cracking-up at home. I know that's a compliment comedians hate getting: 'Well, I thought you were hilarious even tho the audience didn't get it.' Thanks, they're thinking. The whole point of my act is to please just a couple people who think they're smarter than everyone else.
His fame clicked up a couple levels when he got a recurring role on Everybody Loves Raymond, and started doing regular remotes for Letterman.
Kindler has to know that he's got respect from all levels. From his peers, from the fans, from the boardroom. How else did he get that plum job pretending to choose which comedians made it to the finals on Last Comic Standing?
Back in the early 90's I saw Steven Wright performing in Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor. Before the show, I excitedly told my friend Gary about it, and he shrugged his shoulders and said he'd seen him. When asked about his cool response, he explained that after 20 minutes or so, all the one-liners got old.
I ended up really liking the show. And it was surprising how much Wright reacted to his own material. Not laughing, but pausing and showing moments of amusement, confusion, and even pride. He was a little goofier than I had seen him up to then. But it's true, Wright doesn't switch up the pacing of his material as much as some comedians do. Another friend, Jay, who also saw the show made a similar observation as Gary: 'He's style is so dry. It's hard to keep the energy up.' But Jay didn't shrug his shoulders dismissively. He was still excited about a lot of the jokes, and he kept reciting them with admiration.
When the Leaves Blow Away is worth watching if you think a full hour of stand-up at Wright's pace is too much for you. The stage time is just over 40 minutes. It's a good performance, recorded over two days in 2006 in Toronto's Elgin & Winter Garden Theatre Centre.
The stand-up is followed by a half-hour film called One Soldier (1999), written and directed by Wright. It's the story of a Union soldier in the civil war, thinking back on his experiences and thoughts. The narration comes from the soldier and also from his wife, Becky, who sees him beginning to reel in his mind:
"There came a point where he told me sometimes he didn't know if things were happening, or if they just seemed to be happening. Then he said he realized it didn't really matter if it was one or the other because they were both experiences."
The black and white film is rich both visually and emotionally. Wright uses some of the lines from his stand-up in this story, revealing how tragic a lot of his humor is. Also showing how maddening it must be to be trapped in such a surreal skull.
Don't give up on the credits. Watch all the way to the end.
The Comic's Comic, Sean L. McCarthy, has reported that Greg Giraldo is in a Critical Care Unit in New Jersey.
The internet rumors about Giraldo started Saturday evening soon after he missed his show at the Stress Factory in New Brunswick, NJ. Around 9PM, a fan, Sarah Costello, posted on twitter:
Drove all the way to New Brunswick, suffered thru the worst opener ever only to find out greg giraldo got rushed to the ER & isn't coming.
According to Ava Gacser, who was at the show, Vinnie Brand—owner of the Stress Factory—"came on stage [and] … announced that Greg had been taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital"
Around that time, fans online from everywhere were wondering and asking about the comedian's condition, filling in the details with claims that he had OD'd, died, committed suicide, and even that he had been murdered in his hotel room by a drug dealer.
The full story has not yet been made public, neither the cause of his hospitalization, nor the specifics of his condition. McCarthy, who considers himself "both a fan and a friend of Giraldo," is sure to be on top of the story. Stay tuned.
[UPDATE — 3:45PM] TMZ is reporting that "sources close to" Giraldo are saying he did not attempt suicide, but he did overdose on prescription medication. They also report he is in stable condition.
[…6:25PM] The New York Post reports that someone at The Collective, Giraldo's management company, has confirmed that it was an overdose, also asserting it was accidental.
Giraldo has been open about his struggles with substance abuse, and on Saturday he had joined several other performers to take part in the New York Recovery Rally, as part of national Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.
According to a study, listen to this, women. Men! Men waste $3000 a year in gasoline as a result of not asking directions. (laughter, approval and light applause) In a related story, women waste $3000 a year on shoes they only wear once! (boisterous approval and applause) Thank you very much. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you gentlemen. (band fanfare)
Bill Burr welcomes the occasional guest, but he mostly goes it alone. Most comedy podcasts are either interview or conversation based. A few of them are performances of material written ahead of time. Almost all of them bring at least a couple comedians together. But on Monday mornings Burr gives us you'd expect to hear from a football fan who's sure he's right about his football opinions, and a political dabbler, who's not quite as sure he's right about that stuff, but is determined to go on about it anyway without waiting for input from anyone.
Actually, he does dedicate a lot of time to feedback from listeners, often reading entire emails and responding pretty fairly to the concerns and criticism.
He holds very little back. Says whatever he's thinking, and uses whatever words it takes. Don't listen if salty language raises your blood pressure.
In recent podcasts he has defended Laura Schlessinger in her recent controversy, then he's taken the defense right back. His August 17 podcast mentions her, and dismisses her language as nothing more than a direct description of how some people talk.
"All she was really guilty of… [was] being an old white person making a fucken old reference to Def Comedy Jam… on HBO like the last 2 seasons."
He recalls some of his own older material about Def Comedy Jam.
My joke of the Def Jam impression was 'White people. Pussy. Peace!' That was every set that I- that's all it was. 'You ever see a white guy lay in a bed?' you know? 'Mother fucken black people, when we lay in a bed, we lay in the mother fucken bed!' Like, it was ridiculous. All right? And then it was peppered with the fucken n-word, all the way throughout. Fucken ridiculous. So, you can't expect some 60 year old white lady to be able to fucking process that.
A week later, on his August 23 podcast, Burr starts right off tearing himself down. Within the first minute he calls himself a douchebag for having defended Schlessinger.
I didn't know that she was like… Rush Limbaugh with a cunt. I had no idea. I just—you know—I didn't know who the fuck she was. I thought she was some soccer mom with a podcast.
And he promises to be more informed in the future when dealing with race issues.
I've alway appreciated Burr's take on everything. Including race. And gender. And class. And media. And bigotry. Not necessarily because I agree with his character (he's one of those comedians whose character has fuzzy borders) but because he talks as if he's being honest and that's all he needs of himself. His Opie & Anthony set in front of a hostile Philly crowd is like the theme from Rocky for comedy workouts. But less retarded. Watch that set to see Burr fight against thousands of drunk fans, finally convincing enough of them that all his insults are perfectly placed.
There's a a companion site, providing the videos and links that Burr mentions and discusses on the podcast. The site also provides links to recent episodes.
The main criticism I have has nothing to do with the content or delivery. It's that he's switched hosts a few times and the archives are tricky to find. His Libsyn site is outdated. If you want to do some grunt sleuthing, this page has all the links listed in paragraph text form. In a browser it shows up as text, but in an RSS reader, it does work as a feed. That's also the URI iTunes provides for the podcast.
The iTunes link doesn't work for me, reporting that the podcast "is not currently available in the U.S. Store" (even tho I'm currently subscribed).
And if you search for the podcast in the iTunes store, you'll get some old O&A remote pieces and random bits.
A candidate for governor of Nevada is proposing that motorists who pay an extra 25 dollars be allowed to drive in Nevada at speeds of up to 90 miles an hour. Finally, a politician making sense! Yes! (applause, cheers, and band fanfare) Yes! Thank you! Yes!
You might have noticed we're right up to our 50th monologue joke. I think I can choose a doozy. I've had a policy of not talking about the jokes. Just presenting them and letting them speak for themselves. It's been so difficult. So. Difficult. I might break my vow of silence soon.
I'm thinking of changing the format. Maybe saving them up for a once a week post. It'll be a less intrusive feature, and the posts will be less heavy a visual presence. I'm still deciding on all that. In the meantime, thank's for checking in on the feature.
US commanders in Afghanistan are now ending their policy of zero tolerance on corruption. They're ending the zero-tolerance on corruption policy and allowing local government officials who are on our side to be moderately corrupt. (light laughter). Well it's the same policy we have here in Congress. It's the exact same thing. We're just taking it over. It didn't really get a laugh or anything. (curt laughter)
Tony Gilmore has pretty much set up shop in Japan, directing films, mostly documentaries. In one of his current projects, English Teachers, he's stepping away from documentaries, and into comedy. The web series follows Tom Kellerman through his days teaching alongside a jerk, a martinet, a wannabe ninja, and the new girl.
Jonathan Sherr plays Kellerman as a bumbly curious naif. Kinda like Zach Braff in Tom Cavanagh's body. After only one episode the characters have just barely been introduced, but there's plenty of potential in the characters as they're set up. It'll be worth following, especially if you have any experience teaching English overseas.
My wife taught English in Korea before she started graduate school. She remembers that as one of the best and most pixelated years of her life. She laughs about her mostly frustrating experience with the English program, and the sweethearts she taught. She still talks about going back. "You could eat sushi for sooo cheap!" she coaxes.
Police were forced to escort three fans out of the US Open after a fight broke out in the stands during a tennis match. Did you see that on the news? Imagine, a brawl at the US Open? When is this wealthy white guy on wealthy white guy violence going to end? (laughter) When are we going to see an end to this? Why can't– (extended applause)
I have a twitter list of "ranty ravy" comedians. You can probably predict who several of them are. But no list of ranting stand-ups would be complete without Eddie Pepitone. I'm not a big fan of most ranters (for the record, no matter what Dennis Miller called them, those were not rants), but Pepitone is hilarious, and his rants don't feel gratuitous. For me, his appeal is in not sounding like he's ranting out of anger, so much as fear and confusion. Instead of saying 'If you don't see things like I do, I will ridicule you' his message seems to be 'If you don't see things like I do, please, take me with you.'
If you don't know his name, you might still recognize him from his work on so many other people's shows: The Sarah Silverman Program, King of Queens, Monk, Flight of the Concords, Weeds, Malcom in the Middle and much more. He's a regular on Marc Maron's live WTF episodes.
Usually, if the comedian's Twitter avatar doesn't make for a good profile image on these posts, I'll go find one that works better. When I saw that Pepitone's actual image file was so tiny, I laughed out loud, and almost went to look for a bigger image, but decided to leave it. I think that's what Eddie would want.
