Kyle Cease Wants to Give You a Ring

Kyle Cease broke up with his fiancee, and now he's giving away her diamond ring. Why? Who cares? He says it's worth 10K.

Here's how it works: Watch the first video of his stand up. You'll see what he means about "the worst way" to leave Catalina Island. Then in the comments, make your own suggestion about the worst way. If you get the most comments saying they vote for you, the ring is all yours.

[I made a suggestion, so look for ThirdGuyDucks' comment and vote for me! Unless you have your own suggestion to make.]


Go to page to comment.

Here's a link to the video announcing the contest.

Here's a link to a video in which he updates the rules and explains the new voting system.

Video Bit of the Week: Kyle Cease Talks Feelings

Kyle Cease is determined to sound driven, confident, positive, and stable. The more I hear him talk about his boot camp, the more it sounds like a support group. It's a community that reminds you to avoid "stinking thinking" and tells you to "Keep It Simple Stupid" and warns that "expectations are premeditated resentments." Kinda like a Comics Anonymous meeting.

Some notable quotes from this half-hour piece:

And if you look at Richard Pryor, you look at George Carlin, you look at— They were thinking about making the crowd realize something.

When you realize you get to do this, it naturally shifts you back into excitement. And you're appreciative of that you're doing it. And you're excited about it and you're passionate about it. And you naturally lose fear. You naturally lose…stage fright. It just goes away.

When you're in the future, the crowd is in the future. So they can't laugh at the setup. So you'll be like 'So I'm driving down the street' and right there you're saying 'Hold on—' versus giving the street its own story. What kind of of street was it?

Do you need alcohol to be happy? Do you need smoking to be happy? Then you're saying I'm not complete enough without these things.

You should be talking to the audience the way you talk to one friend in a bar.

Cease focuses on attitude and performance as not just factors in stage success, but the keys to stage success. It's hard to see how Steven Wright's attitude makes a difference. And Dave Attell's notorious insecurity and self-loathing has hardly kept him from dominating his stages.

It looks like Cease is primarily interested in making comics feel good about their work and themselves. I guess that's nice.

Podcast of the Week: The Joe Rogan Experience w/guest Dane Cook

Joe Rogan is known as a martial artist, as Joe Garrelli, and as a UFC commentator and fan, and as the guy who interrupted Carlos Mencia's act to accuse him (convincingly) of stealing jokes, and as an advocate of legalized marijuana, and as a host of The Man Show, and as host of Fear Factor, and as a proponent of vision quests induced by DMT and isolation tanks, and as a stand-up comedian. He's got the energy of a riptide.

On August 3 he chatted with Dane Cook for an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. Dane Cook has been on what seems a bit like a redemption tour, perhaps starting back in November of 2009 when he did Howard Stern's show, which went well. He visited both Marc Maron's and Greg Fitzsimmons's podcasts in June. The latter was a bit smoother. The chemistry was better, the conversation more relaxed, with no undercurrent throwing Cook off-balance. There were some moments on Maron's show when Cook didn't roll so easily with the nudges and jabs that Maron sometimes throws.

Rogan's interviews are typically friendly and comfortable, tho he is known for speaking his mind. On this episode, he and Cook get along well, speak easily, and stay away from accusations and heavy controversy. No fireworks or blowouts, but it sustains 150 minutes of conversation on getting famous, being famous, working the Boston circuit, leaving the Boston circuit, getting rich, dropping 7K on a pool cue, 250K on a car, and looking up to superstars and unknown giants.

Cook might be doing these shows at the perfect time. He's past his peak of popularity; the controversy surrounding him is dying down; his act is moving (just perceptibly) away from the manic physical performances that got him his early attentions; his early self-promotion online is now so standard in the industry that he really can't be accused of anything but being way ahead of the game when he vaulted using MySpace; and even if he's still not your favorite comic, his longevity is more and more an indication of his respect for stand-up.

Some horrible difficulties with finances (the story is about an $11 million loss) and family (his step-brother burned the money; both Cook's parents died in a short period of time) have given him the scars and texture that can go far in comedy.

But most importantly, comedy has a new whipping boy. Cook probably suffered some for his palpably optimistic persona, coming across as a disingenuous crowd-pleaser. But the Tony-Robbins-style approach of Kyle Cease's bootcamp, combined with many accusations focusing on the bootcamp price-tag, have made Cease the new Guy Smiley that no-one wants to trust and everybody wants to see fail.

If the backlash against Cook lets-up enough, this might be his chance to reset his role in comedy. Whatever you say about his jokes, you can't say he hasn't worked at it.

Subscribe to The Joe Rogan Experience on iTunes.

Kyle Cease Mulls a Podcast.

So Kyle Cease has mentioned on Twitter that he's thinking of starting a podcast. It's an interesting time for him to do so. Undoubtedly a big motivation is wanting to represent himself and counteract the backlash against his Stand Up Boot Camp project.

His fans are all for it: @DaceofBase and @Sylarsgirl23 are begging him to do it; @CarolineLStern offers her encouragement; and @SammyBabygirl and @rugratnat14 promise they'll listen.


His audience will assuredly be a lot bigger than that tho. He's not quite a household name, but he does have enough fans to have won Comedy Central's 2009 Stand-up Showdown, beating out defending champion Jeff Dunham.

So while waiting to see if his idea takes off, I'll be thinking of horrible and annoying puns that he can use if he needs a title:

• Cease Fires Back!
  
• Cease to Amaze You!
  
• Hail Cease, or King of the Podcast!
  
• Re: Cease Pieces.
  

Each of those has it's own reasons for being a horrible title and a worse joke.

Podcast of the Week: Comedy and Everything Else with guest Kyle Cease

Episodes 101 and 102 of Comedy and Everything Else focus on Kyle Cease and his controversial Stand-Up Boot Camp. If you're going to put in the 3.5 hours to listen to the two CaEE episodes, read Doug Stanhope's tirade first. His blog post was what put Cease's project on the map. Or perhaps, on the battlefield.

Cease has seen success in the comedy business. He did a Comedy Central Presents half-hour special in 2006. In 2007 he did a full-hour special: Weirder. Blacker. Dimpler. He has acted in 10 Things I Hate About You and in Not Another Teen Movie. He's happy with his career right now, and the tone of the interview gives the impression that he's pretty happy with himself.

He claims that along the way he's learned some things and has come to some realizations about writing and performing comedy. Now he's simply looking to share his insight with people who can learn from it. He and stand-up veteran Louie Anderson are partners in the adventure.

The repeated point that Jimmy Dore, running the interview, seems intent on making, is that comedy is learned by getting on stage. Cease keeps pushing the idea that his experience, if carefully conceived and presented, can be helpful to young comedians. Dore conducts the interview in pretty fair manner, tho his approach gets increasingly antagonistic—that's fine, and still fair—and even strays into ridicule and buckshot arguments. He's a comic and ridicule is expected. But as far as an argument or actual commentary on Cease's claims, it loses strength.

He picks on the Boot Camp video (a marketing device) pointing out some short bits and claims that might be misunderstood by the poor naïve and unsophisticated neophytes trying to start off in the business. That verges on nitpicking, detracting from the more important question of what the class might offer.

Dore's demands, that Cease prove his class is necessary, miss the point. He goes several times to the argument that Cease can't name a single successful comic who took a stand-up class, as if such evidence is necessary to make the point that his class offers something worthwhile.

JD: "Everything you learned, … you learned it being a stand-up, right?"

KC: "I learned it being a stand-up, but there's no harm in sharing it with young comics."

JD: "I agree. I agree."

Cease believes in positive thinking and growth thru visualization. Dore claims to, also.

At one point he pushes Cease. "You know this video, if you weren't in it, would be something that you would be making fun of." Cease doesn't know if that's true. And Dore, a very good, very funny comedian who's material and perspective rely on sharp sarcasm and the cutting ridicule of assumptions, spends more of the interview than he needs to, trying to win that point.