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Sunday, September 30, 2012
Vacation!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
The A.V. Club Interview: Rob Delaney
Kyle Ryan: You tweeted a few months ago about a bad gig you had, that some comics you respected saw. You said it was still terrifying to you, even after time had passed. Some people don’t realize you can do this for a long time and still feel gutted after a bad show.
Rob Delaney: Yes. I did this show where the comics were asked to wear suits and ties, and one reason—it’s a smaller reason, but it’s a benefit I really enjoy—I do comedy is so I don’t have to wear a suit and tie. I hate wearing suits and ties. I viscerally hate dressing up, and I know some people who do that. I know some people prefer to do their comedy that way, and that is absolutely fine and fantastic. I enjoy comedians who do do that, but for me, I won’t wear that stuff.
I resented that I was asked to wear a suit and tie, so I started my set kind of pouty and feeling sorry for myself, and I’m only admitting that because it could probably be of use to another comedian—that was very wrong of me. I should relish any opportunity to perform and respect the fact that I was asked to do the show, that there were people who came to see it. So I started off my set from a sense of self-pity. If there’s a commandment for comedy, that has got to be at the top: “Don’t you dare.” As such, I got into a hole I had difficulty pulling myself out of. I don’t think the set was the nightmare I felt that it was afterward, but my mindset was unhealthy and not conducive to enjoying myself onstage, which you must if you’re going to deliver a show people like. My main yardstick for if the show went well is, “Did I enjoy myself?” As a steward of this audience, of any audience, you are showing the people what to do, and it should be having a good time.
Anyway, I remember T.J. Miller and Hannibal Buress were in the audience, guys I love, and I remember getting offstage and immediately realizing this was my fault, I sabotaged myself, because I had a little fit, because I didn’t wanna wear this little suitie-pie, and I’m actually glad it happened. I’m very glad it happened, because it made me re-evaluate how the audience is at least 51 percent of the equation. They are more important than, you, the performer, and they must be respected and loved. They don’t give a donkey shit if you’re wearing a suit and tie or if you’re fucking wearing Saran Wrap—make them laugh, you fucking idiot. So that was good for me. I’m glad I had a little ego flare-up, and that I was swiftly and effectively punished, and that I learned my lesson. That will become one of my more instructive stand-up experiences, actually.
The A.V. Club Interview: Rob Delaney / By Kyle Ryan / June 1, 2012
Rob Delaney: Yes. I did this show where the comics were asked to wear suits and ties, and one reason—it’s a smaller reason, but it’s a benefit I really enjoy—I do comedy is so I don’t have to wear a suit and tie. I hate wearing suits and ties. I viscerally hate dressing up, and I know some people who do that. I know some people prefer to do their comedy that way, and that is absolutely fine and fantastic. I enjoy comedians who do do that, but for me, I won’t wear that stuff.
I resented that I was asked to wear a suit and tie, so I started my set kind of pouty and feeling sorry for myself, and I’m only admitting that because it could probably be of use to another comedian—that was very wrong of me. I should relish any opportunity to perform and respect the fact that I was asked to do the show, that there were people who came to see it. So I started off my set from a sense of self-pity. If there’s a commandment for comedy, that has got to be at the top: “Don’t you dare.” As such, I got into a hole I had difficulty pulling myself out of. I don’t think the set was the nightmare I felt that it was afterward, but my mindset was unhealthy and not conducive to enjoying myself onstage, which you must if you’re going to deliver a show people like. My main yardstick for if the show went well is, “Did I enjoy myself?” As a steward of this audience, of any audience, you are showing the people what to do, and it should be having a good time.
Anyway, I remember T.J. Miller and Hannibal Buress were in the audience, guys I love, and I remember getting offstage and immediately realizing this was my fault, I sabotaged myself, because I had a little fit, because I didn’t wanna wear this little suitie-pie, and I’m actually glad it happened. I’m very glad it happened, because it made me re-evaluate how the audience is at least 51 percent of the equation. They are more important than, you, the performer, and they must be respected and loved. They don’t give a donkey shit if you’re wearing a suit and tie or if you’re fucking wearing Saran Wrap—make them laugh, you fucking idiot. So that was good for me. I’m glad I had a little ego flare-up, and that I was swiftly and effectively punished, and that I learned my lesson. That will become one of my more instructive stand-up experiences, actually.
The A.V. Club Interview: Rob Delaney / By Kyle Ryan / June 1, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Nikki Glaser Pre-Interview
Proudly Presents: What’s the appeal to the audience of stand ups talking on a Podcast Over Going To A Club?
Nikki Glaser: People want to be entertained. We are funny people when we talk.
It let’s them in. It’s more real. Your act. It’s not based around punch lines. I’m much more honest and I get to tell stories on the one liner jokes.
PP: How has podcasting changed your act?
NG: It’s made me more confident stepping out of that joke style on stage. We record the podcast with a small audience. I get to hear what stories work in the room. I take more chances in the living room when we record the podcast. The audience is generally our friends. When I started getting laughs from these stories (not just jokes) It made me more comfortable to tell them on stage.
Nikki Glaser Pre-Interview / Posted on: July 18th, 2012 / proudlypresents.com
Nikki Glaser: People want to be entertained. We are funny people when we talk.
It let’s them in. It’s more real. Your act. It’s not based around punch lines. I’m much more honest and I get to tell stories on the one liner jokes.
PP: How has podcasting changed your act?
NG: It’s made me more confident stepping out of that joke style on stage. We record the podcast with a small audience. I get to hear what stories work in the room. I take more chances in the living room when we record the podcast. The audience is generally our friends. When I started getting laughs from these stories (not just jokes) It made me more comfortable to tell them on stage.
Nikki Glaser Pre-Interview / Posted on: July 18th, 2012 / proudlypresents.com
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Judd Apatow and Lena Dunham Talk Sex, the City and 'Girls'
Alison Willmore: How was the experience of working with other writers?
Lena Dunham: When we did our first table read, people laughed, but I said to Judd "Is that how a table read's supposed to go?" He said "Yeah, it's good... People could have laughed a little bit more." We all went into a room and talked for three days.
I'd thought my script was done, but what we came out with was something that was infinitely funnier and more alive. My favorite moments in the pilot come from those three days. I finally understood the benefits of doing something in a collaborative way — that really taught me how to use the writers room.
Judd Apatow: Also, a staff is a good resource for crazy life experiences. At some point, you run out of dumb things you've done.
LD: Especially when you're making a TV show -- you don't have much time to do dumb things.
JA: So it's eight people with an enormous amount of stories. When we hired the staff, we talked a lot about hiring people who've lived and who have a lot of tales to tell, because we felt that's what the show was about.
Lena Dunham: When we did our first table read, people laughed, but I said to Judd "Is that how a table read's supposed to go?" He said "Yeah, it's good... People could have laughed a little bit more." We all went into a room and talked for three days.
I'd thought my script was done, but what we came out with was something that was infinitely funnier and more alive. My favorite moments in the pilot come from those three days. I finally understood the benefits of doing something in a collaborative way — that really taught me how to use the writers room.
Judd Apatow: Also, a staff is a good resource for crazy life experiences. At some point, you run out of dumb things you've done.
LD: Especially when you're making a TV show -- you don't have much time to do dumb things.
JA: So it's eight people with an enormous amount of stories. When we hired the staff, we talked a lot about hiring people who've lived and who have a lot of tales to tell, because we felt that's what the show was about.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Interview: Judd Apatow and Director Nicholas Stoller on 'The Five-Year Engagement'
Laura Aguirre: In the Apatow universe, what are the hallmarks of a successful comedy?
Judd Apatow: We like comedies that are truthful and when people reveal something personal.
Nicholas Stoller: Like Jason’s (Segel) penis.
JA: In any type of art or music or movies, I always connect when someone is telling me something that I know means a lot to them. Whether it’s a song, like when you say, “I don’t think that person’s kidding around, Kurt Cobain means that.” I think it’s the same for comedy. You can tell when people are passionate about something. There’s just a quality to it when someone’s just funny and knows what they are doing. Why things work is hard to define, but originality also.
LA: Are you good at identifying real moments?
JA: I’m a fan of television and movies and I’ve seen a lot. When we are kicking around ideas, there’s always a moment when we’ll say, “Oh I saw that in that Salma Hayek movie. Let’s not do that, let’s see if we can think of something different.” Even if we liked it in the Salma Hayek movie. The question is, what’s a new way to do this.
Judd Apatow: We like comedies that are truthful and when people reveal something personal.
Nicholas Stoller: Like Jason’s (Segel) penis.
JA: In any type of art or music or movies, I always connect when someone is telling me something that I know means a lot to them. Whether it’s a song, like when you say, “I don’t think that person’s kidding around, Kurt Cobain means that.” I think it’s the same for comedy. You can tell when people are passionate about something. There’s just a quality to it when someone’s just funny and knows what they are doing. Why things work is hard to define, but originality also.
LA: Are you good at identifying real moments?
JA: I’m a fan of television and movies and I’ve seen a lot. When we are kicking around ideas, there’s always a moment when we’ll say, “Oh I saw that in that Salma Hayek movie. Let’s not do that, let’s see if we can think of something different.” Even if we liked it in the Salma Hayek movie. The question is, what’s a new way to do this.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Eddie Murphy: The Rolling Stone Interview
Brian Hiatt: You also had some problems with Saturday Night Live.
Eddie Murphy: Yeah, because they were shitty to me on Saturday Night Live a couple of times after I'd left the show. They said some shitty things. There was that David Spade sketch [when Spade showed a picture of Murphy around the time of Vampire in Brooklyn and said, "Look, children, a falling star"]. I made a stink about it, it became part of the folklore. What really irritated me about it at the time was that it was a career shot. It was like, "Hey, come on, man, it's one thing for you guys to do a joke about some movie of mine, but my career? I'm one of you guys. How many people have come off this show whose careers really are fucked up, and you guys are shitting on me?" And you know every joke has to go through all the producers, and ultimately, you know Lorne or whoever says, [Lorne Michaels voice] "OK, it's OK to make this career crack..."
I felt shitty about that for years, but now, I don't have none of that. I wouldn't go to retrospectives, but I don't let it linger. I saw David Spade four years ago. Chris Rock was like, "Do you guys still hate each other?" and I was like, "I don't hate David Spade, I'm cool with him."
BH: You're still the biggest star who came from the show.
EM: That's only because John Belushi's dead. Belushi's like Spanky of the Little Rascals series. I guess that makes me Stymie, but that's cool. I'll be Stymie. Think of all the people who came off that show. I bet you could figure out the combined grosses of people who came off Saturday Night Live in the movies – me, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Mike Myers, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd. I bet it's $15 billion. It's no coincidence – that show's like Harvard for a comic actor. When you come off the show and get into the movie business, it's like you're moving in slow motion for a couple of years. You've been working like a crazy person in a pressure cooker, then you're in the movies, just sitting in your trailer.
Eddie Murphy: The Rolling Stone Interview / by: Brian Hiatt / November 9, 2011
Eddie Murphy: Yeah, because they were shitty to me on Saturday Night Live a couple of times after I'd left the show. They said some shitty things. There was that David Spade sketch [when Spade showed a picture of Murphy around the time of Vampire in Brooklyn and said, "Look, children, a falling star"]. I made a stink about it, it became part of the folklore. What really irritated me about it at the time was that it was a career shot. It was like, "Hey, come on, man, it's one thing for you guys to do a joke about some movie of mine, but my career? I'm one of you guys. How many people have come off this show whose careers really are fucked up, and you guys are shitting on me?" And you know every joke has to go through all the producers, and ultimately, you know Lorne or whoever says, [Lorne Michaels voice] "OK, it's OK to make this career crack..."
I felt shitty about that for years, but now, I don't have none of that. I wouldn't go to retrospectives, but I don't let it linger. I saw David Spade four years ago. Chris Rock was like, "Do you guys still hate each other?" and I was like, "I don't hate David Spade, I'm cool with him."
BH: You're still the biggest star who came from the show.
EM: That's only because John Belushi's dead. Belushi's like Spanky of the Little Rascals series. I guess that makes me Stymie, but that's cool. I'll be Stymie. Think of all the people who came off that show. I bet you could figure out the combined grosses of people who came off Saturday Night Live in the movies – me, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Mike Myers, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd. I bet it's $15 billion. It's no coincidence – that show's like Harvard for a comic actor. When you come off the show and get into the movie business, it's like you're moving in slow motion for a couple of years. You've been working like a crazy person in a pressure cooker, then you're in the movies, just sitting in your trailer.
Eddie Murphy: The Rolling Stone Interview / by: Brian Hiatt / November 9, 2011
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Sex, Drugs, and Seminary
Mike Moody: What is it about standup?
Ari Shaffir: I don’t know, I just like it. I don’t know. I could try to be a poetic person, but it’s just the feeling. It’s a good feeling I get when I do it. It just makes me happy. Whatever gives you fulfillment, this is my thing that gives me fulfillment. For some people it’s building race cars or whatever it is. I just like doing it. So I’m always sort of surprised that I get paid at the end of week. Well, not surprised, but it’s like, “Hey, that’s nice,” because I would do it for free.
MM: Your comedy is pretty dark and personal. Tell me about the moment or the time when you found your voice on stage and you could just be yourself.
AS: I don’t know. It’s like you get closer and closer to it as you go. It’s like you get it in moments, and then you get it in more moments, and then you sort of become yourself and just not give a fuck about what anybody else thinks. It’s like you almost completely stop pandering to everyone and you are completely yourself. Probably in the last couple of years I feel I’ve just sort of been saying the things I want to say the way I want to say them. They talk about “finding your voice,” and it’s like I never really understood what that meant. I think it just means talking the way you would to your friends. Once you start getting like that on stage and making jokes, it’s more rewarding.
Sex, Drugs, and Seminary: An Interview with Amazing Racist and Comedian Ari Shaffir / Mike Moody / April 23, 2012
Ari Shaffir: I don’t know, I just like it. I don’t know. I could try to be a poetic person, but it’s just the feeling. It’s a good feeling I get when I do it. It just makes me happy. Whatever gives you fulfillment, this is my thing that gives me fulfillment. For some people it’s building race cars or whatever it is. I just like doing it. So I’m always sort of surprised that I get paid at the end of week. Well, not surprised, but it’s like, “Hey, that’s nice,” because I would do it for free.
MM: Your comedy is pretty dark and personal. Tell me about the moment or the time when you found your voice on stage and you could just be yourself.
AS: I don’t know. It’s like you get closer and closer to it as you go. It’s like you get it in moments, and then you get it in more moments, and then you sort of become yourself and just not give a fuck about what anybody else thinks. It’s like you almost completely stop pandering to everyone and you are completely yourself. Probably in the last couple of years I feel I’ve just sort of been saying the things I want to say the way I want to say them. They talk about “finding your voice,” and it’s like I never really understood what that meant. I think it just means talking the way you would to your friends. Once you start getting like that on stage and making jokes, it’s more rewarding.
Sex, Drugs, and Seminary: An Interview with Amazing Racist and Comedian Ari Shaffir / Mike Moody / April 23, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
The A.V. Club Interview: Chris D'Elia
Marah Eakin: Your stand-up is pretty animated, and you do a lot of crowd work. Are you like that off the stage? Do you talk to strangers?
Chris D'Elia: It’s funny that you say that, actually, because I’ve always said that crowd work is flirting. There are a lot of videos online of me doing crowd work, because when the Laugh Factory films the set, I always tell them, “Don’t put the material I’m working on for TV.” So I said, “If you have any good crowd work moments, you can put those up.” They put those up, and now I think a lot of people think I’m the guy who does a lot of crowd work, which I am, and I love doing it, I really do, because it’s fun for me.
Chris D'Elia: It’s funny that you say that, actually, because I’ve always said that crowd work is flirting. There are a lot of videos online of me doing crowd work, because when the Laugh Factory films the set, I always tell them, “Don’t put the material I’m working on for TV.” So I said, “If you have any good crowd work moments, you can put those up.” They put those up, and now I think a lot of people think I’m the guy who does a lot of crowd work, which I am, and I love doing it, I really do, because it’s fun for me.
But I feel like crowd work—to me—I feel the same if I’m on a date with a girl and if I can get into that mode where I’m just fun and flirty and there’s a connection at the date, that’s how I feel when I’m onstage with a crowd. I feel like I’m trying to seduce them and make them laugh. And I feel like if somebody throws me something, then I can just throw it back. I’ve been doing it so long, and I’ve played so many weird clubs, like bars and coffee shops, it’s like... Eminem is so good at freestyling, but it’s not that he’s making stuff up; he knows what rhymes already. He’s got a database, and he knows what words rhyme with what words. It’s not like he’s just figuring it out now; he’s worked and trained in the trenches, and I think that’s what a lot of comics do with their crowd work. It’s like, they’ve been in the situation; if something pops up, they can remember another time when this kind of a thing happened.
The A.V. Club Interview: Chris D'Elia / by Marah Eakin / June 12, 2012
The A.V. Club Interview: Chris D'Elia / by Marah Eakin / June 12, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
On the Beach With Dave Chappelle
The problems, he says, started with his inner circle."If you don't have the right people around you and you're moving at a million miles an hour you can lose yourself," he says. "Everyone around me says, 'You're a genius!'; 'You're great!'; 'That's your voice!' But I'm not sure that they're right." And he stresses that Comedy Central was not part of the problem and put no more than normal television restrictions on what he could do.
"You got to be careful of the company you keep," Chappelle says. "It's hard to know how much to say. One of the things that happens when people make the leap from a certain amount of money to tens of millions of dollars is that the people around you dramatically change.
"During my ascent, I've seen other people go through that wall to become really big. They always said that fame didn't change them but that it changes the people around them. You always hear that but you never really understand it. But now that I'm there that makes a lot of sense and I'm learning what that means. You have to have people around you that you can trust and aren't just out for a meal ticket."
On the Beach With Dave Chappelle / by PETER VAN AGTMAEL / Sunday, May 15, 2005
"You got to be careful of the company you keep," Chappelle says. "It's hard to know how much to say. One of the things that happens when people make the leap from a certain amount of money to tens of millions of dollars is that the people around you dramatically change.
"During my ascent, I've seen other people go through that wall to become really big. They always said that fame didn't change them but that it changes the people around them. You always hear that but you never really understand it. But now that I'm there that makes a lot of sense and I'm learning what that means. You have to have people around you that you can trust and aren't just out for a meal ticket."
On the Beach With Dave Chappelle / by PETER VAN AGTMAEL / Sunday, May 15, 2005
Friday, September 14, 2012
The A.V. Club Interview: Paul Mooney
Nathan Rabin: You have an archetypal story, in that you ran away from home as a teenager to join the circus.
Paul Mooney: Oh yeah. I go down in black history, I was the first black ringmaster. This is way before the Black Circus and all this stuff, back in the day. It was called the Charles Gody Circus. We had all the animals from television: Gentle Ben, the cross-eyed lion, all that stuff. You're probably too young. Daktari was a hit then. The black man that starred in that, I forget his name, 'cause I'm getting old. I don't have Alzheimer's, I have "sometimer's": Sometimes I remember, sometimes I don't. They used to think I was hep, and they called me "Hollywood."
NR: How did you make the transition from being a ringmaster to doing comedy?
PM: I was a ringmaster, and I was funny. I was doing comedy before. I just did that to make some money. I was a shoe salesman, I worked at Joseph Magnin's, an expensive store in Century City, and it was good money. Let me tell you something about Hollywood you may not know. Back in the day, we did everything we could to pay the rent. We didn't give a damn. There was a lot of us that did The Dating Game, we were married or we were with somebody, we still did it because it was scale, and we had to pay our phone bill and our rent. I also worked for Playboy for five years. I did Playboy After Dark.
NR: You learned how to harness your gift?
PM: Yeah. Then I held onto who I was. When you know who you are, you know who you are. That's the real dangerous thing in Hollywood, because they all want to create you and mold you. They have Frankenstein syndrome here. But as in the Frankenstein story, the monster always hates the doctor.
Did you ever see the black-and-white original Frankenstein? Okay, the doctor has all the dialogue, you know: "You think I'm crazy? I'll show you crazy. I created it with my own hands!" He talks throughout the whole movie, am I right or wrong? Frankenstein said one thing—less is more. "Aaaah!" And all you remember is the monster.
The A.V. Club Interview: Paul Mooney / by Nathan Rabin / March 15, 2007
Paul Mooney: Oh yeah. I go down in black history, I was the first black ringmaster. This is way before the Black Circus and all this stuff, back in the day. It was called the Charles Gody Circus. We had all the animals from television: Gentle Ben, the cross-eyed lion, all that stuff. You're probably too young. Daktari was a hit then. The black man that starred in that, I forget his name, 'cause I'm getting old. I don't have Alzheimer's, I have "sometimer's": Sometimes I remember, sometimes I don't. They used to think I was hep, and they called me "Hollywood."
NR: How did you make the transition from being a ringmaster to doing comedy?
PM: I was a ringmaster, and I was funny. I was doing comedy before. I just did that to make some money. I was a shoe salesman, I worked at Joseph Magnin's, an expensive store in Century City, and it was good money. Let me tell you something about Hollywood you may not know. Back in the day, we did everything we could to pay the rent. We didn't give a damn. There was a lot of us that did The Dating Game, we were married or we were with somebody, we still did it because it was scale, and we had to pay our phone bill and our rent. I also worked for Playboy for five years. I did Playboy After Dark.
NR: You learned how to harness your gift?
PM: Yeah. Then I held onto who I was. When you know who you are, you know who you are. That's the real dangerous thing in Hollywood, because they all want to create you and mold you. They have Frankenstein syndrome here. But as in the Frankenstein story, the monster always hates the doctor.
Did you ever see the black-and-white original Frankenstein? Okay, the doctor has all the dialogue, you know: "You think I'm crazy? I'll show you crazy. I created it with my own hands!" He talks throughout the whole movie, am I right or wrong? Frankenstein said one thing—less is more. "Aaaah!" And all you remember is the monster.
The A.V. Club Interview: Paul Mooney / by Nathan Rabin / March 15, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
The A.V. Club Interview: D.L. Hughley
Sean O'Neal: Dave Chappelle said one of the reasons he walked away from his show was that he felt it was helping keep stereotypes alive. Do you ever worry that Socially Offensive Behavior—which also mines stereotypes for laughs—is helping propagate stereotypes?
D.L. Hughley: Stereotypes existed hundreds of years before me or Chappelle or BET, and the only way they ever go away is to shine a light on it. There's a distinct difference between observing a joke and becoming one. I think that the greatest people I've ever seen involved in this art form—from George Carlin to Pigmeat Markham to Redd Foxx to Dick Gregory to Lenny Bruce—have all done what we do now, which is take a look at the things around us. I love to push people's buttons and watch people deal with the shit they have in their head.
SO: And now you're being protested for that.
DLH: This isn't the first time this has happened to me, or to comedians. If you look at what happened to Lenny Bruce or George Carlin or Richard Pryor or Redd Foxx, they've all had this happen. This art form survived McCarthyism. It can survive somebody with a mouth and an e-mail page.
SO: Is the title of your new HBO special, Unapologetic, a direct challenge to those protestors?
DLH: Actually, we had the title before this ever even happened, but no, I don't think any person, regardless of what they say, should ever apologize unless they mean it. In the last few years, we've seen people say exactly what they mean, and then some publicist makes them apologize. And I think we pretend to be more offended than we really are. When Mel Gibson made an anti-Semitic remark, he had a number-one movie, and his Q rating went up. Michael Richards made his statement, and sales of Seinfeld went up 70 percent three weeks in a row. Isaiah Washington made an anti-gay slur. Grey's Anatomy has never been stronger. Don Imus, his numbers went through the roof.
The A.V. Club Interview: D.L. Hughley / by Sean O'Neal / 08/14/07
D.L. Hughley: Stereotypes existed hundreds of years before me or Chappelle or BET, and the only way they ever go away is to shine a light on it. There's a distinct difference between observing a joke and becoming one. I think that the greatest people I've ever seen involved in this art form—from George Carlin to Pigmeat Markham to Redd Foxx to Dick Gregory to Lenny Bruce—have all done what we do now, which is take a look at the things around us. I love to push people's buttons and watch people deal with the shit they have in their head.
SO: And now you're being protested for that.
DLH: This isn't the first time this has happened to me, or to comedians. If you look at what happened to Lenny Bruce or George Carlin or Richard Pryor or Redd Foxx, they've all had this happen. This art form survived McCarthyism. It can survive somebody with a mouth and an e-mail page.
SO: Is the title of your new HBO special, Unapologetic, a direct challenge to those protestors?
DLH: Actually, we had the title before this ever even happened, but no, I don't think any person, regardless of what they say, should ever apologize unless they mean it. In the last few years, we've seen people say exactly what they mean, and then some publicist makes them apologize. And I think we pretend to be more offended than we really are. When Mel Gibson made an anti-Semitic remark, he had a number-one movie, and his Q rating went up. Michael Richards made his statement, and sales of Seinfeld went up 70 percent three weeks in a row. Isaiah Washington made an anti-gay slur. Grey's Anatomy has never been stronger. Don Imus, his numbers went through the roof.
The A.V. Club Interview: D.L. Hughley / by Sean O'Neal / 08/14/07
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Will the Gay Comedians Please Stand Up?
There may be legions of gay comics, but few have found major success even amongst gay audiences, yet some of the most popular comedians able to sell-out large venues—such as Kathy Griffin—cater mostly to gay men. Griffin is catty and bitchy, and her bits sound more like a recitation of a guest list at a Los Angeles hotspot than a crafted joke (although she will occasionally touch on pressing topics such as Paris Hilton’s vagina). Gay men have largely been consumers of comedy but rarely creators—at least not on the big stage.
Part of this is because of the constraints of gay comedy. “There’s a condescending attitude that gay entertainment has to involve drag shows or men being effeminate,” says Brent Sullivan, a New York-based comedian. “I did a show in Chelsea the other day where there was this screaming queen who did a lot better than I did. Even homophobes could enjoy that because you are putting yourself into this box that they’ve created for you. But I think we haven’t challenged the gay-friendly straight men of this world to actually enjoy a gay character or enjoy gay entertainment because we haven’t given them anything to enjoy.”
Sullivan, who has been performing stand-up for nearly a decade, admitted that, while he has been out since college, he wasn’t always necessarily open with his audience. “I used to try to assimilate. I’d get on stage and say, ‘So, I was with my wife...’ I was, like, 19 and talking about my wife! I stopped doing that when I moved to New York. But what should I say? Should I refer to my ‘partner’? I don’t have partners; I have guys that I blow.”
Will the Gay Comedians Please Stand Up? / by Tyler Coates / April 11, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
10 Things in Stand-Up Comedy That Should Be Retired
2. The White Guy Voice. The white guy voice is a time honored device of degradation for minority comics to demean white guys. It has been done for a long time (and for me, my favorite spin on it is Dave Chappelle's, which sounds less corny and more super serious), but it is time to go. I made this decision when watching a high profile Latino comic's' Rosetta Stone Spanish lesson, posing as a comedy special on HBO. His special consisted of four things in equal parts: Spanish phrases, telling the difference between Latino families and white families, staring bug-eyed while rubbing the lapel of his suit jacket and doing a white voice circa 1977 comedy. Enough is enough — it is time for a new spin on this one. Retire the old one
5. "Too soon?" I know this one will be tough for a lot of people to let go so I will make a deal. Too soon still gets some laughs when properly applied (Gary Gulman's bit about a gunpowder Abe Lincoln scratch n sniff sticker comes to mind), but I would estimate, based on absolutely no scientific data other than my gut instinct, that 90 percent of jokes that end with a "too soon?" tag are actually written with the too soon in mind. So instead of relying on the strength of the joke, the so-so joke is in place to facilitate a "too soon."
7. Male vs. Female Funny Debate. I have engaged this topic with nuanced vigor to no avail. So I am here to say that I will finally admit that men and women are equally funny and equally capable of being funny. In exchange for this bold concession on my part I would just like all the people who have always supported this idea to admit that there is not a shred of tangible evidence proving the veracity of this statement. Great! So I guess we can stick a fork in this one.
5. "Too soon?" I know this one will be tough for a lot of people to let go so I will make a deal. Too soon still gets some laughs when properly applied (Gary Gulman's bit about a gunpowder Abe Lincoln scratch n sniff sticker comes to mind), but I would estimate, based on absolutely no scientific data other than my gut instinct, that 90 percent of jokes that end with a "too soon?" tag are actually written with the too soon in mind. So instead of relying on the strength of the joke, the so-so joke is in place to facilitate a "too soon."
7. Male vs. Female Funny Debate. I have engaged this topic with nuanced vigor to no avail. So I am here to say that I will finally admit that men and women are equally funny and equally capable of being funny. In exchange for this bold concession on my part I would just like all the people who have always supported this idea to admit that there is not a shred of tangible evidence proving the veracity of this statement. Great! So I guess we can stick a fork in this one.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Pitchfork Interview: Aziz Ansari
Carrie Battan: Social media was a big focus of your comedy early on — you had some hilarious correspondences with fans, but you've moved away from that, too.
Aziz Ansari: I'd rather focus on writing stand-up or scripts than Twitter, you know what I mean? What do you want to devote your time to? I never had the desire to be a professional Twitterer. Every now and then something dumb pops into my head and I'll tweet it. I don't feel any obligation to respond to everyone. Not that I don't appreciate people sending me messages on there, but there are too many. Responding to everyone would take away time for all the stuff I'm actually in the business for.
Pitchfork Interview: Aziz Ansari / By Carrie Battan / July 22, 2012
Aziz Ansari: I'd rather focus on writing stand-up or scripts than Twitter, you know what I mean? What do you want to devote your time to? I never had the desire to be a professional Twitterer. Every now and then something dumb pops into my head and I'll tweet it. I don't feel any obligation to respond to everyone. Not that I don't appreciate people sending me messages on there, but there are too many. Responding to everyone would take away time for all the stuff I'm actually in the business for.
Pitchfork Interview: Aziz Ansari / By Carrie Battan / July 22, 2012
Thursday, September 6, 2012
The Comedy Couch: JEN KIRKMAN
Guy Macpherson: You do occasionally still hear people say either women aren't funny, or you're funny — for a woman.
Jen Kirkman: Yeah, it's funny. Every once in a while a network will call me up and they'll be like, "Come to this audition. We can't find any funny women." I'm like, "I know a million!" This is what I think: A lot of the guys I first started with are successful, for whatever that means, either they're really wealthy or they're famous or simply just not working in day jobs but they support themselves. And that happened a lot sooner for them than it did for me. And I know a lot of other women who have this — when you're first starting out,you suck. I think for men, it's "oh, he sucks buthe'll get better. I'll give him a chance." And when you're a woman and you're first starting out and yousuck, it's because you're a girl. I knew guys starting out who sucked — we all did — who would get a clubspot, or a manager would still be interested in them. That's kind of a subtle... Because when people ask methey don't see funny women, and I feel like I know so many, I'm like, "Why do I see it and they don't?" I come up with all these theories. That might be one of them. We don't get the stage time.
GM: I have a theory. Hear me out. Because of the way our culture is, we need to be representative. So TV producers can't put all white male comics on a show. They need a woman, they need various ethnicities. So they might take somebody who isn't necessarily ready yet in order to fill the bill. So they might get elevated and put on a national show, and people would watch and see a diamond in the rough, or somebody who's just not ready to be on national TV, and go, "If she's the best woman you can find, women must not be funny."
JK: I think that's true, too. And that happened to me, actually. Six years ago I got on that show Premium Blend on Comedy Central. I had maybe been doing standup about three years. I was okay but really shaky, had never done TV. And they make you perform in front of it seemed like a thousand, but was probably more like 500 people. I bombed. It was terrible. I found out later that they had a woman quota to fill. And it was like, "Ugh, why did you do that?!" It just makes everyone look bad. I'm shocked that there wasn't another woman more talented at the time. It's interesting. But you know, the people that I know personally, that I hang out with, and that's a lot of comics, no one ever excludes me with, "You're a girl" or any of that crap. The most they'll say is... Like, these Channel 101 people that I got involved with, they're amazing and they're not sexist at all, but they're just like, "We're nerds, we're guys, we get together and write and when we write stuff, we realize, 'Oh shoot, we need a woman! We don't have one that we normally hang out with so we have to go and audition them.'"
The Comedy Couch: JEN KIRKMAN / September 12, 2006
Jen Kirkman: Yeah, it's funny. Every once in a while a network will call me up and they'll be like, "Come to this audition. We can't find any funny women." I'm like, "I know a million!" This is what I think: A lot of the guys I first started with are successful, for whatever that means, either they're really wealthy or they're famous or simply just not working in day jobs but they support themselves. And that happened a lot sooner for them than it did for me. And I know a lot of other women who have this — when you're first starting out,you suck. I think for men, it's "oh, he sucks buthe'll get better. I'll give him a chance." And when you're a woman and you're first starting out and yousuck, it's because you're a girl. I knew guys starting out who sucked — we all did — who would get a clubspot, or a manager would still be interested in them. That's kind of a subtle... Because when people ask methey don't see funny women, and I feel like I know so many, I'm like, "Why do I see it and they don't?" I come up with all these theories. That might be one of them. We don't get the stage time.
GM: I have a theory. Hear me out. Because of the way our culture is, we need to be representative. So TV producers can't put all white male comics on a show. They need a woman, they need various ethnicities. So they might take somebody who isn't necessarily ready yet in order to fill the bill. So they might get elevated and put on a national show, and people would watch and see a diamond in the rough, or somebody who's just not ready to be on national TV, and go, "If she's the best woman you can find, women must not be funny."
JK: I think that's true, too. And that happened to me, actually. Six years ago I got on that show Premium Blend on Comedy Central. I had maybe been doing standup about three years. I was okay but really shaky, had never done TV. And they make you perform in front of it seemed like a thousand, but was probably more like 500 people. I bombed. It was terrible. I found out later that they had a woman quota to fill. And it was like, "Ugh, why did you do that?!" It just makes everyone look bad. I'm shocked that there wasn't another woman more talented at the time. It's interesting. But you know, the people that I know personally, that I hang out with, and that's a lot of comics, no one ever excludes me with, "You're a girl" or any of that crap. The most they'll say is... Like, these Channel 101 people that I got involved with, they're amazing and they're not sexist at all, but they're just like, "We're nerds, we're guys, we get together and write and when we write stuff, we realize, 'Oh shoot, we need a woman! We don't have one that we normally hang out with so we have to go and audition them.'"
The Comedy Couch: JEN KIRKMAN / September 12, 2006
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
The A.V. Club Interview: Chris D'Elia
Marah Eakin: How do you think your acting affects your stand-up, and vice versa?
Chris D'Elia: That’s a good question. I definitely am a performer, and there are different styles of stand-up; I mean, some people are writers and they get onstage to get jokes out, and that’s definitely not what I do. I like to just go up and, if I’m telling a story about someone, I’ll play his or her part. I have always found that funny when somebody really paints the whole picture and is able to get into different characters. I’ve always looked up to guys like that, like Eddie Murphy and Jim Carrey. So in that way, I think the acting kind of helps and colors my stand-up. The opposite is true, too, with auditions. Whenever I have to audition, I just go in and, now that I’ve done stand-up, I’ve bombed in front of 300 people, so I don’t care if I have a bad audition in front of two.
The A.V. Club Interview: Chris D'Elia / by Marah Eakin / June 12, 2012
Chris D'Elia: That’s a good question. I definitely am a performer, and there are different styles of stand-up; I mean, some people are writers and they get onstage to get jokes out, and that’s definitely not what I do. I like to just go up and, if I’m telling a story about someone, I’ll play his or her part. I have always found that funny when somebody really paints the whole picture and is able to get into different characters. I’ve always looked up to guys like that, like Eddie Murphy and Jim Carrey. So in that way, I think the acting kind of helps and colors my stand-up. The opposite is true, too, with auditions. Whenever I have to audition, I just go in and, now that I’ve done stand-up, I’ve bombed in front of 300 people, so I don’t care if I have a bad audition in front of two.
The A.V. Club Interview: Chris D'Elia / by Marah Eakin / June 12, 2012
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Eddie Murphy: The Rolling Stone Interview
Brian Hiatt: You've talked about doing stand-up again – what would it be like now?
Eddie Murphy: If I ever get back onstage, I'm going to have a really great show for you all – an hour and a half of stand-up and about 40 minutes of my shitty band. But I don't know. The way that used to come about, you'd be around the house, hanging out, say something funny and it'd be like, "I'm going to go to the club, try that out tonight." That still happens, but it's been a long time. I'm not that guy in the leather suit anymore. The hardest thing for comics nowadays is to find your fucking voice.
BH: People do love that guy in the leather suit – that's a good guy.
EM: Yeah, you know. He's a kid. No more leather suits. I'm still that person in terms of how I'm wired. Whatever muscle makes jokes pop out, that muscle still works, I just don't have a leather suit on anymore. One of the things that's really cool is whenever they talk about stand-up, they'll mention me with all of those guys, like, Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, but I haven't done it since I was 27, so why fuck with it? But that's just weighing both sides. It comes up too much for me to not do it again. It's like, when it hits me, I'll do it, eventually.
BH: Why did you quit in the first place?
EM: It stopped being fun. In the beginning, it was fun, then I was controversial. Whenever I would do anything, there would be picketing, negative backlash. I thought I should just do movies. I don't have to deal with this shit. Big chunks of time went by and before you knew it, it had been a hundred years since I had done it.
BH: A young Eddie Murphy coming up now would never use the word "faggot" the way you did.
EM: A lot of the stuff you just don't do now. Nowadays, comics say something that's offensive and they have got to apologize to everybody. How do you even write an act and go into a club when everybody has their cameras, it's on YouTube, if you say something offensive, you've got to apologize to everyone? How do you come up with anything?
Eddie Murphy: The Rolling Stone Interview / by: Brian Hiatt / November 9, 2011
Eddie Murphy: If I ever get back onstage, I'm going to have a really great show for you all – an hour and a half of stand-up and about 40 minutes of my shitty band. But I don't know. The way that used to come about, you'd be around the house, hanging out, say something funny and it'd be like, "I'm going to go to the club, try that out tonight." That still happens, but it's been a long time. I'm not that guy in the leather suit anymore. The hardest thing for comics nowadays is to find your fucking voice.
BH: People do love that guy in the leather suit – that's a good guy.
EM: Yeah, you know. He's a kid. No more leather suits. I'm still that person in terms of how I'm wired. Whatever muscle makes jokes pop out, that muscle still works, I just don't have a leather suit on anymore. One of the things that's really cool is whenever they talk about stand-up, they'll mention me with all of those guys, like, Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, but I haven't done it since I was 27, so why fuck with it? But that's just weighing both sides. It comes up too much for me to not do it again. It's like, when it hits me, I'll do it, eventually.
BH: Why did you quit in the first place?
EM: It stopped being fun. In the beginning, it was fun, then I was controversial. Whenever I would do anything, there would be picketing, negative backlash. I thought I should just do movies. I don't have to deal with this shit. Big chunks of time went by and before you knew it, it had been a hundred years since I had done it.
BH: A young Eddie Murphy coming up now would never use the word "faggot" the way you did.
EM: A lot of the stuff you just don't do now. Nowadays, comics say something that's offensive and they have got to apologize to everybody. How do you even write an act and go into a club when everybody has their cameras, it's on YouTube, if you say something offensive, you've got to apologize to everyone? How do you come up with anything?
Eddie Murphy: The Rolling Stone Interview / by: Brian Hiatt / November 9, 2011
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