Apiary/Bastion Network Expands, Blogs, New Year's Comedy and Resolutions
This will be our last post until the New Year, FYI. We know it will be tough for you, but we're sure you'll get along just fine without us for a little while.
Our Big Poppa the Apiary is proudly announcing the forthcoming launch of the LA branch of our indie comedy network: "--And finally... In a move that will hopefully fare better than when Marvel Comics created the abysmal West Coast Avengers... an LA version of this site is launching soon!" Who is the new editor? How do we all find each other, in this crazy, crazy world? Details coming soon.
Jason Chin's "Ten Easy Ways to Be a Better Improviser" includes the admonition: "Shut up. Make a personal moratorium on gossip and back-biting. Not a resolution (those rarely last) but a 1 month hiatus from a destructive habit that has a tendency to spill onto stage."
Is "tragilarious" a word? Mackenzie Condon's critique of the Santorum family's reaction to Daddy Rick's failure to get himself re-elected to Congress is damn good. Matching plaid jumpers have never been as tragic (and funny).
Chicago is abuzz with chatter about who got into Aspen. We know kevINda are in. We've heard about others, too. What have you heard?
Are you setting yourself up for disappointment by making New Year's Resolutions? Share with us. What are your priorities? Better nutrition? Less bar-hopping? Better financial management? Fewer jokes that involve a rabbi and a priest? We want to know. Leave your resolutions in the comments of this post. We promise we won't tell anyone.
And don't forget: Chicago comedy isn't going to let you down in helping get the New Year off to a great start. There's the party over at Kitty Moon on NYE -- producer Dave Odd says, "Doors at 9:30, show at 10:30. Line-up so far will be Blitz style with me, Mark McClathchey, Sean Rumrill, Matt Roberson, John Pawlowski, Lauren Bishop, Cindy Cornelson, Alex Orozco, Chad Briggs, Mike Palascak, Fay Canale, Darius Kennedy, and Mike Cody. Cover is only $10 and I'm sure there will be drink specials, I just don't know what they are." The Lincoln Lodge and Blerds.com are teaming up for Chuckle Bowl at Lincoln Lanes, and tickets are going fast -- with free pizza and bowling, in addition to stand-up comedy, $3 domestics, and a film screening, why wouldn't they? What else is going on, you guys?
If you can't wait until Sunday to get yer laugh on, join the Bastion over at the Lodge tonight to see some L.A. folks bring the funny, including the recently displaced Renee Gauthier, Channel 101's Eric Acosta, and the buzz-worthy Mike O'Connell (Rolling Stone's "Hot Comic", Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night With Conan O'Brien).
Inda was kind enough to share with the Bastion some thoughts on kevINda's history and experience, the virtue of creating one's own opportunities, and some valuable comedy festival lessons:
"Kevin and I met in a Second City Outreach class about six years ago. It was a week-long intensive taught by Tom Green and Michael Gellman, and my first introduction to improvisation. After that wonderful week ended, Kevin and I didn't see or talk to each other again until we were both cast in a Second City Training Center writing show a few years later.
"In the meantime, Kevin studied writing at Second City and I completed their Conservatory program and their Writing program. I also understudied The Second City etc stage for Nyima Funk. Kevin and I were then cast in Brownco, Second City's "minority" ensemble. We got to work with Josh Funk, Keegan-Michael Key, David Pompeii, John Hildreth and Claudia Wallace. It was a great experience, but we both wanted more. Wanting can be a scary, stupid, painful thing sometimes. So we decided to stop waiting on people to hand us opportunities which, by the way, are fewer and harder to come by when you're a Black person trying to do sketch comedy. We both continued steady acting careers in regular theatre (I was Jeff-nominated, we both have received Black Theater Alliance Award nominations - - I won one) and we've also got a bunch of commercials between us.
"After two Brownco revues together, Kevin began hounding me about doing a two-person show. I resisted, but he's like the Borg. I gave in, and in October 2004 we performed for five weeks in Donny's Skybox. We called the show "These Coloreds Don't Run," and that's been our theme and a reminder to ourselves whenever one of us starts to shy away from certain topics in our writing. Jonathan Pitts saw our opening night, waited for us after the show, and invited us to perform in Chicago Improv Festival in 2005. He's been one of our biggest supporters ever since, and was the one who insisted an HBO producer come check us out at this year's CIF. Two callbacks later, and we're on our way to Aspen in February!
"Valuable comedy festival lessons:
1. If it's their first festival, wait until they have their second and they've gotten some of the kinks out. Especially if you aren't traveling with a tech person.
2. Travel with a tech person.
3. Never travel the day of the festival. Kevin and I have had REALLY bad travel karma of late. We're actually better off if we fly separately.
4. Write with integrity and a strong point of view."
Improvisor and stand-up comedian Chris Burns was one of the lucky attendees at last Tuesday's People Under the Stares show, and had the moxie to request an interview with Mr. Galifianakis. He graciously accepted the offer and even dropped Chris his digits! Thus follows the transcription of the next day's telephone interview, which can also be listened to here.
Chris Burns: I know you grew up in North Carolina, when did you first think that you wanted to try stand-up?
Zach Galifianakis: Hello? Oh sorry. I moved to New York to go to acting school and I hated it. It was a lot of therapy sessions for people and I couldn’t stop laughing when people were trying to do serious scenes and I thought, well, this probably isn’t it for me. And then I met this young lady named Lisa in a bar, and she was like, “Hey, you should do stand-up,” and I was like, “yeah, I’ve thought about it,” and then I started performing in the back of a hamburger restaurant and as soon as I did it I knew that was probably what I was going to do for the rest of my life, so that’s how it happened.
CB: Have you been telling basically these kinds of jokes since you started or did start out more…
ZG: Um, my first joke…
CB: Wasn’t it about a crouton rhyming with futon?
ZG: Yeah, unfortunately that was the joke.
CB: (laughs)
ZG: It was kind of, when you first start you don’t know what you’re doing so you just kind of say things that you think might be clever and then, you know, it takes different forms. I was a lot louder back then, and yelled a lot more. And it just kind of, you know, it just kind of evolved into what it is now, but probably a lot more horrible.
CB: Were there any stand-ups that you watched before you started stand-up and you were like, “That makes me think I can do that”?
ZG: I would go to clubs before I started and I would see Ray Romano before he got big, perform in front of four people. And Dave Attell and Jon Stewart. And then I would see the bad ones and I’m like, “I mean that’s bad, I could probably do that and be just as bad.” I would go watch clubs but as far as studying it, I was a fan of stand-up, but… I knew I wanted to be on stage somehow but I didn’t know what capacity, so I wasn’t a real student of stand-up, so yeah, I would go watch those guys at clubs and try to get inspired that way and you just do as many shows as you possibly can, and that’s how I started.
CB: Did you have to build up the courage in order to do stand-up or was that not really a problem for you?
ZG: No, I’m always amazed at the confidence in people when they first start. I didn’t have that at all and it took me a while to think about it and then bite the bullet and I finally did it. I wasn’t, I didn’t wake up and say, “You know what, I’ll give this a shot.” There was a lot of timidness and I was a little bit scared of it, because it can be kind of scary.
CB: At what point did you start doing open mics everyday or pretty regularly?
ZG: As soon as I got off the stage at that hamburger restaurant, I say stage, I think it was a milk crate. And that was it, I just went into it full throttle. I mean, it’s a desperate art form when you’re first starting so you don’t really know, there’s no formula, I guess there are classes you can take, but I didn’t do that, I would just go perform and literally stand on bar stools while music was playing and while people were not facing you watching the game in a bar, and there was two years of that.
CB: I feel like if you went to class, they would tell you to stop doing it the way you’re doing it.
ZG: Maybe, those classes, I know some people that take them, and they’re good for, I think they construct a little show for you, where you bring your friends and all that stuff, I didn’t want any of my friends, I actually don’t like for anybody that I know to be there, still to this day I just don’t like it, but I’m glad I didn’t take classes, it might have been a little more formulaic that way, like, Where’s your comedy vest?
CB: I would describe your comedy as, not necessarily one-liners in the vein of Steven Wright or Mitch Hedberg or Demetri Martin, I would definitely say you’re different than that, but do find yourself compared to those guys a lot?
ZG: Yeah, I think just because we do one-liners, but Steven Wright is a great writer, I sometimes have to rely on uh, where I kind of like element of surprise, I like to change it up a little bit, it’s hard to sustain an audience with one-liners for an hour. You kind of mix in other elements. One-liners are fine and fun, I sometimes just go in and wing it, which is more exciting than sticking to your material, which I do as well. Mitch Hedberg was… I feel to be compared to them is a little bit unfair to them.
CB: There are definitely more and more people who are doing your style of comedy. Is that something that you really care about?
ZG: I’ve seen some comics do some things that, I mean, Steven Wright started all that stuff, and he’s influenced the comics that you mentioned and myself, as far as other comics being compared to me it doesn’t really bother me, I don’t really care.
CB: Do you remember your first paid gig? And how long had you been doing stand-up before you got your first paid gig?
ZG: I think I had been doing it for two years or a year and a half. And my first paid gig was a road gig in Maysville, K.Y. And it was really not the greatest thing, I remember there was a guy who had brought a life-size skeleton and put it in his seat and put a cigarette in his mouth. I guess he wanted me to comment that there was this life-size skeleton with cigarette in his mouth. It was at a bar where, have you ever seen the movie Urban Cowboy, where it’s kind of a very rambunctious environment and there was a beer bottle thrown and that kind of thing, and as soon as it was done there was square dancing right afterwards.
CB: (laughs)
ZG: I bombed so bad, I remember this guy coming up to me and saying (in southern accent), “Man, don’t worry, you were funny, these people are assholes.”
CB: (laughs again) Was that your first DVD that you put out, where it’s you doing stand-up making fun of the guy from Survivor?
ZG: Yeah, I wanted to put out a DVD of me not doing well, or at least being heckled, so I started carrying a camera around and just putting it on a table or something because I think in that one you can only see my legs, and he happened to be in the audience. That DVD was kind of about failure. It’s easy to pull out your punches and your go to material, but it’s a lot more interesting to me to show people that it’s not always that easy, or it shouldn’t be that easy and that’s what that DVD was about.
CB: I noticed that you go on the road, but it’s mostly one-stop gigs, is there a tour coming up?
ZG: Yeah, there is a tour coming up in March, it’s about twenty cities and it will be in rock clubs and some of them are 1200 seat theatres, which will be interesting because it will be a 1200-seat theatre with forty people in the audience.
CB: well…
ZG: I hope not, because I’ve done that before and it is so embarrassing.
CB: Was that Atlantic City show on Comedians of Comedy like that?
ZG: No, that Atlantic City show was packed, but it was, I don’t know if you’ve been to Atlantic City, there were a bunch of old people in the audience and I was like, “Oh God, they’re not gonna get this.” And I don’t care if people get it, I mean I do want people to be entertained…
CB: That was a show where you improvised a lot, right?
ZG: Yeah, I remember that show, yeah.
CB: Do you have any improv training at all?
ZG: No, well I took one improv class, and I wasn’t good at it, because it was like an exercise where we were pretending to throw a fake ball at each other. I got frustrated with it and I think I left during the bathroom break.
CB: Have you taken an acting class since that first acting class that you said was like a therapy session?
ZG: I’ve taken several, but not a lot. I just never found a teacher…actually there was one teacher that I liked a lot, she had one of those, not to be mean, but she had an eye, I don’t know what the term is but an eye, where you can’t tell if they’re looking at you or not? She had one of those eyes, and I couldn’t tell if she was critiquing me or somebody else, so I got confused.
CB: On your IMDB site, it says that you are trying to create a writers retreat in North Carolina.
ZG: Yeah, I have a farm in North Carolina that I’m trying to groom the land for right now. To set up several cabins where people can come and write and hang out with like-minded people. That’s down the road, but that’s my goal. I’m there about half the time and I spend my time on a tractor and just trying to figure out what I’m doing. I’m gonna do that and grow a ton of pot.
CB: Of the comedians out now, who do you enjoy the most?
ZG: Patton Oswalt to me is such a great comic, I mean, he’s a friend, but he’s great. I really enjoy Dave Attell. There is a comic in Los Angeles named Andy Kindler, who to me, is just the best.
CB: Didn’t he recently rant about Dane Cook?
ZG: Yeah, he does a lot of that stuff. But he makes fun of me, he called me, “the smart man’s Pauly Shore.”
CB: (laughs) So is Man Bites Dog gonna have a second season?
ZG: No, it got cancelled.
CB: What do you have upcoming?
ZG: I have a couple movies coming out, one that Sean Penn directed, which was really fun. It’s a serious movie, but I have small part in that. I got to spend two weeks in a hunting lodge. It was just me and Sean Penn and Vince Vaughn and there was little bit of drinking going on, let’s just say that.
CB: Of the movies you’ve done so far, what’s your favorite?
ZG: They’re all pretty bad. I enjoy working on them, they’re fun to work on.
CB: I liked Out Cold.
ZG: Yeah, that movie’s got some funny stuff in it. Sometimes I’ll be in an airport and people are like, “Hey, are you that guy from Out Cold?” And I’ll just be like, “No.” But yeah, that movie was so much fun to work on.
Okay, we lied. We're back already. We wanted to put up a snazzy and conversation-starting "Best of 2006" dealie like our Big Poppa the Apiary did. So here we go!
Think about the shows, the performers, and the moments that impacted you the most in 2006 and leave them in the comments below. Feel free to add categories, if you feel so inspired.
Best Stand-Up Comedian
Best Performer
Best Newcomer
Best Open Mic
Best Comedy Duo
Best Celebrity Sighting
Best Use of Burlesque
Best Sketch Troupe
Best Improv Show
Best Video
Best TV (Comedy)
Best Film (Comedy)
Best Source for Comedic Material
Best Chicago Comedian Blog or Website
Best Unsubstantiated Rumor Just added: Best Internet Radio Show
Also, we're still abuzz after rubbing elbows with Zach Galifianakis at Weeds on Tuesday night. Everyone we know who was there is sure they made a sloppy, drunky fool of themselves while chatting with ZG. One of our correspondents managed to snag a great interview with him, and we'll be putting that MP3 up shortly. Until then, enjoy Schadenfreude's hilarious Choose Your Own Adventure Holiday Card (two months in the making), and some Zach videos.
Nate Craig is a Chicago actor and stand-up comedian who has performed with the European Rep, the Bailiwick Rep, and the Steppenwolf Garage Theater, and once sidled up to an unsupervised Hummer on the streets of Chicago and used it as a prop in a cranky, ranty short comedy film for Blerds. He is a regular on Visitors' Locker Room and this year released the comedy CD "Crap Circus," which may reflect his realization that artists need to look after the business side of things in order to support themselves with their creativity. In this interview, he tells the Bastion what he appreciates about Chicago comedy, and that he's splitting the Windy City for LA in early February.
So, let's start with the basics: Age, shoe size, measurements, how long have you been doing stand-up, from where do you hail and what brought you to Chicago?
I'm 29. I wear a size 12 shoe. Actually that's a lie. A couple times I've had to buy twelves. I don't actually wear either pair currently. But I like saying I wear a size 12. For whatever reason. I prefer it.
I started stand-up in 1998 in Madison WI, where I'm from. I came to Chicago because it was beautiful and majestic and close.
Are there any other comedic endeavors in your repertoire?
I am also an actor. I've done plays since I was in college. In town I've performed with the European Rep, The Bailiwick Rep, and in the Steppenwolf Garage Theater. I improvise as often as I can, most recently doing sets weekly at The Annoyance Theater. I also audition for commercials, and I must say, some of my most brilliant work happens in those readings. As a performer, you sometimes don't realize where you can take yourself until you're pretending to let the world know about Bob Evans' new 'stacked and stuffed pancake breakfasts'. It's the reward.
You "work the road", as they say. Can you impart some wisdom about this line of work for fellow city comics and the general public? You mentioned recently that you haven't had a "day job" in seven years. Care to explain how? Any hilarious stories from the road you can share? What's your usual circuit?
I do that from time to time. Just to clarify, I have never had a day job. Not a 9-5 at least. I've done every shitty job you can imagine to supplement my income. If you want to work the road, you have to be available for Thursday or Wednesday or Tuesday through Sunday. A day job makes that difficult. I've been fired from 3 jobs waiting tables because I asked for too many days off.
Working the road is easy. Booking road work is the hard part. Before you get a chance to prove yourself in a club, you have to convince a booker or club owner or manager that they should give you a chance to prove yourself. There are three ways you can do that: tape -- they rarely watch them; recommendation -- best way, just make sure the person recommending you isn't really just a fill in with no pull; or guest set/working as an emcee so they can see you live -- expensive but necessary. Point being, you can't just be a comedian. Somewhere along the line you have to become a businessman. And what you have to sell is you. It doesn't feel so goofy anymore because I'm familiar with how much money is involved, and if it means me supporting myself by doing what I love, I have no hesitation. But for the first couple years, it felt awkward.
The city is where I learned what I wanted to say, the road is where I learned how to say it. There is just so much more stage time on the road. As a feature act ("middle") you wind up doing three hours a week at least. And featuring is the easiest slot. The positives outweigh the negatives right now. I wont be saying that if five years from now I'm not getting bookings as a headliner ("closer"). But for now I will.
The road is lonely and there's all the free booze you can handle (unless it's a bullshit club), which is a bad thing. The trick is being productive in the down time. That's why working A-rooms in cities is such a huge step, you can learn and explore and see things. You work in Springfield, MO and the only thing to do is get shithoused and close the blinds. Maybe see Pirates of the Caribbean.
You're also involved in a few collaborative projects, namely Blerds.com, a Bastion favorite, and Visitors' Locker Room, a program we listen to every day. What's it like working in a group dynamic on projects such as these, especially when stand-up is such a "lone wolf" art?
I write for Blerds and I produce the Visitor's Locker Room. Both projects are great to be a part of. To me, the "lone wolf" thing is one of the worst parts about doing stand-up, so it's great to get a chance to collaborate, especially with such talented funny people. I do find myself having a hard time not always being in control. But it's nice getting to take credit for other people's hard work.
About that "lone wolf" thing though, I think a lot of stand-ups never get bored with meeting people and charming them. That's why they stay out on the road, or have no friends. They need to keep meeting people. Because friends aren't going to be that into feeding your ego. I really like collaborating… I don't know where that came from but when you mentioned the "lone wolf" thing it made me think -- I've met some lone wolves in this business. Lonely, drunk, depressed dudes, and when I met them I thought to myself, 'this guy is exactly why there isn't a union for stand-up comics. He doesn't want to deal with anyone'. Anyway, being in the city you don't run into that so much. Everybody wants to be here because of the people here. It's great being a part of stuff.
You've released a couple CDs, right? Isn't there a third one in the works? How about a synopsis of Crap Circus, for instance. It's not exactly a typical stand-up CD.
I do have two CDs. Crap Circus (2006) is the latest. It was recorded at Go Bananas Comedy Club in Cincinnati, OH. Most of it is live comedy but it does have some studio tracks. Poetry, rants, political discussions with my mother. I like variety. I like to experiment. Stand-up can be confining sometimes, so I feel like on my CDs I can say things I don't get to say on stage. At least not for money (LOL).
I have almost enough material recorded for a new CD right now. I've got about 30 new minutes. But I'd like more, and its going to take time to develop the sound of the album. I'm not always sure what I'm doing, but I feel like each CD has got to have a style. I like albums that are distinct. Hopefully I can create something different each time. Me on stage sounds pretty similar to me on stage, so I try to create sketches and poems and other extras to set each CD apart. If I can.
On Crap Circus for example, I wanted to do a studio comedy track. My intention was to make a beat or music or put together some ambient sounds that would support the idea of the material, then write and improvise the bit over the top of it. The result is "Robot World" (track 14). It's basically a rant about automated teller services. We (myself and producer Steve McCarty) took voices and music and conversations with tellers from these automatic services and put them together around segments of material. We also found a woman who is the voice for the automatic phone systems for a large portion of the hospitality industry, and had her record some non-traditional options. We had fun with it, and i want to do stuff like that on every album I make.
What are your thoughts on the current state of Chicago comedy and "making it"? Do you have any exciting future plans you'd like to share?
Chicago comedy is pretty good right now. I can't speak entirely to the improv scene, but I see good stuff going up everywhere. Stand-up wise, it's great. Somebody should be taping here regularly. But they won't. Sometimes it's hard to tell though. Crowds can be too nurturing here. Often times crowds in Chicago are made up of performers or friends of performers or even just fans of live performance, who've seen a lot of stuff. I mean they want to see
exploration and fresh reactions and energy, and as long as all that's there, and the performer is in the moment, the crowd is supportive. But it won't always be like that and sometimes, i think, that encourages less writing, which is hard to notice when the crowds are letting it slide because the performer is really good at pretending not to give a shit.
News? I'm moving to LA. Right after The Visitor's Locker Room SUPERBOWL EXTRAVAGANZA @ The Lincoln Lodge February 1 and 2.
HBO was recently in town for the Chicago Aspen showcases. Do you have any thoughts about this festival, its relevance for the comedians of this generation, and its philosophy on comedy as a business?
Aspen? They've made great things happen for some great comics. It seems like they found some people they like in Chicago this year. Hopefully they pick them. I don't know what their philosophy on comedy is other than bringing
people to their festival that they think the industry will be able to sell.
I don't know if the festivals are as big as they used to be though. I mean it used to be that 10-15 development deals (money given to a comedian under contract with someone exclusively while projects could be developed by and for them) would come out of the big ones (Aspen, Montreal) every year. I don't know if anyone gets development deals anymore. The business has changed. But it would still be sweet to get one. A festival. Definitely a deal.
Comedy Goes Big (Huge) Budget, Chicagoist Fights With Richard Marx
Steve Carell's Evan Almighty is ringing in at a budget of $175 million, the kind of dough previously reserved for action movies, back in the Stallone and Schwarzenegger heydays. What's with the monstrous comedy budgets lately? Oh...right...more money equals more funny.
Fresh Air recently chatted with Ricky Gervais about the BBC's The Office, and his new movie "Night at the Museum."
Chicagoist called the Bastion "A trusted source of interviews and reportage, serving up a steady diet of funny YouTubes vying to demolish your afternoon productivity." We heart you, too, Chicagoist, and because of that, want to share with our viewers a hilarious video starring one of you. Witness a re-enactment of a sassy e-mail dispute between '80's rocker and Chicago native Richard Marx (portrayed by Schadenfreude's ever-versatile Justin Kaufmann) and Chicagoist editor Scott Smith (portrayed by, wait for it...himself).
Also, just for kicks, a documentary about Sketchfest 2007:
The Bastion spent some time in a Northside office last night assisting (i.e. eating snacks near) a film crew shooting a short comedy film for RobertBuscemi's upcoming DVD. Comedy concert footage was shot for the DVD at Buscemi's smash hit Subterranean show a few months back, and five short comedy films will be interspersed with that footage to create what we expect to be a hugely entertaining comedy product.
Blerds video mastermind Jordan Vogt-Roberts brought some big shiny lights and a camera, and Buscemi's charming wife Sarah Hadley was also on hand to assist with ketchup and whipped cream smearing duties.
Don't Spit the Water performer Jenni ("Mildred Funderbunk") Lamb was there to absorb mock insults and perform a few befuddled pratfalls. Quite a stretch from her well-received play Memento Polonia, which she wrote and starred in. There was some confusion over of the true meaning of "Whopper" (chocolate covered malted milk balls or Burger King beef on a bun?) but one thing is for sure: funny was made.
Allison Leber is a vivacious and energetic Chicago stand-up comedian who performs regularly with Chicago Underground Comedy, the Lincoln Lodge, and Spitfire Comedy. She is a warm-hearted activist in a comedian's clothing, and has taken it upon herself to produce several Comics For Change shows, each benefiting a charity such as the New Orleans Common Ground Collective. She began doing stand-up in Columbus, Ohio, and moved to Chicago to get serious about her craft. Her style is at turns playfully dirty, hilariously self-revealing, and sharply observational. She vowed years ago never to be embarrassed about anything and strives to be fearless on stage. She enjoys examining the ideas that we act on - why are some things taboo? Why do some subjects make us uneasy? Comedy offers a playground where the rules are suspended and ideas can be explored, and Allison Leber is ready to play.
Wow, first of all, Allison, I just realized that your last name backwards is "Rebel," which was also the name of my first dog. That is totally awesome. Okay, on to the actual question: what kind of comedy are you performing these days, and where can people see you in Chicago?
I do what I think of as "personal" stand-up, with most of it springing from real experiences. I perform with Spitfire, the Lodge, Chicago Underground Comedy, and Comics For Change. I spearhead the Comics For Change benefits, with lots of help - Steve O. Harvey helps a lot - he got us the last two headliners. The main goal with those shows is to benefit different not-for-profits. First one was for Midwest Workers, which I pulled together in two weeks, and second one was for Common Ground (for New Orleans). The venue for the next one yet to be determined, but I'm really looking forward to it.
What was your one-woman show "Hello, My Name is…You" at Chicago's Loop Theatre all about? What did you learn from the experience of putting on your own show?
It was great - I did it twice, first at Loop Theater - the Nomenil theater group put on a festival, and rented the Loop Theater. I has six weeks to prepare, and was weeding out material until the last minute. I was going through major changes in life, sort of a metamorphosis involving self-image changes, and I learned so much through experimenting and trying new things, in life and onstage. I did one last winter at Stage Left Theater, as well, and I would love to do a one-woman show again.
What was it like the first time you went onstage? Had you spent a lot of time thinking about it before you finally did it? Where were you and what material did you use?
It was in the summer of 2000, when I was living in Columbus, OH, seeing a therapist, who asked me, "if you could be doing anything, what would you be doing?" I had never seen stand-up, but found myself saying that out loud. Things started opening up really quickly. Random but connected things. For example, I was working in a health food store and happened to bump into a customer who was a comedian - Larry Ramey - and had a great two-hour conversation about comedy that seemed like a sign. Then my hairdresser told me her husband was the manager at the FunnyBone. Then a friend told me a co-worker did stand-up, and that I should go check it out. I went to FunnyBone, and "accidentally" signed up for comedy contest (which I thought was a door prize raffle). All of the sudden, during the show, someone said, "you're on in three people." I was shocked but went up anyway, telling sex jokes, and talking about my cat, and managed to make a good impression. I won a lot of contests early on, which probably contributed to an initially naive idea of what comedy was.
Did you move to Chicago especially to pursue stand-up?
Yes, and somehow I managed to move here on Sept 10, 2001. I was staying in a friend's Gold Coast high-rise on 27th floor. After all the stuff that happened that morning, downtown was empty. It felt like I was in a desert. It seemed like a bad sign, and I felt very lost, like, what do you do now? I moved here without a job, wanting to start at Second City (not even knowing the difference between improv and stand-up). It was a crazy beginning but I stuck it out.
How did you find your way into the stand-up scene?
I would go to shows, go up every once in awhile at places like the Lion's Den, and the Cubby Bear open mic. A fellow comic said "you suck" in the middle of a routine once, and I decided I didn't like it any more. Then, in May 2002, I met Howard Stern's Craig Gass at a show, and he said "no, you're good...keep trying," which convinced me to stay on. I've learned that hanging out is very important - after shows, conversations happen about auditions and projects and so on.
Who is the funniest person you know?
Mike Olsen. His just plain honest opinion is hilarious. He has wide-ranging interests - art, music, and so on, which makes his jokes even more appealing.
Can you tell us about childhood experiences that shaped your appreciation for comedy, such as humor in your family, and shows/movies/performers that you enjoyed or were inspired by when you were little?
My mom is very funny - usually singing or cracking a joke, very extroverted. I liked a lot of '70's TV - I love the '70's programming aesthetics of Solid Gold, the Carol Burnett Show, even the Lawrence Welk Show. I liked more of the live performance shows. I still dig that '70's glamour.
What do the "normal" people in your life (i.e. family and co-workers) think about you being a comedian?
They think it's brave, but to me, it's so natural, it doesn't require a lot of bravery. Alligator wrestling would require bravery, but comedy doesn't. My best friend the social worker deals with more scary stuff at her job than I do onstage.
What would you like to be doing in five years?
I definitely want kids, and more stability. I've always enjoyed doing TV and radio spots, and I could see myself having a TV show or radio show. I want to have a full experience in my life - well balanced - work and family. I don't want to sacrifice one thing for everything. So I picture myself with kids, and still working in the industry. I love stand-up, but that can require road work, which isn't so appealing.
What's on your reading table right now?
The Unrepentant Whore, by the Scarlet Harlot. She's a prostitute and writer and performer and activist. I've always had an interest in women's issues and staying active politically, and these books confirm a lot of my thoughts. The Scarlet Harlot is tied in with some San Francisco artists - Annie Sprinkle, Nina Hart. Scarlet Harlot is fearless. Free with her body. Really lives in the present. It's some amazing reading.
What's a non-comedy lesson you've learned while doing comedy?
I've learned to be more thoughtful about some of the jokes I tell. Some jokes, early on, I would tell again and again because they always got a laugh, but then sometimes, I'd realize they were more mean-spirited than I felt comfortable with. Or some of the off-the-cuff jokes would ring in my head afterward. For example, some guy heckled me once, and I shut him down with a small dick joke, but it just didn't settle well with me. Sometimes a comic will say something in a defensive moment that doesn't really resonate with their outlook, and I want to be consistent with who I am onstage and who I know myself to be.
i.O. has issued a press release aboutTJ Miller and Thomas Middleditch's newly renamed Tuesday Riot being reformatted to include stand-up. Stand-up comedy at one of Chicago's legendary improv theaters? How can this be?
Some hard-core improv folks are up in arms, and many stand-up folks are saying "hey, now..."
Comments on the announcement include "I just hope it doesn't ruin improv," "There goes the neighborhood," "I don't understand how (stand-up and improv) are mutually exclusive," and "Any sh*thead can see that some of the most hilarious and most successful performers in the city do (both improv and stand-up)."
In other gossipy news, the rumor mills are cranking out at an unprecedented rate on this dreary day in the Bastion offices. Which one of these rumors are true... and which ones are blatant attempts at self-promotion and/or feuds of unbridled hatred?
It was recently confirmed in a flurry of IM conversations that multimedia comedic guru David Angelo was seen schmoozing with a network casting director some weeks back in the fabled Signature Room of the John Hancock building. While this Chicago comic is known for his online bravado, we are positive this meeting did occur. Angelo has "never lost" a Haha board debate [EDIT: or a CIN board debate, apparently, as evidenced by the recent stand-up vs. improv thread], on any of the broad topic range issues, according to him. And, apparently he has a national comedy tour in the works.
Recent FOIA requests have allowed us privilege into another IM conversation, which may more aptly be called a blood feud between self-titled "power broker" Rob Johnson and the scenester known as K-Rock*. The feud began whilst debating the merits of Der Wille zur Macht, and whether or not Johnson is an ubermensch. This feud has lasted for roughly two days and has now escalated into increasingly vicious GChat status messages aimed directly at the other.
*a.k.a. the Bastion's senior reporter, who often likes to engage in online battles with Chicago comedy personas during her workday.
We're absolutely goofy here in the Bastion office with the news we heard this morning: ZACH GALIFIANAKIS will be headlining next Tuesday's People Under the Stares show at the 100-person capacity Weeds on Dayton. You might recall that BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY is also going to be there. Who else? Chicago's own and beloved Kumail Nanjiani and Prescott Tolk. Did the Bastion secure their press pass yet? Oh, of course not. Is the first show already sold out? Yep. There maaay be a second show added though, so we'll keep you posted.
Did you know Jared Logan was the first infant to climb Mount Everest? It's true. He blogged about it.
Rachael Mason is a little annoyed with symbolism itself. Haven't we all had days like that? "Dear Symbolism, You can get f*cked too. I saw a dead bird and a broken bottle and a car crash and an ambulance and a homeless man all before 10 am today and last night I had a dream about bugs in my guts. I get it. I can see you. You know a picture is worth a thousand words right? Stop beating me over the head with the imagery already. My life is a scary movie. Fine. Piss off and leave me alone."
Mike Bridenstine plans to drop $3 million at the Peninsula this New Year's Eve, but only 'cause they're throwing in a Bentley.
Allison Bills pointed us to a fascinating article in Vanity Fair called "Why Women Aren't Funny" by Christopher Hitchens, who uses a study from Stanford University School of Medicine to explain that comedy, like everything else, is about getting laid. Oh, and then he made some piggish statements about women. Aw, Christopher Hitchens, sometimes you say the cutest things.
Speaking of funny/smart girls, Jena Friedman has given us permission to share her senior anthropology thesis from Northwestern with our readers. It's called "Whose Truth and Comedy? An ethnography of race, gender and power in long-form improvisational comedy in Chicago." It's the bomb. Click here to download the Word document.
Schadenfreude just got back from LA, where they had lots of meetings and made lots of air kisses with smoochy showbiz people. We remember them when they served us sweet potatoes with marshmallows at the Gallery Cabaret back in the day. Oh wait, that was a few weeks ago. Schadenfreude's Kate James also made this recent short with Steve Delahoyde, who can be seen below in the most recent episode of Talkin' Funny, with Sasha and the Noob.
We haven't signed into our Yahoo! account in weeks, but we hear that there's a contest over there, and former Chicagoan Ben Grinnell made it to the finals! Take a gander and vote for Awkward Rick; he has a chance to get a regular series on Yahoo! and 50,000 clams.
Speaking of contests, Chicagoist announced awhile ago: "Instead of letting it all slip through your fingers, why not mine some of that gold and create a pilot episode for a sitcom? The Chicago Film Office in association with the Chicago Short Comedy Film & Video Festival has announced the Chicago Comedy TV Pilot Competition. The best 20-30 minute pilot episode wins a $5,000 cash prize and will also get the attention of some top TV execs."
Looks like the folks over at Don't Spit the Water! have a little teaser afoot on YouTube! We hope like crazy that this 43 second intro clip is the start of a long and hilarious series.
This past Friday, the first Alter(ed) Egos showcases were held at Kitty Moon, and saw an English butler, a Southern "gentleman", a wrestler, a preacher clown, and a plumber share the stage. Scenester Krystle Gemnich wrote all about it in her fanblog.
Yesterday was Football Sunday, wherein the Bastion watched the Buffalo Bills DECIMATE the New York Jets with comic Chris Burns, and then popped over for more football chaos with two-thirds of the Visitors Locker Room at their IRL headquarters, Seven Ten Lounge. It was here that we were informed of an impending changing of the guards, with one of the boys heading off to brighter and warmer climes in the coming months. There is also a Web site in the works for this daily Internet radio show; they aren't leaving the Fearless family but are creating their own Web presence.
Afterward, we thought we'd check in with the Your Sunday Best showcase at Bad Dog Tavern, where we ran into the little-seen (as of recent) Mike D. of Red Bar Radio and filmmaker Jordan Vogt-Roberts of Blerds.com, among many, many other projects. We also got to chat briefly with TJ Miller, who had just returned from showcasing in NYC for the people of the Aspen comedy festival; we hear from a few different sources that he's a sure bet for Colorado.
A couple things of note for the week: tomorrow, Tuesday, December 12, is the first Chicago Underground Comedy show in their new home, the Beat Kitchen. Thursday is the "Honeys and Funnies" Star and Garter Burlesque show, which is being filmed for a documentary; if you haven't seen these girls shake it yet, get over to Fizz for a little holiday heat. And, that same night (and also Friday night) the Lincoln Lodge is hosting the SpitFire girls, for an all-female drag-em-out and stand-em-up comedy show. Special guests will be the dancers of Hipnotic and Second City's Deb Downing-Grosz. Chicago has finally come out of deep freeze, so get out there this week and see some live-action entertainment.
We thought it was a joke, too, but it's confirmed: Bonnie "Prince" Billy, a.k.a. William Oldham a.k.a. our favorite chanteur for our most dark + melancholy times, is trying his hand at the old stand-em-up comedy... People are talking, and getting geared up to see yet another version of ol' Billy December 19 at the People Under the Stares show, produced by Drag City Records and the Empty Bottle. We tried to snag a few quotes from him (haha!), but no go, says Dan over at Drag City. That's okay; we still love you, and will support all of your endeavors and artistic paths.
Kumail's on the bill, too. Come see him fresh from slaughtering at the NYC Aspen callbacks this past week.
Chicago is cold. Finger-freezingly, idea-inhibitingly, motivation-drainingly cold. We're giving ourselves the day off and will be back Monday to thaw your chilly little hearts with exciting, hot talk about your favorite subject and ours, Chicago comedy. See ya then! In the meantime, a video our pal Renee Gauthier and fellow Chicagoans-in-LA Kyle Kinane and Matt Braunger put together.
Second City Gracefully Traverses Middle Age, Charna Halpern Finds Long-Lost Del Close Wisdom
Happy 47th Birthday to the venerable Chicago cultural icon Second City, which celebrates the big four seven on Saturday, December 16. If Second City were Demi Moore, it would be undergoing about $100,000 in plastic surgery right about now, and attempting to relaunch its career with a sexy turn in an action franchise, and a hot younger husband. But it's not.
Second City performers will also be teaming up with Rosie O'Donnell for a special event on December 15 on the cruise ship Norwegian Pearl to benefit Rosie’s For All Kids Foundation.
i.O. founder Charna Halpern was cleaning out a bookshelf recently and found a long-lost note from Del Close, about the nature of improv and The Harold. It's some fascinating stuff. Check out Charna's blog entry on that topic. From her transcription:
"DEL’S NOTES ON THE HAROLD
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
1. You are all supporting actors
2 Always check your impulses.
3 Never enter a scene unless you are needed.
4 Save your fellow actor, don’t worry about the piece.
5 Your prime responsibility is to support.
6 Work at the top of your brains at all times.
7 Never underestimate or condescend to your audience.
8 No jokes (unless it is tipped in front that it is a joke.)
9 Trust…trust your fellow actors to support you; trust them to come through if you lay something heavy on them; trust yourself.
10 Avoid judging what is going down in terms of whether it needs help (either by entering or cutting), what can best follow, or how you can support it imaginatively if your support is called for.
11 LISTEN"
What is Chucklebowl? Only the most fun you could possibly have on New Year's Eve! "The Lincoln Lodge stand-up comedy and variety showcase teams up with the comedians of Chicago's premier humor site, Blerds.com, to produce the city's most off-beat and affordable alternative to this year's New Year's Eve events."
Saturday December 16 at 10 PM at the Cornservatory, join the ho-ho-ho-licious fun with Chicago comedy's favorite pimps. Yeah, that's right. "Who’s cooler than a polar bear’s toenails? Pimprov, that’s who! And they’re back to bring you some holiday ho'larity. Get your minds off shopping, and on to more important things…Pimprov!"
We've heard rumors that Chicago's longest-running showcase, The Elevated, is on hiatus while Cayne Collier finds a new room for his show. What's the word on the street?
A special event coming up December 10 from 6-8 PM at the aforementioned Lodge: a workshop designed to help comedians learn how to put comedy on the road and make money from it. Tim Joyce will be among the speakers. Issues addressed will include how to turn showcases into auditions and feature work, and how to tailor your act for specific audiences without compromising your material.
Recently, Chicago stand-up comedian Hannibal checked in with us from his jaunt overseas. As the Bastion reported earlier, Hannibal's determination to get more stage time in New York City led to a spot in the New Faces showcase at the Montreal Comedy Festival, which brought him to the attention of producers who offered him a sweet trip to Europe/spot on tv deal. Sounds like a nice excuse to skip out of a few days of early Chicago winter. Hannibal's report on his experiences:
"The Comedy Factory taping went well. I got there on Sunday the 19th after a seven hour flight. The show was being filmed in Rotterdam on Monday the 20th. We did a warm up show in Tilburg on Sunday night at a venue called 013. The place was packed with more than 700 people. The host of the show was Jorgen Raymann who has a weekly late night television show in Holland, so the audience went crazy for him.
"Performing there was intimidating initially because I wasn't sure how the crowd would react to my material in a different country. It was really interesting was that Jorgen and a couple other comedians perfomed entirely in Dutch. It was cool to see the crowd react strongly to comedy in two languages. The show was a lot of fun and it was really exciting that the material went well.
"Monday and Tuesday were the days of the taping at the Prinses Theater in Rotterdam. Three separate shows were filmed and I was on the second show on Monday. There were packed crowds and it was a really nice theater. Also on my show was Laurie Elliot from Canada, and Rachid Larouz from Holland. Each of the six tapings had at least one Dutch comedian. I did my set and I did basically the same material that I do here and it was a fun time. I did a 9 minute set and they're going to edit it down to six. The show airs in Holland in January. It was definitely a lot of fun doing TV for the first time and it was pretty cool to do it in Holland. I got to meet several other comedians from the States, England, and Holland. I went to Amsterdam for a week and performed once at the Comedy Cafe. All in all it was an excellent experience and I would love to do it again in a couple of years."
We just got the green light to officially congratulate a veritable TON of amazing Chicago talent that will be taking to various stages this week in New York City for the HBO Aspen Showcase Call Backs -- specifically, Pat Brice, Lil Rel, TJ Miller, Kumail Nanjiani, Prescott Tolk, and the sketch groups Misled, with Pat O'Brien and Peter Grosz, and the Ragdolls, the group behind Moist. We would ALSO like to congratulate Chicagoan-now-Los Angelo Kyle Kinane on his recent showcase date on the left coast, which we're dying to hear about.
As an aside, if you followed the above links for the stand-up comedians, you'll note that five of the six are also writers for the writing and film site Blerds. Yes, we've mentionedthe sitebefore, and it's because it's one of our favorite projects to watch this year in Chicago comedyland. There's no denying the power of collaborative work, and the development of creative partnerships, and when the right conditions come together at the right time, the art is a truly magical thing to watch. Sure, we've been watching a lot of Prime Suspect recently and are nerding out, thinking about how amazing it is to be privy to high level entertainment art, which is exactly what we feel Blerds is on its way to excelling in. Oh, and the Tribune wrote 'em up yesterday.
The Bastion is officially requesting a guest blog by Lil Rel. Too much to ask?
Which collaborative projects are exciting you lately?
And we love them for it. The Bastion offices have been very excited about the full page photo and full length article on our friends' show, A Demon Who Never Appeared!, which dropped in this week's issue of Time Out Chicago. On top of that, we hear that today's Wall Street Journal will have an article on stand-up comedy, with quotes and a photo of Demon co-founder Jared Logan. Pick up yer copy during lunch!
The December installment of Demon will take place tonight at midnight at the Playground Theater.
Photo by Jon Wilcox.
EDIT: And until we receive a cease-and-desist order, you can read the FULL TEXT ARTICLE from WSJ here!
Comedy Comes Clean
By JEFFREY ZASLOW
December 1, 2006; Page W1
American comedy feels ruder and raunchier than ever. The movie "Borat" has become a scatological sensation. Satellite radio has embraced the dirtiest minds on the planet, with Howard Stern leading the discussion. And comedy clubs have become a breeding ground for anything-goes slurs, culminating in the recent onstage racial tirade by "Seinfeld" star Michael Richards.
But up next, let's have a big hand for...cleanliness!
It's no joke. Those in the funny business are saying that, despite all the explicit sitcoms and mean-spirited Internet humor, there's a quiet countermovement toward clean comedy. Some comedians are deciding they're tired of using profanity as a crutch. Others find clean comedy can be more lucrative. Scores of comics are signing contracts promising to eschew foul language and controversial topics. And this week, veteran comic Paul Mooney said he will stop using the N-word in his routines, and called on other black comedians to do the same.
It's a backlash, 40 years in the making, in which some comics say it's time to redraw the line between edgy and unacceptable. "Blue comedy is so commonplace, it's no longer counterculture," says Brian Regan, a comedian who once did a routine in which he diagramed the grammar in sentences that contained the F-word. He has since cleaned up his act and now plays large concert halls. As he sees it, today's twentysomethings grew up clicking through cable and pay-TV channels, absorbing a steady diet of nonchalantly raunchy comics and sexually explicit sitcoms. To them, inoffensive humor can seem refreshing.
Case in point: 26-year-old Chicago comic Jared Logan. "The Etch A Sketch is the toy for drawing that makes drawing almost impossible," he says. "It simulates what drawing would be like if you had crippling arthritis." Another observation: "My favorite part of an order of onion rings," he says, "is the free French fry."
From cruise lines to theme parks to faith-based venues, this new emphasis on keeping inappropriate humor at bay seems to mirror the mood among many Americans. According to a poll released yesterday, just 6% of 9,095 respondents say they want edgier, more-sexual entertainment programming; 51% said they want more shows with positive messages, and even references to God and the Bible. The poll, by Zogby International, was conducted in partnership with the American Bible Society.
Clean proponents argue that non-vulgar humor can be as funny as the dirtier alternative and as valuable as social commentary. It's also safer -- a reminder that we still need boundaries in our society. Seinfeld's Mr. Richards learned this after he was heckled by patrons at a Los Angeles comedy club and responded with racial epithets.
There are now agencies devoted to preventing comedy from crossing the line to crass, a welcome trend for companies looking for entertainment at corporate functions. The Clean Comedians booking agency in La Mirada, Calif., requires all 100 comics on its roster to sign contracts that prohibit them from uttering a host of objectionable words and from making "references to bodily functions such as flatulence, mucous, menstruation, urine or excrement." The agency booked about 800 dates last year -- up 25% from the year earlier -- for fees averaging about $5,000 a night.
Heard at the Airport
Jan McInnis, one of the Clean Comedians' comics, has plenty of attitude, but every word is G-rated. "Now that my sister has kids," she says, "the only gifts she gives me are pictures of 'em. I don't have any kids. So I sent her a picture of me sleeping in on Saturday." At corporate dates, she tweaks the workplace. "The last company I worked for was into employee motivational things. Team building means employee empowerment and ownership," she says. "So I took the copier."
DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT...
Clean routines that resonate today are often smart-but-twisted efforts to explore the topical or the universal. Here's a sampling:
Brett Leake -- Has joked about his muscular dystrophy on "The Tonight Show" -- "I don't understand senior-citizen discounts. Why do they get half price when they've had twice as long to raise the cash?"
Jared Logan -- Young Chicago comic maintains his day job as a customer-service representative -- "Have you ever gone skinny dipping in the Talaveras County reservoir? Off old Route 90? On a warm June night in the summer of 1995? With Mindy Tuttweiller? Because if you have... then you're the one who murdered her."
Jan McInnis -- Popular convention speaker; specializes in workplace humor -- "You smokers are the only ones who know what's going on in a company. You take smoke breaks and talk to people in other departments. You just don't live long enough to tell anyone."
Emo Philips -- Mop-topped veteran comic known for falsetto delivery -- "I took my sister's baby to the park. I was pushing him. He was crying. I forgot the stroller."
Brad Stine -- Author of "Live From Middle America: Rants from a Red-State Comedian" -- "If you get dental floss caught in your teeth, what do you use to get it out? Popcorn?"
Just because humor is G-rated doesn't mean it can't be provocative. Arab-American humorist Ray Hanania says there's one question people like to ask him when they see him at the airport: "Are you on my flight?" Clean humor can also embrace the elephant in the room. "People want to know what happened to me," says veteran comedian Brett Leake, who has muscular dystrophy. "I tell them: I broke a chain letter."
Many comedians are calling for a re-evaluation of what constitutes "cutting-edge" humor today. It helps to know the history, because the definitions of inappropriate humor change as the culture does. Bob Newhart, who has always worked clean, recalls that in the early 1960s, Time magazine labeled him one of America's "sick comics" because he poked fun at "sacred topics." One of the offending routines, reprinted in Mr. Newhart's new memoir, "I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This," imagined Abraham Lincoln getting advice from his PR man on how to write the Gettysburg Address.
Later in the 1960s, with the country in upheaval, Lenny Bruce set out to test society's uptight limits, and Richard Pryor used dirty language as a way to tell the world where he came from. "He was talking about the ghetto, and he needed to use the language of the ghetto," Mr. Newhart says. "I'd feel cheated if Richard got up and said, 'Gosh darn it.'"
In 1972, when George Carlin rattled off his "seven dirty words," Baby Boomers enjoyed feeling like naughty co-conspirators. "You'd be jazzed by that," says Mr. Regan, 48. "You were hearing something you weren't allowed to hear. But young people today hear everything. The fact that something is dirty isn't the enticing part. It also has to be funny."
Many who rely on dirty humor do so because vulgar language helps sell weak jokes, says stand-up veteran David Brenner. He says he feels like telling many of today's dirty comics: "I see your energy, I hear your loudness and all the F-words, I get your antisocial premise. I'm just missing your punchline." It saddens him when audiences respond to simplistic humor just because it's dirty. "People are laughing at things that 25 years ago, they'd have stared at you," he says.
Of course, plenty of comedians say cringe-inducing bodily functions are fair game. Penn Jillette, half of the comedy/magic duo Penn & Teller, argues that the difference between clean and dirty is like the difference between electric and acoustic guitars. "Both make music. Both are valid," says Mr. Jillette, the co-producer of last year's "The Aristocrats," a documentary in which dozens of comedians told variations of the same offensive joke.
Mr. Jillette says that if someone prefers not to use blue material for artistic or personal reasons, he understands. "It's like an artist saying he doesn't like using the color blue in a painting. I respect that. But if someone says people shouldn't use blue because it's immoral, then I say [string of expletives]."
Most every Sunday night, Jay Leno performs at the Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, Calif., to test clean jokes for "The Tonight Show." Mike Lacey, who runs the club, has a rule for his comics: "If they're not clean, they have to be brilliant." A few non-clean comics he admires are Chris Rock and Howie Mandel.
Comedian Brad Stine, 46, says staying clean is the right moral decision for him. Back in his comedy club days, he used to do a "nose floss" routine (we'll skip the details). But when he realized his faith might be his "hook," his edginess became totally clean, yet still pointed. Liberals are his favorite target, and he also finds the funny aspects of faith. "If someone scares the hell out of you," he says, "shouldn't you be grateful?" Mr. Stine is now a huge draw on the evangelical circuit, playing to crowds as large as 15,000 people.
Operation Thesaurus
Successful practitioners who work mostly clean include Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Mr. Leake, 47, says he never earned more than $1,700 a week playing comedy clubs, but now he does 80 clean corporate gigs a year, usually earning $3,000 a night. And humorist Andy Borowitz emails his satirical fake-news Borowitz Report to 250,000 people. (This week, his report explained that President Bush has vowed not to let civil war erupt in Iraq, and therefore "would aggressively search for new synonyms for the phrase 'civil war.' " The U.S., he added, is "prepared to hunt down every last thesaurus on Earth.")
Humor site JibJab won massive attention during the 2004 presidential race for the parody "This Land Is Your Land," which was viewed 80 million times. JibJab also recently added a user-fueled "JokeBox" section that has grown to include nearly 300,000 text, audio, video and photo gags. The jokes are rated by 200 site volunteers, and as of last week, 93% of its posts were rated PG-13 or tamer. "If you want to build a business around advertising, you need comedy that won't be offensive to spo
Our Big Poppa the Apiary is proudly announcing the forthcoming launch of the LA branch of our indie comedy network: "--And finally... In a move that will hopefully fare better than when Marvel Comics created the abysmal West Coast Avengers... an LA version of this site is launching soon!" Who is the new editor? How do we all find each other, in this crazy, crazy world? Details coming soon.
Is "tragilarious" a word? Mackenzie Condon's critique of the Santorum family's reaction to Daddy Rick's failure to get himself re-elected to Congress is damn good. Matching plaid jumpers have never been as tragic (and funny).
And don't forget: Chicago comedy isn't going to let you down in helping get the New Year off to a great start. There's the party over at Kitty Moon on NYE -- producer Dave Odd says, "Doors at 9:30, show at 10:30. Line-up so far will be Blitz style with me, Mark McClathchey, Sean Rumrill, Matt Roberson, John Pawlowski, Lauren Bishop, Cindy Cornelson, Alex Orozco, Chad Briggs, Mike Palascak, Fay Canale, Darius Kennedy, and Mike Cody. Cover is only $10 and I'm sure there will be drink specials, I just don't know what they are." The Lincoln Lodge and Blerds.com are teaming up for Chuckle Bowl at Lincoln Lanes, and tickets are going fast -- with free pizza and bowling, in addition to stand-up comedy, $3 domestics, and a film screening, why wouldn't they? What else is going on, you guys?
