is stand-up over?

the stand-ups all seemed to be hired to say the dull thing you already noticed, except in a loud amazed voice — i never learn anything from them

i was just describing the shitty guy who hangs around my bar on Sundays and WILL NOT LEAVE.

stand-up: the tireless myrmidons of Use Other Ideas Plz

pugwash: WOT WAS ALL THAT ABOUT EH?

but i think my feeling was: WAIT - i don't know who any of these comedians are (so i'm noit being seduced by CELEBRITY) plus also they're NOT FUNNY or INSIGHTFUL. (yes yes they are CHEAP cz it will "do their careers good") (except no it won't)

it's the source that's dried up, i think

http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/G/greatest/cartoons/results.html

the problem is that the makers seem to be in a panic that it MUST be comfortable (which they don't want to be seen to be), so reach for their "alt vs mainstream" rolladexes to spike it up

my worry isn't that alt.comedy has dried up, it's that FUNNY comedy has dried up

when alt.com started, i don't think the enemy was COMFORT or TRADTIONALISM (though of course it was presented like this): i think it wz that the previous generation had (while stil funny) moved out of music hall and the workingmen's clubs onto TV and THINGS HAD GOT STUCK ie it wz a closed cycle of self-renewing repetition, and that's what we've got back to

I thought that about Rodney Dangerfield's death: he was like Bernard Manning except not racist or sexist, but not funny either, and that's what the Alternative Comedy revolution was fought against, right?

(whistling winds, tumbleweed)

which affirms my feeling that stand-up — "real" comedy — is now a source of lameness, and funny things worth watchin will be developed WITHIN TV

(the paul whitehouse thing may turn out not to be funny — i didn't see much of it — but the frisson i got having to recalibrate how i wz interpetin what i wz seein was a GOOD THING)

Whereas Ed Byrne, my favourite straight stand-up comedian, has now turned into Chris Tarrant. Brilliant.

nrq, do you know trevor griffiths' 1976 play comedians — the interestin thing i think in that (VERY prescient) piece is that the PUNK COMEDIAN who is the favourite pupil of the old NON-SELLOUT COMEDY CRAFTSMAN end up not understanding one another (NSCC says somethin like "there is a bit of a auschwitz-lovin beast in all of us" and PC - ha! - says "so yr sayin we shd LOVE THE NAZIS?") (it's not resolved)

the alt.com ppl were all pol pot abt it: "history starts afresh here!!"

this is lousy politics (inc.lousy revolutionary politics!)

i guess this ties into yr punk+=-thatcher (because of what they both wanted rid of) thing: the punk comedian *is* year zero. it is bad politics, but probably also the mainspring of [some] good politics: maybe it's sometimes necessary/useful to *feel* you're making a year zero even if it's quite likely you aren't*.

*not that i'm supporting pol pot. or ben elton.

i mean, maybe they weren't actually trying to be funny. they were on the show as guests cos they were "celebs" right? for the supposed "fame" rather than their supposed "funniness"? Plus the fact that the ones who agree to go to top 100 cartoons probably aren't the ones who are really busy with a successful tour happening.

(in fact there wasn't a wide-ranging choice of TYPES of sleb: comedians, coupla tv presenters, that's it — everyone else wz in some way connected w.the cartoon industry)

1. vaguely famous - the whole idea
2. talkative - people who'd talk crap about every cartoon/thing.
3. cheap - i dunno what kind of budget they get for these shows.

and hence you get your mix of crappy comedians and tv presenters!!

i hadn't actually watched that particular show but i'm guessing it's in a similiar vein to the rest of those and those i love 19xx shows.

when i watched them it always felt just like these guys were talking nostalgia like they would with a mate rather than you know, trying to be a comedian. and i actually DREAD the idea of them trying to come up with funnies in between entries. oh god the horror!

(i think the reason collins-maconie-quantick appeared on so many in the haha GOOD OLD DAYS of i love whatevah was that they scripted and devised half of them, so they were already on set)

i actually think the move to TOP 100 (from eg top ten) is a GOOD thing bcz you have to hun around for more material to comment on, and thus have to dig up eg minor characters involved who are NEVER normally on TV (four hours is a LONG TIME to fill. tv-wise)

It won't. For the same reason that a lot of pubs would rather host a stand-up night than a new bands night. Comedians are cheap and easy to book and you can have them come on for a short period of time, so that even if you don't like this one, you might like the one that's on in two minutes. If you don't like a band that's playing, chances are you're screwed for at least twenty minutes. The way that Brit TV has deteriorated since millions of new channels came in is just amazing, and the comic-filled lists are part of that. I don't see a real way out.

The sad thing is that many of the comics involved in these things are trying to get more original programmes made, but the networks aren't interested in anything that costs money.

(eg ilx on a good day is funnier than any paid-for comedy i have ever encountered)

TV is doomed. The plethora of channels is outstripping content, and that means that the talent is being spread thinner as well. Think about the early 60s (or was it the 50s?) when there were three US networks, and you could have Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Woody Allen & Carl Reiner all writing for Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows. Now, even Cedric the Entertainer can get his own show for five minutes. A rare exception to this is obviously Arrested Development--which is actually stand-up free, if you don't count David Cross--and why would you count him?

But by and large, scripted TV comedy, when it's done at all anymore, is more often used a star vehicle than as a comedy vehicle.

(us tv maybe but brit tv is a v.difft animal)

Peter Kay earned £4.5million last year, according to a newspaper’s ‘rich list’ today.

His earnings, the most for any comedian, came largely from his Live At The Bolton Albert Hall DVD, which sold 1.3million copies since it was released last Christmas.

It outsold the previous bestselling live video, by Billy Connolly, by almost two-to-one.

On top of that he has his lucrative earnings from the John Smith’s bitter commercials, income from making the Phoenix Nights spin-off Max And Paddy’s Road To Nowhere, and a wide range of merchandise bearing his catchphrases, from mouse mats to umbrellas.

His last tour was entitled Mum Wants A Bungalow, but with the earnings estimated by The Mail On Sunday he could buy 35 such properties in his home town of Bolton.

However, his earnings are eclipsed by former stand-up Graham Norton, estimated at £6.8 million, thanks to a lucrative BBC deal, and the export of his chat show to the States.

But the top earners in British comedy are, according to the newspaper,

1. Peter Kay £4.5m
2. Tracey Ullman £2.8m
3. Frank Skinner £3m
4. Steve Coogan £2.5m
5. Ricky Gervais £2.4m
6. Billy Connolly £1.8m
7. Jim Davidson £1.3m
8. Sacha Baron Cohen £1.1m

Now you know why he says "Thanks a million" when he leaves the stage.

(incidentally WOW: i am not surprised so many ppl want others to think they're funny)

is that where they tow away pubic wigs to when they're not parked properly in their designated bays?

Ringtones royalties?

Comedy Revolution my arse.

I was thinking that was the only way to explain it.

And comedian Tracey Ullman, who lives in the US, is reportedly richer than Catherine Zeta Jones and Anne Robinson.

She is the richest woman on the list. Part of her wealth can be attributed to her stake in The Simpsons, which started life on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987.

In fairness, it's not just because it was on her show. She owns parr of Gracie Productions, the company that used to make her show and makes The Simpsons. I don't think it's any different to Mel Gibson getting points for anything Icon makes.

I almost typed Mel Gobson there. A better name in some ways, I think.

It's always interesting to watch, as well, the comics who haven't paid their tax bills in a while. Hence people like Julian Clary turning up on Daz ads and so forth.

And I second the question, why the hell is Tracey Ullman getting paid?

kebabs.. did you see what i did there? HA AHAHAHAH FUNNY

Uh, me too. Not really.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/tracerhand/universalcomedyflowchart.jpg

(begging for a quote out of context but)

"my knob" isn't connected to anything.

I do not wish to know that, kindly leave the theatre...

how did 'open mic stand up' become the cool new thing for twentysomethings to try

idgi

like i understand why *one* would want to try it, just confused at the sudden preponderance of it in my irl social circles

[something something world of young people]

Is it with the intent of eventually doing non-open mic standup somewhere or is it just a thing unto itself? Because the former I get, but the latter seems like a fad. Like comedy karaoke or something.

they are just doing it to annoy lex

There's a pretty strong theme among comedians that true stand-ups earn their stripes at open-mics in front of strangers. I definitely prefer it to people asking me to come watch them try to do comedy!

the mug is round, the jar is round

podcasts

You're probably not wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gM1b40lvnI

are stand-up "classes" a recent development? never heard of them until recently when some friends did one and their graduation was an open mic night

the account of the Comedy Boom in the '80s, and the following bust, in Kliph Nesteroff's book The Comedians is a hoot.

I enjoyed reading that when Silver Friedman got the NY Improv club in her divorce, she deep-sixed comics that her husband had favored, like Gilbert Gottfried. (She ran that club into the ground by passing comics like me.)

seems stand-up is back in an upcycle

my question is, though, why are the players in the comedy scene allowed to parade the most immature, reactionary emotions (jealousy, envy, spite, schadenfreude, pride, vanity, bigotry) and somehow get a pass? this behavior seems pervasive in the industry and even ensnares most of my favorite comics! it's gross

Stand-ups are immature and reactionary? People don't tend to go into the profession because they're well-adjusted and deferential to social norms.

you mean in their private lives? bc exaggerating and demonstrating the range of human vices + foibles on stage is a good way to capture something essential about the human experience.

ha my post is ridiculous. i'm thinking of really arch, bratty, toddleresque behavior that you'll see in podcasts and vlog type stuff. kinda busy so can't elaborate now

turns out one of my favorites, doug stanhope, is one of the worst offenders, as i discovered when i started consuming some of his non-stand-up appearances. crushing disappointment

So fucking bummed about this Paul Mooney news.

https://www.tmz.com/videos/082719-richard-pryor-jr-4621818-0-1mtridf7/