Rolling Stand-Up Comedy 2011

bring your patton vs. louie arguments in here imo

i think the real diff between Patton and Louie is that Patton sets himself up as the outsider—sci-fi, too-smart-for-suburbia, anti-monoculture, english major, living embodiment of the Onion A/V Club. His comedy presumes a self-righteous feeling of alienation in his audience--whether that comes from being a comic geek, or a film snob, or an indie type, or a hipster, or a message board poster. It's kind a cuddly Sub Pop version of Bill Hicks or late-90s David Cross. Which, as far as I'm concerned, is a totally great thing. But...

Louie shoots way higher, going for a general Homer Simpson everyman vibe. His bits are all about how thinks he's stupid, fat, awkward, frazzled, weirded out by people, uncomfortable around women. It's a stark humanity rendered with hyperbolic tools and gallows humor. And you don't have to have listened to Stooges records or read The Watchmen to relate to that shit.

― Dan Watagatapitusperry (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, January 20, 2011 9:11 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

sweet thread

i want more thoughts on daniel tosh and his college campus race humor. is he big with the kids?

umm not really? more like the 20-35 demo prob

and tosh has been around for 10 years or more? i just knew the clip show thing.

i'm hoping people post great stand-up youtubes itt

He made the news on July 13, 2010, for beating both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert in ratings to have the highest rated non-animated show on the network. Tosh.0 is averaging 2.2 million viewers beating The Daily Show by 0.2 million viewers and is beating The Colbert Report by 0.8 million viewers

that's a bit of a misnomer cuz his show is only on once a week -- if either stewart or colbert was on his schedule they'd be doing like triple that tosh number

i like tosh.0 a lot as a show but he definitely crosses the line b/w making race jokes & using comedy as an excuse to be a racist

― hard as a markers (J0rdan S.), Thursday, January 20, 2011 9:23 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This is OTM. i think Family Guy does this a lot too.

family guy is okay but overall i get the vibe that seth macfarlane is a sociopath

jesus christ I didn't know people actually watched/liked that tosh.0 shit

another thread to discuss family guy! we're off to a stellar start

I have to put it on mute when I'm waiting for the ds xp

nyc'ers i think we need to go see Daniel Kitson's one man show, right?

jesus christ I didn't know people actually watched/liked that tosh.0 shit

― iatee, Thursday, January 20, 2011 8:48 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

tosh.0 is good! like it's entertaining & it deals w/ internet memes in a better & funnier fashion than the whole internet & most other pop culture mediums -- i think it has a great balance b/w 'the soup'-style playing a video and saying zingy one liners & field pieces (one of the best ones is w/ the guy from the nyer article that was stuck in an elevator) -- his field pieces are almost always amazing

i like his stuff like "Web Redemption" but seriously loathe anyone who shows funny YouTube clips on TV and then comments on them. Like they're YouTube clips, they stand alone!

Like some Vh1 show or something was like

Patrice O'Neal: This lady's about to fall down some stairs
[plays clip]
Patrice O'Neal: That lady totally fell down some stairs!!!

web soup > tosh.o

that said, like i said earlier, i can't fully defend the show because he does say a lot of racist shit that isn't funny -- like you can't try & pass off received racist wisdom ("lol black people steal things!") as comedy, because it's not comedy, it's racism, and the context of the remark doesn't make it less offensive or funny at all -- AND on top of that his audience probably contains a large portion of people that think that telling jokes about black people stealing bikes is just innocent humor

Kitson playin till the 30th, yall

http://www.stannswarehouse.org/current_season.php?show_id=54

Patrice O'Neal: This lady's about to fall down some stairs
[plays clip]
Patrice O'Neal: That lady totally fell down some stairs!!!

― Dan Watagatapitusperry (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, January 20, 2011 8:57 PM (28 seconds ago) Bookmark

rofl

xpost, that's like all i know about Chelsea Handler is she is on some "Black people steal things" equals a punchline

Tosh.0 may go over the line sometimes, whatever...who cares. I just think that guy's a horrible douchebag in a way that Joel McHale never is, even if they're doing roughly the same thing.

right, plus an extra scoop of "lol i fuck black guys, isn't that hilarious?" humor for good measure

xp

well, hold on -- the soup is like 20x as good as tosh.0 -- but tosh.0 is still good

I have a friend who just recently got a job as a writer for Chelsea Lately, but she's only had a couple jokes get used. She's honestly doing everything she can to make that show more cool, but it may take a while.

Tosh.0 is huge with a bunch of my coworkers...I've watched it a few times, but there's something a little bit too ironic about him. He makes me feel old bc I can't always tell where the joke ends, or if he knows...but he is kinda cute and the web redemptions are p great.
Soup for all time though.

j0rdan is otm about tosh and imo his show is the one exception to the vh1 show-type shit whiney is describing.

i've thought about starting a thread like this for a while but i was gonna say we keep it just about standups who are known as standups and not people who've already moved onto successful movies/tv shows...i feel like there are a lot of good middle ground comics out these days (and improbably a lot of them were on Last Comic Standing)

I guess this is as good a place as any to mention that Maron is going to be a guest on Conan tonight. I think it's the first time he's done the show since it was Late Night, which is where I first saw him a zillion times in the 90s.

Got to see Dan St Germain middle for Marc Maron a couple of weeks back. He is really fucking funny imo.

Want to see Moshe Kasher or Kyle Kinane if/when they roll through town...the clips I've seen and interviews have been great.

Kind of excited for Maron to be on Conan, hope it goes well. Though it is good podcast material if it doesnt I guess, so win win maybe? Lol.

Saw him on Ferguson a couple months ago and it kind of made me cringe. Jokes were decent, but he seemed so eager/ingratiating.

That's the only time I've ever seen him do stand-up, mind you. I know him pretty much exclusively from the podcast.

He and Conan go way back. I'm only slightly exaggerating when I say he was on Late Night a zillion times.

It's like 40-something.

Yeah, that seems more right.

Anyway, are we all glad that Demetri Martin has sort of vanished from existence?

Fuck yes

i think Demetri's Comedy Central show was his big shot and he blew it. by that measure, you guys should be happy it was Tosh that thrived instead.

Maron's always had a hyper nervous vibe, that's part of his appeal imo

yeah i wasn't a fan of martin at all

just watched the opening of Conan...it's really weird to see a talk show announcer trumpet one of their guests as "from the so-and-so PODCAST!"

I've seen Maron twice now in the past 6 months. He has a nervousness in his stories and delivery a little but then again, he is so comfortable on stage it's like you're visiting him in his living room. Just really loose and conversational and he doesnt grind gears between stories/bits the way younger comedians sometimes do. And he makes a lot of eye contact with the first couple of rows so it instantly makes the room seem smaller. Just fun watching the subtle little tricks.

Though i will say no wonder he pulls crazy sex crazed stalker girls. Dude is like a walking embodiment of the handsome college professor archetype as far as the way he dresses and behaves on stage. I saw him and was like "ohhh yeah I totally get why 25 yr olds screw your brains out."

apparently podcasts really are the new smart career move for comedians:

When [Comedy/Podcasting] Worlds Collide: Greg Fitzsimmons, who recorded us on his podcast last weekend, did an amazingly killer set on "Lopez Tonight" last night - check it out here [must-watch]. Fitzsimmons was on Marc Maron's WTF podcast just last week (listen here) and tonight Marc Maron will be on "Conan." Greg Proops, whose (excellent) live podcast I attended last week (listen here) was counted by The Hollywood Reporter TV critic (and friend) Tim Goodman as a forerunner for replacing Regis Philben on "Live! With Regis And Kelly" pending his retirement - a move that would finally make that show worth watching. And, in summary, it should be noted that Greg Fitzsimmons, Marc Maron, and Bill Burr (a frequent interview subject whose podcast we've often highlighted here) all have TV shows that are actively in development and/or have even shot a pilot. 2011 could be a great year for all of these great producers of comedy and for us viewers. - http://laist.com/2011/01/20/tv_junkie_516.php

Proops in place of Regis! God if that happened I would be happy. love that guy.

I basically only know Proops as someone who people think looks like Kenan. I think I thought he was British until like a couple weeks ago.

I like comedy, but I'm probably not a comedy nerd. Wondering how much that has to do with the fact that I've never in my life had cable and so have never seen any HBO or Comedy Central specials.

ha, bill burr is gonna have a TV show?? his stand up special on comedy central recently was pretty great i thought & he was always welcome on the chappelle show

Burr can be funny but i don't particularly like his standup

that's the kinda stand up i usually go for tbh, like ppl ranting about their lives as opposed to, like, carefully constructed jokes (& never anything w/ any ironic distance -- this is why i can't listen to comics telling jokes about reality tv) -- he's not amazing cuz his rant to joke ratio isn't as high as someone like louis ck, but i dig

I used to always confuse Greg Proops and Tom Kenny...until Proops got sorta fat.

lol - Oh! I didn't realize that (re: Comedian/Delirious). Is that Mel from FotC?

Yes it is.

oh jen kirkman duh.

Jen Kirkman is great, yeah!

Stewart Lee, Paul F Tompkins, Kyle Kinane, and Hannibal Burress would have made appearances in my top 40.

Lol sorry, I meant sorta cute & Midwesterny, yknow, "down home"...fail. She's orig from Wisconsin, sounds & looks like a lovely favorite aunt. But she's kinda wacky. I love her to bits.

Also, as much as I love the early Cosby records, not making Himself the Cosby pick (and, therefore, #1) seems like some contrary shit.

just chiming in to say, that Bill Cosby album is amazing; I cracked up just looking at the cover due to childhood memories

http://open.spotify.com/album/5YYm44WdWrAFaB6Rftcwll

I'd have a difficult time picking a Cosby album, they're all incredible

Oh yeah, I love almost every Bill Cosby album, but maybe Himself was just a right-time-right-place thing for me or maybe it really is his most fully formed routine/album. Whatever the reason, I can almost recite it front to back.

I'd probably pick Very Funny Fellow, maybe? Himself is fantastic too though

ENBB - check out Karen Kilgariff too, she's really funny.

I've probably only heard 15 of the 40 on the SPIN list in their entirety -- and none after McCulloch's in '95 -- but yeah, Live on the Sunset Strip is not EVEN CLOSE to Pryor's best. Haven't listened to the Cosbys in forever but Brother Russell is a splendid #1, as 2000 Year Old Man or Nichols & May would be.

Dennis Miller and Dice, gtfo. Murphy too.

I think funny women thrive in formats other than standup, who knows why -- Tomlin did a sort one one-woman revue rather than standup for nearly all her live gigs far as I know. Brett Butler was a really ace standup before she made her bucks as a sitmom.

The life of the road comic does not seem particularly inviting to women, for one.

and I'm sure you guys noticed, about 10 of those 40 are not standup albums, but studio ones.

well, the list was "comedy albums", not "standup albums"

So glad the Dick Gregory album is on Spotify. I've been meaning to listen to a whole album of his for 20 years, but never got around to it.

i've heard some firesign theater stuff at work (they came to our radio station a bunch back in the '70s) and man, idgi

so happy to see Bruce McCulloch on that list, Shame-Based Man is like my all-time favorite comedy LP. have we ever had a thread for that on ILM or anything? maybe i should start one.

There was a "100 great comedy albums" thread or something, but it's never been polled.

i don't think a poll would be any fun tbh.

last comic standing has been pretty good the last few years with finding funny female comics: rachel feinstein, iliza shlesinger, amy schumer (full disclosure, i knew amy briefly in college, but i really am impressed at how good a comic she's become)

i think some kind of comedy poll would be cool. maybe not albums but actual comedians?

eh i dunno, maybe? i kind of like how this thread is very casual and subjective and not at all about listmaking or canon-building. also every 'greatest comic' list ever seems really confused about whether to judge comics purely by their standup or also include their movie/sitcom/sketch/etc. work.

Yeah, I'm not really into a poll on this subject. Hard to believe, I know, because I'm down for polling almost anything.

Amy Schumer writes such well-crafted jokes. Very few wasted words.

I like Jen Kirkland (who I know mainly through Tompkins) but I think she's pretty hit or miss. I think all the women who have been mentioned (the ones I know, at least) have moments but none of them have blown me away. I think Morbs might be on to something about the format which is was what I was sort of getting at in my original post. Anyway, don't know Schumer either but will investigate.

i haven't seen jen kirkman's standup but i love drunk history so much

it's definitely true that even as women have gotten more and more respect in tv/film comedy standup is still as much a man's game as it ever was. i think part of that might be a lifestyle thing if i may be a little broadly stereotypical, that whole months on the road thing seems to appeal more to guys as far as musicians go too.

Self-promo:

http://www.spin.com/articles/spins-40-greatest-comedy-albums-all-time

FYI an 8-page clickthrough and no single-page or print option is a great way to not get your listicle read

saw Claudia O'Doherty's "What Is Soil Erosion?" stand-up show on Saturday and lolled consistently, for anyone who lives in a country she takes it to

that link isn't exactly a slideshow but i'd like to use this opportunity to express my total hatred of websites w/ slideshows (ahemslate)

YES. Just give me the damn list and let me gooooooooooooo from your website

http://open.spotify.com/track/2aKkac20GQegGlDA9u06jW

I love this bit a lot, too

(sorry for being all "COSBY squeee!" ITT)

i've heard some firesign theater stuff at work (they came to our radio station a bunch back in the '70s) and man, idgi

Me neither, I don't think I ever made it through an entire album side. But they were big faves of the student council stoner contingent in 1978.

Firesign's records are really spotty, but I think when they're at their best it's kind of a different thing than simply "jokes." It's absurdist theater, filled with cutural and literary allusions, puns and wordplay.

Yeah, exactly. I love Firesign myself (and Dwarf was exactly the right choice here) but man, sometimes you really have to work at the albums to pull full enjoyment out of them - they were the prog rock of comedy, really not the best choice for someone looking for quick hits of funny.

Glad the Cos is at #1 here because at his peak he was hilarious - got into a huge discussion with a coworker who just hated him because all he knew was the Cosby-Show-era mug-o-rama, and could not possibly conceive of a world where THAT GUY was one of the funniest guys on the planet. I have to admit that by the time Himself came around (and yeah, I enjoyed it too), it was really hard to reconcile that with the same guy who put out 200MPH.

lol 200 MPH actually the first album that came to mind as an alternate #1 but I was thinking maybe I was overrating it due to nostalgia

btw as far as I can tall all of the major Cosby albums are on Spotify

Listening to 200 MPH right now.

Haha, I don't necessarily think 200MPH is his best, but possibly one of his edgiest from the early days. I'm not even sure which of the earlier ones I'd pick as my fave because they're all wonderful(ness).

Whiney - was Tom Lehrer even in contention here? He definitely would have been in my top 40.

Also E=MO^2

firesign records work best with good headphones. its theatre of the mind, man!

i think i have all their records. and even solo and duo firesign records.

prog comedy! as Mort Sahl (ABSENT!) said, the kind that wasn't funny.

w/out clicking again, I'm guessing the Spin list was limited to one per artist? cuz otherwise there should be four Pryors, three Cosbys, two Nichols & Mays, two NatLamps (Lemmings?), etc.

i actually find firesign stuff funny. and i don't even listen to them high. but i liked them when i was a kid and i guess its a nostalgia thing. i love the radio play thing.

For sure, they can be really funny even if you're not into the whole drug culture thing they mined throughout. I find it hard to imagine people listening to the Nick Danger bit that took up the entire side of Two Places at Once and saying "where are the jokes?"

I don't get CC (or any other cable or TV) anymore, but I saw Kyle Kinane last summer in LA and he was exceptional. Not exactly what I think of as standup (thank God).

I love him. I accidentally got to hang out with him after a gig last year and he's really a cool guy. He was incredibly drunk at the time, so the fact that I still left with the impression that he was lovely seemed like something of an achievement.

But the way he makes his storytelling seem so effortless, when it's really obviously crafted pretty meticulously...however he does it, I hope he keeps doing it for a long time.

Pandora does standup now! But I'm not sure the format works because listening to single bits by a variety of comics somehow doesn't work. i.e. Louis CK, Mitch Hedberg, David Cross, Patton Oswalt, not very funny. Anybody have a good way of using this effectively?

Hannibal Buress ‏@hannibalburess

People say that I'm biting Mitch Hedberg's style but this whole time I've been channeling Ma$e.

xpost

Use Spotify and listen to the whole albums?

classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Dusb6XCA8

EASILY the greatest of all time. i went to the comedy cellar for the first time a couple months ago and it was actually touching to see ppl had written "GOAT" all over every photo of patrice, and only patrice. his death affected me the most out of anyone 'famous' who ever died during my lifetime, even more than gandolfini.

if he had lived through these last cpl years i 100% think we'd be seeing campaigns to disappear him from public accessibility and erase his legacy, and the sad thing is they'd probably succeed.