Category: Premiere

Hannibal Buress, His Fame, And His Netflix Special

Hannibal Buress!

One of my favorite comedians. His special came out (yesterday? two days ago? yes, two days ago) on Netflix and I watched the first 20 minutes or so last night before I fell asleep. How quickly I fell asleep was unrelated to the goodness of the special. However, I feel like I’ve seen him do better. On Joe Rogan’s podcast, I remembered him describing this as his “sweatiest” special, so you know he’s working hard. There was one bit I remember about how one time no one would let him into a particular hotel because he didn’t have his ID…something like “yes I’ve gone on TV with the alias Hannibal Buress just so I could check into this hotel.” I really liked that one. And hey, I haven’t seen the whole thing, so maybe the rest is absolutely fantastic and I’m being unfair.

This Splitsider interview came out a couple of days ago to promote the special. It’s about Buress and dealing with fame. It’s pretty fun.

Now here’s the trailer for the special. If my dumb blog post didn’t get you excited enough to head over to Netflix this will, probably. I’m not sure. Probably.

The Sam Kinison Collection

“His gigs were part strip show, part heavy-metal concert, all primal-scream therapy.”

If you’re young and don’t know anything like me, you might never have heard of Sam Kinison. I heard about him once when I started comedy and now I have one of his comedy records and we get along just swell. Kinison is up there with the greatest comedians of all time. Why? I actually don’t know. I actually don’t find him very funny. But I do think he’s unlike anyone I’ve ever seen and if I was friends with him I know I’d think he was hilarious. That’s why I like listening to him so much.

I know my mom wouldn’t like him because he screams and yells all the time in his stand up, something he might have picked up as a short-lived Pentecostal preacher. Kinison was a weird, crazy guy and he died too young and too suddenly.

He did a lot of stand up. And something I didn’t know until reading this article was that apparently every one of his sets was different. That’s insane. He told different jokes every time he was on stage. So, a lot of his material has been lost over the years, especially since not everything was video recorded in the 80’s (that’s why you can’t find too much of his stand up online and why I’ve gone to albums).

Comedy Dynamics is coming out with The Sam Kinison Comedy Collection, which will pull together all his “lost” specials. Apparently there will be a bunch of stuff that hasn’t really been seen before. How do they do that? I don’t know. But it sounds cool and I’ll be looking forward to it.

Here’s some of his stuff. By the way…sorry if you’re like, “Duh! I KNOW who Sam Kinison is!” But it’s better for me to pretend you don’t than to pretend you do. And hey, you get to see a little more of him! Lucky you!

H. Jon Benjamin’s New Jazz Album Is Great

This has been all over Reddit, but I can’t help but share it because it’s hilarious. If you didn’t know, H. Jon Benjamin is the voice of infamous Archer and also Bob from Bob’s Burgers. And he’s a hilarious guy. He’s been all over TV, too – I’ve seen him in everything from Important Things with Demetri Martin to Aziz Ansari’s Master of None.

He released a new jazz album where he plays along on piano with a jazz band composed of world-class musicians…and he doesn’t know how to play piano. It’s the same kind of funny as those horrible recorder-playing songs, but way classier. And funnier, I think.

You can actually buy the album, too. So do that. If you like it.

Louis C.K. Is Working On A Cool Animated Pilot

Saw this article recently about how Louis C.K. is teaming up with Albert Brooks to write and star in an animated pilot for FX. (don’t start sentences with “I” because I’m cool)

I heard of this before and I’m really excited for it. Why wouldn’t you be excited to see something Louis C.K. is involved in? The article also mentions the other projects tht C.K.’s production company is working on right now and there’s a bunch of cool stuff I’m excited about too – projects with Zach Galifianakis, Pamela Adlon, and Tig Notaro.

Apparently there’s no word on when this stuff will be coming out, which pisses me off. I guess I’m just looking people to co-anticipate with me. Maybe I’ll watch some more Louie in the mean time.

Judd Apatow Is Returning To Stand Up

Hey, remember that summer blockbuster Trainwreck that Amy Schumer wrote and starred in? That happened because Judd Apatow went up to Amy Schumer and was all, “We should do a movie together” and she was like, “Yeah defs, Judd.” That’s the kind of power Apatow has.

For people who don’t really care about behind-the-camera stuff much are probably like “I don’t know who that guy is,” but you should. Before I knew anything about movies or television (now I know a few things, maybe), I never really thought too much about writers or directors. Most people, me included, only focus on the actors because that’s who is there. That’s who you see. They’re usually the ones credited with the roles rather than the people who really invented the parts.

Apatow is one of the best comedy screenwriter/producer/directors out there and he came from comedy. Which means that he started by doing stand up. I think that’s a really unique point that most people don’t notice or pick up on. A lot of “humor” screenwriters have never actually done stand up before: they’re just writers. Apatow is also a performer, so it’s cool to see him come back to stand up again and come full circle, in a way.

This reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedian documentary, which was about his comeback to stand up after Seinfeld. Maybe it’s not quite the same thing, but it has reminded me to post about that documentary at some point, so that’s good!

I got roped into this Apatow stuff by listening to the Todd Barry Podcast, on which Apatow was a guest this week. You can read about Apatow’s comeback here and listen to the podcast episode here (Ep. 111).

One other side thing that I heard about in the podcast was a pilot that Apatow is working on with Pete Holmes. It’s called Crashing and it’s a semi-autobiographical, single-camera comedy that has Holmes crashing on the couches of NYC comics. It sounds awesome and I’m hoping that it gets picked up by HBO because I want to see it. Who is Pete Holmes? He hosted The Pete Holmes Show, which ran on TBS from 2013 to 2014. Also, he purchased like 5 breakfast bars in front of me at the Denver airport once. You can find out more about that project here.

 

W/ Bob & David Out On Netflix

A year or so back, a friend told me about Mr. Show with Bob and David – that I should check out some grainy Youtube recording of it. I had never heard of the thing, but I knew of David Cross from Arrested Development and Bob Odenkirk from Breaking Bad. I just thought they were actors and never knew they did sketch. I thought they were both fantastic and so the existence of a Mr. Show blew my mind!

I did start watching that grainy Youtube video and I couldn’t stop. I watched Mr. Show for hours and it was unlike any other sketch show I’d seen. I had fun. But I was also extremely amazed and excited that anyone else actually enjoyed what Bob and David were doing.

I’m glad they’re back with five Neflix original episodes, W/ Bob & David. Watch the trailer. Also, Mr.Show on Youtube is below. Have fun.

 

 

John Mulaney: The Comeback Kid Now Out On Netflix

This past Friday, John Mulaney’s new special, The Comeback Kid came out on Netflix. What makes it cool is that it’s kind of like a small theater film. I really loved the intro to the special. Without ruining too much, the special was shot in Chicago and there are a bunch of artsy clips. I donno: It worked. I’m from Chicago too. I thought it was classy. And there was a talking dog. That’s hard to do.

The stand up itself was good: I’ve heard some of the jokes before, but hey that happens. He closed on ten minutes about when he met Bill Clinton, which is a great joke. It’s also why he titled the special the way he did: you’ll see. I also think it’s sort of his comeback to stand up comedy after his television show was taken off the air.

If you’re like “whoa I need more convincing,” here’s an article about the special. Check it out on Netflix!

Anthony Jeselnik’s Special Comes Out Today on Netflix

If you don’t know Anthony Jeselnik, you might know the witty asshole who hosted this past season of Last Comic Standing. That’s Anthony Jeselnik. He was also the creator and star of the show The Jeselnik Offensive.

If you love “I can’t believe he just said that” humor, you’ll love Jeselnik. He’s absurdly taboo. He makes Joan Rivers look like a sweet old grandmother. Speaking of which, he probably has jokes about Joan Rivers dying. Rape, abuse, cancer – it’s all in his sets. He’s the worst nightmare of the FCC.

To give you a little taste of what he’s all about, this is what Jeselnik tweeted on the day of the Boston Marathon bombing:

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Here’s the trailer for the special’s release on Netflix. It’s called Anthony Jeselnik: Thoughts and Prayers. In this interview, Jeselnik describes his Netflix special as “the darkest thing I’ve ever done.”

 

Nathan For You Season 3 Premiers Tonight

Nathan for You starring Nathan Fielder is one of my favorite shows on television. It’s one of the smartest comedy shows I’ve seen. Fielder serves as a business consultant to small businesses offering hilarious advice and following through on elaborate plans to make money in the dumbest of ways.

If you don’t know the show, you might have heard of “Dumb Starbucks,” which was an idea that Fielder executed on the show.

Fielder has perfect timing and an uncanny ability to make people trust him when they definitely shouldn’t. Check out this clip from the show where he interviews at a law firm and every word he says is decided by a seven-year-old.