As a lot of conversations among comedians start, I was on the train with my friend Mark. I asked him if he’d seen Master of None (MoN) on Netflix yet. He said, “Yeah! I thought it was awful – I couldn’t watch past the first episode.” And of course I was like, “What?! That’s crazy! I think it’s awesome!”
I lied: his real name isn’t Mark. Way to lose the reader’s trust 15 seconds in.
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.
Once in a while I’ll look to share a cool stand up set from a comic I find cool or interesting. This is one of those times. Right, now. It’s happening, people!
This set that Randy Liedtke did on Conan was not your typical late night set, which I think makes it really cool. For part of it, he grabs his iPad and plays his “audiobook.”
Not your typical stuff. Check it out! Liedtke recently recorded his Comedy Central album. You can learn more about Liedtke here.
Remember how awesome story time was? Wasn’t it the coolest? Chilling in the classroom after recess, kicking back and hearing a fable or a yarn performed by your teacher just for you, with all the acting prowess of a Hollywood superstar like Keanu Reeves.
Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a place where people would come and tell stories to crowds of people? Like really, really awesome stories. Like, the best stories in the world. The kind of stories you only hear once every few years and they make you think, “Whoa, that was an amazing story.” (How often does your friend actually tell you an interesting story? Let’s be honest: never.)
Well, that fantastical fantasy actually happens at The Moth in New York City. It’s like story time for adults and it’s awesome.
In this video, Louis CK accepts some storytelling award at The Moth and starts his speech by humorously characterizing the storytelling organization as follows:
It’s nice to know you can reliably cry by listening to something.
Well, apparently there are a lot of sad stories told there. CK goes on to share a brief word about how awesome storytelling is before sharing his own story about a visit to Russia. The story is fantastic. It’s a great glimpse into Louis doing material that isn’t all punch lines, but is still hilariously fun.
You can also listen to The Moth on the radio, on iTunes, or on their website.
Shout out to a friend for sharing this great video with me!
This is a satire piece that I found recently. Usually I’m not one for satire. Hey, I’m sarcastic all the time: “wow all my friends are sooooo cool!” (it’s sarcastic because no friends…that’s how satire works, right?) If it’s a type of joke that everyone makes all the time, it doesn’t strike me as a fantastically good joke.
But sure, satire can be good if it’s done well. I’m not saying this is done well, but it is a funny idea to me. I like the funniness of it more than I like what it’s actually trying to say.
My main problem with satire is not that it’s an “easy” joke, but that it often comes with a political position or “cause.” For me humor is simpler than that. If you’re trying to do something or evoke something besides laughter, you’re over-thinking it. You’re just using humor as a tool. I think humor is good for humor’s sake. And to me, the best humor is humor alone and nothing more.
This piece does seem to be “trying to do more.” It quite sarcastically claims that, amidst all the terrorist hubbub, that white males are the really scary thing in this country: they’re the ones who have been shooting down all the schools. Funny, but I don’t like to read into it too much. Form your own opinion, I guess!
Mark Sundeen is an author and writer for Salon.
Hey, have I plugged a movie yet? I don’t think so…fertile territory. Fertile ground? Fertile territory? Does anyone say that? I don’t care.
I’ve known this movie was around for a while, but did not get around to seeing it until recently. I loved it. I could see how someone might not love it, but I thought it was written well, wasn’t too slow, wasn’t too weird, and wasn’t too clever. It also had some real substance to it.
It also didn’t hurt that some of my favorite funny people are in the movie: Demetri Martin, Tig Notaro, and Nick Offerman. Lake Bell wrote, directed, and starred in the film and it won some award or something or other. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that it’s about voice over work, which I thought would be a silly concept for a movie before seeing it. And it is. But, it’s done well. And I thought parts were laugh-out-loud funny. That’s saying a lot coming from me.
I’d love to compare it to Amy Schumer’s movie soon and see what I think. Because this movie also has some cameos from celebrities and stuff like that, but never got quite the same hype. We shall see!
Check out In a World.
I usually don’t post stuff like this, viral things that people already kind of know about. This is something I found on one of the front pages of Reddit. I know, I know. Anyone who wanted to see this saw it. It’s got like 500,000 views. However, sometimes viral stuff can also be good. I found the video entertaining, mostly, because Mike Bobrinskoy does something that I’ve done a lot of times, and that is to mess with people. He just takes it to the absolute extreme and has a great story from it.
Bobrinskoy reads out, for 10 minutes, a dialogue between him and a “girl” he met on OkCupid. What’s unique about this interaction is that it all reads like a joke. All of the writing in it, although I presume it happened real-time, is actually really funny.
I wanted to share it because it’s a crazy unique story and it inspires me to weird stuff on stage too. Bobrinskoy is a Chicago comic who has only been performing for about 5 years. He isn’t super experienced, but he has the ability to deliver this joke, and that’s pretty good. You can check out his website here. I like the small touch that his ex-girlfriend wrote his about page.
I was inspired by This American Life’s Halloween episode And the Call was Coming from the Basement, a show that featured all “scary but true” stories, to write about a scary true story that happened to me. This is a story about being home alone with my siblings when I was maybe around 12 years old. My sister was around 14 and my brother, 10. At least, this is how I remember it.
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyZ9l8anS9I
Do you want to know what it’s like to hang out in the back of a comic book store with all the best comedians in the world? That’s exactly what Meltdown is: a weird, almost fantastical place where comedians just come to hang out and shoot the shit. Oh, and tell hilarious jokes.
When I first heard of Meltdown, I was like, “Whoa, this is just like The Creek and the Cave, but, like, with really famous comedians.” The Creek and the Cave is a comedy club in Long Island City where I and a bunch of other fledgling comics hang out and talk in between sets and shows, but the somewhat huge difference is that none of us are quite famous yet. The comedians at Meltdown are doing the same thing, except it’s comedians who are on TV all the time, touring the country, and doing their own bigger and better things. But they like to come to Meltdown every week to hang out in the back room because, well, it’s fun.
It’s a hilarious concept for a comedy show: to have two hosts who take way too long on stage at the top, just messing around with the audience and riffing with one another. Like, way too long. And then they bring up all of their friends to do stand up after. Typically, an absolutely awful format for a show. But Jonah and Kumail do it so well and go on for so long that the actual length of their banter becomes funny.
The show is also especially cool for me, because my first show in New York was in a tiny, cramped comic book store. This one is much bigger and cooler. But, it’s totally the same in my mind.
You can watch the show on Comedy Central.
stumelton.com 