Tag: comedy

Cameron Esposito: Lesbian Comic, Also Just Pretty Darn Funny

Cameron Esposito is visiting my alma mater this week for a performance, which is great! And as colleges tend to go, the people who invited her probably don’t really know who she is. She’s a lesbian comic, and that seems to be their main selling point on students going to see her. College students tending to be liberal and thinking, “oh that’s great! I support lesbians! I’m gonna go see that!” and going to see the show for that reason instead of just, like, just wanting to see good comedy.

I have no problem with that strategy, because Esposito also happens to be a really great comic. But, I wanted to point out that she’s not simply a lesbian with a voice, but also just damn funny. She’s really funny and she just happens to talk about how she is a lesbian sometimes.

Some people even call her the next big star of stand up. Who’s to say? She’s from Chicago originally (like me) so I’d be pretty down with that happening. Some great comics lately coming from there: Hannibal Buress, Kyle Kinane. Represent!

Typing “my alma mater” feels weird. I feel like I wouldn’t like someone who talks about “their alma mater” for some reason. Like, “Ooh, so fancy! You know Latin!” But I’m pretty sure that’s the only word for that.

The 10 Best “Best Of 2015” Comedy Lists Of 2015

Yeah, so, as implied by the title I have seen a ton of lists out there chronicling the “whatever-est” comedy “whatevers” of 2015.

Here are the best of the best of 2015 when it comes to lists of the best comedy things of 2015:

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Gentleman And A Scholar

People are always complimenting guys saying, “He’s a gentleman and a scholar.”

Those are two things I’ve never wanted to be.

If I want to compliment someone, I say, “He’s a pimp and he runs a charity.”

That way, you can’t even be jealous of him. All you can say is, “He’s a great guy…he deserves all those hoes.”

Comedians Are Killing Comedy

Found this brief blog post on HuffPost Comedy UK called Who’s Killing Comedy? Comedians… Now, that might be a little extreme of an argument to make, but I get what the author is saying. Often times a lot of comics starting out will do anything to work their way into the industry and often times that means sacrificing actually being funny and putting on good shows to just appear as if you are doing well. It’s really frustrating when what everyone truly wants to see is just good, funny material.

Give it a read!

Some Interesting Reddit Threads On Comedy

I found some cool threads over the past several days. The first one is called What comedian do you find terribly unfunny? and it’s pretty funny to hear what people tend to say. It reminds me of the article I wrote about how people can find very different things funny or not. It’s always interesting to see which names come up more often and hilarious to see how angry people get trying to argue who isn’t funny. It isn’t that serious…

I also saw this other thread: ELI5: What makes our brains go “that was funny, now let’s laugh”? which is pretty damn interesting. The guy who wrote the top answer actually wrote a book on what makes people laugh and he also shared a great podcast episode about it. He gives an explanation of his thesis and there are a lot of comments filled with speculation. Which, to me, shows how ridiculous humor research can be. Through my experiences, everyone has a slightly different explanation for laughter. It’s caused by surprise or the unexpected. It’s a social relationship thing. It’s something to do with pain. Whatever. In my opinion it just is what it is. Interesting to think about, though, maybe.

Crowdsourced Tips From Podcasting

As I’m getting ready to launch a podcast with my comedy friend Matt (who also happens to be my roommate), I’ve been trying to find out more about what it takes to make a good podcast.

I just found this list of comedy tips that a comic named Simon Caine has compiled on his website from all his podcasting. He podcasted for a full year (34 episodes) and compiled all the best advice he got from each episode. The best thing is that his guests are people “from the industry,” so they kind of know what they’re talking about. Haven’t had a chance to actually listen to his podcast yet, but the tips are super helpful, and I think the podcast idea is really terrific. Just asking people questions about how comedy works can get you to a much better level of understanding.

Some of the episode topics look fascinating and I’m excited to give the episodes a listen!

 

Comedy Throwback: Who The Comedians Of Today Remind Me Of

Sometimes it’s fun to play stupid games like, “Who is the Richard Pryor of today?” So why not? But, before we get into this, I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to argue that any of these modern comedians are on par with the legends I am comparing them to. Nor am I saying they’ve necessarily been influenced by them, either. All I’m saying is that when I watch these comedians today, I can’t help but be reminded of some great old comedians. Maybe they’re just similar comedy souls born at different times.

Not quite sure what that means, but hey it sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Sure it does. Anyways, I tried to pick some comedian pairings that would be interesting without being too much of a stretch. We’ll see if that’s true, I suppose.

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Music Open Mics In NYC

I found this little ditty about going to your first music open mic in NYC. I just looked up the meaning of ditty, and it’s “a short little song.” Sorry for my inaccuracy; it’s an article, not a song. I could have just deleted what I wrote and then I wouldn’t have been wrong, but you know what? I like it this way. I feel more transparent. You can see how the cheese is being made.

Shit. It’s sausage isn’t it? I meant sausage. You know what? There’s no reason why I can’t make cheese AND sausage. They go very well together.

Well, this has some tips about going to open mics in NYC and it’s interesting. The ideas about “bombing” and meeting people are very similar to comedy. It also reminds me about how one of my friends always goes to these music open mics in the city and does comedy at them. He says they’re a very different, more engaged crowd and they can be pretty fun. I went to one once and I pulled to go 24th. Everyone got 10 minutes of stage time. Seeing as how I didn’t want to stick around a small bar exclusively filled with musicians for 230 minutes, I decided to leave. But, it makes me want to check out a better music mic, try it out, and see how good they are for comedy. Maybe I’ll write about that.

p.s. I love the picture I found for this post

 

Bill Burr’s Pie Crust Tutorial

This might be the first time I’m posting about Bill Burr, and for what I think is as fantastic a reason as any. I listened to his latest podcast episode yesterday and he mentioned a pie crust video that he uploaded to YouTube that got like 600k views. He said it has gotten more views than some of his comedy specials, which is pretty funny.

The video has got more than 700k, last I checked. It’s pretty funny. Just the idea of a tough guy with a thick Boston accent walking you through how to make pie crust is funny. It’s not every day you hear a baking video where the host goes, “You know what? I bet someone, somewhere is jerking off to this.”

I’ve heard from other famous comedians that he’s actually pretty awesome at cooking and baking. So I’d listen to him.

Glibert Gottfried Quote on P.C.

A comedian friend posted this quote on Facebook. I couldn’t find the source, so who knows if Gottfried actually said it. Either way, I think the quote is pretty funny.

“I think standup comedy these days should come with instructions for people that’s all…if u think it’s funny laugh, if u don’t don’t laugh.” – Gilbert Gottfried