Amy Schumer has been everywhere this year. Trainwreck, Saturday Night Live, Inside Amy Schumer, and a million different talk shows.
Her new stand up special, Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo came out yesterday on HBO. Someone with HBO, hook me up?
Here’s her trailer for it.
Fun fact: Amy Schumer used to date Anthony Jeselnik, who’s special came out the day before on Netflix.
Check out Bill Simmons’ old podcast, The B.S. Report. Bill Simmons is the former ESPN analyst, journalist, and founder of Grantland who was fired from ESPN last spring for “no one really knows why.”
I’m a huge fan of his, mostly because he’s interested in a lot of the same things I’m interested in: sports, film, and comedy.
His old podcast is mostly interviews with sports figures, but it’s also many other things. My favorite interviews are those with comedians, of which he has a decent number. And they’re all top notch comedians and writers who he invites on the show because he personally likes them, not because they’re promoting something. Bill Burr, Louis C.K., Jimmy Kimmel, Lena Dunham, etc. He also knows a surprising amount about comedy for not being a comedian and does a lot of great research for the show. He asks interesting questions that aren’t always about comedy, which is also a nice change of pace from the typical comedian interview.
You can find The B.S. Report on Youtube here and his new podcast, which I have not had the pleasure of hearing yet, here. I particularly like Simmons’ interview with Larry David, head writer of Seinfeld.
I don’t do it as much as I used to. But I still do. And I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help it. I like to knit.
Joe Rogan is not only a great comic, but he strikes me as a great guy. If you don’t know, he’s the guy who first confronted Carlos Mencia for joke stealing before joke stealing was ever talked about.
I just saw this video on Reddit and I can’t help but agree with him on his views about how we currently treat transgender people in society. His views are very similar to my own views on P.C.. A fascinating listen whether you agree with him or not.
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:
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.”
I’ve been trying to get more and more into podcasts lately, listening to them on the go whenever i can remember to bring my headphones. As popular as podcasts are nowadays, it always surprises me how some people have absolutely no idea what they are or why you would ever listen to something like that.
I found the Comedy on Vinyl podcast on iTunes and I really like the concept. Basically, the guy (Jason Klamm) invites a guest who chooses a favorite or most influential comedy album to talk about for an entire episode. Klamm is an actor/writer, not a comic, but he can still have an opinion! He also brings in all types of guests, including comedians.
I appreciate that the podcast exists, but I also hate that it exists because I think it’s such a great idea. I’m a huge fan of old comedy albums and sometimes the only real way to get a good hold of the old albums is on vinyl. Talking old comedy is fun. Humor definitely changes over time and so a lot of the stuff might be funny in a different kind of way.
You can find out more about the podcast on its website. I’ve placed the first episode about Weird Al’s album In 3D here. If you don’t “get” podcasts…this might be a bad place to start. But if you like comedy albums it is not.
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.
I’m a huge fan of magic but I just hate when people do comedy magic. Usually, the comedy is low quality and the magic is low quality. Which makes me mad. Putting two mediocre things together just makes the whole thing mediocre.
However, Piff the Magic Dragon is an exception. He’s a weird act that I first saw on Penn and Teller’s show Fool Us a few years back. And he’s great. Funny and good magic.
Apparently he’s on to other things. He’s on this season of America’s Got Talent and already made it to the final round because of some gold buzzer or something (I don’t know the silly rules!!!) He deserves it. He has a fantastic resume and he’s been around for a while.
Just saw this interview from Mr. Piff and it’s fun. A short and snarky read.
There’s a video of his America’s Got Talent performance on the interview link. But, he did the same trick on Fool Us and I think he performed it better the first time. Here’s the old video.
I watched seasons one and two of A Young Doctor’s Notebook (AYDN) on Netflix all in one day. That may sound like an accomplishment, but it’s only eight half-hour long episodes. Total. So don’t make me out for a saint just yet (later, sure – do what you want). The show is a weird little miniseries thingy-kabob, which makes it all the more intriguing. It stars Daniel Radcliffe and Jon Hamm, who play the younger and older version of the same doctor stuck in a remote Russian village during the Russian Revolution.
My last post about that video reminded me of another great Mitch Hedberg-related article that has been going around a lot these past few weeks. It is a great read, so I thought I’d pass it along no matter how many other comedy sources are doing the same!
The article, What All Writers Can Learn From Mitch Hedberg, is a piece by Nick Jack Pappas who is a NYC storyteller, improviser, and stand up. You can read it here.
stumelton.com 