Tag: writing

The Worst Jim Gaffigan Ever Bombed

I remember my worst time quite, quite clearly. It was a five-minute set in the darkest, quietest room I’ve ever been in. It was horrible for me, and I don’t even mind bombing that much.

It’s refreshing to hear big time comics talk about their worst bombs, because it’s humanizing. They weren’t always awesome all the time.

Here’s a little video of Jim Gaffigan talking about his worst bomb, I believe was filmed right before he went on The Tonight Show. I actually don’t really consider his story a “bomb,” even though that’s how he sells it, since he saved it and the audience was fine. But hey, maybe Gaffigan never bombs.

Louis C.K. on George Carlin

Do you ever see a famous comic and wonder what it would have been like to have been them growing up? Who did they look up to? Who did they want to be?

This is a video from some memorial event for George Carlin. Louis actually gets kind of emotional in his speech. The speech is about ten minutes long and Louis talks about how Carlin elicited his first “adult laugh,” gave him hope as a struggling comic coming from the same background, and inspired him to rewrite his sets every year like he does today. It’s a fantastic glimpse into C.K.’s inspiration for comedy. It’s also a fantastically written speech.

The Most Hated Comedians of All Time

Hey, if I should know anything about anything, you’d think it would be “hating.” Why? Well, for some strange reason I seem to have this effect on people where they either tend to think I’m okay or they completely 100% hate my guts. Luckily, I think the people who hate my guts are very much in the minority. But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

I’m not totally sure why, but maybe it’s just a comedy thing. When you look at the world in a funny way, people are bound to think your perspective is wrong.

Starting with Jay Leno, a lot of hated comics have been coming up in my posts and so I thought I’d do some more research on the subject. I found this Gawker article that lists “the most hated comics of all time:” Jeff Dunham, Dane Cook, Carlos Mencia, Rosie O’Donell, etc. I think the article is mostly from the public perspective, since there are a bunch of comics who a lot of other comics hate who aren’t on here simply because audiences love them. I can think of several examples myself. And, the only comics on here are really comics that were popular during the 90’s and early 2000’s, so it’s not a totally complete list. But you get a tiny taste of the hate.

What stands out to me the most from the article is that you can be hated for a wide variety of reasons: joke thievery, hackiness, treating other comics poorly, depending on a crutch, personality, you name it. It was somewhat refreshing to find some comics on there that I’m not a huge fan of for whatever reason. I won’t say which, but is there anything more fun than bonding over mutual hatred? Hardly.

Just hopefully I can be not hated by most people. And try to be a good person. I’ll consider that a win.

People love videos. Here’s a video of “overrated comedians.”

Thievery, Heckling, and Rape Jokes (Oh My?)

I hate that I titled this post how I did, but hey. People connect to dumb things in pop culture like that. Right? It’s a reference to lions, tigers, and bears IN CASE YOU DIDN’T GET THAT!

Patton Oswalt is a comic known especially well for his twitter rants. He’s really good in long form. He’s also good at long-form talking about comedy.

Read this. Oswalt published the piece on his personal website, where you can find a bunch of other great similar content. It’s a famous comic’s inside views on some of the biggest topics in comedy. That’s interesting, right? It is. This is the type of material that really gets me excited to do comedy: being able to see somebody break down the art in such detail. Someone who is on the inside. Joke stealing on its own is such a weird idea that non-comedians just don’t see it the same way. Example…

When I started doing comedy – back in 1988 – I did a joke one night, at an unpaid open mike, that killed.  It killed.  I wasn’t used to having anything in my set, in those first few months of shows, get any response from an audience other than a hard blink and an impatient sigh.

There’s a dopamine rush, for a comedian, when you cobble a thought out of thin air, when you arrange words not as a sentence but suddenly, as a joke.  A for-real, plucked-from-your-skull joke.  Something you created which, when you reach the part you want the audience to laugh at?  And then…holy shit!  They actually laugh?  That’s the spike in the vein that sets the compass for your life.

Well, I’d gotten a taste.  I wanted more.

The only problem was, it wasn’t my joke.

I’ve been there. I know what he’s talking about. I’ve tried a joke and thought, “That joke was too good. I didn’t think of that on my own.” It’s subconscious. But that’s not how people who villainize joke-stealing comics think of joke stealing. Not every joke-stealing comic is a Carlos Mencia or Fat Jew. Most of the time it’s an accident.

See what I mean? See more things from Oswalt’s view. Read the piece.

 

“Scumbag Cult Hero” Kyle Kinane

Kyle Kinane is one of my absolute favorite comics. He’s from Addison, Illinois which is just a little drive away from my home town. And he’s a weird guy. He’s that weird uncle you have with a beard and a beer who is somehow weirdly poetic. I don’t know your uncle, so I’m sorry for being presumptuous, but you get what I’m saying.

Now defunct Grantland did a feature article on Kinane in January, when Kinane was starting to really emerge. He’s had a few albums recorded but he’s still not really a household name by any means. It might be because his style doesn’t translate well to TV in a lot of people’s minds. I don’t know if that’s true, but that’s the only reason I can think of why he isn’t all over television. But he does have a massive cult following. And comics love him.

Here’s a bit from the Grantland article. One of the staff writers actually travelled along with Kinane for several days to write the piece.

“Kyle Kinane is everywhere like farty Jesus. He is in the shower with a six-pack of beer. He is drunk at a Wendy’s drive-through ordering chicken nuggets out of the sliding door of a taxi van. He is the guy at Red Lobster getting into a fistfight with the night manager over whether the moon landing was faked. He is accidentally childproofing himself out of a microwave while trying to nuke Totino’s Pizza Rolls. Then he is berating the microwave, shouting at the microwave to unlock, finally unplugging the microwave and eating the pizza rolls raw, while in his underwear. The next day he is crapping his only pair of pants.”

What an intro, huh?

If that doesn’t convince you to find out more about Kyle Kinane, here’s a Tonight Show set of his from February.

How People Respond to the Question “How Would You Best Describe Me?”

So, I decided to ask a bunch of people what they thought of me. Why? Well, It’s a really awkward question for people to answer and it’s fun to watch people deal with that. And I thought it could be funny. And I’m pretty much the worst at describing anything, especially myself. Why not let the masses do it for me?

Continue reading “How People Respond to the Question “How Would You Best Describe Me?”” →

Everything You Need To Know About Being A Young Comic

This is one of my most favorite resources on comedy out there. And it’s just a Youtube video with no picture, only audio.

It’s a sit down conversation with Ari Shaffir, a headlining comic who has hosted his own Comedy Central show, This Is Not Happening. All he does is spew advice. For four hours. Yeah, four hours.

If you’re into doing stand up this will be the most fascinating thing ever. If you’re not it will probably be the most boring thing ever.

Learn more about Ari Shaffir on his site.

Christmas Trees

Do you think Christmas trees know that they’re Christmas trees or one day a lumberjack just walks up to them and goes, “You’re going to die. For Jesus.”

And the tree is like, “What? But I had no previous religious affiliation heretofore!”

And the lumberjack is like, “Well, henceforth you do. Also, it’s the sixteenth century. That’s why we’re talking like this.”

It would suck to be a Christmas tree. You just live your whole life in Wisconsin with all your friends and then you die. All of you. At the same time.

And then you end up in someone’s living room and you’re like “What’s going on? I can’t feel my legs! How am I standing up right now?”

And then someone is just like, “Shhhhhhhhh…I’m gonna put Christmas lights on you. Trust me, it makes sense.”

And then you’re like, “But it’s the sixteenth century…Christmas lights haven’t been invented yet.”

Paul F. Tompkins on Peanut Brittle

The first time I heard Paul F. Tompkins was in the car on the way home from a comic’s retreat in upstate New York. Never before had I heard a guy who was so willing to push a joke concept to the extreme. He just seems to keep hammering a concept until you’re forced to laugh.

This is a fantastic bit of his about peanut brittle. Enjoy.