• Around 2012 or so, Vimeo recommended a video to me. It became my favorite thing I’ve ever seen on the internet. In fact, it’s stuck with me so much that I watch it every few months and it makes me nostalgic for childhood in a way that not even “Power Rangers” does. This three-minute video is called “Disneyland 1990,” is directed by a guy named Chris Zabriskie and as much as I love it, I wanted to make a parody/homage version of it for years. So I did. My version starring Anna E. Paone and me is called “What A Honeymoon Cruise Is Really Like.” It’s a sketch/vlog/video diary thing poking holes at the modern cruise industry. If you ever wanted to know what it was like to go on a cruise, this is about as honest a portrayal as you will see and it’s only 3:35. Also, I think it turned out very funny and I think you would love it. Yeah, you.
Also! If you watch this sketch and you’re wondering where the music in the sketch came from, it’s by my very talented friend Youceff Kabal. He makes music under the moniker YUS, this song is called “20 Million” and is one of my favorites.
Link for the sketch is in the comments as is the link for the brilliant “Disneyland 1990.”
• Everyone bemoans how there are too many comedians in the world. I’m one of the bemoaners myself. If you’re going up in the fourth hour of an open mic, you’ve definitely felt this way. On the flip side, the best part of there being so many people who do comedy means there are always great acts you’ve never seen or heard of. This week, I got to see a headliner that wasn’t even close to being on my radar. His name is Sugar Sammy and he’s a huge deal in Canada and France where he’s a judge on “France’s Got Talent.” Embarrassingly, I only know mostly American acts. This has got to change after seeing what Sammy brings to the table. Sammy just finished doing a weekend headlining Carolines and he completely took me by surprise going to far more taboo places with his crowd work than American comics usually do. He would talk to audience members of every race and refused to dance around stereotypes and just dove right into them. I honestly think I gasped a few times during his set thinking the crowd would be shocked but everyone was pretty cool with it. Starting to think I just might be one of those sensitive millennial snowflakes and I didn’t even know. Just goes to show that if you are talented and charming enough and you say the joke the right way, you can almost get away with anything as a comedian.
• Last week’s FREE FRIES show was maybe the most bonkers we’ve had yet. It started off as low-key as any other. Lightly attended which is ideal so things don’t get too rowdy. Midway through the show, a mid-50s man who called himself “Sal Pizza” stood up and started half-heckling, half-yelling at every comic. He told us his favorite song was “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer. He showed us his dance moves. No one was annoyed with him; we all loved the guy. Then, a group of six in the back (a self described “family reunion”) started talking super loudly. I’ve never seen a family have so much to say to one another as opposed to just eating in silence. At one point, I believe they were doing dueling Gollum voices. The most irritating part is we couldn’t say anything to them since they were the bar’s best customers. The staff just made us live with it. So we had to yell over them and they had to yell over us. It was a lose-lose for everyone in the bar. That's a bar show in a nutshell.
• SNL was in the news all week. It’s my favorite kind of news cycle. SNL was in the news most notably because Pete Davidson released his new special “Alive From New York” which led to Page Six stories about his star treatment on the show. To be fair, he is the reason most casual fans tune into the show. The dude has had such a bizarre trajectory for a young comic though. He was flung into superstardom at a crazy young age and has now done two specials by age 26. I don’t think any 26-year-old comic really should have done two hours by that age but Pete is the rare exception. He really has lived that much life. As for the actual special, it’s fine. Not super tight like most Netflix hours but it has more of a late club show vibe where the comic isn’t really all that interested in pleasing the crowd. There are pops in it though. The Louis CK story that opens the special is a 7-minute tale that culminates in a punch that has real gusto behind it and isn’t your run of the mill Louis bit. The Ariana Grande slams and “Behind the Music” truth telling of the origin of “BDE” are candid, self-deprecating and genuinely very funny. On the flip side, all the sex stuff is half baked and a bit amateurish for someone making millions on their special. Overall, I would RECOMMEND for the curiosity factor. Stay for the post-credits story about his Dad too (streaming on Netflix).
SNL was also in the news because of the hotly anticipated John Mulaney-hosted episode (it was mostly anticipated by the comedy nerd community). The show has made it an annual tradition to have Mulaney host around this time every year and it’s turned into Comedy Christmas for me. Each of the Mulaney episodes have a few familiar flourishes: a very tight stand up monologue that makes every other host monologue pale in comparison, a production-heavy musical sketch that takes place in a mundane NYC setting (diner, bodega and now LaGuardia) and a musical guest that aligns with his taste (David Byrne). That alone makes for a great show. On top of that though, the episode had a few very fun standout sketches. My favorite was easily the meme-able uncle. It felt like a new sketch language was being created in it. The game was to pile on as many memes as possible and it got better and better as it went along. Plus, Mulaney plays an exasperated and out of touch middle-aged man better than anyone. Also super strong was Che on Weekend Update taking off his tie and admitting he doesn’t care about politics. Nice to see the show playing with format 45 years deep.
Finally, I got around to seeing the Steve Martin and Martin Short 2018 Netflix special “An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life.” It’s everything you might expect: hammy, quippy, chock full of showbiz jokes, gentle pokes at Trump and a nice showcase to show that these comedy elder statesmen still got it going on. Short steals the show playing a human bagpipe (a true wow moment) and his old character Jiminy Glick as a ventriloquist dummy. Steve is equally fantastic with surprisingly revealing self deprecating potshots about his not great beach body and weird obsession with the banjo. I actually think his banjo playing is his best joke of all- it shows that a comic can get so famous that audiences will tolerate almost anything they do onstage. Even the banjo. Almost Kaufman-esque. This special won’t give you any real insight to these two but is a very fun and silly watch that I would EASILY RECOMMEND to any casual comedy fan (streaming on Netflix).
• Had the pleasure of appearing on Samantha Prosser and Jake Everhart’s delightful podcast “The Toni Awards” last Monday. If you’re not familiar with the pod, they thoroughly dissect a Toni Collette movie in every installment and give out “Toni Awards.” This week, we talked “Mental” a 2012 Australian flick starring Toni as a bad nanny that looks after five girls who each deal with different ailments. Their mental illnesses are sort of played for laughs though? Tonally, a very strange movie. It also features (1) Liev Schrieber as a guy obsessed with sharks, (2) unnecessary nudity on a waterpark slide and (3) the world’s meanest fat shaming baristas. Not sure I’ve ever really seen anything like it before. Also, I still don’t know if I liked this movie or not. Either way, the podcast was a very good time. Samantha and Jake are best friends and hysterical together. As much fun as it was talking about the movie, it was even more fun enjoying their shared history about college drama on the air. If you’re even the least bit interested in Toni Collette, definitely listen to this podcast. You’re in good hands with these two as your hosts bringing her career to life in a totally unexpected way.
Got one show this week. On Wednesday, I’ll be doing comedy superstar Joe Gorman’s Beauty Bar show at 9. Not sure about the rest. One can never be too sure about anything.
Wow. It’s March already, bruh
