• Wow, this thing is really going on forever isn’t it? I feel like I’m binge watching my apartment and finally getting around to things I meant to do weeks or even years ago. The thing I wanted to do most was dip my toe back into sketch. Dusted off an old external hard drive, went through a ton of outdated cables and finally plugged the old thing in. Watched sketches I shot in college with my sketch group Shark Jumpers I founded with Nate Abdo that made me smile from ear to ear- I forgot about how delightfully bad some of our stuff was and it was great to watch. I was also delighted to find footage that was a bit more salvageable from a weekend I spent upstate at a place called Caroga Lake in October 2017. This was a comedy retreat organized by Shelby Taylor (she’s no longer on Facebook; she told me I was the last person selected for the retreat and referred to me as “Curveball” which was the running joke of the trip). Ever since I started doing comedy, I had wanted to go one of these and just bliss out with other writers and bounce ideas off one another. Well, we didn’t do much but I shot a few PSAs for living in the wilderness. Only one was decent enough to edit and put captions on. It’s only 30 seconds and worth a watch. In fact, if you go to the first link in the comments, you’ll even see two bonus sketches I shot in the apartment with the help of Anna E. Paone this week BEFORE the survival tip video. Overall, it’s about 90 seconds of content. Would make my Easter if you check them out! Will gladly return the favor if you need a like, comment or a subscribe of any kind, friend.
• This was the week that the content from fellow comics I consumed spiked in quality yet again. It’s nice to see folks thriving and if you’re just chilling, no pressure. You do you. But if you want to check out some great stuff, here goes:
- The most important thing I took in this week was Will Carey’s podcast “Between Awesome and Disaster” in which he interviewed the den mother of NYC comedy Rebecca Trent. It’s extremely timely and they discuss the future of comedy, why Seamless is taking money from restaurants that are struggling to stay open and why you should order directly over the phone to increase their margins and my favorite part of all...Creek memories. It’s roughly 40 minutes and a great listen for household chores. Stitcher link can be found in the comments. All NYC comics should listen because of all that Rebecca has done for us asking nothing in return.
- The Alt King of Comedy Ben Wasserman posted a link to a YouTube video called “Bedford” early in the week. I’ll watch anything Ben does (I once watched him paint with his butt on MTV) so I clicked the link. It was a 73-minute movie! Still, it’s Wasserman. I said I would watch it. It was amazing. I’ve never met writer/director/star Andy Bankin but the guy made something really great- it’s a time capsule of the alt scene in NYC. It’s like an early, funny Woody movie had a baby with an episode of “Seinfeld.” There are asides like Nick Naney as a disgruntled pizza delivery man in my favorite scene, Wasserman as a baby and a running gag about narcissism I wish I had dreamt up myself. Plus, so many great cameos. The link is in the comments. Watch this one if you’re hungering for a funny movie.
- My old co-showrunner at “FREE FRIES” Veronica Garza has been reliably churning out gold. My favorite thing she’s done thus far is her “White Girlfriend Starter Pack.” In less than two minutes, she absolutely nails every single thing your white gf has in her apartment. Laughed out loud multiple times watching this as did my white wife. The link is a few scrolls away, friend.
- For pure, short, non-quarantine laughs, check out this sketch starring Jacob Lie as a guitar instructor. He plays a teacher that couldn’t care less about you and I’m surprised I haven’t seen this archetype ever before. It’s a person that very much exists and made me laugh really hard. The sketch itself less than a minute and I will not spoil the bit at the end that makes it all worth it. Watch it for yourself.
- Defne Gencler is one of my favorite NYC comics and her videos never disappoint. She beat me to a few sketch ideas about quarantining and I bow down to her for getting such good stuff out so fast. You should definitely look into her channel. There’s some top-notch timely videos there for your viewing pleasure.
- My dude Luke Mones is MURDERING it on Twitter right now. He’s doing character videos like, “when your girlfriend runs into her friend and you’re stuck with the other boyfriend,” and “roommate you don't want to be in quarantine with.” There’s so many more. My personal favorite was the one filmed with Brendan Sagalow called, “getting facetimed by someone you barely know.” I was jealous at how incredibly funny it was. That’s how you know it’s good. Follow the dude and watch everything he’s done.
- Matt Vita, the do-it-all super producer who is willing to try anything with a smile on his face is the DIY producer we all need. This week, he asked me to “co-executive produce” his Instagram Live show. I gave it a shot. Turned out to be a beatboxing/freestyle show. After forgetting the lyrics to “Lose Yourself,” I ended my tenure as someone who would perform on the show and recruited others with musical ability. The show got so much more fun with Matt using a recorder (what Reggie Watts uses to loop beats) and going off with talented people like Matt Holbert, Anna doing Hamilton and then Usama Sidiquee and Stephen Bolles beatbox battling. Felt like a party. The funniest part was how whenever Usama would come onscreen the number of people watching would SHOOT UP and then as soon as he got off it dropped considerably. That dude is a draw on the Gram. Follow Matt Vita on IG for updates on the next show. You can find him on that other social media platform at @bigdawgny1
- Anna and her Mom Catherine Lamoreaux have been putting on weekly Zoom plays that are a great way to spend Tuesday nights. This past week Anna starred alongside Sam Zelitch in the Fanny Brice starrer “Baby Snooks.” It’s about 40 minutes, full of zany dialogue and committed performances (the cast wore costumes!). Link to Dragonfly’s Facebook page with more information on their next show is in the comments.
- Finally, I am happy to say that NYC comedy legend Jeffrey Gurian is out of the hospital and doing well! He wrote an amazing post about his experience going to the hospital that detailed every single day of his struggle with being sick. While he was in the hospital, Corrine Fisher and Harrison Greenbaum made an amazing tribute video showing just how much people really love Jeffrey. This very comedy blog is a self-admitted ripoff of his Interrobang pieces. He is a comedy institution and if you know Jeffrey at all, check out this video just to hear stories about him. He’s been everywhere.
• I was debating sharing this short piece of news but Mike Birbiglia set up a “Tip Your Waitstaff” account to the Carolines COVID-19 relief fund created by Kendall Keener and Jen Shoemaker. It was very sweet and raised quite a bit of money. The group of people who are set to receive said funds looked into those who donated and found...Louis CK. He donated a large amount. Obviously, he’s done some horrible things but it is nice that he still looks out for the community. That’s all. No need for this to get political but I thought it was a sweet gesture.
• Finally finished my new favorite comedy book “Mr. Mike: The Life and Work of Michael O’Donoghue” by Dennis Perrin this week. Wow. If you don’t know about Michael O’Donoghue, you are truly missing out. He’s the great unsung hero of the National Lampoon, SNL, Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video, tons of scrapped projects that would have been incredible had they been made like a Chevy Chase movie called “Saturday Matinee” and Phoebe Zeit-Geist (a truly wild 60s comic strip that must be read to be believed). Not sold? He was Tarantino’s favorite. On top of that, he’s more than a character and begging for a biopic. Perrin more than brings this misanthropic, miserable, twisted and brilliant mind to life in 426 pages that flew right by. I was genuinely depressed when I finished it. If everyone wrote biographies this passionately, we wouldn’t need fiction. This is urgent, fascinating, page turning, icky fun. Can’t wait to devour it again in ten years. The link to finding the book online is in the comments (sorry, it’s Amazon- if Perrin has another way of distributing, I will delete the link and update).
- Also, read a stirring piece about Eugene Mirman by Jason Zinoman in the New York Times this week. It’s a nice recap of the history of the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival (which I’m always kicking myself for never going to) and how he’s dealing with being a new widow. It’s light and heavy which makes for a perfect NYT piece. Definitely a great read- the link is down below!
• Finally, it wouldn’t be quarantine if I didn’t watch a ton of stuff. Will try to keep the blurbs brief. Here goes:
“Paper Moon” (1973): I love con man movies. They never get old. This one is one of the all-time greats of the genre for a reason. It’s got a twist! The con man played by Ryan O’Neal brings a kid along (real life daughter and youngest Oscar winner ever Tatum O’Neal who went on to be the lead in “Bad News Bears”) to get widows in the Depression-era Midwest to buy Bibles their recently deceased spouses “bought” for them. Trouble is afoot. Let’s just leave it at that. It’s a truly great film and peak Peter Bogdanovich. MAJOR RECOMMENDATION (streaming on Google Video for $2.99; it’s worth every penny).
“Night at the Opera” (1935): Anna is a major Marx Brothers fan. I’ve seen “Duck Soup” and that is sadly the end of my exposure to them. This week, we set out to watch one of their other classics. It’s hilarious, way ahead of its time and doesn’t really have a story to follow so much as a structure of sorts to hang wild physical and verbal gags on. If you haven’t seen it, DO IT. It’s pretty much the template for everything silly you’ve ever loved (streaming on HDFY; Anna found this streaming service and you can get a free trial where you can stream a lot of stuff like…)
“Like a Boss” (2020): Yes, we also used our 24-hour trial to watch this movie. It’s got a great cast made up of Tiffany Haddish, Rose Byrne, Jessica St. Clair, Jennifer Coolidge, SALMA HAYEK, Billy Porter but somehow the thing feels slighter than slight. Plus, it’s directed by comedy stalwart Miguel Arteta. Still, the plot is...Salma Hayek wants to break up these two friends because they’re in business together and get along? There are jokes but this is a curiosity YOU CAN SKIP (Yup, streaming on HDFY).
“The Lighthouse” (2019): Not a comedy but full of wildly bizarre imagery. While watching, I knew I would need to read the Wikipedia to make sense of this thing. I just didn’t quite get what was going on (Wiki cleared it up). It might have been that Anna and I spent the movie texting Danny Rathbun and his lady (my social interaction is texting people while we simultaneously watch the movie from afar) about the thing but it certainly felt like there was little story. There was Pattinson killing a seagull, some explicit stuff and a confounding ending asking you what it was all really about. I liked all the Reddit theories. This is one I WOULD RECOMMEND BECAUSE AFTER READING MORE I REALIZED I WAS DUMB AND THIS IS GREAT (streaming on Amazon for just $0.99).
“Being John Malkovich” (1999): Did a rewatch. If you haven’t seen this, make it a priority. Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman and Malkovich have all never been better (yeah, I said it). I don’t even know where it’s streaming. That’s on you. IT’S THAT GOOD.
As for shorter form content, I took in:
“Dave Chappelle receives the Mark Twain Award” (2020): Damn, Dave is funny. Everyone from Jon Stewart, Neal Brennan (who I tweeted at about this and he fav’d said Tweet!), Morgan Freeman(?), Bradley Cooper and Sarah Silverman pay their respects and it’s a fun, freewheeling 90 minutes of comedy showing off Dave’s way with words and his societal impact. Still, my favorite part was the camera cutting to his daughter not laughing at his jokes. Even Dave can’t make his kids laugh. Also! He gives an extended thanks to his Mom at the end and forgets his wife. Gets her at the end of the credits. What a ride (streaming on Netflix).
1975 SNL: You guys know the first five seasons are all available? Best way to brush up on comedy history and fill in your gaps of knowledge. The Richard Pryor and Candice Bergen (she hosted twice in the first eight episodes!) editions make for fine TV. Sure, you’ve seen the highlights on clip reels but come for the stranger stuff like Pryor’s wife reading spoken word because he wouldn’t do the show unless they let her do it. That’s the real comedy history (streaming on Hulu).
Jeff Dunham on WTF: Yeah, I listened. I was curious. Turns out Jeff Dunham is a cool, really hard working, talented comic. He admits to having writers and shows off his craftsmanship for ventriloquism. Comics hated him. He was ostracized. Felt his pain. Comics are cruel to novelty acts and it was nice to hear his side of the story while talking to Maron, one of the most jaded comics there is. This made for a zippy 90-minute listen to accompany doing the dishes and going through old cabinets.
• Most importantly of all, SNL aired “SNL at Home” last night. It started slow and hit its stride with Chloe Fineman doing a hysterical Timothee Chalomet impression, Weekend Update with Che and Jost accompanied by a DIY laugh track, Heidi Gardner owned with her silly Bailey Gismert character that brought some production value to the thing, Beck and Kyle’s absurd non-idea turning into a song with Fred Armisen and finally the amazing tribute to the recently deceased Hal Willner. At the end, I couldn’t believe how good it had gotten. I was genuinely proud. However, the absolute standout was “Middle Aged Mutant Ninja Turtles” by Steven Castillo. My God. What an amazingly simple concept. I thought it was Robert Smigel who wrote it. That’s how good it was. The link is in the comments.
Also, because I have the pleasure of being Facebook friends with Castillo, I am going to do something no one should ever do here. Share my dream ideas for what SNL should do while we are all under house arrest. Feel free to steal all of these:
-Best sketches cut after dress rehearsal
- Cast reunions (episode with different casts- like the 96-97 cast would be amazing)
- All Lorne stories
- Let Robert Smigel, Jack Handey and Simon Rich run an episode
- Banksy hosts
- Episode with auditions of famous people who didn’t get on the show
Ok, I’m so sorry for doing that but as an SNL diehard it would be a dream come true to see any of these.
Well, that’s it. That’s the longest Stray Notes I’ve ever written. I recently found out I became an influencer (people are buying books I recommend here! Yes!) which is cool. If you want to check me this week, I’ve been working on mashups and becoming a DJ. Seriously. I made a tight mashup this week I’m very proud of. Also, I’ll be on Alex Davenport’s Zoom show tomorrow at 8 PM EST.
Happy belated Passover, fam
01.) New Matt Levy Sketches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJD4j2az6y0&list=PLoBsCsHJsKMrx6cuZ4Se8CQ_QBfOUcJ5U
02.) Will Carey Podcast: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/will-carey/between-awesome-and-disaster-with-will-carey/e/68611557
03.) Bedford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsaDHjoxSmQ
04.) Veronica Garza: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wOCNE0_G3Q
05.) Jacob Lie sketch: https://www.facebook.com/jacob.lie1/posts/10216967915530548
06.) Defne Gencler sketches: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7kOzoM-sXR88sEmrzE0fPA
07.) Luke Mones: https://twitter.com/LukeMones
08.) Dragonfly Schedule: https://www.facebook.com/DragonflyMulticulturalArts
08.) Jeffrey Gurian video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uDZAi59i8c&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3ogZ1etmnc9rdXrqDZ3aPlfxA2kQAQHhec0Pd6zpHmj-uEKE8E5ILsX1A
11.) Jason Zinoman article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/movies/eugene-mirman-brooklyn-comedy.html
12.) Middle Aged Mutant Ninja Turtles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZwmI0u8Qk8
