Comedy Stray Notes June 28, 2020

• At the outset of quarantine, over 100 days ago now, I signed up for Slackjaw’s comedy writing competition.  I hadn’t written a “humor piece” in years but remember what we were like mid-March?  It was a time of dreaming big, exiting your comfort zone and taking on projects you otherwise would have pushed to the side.  I entered, followed all the guidelines, gave and received feedback for other projects with fellow writers in the Slackjaw community and submitted my piece, “Here At Sierra Mist, We Will Continue Assuming No One Knows About Sprite.”  I did not advance in this competition.  Instead, they very kindly published my piece on their site this week which was a nice consolation prize.  It’s brief (Medium estimates that it’s a two-minute read; I bet you’ll finish it in 90 seconds flat, you’re smart) and is linked below if you’re so inclined to check it out.  I skewer Sierra Mist pretty hard and I mean no offense in advance if you have an allegiance with that copycat soft drink.

• OK, this is a crazy idea.  I’ve had a few of these wild ideas these past few months but here goes.  I’m thinking of starting a Patreon.  It wouldn’t be for content that I release though.  No, it would be for me to be your manager (comedy, music, actors, directors, all welcome) for different pricing tiers.  Essentially, for a small amount of money, I will talk to you about your career or whatever you like (all about you) for as long as you want over the course of a month (which can be renewed if you so choose).  If this idea strikes your fancy, give this post a WOW reaction and I’ll DM you to discuss specifics to see if this is something you’d be interested in.  Just a thought and figured I’d put it into the world.

• The very funny stand up CW Headley (not on Facebook) spread his wings over quarantine and released a fantastic album called “Tomb By The Country.”  Not a comedy album by any stretch of the imagination either.  It’s an earnest, wry and catchy 15-track debut that demonstrates major promise for CW as a lyricist, singer and guitarist.  I couldn’t quite place my finger on what it sounded like- mid 2000s indie?  90s alt rock?  Nah.  It sounds completely new.  It’s worth your time and the proceeds go to NAACP and Bail out Fund.  Links in comments as always.

• Had quite a few Patton Oswalt run-ins this week.  My fandom for the guy grows every day.  First and foremost, I became completely engrossed in his love letter of a memoir to the movies “Silver Screen Fiend” which I finished in a week (it usually takes me a month or two to finish a book; couldn’t put this one down).  Basically, while reading It felt like I wrote this book but I was a better writer than I am?  Got into my head like that.  This memoir of sorts is full of wonderful stories of Patton in the mid 90s spending all of his time watching movies at LA’s New Beverly Theatre and is all about obsession with pop culture and a compulsion to consume it that I’ve never seen someone else put to paper.  Plus, there are anecdotes about young Marc Maron, Bob Odenkirk and the 90s LA comedy scene as well that don’t hold back; it’s refreshing to read someone’s writing that doesn’t feel like it was informed by an NDA.  Should also be mentioned that the final chapter is one of the coolest 15-page stretches in a book I’ve ever read (this statement will only ring true if you’re a die-hard cinephile).  

In any event, I was moved to Tweet about this book and tagged Patton saying, “I’ve never connected to anything more” and he retweeted me saying, “I’m so sorry.”  What’s amazing about this was Patton has 4.6 million followers.  Never had that kind of platform for anything in my life.  What came of it was many people not knowing this book existed.  Essentially, I did free PR for Patton.  Worth it.  Also, listened to an abbreviated episode of Oswalt on “You Made It Weird.”  It was fun but not nearly as memorable as any of the above.  My biggest takeaway other than their chatter about being stuck at home was Patton telling a tale of how he did a show at a commune he bombed at.  In fact, I barely remember that story but I remember it made me laugh.  Otherwise, a nice, short inoffensive episode in the “You Made It Weird” canon.

• Published a handful of profiles this week that turned out quite well.  The first one I completed was about the mysterious, globetrotting possibly not real Svetlana Kenobi, second featured scholar and athlete turned international comic Ben Frank and my third and final piece of the week was on humanitarian and comic writing phenom Alexa Kocinski.  All are roughly six-minute reads (once again, estimated by Medium) and are linked below.

• Anna Paone and I went hard this week watching movies after taking a brief respite from streaming last week.  Here’s what we saw:

“Mudbound” (2018): Dee Rees’ complex yet simple tale  is about two families in 1940s Mississippi who are brought together by a farm they share.  However, racial tensions run deep since the white family (featuring Jonathan Banks as an overtly racist Southern grandpa, an angry Jason Clarke, solid Carey Mulligan and a never better Garrett Hedlund) employs the Black family (with Mary J. Blige as the matriarch and an unstoppable Jason Mitchell as her son who just returned from WWII) and what animosity is at first unspoken later escalates in tragic ways.  The movie is sadly very timely and also very well done on a technical front.  The cinematography is remarkable and led to the first Oscar nomination for a female director of photography.  Plus! There’s a standout scene early in the film where a family shows up to a house they thought they bought but folks were already living in it which was something I’d never even considered getting conned on.  THIS IS A CLASSIC MOVIE THAT GOT SNUBBED FOR A BEST PICTURE NOMINATION (Streaming on Netflix).

“Eurovision” (2020): If you know me, you’re well aware that I think “A Night At The Roxbury” is the most underrated comedy of all time and I genuinely mean it.  I honestly don’t think Will Ferrell has ever been funnier.  I can quote the entire thing and I HATE rewatching movies (my reasoning being that there’s so much to see and I don’t like to see stuff a second time when I could see something new).  Anyway, that’s all a preamble to this new Netflix release starring Ferrell and Rachel McAdams that is garnering quite a bit of praise online which is weird because it’s essentially a lesser version of “Roxbury” that was famously critically reviled and never got the cult classic status it deserves.  This above average movie, about two Icelandic singers who surprisingly advance much farther than expected in the Eurovision competition is a fun romp where lessons are learned, genuine laughs are had (the biggest ones come from a life-sized hamster wheel, a troll with a knife and American tourists decked out in Arizona State gear), amazing talents are displayed (the “songalong” in the middle of the movie is a genuine showstopper), American actors attempt Icelandic accents and Pierce Brosnan and Dan Stevens give bizarre supporting turns.  IT’S GOOD BUT NOT EVEN CLOSE TO ROXBURY (Streaming on Netflix).

“She’s Gotta Have It” (1986): Spike’s a visionary.  This movie has a style all of its own, is fairly progressive regarding sexuality (some of it veers off into almost pornographic territory though) and a lot of the jokes really hold up (to be fair, some really do not but it’s hit to miss ratio for a movie that’s over 30 years old is not bad).  Most impressively, the scene where the film goes from Black and White to color shocked me more than “Wizard of Oz” ever did.  It was a jolt of energy that brought this already lively movie to a dizzying high of sensory overload.  The confrontation with all the boyfriends at Thanksgiving toward the end of the film was a perfect heightening of the movie’s conflict and made our lead character have to make a decision in a pressure cooker of a situation- truly strong screenwriting.  The final shot, while sexy, was brilliantly tragic.  My biggest takeaway of this whole 84-minute venture is I selfishly wish Spike had pursued acting even more.  The dude is so funny and I would have loved to have seen him in more movies in his prime.  DON’T SLEEP ON THIS CLASSIC (Streaming on Netflix).

“Shirley” (2020): This Sundance darling about the life of author Shirley Jackson starring Elisabeth Moss was helmed by one of my favorite up and coming directors Josephine Decker (she did the insanely brilliant “Madeline’s Madeline”) but this movie barely registered with me.  Lots of highbrow couple fights where scholars tell each other their writing is no good, infidelity among said scholars sharing a house runs rampant and bizarre imagery abounds.  I wanted to like this so much more but NOT FOR ME (Streaming on Hulu).

Here are some podcasts I listened to while I was at work:

“Good One” with Moshe Kasher: Kasher is so funny and this quick episode has him covering a multitude of topics in relation to his crowd work album he recently released.  He shared that when he started doing crowd work in his act it was like he was “Opening for myself.”  Brilliantly put.   Jesse David Fox, the podcast host, shared a story about how a comic did crowd work on him calling him Harry Potter and years later, the comic admitted he didn’t remember because he allegedly did that for every audience member wearing glasses when Fox confronted him about it which made me laugh.  Other memorable tidbits included Moshe’s first joke he ever did being so good it ended up on his album, how comedy really is all about having fun and a great industry-insider street joke that I won’t spoil.  Classic episode.

Amy Nicholson’s “Feature Presentation” with Quentin Tarantino: Nicholson, a great film critic, sat down with Tarantino to discuss his years as a video store clerk and geek before he struck it rich in Hollywood all while serving as promotion for “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.”  As a cliche Tarantino obsessive, this was ear candy.  There are excerpts from his never finished film “My Best Friend’s Birthday” and stories of his history with Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon.”  I could listen to the guy’s voice all day.  Linked below.

Conan O’Brien’s “Conan Needs A Friend” with Judd Apatow: Loved hearing Judd explain his reasoning for choosing Pete Davidson as the star for his most recent effort “The King of Staten Island” saying, “He’s the zeitgeist,” here.   Even more enjoyable was hearing him talk about how after being treated to all the best foods in the world with his celebrity privilege nothing tastes quite as good as eating Red Lobster with Sandler before they made it big.  The most interesting nugget here though was the two of them talking about rhythm comedy meaning just the way someone talks can register as funny.  Apatow gave an example doing a gibberish version of Cosby (not the greatest example) but it really hammered home the point that “talking funny” is sometimes more powerful to the comic ear than writing funny material.

WTF with Stacey Abrams: Love the humanizing of a political candidate on a podcast.  This was a fun episode where I learned that in addition to being a trailblazing politician, she was also a fiction author just a few short years ago.  Had no idea.  Still, the most shocking thing of all was learning that Abrams’ ballot was sealed shut this election go-round which made it very difficult for her to vote.  When the politicians can’t even vote, something strange is afoot.  

As for this week, got one thing planned if you want to hear my voice.  Tomorrow night, I’ll be appearing on Steven Cohen’s live podcast at 7 PM EST talking about promotion.  If you want a shout out, let me know if you’re watching and I’ll gladly shout you out!  The link is in the comments.  Let me promote you while talking about promotion to hammer home a point of some kind.

Finally, one last thing.  This is not comedy related but more important than any comedy thing.  

My friend from Central High School, Jessica O’Neil, is in the hospital battling COVID-19.  She and I did speech and debate together for years and she brought so much joy to the team and has been a great friend over the years.  The very least I can do is spread awareness of this and let you know that Jessica’s put together an Amazon wish list for her mother and daughter who can’t be with her at the hospital  If you feel so inclined, go ahead and select something for them off their wishlist.  You can make someone’s world a little brighter in this time of need for them.

Over and out.  See you next week in July.

Links:

01.) Slackjaw Story https://medium.com/slackjaw/here-at-sierra-mist-we-will-continue-assuming-no-one-knows-about-sprite-1e54250c06ba

02.) CW’s album https://cwheadley.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-by-the-country?fbclid=IwAR2WzZUGEbXeRC3JqHvd8XkV9hk7_rnjG41FkMe-Ge8RTuZKB6RkOaVoDXc

03.) Patton’s episode of “You Made It Weird”

http://youmadeitweird.nerdistind.libsynpro.com/patton-oswalt-returns

04.) Svetlana Kenobi Profile

https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/holy-shit-svetlana-kenobi-might-be-banksy-90158af8df59

05.) Ben Frank Profile

https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/no-one-could-have-predicted-ben-franks-international-comedy-career-63c9421b127e

06.) Alexa Kocinski Profile 

https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/alexa-kocinski-finds-the-small-absurd-and-mundane-and-magnifies-them-92c88981e605

07.) Moshe Kasher on “Good One” https://www.vulture.com/2020/03/good-one-podcast-moshe-kasher-on-crowd-work.html

08.) Quentin Tarantino on “Feature Presentation” 

https://www.theringer.com/quentin-tarantino-feature-presentation

09.) Judd Apatow on Conan’s “I Need A Friend” podcast

https://www.earwolf.com/episode/judd-apatow-2/

10.) Stacey Abrams on WTF

http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1130-stacey-abrams

11.) Jessica O’Neil Wish List

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3AJ3ZA2OVBQCP?ref_=wl_share

12.) Steve Cohen’s Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEyWe40O76c&fbclid=IwAR0arc1ORtGqmb0QIbFB4TROOEFfepksmMqcokwIlj4iSDrp94mvppuiP5M

Comedy Stray Notes June 21, 2020

• This was unlike any week I’ve had since 2011.  In January of that year, I had mostly finished production on my thesis film “A Portrait of the Sandwich Artist as a Young Man.”  Before you continue, please know this is going to sound extremely pretentious and grandiose and I apologize in advance but I want to spread some awareness of something I didn’t know existed.  OK, back to the movie.

It’s 2011.  I had just finished making this 14-minute movie that I was convinced was a MASTERPIECE (here it is if you want to see: https://vimeo.com/44733572).  I had used every ounce of creativity my 22-year-old self could muster to tell this made-up tale of a tortured sandwich artist.  It meant a lot to me and while making the film I reached what I thought was an elevated, enlightened state of being since I had pretty much achieved what I thought was my vision for the first time in my life; I was making art I told myself.  I was so proud of this thing it actually made me go a little insane.

This pride led me to to giving advice about filmmaking to my peers in a loving and generous way that might have been too much and forced people to get really honest with me about our friendships and relationships.  I meant well but it was fairly destructive.  I just wanted everyone to feel what I felt making that movie.  The pure, unedited, uncut expression of self.  It was too much for most and I wholly get that and I’ve repressed those few passionate weeks for years.

It should be noted, ten years removed from the short, I recognize it for what it is: a pretty good student film that’s HEAVILY influenced by Wes Anderson, a true artist.

Anyway, this past week, the overactive “elevated state of being” manifested itself again.  

I’ve been working on mashups on the weekends and I’ve gotten REALLY into it.  Most decry that it’s not a real art form and that’s fair.  I just think of it as a way to express all of the things (music and sounds) that I love all in one place.  It’s extremely fun when pieces of a disparate puzzle fit together (like “Clocks” by Coldplay and “Land Down Under” by Men at Work) and I get a bit of a fuzzy, mental high while experiencing my favorite things in new ways.

That was until I reached the final stretch of the project.  I have a bin of all the music I wanted to use in the piece and spotted one of my all-time favorite songs “The Magic of Halloween” by John Williams.  This song regularly makes me cry on its own.  The image of Elliott and ET flying over the moon is perfect and the song is 70% of why that’s true.  When it crescendos, there’s nothing more powerful and it shakes me so hard that I can’t help but emote.

I dropped the track in my timeline and started putting songs over it.  Tears started welling up within me.  Oh, no.  I was creating what I thought was important art again (even if it was John Williams’ work that more than stands on its own; does Williams cry every time he writes a song?  He must).  The elevated state of being began after I exported what I thought was something very special.

Here’s the mashup by the way.  It’s kind of long (22 minutes and 49 seconds) but a worthy listen I would say: https://vimeo.com/429030285 (good for running!)

Soon after completing the mashup, I was on that creative high again.  I put a status online this past week about wanting to be like Judd Apatow and Lorne Michaels (more on him later) where I speak with comics and treat them to what I now call “Comedy Therapy.”  This led to around 80 in-depth, intimate into the middle of the night conversations about comedy careers with my peers, folks above me in the industry and strangers on Twitter.  I learned a hell of a lot about what sets us all back in our careers.  This is insight to save for a book not just give away for a skimming on social media (obviously would not name anyone in said book for those of you reading).

Anyhow, this elevated state of being is not normal.  It’s manic.  That’s all I knew about it.  That’s as far as my self-diagnosis got.  So, nine years too late, I looked into “Mania” on Wikipedia bleary eyed at 2 AM one night.  That wasn’t quite it.

Then, I found “Hypomania.”  Wow.  This was it.  Here is the short definition from Wikipedia (with parts omitted; these were the only parts that applied to my situation):

Hypomania (literally "under mania" or "less than mania") is a mood state characterized by persistent disinhibition and mood elevation (euphoria), with behavior that is noticeably different from the person's typical behavior when in a non-depressed state. 

Characteristic behaviors of persons experiencing hypomania are a notable decrease in the need for sleep, an overall increase in energy, unusual behaviors and actions, and a markedly distinctive increase in talkativeness and confidence, commonly exhibited with a flight of creative ideas.  While hypomanic behavior often generates productivity and excitement, it can become troublesome if the subject engages in risky or otherwise inadvisable behaviors, and/or the symptoms manifest themselves in trouble with everyday life events.

Luckily, I now had the power to hone this within myself.  It’s a scary feeling flying high.  This time, I have the wonderful Anna E. Paone at my side and she helped me calm down but not fully let go of this perpetually blissful state of mind.  

Anyway, that’s where I’m coming from this week.

• This manifested itself most purely this week when I didn’t experience fear Tweeting about the greatest gatekeeper in comedy calling them out (this is where Lorne Michaels comes back).  I wrote:

To all white comedy allies of Black Lives Matter.

It is now SNL packet season.  I know a lot of you are writing.

I have a proposal and you will be angry at it.

I think no white writer should apply for SNL this year.

Let’s make it so they only have to hire POC this season

Obviously, I have no power.  I don’t work at NBC or SNL.  But this was a message I believe in.

Not the best choice of words here but I felt like in a moment I truly believed in something greater than myself or self-promotion.  How much different would comedy be if all white comics gave up their privilege and bowed down in solidarity to something greater?  A world where representation finally shifted?  Seemed cool to me and something I stand by.  Could I get cancelled in the industry for this?  I don’t know.  This was simply a plea for something that would lead to an absolutely necessary shakeup in the most seen comedy platform there is.  I stand by this message more than anything I’ve ever written (other than the poor word choice in places of course).

• Now to what I took in this week- no longer about what’s up with me.

- Dragonfly Multicultural Arts Center is a theater company run by my wife Anna and her Mom Catherine LaMoreaux.  They weren’t allowed to put on their devised play “Black and Blue” with input by members of the community in 2017 since it portrayed police in a fair, negative and honest light when it comes to how they deal with race.  This was an unjust use of censorship by their town and audiences were bummed that we would never be treated to a performance of this original work.  This week, we were over Zoom.  The play was beautifully rendered.  Matt Holbert played the lead and gave him humanity which is so hard to do over Zoom; Paul Lombardo brought the perfect amount of menace to the wannabe comic cop and the script never veered off into a preachy flight of fancy about race; these characters simply existed.  It felt real and crucial.  I hope to get to see this one live.  Dragonfly really outdid themselves here; it will be amazing to see on a stage someday.

- Learned that my college roommate Barry Rubin and Evan Sorosky edited what is being called “The greatest political attack ad” of all time by Harvard Professors.  They’re not wrong.  The ad, linked below, is footage of Lindsey Graham earnestly bashing Trump and praising Biden just a few years ago.  He is brought to tears describing his friendship with Joe.  What’s most effective about the ad though is they show the human side of Graham and what he’s capable of as a human being when he doesn’t resort to hate.  I was moved.  Proud to call these guys my friends and happy that they’re helping overthrow this current regime in an inventive yet kind way.

- I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge how insane comedy was this week.  Chris D’Elia, Jeff Ross and Joey Diaz among others were outed for horrible behavior (Check Twitter if this is news to you).  Don’t listen to me talk about this though.  Please check out the admirable work Kelsey Caine is doing on Twitter outing those who have done awful things abusing their power within the community.  You can follow her here: https://twitter.com/kelsey_caine

Also, somewhat related, I found an old video of Louis CK’s show that is now undeniably, hilariously ironic.  It’s called “Apologize” and was cut from his show.  It’s around six minutes long and viewed through the lens that he’s horrible at, you know, apologizing, it will really make you laugh.  Sometimes nothing is funnier than hypocrisy.

Only saw one movie this week (being super excited doesn’t lend itself well to watching things passively).  Here’s my review-

“Da 5 Bloods” (2020):  Man, Spike Lee made SOMETHING here.  Just released to Netflix, this sprawling, nearly three-hour epic is so many different things that you almost get sensory overload watching this movie.  For those not in the know, the movie is about four Black Vietnam vets returning to Nam to pay their respects to a friend that passed in the war and also uncover buried treasure (it felt like “The Goonies” in some places somehow).  There’s so much more.  See this movie for these crazy elements though: an electrifying scene with landmines more than halfway through (will not spoil a thing about it), searing isolated Marvin Gaye vocal tracks, stunning Vietnam archival footage from the war I’d never seen mixed with Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. speechs AND old actors playing their younger selves instead of young actors playing older versions of themselves among a million other things.  Yes, this movie would be a much tighter, Oscar-worthy 90-minute picture but Spike already got his Oscar; now he just wants to create and it’s evident.  This is AN EXPERIMENT THAT HAS A LOT TO SAY, WORTH YOUR TIME (Streaming on Netflix).

“Comedy Sex God” (2019): Yes, I am a devout Pete Holmes fan.  Almost like a simp; I’ll watch or read anything he does.  This 300-page book of his is three things as the title simply lays out.  There’s a bit about his fledgling comedy career thrown in here and there but he’s smart enough to know that’s been done to death in other memoirs.  Instead, Pete focuses on what makes him interesting: his sexual repression and his relationship with God.  The first 100 pages feel a bit joke-y but once Holmes meets Duncan Trussell halfway through the book, he gives us a Cliff Notes on Ram Dass whom he always talks about on the podcast and by the end you walk away with a totally different point of view about spirituality.  It’s mostly about “Just being.”  I liked it.  I especially loved the final chapter about having a child.  Most comedic writers emphasize the pits of child rearing; Holmes makes it sound like a wholly ebullient experience.  IF YOU LIKE PETE, PUT THIS ON YOUR SHELF. 

Grubstaker’s podcast; “Bill Gates episode”: Had been meaning to listen to this one for a while.  Boy, am I glad I did.  Yogi Paliwal, Sean McCarthy, Andy Palmer and others lampoon a new billionaire each episode and this Bill Gates episode with repeated usage of Windows sound effects regularly made me laugh out loud.  Remember the smartest kids in your honors middle school class that made jokes that were too smart for you to even participate in and you just sat back and marveled at how clever and funny they were?  That’s what this podcast was.  Highly recommended; it’s a twofer of laughs and education.  

SNL Nerds’ Dave Sirus episode: So, I had seen “King of Staten Island” and really admired the direction that Apatow and Pete took.  However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the third party that helped shape this film- former SNL writer and NYC comic Dave Sirus.  I didn’t really know his story but after listening him speak to hosts Darin Patterson and John Trumbull, I was smiling ear to ear.  Hearing his comedy origin story of being a huge SNL fan (anyone that can actually praise 90s SNL movies and find what’s good in them is A-OK in my book) leading to his start in comedy and multiple versions of the Pete movie that didn’t pan out made for a gripping 55-minute listen while I prepared dinner one night.  The hosts have a natural rapport and respect for Sirus and the conversation flowed effortlessly.  Give it a listen.

Alex Hooper headlining Medium piece: He might not remember this but I was awed to see Hooper at a New York Comedy Club mic back on New Years Day 2017; this was a well-established act I’d seen on television and here he was performing at a mic?  This level of humility is my favorite thing to see in comedy.  Always go back to your roots.  This week, I stumbled across Alex’s excellent piece on what headlining is like for someone just starting out.  How to own a stage, how to spend your time on the road.  It’s a very worthy read if you’re interested in doing road work and moving to the next stage of your career.  The link is below if you’d like to read.

Anyway, if you want to engage in comedy therapy, happy to do so.  I love it and want to share with others (I have no real qualifications as a therapist or a working comic other than I just want to help people realize how they can be the best version of themselves they can be).

Happy Father’s Day, by the way

01.) Barry Rubin’s ad: https://twitter.com/barubin/status/1273637389626486786

02.) Apologize https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2b086z

03.) Grubstakers Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/grubstakers/episode-65-bill-gates?fbclid=IwAR2RjDUeeJgzNnViryxu4D_pqNIZqJh0fv0xlSDH_J_tklV7UrajeSaQihw

04.) Dave Sirus on “SNL Nerds” https://non-productive.com/snl-nerds-bonus-episode-writer-dave-sirus-on-the-king-of-staten-island-2020/

05.) Alex Hooper Medium piece: https://medium.com/@Hooperhairpuff/im-learning-how-to-be-a-headliner-d906b922d0f9

Comedy Stray Notes June 14, 2020

• Phase one of reopening New York City is underway and comedy’s presence is already being felt.  The day before it officially opened, last Sunday, June 7, Michael Che and friends put on a secret show organized by comedy superhero Rebecca Trent in a Long Island City parking lot.  There was a cryptic Instagram post about him trying out new material and it was close to my apartment.  I texted a few folks and headed over early in an attempt to find a socially distant spot.  When the show began at 4, the entire lot was full of fans.  My pal, Jason Planitzer and I retreated to the back across the street.  This was a free show and no one knew what to expect.  Out came Cipha Sounds.  It was a bit hard to hear what he said; comedy outside is not easy especially when it’s your first set in months.  Petey DeAbreu followed.  His mic went out; David Piccolomini was running sound and stepped in to save the day.  Comics showed face; I saw Geo Perez, Robert Dean, Pat Barry and a few others.  It felt like nothing had changed.  Rosebud Baker went third and went for a tighter structure than the playful Cipha and Petey.  It worked.  Nimesh Patel went fourth and he set up the lot perfectly for Che’s headlining set.  He came out in a pink hoodie on a hot day and he cut through the silence.  What once seemed loud; felt intimate even if children and cars whizzed in front of my eyeline.  His jokes weren’t playful about quarantine; he spoke about police brutality and mental illness in the Black community.  It felt urgent, meticulous and essential.  We all needed this; folks skipped protests to be there.  He made sure it felt as much like a rallying cry as it did a show.

At the end, Che brought up Big Jay Oakerson and Joe DeRosa.  This led to Che’s incredible burn: Big Jay is so White, he frosted his tips this week (excuse me, I’m paraphrasing).  

Who knows how long this type of show is the new normal?  Either way, this one felt historic.  Like a comedy Woodstock almost.  I’ll never forget it.

Also, pro note, comics: quarantine material is pretty much done already.  I could feel it watching the crowd. Prepare your bits accordingly.

• Was that show the first show back, really?  Well, no.  As everyone is aware, Dave Chappelle released a new special on YouTube under Netflix’s umbrella.  He shot it the day before.  Chappelle’s was a different beast.  He didn’t necessarily want or need laughs; he wanted to share.  I’m so glad he did.  For 27 minutes, Dave talks about the unjust murder of George Floyd and his relation to police.  It was more than comedy.  It was commentary that we needed.  Chappelle apologizes at the beginning for this special not being as “refined as his other work.”  I disagree.  I think it’s the sharpest of all his specials.  There’s not a wasted second.  He even gets in a quick aside about his Azaelia Banks troubles these past few months.  The link is in the comments but you should have seen this already.

• Anna E. Paone and I were asked to perform on West Side Comedy Club’s Wednesday show this week in their variation on the “Newlyweds” game against Madelein Smith and her husband.  For those not familiar with the concept of Newlyweds, basically, you answer questions about yourself and your partner guesses what you wrote.  It’s a fun concept and the show was moving along at a nice clip (even though some of my bits were admittedly falling a little flat) with my family watching when out of nowhere, the show was Zoom bombed.  Slurs were said repeatedly, users were frantically muted and the show never regained its steady footing.  Anna and I stayed on and answered more questions; somehow nothing felt as funny after hearing hate speech.  Still, a great show worthy of your time.  Look up Steve if you’re interested in the show; it runs weekly on Wednesday for the foreseeable future. 

• Completed four profiles this week.  If you’re looking for pieces on up-and-coming New York comedians, please check out the new stories on the charming straight shooter Neassa Hunt, variety show hosting Artie Brennan, gregarious Steve Becker and SongPop Live host Blaze Mancillas.  They’re all 5-8 minute reads.  Perfect for your daily commute from your bedroom to your living room.

• A few quick shout outs to fellow comedians writing this week:

- First, Ben Katzner’s Insider article is a spectacle to behold.  Titled “I'm a Black man who lived near the spot George Floyd was killed. There's no more room for 'Minnesota nice' in conversations about racism” it delivers on that powerful headline in a personal, affecting way.  Ben is a gifted writer, a friend and a voice that needs to be heard.  Read this on your commute back to your bedroom from your living room.  The link is in the comments.  Take your time.  Trust me.  This one is special.

- Traveling comic and former NYer Dwight Simmons started a Medium series called “Racism on the Road.”  It blends familiar comedy stories of being a working comic in a new town and its hardships that come with audiences, staff and managers being insufferable to the talent.  The series is another special read.  My White privilege was challenged reading about how different Dwight’s experiences were.  Another highly recommended read.  Link below.

• Saw a few films and listened to a slew of podcasts this week.  Will keep this brief:

- “King of Staten Island” (2020): Yes, I was eagerly anticipating this film for way too long.  I unapologetically love Apatow.  Could care more or less about Pete.  Still, I think this was Judd’s best movie yet.  A few scenes fall a little flat that feel like sentimental first draft screenplay tropes but for the most part, the movie is simultaneously silly and heavy all at once.  Kudos to Dave Sirus.  You did something truly personal and unique.  Great turns by Bill Burr, Moises Arias (kid stole the damn movie), Derek Gaines, Liza Treyger, Steve Buscemi, Mike Vecchione, Robert Smigel (!), Jessica Kirson and so many others.  Pete had me tearing up like a damn fool a few times on my couch.  IT’S EXPENSIVE BUT SO WORTH IT (Streaming on Amazon for $20; yes, I know).

- “Ma” (2019):  Mixed reviews last year.  We all remember this one- you know, Octavia Spencer invites the cool high schoolers to her basement to party until things get dark.  An intriguing premise that reminded me of my Mom’s favorite book “The Pigman” by Paul Zindel.  I actually loved it.  Octavia gives a hell of a performance (the movie is directed by Tate Taylor who also did “The Help” and “Get On Up” the Chadwick Boseman James Brown biopic.  Octavia is in all of them; she’s the DeNiro to his Scorcese) and the movie is really about so many things all at once- race in predominantly white schools, popular kids having to own up to their regrettable actions, grudges and generational differences.  Hate on it all you want.  I thought it was gripping and an excellent addition to the BlumHouse horror canon.  Also, Allison Janney has a meaningless cameo.  Anna and I were baffled by this.  If anyone has any intel on how this happened, please let us know.  Finally, to be fair, the third act of this fairly tight film was a bit of a bummer because it became an out and out horror movie abandoning the commentary and goodwill it had built up being a smart thriller but I would still EASILY RECOMMEND (Streaming on HBOGo until the end of June 2020).

- “Murder by Death” (1976): Hadn’t even heard of this comedy classic.  It’s essentially the template for “Clue” that came a decade later.  Murdery mystery party where the murder hasn’t taken place yet in theis case.  The cast is a murderer’s row (ENJOY DAT PUN) made up of Alec Guinness (a year before Obi-Wan playing a blind butler), Peter Sellers (playing a horribly offensive Asian stereotype that feels like it really inspired Mike Myers), Maggie Smith, Peter Falk and Truman Capote who really can’t act and coasts on his personality.  Many a sight and visual gag abound; my favorite was the doorbell that was a famous Fay Wray scream.  So many jokes reminded me of future comedies but especially “Wayne’s World” with the crazy finale here.  THIS IS A GOOD FAMILY WATCH (Streaming on Amazon for $4.00).

- Jerry Seinfeld was on WTF this week.  Felt like it went a little under the radar.  This was Maron’s first interview he conducted since Lynn Shelton passed and the conversation was soulful and earnest that didn’t feel like Jerry worship at all.  The collective prickliness made it a great listen.  Maron criticized Jerry’s 2002 documentary “Comedian” (I honestly think it’s sublime), Jerry told stories about his father writing jokes down in WWII to tell his fellow soldiers, their days at Catch a Rising Star in the 70s and 80s and Marc cried talking about Jerry’s “Comedians in Cars” Shandling episode which the unfeeling Seinfeld didn’t really know what to do with this. The whole thing was like this; it felt like listening to a new comic (in this case, Maron) talking to a comedy vet (Seinfeld).  Brought me right back to that awkwardness of talking to a comic you know of but they don’t really know you.  Amazing pod.

- Listened almost exclusively to Jesse David Fox’s “Good One” podcast.  I think I’m going to try to listen to all of them.  Fox is doing something special with these.  He really researches his subjects and their material.  Here’s a few I heard these past seven days:

Judd Apatow: In addition to this pod, I read interviews of Judd’s in The Ringer and the NYT.  He’s doing that media blitz and some of the stories get told over and over but here are the highlights- Amy Schumer recommended Pete for “Trainwreck” which led to him getting hired at SNL, Apatow wants to make “Hangover 4,” and he doesn’t think his movies should be shorter.  I love his movies but I heartily disagree.

Hannah Gadsby: She made an excellent point in her interview- comics are wasting their free speech opportunity onstage on dick jokes.  So true.  Hard punchlines are important but so is having a message.  Gadsby also said she “wants to handle her recession of relevance well” meaning she’s a big deal now but wants to make she behaves herself when that goes away.  I loved that.

Kristen Schaal: Still haven’t seen her special but it was fun learning she opened for Chappelle and hearing her talk about her process developing alt comedy and feeling ostracized from the mainstream club comedy scene.  No matter how high up you go, you’re going to feel weird.

Jim Gaffigan: This was the very first episode of the series.  Kinda went in one ear and out the other.  The host and guest had a nice rapport talking about a joke where Gaffigan complained about all newscasters having to be attractive but it didn’t stick.  I think they discussed how “Hot Pockets” has stayed in the cultural consciousness?  I couldn’t tell you.

Neal Brennan: He discusses a bit from “Half Baked.”  Fun chat and my favorite nugget of comedy history I was unaware of was in the early Aughts, Chappelle would perform at Carolines doing short sets and then showing videos from “Chappelle’s Show” to gauge how funny they were for an audience.  The jokes worked. 

Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider: Former SNL headwriters chat about their “My Hungry Guys” Totino’s Super Bowl commercial trilogy.  They were very funny and it’s horrific learning about hours at SNL- shooting pre-taped sketches until 8 AM on Saturday morning sounds awful.  They imparted great wisdom as well.  They said, “Make sure to “Write fake commercials about stuff you want because those brands will send you stuff.”

Patton Oswalt: This was the best of the bunch.  He discusses grief over the passing of his wife, how there’s a “short novel on the back of cereal boxes, the in-joke about “GNDN” in “Star Wars” being an acronym for “Go nowhere, do nothing,” how he edited a joke from being about the Grateful Dead to Phish so audiences would connect, forgetting a tag he came up with for a joke on a podcast and not doing it in his special and then it ate at him the rest of the interview, how he wants to be like John Waters and sit back and become an ambassador that wants to see comedy get better while supporting new acts.  Finally, he dropped the knowledge that Lenny Bruce worked strip clubs that he received from Jerry Stiller while on set with him on “King of Queens.”  Could have listened to Patton all day.

- The Ringer had a great oral history on the two-season wonder show “Wonder Showzen.”  I had all but forgotten the show but after reading, I can’t wait to revisit.  The show’s punk rock, DIY ethos inspired the hell out of me.  Great read if you need even more longform content in your life.  I always do.  Link is nearby.

• Finally, I wanted to pay respects to comic, Carolines server and friend Ken Monreal who passed away this week at the tender age of 51.  I started at Carolines in January and Ken was the first server who greeted me on a daily basis; he was the type that regularly went out of his way to make everyone feel at ease.  He had a warm, generous laugh and was one half of the comedy musical act Jimmy Swaggers with his comedy partner and friend Bryan Hurt.  In fact, they were slated to play Carolines in mid-May.  We had them booked for May 16.  Everyone was incredibly excited; we all loved Ken and his comedy (the group is well known for the song “Big Dick” which is linked below).  We still love Ken.  Ken, it was an honor knowing you.  I already miss you.  We all do.  

Comedy resources:

01.) Dave Chappelle’s special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tR6mKcBbT4

02.) A Profile About You: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou

03.) Ben Katzner’s editorial: https://www.insider.com/theres-no-room-for-minnesota-nice-in-conversations-about-racism-2020-6?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=topbar&fbclid=IwAR1Vy4zrtMgCKuoPWJiVk2gwlV_MQAh2xqcH0hMyEfWDuXE94Ukd5N3_vpw

04.) Dwight Simmons’ Medium series: https://medium.com/@Unwellspoken

05.) Seinfeld on WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1129-jerry-seinfeld

06.) Good One podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-one-a-podcast-about-jokes/id1203393721

07.) Wonder Showzen piece: https://www.theringer.com/tv/2020/6/9/21284446/wonder-showzen-mtv-anniversary-oral-history-clarence-beat-kids

08.) Ken Monreal’s “Big Dick” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QppKPMtWx-o

Comedy Stray Notes June 7, 2020

• Not a lot to laugh at this week.  However, something is brewing in America in a way I’ve never felt in my 30+ privileged years that is righteous, angry and determined.  Black Lives Matter is the conversation we all need to be having to move toward an active, anti-racist future (as opposed to “non-racist” which is well-meaning indifference; something I’d practiced my whole life) and so this week, I will be highlighting all things comedy-adjacent to the movement along with brief props for friends and peers who had major achievements in the field of laughter this week.  

Everything else that I saw, listened to or read (mostly from Anna’s and my brand new Disney + subscription) will be featured in a longer version of this on my website (all of that stuff will be directly below where this Stray Notes ends if you navigate there) that will be linked below as well.

Let’s begin.

• As a formerly non-racist (thought it was bad, didn’t lift a finger other than the occasional petition), white guy, I miss a lot of what’s actually going on in the New York comedy scene.  I don’t see the racism or sexism behind the scenes and am often complicit in thinking people who are nice to me are good, all-around people.  This, obviously, is not always the case.  The trailblazing Neruda Wiliams brought this to light this week with his revolutionary status where he pulls an Oni Francis and #namenames.  Williams published a list of dozens of comics who are racist and expose themselves in hundreds of comments below.  It’s an eye-opening read and you should certainly click on his profile to get the tea and maybe even contribute to the fascinating, heated thread if you see fit.  

• In a time where all comedy shows should effectively be cancelled to not cloud the message of the movement, some should still go forth if they’re going to tackle what’s going on head on.  One of these shows is Ben Katzner, Chloe Radcliffe and Caitlin Peluffo’s weekly online show Something Good.  This week, they raised money for a number of causes related to the anti-racist movement and generated laughs in the process.  Their 68-minute video podcast hybrid details what it was like being on the ground for the protests in New York City and each of the hosts’ experiences the past few days.  Ben is from Minnesota which made it all the more powerful for him having been on the very street many times where George Floyd was brutally murdered by police.  Still, there are moments of levity.  It’s a nice snapshot of what we all were feeling this week and if you’re interested in a listen, I’ve linked the episode in the comments.

• I remember when Kenny DeForest moved to New York in 2013.  I was new too and immediately took a shine to him; he had a big heart and wasn’t weird about “status in the community” like so many others.  Everyone was just a friend to him.  It was a joy to see his quick rise alongside fellow funny, nice Chicagoans Will Miles and Clark Jones.  When they were anointed as the heirs to Hannibal’s Knit show they kept it alive in a way that felt vital and rejuvenating as opposed to letting something so special fall apart.  Although they no longer host, their tenure remains in our memory and it was never more apparent than this week when Kenny shared a story of the time Dave Chappelle dropped into the Knit 5.5 years ago.  Don’t let me dilute the story by telling it here.  Read the incredible Twitter thread linked below and be blown away once again by what Chappelle can do onstage.

• Although not BLM-related, wanted to prop up the ultimate hustler in comedy Usama Siddiquee for his appearance on America’s Got Talent this past week.  The clip already has nearly 1,000,000 views (it’s at 994,000- give it a watch to bump it to the seven-digit mark!) and is a nice introduction to Usama but it’s barely a taste.  Middle America is in for a treat.  Very cool to see a friend - especially one the night before he got JFL popped in at a mic I was at and stayed until the very END-  on such a large platformthat even my Dad watches.  This is well-earned and great to see someone who has worked so hard get their due.

• I’ve never met Matt Ruby but I’ve been a fan for a bit.  He and I have corresponded on occasion and after seeing his name pop up in Pete Holmes’ “Comedy Sex God” which I’m currently reading, I reached out to him and he told me he had just released a special and sent me a link.  The cool 67-minute showcase of his talents is part introspective doc, part question and answer session with a willing, friendly audience that allows for vulnerability and part his undeniable act.  The opening chunk on side groups in group texts is intricate and legendary.  The whole thing feels like an extended riff on Neal Brennan’s “Three Mics” in a way that is wholly his own.  The link is in the comments and yes, it’s free to see.

• Oscillated back and forth on writing about Vice’s show “Flophouse.”  However, it features a number of great comedians I know (recognized Yogi Paliwal, Julie Mitchell, Mara Wiles, Kevin O’Brien and a number of others I’ve seen around) that I thought it was worth getting on folks’ radars since the entire eight-episode series is on Hulu for just a few more days.  If you’re not familiar, the show is about under the radar comedy in different scenes like Atlanta, San Francisco, New Orleans, Denver and um, LA while featuring a brief cameo from Executive Producer, auteur, personal hero of mine Spike Jonze getting a haircut.  It feels like a timely introduction to this generation of comedians and features a wide array of voices ranging from pros like Moshe Kasher to folks who are just a year or two into the joke-telling trade.  Binge it fast while you still can.

• Kenya Barris on “WTF:” Hell of a podcast episode.  I’ve seen a handful of episodes of “Blackish” but didn’t really know about this enterprising comedic force.  He has quite a story and since Kenya is a major proponent of Black voices, I’d love to recommend this episode.  There are stories about his nerdiness (related to his obsessive SNL fandom), his troubled past (his Mom shot his Dad; Dad survived and then JUST died of COVID), name dropping (He’s friends with Tyra Banks and I believe went to high school with er), creative differences with his own family (his mom wants him to stay at BET instead of produce shows for ABC and Netflix but she stays on top of what he does to tell her friends) and complex thoughts on Tyler Perry, this was a breezy, fun episode untouched by the tragedy that was to follow.  Linked below.

• Anna Paone’s aunt Carole Harris sent me a 28-minute clip from a 1981 episode of “The Tonight Show” hosted by Johnny Carson with guests George Carlin and Richard Pryor.  We see a bit of Carlin’s act and a casual interview with one of the all-time greats.  Then, Richard comes out for an interview and there’s a tonal shift.  Carole pointed it out over Messenger and it’s loud and clear.  There are many subtle racial jabs that a “non-racist” might make about class and theft that come across as tone-deaf now.  Yes, this was released in 1981 but when someone like Carson has a platform like that, joke responsibly like you do with Carlin.  No need to make easy racial jokes that undermine your guest who happens to be a lot funnier than you.  Link is in the comments of course.

Finally, I’d like to recommend some excellent, very funny comedies written and directed by Black artists that don’t feel like they were sanitized by Hollywodd AND might be a little off the beaten path:

Dear White People (2014): Written and directed by Justin Simien

Hollywood Shuffle (1987): Written and directed by Robert Townsend

CB4 (1993): Written by Chris Rock

Luce (2019): Written and directed by Julius Onah

Black Dynamite (2009): Written and directed by Scott Sanders

“Little” (2019): Written and directed by Tina Gordon

“Sorry To Bother You” (2018): Written and directed by Boots Riley

“I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” (1988): Written and directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans

“Boomerang” (1992): Directed by Reginald Hudlin

“Medicine for Melancholy” (2008): Directed by Barry Jenkins

Tyrel (2018)*- not written or directed by a Black artist but a fantastic companion piece to “Get Out”

Here’s a great list of Black female comedy directors ( I haven’t seen a lot of these films and am excited to): https://www.blackwomendirectors.co/comedy-1

Please let me know of more.  Always happy to learn and see more.  Let me know of oversights from this list.  Doesn’t have to be comedy either.  

If you’re interested in reading what I wrote last week that is not at all related to what’s going on in America but is a distillation of what happened that week in comedy (this will be published on Facebook at a later date as well), you certainly can at https://www.mattlevycomedy.com/comedystraynotes/2020/5/31/comedy-stray-notes-may-31-2020

#BlackLivesMatter

For those that made it to the site, welcome.  Here’s some quick reviews of what I took in this week in addition to the above that feels slightly less important in this important moment in history:

“Onward” (2020): Many friends (well, two) have told me they cried watching this new Pixar film.  I love a good emotional, animated flick as much as the next guy and this certainly delivered.  The movie is your classic coming-of-age awkward teenager dealing with a parent they haven’t met tale that Disney specializes in but this one has unique packaging: it’s set in a world where magic exists but is hardly ever used.  Perhaps a metaphor for our tech-obsessed selves?  Either way, this element makes the story its own and we get to see our co-protagonists (cotagonists?) who happen to be brothers go on an adventure to bring their Dad fully back to life since their spell only brought his legs back.  It’s a cross between “Dungeons and Dragons” and “Weekend at Bernie’s” and is a moving ode to family.  EXCELLENT FOR ALL AGES (Streaming on Disney +).

“Bedtime Stories” (2008): Love Sandler but this is another one of his kid flicks that didn’t age well.  The story is besides the point (ironically in a movie with the word “Stories” in its title) but I’ll summarize: A hotelier is bought out and told his son (Sandler) will be in charge as an adult.  Cut to him as a lowly janitor at the hotel.  He’s estranged from his sister (Courteney Cox?) but somehow has to babysit her children for a week while she goes to Arizona for a job interview and they connect over, you guessed it, hotels.  Just kidding.  They bonded over Bedtime Stories obviously.  In any event, this movie is structured fine but is bad and watching it I realize how destructive it is to kids to have lazy jokes taking a dump on people who drive priuses and value nutrition while also casting Rob Schneider as a Native American chief.  This kind of stuff influences kids’ worldviews and feels particularly insensitive and troll-y.  Perhaps I’m a snowflake but DON’T LET YOUR KIDS SEE THIS ONE (Streaming on Disney +).

“Brothers Bloom” (2009): Love Rian Johnson and wanted to like this so bad.  For all of its remarkable production design, twisty dialogue that rhymes for the first ten minutes just because, fun casting (Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody are both great) and con man story, this one just didn’t do it for me.  Could never fully follow the story (I believe they con Rachel Weisz and then end up not conning her?  There’s a lot more than that) and found myself drifting in and out of sleep even though I watched it at 6 PM or so.  I WOULD TRY AGAIN (Streaming for free on IMDB TV with commercials).

“Fort Tilden” (2014): Anna recommended seeing this since it was directed by the co-creators of her favorite show “Search Party.”  At first, this story of two girls going from Williamsburg to deep Brooklyn felt like a disposable riff on “Girls” when that was still part of the pop culture conversation.  However, it’s really more a harsh critique on vapid 20-something Brooklynites than a fun romp through the City.  We see them avoid responsibilities, bicker and get peer pressured.  On top of that, it’s really funny and features Bridey Elliott (Chris’ daughter and Abby’s sister) crush it in a leading role alongside cameos from Reggie Watts, Neil Casey and Will Hines.  It feels like what comedy felt like six years ago and also feels very now too.  IT’LL MAKE YOU CRINGE BUT YOU SHOULD SEEK IT OUT (Streaming for $3.99 on Amazon).

“Changeland” (2019): Having always been an intermittent fan of “Robot Chicken” on Adult Swim, I was more than excited to see Seth Green’s first feature he wrote and directed show up on streaming after missing its brief theatrical run.  It was very disappointing.  Green, recently dumped, goes to Thailand with his buddy Breckin Meyer to Thailand to deal with his loss.  They learn lessons, connect with locals, Macaulay Culkin is there, etc, etc.  Every beat of a movie about a guy finding himself is here.  None of the wild wit and all of the boring choices a first time director will make.  Obviously not Seth’s fault; no movie is exactly what you expect it will be but THIS LET ME DOWN QUITE A BIT (Streaming on Hulu).   

Hannah Gadsby’s “Douglas” (2020): Gadsby kinda reinvented the special again here.  I loved what she did.  She devotes the first ten minutes of her hour telling you exactly the chunks she’s going to address in her set and even gives you her closer telling us she’ll drop the mic and somehow it all still feels surprising even when we’re waiting for the expected results.  It’s all structured like a great magic trick with callbacks we’re gleefully anticipating.  Not to mention that it’s all still really funny and feels much shorter than its runtime suggests.  EVEN IF YOU HATED “NANETTE” DON’T IGNORE THIS (Streaming on Netflix).

Mark Normand’s “Out To Lunch” (2020): This was the first of two specials streaming on YouTube I saw this week.  Normand, a fixture in the NY scene, does all the jokes I’ve heard hundreds of times at bar shows small and large and they all still work.  He’s got that re-watch value.  In fact, I tore my headphones off multiple times so Anna could hear jokes Mark had just made that I was happy to listen to a second time.  This guy writes and writes and writes and it shows.  Even his final line, “Goodnight, I’m Kevin Hart,” was perfectly calculated.  IT’S FREE AND A MASTERCLASS IN PUNCHLINES (Streaming on YouTube).

Sam Morril’s “I Got This” (2020): This has twice the views Normand’s special has and is very funny but is missing the joy that Normand’s has.  Yes, Morril is a fantastic joke writer but there’s something about his cynical, smarmy, “I don’t care” persona, I can’t get behind.  Yet, still he pokes fun at this in his set saying, “You may not like the jokes but you have to admit they’re structurally sound.”  I’ll give him that and the capper at the end is pretty fantastic to be fair with a moving story that breaks his dark streak.  GOOD, BUT I DIDN’T LOVE IT (Streaming on YouTube).

Cate Blanchett on WTF: This was one of those editions where the recording stopped 15 minutes in but Blanchett and Maron met up a second time to record and try to recapture/rehash the magic of a conversation that’s supposed to be spontaneous.  It’s fine and it’s nice to learn about Blanchett being a bit of a comedy nerd like Brad Pitt is but this one felt slight.  I did like the portion about her process when she was cast as Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes’ “I’m Not There.”

Whitmer Thomas on WTF: Saw Thomas’ special on HBO a few weeks back and wanted to learn more.  There wasn’t a ton here that isn’t already in his special since this is largely an introduction of Thomas to comedy fans but there are three tidbits that stood out to me if you’re sort of intrigued: Thomas calls Maron out for leaving before his set at a show (power to the lowest comics on the bill!), there’s discussion over fear from stealing a Bill Hicks joke which Maron says is fine because that joke about Jesus originated with Lenny Bruce (not sure how that makes it OK but interesting to hear folks who have made a name in comedy discuss intellectual property with bits) and finally how Jim Carrey always gets skipped over in stories about stand up in the 80s.  It’s a good point and we learn he just really wasn’t around all that much.  That settles that. 

Seth Green on “You Made It Weird:” This was the best pod I listened to all week easily.  Holmes and Green got along well and he was so engaging that he inspired me to see the above movie “Changeland” that disappointed me so much.  Still, give this two-hour plus convo a listen if you’re looking for an engrossing conversation.  The two guys talk about how offensive it is when someone tells them “You’ll love this” citing the creators of “South Park” being told they’ll “love” “Family Guy” (to be fair, I’m guilty of non stop recommendations here) which is a conversation that I’d never heard before.  They also lamented both being told they’ll love Christopher Guest stuff which they later admit they do enjoy but not when it’s forced on them.  This dovetails nicely into a chat about how kids don’t like their successful parents’ artistic output saying that George Lucas’ kids don’t think too highly of their Dad’s creation.  There was even more good stuff about Lucas too.  Green says he has a “Father, Son and Holy Ghost” theory for “Star Wars.”  All work that comes from his is the “Father,” all work from self-appointed successors is the “Son” and everything else in the “Star Wars” universe is the “Holy Ghost.”  They go on about Seth’s role in “Austin Powers” and how he made the incredible choice to play it straight.  Then, they talk about the movie’s influence and no matter how big it is overseas, it will always still be dwarfed by “Star Wars.”  We all will.

Lastly, this isn’t even remotely comedy but loved reading a really thoughtful Shane Carruth IndieWire interview disparaging of the entire industry and how it all means nothing, he’s getting out after his next movie and his love of promoting others.  Such a fantastic read and I’ll revisit over and over as long as IndieWire exists (I might even be like an old person and print this out for myself; it’s that good).

That’s it.

Go to protests.  Go to vigils.  Keep doing what you’re doing to support the cause even if you’re watching “Bedtime Stories” in your downtime exercising your inherent privilege in the process.

Once again, #BlackLivesMatter

Links:

01.) Ben Katzner, Chloe Radcliffe and Caitlin Peluffo’s Something Good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgc6eoAgJsU

02.) Kenny DeForest’s Dave Chappelle Tweet: https://twitter.com/KennyDeForest/status/1268288525234876416

03.) Usama on America’s Got Talent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMkiML-uFGU

04.) Matt Ruby’s “Feels Like Matt Ruby” special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0VAIjE35LA&t

05.) Kenya Barris’ WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1125-kenya-barris

06.) Johnny Carson interviewing George Carlin and Richard Pryor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jus-OaJV8E

07.) Mark Normand’s “Out To Lunch” special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDolNU89SXI

08.) Sam Morril’s “I Got This: special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xo3Fq7GGWk&t

09.) Cate Blanchett’s WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1122-cate-blanchett

10.) Whitmer Thomas’ WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1119-whitmer-thomas

11.) Seth Green’s You Made It Weird: http://youmadeitweird.nerdistind.libsynpro.com/seth-green

12.) Shane Carruth’s IndieWire article: https://www.indiewire.com/2020/05/shane-carruth-interview-quitting-filmmaking-the-wanting-mare-1202232967/

Comedy Stray Notes May 31, 2020

• Didn’t feel right to clutter the timeline with what I did this week.  This is a moment that is decidedly not about me or comedy so I saved it for today.  Just a nice respite for you on whatever day it is that you read it to take your mind off the heaviness that is our current reality.  Here goes.

• The good people at Caveat NYC have taken the ball and ran with the concept of a Zoom show in a more sophisticated way than I’ve seen anyone else tackle it.  Their shows, produced through StreamYard (a superior platform to Zoom), are professional, nicely paced and most of all entertaining.  This past Monday (May 25), I was lucky enough to participate in Matt Starr’s “Nerd Search” show.  The show is formatted like any gripping reality television where nerds compete against one another to prove their nerdiness.  I was on the show stan’ing for SNL.  I built a little background (Starr’s suggestion to have props) out of all my SNL DVDs, books and newspaper cutouts.  Over the course of the hour, we were all quizzed on our respective passions (the other contestants were thrift store, sex facts and violin nerds) with questions ranging from, “Why does the show have to be live?” to “Has your obsession ever made you physically ill?” and “Show and Tell.”  It was amazing.  For an hour, I had a platform to talk about the piece of pop culture I love most and without feeling self indulgent or annoying about it.  Very cool to celebrate something you love without feeling self conscious about it.  Even better, my whole family and wife Anna watched which made it all feel even more special since they’ve heard me blab on about SNL and how great it is so many times without rolling their eyes.

• Completed a number of really fun profiles this week.  The more I do this, the more self assured I feel to play with the form and create stronger, weirder and more powerful portraits of my peers.  This week, I got to write about the loose cannon comic with formal acting chops Will Purpura, accomplished filmmaker Zef Cota, comic/musician/cartoonist Anthony Kapfer, straight shooting/bathroom reviewing comic Neassa Hunt and storytelling/Coronavirus fighting comedian Joey Rinaldi.  Each was a unique pleasure to write about and discover each of their personalities.  I want this job to go on forever and if you want a profile, please don’t be shy and let me know.  I’d love to write about you.

• Quick shouts for this week:

- Highly recommend checking out the very funny Twitter account belonging to Portland comic Jamie Carbone.  I met him at a few comedy festivals awhile back and actively enjoy his writing.  How could you not enjoy the writing of a guy who wrote the amazing modern day Seinfeld fan fiction:

George: She was smoking a juul 

Jerry: A juul? 

George: A juul! 

Jerry: What flavor? 

George: Does it matter? 

Jerry: It might, maybe she’s trying to quit smoking. 

George: It was cotton candy, Jerry! 

Jerry: Cotton candy? She’s not tryin to quit anything!

What are you waiting for?  Follow the man.  His handle is in the comments.

- Also highly recommend the online work of Paul Lombardo.  He’s making the simplest, slice of life comedies on the internet starring himself in multiple roles that constantly blow me away with their nuance.  With the slightest change of inflection or look, Paul transforms into a totally different character.  He’s a chameleon but wants you to see all of the tricks in his bag.  The guy is going to be a big star like John C. Reilly is- an actor that can effortlessly move from comedy to drama while remaining entirely human in the process.  Check out his Facebook to see his short videos if this seems like your kind of thing.

• Feel like I set another new record for movies, shows, podcasts and articles consumed in a week.  This is not brief.  I wanted it to be but it’s not.

“Not Another Teen Movie” (2001): Must have seen this one thirty times over the course of my life from way back when in seventh grade in the theater with my brother Ben to most recently streaming this week.  It’s still the most underrated parody film of all time.  Sure, a lot of the jokes are dated about “American Pie” and other late 90s teen romantic comedies but naming the school John Hughes High and packing it to the brim with visual gags brings something new to every viewing.  My favorite this time was hearing Samm Levine’s character dub getting aroused, “Happy in pant.”  I’d actually said that for years without realizing I stole it from this cinematic masterpiece.  Also, never caught that Josh Radnor of “How I Met Your Mother” is one of the leads.  The movie might be most notable for the creation of the “token Black guy” joke but there are a billion other perfect jokes like the entire school knowing how to dance professionally.  THIS IS A MUST IF YOU’VE EVER SEEN A TEEN COMEDY (Streaming on Amazon).

“Greta” (2018): Saw this was leaving HBO and missed it in theaters in the halcyon days of going to see movies in public.  Watched and loved how pulpy this yarn was.  Starring Chloe Grace-Moretz/Isabelle Huppert and directed by “The Crying Game’s” Neil Jordan, this cat and mouse story had me yelling at my TV for the dumb things the characters were doing.  That’s a good sign the movie is engaging as hell.  Not going to tell you anything about the plot, THIS ONE IS SO WILD, IT’S BETTER TO GO IN KNOWING NOTHING  (Was streaming on HBOGo; might not be anymore).

“Harmontown” (2014): Always heard about how toxic Dan Harmon was but had never seen it in action.  Now I have!  The movie is about his podcast touring across the States with his wife whom he bickers with and is unnecessarily mean to.  Didn’t know his podcast was about Dungeons and Dragons which was fun to see represented on screen in such a “mainstream” fashion at comedy clubs but the most interesting thing was watching his crew play Stand Up Live in Phoenix, a club I’d been to many times.  Gave me a nice pang of nostalgia.  Overall, I’d say I LIKED IT BUT HARMON IS A HARD PILL TO SWALLOW (Streaming on YouTube; link in comments).

“A Good Old Fashioned Orgy” (2011): No idea how this flew so under the radar when it was released ten years ago.  It’s got improv-heavy comedy ringers in it like Jason Sudeikis, Nick Kroll, Martin Starr, Lake Bell, Melanie Lynskey, Will Forte, Lucy Punch and on and on.  The story is exactly what the title promises.  A group of early 30s friends who haven’t quite grown up are spending that one final summer at their privileged childhood mansion before it gets sold and instead of an epic party, they’re going to have an epic orgy.  It comes with unexpected anxieties and questions I’d never even thought of.  Sudeikis is at his smarmy best and this thing has a surprising beating heart with a low-budget studio comedy.  IF YOU NEED A GOOD LAUGH, THIS WORKS (Streaming on Hulu).

“Just Another Girl on the IRT” (1992): Had never even heard of this but Anna recommended and she’s got great taste so I put it on my must-see list.  It’s an angry, neorealist, urgent tale about growing up as a Black teenager in early 90s NYC.  There’s timely AIDS confusion, natural non-actor performances, funny moments and eerily prescient racism.  Interestingly, the director never made another film after this one.  The movie does feel a bit like a “Do the Right Thing” homage but it has enough flourishes to make it its own “thing.”  My only gripe is she wasn’t on the IRT enough.  FOR A BIT OF POWERFUL NOSTALGIA, THIS IS THE TICKET  (Streaming on Amazon for $3.99).

“Lollilove” (2004): Another Anna recommendation.  Apparently, Jenna Fischer (you may know her as Pam from “The Office”) spent her life savings with her then-husband James Gunn (“Guardians of the Galaxy” director) to make this industry calling card.  It paid off.  At only 64 minutes, this one knocked me out.  It’s a smart parody of smug, well to do liberals that felt like an attack right at me.  Their plan to end homelessness is to give the less fortunate custom-made lollipops.  Some of the bits are too silly and there’s quite a bit of focus on Fischer and Gunn’s crumbling marriage but this is a movie I won’t soon forget.  This isn’t parody, it’s more pointed.  It’s excellent satire.  YEAH, YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY SEE THIS (Streaming on Amazon).

“Hollywood Shuffle” (1987): Robert Townsend nearly made the cast of SNL when he auditioned in 1980 but NBC only had one slot for a Black cast member so it went to, you guessed it, Eddie Murphy. Lucky for us, we still have an artifact of Townsend’s comic abilities on full display.  This skewering of Hollywood giving minorities limiting roles started a mini-revolution into ensuring everyone who wasn’t White was placed in stereotypical roles.  There are fun parodies and inspired gags with the lead’s son being too directly influenced by his father’s work he’s not proud of but gags aside, this movie is important. YOU SHOULD CHECK IT; THIS ONE SHOULD BE A MAJOR PART OF THE AMERICAN COMEDY CANON (Streaming on Amazon).

“CB4” (1993): This underrated movie lost among the other SNL movie releases from the early 90s like “Wayne’s World,” “Coneheads,” “It’s Pat” and “Stuart Smalley Saves The World” is notable for a number of reasons.  Number one is that it’s Chris Rock’s first starring role which he knocks out of the park as the frontman for the rap trio CB4 (stands for Cell Block Four).  Second, the main bit that CB4 is made up of middle class kids pretending to be hard rappers which ends up working against them is a brilliant joke that also serves as the movie’s central story.  Respect for that.  Many great 90s cameos from Chris Elliott, Phil Hartman, Ice-T and Ice Cube abound and silly rap parodies too.  THIS ONE AGED VERY NICELY  (Streaming on HBO).

“Edge of Seventeen” (2016): Loved everything about this flick.  It never makes its sentimentality too gooey with a deceased parent, and the intriguing teen love triangle never becomes contrived (my only gripe is that everyone in this movie is too attractive).  Plus, the obvious highlight is a career best performance from Woody Harrelson as lead Hailee Steinfeld’s smartass history teacher.  You’ll LOL.  This one captures all the awkwardness of youth perfectly.  PERFECT MOVIE THAT’S RIPE FOR PARODY FOR “NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE 2”  (Streaming on Netflix).

“Robbie” (2020): My friend Clayton Porter recommended I check out this eight-episode Comedy Central series starring one of our favorite comics Rory Scovel.  So glad he did.  Each 20-minute installment was better than the last.  This series is about an ice cream store employee/youth basketball coach who finds out he fathered Sasheer Zamata’s child who ended up on his basketball team.  All the while, he deals with his somewhat awful Dad played by Beau Bridges (Jeff’s brother) and there’s even a piano-playing chicken.  I WAS GENUINELY SAD WHEN THIS WAS OVER.  MAKE SURE YOU DON’T MISS OUT (Streaming on YouTube; link in comments).

And here are the podcasts (all the links are in the comments):

“You Made It Weird” with Conan O’Brien: Not a truly memorable episode but it was fun hearing about Conan in quarantine and how he was a quick yet selfish improviser back when he started doing comedy.  I love the guy but I can see that.  The major highlight of this episode was learning about the old fable “Perhaps.”  In it, a man lives in a mansion.  A friend says, “Must be nice.”  The man says, “Perhaps.”  His house floods.  The friend says, “This is horrible!”  The man says, “Perhaps.”  He then finds gold under his mansion to build a new one.  The friend goes back to the “Must be nice” rhetoric.  The man says, “Perhaps.”  It goes on forever but teaches you never to expect anything.  Love that.

James Mattern’s “The Commissioner of Comedy” podcast: There are only three episodes so far but the best host in New York City has already established his voice with a podcast all about comedy etiquette.  The first two installments deal with hosting tips and the third is the somberly titled, “Quit” about contemplating ending a career in laughter.  It’s a one-man show and James bares his soul in these three.  My favorite part of all occurred in episode one though; he shares a forgotten anecdote from “The Larry Sanders Show” about the Janeane Garofalo character who is nervous.  Artie (Rip Torn) tells her to carry a glass of wine with her.  She doesn’t drink but Artie says that’s besides the point.  The wine shows you’re comfortable which is the job of any good host but really any good entertainer.  Wise lesson.  Glad I’m listening.

“You Made It Weird” with Zach Braff: Slightly insufferable episode since Holmes and Braff lean into their “nice guy” personas a bit too hard here.  Anyway, it was fun learning Braff’s cousin is Jessica Kirson and he used to go to her bringers when she started performing way back when.  My other favorite moment was when Braff expressed anxiety over his inability to make a spy-thriller film.  Holmes told him he could but it would have the Braff imprint all over it.  I love that.  None of us need to be intimidated; just put your personal stamp on it and you can do it. 

“You Made it Weird” with Jay Baruchel: The slightest of all the podcasts I heard this week but clocked in at the longest (2 hours 16 minutes).  Fascinating origin story for this friendship where Pete met Jay on the set of “She’s Out Of My League” as TJ Miller’s friend hanging around since he had just gone through his famously difficult divorce.  They bonded over 9/11 conspiracies and Baruchel even admits to having been an Alex Jones fan in the past (don’t worry; he denounces him now).  There are fun stories here about working with Seth Rogen and Nic Cage but it's not the best episode in the show’s oeuvre.

Tracey Carnazzo and Andrea Allan’s “Only In New York” podcast with Gilbert Gottfried: Always meant to check this show out and once I saw Gilbert was the guest I jumped on it fast.  This one was a banger.  Tracey, Andrea and Chemda make an indomitable trio with never a moment of silence between them; they’re always racing to say the next funny thing that comes to mind.  Luckily, they get to bounce off of comedy God Gilbert Gottfriend who talks growing up in NYC and stealing from craft services tables.  Also, he plugs his Cameo at least ten times.  I don’t care.  No matter what he says, he’s funny as hell.  Best part of the whole episode was at the end, when Tracey told a story about being held at gunpoint.  She obviously survived but her cool here made the story doubly impressive.  Excellent listen. 

“WTF” with Samantha Bee: Starts with an update on Marc’s grieving over Lynn Shelton and it’s nice to hear he’s doing better.  As we get into the interview portion, we hear all about Bee’s artistic evolution from actress to comedic powerhouse.  I loved her insight on being an employee versus being a boss.  Could listen to her for hours.

Finally, here’s my reading recs for the week (all short form and links to the pieces are in the comments as well):

Stephen King 1990 New Yorker Little League story: Read this awhile back but if you’re hurting for reading content and love baseball, definitely check out this story about the 1990 Maine Little League team that King covered since his son was the first baseman on the squad.  It’s gripping, full of great baseball insight and genuinely dramatic since I had no idea how the season turned out.  Best part was after I finished reading it, I searched for all the names of the characters on LinkedIn.  Most of them are now “Professionals in the Greater Boston area.”

Seth Simons Substack: One of the most divisive voices in comedy strikes again.  This time, he covers Theo Von’s podcast with guests Jeff Dye and Brad Williams.  Both comics chose to perform at clubs two weeks ago.  Yes, it’s irresponsible of them while we should be social distancing but it was their decision.  They sound wrongheaded and Seth slams them for it.  I can’t say I disagree.  Also, I’m not doing his words justice.  Check out his writing and subscribe to his blog if comedy journalism is your thing (and if you got this far in the piece, I think it is).

Stevie Nicks’ Fajita Roundup Ringer article: In 1998, Lucy Lawless took over for Michael Richards to host an episode of SNL.  I barely remember this one even as a self-appointed superfan but there’s one sketch that made an indelible mark on a small subset of folks called “Stevie Nicks’ Fajita Roundup.”  I don’t remember it but in it, Lawless plays Nicks as the owner of a fajita restaurant in Sedona.  There are great song parodies incorporating burritos and it’s all played with a straight face.  This article covers it painting in the corners the story of how the sketch originated with writers, cast and Nicks’ impression of it.  Hell, they even talk to a guy that started a Facebook group for it.  The three-minute commercial parody deserves every bit of cult classic status it receives and if you’re curious, absolutely check out the very well-written piece.

Finally, I did a quick thread of Twitter this week helping people bump up their follower counts.  I wrote:

Bummed about your follower count?  Do this:

1.) Go to a more popular Twitter account similar to yours

2.) Find a recent popular Tweet of theirs

3.) Check everyone that liked the Tweet & follow them.  Not everyone will follow back but a bunch will

4.) I really am this annoying

If you want more followers, seriously follow the link below to the Tweet and follow everyone that liked it.  You should get like 150-200 followers out of it.  Feels good to see all the new followers roll in too.

Got a few comedy things going on this week.  Doing Steven Cohen’s West Side Comedy Club Zoom game show with Anna on Wednesday and helping produce a comedy competition on Friday with Stephanie Houng and Todd Hunt called “Stay at Home Madness.”

Fuck the police.  Seriously.  This disturbing footage we’re all seeing shouldn’t be coming from America.

01.) Jamie Carbone Twitter https://twitter.com/ThiccSonic

02.) Paul Lombardo’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paulombo

03.) Harmontown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hVkJHIIrpM

04.) Rory Scovel’s “Robbie:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJdsLiaH0bg&list=PLD7nPL1U-R5ob2CAUmizYmg-xMEUJUIi2

05.) Conan “You Made It Weird”

http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/1/9/c/19c990c1c35f7b95/YMIW_503_Conan_OBrien.mp3?c_id=70010369&cs_id=70010369&destination_id=81568&expiration=1590953807&hwt=3efdd1774da0c8caf94ec8d94036b55d

06.) Seth Simons on Theo Von: https://sethsimons.substack.com/p/if-they-get-me-sick-or-i-get-them

07.) James Mattern’s “The Commissioner of Comedy Podcast:” https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-commissioner-of-comedy-with-james-msGkAbcpH0O/

08.) Zach Braff “You Made It Weird:” http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/5/0/7/507871b20a933ece/YMIW_504_Zach_Braff.mp3?c_id=70685096&cs_id=70685096&destination_id=81568&expiration=1590953653&hwt=7ff4aa8341a1009736d30065dbec8c45

09.) Jay Baruchel “You Made It Weird:” http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/d/b/7/db74d3beab24c264/YMIW_506_Jay_Baruchel.mp3?c_id=72081302&cs_id=72081302&destination_id=81568&expiration=1590955423&hwt=839f9d1da914eaf547a89e6b38860df3

10.) Gilbert on Tracey Carnazzo’s podcast: https://onlyinnewyork.libsyn.com/ep-11-nice-fella-gilbert-gottfried

11.) Samantha Bee WTF:  http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1124-samantha-bee

12.) Stephen King’s New Yorker story: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1990/04/16/head-down

13.) Stevie Nicks’ Ringer story: https://www.theringer.com/music/2020/5/26/21269642/the-story-of-how-saturday-night-lives-stevie-nicks-fajita-roundup-sketch-got-made

14.) Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/MattLevy51/status/1266012002088103941

Comedy Stray Notes May 24, 2020

• We’ve been “inside” for SEVENTY-TWO days now and I know we’re all on our last legs creatively.  We wrote what we wanted to write, saw what we wanted to see and are still inside for the foreseeable future.  That’s why I’m here to suggest two creative outlets you may not have touched upon yet:  

1.) Make an inventory of all your jokes.  This is very Gary Gulman tip-esque, but basically, make a Google Sheets document and start writing all your jokes down so you have them all in one place.  Once you start writing them down, tags will flow out of you- you’ll wonder how these jokes existed without all the extra punchlines you dream up.  It’s certainly worked for me.  Worst case scenario, you remember stuff you forgot and can Tweet it.

2.) Start making mashups.  Not everyone loves mashups but I’ve been a fan of the form for 13+ years now since I saw Girl Talk at the Rialto Theater in Tucson, AZ.  For years, I admired from afar.  This quarantine, I told myself I would learn how to  make my own.  After messing around with Audacity with limited results, I put vocal only and instrumental tracks from YouTube into Adobe Premiere and haven’t stopped mixing songs.  Yes, becoming a “DJ” is a sad punchline/cliche but making these mashups has given me the opportunity to re-contextualize my favorite songs like “Losing My Religion” which sounds incredible over “Shooting Stars.”  Also, now I’m more motivated than ever to work out to my own music (and I need to work out more than ever).  If you want to check out my mashup that admittedly is a bit tempo-deaf, you can by checking it in the comments.  It’s 14-minutes and called, “The After After AFTER Party.”

• Completed quite a few profiles this week for friends on medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou.  If interested, you can read about the hilarious marathoner/actress/writer Nikki MacCallum, brilliant and accomplished young author Travis Martin, witty and mysterious Kiki O’Keeffe and the very funny comic Corey Yoskowitz who made an amazing eight-minute parody of “The Last Dance” starring himself as a world champion “catching grapes in mouth” guy.  I’m not biased saying it’s great but I am in it as a faux Sportscenter anchor reporting on Yoskowitz’s rise and fall from grace.  The link is in the comments of course.

• Social media is evolving once again into a newer iteration of itself for these super online times.  Here’s a few things that I witnessed of note:

“A group where we pretend to be running late or have to cancel plans:” My friend Sarah Kennedy started what I assumed to be a very small, private group where folks came up with fake excuses to miss things to remind ourselves of pre-quarantine life when we all bailed all the time.  When I woke up the next morning, the group had 4500+ members.  It makes sense- the group is hilarious and people’s excuses keep getting more and more inventive.  The best one I’ve seen so far was written by one of my all-time favorite actors and comic minds Michael Margetis.  I won’t spoil it.  Join the group and seek out his story.  It’s worth the search.

John Rosenberger’s “Ask You Anything Tuesdays:” Johnny Ro is one of the nicest guys in New York comedy and his newest kind and very fun endeavor is the opposite of Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything.”  You comment on John’s status and he’ll ask you a question tailored to your personality.  My question from John this week was “Who are your dream SNL hosts/musical guests for a month’s worth of shows?”  I wrote, “Kurt Vonnegut/Girl Talk, Lorne Michaels/The Strokes Daft Punk/Daft Punk and a Jordan Peele directed episode co-hosted by Quentin Tarantino and Neal Brennan/REM.”

Started this innocuous Twitter thread: 

If you’re a comedian, put your handle in the comments.    I’m genuinely curious how many there are out there.

It’s something I’ve often wondered about.  Just how many comedians are out there?  Well, 600 people replied to this thread including Guy Branum (he followed me!), Kurt Braunohler, Ron Jeremy, Scott Rogowsky and Blaine Capatch.  More than that though, the thread turned into a place where comics started following each other (I got 350 new followers from it, no joke) and a community sort of formed.  Comics from all over came together in the thread.  The link to the thread is in the comments and worth checking out just to see comics you’d never seen/want to grow your Twitter following.   

• Did Todd Montesi’s Instagram Live show on Thursday night.  I was in a weird mood and took the show to a darkish headspace where I asked Montesi, “What’s the meanest thing you’ve ever done?”  Got a little too vulnerable but it was fun and you should certainly follow Todd’s @ugcomedyshow for episodes that aren’t quite as strangely depressing as mine.  They’re daily and a fun time.

• Watched and listened to more stuff than ever before this week.  Gonna do my best to keep it all brief as eff:

“Her Smell” (2019): Took this all in while doing dishes so I may have missed a few plot points from this two-hour plus faux biopic.  Elisabeth Moss plays a Courtney Love/Karen O surrogate who has family problems, band problems, substance abuse problems and it’s basically that for two hours.  There are few and far between musical performances; this is mostly a character study of a flawed artist.  I liked it but I WOULDN’T RECOMMEND (Streaming on HBOGo). 

“In the Mood For Love” (2000): If you went to film school, you know this movie is on every “Best Of” list.  So, I got the free two-week Criterion Collection trial to see Wong Kar Wai’s 60s period piece about forbidden love in a Hong Kong apartment complex between two married next door neighbors.  It lived up to the hype.  Stolen glances, delicious (yeah, I said it) cinematography and subtle storytelling made this slow burn SOMETHING I’D DEFINITELY REVIST.  IT’S THAT GOOD (Streaming on Criterion Collection).

“Encino Man” (1992): Was on a bit of a Pauly Shore kick this week and I haven’t seen this one since I was four-years-old when my family did a staycation in Phoenix at a hotel that showed this movie to kids.  It made an indelible impression on me- so many kids in middle school spoke in “Weasel-ese” elongating “Buuuddy” like Shore would and it’s infectious.  As for the movie, it’s silly, escapist fare similar to a million other movies with a fish out of water trying to fit in and Brendan Fraser commits so damn hard here.  Sean Astin is painfully bad (his character is awful too), Data from “Goonies” has an extended cameo and Dom DeLuise’s son is the villain.  YOU COULD DO A LOT WORSE (Streaming on Amazon for $3.99).

“Screwed” (2000): Made a thread about underrated comedies on Twitter awhile back and this one kept getting namechecked.  Saw it on Netflix and was shocked by the cast alone- Norm MacDonald, Dave Chappelle, Sarah Silverman, Danny DeVito, Cloris Leachman and Sherman Helmsley.  Norm’s anti-acting mixed with the plot that escalates impressively (Norm is Leachman’s underappreciated assistant and tries to kidnap his dog for ransom and hijinks ENSUE) feels like a nice throwback to dirt cheap comedies.  Perfect 80-minute movie to play in the background (Streaming on Netflix).

“Lovebirds” (2020): The first major high-profile “Should have gotten a theatrical release” Netflix release is finally live!  It’s pretty good too.  Basically if “Queen and Slim” was a comedy.  Accidental murder and a couple goes on the run.  In this case, Kumail and Issa Rae are literally JUST breaking up when they hit a guy on a bike and you guessed it- hijinks ensue.  This is the rare movie where you’ve seen so many of the jokes in trailers for what feels like years but the flick still has a ton of tricks up its sleeve.  Also, it’s directed by my dude Michael Showalter (of “Stella!”).  I WISH I SAW THS IN THEATERS (Streaming on Netflix).

“The Last Dance” (2020): Yeah, this ESPN ten-part doc exceeded all expectations.  I live Tweeted all ten episodes and loved how it brought me back to childhood sports fandom so well.  The dagger was watching the Suns lose in the 93 finals all over again which up to this point had been a repressed memory.  MJ is an intense competitor, Scottie feels undervalued and Rodman is nuts.  We knew all these things before but these ten-hours bring new shades and anecdotes to what we already processed.  It’s basically if an oral history was a doc- I can’t wait for the McGwire/Sosa “30 for 30.”  Plus, cocaine parties.  IF YOU LIKE SPORTS AT ALL, THIS IS FOR YOU (Streaming on ESPN).

Patton Oswalt’s “I Love Everything” (2020): Great, little special.  Love how Patton foreshadowed at the beginning with a bit about Denny’s and closed with ten minutes on the diner.  The guy has a way with words and just exudes comedy.  Even cooler is he promotes his buddy’s special at the end and when this ends, it bleeds right into his friend’s special.  That special is not as good but it’s thought that counts.  ANOTHER KILLER SPECIAL (Streaming on Netflix).

“Twilight Zone” (1963): Just flipped to a random episode called “What You Need.”  It’s a wonderful 30-minutes about a peddler who gives people “what they need.”  The twist ending is spectacular.  DIS ONE IS PERFECT FOR FALLING ASLEEP TO (Streaming on Netflix).

Todd Barry’s “From Heaven” (2008): Had this album sitting at my place forever.  Todd and Natasha Leggero’s faces staring at me.  Finally, popped it in an ancient Apple DVD drive and listened.  Man, Todd can tell jokes.  He does droll better than anyone else.  His opener on the pleasure of rubbing shoulders with local comics had me howlin’.  Easily one of the most slept on headliners in the game.  Also, Barry’s book “Thank You For Coming to Hattiesburg” about headlining C-list clubs is maybe the greatest book about stand up I’ve ever come across.  THIS IS A FUN 52-MINUTE LISTEN (Streaming on Spotify).

Got a new customer service job so I listened to a ton of excellent podcasts too.  Here’s a few key takeaways from each (all the links are in the comments):

Taylor Tomlinson on “WTF:” Moves at a nice clip and is sad to hear Maron be so chipper talking about his recently deceased girlfriend, Lynn Shelton.  Either way, Tomlinson makes an amazing point: Every comic should have to date a comic so you know what it’s like to be talked about onstage.  Brilliant.  She’s way smarter than any 25-year-old has any right to be.

Moshe Kasher on “You Made It Weird:” Pete Holmes and Moshe have a great rapport and right off the bat they gossip about a supposedly real Nicole Byer/John Cleese beef.  Could listen to these pals dish for hours.

Jesse David Fox on “YMIW:” Nerd heaven.  The two discuss comedy magazine issues all covering the same comics; how your first ten years as a comic is learning how to kill and “home run derby” (not doing anything interesting but learning how to crush); they point out that Jerrod Carmichael is the best contemporary comic for the “Notes he doesn’t play” and observe that Zach Galifianakis is funny no matter what (agreed).  The best point made of all is that clubs have shifted to friendly comics from the hard edged clubby comics of the past (think Nate Bargatze, Gary Gulman).  They elaborate saying, “Comedy has to grow or you won’t move on in the next generation.”   Loved the point they make about bitter, older comics being angry that this generation has access to the internet.  The two say, “Why did we want it to be hard to make it?”  A must-listen if you’re a major comedy fan.

Lynn Shelton on “WTF:” Very sad episode.  Maron cries off the top detailing what happened this week with his recently passed significant other.  Even more heartbreaking is listening to their first conversation where they hit it off.  A little weird that Marc hits on her since she’s in a relationship (he clarifies she and her husband were on the rocks) but otherwise very sweet and emotional.

Sam Morril on “WTF:” This dude always rubbed me the wrong way.  Has a weird, entitled kind of attitude toward comedy.  He’s pretty likeable here talking about Carolines and my pal Louis Faranda.  No great insights I would say but a fun, name-drop heavy episode (evidenced by the fact I just name dropped).  

Neal Brennan on “YMIW:” Oh, man.  Neal Brennan is the all-time greatest podcast guest.  So effortlessly funny, mean in a constructive way and insightful.  Just a few nuggets from the interview include, “Actors are emotional models.”  He also talked about how in a study monkeys chose watching a video of their pack leader over having a Juicy Juice which proves that actor worship goes deeper than our species.  They talk about being a new comic no one notices and finally, Neal says, “Chappelle was funniest on set with female extras.  There were like 40 women when we filmed the Rick James sketch.”  He also goes into great detail about Rick James being problematic.  Was genuinely sad when this 2.5 hour-episode concluded.

Fred Willard on “WTF:” Easily the most lightweight of the podcasts.  Very sad that Willard passed away but this is more of a polite chat with a bit of hero worship than anything truly interesting.  Still, kinda fun to hear about Fred’s greatest hits.

Quentin Tarantino on “3 Girls 1 Keith:” The shortest of all clocking in at 50-minutes but exploding with personality.  I could listen to QT talk about anything and he details his time as an Elvis impersonator on “Golden Girls” and Schumer fawns over him.  I loved that he was a fan of the podcast; he really is a fan of everything.   

SNL Exclusive Sketches: The show is releasing new stuff!  The first one I saw was the best and it’s in the comments (my Dad didn’t like this one).  Just three minutes, it skewers every little detail about what every American house and apartment is like (lots of cables behind your TV?  This is for you).  Another one starring Alex Moffatt (not linked here) in a romantic comedy with himself is fine but certainly a deep cut.

Jack Bensinger Twitter video: Check the link in the comments.  This is the most genius 50-second video maybe ever.  Even my Dad laughed.

Anna’s Cameo: My wife Anna Paone, her mom Catherine Lamoreaux and sister Laura Paone got a Cameo from Gilbert Gottfried for Anna’s Dad, Lawrence.  Gilbert answered promptly, added personal flourishes and it has rewatch value for people that don’t even know Lawrence.  Dude is a class act.

That’s all.

As for this week, got one cool thing!  Tomorrow (Monday, May 25, 2020 that is), I’m going to be on Matt Starr’s online Caveat show “Nerd Search” repping my SNL nerdiness at 7 PM EST.  Tickets are $5 and I will have all my SNL swag on display.  If interested, it’s the first comment.

Gotta go chat with the fam.  brb

01.) Matt Starr’s Nerd Search Show: https://www.caveat.nyc/event/nerd-search-5-25-2020

02.) After After AFTER Party https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9fwMGIeUfc

03.) Yoskowitz video: https://twitter.com/yoskooo/status/1262927925244018689

04.) Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/MattLevy51/status/1263833852830769153

05.) Taylor Tomlinson WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1114-taylor-tomlinson

06.) Moshe Kasher YMIW: http://youmadeitweird.nerdistind.libsynpro.com/moshe-kasher-returns-0

07.) Jesse David Fox YMIW: http://youmadeitweird.nerdistind.libsynpro.com/jesse-david-fox

08.) Lynn Shelton WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/in-memoriam-remembering-lynn-shelton

09.) Sam Morril WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1115-sam-morril

10.) Neal Brennan YMIW: http://youmadeitweird.nerdistind.libsynpro.com/neal-brennan-returns

11.) Fred Willard WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/remembering-fred-willard

12.) Quentin Tarantino on 3 Girls 1 Keith: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/amy-schumer-presents-3-girls-1-keith/e/68450507

13.) SNL Home Sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLXzadzUwVY

14.) Jack Bensinger Tweet: https://twitter.com/JackBensinger/status/1154505535049224192

Comedy Stray Notes May 17, 2020

• Hope everyone’s Q1 of quarantine has been great!  Can’t believe we’re already almost at Q2.  Really proud of all of you.  We exceeded all expectations of how much we could use air fryers, how many books we could read and how well we could follow social distancing rules.  Way back in the halcyon days of the beginning of Q1, I shot a short film with my wife Anna Paone without telling her anything about what was going on.  I just said, “I’m going to start shooting and we’re going to make it up as we go along.”  We didn’t know what was going to happen, the shots or where it would take us.  Truth be told, Anna came up with the best lines and improvised the button at the end of the sketch that I think is genius.  You can find the link in the comments for this 0:53 oddity called “POTLUCK: The Film.”

• As noted earlier this week, my good friend and former Luke’s Lobster coworker Robert Exley along with his colleague Michelle Fox Theobald generously interviewed me about A Profile About You for their CNBC piece on side hustles in quarantine.  This is the first major media coverage I’ve ever received (well, FastCompany wrote about my past company hiring comedians for customer service roles and I was one of them but this is different) and it’s been really incredible to have strangers (six of them!) reach out to me over email and Twitter asking for profiles.  This little idea that I was embarrassed to even share because it seemed so niche is now kind of a thing.  If you missed the article by chance, the link is in the comments and if you want an article written about you, let’s do it.  I want to write about you, the person who read this second paragraph.

Also, it should be noted my good friend and ⅓ of “Way Too Zesty TV” Adam Christopher designed a swanky, new logo for the site as a thank you to me.  That’s a little token of appreciation I’m all about celebrating.  If you’re looking for a graphic designer by chance, please hit Adam up.  You can find him by clicking his linked profile in the previous sentence.  I’ll even go out on a limb and will say he’ll answer DMs.

• Enough about me.  Here are some cool things other folks are doing on the web:

- I’ve never met Ronny Pascale but he’s a prolific creator that I always see posting opportunities for people in the “New York Improv/Sketch Resource Group.”  This week, he had a dating show and Anna joined in the fun playing a variation on her “Importance of Being Earnest” character.  The show was a zippy 20-minute watch and if you want to get involved, hit up Ronny.  He’s doing a ton of cool shows like this that showcase performer types.

- I’ve been intimidated about getting in the TikTok game for a long time.  Most of us are.  Tori Piskin wisely picked up on this millennial fear of Zoomer culture and put together a comprehensive hour long tutorial Zoom session where she taught comics the ins and outs of what and what not to do when starting on this new video platform.  It was honestly really fun and she made it all seem easy.  If you’re interested, A.) follow her on TikTok and B.) hit her up and she’ll share her tutorial for a small fee.  It’s worth it.

- Wanted to shout out one of my favorite filmmakers Sean Hennessy who I studied with at Arizona State.  In the film school program, we build up for five semesters toward a capstone project whether it be a thesis film, feature-length screenplay or crewing out on a number of films as a cinematographer.  Sean directed a short and ended up making one of the boldest, funniest, smartest odes to corporate evil I’ve ever seen.  I was on set as the Second Assistant Director and reliving the movie watching it today not only brings me back but also shows me how ahead of his time Sean was when he made it back in 2010.  This short is 15 minutes, titled “A Tragic Tale of Flies and Men” and the link is in the comments.  

- I don’t know Eitan Levine well (I am a fan of his though) but we are Facebook friends and he did write a moving tribute/op-ed full of warmth, pathos and humor for his bubby who recently passed away in the New York Times.  She sounded like an incredible woman and this is a truly great read that needs as many eyeballs on it as it can get.  You can read it by grabbing the link in the comments.

• Now, a quick rundown of all the stuff I streamed, watched and read these past seven days.

“3 Idiots” (2009): The best part of this movie is when someone says, “What are you watching?” and you say, “3 Idiots,” it sounds like you’re roasting three friends of yours.  As for this flick, it’s a 2-hour 50-minute Bollywood epic complete with musical numbers, an unbelievable amount of corny, heartfelt moments (single tears roll down many cheeks) and a professor who forces multiple students to commit suicide.  With all that being said, there are some fun gags, impressive cinematography and a great 90-minute movie hiding in this 170-minute blockbuster.  IT HAS ITS MOMENTS (Streaming on Netflix).

“Voyeur” (2017): Based on my all-time favorite piece of journalism “The Voyeur’s Motel” by Gay Talese, this slight documentary is all about the journalist’s fraught relationship with his subject (Gerald Foos), how true this story is and who these people are outside this story.  It’s a fun companion piece to the article but without reading Talese’s story (which I’ve linked in the comments) it’s a trivial story at best.  Foos is a true weirdo though if you like documentaries about strange personalities.  SKIP THE DOC BUT DO READ THE ARTICLE (Streaming on Netflix).

“Rango” (2011): Gore Verbinski is one of the most underrated directors working today.  This movie proves it once again.  A stellar voice cast (Depp, Stephen Root, Ned Beatty, Isla Fisher to name a few), tons of inside jokes for film nerds, brilliant compositions, great Western setpieces and lifelike animation make this feel like a worthy successor to the great “Shrek.”  This is one that never got the love it deserved and IF YOU LIKE ANIMATED FILMS, THIS IS FOR YOU (Streaming on Amazon Prime).

“Mikey and Nicky” (1976): Clocking in at two hours, this one felt like a marathon.  Allegedly, director Elaine May (half of Nichols and May) shot more than three times as much footage for this small scale gangster picture than “Casablanca.”  It’s a meandering, intimate affair about two low level crooks played by the legendary Peter Falk and John Cassavettes that I’m pretty sure directly influenced Tarantino (this HAS to be the precursor to “Reservoir Dogs”).  To be fair, the movie has occasional flashes of brilliance like a confrontation about who is the better friend of the two was genuinely fantastic plus a truly messed up ending but for the most part it drags its feet with slice of life material that feels too slight.  IF YOU’RE AN ELAINE MAY COMPLETIST, GO FOR IT, BUT IF YOU’RE AN ELAINE MAY COMPLETIST, YOU’VE ALREADY SEEN THIS (Paid $4.00 on YouTube to see this one).

“Bio Dome” (1996): This movie has 4% on Rotten Tomatoes.  Folks really seem to hate Pauly Shore AND Stephen Baldwin, the two leads.  I went in with the lowest of low expectations when I turned this on at 8 AM on Saturday morning (I couldn’t sleep).  Ended up loving the HECK out of this.  Featuring a soundtrack full of 90s songs I completely forgot about (“Da Da Da” by Trio), a cameo from a young, unknown Tenacious D and a prescient story about quarantining (Shore and Baldwin sneak into a dome meant to study how natural resources react to ideal conditions and they become the “Chaos Theory” element), the movie delivered on all the fronts that I’d expect a studio comedy to.  There are big laughs, a somewhat moving storyline and a solid lesson even.  This one DESERVES A CULTURAL REVISIT (Streaming on Amazon Prime).

“The Chris Farley Show” (2008): I’ll be truly honest; I never got into Chris Farley’s comedy.  It’s not that he’s not funny.  Matt Foley is one of the greatest sketches ever hands down.  Farley just struck me as a person without nuance and other than seeing his sketches on SNL, “Tommy Boy” and “Black Sheep” forever ago, I never really explored.  Decided to change that over the course of this break and read his oral history (excluding quotes from him for obvious reasons) and was pleasantly surprised to learn so much about the guy that I didn’t know.  He went to mass every Sunday.  Always made sure to prop up friends and didn’t accept praise.  The most heartwarming story of all happened the day after he died around Christmastime.  Won’t spoil it.  Made me tear up while reading it.  It’s a breezy AND heavy text that makes for A GREAT READ I COULDN’T PUT DOWN ($9 or so on Amazon for paperback).

Jon Bois’ six-part series on The Mariners (2020): If you’re a sports fan and you don’t know Jon Bois, you are in for a “free dessert on your birthday-level joy.”  He’s basically one of the best YouTubers EVER with comprehensive, stat and story heavy videos about a number of topics like “How come there aren’t any Bobs anymore?”  This might be his most impressive project yet.  These six videos trace the cursed history of the only Major League team not to advance to the World Series EVER.  Excellent background viewing, great rewatchability and full of stuff that will make you go, “Wow,” CHECK THIS OUT IF YOU ARE OR AREN’T A SPORTS FAN (Streaming on YouTube; threw the playlist of all six installments in the comments).

• This was a tragic week for comedy.  We lost Fred Willard, Jerry Stiller (his roast was my favorite as a kid; someone called Ben Stiller’s show a “Shitcom” and that was my favorite joke for a good two years) and Lynn Shelton (director and Marc Maron’s partner).  I have no stories about any of them other than I really enjoyed all of their work and they will all be missed.  This is a dark time.

• Not a ton going on this week per usual.  Tuesday night, Dragonfly is doing a reading of an episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” which should be a fun watch (I’ve never seen an episode of the show) and Thursday night at 10 EST, I’ll be hanging with my pal Todd Montesi on his Instagram Live. 

Also!  If you’re interested, I’m helping run a comedy competition.  We need a bunch more people so please feel free to sign up.  The Google Form is in the comments.

Having a rough quarantine?  Try listening to mashups.  They instantly cheer me up :)

01.) POTLUCK THE FILM starring Anna Paone and me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1AyinS_wHk&lc=UgxWPKsPv1iwi2DVGjN4AaABAg&feature=em-comments

02.) CNBC article by Robert Exley and Michelle Fox Theobald:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/14/heres-how-you-can-make-money-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic.html?fbclid=IwAR3IVgB1_ZX7LqcZNdiFkQXnqJIeVC1R4qgOwKRusPzwRVxBZ42KRZwC64Y

 03.) Anna in Ronny Pascale’s dating game show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEz9cUxLRZE&has_verified=1

04.) Sean Hennessy’s “A Tragic Tale of Flies and Men:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADZnTRxlGbo&t=52s&fbclid=IwAR3YoUzIDiOhP-py9WTmZ1B9raqC1WCoMentORKvXc07m-XAk2evdBr5oZ0

05.) Eitan Levine’s New York Times piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/16/opinion/coronavirus-jewish-funeral.html

06.) Voyeur https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/11/gay-talese-the-voyeurs-motel 

06.) Jon Bois’ Mariners series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pkVu6Kw00M&list=PLUXSZMIiUfFQua1LlKNMg1IOqAn15RkUT

07.) Comedian Competition Google form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HVX9d3FonqCbb5ioiB2-ajLqvcjZS1rnzGedBb3ho64/edit?fbclid=IwAR0xFjbetgLQsxs2c-zNcYb_IMLv1WbkgTDnNjQmIWO_XUK3dlUybitjBc4

Comedy Stray Notes May 10, 2020

• Sitting at home not doing much makes you sigh quite a bit.  It’s not intentional but I find myself letting out involuntary sighs 10-15 times a day.  Every time I do, my wife Anna Paone asks to make sure everything is OK.  It always is.  That, coupled with seeing the style of Roy Andersson’s sublime “A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence” inspired me to write a lil sketch called “Lord of the Sighs” (interestingly, “Lord of the Flies” was trending all week.  Coincidence?  I think so).  The sketch, shot tableau style like Andersson’s film is 1:53, I got up  at 6:30 AM one morning since I was so excited to edit this baby and honestly it’s my favorite sketch I’ve made this quarantine (yes, I say that every new sketch but I think each one is better than the last).  If you’re so inclined, the link is in the comments and I think a worthy way of spending less than two minutes of your time, my friend.

• I did speech and debate all four years of high school at Central High School in Phoenix, Arizona.  It was a really interesting time in my life.  I’d been a privileged, upper-middle class Jewish kid my whole life up to that point and then decided to go to an inner-city high school kind of on a whim.  They had a.) an international program so I could learn Japanese PLUS travel to Japan with my classmates for cheap and b.) the speech team lured me in.  The three coaches Diana Krauss, Brian Gruman, Kevin Berlat and his wife Kimberly Bayan-Berlat came to my middle school Madison Meadows and spoke about the benefits of the program and I was sold.  The four years in speech were actually even better than advertised.  We went to tournaments at Harvard, speech camps in Northern Arizona where the team bonded and weekend competitions where teenagers dressed in ill fitting suits.  I even had the peak performances of my entire life acting out Randy Noojin’s perfect one-act play “You Can’t Trust the Male” with Iris Sheehy and method-impersonating Andy Kaufman outside of competition all day at tournaments in my sophomore year.  I was very nostalgic for all of this so I set up a Zoom reunion.  Hit me right in the heart.  Around 20 of my teammates attended as did all of the coaches.  Man, the only good thing to come out of quarantine is reunions that you never would have had if everyone in the world didn’t have free time.  I highly recommend getting little reunions of high school clubs you were in together- way better than your standard awkward, grade-wide get-together.  Plus, the Zoom concluded with our old warm ups we used to do before every tournament.  We all screamed, “BLOOD, BLOOD, BLOOD” from our apartments and homes.  I think I scared my neighbors.  Worth it.

• Had the honor of performing on Matt Storrs and Hattie Hayes’ “Our Topic Tonight” show on Thursday.  They do this weekly show where performers have to do material centered solely around the topic of their choosing.  This week was “Elevators.”  I wrote a bunch of stuff by searching “Command F Elevators” in my notes app from all thoughts I ever jotted down about elevators and came up with some so-so stuff.  The best thing was the closer though; a made up story of how I met my wife Anna on an elevator.  She came in and delivered the final line getting the biggest laugh of all for my set about how I was “very handsome” (it was extremely obvious that I wrote this).  It was a great time and a fun comedy homework assignment.  You really should watch this show- it’s interactive and can be a part of it in the comments which they implement into the makeup of the program.  The link to their Facebook page is in the comments.

• Week four of my fledgling start up “A Profile About You” I founded went quite well.  Not a bad Q1 for...the company.  This week, I wrote profiles about performers as varied as director/writer/comic/mother Arma Benoit, comedy anarchist/genuinely great guy Max Fine, philosopher/comic/free spirit Adam Christopher, Dan Frigolette’s excellent sex positive podcast “Porn Stars Are People,” wise guy/comic/amazing storyteller Joe Naughton, former businessman/current comic Adam Muller and 90s talk show host/Twitter master Jason Planitzer.  Even outsourced one profile to my friend John Field to write about Noah Savage’s super timely and fun podcast “The World According to Noah Savage.”  Big news for the site coming this week too.  If you’re at all interested in a profile, please reach out to me!  Don’t feel weird about asking.  I will write about anyone and turn the piece into whatever you want.  It's PR for you!  If you don’t know what all of this I’m talking about is, check out my site.  Here’s the link:

medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou

• Two quick social media recs this week:  

Wanted to shout out the exceedingly hilarious Twitter account run by Rebecca Kaplan.  She Tweets up a storm, posts funny videos, captions photos hilariously and I can’t recommend following her enough.  You can follow her at @RebeccaTKaplan 

Secondly, if you’re not following Gianmarco Soresi on Twitter and Instagram, change that.  He’s putting the rest of us comics to shame with his steady stream of one-liners, stand up clips and short quarantine videos.  You can follow him at @gianmarcosoresi

• Maybe watched more movies and TV this week than ever before.  Couldn’t be happier with what I saw.  I’ll keep it all brief since you all have to go FaceTime your Moms:

“The Last Action Hero” (1993): Came across this movie I’d heard so much about through the years but never got around to seeing.  For those not familiar, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays “Jack Slater,” a parody of his stock action characters in a movie within a movie that is clearly a “Die Hard” parody (this movie is also directed by John McTiernan who directed “Die Hard”).  A hardcore film buff is inserted into this movie and said film buff is...eight-years-old.  He helps solve the film’s main conflict, blah, blah, blah.  The story is intentionally lame; it’s sending up the genre.  What’s great in this movie is the satire.  “The Last Action Hero’s” best joke is that all women in action movies are attractive; in the police office, all the men are schlubs and the women are dressed as dominatrixes.  Danny Devito plays an animated detective cat (similar to Roger Rabbit).  Chevy Chase and Jim Belushi have short cameos.  This flick flopped and ended the satire era of Schwarzenegger’s career (had this done well he was in talks to appear in a Hans and Franz movie that was canned) but THIS IS A GEM.  TOTALLY CHECK DIS OUT (Streaming on Showtime; you can get a free month trial).

“Popeye” (1980): Another flop I’d always been fascinated by.  Directed by THE Robert Altman, starring THE Robin Williams, I wanted to like this movie so bad.  However, it was just a little too hokey in a way that felt cloying more so than charming.  There are fun songs, everyone is cast fantastically well down to the extras and you can see how much Altman and Williams loved the idea of this film and these characters probably ever since they were children (I know I did- my grandma had a shelf of toys and the Popeye ones were always my favorites) BUT THIS DOESN’T QUITE WORK (Streaming on Netflix).

“Borat” (2006): Saw this in theaters way back when; it was the second best theater experience of my life after “Superbad.”  I love Sacha Baron Cohen and this movie is maybe the best comedy of the 21st century (with apologies to “Stuber”).  Anna had never seen the classic.  We watched on a Tuesday night and it more than holds up, is ballsier than you remember and ages surprisingly well.  IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS, WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING (Streaming on Amazon for $3.99)

“Cracked Up: The Darrell Hammond Story” (2018): As an SNL lifer, I watch every single SNL doc I can.  From “Saturday Night” (the James Franco doc about a week in the creation of the show) to the doc chronicling the history of the show, I’m gonna see it.  This one popped up on Netflix and I’m quite glad it did.  Always loved Hammond on the show; he could make anything punchy.  This documentary is not an out and out remembrance of his comedic talents though.  It’s a bit more of a portrait of a damaged artist.  Darrell had a very difficult childhood and he confronts it here with footage of him at Carolines even.  A great, harrowing watch that IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT AMERICA’S PREEMINENT IMPRESSIONIST, THIS IS THE SOURCE (Streaming on Netflix).

“I’m Dying Up Here”  (2017-2018): Caught the pilot of this show when Showtime put it out for free on YouTube in 2017 and thought it was fine.  Then, once quarantine hit, I made it my mission to watch all twenty episodes of this season in a month before my Showtime subscription ran out.  I succeeded.  As for the show itself, I have mixed feelings.  Everyone speaks like a pithy philosopher, the stand up in the show is borderline awful at points, storylines are wildly dramatic, many of the characters are more unlikeable than any show I’ve ever seen but...I loved it.  It was unapologetically inside baseball and doesn’t hold the hand of people that don’t really care about comedy- this is for people that really are into it.  Melissa Leo as the club owner/Mitzi Shore type at Goldie’s is electrically vindictive, Andrew Santino (also from “Dave” and a fellow ASU alum) shows flashes of brilliance as the stand-in type for George Carlin (that’s what the internet speculated), RJ Cyler is amazing as the up and coming Eddie Murphy surrogate and Erik Griffin and Al Madrigal are the best part of the series.  The cast is rounded out with familiar character actor faces like Clark Duke, Michael Angarano, Ari Graynor, Jake Lacy, Brad Garrett(!), Andy Kindler, Rick Overton, David Paymer, Dana Gould, Dylan Baker (as Johnny Carson), Moses Storm, Dom Irrerra, Richard Kind, Joey Diaz, Paul Provenza, Ian Karmel, Robert Forster (RIP), Sebastian Stan, Alfred Molina, Jon Daly (as awful as his character is, he got the biggest laughs out of me), the guy who played Jesse’s AA leader in “Breaking Bad” as the Sammy Shore of the show (say that ten times fast), a guy playing Richard Pryor I didn’t recognize and so many others.  Most importantly, one of my ASU comedy heroes from the incredible improv troupe Marvin’s Room Joel Dauten was in the show.  So cool to see a guy I used to watch perform under a Taco Bell during lunch hours in college on a show you need a subscription to see.  Kudos, man.

“Middleditch and Schwartz” (2020): This three-part special starring JUST Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz and no one else is kind of a revolution.  There wasn’t a true special that really captured the feel of being at an improv show.  These three specials do that big time (Jesse David Fox wrote a Vulture article about this that articulates this much more effectively which is linked in the comments) and the fact that it’s a twoprov (just two performers) makes it doubly impressive.  The first hour special is about a groomsman who doesn’t know his status as best man, the second about copyright law and the finale about applying for a job at SNL as a photographer.  IF YOU ENJOY IMPROV EVEN ONLY A LITTLE, WATCH THIS FOR SURE (Streaming on Netflix). 

“23 Hours to Kill” (2020): Seinfeld’s new special dropped out of nowhere this week.  To be fair, I had seen him do this exact hour from the very last row at the Beacon Theater with my pal Jesse Swatling-Holcomb back in July 2016 but it still mostly bangs.  There’s an errant punchline here and there but Jerry is considered the best for a reason.  His comedy is precise and he just says jokes better than almost anyone.  Incorporating a little physical humor and a few act-outs, I think this was a big step up from his last special at the Comic Strip (which I was at the taping for too!) and better than the backlash it’s receiving online.  I LIKED IT, OK (Streaming on Netflix).

SNL Season Finale: Well, it was certainly bittersweet to say goodbye to this season of SNL so soon.  We were cheated out of three or so episodes I believe.  Plus, isn’t everyone just sitting at home?  Why not just keep cranking them out?  In any event, what a way to go out though! Cameos abounded (Martin Short and Kristen Wiig to name just two), the quality of the performances, writing and cinematography skyrocketed and the final sketch that was an ode to dreaming about life pre-pandemic was just as hilarious as it was touching and done wordlessly  (linked in the comments).  Reminded me of old Tom Schiller sketches in the best way possible.  Plus, Boyz II Men Tweeted at me when I said, “My Mom would have preferred Carly Simon as the Mother’s Day musical guest.”  They agreed.  I LOVED ALL OF THIS EVEN THE WEIRD MISFIRES IN THE EPISODE (Streaming on Hulu).

“Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck In Time” Trailer: Five years ago, I donated to a Kickstarter for the first and last time.  Bob Weide, the man who made a four-hour Woody Allen doc was working on his lifelong obsession to make a documentary of my hero Kurt Vonnegut.  Chipped in $15.  Over the years, I’ve received email updates, gave up hope that it would ever be completed and finally, now a trailer has arrived.  It is better than expected; the only downside is Weide inserts his making of the doc into Kurt’s narrative a bit too much which is my least favorite documentary making technique.  Link below.

“Good One” David Wain podcast episode: Listened to this pod hosted by Jesse David Fox while playing Tetris this week.  In said pod, Wain (one of my other favorite comic minds of all time behind “Stella”) discussed the creation of “The State,” one particular sketch “Taco Man” (the conceit of the “Good One” podcast is to dissect one joke/sketch/scene in a comedian’s ouvere to use as a jumping off point for a larger discussion) and some of his movies.  It wasn’t the best listen of all time and I did kinda zone out a bit at times.  Wain is still great though and if you’re a fan, might as well.  Anyhow, if you’re not familiar with this podcast and you’re a comedy fan, it is worth looking into.  Especially if you’re tired of WTF and You Made It Weird (I know I burn out on them occasionally).

No major plans this week.  Starting a new job at a company called BrainPop doing customer service on Wednesday.  Pretty stoked for that. 

Finally, Happy Mother’s Day.  My Mom isn’t on Facebook but if she was, she’d say, “You should spend your time more wisely than writing these things.”

Love you, Mom (if you’re reading this).

01.) Lord of the Sighs starring Anna Paone and myself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0OCehIU9Fw&list=PLoBsCsHJsKMrx6cuZ4Se8CQ_QBfOUcJ5U

02.) Matt Storrs and Hattie Hayes show: https://www.facebook.com/OurTopicTonight

03.) Jesse David Fox’s article: https://www.vulture.com/2020/04/middleditch-schwartz-netflix-comedy-specials.html

04.) SNL “Dreams” sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fEQeo4cUd8

05.) “Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck In Time” Trailer: https://vimeo.com/414827061

06.) “Good One” with David Wain discussing “The State’s” “Taco Man”:https://www.vulture.com/2020/04/david-wain-taco-man-silliness-good-one-podcast.html

Comedy Stray Notes May 3, 2020

• Well, it’s that time of quarantine (quarantime?) where you realize, ‘Damn, I might actually read all of Comedy Stray Notes.”  Since that’s the case, let me make sure this is a FIRE edition.  Oh no, I’m losing you!  I promise not to refer to anything else as FIRE.  OK.  Here goes:

The biggest thing I’m noticing on Twitter these days is an insane amount of parallel thought.  It makes sense- we’re all living parallel lives doing the same stuff.  In fact, just this week I saw I wrote pretty much the same joke as Jessica Kirson and Ilana Glazer.  Yes, I did that annoying thing where I posted a screenshot of my Tweet in the comments with the caption “Honestly same” or something equally irritating.  I can’t help myself.  A comic did the same to me and I deleted my Tweet.  It happens.  No need to have pride over one joke when you could just write another.  Either way!  This confluence of thoughts inspired me to write a sketch called, “Joke Police.”  It’s 2:36 and stars Anna Paone as a young woman who writes an innocuous Tweet without realizing the joke already belongs to a famous comic.  I play the “Comedy Police” coming to take her to Joke Jail.  I’m embarrassingly very proud of this and think it’s some of my “best creative work.”  If you want to see, the link is in the comments.  I stayed up until 6:30 one morning editing this.

• Continued writing profiles on medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou this week about some of my favorite comics.  This week, I wrote about the NY native/influencer Steph Nonyabiz, zine creator/“The Room” fanatic/friend Danny Rathbun, “Harry Potter” superfan/Twitter extraordinaire Justin Smith and comic/puppeteer/empath machine Fred Chong Rutherford.  All were incredibly rewarding experiences and I love learning more about my peers than I ever knew before.  

If you’re confused about this “profile writing enterprise,” let me explain in greater detail:

I have wanted someone to write a New Yorker-style article about me since I started comedy.  I love reading them, they’re a sign you’ve “made it” and I’m a raging narcissist.  It was just a dream though.  I never thought anyone at Vulture would ever call me up and be like, “Hey, we think you’re right for Follow Friday” (although Splitsider did interview me in 2012 about a webseries I created- link in comments!).  So, while we’re quarantined I figured I would create a site that would do a number of things like  A.) Showcase a comic exactly how they’d like to be showcased (they get final edit), B.) Create a bit of industry heat/PR for them- this is a great sample to show potential agents and managers C.) You’re proud of all your accomplishments but feel weird writing about them in an earnest, celebratory way and want someone else to do it while D.) Getting it done for cheap.  When all is said and done, I make about $5/hour working on these profiles but I don’t mind at all.  It’s a joy.

• Moving on.  Here’s a quick snapshot of comedy things that happened this week on the internet and in person:

- Got to be a guest on my friend Danny Braff’s Instagram Live show “Walking Bits.”  Every day, Danny has a friend on for an hour to run bits and talk about life.  It forces Braff to go on a walk which is an ingenious idea for a little IG Live show during quarantine.  If you want to watch/participate, follow Danny on IG at https://www.instagram.com/dannybraff/

- My aunt-in-law Carole Harris gifted me the coolest comedy present I’ve ever received.  It’s a miniature stool, mic stand and microphone.  It was an incredible surprise and I’m smiling just looking at it on my desk.  If you want a better idea of what it looks like, there’s a photo in the comments. 

- Did a little Pete Holmes-inspired comedy contest on Twitter (https://twitter.com/MattLevy51/status/1252631453692760064) where I asked, “What’s the hardest you’ve ever laughed?” like he does at the end of every episode of his podcast.  Got a ton of fantastic responses (you can find the actual Tweet with all the answers in the comments) but here were the winners:

Anna Paone wrote, “Watching Crashing!”

Hattie Hayes wrote, “Matt Storrs and I went on a date somewhere that offered a “4D movie experience” with moving seats, water sprayers, the works. 

Later, sitting on a park bench & the sprinklers went off. We got, as you may imagine, soaked. He looked at me and deadpanned, ‘It’s a 4D experience.’”

Genevieve Rice wrote, “My husband & I cracked up at this video: https://twitter.com/rynprry/status/1252032055585787908?s=20 And our one-year-old daughter started laughing, too. You could say she was just imitating us, but I like to think that even at 12 mos, she knows needing to buy lawn fertilizer during a pandemic is ridiculous (more on Genevieve later).

Jason Planitzer wrote, “Me & @thepacketman imagined this dad character who would ask his son an obvious question and then interrupt him before he could answer.  For some reason we found this line incredibly funny...Dad - What'd I tell you about shittin' in the river? ...I SAID DON'T DO IT!!  I think we were performing this line to each other for 2 straight hours and we couldn't breathe.  We were laughing so hard.  This was inspired by some rat-tailed kid we saw walking down the street who had clearly been shitting in the river.

Lee Valentin wrote, “Was watching comedy near W4 with Stewie Vill. Before the show starts, a disabled audience member struggled mightily getting to his seat. He had the crutches with the arm braces and definitely looked like he couldn’t walk w/o help.  He settles in, the show starts & about the fourth comic in the comic was bombing so badly, the gentleman gets up and walks out the venue leaving his crutches behind.  Ppl with him, surprised, gather themselves, scoop up his crutches and run out behind him.  Stewie and I look at each other amazed and in disbelief. We leave the club in tears. I would love to bomb so badly that I Keyser Soze an audience member. That’s God-level bombing. We laughed about it from W4 to 175th St

- Got a little viral action with a Tweet that read, “Damn, just got nostalgic for the ‘Tiger King’ era of quarantine” (here’s the link https://twitter.com/MattLevy51/status/1254997494767005696 even though you just read the Tweet).  Thought of it in one second.  Wrote it at my sink.  A big account likes the Tweet and BOOM! it snowballs.  This time, musician Chelsea Cutler saw it, liked it and 1500 people I don’t know like it.  It’s exhilarating and an empty feeling.  I mostly just look forward to writing about it here.

- My AZ friend and fellow editor at Right This Minute Todd Hunt put on a “Long Distance Face Off” competition style comedy show last night.  It was a fantastic time.  Six comics faced off (the winner was Kubari Eady, the runner up SallyAnn Hall, and the other participants were myself, Garri Madera, Jaron Young and Brian Kim) and in between head to head comic showdowns where votes were tallied there was music by my favorite musician Youceff Kabbal AKA YUS and Tommy Sklut.  This was such a fun and fast-paced show; every Zoom show should follow this template and Todd pulled it off effortlessly.  Excited to see future editions.

- Rebecca Trent put on a Creek Thanksgiving this past Thursday.  It felt like old times for the first time in a long time.  Lupe Rodriguez-Goodman was there working crazy hard as always (we applauded him when he came out), Colin Digarbo and Lizzy Cassidy were riffing outside like it was a late Tuesday night mic, Robert Dean shared how much of a Tony Zaret fan he is with me and Anna (more on this in a sec) and Maddy Smith and Andrew Schiavone (it was his birthday!) joined in the action too.  Obviously, this was all from a safe distance but still felt like a great throwback to just early March.  On top of that, the Thanksgiving meal was top notch.  The stuffing was maybe the best I’ve ever had and pumpkin pie came with a massive side of whipped cream.  Really hoping another holiday meal from the Creek is on the horizon.  

• Quick props to people killing it on the web:

- As mentioned before, Tony Zaret.  Anna regularly calls him her “favorite comedian” and it doesn’t even bother me.  His videos are a mixture of absurd and bizarrely wholesome that never tires.  They all star Tony with his signature cadence (incorrect usage of words and the last word being spoken with an intensity and volume that does not match the rest of the sentence are favorites in our apartment), usually end in a silly twist and sometimes he even speaks Mandarin.  Cameos from Ronald McDonald and Big Chungus abound.  It’s glorious.  You can find said glorious content at: https://www.instagram.com/tonyzaret/

- When I first got acquainted in the AZ stand up scene, it was apparent that one person was the unspoken leader of comedy in the greater Phoenix area.  That person was Genevieve Rice (mentioned earlier!).  She ran The Snark Show (a show where after performing, comics would get roasted by comics sitting behind them as well as the audience who texted the host roast jokes- such a smart idea) and was a limitless resource to what the local community had to offer.  She was incredibly generous with information but it shouldn’t be lost that she was one of the funniest comics there too.  I read her consistently hilarious Twitter every day and you should too. Follow her at https://twitter.com/genevieverice if you aren’t already.

- The best viral Tweet I saw this week was easily Colin Burgess’ Rube Goldberg joke.  This is a brilliant one-minute video and I watched it twice because I couldn’t believe just how funny it was.  You can watch it by clicking’ this link: https://twitter.com/Colinoscopy/status/1255890780641689601

• A lot of great stuff to still watch.  In fact, I have a doc with over 200 movies I still need to see.  Here’s what I caught this week:

“Lil Rel: Live at Crenshaw” (2019): This is the best special I’ve ever seen.  Shot in a sunlit gymnasium, Lil Rel touches on funerals and the family politics surrounding them in a way that is instantly familiar and hysterical.  I have never laughed out loud watching a special...ever.  I recommended this to my Dad and he wasn’t a fan but if you like stand up YOU MUST SEE THIS (Streaming on HBO).

“A Woman Under The Influence” (1974): Not...comedy.  Still a movie that’s always been on my movie watching bucket list since I’d never seen any Cassavettes.  This one is rough, long and features an incomparable performance by Gena Rowlands (you may know her as the older Rachel McAdams with dementia in “The Notebook” MAJOR SPOILER FOR THAT MOVIE, SORRY) as the wife who is gaslit into thinking she’s insane by everyone around her who may be worse than she is.  It’s a tough watch but ultimately very rewarding.  If you want a movie about mental illness that doesn’t shy away from the gory details and helped spawn the indie film movement (the director toured the movie around the country himself since he didn’t get a proper release and ended up receiving Oscar nominations), CHECK IT ON OUT (You have to pay $3.99 to see it on Amazon).

“ A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence” (2014): I’d seen director Swedish Roy Andersson’s “Songs From The Second Floor” before this and knew what I was getting into.  He does one thing and he does it really well.  Andersson shoots tableaus (single shots for scenes that all play out in one take) to hilarious effect.  This movie did that perfectly allowing these scenes to take place in different eras with different characters crisscrossing from lead actor in one short piece to being an extra in another without a mention of this.  I’d described this film as peak Woody Allen dialogue (it’s subtitled and in Swedish) mixed with Wes Anderson precision.  It clocks in at roughly 100 minutes and is an absolute joy.  Not to mention that Andersson gets the best horse performances this side I’ve ever seen (I’ve never seen “Seabiscuit”).  I CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS ENOUGH (Streaming on Amazon’s Magnolia Selects which you can get a free seven-day trial of).

“Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis” (2008): Anna told me this is the highest grossing film in French history, she’d loved it in the past and I was down to give it a try.  It’s a pleasant flick!  Simple story of a man who has to move to a different region for a job (Anna described it as the redneck region of France).  He’s reluctant at first but grows to love his coworkers and townspeople.  There are very, very French jokes (a lot of it is about the dialect in this town where they add “sh” to the end of every word) but it’s a winning studio comedy that I’m surprised hasn’t been remade for the States.  Not bad but IF YOU LOVE FRENCH CULTURE, THIS IS FOR YOU (Streaming on Amazon for $4.00).

“Ceremony” (2011): Henry Winkler’s son directed this indie and man, I’d seen it on so many underrated comedy lists that it bugged me I hadn’t seen it.  It’s fine.  Kinda like off-brand Wes Anderson.  The protagonist gaslights his childhood friend into going on a road trip where he tries to win back an old flame of his (played by Uma Thurman; she’s MUCH older than the lead) who is getting married that weekend.  It all plays out over a weekend and is a bit unpleasant but the soundtrack is fantastic and actually paints a self-obsessed writer as a jerk instead of a hero.  I honestly liked it.  IF YOU’RE HAVING WES ANDERSON WITHDRAWALS, WHY NOT? (Streaming on the same Amazon’s Magnolia Selects).

“Dave” (2020): I did not like the pilot of this show about Lil Dicky.  Felt like an unnecessary retread of “Atlanta.”  I gave up on it and moved on with my life.  Then quarantine happened.  I started watching again.  I’m so glad I did.  This might be my new all-time favorite show (edging out “Stella”).  In this ten-episode season, things really pick up at Episode Four.  In that one, Dave’s roommate starts representing him.  It’s at this moment, the show becomes relatable.  Everyone that’s ever done comedy has talked to family and friends who want to help them monetize their creative hobby but I’d never seen this exchange used for comedic fodder.  Comedy about family and friends is usually about “You can use this joke” not “You should be making money.”  I was sold after this episode.  The next episode was about mental illness and it genuinely made me cry at 8:30 in the morning one Saturday.  Justin Bieber makes a hilarious cameo in the seventh episode.  Won’t spill anything about the finale but it’s maybe the best episode of any show I’ve ever seen.  I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH.  PLEASE WATCH AND HIT ME UP ABOUT IT (Streaming on Hulu via FX).

• Got some nice comedy reading in too.  Here’s just a few things I found (all SNL-related):

• In 1993, SPIN Magazine (music mag if ya didn’t know, you Gen Z’er), let the cast of SNL edit the magazine.  There’s an amazing interview with Lorne where he talks about how everyone wants to be famous at 20 but isn’t ready and how success ruins people (he also drops the N word?!).  There’s also Adam Sandler interviewing Prince.  Dan Aykroyd talks to David Spade.  Tim Meadows chats with Dinosaur Jr’s J. Mascis.  I couldn’t believe this little obscure piece of pop culture exists.  If this interests you at all, the link is in the comments.

• One of my favorite comedy writers Dennis Perrin wrote a beautiful profile on forgotten 1980s SNL cast member Gary Kroeger.  He was on the show with Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and left show business after his stint on the show to pursue politics and spend time with his family.  It’s a fast and moving read and Gary has since been in an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”  The link is in the comments and will make you smile.

• Vulture randomly wrote a profile on one of the cast members with the shortest tenures in SNL history: Dan Vitale.  He was part of the wild 1985-86 season and spills all the tea (sorry) in this article about shooting with Madonna in the first episode of the season and working with a young Robert Downey Jr., Randy Quaid and Joan Cusack (it was a strange cast).  Link is in the comments again!

I don’t have much in the way of comedy stuff planned for the next seven days.  Who knows what happens this week?  All I know is we got “The Last Dance” tonight and we’ll never know what happened with Kim Jong Un.

Oh!  One last thing.  Soundcloud wouldn’t let me put my new mashup on their platform because it samples “Hey Jude.”  A little frustrating since I put another one up with Daft Punk samples that they didn’t have any issue with.  Either way, if you want to listen, hit me up and I’ll share on Google Drive.  I’m quite proud of it.  IT’S FIRE

Happy belated Hanukkah

01.) Joke Police: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiqDepYvdm4&list=PLoBsCsHJsKMrx6cuZ4Se8CQ_QBfOUcJ5U

02.) Splitsider article about my webseries “Lady and the Damp:” https://www.vulture.com/2012/09/this-week-in-web-videos-lady-and-the-damp.html

03.) Carole Microphone, mic stand and stool miniatures can be seen on Facebook.

04.) SPIN SNL Takeover: https://www.spin.com/featured/1993-snl-takeover-saturday-night-live-issue/

05.) Dennis Perrin’s Gary Kroeger piece: https://dennisperrinblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/27/gary-kroeger-is-still-smiling/
06.) Vulture’s Dan Vitale profile https://www.vulture.com/2020/04/dan-vitale-snl-interview.html

Comedy Stray Notes April 26, 2020

• When I moved to NYC in 2013, my big goal was to attend as many episodes of “Saturday Night Live” live as I could.  Seriously, I wanted to go every single week.  In order to be a lucky audience member, I quickly found out, you have to wait in what is called a standby line.  There are tickets for folks who are friends and family of the cast, writers and crew, VIPS and people who won the lottery to get tickets.  I was never one of those.  So, each time, I would get to 48th Street and 5th Avenue with a 100s of other diehards and wait in varying weather conditions for up to 18 hours.  I did this roughly 20 times and wrote a long blog about the process in 2014 but it’s very outdated and details sitting outside for a certain cancelled comedian.  If you’d like to read it, I’m happy to DM but not promoting it here!  After awhile, my goal was to go once a season as I tired of the process and as much as I miss seeing the dress rehearsal’s cut sketches, I would rather relax on Friday nights.

Anyhow, my story is fairly common.  People do it on occasion and give it up.  Not Christopher Anthony William Bligh.  My friend and fellow SNL superfan has attended over 100 consecutive episodes of the show (excluding the digital “SNL at Home” episodes obviously) and I made a short documentary about him back in 2014.  Just got around to editing it.  It’s brief (2:40), tells you his story quickly and features “Portofino” which I think is one of the most beautiful songs ever written.  I’m very proud of this snapshot and would love if you watched (linx in comments).  Chris has a truly unique story and it’s one I think worth checking out.

• As you may know, I started a side hustle this week (it’s really my only hustle as I am currently unemployed like 10-million-plus Americans; feel free to correct my numbers) where I profile comedians, actors, writers, directors, anyone.  My entire life, all I ever wanted was someone to write an article about me.  I feel many in the arts feel the same way.  A profile is a dream come true- someone paying attention to what you’re doing in a way that feels legitimate.  I wanted to bring that service to the world and for cheap.  So far, I have around 50 clients which shows that I’m not alone in fellow artists wanting profiles written about them!  It’s a true honor to do these and if you’d like to check out what I currently have up you can read about performers as varied as the Weird Al-loving/military family raised Stephen Bolles, album releasing/talented storyteller Niles Abston, MacGruber stan/romantic Alex Stypula and oversharing/Broadway megafan Laura High.  Much more to come soon!  You can find all of these articles here: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou

• Got a few Twitter threads going this week that were a lot of fan.  The first was one where I asked, “What's your favorite feature-length comedy movie that you think flew under the radar?  Let me know!  I want to see it if I haven't already.”  I was pleasantly surprised to receive hundreds of responses of films I’d never seen or heard of.  If you’re worried you got “to the end of Netflix,” check this thread out.  There’s more for you to see!

The second thread I got embroiled in was about a Snapple fact that baffled me. I wrote, “Yo @Snapple.  Got this fact from you:  In a room of 23 people, there is a 50% chance that two people have the same birthday.  Please explain.”  My friend Hattie Hayes quickly explained the phenomenon to me which I had no idea about.  Soon after, Snapple responded with “We call them "Real Facts" for a reason.”  Folks, now is the time to get the snarky response you always dreamed of from a corporation’s social media person.  McDonalds has Tweeted at me too during quarantine when I complained that ranch should be free and we should pay for ketchup.  Now is our time to stand up and revolt!  Say what you want to the food places you like!

• Quick props to a large assortment of folks doing fun/cool stuff on the internet:

-John Field wrote a wonderfully life-affirming Medium article about how to handle rejection as a comedian.  It’s a slightly longer read but flows so well you’ll feel like it took no time at all to consume it.  Some key excerpts from the piece are about John being rejected THRICE in an hour and another where he employs a Chuck Klosterman-esque hypothetical: A wizard came in and cast a spell that made it so that everything I want for a career could never happen, what would I do? After I get over the hurt, would I still do stand-up comedy/YouTube/make Bytes?

If this is your kind of thing the link is in the comments.

-Birthday dude Matt Vita made an incredibly fun and elaborate music video starring himself about 4/20.  It’s not only hilarious, catchy and a great way to spend three minutes but also features cameos from Anna Paone and me!  Took about five minutes to film them!  I love that in the future filming myself lip syncing rap lyrics while sitting in my overly comfortable yellow chair can get me in a rap vid.  The future is tight.

-My pal, former fellow Onion intern and current Colbert writer Django Gold had a hilarious piece about his quarantine on Colbert’s at home version of his show this week.  I actually watched it at 4 AM and found myself laughing out loud (quietly so as to not wake up Anna).  Gold’s comedy is the closest thing I think we have to “The Simpsons” golden years and he captures that tone here perfectly.  Also, especially love that The Turtles song.  Link’s in the comments.  225K folks watched this one; you should too.

- Read an amazing Facebook status about what it was like to be on “Jeopardy!” by Shawn Dugas.  He appeared on an episode that aired last week and reading about how it all went down was illuminating.  It’s a zippy, semi-gossipy read about the behind the scenes of the show and you’ll love hearing about what went down during his appearance.  I know I did.  LIC (link is in the comments).

- One of my favorite comics Derek Lamar has been Tweeting/Instagramming about what he “misses” about working in the service industry and it’s hilariously relatable.  If you’re a veteran of the tables, you should be following and be on the inside before his account blows up and goes stupid viral.  You can find said accounts in the comments!

• Caught four moviefilms this week.  They were:

“Nothing Lasts Forever” (1984): I’d always dreamed of seeing this movie.  It’s an unreleased classic directed by one of the original directors of SNL shorts Tom Schiller and somehow (won’t tell you how!) got my hands on a Quicktime file of it this week.  Just under 80 minutes, it’s a strange, moving, satirical, homage to 40s films, the elderly, the future and features cameos from a never better Bill Murray as well as Aykroyd, Imogene Coca, Eddie Fisher, Mort Sahl and stars Zach Galligan from “Gremlins” (which I need to see still).  IF YOU WANT TO SEE THIS, DM ME.  I CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN!

“Entertainment” (2015): Rick Alverson is the king of the anti-comedy that wades into such strange, ugly territory that it barely resembles a film anymore.  Yet, I keep coming back for more.  I saw “The Comedy” with Tim Heidecker in theaters back in 2012 which was an equally upsetting experience.  This movie starring Gregg Turkington AKA Neil Hamburger starts interestingly enough depicting stand up in a more accurate way than I’d ever seen.  There are tiny highs for Turkington (jokes going over very well at a prison gig) and light laughter but not out and out bombs.  He has an actual clown as his  opening act who destroys.  John C. Reilly plays a supportive cousin who doesn’t quite understand comedy.  The third act is disturbing and completely strays from the very well-done first hour of the movie.  I SORTA RECOMMEND (streaming for free on Amazon’s subsidiary service Magnolia Selects if you opt for their free seven-day trial).

“Meatballs” (1979): This is one of my Mom’s all-time favorite movies and I believe the inspiration for “Wet Hot American Summer.”  Plus, it’s peak Bill Murray.  The recurring gag with a counselor waking up in his bed placed in different places is an incredibly inspired prank.  So yes, I stayed up until 4 another night watching it (I’m an insomniac now!).  It was delightful.  Yes, there are fairly unfair depictions of nerds and overweight folk (I identify as both) but I wasn’t offended.  Worse was the treatment of women.  Murray, funny as ever, is kind of awful to his crush in a way that doesn’t quite register as funny in 2020.  Still, IT’S A CLASSIC (Actually streaming for free on YouTube.  There are short commercials but not bad).

“Saved” (2004): Saw this in theaters way back when but my movie-viewing group caught this this week and it holds up.  I’d call this Macauly Culkin’s second greatest role (leaving this open ended but you know it’s “Home Alone”) and this is such an easy watch that I could view it every year and never get sick of it and I say that as a person who hates rewatching movies because why do that when you can see a new movie?  Either way, DEF RECOMMEND (streaming for free on YouTube as well with a few commercials).

This is everything else I caught:

Famous 1986 episode of SNL directed by Francis Ford Coppola: It’s a tiny, tiny footnote in the show’s history but the one I might be most obsessed with and had always, always wanted to see it.  Turns out I’d seen some of it already!  Probably on Comedy Central summer of ‘02 or something.  Hosted by George Wendt (Norm from “Cheers” and Jason Sudeikis’ uncle) this is an amazing commentary/take on the show that hasn’t been done before or since.  I love the meta nature of this and wish the show took risks like this all the time.  If you’re interested...hit me up.  I might have a secret link.

Fox News Protest: Watch this.  The link is in the comments.  You may just recognize Tim Robinson from last summer’s “I Think You Should Leave” making the world’s greatest cameo.

Whitmer Thomas’ “The Golden One” (2020): Remember when you got into comedy and had grandiose dreams of what you wanted to do?  Have powerpoints, music, interludes, change what standup was?  Then you started and saw what worked so you repressed your vision to succeed?  I do!  Well, Whitmer Thomas made the special we all dream of making when we start out.  Ambitious, sad, darkly funny (not THAT funny to be fair) and full of artistic touches, this is another fantastic subversion of what standup can be.  The songs he sings/plays are amazing The Cure-like jams and an ode to his deceased mother.  It’s moving, self-indulgent and exactly what I wished I could make when I started out.  THIS COULD BE FOR YOU (Streaming on HBO).

SNL At Home: I Tweeted this last night (I actually manically live Tweeted like 75 times) but here goes again: The first SNL At Home was iconic and history will forget this one but I think this episode is the template for what quarantine TV should be.  I stand by that.  Last night, they REALLY upped what we can do while at home.  There was an insane number of cameos ranging from Brad Pitt as Fauci to Adam Sandler, Paul Rudd and Charles Barkley.  I also learned what Bad Bunny looks like.  Most interestingly, the show is conducting a contest for the biggest donor to write a joke that will be in the next Weekend Update.  Thinking we should all pool our money together and write something extremely lame (a super hacky pun would work) that Michael Che has to say with a straight face and then NOT mock us because we donated a ton of money (Streaming on Hulu).

Got a nice, little WFH week ahead.  Gonna do my pal Danny Braff’s Instagram Live show on Tuesday at 2 PM EST, watch Catherine Lamoreaux and Anna Paone’s Dragonfly reading of a “Golden Girls” episode (I’ve never seen the show!) and writing as many profiles as I can!  If you want one, let me know.  I’d love to write about you.

It’s raining outside.  Nice.  What a spring!

01.) Friday Night Standby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahFD5T6BBLA&list=PLoBsCsHJsKMrx6cuZ4Se8CQ_QBfOUcJ5U&index=2

02.) Best underrated comedies thread https://twitter.com/MattLevy51/status/1253593084505489409

03.) Snapple fight https://twitter.com/MattLevy51/status/1252718451707297793

04.) John Field article (https://medium.com/@AmericasComic/none-of-youll-make-money-off-of-this-how-to-handle-rejection-as-a-stand-up-comedian-8d8696a1d093)

05.) Matt Vita rap video (cameos in modern day) https://www.facebook.com/GnarBois/videos/227792821824129

06.) Django on Colbert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlZu5BZDlwg&fbclid=IwAR2H4qJYOjkz_BpGq84YmZB732YKDHz9qLb32vb49MBTzWTEBCx-VK9Hby4

07.) Shawn Dugas status https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10101360345773165&set=a.721430400735

08.) Derek Lamar Instagram and Twitter https://twitter.com/iamDerekLamar

https://www.instagram.com/iamdereklamar/

09.) Tim Robinson https://twitter.com/billkuchman/status/1252052132737568768

Comedy Stray Notes April 19, 2020

• On April 28 of this year (a week from Tuesday), I was supposed to audition at The Comic Strip.  The very first stand up I saw in New York was at The Strip with my old roommate David Kurihara. I saw Jerry Seinfeld shoot his latest special there.  I used to live five minutes away. I’m fond of the place. However, I do have a beef with it. I’ve auditioned four times and never gotten passed. This is the process for those not in the know.  You wait outside in early March to get a date to perform in a year or so (this is detailed in a very old Stray Notes). Then you do a spot after the regular comics on a Tuesday night in front of the booker/manager (?) Richie Tinkin.  It’s very frustrating because he doesn’t really think anyone is ready (there are a handful of comics who have gotten passed and more power to them but Richie rejects A LOT of really great comedians). He tells everyone they have “great stage presence” but “they’re not ready.”  Other notes for me have included, “Don’t talk about cancer. What if someone in the crowd has cancer?” to which I replied, “I HAD CANCER.” Another choice remark of his was, “You need to talk to your Mother more.”

I wanted to make a sketch (it’s 1 minute and 56 seconds long) about my experience auditioning at The Comic Strip while quarantined since my audition where I would get rejected is not happening this year.  This is me auditioning to get passed at my apartment by my booker wife Anna E. Paone.  Scroll for five-eight seconds and you’ll find that link in the comments.

• Did my first Zoom show this week and it went really...well?  All credit goes to Alex Davenport for booking, hosting and running the show with skill and grace.  He built up a nice audience of people from Idaho which technically makes it my first Idaho show. Stayed strong and didn’t make too many potato jokes.  It was nice to see old friends Jon Moskowitz and Rebecca Kaplan doing their thing and seeing other comics that Alex loves from all over the country. I read all of my Coronavirus Tweets that I thought were worthy of being said out loud and I give myself a generous 7/10.  First set I haven’t taped in eight years (for those who don’t know I’m the weird dude that brings his DSLR to every open mic). As fun as it was, I don’t need to tape me on a Zoom mic.

• My dude Neil Rubenstein asked me to do his podcast this week.  He called me at 11 PM on Wednesday and we talked pretty earnestly about my new favorite show that I love and hate “I’m Dying Up Here,” what the future of comedy is (who knows but I think content is better than ever online) and what we’re cooking (I’m turning everything in my apartment into chips.  Potato chips, carrot chips, broccoli chips, tortilla chips, zucchini chips, all roasted with cayenne pepper and honey on them with a side of roasted pecans. Delicious). There’s more if you’re interested; I had a great time and Neil is insanely easy to talk to. His is a good podcast to listen to if you’re looking for a new one to keep you busy while doing dishes.  There is a link below just for you!

• Gonna keep these short and sweet but here’s a speedy round up of some of my peers regularly churning out great stuff and where you can find it:

- Major credit goes to Matt Hyams for pulling off the impossible.  He’s raising a kid AND making funny content? On top of that, the mini sketches he puts out star his child?  Insane. They’re short, he’s putting them out at a consistent clip and they keep getting better. Folks, you may be seeing the next great comedy duo here: Dad and Baby.  If you’d like to see them on Facebook or Instagram, take a lookie. Here are them links:

https://www.facebook.com/matt.hyams.5 

https://www.instagram.com/matthyams/

- Another one of my favorite Matts is Matt Rain.  Pre-Cats he had a running joke on Facebook where EVERY single status of his would be followed with the comment “Cats: In Theaters Nationwide December 20!”  Made me laugh like 150 times. He continually puts out great, silly Tweets written in a voice all his own. You should follow the dude. And you can! Here’s his handle: https://twitter.com/Matt_Rain

- My friend Dave Stolz is not on Facebook (he’s one of those).  However, he did put out a very fun one-minute sketch this week. It’s called “Quarantine Highlight Reel” and really made me laugh.  The link is in the comments. Watch! It’s only like 59 seconds.

- Blair Dawson is killing it on every platform right now.  Every time I look, there’s new, good stuff. However, her newest bit that’s her pinned Tweet and also on her Instagram is hilarious.  I showed it to Anna and we both laughed really hard (also, it incorporates TikTok in a hilarious way). Really smart and funny bit and all it takes you to see it is to click on this lil link: https://www.instagram.com/blairsimone or this one https://twitter.com/urgirlblair/status/1251164409747124224 (follow her on both platforms too).

- Dan Wickes is one of the fastest wits in the comedy game.  If this was 1930s New York, he’d be recognized as our Dorothy Parker (but a man).  He had a run of Tweets this week about how he couldn’t believe his roommate was “having sex on Easter Thursday” (and every other day of the week).  For more greatness, here’s his handle: https://twitter.com/dan_wickes Give the fella a follow.

- Myles Toe hit the ground running when he moved to NYC.  At first, he was a new guy and he quickly became a fixture in the NYC scene.  Loved his stuff right out the gate. Now he’s doing his best work of all on Instagram.  His posts lampooning life in outside NYC now are so on point. If you’re not in NYC and want to see what it’s like, check this out, follow and you’ll see: instagram.com/myles_toe/

• Geez, I watched a lot of movies and TV this week.  Not all of it was good. Here’s a quick rundown:

“Mister America” (2019): This one didn’t get a true proper release and I really wish it did because it’s low key as funny as “Borat.”  For those who missed it, this is a mockumentary of sorts about a campaign for San Bernadino District Attorney. It stars Tim Heidecker (of “Tim and Eric”) as the candidate running for office who is wildly unqualified for the job.  That’s not what makes it so funny. What makes it so damn funny is the small details it gets right about a self-absorbed person. He tries to be well meaning for his own gain but is completely selfish. I saw shades of myself I’d never seen before in this movie and felt exposed.  This movie kills me and I think EVERYONE SHOULD SEE IT (streaming on Hulu).

“Ishtar” (1987): Man, this has been on my list forever.  Been meaning to catch all of Elaine May’s stuff but this is her first movie that she directed I’ve seen.  I wanted to love it and it started so promisingly. Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman play Simon and Garfunkel wannabes and are a riot going from gig to gig in NYC.  Then, they go overseas to the Middle East and get caught up in espionage, militaries and the gags are fewer and farther between. I understand why it was a major flop.  It just didn’t connect. See it if YOU REALLY WANT TO (streaming on Showtime; we got the free 30-day trial just for this).

“Yoga Hosers” (2016): I do not recommend this movie.  This is Kevin Smith more than jumping the shark, nuking the fridge or selling out.  It’s just plain offensively bad. He casts his daughter, kinda sexualizes her and Johnny Depp’s daughter too while they’re minors, makes everyone have Canadian accents and there are Hitlers that are a foot tall called Bratzi’s because they look like sausage.  John Field watched this movie with us and brought up Roger Ebert’s famous, “I hated it” quote and I wish Ebert was alive to review this one. It was fun trashing the movie over text with Field and comedy pals Danny Rathbun and Sam Zelitch. STILL, I DO NOT RECOMMEND (paid $4.00 on Amazon like a fool for this).

“Iliza Schlesinger Sketch Show” (2020): This one went down nice and easy and I watched all six 20-minute episodes back to back.  Reminiscent of “Chappelle’s Show” in that it showcases one performer’s point of view with a great supporting cast, the show has some really fun bits in it like “Fat Muscular Dude Workout,” “Female Jackass” and a sketch where everyone eats tangerines VERY intensely.  Even cooler is the segues between sketches which is set up like clickbait with links. Even cooler is it features NYC comics Dan Perlman, Eric Neumann, Kerry Coddett and Emily Lynne. I TOTALLY THINK YOU’LL LIKE IT (streaming on Netflix).

And here are two quick curiosities:

- The first Conan episode from NBC way back in 1993 is online.  The opening three minutes about people telling him he “better be good” and there’s “a lot of pressure” was BRILLIANT.  Then, you get a very funny bit with Bob Costas and the original cast of “The Wizard of Oz.” Also, watch Conan nervously interview John Goodman (who leg wrestles George Wendt AKA Norm from “Cheers”), Drew Barrymore (man, this is awkward as he hits on her) and Tony Randall who OWNS him.  The link is in the comments which is just a short scroll away since you’re almost done reading this thing.

- “Sex House” from The Onion (former Onion intern here- what up Class of Summer 2010) is one of my favorite webseries of all time.  Pretty sure Matt Klinman (one of my favorite Onion people) worked on it too. I won’t spoil it but it’s EXTREMELY relevant to our current reality and not at all what you expect.  It also sends up reality TV in a way that I find especially funny now that I’ve seen almost all of “90 Day Fiancee,” “Love is Blind” and “Too Hot to Handle” with Anna. The link for the first episode is in the comments.  I always found it funny that the first episode had SO many views because people thought it was about sex and Episodes 2-10 get fewer and fewer views. It gets weirder and better and you should watch the whole thing.

• Got myself a brand spanking new Viral Tweet (https://twitter.com/MattLevy51/status/1251513963424051201) this week (if you consider 1700 favs viral).  Here’s what it’s like to go viral on Twitter:

01.) Random thought pops in your head in bed.  This one was: I wonder what the “I don’t watch TV people” are up to.

Not that funny.

02.) Somehow, it catches on.  I think it was when Kelly Bachman commented on it (Kelly is a damn good comic you should follow- she has a major Twitter following.  You can do that here: https://twitter.com/bellykachman).

03.) The “not watching TV community” all decides to comment which is cool.  They all say they’re on YouTube which they classify as “not watching TV.”  

04.) Expecting a meme account to steal it and I’ll fight them about it for no money.

05.) Random people who have like 8 followers like it.  There are many Twitter accounts where people just Retweet it.  It’s kind of nice. They’re not there for self promotion. They just want to support random stuff that already went viral.  Gotta figure out how to monetize these people!

Not much planned this week.  Or the week after. Here’s what I got: listening to the Strokes album way too much, getting back into Lou Reed (man, he’s SO good and sounds great live), watching Catherine Lamoreaux and Anna’s Dragonfly Zoom play of “The Hitcher” on Tuesday night, going to the Creek for Thanksgiving Dinner on Thursday (it’s pick up) and watching “Saved” with the movie text crew Thursday.  I guess I actually do have some cool stuff going on.

I made a mashup this week if you’re still reading and love amateur Girl Talk.  Musician friends have described it as “Not good.” You can judge for yourself. I sample swing music, Daft Punk and Eminem.  That’s the last link of all.

Au revoir, Shoshanna

01.) Quarantine Comedy Club Audition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtJbVW9F5fg&t=

02.) Neil Rubenstein Podcast https://anchor.fm/neilrubenstein/episodes/The-Quarantine-Qhronicles-Vol--5-Matt-Levy-Comedian-ecrl2v

04.) Dave Stolz Sketch https://twitter.com/DaveStolz/status/1249765176481656832

05.) Conan Episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q471WB5Tgw&t=

06.) Sex House https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0App7QizQCU&has_verified=1

07.) My mashup: https://soundcloud.com/matt-levy/little-bitty-pretty-ritz

Comedy Stray Notes April 12, 2020

• 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

09.) Mr. Mike: https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Mike-Life-Michael-ODonoghue-ebook/dp/B00TQ3HBP4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2STRIU1T0AKET&dchild=1&keywords=mr.+mike+the+life+and+work+of+michael+o%27donoghue&qid=1586711763&sprefix=mr.+mike+%2Caps%2C125&sr=8-1

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

Comedy Stray Notes April 5, 2020

• Day 22.  We’re going to get our 10,000 hours of quarantining in.  Gladwell would be proud of all of us for becoming masters of our own literal domains.  Luckily for all of us, the internet has been livelier than ever. I should be getting more work done but content is king and I can’t get enough.  This week I participated in the onslaught of content and created two patented Matt Levy “Selfish Acts of Selflessness” where I do nice things on the web while also hoping to get followers out of it.  I’ll admit it. It’s self-serving but I enjoy seeing what others create too. The first act of selfish kindness I did was a contest for a Best April Fool’s Story on Twitter. Winners get $1. I’m loving getting inventive stories on these  and received a few gems this week. The winners were these:

Aimee Rose Ranger: I bought a bunch of “musical greeting cards” and took the sound mechanism out & taped them into every cabinet & door in my bf at the time apartment. The pantry was Johnny cash, The refrigerator made a spooky Halloween noise for months

Joel Walkowski: When I went to college at USC. I went to Chinatown, got a chicken & put it in my roommate’s room. He loved it. He built a coop, the chicken would follow us to class and I gave my professor’s eggs.

Clayton Porter: I put my college roommates car up for sell on Craigslist at a very very reasonable price. Pictures were included in the post.

If you’d like to read the other entries you can.  The link is in the comments.

My second act of selfish selflessness was a bit more involved.  I created my “Third Annual Matt Levy Link in the Comments Film Festival.”  Basically, anyone can enter their film in the Fest (even you- there’s no deadline!).  You get in. I review your film. No matter what, I only give you a gushing review. Saw 40 or so amazing shorts that were all very deserving of their glowing praise.  If you’d like to see the films themselves, you can. The link for that is in the comments as well.

• Enough about my Twitter.  Here are some great things my comedy peers are doing that you should be taking note of:

- Brian Bahe is doing a wonderful Instagram series where he calls people up and asks if “they’re OK.”  I’ve been a fan for awhile but I especially loved the video of Brian talking to his Dad. It was heartfelt, funny and even a bit awkward at times.  Just like all calls with parents. If you want to check it, you can follow Brian on the gram at brian_bahe

- The comic who is owning COVID-19 the best so far (no offense to everyone) is Maria Wojchiekowski.  From her on-point ABBA song parody to her 50 states reacting to social distancing with a comic from each state (it’s a joy to discover where people are from I’ve found), had a parallel thought joke of hers get passed around over and over.  In short, she’s doing really inventive stuff while inside. Check her stuff out on her Facebook before it goes wildly viral.

- I haven’t seen anyone put out a rallying cry to keep comedy going(!) quite like Eleazar Guzman.  We’ve met a handful of times but being his friend on Facebook has been inspiring. He’s promoting others and doing the Lord’s work.  Most recently, he created a podcast called The Comedy Showcase. It’s closer to what a show feels like than anything I’ve heard. He hosts the thing and then plays selected clips from comics including me (I killed it in September 2018).  After the comics’ sets, he gives you the performer’s Twitter and Instagram and Venmo information. Truth be told, we should all be paying him. If you want to listen, the link be in the comment. 

- Matt Storrs, one of the nicest and funniest guys in comedy (who I knew way back when in Arizona), celebrated a birthday last Sunday.  He hosted a call in show on Facebook. I tuned in for just a little bit and was dazzled at how fun it was. People wrote in and requested that Matt and Hattie Hayes do things and I had a blast.  It wasn’t quite like being there but it felt close to the real thing. If you want to live it for yourself, the link is in the comments.

- Most of the most important things in comedy’s evolution right now are happening on Instagram.  Even cooler, is that the real humor tastemakers are taking notice. The invaluable Jason Zinoman wrote an article this week and it featured Chris Calogero and Noah Findling.  Two guys who are long overdue for these props. It’s a great article and if you want to peep it (and/or have free articles left this month), you already know the link is in the comments.  

- If you want props here, DM me.  Happy to write up anything about anyone.  Not trivializing all those that are propped up, but it’s nice to have someone write nice words about you and I’m happy to be that guy for you.

• It wouldn’t quarantine, if I didn’t tell you what I watched this week.  Here are super short recaps with an idea of whether or not said content is worth your time:

“Midsommar” (2019): Anna E. Paone told me I could watch this after she went to bed (this is not her kind of content).  Wednesday night, I stayed up until 2 AM. This movie is a lot of things. It’s a character study, a satire of Americans abroad knowing nothing of international customs, a straight up pagan horror film and also features Chidi from “The Good Place” as well as Will Poulter who is from “Son of Rambow” one of my all-time favorite movies.  Full of terrifying and beautiful imagery, this one ISN’T FOR EVERYONE but it is great (Streaming on Amazon Prime).

“Mortdecai” (2015): Remember this movie that flopped and everyone said it was the beginning of the end of Johnny Depp’s career?  Well, I watched it so you don’t have to. It’s one of those “It’s so bad it’s bad” movies unlike Ed Wood stuff (ironically Depp’s best).  Kind of like “Austin Powers” but not even close to funny. HARD TO RECOMMEND this other than for Depp’s dumb mustache and bizarre acting from Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Olivia Munn, Jeff Goldblum and Paul Bettany (streaming on Hulu).

“Crip Camp” (2020): Sam Zelitch set up a group text for me and Anna to watch this movie with him. It was a fun way to watch a movie even as beautiful and serious a documentary as this.  Full of moving stories and a political message, it’s a nice, heartwarming watch where you can actively root against politicians like Nixon and then somehow cheer on George Bush Sr? I’d say CHECK IT ON OUT (streaming on Netflix).

 Dan Aykroyd episode of “WTF:”  If you’re a fan of any of his work or Belushi, it certainly made for an interesting listen.  Great inside stories about the early days with Lorne.  

Bert Kreischer’s “Hey Big Boy” (2020): Kreischer is something.  He takes his shirt off to start sets, yells, says incredibly insensitive things but somehow I like him?  Someone called him “uncancelable” online. Perfect way to put it. Definitely not my favorite comic but he is always entertaining.  He’s the funny frat bro that grew up and now he’s not just known around campus- the whole world is familiar with his antics. If THIS IS YOUR KIND OF THING, you’ll love it and have probably already seen this (streaming on Netflix).

Madeline Kahn Hosts SNL (1978): Anna wanted to see this episode and I was very much down.  It’s from the show’s golden era that I always find to be hit or miss. This installment is very much that.  Tom Schiller’s short about aging hippies made us LOL but many sketches were joke free or fell flat. You do get a rare Lorne Michaels appearance though.  FOR MADELINE KAHN FANS ONLY (streaming on Hulu).

Finally, here are some quick comedy obscurities I ran into on the web this week if you want short chunks of great stuff:

Chuck Jones, the fantastic Looney Tunes animator has a short in his honor online.  It’s eight minutes and an inspirational watch if you’re in a creative rut. Link is in the comments.

Looked up a famous SNL sketch from the reviled 1980-81 season.  It’s called Foot Fetish, it’s one minute (not about foot fetishes), stop motion animation and is genius.  Only one minute long and the link is in the comments (you need Amazon Prime to see this).

Another curiosity I found is an amazing Gilbert Gottfried sketch from his lone season on SNL in 1980-81 introducing Gilbert to the world.  It’s very Woody Allen-esque (from his early funny ones) and a little under four minutes. If you’re a Gilbert fan and want to see him “pre-voice” this is the content to see.  Link in comments.

“To The Moon” is a short by John Reynolds.  It’s on Vimeo, sixteen minutes and a “Who’s Who” of NYC comedy.  Honestly, it’s a better, funnier, more well-produced version of my thesis film “A Portrait of the Sandwich Artist as a Young Man.”  It hurts to admit that. Links for both are in the comments.

Final recommendation is a 2015 New York Times article about amazing comedians that never became famous (also by Jason Zinoman!).  It features stories about the legend Charlie Barnett and is a fun, quick read.  

Know how long this quarantine has gone on?  My Mom has sent me every baby picture of me.  I love it. She’s great. See you next week, fam

01.) Link in the Comments Festival: https://twitter.com/MattLevy51/status/1245785944655048705

02.) April Fools Contest: https://twitter.com/MattLevy51/status/1245351315531800579

03.) Matt Storrs Live Birthday Show: https://www.facebook.com/events/144819976909844

04.) NYT Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/29/arts/television/instagram-live-comedy-virus.html?fbclid=IwAR3aQioEwiD1XW7Jmp29u7_jp4BUGlxKzOnzJetjGkLv3tjoRbS1G7GXHqI

05.) Eleazar podcast: https://anchor.fm/ComedyShowcasePodcast/episodes/Episode-1-ecckcg?fbclid=IwAR0Y8XcFE47Q-Nxd2v0rEZC4np8OLQUNr012nPLxwp7Lb_I7oWr4JcJMZkI

06.) Chuck Jones Video: https://vimeo.com/133693532?utm_source=email&utm_medium=vimeo-digest-daily_digest-20140100&utm_campaign=9279&email_id=ZGFpbHlfZGlnZXN0fDFlYzVmNjM1MmI5MzRmYzY5NTE4YzhiYzU5OTcxZjQwMjkxfDIyOTA5NTd8MTQ4NTQzMjQ0MHw5Mjc5

07.) Foot Fetish Sketch: https://www.amazon.com/Foot-Fetish-Randal-Kleiser/dp/B07ZX76BGM

08.) Gilbert Sketch: https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/who-is-gilbert-gottfried-/n8715

08.) To The Moon: https://vimeo.com/366570716

09.) Portrait of a Sandwich Artist as a Young Man: https://vimeo.com/44733572

09.) Charlie Barnett article: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/17/arts/catch-charlie-barnett-and-other-rising-stand-up-stars-who-never-hit-the-top.html

Comedy Stray Notes March 29, 2020

• Another week in the can without leaving the building.  Still, quite a bit happened. I spent pretty much every day fine tuning a sketch I wrote back in July and it is now complete and on the internet!  I titled it “There’s a Twist You Won’t See Coming In This.” My pal John Field taught me about the value of giving your videos a name that grabs attention and, you know, as click baity as this title is, I’d watch a video that promised a twist to see if it really delivered a twist.  I promise this one does!  

Plus, I think the sketch turned out really great.  It’s a bit longer than one might expect clocking in at five minutes but it’s all integral to the TWIST.  There’s great acting in this thing too coming from David Rey Martinez in the lead role and very funny supporting turns by Anna Paone, Nate Borgman and Belton Delaine-Facey.  It looks amazing as well; Katie Nahvi shot the heck out of this thing making great use out of a tilt shift lens that makes it look like only your subject is in focus. On top of that, one of my favorite bands, Blood Cultures gave me the rights to their song “Phospholipid.”  I love this one so much and I didn’t give away much because I hope you watch. The link is the first comment.

• Once again, the comedy community surprised and delighted me this week with innumerable selfless acts of kindness.  Here’s a quick recap of those that stood out to me:

- Bennett Hoffman, a friend of mine wrote a status that read, “Did you write a film script or TV pilot? Can I read it and practice giving notes?”  It seemed too good to be true. I DM’d him and asked if he would read a 132-page screenplay I wrote last year. He said, “Sure.” No one ever follows up on this kind of thing but I thought it was nice.  The next day, I received a Google Doc with extensive notes about my screenplay that were not only constructive but inspired me to get back to rewriting it. This went way above and beyond my expectations and when I asked if I could send him some cash, he politely declined. This was truly amazing.

- Last week, I mentioned that Carolines had a GoFundMe set up to aid the staff that had been hit hard by COVID-19.  Well, one of my favorite comics, James Altucher saw this and graciously donated $500. Nice to know that some of the funniest folks around also have the biggest hearts.

- Over the past few days, I became obsessed with a sketch from a 1993 episode of SNL hosted by Charlton Heston.  The premise of the sketch is simple. Heston plays a bag boy who has worked at his grocery store for 42 years and plays by his own rules.  The sketch was nowhere to be found on the internet. I searched everywhere. There are screenshots and transcripts. No video. Somehow, I came across a comment on YouTube where a user named “Roy C” said he had it but NBC kept taking it down.  After emailing back and forth a few times, this stranger from the internet sent me the sketch along with a few other classics from that episode that are nowhere to be found online (hopefully this changes once Peacock, NBC’s streaming service exists) like the Cold Opening and Monologue where everyone in the SNL cast become apes a la “Planet of the Apes.”  Another sketch was “King Solomon’s Career Day” where a class learns about the different occupations one can have in Biblical times. Really funny and I’m so glad I saw them all. If you want to see, message me your email address and I can pass them along via Google Drive too.

- Started doing this thing on Twitter where I give away $1 for a “Best” story.  For example, I did one for “Best useless fact” that was won by Robby Leon. Did another one about “Best celebrity interaction” story.  For some reason, Blaine Capatch (from “Beat the Geeks” and “Mad TV”) saw this and retweeted it. It blew up. Got like 300 celebrity stories sent to me by strangers that were all unique and hilarious.  Some of my favorites were from comedy friends Ronnie Fleming, Patrick Hastie and Blair Dawson. If you want to read all the stories, you totally can. Link in the comments.

- Finally, this isn’t an act of kindness but I am consistently shocked at how Alex Payne and Matt Tenenbaum are putting out new content EVERY DAY.  They’re putting me to shame at how prolific they are during this quaranTIME. The link is in the comments to their YouTube channel and you should definitely subscribe to keep up with all their greatness.

• With all this free time, I try to ration my content intake so I don’t burn out and it all feels special.  This is what I chose to watch/read this week (some of it isn’t even funny; just trying to give some recommendations in this weird time where we all have too much free time):

The Miskel Spillman episode of SNL (1977): This is something that has only happened once in the history of Saturday Night Live.  If you don’t know, the show hosted a “Anyone Can Host” contest and the winner was an 80-year-old immigrant named Miskel Spillman.  I’d always wanted to see it but never found the time. Suddenly, I have time and this is certainly a fun watch. Spillman has a palpable joy onscreen in her limited roles.  There are also a few classic sketches as well. I loved the ambulance action figure commercial as well as the “Date the self conscious association.” Bill Murray makes a solid premise really sing.  Sartresky (yes, the philosopher) and Hutch was fun too. Elvis Costello was the musical guest. If you’re a fan of any of these things, DEFINITELY CHECK IT OUT (streaming on Hulu).

“Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” (2019): As a moderate fan of the Askewniverse, I’d been keeping track of the diminishing returns of this series for years from “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” to “Clerks 2.”  Happy to say that the diminishing returns continue as this movie is OK at best with a silly plot about stopping a movie from being produced. Mewes and Smith do about exactly what you’d expect in their now immortal roles.  However, the meta jokes about Kevin Smith being a horrible director and neverending cameos of aging stars you forgot about (Jason Lee, Shannon Elizabeth, Val Kilmer, Justin Long, Rosario Dawson, Joey Lauren Adams to name a few) make this a NICE DISTRACTION that tries pretty hard (streaming on Amazon Prime).

“I Killed” (2006): This is actually a book!  I finished a book! It’s a book full of stories about comics on the road.  It ranges from short 2-5 page tales told by big names like Seinfeld, George Lopez (his story about a female stalker is particularly memorable) and Tom Arnold (his act was comprised of goldfish that would freeze in his trunk?) to smaller ones like Larry Miller who opens the story with maybe the best one of all about playing a high school after prom show.  A lot of the book is very dated and misogynistic but if you look past the worst in this, you’ll find some gold in this collection and wisdom about being a comedy lifer. On top of that, there are a lot of comedians in this book I’d never even heard of. There’s always so much more out there than we think. If you love comedy, GIVE IT A READ (Anna’s dad lent this book to me...you can get it on Amazon if you want to support that local business.  It’s $12 on Kindle).

The two non-comedy movies I saw this week were “Motherless Brooklyn” which I really, really liked.  It’s a 1950s period piece starring Edward Norton as a Private Investigator with Tourette’s trying to track down his boss and friend Bruce Willis’ killer.  It should also be noted that Alec Baldwin is as good in this as he was in “Glengarry Glen Ross.” Totally check it out if you can (it’s $5 to rent on Amazon again but worth it).  The second movie I saw was “Queen and Slim.” Man, the first 30 minutes were amazing. So incredibly tense and well done. The rest of the movie is fine but a bit repetitive with the couple on their first date on the run (which is such a cool premise).  Amazing soundtrack, beautiful visuals and a real “What’s going to happen?!” kind of vibe to it but in the end, it wasn’t for me (also streaming on Amazon for $6).

Well, that’s all for me this week.  Back to watching Photoshop tutorials

My new sketch with a twist and others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSCszFFLYB0&list=PLoBsCsHJsKMrx6cuZ4Se8CQ_QBfOUcJ5U

The celebrity interaction Tweet: https://twitter.com/MattLevy51/status/1242146498583957504

Payne and Tenenbaum’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFr_xgQuhVYm4LLSZyNbViw

Comedy Stray Notes March 22, 2020

• There is officially no in-person comedy left.  There’s mics and shows online which is great. Performers may revolutionize the industry and get paid for working online.  Glad to see everyone adapt so quickly; this might be the next great comedy boom. Unfortunately, there 

is a whole industry of people in the entertainment industry being left behind and those are the servers, the coat checkers, the door people, the cooks, the chefs, the food runners, the bartenders and barbacks, the security, everyone.  Most comedy clubs are starting GoFundMes and it’s inspiring. People are donating slowly but surely. I’m partial to one in particular. It’s the Carolines GoFundMe. I worked there for the past two months before the Club had to close due to, you know.  Well, in the wake of that, our resourceful staff led by Kendall Keener set up a page for people to donate to staff members. We don’t expect people that are in the same boat as us (newly unemployed millennials) to donate nor do we expect them to. We just hope that you share it to increase visibility so big name comics who have performed at the Club check it out.  If you’d like to share, the link is in the comments and it would be really cool if you made a status about it. I’ll owe you a social media favor in return!

• This is obviously a very strange footnote in history that I think will end up being the defining moment of our generation’s lives.  And in said moment, it’s really cool to see how many positive, generous things are happening on the internet for content creators. Here’s a select few that I spotted this week:

1.) If you have Adobe, you can get three free months.  Just call this number: 1 (800) 833-6687. It might take awhile for customer service to get back to you but worth it.  Just opt for the “Call back later” option and they’ll handle your account ASAP.

2.) One of mine and Anna Paone’s fave NY comics Neil Rubenstein started a Facebook group called “Artist Support Group - Beta.”  Here’s the conceit. Neil has two group members a day promote themselves however they like. You can share your Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, podcast, website, etc.  Then, all the group members just blow up all of that person’s content. We all fave everything they post, comment, follow. It’s a really cool thing and makes you feel special for a minute.  If you’re looking for something nice to do that’s easy, join the group!  

3.) I’ve loved ComedyWire for such a long time.  Always said it was the only productive way to waste time on the internet.  And now, it’s my absolute favorite way to do comedy in this time of love and corona.  You can write a ton of topical jokes and get paid for winning challenges. Didn’t want to promote them in this time because the competition will only get fiercer on the site but here to spread the love.  

4.) Sets Entertainment is doing a new project where they share videos of comics and attempt to get them paid.  They shared mine which I thought was pretty righteous. Didn’t make anything (nor did I expect to) but it was still cool and I urge all comics to be a part of it (just search Sets Entertainment on Facebook).  Why not? Sounds like a sick new credit.

5.) Every now and again, I read some Seth Simons.  He’s the UCB comedy journalist/whistleblower. Never met the guy but I love his stuff.  This week, he put out an “article” where he calls out UCB’s CFO for not paying the staff severance after they were layed off.  It’s written as a transcript of his phone conversation with the guy and makes for a riveting read. Link is in the comments (kind of a long read but fun).

6.) A few comics have gotten COVID-19.  So far, they’re all doing well which is excellent news!   Noah Savage was the first comic I knew of to have a confirmed case and he recorded a podcast about it.  He’s totally good now but if you’re worried you’re infected, you should listen to his episode about having it and what it’s like.  Link in comments.

• My peers are still making some damn good content and not letting the quarantine get to them.  Here’s just a few highlights of the many (my apologies for not highlighting everyone that’s killing it):

a.) Bret and Jordan Raybould had Anna and me in their parody of Gal Gadot’s “Imagine” video featuring NYC comics.  They got the vid out in MERE hours after the original was posted and this included Anna’s lengthy conversation with Bret about the last night’s “Survivor” episode.  Link once again where you expect it.

b.) Isabel Hagen had the last true Late Night set that I know of on “Fallon.”  It’s an amazing set, the first time someone who beat me in a Roast has been featured on network television that I know of and a great way to spend five minutes thinking about anything that’s not the present.  Yes, another link.

c.) Finally, Carmen Lagala and Sam Evans are making the absolute best quarantine sketches I’ve seen (my apologies to Sam Morril and Taylor Tomlinson).  The most recent NSFWFH one was jaw droppingly funny and made me jealous of how good it was. Mixture of silly, raunchy, infectiously joyful and satirical.  Everything I want everything to do. Tip of the hat to you both and definitely watch it. Link in comment.

We all think we’ve gotten to the bottom of Netflix, right?  Seen it all? Nah, there’s so much good stuff that’s not on the homepage.  Here’s a few things I saw that are fairly high profile this week along with a few weird rarities to scratch your comedy itch.

Marc Maron’s “End Times Fun” (2020): Eerie that Netflix released this special the week this all went down.  Too coincidental. Either way, this is an amazing, amazing hour. Maron is so incredibly self assured and able to make tangents feel fully fleshed out in a way that you don’t really see. I especially loved the bit about getting all worked up about not having enough turmeric.  There is a weird lapse at the end where Maron does a bit that Pete Holmes originated on Conan years ago but I’ll give him a pass. DEF, DEF RECOMMEND.

“Dolemite Is My Name” (2019): Started this movie months ago and told myself I would finish it someday.  Here we are. It’s a fun, slight flick with no real, discernible conflict or stakes (Eddie Murphy’s character solves almost every problem immediately) but it’s a movie with a murderer’s row of comedians (Mike Epps, Luenell, Craig Robinson, Titus Burgess, Chris Rock, Keegan Michael Key were a few standouts) and Eddie kills it.  The movie-within-a-movie scenes were very funny and the scenes at the end from the real Dolemite movies only made the thing better. This is a CASUAL recommendation.

“Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video” (1979): This has been on my list of things to see for a long time.  Always thought it would be super hard to find. Actually, it’s just on YouTube. For those not in the know, Mr. Mike is Michael O’Donoghue, SNL’s first superstar writer.  He’s known for transgressive, violent and dark material. Some isn’t even close to funny. Always weird and different though. The same is true of this special which is a one-hour mishmash of sketches, asides to the camera and strange “dream sequences.”  Kind of like Andy Kaufman’s special back in the day. While not super enjoyable, this is pretty much the template for “Tim and Eric” (this was pointed out by a YouTube commenter and I agree) and also there’s a sketch called “Laser Bras” that “Austin Powers” (which I also rewatched this week and features a John Mulaney lookalike that Anna spotted) blatantly stole from.  If you want something different, GO FOR IT (streaming on YouTube).

“Big Time Adolescence” (2019): I’ve got mixed feelings about Pete Davidson but man, he is VERY good in this movie.  To catch you up, here’s the rub: Davidson goes out with a girl in high school, they break up BUT he remains friends with her younger brother.  The movie is the story of their friendship and age gap. This is excellent background viewing and would have been a box office smash if it was released in 2005.  There’s a lot of worse ways to spend 90 minutes, so I’d say CHECK THIS OUT (streaming on Hulu).

“The Laundromat” (2019): As slight as all the other movies I saw were, this one is light and heavy at once.  What was once supposed to be an Oscar contender directed by Steven Soderbergh, this didn’t really make a splash and is just chillin’ on Netflix.  Basically, it’s all about evil corporations hiding their corruption and the heroes who are trying to take them down. Way more complicated than that but I’m a simpleton.  If it sounds preachy, it’s not. It’s super fun. You got Meryl Streep as a tourist in a shocking scene, a father who tries to bribe his daughter into not exposing an affair with a surprisingly funny button to the scene and Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas explaining everything in inventive tracking shots.  Soderbergh makes everything great. Bet he’s shooting an amazing quarantine flick in his house now (streaming on Netflix). 

• With all this free time, I was productive this week.  Got my business cards delivered in the mail (see the comments if you want a peek at what they look like), curated my sketches into a playlist (bit.ly/mattlevysketchplaylist Lance Pauker taught me the power of making your YouTube link a bit.ly instead of a long link; everyone should be doing this), updated my mattlevycomedy.squarespace.com site to have every single Comedy Stray Notes if you want to read them all in a row AND have my Lizrdmail account fully set up.  Now, I have to put in real work and be creative on new projects. That sucks.

• This was a sad week in comedy as well.  It should be mentioned that the New York comedy scene lost two comics in one day which I’d never seen before and was doubly shocking.  The first was a comic I’d never met but heard a lot about. His name was Brian Baron and reading what folks wrote about him was truly moving.  He was the guy that made new comics feel welcome which is something that is very rare in NYC. The first six months are usually horrible and it’s nice to know that there was someone who helped people feel at ease.  The second was an acquaintance of mine that I always loved to see perform, Clint Nohr. He had a very laid back persona onstage and I just knew he was a vet who didn’t need to be at open mics. I really wish I knew him better and hope his family is OK during this trying time.

• Don’t have a ton of comedy stuff going on this week.  Honestly, I hope nothing crazy in the world happens for once.

See you next week.  I just farted while Anna E. Paone was attending virtual Mass

Carolines GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/carolines-employee-relief-fund?pc=em_dn_contacts_r&rcid=r01-158489034083-356cf204a60d4e5f&member=3999952

Seth Simon’s article: 

https://sethsimons.substack.com/p/a-conversation-with-ucb-cfo-daryl

Noah Savage’s podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cDovL25vYWhzYXZhZ2UubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M&episode=YmJkNDNlYjctMWI0NC00ZDIxLTlmNzktNmRkNjc2OGQ3N2Uw&hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwies7CRzq7oAhVIiOAKHY2kDZAQjrkEegQIAhAE&ep=6

Bret and Jordan’s “Imagine” parody: https://twitter.com/BretRaybould/status/1240725622730698752

Isabel Hagen on Fallon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl1Kf3eVRDw

Carmen and Sam’s video: https://www.facebook.com/carmen.lagala.7/videos/10104084776681650/

Anna’s Tweet with Mulaney in “Austin Powers:” https://twitter.com/AnnaPhilomena/status/1241453292661678080

Comedy Stray Notes March 15, 2020

• Like any good improv scene, that escalated quickly. Last Sunday, things were still relatively calm and now Anna E. Paone and I haven’t really left the apartment other than to pick up groceries and get fresh air since Thursday after work. I even turned down a spot on Vivek Netrakanti and Shenuque Tissera-Salazar’s very fun “Token White Guy” show on Thursday night. That hurt my soul. It really pained me to turn down a gig I was booked on but this is an unprecedented time and it’s not worth being out there, folks. No need to spread anything- even laughter. You can do that from home. Let’s let this thing pass and then get back to the #grind like it never even happened.

Anyway, here’s the story of half a week in comedy and half a week at home.

• Last Sunday, I did two great shows (one was mine). The first was a 5:30 PM New York Comedy Club Comedy Mob. I’d read that there were insanely long waits to get on these Comedy Mob shows and I was excited to see what the hype was all about. Well, the hype is very real. I showed up and there was a crowd of about 20. Couldn’t believe it. People at a 5:30 show! Then, the show was CHEESECAKE. That’s what I call shows where it’s impossible to do badly. The crowd was so onboard for everyone. Man, if every comedy show in New York was like this, we’d all have insane egos. Kevin Hurley has cultivated something special here. Look into becoming a part of this in some capacity if you can- it’s more than worth it and you’ll get a new tape out of it.

The second show I did was mine (FREE FRIES- it’s cancelled this week FYI). We had my pal David Rey Martinez host. He more than commanded the audience’s attention in a way I’d never been able to. As a result, we had the most attentive audience Veronica Garza and I ever had. The totally spread out room actually listened to every single comic which has maybe happened once before. I accidentally headlined and closed my set and the show by having Anna do her comedy party trick (must be seen to be believed). My pal Carbon Therrien from high school in Phoenix came by too. If we really are quarantined for a long time, this is the show of ours, I’m gonna remember best.

• This week, I was rejected from a comedy festival (said festival will remain anonymous). I did that thing where I emailed, “Is it possible to get notes on my tape? I understand you had a lot of applicants but it would mean the world to me to know what I need to do to improve.” Wasn’t expecting a response. Just wanted the power of being like, “Wow, they’re jerks too and didn’t even say anything back.”

Surprisingly, they replied. This is what they wrote, “Hey Matt, thanks so much for your submission, and for reaching out. Yes, you are correct in your assumption that we had a lot of submissions hah, and we don't make a habit out of giving notes, but.... I'd say just keep going my friend. You tape was pro, good opener from the rip, and the sound was good as well. Just those 3 things are a huge head start. The thing you have going against you in any of these festivals is #'s / volume. 1,000+ people submitted, and we only have 50 spots, and usually the way it shakes out is that half are women, so really for guys it's 25 spots, and then subcategories break down from there. Competition is just high that's it. Keep going though. Worse thing you could do is stop or have this be a deterrent to your progress. You're close my friend! Keep pushing, and hope to see you next year. Thanks (and please for the love of God don't tell anyone I gave you feedback or else I'll be glued to my email for the rest of my life hah)!”

So, not telling you which festival it is out of respect for the fest-runners but it’s nice to know that these Fests are actually watching our tapes and there are humans in charge who are willing to break down the process with you. A form rejection letter is the worst but sometimes you do get rejected for totally valid reasons.

• On Monday, I traveled to Hoboken for Doug Cafran’s Nasty Show at Willie McBride’s. This was one of the wildest shows I’ve been on maybe ever. In a good way. It started normally enough. There were a handful of audience members and comics were having lively, fun sets. Then Doug’s show regulars/friends of his came. These folks were funny, loud and you had to interact with them in order to make your set work. There was no just doing material. I furiously scribbled planned riffs so the set could have some semblance of liveliness and a throughline. Then, Steve Girard went up and did what I wanted to do but about 10,000 times better than I ever could. Seriously, he had one of the funniest sets I’ve ever seen for 11 people. He may be the best comic in New York (and Hoboken). High praise I know but this was one of those paradigm shifting sets. He’ll shake it off and not see it as such- I still did. This was just a set for him; he’s probably done even better. Either way, I was still up in two comics. Once again, I was headlining. I did what I could and spent 13 minutes interviewing the crowd with varying results and closed with an audience member coming onstage to play “Two Truths and a Lie.” Not exactly comedy but not exactly boring on my part. I’ll chalk this one up as an overtime win.

• Surprisingly, I haven’t watched as much comedy content as I would have liked this past week given the circumstances. That will certainly change over the next week. There’s still so much great stuff for all of us to catch up on which is something to look forward to. In fact, Anna and I have made menus so we have meals to be excited about, planned movies and shows to watch each day, books to read and little creative activities so we don’t burn out on any one project. This can just be a vacation if you treat it as such. Don’t get bored! There’s so much fun stuff to do- just plan it ahead of time so you avoid tedium. Anyway! To recap what I saw (it’s just one thing):

“Dave” (2020): This is the slightly under the radar Lil Dicky sitcom produced with Jeff Schaeffer of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The League.” The influence of those shows is felt so much that it feels like another pale imitation of “Curb” with a little bit of “Atlanta” rap industry stuff thrown in. Don’t know if you remember but Kanye tried to make his own version of Larry David’s show way back when on HBO and this feels kind of like that. Not to say that there aren’t great moments. At the end of the episode, we see Lil Dicky rap and he murders it. He’s so damn funny as a rapper. Sadly, the rest of the show is just fine. The episode follows the “I’m not successful as an artist” to “Oh, wow, he’s crazy talented” template but in this case, he actually is really talented. Just not sure a traditional sitcom is the best showcase for said talents. Maybe it gets better? Pilots are tough. Maybe there were a ton of studio notes that sanitized this? Excited to see where this goes and Hulu does have another episode available. Would RECOMMEND just for the curiosity factor.

• Tuesday was all over the place. After work, I headed uptown as fast as I could to record an episode of my favorite sports podcast “Who’s On First” hosted by Matt Maran and Anthony Passaretti. Made it just in time and got to an amazing brownstone apartment in Washington Heights. Turns out this is Dave Columbo and Laura High’s production studio. They record podcasts, sketches and video here. It’s an amazing resource to creative people who need a place to make their ideas come to life. They both sat in on our podcast where Matt, Anthony and I talked Little League baseball, Anthony’s run in with an Astros fan as a tour guide and Maran becoming a switch hitting catcher to elongate his career- he just did anything he could to stay in the game. I had a fantastic time recording it and was honored to be asked on. If you’d like to listen, the link is in the comments. It’s about an hour and not bad for wandering the streets or cleaning or whatever you do these days now if you like hearing dudes talk baseball.

After the podcast, I took off as fast as I could to make it to super comedy producer Matt Vita’s show all the way downtown by the Barclays Center. Let me just start by saying that Vita is the patron saint of New York comedy. He produces FOUR shows in the City plus one in New Jersey and all of them are equally fun. He comes from the punk scene originally (not the Good Charlotte type- I asked) and his DIY spirit to putting on a show is infectious. This show, entitled “The Gnar Father Presents” is a fun weekly in a back room I felt I had definitely been in before. Even cooler, Matt introduced me by using “Comedy Stray Notes” as my credit. He’s done it before and it always feels cool. My set was mostly about finding a guy in the crowd who had just quit his freelance gig a job and turned the thing into a networking event to see if anyone in the crowd had a gig for a “Digital Strategist.” No one did. The rest of the show was a varied mix of comics from different scenes. Always nice to see people on shows I don’t recognize. The last comic who I didn’t know did an extended riff/bit type thing about whether or not he should take a girl out he met online. We all spied on her Instagram. It was a fun, live element to comedy. I like when it feels truly live at a show. Kind of like punk.

• Had kind of a fun week doing comedy online. In this time of social distancing, everyone who does comedy should get on ComedyWire. It was built for this kind of moment in history. You can write two jokes about every headline they put on the site and feels a bit more productive than throwing your ideas into the void that is Twitter (more on that in a sec). Even more special about ComedyWire is they have $25.00 writing challenges. I won one this week! The prompt was “Best excuse for being late.” Mine was “Sorry, I was in the middle of your podcast and it was great.” That’s it. A fine joke. Still made $25. Get on it if you need to scratch a creative itch. You might even make some cash.

As for Twitter, I am crazy active on the platform. I’ve Tweeted every day for a few years now (missed a few days here and there) and have yet to actually truly go viral. I mean, I sort of did last week with a 450 like Tweet. That’s not REALLY viral though. This week, I Tweeted something earnest using a hashtag that read:

In times of crisis, bodegas are the backbone of our society. #nyccoronavirus

Not exactly funny, a bit tongue in cheek. Somehow, it spread like wildfire. The Tweet went up to almost 4,000 favs (it’s at like 3,950). No idea why. I’ve Tweeted probably 30 times since (there’s not much going on) and many Tweets of mine that are superior have not eclipsed 60 favs. Just goes to show, you really can’t predict what people like. I never would have guessed that this would be the big viral Tweet but I’m not mad. It’s exhilarating to look at your phone and see that 600 more people have fav’d a thought of yours in the past three minutes. When it rains on a Tweet, it can really pour. Tried to follow as many of these people back as I could and reached the limit for people I follow. Got about 100 new followers out of it. I’ll take that for not leaving my apartment.

• Finally, the last true comedy event I went to this week was Round Two of Comedy Madness at Carolines. 16 matchups. Caitlin Peluffo hosted damn well and the show moved at a nice clip for, you know, a show that has 32 comics. Takes a real attention to detail on the host’s part and she rocked it. As for those 32 comics competing, there were some truly great matches. Shout out to two in particular though. The first was Ja-Ron Young vs. Rachel Lenihan. I’ve been a fan of both of theirs for years and watching them each kill in totally different ways for two minutes was a real spectacle. Heard many people in the crowd say, “You both should have moved on” to them as the night ended and they were right. My other favorite was Bret Raybould vs. Pete Burdette. I loved watching two of the scene’s best go against one another in almost matching Hawaiian shirts. When Bret revealed he was wearing a nearly identical shirt to Pete’s, It was one of those special surprises that caught even Pete totally by surprise. I’m not going to forget it anytime soon.

• As for me this week, I’m not planning on leaving the apartment but I plan to do as many comedy-related things as possible. Already looking forward to writing this again next week. It’s all I have (other than Anna).

Glad you read this. You didn’t have much else to do. In fact, if you want something to do, check out my sketch I released last week. It’s actually sort of about quarantining on a cruise, it’s a little over three minutes long, a friend told me it’s the best sketch I’ve ever done AND the link is in the comments.

Comedy Stray Notes March 8, 2020

• Ahh, March. Madness is in the air. There’s the Coronavirus, the NCAA tournament and comedy competitions. Love the season for Comedy Competitions. 64 comics enter (basically the number of comics at your average Creek mic) and all do their A material. There’s something really exhilarating about it. This week, I was behind the scenes and ran the first round of Comedy Madness at Carolines (if you didn’t know, yes, I’m working there. If you have questions about it, DM me. I really don’t mind. Also, no. I didn’t book Madness. Just so ya know). It was a stressful undertaking making sure all comics were there on time but it was one of those rare occasions where 64 comics cooperated and made for an exceptional show. Special props go to James L Mattern, NYC’s most in-demand host. He brings any room to life, is easy to work with and super professional. If you’re looking for a comic that will make sure the crowd is at ease, never goes long and always sets other comics up for success, he’s your dude. I like to think of James as the template for what clubs are looking for- punctual, funny, low maintenance. Take note. There won’t be any shout outs here for the comics performing because they were all great (not even I am doing 64 shout outs) but the show was super entertaining. I’m already looking forward to the Wednesday show with 32 comics.

• Last Sunday, I shot a sketch. The cast was small (Anna E. Paone, David Rey Martinez, Nate Borgman and Belton DeLaine-Facey) and the crew was even smaller (Kate Nahvi and Spencer Ward). Brought me back to the old film school days. Skeleton crew with lights and sand bags and craft services consisting of granola bars, Reeses and water bottles. Makes me happy just thinking about it. So does the sketch. Keeping it under wraps for now but I wrote this thing last July and have been itching to film this for eight months now. Can’t wait to show you the great performances, cinematography and sound I got out of this thing. 

SPOILER ALERT: The scene with Martinez, Borgman and the pennies is one of the funniest things I’ve ever had the pleasure of filming and I didn’t come up with it at all. It was improvised by the talented actors.

• Caught a ton of excellent content this week (I always do). Here’s a mini-review of what I saw, whether or not I’d recommend it to you (yes, you) and where you can find it:

- Taylor Tomlinson’s special “Quarter Life Crisis” (2020): She’s only 25 (at least of the time of filming) and this is one of the front-runners for best special of the year. This is one of those hours that has almost zero filler and is just chock full of jokes. I was stupid impressed. 25-year-old comics should not be this polished and also not sound this mature. She makes jokes about her parents spanking her, break ups and how awful her 20s are (“That’s why you’re thin in your 20s. You don’t have a gut to listen to yet.”) work for audiences of all ages whereas most comics at that age (myself included) only really work for other 25-year-olds. This is a masterclass in how a 25-year-old can really level up. Totally WATCH THIS if you can (streaming on Netflix).

– ”Honey Boy” (2019): I was STOKED to see this movie was streaming. It didn’t make the awards noise it was supposed to last year but the trailer was great, the premise fascinating (Shia’s tell all about his relationship with his Dad/experience on “Even Stevens”) and the cast all over the place (Shia Labeouf, Noah Jupe, FKA Twigs, Martin Starr, Lucas Hedges, Byron Bowers and Laura San Giacomo from “Just Shoot Me”). Anna and I sat down to watch it Friday night (took two sittings to finish it) and while the movie has flashes of brilliance like Shia getting his son ready for an audition and their process for punching up a scene, the movie spends a lot of its run time navel gazing during stock AA scenes and domestic violence. This is a curiosity that I would tell you to CAUTIOUSLY SEEK OUT but not actively recommend (streaming on Amazon Prime).

- “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” (2020): Well, we all know the ads for this are everywhere. NBC wants it to be a home run so bad. It’s fine. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the best parts. There’s a nice scene where (SPOILER AHEAD) her sick Father played by Peter Gallagher who can’t speak sings to her. Other than that, I’ll break it down. It’s 50% indie film tropes (attractive 20-something who doesn’t quite have her dream job with relationship problems), 30% comedy (occasional banter, slapstick here and there) and 20% musical (breaking out in song). I just hate the genre where someone is hit in the head and then they have magical powers, don’t tell people about it and then they have to reckon with it. I mostly hate it because they’re all the same. Props again to “Isn’t It Romantic” for turning it on its head. I CAN’T RECOMMEND (streaming on Hulu and NBC). 

- Daniel Craig episode of “SNL” (2020): Last night, was a GREAT episode. From Elizabeth Warren in the cold open, to the best coronavirus take I’ve seen yet (watch the opening sketch where the cast does everything they can to avoid touching each other) to the increasingly obscure movie quote sketch, I was onboard for the whole thing. One of the best episodes of the season. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND (streaming on Hulu, YouTube, etc).

Side Note: I usually try to Tweet during the show. A lot of people are online and reading the hashtag about SNL. Last night was no different. When they reprised Debbie Downer, my comedy nerd brain went off and I tweeted that Kenan was in the cast for the original version of the sketch. I expected 12 favs. Pretty standard. Maybe some like minded nerds would see it. For some reason, 400+ people fav’d it. Twitter is weird but I tried my best to own the situation and followed every random person that fav’d it. I liked a Tweet of theirs too. Got 70 new followers out of it. I might be insane. Did this until 3 AM (thanks to daylight’s savings).

- “Original Kings of Comedy” (2000): I had the DVD for this as a kid. In fact, I remember buying it at Best Buy with a gift card from my Bar Mitzvah (remember when every gift you ever received from 1997-2005?) but never got around to watching it. Was super pumped when I saw it on a listicle of “Best Comedy Movies to Stream on Netflix.” It’s a damn good concert special. Steve Harvey is transcendent at points (I love when he takes the audience member’s jacket who had walked out mid-show), DL is probably my favorite (did he create “Y’all know I usually don’t do this” line that R. Kelly used in “Ignition?!”), Cedric had the most fun using music cues to bolster his bits and Bernie, well, he’s great but the material does NOT age well. His final bit is next level though. YOU MUST SEE THIS IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY (streaming on Netflix).

• Did two shows this week. The first was at Beauty Bar and beautifully hosted by Phil Rizdon. There were two audience members when the show got underway. A Trump supporter and his wife. Not what one would expect. They were actually very nice and willing to take part in crowd work. I went up first and luckily a few people walked in. My set was fine. Fun sets from Michael Good and Jon Alcabes too. Haven’t been on a show in New York with just four comics in forever and it was a nice change of pace. Second show I did was an unpaid guest spot at Carolines (I will never give myself a paid spot at my job that can go to another comic). The crowd was mighty and we turned a late Thursday night show into a party. The audience had people from Salt Lake City to Boston which is as different as white people can get in the country. Except for maybe they’re both Trump supporters too? Do I only perform for Trump supporters now? Also! I tried self promotion at the end and asked the audience if they would pull out their phones and sign up for my mailing list.

Like half of them pulled out their phones. Checked my site the next day. Not a single one of them signed up for the mailing list.

• Got quite a bit of comedy stuff this week. Tonight, I am on Kevin Hurley’s Comedy Mob show at the E. 4th Street New York Comedy Club at 5:30, FREE FRIES at 7:30. Tomorrow, I’m in Jersey City doing Doug Cafran’s show. Tuesday is Matt Maran and Anthony Passaretti’s podcast “Who’s On First?” and Thursday is Vivek Netrakanti and Shenuque Tissera-Salazar’s “Token White Guy” show at QED. Don’t want to be too brash but if you book me, the assistant to the booker at Carolines will be coming to your show to watch your set. It was gross to write that but just so you know. I also tape sets too. I’m a twofer!

Long live the reign of Kenan

Comedy Stray Notes March 1, 2020

• 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

Comedy Stray Notes February 23, 2020

• I met my wife Anna E. Paone in September 2016 and have attended every one of the plays she’s been apart of since then. I’ve loved them all! The latest one that she’s co-directed with her mom, Catherine LaMoreaux, may be the best they’ve done yet. Their theatre company, Dragonfly Multicultural Arts Center, put on the show “Death in San Francisco” this weekend at the DuCret School of Art. If you’re not familiar with the play (I wasn’t), it’s about an Indian-American family dealing with the death of a patriarchal figure who spent most of his life in the United States but wanted a traditional Indian burial. Really doesn’t sound very funny, does it? Well, the script along with the acting and direction turned this concept into something simultaneously light and heavy like a great meal. From the slapstick of the family trying to move the big body to the instantly familiar infighting between mothers and sons, to the mention of Starbucks and Costco as resources to aid the traditional funeral process, the play really struck a chord with the audience. Very cool to see my wife helm such a unique, funny and moving project.

• Saw two guys named Pete headline at Carolines this past week. Both were wildly different experiences. The first was Pete Davidson headlining a midnight show last Sunday. The place was filled to capacity. It was so packed that the staff had to bring out extra tables and chairs. Pete was doing his thing where everyone had to put their phones in Yondr pouches to eliminate filming or photos. As for the performance, it wasn’t what one might expect. He came out with crumpled up notes and treated this big headlining gig almost like an open mic. It was fascinating to sit through. The ideas were a bit half baked but 20-somethings sat fully engaged at 1:00 AM(!) listening to Pete try stuff out. Some hit, some didn’t. That’s why he called it the “Trying Stuff Out” show. Kind of cool that no matter how accomplished you are, you still gotta try stuff out. This was his version of Chris Rock dropping into the Cellar and doing his material with no energy to see if it holds up on its own. I respect it.

The second Pete I saw is the rising Pete Lee. He’s mostly known for being the first comic to get a standing ovation on “Fallon.” A year from now, he’ll be at Bargatze level. The guy brought everything he could to his headlining gig treating it like it was a once-in-a-lifetime showcase. He treated every fan like they were family. One fan even seemed too passionate about Pete. Before the show began, I watched this late 20s guy come up to Pete and whisper how he’s “seen everything he’s done and loves him” really close to his face. It was definitely a line crossing moment for a fan but Pete treated the guy like an old friend. My favorite part of his set though was the very end. The merch plug. Usually a major slog in comedy. Pete did ten-plus minutes making fun of his Facebook, his Twitter, his Instagram handle, his TikTok, his shirts, etc. I was blown away. He had material for every single piece of self promotion and it felt almost more fun than the rest of the show. This is the way to do it. After the show everyone stayed and hung with him. He’s doing this headlining thing right.

• I did more shows this week than I’ve done in my entire time in New York. Five. Never did five shows in a week ever. Here are the stories of all five. This past Friday, I went to Oppa for YouJean Chang’s show. YouJean said it was a “workout show, feel free to have fun up there.” I arrive and there are 100+ audience members! That does NOT happen in New York. I instantly changed my set list from newish stuff to try on a show to tried and true “A” material. It went fine. My opener fell kind of flat but I rebounded in places. Really can’t think YouJean enough for the spot and if you’re reading this you should go hang at his show. This is one of the great shows of the City that isn’t talked about enough.

Did my show (yes, that was one of the five) last Sunday at SugarBurg. Since I had two shows that night, I had my pal Matt Vita host the ambush show in my place. In a room that is NOT easy, he excelled. Warmed a fairly raucous crowd up to the idea of a comedy show. Had an OK set but started HORRIBLY (a theme is emerging). Sang “Happy birthday” to an audience member who we established was celebrating that day. Got to the end of the song and sang, “Happy birthday dear Courtney” and that was NOT her name. One of those moments that we should all be able to laugh off but came off as more uncomfortable for all parties than anything.

Had to leave after that set pretty fast to go uptown to do Narinder Singh and Max May’s hostel show at Hi USA. Now that is a nice hostel. The place has a deli, a number of TVs and a nice, downstairs showroom for comedy. The show itself was wonderful. Narinder opened it up with about ten or so audience members there and the crowd steadily grew. I took the bullet spot, went first and dove into crowd work. It was all fairly standard (asking a woman from Spain about the salad she was eating) until I got to a man visiting from China. He bragged about buying a new sweater. I had him model it for everyone. He got a bigger reaction for showing it off to everyone than I have for any jokes in years. Debating bringing that dude to all of my shows. Max closed the thing out and really broke the crowd. Everyone before did well but Max showed the ceiling for what you can get out of this room. Always nice to see what it takes to really GET an audience.

Had two shows this past Wednesday as well. When it rains, it pours. The first was Sheba Mason’s free pizza show at Greenwich Village Comedy Club. I have kind of a strange relationship with GVCC. I did the old song and dance "getting passed at the club" thing with them (not naming names for who made me do this but it was a guy who teaches classes) where I brought 11(!) people to a show in December 2018. Had a very good set too. Then they said they needed me to do ANOTHER set where I got “wall to wall laughs.” I said, “Fine” and brought three people. Had maybe one of the best sets of my life. They said they needed one more. I didn’t do it. Just didn’t know when it would end. So it was nice to go back to GVCC and do a show with no strings attached. This one was fantastic. Great crowd. Can't say enough good things about how Sheba runs this room. The only trouble was following Roberto Garcia. Never seen the guy before but holy schnikees, he’s a murderer. Super high energy and crowds love him. This is another person whose level I aspire to get to. Great to see just how many masters there are among us.

Final show I did this week was at The PIT and also hosted by Matt Vita. It was one of those shows that was half improv/half stand up. Was a true relief to do something a little different and mix up the material. The improv teams were great (I loved the group “Hot Milk”) and I could riff in inside baseball ways and try stuff I had always been a little too scared to try on “real audiences” (read: jokes that are probably too offensive). This is another one of those great hang shows you should stop by at- fun to see a different form of comedy and then watch comics do their thing in a space where they can experiment.

• Didn’t watch a ton of comedy stuff this week but I saw a little. The only movie I caught was “Bad Boys For Life.” Anna and I went on President’s Day (she hasn’t seen the first two; I never saw the first one and saw the second one in theaters with my grandma seventeen years ago) and kinda loved the movie. It has your classic aging buddy cop storyline where one guy (Martin Lawrence) wants to leave the force and the other (Big Willie) wants to take care of one final case. He really was a “Bad Boy For Life” all along (they must have said the title of the movie like 20 times in the movie). Sure, this thing was overly long, had one too many shootouts in a club but the screenplay has genuine heart and some surprising turns. Would definitely RECOMMEND and not just for the dumb DJ Khaled cameo (still in theaters).

• For my birthday in July, I was given “Ball Four” a very famous baseball book. I had started it in Cooperstown at a bed and breakfast run by Quakers but couldn’t get through all 546 pages in a weekend. So, I’ve been reading a few pages before bed every night for the past seven months and I’ve loved everything about it. Not only is it full of great baseball stories in diary format but it’s very, very funny. Some of the stuff in the book is wildly outdated (it’s maybe the most sexist thing I’ve ever read in places and Jim Bouton, the author, posits himself as super woke throughout the whole thing) but it’s cool to see what groundbreaking sports comedy writing was like in the 70s. There are some interesting historical footnotes in the book as well like Bouton creating Big League Chew. If you’re a baseball/comedy nerd and you’ve put off reading this, definitely GET AROUND TO IT. It’ll take a minute to finish but it’s well worth your time (in...bookstores?).

• When I moved to NYC in 2013, Pine Box was the hottest mic in the game. There was No Malice Palace in 2014-2015 with its two-minute mic flying by. Over the Eight held the crown for awhile. Late Mic is amazing too. Bushwick Public House kind of has that thing going now. But one that I’d heard about a lot but never actually made it to was Bob Gurnett and Sam Bourne’s Tuesday at Branded Saloon. The fun and good mic. A true rarity. Can’t believe I took so long to make it out there- they run a mic where they have the balls to do character bits in between (does not happen at mics ever!) and it moves at a good clip in a room where it feels like everyone does well. Kudos to the dudes for doing something special with an open mic.

• Finally, I would be absolutely remiss if I didn’t talk about the untimely passing of one of the scene’s heroes: Steve Whalen. I loved the guy. We all did. If you don't know about Steve go to his Facebook page and read the countless amazing tributes. The guy created stories every day for us all to re-tell. As a comic, Steve was fearless onstage and his persona alone made any mic or show better. You knew you were in good hands when he was up there. There was no bombing for him. He could save anything. My absolute favorite thing that Steve did was after a set, while shaking the next comic’s hand, he would whisper, “Follow that, Motherfucker.” Like something Don Rickles or Alan King might do in the 60s to a new comic. Made me laugh extraordinarily hard every time I saw him do it.

But ya know, the thing no one is talking about is how amazing Steve smelled. No joke. Seriously, EVERY single time, I would run into him, it blew me away. I had to ask what his secret was. He told me that he put vinegar in the dryer with his clothes (I hope I’m not messing his instructions up) which I believe gets sweat out of the clothes. I’m going to miss that scent. Brings a smile to my face just thinking about how he smelled better than Charmin.

A few more Steve memories before I get out of here. In 2017, I asked Steve to do a paid spot at SeatGeek for a show in the office. Got a budget where I could pay him $75.00. I told him it was a “corporate gig” as a joke. He took this as a challenge and REFUSED to do material. He did 15 full minutes of crowd work on my coworkers in what was one of the most impressive comedic feats I’d ever seen. Steve wanted to make the crowd feel like they were getting a once-in-a-lifetime show and they were. He really never phoned anything in.

My last and favorite Steve memory was early last year. We had just gone to the screening of “Hysterical” the Alan Shain and Gary documentary directed by Seth Pompi and Paul Higbie. Robert Smigel was in the crowd. To the best of my knowledge, only Steve and I geeked out over this fact (Smigel is top five all-time comedy heroes for me). Well, Steve did me one better. He had had an in with Smigel since he worked on “The Week Of” with him (a wildly underrated Sandler/Rock movie that Smigel directed). As we left the theater, the two of us were chatting about the movie and saw Smigel leave. Steve and I ran after him. Like stalker level ran after him. Like that guy to Pete Lee earlier this week. Then, Steve made showbiz small talk with him. Like they were old friends. It was amazing to see him rub shoulders with legends like they were pals. It didn’t matter who it was- if they were in comedy, they loved Steve. I just sat back and marveled. My friend was a legend himself.

I love and miss you, Steve. As others have said, Rest in Punchlines. I know you’re in a better place doing bits about the Pearly Gates. As Mr. Jokes often said, he had a joke about everything.

Comedy Stray Notes February 16, 2020

• I’ve been looking forward to seeing Michael Che at Carolines for a long time (like three months). He was one of those guys when you moved to New York that was EVERYWHERE like Mark Normand. I would see him at Whiplash at UCB (he brought a young stand up onstage during his headlining set and the dude fell flat on his face but Che still made it fun), on shows at The Bell House (after that show I went up to him and said, “I’m a big fan!” and he gave me his drink ticket like a mensch)- it seemed like you couldn’t not run into him if you were actively attending the shows in the City. Over the years though, his stock rose and it became way harder to catch him on a show other than, ya know, SNL. My brother Ben Levy would see him at secret shows with star-studded lineups but it was no longer a regular occurence. In fact, I haven’t seen him live in probably three years or something. He may be a bit of a controversial figure (Google “Jack Allison Michael Che” if you’re curious) but he’s still one of the best, most naturally funny, active comics in the USA. Last night, he did not disappoint. The show opened with an incredibly lively, crowd work heavy set from Petey DeAbreu where he riffed on the crowd with ease. No one makes stand up look more fun than Petey. Following Petey was a lineup of heavy hitters like Paris Sashay, Calise Hawkins and Derek Gaines. All brought the goods setting the stage up for Che. He riffed with the piano player he brought for the show (one unplanned moment where said piano player had to pee during an R. Kelly riff made for the biggest laugh of the night), talked about mental health in the Black community, had some hot takes on Trump and closed with sketches he pitched on SNL that didn’t make it to air. Some were even for the RuPaul episode. My favorite rejected sketch was a throwaway line: Law and Order UTI.

• Anna E. Paone performed in a pretty funny reading of a play this past week called “Stay Calm” at the Lamb’s Club in midtown this past Thursday. The play was set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian world in Abilene, TX and had many big laughs. I’d say most came from Anna who gave a really nuanced performance as a 16-year-old girl who is dealing with her pregnancy and difficult Mom. Anna found the pathos for the character and I can’t stress this enough: if you’re looking to cast an actress in a sketch or any kind of video, definitely use Anna. She’s so good in everything she does and I’m not just saying that because I’m her husband. Just don’t cast her in roles where you have to make out with her if you don’t mind.

Special thanks to Tiffany Springle for setting this up too. It was a real treat!

• As usual, I squinted at my phone this week to watch as much comedy as I could. Here’s a quick rundown of everything I saw on screens ranging in size from smaller than the palm of my hand to bigger than me:

-First, was the RuPaul episode of SNL mentioned before. Pretty much the exact opposite of the JJ Watt episode from the week before. I won’t recommend or dissuade you from watching the episode if you haven’t seen it already but here are the five standouts from the episode: (1) Chloe Fineman finally getting to showcase her wheelhouse of impressions during Weekend Update (she does a damn good Streep), (2) Boop It; a parody of Bop It with a Dad who gets increasingly competitive about the kid’s game, (3) The cut sketch that pits Bowen Yang against RuPaul as rival coal miners (link in comments), (4) the check splitting sketch where Heidi Gardner is almost bullied into paying more until Cecily Strong and RuPaul triumphantly stand up for her like she’s been really wronged and (5) Chad. As soon as we see the Pete Davidson character, we know where the sketch is going but it exceeds expectations.

-Tom Papa’s new special “You’re Doing Great” is one of my favorite I’ve ever seen. Filmed in New Jersey, Papa gives the performance of the everyman comic with great observations we all want to be (at least me). From his opening chunk on the different states of “Fat” Americans are in (sounds Gaffigan-y, yes, but this is better) to his material about the ice cream samples one is entitled to at a parlor before choosing ice cream, this is a masterpiece and the early frontrunner for my favorite special of the year. I DEFINITELY RECOMMEND (streaming on Netflix).

-Ronny Chieng’s “Asian Comedian Destroys America” is great too. There are some truly inspired bits here that I’ve seen in his previous late night appearances but they feel more fleshed out here. Also, he has the best take on Amazon Prime I’ve seen to start off the special. I will say I was a bit turned off by how bitter he seems and the last 10-15 minutes were a tiny bit self indulgent (a bit about telling your wife’s friend you do comedy?) and the personal closer about his wedding didn’t feel in line with the rest of his social commentary-heavy set but I will still CAUTIOUSLY RECOMMEND (streaming on Netflix). The coolest part of the whole thing was seeing Comedy Room Producers Michael Nguyen, Fumi Abe, Mike Lebovitz and Saurin Choksi in the credits. Slowly but surely, the kids in the scene are making moves.

-As a Will Ferrell completist, I was very excited for the release of “Downhill.” As a Ruben Ostlund fan (director of the film “Force Majeure” this film is based on), it was doubly exciting. I am excited to say the movie exceeded my expectations. They were pretty low based on the critical reception the movie got. 41% on Rotten Tomatoes had me go in expecting it to be people getting hit in the nuts the whole time. Not the case. This is a quiet, kind of sad portrait of a family falling apart with commentary on American tourism, Europeans vs. Americans, an Oscar-worthy performance from Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and a really funny subplot with Zach Woods and Zoe Chao as a younger couple that meets up with them. Ferrell is amazing too giving one of his most grounded performances ever but with glimpses of his manic persona. On top of that, the movie was written and directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (the Dean from “Community.”). Seriously. They also wrote “The Descendants” way back in the early 10s and directed “The Way Way Back” which was supposed to be as good as “Little Miss Sunshine” but didn’t quite hit that mark. Either way, see the hell out of this movie. We need more stuff like this in the multiplexes. Plus, if you have AMC A-List, it’s actually super cheap to see it in theaters. HIGH RECOMMENDATION (mainstream theatrical release).

-I fell asleep while watching “Two Popes” on Valentine’s Day. Sorry, Anna.

• Got to perform at Carolines for the first time on Monday at the “New Talent” show. It’s been a dream to go up there since I moved to the City. Always seemed so unattainable but here I was. The set was fine. Didn’t crush but didn’t bomb. You know the type. Start strong, middling laughs for a few bits, get another big laugh and then decide to close on something with a brand new punchline. Probably not wise. Either way, it’s always cool to cross something off the comedy bucket list.

• Very excited for this week in comedy. Tonight is the triumphant return of Free Fries (A Comedy Show): Episode Ten at Sugar Burg at 7:30 as always with Veronica Garza after two weeks off for The Super Bowl and The Oscars. Tonight, we have the pleasure of going up against the NBA All Star Game. Perfect. After that, I’ll be at Narinder Singh’s show at Hi USA tonight around 9 PM. Wednesday, I’m excited to be at Sheba Mason’s Greenwich Village Comedy Club show and finally, I’ll be at YouJean Chang’s Oppa show on Friday.

Would you prefer this as an emailed newsletter instead? Let me know by leaving a WOW face react. If you prefer Facebook, give it a LAUGH react.