The Boston Comedy Interview: Nate Johnson and The Great Boston Molasses Comedy Disaster Show

Nate Johnson turns the 1919 Molasses
Flood into comedy.

On January 15, 1919, a giant storage tank burst in Boston’s North End, flooding the area with roughly two and a half million gallons of molasses, killing 21 people and injuring more than 150. A little less than a hundred years later, Nate Johnson figures we are ready to laugh about it.

Johnson brings his Great Boston Molasses Comedy Disaster Show to Mottley’s tomorrow, with stand-up from Matt Donaher, Dan Boulger, Ken Reid, and Lamont Price, and sketch featuring Johnson, Tim Vargulish, Ryan Douglas, Maria Ciampa, and Sean Sullivan. Apparently, there will also be a group called the Burnin’ Love Sauces on hand to hawk 1919 Molasses BBQ Sauce, and a local band called Hot Molasses.

I caught up with Johnson by e-mail to get a few more details.

What led you to write a show about the Great Boston Molasses Disaster? Are you a history buff?

Yeah, I’ve always been a kind of history nerd, especially as I’ve gotten older. The molasses flood I’d known about for a while and really wanted to do something about it-whether it was a bit or a character or video or whatever. Doing an entire show about it provided all those options.

This was actually a tragedy at the time – how do you turn it into comedy?What’s the structure of the show?

There’s a little thing I like to say-time plus tragedy equals Thursday night comedy show. It’s always tricky writing anything about something that people could potentially find offensive. But if you’re just going with your reaction-which in this case, for me, was, “Wha? Seriously? Molasses?!”, then, ideally, the audience will get that and understand the intention isn’t malicious or disrespectful. The show is structured so there’ll be bits about the actual event, broken up by comics, with the goal being that people learn about this weird thing without feeling beaten over the head by it.

How does the stand-up fit with the overall theme? Are Matt, Dan, Ken, and Lamont going to taper their sets to the night?

Of the comics on the show, I think Ken’s the only one I heard do a bit about the molasses flood and Dan has some great history material. But the comics are really there to kinda break up the show and not make it too molasses-heavy. I’m just shooting for a funny show that I’d want to go to.

How did you put Tim, Ryan, Maria, and Sean together for the sketches?

I’d had them all in mind when I was putting the show together and knew I wanted some sketch. Doing sketch at Mottleys can definitely be challenging, but I feel pretty confident because I’ve done stuff with all of them before and they know the space pretty well. Also, they can all do excellent ethnic accents that no one will find offensive.

Who are the Burnin’ Love Sauces?

They’re a local saucier that makes a BBQ sauce called 1919 and molasses is an ingredient in it. It’s a great sauce and I thought it’d be fun to have them sell their stuff at the show. Plus, I don’t think there are enough shows with barbeque sauce vendors at them.

Who is Hot Molasses?

I’d really wanted a band to play at the show and found these guys online. They’re from Somerville and sound kinda like the B-52s. They’ve got a new EP coming out soon and they’re debuting a song about the flood at the show. Yeah.

Any plans to visit other Boston tragedies? Race riots? The 1986 World Series perhaps? Stephen Tyler?

Totally. I’m actually working on an operetta about the Charles Stuart murder and a 2-act play about the Blizzard of 78 performed by puppets.

Video: What to expect on The Good Stuff

Last Friday night, the late night comedy show the Good Stuff made its debut at Mottley's Comedy Club. It was a glorious train wreck, the kind of thing that happens when good comedians come up with a great plan and then throw it out the window at the last minute.

There was a Dating Game parody that featured a guy in a Boba Fett mask as one of the bachelors. Host Tom Dustin says he has no idea who the guy in the mask was, which is easy to understand, because bachelor number three didn't get many questions, and didn't answer some of the ones he got.

The show also featured The Comedy Race, a contest designed to find otu which race is funniest. It was white versus black to start, pitting Dave McDonough against Baron Vaughn (Vaughn edged out the win). There was stand-up, of course, and a musical guest that performed mostly outdated song jingles.

Tonight, the show is on again. I spoke with the guys behind the show, Dustin, Sean Sullivan, and Dan Boulger, outside of the open mic at Sally O'Brien's in Somerville Monday about what you'll see on The Good Stuff tonight and in the near future.

Kyle Kinane buzzes into the Middlesex Lounge tonight

Kyle Kinane comes to the Middlesex Lounge tonight with a building buzz. He has been Patton Oswalt’s regular opening act, cropping up frequently on Comedy Central and late night talk shows, and had a small role in the Adam Sandler/Judd Apatow movie Funny People. He also has a new CD out, called The Death of the Party, on A Special Thing’s label.

But if you ask Kinane, he’d really not talk about being a “rising star” or any of the other labels with which he’s currently being fit. “I'd rather not pay attention to that,” he says. “Seems that ‘buzz’ and ‘rising star’ usually lead to "what ever happened to?" a couple years later.” His album wasn’t his idea. A Special Thing approached him to do it, and, he says, “When AST asks you to do a CD, you say yes.”

And while Funny People is a nice resume builder, it hasn’t gotten him as much recognition as his opening slot for Oswalt, where Kinane has a better chance to show off his talent. “The only people that recognize me from my five seconds in Funny People are the ones I told to look for my five-second part in Funny People,” he says. “People look me up online from the gigs with Patton though. He's got to have one of the best fan-bases in comedy. They seem to hold comedy in the same ranks and respect as music.”

If you go to KyleKinan.com, you’ll see he’s labeled his Web site “The minimal efforts of Kyle Kinane,” and there’s little more than a show calendar and a list of random thoughts. He has a blog, called “I’m dead and it’s all my fault,” on which he mostly addresses more random thoughts to a mysterious person named Doug. The latest entry from last week – “There’s no such thing as a bad neighborhood when you’ve got a purple belt in taekwondo, Doug.” Kinane describes the (fictional?) Doug as, “the unfortunate friend of a man whose ambition is second only to his incompetence.”



It would be easy to mistake Kinane’s effortless, absurd everyman humor as a sort of slacker charm, as he tells stories of his crappy jobs and getting hassled on the street by the cops in Burbank for riding his bike too fast down a hill. But Kinane has worked hard on his craft. Before he left for L.A. in 2003, Kinane was part of a group of kids in Chicago trying to develop his own style. He says there was a “large contingency” of people who were pursuing comedy as a serious career option, “just going to every show we could with as much new material we could push out.”

Kinane credits his friends back home with shaping his sense of humor. “I'm in Chicago right now and went out with people I've known since junior high,” he says.” I laugh harder with them than watching any comedy program.” He credits his delivery, which is sometimes shouting and slurry, to “booze and the frustration of having to yell over crappy audiences.”

When asked what he’s working on now, he says, “Finding new ways to kill Doug's friend. The obligatory writing packages and the sort. Making sure the wings don't fall off of it all.”

Kinane comes to Boston by way of Dan Boulger and Sean Sullivan, both of whom are on the bill tonight (along with Tim McIntire and Rob Crean). He met Boulger at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen in ’07 and Sullivan when the pair were taping Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham last year.

Kyle Kinane with Dan Boulger, Sean Sullivan, Tim McIntire, and Rob Crean at the Middlesex Lounge, 315 Mass Ave, Central Square. 7PM. $5. (617)868-6739. http://www.middlesexlounge.us/

Show is on tonight at the Studio

There was some doubt earlier this week over whether there would be a show tonight at the Comedy Studio. Just got this from the Studio's Rick Jenkins, confirming there will in fact be a show, with a great line-up, to boot:

We will have a show tonight (Friday, November 6) at the Studio.

The Hong Kong wasn't sure until Wednesday night. So we quickly put together a pretty cool night. Personally, I feel like it's going to be a great time. Like the old days; small turn out; lots of funny friends.

Renata Tutko will host sets from Chris Fleming, Sarah Heggan, Rick Jenkins, Andrew Mayer, Andy Ofiesh, Sean Sullivan and Bethany Van Delft.

You don't mess with the Sean Sullivan

I have seen Sean Sullivan do stand-up and sketch comedy for years. I've always enjoyed what he has to say, and feel he's a funny person onstage and off. But just about every place I've seen him play has been friendly ground. So when he came onstage to host the Doug Stanhope show at the Hard Rock Cafe Friday and the crowd got a bit rowdy, I was pleasantly surprised to find how well he handles that. I learned that the normally congenial Sullivan is not someone you want to mess with from the audience as tore apart two people in the front row who wouldn't shut up once the show started.

Then I remembered someone had told me about this clip of Sullivan at the Sally O'Brien's open mic, in which a heckler kept pushing him while he was working on an audition set. So I thought I'd share it.

Let me praface this by saying hecklers are generally awful and ruin the show -- one guy kept yelling at Stanhope "keep going," breaking his concentration and causing Stanhope to yell back the question, why would you interrupt someone to yell at them to keep going? It disrupted the show, it didn't help the show, and Stanhope was abel to save it because he's quick on his feet. Heckling should not be encouraged at a comedy show any more than it should be encouraged at an art museum or the ballet. If you're considering it, ask yourself if you would scream at "The Scream," and if not, shut up.

But, for those times when it's necessary, some comics can deal with it swiftly, brutally, and without losing their wit. Sullivan is one of those. Enjoy.

Doug Stanhope is in it for the stories

If you see Doug Stanhope after his show at the Hard Rock tonight, you may want to go easy on the small talk. The Worcester native is a congenial but curmudgeonly sort, but the things that really interest him are the horror stories, the things you’ve survived and struggled and fought through, or just the dumb stuff you did that you’re amazed you lived through. For Stanhope, what doesn’t kill him makes him stronger onstage.

A case in point, several years ago in Montreal, Stanhope was on the bill for a show called Confessing It! Most of the comics had funny stories to tell, awkward situations, social ineptitude. All of it was relatable and real in some way. But then Stanhope took the stage and told a story about his ex-wife taking an abortion pill, sparing the audience none of the gruesome details. Somehow, he made that concept, which looks horrifying to me know as I type it, funny. And extremely human, extremely flawed. And though I will never find myself on the edges that Stanhope seeks out to dangle from drunkenly laughing, somehow, the story landed.

Stanhope has been through a lot – running for president with the Libertarians last year, getting chewed up and spit out on The Man Show, and countless more personal and disturbing things. And he’ll tell you about all the fresh ones tonight. I spoke with him by phone last week as he was waiting for a plane back to Arizona, where he lives now, from a gig in Seattle. He plays the Hard Rock tonight with Sean Sullivan and Dan Crohn (Crohn also booked the show).

Are you mainly touring these days or are you looking for other things?

There’s always something else in the fire. I’m writing a book but I can’t do that while I’m on the road. I’ll do that over the summer. Stand-up is always the main thing. Everything else is just a fluke, like everything else in my career. Everything that wasn’t stand-up was an accident.

What’s the book about?

Basically it’ll be about my relationship with mother. And the gruesome end.

What made you decide to write that?

Well, my manager pitched it as an idea and some literary types loved it. I don’t think it’s all that interesting.

That’ll make it a little harder for you to write it, won’t it?

Yeah. But I need to challenge myself. I’m way too comfortable right now. And that’s bad for comedy. A good, contented life is the last thing a fucking great comic needs. It destroys business. Nothing will make an economic downturn of your career like comfort. Don’t you hate when you’re on your corporate-sponsored tour of stadiums and they say they’re sending a Town Car but the send a van?

All problems the working man can relate to. The van vs limo quandary.

I find myself forcing myself into uncomfortable situations where I consciously think, well, maybe I can get some material out of it. This is a really stupid idea. I don’t want to be here and I don’t like these people, but I’m not going to get any material watching the fucking DVR marathon of Celebrity Rehab.

What sort of things have you done purely for that reason?

A threesome with Ginger Lynn. I don’t know if you heard about that.

No, I didn’t.

[laughs] Because I was going on Stern the next week and we were doing this porn star poker tournament for charity at a titty bar in Miami and me and her were the hosts. Me and my girlfriend had a threesome with her, we did it strictly for the material. [laughs] We went into the weekend going, we have to come out of this with some story for Stern. Because every time I go on Stern [he says] “What have you been doing?” And I Say, “I’ve been hanging around at home, and I talk to my neighbor who drinks [inaudible] beer and we talk about weed killer and the upcoming football season which is ten months away.

What happened with the Libertarian presidential campaign?

Oh, Bob Barr kind of queered me off the whole fucking idea. I’m still, at heart… It’s very difficult to maintain a passion for the Libertarian party when you know the whole core of it depends on human self-reliance and self-sufficiency, and then you go, well, no, people are way too fucking stupid for that. It requires some hope for humankind and that’s very difficult to have when you’ve actually met humankind. When you fly out and see them in natural habitats and environments. Ideally, I’m still a Libertarian at heart, but I think it would fucking lead to a Mad Max world, which I’m not against.

My problem with Libertarians is usually that you get those first ten planks and you think, okay, those are all good and reasonable ideas and things that, even if I don’t agree with them, ought to be in the argument for the sake of coming to a balanced conclusion. Then you get down to those next few planks, and someone has their own agenda because they’d like to be allowed to fuck bears or something. Well, maybe not that part of it, so much.

Even in the most basic ones you have people that are Libertarian hardcore because they are zealot Christians that don’t want their children exposed to things like evolution in school. Home schooled, and have guns, and have a fucking tank on their property. Big Brother’s listening. And then you have the ones that just want to fucking legalize drugs. Just those two factions – the pro-individual freedom and the pro-get the government out of my life – those two are extreme rivals.

Obama, all this shit over taxes and the economy, none of it bothers me. None of the concerns that I have are even addressed. Overpopulation obviously being one, and I’ve fucking talked about it, and I’ll continue to repackage jokes about it for as long as I’m alive. And drugs. Six hundred thousand non-violent drug offenders in prison is as shameful as slavery. They will look back at this, if there ever is any progress in society as ashamedly as they do slavery now. You’re fucking putting people in prison where rape is so common Jay Leno can make jokes about it on late night TV. He can do rape jokes if it’s prison rape. You’re going to put this guy in jail, you know what’s going to happen to him over there…

I think a lot of people still assume that your political aspirations were a publicity stunt for comedy. And I know you have said in the past that it wasn’t.

Even at my low rung in show business, I’m still more popular than the Libertarian party. So if it was a publicity stunt for anyone it would have been them.

If you hadn’t been put off by it, what do you think you could have accomplished by taking the run right up to the election?

The idea was, my career is basically campaigning for the Libertarian party, with some fucking fist-fuck jokes mixed in. So most of my ideals are Libertarian at heart and that’s what I talk about in my act. It’s not necessarily with the message “vote Libertarian,” but the ideals are the same. I thought it could be fun. I just wasn’t good at it. The bottom line is, if I had to take the fucking stand-up comedy out of it, I’m no orator. I’m a stuttering wreck. That’s why it’s okay for people to laugh at me. If I tried to do the same thing succinctly and on message, I would suck.

Do you regret having done it or do you think it was a good experience?

You learn from every bad experience and I learned that I suck and that I’m very limited in my abilities. I learn that in different ways every day, how much I suck. Just do stand-up, buddy. Don’t try to act. Have a beer, grab a Jaeger bomb, start telling fist-fuck jokes and try to have a point every now and again.

That’ll make great copy for trying to get people out to the show. Dan will be thrilled with that.

I stand behind my stand-up. But everything else, I wouldn’t suggest. If you see me on TV, try to avoid it. It’s going to be bad.

Do you still get people from The Man Show showing up at shows, thinking that’s what they’re going to get?

The Man Show, thank god, was so bad that it was never a draw. No one ever goes, “Hey, I came out because I saw you on The Man Show.” Some people liked me as a stand-up, saw The Man Show, and stopped coming to my stand-up because of that. I’m the only guy who ever got a TV show and became less popular.

When that was canceled, I remember you were t the Comedy Connection that night, and I believe you said something to the effect of, “Great, now I can have my soul back.” Are you actively avoiding television stuff because of that experience?

Not because of that… well, sure, a lot of it is something to do with that experience. We didn’t realize how fucked up television is. You have some cursory knowledge of how little say you have with the finished product, but when you do it, you’re just awestruck at how people that have no creativity just fucking destroy things. IF you have a funny idea and you have to pass it off to the producer and they turn it over to production, and the censors and Comedy Central, and the network would have notes and the lawyers would have notes, and then it comes back and they go, okay, you can do it, but you can’t do this, this, this, this, this, and this, and you go, well, those are all the punchlines. And now it’s two days before you’re filming and you go, I can’t do that. So you have to put some absolute piece of shit second alternative on the fucking air. I’m having a hard time looking at the camera saying this, this is not fucking funny. But you have no choice, it’s not your fucking bag. I’d much rather be a drunk up on a stage in a shitty fucking roadhouse saloon in Schenectady. Because the money doesn’t fucking matter to me. What, cigarette money and booze money. The rest is just fucking numbers. I need to enjoy my day.

Are you still doing shows with the Unbookables?

No, I’m not. It never goes anywhere. They have to be so fucking micromanaged. They’re just inherently a bunch of fuck-ups. And I can’t be of two minds. I can’t produce and road manage and be funny.

I remember seeing you in Montreal at Confessing It!, a lot of people came up and told funny and charmingly embarrassing stories, and you told a story about the abortion pill that seemed to be more to the spirit of actually confessing something than anybody else did. The reaction was some laughs and some people sitting their, mouths agape, horrified. Is that the kind of moment you look for onstage?

Yeah, actually, it is. And it’s something I look for from other comedians. I like to hear shit that you don’t hear about.

What is it that you find funny about those challenging or unpleasant experiences?

That’s the shit that’s most interesting. That’s the stuff where, if someone’s not talking about that, and when they walk away from the table you go, “You know that guy’s story? He was in Vietnam and he evidently killed a bunch of kids and was prosecuted.” Why did I talk to that guy for a fucking hour about football and the weather? Those are the stories you wish people would open up with. People should be talking about their most interesting thing first and then let it boil down to small talk at the end when they’re out of shit. “Where’s my bailout, that’s my question?” That should be the last thing when you have nothing else.

Robby Roadsteamer creates a comedy monster

Robby Roadsteamer has created a franchise in Boston with his Greater Boston Alternative Comedy shows, gathering his favorite comedians and a band or two and putting on shows at venues like the Paradise and the Middle East (see my interview with Roadsteamer from the first show in December). Tonight, he brings the Greater Boston Alternative Mayday! Mayday! Comedy Show to the Middle East Upstairs with Joe Wong, Mehran, Erin Judge, Ken Reid, Chris Coxen, Anderson Comedy, and Sean Sullivan.

The shows have fostered a sense of community, which Roadsteamer immediately looked to showcase in a new YouTube-based sitcom called Quiet Desperation (see the first three episodes below). I caught up with Roadsteamer last week to talk about the shows and the Boston comedy monster he’s creating.

How have the Greater Boston Alternative shows been going?

Personally, for me, they’ve been a blast, just because it’s definitely an audience that doesn’t normally go to a comedy club. I, with the exception of shows at the Comedy Studio, have been burned out by conventional comedy shows. It’s nice to have a crowd that’s just open to anything. A lot of times, crowds at comedy clubs are, “make me laugh,” there has to be much more give onstage to win them over before you can actually enjoy doing your set.

These last couple of shows have been people who don’t normally go to comedy shows. A lot of them usually go to music shows and like that. There’s a much looser [feel to] the audience. You can tell it’s going to be a good show. And the comedians, I’ve seen some unique performances at these things, because they just open up a little bit. They don’t have to be delivering every ten to twenty seconds. They can take their time telling stories and developing other things onstage.

How are you pulling those audiences into the shows?

I’m pullign them a lot from basically the music side of the tracks. At WBCN, I built up a fanbase of people from all walks of my creative life. I usually do a lot Facebook blasts and things like that. But I know these people are all… it’s very hard to get people to shows these days. Everybody always flyers and stuff, but really, even shows I’ve seen a lot of flyers for, I can still name everybody in the audience at a lot of these shows.

People’s time is very valuable apparently now these days. You’ve got to fight for them to not go home and update their status and all that. The only way to get to those people is to go on their little thing and be like, “Hey, I know you’re on Facebook right now, why don’t you go out to a show? I know that comedy shows sometimes suck, I know sometimes you have to be quiet for two hours, but there’s a bar right in the room and everybody’s going to have fun and it’s all a bunch of people that you know.” It’s turned into a thing where, yeah, people see great comedians, but it’s also a social group, too. It’s people who normally are awkward, people who are kind of withdrawn, I mean, myself indictable.

I’m having a lot of fun with these shows, and I know these shows are gaining a lot of momentum. We’re, after this, doing a three-night stand in Provincetown this summer at the Arthouse Theatre. They’re bringing the whole show down there. And I actually just opened for Jon Lejoie last week at the Wilbur Theatre –

How was that?

Oh, I absolutely crushed. I was not nervous and I realized I feed better off of, when I know there’s a lot of people in the room. It made me step it up. Bill, the owner of the Connection came up afterwards, he wanted me to bring the Greater Boston Alternative Show there for September. So we’re negotiating that now.

I’m really starting to enjoy the vibe, because the first time I did it at the Paradise, I don’t know, I think a lot of people were wondering what it was all about. I think comedians are starting to realize that, yeah, it’s not about the term “alternative comedy,” it’s just about the idea that there can be a different sort of platform for people to go to a show and not expect a typical comedy show.

Do you have an overall plan of what you’d like to see happening as you do more and more of these shows?

There’s already some comedians from this sort of vein starting to get breaks here and there. Maz Jobrani for Mehran, had him open up at the Berklee Performance Center. And that’s because one of the talent scouts came to the Paradise show. And in return for that, Mehran opened up for him in Washington D.C. and crushed in front of 1600 people, and they want to bring him on tour. And it’s like, what I’d like to see is comedians I’ve seen rough it out in the trenches of the Emerald Isle and all these crappy open mic nights have their chance to shine and have their breaks, because I feel they’ve got so much to offer, but they need the right opportunities.

This goes beyond just doing the comedy shows for me. It’s like that show I sent you this morning, Quiet Desperation. I’m using the same pocket of comedians to show how they would be in an outside of the box TV show that pretty much lampoons the whole Spinal Tap meets the D.I.Y. scene and stuff like that. I want it to be across the board, because these people, I don’t just talk about comedy with. We’re all sort of intertwined with other things, too. It could be philosophies, the way we enjoy life. It’s so weird how, accidentally, all these comedians turned out to be really close friends. I could tell you stories on everybody who does these shows. Like, how I met them and what I’ve shared with them. And it’s weird that I also happen to find them amazingly brilliant onstage.

I just actually last week closed the deal, I guess MTV’s putting together another Beavis and Butthead type of show, and it’s going to be based on YouTube videos and stuff like that, and one of their people approached my publishing company and they’re paying us a thousand dollars per episode, I mean, it’s one right now, but if people like the videos, they’ll purchase for other episodes for permission to use all the YouTube videos on each episodes.

Going back to Quiet Desperation, is that just made for friends and people in the scene? It seems like a lot of stuff would fly over people’s heads if they’re not into the local comedy or music scenes.

My opinion is this, I think you show it to anybody in terms of the type of character Tom Dustin is, the type of character Mehran [is]. Yeah, we’re using local locations and stuff, but I don’t expect somebody to gut laugh when they hear somebody performing at Great Scott. And I don’t expect people to gut laugh when they see Erin Judge is reporting for the Boston Globe, but somebody performing at a sports bar in front of five people after I’ve just explained how much that sucks? There’s not, I fell, a lot of inside.

It’s the type of show, it’s like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia or Arrested Development. I think on its own as a YouTube video, I don’t think it holds its own, because those types of shows, you need to watch them. That’s going to be our only handicap. I mean, I know it’s not going to be a five to eight million hit video because people just want stuff on YouTube to make fun of, the retarded kid who can’t sing Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” the right way.

With a video like this, I feel like if it were budgeted it would be perfect for something like MTV. You’re looking at ten to twenty fake bands of all different genres doing really close to the bone reality comedy songs in each of those genres in that Spinal Tap meets D.I.Y. mode. How many people are struggling musicians trying to pretend they’re bigger than they are in this country? How many people eon the comedy side really have these dreams and visions, too? It’s a lampooning of how a lot of us are living this life of, “Oh god, I really don’t care about the break, but I need it!”

I feel the jokes and the humor, if you give it a real, unbiased watching, I feel the talent is top of the line, the delivery’s top of the line, you don’t feel stupid for watching it. I think the acting is very convincing. And I think more and more, now that we’re getting episodes out and telling the story a little bit more fluidly, there have been a few bites and breaks. The Phoenix is going to host all the newer episodes, including the ones we’ve already got printed up.

Quiet Desperation Episode one



Quiet Desperation Episode Two



Quiet Desperation Episode Three

Lamont Price Brings the Fun to the Sweetwater Cafe

With Wednesday’s “March Madness” show at the Sweetwater Café, Lamont Price is coming up on his one-year anniversary for at the Boston venue. Price has booked shows there every couple of months since last April, taking a casual approach and putting comics he likes personally on the bill. It seems to be working. Price reports that he has had good crowds, and the Sweetwater already wants him to book another show for April.

“This show is strictly to have a good time,” says Price. “I don’t have any rules. Comics will ask me, what should I do? And I say do whatever you want to do. I don’t care what jokes you do, I’m not telling you what to do. There’s no rules here. Let’s just have some fun. If it stops being fun, them I’m going to stop doing it.”

Price will host a mostly local line-up with Mehran, Ed Dominguez (from Providence), Dave McDonough, Daniella Capolino, Sean Sullivan, and Ken Reid. All of the comics are people you will likely see on a bill with Price again at the Comedy Studio or other clubs around town. And while Price will sometimes book an out-of-town comic to network, he doesn’t think much about that aspect. When he says he’s in it for the laughs, he means it.

“Some shows, I’ve had guys I know from New York come down and do time, and I guess that helps me as far as getting booked, share and share alike,” he says. “I’ll go to New York and I’ll have spots because of that. I don’t know if it helps me that much. I just do it because it’s a fun idea. I don’t think it hurts me either. I do it on my terms.”

But don’t let Price’s laidback approach fool you. He has worked hard on his act and to make the most of his opportunities. He has booked more indie film work the past few years, including last year’s Face Dance, produced and directed by Martin writer and producer Topper Carew. “I want to do more,” says Price, “I want to do as much as I can. I’m doing a project coming up with Kevin Bright, the guy who created Friends, doing a little something with him. It’ll be good for my reel.”

Price was also among the handful of comedians who auditioned for Montreal’s Just For Laughs Festival last week at the Comedy Studio (another audition was held at Mottley’s Comedy Club), and gives an honest assessment of what was a well-received set. “I think I did fine,” he says. “I don’t think I destroyed the room, but I thought I did well and I presented myself pretty well. As long as I was me onstage, that’s pretty much all I can ask for, really.”

Price has auditioned twice before, in ’04 and ’05, and not surprisingly, he is hopeful but won’t spend the next couple of months waiting by the phone for his call from Canada. He talked to Jeff Singer, and feels confident that he impressed, but that’s no guarantee he’ll get a sport. “He knows that I can murder, basically,” Price said of his post-show talk with Singer. “That’s obvious.We’ll just have to wait and see what they’re looking for.

March Madness at Sweetwater Café, 3 Boylston Pl, Boston. March 11 at 8PM. Price will also play ImprovBoston’s Standup Thursdays at 10PM Thursday and the Comedy Studio Friday and Saturday.

BNN Mondays: A Double Shot

You may have noticed we didn't have BNN Mondays last week, so this week, we have two new Boston News Net videos.

First, Mike Morell breaks down the new marijuana possession laws that just took effect.



Next, we have Sean Sullivan (not to be confused with Sean Sullivan from the Untrainables), talks about single-sex education. As a teacher, he is against it. Follow his reasoning here:



See more Boston News Net videos here.

Random Notes

Mortified is back in Boston tonight, this time at Mottley’s Comedy Club. The show features people (sometimes comedians, sometimes civilians) telling embarrassing stories from their childhood. Show starts at 8PM… News from Eugene Mirman. Mirman looks to have a busy February. He’ll be touring in support of his new book, The Will to Whatevs: A Guide to Modern Life, which comes out February 10. He’ll be reading from the book, which Zach Galifianakis likens to “having a tiny Eugene riding on your shoulder and whispering his advice in your ear,” February 25 at Brookline Booksmith. Mirman is also back on Flight of the Conchords, which kicks of Season Two on HBO January 18th, and on a new live action series on Adult Swim called Delocated, in which he plays a Russian hitman and stand-up comedian. That premieres sometime in February… Erin Judge and Ailin Conant will bring their show, The Meaning of Wife, to the Comedy Studio February 2. The show is an exploration of marriage in both a modern and historical context (and, for Judge and Conant, in a personal contect). Proceeds from the Studio performance will benefit arts programs for children in Rwanda ... and Dan Crohn will bring Doug Stanhope to the Hard Rock Café May 15. Sean Sullivan will host, and Crohn and Dave McDonough will also perform.

The Walsh Brothers Back In Town to Play Mottley's, Greater Boston Alternative Comedy Festival

When Chris and David Walsh left Boston for Los Angeles in March of 2007, they left a scene changed for the better by their participation. They created the Great and Secret show at ImprovBoston, which encouraged the participation of a generation of comedians who are redefining the current scene – Dan Sally, Renata Tutko, Nate Johnson, Chris Coxen, Ken Reid, Sean Sullivan and countless others. Their D.I.Y. spirit was inspiring, and the Great and Secret is still at ImprovBoston every Thursday at 10 PM, while the boys have brought their own G&S to the Improv in Los Angeles. The Walsh Brothers are back for the holidays, playing Mottley’s Comedy Club tonight and tomorrow and the Greater Boston Alternative Comedy Festival Wednesday. I caught up with David by e-mail to talk about life in L.A. and coming home.

Is it important to you to keep coming back to play Boston?

It is very important that we come back to play Boston. Actually, imperative might be a better word. The opportunity to perform in front of Boston audiences is reason enough to make it important. In our limited experience (playing the road a bit and the big comedy cities: CHI, NY, SF, LA), Boston has the best audiences for standup. Their smart, open to whatever we do, and have a long, comedy history (it's important that people remember seeing Don Gavin in 1983 at Stitches and then tell us we remind them of that time).

In addition to the audiences, the city itself is where we're from and what we're about. Every time we get introduced in Los Angeles, the emcee brings us up as from Boston. Most of our comedy and sensibility (Oh the sensibility!) comes from direct experience - true stories, real people and characters, our surroundings - and our whole life was spent here, so it's crucial that we stay connected and involved. And on top of all that, we developed here as comics. The comedy community is the best. We've got friends, a few enemies (which always helps) and great clubs and theaters to perform at. (This whole thing is a mess).

How do you keep in touch with the scene?

We keep in touch with the scene through Hologram technology. And friends. Friends keep us up-to-date on the comings and goings of everyone. Like an isolated mental ward patient, the comedy studio Kvetch Board is good to check in on once in a while. One thing that's cool about having our own show in Los Angeles is that it's kind of a way station for traveling comics. Every Boston person who comes to L.A. usually comes by our show and we put them on stage. Then, in front of our lawyers, they give us a deposition about what's happening with the Boston comedy scene. Most people say it's just Chris Coxen playing with himself.

What are your plans for the Great and Secret West in the new year?

The plans for the Great & Secret West are to do an industry showcase after the new year. We've been doing the show for almost a year and built up a bunch of new sketches, characters and videos and we're ready to show "the people who matter." So we'll get the agents and the executives and the czar of comedy down to the show, see what the feedback is and go from there. It doesn't really matter what they say. We'll continue to do what we do, if only because we don't know how to do anything else.

Other than that, we'll continue to build the show and the audience. And maybe fool around with the idea of a concept show.

How many folks that perform at the G&S in LA have Boston roots?

Aside from a few of the stand-ups that perform at the Great & Secret, most people involved with the show have Boston roots. We write and do the show with James Patterson - who we started out with in Boston. He's kind of become a third Walsh brother, much to his chagrin (which as chagrins go - is very large). And then we got kid from Emerson and the show Zebro doing a lot of stuff with us. His name is Fred Young. He's a great maniac. That's the nucleus of the show. And then we have mostly Boston people on speed dial that we call up to play characters as we need them.

One thing we're always on the lookout for though is a Murray. We can never find a good Murray. Ben Murray used to be our booth guy in Boston and he was the best. He wasn't just a booth guy. He was a presence, an ethos. We keep hiring guys from the tech union and none of them fit.

Do you see a huge difference between Boston and LA audiences?

This is a hard thing to explain because an audience is an audience is an audience. Comedy is a guy with a mic and people paying to listen. However, the people paying can have different agendas. For the most part, a comedy show in Boston has people who want to laugh and experience some sort of release. In Los Angeles, you have the same thing and then a certain amount of people who are filled with self-interest: industry, wannabes, star-f*ckers, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies and dickheads. The self-interest creates a different type of atmosphere. Los Angeles is more of a 'scene'. But that's only a part of it. It goes on and on. Also, I have no idea what the eff I'm talking about. Boston=Better.

Is there any particular place in Boston you like to come back to for the holidays?

The Comedy Studio Christmas Show and party is a great night (Dec. 21). Usually hang out with Keith Lockhart and the Pops one evening. Go to Billy Tse's on Commercial St. for my favorite festive Chinese food. Scope the malls on the North Shore for high school chicks. And a little, bunny hill skiing at the Blue Hills.