Mitch Fatel addresses Boston Comedy fans

Okay, so Michael Loftus made a video a couple of weeks ago talking directly to the readers of this blog, and his PR people sent it to me blind, hoping I'd post it. He was promoting his new Comedy Central stand-up special, which aired that week.

Well, what can I say? I'm a sucker for that kind of hustle, and I'm sure Loftus taped a few hundred of those to send out to different places.

Mitch Fatel has a new special out this week, and he happens to be represented by the same PR people. So Wednesday, this video showed up in my inbox. And Fatel takes it one step further, addressing you, my reaading audience, from his bathtub, and including a bit from the special (a routine about inverted nipples and other strange phenomena of genitalia).

The special debuts on Comedy Central tonight at 11PM and comes out on DVD Tuesday. Here's Fatel's personal pitch:



**UPDATE**
Here's my review of the special on TVSquad.com.

Michael Loftus addresses Boston Comedy fans

Michael Loftus is not a Boston comedian. He's from Ohio, and lives in Los Angeles, and wrote for The George Lopez Show. But since he has a special debuting on Comedy Central Friday at 10PM called You've Changed, Loftus is working hard to get the word out. Hard enough that all on his own, he decided to record this message to Boston comedy fans and readers of this blog, which his PR company sent to me in hopes I would post it.

So here it is, a message from Loftus to you, readers of the Boston Comedy blog, complete with a reference to the Red Sox.

Joe Wong rubbing elbows with Kanye and David Blaine on Ellen's Bigger, Longer, & Wider Show

Ellen DeGeneres today revealed that Boston comedian Joe Wong will be on Ellen's Bigger, Longer, & Wider Show, which tapes June 17 and airs June 27 on TBS. Watch for my poss on TVSquad for more info on the show.

Bill Burr on The Tonight Show -- first stand-up performance of the Conan Era

Just posted a bit over at AOL's TVSquad blog about Canton native Bill Burr on The Tonight Show this evening. He'll be the first sand-up comic to do a performance spot on Conan O'Brien's watch as host.

Craig Ferguson and the Road to a Bit O' Revolution

Since Craig Ferguson's first one-hour stand-up special, A Wee Bit O' Revolution, was taped at the Comedy Connection Wilbur Theatre, and airs tonight on Comedy Central, I thought it might be a good time to take a look at my interview with him for the Boston Globe a couple of years ago. I found him to be a fairly down to earth, less frenetic version of who you see every night on The Late Late Show. He took a long road getting into stand-up, then out of it, and then back in again.

The Glasgow-born Ferguson dropped out of high school at 16 and wound up working in factories, doing construction, and tending bar. He came to comedy after drumming in punk bands, then found sudden success in the U.K. with a character he was doing at open mics called "Bing Hitler." "Within a year of doing the open mic night, I was playing two and a half thousand, three thousand-seaters with that open mic character," he said. "It was crazy."

A bit o' Bing Hitler:


Ferguson moved to Los Angeles in 1995, and not long after wound up with his gig on the Drew Carey Show not long after. It was a breakthrough for him, but he stopped doing stand-up to concentrate on the show. "When I came to America and got the gig on the Drew Carey show I just stopped doing it," he said. "And I hadn’t done it for ten years. And I think once you’re a stand-up you really always are a stand-up, and I always had this nagging feeling that, I’m in trouble, because if I have to go in and do my act, I don’t have an act."

The Drew Carey Show ened in 2003, and Ferguson got his Late Late night gig in 2004, which threw him back into the world of stand-up comedy again, working on a nightly monologue. Ferguson is greateful for the leeway he was given by David Letterman, Les Moonves, and his CBS bosses to make it work. "They just said you’ve got to find your own style, you‘ve got to do your own thing," he said. "We eventually got to the way we do it now, which is basically a very haphazard kind of, it’s kind of a mess. But it works for us, and the numbers speak for themselves. And the show’s success I think is to do with that. We don’t try to be something we’re not."

That eventually led him to the free-form monologue he does on the show now, which in turn led him back to comedy clubs (and to Revolution). "There’s nothing more liberating than doing stand-up," he said. "It is the number one instant access shot in the arm for performers. It’s the only way to do it if you can do it."

Ferguson also became an American citizen last year, something he has talked about on the Late Late Show frequently. In 2006, though, he was still studying for the test. His thoughts on the subject will seem familiar to you once you've seen the special. "I consider myself an American in a way which perhaps alarms regular Americans,' he told me then. "You know when someone becomes a Catholic, people who have been Catholics all their lives are like, why are you so extreme about this? You feel like you have to be extra-Catholic just to catch up on them or something. I’m kind of like that with America. There’s nothing more zealous than a convert, and that’s kind of me with America."

Jokes.com
Craig Ferguson - Loving America
comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

Ferguson also never bought into the differences between an American sense of humor and a British sense of humor. He said he was more comfortable in front of American audiences than any other audiences, including those in his native Scotland. "It’s very difficult to say ‘an American sense of humor,’" he said. "You mean an Irish-American sense of humor? An African-American sense of humor? A French-American sense of humor? A Cherokee sense of humor? Humor is universal, I think, if people understand what the hell you’re saying."

Jokes.com
Craig Ferguson - Getting Out of Scotland
comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

Further reading:
1. Sean McCarthy's take on the special over at The Comic's Comic.
2. Also take a look at Ferguson's comic novel, Between the Bridge and the River. It's a fun bit of strangeness, worth seeking out.

The Upper Crust on Craig Ferguson Tonight!

Technically, The Upper Crust is a band, and not group of comedians (nor are they pizza). But they do make me laugh, and they did open for Tenacious D a few years back at Avalon. And I expect their appearance on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 12:25AM) should be reason to rejoice.

They also have a new album available for download here right now. If you aren't familiar, take a listen to experience the majesty of rock and the mystery of roll.

Here's a bit of a preview, the band's video for "Let Them Eat Rock."



More on Ferguson, whose new special A Wee Bit O' Revolution was taped in Boston and airs on Comedy Central Sunday, later in the week.

Nick DiPaolo on TV

Danvers native Nick DiPaolo will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live! tonight (12:05AM on ABC). He'll also be on the Hannity Show on Fox News March 5 and the Roast of Larry the Cable Guy March 15 (10PM on Comedy Central).