Jim Norton recorded his new CD, Despicable, in Boston. The New Jersey native is comfortable here. Boston has long been one of Norton’s go-to cities, a place where he started drawing theater crowds early in his career. Boston crowds appreciate his darker side, whether he’s talking about his dalliances with transsexuals or describing Britney Spears’ genitalia. They’ve known Norton long enough not to be shocked.
Despicable is a good snapshot of who Norton is as a comedian, taking on gay bashers and race issues, with a great piece on "bombing etiquette" for anyone who tries to be funny in their everyday life. You also get a glimpse into Norton's personal life in the liner notes, with photos of his IDs and a newspaper clipping of a story about young Jim trying to beat the local record on Asteroids.
Norton is back in Boston tonight at The Wilbur. The early show is sold out, but as of Friday morning, there may be seats for the later show. You can also hear him frequently on the Opie and Anthony show on Sirius Radio. "Having more fun on SiriusXM than I EVER did on regular radio," he says. "It’s an amazing platform."
I caught up with Norton via e-mail while he was taping a segment for The Tonight Show to air next week.
What are you taping for Leno? When will that air?
I taped a spring break piece in Florida which airs this Tuesday. I was the creepy older guy on the beach. Unintentionally.
How difficult is it to translate your humor to network TV? I feel like, rather than just chopping language, censors would have problems with the concepts of a lot of your material.
Depends on the show. Leno is great because of all the late night shows, they let me do the edgiest material by far. I’ve gotten away with lines on that show that I NEVER could have done on other shows.
Was Despicable one take of the same show, or a mix of a couple of different shows?
It was taken from a couple of different shows. It’s currently the number two comedy CD in the country. (In sales. As far as content, it’s probably somewhere in the low 70s).
What made you record at the Connection?
I truly love Boston crowds. They’re very cranky white people, but they listen to the material. Probably my favorite city to perform in.
Are those real IDs on the sleeve?
They really are, yes. My new passport photo is in there, too (it’s the one where I’m kind of biting my lip, looking not unlike a rapist.
Kind of dickish for the writer on the Asteroids piece you included inside to note you weren’t playing on the “more deadly deluxe” machine.
Yes, it was. ‘Deluxe Asteroids” sucked. It was only deadlier because no one wanted to play it long enough to get good.
That’s quite a gallery of thank-yous in the liner notes – Sean Hannity, Louis CK, Kevin Smith, Marc Maron, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, Bob Levy. Do these people ever inhabit the same space, or are they all separate worlds in a way?
They’re all people who have helped me along the way, and they’re all uniquely mentally ill.
You had a great conversation with Maron on WTF about sexuality – what kind of feedback do you get from fans about that material? Do people think you’re making it up for the act?
People generally love it because they know it’s coming from an honest place. (Except for the tranny stories of course, I MADE THEM ALL UP). (no i didn’t)
Do you find your fans fall mostly in any one place on the political spectrum? It seems you have definite opinions, but you’re rarely explicitly political, and you say things that people on the left and on the right might be uncomfortable with.
I think they come from both sides. I embrace certain aspects of both ideologies, but don’t really respect either. As a comic, I never worry about offending the beliefs of the audience. If you can’t laugh at an opinion just because you don’t agree with it, then fuck you.
Any word on appearing on season two of Louie?
Louie has requested a few cock pics from me and I have sent. Waiting to hear back…
Jim Norton: 7:30PM and 10PM. $20-$33. The Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St., Boston. 866.448.7849
It is an extraordinary time in the Middle East, with the political landscape changing sometimes by the minute as people rise up against their governments. That should be fertile ground for a comic like Maz Jobrani, who is at the Wilbur tonight. Jobrani is Persian and was born in Iran, and his cultural background figured heavily into his act on the “Axis of Evil” tour.
But you’ll have to forgive him if he is still processing the daily headlines. “It takes some time to write material about current events and try it out on new audiences,” he told me by e-mail. “I just had a baby daughter a month and a half ago, so I haven't had a chance to get on stage when I'm in LA much, which is when I usually work out new material. So I've had to try my material about all that's going on in the Middle East when I'm on the road. I have a few jokes about Egypt and Ghaddafi. Not sure if they're fine tuned yet.”
Jobrani has always discussed Middle Eastern culture in his act, especially as it applies to his own Persian heritage. You can get a taste of taste of that from his Brown and Friendly special, released in 2009. Jobrani humanizes a region that seems often to be homogenized in the popular imagination. “I do point out that they're different countries and not to be lumped together,” he says. “I think some people do believe that the whole region is just one country controlled by Al Queda.”
Jobrani is also the star of a new film called David, about the obstacles facing an eleven year old Muslim boy growing up in Brooklyn. The film is currently making the rounds at festivals, and Jobrani is hoping it gets a wider theatrical release. It’s a more dramatic role for him. “I play David's dad who's a pretty serious guy,” he says. “There are a few moments of comedy in the film, but they're not provided by my character.”
His character is very religious, in contrast to Jobrani’s own upbringing. “My family wasn't religious,” he says. “However, my dad could be pretty serious and strict at times. I'd say that came from being traditional. Having experienced some of those characteristics from my dad did help me play David's dad in the movie.”
Jobrani was originally brought onto the project as an actor, but wound up with a producing credit. “I think the filmmaker Joel Fendelman and the producers Julian Schwartz and Patrick Daly, who was also a writer on the project, felt that I could probably help bring some attention to the film just through my contacts and the fanbase I have created through stand-up, says Jobrani. “So I've been trying to be involved as a producer in that way. I was also involved in suggesting some ideas for my character that the writers were good enough to change so you could say I was involved as a producer in that way too.”
Jobrani is also trying to raise money for his own film project, Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero. “If anyone's got any rich uncles who're looking to finance a film please get in touch,” he says. You can check out the details on the Facebook site and the official site.
Maz Jobrani: 7:30PM. $30-$40. Mehran opens. The Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St., Boston. 866.448.7849
The Wilbur is giving away tickets to
Saturday's show via Twitter
Both shows for Shaq’s All-Star Comedy Jam this Saturday have been sold out for weeks, but the Wilbur has been holding one last pair of tickets to the 10PM show to give away. Starting at noon today, you can enter to win the tickets by going to The Wilbur’s Twitter site and Tweeting “Hey @The_Wilbur get me in the #SHAQALLSTARCOMEDYJAM.” The winner will be picked at random on Friday by 5PM.
The Wilbur hasn’t released the line-up for the shows, which will apparently be a surprise. The last Shaq Jam in October included DeRay Davis, Aries Spears, Corey Holcomb, and Michael Blackson. Three television specials have also been produced under the All-Star banner, including last year’s Shaquille O’Neal Presents: All-Star Comedy Jam – Live From Dallas, which included Mo’Nique, Mike Epps, George Wilborn, Paul Mooney, Blackson, and Holcomb.
Last night Kelly MacFarland packed Mottley's for her CD release show as part of the Magners Comedy Festival. The CD is called Bombshell, and it will be released officially on February 8. More on that in a later post.
The Festival is in its second year, and has expanded to moe clubs, and even to the Wilbur. Tonight, Greg Fitzsimmons returns to Boston for an early show at the Wilbur. If you want to know a bit more about Fitzsimmons, his time in Boston, and his new book, read my interview with him from late last year.
Joel Hodgson brings Cinematic Titanic
to the Wilbur Oct 29
Joel Hodgson says he feels grateful and lucky a lot. Grateful he was able to do stand-up comedy and appear on HBO specials and Saturday Night Live. That he was able to drive Mystery Science Theater 3000 into existence. And that he can work with a lot of his olod friends from that show on Cinematic Titanic, his latest movie riffing project, which comes to the Wilbur Theatre October 29.
Cinematic Titanic reunited Hodgson with Trace Beaulieu (Crow, Dr. Forrester), J. Elvis Weinstein (Tom Servo), Frank Conniff (TV’s Frank), and Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester) from MST to once again make good art out of bad cinema. That means five of the funniest minds in comedy riffing on a movie in one show, which produces hundreds of laughs per movie (they have actually counted them).
In December of 2009, the CT crew moved in a different direction, releasing their first live DVD, skewering East Meets Watts. It was the funniest of their releases to date, and a bit of a revelation for Hodgson and co. Since then, they have released The Alien Factor and Danger on Tiki Island, both live discs, capturing the energy of riffing for a live audience. It’s a much more immediate format, and one they won’t likely be changing soon.
I spoke with Joel by phone last week about Cinematic Titanic and the ever-expanding MST universe.
So how have the live dates been going?
They’re great. I’m so grateful we get to go out and do these shows. This month we’re doing three shows. We’re in Washington, DC, Providence, Rhode Island, and then in Boston. I love the work. It’s fun to do it. The audiences are great. I love the people I work with.
How many movies are you touring with at once?
We’ll be doing the premiere of our newest movie in Boston, called Rattlers. That’ll be our 13th movie. We can pretty much do any movie that we like. Currently the movies we’re working on are our newest movies, that helps get them ready to release them by bringing them out and performing them live. We can always pop in a new one. If we go to a new city, we can look at our catalogue.
The Cinematic Titanic crew
Has the touring become a more important element than it was at the beginning of Cinematic Titanic?
Part of the premise of Cinematic Titanic was to do it live. For the very first Cinematic Titanic, we also had booked a live show. So within the first week, we had a studio show and a live show. They really are kind of hand in hand. But what we learned is that the live show is the state of the art. Coming from Mystery Science Theater, we thought we needed to a studio show. But we found we just did better in front of an audience.
Are you sticking with the live format for the next releases?
Yeah. We just feel that’s the state of the art. We do better for shows, trying to get up for the shows.
Do you think there are still MST fans out there you haven’t reached yet, who don’t know about Cinematic Titanic?
Oh, I think so. I think absolutely. I’m a U2 fan and I haven’t bought a U2 album in about thirteen years. I’m sure there are Mystery Science Theater fans who haven’t heard about what we’re doing. I just think that it takes time. But so far, we’re able to play different venues and different theatres. We can sell them out. Pretty much consistently we’re able to draw good crowds, even though I’m sure we haven’t saturated the whole MST [crowd].
How does the DVD and live format differ for you from the old MST format of having a weekly studio show? How does it compare to producing a weekly TV show?
When we did a weekly show, we had a lot of resources. We had money coming in. We had an office to hang out at and work at. We had a studio. All those things kind of in one place and available. Designated prop builders. Cinematic Titanic is much more stripped down. It’s kind of us, we write and produce everything. But again, the premise is a lot stealthier, also. It’s us at the microphone with our scripts riffing. It’s not the heavy concept of a guy trapped in space with robot companions. The production part is not there. It’s just us doing a concert of movie riffing. That really was the original premise of Cinematic Titanic.
When you were here at MIT last year, you had said you and Trace were working on back story for why everyone was on the Cinematic Titanic. Is that still in the works or has the live concept changed that?
Trace and I were working on it, feeling like we had to make it like Mystery Science Theater. I think we were really struggling with, should we do it live or do a high concept show, which our studio shows were becoming. I think ultimately we felt like we were aping Mystery Science Theater. Doing it live, we could throw all that away, and it becomes, we’re the Mystery Science Theater guys, and it’s about riffing.
Doing it live eliminated any need for a concept. I liked it. Because I wasn’t really satisfied with what we had. I was kind of like trying to fill it in. Trace and I were trying to get something to happen. It was a bit harder, I think, because we were kind of doing it as a group. Conceptually, Mystery Science Theater was a little bit easier. I got kind of frustrated. Doing it live
Does it feel more like your stand-up days doing it this way?
Absolutely. We all met doing stand-up and I think that’s why we love doing it so much. That’s how I found [everyone for] Mystery Science Theater, in the clubs. That’s where we found Josh [J. Elvis Weinstein]. That’s where we found Mike and Frank and Mary Jo. Everybody, pretty much. Paul Chaplin.
Do you ever come across your early stand-up on HBO specials or on Saturday Night Live?
Oh sure. Mostly, people will remind me of it. Yeah.
What do you think when you see it?
It’s fun. It seems slightly unreal. It was a long time ago. Almost thirty years ago, when I started. I’m really grateful.
If it hadn’t been for MST, what direction do you think your career would have gone?
I couldn’t tell you. I really don’t know.
You’ve done set building and writing, was that in your head at the time, that maybe you’d wind up doing that?
I guess so, but I guess I just don’t have the personality to work, I’m not quite good enough to kind of work people... That’s why I got to do this. I can do a lot of things kind of competently, but not anything really great, not any particular thing really well.
And yet you have fans who are dedicated and have been for decades, and you’ve been called a genius more than once in print.
Uh… yeah? [laughs]
What are your thoughts when you see all of these people praising you for what you created?
Again, it kind of goes back to my stand-up, I just look at it and go I’m really glad I did it, I’m really glad I had the energy and the persistence to get it out there. That’s the thing that I think about most, is I just wanted it, I wanted to make it happen. I’m kind of amazed and glad and just grateful that I was able, I had that drive to do those things, to do stand up, and I had the vision to do Mystery Science Theater, to bring it to life. I just feel really lucky. It feels unreal. I’m just amazed that people care.
Has the live show affected the 600 riff per movie ratio? Are you still able to get as many in as you were with the studio product?
It’s not as much because the laughs eclipse the set-ups for other jokes. It’s not as dense, there aren’t as many jokes. The jokes are all set ups. Whereas the jokes in Mystery Science Theater were much more dimensional and much more, probably, slapstick.
It just amazes me that movie riffing works live. It works beautifully. As Josh says, an uncommonly funny theatrical experience. It just works that way. We couldn’t have started this way. I don’t think it would have worked to do Cinematic Titanic first and then Mystery Science Theater. I think we had to do Mystery Science Theater first. And now people get it enough, it’s been around enough, that people think, oh, these are the people who did that.
Also, I would think you have a community built with a particular taste and sensibility, and you’re able to play to that and to some extent know what’s going to make those people laugh.
Yup. It’s really true. We were able to build this whole thing on the back of the Mystery Science Theater fanbase.
Joel Hodgson and Mike Nelson on MST3K
Has the success of Cinematic Titanic given you any more leverage over how Shout Factory handles the Mystery Science Theater catalogue?
These guys at Shout Factory are really special. They really understand the fanbase and they understand us. And they really care, they happen to be fans. They’ve kind of consulted me, and I’ve just been available. I want to help as much as I can.
One thing that I will tell you that is very interesting, sales for Mystery Science Theater have gone up really impressively since Cinematic Titanic and RiffTrax started. So it’s grown Mystery Science Theater’s business, just by finding new people and alerting people that we’re out there.
Do you think you’ll ever do a riff-off with the RiffTrax folks?
Oh, I don’t know. We were just at DragonCon with them. We did an event, and we did a panel. So we do stuff with them. So it’s completely likely.
I think that would be a huge event for MST fans. Seems like the fans really would like for you to be friendly, and there are some reports try to make it seem like there’s a rift there.
That’s the great thing about our fans. They love us all equally. And I think that comes from years of flame wars going on between Joel and Mike. And they’ve just kind of figured out this higher consciousness where they just like all of it. And they’ve really set the tone.
When Myq Kaplan was the first comic called out in the Last Comic Standing finale in August, there was an immediate reaction around Boston and wherever the Boston comedy community reaches. People Twittered and posted on Facebook, saying that Myq deserved to win. Some (and I may have been among them) even decided there was no need to watch the rest of the show.
Kaplan is thankful for that, but he’s still happy to be touring with the top five contestants, which includes eventual winner Felipe Esparza, Roy Wood Jr., Tommy Johnagin, and Mike Destefano. The tour stops at the Wilbur tonight.
If you can’t get out to see Kaplan in person tonight, take a look at this animation of his savior as octopus bit. It won’t completely make up for not seeing Kaplan, but it will help you imagine a slightly more angular and evil looking Myq. Then take a look at a few thoughts from Myq on LCS.
What were your thoughts when they called you first in the finale?
Well, since there were two people whose name start with "Mike" as long as they weren't spelling out the announcements, my very first thought when I heard the first name was "I'm glad there are two Mikes."
When I heard my last name, I was initially disappointed, but also relieved that it was over. I mean, of course I would have loved to win, but given that only one person can, I'm in good company with every comedian that didn't win. I'm just thrilled that I made it as far as I did.
There was a pretty strong reaction from Boston fans that you were robbed. Have you had that discussion a lot with friends from the Boston comedy community? Or from comedian friends in general, for that matter?
A lot of people have told me that they were surprised I didn't win, which is very nice. My friends have obviously been very supportive, though most of my comedian friends know that comedy is subjective, contests can be arbitrary, and a public vote doesn't make everyone happy (that last part is not just specific to comedy). Some fans have written to me to tell me they're positive the thing was rigged, and I really appreciate the sentiment.
It's nice to know that my comedy made so many people feel as though I was objectively the best, to the point where they disregard the fact that there is no objective reality to it. Everyone in the top 5 is great, and we all have our die-hard fans who tell us we are the best, I'm sure. Which is part of what's cool about comedy. So, to everyone who thought I "should" have won, thank you very much.
Did you see a lot of familiar faces on Lowell and Worcester?
Several comedian friends came out to each of those shows. Boston comics Josh Gondelman, Jono Zalay, Peter Gross, and Sean Wilkinson were in Worcester, and Tom Morello drove me to the show in Lowell after I spent the day in Boston, having breakfast with Renata Tutko and watching Tony V in "The Town." (To name some of the other familiar faces I saw along the way.)
Has the show or the tour opened anything up for you in terms of career opportunities since last we spoke?
I forget what we last talked about, so the answer is maybe. The show has been great because it let millions of people watch me do comedy every week, so now I have a larger base of people who know who I am, some of whom care. And that's what it's about for me now, reaching the people who do, can, and will care. As far as any more career specifics, we'll see. Thanks for interviewing me.
