Philly native Dom Irrera has played Boston countless times during his more than thirty years in comedy, most recently and frequently at the Comedy Connection. I’ve spoken with him in the past for the Boston Globe (you can search boston.com), or just walking around mingling at Just For Laughs in Montreal, which he plays regularly. Although he does voice-over work for cartoons and has a day gig with DirectTV, you won’t find a better specimen for an American stand-up comedian, constantly touring and writing. He’s at the Comedy Connection Wilbur Theatre Friday. I asked him a few quick questions by e-mail.
Do you still get people asking for the classic bits even after you released the CD?
Every show. Its good because now I get heckled just with my own bits. I rather they be asking for it then booing me if I did it.
Is there a Greatest Hits: Vol. Two on the way?
Yes, I need one more joke.
Are there any tough rooms for you anymore?
C’mon man I’m not stupid. Do you think I go to a room like that at this point?
Do you enjoy the voice-over work (Barnyard, Hey, Arnold, etc)?
Yes, I do. I’ve been doing it for a long time. I used to do a show called Full Frontal Comedy at night and in the day time I was doing Nickelodeon’s Hey Arnold. It was a fun juxtaposition between night time raunch and daytime innocence. The yin and yang my friend…
How many dates a year do you do? Do you ever get tired of the road?
No... it’s hard to tell. When I’m in New York Philly or Boston it doesn’t feel like I’m on the road. Luckily, I have so many friends in Boston that I come in early so I can have dinner with everybody. Go Boston College!
How did you get the gig for The Supreme Court of Comedy?
Jamie Masada, the man he owns the Improv came up with the original concept. I came up with the idea of having more comedians on the show to represent the plaintiff and the defendant. He pitched it to Direct TV and they liked it.
Do you feel compelled to know anything about the actual laws concerning the cases presented to you to judge?
Yes, somewhat. In certain cases I do. Especially cases regarding exhibitionism.
How can people see it if they don’t have DirectTV?
Tell them to fly Jet Blu. Stop eating so much and spring for DirectTV.
How often have you played Boston?
At least one to three times a year for about 20 years.
Do you remember the first time you played here, and what the venue was?
It was Nick’s. I went on after Don Gavin, Steve Sweeney and Kenny Rogerson. Thank god those guys like me because they are extremely strong acts.
What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in stand-up comedy over the years?
The other comics appear to be getting younger than me. They have such good skin!
What else do you have coming up?
I signed up another year with Barnyard and I’ll be working with the NFL Network in the Fall. We got picked up again by DirecTV and by the way did I mention DirecTV?
This week, another bonus helping of Boston News Net videos from their Valentine's Day show. We start with Street Smarz with Kristina Smarz, who went looking for love on the streets of Boston. Bostonians gave lots of advice, but no actual love (unless you count "number eight"). Since she came up empty, Smarz is looking for more advice on how to find love, and will take suggestions through the Boston News Net Web site (check the link below -- but watch the clip first).
Ryan Douglas notes that Boston didn't celebrate the birthday of Egar Allen Poe's brithday this week, even though he was born here, and gives a few suggestions on how to remedy that in the future.
Barry Tattle has been boosting romance in Boston, Bermuda-style, for years as part of Chris Coxen's League of Characters. Tonight and tomorrow at Mottley's, he'll be offering a very special date night with Barry Tattle's Valentine's Day Surprise. I thought it was time Boston got to know Mr. Tattle a little better, so I asked him a few questions about the show and his romantic expertise. Scroll down for bonus video (Tattle sings!).
What do you have planned for Mottley’s, without giving away too much of the “Surprise?”
I have tender moments of all varieties that I plan to nurture the audience with. There will also be live music performed by two lady-pleasing musicians from the Grownup Noise (Adam Sankowski and Paul Hansen). On Friday, we'll have guest chuckles from Jon Lincoln, Erin Judge and Dan Boulger. On Saturday, we outsource our ha-has to Robby Roadsteamer, Renata Tutko and Tim McIntire. Also, if the mood is sensual, I will share some dark, delight-filled stories from my Tattle Tales collection.
Why would couples come to see your show?
To reboot their love-drives. Romance goes stale if you don't take it to the shop for tune-up now and again. Modern lovers are easily distracted in a world of email, cell phones and other beeping mechanisms. It's my duty to make sure remind them of their romantic wonders.
Why would single people come?
To learn how not to be single anymore. This is my guarantee with the class I teach - "Love In Today's Unjazzy World". I teach it in the basement of a Unitarian church. It's a Harvard Extension Extension course. I'm not even sure Harvard knows about it.
What are the key elements of romance?
Chardonnay, an oceanside sleepover and precious intentions will get you started in a precious direction.
How long have you been a romance expert?
It would be easier to answer the question, "When did the first breeze ever happen?"
What is the most romantic song ever written?
"I Want To Be Your Man" by Roger. Basically it sounds like a duet between an ebony hero and a fax machine. It's pure beauty.
When did you first fall in love with Bermuda?
When I exited my mommy...you see, I was born in Bermy.
How do you stay breezy in Boston?
I dream and I speak in hushed tones.
How do you get along in a notoriously sarcastic city?
It's more like: how does a notoriously sarcastic city get along with Barry Tattle? My body has a way of altering any climate, bringing with me Bermuda's soft winds and whispery ways.
What is the rest of the Tattle clan like?
They all have figures that were designed in Paradise, forged in the heavens, and exist in your dreams. The gents all wear a sugar broom (mustache) with honor and the ladies smell better than a vacation resort.
How do you usually spend Valentine’s Day?
With a feminine creature who's beauty is so electric, it could power a city in a very modern world.
Mike Dorval starts a two-week run with his one-man show, Death By Chocolate, tomorrow at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre. I caught up with Mike to talk a bit about Death By Chocolate at his recent appearance on the Rob Crean Show, interviewing him live on location, just around the corner from O'Brien's Pub in Allston. Scroll down for a sneak peek at the show from Dorval's reading at O'Brien's (for which he followed MC Mr. Napkins, to explain his opening joke).
Mike Dorval Interview:
Death By Chocolate Reading Part I:
Death By Chocolate Reading Part II:
NOTE: If you are interested in seeing more video interviews and local comedy clips like these, drop me a line and let me know. My e-mail is linked in the lefthand sidebar. I am looking into better recording equipment and more access to tape local shows.
Eugene Mirman’s new advice book, The Will To Whatevs: A Guide to Modern Life, is so helpful, he needs two prefaces and three introductions to prepare you for all of the help. And even that won’t fully prepare you, which is why you need to read the rest of it.
Mirman covers everything you might want to do in life. Want to own the night? Find love? Find a rhythm guitarist? Make millions of dollars off of the ideas of foreigners? Or just get through high school without embarrassing yourself? Mirman packs it all into just over two hundred pages.
According to Mirman, Mirman is in a special class of people like coaches, priests, and psychologists that he calls “Mind Thinkers.” That’s what qualifies him to help you Over-Actualize yourself, and make up words like Defendtastic, that don’t actually mean anything, but help enhance the perception of Mirman’s authority. Each chapter covers a different life question, bolstered by timelines and graphs and quotes from Mirman’s other books (“If no one figures out you are pretending to be retarded, your life will be greeted with treasure.” – Eugene Miman, from his book Inspirational Proverbs for No One in Particular.).
It’s easy to hear Mirman’s comic voice while you’re reading Will to Whatevs. His brand of absurdist misdirection works wonderfully with the concept of a fake (?) advice book. His thoughts on making an impression in high school – “Buy the most expensive jeans in a two-hundred mile radius of your town and wear them on your first day. If anyone asks how you could afford them, say that your father is president of Ashton Kutcher.”
Those who are familiar with Mirman as a stand-up could hear him delivering that line onstage. And since his delivery is so important to the joke, give Mirman a tremendous amount of credit for making that translate in print. That transition is not always easy for a comedian, which is why books just based on a comedian’s act are often lacking punch. Whatevs, though, is the type of book you’ll want to look up from and quote to whoever is around you. Try to resist doing that, though, since, if you’re me, it tends to irritate people.
There are a few treats for Mirman’s Boston fanbase. He talks about growing up and going to school here, and in his list of suggested Halloween costumes, number ten is “Rick Jenkins, founder of the Comedy Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts.” I’m not sure what that will mean to the rest of the country, but it should make Boston comedy fans smile.
A few favorite quotes:
On money: At any given moment you stand at the threshold of opportunity, just a million dollars and a new idea away from having fifty million dollars and the kind of car a Poison groupie would let you punch her in the face to ride in. I will help you cross over that threshold and punch that groupie.
On Condoleezza Rice’s death from a power overdose: I know she isn’t dead right now, but I am hoping that this book becomes a classic, and when people read it a hundred years from now, they’ll figure that Condoleezza Rice, whoever she was, died from smoking power.
On protesting: Nothing tells the government to keep doing what they’re doing like a small number of seemingly confused protesters defeated on a street corner. Do not hold a tiny protest, please. Hold only big ones.
On business models: Either way, don’t forget to “like wear a rubber in the shower,” if you know what I mean, which you don’t, because it’s too complex. So to really understand this, buy my other book, Eugene’s Confusing Analogies, Explained!
On formerly held jobs: Both law and investment firms are feudal in nature and seem to lack the instinct to treat all employees like people rather than fourteen-dollar-an-hour hookers with no future or teeth.
For those who are a tad bitter about Valentine's Day, and, in particular, NECCO candy hearts, Jenny Z. reports from Revere on what lovers really think of NECCO candy.
Former Boston comic Dan Levy’s Comedy Central Presents premieres tonight at 10PM (see the clip below)… If you have HBO Comedy and you’re an insomniac, check out Rodney Dangerfield’s 1988 stand-up showcase special Nothin’ Goes Right at 1:05AM. The line-up features Cambridge’s own Lenny Clarke, as well as Bill Hicks, Dom Irrera, Robert Schimmel, Carol Leifer, Andrew Dice Clay and Barry Sobel. It repeats 2/18 at 4AM… The Off-Broadway comedy The Queen of Bingo comes to The Company Theatre in Norwell tomorrow (at 4PM and 8PM) and Sunday (3PM)… The line-up for Tuesday’s Rob Crean Show at O’Brien’s includes Anderson Comedy, Ahmed Bharoocha, MC Mr. Napkins, and Andy Ofiesh… Boston native Sue Costello has announced she will bring her one-woman show, Minus 32 Million Words, to Right Turn Live! in Arlington April 10 and 11.
In comedy, no matter how high you climb, there’s almost always another plateau to reach. Take Canton native Bill Burr, who has played to arenas with Opie and Anthony’s Traveling Virus Tour, been a regular on one of TV’s biggest programs in Chappelle’s Show, and headlined some of the bigger clubs in the country.
I spoke with Burr about that in August for the Boston Globe, when his first one-hour special, Why Do I do This?, debuted on Comedy Central. At that point, Burr was looking at trying to produce another new hour of material for another special to be taped sometime this year, and had a pilot for Comedy Central brewing.
Two one-hour specials in a little over two years is a pretty lofty goal for a comic, something Louis C.K. is doing now, and George Carlin used to do regularly, but few others even tried. And while Burr is still on track for that, he takes a bit of a shot at himself for pursuing it.
“I’ve got to admit, I was pretty blown away when I saw how Carlin did a special once every two years for almost 30 years,” he says, speaking by phone from Los Angeles. “I really got inspired by that, yet I also am realizing that he’s him, one of a kind. It’s one of those things like, he did one every two years, I’ve gotta do one every two years, and then I was thinking the other day, why don’t you do one when you’re ready to do one? And not be on one of the all-time geniuses of comedy’s schedule.”
The yet-unnamed pilot is currently under consideration at Comedy Central, and Burr has high hopes for it. “We shot it and they seemed thrilled with it, and now they’re going to show it to a test audience,” says Burr. “And I’m hoping that some guy from Dodge City doesn’t come in there and just go [shouting], ‘I don’t like his shirt.’ And then my dream is over.”
The pilot is a strange mash-up of Burr’s comedy, similar to the regular Monday morning podcasts he posts on his site. There are short videos, set-ups, man-on-the-street interviews, and other elements that Burr has a curious way of describing. “The format’s kind of like the Banana Splits, in a way, you remember that show?” he says. “Remember the whole base of that show was they just went back to a bunch of mascots going down a water slide, and then you watch a cartoon, and you’d come back and they’d be shooting each other with water guns, and then you were on Danger Island. I’m obviously not dressed up like a mascot, but it’s like, there doesn’t have to be this ‘comedian stands in front of crowd…’”
Burr will continue to write stand-up comedy if he gets the pilot, and hopes to have his new hour of material filmed by the end of the year. But he will have far less time to devote to it. It’s a problem a lot of comedians would love to have, but a problem nonetheless, and one Burr is preparing for.
“You can stay real sharp by just continuing to go out, doing guest spots,” he says. “I don’t know, I’ve never had a TV show before, so I don’t know how that works out. But I do know I don’t like bombing, and I don’t like doing old material. I think sometimes when you see that happen to a guy it’s because the person’s not working at it. I don’t plan on doing that.”
Burr says he has seen comedians do embarrassingly old material, and while he works hard to avoid being that guy, he gets a morose kick out of watching it. “It’s funny watching them, especially if they have some topical material, how they get into it,” he says. “They’ll just start off with basically like a lie. It’s like, ‘People are still talking about O.J. Remember O.J.?’ People aren’t still talking about O.J. You just haven’t written a joke. Or they’re like, ‘Aw, my kid’s crazy, he’s listening to this C+C Music Factory.’ How old’s your kid? Thirty?”
If the Comedy Central show makes it to air and blows up, Burr will be thrilled. But if it doesn’t, he’ll still be a top-notch stand-up comedian, and he won’t be starting back from the beginning. “You take a chance and the next thing you know you’re back in the mailroom,” he says. “Me, if this thing flops, I go back to selling out shows in Boston. No big deal. I just keep rolling along and I’ll come back with another wacky scenario to try to plug me into.”
When he comes to the Wilbur tomorrow, he’ll have a couple of old friends opening for him in Larry Myles and Tony Moschetto. Burr singles veteran Moschetto out for praise, calling him “very original,” and hopes to see him break out soon. “That’s one of those guys, he’s got to get some people behind him,” he says. “I hate this business, because I think he’s fucking great.”
Maz Jobrani is probably best known from his role as Gourishankar “Gary” Subramaniam on the ABC sitcom Knights of Prosperity and from the Axis of Evil tour with fellow comedians Ahmed Ahmed and Aron Kader. With his “Brown and Friendly Tour,” which comes to the Berklee Performance Center Saturday, he steps out on his own as a stand-up. His social commentary is anchored by his experiences as an Iranian-American, but his passion is more joyful and energetic than resentful or exclusionary.
I caught up with him by e-mail to talk about his various film and television projects, and the photo he sent out to his newsletter singing with a band.
What’s with the pictures of you singing? Are you pursuing music now, as well?
That’s me singing with the band Kiosk. They’re a group of Persians who have a Dire Straights sound to them. They’re more like world music. Really cool – check out www.kiosk-music.com. Anyway, I’ve always wanted to be a rock star. Every time I see Bono singing to 50,000 fans I think, that looks fun. So the guys in Kiosk let me close out the show singing with them to 1,100 people. It’s not 50,000, but it’s a start.
Will the Axis of Evil Tour return, or has everyone moved on from it now?
I think we’ve all moved on. We had a good run and it helped us become better known around the world. It’s the natural progression for a comedian to start touring solo and to grow the act.
Do you think the tour helped change perceptions of Middle Easterners at all, the way you hoped?
Absolutely. I remember reading a blog after our special aired on Comedy Central and it was on a conservative Web site. The guy actually said to another guy, “I never knew these people laughed.” If you think about it you’d never seen a group of four Middle Easterners on a stage telling jokes in English and laughing. Usually we die in most of the things you see us in on TV or in film.
How did the tour name “Brown & Friendly” come to you?
Well, Iranians are actually white – we come from the Caucuses, so we’re really not “brown.” However, we, Arabs, Indians, Pakistanis, and many other groups are seen these days in the West as being part of the same people. The best way to describe these people is “brown.” So I figured I’d accept this categorization of me, but add the word “friendly” at the end to counter the image we have in the media. Bascially saying that we’re not all bad; as a matter of fact, most of us are friendly and good.
You have a certain energy and movement onstage that reminds me a bit of Howie Mandel’s early days – was he an influence on your comedy at all?
It’s funny you should say that because he wasn’t that big an influence. I was a fan of his, but someone like Eddie Murphy was a bigger influence when I was a kid.
Then when I got into stand-up I think I looked at guys like Richard Pryor who were talking about personal experiences and commenting on society. I hadn’t heard the Howie Mandel comparison until after our Axis of Evil special came out. Someone pointed out that my energy and the use of my hands on stage reminded them of Howie Mandel. I watched it again and realized that they were right. Who knows, maybe he influenced me subliminally. I just think it’s me being really excited on stage and trying to channel my energy. If you watch my legs on that special they’re constantly bouncing back and forth like I’m boxing or something. I’ve even had people think I was on drugs during that taping and nothing could be further from the truth. I was just amped to be shooting that special in front of all those people. The stage and crowd get me excited.
Are there any influences fans would be surprised by?
I guess Eddie Murphy somewhat because my stand-up is nothing like his. When I first wanted to do stand-up he was huge and I was in high school. I tried to write some bits and they were all sex related – I’m guessing somewhat because Murphy was dirty and somewhat because I was a horny 17 year old. When it came time to perform those bits I chickened out. Years later when I got serious with stand-up I really didn’t do any dirty bits. I do swear from time to time, but not like Murphy used to.
Have your parents accepted your career yet? I know when last we spoke, you talked of the generation gap in context of show business, and it seemed like there was some interesting friction there.
They started accepting my career one they saw I could make a living doing it. Ultimately, they were just worried for their son. “How is he going to buy food being a clown? He should’ve been a lawyer.” At one point, my mom even suggested I become a mechanic as a back-up – “People need to fix their cars. You’ll be needed.” Now they’re huge fans. My mom comes over from time to time and grabs from my t-shirts I’ve made up with sayings from my show. “I need a small for my neighbor and two mediums for her son.” She’s basically giving away my whole stash.
Have you performed much in Iran? If so, how is it received?
Never performed in Iran. We did Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Cairo, Amman, and Kuwait with the Axis of Evil. That was really cool. It was amazing to do shows in English in the Middle East and see that everyone got everything. With the Internet they know more about America than Americans know about America. I didn’t make it to Iran though. I would love to, but I think under the current regime it wouldn’t work out too well. You might never hear from me again.
Now that you’re doing theaters and bigger rooms, are you able to leave behind some topics you weren’t really happy covering in the clubs and grow a bit?
Well, I’ve always tried to do material that meant something to me. If I can’t connect with it then I can’t do it. There was a time, though, really early when I would do bars. Those were the worst because people weren’t there to hear your jokes on the Iraq War or on the economy or anything that really mattered. They wanted tit jokes. So I was forced to write a few tit jokes. Thank god I don’t have to do those anymore. (By the way, in case you’re wondering what the jokes were, they were more statements that got the crowd to go wild with cheers – things like “Who likes tits!?” Crowd goes wild!).
How does humor fit into Iranian culture outside of the concept of stand-up comedy?
Iranians are big on humor. Every time you go to an Iranian party someone will have the latest jokes out of Iran. Our jokes tend to be provencial and make fun of other provences. It’s the equivalent of Polish jokes in America. Iranians love to laugh.
What became of the pilot we spoke of about an Iranian man living in LA?
I think you might be talking about the film I had written called “Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero.” Basically an Iranian Pink Panther. We’re trying to raise funds for that. As you know now a lot of people have funds these days so it’s been a bit of a challenge. I did sell a TV show to CBS, though, based on my stand-up last year. I wrote it with Spike Ferensten (Talk Show with Spike Ferensten and writer on Seinfeld) and Chuck Martin (writer on Arrested Development). Anyway, the script was bought, but it didn’t go further than that. I think it’s a tough sell to have a show about an Iranian on TV. The funny thing is that there’s shows about vampires on TV, but not about Middle Easterners. I guess you could conclude that vampires have a bigger demographic than us.
What is your character in Overnight?
Overnight is an independent film I shot last year. It’s about a few stories on an overnight flight from L.A. to New York. I liked it because I got to play a Middle Eastern man from the U.S. who’s on the plane with another Middle Eastern man. People keep looking at us as we walk onto the plane and my character is really bothered by this. My friend, the other Middle Easterner, isn’t as bothered. As the flight goes on some guy confronts me and asks me what I’m up to on the plane. By this point I’ve had it and freak out revealing to him and the other passengers that me and the other guy are actually a gay couple going home after getting married. It was a nice twist and a fun film to work on.
What else do you have coming up?
I’ve got a recurring part on a new ABC show called Better Off Ted. That comes out in mid-March. I continue to tour and will release the DVD from this tour later this year. We also hope to sell the special to Comedy Central or HBO. I continue to pitch TV shows based on my comedy to other networks. Maybe I’ll make it about a Middle Eastern vampire living in L.A. Maybe then, they’ll listen.
We often present Boston New Nets' special guests on BNN Mondays, but today we present host JR Strauss giving the top stories of the week, including departed Speaker Sal DeMasi's job prospects and a break-in at ImprovBoston (curiously unrelated stories).
A few months ago, I put together a story for the Boston Globe about local comedian Joe Wong returning to his native China to perform stand-up comedy. I set it up and gave some context, and then Wong told the story of his trip in his own words.
So when I found a link in James Fallows’ blog for The Atlantic about a film called My Beijing Birthday, in which an American goes to China to study stand-up comedy in a class with children, I wondered how the two experiences might compare. The film is playing at the Harvard University Law School tonight and the Hult International Business School on Wednesday (click the Atlantic link for details).
I got in touch Howie Snyder, the writer and director of the documentary, and the American in question, through e-mail, to ask a few questions about the film. The New Yorker went to China in 1996 and studied for about a year and a half in a class with 8-year-olds, then revisited them years later to see what they’d become. The film follows his interaction with the kids, in the initial class and his 2008 return visit.
What made you decide to pursue stand-up comedy in Beijing?
Well, I first went to Beijing as a foreign exchange student in 1981. When I would stop in the street, crowds of Chinese people would surround me just to stare and listen to me speak Chinese. I thought then that it would be easy to sell tickets, and so the seed for being a performer was planted.
What was your previous experience with stand-up?
No other stand-up experience here in America, although I was always a funny guy.
I know there is a tradition of stand-up in China, and it's starting to grow more towards western ideas of it -- from the two-person, straight man/funny man teams to individuals with an individual point of view. What were your expectations of the art form in China, and what did you find that surprised you when you were there?
Well, I am sorry to say that the art form is not really going towards the Western idea, as it is pretty controlled by the government. Making political and sexual jokes are basically not allowed, so the art form has been losing steam over the past few years. Any comedy must poke fun at strange phenomena in society, as so limiting political and sexual jokes really takes away from the art form's true potential.
Please see this link for some of the recent history on stand-up in China.
Did you find their thoughts about wanting to be in show business were different than those same kinds of dreams that kids have in America?
I think that those Chinese kids in 1996 were a lot more innocent and naive than US kids. They just liked the art form. There wasn't a real sense that they wanted to become celebrities and live a Hollywood life like people in the US want to.
What did you expect to find when you went back after twelve years?
I expected that the kids would all be in college or continuing with their studies, and that they would be "good" young adults. By "good" I mean not in to drugs or alcohol like many kids in the US. I expected that one or two of them would still be engaged in some sort of performing arts, but that most of them would have moved on to something else. This is exactly what happened.
Did you stay in China after the film?
I still live in China. I have been working for Coca-Cola on their Olympic sponsorship, and will probably work for them again in the Spring.
Can a sketch comedy show change people’s perceptions of marriage?
It’s a lofty goal, to be sure, but one Erin Judge and Ailin (pronounced like Eileen) Conant are taking on with their two-woman sketch and stand-up show, “The Meaning of Wife,” which is playing at The Comedy Studio Monday. Judge and Conant plan to explore the theme of what it means to be a wife, using their personal experiences as a road map.
Judge, a stand-up comedian, and Conant, artistic director of Theatre Temoin, are both recently married, Erin to a man named Jesse and Ailin to a woman named Julia. Neither of them expected to be married so young (Judge is 28, Conant is a couple of weeks just shy of her 27th birthday). The two women dated when they went to Wellesley College, and never saw themselves as people who would, as the term goes, “settle down.”
“I think both of our marriages are unconventional in the sense that, I think Erin still identifies as someone who is queer,” says Conant, “and I’m married to a French person who is a woman. So there’s a lot to talk about there.”
The show is a comedy that covers the relationship between Judge and Conant, how they’ve evolved since college, their attitudes toward love and relationships, and how they came to be married and still a big part of each other’s lives (Conant was Judge’s maid of honor last July – with Comedy Studio owner Rick Jenkins presiding, Judge notes). It’s a theater piece, with sketches strung together around a theme, an environment Judge found challenging. “It’s great for me as a stand-up comedian to be doing theatre, because it’s a whole other world,” she says. “And it really has a whole other structure and I’m learning so much about it.”
But it’s also a political statement about the fact that one marriage is fully legal and recognized internationally and the other is not. “It’s basically how do we cope with the fact that we think wives are boring, and we are wives.,” says Judge. “So that’s sort of where the comedy comes from. But once we sort of set ourselves up, we really show the audience who we are as people and how our marriages work, and then it really helps, I think, show how absurd it is that one of these marriages is legal and the other one is not. By the end, it’s like, well, they both have their own way of negotiating what their relationship is with their spouse and they both have this unique situation, they’re both these interesting, unique people. At least that’s how I think we come across.”
“There is no such thing as a cookie-cutter relationship or a cookie-cutter marriage,” adds Conant. “Within that legal term or whatever that structure, you still have to negotiate in that relationship just like any other relationship.”
The legal aspect of marriage is a part of the show, dealing with legislation like the Defense of Marriage Act, the main stumbling block to the legalization of gay marriage, and the Uniting American Families Act, which would allow permanent partners of U.S. citizens the same rights to pursue permanent resident status as accorded to the spouses of U.S. citizens. With one side arguing a narrow definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman, and the other side pointing out the various incarnations of marriage throughout history, legal definitions become murky.
To Conant, an evolution of the definition seems perfectly natural. “I think it makes perfect sense that the definition of marriage is something that is bursting out and changing really, really dramatically recently,” she says, “and that’s because it’s only been in recent history that marriage has been linked only and directly to love. Never before maybe 50 years ago has that been true. In this country and in other countries it’s still very, very new, the idea that marriage and love – in some countries, it’s still not even the case.”
Making any rigid rules about marriage and relationships also seem a bit futile to Judge. “It’s absurd to differentiate between people’s relationships when I feel like the rules in my marriage are things that I make up with my husband, and we just get all these rights because we signed a piece of paper,” she says. “We get all these rights that other people should be able to have with the person that they choose to sign that piece of paper with.”
There are plenty of unconventionalities in both marriages. Conant’s wife, Julia, can’t get a green card through marriage because the marriage isn’t legally recognized. And Judge says of the two of them, she has a much more public job than her husband Jesse, who often jokes about being a “comedy wife.” And the two had a join bachelor/bachelorette party that Judge describes as extremely tame.
“We had a great time, but it was the most non-scandalous thing,” she says. “There were no strippers. We played charades, because my husband and I, all of our friends came together for a big party.”
Conant says her bachelorette party was similar, but for different reasons. “I’m in an open relationship, in an open marriage, so it’s not like, oh no! We’re about to get married, we can never kiss somebody again,” she says. “We’d better just go crazy the night before. It’s none of that.”
But don’t expect to get a stern lecture when you see the show. Yes, the political points are made, but according to Judge, “The Meaning of Wife” is still the story of two human beings working out the issues. “This show, more than anything,” says Judge, “is about our relationship, and how our friendship is, and how we talk to each other and how we process things together and how whenever either of us wants to figure out what’s going on, we turn to the other to talk about it. That’s the dynamic going on onstage. The dialogue is how we casually talk to each other.”
Judge and Conant expect to take the show to California this summer, and have submitted it for consideration in several New England theater festivals.
A bit of "Meaning of Wife," in Judge and Conant's own words:
The Meaning of Wife at The Comedy Studio, Monday, February 2 at 8PM. Details on Erin Judge's Web site. Advance tickets are sold out, get to the Studio early for walk-ups.
Aziz Ansari brings his "Glow in the Dark" tour to the Middle East Downstairs tonight, with special guest Dan Boulger. Aziz stands to have less time to tour soon when he starts shooting a spinoff of The Office with Amy Poehler for NBC. Which also means Human Giant probably won't see a Season Three, but Ansari didn't say never in a recent interview with Philadelphia City Paper.
Juston McKinney may have seemed like an odd fit to some when he was tapped last year for the Blue Collar Comedy: The Next Generation tour and subsequent DVD. But before he was a comedian, he was literally a blue collar worker as a police officer in Maine. In his mind, and in the minds of the Blue Collar producers, McKinney was a natural.
“Being from New England I didn't identify as much with the southern redneck stuff,” he says. “I would say Ron White was the one I identified with the most. On this tour they wanted to give it more of a traditional "blue collar" feel. Being a cop in rural Maine fits that bill.”
McKinney, who plays Mottley’s Friday and Saturday, also landed his own show on the Blue Collar channel at Sirius XM, called “Live from the Woods,” which he broadcasts from his house in New Hampshire Mondays at 9PM. It’s a topic driven call-in show that, every so often, brings him back to his roots. “Whenever appropriate I throw in some Maine references and material,” he says. “Last weeks show we had a caller from Maine which throws me in that direction.”
McKinney is working on a new DVD/CD, which he will shoot later this year.
Comedians with Boston roots some together tonight when Shrewsbury native Mike Birbiglia appears on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. O'Brien, a Newton native, will leave Late Night on February 20 to take over hosting the Tonight Show from Jay Leno (coincidentally, an Andover native).
Birbiglia's off-Broadway show, Sleepwalk With Me, has been held over until March 22 -- no mean feat in a climate where the big name, big ticket shows are closing.
Birbiglia was on The View last week with Nathan Lane, who "presents" the show. The interview included a primer on how to pronounce "Birbiglia" (Joy Behar pronounced it "Bare-bee-lee-ah" instead of with the hard "g") and the difference between producing and presenting (apparently when you "present," you don't have to put up any money).
To Interview Jonathan Katz is to be caught in a constant series of entertaining digressions. He’s often trying out new material, which would be irritating from some comedians, but not from Katz. Somehow, the conversation becomes the set-up, he tees off, and moves on. And his poker-faced delivery (even over the phone) never gives you the impression that he’s “on.” Which are, of course, the qualities that made him such a great foil, and made his Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist such a great show.
I originally called Katz, who still lives in Newton, to talk about The Best of Dr. Katz, which Comedy Central released in December. He offered this, within the first couple of minutes:
“This is my marital advice tip of the day. You’re married right? Don’t ever compare your marriage to life in prison. Because I said to my wife, you know the biggest difference between marriage and life in prison? Conjugal visits. It’s not a bad joke, but she’s the wrong audience.”
We went from that into talking about Katz’s new venture, the nation’s first therapy-based theme park, called “Happy Acres,” in western Massachusetts. Again, there is no clue, other than the outright preposterousness of the premise, that he is joking.
“The big attraction is going to be a ride called ‘The Great Depression,’” he says. “It’s a place where you can go with your shrink, just to have a good time, really. To see the other side of life in therapy. There’s of course the Emotional Roller Coaster. There’s the Tunnel of Self-Loathing. What else? We have the Haunted By Your Past House. If you spend a day at a theme park, eventually you get hungry. And there’s a snack bar there called Munchausen’s.”
Here’s a little video peek at Happy Acres, recently posted on YouTube:
We did eventually wind up talking about the DVD and Dr. Katz. In December, Katz did another “Dr. Katz: Live!” show, similar to one he did at the Somerville Theatre last year. “I like doing it,” he says. “It keeps changing forms, which is interesting. It’s gone from a vehicle for me, similar to the show, me usuing the stand-up comedy of my patients as a therapist, to the most theatrical version, which is what Tom and I did in Somerville, where he plays my therapist and I get the chance to be an asshole, too.”
The new DVD features a lot of great comics, with a lot of comedians with Boston connections – Louis C.K., David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, Conan O’Brien, and Denis Leary. But the roster is not complete, according to Katz. “Two things about that list – it doesn’t include Dom Irrera, who is my favorite,” he says. “The other thing is, I was reminded how funny Julia Louis-Dreyfus was. Because she was pregnant at the time I recorded her, she was on a speaker phone. And she was very funny. Unless it’s me I’m thinking of.”
The new compilation was Comedy Central’s idea, not Katz’s, but he did get a chance to show off some scenes with Laura Silverman and H. Jon Benjamin, which were muc more at the core of the show than the comedian therapy sessions. And compilations may help him as he continues to pursue “Dr. Katz: Live.”
“I think the hardcore Dr. Katz fan is somebody who owns the boxed set, but I guess it’s a good reminder to people,” he says. “To the press, it’s a good reminder.”
Earlier this week, we announced that Louic C.K. will be coming back to Boston to play the Orpheum Theatre on March 14. Today, C.K. announced on LouisCK.net that he will most likely be filming that show, which means it could be his next special. "I am 99% certain that we are filming this performance," he said. "I cannot add the other 1% because it isn't entirely official yet."
DJ Hazard is one of the founding fathers of Boston Comedy. He was there when the Ding Ho was swinging, not only performing, but helping out with the creative end of promotions and even writing the theme song. For his new CD, Man of Hazardium, Hazard pulled from recordings from his past 20 years in comedy, including live bits and music. It's his third album, if you include the out-of-print Lock Up the Planet When You Leave, and a CD he was selling at his shows last year. He’s now doing stand-up and acting in indie films in New York City, but look for him next month at Mottley’s Comedy Club.
What time period does this CD cover?
For convenience sake, I went with from 1988 to 2008. To be honest, I believe that session of the Ding Ho Song was recorded in the fall of 1980. Wet Cigarette was part of that session, as well. I recorded the Ding Ho Song because we were going to make a 45 vinyl and put it in the juke box at the Ding Ho. One thing lead to another and it never happened. I recorded Wet Cigarette that day because we would have needed a 'B' side.
Why did you decide to use bits and pieces from that period instead of just going to a club or a theater and doing a full set?
I don't feel like I had a 'perfect' set on film or sound. A lot happens during 45 minutes. A lot happens with different crowds and their reactions to the same joke on different nights. I call this macropsychodynamics. I gave up trying to figure people out. I just try to exist with them until the mother ship comes and gets me.
It also would be lopsided to have this 45 minute set, then a whole bunch of studio sessions. This way, it's a little more broken up. Like a collection of short poems, maybe. Yeah, I think I'll stick with that answer, Meredith.
Will you release the last album on CD Baby now, too?
Nah. It would be a rip off, since the best parts of the last CD are on the new CD.
Do you think you’ll ever rerelease Lock Up the Planet When You Leave?
Not in the least. LUTPWYL was actually a debacle. I was terribly mismanaged and misguided while making LUTPWYL. I hear there's a cache of unsold albums somewhere. I never made a dime off of that project. Fortunately, it was financed by somebody else, so I didn't exactly lose money either.
What’s your favorite bit on the album?
That part where I say that thing, y'know?
How much of this material have you retired?
Other than the MacGuyver bit? I also don't know why I went with that spelling of MacGuyver/MacGyver. The "Hazard History" tracks are bookmarked that way as a subtle hint that they're just old chestnuts. Iran-Contra, Hinckley shooting Reagan, Elton John regifting his Marilyn Monroe song for Princess Diana- you pretty much ain't gonna see these in my set this weekend.
Was it a sentimental choice to include the Ding Ho Song?
No, not at all. I would have omitted it if not for the documentary When Stand Up Stood Out. Enough people have seen that film and come up to me to talk about the film. I wanted Man Of Hazardium to make sense to anybody who listens to it, and the Ding Ho Song now has enough cred to be more than an ancient inside joke.
You once told me people think you’re a prolific writer, but part of that is having a few decades worth of material to dust off. Do you ever find old stuff going through tapes or video that you want to add to your current set?
Oh, yes, for sure. I believe Tony V. once said to somebody that I've forgotten more material than other comedians have. I look at old note books that I've manage to spare from my artistic purges, but most of the notebooks are just pages and pages of 'bullets', one word names that comedian have for entire bits.
I have about three hours of video that I've hung onto, spanning three decades, different looks, different eras, different head spaces. I think at one time I was toying with the idea of making a mockumentary about myself, as if I was dead or disappeared or something. I think I decided that was either too ghoulish or egomaniacal or stupid or something.
How do you work the songs into your average set? They seem to me more a part of your recordings than your live show.
I'm actually pretty concise about the stand up/music proportions of my set these days. It's about 25 minutes of stand up, 20 minutes of music. I don't do a lot of parodies anymore, except for "Untie My Ankles," as the crowds would probably tar and feather me if I didn't close the show with that, and a Springsteen piece, because people come up to me and say that's the most frighteningly dead-on Springsteen impression they're ever seen/heard.
On Man Of Hazardium, I do Bruce as he might sing "I've Been Working On The Railroad." Live, I have him do "Take Me Out To The Ball Game."
"Railroad" is sung the tune of "Born To Run," "Ball Game" is a parody of Meeting Across The River. I LOVE doing "Meeting Across The River" live, as it's a deeper back and lesser known Springsteen composition. I see those who know the song, I see their eyes light up and they REALLY get the joke. For everyone else, it justs stands on its own as how Bruce would sound turning a lively song into a dark and haunting epic.
"Ankles" and "Ball Game" are the only complete songs I do in my live set, at least usually. The rest are parts of songs I wrote. I don't think people want top sit through 10-11 whole songs at a comedy show. At least not my comedy show.
What’s on your plate as far as film work these days?
I have some webisodic things in the oven. Nothing to report about yet, but I'll let you know.
My comedy/acting buddy, Mark Riccadonna, and I recently did what we call our first 'Ballywood' movie. It's not the traditional singing and dancing extravaganza. It's actually a very well shot and artistic short psychological thriller. A two man cat and mouse, if you will.
If you watch episode 4 of this season of 'Damages' on FX, I'm one of the convicts in the prison.
If you watch the very last episode of Battlestar Galactica this year, I have a love scene with all the Number 6 Model Cylons at the same time.
Okay, I lied about the last one.
What’s available on DVD?
Blackballed: The Bobby Duke Story (directed by Brant Sersen) and Bourbon (directed by Adam Woodworth are both definitely out on dvd... along with When Stand Up Stood Out, of course. Cold Calls (directed by Jack Daniel Stanley) is doing the fest circuit as we speak, but is slated to be viral online at some point.
The Tourist (directed by Kelly Knudson) is still in post production, but I heard there's a working copy now. It takes place in the 70's and Kelly went so far as to buy 1970 film stock from some crazy warehouse so that it actually looks and feels like you're in the 70's. He's been lovingly and painstakingly crafting this film for over a year since we wrapped shooting.
Three shows this weekend deserve a special highlight. Tonight’s line-up at The Gas at Great Scott is solid from top to bottom – Anderson Comedy hosts Chris Coxen, Josh Gondelman, David Grabiner, Lamont Price, Robby Roadsteamer, MC Mr. Napkins, The Steamy Bohemians, and Mehran. Not bad for five bucks… You may not have heard much about it, but there’s a benefit show with a great line-up tomorrow at the Wilbur at 2PM, with Ira Proctor, Jim Lauletta, Tony V., Jon Lincoln, Dan Boulger, Mike Hanley, Jon Porch, Ahmed Bharoocha, and Roman Pierce. Proceeds benefit a family that lost their father to suicide… Also Saturday, at 7PM, is a great show for comedy and rock and roll fans. Jimmy Tingle is emceeing a show with Mission of Burma and the Neighborhood at the Somerville Theatre. Proceeds will benefit the Center for Arts at the Armory.
Last year, when Chris Zito had a feeling his radio gig at 104.5 XLO might be coming to an end, he jumped back into one of his first loves, stand-up comedy. He hadn’t performed for five years, but never officially said the “r” word – retirement. But tonight at Dick’s Beantown Comedy Vault, Zito will call it a career and quitting stand-up comedy.
Zito was on the line-up for the Vault’s first night, according to Dick Doherty, on September 27th with Doherty and Paul D’Angelo. And that has been his regular hang out since he came back in September of last year. Zito says he’s enjoyed his time back, but now that he’s on the Zito and Karen Blake show mornings on Oldies 103.3, he won’t have time to pursue it anymore.
“I didn't really miss it while I wasn't doing it, but after a few weeks back when I started to get my chops back I had a really good set,” he says. “There's nothing like that. Nothing. I had forgotten what it was like to be up there feeling in complete control of a room.
“Who knows what the future holds? But for the foreseeable future all my creative energy will be in the Zito and Karen Blake show on Oldies 103.3. We're having a ball. It's very competitive and I just can't afford to go at it with anything but my best and complete effort. I owe that to my partner. And CBS.”
Michael Sullivan, a producer on the morning show at Oldies 103.3 is glad to have Zito’s full attention. He met Zito years ago, when they were both working on another morning show at Boston’s WZOU (which eventually became WJMN Jammin’ 94.5). He also worked with Zito in Detroit, where Zito worked another radio gig from 1996 to 2001. “In the nearly 20 years I have known Zito, he has been one of the funniest stand-ups I have ever seen,” says Sullivan. “And he's a better Morning Show host. And we're lucky to have him on the Zito and Karen Blake Morning show.”
Tonight is his official retirement, and he’s got to be on the air every morning at 6AM, which means you probably won’t see Zito in the audience much, either. “I'm a morning radio guy,” he says. “We're notorious for never going anywhere. This job just has a way of making you want to be in your jammies by dinner time, even on Saturday night. But yes, occasionally I'll pop up somewhere.”
You got the interview with Pat O'Shea yesterday, and today you get a peek at O'Shea from a show last year in New York. O'Shea is at Mottley's tonight and The Comedy Studio tomorrow and Saturday.
Billy Bob Neck watched Tuesday's proceedings very carefully, and doesn't believe that Barack Obama is officially president yet. Which gives him hope, ironically enough.
Pat O’Shea returns to Boston this week with a new CD, Not Friendly, and spots at Mottley’s Comedy Club Thursday and the Comedy Studio Friday and Saturday. O’Shea left Boston in June of 2002, and since then, has apparently sharpened his sarcasm, if the CD is any indication. Like some of the best comics, he blurs the line between storytelling and pure joke telling, skepticism and self-deprecation (especially in regards to his muttonchops – you may recognize him as a bartender from the Titanic or as the guy who looks like Wolverine and harasses young women asking for the time). He is appealingly, maybe even affably, disgruntled. You can find news about the CD and his schedule on his MySpace page.
When did you first start comedy? What was your first time onstage?
Dec 23rd,1997.It was the "graduation", if you will of this comedy class I had taken at BCAE, where you had to perform a five-minute set in front of an audience at the Comedy Studio.
What do you think you gained from coming up in this scene?
Boston was great because you didn't have to worry about industry showing up when you weren't ready, and you could just work on your act.
What drew you to New York?
Industry,mostly I guess.I remember talking to Loius C.K. at the Comedy Studio one night circa 2000,and I asked him how long should I wait to move to New York, and he said"four years".I took it as gospel.
Boston and New York are both sarcastic cities. I was thinking about that listening to your Brooklyn Bridge bit. Is there a different quality to that sarcasm in both cities?
Bostons' is a little more subtle, whereas New York for the most part is more in your face with the sarcasm.Germans don't get sarcasm, did you know that?
Was the audience at the CD taping mostly people you knew, as you mention on one or two of the tracks?
It was about half and half probably, although my friends, most of which had never seen me, decided to sit up front.Also, I noticed with a lot of these things, comics make up a good amount of the audience which was not the case with my show at all. I think there were like two there. I promoted it pretty heavily, so it sold out fairly quickly, and a good amount of people were not let in.Wow, I sound like a big shot, don't I?
Was that what you were hoping for, or is it better to make a crowd of strangers laugh?
While I did know a majority of the folks, there were about 20 or so I had never met, and they seemed to enjoy it.I just wanted people to laugh.I didn't really care if I knew them or not.
I hear a bit of Patton Oswalt and Dave Attell in your delivery – do you consider either of them influences?
Yeah, they're both great, although my main influence when I started was Steven Wright.I used to have a deadpan delivery when I started, something I abandoned with time and experience.It also turns out, I'm a bit too angry and bitter to sustain a deadpan delivery.
Have you seen Mottley’s yet?
No, this'll be my first time.Hopefully, it'll work out better than most of my first times.
What is your age?
I could sue you for asking me that.39.But I don't look a day over 37 and a half.
Is it tougher to get noticed as a comic in his late 30s in New York? Seems like there’s a certain limbo in between the younger 20-something comics just starting out and the bigger name headliners.
First you ask me my age, then you ASSUME I'm in my late 30's.Bastard!YES, as with anything associated with the entertainment field, it's very hard to make a name for yourself with the words"late 30's,early 40's"attatched, especially if your a woman, which I am not at the moment.Although I think comedy is a little more forgiving with the age thing than say acting or music.I was in the music business for 12 years before comedy, and it's even more shallow than the comedy biz.Just look at American Idol.O.K., I'll get off my soapbox now.
I will be once again joining Derek Gerry on his Hear It Wow show tonight on Tufts Radio 91.5 to talk comedy. I'll be phoning in at 8PM with a couple of picks for this weekend and a few Boston Comedy questions. I am told Mr. Tony Moschetto will be in-studio. Hear It Wow starts at 7PM, and you can hear it at 91.5 FM or on www.wmfo.org. I'll be calling in every week at this time.
Also, if you happen to be in Lynn tonight, I'll be calling in from Tatiana's, where the Speak Up spoken word open mic is happening. This week's featured speaker is Jimmy Tingle. You'll be able to identify me as the guy running out the door with his cell phone just before 8PM.
Louis C.K. has just announced a new Boston show. His new "Louis C.K.: Hilarious" tour comes to the Orhpeum Theatre March 14 at 10PM. Tickets go on sale Saturday at 10AM at LiveNation.com or by phone at 877-598-8689 and the Orpheum Theatre Box Office. The tour features all-new material.
C.K. is a Newton native who recorded his last special, Chewed Up, at the Berklee Performance Center last year. It's now available on CD and DVD.
A couple of weeks ago, comic and booker Dave Rattigan was doing a Sunday afternoon private gig in the back room of the Burren, a pub in Davis Square. When the woman who booked the party told Rattigan the Burren’s owners were interested in having a comedy night, Rattigan went straight to them and set it up. The weekly "Comedy Night at the Burren" series kicks off tomorrow at 10PM, with Rattigan hosting and Tony Moschetto, Maria Ciampa, Mike Prior, Derek Gerry, Dan Crohn, Rob Steen, Rachel Andelman, Susan Reed, Benny Bosh, Sal Votano, and possibly Ken Rogerson.
The show is free, with about ten comics on the bill for each show. “It will be a showcase format, hopefully mixing five new and five experienced comics,” says Rattigan. “It will also hopefully mix in the Cambridge Studio and improv guys with some urban guys, outside room guys, Dick Doherty guys, Connection vets, etc.”
The show is an opportunity for Rattigan to see some comics he wouldn’t otherwise get to consider for other gigs he books, and get some stage time for himself. “This will give me a chance to look at some new guys, as well as work on my material,” he says. “I'm hoping it also gives the guys who only work the free spots in the city some exposure to guys (including comic-bookers) who work in the suburbs, and gives the guys who only work paid spots a chance to work on their short sets.”
The line-up for the next couple of weeks:
January 28 Jim Colliton hosts with Jimmy Dunn, Jennifer Myszkowski, Andy Ofiesch, John Curtin, Linda Belt, Ellen Moschetto, Ken Reed, Greg Boggis, Evan Bowen, Dave Rattigan
Feb. 4 Frank Santorelli hosts with Matt Wininger, Jon Rineman, Dave Rattigan, Mike Koutrobis, Rick Cormier, Bethany Van Delft, Ellen Moschetto, Mike Kerrigan, Jim Laprel, Jeff Koen, Shereen
I can't seem to escape Chris Coxen. He shows up at just about every show I go to these days. Part of the reason is that he's more than one person. He showed up at Boston News Net Saturday as lounge singer Barry Tattle, and, as the BNN folks said, "Tattle takes over the broadcast and flirts with the ladies in the BNN studio audience."
Oh, the other reason Coxen seems to show up everywhere is that he's very good at what he does. But you can take a look at this week's BNN Mondays clip to decide for yourself:
Anyone who showed up at Great Scott tonight hoping to see Anderson Comedy perform sketch would have been disappointed to see their role in the Flight of the Conchords preview reduced to a quick plug of their usual Friday night show, Gas, after the preview of the second episode of the new season. The troupe was told earlier in the evening that they would not be performing, but that Rob and Matt could mention the show.
The preview itself was a mixed bag. People were waiting on the sidewalk in single digit temperatures in a line that stretched about 30 feet around the corner. A few people came back out disappointed, apparently not on the RSVP list. Those who did get in were treated to free drinks and food and a preview of the second episode from the new season, which premieres on HBO Sunday at 10. The episode was funny -- the Conchords hit a new financial low and have to consider prostitution to get their instruments out of hock and turn their lights back on. But an open bar and free TV are two good things that don't necessarily go well together. Tough to hear the dialogue over some of the folks socializing near the stage.
Still, everybody will get a second chance to see the episode next week, and got free beer and snacks. And hopefully, some of that capacity crowd will come back to see Anderson Comedy on some other Friday night. Something about a gift horse comes to mind...
If you are a comedy and a geek (as opposed to just a comedy geek), there is no more satisfying experience than sitting around with a few like-minded friends and watching Mystery Science Theater 3000. The show, which started out on a UHF channel in Minneapolis-St. Paul and went on to air on Comedy Central and the Sci-Fi Channel, was a unique weekly skewering of bad cinema.
For the unfamiliar, the concept was that janitor Joel Robinson was taken from his job at the top-secret Gizmonic Institute and forced to watch an unending series of terrible movies, monitored by evil scientists Dr. Clayton Forrester and Dr. Laurence Erhardt. He coped by building two robots, Tom Servo and Crow, who would help him poke fun at the movie while it was running. Joel was later replaced by temp Mike Nelson. (For any true geek, that summation is horribly insufficient, and I beg your apologies, check the FAQ at Satellite News for more info).
Generoso Fierro, Event Coordinator for the Comparative Media Studios Program, originally contacted representatives from Hodgson and Beaulieu’s new project, Cinematic Titanic, which is coming to the Somerville Theatre February 20 and 21. Fierro just wanted to get work to them about his own show, and wound up getting a lot more. “We just were curious if they wanted to do any promotion, and then all of a sudden they contacted Joel and I got a phone call from Joel,” says Fierro.
That led to Hodgson and Beaulieu’s appearance at the event, which happens tomorrow at M.I.T. Building 26, Room 100 (26-100) at 7PM ($5 donation for cover). That changed the nature, and the name of it. “I think they want to concentrate more on the creation of the world,” says Fierro, “so the name of the event now – it was ‘Talking MST3K,’ but now it’s ‘The Design and Speculative Technology of MST3K.’ So it’s really going to be about the robots, and it’s going to be about Gizmonic Institute, and the structure they built themselves.”
There will be a question and answer period and a signing following the discussion. Fierro, who will moderate with masters student Jason Begy, will certainly have questions – he has fond memories of watching MST3K during its original run (Comedy Central ’89-96, Sci-Fi ’97-’99). “There would be a bunch of us, mostly M.I.T. folk, just crammed into my little apartment on Park Drive,” he says, “and probably with ten people in a room that would fit three. And every Friday night, most of them would end up staying over and watching it the next morning because they’d miss half of it laughing.”
Fierro and company will get together to watch and discuss some of their favorite episodes Sunday, but that won’t be open to the public.
Watch this space for more information on Cinematic Titanic at the Somerville Theatre closer to the show date, February 20 and 21. Tickets go on sale Monday.
Bethany Van Delft first joined the revolving cast of 5 Funny Females last January. Since then, she estimates she has done between 15 and 20 of the showcases, hosted and organized by New York-based comedian Susan Alexander, all over New England. She’ll add two more to resume this weekend when the show plays Max Stein’s Steakhouse in Lexington Friday and Mission Oak Grill in Newburyport. The other four funny females will be Alexander, Maria Ciampa, Erin Judge, and Andrea Henry.
If grills and steakhouses don’t seem terribly conducive to comedy shows, Van Delft says the comics Alexander books and judgment about who to work with has made for a great experience. “We definitely try to make each space our own, but we pretty much go with the flow,” she says. “Maybe more toned down for a dining room or benefit, a little crazier at a rock club. The show works anywhere because the comics are pros, and the audiences have been so excited to have us. I feel really lucky to be part of it.”
Van Delft says she has seen some familiar faces at the shows, sometimes between 10 and fifteen who have seen a show before. “Some people are at every show,” she says. “The line up is always a different mix of comics, so they still get to see new acts as well as their favorites.”
And what do the comics get out of being part of an all-female showcase? “It's really just us creating opportunities for ourselves,” says Van Delft. “But the camaraderie is pretty cool. And the green room gossip.”
Here’s a look behind the scenes at that “green room,” from a show in Newburyport last March.
O’Brien’s Pub in Allston might rightly be described as a “joint.” It’s at the end of Harvard Ave, down where most people pass on their way to the Thruway, and the neighborhood is a jumble of hip boutiques, cheap eateries, and car rental shops. It’s a place you’d expect to hear college bands blasting indie rock against the stinging weather outside, or warming up with some more sensitive folk rock. At least that’s the feeling on a cold January night.
But the second Tuesday of every month, O’Brien’s belongs to The Rob Crean Show, a talk and variety show hosted by Rob Crean of the Anderson Comedy sketch troupe. It’s a laid back, late night show. The start time is listed as 9PM, but the show’s audience is more into fashionably late. So by the time Crean starts his monologue around 9:40, there are only a few bodies mingling, glancing occasionally at the TVs behind the bar to check on the Bruins score. The crowd really starts to grow after ten, and everyone is still there at midnight when things are winding down.
Crean is an amiable, self-deprecating host. His monologue is surprisingly traditional for a room full of hipsters, a survey of news about President Bush’s last press conference and the type of offbeat items (a man sells his daughter for meat and beer, a wedding ruined by locusts) that late night talk show hosts love crack wise on.
The monologue is interrupted by Ripps McCoxen (character comic Chris Coxen, who seems to be on every underground comedy show in Boston), a 2-by-4 toting workout maniac who is looking for the band that’s playing next month’s show. Crean is game, and fine with playing the straight man as McCoxen explains how his flexing arm (his “gun”) is often mistaken for Cape Cod.
Crean and Anderson Comedy have put together a satisfying mix of sketch and stand-up (this month’s there was a DJ between sets instead of the usual band, so any judgment on that element is deferred for another time). The women of Anderson comedy perform a monthly parody of “The View” called “The Vagenda” (again a surprisingly traditional approach to sketch parody), which allows them to be catty in character.
Crean also interviews the acts when they’re done, which is where the self-deprecation comes in. Which you can see in this clip with MC Mr. Napkins.
Rhode Island comic Tim Vargulish, a relative newbie, has a promising set of sarcastic geek comedy. Mike Dorval previewed his funny, personal one-man show, Death By Chocolate, which premieres next month at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre (more on that in February). And MC Mr Napkins (also fast becoming a staple of any cool indie show in this town) hit his usual hip-hop homeruns, even if he stumbled once or twice (on raps about pneumonic devices, no less).
Anderson Comedy hosts several shows around town, including Gas, which is every Friday at Great Scott, just down the street from O’Brien’s on Harvard Ave (they’ll host a Flight of the Conchords premiere party this Friday). They are aiming to create a new scene for themselves and other like-minded comedians and musicians. Here are Rob Crean and Lucas Lewis of Anderson Comedy, explaining it in their own words:
I'll be appearing on Derek Gerry's Hear It Wow program tonight on Tufts Radio talking comedy and music. Listen on 91.5 or click on the link and listen online.
Musical comedian Stephen Lynch, last seen on Broadway playing the Adam Sandler role in the Broadway adaptation of The Wedding Singer, announced plans for a new tour, album, Comedy Central special, and DVD on his mailing list today. The 3 Balloons Tour, named for his new album due in March, kicks off at the Wilbur Theatre Feburay 27. Lynch also mentions a new 1-hour Comedy Central special to be released later this year, with a DVD of the special expected "around Christmas."
Here's a link to the title track of 3 Balloons, which I will just say is not about children's parties, from September.
Complete Tour Listing: 02/27/2009 Boston, MA Wilbur Theater 02/28/2009 Buffalo, NY UB Center For The Arts
03/06/2009 Chicago, IL Congers Theater 03/07/2009 Madison, WI Barrymore Theater 03/13/2009 Minneapolis, MN State Theater 03/14/2009 Detroit, MI Fillmore 03/19/2009 Indianapolis, IN Egyptian Room 03/20/2009 Cleveland, OH Lorain Theater 03/21/2009 Wilkes Barre, PA Kirby Center 03/26/2009 Rochester, NY St. John Fisher College 03/27/2009 Montclair, NJ Wellmont Theater 03/28/2009 Washington, DC Warner Theater
04/02/2009 Austin, TX Paramount Theater 04/03/2009 Dallas, TX Majestic Theater 04/04/2009 Houston, TX Verizon Theater 04/16/2009 Stamford, CT Palace Theater 04/17/2009 Poughkeepsie, NY Bardovan Center 04/18/2009 Albany, NY The Egg 04/23/2009 Westbury, NY Capitol One Theater 04/24 & 4/25/2009 Atlantic City NJ Borgata Music Box
05/01/2009 Los Angeles, CA Wiltern Theater 05/02/2009 Las Vegas, NV House Of Blues 05/07/2009 West Palm, FL Improv 05/08/2009 Orlando, FL Hard Rock 05/09/2009 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle 05/14/2009 San Francisco, CA Warfield 05/15/2009 Seattle,WA Moore Theater 05/16/2009 Portland, OR Alladin Theater
Philly native Dom Irrera has played Boston countless times during his more than thirty years in comedy, most recently and frequently at the Comedy Connection. I’ve spoken with him in the past for the Boston Globe (you can search boston.com), or just walking around mingling at Just For Laughs in Montreal, which he plays regularly. Although he does voice-over work for cartoons and has a day gig with DirectTV, you won’t find a better specimen for an American stand-up comedian, constantly touring and writing. He’s at the Comedy Connection Wilbur Theatre Friday. I asked him a few quick questions by e-mail. 
