Doug Stanhope is in it for the stories

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

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

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

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

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

What’s the book about?

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

What made you decide to write that?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No, I didn’t.

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

What happened with the Libertarian presidential campaign?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are you still doing shows with the Unbookables?

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

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

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

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

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

A Few Friday Shows

If you're heading out to see a comedy show tonight, you've got a lot of good options. There's the Doug Stanhope show at the Hard Rock (see above interview), there are several shows connected with the Women In Comedy Festival at ImprovBoston (see the interview below with the schedule). If you're on the north shore, Don Gavin is playing the Kowloon with Larry Lee Lewis featuring. If you're downtown, Juston McKinney was just added to tonight's show at Mottley's Comedy Club with Jon Lincoln and Chris Coxen. And Mike Donovan is at Tommy's Comedy Lounge with Tony Moschetto and Alicia Love.

Maria Ciampa talks the Women in Comedy Festival

Maria Ciampa and Michelle Barbera have met a lot of funny people in their years on the Boston comedy scene. Both have experience in Boston’s improv community, Ciampa as part of the Improv Asylum mainstage cast and Barbera as a producer/player with the Tribe and ImprovBoston. Both now also perform stand-up and make short films.

About a year ago, the pair started thinking about all of the people they knew in the Boston scene – the stand-ups, the sketch players, the filmmakers, storytellers, and writers – and specifically the women who were major contributors to the scene. And that’s when the Women in Comedy Festival, which kicks off tonight at ImprovBoston, was born. This is my conversation with Ciampa about the Festival, including the Funny Guys showcase (it’s a more inclusive women’s festival).

When did you and Michelle get the idea for the Festival?

I would say a little over a year ago. We work together on so many projects – she has her film production company. We’re making a movie and she and her husband put out really great films that have won a bunch of stuff with that 48 Hour. We worked together a lot on that, and we’ve worked together in improv for years, and she was like, we should do a bunch of shows that are produced by or feature women more. And I was like, yeah, yeah, let’s do it. Literally, that’s how it came about.

Has it been in planning for that entire year?

Yeah. For a few months when I was still working full time, there was less being done, but we have used the entire year to plan it, put it together, figure out what shows, what type of talent, how we want to market it, working on the grant – that’s a big piece of it. Michelle’s worked really hard on the Web site. We definitely used all that time.

How did you decide you wanted to approach it? What did you definitely want to have in the Festival?

We wanted it to represent not only the unique voice that women have in comedy, but all the different ways they contribute. So it might not be just stand-up. Like, a lot of people think comedy, they think stand-up. Especially in the comedy community in Boston, and the people I know, they’re involved in so much more than stand-up. There are people doing writing, just doing the writing, for a show like BNN [Boston News Net]. There are people doing video sketch, there are people producing short film, musical comedy, improv, storytelling, There’s so many different ways, we wanted to represent all the different ways we’re expressing ourselves.

How did you go about assembling the talent?

Since this is the first year, it was kind of a, let’s see how this goes. Let’s work with ImprovBoston, who didn’t really have advance notice that this would be in their production schedule. So we kind of had to work around the existing schedule. It was challenging for a festival, but luckily the people at ImprovBoston are easy to work with. So it wasn’t hugely challenging in the end. It became, what types of shows can we have and who fits these shows?

In the beginning I was thinking, okay, the first year, we’re just going to have Boston talent. And then we’ll grow from there. But I started getting all these e-mails. So what I did was to say, okay, I know I want Bethany and Erin to host something because I love what they’re doing with they’re dress-up show. Or I know I want the Steamy Bohemians in there. I know I want Selena [Coppock] in there because we’ve worked together and I know she’s funny and we’ve done festivals together. But then I started getting all these e-mails from women all over the place, like, oh I hear you’re doing a festival and can I get in it. And at first, I said this is the first year and it’s Boston only, but thank you so much and I’ll get in touch with you next year. But then it became, we had a little more freedom, so I was able to invite women from all over. There’s women from New York, there’s women from the Midwest, so it’s pretty cool.

And also a lot of the women who started in Boston are now in New York or Chicago. For example the sketch show, Somebody’s in the Doghouse. Leah’s either now in New York or Chicago and I know Cathleen Carr of Two Girls for Five Bucks, t hey started in Boston, now they’re in New York.

How did you decide to have the Funny Guys show?

Okay, so I’ve always been feminist and I’m comfortable with that, but the last thing I want to do is be is a rude feminist. Because no one likes anybody who’s rude. I think it’s important that we’re inclusive, right? So my first thought was, I don’t want to be non-inclusive. I don’t want to be like, fist in the air like, “We’re better! We’ll show you! We’re gonna fight!” That’s not what I’m all about and that’s not what this festival is about. So we were trying to figure out how we could include guys but still have it be mainly about the voice of women.

So I thought, what happens to me as a woman in comedy a lot of the time when I’m at a club? Even in the festival I did two months ago. You get the intro, “This next person coming to the stage is a woman and she’s gorgeous… and funny!” I know you’re trying to be nice, and that’s great. You are doing your best. But is it not 2009? Aren’t we all just comedians? It always surprises me. So I was like, what if, the same thing I think a lot, what if the tables were turned? What if guys actually had to deal with that? So I was like, “Let’s include the guys, you know? They’re good looking and they have nice hairy chests, bit can they make us laugh?” Or whatever.

So that’s what I want to do, and I was thinking about it. I’m so excited to host this, because I know I’m just going to be ridiculous about it. I’m definitely not going to harass them, but I want to take it to levels of ridiculousness. Pointing out physical things, or comparing their bodies to certain fruits. I don’t know what, but it’s going to be fun for me. But it’s all in good fun. It’s not something where I’m like, “I’m gonna get you back!” But that’s how it came about. It’s my chance to host and bring guys up in a way they might not be used to.

Are you already having to plan for the second year of this?

Yeah. This is my first experience producing a festival, so I didn’t really know what I was in for. And Michelle, my co-producer, she’s been wonderful. She’s worked so much with the Web site and with the line-up and with coordinating with everyone. Over the past two weeks, literally just as the Festival is coming up, she just gave birth. So I’m like, first, next year, don’t have another baby, Michelle, because I need you around. But that’s women. They’ll do that. They’ll go off and give birth.

I’m already planning a lot of good stuff for next year. I want to have even more diversity in the type of shows we have, and I want them to be a little bit clearer. So I want to have one show that’s just all storytelling. I talked to Karen Corday about maybe having a female-themed Mortified. I want to get some authors in and do book readings. I want to have a fully musical comedy show. And also, I plan on expanding it to different venues. And I’ve talked to a few different venues in the area. So while it will stay the Women in Comedy Festival and probably even the ImprovBoston Women in Comedy Festival, we’ll expand it to different venues and be able to get the word out more that way.

Who or what are you most excited about seeing?

That’s so hard. I’m actually really excited about the panel discussions. I mean, I love shows, and I’m always at shows, but we have a panel discussion at 3:45 on Saturday. I guess that’s a testament to what a dork I am. I’m just a comedy nerd. I’m like, “Let’s talk about it!” We’re going to be talking about the business side and the creative side. What’s your process? Taking ideas to sketch form or taking ideas to stand-up form. Working this booker and working this casting agent. Finding your voice. All that good stuff. I do a lot of comedy and I always find that the conversations I love the most are talking about doing comedy.

I’m looking forward to that. I’m really excited about the 8PM on Saturday, because we have our headliner, Kelly MacFarland, and I think she’s hilarious. I’m so happy that we got her to headline the Festival. But all of them. Even the funny films. On Thursday, the 10PM, there’s the funny films show.

What I’m really excited about this Festival is, it has a community outreach portion to it. We got a grant from the Cambridge Arts Council, and I know it’s not very exciting for people to read about, but this is something I’m proud of. Because not only is it, I love comedy and I love helping women’s voices get out there, but we’re also doing a free workshop with Cambridge high school girls, and a free workshop with the Women’s Center of Cambridge, and that’s going to be taught be ImprovBoston staff. And it’s great, because comedy is a way to communicate, it’s a way to just feel better, boost your self-esteem, all that, blah blah – but it’s true. And I’m glad we can use this vehicle of the Festival to bring that to young women at the Cambridge Women’s Center. Maybe it will make them happier for an hour.

Women In Comedy Schedule

WEDNESDAY:
8PM Comedy Kick Off
Stand up comedy with Bari Olevsky, IB sketch group "User Friendly", and storytelling with Jess Sutich (A Night of Oral Tradition)

10PM Funny Guys Stand Up Showcase
Hosted by Maria Ciampa, with Micah Sherman, MC Mr. Napkins, Shane Mauss (Late Night with Conan), Dana Jay Bein, Robby Roadsteamer, and Ken Reid.

THURSDAY:
6PM Fabulous Females Cocktail Party
At ImprovBoston Lobby. Join us for a festive fundraiser to benefit women in comedy.
$25

8PM Bastards, Inc.
Featuring stand up comedy with Jess Sutich (A Night of Oral Tradition), Lindsay Gonzalez, Michelle Barbera (We're Making a Movie), and improv by Three Hole Punch and Bastards, Inc.
$10/$7 students and seniors

10PM Funny Films
Featuring a night of short films and video sketch written, produced and created by women. Hosted by Rheri and Jim Kenney.
$10/$7 students and seniors

FRIDAY:
8PM, Main Theater: Atreus
Aeschylus meets Dallas. The world's first soap opera is reimagined in the modern-day, high-stakes business world.
$16/$12 (students and seniors)

10PM, “Friday Night Variety Show" Hosted by: The Steamy Bohemians. Featuring: Carolyn Castiglia, Daniella Capolino, M. Dickson, Shereen Kassam, Jennifer Myszkowski, Sharon Spell, Carolyn Plummer
$20/$16 (students and seniors)

SATURDAY:
10 - 12:30 Writing Workshop for the Ladies with Marty Johnson
Show up and mention "Facebook" and get $15 off if there is still space!

1pm - 3:30 pm You've Got a Great Show Idea, Now What? with Two Girls For Five Bucks
Show up and mention "Facebook" and get $15 off if there is still space!

3:45 FREE Panel Discussion on the business and creative side of comedy. Catered by City Girl Cafe in Inman Square

6PM, Main Theater: Women of Family Show
An improvised comedy show for the whole family. Come see singing dancing and comedy all off the top of our improviser's heads.
$12/$10 (seniors)/ $7 (students and children)

8PM, Main Theater: The Women in Comedy Stand up Showcase
Featuring Headliner Kelly MacFarland (Comedy Central), hosted by Erin Judge (Comedy Central's Live at Gotham) and Bethany Van Delft (Boston Comedy Festival) with Maria Ciampa (North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival), Selena Coppock (North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival), Desiree Burch (Hysterical Festival), Robin Gelfenbien (Hysterical Festival)
$25/$20 (students and seniors)

9:30PM - “Boston News Network”, Boston’s premier weekly fake news show features the funniest women in Boston: Kristina Smarz, Megan Golterman, and more.
$10/$7 (students and seniors)

10PM - “Improv and Sketch Showcase”, featuring ImprovBoston Mainstage, Two Girls For Five Bucks, sketch comedy featuring Cathleen Carr and Daiva Dupree (Ars Nova), Somebody’s In The Doghouse, sketch comedy featuring Marty Johnson and Leah Gotsik (The Second City at Sea)
$25/$20 (students and seniors)

Robby Roadsteamer creates a comedy monster

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

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

How have the Greater Boston Alternative shows been going?

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

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

How are you pulling those audiences into the shows?

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

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

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

How was that?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quiet Desperation Episode one



Quiet Desperation Episode Two



Quiet Desperation Episode Three

The Bostonist at AltCom: videos and reviews

This past weekend's AltCom seemed to me a great success. I attended almost every show, and there were a couple of packed houses, most notably for the Steamy Bohemians and Jerkus Circus at the Burren and at the Somerville Theatre for the early show headlined by Janeane Garofalo.

The Bostonist was there, too, and got some video of the performances. If you didn't go, here's a bit of what you missed:

Jamie Kilstein at the Somerville Theatre.

Leo Allen at the Somerville Theatre.

Rob Riggle at the Somerville Theatre, plus interview.

Eugene Mirman defines alternative comedy, plus interview.

And here's the Bostonist's review of Garofalo show.

On WMFO 91.5: Joe Wong and Janeane Garofalo

Last month, Joe Wong made his television debut on the Late Show with David Letterman. A lot has happened for Wong since then. He's working on management and new opportunities, and he's been praised by Louis C.K. Friday, he'll be at the Comedy Studio for a special free early show at 6 p.m. to tape a full set.

Tonight, he'll be on Daniella Capolino's show on WMFO.org/91.5 FM talking about his recent run. The show starts at 5PM, and you can listen on the radio at 91.5 or online at wmfo.org.

In case you missed it, here's the Letterman set:



Also, last week, Derek Gerry and Brian Joyce interviewed Janeane Garofalo on Hear It Wow, which broadcasts every Wednesday from 7PM to 9PM. Garofalo played to a full venue Friday, and gave the most energetic performance I have seen from her. She covered everything from politics to pills to her dogs, ending with a great love story about winter flu (it would be tough to communicate how charming the story was, despite the inherent grossness of the effects of winter flu).

Gerry has posted the interview in pieces on the Hear It Wow blog, here. It's as thorough an interview with her as you will hear or read anywhere. Garofalo was enjoying herself, and stretched a bit over an hour before having to leave to catch a comedy show.

I call in to Gerry's show every Wednesday, as well, to talk about what's happening in the local comedy scene. So if you haven't tuned in yet, and you like the Garofalo interview, let that be your introduction. WMFO is very Boston comedy friendly (Billy Bob Neck also hosts a show Monday mornings there from 10-noon), Billy Bob Neck's Hour of Bein' Good, which I realize is actually two hours, but I digress).

BNN Mondays: Manny is innocent!

Many in Boston were no doubt upset to hear of Manny Ramirez's positive drug test last week, and the possible implication that he may have been using illegal substances while he was with the Red Sox. Well, those fans can rest easy now, because Boston News Net's Sporticus has the most inside of inside information clearing Manny. Sporticus reports this week from inside Manny's bloodstream. And while he did find a lot of unusual stuff, he didn't find any human chorionic gonadotropin. I'd explain what that is, but there's no time.



See more clips at BostonNewsNet.com

Jimmy Tingle on public transportation, literally

In this video, Jimmy Tingle takes one of the bits from his new CD, Humor for Humanity: Jimmy Tingle for President-The Funniest Campaign in History, on the road. And on the T. And all over the place.



Also, Tingle's run at the Regent Theatre continues tomorrow, part of his "Laughter Stimulus Plan." And since it's Mother's Day weekend, he's offering a free tickets for mothers if you call 781-646-4849 or buy them in person at the box office, if you mention the Tingle e-mail list (you can sign up for that on his site). Show starts at 8PM Saturday.

Rob Riggle on comedy, the Marines, and AltCom

It’s a unique resume – Rob Riggle: comedian, actor, Marine. But somehow, Riggle manages to juggle all three, with a family to boot. Riggle left The Daily Show in December, and he’s still busy booking film work and touring as a stand-up comedian. That’s in addition to the announcement that he will soon earn the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Marine Reserves.

I spoke with Riggle by phone last week as he was arriving in Atlanta for a film shoot, for a piece that appeared in the Sunday Boston Globe. But I wound up with a lot of interesting interview material that didn’t fit, so I give it to you here. Riggle is on tonight’s 10PN show at the Somerville Theatre with the Upright Citizen’s Brigade, Ian Moore, and Eugene Mirman.

Are you fairly busy with film work now that you’ve left The Daily Show?

I’m kind of doing a lot of things, actually. I’m doing some film work, which I’m very happy to get. I’ve been out doing stand-up around the country a lot. Still do improv, whenever I get a chance. At the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles or New York, I always pop in and go back to my roots and do improv. It always feels good to do that. I shot a couple of episodes of Gary Unmarried for CBS which will be airing in May, May 6th and the 13th.

Is that character Mitch going to be recurring?

Possibly. Yeah, possibly. I think there’s a strong possibility. We’re trying to figure that out, as well, because I also have a development deal with CBS and we’re in the process of developing a show for myself. So we’ll see what happens there.

Is that why you left The Daily Show?

Honestly, I could have stayed on The Daily Show for a long, long time. I could have stayed on there many more years. I loved it there. I love John Oliver, I love Jon Stewart, and all the correspondents and the writers. It was a really, really good place, and I still have a really wonderful relationship with everybody there. It’s just that I was living apart from my family for the two and a half years that I was on the show. I was commuting. And it just was too much. I needed to be home with my family.

You were balancing that and balancing a career in the Marine Corps Reserve. How does that fit into everything?

Well, that is a good question. It’s exhausting. I have to get in a certain amount of days every year for the Reserves every year. So I spend a lot of vacation doing Marine Corps drill.

What does that entail for you at this point?

It can be anything. It could be me going to train other Marines or I could, myself, go to training. I spent a year going to Command and Staff College, which most officers, you have to go to. It’s a requisite school. Or I could go work at a public affairs office in New York or in Los Angeles.

How much time is that?

I think it comes down to 38 days, I owe them.

Thirty-eight days each year?

Yeah. Thirty-eight days a year, minimum. I can give them more. I usually come in anywhere between 38 and 45 days.

Where did comedy come in – before or after the Marine Corps?

I was a theater and film major at the University of Kansas. And I was voted most humorous in my senior class in high school. I’ve always had a passion for comedy. I’ve always been a student of it. I love it. It’s always been there. But when you graduate as a theater and film major, you’re pretty much consigning yourself to being a waiter for ten years out of college. I also flew planes when I was an undergrad. I had my pilot’s license when I was at KU. So I got a guaranteed aviation contract with the Marine Corps. So I thought being Top Gun might be a little better than being a waiter. That’s how I ended up going down the Marines path.

What year was that?

That would have been ’92, when I graduated. I got down that road, and then I realized, if I didn’t try comedy, I would regret it the rest of my life. And I couldn’t live with that. So I just gave up flying for the Marines and asked to be reassigned to fill my ground contract instead of my aviation contract, and once that duty was up, I was going to go to Chicago and study at Second City. I was going to try comedy, come heck or highwater, whether I failed or succeeded. At least I’d know, you know.

Who did you have to tell in the Marines to day, I want to leave the Marines and try comedy? And what was that conversation like?

Well, I didn’t quite put it like that. I don’t think that would have been well received. I was a couple of months away from getting my wings and I realized had I gotten my wings, I would have been committed to a life of aviation, probably. And I couldn’t do it. So I requested to leave flight school and be reassigned on the ground side, and they did. Which, it shortened my commitment. I still had to do three more years, and I did. And while I did those three years, I went to night school and I got a graduate degree in public administration.

Where did you go for that?

Westchester University. Tried to make good use of my time, anyway. And then, that’s where I got interested in politics and city government and municipalities. But that’s a whole other story. Anyway. But then when I was getting out, after I’d done my ground tour, they said, what would it take for you to stay in? And I said, not much, because I’m going to go do comedy. Which they… couldn’t believe. I said, look, if you sent me to New York City or Los Angeles, I would extend on active duty. And the next morning, I had orders for New York City.

So I extended on active duty for another three years and I went to Manhattan, and I worked in an office in Manhattan, the Marine Corps Public Affairs Office, right there in Manhattan. It was basically an eight to five job, like everybody else. And then at night I would leave from the office and go straight down to do comedy anywhere in New York City that would let me. I found a home in the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. I learned improv and studied and watched them. I just loved what they were doing, and I spent the next seven years studying there before I caught the breaks.

So it was ’92 when you first left the Marines for the Reserves?

No, that’s when I took my commission, was ’92. I left flight school in ’95. then I did six more years, active duty, and left active duty in 2000. I went in the reserves in 2000, but then I was called back in 2001 and 2002 in Afghanistan. I was reactivated there. And then when I for back from there in 2002, in the fall of 2002, I picked up my comedy career and carried on.

When was it that you landed The Daily Show?

Well, I got Saturday Night Live first. I got that in 2004. After Saturday Night Live I went out to California because I had a deal with NBC, a development and holding deal. And then the year after that, in 2006, I got The Daily Show.

When were you in Liberia and Kosovo?

I was in Liberia in 1996. During the Atlanta Olympics, basically. I remember watching some of the Olympics from the embassy weight room there in Liberia. Then I was in Kosovo in 1999. I was pulled from my New York duties and sent over there.

Where was it you got the Combat Action Ribbon?

That would have been in Kosovo.

Was there a specific action that that was for?

There were a couple actually. A lot of people on the MEU, that Marine Expeditionary Unit, there were many different days when we were engaged, shot at. There were many different times. I don’t know if it was one specific or whatever, I just know that it was a couple different incidents.

Once you got back into the world of comedy where people are making fun of foreign policy decisions and talking about this sort of thing from a fairly removed point of view, how did you move in that world? What were your thoughts?

You know, it’s tricky. It was a little bit of push and pull. I thought I had a pretty good perspective on it, as far as understanding both sides. I could understand arguments made for both cases. I think that’s why it’s such a difficult issue for the country, because a reasonable person, I think, can see what happened, what led us to where we were, and why things we did were right or wrong. There’s arguments to be made on both sides.

Did you feel trapped in the middle? The assumption is that The Daily Show is a very liberal place, I don’t know if you would agree with that to begin with. And the assumption is that the Marines, everyone is very conservative. Neither of those assumptions might be correct.

I think what you just said is very accurate. I think neither one of those assumptions would be one hundred percent correct. I think that’s probably a fair assumption. I think anyone who thinks the Marines are hardcore conservative, I think that would be inaccurate. And I think anyone who thinks The Daily Show is hardcore leftwing or something, I think that would be inaccurate as well.

Did one side ask about the other? Did you get a lot of curiosity from The Daily Show folks about the Marines and from friends in the Marines about The Daily Show?

Yeah, there’s always a healthy curiosity, but there was never any challenge, I never felt like anybody was angry. I never felt like I was under threat or anything like that.

That’s not necessarily what I was asking. I was just wondering if there was a level of curiosity on both sides.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Definitely. And it led to a lot of very interesting conversations.

I think you could see that in – well, saying “your character” on The Daily Show, I’m not sure if that would be a characterization…

Yeah. It would be. [laughs] I don’t’ go steamrolling through life like I did on The Daily Show.

In comedy, it’s so tough to make assumptions, because some people’s character, every once in a while I’ll ask somebody about a stand-up routine and say, what was the real story there, and they’ll say, what do you mean? I told the story, that was the story.

I think it’s different, too, because when I do my stand-up, my stories are, I’d say, 95 percent true. I may embellish a little for comedic purposes, but the stories themselves actually happened. But when I’m doing a character and I’m on the Daily Show and I’m being bombastic or whatever, that’s not generally how Rob Riggle would go through life or how he would talk to somebody.

Do you feel that carries a bit more weight, because you’ve actually been to these places and had a bit more intimate an experience?

Perhaps. I couldn’t say, because I’d have to leave that to other people’s interpretation of them. But perhaps. I know when I went over to Iraq for The Daily Show, it definitely helped me having served overseas. It really helped me understand what was going on better. I just had the feeling, I felt like I had my finger on the pulse maybe a little bit better than some other folks that might have gone over there, they might have just let things blow by.

Did you get that assignment because of that previous experience?

I got the assignment because I requested it. I asked for it. I went in, sat down, and talked to Jon and said I want to do this, and Jon said, absolutely. And I said okay. That was it.

Did it exist before, or did you say, I want to go to Iraq?

That’s how it started. I found a field producer who was willing to go, and I pitched it to him and he said yes, and we both went in and sat down with Jon and said this is what we want to do. And he said, are you really, really sure? We said yeah, and he said all right.

By the way, congratulations on the promotion. I saw that at the end of The Daily Show.

That was very nice of them. I had no idea that they were going to do that. It was very unexpected and very nice.

When did that actually happen?

I was selected for promotion. I am a Lieutenant Colonel selectee, which means they come out with the list of everybody who’s going to be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the Reserves. And now, they go by number, your ranking, whatever your number is, and you get promoted, each month, they promote x amount of people, throughout the year. I have a very low number, which means I probably should be promoted in either May or June.

I’ll try to find a way to say that in ten words or less when I write this up.

He’s a Lieutenant Colonel Select who will probably pin on the rank in May or June.

Okay. That’s much more concise than the words that were flowing through my head to try to describe it. SO when you come to Boston, are you going to be doing mostly sketch or stand-up?

I’m under the impression that I will be coming there to do stand-up. That’s what I’ll be there to do. However, the Upright Citizens Brigade will be there, and I’m really good friends with all those guys. I’ve spent the last ten years playing with those guys and hanging out with them, so if I get the chance, I would love to do improv with them. We’ll see what they’re doing.

Yes, it’s actually the same show that you’re on at the Somerville Theatre with Eugene Mirman and Ian Moore.

Eugene is so funny. I’m looking forward to just watching his show.

He had a show come through here, Wes and Eugene’s Cabinet of Wonders with John Wesley Harding a little while ago which was a pretty fantastic show.

I could imagine. I could imagine. Eugene is just uber-talented.

The thing people don’t see of him, he used to work with Tony V all the time up here, and it was off the cuff all the time, and I don’t think fans are used to seeing him just going up onstage with absolutely nothing and just seeing what comes out of his head. It’s a pretty special moment.

That’s an awesome skill to have.

I wonder if there are skills you could apply to both the Marines and improv, or if that’s stretching thing.

I don’t know. The ability to think on your feet may be the only crossover. Other than that, they might be pretty much mutually exclusively.

The situations in which you would have to think on your feet, probably much different.

Yes, absolutely.

Remembering where somebody has designated a table, versus what to do if a grenade rolls anywhere near you. Different skills.

A little bit higher stakes, maybe.

Depending on your fear of public humiliation.

Right.

Ian Moore plays the States for AltCom

There are few things I enjoy more than finding a great comic I’ve never heard before. That’s a joy that Brian Joyce, organizer of the AltCom Festival, also shares, and he likes to pass on the experience. Joyce has gigged in extensively in Ireland and England, and he likes to bring comics to the States that Americans might not otherwise see, like Ian Moore.

Moore (not to be confused with the American musician of the same name) will be playing America for the first time tonight at the 10pm show at the Somerville Theatre, on the bill with Eugene Mirman, Rob Riggle, and the Upright Citizens Brigade. He’s also on the Jerkus Circus show at the Burren tomorrow. He has played Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival, and is a popular headliner on the club circuit in England, where he is called a “mod” comic.

I caught up with him by e-mail while he was on his way here.

Would you approach the “mod” characterization with American audiences? I think most Americans’ experience with that begins and ends with the Who.

I don't talk about 'mod' onstage much at all. I don't dress this way to make mileage out of it, it's who I am. And don't get me started on The Who...

What’s the club scene like in England? I’ve heard a lot of American comics say they love playing there.

The scene in England, the whole of the UK and Ireland for that matter is thriving. Every city, town and sometimes village has it's own comedy night. And it's very international too, lots of Americans, Australians, Canadians etc. You can work every night if you want and because the country is so small everywhere is easily accessible. Unless you take public transport of course.

The video on your site shows a mix of social/political material (the “mongrel race” bit) and observational humor (the parenting bits). Is there any particular angle you’re looking for as a comedian, any mix of social vs observational?

It depends on the gig I'm doing, or what's happening at that time. For example if there are elections going on, I might do some political stuff. But I don't feel the need to have a 'message'. I'll make a point, but only if it's funny not just for the sake of it. I'm heading more down the anecotal route these days, must be my age.

Have you gigged with Brian Joyce before?

I worked with Brian in Dublin three years ago at The Laughter Lounge - and a lot of fun it was too!

NBC/Universal Signs Mindy Kaling to Develop Her Own Show

Congratulations to Cambridge native Mindy Kaling. Variety is reporting that Kaling has signed a two-year, seven-figure deal with NBC and Universal Studios to create and star in her own comedy series. Office fans don't need to worry - Kaling will still have time to be Dunder Mifflin's resident flirty airhead. And she'll still be writing for the show. As Variety points out, she's written some great episodes, including the recent "Golden Ticket" episode, and she has also served as a co-executive producer.

Kaling has proven herself as a comic actress and a writer, on the show and off (she co-wrote and co-starred in the off-Broadway hit Matt & Ben). And according to an interview with the Onion's AV Club, from back in 2007, Kaling originally signed on as a writer, but was surprised to find her contract included a "performer clause," and Kelly Kapoor was born.

The Variety article mentions a few ideas Kaling is kicking around - she likes workplace comedies, obviously, and buddy comedies. I'm interested to see what she comes up with, and I'd love to see her do something completely different from her Office character. And while we're on the subject, I'd also love to see what Newton native B.J. Novak, another performer/writer from The Office, could do with a development deal.

Office fans, what do you think would be the best vehicle for Kaling?

Ray Romano and Brad Garrett at the Orpheum

Last year around this time, I spoke with Brad Garrett for the Boston Globe before he made the rounds at the Cape Cod Melody Tent and the South Shore Music Circus. He told me he'd had offers to give his Everybody Loves Raymond character, and why he declined.

Tonight, Garrett is back in Boston and back together with Ray Romano, playing the Orpheum. Tickets were still available when I checked the Live Nation site this morning.

Janeane Garofalo on Hear It Wow Wednesday

Eight o'clock Wednesday usually means I am calling Derek Gerry's Hear It Wow show on WMFO, Tufts Freeform Radio. This week, however, I'll be calling in a bit late because Mr. Gerry will be talking to Janeane Garofalo at 7:30pm. I'll call a bit later than usual, at 8:15. Garofalo will be headlining the Somerville Theatre Friday as part of the AltCom Festival. You can hear the interview online at the WMFO site, or tune into 91.5 FM.

BNN Mondays: The Swine Flu

Swine flu getting uncomfortably close to Boston? Look on the bright side, at least you don't have the consumption. Boston News Net explains.

Louis C.K. in Worcester Tonight; C.K. on Joe Wong

If you missed Louis C.K.'s show at the Orphem in March, you get a second chance to see him tonight at the Hanover Theatre in Worcester tonight. It's a great venue -- I saw Lily Tomlin there last year. And C.K.'s new material is as strong as anything he's done for his last couple of specials. And since C.K. already taped his third special last month, he may be starting over and working on even more new material. Either way, he is always worth seeing.

Also, it seems C.K. caught up-and-coming Boston comic Joe Wong's set on Letterman last month, and he was impressed. He wrote this in his blog, about the thrill of seeing an unknown comic kill on a national show, his thoughts on the perfect TV spot, and a shout out to the Comedy Studio.

I went to the Comedy Studio the night Wong's set aired to watch it on the second floor with a group of comics and Studio owner Rick Jenkins. I can honestly say that in ten years of covering the Boston scene, I'd never seen anything like it. Jenkins made the announcement that one of Boston's own was about to appear on Letterman, and the place went silent (except for a non-comic or two in the far corners) when Joe took the stage. Comics cheered every punchline, and if everybody hadn't been standing already, Wong would have gotten a standing ovation. It felt like a real victory for everyone in Boston comedy, and I'm glad to see C.K. talk about it. I'm glad it felt that way outside of Boston, too.

Jon Lajoie: Straight Outta Montreal

Chances are, if you know the name Jon Lajoie, you are an avid YouTube watcher and a fan of musical comedy. The Montreal native has been posting videos on since 2007, gaining enough momentum to tour Canada and now the US with his musical comedy and stand-up. “Everyday Normal Guy” has over nine million views, and he has five others that have broken the million view barrier. And he just released his first album, You Want Some of This? Not bad for a guy who posted his first video just to show his friends his music.

Lajoie is in town tonight at the Comedy Connection Wilbur Theatre, and he’ll be making the radio rounds this morning on WFNX and WBCN. I caught up with him by e-mail last night to ask a few questions.

When "Everyday Normal Guy" started getting popular on YouTube, were you already established in Canada?

No. That was only a few months into my career as a comedian (At that point, I had no idea that I'd have a career as a comedian). Funny story: I recorded "Everyday Normal Guy" a few months before I shot the video, and I wasn't even sure I was going to release it because I thought the whole "loser rapper thing" had been done to death. It was my brothers and friends that convinced me to shoot a video for it. And finally, when I shot the video, half of the footage was scrap because it was a rainy day and my friend was holding an umbrella over the camera to protect it, but, what he didn't know, was that the umbrella was in most of the shots. The video is actually a collection of shots that don't have the umbrella in them.

Did you post on YouTube as sort of an afterthought, or did you think the video could really catch on? Seems it's hard to predict, and there's a lot of competition.

I actually put them on YouTube so that I could send them to my friends. My friends didn't really like them (at least the first ones). I don't know, I kind of wanted people to come across them, but I had no idea people would react as they did. When one of my videos reached a thousand hits (about a year and a half ago) I was like "holy shit, a thousand people! That's fucked up!".

How do you play live? Is it just you and a piano or a guitar? Backing tracks?

The rap songs are just my vocal with a backing track. For the other songs, I play them acoustic. But I don't only play music.

Do you think the success of other musical comedy acts lately (Flight of the Conchords, Bo Burnham, Lonely Island) helps you, or does it just crowd the field?

Well, the beauty of it is that it's all good stuff. We're all doing the same thing in a very different way. I think it's nice. I don't think I do the same thing as Bo, The Conchords, or the Lonely Island... It's musical comedy, sure. But Nirvana is alternative rock, and so is Radiohead, and they're worlds apart. I can't believe I just made that comparison, but hey, I did.

Have you toured much in America yet? What's your sense of how well you're known here?

I've toured in the States a bit over the past 4-5 months. I'm constantly surprised by how many people actually show up. I'm always expecting 3 people to show up, but I'm always pleasantly surprised. Some towns know me more than others, but generally speaking, the shows sell out, or close to it. In Canada it's different. I just performed in Toronto for a sold-out crowd in a 1300 seater.

Do you do straight stand-up or sketch, as well?

Yes, I do stand-up and sketchy stuff. It makes up about half of my show.

How well is the album doing, as opposed to the YouTube videos? It seems an album serves a different purpose now than it may have just a few years ago, in terms of promoting yourself and reaching fans.

I didn't really write the songs with the idea that I was going to release them on an album. I just wrote them and recorded them for the videos But it just seemed like a logical idea, at this point. I gave them away on my website for about a year, and now I'm making millions of dollars selling them on iTunes. Not really. I don't even know how many I've sold yet. I should get a sales report soon. Probably 18. Big labels approached me to release it, but it just didn't make sense to me to sign with a big label. I just put it out myself.

What's the career ideal for you, as a musical comedian? Touring? More videos? A sitcom?

I want a role on Two and A Half Men! That's the goal. Maybe I can be the wacky neighbor that comes over and sings funny songs! That would be awesome. Honestly, 2 years ago I didn't even know I that I wanted to do comedy. I have no idea what I want to do. I like the live thing because it's kind of like the internet, you get to say whatever you want. TV is not like that. But it looks like maybe I'll be doing the TV thing soon. Hopefully it doesn't destroy everything that I do. But then again, I'd suck a homeless guys dick for a handful of change and a joint. Maybe I'll be on some shitty sitcom sometime soon. Who knows?

AltCom News: Michael Showalter/Micahel Ian Black Show Canceled

AltCom just announced the Michael Showalter/Michael Ian Black show, previously set for May 7 at the Somerville Theatre, has been canceled due to shooting schedule conflicts with the pair's new Comedy Central series, Michael and Michael Have Issues. AltCom director Brian Joyce said the pair tried to accomodate the show but couldn't do it. He hopes to reschedule them for next year's festival.

Stay tuned here for more festival coverage this week.

BNN Mondays: Date Help from the Pick-Up Artist

Bosotn News Net's Ken Breese gives you the inside skinny on the Mystery Method to help the folks at ImprovBoston during Geek Week.

Reader's Digest: Call for Submissions

Last week, the folks over at Reader's Digest e-mailed me about this blog. They are fans of Boston Comedy, as it turns out, and coincidentally, are looking for new contributors for their Laugh! page. And they asked if I could help put them in touch with some Boston talent. Which is why you are reading this post right now. So here are the details.

Material should be "family-friendly and LOL," according to RD's guidelines. Topical jokes probably won't work, and the format should be a typical setup and punchline "one-liner." Lead time is usually two months (which is fairly standard in the magazine publishing world).

You can send jokes to jokesmiths@rd.com at the beginning of the month in a Word document. There is no limit to submissions, but I am told 10-15 jokes probably works best. If they want to use your stuff, they'll get back to you, and you'll be paid $100 per item used. You are credited with the joke, and you keep the rights. If you're affiliated with a club, they'll credit the club, too, or a personal/professional Web site.

That's the deal. Reader's Digest has a circulation of eight millionm, which translates into 35 readers per month (this the whole "reader" part fo the name), and as someone in the trenches of freelance writing, I'd have to say $100 is a pretty good payday.

If you get in touch, let them know you saw this.

BNN Mondays: Billy Bob Neck Teabags Again

Billy Bob Neck really loves teabagging. It's important to him as a protest against liberal fascism. And he's disappointed in all of you who didn't teabag on tax day. Brings tears to the eye. Really. *sniff* Mine eyes have seen the glory, courtesy of Boston News Net.

Joe Wong on Letterman: A Behind-the-Scenes Look on TVSquad.com

Besides updating Boston Comedy several times a week, I also write for the TVSquad.com blog. Sometimes, I have a subject with a bit of crossover, and as I was planning on writing a story about how Eddie Brill prepares comics to be on Letterman, Brill told me Joe Wong was going to be on the show. So I got to write my behind the scenes story and include a great Boston comic in the mix. Brill was impressed with Wong, and said the audience was, as well. The buzz about this has been building all week in the Boston comedy community, and while Wong will be watching tonight with his family at home, some of us will try to catch it on the TVs at the Comedy Studio (check the Kvetch Board for details).

The TVSquad.com story is here.

And remember to tune in to Wong's appearance tonight on Letterman. He'll be on the late end of the show, closing things up.

Discount Variety Tonight at CinemaSalem

It’s the third Thursday in April, which means tonight is the third edition of FunnyGrownHere.com Presents… Discount Variety at the CinemaSalem Café (One East India Square, 8:30PM). The weather’s nice, the commuter rail is running, and there’s no excuse not to come out to see piano songstress Liz DeBiase and comedian Maria Ciampa, who will also bring a few shorts for our video segment.

LIZ DEBIASE

BIO: "Liz DeBiase is a talented singer-songwriter whose music is both spirited and complex. Propelled by her mesmerizing piano riffs, DeBiase's sweet, lilting voice carries these songs to a higher plane. Sensual, sweet, dark, haunting, melancholy...take your pick DeBiase covers all of the bases on Loop and more. If your looking for one of Boston's finest up and coming songstresses, look no further, Liz DeBiase has arrived."
--- Doug Sloane(Metronome Magazine-Boston, MA

How long have you been playing in Boston?

Ten years.

What are your favorite places to play?

The Kendall Cafe (I miss it so), The Burren, The Middle East, & Les Zygomates (great piano).

Who are your favorite comedians, locally and nationally?

Tina Fey and the cast of 30 Rock, Dave Chappelle and my old high school peer...Tammy Pescatelli.

What is the best comedy show you've seen?

Probably tonight with Maria!

MARIA CIAMPA

BIO: Maria Ciampa has been writing, performing, and directing comedy since 2002. An alumna of Boston’s Improv Asylum’s Mainstage, She is producing the 2009 ImprovBoston Women In Comedy Festival, happening May 13 -16, 2009, and was a featured stand up comedian at the 2009 North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival. Maria is also teaching yoga, writing a book, and editing a series of comedy shorts called "Interviews With My Husband", all the while wondering who coined the phrase "coined the phrase".

How long have you been playing in Boston?

I have been doing improv comedy since 2002, and I started to focus more on stand up in 2007.

What are your favorite places to play?

Comedy Studio, Mottley's, and anywhere there are people who like laughing, like nursing homes and the companies I temp at.

Who are your favorite musicians, locally and nationally?

Locally, right now I'm listening to a lot of DJ / producer Justin Carr, and when my sister Elena Ciampa does any kids music shows in Northampton, I try to make that before they sell out, those kids are vicious with the ticket sales. Favorite musicians of all time are Bjork, Tribe Called Quest, and Orbital. I just bought the new Feist album with all the dirty electro remixes on iTunes and I listened to that on a loop many times. I'm also into all the new folky types, like Ingrid Michaelson, William Fitzsimmons, and Cary Brothers - I like how they are getting techy remixes to their calm stuff too. It's a nice mix of the two worlds.

What is the best music show you’ve seen?

That's gotta be a tie between my first ever concert in 1986, which was the Indigo Girls at St. Anselm's College in NH where my sister Elena was attending, and DJ Justin Carr at a Kingsize event, I think at Roxy/Underbar a few months ago. But I also love it when my sister Sarah sings along to "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" when she plays guitar hero. Her whammy bar usage and dance moves are through the roof.

Random Notes: Joe Wong, Mottley's Bailout, Bill Burr, Billy Bob Neck

Joe Wong on Letterman

Boston comedian Joe Wong has taped his spot for the Late Show with David Letterman, which will air Friday. Word from Letterman’s Eddie Brill, who worked with Wong on his set, is that it was a “grand slam.” A few others from around the scene managed to get down to New York for the taping, and Brill’s assessment seems to be the consensus. The Comedy Studio plans to show the appearance on the TVs on the second floor, but keep checking the Studio Kvetch Board for details.

Mottley’s Comedy Bailout

If you happen to see this as you’re making plans for tonight, Mottley’s Comedy Club is unveiling a new show tonight, called Mottley’s Comedy Bailout. Tickets will be $8, $5 for college kids, and free if you bring your layoff letter or an unemployment check stub. Jon Lincoln hosts tonight with Val Kappa, Mike Whitman, Joe Madaus, and Chris Coxen. This will be their regular Wednesday night show.

Bill Burr on NHL.com

If you’re both a comedy and a hockey fan, then NHL.com finally has something that combines your favorite interests. Bill Burr will be blogging about the Bruins throughout the playoffs, or at least throughout the Bruins’ participation in the playoffs. Here’s the first shot.

Billy Bob Neck Protests Taxes

A lot of people are protesting the bailouts with Tea Parties on Tax Day. Billy Bob Neck would like to participate. We think. This is his plea for you to join him.

Random Notes: Jimmy Tingle, Joe Wong on Letterman, Tmomy's to Open in May, Robby Roadsteamer Pilot

For those who don’t do digital downloads, Jimmy Tingle for President: The Funniest Campaign in History is now out on good old hard copy CD. Tingle has been offering the album as a download for a couple of weeks. (You can hear a track, “Cafeteria Catholic,” here).

Tingle has been editing the project for a while now, putting together the best from his shows at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown last year, taking out specific references to the race for the presidency that would date the material. He’ll celebrate the release of the album with a show tomorrow at the Regent Theatre in Arlington (he’ll also play shows there in May and June).

Joe Wong on Letterman

Boston’s own Joe Wong is tentatively set to record a set for the Late Show with David Letterman Monday, which would air next week. Letterman comic booker Eddie Brill, recently in town for auditions for his Great American Comedy Festival, has been working with Wong on his set, and Wong gave a preview of it Sunday at the Comedy Studio.

Tommy’s Comedy Lounge to Open in May

John Tobin and Frank Ahearn completed paperwork this week to open a new club in the Charles Playhouse on May 2. The name “Tommy’s Comedy Lounge” comes from Thomas Wignell, the 18th century actor and humorist for which Tobin also named the Thomas Wignell Award, presented to comedians chosen for the Boston Comedy Hall of Fame, another of Tobin’s projects. The club will run Thursdays through Saturdays, and reach out to college comedy groups for Thursday night shows.

New Pilot from Robby Roadsteamer

Robby Roadsteamer posted his pilot for a new show on the Boston comedy scene, called “Quiet Desperation,” this week, with an assist from Shaun Bedgood, Mehran, and Tom Dustin. And a new character from Chris Coxen, Renaldo. He’s a singer. Kind of. And he’d like to free women from… well, just watch this.

Sue Costello returns to Boston with Minus 32 Million Words

Seeing the ruckus the diminutive Sue Costello can kick up onstage, it’s hard to believe that she ever struggled onstage. But the Dorchester native was a theater major before she was a comedian, and had to work up the nerve to be herself onstage. Once she get going, though, she was never short on nerve again. She once had her own sitcom, which Fox canceled after a few episodes. Tough to take, but it toughened Costello up, perhaps enough that she started to look at herself with the same withering sarcasm she looks at others, leading to her one-woman show, Minus 32 Million Words. Now based in New York, Costello brings her show to Right Turn Live in Arlington Friday and Saturday. You can also catch her at one of her old haunts, Dick’s Beantown Comedy Vault, tonight.

Growing up, what did you find funny?

Bill Cosby albums made me roll around the floor laughing in my feety pajamas.

When did you decide you wanted to be a comedian?

Ever since I was a teenager, people would tell me that I should do stand up. I never had the guts, I couldn't even step foot into a comedy club until I played a hooker in a play at UMass Boston. Everyone was hysterical.

The sad part was that I was being serious. So, my friend signed me up for a comedy competition at Duck Soup. The scores went from 1 to 10, 10 being the best I got 2's in everything but a 10 in stage presence. I was hooked.

What were the clubs you started in here?

Dick Doherty's Comedy Vault, Duck Soup, Nick’s Comedy Stop and the Comedy Connection. Back when I started, the headliners would host the open mikes and they would give us pointers. Billy Martin told me that all I had to do to get my stage legs was to stay on stage for 5 minutes no matter what. So one night, these big Italian guys yelled "You Suck, Get Off the Stage!" And I responded with; "I know I do, I just have to stay up here for 5 minutes!"

What made you write Minus 32 Million Words?

I was going to die if I didn't express what was inside of me.

Was it harder to look at yourself in a show like this than to riff on other people?

Yes, the show is all about going inside; to find out who I was born to be, by removing all the things that others told me I was. I had to go through a lot of ugly feelings but I would do it 32 Million times again if the way I feel now is the reward.

Are you nervous bringing the show back to your home town for the
first time?

YES!! OMG YES; did I mention YES? I am really being honest and vulnerable with my show, there is no hiding, so yes, but it's okay, that's part of the electricity that comes with being and artist and exposing yourself. And, I am very, very proud of it.

How did New York audiences react to it?

Really, I was overwhelmed with the response from all different types of people. I just wrote the story of my life and how I experienced it and people really identified. It's really a story about humanity; it's so personal, it's universal.

Do you still have family here? Will they be at the show?

Yes and yes.

If you could go back and do anything differently when you had Costello, would you change anything? Do you think the show got a fair shot?

I wouldn't change a thing, because it was a necessary experience in my maturation process. Without it, I never would have become the person I am today.

What are you working on once this show is over?

This show isn't going to be over for a very, very long time.

Random Notes: Steven Wright on Craig Ferguson, Louis C.K.

Steven Wright has just announced a new show at the Comedy Connection Wilbur Theatre May 29. Tickets go on sale Friday.

And if you want to see Wright before then, here are a few clips of his recent guest spots on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. He's been popping in unannounced lately, for a few hilarious bits.

Here's the cold opening from March 31, when he did the cold opening instead of Ferguson:



Here's the panel segment from that same show:



Then on April 2, he showed up again for another cold opening, this time with Brittany Murphy:



Also, Louis C.K. will be taping his next one-hour special in Milwaukee at the Pabst Theater April 18. C.K., who recently taped a marathon show at the Orpheum here in Boston for a possible CD release, will tape two shows at the Pabst, at 8PM and 10:30PM, from which he will cull his next one-hour special, his third in three years.

Rich Ceisler Invades Australia

If you look at the schedule for The Comedy Club in Melbourne, Australia this week, you’ll find this listing – “Direct from the U.S.A., 2008 sell-out sensation Rich Ceisler.” In case you’re wondering, that’s Boston comic Rich Ceisler, and he’ll be in Australia most of April playing in Melbourne during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and then the Comedy Store in Sydney during the Sydney Comedy Festival in the beginning of May.

Ceisler himself is a bit more humble in describing his Australian mini-tour. A couple of years ago, Ceisler was working a cruise ship gig that brought him to Melbourne. He stuck around and did a few gigs at the Comedy Club, and they asked him to do a stint during last year’s Festival. They were impressed enough to ask him back this year for another extended run.

So do Australian audiences know this Boston comic?

“A little bit, just by virtue of the fact that I did it all month last year, I should have some people,” says Ceisler, who is blogging about his trip at www.richcomedy.blogspot.com. “But at the end of this year, hopefully between the two years I’ll have a following and be able to parlay it into something. I was able to parlay this year into the Sydney one. And hopefully by next year maybe I can parlay it into getting into the one in New Zealand.”

The club seats 400, and the Festival brings a steady flow of foot traffic. “I know the club’s going to be sold out every night,” says Ceisler. “It’s going to be packed every night [because of the festival]. That’s what happens.”

Playing the cruise ship circuit for fifteen years has made Ceisler shape his material differently. He says he’s written some stuff specifically for Australia, but otherwise, he has to be a bit more general. “No political, no stuff on sports, no news stories,” he says. “It’s more personal stuff about me, which is timeless and international so I can do it anywhere in the world.”

“You can still do some pop culture references, you just can’t make it too specific,” he adds.

He’s also played China, England, and Canada within the past couple of years, which makes his transition easier. “I’m sort of used to the international crowds,” he says.

BNN Mondays: Quentin James Talks Baby

Sometimes, babies can be irresponsible. They fall out of windows, and adult are expected to just catch them and save them. That makes Quentin James angry.

Sunday Comics with Jim McCue on 1510 AM Now

If you're winding down your weekend and want to hear people talking about comedy, tune in to 1510 AM now (noon) for Sunday Comics with Jim McCue. Right now, he's talking to Boston comic Joey Carroll, who is currently on a cruise ship at sea. I'll be calling in shortly to talk about comedy.

Eddie Brill Scouts the Studio Sunday for the Great American Comedy Festival

Last year, Eddie Brill rolled into Boston with twenty-four spots to fill for his competition at the Great American Comedy Festival. Brill, who books the Festival and also books the stand-up talent on the Late Show with David Letterman, looked at talent from twelve different cities, and wound up taking five Boston comics – Myq Kaplan, Shane Mauss, Dan Boulger, Micah Sherman, and David Powell.

That’s a pretty high bar to set – roughly twenty percent of the talent came from Boston. But Brill expects Boston will be up to the challenge when he visits the Comedy Studio again on Sunday scouting for this year’s festival (Joe Wong is already slated to be in the Festival). ““My feeling is there’ll definitely be people from Boston because it’s just been a fantastically great city for us for finding great talent,” says Brill.

At least one person on the bill Sunday, Dan Sally, almost made the Festival last year, and Brill asked for him to be in this year’s line-up. “He was someone who was on the cusp,” he says. “I thought he could have gone last year but again, I could only pick twenty-four.”

Brill is a New York guy, but he has strong Boston roots. He went to Emerson, and he started doing stand-up here. He still keeps in touch with his alma mater, and sees Boston comedians all the time in New York.

Brill says he is looking for people who are “on the cusp of greatness,” and makes it clear he is not picking contestants for an amateur competition. “I’m looking for poise, I’m looking for people who own the stage, who call the shots up there,” he says. “People who are one of a kind, who are really true to who they are. I’m looking for great material, I’m looking for people who have a point of view, who have an edge.”

The point of the Festival, which takes place June 14-20, is to honor Johnny Carson in his hometown of Norfolk, Nebraska. This year’s gala host is David Brenner, who appeared on more Tonight Shows than anyone. And another Boston guy, Bill Dana, who was the first head writer for the original Tonight Show, will receive the Comedy Legend Award. Every comedian who goes to the Festival is placed with a host family, who shows the comedian around and shows off Carson’s hometown.

Comedians who are auditioning for the festival might want to review a few clips from Carson’s Tonight Show to remind them of the spirit of the show. “Carson, Letterman [they were] Middle America guys but they were really funny, but they were never milquetoast,” says Brill. “They didn’t mind their tongue. I’m looking for that kind of sarcasm, that really smart, funny, biting, great comedy. It’s not like these people have to Johnny Carson, they just have to honor what Johnny did. Johnny was huge for the comedy business. And this is us giving back to him, to the community that he loved so well.”

The Comedy Studio, Sunday April 5, 8PM
Line-up: Ahmed Bharoocha, Andrew Sleighter, Bethany Van Delft, Dan Sally, Dave McDonough, David Grabiner, Jennifer Myszkowski, Jono Zalay, Rick Canavan, Rob Turbovsky, Tom E. Morello, Zach Sherwin, and musical guest Ronald Reagan 80's.

Thursday Night Round-Up: Heavy Metal Bee Gees, Spring Fever with the Steamies, and Games with Jonathan Katz

If you're looking for a comedy show tonight, you're loaded with great options. First off, Berklee grad Brandon Small of Adult Swim's Matalocalypse is at Showcase Live tonight with the School of Rock All-Stars paying tribute to... the Bee Gees? Small will do a Q&A to start the show, and then give way to Tragedy, an ensemble Showcase Live touts on their Web site as "The #1 heavy metal tribute to the Bee Gees." I imagine it's not a terrible crowded field. The All-Stars are also slated to join Small to play some Dethklok tunes and a few assorted metal classics. Show starts at 7PM.

If you don't want to drive out to Foxboro or metal isn't your thing, head out to the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge for the Spring Fever show with the Steamy Bohemians, Goli, and Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band. It's been a while since the Steamies have played the Lizard, and this should be an interesting show. Members of all three musical groups will sit in on each other's sets, and the Steamies are doing a full hour, with a drummer. Show begins at 8:30PM with a vrigin sacrifice.

Also tonight, the second installment of Jonathan Katz's One Man, Many Games at ImprovBoston. I spoke with Mr. Katz before last week's show -- read the interview here. Show starts at 7PM.