Day: July 21, 2009

Recent additions to The Laugh Track

Posted by | Jul 21, 2009 | |

Now that I'm showcasing funny videos and pictures and such over at The Laugh Track, you'd think I'd go ahead and find some way to tell you about them over here. Without further hesitation… Tommy Johnagin impressed David Letterman with his recent stand-up set, which aired last Friday. Eugene Mirman has something to tell you about the do's and the do-not's (but not the donuts) of marketing. Ben Schwartz got rejected by Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin, but it was all in good fun to promote the ESPYs for ESPN. And that reminded me of the uproarious time that was the "Worst. Heckle. Ever." show that Derrick Comedy and several other UCB players and improvisers subjected Schwartz to during last summer's Del Close Marathon. Congrats on your Emmy nominations, Ben! The 40th anniversary of mankind landing on the Moon happened on Monday, and how did the Barely Political crew celebrate it? With a fake rap about a busty Moon girl. Music and lyrics from Mark Douglas. Daniel Tosh's Tosh.0 last week featured a mashup of white girls impersonating Bill Cosby, which made me curious about other kids trying to be like Cos. Apparently, it's all about the pudding. Jack McBrayer got nominated last week for a couple of Emmys, too, and yet that same day, he unveiled a new Funny or Die video that had him being very angry,...

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See Dan Naturman on Conan, then get his CD, listen to his podcast

Posted by | Jul 21, 2009 | , |

Dan Naturman is performing tonight on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, which means it's time to get you caught up on what this sharp-witted stand-up comedian is up to. You could say he has a bit of a throwback quality to his vocal delivery — I say he takes a grand page out of the old-school traditions of joke-telling and crowd-working. And by old-school, I say Dan Naturman is the closest thing to Groucho Marx we're going to find in the early 21st century. Take a spin through his recent CD, Get Off My Property, which he recorded at the Acme comedy club in Minneapolis. Fun fact: On the CD cover, Naturman's not pictured on his own property (It's the front yard across the street from comedian Joe Matarese!). But back to his jokes! The staccato timing, echoing a set-up ever so quickly to speed right into the hard-hitting punchline. It'll remind you that Naturman really did get jobbed years ago by the producers of NBC's Last Comic Standing, or perhaps it'll make you think that this guy was better and is better than that show. Here's a reel to enjoy the stylings of Dan Naturman in a variety of previous TV appearances: Dan Naturman's Get Off My Property You can also listen to him talk about current events in his weekly podcast. Check out past "Internet Radio...

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Meet the New Faces, Class of 2009, at Montreal Just For Laughs

Posted by | Jul 21, 2009 | |

Are these the names you were looking for? The 2009 Montreal Just For Laughs comedy festival presents the "New Faces" for the industry to discover, fawn over and scrutinize. It looks to be a very strong class, just from the faces and names I already have come to discover, fawn over and scrutinize right here on The Comic's Comic. So here they are! The New Faces perform in two groups tonight, Wednesday and Thursday — this year at the Cabaret Juste Pour Rire (much closer to the rest of the action than the far-out Kola Note). Send your wishes of well to the following comedians…photos and links after the jump! Dan Ahdoot Mike Bridenstine Chris D'Elia Renee Gauthier Pete Holmes Al Jackson Myq Kaplan Moshe Kasher Matt Knudsen Alex Koll Eric Krug Andrew Lawrence Mary Mack Kumail Nanjiani Andy Ritchie Rory Scovel Eleanor Tiernan Duncan...

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Comedy Central prefers John Heffron’s “greatest hits” in “Middle Class Funny”

Posted by | Jul 21, 2009 | |

If you missed the TV debut last weekend of John Heffron's new stand-up comedy special, Middle Class Funny, then you'll have to wait for the DVD to come out on Aug. 4 (you can pre-order John Heffron: Middle Class Funny through Amazon.com). Curiously, though, Heffron's special, as it aired on Comedy Central, turned out to be even more of a tease than the comedian expected. You see, normally, a stand-up might go back to some classic or "greatest hits" at the end of a special's taping as an encore, or as a treat to fans and put it on the DVD as an extra. But almost half of the 40-plus minutes that Comedy Central aired from Heffron's special were those "greatest hits," with jokes about getting haircuts from your mom with the "dingleberry" scissors, and how men and women interact in nightclubs — bits you'd likely already seen and heard when Heffron won Last Comic Standing years ago or from one of his previous records/specials (on Comedy Central!). Comedians who can produce their own specials have, over the past year or two, done so and then sold them to a cable network (Comedy Central, HBO, Showtime), tying the air date to the promotion of a DVD release soon thereafter. Heffron learned a show-business lesson here, since as he pointed out to fans on Twitter (pictured) and Facebook, Comedy Central had...

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Judd Apatow, Comedy Central team up for great behind-the-scenes looks inside “Funny People”

Posted by | Jul 21, 2009 | |

If the initial trailers for Funny People, the third film written and directed by Judd Apatow, looked a little bit too melodramatic to be a comedy, then, well, that's because it is just that. As Apatow explains in the hourlong documentary, Inside Funny People (which debuted at midnight on Comedy Central, with repeats planned for noon Tuesday and 3 a.m. Thursday): ‚ÄúIt's hard to make a comedy that‚Äôs really more a drama than a comedy. I don‚Äôt know if I can do it.‚Äù But do it he did. The wealth of background material on the "funny people" who inhabit the film already has proven to be quite remarkable in promoting the movie and showing that it is about comedians. Apatow's documentary featurettes also reveal just how much of himself he poured into the film, as well as how much of a comedy nerd he was and still is. Case in point: Apatow says the following early in his Comedy Central documentary about the need to get all of his actors back onstage in comedy clubs… ‚ÄúThere‚Äôs a feeling you get when you do stand-up, that you just need to experience to know what it‚Äôs about. It‚Äôs the terror of revealing yourself, and the feeling that if I don‚Äôt get a laugh this time, I must get it next time or I will not be able to sleep at night.‚Äù...

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