Posted by Sean L. McCarthy | Nov 11, 2010 | Web series |
In their latest episode for Yahoo!, the legendary comedy duo of Stiller & Meara recounts a story from WWII, in which Jerry Stiller served with the U.S. Army, in honor of Veterans Day. I'll let you just sit back and enjoy the ride. It's short but sweet. Click click! Related reading: If you'd like to read a more sincere message from Jerry Stiller about serving with the Army in Europe, read this note he wrote a couple of years...
Read MorePosted by Sean L. McCarthy | Nov 11, 2010 | TV, Uncategorized |
Amended! When I wrote earlier today about HBO's plans to film a one-off special called Talking Funny with Louis CK, Ricky Gervais, Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld, and mentioned Showtime's The Green Room with Paul Provenza, I should also have mentioned a third televised possibility. That's because Greg Behrendt's pilot, There Might Be Cake, is still in the discussion stages over at IFC. Not yet passed. Not yet ordered. Behrendt filmed the pilot in February, including live stand-up with Nick Thune, Tig Notaro, Dana Gould and Kurt Braunohler, and an interview with David Cross. Behrendt described his show back then, thisaway: "It's a docu-series of me interviewing my peers about their careers, the new kids they love or fear, and the comics they believe deserved more attention, For the pilot I interviewed my old buddy and former lover David Cross." So stay...
Read MorePosted by Sean L. McCarthy | Nov 11, 2010 | Uncategorized |
The tributes continue to roll out for the late Greg Giraldo. Thanks to Matt Ruby for pointing me to comedian Jon Fisch's podcast, In the Tank, which recently sat down a number of comedians, associates and fans of Giraldo to talk about him. Those offering words and praise to Fisch about Giraldo as both a stand-up comedian and as a human being included: Ryan Hamilton, Nick Swardson, William Stephenson, Dave Smith, Big Jay Oakerson, Modi, Dante, Costaki Economopoulos, Lee Camp, Kurt Metzger, Allan Havey, Anthony Jeselnik, Julian McCullough, Wil Sylvince, Steve Fabricant, Alex Edelman, James Smith, Dave Attell, Veronica Mosey, Rick Crom, Jodi Wasserman, Ophira Eisenberg, Joe DeRosa, Tom Shillue, Sherrod Small, Jeffrey Gurian, Jesse Joyce and Ted Alexandro. You can listen to the whole episode of In the Tank devoted to Greg Giraldo. Speaking of Jesse Joyce, he was the unseen and unheard brains behind many of Giraldo's popular Roast jokes as Giraldo's writing partner for the past few years. Giraldo was supposed to be the Roastmaster last week at Cringe Humor's Roast of Jim Florentine. Instead, the roast raised money for Giraldo's children, played a tribute video of Giraldo in concert, and then asked Jesse Joyce to take the podium. As you may have guessed already (if you're a good guesser), Joyce crushed with a withering set of quips, insults and well-written barbs that you could imagine coming out of Giraldo's mouth....
Read MorePosted by Sean L. McCarthy | Nov 11, 2010 | Uncategorized |
Michael Showalter has a new thing he's tumbling on Tumblr called Lost in Plot, in which he talks to other creative types about the writing process. Today Showalter questions comedian Mike Birbiglia about it, which is timely since Birbigs has a new book out called "Sleepwalk With Me: And Other Painfully True Stories." A couple of excerpts from the beginning and end of Showalter's chat with Birbiglia: Do you ever get writer’s block? If yes, please elaborate. I don’t call it that, but sure. I feel like I’m in a constant state of tricking myself into writing. I have to block out like 6-7 hours where there is no agenda except writing. Blocking that time is hard for me to do b/c there are so many distractions, like the Internet and also the Internet. What’s your favorite movie cliché? (Eg: The montage where the guy/girl practices introducing himself to the love interest in the mirror.) Tough one. I could make a joke but I kind of hate movie clichés because they remind me that there’s a studio executive somewhere doing a rewrite with the artistic intention of “How can this make more...
Read MorePosted by Sean L. McCarthy | Nov 11, 2010 | TV, Uncategorized |
My friends across the pond at Chortle reported yesterday that HBO will be filming a one-off special this fall called "Talking Funny," in which Ricky Gervais, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Louis CK sit down to talk shop about comedy and themselves. At Showtime, meanwhile, they've already ordered a second season of The Green Room with Paul Provenza, which is in production. A friend of this site introduced me to a third iteration of this concept currently in the works, called Comedy Talks. It's not on TV, but rather a live staged production based in San Francisco, which held its first season this August with comedian/magician Robert Strong hosting three episodes with longtime veterans of the craft. His guests included Carol Channing, Shelley Berman, George Segal, Paul Mazursky, Robert Morse, Rich Little, Steve Rossi, Ronnie Schell, and Will Durst. Here's a highlight clip of Comedy Talks. Rich Little impersonates Carol Channing with Channing, and if you wait until the end, "Bertram Cooper" sings. Mad men, indeed. Roll it!...
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