Comedian Robert Mac Goes Behind The Bricks
August 28, 2008 · Print This Article
Brian invites a fellow Arizona boy to hang out today. Robert Mac, soo to be seen on the Late Show stops by to discuss his career, the future of stand up, and his appearance on Last Comic Standing (Here’s a preview, it’s rigged).
Other topics include acting natural in the most unnatural environment on Earth, why bombing on purpose only sounds like a good idea, and another BTB comedy virgin takes the plunge. Know More Robert Mac!
Email: brianmcomedy@gmail.com and give us a call on 206-203-4692
I guess it depends on my mood whether Norm McDonald is funny to me. That interview was pretty damn funny though.
I don’t know what’s worse non-comics trying their hand or comics like playing parts in non-comedic movies. Robin Williams can pull it off but I can’t remember when he did stand-up last not to mention he’s clean now.
On another note I think I’m going to Hell if, in fact, there is an afterlife. I’m listening to another podcast and they are interviewing a boy of maybe 10-13 years of age and the entire time he’s talking I’m laughing because he sounds like a prepubescent Emo Philips.
sweet, a double decker clip with macdonald and conan. thats my kind of interview
Xnynobis what podcast are you talking about? I want to hear it.
I wish every poor comic that waited in line in freezing cold to audition for that sham of a show could hear the interview this week. The fact that only a few from the open called were even brought back to perform later that night is bull shit. Thanks again Mac!
Las Vegas Comedy Club Report-Avram Quinn
My wife and I went to the L.A. Comedy Club at Trader Vic’s which is just outside the Planet Hollywood. I really thought our gamble on stand up was going the way of my casino play this trip with my chip stack heading straight to the felt. The show opened with the emcee a d.j. from local radio station he was absolutely horrible. Then an 80+ year old granny came up and told “dirty jokes” she was ok and told a couple of funny jokes but not really something I would have paid for. Next up was Nancy Ryan she was so bad my wife and I were ready to throw in the towel and walk out. Her racist Asian jokes aimed at a woman in the front were not funny but cringe worthy (the woman left and I do not think she returned and its not that racist jokes are not funny see Jackie Mason or Don Rickles). She then broke out the cheap and tired Nascar redneck jokes again its not that I do not like that it was that hers were just bad and not funny. Then she looks right at my wife and says “some people on this side of the room obviously have not had enough to drink and are not laughing” She had a point because only a drunk frat boy could find her act funny. Just when we were about to give up on the night Avram Quinn a.k.a. Todd Paul took the stage and redeemed the whole night. He was fantastic and reminded us of how great it is to see good live stand up comedy. I would highly recommend his act to anyone. If anyone is going to the L.A. Comedy in Vegas there are 2 for 1 deals on the internet just google it and print out the voucher.
RFig
I found Leonardo Lugnut’s rant on the lack of quality in American beer fascinating. And this isn’t the first time I’ve heard beer from the USA get a drubbing by it’s own people .
So Is it really that bad over there?
( and is Duff Beer from The Simpsons a coded message by Matt Groenig on this whole issue of American ale?)
As a Brit beer lover, I guess I prefer the European brew for their strength and their taste..
The only American beers I’ve ever downed have been Budweiser or Coors served by the pint in chain bars. They were chilled and fizzy, but not exactly the tastiest or the smoothest .
(But I hear Blue Ribbon beer is supposedly even worse? )
.
Don’t knock American beer. I find Sam Adams one of the best beers in the world. I’ve been to The Czech Republic and Bavaria and toured many breweries, but would still rank Sam Adams above them all. British beer is strange, you have a market dominated by absolute piss like Carling or Stella, yet a pint of cask ale pulled by hand by a bar maid is one experience I return to England time and time again for.
Still nothing comes close to Guinness of course!
Here’s the thing; the lowest common denominator beer of your home land is often touted as a beverage of taste in other countries. Fosters, for example is treated with disdain in Australia and bud’ is being sold as a premium beer in some of NZ’s speciality beer pubs and bottle shops. At least Kilkenny and Guinness are distinctive tasting Irish reds and dry stouts respectively, so to perfer one over other similar brands isn’t insane, unlike say Hienekin vs. Steinlager. You’ve got to love how screwed in the head it all is.
“British beer is strange, you have a market dominated by absolute piss like Carling or Stella, yet a pint of cask ale pulled by hand by a bar maid is one experience I return to England time and time again for”.
Yeah - it’s weird that there’s still not a truly great British lager yet made (least of all Carling - UGH!)- but we are pretty good at brewing bitters, ales and cider.
(btw Brian C - between you and me - has cider always been a traditonal Irish drink? I ask after seeing the success of Magners .
Is that a traditonal Irish brew? Or is some London based advertizing agency just using the romantic Irish tag to resell cider served in half-pint glasses with loads of ice to the British public?)
Ricardo, it’s funny but as I started to write this an ad for Bulmers came on the TV. Magners is called Bulmers in Ireland, and for years was considered a very cheap drink mostly drunk by teenagers in car parks. Most other brands of cider still have that label. But about 15 years ago they had a marketers dream when they the whole down to earth people enjoying a glass of Bulmers with ice in seasonally appropriate settings and the thing skyrocketed. They then exported it to the UK and America under the name Magners as they only owned the ulmers name in Ireland.
The whole Magners thing leads to a lot of drunken Irish people in bars around the UK or US becoming really patriotic and demanding that we refer to the drink as Bulmers and not Magners, we didn’t fight for 800 years to have them Brits call our cider by some other name!
Still can’t tell the difference between Bulmers and any of those other “scumbag” ciders.
Stick to the Irish stout and you wont go wrong!
Wow - Brian C - i’ve known the brand name Bulmers since a kid, but always assumed it to be some English scrumpy from the west country or somewhere. Never knew it to be an Irish brew.
Got to give it to those advertising men to transform a drink only previously enjoyed by Irish teens in carparks wanting to get drunk on a budget into a cool hip drink enjoyed by middle income yuppies all over the UK!
It makes you wonder if those Ad people could transform any scuzzy drink into the latest trendy tipple just by a glossy TV ad showing soft-focus shots of the drink in question in a tall frosted glass loaded with ice being drunk in slow motion by some cool and impossibly beautiful model.
(Look out for the imminent Thunderbird wine revival! )
Sorry to cut the talk about beer short (it is a workign day now) but i’ve got a little bone to pick with Norm MacDonald if he DID purposefully bomb at the Bob Saget roast.
all criticisms about roasts and this specific one in general aside, I imagine it is watched by a lot of people as well as many in the industry. Rather than taking his stand, Norm could have stepped aside and given his five minutes to a struggling up and comer, someone who may need that five to reach that next rung of the comedy ladder. Surely that would mean something better than going all ‘Andy Kaufman’ on our ass?
Nick
I think the Bulmers you know is a different company and the reason that it is called Magners in the UK. I’m sure the English Bulmers is pretty rank too.
I did hear that Alan Partridge’s tipple of choice ‘Blue Nun’ brand wine is expected to make a comeback in 2009. It’ll be interesting how they make that seem “aspirational”.
Nick - I don’t think he “bombed on purpose”. He had an an idea, took a risk, and people weren’t on board. I’m sure he would have preferred that the audience piss themselves laughing.
Well then maybe he did it for Saget and the rest of the comics; they probably got what he was doing, do you think?
Carrot Top wasn’t there this year was he? He was at the Gene Simmons Roast1
That’s very possible. Norm and Sagat are pretty good friends, which is actually nice to see. One of the cool things about the old Dean Martin roasts is that all the people knew each other. I hate that Comedy Central just throws “their” comics into the mix, no matter who is being roasted. It completely contradicts the “We only roast the one’s we love” idea when the people roasting you are complete strangers.
So that bill burr special was pretty good. i really liked his material on supressing his psychotic urges.
I, too, was disappointed with MacDonald’s performance at the Saget roast. That is until I reviewed it on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggfe1KK7DNI
and chortled my ass off then got choked up by the genuine bro love at the end. Norm is the master of what I call “post-ironic” comedy. That is to say that he plays with the usual joke format of a set-up followed by an ironic twist by doubling back to the original idea. For example you might remember the jokes that got him into trouble at SNL. Instead of “blah blah O.J. Simpson trial” followed by “clever punch suggesting that O.J. might be guilty” he ended every joke with “O.J. Simpson is a murderer”. So I really don’t think his set on the roast was out of character for him.
Lugnut: In the spirit of fraternal support for our small community I won’t criticize your comedic rant further than questioning your borderline racist conclusion. Suggesting that Bud Lime and Cheladas are marketed to Mexicans is akin to saying that Olive Garden is marketed to Italians. They’re marketed towards the same Americans that believe KFC bowls and Hot Pockets are a good idea. Hey, some young comic should run with those premises.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms0TqQEgl30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9c9lAfXQHs