Comedy contests are only funny when I win, ergo, comedy contests are never funny.
Topics on the day include douchey comedy networking materials, getting a back rub while peeing, why comedy contests are just another ploy to screw comics, the myth of bisexuality and Bill Hicks resurected on Letterman. Are you gonna eat that urinal cake?
Email: brianmcomedy@gmail.com and give us a call on 206-203-4692
I can not believe anybody finds Bill Hicks funny. The Letterman clip was horrendous. Maybe it’s just me? Brian, the toilet bit at beginning of the show was very funny. I was on full toilet etiquette tilt as I am dealing with my own issues at work with “people” throwing their spent t.p. in the bin rather than flushing it.
Great show thanks,
RFig
Brian – actually you’re right on the money about the Bi stuff… The Kinsey Institute studied it and found out that guys are generally either totally straight or totally gay, but chicks are more flexible and can be pretty open about going either way. That’s part of why they might make out at a bar while their boyfriend is drooling and taking pictures of the whole thing.
Anyway, have you guys heard about the movie Funny People? It’s about stand-up and stars Adam Sandler as a superstar comic and Seth Rogen as an up-and-comer.
great show, as always.
Token Scott: I’ve actually been following the progress on funny people pretty closely. it seems solid enough and should paint a decent enough picture of stand up. in fact i believe guys like dave attel and norm macdonald have a few cameos. but apparently this is more about an illness or something. still I’m hopefull. Judd apatow has been on a roll and I would hate it if this was the one to suck and bring him down.
Back to the BTB episode: I agree with the opinion that comedy competitions are a little absurd. however for somebody like me a college competion can be pretty good for exposure.
like say i performed at the new jersey comedy festivel and three months later a booker from Comix Comedy Club asked me to perform on the new talent show as long as I brought “X” amount of people. yeah that would be worth it…i think.
I reviewed the previous thread to see where this “fight” was that Brian thought he saw re: business cards, and I realized that the way I phrased my post may have made it sound as if it were aimed at Ricardo. It wasn’t, just for the record.
I’ve thought about postcards, not to hand out but to mail as promo to book my own one-nighters.
I’ve also thought about bi-sexual hotties, especially ones in the market for a middle act to tag-team, and I support them 100%. Really, it’s OK, come on out.
Well fuck Brian, I never realised that the times I got all jizzy for my girlfriend were just me trying to maintain the illusion of a beard.Thanks for pointing that out to my brain and my cock. Jesus Christ, I had no idea that I was living this lie. It’s a good thing that everything’s binary though, suddenly its so much easier for me to decide things. Yes I am gay, no I am straight. Yes I am hungry, no I don’t feel like McDonalds. Yes I am republican, No I’ll vote for Obama. I’d better go tell either my previous boyfriends or current girlfriend that I’m just not that into them. And to think that I was really just into partners who I was attracted to and enjoyed the company of. Guess I should just flip a coin and go find the nearest piece of tail that matches its decision. Okay, the coin toss came up with a picture of a tuatara on it. What orientation is that meant to be?
Token Scot, that’s a common misrepresentation of what the Kinsey institute found. (ote this is the Kinsey institute, not Doctor Kinsey himself, whose original research methodologies were a little flawed and suspect. His Kinsey scale was notably unweighted, which was okay for a basic understandng of sexuality, but missed the statistical import of where sexualities fall.)
Essentially there were far more men (in the predominantly angloamerican focus groups), who identified wholly as heterosexual than any other orientation, which is unsurprising as that is the sociocultural norm. Of the “other orientations” there were far more who claimed to be wholly homosexual. However, when the studies were being done a meme in the U.S Queer community was that a bisexual male was just playing dress ups, or doing that David Bowie bisexual chic thing.
Either the bisexual was closeted and therefore hiding his orientation, and quite possibly a disease risk (“I’m not gay, so I can’t get aids.”) or they were out and while an out bisexual still had to go through the outting process, their commitment to the gay lifestyle was suspect because they could go all recedivist on the community and get a female partner. Because fuck, a bi guy gets access to all this sweet gay ass and has all those women to choose from too. It wasn’t at all that there are just far moe women than gay men, thereby making it statisticly far more likely that a bi male would find a female to partner with, no, it was becaus a bi guy just couldn’t cut it like the rest of the queers could.
This villifying and dismissing of bisexuals meant that during the initial interviewing process, many bisexuals either played up their hetero or homosexual experiences. “Survey data regarding stigmatized or deeply personal feelings or activities are often inaccurate. Participants often avoid answers which they feel society, the survey-takers, or they themselves dislike.” So, what was seen in the Kinsey institutes studies was a huge weighting on the extremes of 1 and 6, (ex het ex homo) with a rapid decline as you moved towards the middle. Other studies, that use data from else where in the anglosphere and Europe show a similar weighting, though the decline towards the middle is a lot less severe. We should also note that the Kinsey group are only the most famous of many groups that assess sexuality.
Where the cock is that tuatara? I need some lizard sex, stat.
God, I make out with a tuatara ONE TIME and never live it down!
was fobes the gay that came out of the closet?
I thought I was trying out a new bit, but thanks for the sexy history lesson Sando.
A quick note on comedy competitions… I think the easiest way to balance the “I’m only going to laugh at my friend” problem is to give each audience member the ability to vote for two or three different comics… They’ll give one vote to their friend, and the others to who they really thing are funny. I’ve seen it done and it seems to work…
Out…
—D
There was talk about headshots… here’s something I use them for:
OK… that didn’t work… but here’s a link to the head shot project…
http://i669.photobucket.com/albums/vv53/laganiere/SmilesFlyer20090225.jpg
Competitions are for losers!
Naw, I’ve entered a competition which will start in the spring but to be honest with everyone it’s only to get more gigs. Some of my new comedy buds are travelling all over the UK to take part in comps. One friend of mine, funny guy, been in about the same length of time as me took part in a ‘New Act’ comp in London last week…only to find that he was waiting around with some people who had been gigging for 3 years. He didn’t get through – he has no friends in London, poor sod!
That whole, bringing-your friends along thing – does everything have to be an American Idol/ X-Factor shout-a-thon?
Also, the thing about comps, they’re all dependent on 5-7mins of material. In a similar vein to LCS, how the fuck is that finding the best comic? I think of comics like Todd Barry and Marc Maron, how would they do in competitions? Who’s gonna satisfy the baying masses? Maron and his heartfelt thoughts about divorce and politics….or some Dane Cook-lite asshole talking about taking dumps in inappropriate places?
Mind you, you guys know what it’s like – as soon as you reach the semi-finals or even win a comp, it’s going straight on your resume!
It’s been all good in Nick’s comedy world – been talking about stuff I wanna talk about, with a good scene springing up here in the north east of England. Even the local comedy club has put on a new material night which was great to play on Monday; with its blinding lights and acoustics which enables you to hear nothing. My non-comedy friends came to see me for the first time on Sunday and I did well. One of them is in a band and invited me to support them. Who was it on here that did a similar thing? Joel Fry, rings a bell perhaps? I know B-mo discussed it but any tips from those involved on how to do it or email drop me a line for something more private. cranstoncomedy@gmail.com
RFig, in a way, I understand slightly where you’re coming from. I think that Hick’s appearances on Letterman (and he said so himself) were so not representative of his act. He was literally tying together acceptable one liners for a TV friendly 5 mins. Even that bit got cut. Any act I see on shows like that, I take with a pinch of salt.
You listened to any of Hicks’ albums? Even his One Night Stand on HBO is a far better presentation of his stuff than Letterman appearances.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1366476727111157120&ei=F0mlSZf3MI2grwLiyuWgBA&q=bill+hicks
Again, Hicks just wouldn’t thrive doing 5 mins for American Idol viewers – it’s his overall message and point of view that’s important.
Oh, and girls who like girls kick ass!
Does anybody know if Rascals comedy club is still in buisness? I apprently live near one but it doesnt seem to have a website. anybody know?
The Kinsey scale? For a second I thought I was at the blog-style comment thread for my other favorite podcast, Savage Love.
As my ex-neighbor Kurt said to me “Any man says he ain’t messed with ‘nother man’s jangles: HE LYING.”
Comedy contests are booty.
That’s why I threw a comedy pageant, with talent, interview, and no-pants portions. It was awesome, because you really got a chance to know the contestants. Celebrity judges determined the winner, who cried and hugged everyone as Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is” played. I am biased, but I thought it was one of the funniest shows I’d ever seen.
Last night was the best night of comedy ever!
We had the best audience our little club has ever had. They would laugh themselves sick if you read out of the phonebook. We had 21 comics go up over a three hour show and every single one of them knocked it out of the ballpark! The room had bulletproof energy… Almost every single comic has emailed asking to come back on the first available night… it was golden… and being a comic I just assume that means the next two shows are going to be complete shit.
— D
Patrick:
Rascals has been dead about a year and a half now, and that’s probably for the best. At the end, they were bouncing checks left and right (and you only got that rubber check if you happened to be there on a night that wasn’t double booked).
The wonderful manager of the old Montclair Rascals, Ed Cavanaugh, is currently managing the Comedy Cove in Springfield, NJ. He’s a great guy and a lover of comedy — their new talent night is on Thursdays. It’s worth getting in touch with them — Ed’s show is a bringer, but I know for a fact that he watches every comic and the one’s that show potential he definitely brings back for paid spots.
All the best,
–jayblack
thanks for the assist jay. i’ll definitly try to get to the comedy cove one of these days. im buying a car soon so the days of taking the bus to gigs will soon be over.
Did a guest spot with Auggie Smith tonight – first time I’ve seen him live. He has my vote for the next comic spotlight.
hey everybody, just did a short set at Comix in New york. if your ever considering seeing a show go to comix. its a really great room. I’m hopefully going to put my set online so I’ll let you know about that later.
Hey sando, if you get a chance, drop me an email asap. I have a question for you. Bring your Kinsey scale as a reference.
Chee! congrats patrick. hope it went well, was it a bringer show?
Patton Oswalt is recording a new CD!
http://www.pattonoswalt.com/index.cfm?page=events&id=209
I was at the 10pm show for the CD recording, and holy shit are we in for a treat.
Mike: yeah it was, they wanted fifteen and that got you a free dvd. however you could perform if you brought four. I think a averaged about nine. I did buy a DVD though because it went so well it mioght get me more gigs in the future. the only real problem I had was remembering my set, so i had to bring out my notebook, but i think i pulled it off. still i have to try to improve my memory
also:Patton Oswalt’s new cd is gonna rock. I saw him at carolines a few weeks ago and he’s talking about his family now in a very Louis CK way. it was really good.
Anybody see Flight of the Conchords last night? Patton was slyly dressed as Elton John.
Amusingly, on Sunday Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement were the first people nominated into the NZ Fringe Hall of Fame. This actually made sense, considering that their first gig as the Flight of the Conchords was at the Fringe Club which was kind of a precursor to the Chit Chat Lounge. Which is a late night Letterman talk show hosted by Derek Flores and Vinyl Burns. It’s that and their carreers were made much “betterer?” at the Edinburough Fringe. So, yeah, I’m cool with it, and who else but me matters?
Hey, a bunch of comics were being all emo about not getting reviewed this festival with even the big names not getting (unpaid) mentions. While most theatre pieces did get reviewed. Now, in NZ, one of the only ways to actually do your own show is to be part of the festival circuit, so not being reviewed can hurt your show’s success. And it does blow that the “theatre only” reviewers will be reviewing the comedy festival, because there is nothing out there but comedy, but… Well, wht’s the deal? What is review culture (?dumb word for it) like in the states or the UK? What ways do you lot get/use publicity? Is there an elitism thing everywhere? How abouts you just ramble at me, ’cause I don’t even know what I’m trying to ask?
Oh yeah, Brian, As per request, I sent you an email. Check your spam if you ain’tent recieved it.
Hey guys. I just wanted to say hello. I had been away from BTB and am glad to be back and hope to contribute to the boards more often.
Thanks for the link Nick. I will give it a shot.
Hey on the Bi topic: For a guy, if you take a dick in the ass then you are definatly GAY. No question.
On the headshots: I only have them because I was an actor before a stand up and you have to have them for that.