Dan Tessitore Goes Behind The Bricks
May 22, 2008 · Print This Article
As much as Brian would like to believe he knows everything about every aspect of comedy, as a young upstart he can’t intelligently discuss the benefits of starting older. Luckily comic and BTB heavyweight Dan Tessitore is here to share his expertise.
Topics on the day include shitty puppets, the return of Last Comic Standing, meeting a comedy legend, divorcing over the price bananas, getting fired over a hacky tune, and Canadian absurdity strikes again. Holy shit! It’s Steven Baldwin!
Email: brianmcomedy@gmail.com and give us a call on 206-203-4692
Who are you calling “heavyweight?”
I’m big-boned.
Sorry, I just assumed…
Good news all, we are supposedly getting a Funnybone comedy club here deep in the heart of Bum-Fuck Egypt (i.e. Wheeling, WV.). Currently I’d have to drive an hour to see anyone at the Improv or another Funnybone so I’m happy I can drive 10 minutes up the road get loaded and have a good time. Not sure this is the best market for a comedy club but I hope it works out. Brian I’ll do what I can to pimp your podcast out.
At this point maybe I’ll try and get a job there.
Hey Brian,
Yah you mentioned some smack about Mencia this show. (always appropriate) I just wanted to bring up an article that ran on Cracked the other day. “Carlos Mencia’s the Funniest Person on the Planet”
What the fuck? I can’t believe that Cracked actually allowed that shit on their site. I had respect for those assholes. But yah I left a diatribe of a comment after it because it was fucking twilight zone shit.
that’s my peace
out
-Garett
The Mencia article is meant to be ironic and sarcastic. It’s not sincere in the least.
What do you guys think about this?
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=182293259&blogID=397750649&Mytoken=21B34DFB-744B-4092-ABECB3AA1DB894A835053425
What do you fellas think about this event in Austin?
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=182293259&blogID=397750649&Mytoken=21B34DFB-744B-4092-ABECB3AA1DB894A835053425
Sina.
Yeah, you missed the mark dude, but maybe if Cracked had included a couple of winkys you would have seen that they were joking and we wouldn’t be in this awful cracked situation right now.
Fucking Cracked, and their photoshop contests that actually amuse me for some reason.
God I hate emoticons. AMIRITE?!
Am I your 3rd female listener? I just finished listening to all the episodes. I love the show and the emphasis on the behind the scene part of stand up but must admit as a female it is difficult to listen to some of the stuff you say.
Today at work I didn’t know what to do without having your show to listen to.
Hopefully I will write more in the future.
Cat
Lemme say a few more things that my voicemail didn’t cover, since apparently when I get on the phone, I’m a stuttering mess.
The Kid (Kidd?) Chris show, for anyone not familiar with it, is really all you heard in the clip: hacky jokes and gratuitous amounts of laughing. They laugh like that most of the time. I really don’t like Kid Chris all that much and what I was trying to say in the voicemail is, how does this not have the publicity of the Imus comment?
When “Captain Nappy Headed Ho” said what he said, everyone was up-in-arms about it for a long time. This Kid Chris thing is kinda blown over already. Now, there’s an argument to be made that Kid Chris isn’t as nearly as popular or as respected as Don Imus in the radio industry, but even so, the song on Kid Chris was meant to be racist. Humorous? Maybe. But it was that Mencia-type humor meant to yield a reaction. The joke was funny (or, tried to be) because the obviously lovely and talented Ms. Gash knew it would offend people.
Imus just kinda said a comment.
Maybe the publicity lay in the controversy, but it seems this whole thing is very much downplayed.
In my opinion it has to do with how specific Imus’ comments were. That song is just a run of the mill hacky racist song, but Imus referred to a specific group of young women. Not saying it’s any better, but I think that’s where it came from.
Hey B-mo,
speaking of ten worst comics from Mike how about getting him back to do it again. As far as I know, he’s never done it on BTB….maybe he’s changed his mind about come of it? It’s been over a year and a half?
Nick
And B-mo, the worst thing about that song was the hack stereotypes and the terrible singing from that woman!
I think Kid Chris should have been fired just for the crappy comedy.
Anyway, there’s something I probably should have mentioned in response to one of Brian’s questions. Though I agree there are advantages to starting - or just doing - comedy later, just because I may have had a head start in the writing department does not mean I didn’t have to learn, and am still learning, how to actually develop an act. There’s no way to skip the process of learning on stage.
And peanut butter is the food of the gods. I highly recommend the non-hydrogenated-oil varieties for superior peanut buttery goodness.
Welcome Cat. I can’t stress enough how dangerous it is to listen to all of the BTB episodes back to back, but I’m glad you made it out the other side. I have to admit that my mouth (along with my face in general) is one of the reasons females have been repulsed by me for the better part of 2 decades. It’s also why no matter how crazy my wife makes me at the store, I’m not going anywhere. There’s something about a girl who will tell you to “fuck off” that makes me crazy. I’m glad you’re here Cat and look forward to hearing more from you!
BTW - Who’s your favorite comic? I’ll play them next week as a welcome to our 3rd female listener.
I was disgusted listening to the Lady Gash song .
Ruining a classic Blondie track just for a hack song parody?!!!
These people make me sick!!
.
Loved the interview with Dan btw. The dude speaks a lot of sense.
And really dug the Harland Williams clip. Have only seen him before in film cameos in all the Farrely Brothers movies, but will definitely check out his solo stand-up .
Speaking of funny guys in Farrelly Bros movies, check out Lee Evans. He’s Tucker (broken back guy) in Something About Mary. He’s pretty damn funny. I saw video of him playing some giant stadium that must have seated at least 15,000 people. It was ridiculous.
Has anyone seen the montage that Punchline put together about pros dealing with hecklers? Pretty good stuff. It’s got a bunch of Todd Barry and George Carlin and a bunch of others.
I’m all for free speech. Everything (yes, everything) should be an open target for humour. BUT there are some topics that are perhaps best left to the super-comedians, or, at the very least, should be off-limits to hacks. “What’s the deal with chemotherapy?” is just bad policy, as was Lady Gash’s whole song.
Dan mentioned a couple names and some sort of booking list during the interview. One name I caught was Joe pace. Didnt get the other one. Anyways, how would one get on said list? Who do I have to blow?
So, I watched Last Comic Standing the other night. Now, I’d like to say that I had never watched LCS before, almost at all. I caught maybe two or three episodes of the (2nd?) Season, when John Heffron won. But other than that, I wasn’t real interested.
But, I’m committing myself this time, and the first episode of this season was New York City and Tempe, Arizona (who knew there was an Improv at Tempe?! Maybe I’m very east coast centric, but is Tempe even a big city?)
Did anyone else think the alien was hilarious?! Okay, it’s an alien, whatever. But no one else has done an alien, or at least not that I’ve seen, and he has an awesome voice to fit the costume. I thought it was awesome, and he should have been brought in the house and stayed in character the whole time.
The “Alien Warrior Comedian” has a youtube clip:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o6CWX88ZMqE
And, really, it’s not that bad, at least not his crowd work, which always sounds at least kinda hacky. I’m a fan.
Maybe it’s because I know that the selection process is rigged, but it seems to me like the judges are really forcing their laughs and digging for something nice to say. Did anyone else get that?
Tempe is essentially Phoenix, but those elitist bastards want to pretend that each neighborhood deserves it’s own name (I’m shaking my non-typing fist right now). The Improv has been there for ever. I worked there exactly 1 time in my AZ days and the crowds are pretty great, but the people who run the club take themselves waaaaaaay to seriously just because of the name.
The Alien was ok. I felt the same way ;ast year with Mel Silverback, the guy who performed in a gorilla costume. I laughed my ass off every time he was on stage, but I realized that 3 minutes at a time is probably all I could stand. After an hour I would be looking to hang myself.
I also want to give a shout out to my boy Robert Mac. I thought he was going to make it through but got edged out. I definitely have a lot to say on Thursday.
For those of you who are watching LCS, I have some insider info about 2 people that are in the final 7. I don’t want to get them in trouble by speaking of it publicly but if anyone wants to know, just email me.
As for the audition process, I don’t think it’s rigged. Neither of these two guys have any real connections to the industry and they are fairly new to comedy. One has been doing comedy for 5 years and the other one for 2 years. But they are both headlining clubs for the last year. I used to think they were rigged but after auditioning I’ve learned that, while the later weeks in the season are rigged, the auditions are actually very fair.
Sina.
re: bookers
http://www.chucklemonkey.com/bookers.htm
http://members.aol.com/bookerlist/comlist.html
I think I remember hearing somewhere that the final ten were rigged. And that just means that there are X amount of slots, minus ten rigged ones.
Or the comedians that get to go to the house are all rigged.
Anyone have any real insight?
Freedom of speech belongs to the person who owns the microphone.
Speaking of freedom of speech. The joke that got bleeped at the end is that his dad got the Fucking Log Ride Tattooed on the top of his ass so every time he takes a shit he feels like a kid again. Thats my guess anyway. If you are still taking requests for comedians, I’d love to hear some Brian Posehn. He’s one of my faves.
Yeah, I second Mr Posehn, he;s from that school of comics like Patton Oswalt and Zach Gala-whatever who I note hasn’t been played before! Let’s hear him!
I wouldn’t say that the audition process is rigged, but I also wouldn’t say that it’s about finding the funniest comics. It has a lot to do with your look and trying to fill a reality show with diverse people. I saw Robert Hawkins in the background of the Tempe auditions. He’s easily in my top 2 underrated comics list. One of the funniest human beings I have ever worked with. But he also happens to be a 30 something white guy (like everyone else who auditions) and he probably wasn’t given a fair shot. Wait, maybe I am saying it’s rigged.
RUNNING LATE, so can’t type full sentance:
Want to discuss this though:
http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/does_music_belong_in_humor_15
Will do lata.
Off to gig, west.
By the way, gotta give MAJOR props to Andy and his friend from Ames, Don Watts, who competed in the Comedy Splash Stand-up Showdown 2008 over at Billy Joe’s Pitcher Show here in DSM. Both qualified for the Finals, which will be held this Thursday. If anyone is in the area, I highly suggest coming down and checking out the show, it’s going to be a fantastic night of comedy with 10 of the funniest comics from around the Midwest competing.
As a non-comic (yet) and hearing all these rumours about the setup and fixup of LCS can I just ask the comics on here….would you STILL audition? Simply is any stage time worth it? Even full knowing you couldn’t even get too far.
Yup. In a heartbeat. Why?
1) I’m in college–I have nothing to do most of the time and I can’t imagine that will stay the same after college, so I’ll try now, rather than want to later and didn’t. Kinda coincides with the “bucket list” idea.
2) What if, referring to what Brian was saying about diversity, they decide they need a 18 year old kid? I’m not saying I’m the best college-aged comic in the area, but I may be the only one that day. Then, if I make it to the first show, I have the possibility to get some time on NBC, prime time slot. (Or, prime time-ish). Regardless of whether I do well or not on that show, it’ll be clipped together to seem as though I did.
3) The credit. If nothing else, I can say I was on Last Comic Standing. Granted, I can probably say that now without a problem, but it’s easier on the conscience if the credits are at least somewhat true. Also, another credit may be “performed with *LCS winner*.”
yeah, i think I’d audition as well — but only, in a way, because i’m so amateur at comedy.
i’ll explain… i’m a professional musician (have put out records, toured, etc) and so i no longer rush out to play at open mics (or, on American Idol). i’m def. an amateur comedian, and i DO rush out to do time at open mics, and would probably try LCS. of course, now i’ve implied that everyone who tries out for LCS is a complete amateur… but that’s not what i’m saying. those reality shows just have so much of the magical “rags to riches”, “undiscovered talent”, “American dream” type stuff to them, like the Eminem of stand-up is gonna emerge victorious. and clearly, that Eminem is me…….. *cough*
Hey, Patrick AKA Smiley, I’ve been trying to find a way to get in touch with you that isn’t this message board, but your site doesn’t have a place for comments or contact, so if you read this email me: blues.hat (at) gmail.com.
Thanks man.
woah, a couple of my posts yet to appear and they weren’t even inflammatory.
One was a delightful link to the Onion shitty novelty songs post, which is slightly relevant to the earlier shrogies? what is a shrogie, in terms of racism, obviously it means a black person, but is it more specific or anything? I dunno, you Americans turn nonsense words into big evil things at a rate that leaves the rest of the world umm… still using words like dork, or egg. Wait, damn, Brian made this joke on air, and i’ve just… eh, I’m sure no one will notice.
Anyways:
http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/does_music_belong_in_humor_15
Ah novelty songs.
Listening to the segment on celebrity run-ins reminded me of mine.
Five years ago, while in New York City, I was running late for the start of a Broadway show after a nice, but slow, dinner. My friend and I were high-tailing it down a side street, when the side door of a theater opened and out emerged a man right in my path. When you are as large as I am, stopping short isn’t an option, and I waylaid the guy flat onto the pavement. Before I had a chance to look and see who I hit, my friend screams at the top of her lungs, “Holy Shit, you killed Gandalf.”
That’s right, I had just run over Sir Ian McKellen, who stood up, brushed himself off, and said, “You, sir, should have been a fucking orc.” He then walked off. I laughed so hard I thought I would pee my pants.
We missed the start of our show by seven minutes, thanks my run-in with Gandalf.
Just wanted to say one thing about last comic standing. I missed the airing of the Houston week out of principle. Apparently I got on there for a few minutes. Not doing comedy mind you. I was eating Bar BQ.
Honestly that works fine with me because you can be damn sure Im gonna be putting “As seen on Last Comic Standing” on my resume. Booya