Dane Cook, Meet Lenny Bruce
May 9, 2007 · Print This Article
After bagging on a recent bloggers list of influential stand-up comics, Brian steps up and defends himself by creating a list of his own. Shockingly, names like Dane Cook and Jerry Seinfeld have been replaced by comics who who actually influential.
Listener topics include audition tapes, comedy vs. tragedy (an insiders perspective), and Screech doing stand up.
Finally, a rant of the week aimed at privileged celebrities, and a comic who has built an empire comparable to Oprah, only gayer.
Email: brianmcomedy@gmail.com
Give the show a call: 206-600-4325
Hey Brian. If we are really cheap bastards like me, and don’t want to call it in, but record it as an mp3 file, and then email to you, would that count as “calling it in”?
I was a big fan of ellen before even her shows. I used to watch her two specials. I think one was on HBO and maybe the other was showtime. “going through the castle again, wanna come?” And her tangent story about her aunt trudy in Guam always makes me laugh.
Paris: Can you start a petition to KEEP her in prison?
Mike - Absolutely! If you have the equipment to record an mp3, please do so and email it to me.
First off let me say that im really looking forward to next weeks episode. Along with Standup ive always loved sketch comedy and improv. Ever since I first saw SNL in the 90’s I was hooked(there was also an SNL: The 90’s special on last sunday so it was very nostalgic for me). After that I started watching Monty Python, SCTV, and The Kids In The Hall. But y’know I was very surprised when I found out a lot of Sketch stars did stand up. Adam Sandler, David Spade, Norm Mcdonald, and of course Chris Rock. I mean this whole situation has inspired me to create my own group called the “Jersey Jokers”. well have sketc, stand up and all sorts of funny stuff. although before i do that id like to go to second city for awhile to pick up some tricks. And then their are Improv performers like Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters. I have nothing but respect for improvisers and dispite the fact I;m a written ahead of time kinda guy I try to fit some improv in it every once in awhile. man its gonna be a good show.
First let me just say thank you Brian for answering my question and for reading it on the show! Second, my apologies for watching Celebrity Fit Club. I don’t know what came over me. I totally agree with you on Ellen. I think she is such an amazing comic. There is something about her style of comedy that is so appealing to eveyone.
I really liked the podcast with Kirk. I have to agree with him that after a tragedy accurs it is a good idea to go out and get some laughs. I hate when people that live so far away try and start crying and making it all personal.
Also, I saw on a different website about Paris Hilton going to jail and how there was a petition going around to keep her out. I have to laugh because that same site found a petition to get Paris Hilton to jail! At the time they annouced that there were 7,000 more signatures for her to go to jail. You always hear about celebrities that want to be treated like a “normal” person when they are being hassled by the paperatizzi. But the second they are in trouble with the law then they don’t want to be treated normal.
I would like to know since this is the womens month of stand up, have you seen any of Sara Rue’s material?
Great show!
Gilley
Nice shows, I liked last weeks too.
About celebs at NBA games. I thought it was funny last week when the Golden State Warriors was playing Dallas. There was Snoop Dog and some other celebs at the Oakland Arena, and my thoughts were that A: The team paid the celebs to be their, B: The NBA paid the celebs to be their, or C: The networks paid the celeb to be their.
Anyone who has been to where the Warriors play would know you would not go their unless you loved the warriors so much or needed some drugs. I’m sure there are worse parts in Oakland, but no celeb has been to a warrior game since Run DMC so I thought it was silly.
I’ll have to say when you said Gary Valentine and Kevin James were brothers, I thought there was some baby momma drama going on so I had to check it out. It turns out their real last name is Knipfing, (which I’m sure really rolls off the toungue in Alabama and places like that). I guess my question is, if you had a brother that looked practically like your clone, wouldn’t you take the same fake last name as him?
I love how Kevin cast Gary on King of Queens as his cousin. Just make him your fucking brother!
Brian, another great show, and thanks for reading some of my comments on the podcast. I actually found writing that post last week a lot more therapeutic than originally intended….
Anyway, wanted to throw out a topic suggestion (or just something to chat about here if you’d rather)… I was wondering what your take is on the Paul Provenza/Penn Jillette movie The Aristocrats. I know you’ve talked about Comedian, but I thought The Aristocrats captured a really interesting phenomenon in stand-up that seems to be mostly behind the scenes and almost never for the benefit of an audience. My questions for you:
– The movie covered almost exclusively an older or at best middle-aged demographic of comedians… is this joke still floating around very prevelantly with younger comics?
– Who is the first person to tell you his/her version of The Aristocrats? Who told you your favorite version?
– And, of course… what’s your version of The Aristocrats? (c’mon, we can handle it!)
I’ve been curious about this for several weeks now, so I look forward to your response…
Great question Dave. I’ll definitely use it on an upcoming episode. Keep ‘em coming.
Paris Hilton, I bet she is afraid of being pounded in the ass in prison…. wait she doesnn’t mind that at all!
Maybe it’s the no cameras in prison, or the no text messaging, or maybe….
Hell, she should be more upset that she is a blight on all of the celebutards in hollywood. She is famous for what? her granddads wealth?
Dave has an excellent request…Bmos version of the aristocrats. I wanna huge segment of that!
For sketch comedy, give me The Carol Burnett Show.Every bit as good as SNL, Kids In The Hall, Monty Python, etc…..
I just wanted to weigh in on improv, and I may catch some crap for this, but I can’t stand it. I used to do some improv back in school and it became very obvious to me that “improv” is anything but impromptu. Improv is memorizing a bunch of setups and praying that you can insert that setup into whatever situation you get put in. It can be impressive to watch, and it can be entertaining, but to me it is not “smart” comedy. I NEVER watch improv and remember the jokes more than 30 minutes after it’s done, I can remember great standup that I watched years ago because it was so clever.
I listened to an interview with Tracy Morgan (holy shit, that guy is an AMAZING interview, watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOhKrL5DB1Y they say that he was wasted, but I’ve heard two or three interviews where he does the same thing) who said that on a scale from 1 to 10 of difficulty, people think improv is a 10 but is really a 5, and that people think sketch comedy is a 6 when it is really a 9. I agree, because smart sketch comedy (like Morgan’s Brian Fellow’s character on SNL) relies on smart writing to make it truly funny and memorable while improv relies on being able to think quickly which rarely results in smart, memorable lines.
Just my thoughts, can’t wait to hear what T-Dutch says about it.
This is a tangent, but Molly Shannon did a really funny parody of a certain type of stand up last night. I really thought that it was funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjrFCl-s8NU&mode=user&search=
I am still a sucker for SNL, even after all of these years.
I must admit that I was expecting a bigger show of support from improv lovers, but Brandon, I might as well not give my take, because you nailed it. I have done a deal of improv, and it’s really only improv the 1st time. After that it’s forcing the situation to places you’ve been 100 times.
I am a huge fan of improv! I didn’t improv way before stand up. I really enjoy the sketch comedy. SNL of course, kids in the hall was a great one, and the one on MTV called “the state” was fantastic! That was short lived though. But you can’t put improv and stand up into the same catagory because its two totally different generas. However, laughter is laughter. They are both to make people laugh generally. And that is unverisal.
sorry ment to say “i did improv was before stand up.”
you know it’s funny. alot of people say they dont like SNL anymore. but it’s probably the most influencial comedy program in the world. even more so then Monty python probably. well maybe not but still pretty influencial.
No doubt that it’s influential, but that probably has more to do with the first 25 years, and not so much the last 10. Once every couple of weeks I tune in to snl hoping it’s gonna be great, but with the exception of sporatic sketches, I always leave diappointed.
Funny you say that BMO. I watched the 1990’s snl thing they did a week or 2 ago, and the ones you say you like (with Sandler, Spade, Farley, Norm, etc) were totally panned by the critics. It was no coincidence that only Spade, Tim Meadows and Norm were back asked back, and of course Norm gets fired for not being funny later on. Adam Sandler is successful now, but I think he was a “you love him or hate him” guy on SNL. I laughed when he was on, but some of his stuff was pretty dumb. I kind of got the impression that Lorne Michaels was a lot happier with the show after all of these guys left (the Will Ferrel era) than he was before. I’ll have to say, I hate Weekend Update now. It used to be the one part of SNL I made sure I watched. It is not great now. How can you call Norm not funny and think Seth Myers or Amy Poehler are funny?
well darcy it’s not that people thought norm wasnt funny, but he was kicked out becuase he wouldent stop making O.J. Simpson jokes. I think that O.J and the vice president were freinds or something. i dunno.
I believe Norm was fired after saying fuck live on the air, was brought back, then said fuck live on the air again.
I agree with you Darcy, the end of that era got pretty lame. But Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman were probably two of the greatest cast members of all time.
Carvey’s career has certainly cooled. I was listening to the Real Time podcast the other day, that guy is a less funny version of Robin Williams. They’d be sitting there talking about the war in Iraq or whatever, and Carvey would do Bush Sr or church lady or something. Hey Dana, look up the word “irrelevant” in the dictionary, I’m sure your act gets referenced in the definition.
I agree with you about Hartman though. He was the backbone of the show as far as I was concerned. I loved him as Jesus.
I referenced this particular episode in my blog, post entitled “Minorities in Comedy,” (July 2007). Brian, I would to say I really enjoy your show. I feel it’s really important to communicate to wider/more mainstreams audience about comedy from behind the scenes–that there is a history to comedy and the politics that still play a role. I’m a budding comedienne myself and I’m documenting my ascent through the ranks of comedy. Granted, I’m a female so my point of view is vastly underrepresented. And for that reason I feel is very important that my (our) story be told. Thank you again!
Hey Lucy. Thanks for the kind words. It seems like we’re on the same wavelength as you pretty much nailed down my motive for starting the show. Feel free to post a link to your blog, I know I would be interested in hearing about your experience.