It’s A Comedy Ho-Down!
November 8, 2007 · Print This Article
The time has finally come to discuss musical comedy. It it a unique art form that gives comedy fans another level of entertainment to enjoy, or just a cheap gimmick to insure applause? 60 minutes investigates.
Other topics include alternative comedy,Republicans with alternative lifestyles, the “biggest” hack in comedy, the road comics guide to love, and the musical comic that started it all. Hello Muddah.
Email: brianmcomedy@gmail.com and give us a call on 206-203-4692
Hey guys, I want to chime in if it is alright.
The Flight of the Conchords, best musical comedy group as of late, in my opinion. Their original standup, if you want to call it that, was friggin great!
They now have an HBO special called, you guessed it, Flight of the Conchords. Their website is;
http://www.conchords.co.nz/
Anywho, they are a New Zealand duo who have just a great sense of humor. They play on the fact that most Americans assume they are British due to their accent, or at least in their special they do.
On stage, their songs are creative, catchy and funny. I would strongly suggest you guys check them out if you haven’t yet.
That is my two cents.
Sorry I haven’t been contributing much as of late, but I am listening to each podcast, and the show just keeps getting stronger. Keep up the great job, all of you.
Just to throw in a correction the song “Hello Muddah” is by Alan Sherman, not Tom Leherer.
Hey B-Mo, terrific show.
The radio interview went great; since it took place in a college town, I was able to do some of my material about living in dorms and stuff that never works onstage in front of an older (or younger) crowd. The first time you do something like that is probably the most fun, no? I can imagine it would get tedious after 8 years of doing it, but I’m so enthralled and in love with the entire process of promoting, writing, performing, and any other “ing” that involves stand-up comedy right now.
I like Weird Al, too. When I’m around other people, I pretend that I don’t until I find out whether or not they’re “cool.” So Weird Al is like my pot.
Hey Bmo,
Ted beat me with the correction…
I enjoy some musical comedy, and as far as it goes, Tom Lehrer is one of the best. As a former math professor, his songs are very intelligent and satirical at the same time. Some of my favorite of his songs are “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,” “The Masochism Tango,” and “The Elements”.
Hey Brian,
I wanted to get your opinon and others opinons on the writers strike. Do you think that since the writers are out the studios will turn to comedians for writers? I know comedians are the bastard step-children of the entertainment industry so what would they have to lose? Nothing is getting written anyway so why not let good working comedians have a shot? I believe there is a lot of really good undiscovered stand up comics out there that just needs a shot.
Sorry about the misinformation and thanks for the correction. I really wasn’t familiar with Tom Lehrer, and when Camp Grenada came up on a search I assumed it was him.
Hi Everyone,
Sorry I didn’t message last week. I think some British writers might get some work from these shows that are striking. If it takes a strike to stop Family Guy being made then a strike we need lol.
Great show, but a little niggle on 2 things. When I saw the mention of Hello Muddah in the podcast description,next to the musical comedian ,I assumed you were going to play Allan Sherman - the guy who wrote and sang Hello Mudda. Great to hear Tom Lehrer instead though!
Also, the term Alternative Comedy dates from the 197o’s Uk comedy scene of the same name, and easily predates all the other uses of the word in phrases like alternative rock, or alt-country.
Check out a brief history of Alternative Comedy here(though it being Wikipedia, don’t take all of it as being 100% accurate) :
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_comedy[/url]
This is all guess work and not an educated opinion, however I would imagine a lot of comedies in the LA area work as writers or associate enough with writers that they wouldn’t want to cross the picket line.
As I recall, Lewis Black almost always starts off his albums talking about the location he’s in. It seems to work. Made me want to visit Wisconsin in the summertime (which is, as it turns out, is absolutely beautiful)
Did ya miss me?
Hey Brian loved the show again this week, glad you played White and Nerdy, love that song, especially as i heard it before the song its a parody of. The other song was pretty good too, but it sounded like you were saying it was an old song, is that correct? But very funny anyway.
Wasn’t as keen on Flight of the Conchords from last week as i said, tryed watching the BBC4 program last week, but after a few minutes i wasn’t taken so didn’t bother ( i’m very fickle, if i’m not hooked from the start…)
Great show, but one little niggle.
The term Alternative Comedy comes from the late 70’s Uk comedy scene , and predates all the other uses of the term, like Alternative Rock and Alt-Country , by some way. The term is credited to Tony Allen, comedian and promoter of the original Alternative Comedy club, The Alternative Cabaret in Ladbroke Grove, London.
Just been watching some comedy on Paramount from the Montreal Comedy Festival and saw a clip for a female comic which i didn’t even bother to watch and fast forwarded. Whats the female comic scene like in America ( apologies if this has been covered before ). The majority of female comics in the UK i’ve seen are usually pretty dire, are there any that are really big over there?
Here’s a very good female comic from australia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwb4pPDjTaY
I went to Disneyworld for my kid’s 10th B-day, and haven’t thought about anything funny this week. So instead, if you worry about global warming, check this out:
http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/comments_about_global_warming/
Sorry, I don’t understand how to simply post as a link. But this is well worth the read, so check it out. FAIR WARNING: it has nothing to do with comedy. all politics.
Hey Leonardo,
What’s your take on all these republicans turning up in dubious but hilarious sexual positions with an assorted amount of dildos/women’s clothing?
I miss the good old days when all they did was deliver divorce papers to their wife on her death bed or allow tomato ketchup to be classed as one of your 5 a day.
Oh dear me, I’m getting a bit whimsical……
Nick
I’m only ribbing you Leonardo btw, I enjoy your thoughts every week mate!
Hey B-Mo (and all other comics)
you ever done any corporate gigs? I’ve heard a lot about them some saying they’re the arena of the devil but others saying they’re awesome fun……..and very well paid!
Nick
C-Jack and Dan… ooh, we’re encroaching on that dangerous topic that keeps cropping up, dunno if Brian wants to address it… or if it has been addressed: the “women aren’t funny” stereotype.
C-Jack, I think it’s too big a generalization to say that the majority of the female comics in the UK are pretty dire - Dan’s example of Sarah Kendall who I’ve never seen do anything but storm it at a gig is a good on… What I will say is that perhaps it depends on the circuit you’re looking at… some of my favourite comedians are women working on the “alternative” circuit, primarily focusing on Edinburgh… and it’s there that you get a real variety, really individual female comics, in contrast, often, to the sometimes undistinct, laddish comic type that male comics sometimes have…
So I think the stereotype of female comics only talking about husbands and periods (a la Jenny Eclair) is going to go away fairly quickly. But, then again, it’s what you like, really. Maybe I’m guilty of generalizing too - there’s nothing more different than Josie Long’s whimsical stories and Susan Murray’s nasty swearathons.
Anyways, this is a very long post that has only UK references, but from what I know of the American scene, my favourite female comics are Maria Bamford, Jen Kirkman, and Sarah Silverman.
I think the steretype of unfunny women is fading quikly. ive met a few a few aspiring comdiannes and i think theyve got some great stuff. especially now with good female comics popping up all over the airwaves.
hey i just want to say im back after being out for two month in the hospile i am back home where i belong.(dam doctors breaking my leg in surgury)
Well, Nick, since you asked, and I realize it was in good humor, I think there are “scoundrels” on both sides of the aisle. But when Duke Cunningham takes a bribe he is derided by his party, then resigns his seat, then goes to jail; when William Jefferson gets caught with $100,000 in his freezer, he runs for office again and is re-elected. I don’t recall anyone in his party denounce his actions, but some may have.
I heard an interview on the radio at the weekend with a British stand up, Jack Dee, who also hosts a TV comedy showcase (for want of a better word) called Live at the Apollo on the BBC in the UK. The show format is he does 10 minutes, then two comics do 20 minute sets and he wraps up with a closing 10 minutes or so. This series I believe they’ll be using different hosts as well.
The comment he made that I found interesting was that he didn’t think that most TV showcases did a good job of showing the best of a comic.
Obviously seeing anything live is better than recorded but, short of dying on your arse, can a TV special be counter productive for a comic?
Hahaha Leonardo,
Touche!
Politicians eh? I’ve had the “honour” of working for a few….they’re just as bad in the UK. We can’t even keep a hospital clean…
Nick
Cheers for the link Dan, gotta admit quite amusing.
Brody, don’t even mention Jenny Eclair, god how i hate that woman, so unfunny, i remember buying her first video many moons ago, oh how dissapointed was i, just awlful. I shall check out those other ones you mentioned in due course
English Bob, having watched both series of Jack Dee live at the apollo i can’t see why its not a good thing, for those of us that can’t get out to see a lot of live shows its a brilliant way of highlighting a comic to the masses. Although i seem to recall pretty much all of them were well known to me, i’m sure joe public found them entertaining
Just a question for all the comics out there: how does everybody do their writing? How often, what time, where, drinking what?
I tend to be really sporadic and I’d like to try to be more disciplined with it. I find most of my material comes from stuff that pops into my head when I walk around, but I’d like to sit down and be able to write as well…
I went to the recording of Live at the apollo it was very good I think it came off quite well but better being there in my opinion. Jimmy carr and alan carr are on it next week.
I have yet to have a go at stand up I have material ready soon i may get the balls. I write down stuff when I think of something funny and when I’m bored i’ll just write stuff down. Looking above this my command of the English language is pathetic and the grammar is just wrong, never mind.
I was looking through my channel guide the other night and saw that Billy Crystal won the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Further investigation shows that this happened about a month ago so if it’s already been brought up and I missed/forgot it, I apologize. But seriously, Billy Crystal? Isn’t he that unfunny guy who’s always hosting the Oscars?
Then again, if you look at the past winners, I really don’t know what the selection committee is thinking. Just scroll down a bit. http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/specialevents/marktwain/
Hey Brody, I’ve tried several different ways of writing. Usually what works best for me is just talking to my friends and something absurd comes up, then I remember it and mold it until it’s an exaggerated version of what actually happened. Sit-down writing usually leads to some of my least funny stuff (I’ve gotten a couple good bits out of it, but it’s far less frequent). So there’s what I have to contribute to the discussion.
Dan, how pissed am i, i didn’t even know it was back on……I’m going to see Russell Howard next week, never seen his stand up before, was he good??
Asterion, i have a couple of VHS videos of Billy Crystal from way back, and thought he was hilerious back then, but this is from some years ago so who knows what he’s like now….
On Writing: I always keep a little a lil note book on me for joke ideas. and then on the weekends i write out the whole thing. and then i perform them out.
Yeah Russell Howard is wicked I think he had more energy than the programme showed. He’s one of my favourite stand ups so it will be a little biased.
uh hey, cant help seeing the shows a little late. hope nothin’s gone wrong. lookin forward to it
Sorry about the delay everyone. Had a shitty tech glitch. It will be up by Friday morning.
While we’re waiting for the new episode…can you guys go check out this pilot some friends and I made to try and get a development deal with Fox?
If you have a myspace account, give it a vote please. I’ll love you forever. …not that I don’t already.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=21627482
Love,
Sina.
(My computer got kicked off the internet so this might be the second time I’m posting this…sorry)
While we’re waiting for the new episode…can you guys go check out this pilot some friends and I made to try and get a development deal with Fox?
If you have a myspace account, give it a vote please. I’ll love you forever. …not that I don’t already.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=21627482
Love,
Sina.