Oh hey, this blog is back.
In news that should make any comedy nerd’s day, it was announced that Chris Elliott (you know, that guy from Groundhog Day and There’s Something About Mary) will be returning to television with his own series on Adult Swim entitled “Eaglehart.” According to Yahoo! News:
“Eagleheart” centers on a low-level television executive sent to Texas to produce an action series of the same name. He finds himself stuck in a never-ending power struggle with his temperamental star/creator/exec producer (Elliott), a veteran action star past his prime who uses the show as a soapbox for his right-wing politics and conservative paranoia.
Chris Elliott on Adult Swim?! I can’t see how anything but greatness will come from this. While his film and tv work over the past decade has been mostly guest spots on sitcoms and appearances in the Scary Movie franchise (do I even have to say he was the highlight of those trainwrecks?), those who remember his early work know of the genius that resides inside his balding head. And to make the news even better, Jason Woliner (“Human Giant” director and all around awesome comedy guy) has confirmed on his Twitter that he will be directing the pilot. With experimental shows like “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” and “Xavier: Renegade Angel” already on the network, it’s good to know that Elliott will not have to curb any of his weirdness.
For those unfamiliar with Elliott’s career, he began on the staff of “Late Night with David Letterman,” where he made himself many recurring roles as odd characters like “the guy under the seats” and his own bizarre interpretation of Marlon Brando, who always insisted on doing his banana dance. From there he went on to co-write and star in his own Fox sitcom, “Get a Life,” as a 30-something year old mildly psychotic paperboy who lived with his parents. The show pushed the limits of tv comedy and played with the sitcom format, so of course it was canceled. With “Get a Life” co-creator Adam Resnick, Elliott made his first attempt at writing/starring in a film, but after “Cabin Boy” flopped miserably (despite being hilarious) he was essentially banned from creating his own projects in showbiz. He has since written two very entertaining novels, The Shroud of the Thwacker and Into Hot Air.
Adult Swim has given us some really great programming over the years. There are the old stand bys like “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” and “Sealab 2021″ (not to mention their save of “Home Movies” after it’s 5 episode run on UPN), but in recent years they have stepped up their programming even more, giving us fantastic shows like “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!,” “Xavier: Renegade Angel,” and “Delocated” that have allowed Adult Swim to grow into more than just cartoons with weird/grown up humor. But they aren’t just focusing on original content these days, and it was recently announced that the original UK version of “The Office” will be airing on Adult Swim over the summer. Now there will finally be no good reason why every American hasn’t watched it.
“The Office” is joining a list of other great British comedies that Adult Swim has been allowing Americans to watch. Over the past couple of years they have aired “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace,” “The Mighty Boosh,” and “Look Around You.” What do all three of these shows have in common? They’re all hilarious British comedies that have yet to come out on region 1 DVD. Luckily Adult Swim has stepped in so comedy nerds don’t have to invest in a Region 2 player just to give these series a shot.
Sadly, what makes the arrangement so special should be a given: they are just playing the episodes as they are. While every major network feels the need to re-make great British shows for American audiences, Adult Swim actually has enough faith in their fans to enjoy them in their original form.
Is there room for physical comedy in the world of comedy snobbery? Or is it purely a realm of intellectual humor? Comedy of the mind over comedy of the body? I think Zach Galifianakis handled the issue best in the documentary “The Comedians of Comedy.”
Some physical comedy is atrocious and caters to the lowest common denominator, but I would sure rather watch Zach fall out of a chair over and over than listen to what passes for comedy on NPR most of the time.
Hosted by Scott Aukerman (Mr. Show, co-creator of the live “Comedy Death Ray” show), this new radio show is already great right out of the box. For at least a month it will be on at 12 pm PST on the online radio station Indie 1031. The hilarious first episode premiered yesterday featuring The Human Giant’s Rob Huebel as co-host, co-creator/star of Reno 911! (not Reno September 11th) Thomas Lennon, and a special call from Best Week Ever’s Doug Benson to review Wolverine.
You can find a link to an mp3 of the show on Scott Aukerman’s website.
Some highlights include depressing stories from a trip to a Back to the Future convention, a recap of their trip to see the Michael Jackson auction items, tips for “date rapers,” and talk of The State (which Thomas Lennon co-created) being released on DVD.
After his legendary run on SNL, Dana Carvey decided to keep going with sketch comedy and created his own show for ABC, which promptly got canceled after 7 episodes. Since then “The Dana Carvey Show” has become one of those many shows that comedy nerds make online petitions for a DVD release of. It doesn’t even matter that you can watch the entire series on Hulu. No, it was a matter of principle. It deserved an official DVD release. And, thanks to the good folks at Shout Factory, we can all finally own a copy on May 12.
And why should you be excited if you’ve never seen an episode? Well, first and foremost, Carvey is at home in sketch comedy. Say what you will about his stand up comedy and movie career (I certainly have), but there is no denying that he is great at sketch comedy. Even more importantly, note the other comedy forces that were at work both behind the scenes and on the air: Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Louis CK, Robert Smigel (the man behind Triumph the Insult comic dog and other Conan brilliance, as well as TV Funhouse), Jon Glaser (of Adult Swim’s “Delocated”), Dino Stamatopoulos (writer on “Mr. Show” and creator of “Moral Orel”), and even Charlie Kaufman. Yeah, the guy that made “Being John Malkovich” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
Not sold? Here is a sample of the kind of stuff they did on the show besides all of Carvey’s usual impersonations.
Is it one of the greatest sketch comedy shows of all time? Probably not. But it’s a really good one. Sure, a good portion of the sketches are firmly planted in the 90’s, and at times Carvey gives into his more hammy instincts, but overall it’s a funny show with some classic sketches. And on May 12th I’ll be happy to own it. Even if the special features do seem sparse…
Different comedians have different callings. Patton Oswalt was born for stand up. Phil Hartman was a natural sketch comedian. Norm Macdonald? As far as I’m concerned he was genetically engineered to be a talk show guest. The man knows how to creat an awkward/hilarious talk show moment like no other. So with that unnecessary intro out of the way, I present the first installment of “Norm Macdonald: Talk Show Champion.” This is perhaps Norm’s best known talk show appearance, and could very well be his funniest. It’s fairly lengthy and separated into 3 parts (which are all funny), but if you just want to see his now infamous mocking of Carrot Top and his movie “Chairman of the Board” in front of the co-star of that film, Courtney Thorne-Smith, click on part 3.
Stay tuned for more thrilling editions of “Norm Macdonald: Talk Show Champion” in the not too distant future.
It was speculated about a month back that “Last Comic Standing” would not be returning to NBC for it’s 7th season this summer. No auditions and no mention anywhere on the NBC lineup or website were pretty strong indicators. But now that the summer tv season is almost upon us and there is still no word, I think it’s truly safe to declare that Last Comic Standing is dead. Well, for now at least. After all, it did get canceled after season 3, only to return 2 years later.
Although the funniest segment of the show came during season 5 when Doug Benson mercilessly ripped Dante and his act apart in the heckler challenge, I could not find a clip of that anywhere. So instead, enjoy Doug performing his fantastic “seque” routine on the show. So good that it got him in the top 10 a whole season later!
Of course I do not truly mourn “Last Comic Standing.” For a comedy nerd, the majority of the time it was something akin to a liberal watching Sean Hannity. Frustrating, annoying, and depressing, yet somehow addictive. The editing killed much of the possible comedy and the challenges regularly had nothing to do with being a successful stand up comedian. And although Jay Mohr was an adequate host, Anthony Clark and Bill Belamy were never strong enough improvisers to pull that kind of gig off. Not to mention that the casts usually had only one or two comedians that actually made me laugh. Todd Glass, Bil Dwyer, Doug Benson, Sean Cullen and God’s Pottery were by far the funniest contestants to appear on the show, and of course none of them ever even made the top 5.
So goodbye for now “Last Comic Standing.” We’ll see if you rise like a badly edited phoenix in the coming years to give turning stand up into a reality game another shot. With a new, even less funny host. Though finding a comedian that takes less joy in comedy than Anthony Clark might be tough.
Micahel Ian Black is probably best known as a talking head on VH1 clip shows (he certainly loves a lot of decades) and a comedic actor, but his talents don’t stop there. No, in fact he is a true comedy renaissance man. He is a writer, director, sketch performer and in recent years a stand up comedian. Which brings us to this clip from his early solo act a few years back, and still one of my favorite things I have seen him do on stage.
If you found that entertaining, you would probably like his book, “My Custom Van: And 50 Other Mind-Blowing Essays that Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face.” It immediately became one of my favorite essay collections when I read it this summer, and after re-reading certain essays numerous times they are still hilarious. You can watch MIB discuss the book with the painfully unfunny folks on the Fox News show “Red Eye.” Don’t worry, he’s still funny.
He also put out a CD a year or so back entitled “I Am a Wonderful Man”, but despite some very high points the overall performance doesn’t live up to what you would expect from one of the minds behind “Stella” and simply isn’t as creative as what he does in other mediums. I think this is mainly to blame on the fact that due to his existing fame he was given a stand up record deal way before he had fully developed his act and his solo performance persona. He’s been improving by leaps and bounds since it arrived, however, so a follow up album should be far superior. But if you have been looking for a CD that contains a fold out picture of Michael Ian Black in the nude, then by all means pick this up.
Sure, Flight of the Conchords are a mega popular musical comedy act with a critically acclaimed TV show these days, but back in 2000 they were just a folk parody duo looking for an audience. Here is a clip from that year when they appeared on the New Zealand (apparently cable access) TV show “Newton Salad” to perform their now classic “Bowie in Space.”
Interesting to see what has changed and what remained the same after almost a decade. Glad to see they still have the same sense of fashion.
Has anyone checked the temperature in hell lately? Because it truly has frozen over if MTV is going to finally release “The State” on DVD. There have been enough promised release dates that I’m still skeptical, but everything seems to point to the entire series arriving on shelves this July 14th. Here’s the recently released trailer:
“The State” was hardly a perfect show, but for an MTV sketch show created by young up-and-comers in the early 90’s it’s very good. Some sketches are misses, but some are pretty brilliant, and overall the show was consistently great. It’s no mistake that most of the cast members have gone on to do great things in the world of comedy. Let’s hope decent sales lead to an eventual “Viva Variety” DVD release as well.
