7 Responses

1. John Paul Dougherty III says:

   May 29, 2007 at 8:59 pm

   I respectfully disagree with you, Traci and Brian, and I am glad Skeletor’s comments were published by the CityPaper, because Skeletor is right, most stand-up comedy is completely boring. Andy Kaufman agreed with Skeletor: Andy said comedy is the most unfunny thing there is. This kid Skeletor may bomb in front of the regular old spoon-fed comedy club audience, but I bet his ‘act’ is great and I will make sure to see him sometime. If you don’t agree with what you call his “spiteful garbage” (that is very strong language toward a fellow performer, don’t you think?), you might ask him to elaborate in a column you could publish in Shecky–it would be interesting to have him explain his point of view at greater length. But I don’t think you should begrudge him having a single paragraph in the CityPaper, it’s a free country after all, why did you publicize his viewpoint if you oppose it so much–if not for Shecky I wouldn’t have heard of him–yet. I like Shecky magazine, thanks for allowing comments!Doktari Action Figure

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2. Brian McKim & Traci Skene says:

   May 29, 2007 at 10:29 pm

   Dear J. Dougherty (May we address you as Skeletor?):You say you are “glad Skeletor’s comments were published by the CityPaper, because Skeletor is right, most stand-up comedy is completely boring.”This is just as stupid and unenlightened as the comments by Skeletor. Notwithstanding the comments of Andy Kaufman.We would never ask/allow this nitwit to write anything for our publication, as he doesn’t seem to have any real ideas and his screed seems motivated by hatred and little else.We don’t begrudge him having a paragraph in the City Paper. Re-read the posting– we say that the City Paper does itself and its readers a disservice by publishing such nonsense.And, after reading your comment, we can’t for the life of us figure out why you would like our magazine.

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3. Matt Fugate says:

   May 30, 2007 at 4:02 pm

   Ah, edgy open mic’ers deconstructing the form and worshipping Kaufmann…They’re so cute at that age.

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4. ChrisO says:

   May 31, 2007 at 2:57 am

   “He ate shit for 8 minutes and then shuffled offstage to heckle the rest of the comedians”This is the point at which someone should have punched him in the mouth.

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5. John Paul Dougherty III says:

   May 31, 2007 at 3:23 pm

   What I mean is that, taken as a whole, most stand-up comedy is boring, which is a tautology–most stand-up comedians don’t make it big, therefore they must be boring the public, don’t you think? But the larger fact about stand-up is that even the comics who make it big get out of stand-up as soon as they can. There is only so much you can do with a mic and an empty stage, which is why performers see stand-up as a path to TV and movies, not the other way around. Successful TV stars like Jerry and Jay, who have a nostalgic and quasi-religious view of stand-up (as Shecky magazine does), keep doing it in the clubs, but only as a pastime or hobby or just to prove they ‘still have it’, all of which is self-indulgent and takes scarce stage time away from young people trying to become the next Jerry or Jay. But stand-up has become a big self-important industry and will be lampooned more and more frequently as time goes on, by smart-alecks and also by serious performers. Remember SNL’s lampoon of send-up the night Jerry Seinfeld hosted–it was very funny but lots of comics didn’t like it at the time.As for Skeletor (he’s not me but thanks for asking), I agree it is wrong in general to heckle comedians, however, we don’t have all the facts about the incident–for example, he wasn’t ejected for heckling and that indicates this was not a comedy club gig but some kind of one-nighter, probably sparsely attended, and maybe he was goofing on the other comics in an attempt to entertain them. Likewise, falsely telling people he is booked on Conan sounds like he is parodying self-promoting comics, who knows? We don’t have enough facts, which is why I suggested you let the guy write a column for you (but he had the opportunity to comment here and didn’t, so I guess he isn’t interested in this controversy anyway). I understand why you don’t want anti-comics appearing in a comedy show (it is like the Klan asking to preach in a synagogue or a Rabbi asking to address a Klan meeting) but both you and the other commenters are overreacting I think–whatever Skeletor actually did or said at the gig didn’t deserve a verbal thrashing or a punch in the mouth, otherwise one of the comedians there would have verbally thrashed him or punched him in the mouth, right? You are overreacting, like a religious zealot. Likewise with the comment about violence– if commenter “coake” thinks Skeletor deserves a punch in the mouth, then you should go find him and punch him in the mouth, right? Why write about it, just do it–if it is justified in your view. Writing about it will only cause you trouble in the future should you ever get the balls to actually punch someone–now the police have you on record advocating violence, which isn’t good for your legal defense, don’t you think? Just be professional, forget about punching people. I like Shecky magazine because you have that sarcastic Philly attitude, which is usually very entertaining, but in this case I think you overreacted, and you got someone riled up enough that he wants to punch Skeletor! That’s not really what you wanted to do, is it? DOKTARI

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6. Shaun Eli says:

   May 31, 2007 at 3:39 pm

   One poster said “There is only so much you can do with a mic and an empty stage, which is why performers see stand-up as a path to TV and movies, not the other way around.”I don’t know what goes on in the minds of other performers, but…I’d venture some OTHER possible reasons why comedians become actors:1. The money is so much greater with a TV show (millions of viewers) than with even 3000 seat arenas. And a comedian who chooses to put his stand-up on TV (such as George Carlin with his HBO specials) can probably do only one show a year.2. A lot less travel involved in making movies/TV versus being a comedian.3. A lot more recognition. I’d bet that more people would remember Larry Miller from his one or two scene role in “Pretty Woman” than from all his stand-up travels and TV performances on late-night television.4. Someone else does most or all of the writing when you’re on TV. As a comic gets older sometimes his persona doesn’t fit anymore. Could you picture a seventy year old Andrew Dice Clay? Or even a fifty year old Sarah Silverman?5. Sometimes when you reach the top of your game you look for a new game.

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7. Brian McKim & Traci Skene says:

   May 31, 2007 at 9:17 pm

   J. Dougherty said:“What I mean is that, taken as a whole, most stand-up comedy is boring, which is a tautology–most stand-up comedians don’t make it big, therefore they must be boring the public, don’t you think?”To which we reply:This is a most immature view of the world. It contains two assumptions:A comedian who has not “made it” is, therefore, boring.A comic who has “made it big” is not boring.Neither is true.That is, if we can even agree on the definition of making it.As for overreacting: We didn’t overreact at all. Re-read the statement by this imbecile and you’ll see not a hint of wit, no irony, no humor. It is simply venom and stupidity in equal measures. Hardly worth wasting any more of our time on.

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