LAT says comedy fighting depression

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on March 26th, 2009

A lengthy article by John Lopez in the LA Times says that comics are finding a comedy gold mine in the economy’s downturn.

In fact, rather than shrinking from the hardship afflicting their audiences, many comedians are tackling a pervasive sense of angst, schadenfreude and disgust head on — and hitting a vein.

“Every time I start writing my résumé, it turns into a suicide note,” quips young comic Duncan Trussell during “Comedy Is Dead 5,” a gothic night of stand-up that packed a crowd of hipsters and Silver Lake creative-types into the arch-vaulted, stained-glass-windowed Masonic lodge at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. It’s a younger, more “alternative” audience than those at the tourist-stocked Sunset Boulevard clubs, but Duncan’s jokes strike a chord even with the ever-hopeful generation Obama crowd. He continues: “Obama has this look in his eyes, like a flight attendant who just found out the landing gear fell off but still has to try to keep everybody calm.”

We like the irony in the “Comedy Is Dead” title of the show… especially the numeral on the end. Read the whole thing for quotes from Marc Maron, Bill Burr and Louis CK among others.

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