SHECKYmagazine.com editor Brian McKim:

Hunter Thompson and I shared a birthday (same day, different year, I might stress). When I got to journalism school, at Bowling Green State University in 1975, they couldn’t shut up about New Journalism. Thompson was lumped in with all the rest of the New Journalists. I read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail and Hell’s Angels– if you were in journalism school in Ohio in 1975, they were practically required reading. I enjoyed them all immensely. I read Vegas at least two more times. I read Great Shark Hunt. Someone gave me a copy The Curse of Lono in 1983– it was ghastly. I was in mourning. Thompson had lost it. I don’t think anyone can argue that his writing was worth a damn after that. Occasionally, the writing had the same spark as his early work, but his stuff for ESPN.com was uniformly garbled, a self-parody. And his appearance on Letterman a few years back was difficult to watch. It dispelled any notion that his gonzo shtick was an act of some sort.

I picked up a couple of biographies of Thompson about three years ago, E. Jean Carroll’s Hunter: The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson and Peter O Whitmer’s When the Going Gets Weird: The Twisted Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson: A Very Unauthorized Biography. They both popped up, on two separate occasions, in thrift shops. Both books provided insight into the guy who was, briefly, a hero of mine. He was one jammed up individual. So, I wasn’t surprised when I saw the headline this morning. I would have been sadder if I hadn’t read those two biographies. Too bad they didn’t make better movies of his life than that awful Bill Murray thing and that Johnny Depp monstrosity. Neither picture dealt with him seriously. Perhaps Thompson himself didn’t deal with himself seriously enough.

The Delhi Newsline is carrying an article profiling one Vir Saran Das, a 24-year-old who, while studying investment banking at Harvard a few years ago, chucked it all for standup comedy stardom.

Training in acting helped Vir with voice modulation and ridding him of stage fright. He wrote his first stand-up comedy special in his senior year which was performed to sold-out crowds of over 600 a night. And it wasn’t long before he was giving solo performances at professional comedy clubs across the States…

He’s big on Indian television right now and Bollywood is calling.

Has anyone ever worked with this guy? Solo performances at professional comedy clubs across the States? We would have heard about a guy from India in his late teens, early 20s headlining in America. Unless he was doing shows just for expat Indians and four-walling venues in cities with large Indian populations. (We hear commercials on WPRB out of Princeton, during the Indian music program, for all kinds of Indian-specific entertainment– movies mostly. It’s like a whole other world! Maybe that’s where he headlined. Hmmm…)

As of 6 PM this evening, the Montgomery County prosecutor said that Cosby will not face charges in the sexual assault case:

“The District Attorney finds insufficient credible and admissible evidence … upon which any charge against Mr. Cosby could be sustained beyond a reasonable doubt,” Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said in a statement.

Read the whole AP story.

Last night’s Nick At Nite Search for the Funniest Mom show at Rascals in Cherry Hill, New Jersey was headlined by SHECKYmagazine editor Traci Skene and hosted by local pro Regina Smith, featured a handful of first-timers as well as local vets Mary Frances Connelly and Dena Blizzard (website). Chuck Darrow, writing for the Courier-Post (South Jersey’s largest daily!):

What could be called the “mother” of all comedy talent searches came to South Jersey on Tuesday evening as Nick@Nite, Nickelodeon channel’s prime-time programming entity, brought its Search For the Funniest Mom in America contest to Rascals inside the Hilton Hotel.

We’re basically looking for the next “domestic goddess of comedy,” said
Sal Maniaci, vice president of development and production for Nickelodeon, referring to the “hook” Roseanne Barr used during her rise to stardom in the 1980s.

Those selected in the course of the contest will convene in Manhattan on April 7 to tape a one-hour special to air May 3. Read the whole thing.

We must say that the art direction and packaging of Mary Frances Connelly’s CD is quite something. It’s available on her website.

A reader, Stuart McAllister, writes:

The Grammies were just a few days ago and I saw Jon Stewart won the Comedy category. I haven’t seen the Daily Show cd in stores so it made me wonder who else was nominated. Do you have any idea? I know I much prefer some standup comedy to the bits that Jon does. Thanks

Well, Stuart, here are the 2005 nominees in Category 77 (Best Comedy Album– For comedy recordings, spoken or musical):

* Come Poop With Me
Triumph The Insult Comic Dog
[Warner Bros.]

* The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents…America: A Citizen’s Guide To Democracy Inaction
Jon Stewart And The Cast Of The Daily Show
[Time Warner Audiobooks]

* The Funny Thing Is…
Ellen DeGeneres
[Simon & Schuster Audio]

* Live At Carnegie Hall
David Sedaris
[Time Warner Audiobooks]

* The O’Franken Factor Factor – The Very Best Of The O’Franken Factor
Al Franken
[Artemis Records]

We took this opportunity to research and dig up the names of the winners of past comedy album awards. It it interesting to note that Shelley Berman is owed our undying gratitude for rescuing us from mediocrity– his win in 1959 followed the very first award for a comedy album by Ross Bagdasarian, better known as Dave Seville, the man who perpetrated that hellish phenomenon known as Alvin and the Chipmunks.

2004 Jon Stewart
2003 Weird Al Yankovic
2002 Robin Williams
2001 George Carlin
2000 Geroge Carlin
1999 Chris Rock
1998 Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks
1997 Chris Rock
1996 Al Franken
1995 Jonathan Winters
1994 Sam Kinison
1993 George Carlin
1992 Peter Schickele (PDQ Bach)
1991 Peter Schickele
1990 Peter Schickele
1989 Peter Schickele
1988 Robin Williams
1987 Robin Williams
1986 Bill Cosby
1985 Whoopi Goldberg
1984 Weird Al Yankovic
1983 Eddie Murphy
1982 Richard Pryor
1981 Richard Pryor
1980 Rodney Dangerfield
1979 Robin Williams
1978 Steve Martin
1977 Steve Martin
1976 Richard Pryor
1975 Richard Pror
1974 Richard Pryor
1973 Cheech & Chong
1972 George Carlin
1971 Lily Tomlin
1970 Flip Wilson
1969 Bill Cosby
1968 Bill Cosby
1967 Bill Cosby
1966 Bill Cosby
1965 Bill Cosby
1964 Bill Cosby
1963 Allan Sherman
1962 Vaughn Meader
1961 Elaine May & Mike Nichols
1960 Bob Newhart
1959 Shelly Berman
1958 Ross Bagdasarian (The Chipmunk Song)

Tommy James sends along the URL of a Rolling Stone interview with Johnny Carson from 1979.

But everyone has a sense of humor. A lot of things that some people find funny, other people just don’t find funny, so that is the problem for comedians or people who do comedy — just trying to find some kind of common denominator if there is such a thing, or just reach as many people as you can. But it’s a very hairy problem. That’s why you have somebody who will say, “Gee, I think Laurel and Hardy are wonderful,” and somebody else will say, “They stink, I don’t understand them.”

Tommy James sends along word that Backstage has a wrapup of the goings on last week in Aspen. But the real story (as far as we’re concerned, and Tommy as well) is this:

HBO is in early planning for a more consumer-focused comedy festival to take place in Las Vegas in late fall, likely November. According to sources, HBO has toyed for a while with the idea of a second annual comedy extravaganza. “We are talking about a festival that is a broader-based commercial venture that would be a great extension” to the Aspen gathering, HBO chairman and CEO Chris Albrecht said.

Read the rest here.

A deluxe opportunity to quote ourselves again! On Aspen’s recent effort to seek out comics who lacked management or representation:

Might this be in response to a widespread perception among those of us in the comedy biz that USCAF is a “locked game” that merely serves as a ski holiday for Hollywood fatcats (and their clients)?

Oh, yeah. You can bet that we’re taking full credit for this move!

If we’re to believe today’s item in Variety, Chris Rock is/was in danger of being bounced as host of the upcoming Oscarcast. Rock is quoted in various outlets as saying that only gay men watch the Oscars and that giving awards for art is “idiotic.” And folks are pointing out how Rock says “fuck” a lot. Golly… I guess the folks at the Academy didn’t know what they were getting when they signed ol’ Chris for the hosting duties, huh?! What a load of horse manure.

Of course, the timing is suspicious. The Grammy broadcast was beaten by Desparate Housewives last night. (Could any broadcast have gotten any more publicity than last night’s Grammy Awards broadcast?) And this is the first Oscars since the Red beat the Blue in the Presidential Bowl. Add all that up and you have a nervous Gil Cates and a jumpy AMPAAS and a network that will do almost anything for ratings and you have the current pitiful drama.

Then, at the end of the Variety (willing accomplices in this whole sordid affair) article:

Rock’s comments appeared to be in keeping with efforts by the Academy and ABC to boost TV ratings for the Feb. 27 Oscarcast.

Bingo.

Stephan Rubin, of the Houston Comedy Festival, tells us there is still time to submit tapes to the Houston Comedy Festival– up until March 4th, we’re told. See earlier posting for the website… and see the website for address/details, etc!

Inspecting our stats, we noticed that a bunch of people hit us by using the keyword “Bill Sacra.” Turns out that Sacra was a comic and impressionist who died on Feb. 9 of testicular cancer. We met Sacra briefly when we took in Bill Kirchenbauer‘s Legends show during the SHECKYmagazine.Comics Only Reunion, back in April of 2001. Sacra was on the show as Rodney Dangerfield. Read a remembrance of Sacra here.

Houston is having a comedy festival April 3-10, 2005. How come we didn’t tell you about it sooner? Yeah! How come?! (Trust us, if we had known about it before now, we would have told you about it in time to send in videotapes– and, we seem to recall running something about this fest last year or the year before, but, if we don’t have something in front of us, it’s awful hard to keep track of all these affairs! Well, you know about it now!) They haven’t posted the comics who will be performing in this year’s edition– they say they’ll do that om March 1. For details, click on over to their website.

Just got an email from Boston, publicizing an upcoming gathering at Ed Regal’s Emerald Isle in Dorchester, just south of Boston:

Hello all! The first ever Comix Meet & Greet will take place on February 20th 5:30PM @ The Emerald Isle in Dorchester. This is simply a comics social event to exchange ideas, thoughts, contact info, eat, get a date…whatever. Think Comedy Studio or Comedy Connection XMas party without all the dancing and noise. We have bookers and room runners coming and will introduce them individually so newer comics can have a chance to meet them, get advice or just do a lil profiling (facetime). You should bring your biz cards, head shots, tapes and or contact info just in case you can’t get up.

This is a stupendous idea. Were we not gigging, we’d be there. We applaud the organizers (the senders of the email, Chris and Corey. We know that Chris is Chris Tabb… we’re not clear on who Corey is!)

Comics should be gathering like this more often. It reminds us of the SHECKYmagazine Comics-Only Reunion, which we organized (if what we did can be called “organizing”) a meeting of comics in Las Vegas back in April of 2001!

At the tail end was this:

…we will also be taking up a small collection and saying a prayer for our brother Kevin Knox.

Apparently, Knox is seriously ill. Check out the details here.

For the past seven years, Karel Beer has been importing comics from all over the English-speaking world to entertain folks at Paris’ Hotel du Nord (regular visitors to this site read all about it long ago). Starting early next month, he’ll be moving the whole affair to a venue identified in his release only as la Java. One of the last Yanks to perform at the old venue will be Tom Rhodes on March 1. Read our interview with Rhodes why don’t you?

It killed Reggie White, but Bill Russel’s got it. It kills five per cent of those who have it, but it’s treatable.

“I’ve had sarcoidosis since 1983, and it has not altered or limited my lifestyle,” Mac says. “No one knows where sarcoidosis comes from or where it starts, and there’s no known cause for this condition that effects primarily minorities.”

It primarily attacks the immune system and the lungs. It’s not a good thing to have, but it’s not the worst thing one can have; click here for hard info on the disease. Mac plans to make curing the disease his cause, setting up a foundation and charitable events.

Editors’ note: They musta fixed everything. The headlines for all of our wonderful postings over the last 72 hours or so are now showing up on our My Yahoo! While surfing around trying to put out this particular fire, we happened upon the FeedBurner page for SHECKYmagazine.com– click here and you’ll be taken to a page that’ll allow you to add us to Newsgator, My MSN or Bloglines as well as to your My Yahoo! And if you’re familiar with FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, SharpReader or Shrook, you can add our content to that, too! They’ve also got a do-jiggy for the ol’ Universal Subscription Mechanism! Sounds painful!

We see that, on our “My Yahoo!,” that the module that usually contains headlines from SHECKYmagazine.com is now showing “No new messages for the last five days.” This is a stinking lie!

Not sure what’s going on over there in Yahoo land or in the world of XML or Feed Burner, but we’ve been posting stuff! So, don’t believe that message and stop on by for the content you’ve come to know and love. (USAToday called us “Charming, sincere and helpful!”)

Keely Smith has a new CD out (“Vegas ’58”), so Bruce Fessier of the Palm Springs Desert Sun interviewed her. (And, it seems, he also interviewed Shecky Greene, who only recently migrated to The Springs. In addition to lots of quotes from Greene, the article is a nice snapshot of Vegas in 1958 when things were swingin’, baby.

But the lounge scene wasn’t quiet. The singing and the joking around would go until dawn. Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. would come in after their shows, as would colleagues such as Bobby Darin, Donald O’Connor and comic Shecky Greene. Most would get on stage and do a little schtick.

The epicenter of all this nuttiness was the Sahara Lounge, particularly the shows of Smith and Louis Prima.Read the whole thing.

Carrying on the lounge tradition in the Sahara’s Casbah Lounge these days is comedian Kathleen Dunbar, whose Divas of Comedy is packing them in on Monday nights. Stop on by and tell them SHECKYmagazine sent you. (SHECKYmagazine editor Traci Skene will be on that very stage on March 21!)

Aspen starts tonight. They’ve wacked up some of the comics into groups, cleverly labeled A, B and C. Hit here for all the official USCAF information. Meanwhile, just know the following:

STANDUP A

Ian Edwards
Simon King
Jason Gilleam
Jessi Klein
Mike Pace

STANDUP B

Kevin Brennan
Dave Nystrom
Simply Shanell
Rick Shapiro
Nathan Trenholm

STANDUP C

Pat Dixon
Tony T. Roberts
Simon Evans
Sheryl Underwood
Rich Williams

STANDUP D

Des Bishop
Dov Davidoff
Laurie Kilmartin
Eugene Mirman
Big Jay Oakerson

Cheech and Chong are together again for the first time in… a long time. That’ll be Thursday. Nice quote from Chong: “What makes us so dangerous is that we’re so harmless.” Does that sum it up, or what?

We’re especially proud of the fact that Rich Williams, who cranked out the first Big Move columns for this very publication, is on tonight in Aspen, in Group C! Way back in 2000, Williams moved to Los Angeles and thrilled SHECKYmagazine readers to his exploits in Hollywood! See that: Write for SHECKYmagazine and… four or five years later… great things happen!

The NYT article on the latest developments in the New York Comedians Coalition has quotes from Cary Hoffman, Coalition co-founder Ted Alexandro and Gotham owner Chris Mazzilli. And insipid characterizations of standup comics by the article’s author Ben Sisario:

The union, which has more than 300 members– ranging from television stars to the piano-tie guy who asked you with a grin last weekend where you’re from – is to meet on Thursday to discuss all the clubs’ proposals.

The piano-tie guy?! The fucking piano-tie guy?! What is wrong with the people at the NYT? How could a reporter be so out of touch? How could an editor allow his reporter to be so out of touch?

Anyway, the goings-on in New York have been chugging on for a few weeks now. We’re curioius to see how it all shakes out. We recently had a long and spirited face-to-face with a comedian who was present at the most recent Coalition pow wow. A while back we commented on the earlier NYT piece on the coalition. The coalition was alluded to in a column by one of our very own columnists. Shortly after our comments ran, we went back and forth with a coaltion member via private email. And, just the other day, we had a lengthy phone conversation with one of the owners involved in the negotiations. We have yet to digest all of this and post further comments. Maybe later this week… or next week, we’ll cough up a blog ball about the whole thing. Stay tuned.

The DA with jurisdiction in this case has been on the local newscasts a lot (he’s Bruce Cutler and he gets a lot of face time on the Philly newscasts) and he had been making it sound as if the whole affair would be over in a matter of minutes. With today’s developments, it looks as if we might be watching re-enactments on Court TV some time in the not too distant future.

The young lady who filed the complaint has gone public and she claims to have audiotapes of conversations between her and Cosby.

Cosby’s people are floating a story that the alleged victim’s mother phoned up Cosby early on in the proceedings and demanded money. (Cosby’s people want us to believe that the alleged victim and her family are in it for the cash.)

Cosby is on the record as saying the contact was consensual.

Zooming out even further, other folks are debating whether the imbroglio discredits Cosby’s recent speeches with regard to the problems of inner-city minorities. The contention being that Cosby (who, we’re to believe, has been a faithful husband up until now) automatically forfeits his moral authority due to the salacious nature of the allegations. Did anyone believe that Cosby was faithful prior to this? Regardless, did it have anything to do with the content of his recent speeches? Good question. Are we capable of separating Cliff Huxtable from Bill Cosby? Does Cosby’s moral authority derive from his identity as Bill Cosby or from his faux identity as Cliff Huxtable? Or a combination of both?

Looks like it’s going to trial. This has got all the earmarks of a story that lasts for a good two years, at least 18 months.

What to make of this NYT article, sent to us by Tommy James?

…Harvey Kash, and the friend, Carl Lanzisera, were doing their routine last month while waiting in line outside Nassau County’s First District Court in Hempstead when one bystander, who identified himself as a lawyer, complained. Court officers, who were also not amused, clapped handcuffs on the amateur comics and charged them with disorderly conduct.

Of course, it has a happy ending, with talk show host/sartorially challenged attorney Ron Kuby repping them for free and getting them off, but the NYT’s account must be leaving something out. The folks in Nassau county went as far as to convene a grand jury before deciding charges should be dropped… very odd.

Rascals Cherry Hill comedy club was the site of the most recent “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Standup Comedy School” Seminar, conducted by SHECKYmagazine.com editors Brian McKim and Traci Skene. Special guest seminarian Alex House was also present (and took the above picture and supplied the above pooch!) as ten area comics (or aspiring comics) participated in the four-hour workshop. Thanks to all who participated! And special thanks go to Rascals manager Kris Clayton. (Not pictured: Beth Ann Corto, Steve Golasa)

For details on how you can bring the WTDTYHCS Seminar, send us an email here at the magazine!

From Saturday’s Macon Telegraph, sportswriter Michael A. Lough writes:

Chris Berman’s shtick on ESPN may be the most tired and outdated act on TV these days. All we need now is a weekly Shecky Greene Marathon on TV Land, and it’ll be No. 2.

While we agree about the fraying of Chris Berman’s shtick, we shudder at the pop cultural tone-deafness of Mr. Lough. Shecky Greene from all reports, is neither tired nor outdated. Neither has he done enough television to fill a marathon (but that, we admit, is a minor point). Sportswriters have an unusually high proportion of wise guys in their ranks. The truly funny ones make it to television or radio. (Can I get an “Ouch?!“)

Goerge Szalai, writing in Hollywood Reporter, says that Montel Williams is looking to get into the funny business:

Emmy-winning daytime talk show host Montel Williams has launched a talent management firm specializing in stand-up comedy and focused on developing clients for TV and film projects.[…]

“I felt there’s a need for a full-blown management firm,” Williams said in an interview Friday. “We need more laughter in this world, and I have met many talented people through my work and various activities.”

Read the rest here.

SHECKYmagazine.com interviewed the editor of the film The Aristocrats, standup comic Emery Emery, asking technical questions, practical questions, philosophical questions:

It was shot on three-chip, consumer-end Sony, Mini-DV cameras with no special lighting or sound. It’s a true guerilla project. The guys handling the cameras ranged from (Aristocrats director Paul) Provenza and me to some dudes who had a lot of experience, to some who had absolutely no experience handling a camera.

In a previous post, we expressed skepticism about this project, theorizing that maybe the film was a hoax, that the joke that is the centerpiece of the film was concocted and that the whole affair was a brilliant goof engineered by goofster par excellence Penn Jillette. (You gotta admit, it’s a pretty good theory. And we’re still not abandoning it entirely.)

The film was a hit at Sundance, where it found a distributor. You’re not going to be able to get away from this movie. We predict that the media interest will be quite high. Prepare for the media blitz by reading the entire interview. You read it here first. It’s an exclusive. Thank us later.

We noticed it a handful of times in our travels. And often while patrons were in line to enter clubs. Excited by the prospect of seeing a live comedy show, customers, usually young males, were moved to utter the phrase “Git ‘er done!” in that Southern-inflected grunt/groan that has been popularized by Larry the Cable Guy (aka Dan Whitney), who has gained notoriety via his participation in the Blue Collar Tour/Movie/TV Show. And they’re doing it during the shows once in a while, too.

We were poised to comment on it on this very website when we were alerted to an open letter from Doug Stanhope to Larry on Stanhope’s website. In which Stanhope implores Larry to get his legions of fans to quit yelling out the phrase during our sets.

…me and some of the other guys out there on the road have been having problems with this… “”Git Er Done” thing…

It used to be that you could use pause as a tool to enhance the timing and effectiveness of a bit. Now it’s the moment Gavin has been waiting for all week – to bellow out all the knowledge that you’ve impregnated him with– “Git Er Done!”

While we admit that it’s annoying, we hardly think it’s up to Larry the Cable Guy to stop his fans… or to move one muscle so that we might be free from the tyranny of “Git ‘er done!” This catchphrase, too, will run its course. As have all the others.

We were inspired to recall the other catchphrases that have plagued us throughout the past decade or two and we could only remember two: “…Not!” and “Yeah…that’s the ticket.” Both inspired by bad SNL sketches. The former being the most pervasive and the most destructive to building a comedy mood. Nothing will stop a comic’s momentum faster than some little douchebag in the front row inserting a “…Not!” into that split-second of silence between the last breath of a punchline and the audience’s crescendo of laughter/applause. It was truly a dark era for comedy.

Some of the other lesser-known crowd killers: “Yeah, baby!” (delivered in Mike Meyers’ Austin Powers voice), and, although not a verbal interruption, the laser pointer scourge of the late-90s was disruptive. And if you don’t think it was pervasive, recall that no less a superstar than Jerry Seinfeld had one trained on his chest during the taping of his “I’m Telling You For The Last Time” television special… and they left it in! (Note: The laser pointer thing has surfaced again. We’ve seen at least two incidents in the last six months in clubs.)

We will say that with “Git ‘er done,” the offenders at least seem to be having a good time and mean little or no harm. Unlike the weasels who shouted out “…Not!” (And we don’t particularly like Stanhope’s characterization of Larry’s fans as “water-brained Velveeta cheese flag-monkeys.” We say that Larry is bringing people into the clubs like nobody’s business. If a few of them are, how shall we say, “irrationally exuberant,” well, we have faith that, with time (and after they’ve been thrown out of a comedy club or two), they’ll be back and they’ll be shushing the loudmouths yakking on a cellphone at the next table.

According to the Just For Laughs website. The deadline for submissions for anyone who wishes to participate in the 2005 version of the Fest is the 15th of this month. Click the above link for addresses.

We got an email from a faithful reader today that was very distressing. He said that he had written us several emails and that we hadn’t responded at all. This is terrible! It is also easily explained.

Because we run the WWW’s most beloved magazine about standup comedy, we are rather… high profile. Which means that there are a lot of people out there who are familiar with us and the magazine… but we’re not equally as familiar with them. And, as the editors and publishers of the WWW’s most beloved magazine about standup, we receive a ton of mail that is spam. More spam than the average person who does not run a magazine on the internet, we would wager. Each day we’ll get hundreds of emails. Hundreds! (Sometimes we’ll get a couple hundred in an HOUR!)

We have tried a few different methods to plow through this emailage and still maintain our sanity, our lives and the health and well-being of our computers. One method we use downloads only the From, the Subject and the File Size of each email and leaves the actual email on the server. After reviewing each (and, by necessity, only devoting a 1/2-second or so to each piece), we then turf them right off the server, and download only the ones that we are certain are legitimate, that we recognize as coming from someone who means us no harm, which we’re sure doesn’t contain a virus of some sort.

Using this method saves necessary time, but the inevitable by-product is that once in a while, a legitmate email is turfed. Was the subject line was too vague? (“Hello there!” is automatically turfed. As is “Why don’t you responde?” As is “SHECKYmagazine–you have been chosen!”) A lot of these insidious programs that create viruses or distribute junk email can comb your website, pick out key phrases, incorporate your name or URL and fashion a legit-sounding subject line. And now they’ve taken to attaching legit-sounding names in the From line. (Although some are rather comical– “Benicio O’Boyle, Mary Alice Tranh, Rolf Alvarez,” like that.) So our job has become harder than ever.

Our point is this: If you are emailing us and you hope to get a response (or if you’ve already written us and haven’t gotten a response), puh-LEEZE write back. And be very specific in the subject line… and detailed, too. We have always prided ourselves on answering ALL email. Even the nasty ones, rare though they may be. And we respond quickly, too! Ask almost anyone. We can’t afford to have anyone out there grumbling to any and all that we’re arrogant goons who ignore emails. It just ain’t true. USA Today didn’t call us “Sincere, charming and helpful” for nothing!

We stopped off at the local Burger King and saw several, beautiful, four-color posters trumpeting their Angus Steak Burger. And, at the top of the poster, next to a stylized representation of The Donald, were the words, “As seen on The Apprentice”

Great. A fast food sandwich has a more recent television credit than we do.

Hollywood Reporter reports:

David Letterman’s Monday night tribute to his mentor Johnny Carson was his highest-rated show in almost two years, according to preliminary data released by Nielsen Media Research.

CBS’ Late Show With David Letterman delivered a 6.0 household rating/15 share Monday night. The show featured Letterman’s remarks — and jokes secretly written for him by Carson before his Jan. 23 death — and guests Peter Lassally, a longtime producer of NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Doc Severinsen, Carson’s bandleader.

Letterman’s tribute came a week later than The Tonight Show With Jay Leno because Letterman’s show wasn’t in production last week. Usual late-night leader Tonight Show delivered a 4.9/12 on Monday. Last week, Leno chalked up near-record ratings with his Jan. 24 Carson tribute episode, which pulled in an 11.2/26 share.

That’s right, we’re paraphrasing Rodney King to make a point. We found a press release for “The Clean Standup Comedy Tour: The Movie,” that contains the following quotes:

” This new movie has no profanity or otherwise dirty humor, proving that comedy doesn’t have to have four-letter words to be funny.”

“…no profanity, vulgarity, sexual references or innuendos, swearing or toilet humor, proving that comedy can be funny without any four-letter words.”

Why so defensive, people? Why do these fellows find it necessary to tear down others in their quest to build up their product? As we’re fond of saying (as we never grow tired of repeating); It’s hard to do clean comedy, it’s hard to do dirty comedy… It’s hard to be funny.

The release continues with such ungainly phrases as, “…this unprecedented clean comedy film reestablishes the bar for comedy.” and then takes a defensive tone with “There’s nothing corny or silly about it… it’s just packed with hip, fresh, relevant humor.”

The release reaches it’s low point with this:

“If our own children can’t watch one of our movies, then we can’t be proud of our efforts.”

Twisted or what? We wouldn’t let a ten-year-old watch our club sets. Nonetheless, we’re extremely proud of our work. We merely acknowledge that it’s just not for consumption by the little ones.

We have no problem with anyone putting product out there that goes for a G-rating. People do it all the time without all the qualifiers and the cattiness. (In fact, G-rated movies gross, on average, better than all other ratings. (Or is PG? Or G and PG combined?) Family-friendly fare does well and it is marketed unapologetically for the most part.

Has their been a precipitous slide in interest in standup because of vulgarity? Not that we’re aware of. Standup is doing better than it has in a decade. Have standup concert films had trouble selling tickets? Recent movies focusing on the Kings of Comedy and the Blue Collar Comedy Tour have broken box office records.

Is this a Christian movie, made mainly for the consumption of religious people? If it is, then say so. Nobody will care if it is.

Further down in the release is this:

“The success of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” and television shows like CBS’s “Joan of Arcadia” has caused Hollywood to sit up and take notice”

and

“Hollywood is finally embracing films like “The Clean Standup Comedy Tour” because they’re clearly so financially viable.”

Of course, this is belied by the fact that, at the time of the press release, no distributor had been nailed down, nor have any deals been struck with any retailers.

(And, not to pile on, but a sensible measure of “financial viability” usually means that it’s coming to a theater near you or it’s available in bricks and mortar stores and not just the film’s website. And, while we’re not piling on, we seem to recall that the MPAA gave Mel and his pic an R-rating for graphic violence!)

Wethinks they are too defensive for their own good. Our favorite bit of snottiness is this gem:”Laugh Out Loud Productions believes that comedy doesn’t have to be dirty to be funny, and only chooses to work with comedians who share this philosophy.” So there! We theorize that there HQ in a treehouse– With a crudely drawn sign that says, “No durty comics allloud!” We bear no ill will toward the comics involved (Michael Joiner, Thor Ramsey, Carlos Oscarand Michael Jr.), we wish them luck. But why do the producers find it necessary to be so negative?

And as for their claim that theirs is “the first full-length clean standup comedy movie ever created,” we might remind them that “Bill Cosby Himself (1983)” was rated PG at the time, but standards were much tighter back then. We have no doubt that Mr. Cosby’s concert film would merit a G these days. And it would be financially viable and suitable for all audiences!

We received the following letter… not quite sure what to make of it.

Don’t know if this qualifies as “comedy news,” but thought we’d give it a shot.

We we were in the process of leaving for the airport to go to the SF Sketchfest when our historic 1964 AMC Rambler was ticketed and subsequently impounded by the Austin Police.

The Rambler was one of the “stars” of the short lived MTV Sitcom, Austin Stories. If anyone remembers the show, it also starred Austin-based (now LA Based) comedians Howard Kremer, Laura House and Brad “Chip” Pope.

Anyway, we’re trying to take up a little collection to get her out of the city impound lot and relocate her to somewhere where she won’t be towed.

Every little bit helps.

More details here.

Thanks!

scott & stacey
austin, tx

BTW: If you’d like to purchase the Rambler ad, it’s for sale online.

From FunnyFest Big Cheese Stu Hughes:

FunnyFest Calgary Comedy Festival submission deadline is Feb 28 and a 10-minute tape is all that is needed to be considered. Visit funnyfest.com for more info.

Two more comics will have shows built around them.

Eddie Izzard is set to star in a new yet-to-be-titled comedy on FX about an Irish family living in the south. The show is from Maverick TV with the pilot written by Dmitry Lipkin.

and, in other news,

Sony Pictures Television has signed comedian Lewis Black to a development deal for a show based on his on-stage personality.

Coincidentally, Black appears on a re-run episode of Law and Order SVU tonight at 10 PM ET.

A YOUNG TV STAR IS ATTACKED AND THE EVIDENCE SUGGESTS A RADIO SHOCK JOCK WHO MAY HAVE GONE TOO FAR — DANA DELANY AND LEWIS BLACK GUEST STAR

Blame the NBC website for the all-capped screaming. Black plays the “shock jock.” Check out Black’s acting chops (at least in an hourlong drama).

SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read further if you want to fully enjoy Late Show‘s tribute to Johnny Carson. Tune in tonight to see what the other show does in tribute to the late King of Late Night Television. David Bauder, via AP, writes:

David Letterman paid tribute to Johnny Carson (news) on Monday by telling his jokes. On his first Late Show since Carson’s death on Jan. 23, Letterman’s opening monologue was comprised entirely of jokes that Carson had quietly sent to him over the past few months from retirement in California

Oughta be interesting. We’ll be tuning in. Check your listings for local station and showtime. Read the details here. (Actually, shouldn’t that be “composed entirely of?”)

Allan Johnson contributes a thoughtful piece on the impact that Carson had on the business of standup, and what it meant to comics when he exited the show… and the planet.

“A lot of us thought that he would be there all the time, and that we’d get around to [appearing],” said Brian McKim, a comic for more than 20 years and editor of SheckyMagazine.com, a stand-up-based humor Web site. “Then he quit, so that was like pulling the rug out from under us. And then, underneath the rug was a trap door.”

Not only did he spell the name right, he also capped the “M” in magazine.

It’s a great article, packed with quotes from a lot of the comics that the MSM just never got around to interviewing over the past week. (Read it all the way through and you’ll get to our pet theory that Carson’s retirement hastened the comedy bust!)

Editors note: The link below was broken for the last 16 hours. It works now.

Bill Bunker emailed us a link to an IMDB synopsis of a Bob Hope television special called “Joys.” We’d like to attempt to describe it, but it’s just too odd. It’s notable because Johnny Carson figures heavily in the finale. Herewith is an excerpt of a User Comment:

Eventually, we see that a mysterious man in a domino mask is killing all the comedians. IMDb’s cast list has already given away the (unfunny) killer’s identity, so I shan’t reveal it here. (BIG HINT: Which American showbiz personality, circa 1976, held the power of life and death over most comedians’ careers?) At the end, ALL of the comedians die, and Hope’s pool is chock-full o’ corpses.

It’s interesting to note that, in 1976, when you made a movie that required 50 comedians, you included the likes of Jan Murray, Foster Brooks, Jerry Colonna and Freddie Prinze. A real transition period for standup comedy in Los Angeles.

From the Washington Times/UPI:

The paper said the project got a boost after the funeral last year of Rodney Dangerfield, when Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock suggested to HBO executives that early HBO shows featuring Dangerfield and other standup comics should be marketed to a new audience. According to Variety, HBO is working on signing filmmaker Ric Burns for the project.

Burns did a documentary series on New York, and worked with his brother, Ken Burns, on the PBS documentary “The Civil War.”

Seinfeld and Rock are among the top comedians who have done HBO specials, along with such other comedians as George Carlin, Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams.

HBO declined comment concerning the Variety story.

We like the phrase “marketed to a new audience.” It’s yet another sign of the health of the business of standup. We seem to recall that HBO announced that they were getting out of the standup business about five years ago. The fact that they’re hiring a Burns is a step in the right direction. If he makes documentaries anything like his brother, we can expect a quality product that is sprawling, informative and compelling. (We watched the majority of brother Ken’s Jazz and found it to be riveting, due in no small part to the testimony of Gary Giddins. Heck, we even went out and bought a Thelonius Monk CD after watching one installment. If Ric’s standup docu has the same effect, expect the crowds at your local comedy club to swell shortly after it airs.)

We hope they clarify things before production starts, though. It sounds to us like Rock and Seinfeld were talking about the Young Comedians’ specials and Albrecht and other HBO suits immediately thought Robin Williams. Sure, a documentary about modern comedy would have wide appeal, and it couldn’t be made without Carlin, Murphy and Williams. But a documentary that only focused only on Carlin, Murphy and Williams and stars of that caliber would be excruciatingly boring. And a documentary that commences telling the story of standup the same year that HBO started would be wholly inadequate.

Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld are collaborating on a documentary on modern standup comedy, to be shown on HBO. Stay tuned for details.

And Larry Miller has sold a pilot. Tommy James spotted the item in the trades. He said that Sony Pictures Television will produce. Miller creatd the series with writer Eileen Conn, called Uncommon Sense, and it will center on a columnist and his wife, to be played, respectively, by Miller and Conn. Miller has been doing all right in movies over the past decade. His absence from the standup stage is keenly felt. His bit about partying while his parents were out of town is one of the best-written 4:30 ever seen on network television. (The one that ends with Miller’s girlfriend, on the couch in the living room, rolling a joint, naked, as the front doorknob turns and Miller, who is two rooms away, hears her saying, to his early-returning parents, “Who am I?… Who are you?!“)

While watching the press slobber over Johnny Carson on the occasion of his demise, we were reminded of the time, somewhere in the middle of his reign, when the entertainment press– too full of itself or of cocaine, or hyperventilating from the effort to keep ahead of the tidal wave that was the Youth Culture– was less than complimentary about Mr. Carson. He was too old, or not hip, or he was hiding a dark side, or he was all of those things. And, as such, he should move over and turn over the reigns of late night to… who? Bert Convy? Marjoe Gortner? Not sure who the editors of Penthouse or TV Guide or The New York Times had in mind, but one thing was sure: They weren’t enamored of Johnny any more. We thought we imagined the viciousness of the rhetoric, but then we came across a 1978 New Yorker article, from which this is excerpted:

“He doesn’t drink now.” I turn to find Lazar beside me, also peeking at the man outside. He continues, “But I remember Johnny when he was a blackout drunk.” That was before the Tonight Show moved from New York to Los Angeles, in 1972. “A couple of drinks was all it took. He could get very hostile.”

I point out to Lazar that Carson’s family tree has deep Irish roots on the maternal side. Was there something atavistic in his drinking? Or am I glibly casting him as an ethnic (“black Irish”) stereotype? At all events, I now begin to see in him—still immobile by the pool—the lineaments of a magnified leprechaun.

How nice. Vicious gossip, ethnic stereotyping. Boy, when the entertainment press decides you’re finished, you had better be a special kind of human being to hold on. Sure, the article, on balance, is a positive one, but who remembers anything from it except that horrible characterization of Carson as a hostile drunk who drinks until unconscious and lives only for the television camera? The most insidious kind of character assasination is that which affects a certain amount of awe and masquerades as a serious, but reverent profile. Read the whole miserable thing here.

Adam Bernstein has put together one of the more detailed newspaper recaps of Carson’s life and career.

His mother, who had sewn his magician’s cape, invited her son to perform for her bridge club. Soon he was making the rounds of local Rotary groups. His ability to entertain ceaselessly, somehow overcoming what he described as his innate shyness, made him a hit.

After Navy service during World War II, he enrolled at the University of Nebraska. His thesis was “How to Write Comedy Jokes,” in which he explained the comic technique of major radio comics of his era.

Read the whole thing.

Chicagoans can count on a Carson retrospective or two in this Sunday’s Chicago Tribune. We did a phoner yesterday, so look for quotes from SHECKYmagazine.