Las Vegas Weekly has a cover story about standup in their Aug. 5-11 issue. It’s still online here, at least for another day or two… after that, you might have to do a search in their archives. The story is entitled, “Behind the Comedy: Four Serious Lessons About the Funny Business in Las Vegas” by Richard Abowitz.

Schirripa also points out that another drawback of Las Vegas is that, unlike at traditional comedy clubs, there is no room to nurture local or untested talent:

“One thing about Vegas: These aren’t open-mike nights. You got to be ready. I am not using amateurs. If you make it to the Riviera Comedy Club or to the Tropicana, you got to be a pro, and you got to prepared to handle yourself. You got to be on top of your game here. You got to be prepared.”

We ate breakfast over at the Pioneer, one of the original casino/hotels in Laughlin. (Get the Six-Shooter– Two eggs, bacon and sausage plus toast for $3.99) On the way out, we spotted the “Jeff Foxworthy, You Might Be A Redneck If” penny slot machine. Have you licensed your name and likeness to a slot machine manufacturer lately? I didn’t think so. We pumped in a dollar and, what seemed like days later, we won enough pennies to pretty much cover breakfast. The machine, by the way, is one of those video slot machines with hogs, outhouses, moonshine and pickup trucks instead of cherries, limes, plums and oranges. The folks down south must be real proud of Jeffrey. (In other news revolving around gambling devices that bear the image and names of standup comics, we lost $6.85 on the Reel Respect slot, a nickel machine that bears the likeness of Rodney Dangerfield.)

We had decent crowds all week at Berri Lee’s Comedy Show at the Cabana Club. Musta been that full-page writeup in the Laughlin Entertainer! Too bad they spilled all that ink on an enterprise that’s discontinued after August 14! The higher-ups at the River Palms’ corporate parent have decided to gut the Cabana Club and turn it into an open, lounge-type venue, rendering it unusable for comedy. The decision came from out of the blue and Berrri had the unenviable task of cancelling a bill or two.

Lee’s had an interesting career: A debut on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1969, performing in over three dozen Vegas “production shows,” opener for a lot of the big Vegas acts. (We’re trying to persuade him to put some of his experiences down in writing for the edification of our readers. Stay tuned.)

We had Sunday off, so we took the opportunity to stay put for a day in Laughlin. On Sunday night, we hopped over to the Comedy Stop at the Flamingo to say hey to Kevin Knox and Mitchell Walters, maybe take a digital pic for the magazine… standard SHECKYmagazine practice. The folks who man the Stop didn’t seem to grasp the whole concept. We handed our card to one of the Stoppers and briefly explained that we were comedians who’d been working down the other end of Casino Drive and we’d like to snap a pic of the comics, blah, blah, woof, woof… he handed the card back! NO! You take the card, you go back to the green room and you say, “Hey, guys– Anybody know these assholes out front? They wanna picture of you. They say they’re working at Berri Lee’s club.” The other comics then say, “Send the fuckers back here!” Then we get the pic and everyone’s happy puss ends up on the front page of the WWW’s most beloved magazine about standup. That’s usually how it works. Instead we get “Well, the comics usually come out of that door back there…” and we’re forced to wait around like stagedoor goofballs, like crazed fans. The ignominy. The end result? We leave. No picture. As the TV Guide might say, “JEERS to the Comedy Stop crew in Laughlin for not letting the scrappy internet mag SHECKYmagazine do their thing!”

Kathleen Dunbar and Carla Rae are two of the nicest people in the business… odd that they’d be anchoring a show called “Divas of Comedy” at the Sahara every Monday night! They’re “anti-Divas.” Should they ever come into contact with a geniune diva, the result would be a loud boom and mass destruction, like the meeting of matter and anti-matter. The show at the CasBar Lounge was packed last night. SHECKYmagazine’s Traci Skene will be on the bill next Monday as well. The show features a revolving roster of chick comics– Pam Mateson, Carole Montgomery, Kira Soltanovich and others. Stop in next Monday and say Hey!

We’re off to Reno. It takes ten hours through some of the most hostile terrain in the continental U.S. to get there from here. Wish us luck. Stay tuned. Don’t forget to watch Last Comic Standing tonight. Two hours? Hmmm…

There’s a crude cross by the side of the road, the members are fastened together with a coupla Philips head screws. It’s down a slight embankment, maybe about 12 or 15 feet from the shoulder. We asked the gal at the Chevron, the one just north of where Rte. 163 T’s into Rte. 95, if she knew where Kinison died. She said it happened in Arizona. There is little information on the internet, but this much we do know. On April 10, 1992, Kinison was headed to a gig in Laughlin when his vehicle was hit by a vehicle occupied by two men in their late teens.

The cab of their Chevrolet pickup was littered with beer cans as they tore down U.S. highway 95, swerving into oncoming traffic near the California-Nevada border. Moments after hitting Kinison’s Pontiac Trans-Am head-on, fatally injuring the comedian and knocking his new wife unconscious, one of the teenagers said: “God! Look at my truck!” (From the Los Angeles Times News Service, April 11, 1992)

We tried to find the spot on our way to Laughlin, but we weren’t sure about the exact location; we just recalled from the news reports at the time that it was between Searchlight and the border. We researched it a bit and, from what we could tell, the cross is probably marking the spot where Kinison expired.

BERRI’S COMEDY CLUB

Above is Berri Lee backstage with Brian McKim at Berri Lee’s Comedy Club, at the River Palms in Laughlin. The show is continuing for only one week more. We’ll post more, but we gotta go! Stay tuned!

Our readers are brilliant. They correctly chose the final three. How do they do it? Here’s the deal on the “Finale”: We’re fairly certain that NBC is giving us credentials… and we’re fairly certain that there’ll be some kind of hoopla in Los Angeles on Tuesday– a show, etc. (They’re claiming to have two solid hours of L.C.S. on Tuesday’s schedule)– And we’ll be there for it. But we can’t make it to the Thursday night wingding. But we’ll be watching, you can bet on that.

We’ve re-jiggered the poll to reflect last night’s halving of the contestants. Please take a moment to vote on the final result over there ——> Thanks!

Speaking of last night, we missed most of it because we were working, gigging, hiliariating, here in Laughlin. Traci caught the tail end of it, though.

Is Jay London going to get his ass reamed (pardon our French) for not mentioning the specific name of the club he’s playing next week? (When quizzed as to where he might be appearing live in the near future, he replied, “Albuquerque.” When pressed further for details, he would only say “Albuquerque… the streets of Albuquerquue.” (Going along with host Mohr’s joke.) Ouch! A club owner’s nightmare!!

And how’s that for a name– Longsworth Bodden! The camera beamed a tight shot of Alonzo Bodden‘s father after Alonzo’s set.

We’re here through Sunday, then it’s back to Vegas. Over at the Palms in Vegas, the casino owned by the Malouf Bros., the Hollywood Comedy Tour stops in tomorrow (Saturday). Hosted by Court McCown and Paul Hughes, the “Comedy on the Cutting Edge” will be served up by Rich Vos, Bonnie McFarlane and Danny Bonaduce. (Should his name be in bold? Is he really a comic?) Over at the Palace Station Steve White and Jann Karam are on the bill and downtown at the Union Plaza (site of 2001’s SHECKYmagazine.Comics Only Reunion!), they list a comedy club, but they don’t list the names… hmmmm… curious.

Ah! The glamorous world of internet publishing… I’m in the Bullhead City Library… or is it the Mohave County Library? Either way, they have wireless internet access for all! Bless them and bless the freeholders of Mohave County.

Just got this over the cyber transom (full disclosure: SHECKYmagazine editor Brian McKim recently designed Mr. Ajaye’s website.):

Manic Depressive Records announces it’s first release. The new double comedy and music CD by Franklyn Ajaye, “Vagabond Jazz & The Abstract Truth”.

Recorded in Melbourne, Australia, this is the first new comedy by Franklyn Ajaye since his classic album “Don’t’ Smoke Dope, Fry Your Hair”, and it is already being played on XM Satellite Radio, The All Comedy Network, Sirius Satellite, KLOS’s “Five O ‘Clock Funnies”, and Khaha.com radio to very great response.

One more thing, Ajaye-related: He’ll be on The Dennis Miller Show tomorrow (Friday) night, August 6. Check your newspaper for showtimes!

RUMOR CENTRAL

The glut of comedy clubs in Indianapolis is rumored to be easing somewhat according to rumors swirling through the comedy community. It seems that the Funny Bone has decided to fold its tent in Bob & Tom Land. This leaves a downtown club, the Broad Ripple club and Oneliners in Greenwood.

A CORRECTION

When writing about L.C.S. yesterday, we said that “we’re going to try to persuade the bartender at the Pirate’s Lounge to turn one of the plasma screens to the local Fox affiliate tomorrow night…” Why do we think that L.C.S. is a Fox product? What is wrong with us? Perhaps it reminds us of American Idol a bit too much. That’s our excuse and we’re sticking to it.

DEAL WITH IT!

From Tommy James comes the following heads up about a failed standup comic:

Actress Jennifer Aniston has ordered her lawyers to ban a tape of her early career as a stand-up comedian.

The Friends star, 35, is determined to prevent the copy of her unsuccessful comedy routine — in front of an audience of 15 people at New York’s Kit Kat club in 1990– from being made public.

Aniston says, “My lawyers are onto this.”

“It’s not that I am bothered about my duff performance but I would hate anyone to actually pay money for it.”

Her concern for the little guy and his little budget is truly touching. We only have one question: What is a “duff performance.” Read the whole thing here.

ONE MORE THING

We’re doing our best under (Laughlin) adverse conditions! We’ll continue blogging as much as we can! Stay tuned for more! Don’t forget to watch L.C.S. tonight! There will only be three left at 10PM EDT! (We’re going to try to get press credentials for the finale… If NBC can make up their minds as to when it will be… and if our schedule allows us to be present. We’ll be there if we can!)

We’re in Laughlin, performing at the River Palms and Earthlink can’t provide me with a local access number… at least not one that the River Palms won’t charge me an arm and a leg to connect to. We’re uploading this from the Java Junky, a coffee shop on Casino Blvd. with wireless access. The local paper ran an item about how folks here in Laughlin needn’t dial “702” when they dial up Henderson or Vegas, but Sprint hasn’t gotten around to designating a ton of exchanges as truly “local.” Thus the charge from the River Palms folks.

We missed Last Comic Standing last night. But we’re going to try to persuade the bartender at the Pirate’s Lounge to turn one of the plasma screens to the local Fox affiliate tomorrow night so we can see who gets through. NBC’s website says the following:

It’s down to the last six comics. Jay, Gary, John, Kathleen, Tammy and Alonzo performed in front of an audience of millions. Then, by phone, internet and text message, America voted.

Thursday, the results are revealed – and it’s the end of the line for three of the Final Six. Will your favorite make the cut? Watch the live event and find out!

The L.C.S./SHECKYmagazine.com Readers Poll reveals the following:

Heffron 32 %
Gulman 24 %
Bodden 14 %
London 13 %
Madigan 11 %
Pescatelli 6 %

Up the road at the Flamingo, the Comedy Stop is featuring Kevin Knox, Mitchell Walters and Todd Paul this week. That club will be operating through Sept. 4. There’s still no Catch A Rising Star in evidence down here, despite the fact that they brag about a Laughlin location on their website. Hmmm… Berri Lee’s Comedy Club (the one where we’re working) will cease operations after next week’s shows– a victim of a decision to renovate the Bermuda Club. (Early on Tuesday, we had the crap scared out of us when the guy behind the bar at the Bermuda told us that “the comics have been discontinued… just got the memo today.” Huh? Wha?! Closer inspection of the memo revealed that the cutoff was August 14! Dodged that bullet!)

Traci is back at the Sahara aagain on Monday for the Divas of Comedy show, then we report for duty at the Sands in Reno on the 11th. We’ll be there through Sunday. Then it’s back to Vegas one more time (Traci will do one more Divas show on the 16th). We’re trying to squeeze an L.A. trip in on the 17th and 18th before heading to a two-night engagement in Sierra Vista, AZ. We’ll keep you posted on that.

Above are Carla Rea, Kathleen Dunbar and Traci Skene backstage at the Divas of Comedy Show at the Sahara in Las Vegas, minutes before showtime on Monday night, Aug.2, 2004! Tomorrow, we head to Laughlin. Tonight, we might hit the strip, surprise some comics and have a couple 75-cent Labatt Blues over at the Slots O Fun! Stay tuned.

Who is in town? Bobby Lee, Jim Connolly (we assume that’s James P. Connolly!), and Kenny Kane are at Improv at Harrah’s. Diane Ford, Shayma Tash and Tom Clark are at the Riviera. Kevin Knox, Eric Lyden and Chris Coccia are at the Comedy Stop at the Trop. While the listing for Sandy Hackett’s Comedy Club at the Greek Isles doesn’t list any specific comcis, it does promise “great creative comedy and funmaking.” Comics whose names and faces appear on billboards around town (who are either headlining permanently or in limited runs) are George Wallace (Flamingo), David Brenner (Westin), George Carlin (MGM Grand), Amazing Johnathan (Riviera), Rita Rudner (New York, New York) and oodles of comedy magicians and comedy hypnotists, as always.

“Royking kan redusere blodgjennomstromminga og fore til impotens”
–Warning on the back of a pack of Petteroe’s Original cigarettes, Norway’s finest smokes, found while waiting for an elevator.

From what we can tell, “royking” means smoking and “impotens,” well, that’s the same in any language! Vegas seems to be packed this week with a ton of what we usta call in the old days, “foreigners.” The forecast for the upcoming week is temps of 100 degrees or better and humidity in the 50 per cent range… it’s a dry heat, and it must be what is attracting all these folks from Europe… that and all this gambling. On our USAirways flight outta Philly, there were a bunch of people from Manchester (in England) whom, we assumed, were in the States to support their beloved Manchester United soccer team touring North America.

Our new favorite name is the one we found on the back of a lost Club Sahara card– Ashkon Batmanghelich!

We’re taking off tonight for Vegas, landing at McCarran about 11PM PDT. And over the next 27 days, we’ll be gigging in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Reno, Laughlin and AZ. We’re planning on two separate forays into Los Angeles (and we’re hoping the folks at NBC don’t change the L.C.S. finale to Thursday), and, as always, we’ll upload some pics and text on our journey. Regular blogging will continue throughout our trip, so tune in regularly.

Ann Oldenburg, writing for Gannett News Service, says:

Sitcoms may be in a sorry state these days, but stand-up on TV is seeing a groundswell.

What follows is an enumeration of all the signs that “stand-up and sketch clearly are seeing a resurgence,” touching on all the phenomena that we’ve been highlighting on this very website over the past few months. Read the whole article.

Of course, we don’t agree with her reflexive “sitcom is suffering” sentiment, but for the past five years, we’ve been telling anyone with ears that standup is experiencing a resurgence. Good to see Ms. Oldenburg scrambling onboard. We will not take this as a signal that we can let up. We’re going to turn up the heat on the media ever more. And, of course, we’ll keep you informed whenever the media sees fit to write about standup– in a good way or a bad way.

Congratulations to Jay London for scrambling onboard the L.C.S. boat. We here at SHECKYmagazine fully intend to bring you coverage of the final shootout in Los Angeles. The folks at NBC are uncertain which night they’ll hold the finals. If our schedule syncs up with that of the Peacock, we’ll be there to upload pics and text. (And, if we can’t make it, someone from SHECKYmagazine will be there!)

The L.C.S./SHECKYmagazine Readers’ Poll has been reset and London’s name has been inserted. Please take a moment to vote for the winner over there —> Here’s the results from the most recent poll:

We watched the show last night on a big ol’ TV in the green room at the Borgata Comedy Club in Atlantic City (a spectacular 900-seat jewel of a club). We were visiting Kenny Rogerson, Jim McCue and Rob Magnotti. Two of the three are depicted below, flanking SHECKYmagazine Editor Brian McKim, at one of the several bars at the Borgata (this one is cleverly called “Bar”).

And finally, from the Hollywood Reporter’s recap of the goings on in Montreal last week, is this:

At the end of a festival that was a strong showing for Canadian talent, Caribbean-born, Toronto-based Gilson Lubin walked away with a talent/development deal with Spike TV. He beat 10 other stand-up comics — all selected based on their performances throughout the festival — in Saturday night’s first-ever “Spike the Mike” contest.

Addendum: Sharp-eyed reader Robert “Comedy Bird of Prey” Hawkes wrote the following after reading the above posting:

“We hear at SHECKYmagazine”? “hear?” How late were you up last night?

Thanks to the flexibility that is the hallmark of Internet publishing, the egregious error has been corrected! We thank Mr. Hawkes for pointing out the homonymic confusion and we also thank him for speculating that our error was due not to stupidity, but to fatigue! And, to answer his question, 2:00 AM! Thanks!

In the days following these festival blowouts, we shed the fatigue, we slowly regain our senses and we gain some perspective. We plow through the business cards, review the brochures, send out a ton of emails, field a bunch of inbound emails and we read and re-read the updates. Occasionally, we’ll read an item and say, for instance, “Uh… do you suppose it was a good idea to call somebody ‘cheap fucks’?” or something like that. Then we re-assure ourselves that calling somebody a cheap fuck is pretty tame in the grand scheme of things. Besides, with our track record, this kind of rhetoric is expected, even celebrated. We liken what we do, with regard to the Industry, to placing a bag of dog poop on the Industry’s doorstep, lighting it, ringing the doorbell and then running away. We’re annoying, but we don’t do any real damage. Maybe just ruin a perfectly nice pair of shoes once in a while.

One of the many fine people we ran into at the most recent Just For Laughs was Saranne Rothberg, Executive Director of Comedy Cures, a 501(c)3 outfit “bringing joy, laughter and therapeutic programs to kids & grown-ups living with illness.” Rothberg depends not only on private and corporate donations but on “the goodwill and humor of the comedy industry.” If you’d like to learn more about how you might hand over some of that goodwill and/or humor, hop on the Comedy Cures! website. You can also dial 1 888-HA-HA-HA-HA to hear (or donate!) a family-friendly joke 24/7.

Phillip Minton, of Shapiro/Grodner Productions and Hazy Mills Productions writes:

We’re thrilled to announce Bravo’s new reality-competition series Situation: Comedy! Executive Producers Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) and Todd Milliner; Arnold Shapiro & Allison Grodner (Big Brother) are conducting a nationwide search for a sitcom script that is original, creative and, of course, funny.
Of the script entries submitted, two will be produced for television in Hollywood. Bravo will document the entire process for an upcoming series. Situation: Comedy will feature two writers thrust into the high-energy, high stress world of sitcom production. The winning writer (or winning writing team) will receive a cash prize of $25,000 and a year contract with CAA, a leading literary agency…
If you would, please announce this one-of-a-kind contest to your readers. Anyone interested will need to visit www.bravotv.com and click on the Situation: Comedy link for official contest rules and application.

A reader writes:

I’m trying to track down an old interview SHECKYmagazine did with Tom Rhodes. Any chance you still have it?

We most certainly do, Reader. If you’d like to read it, click here.

A final wrapup is UP! Enjoy. We’re tired. Thanks to J.F.L. and all the Festival sponsors for the hospitality! Thanks to everyone else for everything. That covers it! Try the veal! Click here for all four of our updates.

Astute SHECKYmagazine reader Robert Hawkes writes:

The NBC website says: “Voting is simple and easy. To vote, simply watch the five ousted comics of Last Comic Standing perform on the show on Tuesday, July 27, the final six comics on Tuesday, August 3, and the final three comics on Tuesday, August 10, all on NBC.”

It appears from this that next week the ousted perform and then the winner from that group goes into the final six (not five)for the next show. You may want to add a six possibility for your poll, that of “returning comic.”

Thanks, Mr. Hawkes!

A sharp-eyed reader (and Bonnie McFarlane’s Seminude Revue fan) wrote to tell us that one of his favorites, “AnOpenLetterToFemaleComics.” was missing from the archives. (And that one of the existing columns had a bum link!) Well we’re proud to announce that both problems have been rectified. If you’d like to read the formerly missing column, click here.

Also: Any fans of Traci Skene‘s or Brian McKim‘s columns might like to know that they’ve been archived as well and that you can check out all of the columns we could find merely by hitting their respective columns and scrolling down the column on the lefthand side of the page.

Hit Keep It Tight (Traci’s column) to check out such greatest hits as “Penile Origami,” where Skene tears into Puppetry of the Penis and “There She Goes, Miss Afghanistan!” a timely treatise on freedom and censorship.

Hit A Coupla Minutes Up Front (Brian’s column) to re-read such memorable McKim screeds as “Laughable Situation,” an examination of the tendency to pronounce the sitcom dead, and “Blue In The Face,” in which he takes on NBC execs, the NY Post and USAToday!

Comics might like “Goofus & Gallant,” Condo, Condo, Condo,” and “Heckler Alert,” from the Traci Skene collection.

For sheer reading pleasure, check out McKim’s “Eyewear Glasses.” And, if you want to feel superior to people who work in television, check out “Next To Godliness,” “Television Fun!” or “B.C.(R.) Before Carson (Retired)!”

Don’t forget to check out the Mini-Interviews of some of the folks in attendance up here in Montreal this year. And check out one from our archives: Jimmy Pardo! (Another of the fine SHECKYmagazine alums up here!)

In a previous post we wrote:

Okay… the L.C.S. Poll has been reset! We caved under presssure! Vote now for the next person to be eliminated from The House!

An astute reader pointed out, quite rightly, that L.C.S. shifts from The House elimination mode to a different mode. So now, we’re going to reset the poll (as of 5:00 PM EDT) to be “Who do you think will win L.C.S.?” We’ll keep folks up on the results on a regular basis and see how our poll stacks up to the Vegas odds! Thanks!

PS: We’re in Montreal, like we said earlier, and we’re going to rise early tomorrow (Wednesday) and upload an update with pics… just like we said we would! Tomorrow, we’re planning on attending Pitching It!, which was wildly entertaining last year and should be even more so this year! If you don’t recall what that was about, click on those archived JFL updates and get up to speed!

It’s not a festival until SHECKYmagazine shows up! (Well, in reality, Just For Laughs got along pretty well without us for its first 16 years!) This is the JFL’s 22nd annual blowout– and our sixth year covering it! We’ve got broadband, so blogging should be no problem… in fact, it should be a breeze! We’re going to the Wayne Brady-hosted Gala tonight at 7, and we’ve got to get the car off of University Avenue in the next 45 minutes, so we’ll sign off right about here and implore you to return some time in the next 18 hours or so for the first of our Fest updates.

P.S.: So far, we’ve bumped into Dom Irrera, Eddie Gosling, Tammy Pescatelli, Jimmy Pardo and we spotted Greg Fitzsimmons in the lobby.

They’re baaaack, all right. And they did just what we thought they would with the repatriated House members. They got to vote. They influenced matters and they made everyone generally nervous. Just what the reality TV doctor ordered!

And what happened? Corey Holcomb is bounced out of the house and will not be one of the final five.

Luckiest person in this episode? Tammy Pescatelli, of course, for gaining immunity. They all should hang their heads in shame for not having a television show pitch ready. After all, they did basically the same thing last year for one of the immunity challenges! (Besides, even cab drivers in L.A. have a sitcom idea ready. Hell they can pitch anyone in the time it takes to drive you from NBC to Burbank Airport!)

They had us going for a short while there– When Tammy read the card that said, “But will it play in Peoria,” I honestly thought the immunity challenge would be a plane ride to Peoria– To play the Jukebox, a real comedy club…in Peoria! How would that be for a challenge? You gotta go kick ass in a club in Illinois!

No. Just pitching to a sourpuss focus group.

Todd Glass was everything we thought he would be upon re-entering The House. Seeing his big ol’ head come through that door was priceless.

Once again, we’re reminded of our very own words on this website two weeks ago (Wednesday, July 7, at 1:05PM to be exact):

It is a crucial flaw in this show that the folks who lose the head-to-head competition are summarily dismissed from the house… banished forever, never to interact with their old compadres. Which Larry Lightbulb came up with that feature? This is why they should toss everybody back in The House! (With minor adjustments, of course!)

Pardon us… we’re gloating.
Stay tuned. We’d write more, but we’ve gotta get some sleep before departing for Montreal.

A reader who identifies himself as Brady, sends along the above chart. (Source: betonsports.com)

Self-described “California comedian” Frank King may only have another 105 days or so to cash in on his resemblance to Democratic VP nominee John Edwards. The Raleigh native needed only a lush rug to make the transformation into an Edwards impersonator. King, who does mostly corporate gigs these days, managed to make the front page of the Raleigh News & Observer (see photo). See details on his website.

We uploaded this post nearly four hours ago but we forgot to upload the file that goes with it! It’s up now (6:41 PM).

We’ve interviewed SIX comics who will be featured in the 22nd Just For Laughs festival– Costaki Economopoulos, Megan Mooney, Eddie Gosling, Leighann Lord, Joe Starr and Bonnie McFarlane. We put five questions to each of them– a sort of mini-interview– and we asked them things like how they prepare their fest sets, what they think about schmoozing and how the reality of the world’s largest comedy festival is different from the anticipation. It’s right here.

SHECKYmagazine.com will host a showcase as part of the New York City Underground Comedy Festival on October 6, 2004. We quote from the NYCUCF website:

Brian McKim and Traci Skene, the creative minds behind the comedy webzine SHECKYmagazine.com assemble an ensemble of talented performers who’ve graced the pages of their fair publication. Catch Brian and Traci in a rare NYC appearance, and stick around for a host of other talented comics!

The show will be at 8 PM at the Village Lantern, 167 Bleecker St. (Corner of Sullivan St.), (212)260-7993, which the NYCUCF folks describe as a “fun, funky, 40-seat basement room that is home to some of the best and brightest rising comedy stars. This room has been one of comedy’s best kept secrets, and it’s set to bust out in a big way with 3 events during the NYCUCF. Seats are limited, so get there early.” We’ll announce the schedule of performers in a month or so!

From the most recent US Weekly (Issue #491/492, “Saving Mary-Kate”), specifically from “The Record” on page 61:

Survivor: All-Stars winner Amber Brkich, 25, has donated the bikinis she wore on the show to the Beaver Area Historical Museum in her home state of Pennsylvania.

The L.C.S./SHECKYmagazine Readers’ Poll has been re-jiggered to account for last night’s expulsion of Jay London, so we exhort our readers to go over there —> and take about 12 seconds to pick who is the next comic booted from The House. (And, even thought NBC is bringing back the kicked-off comics, we’ll limit this week’s poll to the six who haven’t been kicked off yet.)

Also: We’ll probably stop polling on your L.C.S choices after the next week or so. BUT, we intend to start other polls… like, “How Long Have You Been Doing Comedy? (With answers like “More than 10 years,” and “Less than a year” and “Huge Fan, never done it!”) It’s yet another step in our program to get a better handle on who reads the magazine, so that we might provide our readers with more of what they want… and less of what they don’t want!

NOTE: Last night, Blogger, the outfit that provides the crucial technological widget that enables us to craft our front page (and enables you, our readers, to comment on those postings!), was down for two hours (8-10 PM PDT). If you tried to comment during that time, you were greeted with a message that said they were down for maintenance. Please come back and comment! It’s back up and we treasure your comments.

A SHECKYmagazine reader writes:

Hi, I’ve just started reading Shecky Magazine. I would like to read more of Bonnie McFarlane’s columns. Are they archived on the site?

Thanks,
K. Rob

We’re glad you asked, K. Rob. We just uploaded a Bonnie McFarlane Index Page, which contains a brief description of each of Bonnie’s SHECKYmagazine columns and from which you can access each.

August 9 through September 12 are the dates that the organizers of the Las Vegas Comedy Festival have set aside for their “15-City Audition Tour.” For a little over a month, they’ll scurry around the country auditioning people in six categories (Youth, Variety-Parody, Impersonators, Stand-Up ProAm, Comedy Club Pick and Wild Card), the winners of which will be flown to Las Vegas for the 3rd Annual LVCF October 13-17 2004. This year’s edition of the fest will be held downtown at the Golden Nugget. Hop onto their website for details… or you can check out a detailed account of our surreal experience at last year’s LVCF!

Well, well, well.

If you don’t know why we’re saying, “Well, well, well,” scroll down this page a foot or two to the post entitled, “L.C.S. Musings: Where Is The Show Headed?” and read it.

In the final tease at the very end of the show, NBC ran a promo that makes it appear as though those comics who have been kicked out are back in the house!

Things are so bad at the L.C.S. Castle, they hadda throw a dog into the mix! What’s up wid dat?! But wait– We hear that Rusty, the plucky pooch from Last Comic Standing, Episode #208 is headlining at Uncle Fucker’s Chuckle Hut next week! Tickets are going fast! (Apologies to Dana Gould!)

“If I have to wear a clown suit, I’m just gonna leave and let NBC sue me for a million dollars.”

–Kathleen Madigan

“I hate roasts and I hate clowns.”

–Kathleen Madigan

The challenge was pretty bogus. But it was fascinating. Humiliation factor: 11 out of a possible 10. Seeing them squirm while trying to figure out if they should play to the kids in the actual live kiddie audience or try to appear likeable to the folks at home was painful.

“Funny to me…to you, much less so!” Nice quote from Gary Gulman! He was way off in the sound bite where he explained his strategy. He seemed to think that, after the last installment, he was vulnerable. We are of the opposite opinion. Certainly he was challenged, but he won! As far as we’re concerned, that makes him the least challengeable… Or so we thought!

We identified with Kathleen Madigan. She didn’t exactly do comedy, but she didn’t “bomb” either. We would have gone out and done our act…straight– let the kids come up to our level. Nobody tried that.

What happened to Heffron’s “Lone Wolf” strategy proclamation? In the post dinner scenes, he’s depicted engaging in what can only be called “strategizing” with Pescatelli.

Our readers had London and Pescatelli in the head-to-head. They were half right. It’s 9:40PM EDT… in 15 minutes or so, we’ll see if they were half-right or all wrong. Stick around.

(Sorry about that premature posting– at about 9:42 EDT, we accidentally hit “Publish Post” and certain savvy readers were treated to an unfinished “bulldog edition” of this evening’s L.C.S. analysis!)

Six remain after tonight’s episode. We’ll post a new L.C.S./SHECKYmagazine Readers’ Poll as soon as we upload this analysis! Be sure to get in on this week’s poll!

Just like last week, NBC’s re-running last week’s episode at 8PM, then running a new one at 9PM. According to My Yahoo, “he competition becomes more intense as alliances are forged and broken and the number of residents dwindles to six.” A week from tonight, the number of castle-dwelling comics will be down to five… and the next day, we’ll be in Montreal, trying to ply those L.C.S. “cast memebers” who may be present with Labatts. (Just kidding! Everything is off the record!) If we run into any P.A.’s however, we’re pumping them mercilessly! For the record: Any comics on L.C.S. we’ve had any contact with have all been incredibly tight-lipped. Any information that we’ve gotten on the show has come from people who are only peripherally involved, mostly spewing third-hand rumors.

Reminder: Our second poll is closing in about 10 hours, so, if you haven’t made your choice for who the Next Comic Booted, do it now (or soonly)! Thanks for voting!

The chuckleheads who slap together USA Today’s Reality Check, a weekly rundown on what went on with the various reality series, need to bone up on the reality of standup comedy. Their most recent update contains two glaring goofs:

Ant spends more time baiting Gary than he does prepping for his time at the microphone. He pays for it in the end — he’s eliminated.

“Prepping for his time at the microphone?!” where have these people been? If Ant is a real live comic, he’s done all the prepping he’s ever going to do– on the highways and the byways of standup America, in one-nighters and clubs and casinos and college gigs and hell gigs and everything in between. What is it about the civilians of this world who can’t figure out that comics are always ready? Then, there’s this one, about Gary Gulman:

Gary suspects he’s going to be dragged to the standup standoff before the vote. So he packs his bags early in the day, leaving plenty of time to hone his routine. Good call — he wins the standoff and gets to spend the rest of the night unpacking at the house.

Our head! She spins! This cliche that has us comics standing in front of the mirror with a hairbrush is embarassingly outdated.

File these items under “Comedians gainfully employed on television.” Associated Press is crackling with news involving comics on the tube. Item #1 told of Jeff Foxworthy taping some sketches for his upcoming show at a theater in Atlanta:

The sketch comedy program, which premieres July 29 on the WB network, is adapted from Foxworthy’s Blue Collar Comedy Tour and features comedians Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy.

Item #2 announces that Garry Shandling will host the Emmy telecast:

Garry Shandling is ready to host the Emmy Awards again after a four-year absence. “This is perfect for me, since I just recuperated from the last time,” the actor-comedian said in a statement Thursday. The Sept. 19 ceremony in Los Angeles honoring the best in television will air on ABC.

And Item #3, a lengthy eye-roller on NBC’s Jeff Zucker’s most recent whining:

Fox TV has become a reality series copycat instead of an innovator and is hurting television in the process, NBC executive Jeff Zucker said Saturday.

“Quite frankly, they (Fox) used to be innovators and now they’re imitators,” Zucker, president of the NBC Universal Television Group, told the Television Critics Association…

…”It’s just bad for the business and it’s bad for everybody, and I don’t think that all is fair in love and television,” he said.

Laughable, no? Anyway, humorous as Zucker’s quotes may be it doesn’t make him a comedian. Of interest to SHECKYmagazine, however, is the last paragraph of the story

Also Saturday, Zucker announced that NBC will bring “Last Comic Standing,” its comedy competition, back for fall on Tuesday nights beginning Aug. 31.

No word yet on whether it’s already been cast… or how they’ll cast if it already isn’t… Hmmm… very mysterious! Seems like short notice to us! Perhaps it’ll be totally agent/manager-driven! We’ll definitely ask some questions when we get to Montreal!

We’ve been watching some of the Franklyn Ajaye hour-long special on BET’s Club Comic View Presents. It seems to have been recorded recently. We’re certain that they’re airing it several times. If you’d like to read the interview, click here. If you’d like to catch his special, check your newspaper for listings… or hit www.bet.com for their listings. (How ever did they get bet.com?!? I’d like to know the history of that URL!)

We would like to welcome all new SHECKYmagazine readers! Since our re-design, we’ve seen an uptick in the amount of traffic to our site– and a significant jump in the number of new readers. To the new readers: If you hit the “subscribe” button at the top of this page, you’ll receive the occasional (and we stress occasional) email letting you know when significant new hunks of content have been uploaded or informing you of special events like SHECKYmagazine columnist Tom Ryan’s upcoming Letterman appearance or advanced notice of DVD giveaways!

We’d also like to remind readers that we’ll be trekking northward to Montreal on July 21 to file the first of four daily updates from the Just For Laughs Festival! It’ll be our sixth year in a row providing our readers with lightning fast, entertaining and insightful wrapups of the fascinating events at the world’s largest comedy festival! We’ll bring you the raw data (Who’s in New Faces? The Masters?), the reports (Who did Andy Kindler skewer in the S.O.T.I.A.?) and, of course, the fabulous photos that has made our coverage of JFL a one-of-a-kind phenomenon! (And, if you haven’t read our coverage from past years, what are you waiting for?)

One more thing: We’re proud of our readers– they correctly picked Ant as the next comic booted out of The House on last Tuesday’s L.C.S. This week’s poll tally so far is running pretty weird. (We’ll reveal the results at 8PM EDT, Tuesday!) So we’d like you to take a moment (that’s all it takes!) to hop over there —-> and click on your choice for who gets booted out of The House next week!

Thanks!

In our analysis of Episode #207 of L.C.S., we quoted from a book (pictured at left), A Hundred Years, A Millions Laughs by Barry Daugherty, with a foreword by Richard Lewis. We had a link in there that ostensibly led readers to the Amazon page where they could purchase it. The publicist for the book very nicely emailed us to thank us for the plug, but he also pointed out that the link was haywire. We have corrected it! (and tested it!) When you click HERE, we are pretty sure that you’ll be taken to the Amazon.com location where you can purchase this picture-packed history of the Friars!

We have a pretty good record when it comes to identifying comedians who’ve been seen on the telly or when we’re provided with nothing more than a punchline. We got this email recently:

I am writing to you to see if the impossible can be achieved. I live in Australia and watch the Comedy Channel quite regularly, one night whilst watching the Comedy Channel they had the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival on. One of the comedians was a guy who was really funny but they didn’t back-announce his name, so, to this day, I have no idea who he was but would dearly love to find out his name. All I remember was part of his routine which was about someone in the next hotel/motel room banging on the wall suggesting he be quiet and he responded with, “Go round, I don’t know what’s on your side but there’s no door on mine. Go round to the door.” As I said, I know this is probably impossible and if you cannot help do you know who I could contact or where I could start searching. The man had long brown hair and a goatee beard.
Thank you for your help,
Renata Jelacic
loonacards@hotmail.com

If we had to guess, just on the clues provided, we’d say it was Mitch Hedberg. What do our readers say? Leave your guesses by hitting the comment button at the end of this post!

We got the following email earlier this week:

Detroit Comedian Bill Thomas is battling cancer. His finances have been diminished due to inability to work. Anyone wishing to do a benefit or contribute can contact Bill at P.O. BOX 721351, Berkley, MI 48072

A followup email said that benefits had been held in Detroit and Ann Arbor. Thomas, who has been doing corporate gigs and motivational speaking, has a website here.

Some of the more observant among you have noticed that we re-designed the magazine. In the old days, there was a front page that was a contents page, and there was a letters page (called “Like We Care.”) which also served as a sort of bulletin board– a place for us to post items about the comedy industry or comedians in the media, etc. We’ve ditched the front page! Now, when you arrive at SHECKYmagazine.com, you land right in the middle of a constantly changing weblog that incorporates the best elements of the old contents page and the old Like We Care page! We have received numerous positive comments on the re-do. We want to remind people that they can still write to us by clicking on the “Contact Us” link at the top of this page. BUT our readers have a new option: The COMMENTS link. At the bottom of each post is a Comments link, which enables readers to immediately comment on any post! It’s easy and NO REGISTRATION is required. (Of course, we’d prefer that folks attach their names!) HOWEVER, if you wish to contact us directly (and privately), you can still click on the “Contact Us” link, which will whisk you to the page that contains our stupefyingly simple rules and regulations for writing us a letter! Alles klar?