David Hiltbrand of the Philadelphia Inquirer has a huge piece in the Sunday edition’s entertainment section (and teased, with a pic on the front page!), profiling Dan Whitney, aka Larry the Cable Guy. Larry Dan is poised to sell out two shows in Atlantic City this Saturday. We had advance knowledge of it, since we were interviewed for the piece earlier in the week. We’re quoted in the home stretch of the article, concurring with Larry Dan and comparing him to the late, great Rodney Dangerfield:

Surprisingly, Larry thinks of himself as a traditionalist. “When I started doing stand-up, it was all one-liners,” he notes. “Nobody was doing that anymore. It was more political humor, comics trying to prove how much smarter they were. . . . I went a different route because I love the old guys – Buddy Hackett, Redd Foxx, Milton Berle, Shecky [Greene].”

“Larry is old-school,” agrees Brian McKim, the editor of SheckyMagazine.com, a Web site devoted to stand-up. “He’s really doing a character. . . . He’s like Rodney [Dangerfield], who set up a distinctive persona and did a lot of rapid-fire material.”

We were thrilled with the piece (not because we were quoted– we’re way over that!) because it was downright respectful and insightful! Fancy that! The MSM treating a standup phenomenon with respect! Let’s hope the Inky asks Hiltbrand to write more articles about standup comics.

Also fascinating was the boxed sidebar, enumerating the top-selling comedy CD’s in America:

Billboard Top Comedy Albums, July 16, 2005.

1. The Right to Bare Arms Larry the Cable Guy

2. Harmful if Swallowed, Dane Cook

3. Mitch All Together, Mitch Hedberg

4. Greatest Hits, Rodney Carrington

5. A Decade of Laughs, Bill Engvall

6. Family Guy: Live in Vegas, Family Guy With Walter Murphy And His Orchestra.

7. Blue Collar Comedy Tour Rides Again, Soundtrack

8. Drunk In Public, Ron White

9. The Best of Jeff Foxworthy: Double Wide, Single Minded, Jeff Foxworthy

10. Strategic Grill Locations, Mitch Hedberg

A coupla months back, some folks with a publicity outfit in L.A., who were promoting the release of Whitney’s “Right to Bare Arms” CD, sent us a perky email, offering to hook us up with a few CD’s (which we took them up on; which we gave away via the mag) and also offering to arrange an interview with Larry.

Well, this is something we had been wanting to do ever since we saw Whitney perform upstairs at the Comedy Works during the 1999 Just For Laughs Festival up in Montreal. So, we wrote back:

It would be swell if you could sling us two or three copies and we could then give them away via the website.

Also, re: interviewing Dan. We wanted to do so five years ago (Editors: Actually, it was six years ago.) when we saw him at Montreal… never happened.

We do all our interviews via email. We don’t work through anyone, we like to send the questions directly to the interview subject. We email the questions, he emails back the questions and the answers… the responses go in virtually untouched and there’s no chance of anyone getting misquoted.

So, have Mr. Whitney send us an email and we’ll get cracking.

Does this sound good?

PS: We’re looking at 650,000 hits this month.

—
Brian McKim & Traci Skene
Editors & Publishers
SHECKYmagazine.com
http://www.SHECKYmagazine.com
Standup comedy…seriously!

And then, they wrote back this:

Unfortunately I would only be able to give you his mgr’s email and not his direct email. Let me know if this works for you. I don’t even have his personal email address to give.

I will gladly pop several CD’s into the mail to you first thing tomorrow, and would love an online giveaway. Attached is the cover artwork and a press release/bio.

Thanks!

To which we wrote:

Would that be Colleen McGarr’s email? Send it along (either way) and we’ll be happy to try and go through the management.

As for those CD’s–
send them to
PO Box 1096
Merchantville, NJ 08109

Thanks and we look forward to it.

(Editors note: Unfortunately, it was not Colleen McGarr.)

To which they wrote back:

You can email the questions directly to (Name withheld) at Parallel Entertainment at (email address withheld).

Thanks!

So…we dropped an email to (Name withheld) at Parallel Entertainment, with the subject line, “Email Interview of Dan Whitney,” which went thusly (And, please note the time!):

4:45 PM EST

(Name withheld):

We haven’t ever gone through management before. Usually, we just email the subject himself and he emails the answers back. Let us know if we can deal with Dan directly.

Thanks.

—
Brian McKim & Traci Skene
Editors & Publishers
SHECKYmagazine.com
http://www.SHECKYmagazine.com
Standup comedy…seriously!

Now, here’s where it gets ugly. “Name withheld” writes back the following:

5:11 PM (00:26 from initial contact)

I am really confused. I have no idea who you are, but I assume, you got my email from someone at the office. I am his publicist, so all interview requests come through me and I am not familiar with your publication or what you are looking to do.

To which we replied:

5:19 PM (00:34 from initial contact)

Thanks anyway.

—
Brian McKim & Traci Skene
Editors & Publishers
SHECKYmagazine.com
http://www.SHECKYmagazine.com
Standup comedy…seriously!

We were ornery and lacking in patience, this much we cop to. But, you must admit, we did say “Thanks.” (And, also, may the court please make note that the subject line was, quite clearly, a request for an interview with Dan Whitney.)

Not content to let it go, “Name withheld” writes back the following:

5:35 PM (00:50 since initial contact)

You didn’t explain anything? I don’t know what you are looking to do???

So, we replied:

5:41 PM (00:56 since initial contact)

How hard is it to click on the URL at the bottom of our email?

That might explain everything.

I got your email address in an email from the people who are promoting Dan’s CD. Don’t you people coordinate? Haven’t you ever heard of our magazine? Don’t you know what we do?

To which “Name withheld” responded:

5:50 PM (01:05 since initial contact)

Wow, you certainly are unprofessional. I think we will pass on this interview. Most publisicts (sic) like to know the type of feature you are looking to do, what your deadline dates are, etc.

Please do not contact me again in the future.

While we appreciated the lesson in Publicity 101, we weren’t too happy about that little crack about being unprofessional. Sure, by conventional standards, we’re unprofessional, but we prefer to think of it as “informal.” We’re the New Media, after all. Besides, nobody else we’ve ever dealt with has ever had any problems with our manner. Or with the publicity we lend to their clients.

And, of course, the easiest way to get a plucky internet magazine to contact you again is to say, “Please do not contact me again in the future.” (Which, we hasten to point out, is redundant.)

So, we replied (in a blatant violation of their request to never contact them again):

6:12 PM (01:27 since initial contact)

We were contacted by Dan’s CD promo company, who gave us your email. They contacted us. They asked us if we wanted to do an interview, and we explained how we like to do it. Then they dropped your email address in our inbox 18 hours later.

Connect the dots.

Coordinate better, people.

To paraphrase your last email: Wow, you certainly are incompetent.

Professional, maybe, but insulting and incompetent.

BTW: You might have left it at the part where we said, “Thanks anyway.”

BTW, Part II: We get 500,000 hits a month with 40,000+ unique visitors– nearly all of them rabid standup comedy fans. Normally, we don’t like to go through management to get an interview. This little incident might explain why. We’ve interviewed Shelley Berman, Richard Lewis, Mitch Hedberg, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Dick Cavett and about 100 others– all without having to go through anyone’s management. They found us to be plenty professional. USAToday knows about us (as do their readers) but you seem to have never found the time to find out who we are. Nice work.

Don’t bother responding.

PS: We’ve said many good things about your client in the past… and we’ll continue to do so.

—
Brian McKim & Traci Skene
Editors & Publishers
SHECKYmagazine.com
http://www.SHECKYmagazine.com
Standup comedy…seriously!

And then… the line went dead… All over in 1 hour and 27 minutes.

There you have it. Are we assholes? Only in the strictest interpretation of the term. Are the folks at Parallel thin-skinned? Well, let’s put it this way: If the two or three snarky emails they received from SHECKYmagazine.com is the worst treatment they’ve ever encountered, they’re the luckiest publicists on the face of the planet.

And, if we’re such assholes, why did we spend 15 minutes on the phone with David Hiltbrand of the Philadelphia Inquirer last Tuesday, saying just the sweetest things about their client?

The moral? Click on the URL.

PS: Add the folks at Parallel Entertainment to the list of folks we may have to avoid at JFL next week!