It seems as though the rumor is true. We’re reading comments and status reports from credible sources (most notably Leah Krinsky) that Ken Ober died Saturday in his home.

Comedian Ken Ober, former host of the MTV game show Remote Control, is the object of a rumor that’s floating around on social media that says he’s dead. Ober was a producer of Tough Crowd, hosted by Colin Quinn and a producer on the hit CBS television series The New Adventures of Old Christine, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. He was 52. (See Ober’s IMDB page for even more information on his career.)

We checked his Wikipedia entry and it doesn’t indicate that he’s passed. (Some folks are saying that at one point it did say that he was dead, others are reporting that the news was subsequently taken down.) Wikipedia is edited by regular folks, it’s not some sort of news outfit, so if none of the editors who are authorized to make changes on Wikipedia pages are close to Ober– and if the MSM hasn’t picked up the story– that won’t change any time soon.

Eddie Brill’s Facebook profile has the news, with, at last count, 26 comments. And now, Brill has “retracted” the original message and given life to yet another rumor– this one about the passing of Kevin Knox. (Which has been confirmed. See our posting below.)

Other Facebook status reports are saying that he was found dead in his apartment.

Ober is pictured below at the Comedy Factory Outlet in Philadelphia, circa 1983. He is center, with Grover Silcox on the right and Dr. Will Miller on the left. (Photo Credit: Brian McKim)

It seems as though a report from American Superstar Magazine stating that Ober was alive was erroneous.

On Kevin Knox’s Facebook fan page an all-capped status update states that Kevin Knox has died.

Since this is the second comedian to be reported dead today (the first being Ken Ober, and we’re not sure if that rumor has been definitively squashed), we’re not sure if this one is real. But all indications are that it is true.

Knox battled cancer for several years. And the latest of several benefits for Knox was held a week ago last night at the Charles Playhouse.

From our last encounter, an April, 2006 posting:

He appeared to us to be spunkier and more full of pep than 99 per cent of the people we encountered in Las Vegas over the previous 36 hours. He casually mentioned that he ran four miles that day. (This four-mile thing only scratches the surface. He gives mini motivational speeches on the importance of diet, exercise and positive mental attitude with just the slightest provocation. There can be no doubting his veracity. He is obviously motivated and he is obviously beating cancer.) Coming to a comedy club near you, Kevin Knox.

We suppose that a handful of troglodytes that can’t quite catch on to this new internet thing still read it. But even more pathetic are the people still writing for Newsweak. Sarah Ball is one of them. Her articles are sequestered in the Culture section, under “The Arts and Other Pursuits.”

One of Ball’s “other pursuits” seems to be writing articles like this one that make her resemble that bitter blowhard party gal– the one that’s had one too many vodka gimlets and ceases to converse with fellow partygoers and instead starts to bellow loudly and berate anyone with a differing opinion.

“12 Comics Who Aren’t Funny” is the title of the piece, a slideshow, complete with a pic of each comic and a dollop of arch commentary. However, besides being late to the party (haven’t we already seen a dozen or so articles exactly like this in various lad mags and on the occasional tiny, pipsqueak website?), Ball and Newsweak, in their unseemly desire to purvey the snark, seem a bit like stepdad throwing around hip-hop lingo as they diss such multi-millionaire entertainers as Jeff Dunham, Jay Leno and Yakov Smirnoff.

Ball also takes the dusty, obligatory shots at Gallagher, Dane Cook and Larry The Cable Guy. All the while dropping names, words and phrases that the kids might recognize. If you would have told us ten years ago that a major newsweekly would have sunk this low, we would have judged you crazy. We’re revising our drop-dead date for Newsweek (and Time!) forward a few months– we suspect that they’re last hard copy editions will hit the stands some time in 2011. (And their online editions will sink, with a faint sucking sound, into the infotainment soup that is the internet quickly thereafter and cease to generate enough revenue to pay for the electricity it takes to host them.)

This wretched hag even goes after Emo Phillips!

If you saw Emo Philips’s (sic) jokes written on paper, you’d probably laugh. To hear him deliver them is another story. Philips’s (sic) meandering, high-pitched, pseudo-deadpan delivery leaves you wanting to rip your hair out, and it makes his surrealist yarns impossible to follow.

We hear that one of the side effects of Xanax is irritability. This assessment reminds The Male Half of a Christmas morning several years ago when he dropped the needle on Neil Young’s “After The Gold Rush,” and Paternal Grandmother screwed up her face and said, “Oh, who is that? She’s terrible!”

Were we feeling more charitable, we would say that Newsweak’s readers deserve better. But, upon further consideration, we have decided that they are getting exactly what they deserve.

Here’s what the article should have/might have been called: “12 Comedians I Don’t Think Are Funny, by Sarah Ball.” It’s all calculated to be young, hip and all up in your grill and shit– witness the tag on the final slide:

Unamused, or amused by our ratings? Or want to add your own candidates? Give us your take in the comments below.

It’s pure provocation, probably dreamed up by some douchebag editor at the magazine who no doubt took a weekend seminar on “How To Make Your Website ‘Sticky!'” The seminar might as well have been called “Rearranging The Deck Chairs on the Titanic: Stirring Up Mindless Arguments For A Few Thousand Unique Visitors!”

We’re reminded of TRL’s crawls in which various vacuous teens argued passionately over whether Mark McGrath or Gavin Rossdale would prevail in a bar fight.

Sadly, some comics will eat this up. They’ll dutifully register and throw in their candidates for “Comics Who Aren’t Funny,” thinking that it will simultaneously help standup comedy in general and give themselves a boost in the business. All it will do, however, is help Newsweak pander to simpletons who like to trash standup comics in general and disparage the legitimate entertainment choices of millions of Americans.

We heard from a comedian who missed his gig because of a holdup at customs when they discovered that the was carrying a number of CD’s for sale after his shows.

If you’re an American comic who intends on selling CD’s in Canada, you must first obtain an importer number. For a fee, there are brokers at the border, but apparently, it takes a while. Allegedly, you can do all this ahead of time, so things will go smoothly at customs.

So… if you’re a comedian (a non-Canadian comedian) crossing the border into Canada, and you want to sell CD’s at your gig, you should investigate what paperwork you might need and what fee you might be obligated to pay. We’re told that “importers” are assessed a percentage of the value of the product.

We’re also told that importers can opt to “hide” the product, but that is the kind of thing that angers customs agents and leads to confiscation or fines or worse.

We suppose that an importer could also claim that the CD’s are “for promotion only” and therefore have no value. (Again, though, this is the kind of thing that leads to confiscation or fines if the importer is found to be less than truthful.)

Click on the pic below to view a video report from the New York Underground Comedy Festival, by Sonja Schmidt of PajamasTV. She appeared on the fest’s Right To Laugh Show, featuring conservative comedy.

The show was headlined by comedian and writer (Politically Incorrect) Evan Sayet. Sayet regularly produces similar shows in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

Featured in the report are Fest organizer Jim Mendrinos, Stephen Kruiser, Ellen Karis, Leighann Lord and Robert George.

The AP obit:

Carl Ballantine, a comedian, magician and actor who was in the 1960s TV sitcom “McHale’s Navy,” has died. He was 92.

His daughter says he died Nov. 3 in his sleep at his home in the Hollywood Hills.

Ballantine, who was born Meyer Kessler in Chicago, switched from straight magic to comedy in the 1940s. He would fumble tricks while joking with the audience. He appeared in Las Vegas, in nightclubs and on TV variety shows, including “The Tonight Show.”

Steve Martin says Ballantine influenced him and a generation of magicians and comedians.

Ballantine was crewman Lester Gruber in “McHale’s Navy” and had roles in several other TV shows and movies.

He also did voiceovers in many cartoons and commercials.

We never had the privilege of working with Ballantine. We recall (perhaps faultily) that he did the comedy clubs in the 80s and maybe into the 90s.

He was appreciated by a lot of the youngsters. Much of the swagger and the timing of the faux magic acts that are out there is borrowed from Ballantine. Or is it a tribute? Or an homage (pronounced “AHM-idge” not “oh-MAZH”)?

Either way, Ballantine was around for a good long while and when he died, he knew he was appreciated.

If we get back from our gig in time tonight, we’ll give it a look.

The USA Today article on the show was craptastic. (We’re staying in hotels where they hand it out like candy… USA Today, that is.) They teased it on the front page then put the article on 10D– the last page of the Life section… the last page of the newspaper. Perhaps they realize just how craptastic the article was.

Not one mention of Keith Robinson. And it doesn’t look like they mentioned him in any of the 200+ articles on the show’s premiere. Keith will be Wanda’s sidekick on the weekly Fox show. We know Keith from way back– he started out in Philly..

From Steve Roye, the inventor of the odious “PAR Score” software comes this absolutely hilarious throwdown:

You know, I have put up with a ton of crap from Traci Skene at Shecky Magazine for awhile now.

She has lamely attempted to ridicule me, ridicule my software and accuse me of being sexist, in spite of her blatantly racist remarks on her blog about people across the globe using my Comedy Evaluator Pro software for performance improvement.

But make no mistake–I am not sexist. I firmly believe that absolute stupidity is not gender specific.

So let’s cut to the chase, Ms. Skene. I want to give you the opportunity to show the world just how smart you really are about stand-up comedy and prove me to be the fool that you think I am– and have been so bold as to share with your readers.

Fair enough?

Here’s what I propose:

As opposed to you hiding behind your snide comments about me and my Comedy Evaluator Pro software on your blog, away from where any real action can happen:

Let’s get on a conference call where I can invite my peeps and you can invite yours to see who really knows their stuff about stand-up comedy.

Not only that, I’ll make it really easy for you:

I will let you be the aggressor. You can initiate all the questions first.

Give me an intro with all your great accomplishments and I will introduce you respectfully and with dignity.

But let me warn you in advance:

I’m not Judy Carter, Greg Dean or Sandy Shore. The first time that stupidity utters from your pie hole about stand-up comedy, I will eat you alive without hesitation. I will ask questions you could not possibly answer about the art form that I know down to the syllable and you WILL be exposed as a total fool.

Do you want to drag Brian McKim in on the action? I actually owe him an apology for my previous blog post because he’s funny. But if he supports your BS, well hey, bring some back up.

I will be more than happy to take you BOTH on. Equal opportunity and all: 🙂

Let me give you some reference material you may want to look at about me before you decide to jump into the lion’s den:

I was a Navy Senior Chief who was stationed in a war zone and shot at. I’m also a career educator who has ALWAYS been at the top of the education and training game.

Oh, did I mention I have a bit of an education too?

Here’s my “non-comedy” resume:

Professional Resume

Here’s my comedy resume (all entries are accurate):

Comedy Resume

If you are looking for a noteworthy Southern California reference concerning my own comedy skills, best contact Gary Folgner, owner of the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and the Galaxy Concert Theater in Santa Ana, both large venues of which I have headlined numerous times:

http://www.thecoachhouse.com/

http://www.galaxytheatre.com/

Oh, and you may want to contact Jordan Brady at Uber Content–the production company owner who produced the documentary that I am featured in specifically regarding Comedy Evaluator Pro:

http://www.ubercontent.com/

Now, if you have any spine at all and can back up the less-than-intelligent comments that you have offered the world on the “renowned” Shecky Magazine about me and my software:

You will take me up on my challenge, contact me and we can schedule a phone conference event where you get to show your REAL knowledge about stand-up comedy. It’s your chance to shine!

What I am more inclined to predict is that you will disregard this challenge and write more bêtise vile about me and my software on your blog.

That’s called a LOSER where I come from.

No biggy. But know this:

As of right now, until you can stand up to me in a public forum–on the phone or live in person, you are little more than something the toilet overflowed.

The ball is now in your court. Put up or shut up. The bullshit flag has now been officially raised.

I await your response and acceptance to my conference call challenge, on the date and time of your choosing.

Cheers,
Steve Roye
The Professor of Funny for Money

Our response: What. A. Douchebag.

A week ago, we compared Jay Leno to Robert Duvall’s character in “Apocalypse Now.” Ample validation of our comparison is contained in Ben Grossman’s Broadcasting & Cable interview.

It’s a fascinating look into Leno’s brain and temperament and work ethic. Read the whole thing.

Drudge linked to it for the provocative “I wouldn’t trade places with Dave Letterman” quote, but this jumped out at us:

I’m not having a bad time at 10 o’clock now. I look at this as a job, and now I’m faced with a challenge, and it’s a challenge I find difficult but interesting. I find that when I go to Vegas, whereas before I might not sell out, all of a sudden it’s sold out. I seem to be doing better in terms of public appearances. I am reaching a wider audience. Whether that translates to television just yet, I don’t know. But I see a difference.

Now why is that, because I’m in the paper every day? I don’t know. Because I’m on earlier? I’m actually doing well; this is almost the best year for personal appearances since I started. So there is no negativity there.

Emphasis ours. We’re shocked that Leno might not have sold out when he did Vegas. But then, he is doing the Terry Fator Theater which looks like it holds around 1,200 to 1,500. Formerly the Danny Gans Theater, the venue regularly hosts other comedians like Ron White, Lewis Black, Kevin James and Ray Romano (the latter two sharing the bill).

The statement also illustrates the power of primetime and also proves that there is still a powerful difference between exposure in primetime and exposure on late night (or cable, premium or basic).

Phillies pitcher Cliff Lee, after his spectacular performance last night against the Yankees:

To me, there’s no reason to be nervous. If I did all the work, the game is a time to go out there and have fun. Let your skills take over. I’ve never been nervous in the big leagues. It’s kind of weird.

A list like this comes along every once in a while.

Carrot Top
Carlos Mencia
Jimmy Fallon
Louis Anderson
Kathy Griffin
Sinbad
Dane Cook
Judy Tenuta
Whoopi Goldberg
Richard Lewis

They’re not in order here. Does order matter with a list like this?

For some reason, the TV critics are all in a snit about the numbers that Jay Leno is getting at ten o’clock. They’re determined to make it appear as though the move by NBC is a giant mistake and they’re quoting all kinds of naysayers to “prove” their contention that the move by NBC was a bad one.

The most recent article, in the NYPost, beats the same drum. The title and subtitle, “A Leno letdown, Poor newscast ratings stir unease at NBC stations,” is just a touch misleading.

Read as far as the last two grafs (Who would think of doing that?!?!?) and you get a glimpse into the truth:

With Leno, NBC is easing the pain of lower ratings by giving affiliates additional commercial time to sell.

“The network reformed the programs so we get an extra bit of commercial inventory,” said Steve Baboulis, general manager of WNYT-TV in Albany. “The reality is our revenue in the 10 o’clock time period is up year-to-year. The difference is better inventory.”

Hmmm… could it be that Zucker and his evil minions knew what they were doing all along?

It should be expected that a bunch of sportswriters would, over time, buy the notion that they know how better to run a franchise in the NFL, or that a bunch of science writers might have figured out how to run a national health policy or that a gang of food writers would start to believe that they would know the secret to running the ideal restaurant. So, it is no surprise that a group of television scribes would grow to believe that they know exactly how to run a multi-billion dollar network. And it is entirely possible that they would be utterly wrong.

Might it just be that NBC and Leno have adjusted perfectly to the miserable situation that is network television at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century? Do they know that declining ratings, shrinking market share, surrender of eyeballs and hearts and minds to the internet and to gaming might call for a radically different (and seemingly losing) strategy that might actually be a winner in the long run? Might the boys at NBC be the vanguard of a movement that acknowledges Old Network TV’s shortcomings but capitalizes on its (few, remaining) strong points?

NBC has been mucking around with the ionosphere, in one way or another, since 1923. Anyone who writes them off as an early victim of The New Media is doing so prematurely.

What we’re seeing with this ten o’clock strategy might be the genesis of a new, multi-platform, settle-for-less, but-don’t-count-us-out National Broadcasting Company, but we haven’t heard the last from them. Any articles that predict doom are premature. Especially when Jay Leno is involved.

Jay might be Bob Hope. He might be the broadcasting eqvivalent of Bob Hope or Jack Benny. They were huge in radio. When Americans switched their obsession from that medium to television, they re-purposed their skills from the old medium to the new. It is not out of the question that Leno might do the same.

Jim Farber, writing in the NYDN, says that Motel 6, in an effort to “shake up their image,” will offer free hotel rooms to rock bands.

A new promotion links the budget chain Motel 6 with budding rock bands, in hopes of helping poor musicians while also giving the frumpy chain a hipper image. (Right now, the average age of their guests is 35 to 64.)

Initially, the promotion gives rooms to three bands, and all three are signed to one indy label, but the hotel chain says they’ll expand it to other bands. In return, all they ask is that the bands mention the hotel onstage and on their websites.

FOS Aaron Ward brings up a good point: Why not comedians?

Indeed, why not comedians?

We recall a few years back when Super 8 crafted a campaign around loopy comedian Mark Cohen. From Brand Week, March 14, 1994:

Super 8 Motels this week will check $6 million into a new campaign stressing its 1,000 units as pre-eminent stops for budget-minded travelers. Five spots from Grey Advertising track comedian Mark Cohen through the stand-up circuit and as many clean, spacious Super 8 rooms. Spots bear the tagline “Life’s great at Super 8” and air on CNN and TNT. Super 8 spent $4.7 million on ads in 1993, per Competitive Media Reporting.

It’s been 15 years. Comedians don’t have a reputation for trashing hotel rooms like rockers do.

And… Attention Motel 6: Comedians DON’T PRACTICE THEIR INSTRUMENTS IN THEIR ROOMS AT ODD HOURS (like 4 in the afternoon when you’re trying to nap)!

(Actually, we’ve never been kept awake by rockers. We were, however, mightily disturbed when the occupants of the room next to ours, in a hotel in Syracuse, NY, were practicing OPERA! You wanna talk about annoying! Whew! We called the front desk and the caterwauling duo ceased immediately.)

Attention Motel 6 (again): Wouldn’t it be a great idea to purchase a huge banner on the top of the WWW’s most beloved magazine about standup comedy? And hand over a sack of Motel 6 vouchers to the Halves of the Staff? And conduct a giveaway campaign via that same magazine whereby comedians all over the country would have a chance to win free hotel rooms in the Motel 6 chain? We think it would. You know where to find us.

Drudge is linking to a story in The Politico that says that David Cross snorted cocaine forty feet from the president of the United States of America. How do we know this? Because Cross bragged about it from the stage of D.C.’s Warner Theater Wednesday night.

Folks on the right will cite the incident as indicative of a general corrosion of decorum in D.C. “This is what happens when you elect a rock ‘n’ roll president,” will go the script. Sorta similar to the tut-tutting when Jimmy Carter brought Billy to town… or when Bubba favored Fleetwood Mac over Mozart. Or when Andrew Jackson was inaugurated.

Jackson was the first President to invite the public to attend the White House ball honoring his first inauguration. Many poor people came to the inaugural ball in their homemade clothes. The crowd became so large that Jackson’s guards could not hold them out of the White House. The White House became so crowded with people that dishes and decorative pieces in the White House began to break. Some people stood on good chairs in muddied boots just to get a look at the President. The crowd had become so wild that the attendants poured punch in tubs and put it on the White House lawn to lure people out of the White House. Jackson’s raucous populism earned him the nickname King Mob.

It was 1824. The more things change…

Folks on the left will simply reply: Well, Bush actually did cocaine!

And, of course, both would be correct in their own way.

Still others will ask, “Where’s the harm? So what? He did coke at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner. Big deal.”

Actually, it is kindofa big deal. And Cross knows that full well. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have concocted and performed the bit. So “So what/Big deal” doesn’t fly.

But, the supreme dumbness of admitting something like this onstage at a concert, in the nation’s capital, in close proximity to where the illegal deed was originally done, is staggering.

We would think that there might have to be some sort of a cursory investigation, right? If someone loudly bragged about, say, bringing a small gun into the Rose Garden during the Easter Egg roll, wouldn’t the Secret Service be obligated (along with the FBI) to at least check out the story? So that it doesn’t happen again? So as to perhaps debunk the story and thereby restore the reputation of the Secret Service.

Of course, Cross will fall back on the “It was a joke!” And he’ll deny that he has ever done coke in his life. (At least that’s what his attorneys will tell him to say.)

Soupy Sales died today at the age of 83.

When the comedy business went into hyper-drive in the 80s, Sales quite a few personal appearances. (Although it’s not mentioned in his Wikipedia entry.)

We recall (perhaps incorrectly) that framed clippings of a Sales appearance hang on the wall at the Comedy Club at Shooters in Saginaw, MI. And we further recall that Sales may have been the headliner on that club’s opening weekend. (We regret that we never got to share a bill with Soupy Sales!)

Many comics worked with him during that period. And he was a fixture at the Friars Club in NYC.

The Male Half recalls fondly (and faintly) watching one episode of the late-night version of The Soupy Sales Show. According to Wikipedia, “ABC dropped the show from the network schedule in March 1961, but it continued as a local program until January 1962. The show briefly went back on the ABC network as a late night fill-in for the Steve Allen Show but was canceled after three months.”

The Male Half says:

I think it must have been during the period where he was subbing for Allen that I was allowed to stay up late and watch Soupy Sales. I was probably approaching my fourth birthday. I recall that it was late and I recall laughing hysterically. (And I recall being filled with that giddiness that comes with being allowed to stay up late… a rare treat.)

I don’t remember much, but that White Fang gimmick stayed with me for a long time. And the general surreal nature of the show made an impression on me. It was simultaneously creepy, mysterious… and hysterical!

It was a bizarre show for its time. And, in a lot of ways, it was innovative. And it just might have influenced a lot of people who are producing and writing television today. Sales interacted with the crew (there was no live audience) and cracked up a lot. And he interacted with other guests, off-camera, through a door in the back of the set. Often viewers would see only a portion of the guest. Very offbeat, very Ernie Kovacs.

See here for an interesting take on the show. It’s a recollection from writer Don Brockway with some pics from his visit to the set of the show. The crew, though never seen, Brockway says, were an integral part of the show.

And here’s the brilliance of it all: this made it funnier, and hipper, to the kids that were watching. Many children’s shows had live, on-stage audiences… of children. And so, naturally, the host worked to the kid audience. Because Soupy worked to other adults while doing a children’s show, Soupy’s viewers felt that they were given access to the adult world. We weren’t laughing at things other children were laughing at; we were laughing at things grown-ups were laughing at, and that made us feel pretty good.

Sounds like The Soup!

Paul Provenza dreamed up The Green Room, first as a live show presented at Edinburgh, then at Montreal’s JFL. We recently learned that he’s taped six editions of it for Showtime. It should be interesting to watch. It will be a hipper, sharper version of similar past shows like the Robert Klein-hosted Stand Up/Sit Down or Alan King’s College of Comedy. But we don’t have Showtime. Perhaps we can score a DVD copy for review!

Emery Emery, who, readers will recall, edited that infamous Provenza project, “The Aristocrats,” is involved in the television version. (Which taped Sept. 30, Oct.1-2 at the Vanguard Theater in Los Angeles. We missed it by that much!)

Scheduled guests were: Roseanne Barr, Bob Saget, Drew Carey, Andy Dick, Martin Mull, Penn Jillette, Tommy Smothers, Patrice Oneal, Rick Overton, Jonathan Winters, Robert Klein, Rain Pryor, Bobby Slayton, Eddie Izzard and Sandra Bernhard.

Provenza explains it to a reporter for the Montreal Mirror:

Green rooms are the bowels of show biz, but theyre also where performers are at their most relaxed. The idea behind the show is to give people a behind-the-scenes look at the comedy world. The comedians I know are really fascinating people. There’s a lot more to their work than just being funny. People should see what they’re like when they’re not in front of audiences, when they don’t have to care about their ‘image’.

We had the pleasure of witnessing two installments at the 2007 JFL. (Just a couple months earlier, Provenza had written a splendid remembrance of Charles Nelson Reilly for our publication, so we were able to gain entry into the packed shows the following July!)

It was interesting, raucous and unruly. From our ’07 JFL coverage:

We hung out on Ste. Catherine, outside the Theatre Ste. Catherine, and at about a half-hour after midnight, we were waved in to see “The Green Room,” the interview show cooked up by Paul Provenza. It was a hit at last year’s Edinburgh Fest and it’s here for three nights in a row. Tonight’s guests were Jim Jeffries, three of the five Kids In The Hall (Scott Thompson, Kevin McDonald and Dave Foley) and David Cross and Bob Odenkirk.

Jeffries, readers of this mag will recall, is the comic who was assaulted onstage at the Comedy Store in Manchester. The attack was made famous via YouTube, when video was posted a few months back.

The whole idea behind The Green Room is that comics talking to comics is an entertaining thing to witness. We couldn’t agree more. WHen it was just Jeffries out there, things moved well and, by golly, it was a hoot. When The Kids emerged from backstage, and the couch was crowded with bodies– and there weren’t enough mikes to go around– things slowed quite a bit. When Odenkirk and Cross came out for the final segment, upping the body count onstage to seven (and increasing the comic to mike ratio to over 2), the wheels fell off.

To be sure, many in attendance were thrilled to be in such close proximity to their particular comedy idol(s), and it was rather interesting to see these characters in a situation significantly less contrived than that which we normally see them. But it was maddeningly inconsistent.

Which is not to say that it wasn’t enjoyable. It was. But, at such a huge fest, the onstage guest list ballooned and the concept was corrupted somewhat.

A subsequent edition was tighter. We went back for Thursday installment. Again, from our 2007 JFL coverage:

We swung through the Hyatt, picked up Matt Komen (whom we last hung with after seeing Brian Regan at the Scottish Rite Theater in Jersey in December) and headed on over to see the second installment of Provenza’s “The Green Room.” This time it was Phil Nicholl, Fiona O’Loughlin, Jo Koy and Andy Kindler, in that order, providing the laughs and the insight.

God’s Pottery opened up. They’re performing in their own show as part of the festival, over at the Mainline Theatre. They’re a couple of guys who parody a Christian musical act. One plays the guitar, the other brandishes a beatific smile. The song they played, “A Brand New Start With Jesus,” had such an infectious hook and was delivered with such subtly exaggerated sincerity, we wouldn’t doubt if they actually may have accidentally converted some of the people present! The verse, of course was riotous!

We forgot to mention Team Submarine, the comedy team that opened up Wednesday’s Green Room– two comics, Nate Fernald and Steve O’Brien, from Chicago who have very classic comedy team chemistry.

We suspect that the cable version will be tighter still, with a little post-production editing as well (provided, no doubt, by Emery.) So, it should be a boon to the public’s understanding of– and admiration for– standup comics.

And at least one episode will be worth catching if only for the confrontation described in the following video. In it, Jillette recounts an uncomfortable encounter with his hero, Tommy Smothers. We hope Emery has the sense to leave it in, in its entirety, with all the spittle flying from Smothers’ mouth, as he gets up in Jillette’s grill. Talk about compelling television!

Getting Yelled At by One of My Heroes

(NOTE: You must suffer through a Toyota ad for 30 seconds before seeing the video.)

FOS Jason Pollack picked us up at the airport. As we zoomed past Citizens Bank Ballpark (with the radio tuned to the WPHT broadcast of the NLCS Game 3), Carlos Ruiz caught a pop foul for the final out and the stadium erupted in fireworks. A harmonic convergence. Phils win 11-0.

We started out the day in Vegas. We took our sweet old time checking out of the Courtyard on Paradise, as we had a 2:45 flight. We were standing in line at the counter at McCarran checking in the last of our three check-through (still blessedly fee-free on Southwest!), when The Female Half was tapped on the shoulder. It was Ryan Stout! The comic (and frequent SHECKYmag commenter!) was flying home to L.A. after his engagement at the Playboy Comedy Club at the Palms.

We had intended to run into him the night before. One of our plans had us attending a Madmen-themed party at the Palms on Saturday night. We ended up absorbing free liquor at the Hilton poolside party (sponsored by BlogWorldExpo) and re-connecting with Stephen Green, alias Vodkapundit, and PJTV director David Chung. Afterward, we were invited downstairs to Tempo for the SceneIt.com party. Nifty swag and a Robin Williams impersonator at the entrance to the lounge! After a coupla SceneIt-tinis (blue curacao, pineapple juice and vodka… we think), the decision was made to migrate to the Luxor, where our fest-mates were based.

Earlier in the day, we attended the final keynote address of the expo– this one had a talk show format! The “show” was hosted by Silicon Valley VC dude and original Macintosh evangelist Guy Kawasaki. His first guest (and the only reason we headed across Paradise at 5:30 in the afternoon) was Kevin Pollak. Pollak killed with (of course!) his Shatner impression and did an especially devastating Christopher Walken. His panel was polished and entertaining, in spite of the howling ineptitude of host Kawasaki. He was followed by the two fellows who are the brains behind the internet vid sensation known as “Chad Vader&quot: and someone named “Bloggess.”

Even after he moved down the couch, Pollak made a lot of sense about doing what you love and doing his chat show his way (as opposed to the ways which might be suggested by the weasels at a network or a cable outlet). We were of the opinion that Pollak should have been the host! (Apparently, though, Kawasaki is web royalty… a venture cap rock start and therefore, a draw at an event like this one.)

We hear that Shane Victorino’s bat sailed into the stands and hit… a comedian! It’s unverified, but Philly-based comedian John Kensil tweeted that the birch stick hit none other than Spins Nitely! We hear he’s doing okay!

It turns out that Richard Heene, the father of the kid that the media has dubbed “Ballon Boy” (and that we have re-dubbed “Hot Air Boy”), was well-known to many of the comedians who reside in Los Angeles.

According to our sources, Heene and his wife, Mayumi, put together reels for comedians– editing, sweetening the audience response, that kind of thing– throughout much of the 90s via a production company known as My You Me (a play on the wife’s name). That company is now known as Alternate Reality Productions.

Gossip website Gawker just purchased and published the story of “25-year-old researcher Richard Thomas.” Thomas partnered with Heene and says that Heene had theories about shape-shifting aliens running the U.S. government. He said that Heene was convinced that:

Somehow a secret government has covered all this up since the U.S. was established, and the only way to get the truth out there was to use the mainstream media to raise Richard to a status of celebrity, so he could communicate with the masses.

As the weeks progressed, his theories got more and more extreme and paranoid.

A video of Heene is ricocheting around the internet– Heene, on his couch with his dog, theorizing that Hillary Clinton is a shape-shifter.

Screwy stuff! But, until we read the Gawker account (and until we got some anonymous info about Heene over our transom), we thought it was just harmless, if somewhat self-indulgent, drivel from an attention whore.

What did we get over our transom?

Our sources theorize that Falcon (aka Balloon Boy/Hot Air Boy) didn’t hide in the attic because he got caught screwing with his dad’s balloon. No, Falcon was hiding because he didn’t want Richard to launch him in the thing.

Richard, it is said, is always using the kids to do crazy shit. Falcon, it’s said, is a real nervous kid who can’t keep still. Hiding for five hours in a box in the attic of the garage might indicate some extraordinary fear. What kind of fear would keep him still for five hours? Fear of being strapped to a balloon and launched to the moon is what our sources speculate.

No wonder the kid threw up on national television!

Usually kids who hide when the cops are called do so out of fear of getting into trouble, of being yelled at. We’re told that Falcon had no such fear, as the Heene family “yells constantly” and are allegedly a “loud bunch.”

It all sounds plausible.

Heene is described as “a nut” and that is a characterization that would be corroborated by any comic in L.A. that has had contact with him. Some go so far as to cynically speculate that he gave birth to his kids “so he’d have guinea pigs!”

We first heard the story when we were cruising through the desert on the way to Vegas from Phoenix. Something– everything– smelled about the story from the first dispatches. Who saw the child crawl into the box? Why wasn’t the presence of the child in the box verified? Why wasn’t the child in the box when it landed? What was someone doing with a balloon filled with helium in the first place? Dad was a weather chaser? Who names his kid Falcon?

This is going to get much better before it fades from the public consciousness.

We’re in the common area of the South Hall of the Vegas Convention Center… free wireless… And about fifteen feet to our left, Kevin Pollak is setting up something for Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show. Pollak himself has just finished stalking the exhibition floor.

It’s a live streaming video talkshow seen every Sunday at 5PM PST. Tomorrow’s guest is Paul F. Tompkins. Other guests have included Seth MacFarlane, Lisa Loeb and Kevin Nealon.

Pollak delivers the keynote speech tonight here at BlogWorld. The Male Half approached him briefly and reminded him that they had taped an episode of Comedy Tonight about a quarter-century ago. He tells us that he’s enjoying himself and that these are “a fine group of people.”

We also ran into another figure from our past– The Chief Content Officer of RedLasso (“a unique on-line broadcast media center, with patent pending technology that allows users to search, clip, and instantly post and share licensed national and local, television and radio content to news focused web sites”) is Gil Edwards. We knew Edwards via our brief association with Philadelphia’s WYSP– we were the creative team for The John DeBella Show on that outlet and Edwards was employed there in a variety of positions. On our first night in town, while attending a bash at The Bank at the Bellagio, a pair of Redlasso’s representatives, Dave Eitel (aka “Monkeyboy”… if we got the last name wrong, we know for a fact that Monkeyboy is correct!) and Chris Cantz, recognized us. Turns out we met them at the infamous, WYSP-sponsored Opie & Anthony concert at the Tweeter Center back in September 2006. (When we spotted the ‘YSP contingent that night, we poked our heads in the room to catch up on who was the latest person to be canned, who’d moved on and who had moved up– anyone who has worked at a radio station knows that they’re somewhat like a soap opera… and the plot is convoluted and the characters rarely change. One gets hooked!)

We were bloggers when the word was coined but not quite in circulation. Back in 2000 or so, in our quest to pump up the traffic to SHECKYmagazine.com, we took our popular “Like We Care” page and made it front page. And we decided to update it on a daily or near-daily basis. (We did so manually. We were leery of adapting the Blogger technology, thinking that it would complicate the process unnecessarily… boy, were we wrong!)

We are now in Las Vegas, attending the BlogWorldExpo, a gathering of people who are up to their necks in one aspect or another of blogging and “new media.” We’re not quite sure what we’re doing here… but we weren’t quite sure what we were doing in Montreal in July of 1999 when we attended our first Just For Laughs festival.

We’ll be attending the occasional speech, seminar and party (Oh, yeah!), and we’ll also peruse the various booths and exhibits on the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center. And we know of at least one other standup comic in attendance– Kevin Pollak. Stay tuned.

We went to the Stella Adler Studio last night after wangling our way onto the guest list. (We’re practicing our FULL DISCLOSURE in anticipation of the new FTC rules that require bloggers to disclose any free services or goods. Violators will be charged with fraud and may be subject to a $11,000 fine. Does anyone feel a breeze? A chilly one? Anyone?)

Anyway, it was the same intimate theater where we watched FOS Jim “Klaus” Myers’ one-man show, “Mookie Barker Goes Hollywood” a few years back. It’s a great little space and it’s always packed… or it seems that way. Or we just choose to attend popular, well-produced shows.

It is always interesting to see someone take his/her standup act and expand it, tweak it, cut it, let it out, to become a one-man show, a showcase for one’s acting talent. Harris’s act seems particularly suited to this kind of treatment. His live comedy club sets were anchored by lengthy, nuanced portrayals of family members– dad, mom, granddad, uncle– and it is no stretch to imagine that Ralph felt somewhat confined by the club format. And that blowing it out and adding in some production and some music and all that stuff that theater folks excel at would make for a wildly entertaining evening and would also enable Harris to dazzle a roomful of patrons with his skills.

In a short club set, his portrayal of his Uncle Earl is tight, subtle, loud and hysterical. (He even did it to great effect on Last Comic Standing.) But in its lengthier, theatrical version, it’s startling… and heartbreaking. Same goes for Granddad. And all the other characters are pretty startling as well. Not just for the chameleon factor– it’s clichéd, we know, but Harris “becomes” the characters– but for the way in which he blend humor and pathos and tells a story.

And, after last night’s performance, it was announced that the show has been extended for three more weeks. If you’re in town on a Wednesday night, check it out.

Darren Carter (aka “The Party Starter,” aka “The Rooster”) extended an invitation to the Halves of the Staff to do guest sets at the Irvine Improv last night. We took him up on the offer.

Carter closed the early show at the plush Orange County comedy palace and we, along with Justin Worsham and Toogie Jackson provided what the Brits call “support.”

We had a splendid time onstage and off. And there was a healthy crowd.

Healthier still was the crowd which filed in for the following show, Comedy Juice, which featured Kyle Cease. The Juice is a regular thing at the Irvine club (every Tuesday at 10) and at the Improv on Melrose (every Wednesday at 10) and at the Ice House (every Thursday at 10). We’re going to go hang out at the Melrose Improv tonight and The Male Half has a gig at the Ice House on Thursday, so we forgive the Juicers if they think they’re being stalked by SHECKYmagazine.com.

After the show, we were doing the ol’ meet and greet in the vestibule when we were approached by a gentleman who was very complimentary to the Halves. He explained that is was the first time he had attended a comedy club since the death of his brother. He also explained that he and his brother ran a comedy club in Amarillo, TX. He was Kenny Moran and his brother was the late Kelly Moran. (We posted on the death on October 25, 2005.)

We could tell it was tough for Moran to be inside a club. We were happy to have made the evening a little less tough by making him laugh. We urged him to check out the posting– and the subsequent remembrances by readers.

Heresy!

That’s what this article in the Independent (UK) by John Walsh no doubt is to some folks. On the 40th anniversary of the first airing of the first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Walsh slips in a tape of that first shot fired in a comedy revolution and compares what the 55-year-old Walsh thinks with what the 15-year-old Walsh thought.

The Halves of the Staff happened across some old episodes on our local PBS outlet a few months ago. We remembered many of the sketches vividly. A good number of them had fallen down the memory hole. We laughed heartily at about 25 per cent of the material. (We seem to recall being bored while watching some of the episodes the first time around, back in the mid-70s, so the .250 batting average this time around was not surprising or disappointing.)

Walsh, viewing Episode 1 with 2009 eyes, sees a bit of elitism, some homophobia and some other flaws, but eventually gets to the heart of the show’s appeal, and to some of its flaws.

Looking back, I suspect it was the lovely randomness of the show – the sense that anything could start or stop at any time, or be interrupted by a giant foot or a human hand – that most delighted my generation in 1969. And we loved the individual performers, especially Cleese and Palin. But a lot of Python was stuck fast in the public-school-Oxbridge ethos, the comedy of the schoolroom, the naughtiness of playing foolish japes on figures of authority. It liberated us all from the tyranny of the punchline– but it may be time to stop thinking that the liberation was a revolution.

Or… we can regard it as a revolution, but we can acknowledge that it doesn’t necessarily obliterate all that came before it.

2d of Webster’s definition of revolution:

a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something : a change of paradigm

And paradigm is defined as, “an outstandingly clear or typical example or archetype.” (And archetype is just a fancy word for perfect example. We feared for a moment that this could go on all day!)

So, to review: Monty Python’s Flying Circus may have been a fundamental change in the way of thinking about sketch comedy television shows. A TV show that was a new and near-perfect example of a sketch show, after which all sketch television shows were merely representations or copies.

Would this be true?

Some folks will give you a good argument that is.

We would argue that so-called revolutions can exist side-by-side with other so-called revolutions.

Folks exhibit a strong reluctance to declare that something they were absolutely charmed by as a teen or young adult just doesn’t hold up– be it music, television or comedy. Walsh deserves credit for doing an honest assessment and reaching the conclusions he reached. (And some might call him brave. So passionate are folks about that which made them giggle 40 years prior that they often become violent when someone dares to suggest that they re-assess that material. Folks get very attached to their humor.)

But the side-by-side revolutions theory means also that we can soberly assess comedy from the past and still acknowledge that we totally understand why we were so taken with it in the first place. (It isn’t merely an out-of-hand dismissal of the older work, just an acknowledgment that some of it doesn’t “hold up” and a simultaneous acknowledgment some recent stuff might just do it better. Think Ernie Kovacs. Times change, people change, tastes change.)

An article in the Financial Times says that Hollywood is in a budget-cutting mood. (It’s surreal being in Los Angeles… we had forgotten what it was like– we lived here for five years long ago– as we listened to the all-news radio stations on our way to Universal Studios yesterday, the big news was was the resignation of two top execs… at Universal Studios.)

Apparently, this past summer was a big one… for flops! Now everyone is jabbering about cost-cutting and saying the dopiest things to the press. Word on the street is that “Paranormal Activity” is going to be a blockbuster. They’re rooting for it because it cost about $200 to make and it’s going to gross more than “The Sound of Music.” So, logically, every picture made from here on out will star unknowns, cost $200 to make and will gross more than “The Sound of Music.” Wow! That’s exactly what happened after “Blair Witch Project!” (For those of you keeping score at home, BWP happened in 1999. The “trend” it set off lasted about ten or fifteen minutes… and it took another decade for a similar phenomenon to occur.)

Meanwhile:

As Hollywood studios tighten their belts, the lower budget film could be a sign of things to come.

The average cost of producing and marketing a studio movie has risen more than 6 per cent since 2007…

Which is odd… considering that, after BWP, the cost of marketing a movie was going to be about fifteen bucks or so because Hollywood geniuses were poised to move their marketing methods over to (fanfare please)– The World Wide Web!

Of course, they still haven’t figured out how to use the internet properly. They still think they can “make” a viral video. (They’re like alchemists laboring to turn lead into gold… sure, it’ll never happen, but BOY OH BOY, if they do, watch out!)

Leave it to Barry Katz. His quotes are the last word in the article and they serve as a nice bucket of cold water, thrown directly into the faces of the wizards at the heads of the studios.

Top talent will continue to command a premium price, according to Barry Katz, president of New Wave Entertainment, which represents stars such as Dane Cook.

“I can guarantee you that the big stars aren’t going to take a pay cut,” he says. “Studios need them to bring in the audiences.”

We wangled a coupla tix to see a taping of Tonight yesterday. (Who’s on first?)

Monday morning, we got an email from Jimmy Pardo saying we would be on the VIP list! (We found out Saturday evening that Pardo has been doing warmup. So naturally, we were enthusiastic about attending a taping.)

We’ve seen a Johnny-hosted Tonight taping, a taping of Arsenio Hall’s talker and a taping of Martin Short’s short-lived show. We’ve also hung out in the green room during a taping of Conan’s old show in NYC. And we scoped out a taping of Into The Night Starring Rick Dees in anticipation of The Male Half’s appearance on that show back in 1992. And we witnessed one of the last Kilborns. And, of course, over the years, we’ve appeared on various cable and network and syndicated television shows.

The new studio is spectacular. Pardo sprinted out and did ten minutes of spirited, unparalleled warmup (as only he can do it), and the Tonight Show Band (minus the touring Max Weinberg) did a jaw-dropping number featuring the sax, trumpet and trombone roaming through the audience.

First guest was Ellen Page (Calm down, Minnesota Vikings fans… it’s Ellen, not Alan), second up was Kevin Nealon, and closing out the afternoon was country star Dierks Bentley.

Any comedian who aspires to appear on such a show is well-advised to attend a taping of said show. You see what the crowd sees, you hear what they hear– it gives the performer insight into “how the room works.” (Or doesn’t work!) In this case, though we didn’t seen a comedian do a 4:30 set, we did see the host hit his small star in the middle of that vast sea of mirror-finish linoleum and do his opening monologue. And we, of course, saw Pardo do his warmup, but he wasn’t confined to one spot– he ranged far and wide, at one point leaning on the producer’s podium and repeatedly hitting the remote button that lit the “Applause” sign. So, while we didn’t see a comedian/guest do a set, it was all very instructive.

We’ve been backstage… and that’s cool. But what we experienced yesterday was a whole different ballgame. And if you get the chance to do both, go for it.

Later on, in the evening, we rumbled back down the freeway to Mama Juana’s– a second-floor bar/Mexican restaurant on Cahuenga that is host (on Monday nights) to a Darren Carter-hosted standup show.

The audience was treated to a lineup that featured Carter, Justin Worsham, Robert Zapata, Todd Womack, Bob Morrison and The Greg Wilson. (Plus a brief set by The Male Half.)

The room has tremendous potential– it’s a nice space, it has great sightlines, a low ceiling, a roomy (but not too roomy) stage. If the crowds bulk up, it cold turn into a rockin’ room. Last night’s crowd, though smallish, was receptive and, with Carter’s hosting, everyone present had a great comedy experience. And the comedians had a swell time as well. (Always important!)

The Halves of the Staff touched down in Vegas late Thursday afternoon, then, after dining on pho noodles at Little Saigon, we skittered partway across the desert to stay at Whiskey Pete’s near the Nevada/California border ($15 per nite, $16.80 with tax). Our eventual goal: Van Nuys, CA, and the Airtel Plaza Hotel– our base for two days while we performed at the Laugh Pack comedy clubs in Hollywood (Friday) and Van Nuys (Saturday).

That’s The Male Half, Jimmy Pardo and empresario Bruce Fine, desperately trying to recreate the Rat Pack pic.

Comedian Bruce Fine is determined to plant “A little bit of Vegas right here in Hollywood” via his Laugh Pack concept– ample parking, no drink minimum, all-star lineup, etc. The Hollywood Studio Bar & Grill (also the site of the Maria Bamford/Melinda Hill-hosted What’s Up Tiger Lilly showcase on Mondays) may not be the ideal venue for Fine’s scheme. Too much competition from other venues on a Friday night in the heart of H-wood, perhaps? (So far, the Hollywood location has only been once a month. There is some talk of experimenting with a different venue for the Friday. That’s unofficial.)

Friday’s show featured Both Halves of the Staff along with Jamal Doman and Brian Scolaro with guest sets from Randy Kagan and Stu Kamens.

That’s Darren Carter on the left, with Vinnie Coppola (who dropped by to take in the show)

No matter what the status of the show on Sunset Blvd., the Van Nuys venue is chugging right along. Last night’s edition featured Both Halves of the Staff with Jimmy Pardo, Darren Carter and a guest set from Toogie Jackson.

From left: The Male Half, Bruce Fine, Darren Carter

All shows are hosted by Fine. The atmosphere is upbeat, the “joint” is “classy” (to use the Rat Pack-ian vernacular). The audience is treated to a vocalist who kicks off the show with three or four tunes and the comedians ride a wave of old school, Vegas-tinged good will.

That’s Toogie Jackson on the left with the Female Half of the Staff

They even name a drink after each comic. Among the cocktails were Brian McKim “Nice And Dry” Martini and the Traci Skene “Blog-Her!”

The fact that we have to ask ourselves the question means that it is possible that the big electronic media have grown weary of the story.

To answer the question: They’re 85 per cent contained.

So now it’s time for some folks to do the natural thing– call for “a federal investigation into what they say was a poor initial response to the blaze.” Of course! Perhaps a nice, fat lawsuit is in the future.

Others, however, figure it’s time to have a private show to honor the brave firefighters of Los Angeles. Which is precisely what Bruce Fine‘s Laugh Pack comedy club at the Airtel Plaza Hotel in Van Nuys is doing. Details are in here. Channel 4 is going to feature the show on the late news. (And Fritz Coleman is rumored to be showing up.)

Were our plane landing a bit sooner, we’d be there and we’d be doing some time. As it is, we will merely wish everyone well and tell as many people as possible to show up. (Which is why we posted this.)

We look forward to performing a the Laugh Pack clubs this weekend– Friday night in Hollywood and Saturday night in Van Nuys. Be there!

The New York Underground Comedy Festival kicks off Saturday with a show hosted by Richard Belzer (who, according to Festival head Jim Mendrinos, “embodies the artistry and fortitude that every comic aspires to”). There follows ten days/nights of 50 or so shows in six or seven Manhattan venues.

Hey, who is that on the NYUCF website splash page? The third guy from the left? It’s the Male Half of the Staff. (Six comics on the front of the website and TMHOTS makes it on there? In a photo from three years ago when he hosted the Funniest Media Person in New York? Odd, to say the least!) We haven’t posted much about the NYUCF the past two years. But, then again, we haven’t been in it. Festivals we’re not in tend to fall through the cracks.

Craig Ferguson started out his standup life as &qut;Bing Hitler.” He’s interviewed in the NYT:

“I don’t know what the show is, but I know what it isnt,” Mr. Ferguson said. Each night it can be something a little different, he added, a little unexpected.

That approach dovetails nicely with his serendipitous journey into late-night and his reasons for wanting to become an official American, Scottish accent and all.

“I think I make it up as I go along and so does America,” he said. “So that’s why it makes sense. You started it, but I wanted to be part of it.”

By the time he was tapped to head up The Late Late Show, he hadn’t done standup for ten years.

The San Diego Union-Trib article begins:

Drugs, violence, teen pregnancy and incarceration– not exactly the stuff of punch lines and laugh tracks.

Unless it’s the teens telling the jokes. And the material is coming from their own experiences.

Ah! “Troubled teens playing it for laughs in comedy class” is the title of this one. Someone got the bright idea of “helping” troubled teens by teaching them standup.

Here’s the punchline, in paragraph four:

Paid for with $6,500 in federal stimulus money, this new course was designed for students who are interested in the entertainment industry. But it has also helped teenagers face their demons and relate to classmates at the county Office of Education community school in National City.

Your tax dollars at work!

Holdonaminute… are we not often told that standup comics are the rudest, most scramble-brained, narcissistic, drug-addled ne’er-do-wells on the face of the earth, plying their trade in tatty roadhouses, dark, dank nightclubs and seedy bars? Why ever would we want to send troubled teens down that same path?

Well, it turns out that standup will cure all your ills. Allow troubled teens to be honest an open and not hold anything back! Doing standup, we’re told now, gets these rebels without a cause to “think outside the box and expose them to something different!” Oh… we see now. Doing standup is good for troubled teens. But when done by adults, it makes for self-indulgent, obnoxious louts.

The tagline to the above punchline is:

About 20 students enrolled in the course, “Laughter Is the Best Medicine,” this year. It’s taught by Sandi C. Shore, who hails from a family that’s well-versed in comedy.

“These kids have been through a lot. I am blown away at their honesty and their creativity — they don’t hold anything back,” said Shore, who herself was “kicked out of Beverly Hills High.”

Arrgh! It’s taught by Sandi C. Shore, authoress of “Sandi C. Shore’s Secret to Standup Succes,” which is, quite possibly, the worst book ever written about standup comedy. (And progeny of Sammi and Mitzi Shore of the Comedy Store fame.)

It’s a trainwreck in SoCal!

Does anyone really care? Really? Is this worthy of anyone’s attention?

We’re starting to look funny at anyone over the age of 15 who actually cares about what happens on NBC on Saturday night at 11:30 PM. It’s been a cultural and aesthetic cul de sac for about 30 years now.

The MSEM dutifully reports on the show every spring or fall… or whenever it is that they trot out any new cast members. And they breathlessly report on whichever flavor-of-the-week entertainment ho is hosting the upcoming weekend. (And the musical guests are profiled as well. A cursory examination of the list of musical guests over the years reveals precious few exciting or gutsy choices.)

What gives? Why has this institution that is SNL been given a pass?

The writing is (and has been since the Carter administration) weak. The sketches are skeletal pitches for skin-crawling, 70-minute theatrical releases. The entertainment industry is now pocked with various SNL veterans. (Chevy Chase, however, is excellent in what may be the role of his lifetime on Commmunity.)

It’s a bizarre phenomenon– a show that was hailed as revolutionary for about 20 minutes or so in 1975 is held up as the gold standard for 30 years or more. It’s main achievement is that it hasn’t been canceled three decades. (Meanwhile, MadTV outclassed it week in an week out for 14 years.)

And occasionally, we’re plagued by movies based on the lame sketches. (Blame “Wayne’s World.” It cost 20 million to make and grossed six times that much.) We were subsequently tortured by “Coneheads,” “It’s Pat!” “Stuart Saves His Family,” “A Night at the Roxbury,” “Blues Brothers 2000,” “Superstar,” “The Ladies Man” and “Harold.” None of them fared as well as W’sW (or W’sW II!)– in fact, “It’s Pat!” grossed $60,000. No, that is not a typo. “Harold” grossed less than one-quarter of that!

And now, “MacGruber” will be made into a big-screen theatrical release. The god-awful, wanna-gouge-my-eyes-out, hangover from the Irony Boom of the 90s (“It’s not funny… you see… that’s why it’s funny! Are you going to make me explain it again? It’s not funny! Get it? Are you getting it? It’s not supposed to be funny! That’s what makes it to hysterrrrical!”) will consume a budget of several million dollars only to gross about as much as a documentary about emerald ash borers.

Initially, the show provided a showcase for standup comics… actually doing standup. (George Carlin hosted the first episode on Oct. 11, 1975.) And subsequent episodes featured Andy Kaufman, Sam Kinison, Steve Martin, Joel Hodgson, Harry Anderson, Michael Davis and others… actually doing standup, or something resembling standup.

Not so much any more.

Comedian Tommy Tiernan got into some hot water for comments made in an interview.

Nick Zaino is reporting on his Funny Grown Here blog that Frank Santos, who identified himself variously as “The R-Rated Hypnotist,” “The College Hypnostist” and “The Comedy Hypnotist” has died. No other details are known. Santos was most familiar to comedy club crowds in the New England area.

Back on August 26, we put up a post titled Tap Into A Delicious Vein Of Importantness, which trashed the kooky machinations of one Steve Roye, comedian and entreprenuer. A taste:

He is the developer of that most odious bit of pseudoscience called the PAR Score (PAR standing for Positive Audience Response). It was some sort of software that would calculate a comedian’s ratio of yapping to clapping and come up with a sturdy number that club owners could use to determine who comes back and who doesn’t.

Roye was also agitated about a reality television show concept the he has supposedly registered with the WGA in which a comedy competition is scored using his patented PAR method.

In addition to the PAR software, Roye also offers an over-hyped, over-priced online standup comedy course.

Three days or so after we posted about it, Roye posted a reply on his site titled, “Whacked By Comedian Brian McKim At Shecky Magazine” in which he thanked us for driving traffic to his enterprise (along with “a drastic increase in sales”!!). He then insulted The Male Half (and insinuated that he had a low PAR Score! The horror!)

I feel compelled to respond to comedian Brian McKim’s scathing article about me on his stand-up comedy blog called Shecky Magazine concerning my software and reality TV show concept involving comedians.

Brian– well done! I am more than familiar with “controversy” marketing. Trying to ride my stand-up comedy coattails to promote your blog or whatever is NOT a new concept.

First of all, this sexist douchebag doesn’t understand that the magazine and all its content is generated by Brian McKim and Traci Skene. It says so right at the top. And there’s a picture of the two of us. It’s been that way for ten years. Ten years! We grow weary of reminding people of this fact.

Secondly, Roye errs when he says the following:

And I simply cannot deny the traffic you have sent to my blog from yours. Heck, I sure couldn’t get that kind of attention if I requested it (not that I ever would). Thank you very much!

In point of fact, Roye descended on us back about 2000 or 2001… or maybe it was 2003? Who knows for sure, the point is that Roye sought our assistance in promoting his online standup course. He volunteered to send us a password and he promised to forego the exorbitant course fee. We sniffed around on the site for bit, but didn’t really feel comfortable recommending the course to our readers. At the time we had a policy of not doing “How-to” articles, so endorsing such a course was contrary to our editorial policy. To this day, we prefer to focus on exprienced comedians doing interesting things in and around standup comedy. We’ve never been the go-to for how-to, leaving that to other websites.

And although we can’t find it in our archives (and least not the searchable archives), we seem to recall trashing the concept of the PAR Score software way back when it was first unleashed on an unsuspecting public. We were alarmed when we learned of it. We warned of the disastrous consequences should such a nauseating concept gain any traction among comics or club owners. We recall branding it as one of the worst ideas we’d ever heard. (And, until last month, we were pleased that the notion had been languishing in well-deserved obscurity. Of course, we could be wrong… it might be wildly popular on the Indian subcontinent or among club bookers in Greenland or with agents and managers in Luxembourg. So far, though, North America seems blessedly free of the cancer that is the Par Score.)

We’d like to thank “The Monk” for hipping us to Roye’s rant. (Curiously, three weeks passed before we even heard about Roye’s blathering. If our posting drove so much traffic to him, why did it take three weeks for someone to alert us to his ridiculous maundering? It shall forever remain a mystery.)