Our spies in Vegas tell us that Shecky Greene will perform at the Suncoast Casino May 15-17.

Here is the LVR-J article by Mike Weatherford. And here’s the oddest part, a quote from comic John Padon, one of the partners in the new venture:

Righthaven LLC has teamed up with the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post to sue ‘mom and pop’ websites, as well as nonprofit, political action, public interest, writers, and forum board operators for copyright violations. The strategy of Righthaven is to sue hundreds and thousands of these websites and counts on the fact that many are unfunded and will be forced to settle out of court. Nearly all cases are being filed in a Nevada Federal Court and must be fought in this jurisdiction. You are not safe from Righthaven if you are out-of-state.

We have removed the quote in order to protect ourselves from legal action.

Huh? Say wha?!? But, wait, there’s more:

Righthaven LLC has teamed up with the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post to sue ‘mom and pop’ websites, as well as nonprofit, political action, public interest, writers, and forum board operators for copyright violations. The strategy of Righthaven is to sue hundreds and thousands of these websites and counts on the fact that many are unfunded and will be forced to settle out of court. Nearly all cases are being filed in a Nevada Federal Court and must be fought in this jurisdiction. You are not safe from Righthaven if you are out-of-state.

We have removed the quote in order to protect ourselves from legal action.

Let’s recap: Three comics in front of a brick wall is “so 1985,” but comics with burlesque is avant garde? In reality, it’s so 1955.

Sex and comedy? They know what they’re doing. They’ve been in the desert for a long time. (To paraphrase Joe Mantell‘s most famous line, “Forget it, Jake. It’s Vegas.”)

And Weatherford’s been in the desert for a long time– He interviewed the Halves of the Staff for a nice Valentine’s Day piece back in 1993! So he knows the landscape and chronicles all the changes in the Vegas comedy scene in this fine article.

We’ll be in town from the 5th through the 13th (The Male Half is at the Comedy Club at the Riv), so we’ll probably hop on over to the new room at the Harmon. And then again in August, when the Female Half plays that same room.

It’ll be in tomorrow’s Las Vegas Review-Journal. A story by Mike Weatherford will tell of a new comedy club opening on the Vegas Strip. Sin City Comedy Club will open at the Harmon Theater, next to the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

It will feature three comics, one show a night, seven nights a week at 7 PM. The late show will be the current occupant of the theater, John Edward Szeles, better known as The Amazing Johnathan.

Opening night, appropriately enough, is Wednesday, April 1. Details will follow.

Good news from Detroit? How could this be? Detroit is regularly cited as “struggling” or “economically depressed.” The truth is that, while the city of Detroit could be doing better (an unemployment rate in double figures), the greater Detroit metro area has a rate that is more in line with the national rate, which is somewhere around 7 or 8 per cent. When one takes the entire state of Michigan into consideration, the figures are dire– probably about 11 per cent or so.

So, we got an upbeat email from Comedy Castle proprietor Mark Ridley the other day (with the photo below attached), that rattled off all the tremendous comedy that’s going on in and around Detroit.

That’s Dave Attell, onstage at the Castle last weekend. That’s Ron White standing next to him. Attell sold out the (three-night!) weekend at the club in Royal Oak and White sold out his show at the Fox Theatre downtown. And it was announced that Jay Leno has added a second show to his charity event in suburban Auburn Hills. (And the second annual Detroit International Comedy Festival is going on through the 21st under Ridley’s roof.)

So, as Ridley says, “Comedy thrives in Detroit!”

Indeed it seems so!

And, with a bit of promotion and hustle, it can thrive in Dayton, Duluth and Dallas.

If comedy clubs were to write up a press release with hard information as to the cost of a pair of tickets to the local movie theater (plus the cost of a large popcorn, two medium soda pops and maybe a box of Raisinettes), the could make a very persuasive case that a night out at the local comedy club costs not much more (or exactly the same) as a night at the movies. Place a little bit of emphasis on the fact that your customers are seeing live performances, and the sales pitch is even easier. And it’s the kind of hook that editors just love. Bang that baby out to the local daily, weekly and television stations and the phone will ring at least once.

Mention it in radio interviews (and on the club website) and your meme will spread like wildfire.

Simplistic? Certainly. But, as club owners already know, there is little mystery to press coverage. It’s pretty straightforward, pretty matter-of-fact. It’s coming up with the hook that’s confounding.

As long as the media folks are going to peddle the idea that the country is falling apart, they’re going to receptive to a story idea that appeals to folks are going to be pinching every penny (which is what they envision is going on among their viewers/readers). Comparing your club experience to that of a loud, crowded, expensive weekend movie experience is right in their wheelhouse.

David Denby is the New Yorker’s film critic. (Can you think of a more prodigious source of worthless hot air? Oops… sorry… that was… Snark-y!) And he’s written a thin book in which he seeks to identify what is snark, what is not snark and why that which is snark is “ruining our conversation.”

Denby is the sort of bloated, fussy douchbag that would never be caught dead in a comedy club. (And if he were to find himself in a comedy club, he’d sit in the front row and check his watch a lot and wince frequently.)

Read this, from Walter Kirn’s review of it in the NYT:

He wants to correct and restrain, using scholarship and logic, perhaps the keenest, most reflexive, prehistoric and anarchic of simple human pleasures, short of eating or achieving orgasm. The act of laughter, this would be. Or, for Denby, the act of low, illicit laughter– laughter enjoyed for the wrong reasons and provoked by the wrong lines. Whether laughter for the right reasons is even possible, given humor’s subversive, corrosive history, is a difficult philosophical question, of course, but Denby feels that it is. This follows from his belief that the impulses to giggle, grin and cackle (and the various means for stimulating these impulses) can be, and ought to be, consciously aligned with civic virtues and literary standards, lest our society laugh for no just cause, at jokes that aren’t witty enough to laugh at and that may even be plain stupid and malicious.

The humor that stirs this wrongful laughter is “snark…”

Emphasis ours.

It is more than ironic that Denby, in attempting to inform us all as to what is “ruining our converstation,” has instead exposed his ridiculous mode of thinking as one of the major forces that is ruining the conversation. Or at least attempting to do so. (Doubly ironic, since Denby describes irony as “the most powerful of satiric weapons.”)

In the course of producing this website over the past decade, we’ve come across dozens of Denby’s– folks who seek to corral or suppress certain kinds of humor, or who seek to shame whole audiences from laughing at certain kinds of humor or certain kinds of comics.

Denby has let the cat out of the bag. Kirn hits the nail on the head when he says that Denby (and like-minded folks) think that laughter “ought to be consciously aligned with civic virtues and literary standards.” This is the central inconsistency in their crusade. Humor quite often is at odds with civic virtues and literary standards.

Read Kirn’s entire review. And also take in Mark Steyn’s excellent take down in Commentary.

Consider this a review of the reviews. (Here’s another from the Balto Sun. And another devastating one from Wonkette.) We’re not going to actually buy the book. We know what’s between those covers… we’ve been dealing with the David Denby’s of the world, honing our snark skills to a fine point, since 1999.

LAST CHANCE to sign up! Go HERE and make your picks! WIN a book! It’s easy! Thanks!

Editors’ note: To those who are having difficulty picking: Click on the BRACKETS link near the top left of the page… then a bracket will appear… click on the bracket and a big, interactive bracket will appear… this allows you to make your picks and save them! GOOD LUCK!

Tournament weekend saw two Philly-area teams make it in– ‘Nova and Temple. (If we missed any others, we apologize!)

We had a good time here at SHECKYmagazine HQ printing out the brackets and picking our winners and keeping score– a glimpse of our neck-and-neck contest can be viewed here.

We decided to open it up to readers by establishing a Facebook bracket contest (via CBS’ Facebook app) and we’re hoping some folks sign up. If not, we are fully prepared to accept the wind whistling through our CBS Brackets Facebook Group! We set it up hastily, but here it is… we think. And we think anyone who wants to can join and participate!

We intend to give away a copy of “Mock Stars,” the John Wenzel book about indie comedy, to the “winner” of the competition. (We determine the winner in the event of a tie!) We know that, since the games start tonight (technically– the “play-in” game is tonight… but we all know that the winner of that isn’t going to get past Louisville!), but there’s still plenty of time to click on the brackets and lock in your picks!

If you just want to play with yourself (pun intended!), there’s a nifty site that offers the chance to print out a nicely laid-out bracket (in a .pdf file!) that actually fits onto one, 8-1/2 X 11 page!

Good luck to all!

Comedy Stop at the Trop proprietor Bob Kephart took out a half-page ad in the Las Vegas Review-Journal yesterday. Here’s the text, complete with photos of Drew Carey, Rosie O’Donnell, Ray Romano and other comics. In true Kephart style, the photo that was dead center (and larger than any of the other photos) was that of Kephart himself. Here’s the text:

After 18 years of dedicated service the Tropicana has decided not to renew our contract. We wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of our employees, comedians and loyal fans and announce that we have found a new location.

We will be announcing that location shortly.

Of course, he probably hasn’t secured a location yet. Considering that he spent a few thousand dollars on the ad, it wouldn’t make sense to spend all that jack and not announce the new location simultaneously. What he’s done is purchase a wildly expensive announcement that he’s out of business. Hmmm… Perhaps not the best use of resources.

From Pat Wilson comes this news:

I don’t know if any of the comedy community outside of the PNW knows comedian Ray Lawrence but I just thought you might post the notice that he suddenly passed away on Friday. His memorial service will be March 26 from 3-6 at the Jester Comedy Club, 15450 SW Millikan Way, Beaverton, OR, 503-626-6338 for any of your readers from the PNW who read Shecky Magazine.com. Thank you.

So reads the headline on top of the article (written by Don Thrasher) in today’s Dayton Daily News.

We are ink magnets. What can we say?

Color headshots, too.

While searching for the article online, we typed in “Wiley’s” and got the following set of results:

Pay particular attention to the headline of the article underneath ours– “Husband in murder-suicide had killed previous wife.” There’s one couple ain’t bringing no love and laughter!

We spotted the above sign quite by accident when exiting the highway in New Stanton, PA, a small town southeast of Pittsburgh. We thought we’d pop into the place and see who the comedians on the bill were. We didn’t read the sign carefully enough.

The Male Half inquired at the bar, “Who are the comedians on the bill tonight?” The gal behind the bar looked momentarily puzzled. A large, plasma television blared from the corner of the tiny bar. She briefly turned her attention toward the TV, pumped up the volume a bit more, then turned her attention back to the Male Half, asking him to repeat the question. “Who are the comedians tonight?” he repeated. She looked at him, again with a slightly puzzled look and said, motioning toward the big screen, “You’re looking at ‘im… It’s Jeff Dunham.”

Sure enough, it was Jeff Dunham. There on the big screen, either by virtue of a DVD or by virtue of scheduling on Comedy Central.

And actors are worried that CGI will some day obviate the need for real, live, flesh and blood thespians?

A short item on CNN.com tells of a Detroit city council member who is disappointed that Jay Leno chose to have his free concert to cheer up the unemployed of Detroit in Auburn Hills, instead of in Detroit proper.

“When I heard Jay Leno say Detroit is one of his favorite places and he’s going to do a free concert for the people laid off, to people who don’t have any money right now, given the economic state we’re all in, I was elated,” Reeves said. “Then he said Auburn Hills… and that’s not Detroit.”

It’s Detroit enough. And the show is free. So, shut your piehole.

(Thanks to Joe Devito for sending along the URL!)

UPDATE: We hear now that the comics have been extended through Sunday. So, it looks like they’ll be finishing out the week.

Tonight, after the second show, the Comedy Stop at the Trop is no more. The three comics on the bill, Don Gavin, Scott Bruce and Kevin Downey, Jr. got the word today (They only started the week yesterday!).

Word on the street is that, on May 1, the L.A. Comedy Club will occupy the space, offering an early show and that Bobby Slayton will be doing the late show. This arrangement, it is said, is signed to a six-month run. L.A. Comedy Club was formerly at Trader Vic’s at the Planet Hollywood casino. Slayton held court at the Hooters casino, just off the strip, just behind the Trop.

From Canada comes word that Toronto-based comedian Rodney Pentland has died. We’ll post details as they become available. Our condolences to his friends and relatives.

ADDENDUM: We were not Facebook Friends with Pentland. As such, we do not have access to his profile. Only to what is linked above. It is somewhat disconcerting to see the “Add Rodney as Friend” option at the top of the page. We would, but the administrator of the profile is most likely the deceased himself. It would be nice if someone on the other end, a friend, an associate, a relative could accept friend requests as they come in. Perhaps Facebook should consider making some sort of provision– a sort of Facebook last will and testament that would kick in, post mortem. Unpleasant to think about, to be sure, but comforting in a way.

ADDENDUM II: We have word that a relative of Pentland’s is updating his Facebook account. We added him as a friend this morning and used the Personal Message feature to send along our condolences.

We could have. For the past three or four years, we’ve been predicting it.

Back on February 26, we tweeted the following:

If the sitcom is dead, then how does one explain 30 Rock? Or Big Bang Theory? Or Scrubs? Or Family Guy? Or Life (if we want to stretch)?

Now Josef Adalian, in a TVWeek article dated March 8, writes this:

While many in the industry have been wringing their hands (and flapping their jaws) about the supposed death of the sitcom, the network that introduced Americans to half-hour comedy through I Love Lucy has once again asserted its dominance over the genre. From both a cultural and commercial perspective, no other network—including former comedy champ NBC—comes close in the genre to matching CBS’s Monday night lineup of laughs.[…]

CBS executives, however, say it’s hard to pinpoint a specific formula beyond simply “make funny shows.”

“We don’t approach our development [saying], ‘Let’s do this kind of show or that kind of show,'” said Wendi Trilling, who has overseen comedy development for CBS since 2000. “We really approach it from … which scripts work the best, and then which pilots are the best.”

So while most of its rivals have spent the past decade focusing their energies on indulging the creative whims of writers in love with the notion of comedies that resemble feature films—so-called single-camera half-hours—CBS has kept pumping out sitcoms that are filmed in front of a live studio audience.

Or producers in love with the notion of “unscripted” comedies! As we ranted on August 15, 2007, after reading some twaddle about improvised scripts by Larry Carroll on MTV.com:

Pay special attention to the word “greenlit.” Folks are telling the suits that the projects are “largely improvised” or “totally unscripted” because, apparently, the suits are all hot and bothered by the idea and are all too willing to say yes to such projects. (And all too willing to be a part of “a revolution that favors awkward silences instead of traditional “setup, punch line” comedy.”)

You weren’t aware that there was such a revolution going on? Where have you been for the past half-decade? (That’s how long it’s been going on, according to Larry Carroll, the author of the piece. An entire half-decade! That’s a looooong time!)

And, from March 1, 2006, comes our tirade on the hype surrounding Fox’s ill-fated Free Ride:

The sitcom, don’t you know, is dead.

The truly funny sitcoms– the ones that will carry us into the next Golden Era of Television– won’t need writers. Brave souls like Rob Roy Thomas will re-invent the form and skilled actors will merely improv their way into the Television Hall of Fame. No writers need apply. (Those pesky writers were getting in the way!)

Why do they insist on this fantasy? What is so utterly horrifying to these nitwits about taking an idea for a sitcom, hiring accomplished writers to concoct truly humorous situations and dialogue, then hiring talented actors with a flair for comedy? Why all these wistful daydreams about a world in which we don’t need writers, the actors are all triple threats and the genre that brought us The Honeymooners, Mary Tyler Moore and Seinfeld is a flawed model tossed unceremoniously on the scrapheap of television history?

Oh, sure, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. So, if we squawked long enough and often enough, we would eventually be vindicated. But in the TV biz, it takes forever to turn the ship around, so squawking for three or four years isn’t so psychotic in the grand scheme of things.

Anyway, the take-away from all this is that “Fat Guy/Hot Wife” (industry shorthand for typical sitcoms that follow a tried and true formula) is not dead. And this is good for comedians– no better person to build a traditional sitcom around than someone who knows how to utter a punchline and has the timing to deal with a live (studio) audience. (And if, while producing said sitcoms, they actually use a fat guy or two, it’s time for all the comics in NY and LA to cancel their gym memberships!)

We’ll be Twittering during the West Coast broadcast of Dancing With The Stars. Our tweets will then be re-tweeted and become part of the Watch With Comics DWTS Twittercast! It oughta be a hoot! Folks in EDT gotta Tivo it and synch it up with the Twittercast, as they’ll be three hours behind!

This will be the second time the Male and Female Halves have participated in a WWC Twittercast– the first being last month’s Oscarcast snarkathon.

(And we hear that the folks in Moscow are looking for comedians fluent in Russian to participate in a Twittercast of Dancing With The Tsars!)

Word on the street is that Rick Bronson’s House of Comedy is opening soon in the spot formerly occupied by Knuckleheads on the fourth level of the gargantuan Mall of America in Bloomington, MN. Bronson already runs a comedy club, The Comic Strip, at a similar mall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To the best of our recollection, Knuckleheads closed in 2004.

The Minneapolis metro area already has two clubs– One downtown (Acme Comedy Co., which has been at its current location for at least 15 years) and another south of the city (The Joke Joint, which opened in Spring of 2007).

We just performed at the Joke Joint last month and we were delighted with the changes that proprietor (and comedian) Ken Reed (and wife, Becky) had made to the space. Our Valentine’s weekend engagement saw some packed and enthusiastic houses. (Read our glowing account of that weekend here.)

The Joint is in the Ramada Mall of America. Which is about 2,000 feet from the Mall of America (thus, the name of the hotel). Regarding the impending opening of the new club, the Joke Joint released the following: “Competition is always good and we look forward to more comedy in the Twin Cities. We welcome our new neighbor to the south.”

The Twin Cities market has come a long way since the days when the Hansens ran the Comedy Gallery which, according to their moribund website, provided a “launching pad” for comics such as Joel Hodgson, Lizz Winstead, Jeff Cesario and Tom Arnold. (The site states that there’s a Gallery in a Holiday Inn in St. Paul, but their schedule stops at Dec. 26-27. Hmmm…)

In Friday’s St. Paul Pioneer Press, an article by Frederick Melo profiled local comic (and United Airlines pilot) Mike Orensteen. Orensteen created MinneHAHA Comedy Club, which is not actually a venue located in a physical building, but more like a floating show using revolving acts that occasionally produces shows in the ‘burbs. The article ended with this:

Orensteen hopes the MinneHAHA Comedy Club will be a monthly regular at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center, which alone would be an achievement. But he’s also got even bigger plans brewing.

His goal is to launch something he says is sorely missing from the Twin Cities suburbs: a restaurant and comedy club, with Burnsville or Bloomington looking to be prime candidates. He’s still looking around, and laughing all the way.

Here’s an article in the LAT, written by comic Pat Mellon, that affords a peek into the mind of Reeta Piazza who runs the open mike at the Improv on Melrose.

“I do a great open mike now,” she says, beaming as she explains how and why it’s been streamlined since the days of chatty hosts and overzealous audio guys. Now, there is no host — the comedians are brought up over the PA, which is also how they do it at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood on Tuesday nights, and Piazza tries to watch every set. For comedians, that’s huge, because there are basically two reasons we do open mikes: (1) for practice, or (2) so important people see us. The UnUrban Coffee House in Santa Monica is a great place to practice Thursday nights. But if you want to catch the right eye, the Improv is where you should be.

A must-read for anyone starting out in L.A. … or anyone who is moving to L.A. and planning on doing open mikes.

Wanna know how Los Angeles works for all but the most experienced standup comics? Read the whole thing.

(Thanks to former SHECKYmagazine columnist Paul Ogata for the heads up!)

From the Times (UK), we have Allan Brown serving up this drivel:

The ego of most comedians is on a scale so vast that it requires Google Earth to be mapped adequately. Equally sizable, though, is their insecurity, their pesky, sleeve-tugging need to be loved for themselves. This is why comedians risk the horror of dying on stage; because they’ll feel big and desirable if it so happens that they don’t.

Along the front of every comedy stage is an invisible one-way mirror, allowing the audience to see the performer and the performer to see themselves.

We suppose that the “civilians” (those who have never done standup) can’t quite fathom how it is that we do what we do, so they concoct scenarios like the one above– They must be egotistical, otherwise how could they get up there and do standup? goes the logic.

At least that’s how they (the journos) would handle it if they were to plunge into standup comedy.

Of course, the reality is much less dramatic. To be sure, there are comedians with large egos (just as there are doctors, tow truck operators or ornithologists with large egos), but there is no greater or smaller percentage among our ranks.

Doing what we do doesn’t require an outsized ego, however. In fact, it could be argued that it requires just the opposite. As we are fond of saying: Don’t take the bombs personally and don’t take the kills personally, either. One can’t go to Vegas and do 14 shows in a week if one is doing it to feed an ego that’s observable from the Space Station. It just doesn’t work that way.

Observe a comedian just offstage from smoking a room. Are there fists thrust into the air triumphantly? A touchdown dance of some sort? Frothing and chest thumping accompanied by the planting of long, sloppy kisses on unsuspecting bystanders? No. The demeanor of the comic who just crushed is more… placid. Satisfied. And, to some extent, there begins a calculation of the days/hours/minutes to the next show– not out of some neurotic need to return to the stage, but out of a very practical need to erase the memory of the previous kill and begin the process of preparing for the next performance, of re-calibrating. (To be sure, there is some assessment of the just-completed show– Was there new material? Did it go well? Does it need tweaking?– but the post mortem doesn’t usually involve wondering whether sufficient love from the crowd was felt or whether or not a long-dead, abusive father was looking down on the stage from heaven.)

Observe a comedian just offstage from a bomb… or merely a show that didn’t go as well as hoped. Moping? Hissing and snapping at well-meaning colleagues or clueless fans? No. The demeanor, once again, is usually placid. Much the same assessment goes on and much the same re-calibration occurs. The highs and lows are modulated out of necessity. It is this modulation (Is it learned? Is it inherent?) that enables the comedian to go up week after week, show after show and deliver consistently good shows over the long run.

(Thanks to FOS Aaron Ward for the tip!)

George McKelvey died of a stroke in Hemet, CA, reports the Denver Post.

After moving to Denver, McKelvey helped found Comedy Works, George McKelvey’s Comedy Club in Aurora and Wit’s End, all safe havens for a string of national acts, including Jerry Seinfeld, Ellen De Generes and Roseanne Barr.

“He was a big part of our history,” said Comedy Works owner Wende Curtis. “Before him there really wasn’t a comedy scene in Denver.”

(Thanks to Chris Fonseca for the tip.)

UPDATE: Williams needs aortic valve replacement surgery.

We thought it was odd when we read that he canceled a gig due to shortness of breath. But when we heard he canceled four dates, we knew something was up.

The Newark Star Ledger is reporting that Robin Williams is in the hospital, in intensive care. Stay tuned.

SHECKYmagazine deputized FOS Dan Rosenberg to snap a pic or two and type up a recap of the recent taping of the Comedy Central Roast of Larry The Cable Guy. Below is his account of the affair on Sunday evening in Hollywood.

Where can you see Marsha Brady, Gary Busey, Warren Sapp and Toby Keith doing standup? There can only be one place: The Comedy Central Roast of Larry the Cable Guy.

This odd grouping of B+ to D- celebrities gathered on Sunday March 1st to roast comedian Dan Whitney (aka Larry the Cable Guy) for a special to air on Sunday March 15th. I was lucky to have a ringside seat to this shindig, and it was pretty funny.

I don’t want to ruin any of the surprises, but Lisa Lampanelli was great in her first turn as the roast master and, while being the butt of almost everyone’s jokes, Greg Giraldo did a great opening set. Maureen McCormick KILLED and Jeff Foxworthy was probably the funniest “clean” roaster I have ever seen.

There were two video roasters, Country singer Zac Brown and fellow Blue Collar comic Bill Engvall. Other roasters included; Nick DiPaolo, Jeff Ross and Reno Collier. (Reno Who? That was a frequent question asked about Collier who has been Larry’s opening act for the past three years. Or as Lisa Lampanelli explained, “He’s the guy talking on stage while you are in line getting a beer at a Larry the Cable Guy concert.”)

The audience of about 1,000 was filled mostly with comedy and media types, plus a few bleachers full of fans screaming “Git ‘er done!” at every possible opportunity. Set your DVR and enjoy! Rumor from a source at Comedy Central says that the next roast, set for July, will feature the second female to be roasted by Comedy Central. (Pam Anderson being the first)

Dave Mordal, Season 1 LCS standout standup, has landed a gig at Discovery Channel as host of Wreckreation Nation.

He gently mocks folks who fill their time off with activities like catfish grabbing and alligator wrestling and mini moto racing. Kinda like what Mike Rowe does to people who are trying to make a living, in his capacity as host of Dirty Jobs.

Mordal is good at it. It’s not an easy job. (It’s not a dirty job most of the time, but it sure as hell ain’t easy.) But he makes it look so.

(Thanks to sharp-eyed reader Jason Pomietlasz for pointing us toward the show.)

And, we suppose, see Garry Shandling talk back to Carol Leifer. (We’re guessing it will be along the lines of Inside the Actors Studio.)

The Writers Bloc event is March 31 at 7:30 PM at The Writer’s Guild Theatre (135 South Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills). It’s $20 to get in. That’s a Tuesday night.

Sounds like a great way to spend an evening.

There’s an outside chance we’ll be in L.A. that night. (You can bet if we’re there, we’re there!)

Gay TV outlet Logo came to the rescue… supposedly.

Reuters is reporting that Comedy Central will let Logo make up the difference in return for being allowed to air the series with Comedy Central.

In a surprising twist, Corrao came up with the idea early on Monday to share Sarah Silverman with another Logo, which caters to gay, lesbian and transgender viewers.

She called former Comedy Central executive Marc Leonard, now a senior exec at Logo.

After discussing the idea for several hours, Logo’s brass called up their Comedy Central counterparts to tell them they wanted to be part of the show.

This is what might be described in some circles as a “just so story”– neither verifiable nor falsifiable.

It’s plausibility is questionable.

Earlier in the Reuters piece, Lauren Corrao, Comedy Central’s president of original programing, is said to have “headed the network’s efforts to keep Sarah Silverman on the air.” Uh huh… the person who offered the producers twenty per cent less, a move which precipitated their walkout and (supposedly) almost killed the show, is the person who headed the effort to keep it on the air.

Aren’t there better ways to promote a cross-promotion? (Perhaps part of the “companywide belt-tightening measures” at Viacom was to shitcan the cable outlet’s promotion and marketing department, thereby forcing them to concoct fairy tales that, it is hoped, go viral. Seems like a heck of a way to run a media company.)

Spring is almost here. Daylight Savings is approaching. That means it is Comedy Festival Press Release season!

The 2nd Annual Detroit International Comedy Festival is scheduled at Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle March 16-21. Scheduled to appear are:

William “Cleveland” Jackson, Brett Eastburn, Steve Sabo, John Garrett, Troy Davis, Dave Waite, Ken Barnard, Haji Outlaw, Michael Malone, Floyd Phillips, Sean Hunter, Peter Bowers, Selena Coppock, The Showoff Show, Alycia Cooper, Steve Macone, David Powell, Clay Miles, Jason Marcus, Joe Zimmerman, Tom Foss, Christian Sherm, Samuel Comroe, Michael Rayner, Dave Reinitz, Justin Worsham, Eric Hunter, Lars Callieou, Tim Gaither, Tim Nutt, Brandon Vestal, David Dyer, Mike McDaniel, Ben Konstantin, Mike Bobbitt, Bob Phillips, Gary George, Tim Costello, Keith Lenart, Dave Bell, Mike Malec

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Hiltbrand wrote a piece on “hot blonde with a filthy mouth,” Chelsea Handler– she’s coming to the Tower Saturday. The article appeared in yesterday’s Inky and contained quotes from Traci Skene:

Her cheeky candor is one of the things that makes her unique: She’s a hot blonde with a filthy mouth.

“Chelsea Handler is rare in that she’s an attractive woman who is able to speak frankly about her sexual exploits,” e-mails Traci Skene, editor of the stand-up comedy Web site SHECKYmagazine, based in Merchantville.

“In the past, her particular [brand of] bawdy humor would have only been accepted coming out of the mouth of a seemingly much older woman– Mae West for example. …Chelsea manages to make it funny, believable, and acceptable.”

Read the whole thing to gain insight into the TV show’s production.

The folks at Zanies added a Tuesday open mike show. Then they sent out an email to all their local talent and laid down some rules. (The email is ricocheting around the internet. It showed up in our inbox this morning, with a link to former comedian David Spark’s blog, in which he posts about the email and analyzes it. We’re not in love with his analysis, but the back-and-forth in the comments is worth checking out.)

What it comes down to is this: Zanies, Nashville’s A-room according to many of those familiar with the venue, has created an open mike night… and it’s a bringer show.

Readers of this magazine know that we despise bringer shows. For obvious reasons. So, right there, we’re not supportive of the folks at Zanies in this particular instance. Oh, sure, admission is free for the bringees, but that hardly matters. What does matter is that there is a quid pro quo with regard to the comics and stage time. It’s not exactly pay to play, but it’s still reprehensible.

Aside from that, there are a couple other hitches in the plan.

We had to laugh at #2 on the list of rules:

2. Out of respect to every performer; you and your quests are required to stay through the entire show and just not your set.

Required? Did they say “required?” Exactly how does the club expect to enforce this one?

Don’t get us wrong– We’ve always been annoyed at the jackasses who come to a show, usually en masse, to see their friend (the wannabe comedian) at the open mike night, and then exit as soon as their blowhard buddy is offstage. It’s annoying, it’s rude, it’s totally lacking in class and it reflects poorly on the guy that brung ’em. But there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Requiring anyone to stay anywhere against their will is what they call “unlawful detention.” It’s a felony. Whoever worded the rules is not thinking things through.

Of course, if the folks you brought to the show take off just moments after your set is over, you should be in for a world of shit– from your fellow open mikers and, maybe from the club’s manager. (But, if that happens to you, perhaps you should invite a better class of people to your next open mike performance, should there ever be one again.)

Number 5 seemed to touch off some controversy:

5. Excessive Vulgar Language is frowned upon. Please do not make us have to ban you from performing. TIP: If you are really serious about pursuing a comedy career then you will have to perform clean as an MC on a consistent basis.

No problem there. We only mention it because some of the folks in the comments on Spark’s blog had a major problem with it.

No, it’s not a First Amendment issue, so don’t even go there. The folks at Zanies are entirely within their rights to place such restrictions on their performers. What they’ll get in return is comics that are more suited to emceeing (and more suitable faster). And, let’s face it, one of the primary reasons for having an open mike is to cultivate local talent so that you might have competent weekend show hosts.

Ditto when it comes to the restriction on political humor. (And, as someone astutely pointed out in a comment, the rule is probably not enforced if someone uncorks a political jibe that is actually funny.)

Someone identifying herself as Beth Schumann, a comedy club manager, defends the various nickel-and-dime aspects of the club’s new policies, saying, “It costs a club $$ just to open its doors on any given night. To open its doors and then take a loss every open mic night is not good business.” To which we reply: With the cost of licenses, taxes, insurance, etc., a club loses money if it opts to keep its doors closed.

Where Zanies (and other clubs that cook up such lame schemes as this one) go horribly wrong is that they open the doors on an off night and then seek to place the blame for the loss (?) of money on the comics. Starting from that point, they then seek to compel the comics to do all the things that they themselves should be doing– promotion, advertising, marketing, etc.

This is laziness. It is ass backwards. There are plenty of ways that a creative management team can bulk up the (free) admission to its open mike night.

Rather than whine and moan about the economy, they might solicit advice from fellow comedy club owners (or fellow restaurateurs) and use some of the tricks they employ to get people through the door. If you’ve ever skimmed a copy of one of those industry magazines with names like “Food And Drink Monthly” or “Cocktail Quarterly” you’re probably as blown away as we are by the ingenious methods that restaurant people use to squeeze every last nickel out of every square foot of their establishment. People who make their living in food and beverage are relentless and brilliant in getting people through the door, keeping them there and siphoning money out of their wallets. This is what it takes, apparently, to be in the club business– relentless energy and intelligence. We don’t for a minute begrudge them a penny, for we are well aware of just how exhausting and frustrating it must be to constantly dream up ways to motivate your customer base to come through that door. But to totally abdicate your responsibility for that part of your business– and lay it on the talent— is to signal that you have given up, that you are out of ideas or energy or both.

One way might be to hold the open mike after your second show Friday or Saturday (or after the Thursday or Wednesday night show). Another might be to hand out free passes to the open mike night as the crowd is filing out from the regular, paid shows on the other nights of the week.

This was done with tremendous success at the Comedy Factory Outlet in the 1980s. Initially, the CFO had “Midnight Madness,” which was a new talent night after the Friday evening show. When the club went to two shows Friday, the new talent performed on Thursday night at what was then one of the best open mikes in the country– on some nights, folks were turned away– and the audience was there mainly because they had received a free pass when attending a prior weekend show.

It’s entirely logical– the weekend crowd has seen a tremendous show (it is hoped), and they have all sorts of warm and fuzzy feelings toward the club. Inviting them back to see “the stars of tomorrow” for free is inviting them to be an ongoing part of a live performance venue’s process– a participant in the development of a local scene. If just a small percentage of those free passes return, the meager investment in ticket printing is well worth it.

If an open mike is sold or promoted as something of value, free passes (or BOGO passes) will be looked upon as having value. And the response to the show will be good. If the open mike night is structured as a pathetic D.I.Y. affair (with comics practically begging strangers and friends to attend or papering windshields with flyers or hectoring co-workers), the show will not be viewed favorably. And the response from the co-opted attendees will be forced, the atmosphere uncomfortable. Can we really blame those who were roped into attending for bugging out as fast as they can? The very fact that Rule #2 includes mandatory attendance speaks volumes. Has anyone, in the history of entertainment, ever heard of a club that demands people stay through the end of the performance? No. That a comedy club should do so is an embarrassment to us all and should also embarrass the folks at Zanies.

Just eleven days after the premiere of Sarah Silverman‘s quirky sitcom on Comedy Central, the network announced that the show would be picked up for a second season.

Well, here we are and, nearly three months after season two’s final episode has aired, Comedy Central is asking (telling?) the show’s producers to cut the budget for each show by twenty per cent.

Comedy Central’s “most successful primetime launch in three years,” may just disappear because Silverman, “on behalf of the three executive producers, informed the network late last week that they can’t proceed with a third season.” Whoops! (Read the whole thing on THR.com.)

CC cites the usual: The shrinking ad market! (Website Business Insider helps the cause by titling their rehash of the Hollywood Reporter item, “Will The Economic Downturn Kill The Sarah Silverman Program?”)

Both sides are alleged to be in negotiations. Wonder why we’re privy to all of this? Must be a leak from Silverman’s camp. Otherwise, why would we know the names of her co-exec producers? (Dan Sterling and Rob Schrab)

As always, we’ll never know the real truth of what’s going on. But we gotta figure, if Comedy Central can/would ask a successful show to cut the budget by twenty per cent, they probably figure there are plenty of Sarah Silvermans out there and that she is… expendable. (They got over Dave Chappelle’s departure pretty quickly. And they’ve got Demetri Martin‘s new show in the lineup– and that had eye-popping numbers… for it’s premiere episode.

Then:

After last week’s terrific record-setting debut, the second episode of Demetri Martin’s Important Things (1.7 million, 0.8) fell 38 per cent on Wednesday night. Things went from fourth place among cable shows last week to 11th. Now, that’s still a big number for the network, and he drew a bigger number than companion The Daily Show. But let’s hope Martin got the expected post-premiere drop out of his system.

Perhaps they decided to kick Sarah Silverman to the curb after Martin’s sparkling debut… then– oops!– it dipped in the ratings.

If we were Silverman and Sterling and Schrab, we’d ask for more money per episode!

He’s at the taping of the Larry the Cable Guy Roast (to be on Comedy Central soon… check your paper for local listings!). Here is the link to Doug Benson’s “tweets.”

We’re following his tweets. Follow him, too. Or follow us. Or follow anyone you want. It’s Twitter!

On Friday morning, we posted “Tear up the Hack List,” a mini-screed that used the example of Louis CK‘s heralded Conan appearance to attempt to finally bury the practice of seeking to designate certain topics or premises as off-limits. An excerpt:

The word on the street, the word among the all-knowing, haughty gatekeepers of the art of standup comedy, is that doing airplane material marks one as a hopeless mercenary […]

In their campaign to keep the art pure, they have erected a fence around certain topics. Airplane material is one of them.

Of course, as Louis CK ably demonstrated, this is so much horse manure.

It set off a spirited debate in the comments below the posting. Even Louis CK himself weighed in. We excerpt our favorite part:

I like every kind of comedy. I can appreciate any comic who shows some energy, some uniqueness some great craftsmanship, some strange courage, balls, hilarious lack of balls, weirdness, or just a really solid comic with a terrific fastball. I’m a fan of all of it. From Carlin to Pryor to Ron White to Don Gavin to Steve Sweeney to Todd Glass to Norm Macdonald to JB Smoove to George Lopez to Bernie Mack, Moms mabley, Father Guido Sarducci, Emo Phillips, Todd Barry, Marc Maron, Andy Kindler and Andrew Dice Clay at the Comedy store in front of eight people for an hour. I eat it up as long as they’re trying.

He also gives readers a little background info on the evolution of the bit. Hop to it here, or scroll down!

FOS DJ Hazard has penned (can we still use the quaint verb “penned” any more?) an essay for Examiner.com. (From what we can tell, Examiner.com accepts pieces from writers on a variety of subjects and there’s an Examiner.com for dozens of U.S. cities. Check it out!)

Hazard’s article is on the art of Extreme Beaching.

Extreme Beaching requires no physical or psychological baggage– no back packs, no shoulder bags and no purses. If you can’t leave the house without your Ipod or makeup kit, this ain’t your kind of adventure. Be happy how you look, because this is how you’re going to look…

Examiner.com describes the author as “a lovable, cranky and funny writer, musician, actor and comedian who resides in his native New York City.” We concur.

We’re going to be working with/hanging out with Hazard for a week starting April 6 at the Riviera in Las Vegas. (No Extreme Beaching will be necessary!)

There’s a clip of Louis CK‘s appearance on Conan that’s been ricocheting around the internet. (Clip here. Embedding has been disabled.)

In it, he urges folks to appreciate what they have and appreciate the wondrous times we live in. We’re not exactly sure why the clip has captured the public’s fancy– folks have been linking to it off their Facebook profiles and we even heard a nationally syndicated (conservative) talk show host speak favorably of the monologue– but we were fascinated because Mr. Szekely did a lot of airplane material.

That’s right– the subject that is the quintessence of hackiness– airplane material!

The word on the street, the word among the all-knowing, haughty gatekeepers of the art of standup comedy, is that doing airplane material marks one as a hopeless mercenary, a hireling who yearns only for commercial success, who lives only for the laughter and will debase himself in the pursuit of the yucks. (Airplane material? You haven’t written a joke since Reagan’s second term!)

In their campaign to keep the art pure, they have erected a fence around certain topics. Airplane material is one of them.

Of course, as Louis CK ably demonstrated, this is so much horse manure.

His appearance contradicts conclusively the notion that we can proscribe certain subjects, topics or premises.

Jerry Seinfeld and NBC are heralding the launch of a new reality show.

The comedian’s project is tentatively called The Marriage Ref and features celebrities, comedians and athletes who will judge couples in the midst of marital disputes while recommending various strategies to resolve their problems.

The Female Half thinks perhaps Eric Arthur Nederlander could’ve used a “marriage ref.” The following is from a November 9, 1999, article in the New York Daily News:

June 13, 1998: Jessica Danielle Sklar, 26, weds New York theater scion Eric Arthur Nederlander, 32, after five-year relationship.

August 1998: Sklar reportedly meets Jerry Seinfeld at the Reebok Sports Club after returning from her three-week honeymoon. Rumors fly that they are seeing each other after they are spotted working out and eating lunch at the club. Sklar and Seinfeld deny they’re together.

October 1998: Nederlander files for divorce.

November 1998: Seinfeld and Sklar’s romance hits the front pages after the couple is seen all around town– at a Halloween party together hanging with Donald Trump and Naomi Campbell, watching the New York Marathon, shopping at Zabar’s and looking for an apartment for Sklar.

December: Seinfeld hunts for a house in the Hamptons with Sklar. Meanwhile, Nederlander reportedly buys an apartment downtown and puts the upper West Side pad he once lived in with Sklar on the market.

February: Sklar and Seinfeld have a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner at SoHo’s Balthazar restaurant.

April-June: The romance is still going strong, and the couple is inseparable – seen together at Orlando’s Universal Islands of Adventure, watching Wayne Gretzky’s last game at Madison Square Garden, hanging with Monica Lewinsky after her appearance on Saturday Night Live, attending Austin Powers movie premiere and sitting courtside at the Knicks-Pacers games.

August: The couple returns from vacation in Siena, Italy, and announces they are separating for a while.

September: Seinfeld misses Sklar’s 28th birthday party at downtown club Halo as word spreads that they are on the outs. Seinfeld sends his love from out of town.

October: Jessica Sklar reportedly takes up with Today show assistant producer David Friedman. But she and Seinfeld remain close, frequently talking with each other.

On the sixth of the following month, the couple announced their wedding plans.

There is supreme irony in the spectacle of a man– who romanced (and subsequently married) a newlywed– producing a show that will examine married couples and “recommend various strategies to resolve their problems.” We wonder if any television or social critics will have the temerity to point this out.

All has worked out well. (Click here for the NYT account of the romance and eventual November 21, 2004, marriage of Nederlander and Dr. Lindsey Kupferberg in Palm Beach. Perhaps the Nederlander-Kupferbergs can appear on Marriage Ref during sweeps month!)

This time, from Manohla Dargis, writing in the New York Times, in this section, discussing Lewis’ humanitarian award from AMPAS.

…It’s hard to imagine Mr. Lewis, who has never been nominated, giving the academy the brushoff. He needs the applause too much.

You can hear that need in every convulsive laugh and see it in a smile that stretches across his face like an abyss. Comedy is an art of desperation, feeding on the laughter and love of the audience, and few screen comics have worn that hunger more openly than Mr. Lewis has. To watch one of his early romps, including those with his longtime partner, Dean Martin, is to witness not just the pathos of that need, but also its horror. When Jerry Lewis laughs, his rubber-band lips widen across his cheeks, creating an enormous hole, a cavern of dark. It’s as if he were simultaneously splitting himself open for our delectation and trying to swallow us whole, maybe both.

Mind you, this is from an appreciation of Lewis.

We suppose Dargis is merely playing by the unwritten rules, to wit: If you’re going to praise a comedian (particularly one so vulgar as Jerry Lewis), then you must establish cred by first portraying the subject of your appreciation as pathetic, possibly psychotic, but definitely neurotic.

With appreciators like that, who needs detractors?

While watching the Oscarcast last night (and the red carpet coverage beforehand), it became apparent that of the two groups (actors or comedians), the comedians were the least needy, the least pretentious, the ones seeming to be least in need of attention or “love.”

From the Answers.com bio of Richard Pryor:”…a trip to Africa ultimately renewed him spiritually, and he returned to America a new man, one who declared he would never use the word ‘nigger’ again.”

“Stand-up citizens” is subtitled “Everyone’s a comedian? No, but the brave can try it.” by the Daily Gazette’s Brian McElhiney starts out as a profile of Schenectady resident Greg Aidala then morphs into a snapshot of the burgeoning standup scene in the Albany area.

Aidala, bit by the standup bug somewhere around the turn of the century, explains how/why he started an open mike last month:

“I wanted a weekly series, [and] I wanted the only organized workout room dedicated to comedy,” Aidala said. “You know, open mikes, believe me, I’ve done all those. I’ve had to wait till 2 in the morning in the city to get some stage time. You get there at 9– ‘I put in half a work day to do five minutes? I can’t do this.’ And I didn’t want anyone to do that here because that happens at open mikes.”

So he starts his own. We always tell frustrated beginners to start their own open mike if they can’t get enough stage time at the local chucklery. Having had the luxury of starting out in a market that had three, sometimes four open mikes in a week, we never had to do it ourselves. (And we wonder: If he had to, would we have the cajones to do so like Aidala here?)

McElhiney, using the quotes of several of the area’s open mikers, provides readers with a primer on how to assemble that first five. It’s a surprisingly even-handed and insightful article.

It’s up on Moviefone. And here. Seth Rogen mentioned the trailer on the red carpet last night.

They’ll give him the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. It’s for his work raising money to find a cure for muscular dystrophy. (But it’s also for dominating movies for a decade or two– first with Dean Martin, then without him.)

Any bets on whether the classy Hollywood crowd will boo him lustily? How could they, you ask? Well, for one thing, Lewis, who is 82 years old, has committed the cardinal sin of making two gay jokes (vicious homophobic slurs, in the parlance of the perpetually victimized and their representatives). One on his telethon and one on Australian TV. (We’ve heard worse on Will & Grace.)

Plus, he objectifies the very folks he seeks to assist with his fundraising, emphasizing their misery and portraying them as something to be pitied rather than worthwhile human beings. (Or something like that. When they concoct these fake controversies, it’s difficult to grasp just what it is that’s ticking them off.)

So, you see, he’s evil. And he’s a talentless hack– a producer once described the Martin & Lewis act as “the organ grinder and his monkey.” Hey– isn’t that a slur on Italians? (Or is pointing out that the majority of organ grinders are Italian a slur in and of itself? We’re not sure. When the slur/blame game is being played, it’s like a hideous game of rhetorical paintball with no armor!)

Add into the mix the fact that the herd will be wearing white ribbons to symbolize their support for gay marriage (or is to symbolize their boiling rage at Christians, Mormons and African-Americans for passing Prop 8?) and you have a simmering cauldron of resentment, hatred, bile totally at odds with the folks who make the decisions at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

You think Jerry Lewis is bitter now? Just wait until the booing starts! He’s 82 years old, he’s not in the best of health, and he’s receiving an honor that could be called “The Jean Hersholt Go F*** Yourself Award”– we’re firing up the VCR! He just might display (only slightly) less class than the audience and give ’em hell like nobody’s ever heard!

From Richard Corliss, writing in Time:

The last time Jerry Lewis appeared on the Oscars was 50 years ago, as one of the hosts of the 1959 show. In the three years since he and Dean Martin had ended their partnership as the country’s all-time hottest comedy team, each had established successful a solo career: Martin as a dramatic actor in The Young Lions, Some Came Running and Rio Bravo, Lewis in the popular farces Rock-a-Bye Baby and The Geisha Boy. Each man had recorded hit singles, headlined in Vegas, guested on many TV shows. Lewis had also emceed the Oscar event twice before, with wit and dignity and without incident.

With that last line, Corliss is setting up a description of Lewis’ 1959 hosting gig (which ended in disaster, according to some– great live TV, according to others.) But it can be inferred that Corliss (and others) expect any Oscarcast hosted by a comedian to lack wit and/or dignity and be riddled with incident.

Because, as we all know, comedians are utterly lacking in wit and dignity.

Incident? Of course! That’s why you hire the comedian. And that’s why, as Corliss points out in his appreciation of Lewis, that the ’59 broadcast was the second highest-rated in Oscar history.

And that’s why you don’t hire Hugh Jackman to host! (Oh, there’ll be plenty of wit and dignity, but it’ll be the smirky, NPR/Charley Rose kind of dignity that puts viewers into a coma. And there’ll be no incidents.)

They are so conflicted.