San Francisco standup blog sfstandup.com has the details on recently announced Dave Chappelle appearances in that city’s Cobb’s Comedy Club and Punchline. Says the blog, “If you’re looking for a regular length show, go to one at 8:00.” A reference to the comic’s tendency to “go long” when there’s no reason to vacate the stage.

He’ll do an 8 and an 11 on Friday and Saturday at Cobb’s, then an 8 at Cobb’s on Sunday, then an 11 at the Punchline later that same night.

FOS and frequent SHECKYmagazine contributor Paul Ogata (pictured above right with DL Hughley) taped his segment of Comedy Central’s Live At Gotham this past Sunday night in New York City.

He then slung us the following account of the evening

The scope of human effort that goes into producing a television taping of a live show is mind boggling. Now multiply that by eight and you have a sense of what went into making the third season of Comedy Central’s “Live at Gotham.” The production probably involved more computer and electrical hardware than there was in all the Apollo missions combined. That’s how mind boggling it is.

I was scheduled to tape my episode on Sunday night. The first of two that evening, and the seventh of eight in the upcoming season. Live At Gotham is unique amongst live stand-up television programs, in that it is shot in as close to a real club setting as possible. There is an audience ordering drinks for which they have to pay, and, yes, that also means there is a dreaded “check drop”. Luckily, or so I thought, I was going first. The reason was that there was a warm-up comic (KT Tatara from L.A.) and a hugely popular and funny host in DL Hughley. All the hosts for this season (Jeff Dunham, Jim Norton, Ralphie May, Tommy Davidson, Kevin Hart, Rich Vos, DL Hughley and Daniel Tosh) are damn funny, but I really like DL and was happy that he was hosting my episode.

At the pre-show meeting, I met the other comics on the line-up: Myq Kaplan (frequent SHECKYmagazine.com commenter!), Josh Homer, Liz Miele, Shane Mauss and Theo Von. Then I heard that DL wasn’t feeling well and would be arriving a little closer to show time. Oh well, I thought, DL is the man and he can do this on auto-pilot.

Among the myriad crew members hustling around was a guy who was in charge of getting our introductions and material bullet points correct for the teleprompter. (There’s a teleprompter! What? You heard me, a teleprompter.) I thought he looked very familiar, then I noticed the name on his production binder: Joe Bolster. No way! Joe freaking Bolster! Before I started stand-up Joe Bolster was everywhere on TV, and now he’s helping to make those shows on TV. Joe Bolster was, it seemed, the poster boy for stand-up. And the game could not have had a better representative: Joe was always clever, original and hilarious. He was one of the people I’d see on TV and think to myself, “Holy crap, is that awesome! I wanna do that someday!” Great to meet such a veteran and to see that he’s still involved in the sweet science of comedy.

DL arrived with time to spare, and that put me at ease a bit. But that was just a false sense of security into which I was lulled. It was just like on the Apollo 13 mission when everyone was thinking nothing could go wrong because everyone involved had done this many times before. DL took the stage and killed. I waited anxiously at stage left. He read my intro and said my name, “Please welcome Paul Ogata!” Then he walked off the stage. With the only microphone. Stage right.

Hughley, we have a problem.

I saw it happening in slow motion, but there was nothing I could do about it. The stage manager didn’t notice the missing mic and shooed me to the stage, “That’s your cue. Go!” So I headed to the stage trying to figure out a game plan. I clowned around with the empty mic stand for a few moments until DL brought the mic back and apologized. Fortunately, I have a bit about things not going according to plan, and put that in play once I got the mic back. What will it all look like in the end? The way I see it, there are three possibilities. They can leave in the botched mic hand-off, showing a natural side of live shows (ie. the occasional screw up). They can cut from DL’s intro to a crowd scene then back to me with a mic. Or perhaps they will just scrap the entire set. I vote for one of the first two scenarios! In Apollo 13, they fixed those CO2 scrubbers and got the crew home safely. On the other hand, Jim Lovell did come home, but never got to walk on the moon. Man, I suck at metaphors.

We’ll find out this summer what happens. The new season of Live At Gotham, from what I hear, is scheduled to start airing on the Friday after Memorial Day.

The Classic Las Vegas blog is “Helping Preserve 20th Century Las Vegas,” by commenting on the ongoing dismantling of the mid-century landmarks, signage, buildings and charm of the desert metropolis and organizing the folks who are seeking to halt or slow the process.

It’s a great site if you like mid-century architecture and/or if you are at all familiar with/enamored of Las Vegas prior to 1988 or so.

We first hit Vegas in August of 1988 and we’ve performed there off and on over the past 20 years, noting with some dismay the changes that have been wrought. The latest crisis is the demolition of the El Morocco and the impending disappearance of the Peppermill! (We’re scheduled to work the Comedy Club at the Riv in July… those two establishments are/were right next door!)

The above photo, of Vegas legend Shecky Greene, is part of Classic Vegas’s history of the Riviera Hotel in the 1950s. (Click onto page 3 for the link!)

We have been going through our archives, sorting the various papers, documents, boxes of VHS tapes and artifacts (a particularly difficult task when we hit a vein of material from the mid- to late-90s– not good times!) and we came across the video below.

It’s a 4-minute clip of Australian daredevil Vincent Silvestro who stood on the frame of his harness racing sulky, held the reins in his teeth and set off fireworks while being pulled at 30 miles an hour by his trusty horse, Hand Me Silver.

We were part of the team that brought Silvestro to America for several performances in 1997– some time after our radio gig in Philly had exploded and just before we plunged back into comedy. We were in charge of publicity and also served as the act’s advance team. We eventually left the operation when full-time standup beckoned once again.

That’s comedian Dwayne Perkins on the national Verizon Wirless commercial– the one where the guy is walking out of the store, with the entire Verizon Wireless network in a giant pack behind him. It is truly a remarkable feat– he delivers his lines while walking (and staring into the camera), through a door, out into the street. (And quite a directorial feat as well, with lots of crucial activity occurring in the periphery and a tracking shot that gives way to a crane shot! How many takes did this one take?!) Job well done, Perkins!

That’s Perkins on the right, with Jimmy Dellavalle, taken at the ’04 JFL.

Jon Stewart will host and Kevin James, Rosie O’Donnell and Susie Essman will be among those on “Night of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Benefit for Autism Education” on April 13 at the Beacon Theater in New York, say the AP article.

It will air live on Comedy Central.

It’s the second such benefit and was organized in part due to Robert Smigel, whose son, Daniel, is autistic. Smigel’s most famous character, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, will also be attendance.

The first one raised $2.6 million.

Downloads will be available for $1.99 the next day via popular download sites, with the proceeds going to charity, of course.

The Reuters article talks about the promotional gimmick surrounding Doug Benson’s documentary, “Super High Me.” The tortured money quote:

Starting March 10, fans can register at the film’s Web site to “roll” their own screenings by requesting a free DVD copy of the film, which will be sent out on its theatrical start date of April 20, a sacred date in the stoner community.

Was this written by someone who just lit up? Sounds so.

From what we can tell, Benson made a documentary (a parody of Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me) which depicts the comedian abstaining from smoking pot for 30 days, then smoking it all day for the next 30 days, with medical tests set up along the way. (Benson claims to be a card-carrying medical marijuana patient.)

The promotion scheme is a rather odd combo of high, low and medium-tech and a borrowed idea or two– Offering a DVD (low-tech) hard copy of the flick, which has a digitally enforced 24-hour shelf life (high-tech), via the website (medium-tech), delivered via USPS (low-tech), to be viewed on 4/20 (idea that was previously used to promote “Before the Music Dies” in 2006 and the film “Totally Baked” last April). It is hoped that word of mouth will make the film a hit when it opens in theaters. (Perhaps it was asking too much of potential fans of the movie to actually download a film from the internet. “I was supposed to hit ‘Accept’ but I got totally paranoid that it was a virus or something… then I got distracted by that LOLCats website… Are you gonna eat that?”)

Of course, they’re depending on stoners to spread the word. Now, if they can only remember to tell their friends…

Regardless, it has Benson in it and behind it. It will probably be hysterical, with our without herbal enhancement.

In an interview with alt rag The LAist, Matt Belknap (creator of website ASpecialThing.com) perpetuates the trite nonsense that comics have “an above average need for attention,” which “might come from childhood neglect,” and that comics came to their skills by trying to “gain the attention of an otherwise distant parent.”

We grow weary of this.

Can we finally put this moronic, hackneyed set of hypotheses to rest? Who buys this shit but people who are predisposed to dislike comedians in the first place? Who benefits but those who wish to feel superior to standup comics (i.e., reporters, the envious, the utterly humorless, people who depend on clichés to order their world)?

It’s particularly disheartening to hear this psychobabble coming from someone who has set himself up as an expert on standup. (The reporter loves it. The reporter comes to the interview believing it. And even we have been guilty– in the dark, distant past– of saying something merely because we are sure the reporter wants to hear it. This stems not so much from a need to please, but a desire for publicity.)

But Belknap says it more than once:

I would guess that all performers of all stripes have an above-average need for attention, so that’s the first ingredient. This might come from childhood neglect…

And

A lot of people think comics must have had fucked-up childhoods. Some do, but I think that assumption is backwards: I think those comics are people who survived fucked-up childhoods by using their humor as a shield. The comics who didn’t have notably fucked-up childhoods are just people who like the feeling of making people laugh (and the attention that comes with it).

And

…a comic has either spent his whole life feeling like he needs to perform and make people laugh to get the attention he craves, or he’s gotten a taste of the highs of live performance and can’t resist chasing that feeling.

It is quite clear: Proficiency at making folks laugh is a pathology. It is somewhat akin to heroin addiction or chronic masturbation. It’s often rooted in a malformed childhood. Or it’s a palliative for a painful childhood or a failure to connect with a parent.

This fantasy is right up there with the overbearing mother/distant father formula for gayness. Haven’t you heard the news? Freud is sooo last century.

The second quote offers some clue as to why this garbage is peddled. We thoughfully boldified the money quote, and we repeat it here:

The comics who didn’t have notably fucked-up childhoods are just people who like the feeling of making people laugh (and the attention that comes with it).

If your humor doesn’t come from pain (and if your motive is purely to make people laugh), your standup has no hope of achieving the status of art. Conversely, if your humor derives from pain (and you are a tortured soul), congratuations, you are an artiste. And the corollary: If you had a happy childhood and you become a standup comic, you’re an attention whore. If you had a “fucked up childhood” and you become a comic, you deserve all the attention you can get.

Earlier in the article, Belknap flatly states that “all standup comedy is art.” But in the next sentence, he dismisses a good chunk of standup by saying that “a percentage of it is striving to be nothing more than escapist entertainment, a mindless reaffirmation of commonly held beliefs.” Just what percentage of standup is “merely escapist” or mindless Belknap doesn’t say.

An article in the Allentown Call-Chronicle affords the reader a peek into the strange world of Leo Gallagher (or Gallagher 1, as we like to call him). Many facts stuck out, among them that Gallagher has a degree in chemical engineering and that he has never had an agent or a manager.

Gallagher has been involved in a number of projects throughout his career. In the ’80s he did seven television specials. In 2003 he ran for governor of California.

He still produces videos, one of which illustrates his idea to use helicopters for clearing accident vehicles off the freeways in case of a terrorist bio-attack. His latest shows him dressing as “Uncle Earth” to speak about ecology.

We enjoyed watching some of those specials back in the ’80s. There’s lots of interesting stuff in between the fruit/veggie carnage. We heard a chunk of his new material on XMRadio and it’s well-written socio-political commentary that’s right up there with any other similar material.

We saw him live once at Congo Room at the Sahara (the same venue that Louie Prima played in his prime) and the show didn’t go very well. It was disappointing. The year was 1996. Perhaps the crowd was ornery. (How many of them came to the show having just heard a snide Gallagher comment or two in the MSM or in the pop culture? Imagine swimming against that tide every time you set foot onstage!)

Maybe Gallagher himself was “off.” (Even the seasoned pros have the occasional hinky show.) We’ll try to catch him again some day.

On Tuesday night, the Male Half was among 15 comics who did six minutes before the camera at Philly comedy club Helium. The tape was made at the request of Just For Laughs Festival officials. The audition by mylar was one of several held, or to be held in clubs across the U.S. and Canada.

L to R: Pat House, Ed McGonigal, Chip Chantry at the Helium bar

The auditioners, in order of appearance:

Laurence Mullaney
Tim Grill
Pat Barker
Chris Coccia
Andy Nolan
Robin Fox
Roger Weaver
David James
Brian McKim
Steve Gerben
Anton Shuford
Joe Bublewicz
Pat House
Ed McGonigal
Chip Chantry

A hearty and healthy crowd saw each act do six minutes (and not one comic, to our knowledge, went over). Coccia came out at the end and did another ten minutes to absorb the “check drop”

It was a miniature Philly comics’ reunion, as a substantial portion of the PHL comedy community was present! Even Keith Robinson was hanging out! (Robinson produces a show a the club once a month.)

Anton Shuford, Tim Grill at the Helium Bar

The Nashville LCS showcase (the one that the Male Half was planning on performing in… if Page Hurwitz had returned my call. Thanks, Page! No returned call, even though Bill Bellamy himself told the Male Half to call?) just concluded a few hours/minutes ago. Here is who made it into the next round, according to our spies

Heath Hyche
Erin Jackson
Taylor Mason
Mary Mack
Dale Jones

FOS Terry Reilly sends along a link to a Wall Street Journal article, written by John Paul Newport, that ponders the phenomenon of the golf joke.

A few theories are kicked around as to why, even though traditional jokes seem to be in decline, the golf joke is bucking the trend.

But humor theory suggests an additional reason. Old-style joke-telling, which probably had its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, was popular because the jokes didn’t reveal much about either the teller or the listener. They were clever but safe and impersonal, which fit the times. Since then, however, the culture has moved into a more emotive phase. People feel more comfortable wearing their hearts on their sleeves. And golf jokes– the good ones, at least– tap into the emotions that all golfers share, particularly those created by the game’s maddening difficulty.

There’s a mention of T.P. Mulrooney, a former club comic who has carved out a niche for himself as a “golf comedian,” touted on his website as “the official comedian of the Senior PGA Tour.”

Dave Attell, Louis C.K., Pete Correale, Nick Di Paolo, Greg Fitzsimmons, Artie Lange, Kevin Meaney and Jim Norton will headline the The Gerry Red Wilson Foundation Comedy Benefit on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 at 8:00 PM at Town Hall, New York, NY.

The Gerry Red Wilson Foundation is an organization dedicated to raising awareness and fighting Meningitis. The Foundation was created by friends and family to keep alive the memory and spirit of Gerry Red Wilson, a rising comic and television star who succumbed to Spinal Meningitis on November 21, 1998 at the age of 37.

Tickets are on sale now.

Anyone interested in making a donation to the Foundation directly can mail a check payable to The Gerry Red Wilson Foundation to 17 Battery Place, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10004.

We heard from some folks from the Bay Area. “All the SF winners were pretty good looking and on the younger side,” said one report. We detect a trend. Producers are displaying a passion for non-comics in wacky costumes (as cannon fodder– no one expects any of these “acts” to eventually compete), we hear that the choices for eventual advancement to Los Angeles are skewing young and attractive.

The comics who advanced out of the nighttime showcase:

Mike E. Winfield
Andy Haynes
Iliza Shlesinger
Jeff Dye
CORRECTION: We incorrectly reported Elian Drakefield as getting through… we are now told it was Drennon Davis
Whitney Cummings
Meehan Brothers

We’re piecing together what went on in Tempe at the recent (Tuesday) LCS auditions there at the Improv. We haven’t gotten a large data dump on Tempe like we did on all the other audition cities. (And, although we’ve run into Bill Bellamy on two recent occasions, we weren’t there oursevles!)

So far, we’ve gleaned the following info:

From an (unnamed) comedian’s blog, we learned that, “A large Black pretty women, A Veteran to the craft, A good looking tattooed impressionist, A tall high energy Jewish guy, and a Good Looking guy that made it past the rounds in another season of LCS were all picked.” (He’s remaining unnamed because, after all, he didn’t actually name anyone who got through! Hereinafter, he shall be referred to as “the diminutive, high-energy, Midwest comic.”)

This much we know:

Adam Hunter
Alycia Cooper

Got through. Our educated guess is that Cooper is the “large Black pretty women (sic)” and Hunter is “a Good Looking guy.” (Hunter doesn’t make the “Jew-y” needle jump.)

Now, all we have to do is nail down the “good looking tattoed impressionist,” the “tall high energy Jewish guy,” and the comic who is described only as “A Veteran to the craft.” (We’ve noticed that the diminutive, high-energy Midwest comic is extremely “lookist!” And he has an allergy to punctuation!)

UPDATE: It has been brought to our attention that Adam Hunter in indeed Jewish. So… that means that he has been switched to “tall, high energy Jewish guy.” And now, we must figure out who “a Good Looking guy” is.

It is rumored that “a Good Looking guy” might be Josh Wolf, who, you’ll recall was one of the two comics presented in a previous season of LCS as winners of the online component of the competition. He was beaten by Theo Von.

The “good looking tattoed impressionist,” it has been speculated, is Marcus. Just one name. Marcus.

We apologize to Mr. Hunter for denying his Jewish heritage. (Actually, we didn’t think he looked as un-Jewish as he looked un-tall.)

UPDATE 02/29: We found out that tall high energy Jewish guy is Bryan Kellen and Phil Palisoul is a Veteran of the craft. Now… is it possible that the Josh Wolf rumor is simply that?

An article in the Eagle Eye, the online newspaper of Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania entitled “The Funny Thing About Laughter” contains the following quote:

But it got me thinking about how great it must feel to be a comedian. I mean seriously, they get to go up on stage for an hour to tell jokes and make fun of people, and they get paid for it. Heck, I do that with my friends all the time and I don’t get a single nickel for it. The pleasure that these guys get from their job must be awesome.

The article’s author, student Joe Stender is reflecting on seeing Jim Gaffigan perform this past Friday night, an event he describes as “one of the most hilarious times I have ever had in my life.”

We excerpt it and link to it here for multiple reasons. It reminds us of just how thrilling it is for most audience members to be in that audience, in the dark, watching a solo performer bathed in light executing what must be one of the most puzzling and exhilarating tricks in all of show business– making a roomful of people react in unison, with hearty laughter, to nothing more than the spoken word.

It makes us recall our first time in a club. It is sometimes difficult to connect with that feeling, that sense of awe we felt when the lights went down and the comic walked out and we surrendered to the jokes and we were transported. When the secrets, the mechanics, the glare of the hot lights, the feel of the wave of laughter hitting us in the chest was all still a mystery.

The writer experiences this same classic, simultaneous attraction/repulsion– I must do this… There is no way I can attempt this!

And then we contrast the feelings and emotions we experience when we’re onstage our selves with that initial impression as a novice audience member. Are we overcome with the joy of making people laugh? Are we acutely aware of just how “awesome” it is to “tell jokes and make fun of people, and… get paid for it?” No, not really. We appreciate it, but no to the point of being overcome. We’re conscious of it, but not overly so. But this is not some sort of tragedy. It is a natural progression.

The Female Half likens it to the inevitable (and necessary) evolution from the torrid, bumping-into-walls infatuation of courtship into the solid, loving, dependable (but no less desirable) love of a great marriage.

It serves us well to recall the feeling we had when we were just starting out as performers. And it is also useful to try to remember what it was like when we were merely fans.

From a column by The Male Half:

I went to a live comedy show for the first time. It was a cheap date: $2 to get in, see eight comics (eight!), give them another $2 and you could stay in your seat and see eight more! I saw a rapid-fire lineup of eight of the founding fathers of Philadelphia comedy doing 10-minute sets. Clay Heery, Mike Eagan, Rameesh Kajirian, Stuart Roberts, Sam Hollis, Bob and Bob, Ben Kurland and one other comic, whose name escapes me, put on a tremendous show in the intimate confines of the Jailhouse. The building is no longer standing. I was hooked on live comedy after that.

I went to two more live shows in the next 18 months. I saw Eagan again, Adrian Tolsch, Steve Young and Tom Wilson in two separate shows at the Comedy Works.

The Female Half, at the tender age of 12, accompanied her grandfather to a show at the famous Steel Pier in Atlantic City and saw the legendary (at least locally) comedy team of Fisher & Marks. The pair had to stop several times during their performance to mock her, as her laughter was so loud and disruptive.

Readers: Feel free to share your experiences in the comments!

Tomorrow night through Saturday, the Black Comedy Project will present a series of shows at The Tank, 279 Church Street, NYC (Btn Franklin and White).

NYC Based comedians Baron Vaughn and Elon James White have reached out to comedians across the nation to finally let the world know that there’s very different voices within the community. Let us bring them to you.

Hit their blog to see clips of the featured performers.

The show is called “A Night for Knoxie, Raisin’ Money- Raisin’ Hell!” and it’s at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, NH, Sunday, March 9 at 7 PM. It’s a charity event to raise money for Kevin Knox (see previous posting here).

If you live in New England and you’ve never been to a Boston Comedy Club (although we can’t imagine such a thing), you can see an outrageous cross-section of the Boston Comedy Scene in just one evening:

Kevin Flynn
Bob Seibel
Gary Gulman
Tony V
Jimmy Dunn
Steve Sweeney
Robbie Printz
Mike McDonald
Jim Lauletta
Frank Santorelli
Lenny Clarke

The description of the event also promises “some special guests,” although we can’t imagine many more special guests than are on the above list. Hop onto the Palace Theatre site.

Even though he’s technically not allowed to cut any deals for another two years, Jay Leno is, according to the NYT, being courted by a number of entities.

Sony Pictures Television has made an approach through intermediaries to let Mr. Leno and his representatives know that as soon as he is allowed to discuss his next move, the studio will make him a rich offer for a syndicated late-night show that would make him the highest-paid host in late-night television, put his name on a new theater on the Sony lot and give him a financial interest in Sony music artists who appear on his show.

Fox and ABC are said to be in the hunt as well.

DirecTV has announced ten episodes of a new series, The Supreme Court of Comedy.

Premiering on DIRECTV’s original entertainment channel The 101, the series is a takeoff on the popular courtroom television genre. The courtroom will feature comedians serving for both the court’s judge and as council for the plaintiffs and defendants.

Starring Dom Irrera, the series will feature real people settling their small claims cases with comedians in there to mix things up. Stars being promoted include comedians like Jamie Kennedy, Sinbad, Paul Rodriguez and Tom Arnold.

Promoted as being “unscripted and totally unpredictable” the show will be presented in HD. Judge Dom Irrera will preside over real disputes. Each side will be represented by a comedian serving as legal council. Head-to-head match-ups are scheduled to include:

-Jamie Kennedy vs. Paul Rodriguez

-Tom Arnold vs. Sinbad

–Joe Piscopo vs. Elon Gold

–Victoria Jackson vs. Tom Papa

–Thea Vidale vs. Gerry Bednob

The courtroom will be set at the World Famous Laugh Factory located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. The show will also involve the audience by allowing people to comment on the cases being settled. Audience members will also be able to have “quickie cases” settled in front of Judge Irrera right then and there. Decisions in the cases will be final and case winners will be awarded according to the judgments rendered.

Sounds like it would have made a good challenge on an upcoming Last Comic Standing.

Our Houston spies are letting us down! So far, all we have is:

Andi Smith
Chris Voth

Are two who made it through. And we heard an (unconfirmed) rumor that Bob Biggerstaff made it through. That sounds plausible, since Biggerstaff was one of the comics who got major face time in San Antonio last year on Episode 1.

More details: Fourteen comics performed in the evening showcase. We hear that Houston comics Keisha Hunt, Billy D. Washington, Sarah Tollemache and Danny Rios were among them and that Tom Hester from Austin also went up.

Still more details: Paul Varghese of Dallas and Saleem Mohammed were among those advancing.

“We all know who the freaks are…”

Juanda Mayfield has posted a “YouTube video response” to the clip that we uploaded (shot by FOS Sharilyn Johnson), which recounts her experience in 10:18.

The sound is a little garbled, but if you wanted a detailed account of the auditioners’ day in Houston, this is it.

Go here to listen to a lengthy and spirited interview with the Male and Female Halves of the Staff conducted by Punchline proprietor Jamie Bendall during our recent swing through Atlanta.

We touch upon a multitude of subjects such as turning over material, the internet’s effect on standup and the care and feeding of the WWW’s most beloved magazine about standup.

It’s approximately 30 minutes long.

That’s FOS Gabe Abelson shaking hands with Ed McMahon… in Tom Green’s house. Gabe explains: It’s the set of the “first simulcast TV/Web talk show, Tom Green’s House Tonight.”

Green has built a 9-camera HD, 16 X 9 studio in his house. Abelson says, “It’s a test-run– we’re only on in four, small U.S. markets, but we’re on nationally in Canada right after The Daily Show on their Comedy Network.”

Watch it through next week at 6 pm West Coast time, at tomgreen.com.

Duh! A USA Today article confirms what we’ve said for some time now.

On the occasion of the debut of the Dennis Miller-hosted Amne$ia, the article quotes Miller, Mandel and others on the comedian/game show host trend.

Look for more stand-up comics as hosts. “Their experience with a live audience is invaluable,” says Deal or No Deal producer Scott St. John, a veteran game show runner. “They’re relaxed and at ease with who they are. And they’re adept, because they’ve dealt with hecklers and know how to handle unexpected situations.”

The piece makes the case that comics have been hosting game shows forever. They cite You Bet Your Life and two short-lived shows hosted by Johnny Carson… during the Eisenhower administration.

For the next fifty years, it was Bill Cullen and Jack Narz and Wink Martindale and the Tom Kennedy and a cadre of professional game show hosts, some of whom also co-produced their shows.

We’re not sure why this shift has occurred, but it certainly raises the visibility of comedians and it quite possibly might endear them to the public. Comedians will be seen as people who dress nicely, are in control and who hand over a sack of cash to a screaming suburbanite every half-hour or so.

It’s a donnybrook! Mere hours after the folks at Just For Laughs announced their festival plans for Chicago in ’09, comes this press release (Click on “Press”) from another faction, planning a comedy festival in Chicago in the fall of this year:

It’s that rich legacy that prompted veteran film and television producers Jason Brett and John Davies (About Last Night, Run’s House, Comic Relief Presents) to create the Chicago Comedy Fest, a national entertainment event currently slated for Fall, 2008 with three days of performances at Chicago’s landmark Navy Pier, two broadcast specials to be taped live as part of the Fest and a comedy film series event in partnership with National Lampoon.

We sheared off the top sentence (it was a real snoozer!), but the above graf tells you all you need to know.

So far, they haven’t named any names, talent-wise, but they’re promising the standard festival fare– “…over 100 performers on three stages over three days at Navy Pier, the producers expect some of the biggest names in entertainment to participate. The Fest will celebrate the diversity of comedy by offering a variety of comedic voices and genres from stand-up and sketch to musical satire and improvisation.”

The “high-profile Blue Ribbon Advisory Board” sounds a little heavy on the improv/acting side of things, but, from all indications, there’ll be a lot of standup.

Stay tuned.

This puzzling article in Time Out Chicago by Steve Heisler was written after Heisler attended opening night of the Comedy Zone at the Dave & Buster’s location in Chicago and interviewed the owner of the club, Joe Doria. The publication date of the weekly is listed as Feb 7. But the opening graf says this:

After this story went to press, we learned that Comedy Zone Chicago had been indefinitely shut down and all its shows were “cancelled until further notice.”

There’s a link in that paragraph that goes to the Time Out Chicago blog that explains (or at least tries to) the situation with The Comedy Zone, Dave & Buster’s and Doria.

I called Joe and got the skinny. He admits right off the bat that he’s been left in the dark as well– he simply got a call today from Comedy Zone telling him that the club was shutting down. Apparently, Dave and Buster’s is severing its tie with the Comedy Zone, but only in Chicago. Other Dave and Buster’s locations around the country will keep Zoning it up. Joe had put in a number of calls and emails to the powers-that-be, but no one has given him any more information.

Doria is getting the runaround from the Zone and D & B. He says he’s scouting around Chicagoland for a new location.

Chicago is their target. The folks at Just For Laughs sent out a bulletin today at 2:39 PM announcing “Just For Laughs: A Very Funny Festival.” Then, there’s this, from the Gazette, on Canada.com:

Just for Laughs and the U.S. cable station TBS are collaborating to launch a new comedy festival next year in Chicago, home of the world-famous Second City comedy troupe.

The five-day Just For Laughs: A Very Funny Festival will include the taping of a TBS stand-up comedy special starring comedian and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, assorted stand-up, improv and sketch shows– including a Second City appearance– and a film component, the organizations announced today.

The details, they say, will be announced this fall. No further details on the date, other than “next year.”

Got a bulletin from comedian/friend Max Alexander:

It’s 100 per cent safe and healthy to donate a kidney– Google to find out– and it will give me back my life to help others and to make people laugh. Almost impossible to do on dialysis. Please spread the word. Giving me the gift of life will be greatly appreciated in many ways. My insurance covers every thing. Please spread the word if you don’t mind.

Sincerely,
Max

Contact Max via his Myspace profile.

That’s Max on the left, with Joey Elias. (From JFL 2006)

He speaks the truth. From the New England Journal of Medicine:

In the five decades since the first renal transplantation from a living donor took place, in 1954, donating a kidney has become common; according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, 6647 people became living kidney donors in the United States in 2004. Indeed, donating a kidney is sufficiently safe that the emotional benefits to the donor generally far outweigh the risks. During my career as a pediatric nephrologist, I have discussed kidney donation with scores of potential donors, helping the transplantation team to explain to the potential recipient and donor the procedure and its associated risks and benefits.

We just got a recap of the Minneapolis auditions from an anonymous source:

Last Comic Standing has come and gone through the frozen tundra of Minneapolis. I only bring up the frozen tundra as the LCS team took every opportunity to point out how cold it is here. They had some guy carving an ice sculpture out on the street and every interview in the LCS photo booth was about “how do you deal with these crazy cold temperatures?!” The line wasn’t ridiculously long, although there were a few crazy souls that camped out overnight. Which seems eve more ridiculous considering how quickly the line moved in the morning, they were taking in about 5-6 at time to audition for a PA and were told they would be called if they made it to the afternoon “celebrity judge” round.

The “appointment people” were seen one at a time in front of two producers in the actual club. About 25 folks, including the costumed and wacky, were seen by the celebrity judges from The Office.

Roughly 18 moved on to the night show in front of a packed house at ACME. Bill Bellamy hosted and the show was great! I can think of several folks that received genuine applause breaks within their 3 minute sets. Some of the 18 in the showcase were: Tim Harmston, Doug Mellard, Mary Mack, Tracey Ashley, Bengt Washburn, Greg Warren, Darlene Westgor and Chuck Bartell. I am sure I’ve spelled some names wrong and I know I’ve left out several very talented folks, but congrats to everyone in the showcase. It really was a great show.

At any rate it was a pretty good day and some very funny folks moved on. Moving on from Mpls are Pete Lee, Dan Cummins and John Evans.

We know Boston comic Kevin Knox from our days in that city’s comedy clubs. For four years now, he has been battling a recurrence of an earlier bout with cancer.

We ran into him in Vegas two years ago and, in a posting on this magazine, we described him as “robust.” Knox said that he was dealing with his condition with diet and exercise. Indeed, he seems to have become somewhat of an expert on nutrition.

Recently, it’s come to our attention that he’s had a series of setbacks including pneumonia and anemia which has left his immune system weakened. He’s currently in Florida working on getting himself healthy.

Click here to find out how you can help Knox in his effort to get healthy again.

And on March 22, fellow comedian Johnny Pizzi is going to walk from Saugus to Tyngsboro (Knox’s hometown) to raise money for the stricken comic. According to the posting on the Comedy Studio Kvetch Board, “He’s going to start at some ungodly hour of the morning (4:30 or 5) and walk 25 miles.

If anyone is interested in either pledging money for the walk or walking with him, please contact Johnny at 781 420 1036 or JohnnyPizzi-at-hotmail.”

If wealth is measured by friends, the comics of New England are among the wealthiest.

This just came in over the cyber transom, from a reader in England, and it seems to be credible.

About three weeks ago, thirty or so comics were flown from London to Miami for 2 days. It had all the glamor of a cattle call. Acts were hauled out of bed at 6:30 AM just so they could wait around for hours and hours.

Stage one: All the acts did their five minutes to the producers. (It really felt like they were casting a reality show rather than looking for the best comics.)

Stage two: Those chosen went on to perform for the judges and then to a competition in a comedy club in the evening.

Shazia Mirza
Stephen K. Amos
Toju
Paul Foot

We noted in a previous post that, just after we encountered the travelling talent trawl in Atlanta, we Googled Bill Bellamy‘s name and the only thing we could find in the news section was a mention of him shooting some B-roll at a Miami Heat game. Hmmm… that would fit the time frame.

Traci Skene has uploaded her 100th post to her rollicking and thoughtful weblog, Road Atlas Shrugged. 100 posts ago, The Female Half decided to create a personal blog, giving readers an almost-daily dose of “profound analysis mixed with sheer idiocy!”

Bookmark Road Atlas Shrugged and check back in often for Traci’s thoughts on pop culture, current events and insight into the life of a standup comic in 21st century America!

That’s Marty Butler and Crystal P flanking Last Comic Standing host Bill Bellamy in the green room at the Comedy Castle in Royal Oak, MI, at precisely 8:30 PM Saturday night. The pic was taken by The Male Half. That’s right: We crossed paths with Bellamy and his traveling talent hunt for the second time in 12 days (on Monday, Feb. 4 at the Punchline in Atlanta and last night at the Castle!). We swear we didn’t plan it this way.

Four hand-picked Detroit-area comedians went up and did their five clean minutes in front of a seething, Saturday first-show crowd of 400+. Keith Ruff, Gary George, Marty Butler and Crystal P unknowingly participated in yet another secret LCS audition with Bellamy in the back of the house.

Bellamy taped some “B-roll” outside the club just before showtime, shivering and making light of the single-digit temperatures, as customers streamed into the suburban Detroit club.

The Male Half and the Female Half flank King of the Castle while Jeff Altman and Gallagher look on

Castle proprietor Mark Ridley popped out onto the stage after the four performed and let the crowd in on the gag. And the audience went batty when Bellamy came through the door. Once again, Bellamy enthusiastically praised all four performers and then, almost apologetically, he announced that only two would be flown to the Minneapolis LCS audition on Tuesday.

After the shocked “contestants” and Bellamy retired to the green room to take pics and sign releases, The Female Half and The Male Half went up and finished off the rabid crowd.

It was our first time at the Castle. We’ve been aware of its existence for a quarter century, but we only got around to working there in 2008. Ridley might just be one of the nicest comedy club owners in the land. And, against all odds, he seems to honestly enjoy being in the comedy business and spending time in the club.

The club is just off the semi-bohemian downtown of Royal Oak, a compact and charming northeastern suburb of Detroit. The Detroit metro area in particular and Michigan in general is packed with clubs– one-nighters and long-running weekend rooms– and consequently, the state is home to many experienced comedians. Detroit has burped out many famous comics– Tim Allen, Dave Coulier, Robin Williams– and it might be one of the better markets in the country for a young or transitioning comic to locate.

Addendum, Feb. 18: Speaking of relocating comics, Tony Vinh stopped by to say hey to The Male and Female Halves of the Staff. A year ago, Vinh moved to Detroit from Kansas City. He’s been an avid reader of the magazine and we had a splendid time chatting with him on Friday and Saturday nights! Always a kick to meet a reader in person!

Keith Ruff, Marty Butler, Gary George, Crystal P and Bill Bellamy onstage, via the monitor in the green room.

Another report from the Toronto LCS audition:

I, along with about 120 others, stood in line in sub-freezing temperatures for up to nine hours Thursday in Toronto to audition for LCS. I arrive around 7 AM and there were about fifty ahead of me in line.

As expected, the more experienced and/or better represented breezed by for scheduled audition times. No problem. We knew that would happen when we decided to audition.

Doors were to open at 9 AM, but it seemed none of us moved forward for hours. We did get into the requisite shots of the line with people waving and hooting for the cameras and briefly being a background for Bill Bellamy on a horse in a mountie costume (yes, the usual cliches for Canada were marched out). We learned anew why the show is called Last Comic STANDING since that’s mostly what we did.

The press showed up from local and national Canadian TV interviewing people in the line and both Gerry Dee and Deb DiGiovanni from LCS season 5 were there interviewing comics for entertainment news shows.

Finally in the afternoon, we got a chance to be funny six-at-a-time for a production assistant, who would point to each of us and say “give me your best minute” or “tell me a one-liner.” Then we got to answer some questions in what they called the Funny Booth, you know– the booth they use for “I’m funnier than…” on the show. In the booth we were encouraged to be as funny and silly as possible and to quote the director, “whether that’s your style or not.” I’m told one comic was encouraged to wear a cowboy hat for no apparent reason. From the above screenings, if you were chosen you would receive the phone call to come back to audition for two minutes for the celebrity talent scouts (Dave Foley and Richard Kind). That audition would either get you, or not get you, a spot in the evening showcase.

The best part of the day was seeing the comics in line, hearing and enjoying the camaraderie. Very encouraging group and, despite some impatience and irritation, generally everyone took it all in stride.

Feel free to use any of the above you like, use my name too. It was an interesting day, bloody cold and I’m glad I did it but I wouldn’t do it again.

FOS,
Jim Tice
Aberfoyle, ON, Canada

Thanks, Jim! We felt like we were there!

One of our readers sends word that the Toronto acts who advanced were:

Sean Cullen
Winston Spear
The Williamson Playboys
Brian Lazanik

Our spy says that Lazanik was set to advance last year from Montreal but he was “dropped from the show and was never included in it.”

Top ten comics from last season, Gerry Dee and Debra DiGiovanni were both “doing interviews behind the scenes.”

“Comedians who auditioned but did not advance included Ron Sparks, Pete Zedlacher, Richard Ryder, Sabrina Jalees and Trevor Boris.

“LCS representatives were asking some of us in auditions if we would go out and buy zany costumes then come back. Sometimes they had specific costumes in mind. Many without audition times (like me) waited outside in the freezing cold for hours and didn’t even get to go before the judges. it was a horrible experience.”

Comedy Central Presents will present 30 minutes of standup from Bonnie McFarlane at 10 PM EST and then present a half-hour of standup from hubby Rich Vos at 10:30 PM. Check your newspaper/newsreader for local listings!