Jimmy Pardo interview

Jimmy Pardo – September 11, 2008

"Very rarely will I say nice things about myself because that'll only lead to self-esteem, but the podcast is something I'm really proud of and I think I'm putting out a great product." – Jimmy Pardo

Guy MacPherson: Jimmy Pardo?
Jimmy Pardo: This is he.

GM: This is Guy MacPherson calling from Vancouver.
JP: Hi, Guy. How are you?

GM: Great. How are you? Do you have a sec?
JP: Sure do. I'm in a car. I apologize for any bad connection or weirdness that happens.

GM: Oh, man.
JP: You want me to call you back?

GM: No, no, no. I get that all the time. It's absolutely fine.
JP: You want to talk to celebrities, Guy, we're movers and shakers.

GM: I know. Andy Richter was taking his kid to swimming lessons when I talked to him.
JP: And I'm just going to Amoeba Records. I can't even say mine's that exciting.

GM: They still have record stores?
JP: Compact discs.

GM: You can download them now, you know?
JP: What's this? I'll have to look into that.

GM: What are your musical tastes? I know you like Chicago.
JP: How did you know that?

GM: I did some research.
JP: I do like Chicago. I guess I'm a huge fan of what the world has decided to call corporate rock. You know, I like Journey and Stix and REO Speedwagon. I also like The Cure. I like anything that was really recorded before 1990, maybe.

GM: Sure, when we were growing up. How old are you?
JP: How old are you, Guy?

GM: I'm 46.
JP: Oh, I'm 42.

GM: There's something about the music of your youth, right?
JP: Certainly. It sticks with you. You hear the song and it brings back those great memories. And I think music between 1992 and 2002 just is horrible. So even if you want to make fun of Loverboy, I'll take Loverboy over some bad grunge band any day.

GM: I don't know if I'm with you on that one, Jimmy.
JP: You're from Canada; you should be more respectful of Loverboy.

GM: Not at all! And they're from Vancouver, too.
JP: How dare you not support your local boys!

GM: My local lover boys... Hey, I've been a fan of yours for many years. Even before National Lampoon's Funny Money, which I was also a fan of.
JP: Wow, that makes seven of you, I think. Thank you, I appreciate that.

GM: And last year I saw you at our festival and you were one of my highlights.
JP: Oh, wow, you're very kind.

GM: Are you any relation to Don Pardo?
JP: I am not and usually I would hang up the phone. But since you're from out of the country, I will let you have the one-time asking.

GM: I take it you get asked all the time.
JP: I get asked about 500 times a day.

GM: Interesting. Because I'd never heard the answer, even in my extensive research. It never came up.
JP: Well, I think it's on my Wikipedia page. Somebody has finally put on there that I'm not related to him.

GM: It's not a common name, though, is it?
JP: No. And that's the weird part. It's not a common name and, for all practical purposes, he and I are in the same business. So I could see why people would think it. But sadly I am not related to him.

GM: Everyone asks me if I'm related to Elle Macpherson, too.
JP: Is your last name MacPherson?

GM: Yes.
JP: You know what I thought? I thought it was just Pherson. Like Guy Pherson. So I was thinking why would they even ask you that?

"They're taking my job and I'm going to have to whack Howie Mandel in the back

of the head with a 2 x 4." – Jimmy Pardo

GM: You've said if you want to do anything in Hollywood, you've got to do it yourself. It wasn't original to you, but you've taken it to heart.
JP: I do the live game shows and talk shows at the UCB Theater. And my podcast. Everyone told me you can't make money on the internet and I'm proving that wrong with my podcast.

GM: Are you making good money with the podcast?
JP: Yeah. In fairness to my cohost, I can't give specifics, but – and please know that I'm not bragging when I say this – but we're making more than people make at jobs. Some people would love to make what we're making from the podcast for a living.

GM: And that just comes from subscribers?
JP: That's it. Very rarely will I say nice things about myself because that'll only lead to self-esteem, but the podcast is something I'm really proud of and I think I'm putting out a great product. They pay less than a dollar a week to listen to it. I'm giving them more than that every week, as far as I'm concerned.

GM: I do a podcast, too, that nobody listens to. And they don't pay for it, either.
JP: Then it sounds like it's horrible. I'm going to give up listening to podcasts so I don't risk listening to your podcast.

GM: (laughs) You're the perfect host for a talk show, I would think. I haven't seen your live version, but I've seen you host Match Game and Funny Money and I've seen your standup where you're interacting with the audience.
JP: I appreciate you saying that. The latest thing that I'm doing here in L.A. is I'm doing You Bet Your Life live.

GM: The Groucho Marx game show.
JP: Yeah. For years people have described me as a new Don Rickles. I don't know if I'm that much of an insult comic as much as I am just a guy that interacts with the audience and tries to have fun with them. Somebody, six months to a year ago, said, "You know, you're more like Groucho than Rickles." And Groucho's one of my idols, as well as Don Rickles. And I was like, "You know what I gotta do? I gotta do You Bet Your Life! That is the perfect show for what I do." And boy was I right. We've done it twice now and people are just loving this thing.

GM: You going to bring it up here some time?
JP: Maybe next year if it continues going the way it is. It really lets me do what I do best, which is interview people and have fun with people and then a little bit of a game element to it as well.

GM: Just a little. That show was mostly conversation, wasn't it?
JP: All conversation. You hated when the game showed up because it could be really boring. So hopefully in my version even the game is a lot more fun. But I think I found something that hopefully I can do for a while here because I'm really enjoying it.

GM: These days, game shows are all over the place and they seem to be all hosted by comics.
JP: Yeah, well, sadly famous comics. I mean sadly for me, not for the world – they get to enjoy those people's talents. But they're taking my job and I'm going to have to whack Howie Mandel in the back of the head with a 2 x 4.

GM: Oh, would you?!
JP: Yeah, my pleasure.

GM: Another Canadian I'm not proud of.
JP: What about Bryan Adams?

GM: No, no, no. And I think he lives somewhere near me.
JP: What are you mad at Bryan Adams for?!

GM: He's horrible!
JP: Oh, that's not fair. He's not horrible. He has about half a dozen great songs.

GM: Really.
JP: I think so. I think once he took his pussy pill in 1992 and started doing all those soundtrack songs he became a horrible, horrible man but his first few albums were pretty good.

GM: If you say so. Now, are you in line once Jimmy Fallon falls on his face in late night?
JP: Wouldn't that be nice?

GM: Because he will.
JP: And I think here's why he will. Not because he's not talented. I'm not saying he is or isn't. That's not my place. I don't understand why networks keep giving quote-unquote famous people talk shows. History's proven that... Johnny Carson, Conan O'Brien, to a lesser extent Letterman even though people knew him from The Tonight Show, they weren't all household names. And they became these great talk show hosts that people wanted to watch. They kept trying to give [people like] Meagan Mullaly a talk show and all these other people.

GM: Chevy Chase.
JP: Chevy Chase. Nobody wants to watch the famous person talk to other famous people.

GM: Except for Ellen, who I guess would be an exception.
JP: Yeah, but doesn't she play into a whole different market? She plays that afternoon housewife sort of thing. If she tried to do late night, I think she would have failed quickly.

GM: Probably.
JP: I don't know if that's true.

GM: Were you in line at all for that when they were searching for a host? Did you put your name in for consideration?
JP: I put my name in very heavily when Kilborne was leaving, before they got Ferguson. And I think I was being considered about as long as they said, "What about Jimmy Pardo?" And by the time they got to the end of my name, they were already done considering me. But I at least felt like I was at least thought of for about ten seconds, and that made me feel good. This thing is such a Lorne Michaels production, I don't really think anybody had a shot other than who Lorne wanted. So I can't really answer that but boy would I certainly love the shot.

GM: Yeah. On late night you would have been perfect. One of these days, Jimmy.
JP: Oh, you're a good man, Guy.

GM: I grew up watching Match Game, as I'm sure you did. I loved that show. And it still holds up.
JP: I agree. I love watching it. We don't really do the show live down here anymore. In fact, Vancouver's going to be maybe our last two times we do it. But I had to watch all the old ones to get the questions and do all that stuff. So I watched them like crazy and I love them.

GM: Was it your idea for the live show? And when did you start it?
JP: It was actually Scott Aukerman's idea. He came to me and said, "Hey, what do you think about doing a live Match Game? You host it. I'll be on the panel. We'll also have your wife, Danielle, on the panel and Paul F. Tompkins. And we'll be the three regulars and we'll book three other people every month." And we did it in, I think, October either two or three years ago and from the very first one people just went crazy for it.

GM: People have great feelings towards it. And you guys do a really good job with it, too.
JP: Thank you. I think the trick there was to not do it as a parody. Just play the game and the funny will come out of the fact that we're playing this game and doing it in a 2002 quote-unquote alternative comedy style using our personalities and making it work in this day and age without trying to be doing characters from the '70s. None of that would work, in my opinion. So I think that's why it worked.

GM: And also having panelists that know each other and can laugh and joke with each other or make fun of each other.
JP: Guy, that is 100 percent what made it work. Every time they tried to bring Match Game back on TV, they put six people on the stage and then they tried to recreate or force this chemistry that doesn't exist. And it just doesn't work. Whereas in the UCB version or the one that we bring up to Vancouver, we all know each other. And we're able to laugh at each other. And if somebody tells you your answer sucks, you're able to laugh about it as opposed to going, "Why is Jm J. Bullock telling me I'm not funny?"

GM: There's a blast from the past.
JP: I'm more than happy to use him.

GM: Did you have to get rights for the show? Because you use the theme music. And also You Bet Your Life.
JP: You Bet Your Life I'm not using the theme music. You Bet Your Life will be an easier transformation if I need to stop doing it because you can't really copyright a guy talking to other people and asking questions. Match Game itself? That's one of the reasons we stopped doing it. We've kind of been asked to stop doing it.

GM: (laughs) You've been requested.
JP: Yeah. Not with a heavy hand. But they just shot a pilot to do a new one and we thought it was also a good time to stop doing it. Like I say, I think that Vancouver may be our swan song unless something changes and we bring it back.

GM: You guys have Marcia Wallace on. She was on the original.
JP: She was. She was always in that last seat. It was either her or Fanny Flag who would always alternate in that last seat.

GM: They had to have a red head.
JP: You're right. A red head with large breasts. I think somebody came to see our version of it and contacted Marcia and said, "Hey, they're doing this live version of the Match Game. You should do it." And boy is she great. She fits right in with these young 25-year-old comics. She's sharp, she's funny and she brings a little bit of history to the game. She's just a joy to be around.

GM: That's great. Because it's all about fitting in, as we were just talking about.
JP: Right. And she does. She fits in. She's not afraid to go a little blue if she needs to. In fact, the first thing that she said was... I said, "What was it like being on the show?" She said, "Let me just tell you, Gene Rayburn got a lot of pussy." Right there it's like holy mackerel, this woman is going to have fun! She's been great. She's probably done it a half a dozen times. And I'm glad that she's doing it up in Vancouver.

GM: Have you had any other originals on?
JP: We had Bart Braverman. You would recognize his face more than his name. He was on the TV show Vegas.

GM: Ah. With Robert Urich.
JP: Yeah, yeah. He did a bunch of Love Boats. And again, if you saw his face you'd remember him. And then we had Edie McClurg on once as well.

GM: Scott Thompson must have been fantastic because he's one of the best talk show guests. He just says anything.
JP: I love him. I am such a fan of Scott Thompson.

GM: See, I like a Canadian right there.
JP: Finally we found one that you like. But he's not a musician. So maybe that's why you like him. Scott's terrific. I ran into him at a party and I say, "Hey, we do this Match Game. Do you want to do it?" And I wasn't even done with the sentence and he's like, "Yeah!" He's one of the people that was a favourite on the show.

GM: Who are you going to have on up here, do you know yet?
JP: I think it's Janeane Garofalo, Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, Brian Posehn, Scott Aukerman. Just the big names from the scene that are a part of this.

GM: It's something to see. And I'm going to see both of them again.
JP: Well, I appreciate that. Did you introduce yourself last time?

GM: No, I didn't.
JP: Please do so this time.

GM: I will. I'll be around all weekend. Are you going to be doing any standup?
JP: I'm supposed to be doing a Todd Glass show at some point.

GM: The 30-seat intimate show.
JP: I think that'll be a lot of fun.

GM: It will be, but if they don't sell out that'll be really bad.
JP: You know what's funny? We did it last year at some rock venue, Todd's Intimate Evening of Comedy, and I think there were twelve people there. Boy, was that uncomfortable. You gotta try to convince Todd it's not him. But hopefully we'll fill those 30 seats.

GM: I look forward to it. And I apologize for asking the Don Pardo question.
JP: No, no.

GM: You know what? It wasn't even in my notes. I was just telling a friend I'd be talking to you and asked if he had any good questions for you, and that's what he gave me. So I'll give him hell.
JP: Fair enough, give it right back to him.

Dec. 20: Marc Maron

When this show started, way back in 2004, there weren't any comedy podcasts. Or at least I didn't know about them. And what I don't know doesn't exist in my world. These days, cyberspace is littered with them. What's So Funny? isn't technically a comedy show. It's a show about comedy, is how I describe it.

Since I discovered podcasts, I've listened to my share of them. Some I like, some I don't. And of those I like, I find I often tire of them in relatively short order. The schtick gets old with everyone trying to one-up each other. Sometimes I sit there and wonder why I'm listening, and then they'll stumble onto something interesting/fascinating/hilarious.

With so many comedy podcasts, how do you even choose what to pick? I start by looking at the hosts and whether I'm a fan of theirs to begin with. That's a good start. Next I look at the guests, and whether I'm a fan of the guests. Then I commit. You've got to listen to the whole episode and give it your full attention. Doing something mind-numbing like a menial chore works.

Some of my favourites are Never Not Funny (with Jimmy Pardo), Comedy and Everything Else (with Jimmy Dore and Todd Glass, although I think he quit recently), Comedy Death-Ray (with Scott Aukerman), and Stop Podcasting Yourself (with Graham Clark and Dave Shumka).

I keep going back, on and off, to all of these, depending on who's on. But one keeps me coming back every single episode: WTF with Marc Maron. Despite what you probably think, WTF doesn't stand for Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Maron is a bit of an acquired taste and he's clearly not for everyone. But for my money, this is the best show on the internet. Why? Maybe because Maron doesn't try so hard. He's a confident conversationalist, albeit a self-centred one. He's funny when he needs to be but doesn't feel the need to always go for the laugh. He's intelligent. He's forceful. He's full of neuroses and anxieties. He's got a great voice. He's raw and honest and intense. He's curious, both intellectually and psychologically. And the show gets better each time out.

It also doesn't matter who his guest is. It's usually a comic (some of my favourite episodes have been with Zach Galifianakis, Doug Stanhope, Janeane Garofalo, Eddie Brill, Jen Kirkman, and Andy Kindler) but not always. It's just as fascinating to hear him talk to a former junior high school friend who is now an astronomer, a music journalist or a musician. Each show starts off with a solo rant or rumination by Maron and usually ends with either a prepared bit. Not coincidentally, his show is one of the most popular requests on iTunes.

Maron was in town a couple weeks ago to tape an episode of The Debaters on CBC radio. I couldn't have him in the same town without trying to get him back on our little show. So I asked. No problem. He even let me use his fancy equipment instead of my rinky-dink iPod. So we sat up in his hotel room and rolled tape, the results of which will air tonight at 11 pm PST on 102.7 FM in Vancouver or via livestream here. And we'll let you know here when the episode gets posted to iTunes. Probably sometime next week.

If you heard WTF's episode 29 with Andy Kindler, you'll hear Maron talk about food waste. When you hear him on our show talking about the same thing, though, know that he said it there first. We just aired ours later. But if you stick around, we do get a scoop. Maron starts talking about his old pal Sam Kinison and tells us something he's never said in public before. I won't spoil it for you.

So tune in. And when you're done that, if you haven't already, go download some WTF episodes.

NOTE: The video bar there on the right should be clips of Maron's comedy. If you see rapsters doing their raps, try hitting the refresh button.

All the news that wasn't fit to print

How do you review a festival? That's always been a challenge, given how much space miserly editors are willing to give out. There are so many shows, so many comics, and I can only get to a handful of them in the paper. So let's see what else I can remember about the week. I'll walk you through my itinerary:

Wednesday, Yuk Yuk's: An evening of sketch comics doing stand-up. Andy Dick was scheduled to appear, but we all know now he couldn't get across the border. Or out of the airport, actually. Just as well, the night was long enough. The San Francisco sketch troupe Comedy Noir did the first portion, while Halifax's Picnicface did the second.

Howard Stone emceed the American half. According to his bio, I see he played a junkie on an episode of Cagney & Lacey. Nuff said. Only two of the nine performers were any good: Kevin Avery and Drennon Davis. Some of the others were okay; some were amateur hour.

Hey, look at that. A search of Drennon Davis shows he was on Last Comic Standing, making it through a round. No embedding permitted on the video, but here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGsQ7ypQ0ms

Here's a clip of Avery:


Next up was Picnicface's turn, who fared much better overall. My two favourites were Evany Rosen, who had a naturally funny charm, and Cheryl Hann, who, with her tattoos and Casio 100 Sound Tone Bank, had the most star power of the whole night.

Here's a sketch clip featuring Rosen:


Friday, The Cultch: I wrote about the Hitler roast in the Straight. I loved it. It was sick and dark without being offensive (although I'm sure it is to some po-faced stick-in-the-muds). So many good lines. Here's a clip of Caitlin Gill as Anne Frank:


The late show on Friday at Yuks was a typical late Friday show. At least the crowd was. Loud oblivious idiots and rude jerks almost ruined the night. Hosts BJ Porter and Scott Aukerman were greeted with a kindly, "You suck!" But when you could hear the show, it was pretty damn good. I liked Ben Kronberg, who I hadn't seen before. Really low-key, which seems to be in vogue these days. He read from his notebook and had some great stupid jokes, like "Knock-knock... (Who's there?)... Chain letter... (Chain letter who?)... Tell this joke to 10 people or your mom will die." Here's a clip of Ben on Jimmy Kimmel:


Maria Bamford did the same-old same-old. Rory Scovel got big laughs from the comics at the back of the room, while the drunken dolts didn't get his effeminate southern character. With the crowd getting louder, I thought there's no way the soft-spoken Todd Barry set would go well, but it did. The guy knows how to handle a crowd. I know it happens with every set, but why must the wait staff be so loud when handing out the bills? Couldn't they wait until the show was over?

Paul F. Tompkins closed the set and was his usual hilarious self, only this time he did twelve minutes of off-the-cuff material. He wasn't going to waste his gold on this crowd. But the thing with Tompkins, anything he touches (verbally) is gold. He seemed to be enjoying himself, if perversely given that he hated the crowd: "I can't wait to see what I'm going to say next." One loud group was thrown out during his set. Unfortunately for them, they happened to be huge fans of Tompkins. When they informed Paul F. they were in the process of getting turfed, Tompkins said, "What for? Is it for never stopping talking ever?"

Porter closed the evening with, "You are exactly the kind of audience I expect from a basement club in a place called Yuk Yuk's."

I loved the conference room shows at the Westin Grand, even though the venue wasn't ideal. I had a look at the smaller new room attached to the Cultch, and they would have been perfect there. What a great space. I didn't catch any shows there, but I can tell.

Andy Kindler's Talk Show was hilarious. Even more so because he tries so hard for the 14 people in attendance (or whatever the number was). Guests on Friday included Tom Arnold, Todd Barry and a bitter character most likely modelled on Andrew Dice Clay played by James Adomian. Andy's sidekick, Josh Fadem, was mostly annoying but occasionally funny.

On Saturday, Kindler welcomed Tig Notaro, Brent Weinbach and Garfunkel & Oates. Weinbach, whose standup I'm not a fan of, was himself and not bad. I'd love to see that guy (i.e. himself) on stage rather than the stiff, ultra-serious persona. Loved Garfunkel & Oates every time I saw them, by the way. Here's an irresistable clip:


I don't listen to Jimmy Pardo's podcast because, well, who wants to pay for such things? But he's a favourite of mine and when I found out he was recording an episode in the conference room, I was stoked even if he wasn't. He was as great as ever, and made great hay at the fact he flew all this way to perform in front of 48 people in a conference room. His good friend Pat Francis was the "third chair" and I loved their antagonistic relationship. Francis was annoying in a good way (Fadem being annoying in a bad way). Here's a short clip of him being the guest on a previous episode:


Janet Varney came on as the second guest – or fourth chair, I guess – and was whip smart funny. She could definitely keep up with those guys.

Francis was back for the Pardo game show, You Fascinate Me, and the two of them were great again. The show is a variation on the old Groucho Marx game show, You Bet Your Life. Sure, there's a game element, but the real fun is Pardo's interaction with the guests.

The Jesus roast was nowhere near as good as the Hitler one, although there were some funny lines. The roasters were the Virgin Mary, Bachus, Mary Magdalene, O.J. Simpson, Mother Theresa, L. Ron Hubbard, Tom Cruise, Stephon the Choirboy, Sgt. Bilko, Pontius Pilate, and Satan. Hosted by the worst Jackie Mason impression I've ever heard. He's got to be the easiest guy in the world to do, and Howard Stone (who played Hitler the night before) couldn't sustain it beyond a sentence. L. Ron Hubbard was probably the best. He opposes gay marriage: "I believe a marriage should be a union between a woman and a closeted gay movie star." Then this: "Your disciples got book deals. Who reads? Mine are box office gold! In your face, faggot!" And: "You wrote only one book. I wrote 3000 and they were all best sellers. I didn't have to leave mine lying aronud a fucking Motel 6."

I particularly didn't like the recontextualizations. The Virgin Mary was an modern-day old Jewish lady, Bachus, the god of wine, was a recovering alcoholic, and Pilate was a modern-day Hollywood a-hole. Although, again, some funny lines. Near the end of her segment, the Virgin Mary looked up and said, "I just saw a light. That either means I should get off the stage or you're gonna get that sister you always wanted."

When Jesus finally got to speak, he said, "I came back for this?" My thoughts exactly.

I booted it over to Yuk Yuk's for the late show and it was the most packed I'd ever seen it. Standing room only. Garfunkel and Oates were on stage with Reggie Watts beating (if that's what it's called) behind them on their rap, This Party Took a Turn for the Douche, and they were bringing the house down. Here's the song, sans Watts:


(As an aside, I took a look at Regina Spektor's song, Dance Anthem of the 80s, because Watts told me he was on it. I watched the video and couldn't see or hear him. So I checked another video, from a performance of them together in Cologne, doing the same song. It sounded exactly the same. All the music I heard that I thought was, you know, instruments, was actually Watts. Impressive.)

Oh, what the hell, since I'm adding so many clips, I may as well as include the Spektor video. What you hear that isn't her or a piano is Reggie Watts:


Todd Barry then came out and fake-trashed Watts for not being able to do a cymbal crash. He's such a confident comedian I never get tired of seeing him. Plus even if he's doing the same material, he riffs so much it's different every time, as opposed to a Weinbach or Bamford, for example, who are exactly the same night-in and night-out.

James Adomian was next. Never seen him do stand-up before. He's a sketch guy, most famous for his Bush impression, which he did everywhere. His stand-up set wasn't so great, but he does good, and rare, voices: Gary Busey, Paul Giamatti and Lewis Black.

Tig Notaro is the female Todd Barry. Same energy. Same false bravado. And lots of winging it in between prepared bits, which stands up to repeat viewings.

Then Reggie Watts closed the evening, blowing everyone away, even the established old-timers in the back of the room, Glen Foster, Derek Edwards and Barry Kennedy.

And that's about it. I wrote about the David Cross and Steve Martin Q&As in the Straight, so I won't rehash.

Sometime soon, I'll write about my late-night exchange with Cross.

David Cross

I told you there'd be additions and subtractions to the comedy festival. Turns out the two Matts (Besser and Walsh) won't be able to make it afterall, which is a shame because they're great. And old friend David Cross will be making a return visit.

David Cross and I go way back. I've never interviewed him either over the phone or in person. And I've never met him (except once even before I was writing about comedy regularly I saw him at a Nashville Pussy show at Richard's on Richards and said hi). But I've been a fan ever since I saw him at Bumbershoot years and years ago. I think Patton Oswalt, Laura Kightlinger and Tenacious D were also on the bill. Can't remember who else.

So I've been a big fan. Then two years ago I had to do a festival round-up for the Straight. I took in tons of shows but I didn't have tons of space to go into much depth. But I gave a less-than-stellar review to Cross's stand-up. I wrote:

Probably the most famous name at the fest was David Cross, who gained mass appeal with his role as Tobias on Arrested Development, but his was a mixed bag. Doing standup, he's just an angry know-it-all who appears to hate his time on-stage almost as much as he hates his fans. Appearing last in the almost-three-hour Comedy Death Ray show, Cross insulted First Nations people and drug addicts before going on a seemingly endless–and humourless–rant about Mormonism, hemming and hawing his way through an ill-prepared set. But what a pleasure it was to watch him the next night in Match Game, where he smiled, laughed, and enjoyed himself, and in the SKETCH Show on September 22, also at the Cultch, where he was reunited with former Mr. Show partner Bob Odenkirk.

The thing about reviewing is you can only review the show you've seen, not the body of work. Re-reading my review above, I see that I shouldn't have used the present tense, because I don't think he's always an angry know-it-all. But I definitely thought he was for the two shows I saw him that year. That was my impression, at least, and I spoke to other comedy nerds who loved the guy but didn't at all like his festival sets. And, to be fair, I also spoke to others who did like his stand-up there. But I can only give my opinion when I review. I just try not to give cheap shots, say my piece, and move on. I also mentioned how much I enjoyed him during the Match Game and in his sketch show.

Well, Dave read my review and commented on it in his blog. Fair enough. Critics have to be able to take it just like they dish it out. I have no problem with that. To rebut my criticism, he wrote:

Hmmm, well, I don’t hate my fans, nor do I hate doing stand-up. I’m sorry if I gave (or give) that impression, but as I said, I genuinely like doing it. That’s why I flew to Vancouver for the shows. And I actually like it when people like my act. Not too surprising really. I certainly don’t do it for the money. 7 shows for a thousand bucks total is not very lucrative. I made more money middling at “The Laugher’s Den” in Made-Up-Town, New Hampshire. It’s true though; I did insult drug-users, specifically heroin addicts. So, sorry junkies. Also I did insult a “First Nationer”, or “drunk Indian” as I called her. It was after she stood up in her chair, and yelled out that she didn’t have a TV to a rhetorical question I asked. Then, I guessed that she was a drunk Indian, which it turns out was correct. She wasn’t insulted (at least not then – she waited for me after the show to drunkenly apologize in a drunk Indian way). I then talked about drunk Indians for a minute. I am not angry about drunk Indians at all by the way, I find them adorable.

That was his take and it's good he clarified that he does, indeed, like doing stand-up (or at least doesn't hate it) and likes (or at least doesn't hate) his fans, and he's sorry if he gave that impression. Good to know. Seriously. Who knows, he could have been having a shitty week or whatever. Hopefully if I get to review him this year, I'll be able to give him a better review. Because, as I said, I really do like him.

As for his recollection of the drunk Indian bit, I think his memory is selective. He did the same bit twice. There were two different shows. One at the Comedians of Comedy at the Cultch and the second one at the show where someone yelled out at the Commodore. So he wasn't just reacting to someone in the crowd.

Anyway, here's what I didn't like about his rebuttal:

Here, from the same article is an example of the kind of humor Guy enjoys:

"Former locals Irwin Barker and Darryl Lenox got me all nostalgic about the good old days when we could see these two pros just about any day of the week. Lenox talked about his girlfriend's hippie parents, who served him porridge for breakfast: "I didn't even know that shit was real." And Barker, who's suffering from cancer, is still writing gems: "I bought the book France for Dummies because I've always wanted to see Buckingham Palace."

Well, there you go.

I didn't like it for a couple of reasons. No doubt he's never seen Irwin Barker or Darryl Lenox, who are great comics and well-respected by their peers, so he doesn't need to slag them by way of me. Now, I know he didn't overtly slag them; he just said I enjoy that kind of humour and his is different and he didn't offer any opinion. But we can all read between the lines. He probably just thought they were lame examples of jokes I gave but he should know jokes don't always translate well to the page. Sure, I could have done a better job summing them up in one sentence each, but... uh... deadlines. That's my excuse.

But the other reason I didn't like it is because he's doing some nifty editing. In that same review, I led by saying Paul F. Tompkins (who Cross certainly does know and like) was the highlight of the festival for me, and that Jimmy Pardo (another Cross crony) was another highlight. So they were also examples of the kind of humour I enjoy. And I even mentioned enjoying Cross as Cross in Match Game and as characters in sketch. So to slough me off as a guy who just doesn't get his style of stand-up isn't really accurate.

Still with Cross, I was reading an interview with one of my favourites, Doug Stanhope, the other day. It seems Stanhope might have the same impression of Cross that I had back in 2007:

With Bill Maher, I agree with the majority of things he says, and I hate him. He just comes across as so cunty, and smarmy, that curled up sarcasm … and too many guys on that side of the fence do that. That David Cross kind of delivery of, “I’m smarter than you,” not “We’re smarter than them.”

I agree with that notion completely and have been saying it for years, that just because I agree with a comic politically or socially doesn't make me like their comedy. As I said, I do like David Cross, although I get what Doug's saying here. But I feel exactly that way about Bill Maher. Yes, I agree with almost all he says, but I don't find him funny. I used to, back when he was a young comic on The Tonight Show.

It's funny because for ever I've been saying that Doug Stanhope is a guy I disagree with 90 percent of the time, yet find him hilarious.