Last Comic Standing, the dead blog

Last Comic Standing has risen from the ashes. The buzz is largely positive, despite the fact the ratings sucked. Maybe they shouldn’t put it up against the behemoth that is The Bachelorette. That’ll learn ‘em.

I haven’t yet watched it, but I’ve got it on PVR. I figure I’ve got a blog dedicated to comedy so why not do a fake-live blog as I watch? What a grand idea! Maybe in future weeks I’ll post it the same night it airs. Or maybe it’ll just fizzle out. But whatever. I’m firing up the PVR right now. Won’t you pretend to watch it with me?

Here we go:

“LAst Comic Standing is back. I bet you’re wondering how the hell did that happen?” sings the host, Craig Robinson, sitting at a keyboard wearing a smoking jacket and ascot. It’s already better!

I was just going to say I’ve never seen or heard of this guy before but he just told us he’s been on The Office and in Hot Tub Time Machine... Nope, still haven’t seen him. But that’s on me, not him.

I love the judges this season: Andy Kindler, Natasha Leggero and Greg Giraldo. Finally some judges who are funny. No knock on Ant or those two dudes from The Tonight Show, but... No wait, that was a knock on Ant and those two dudes from The Tonight Show. They were horrible. And Leggero’s cleavage in the upcoming highlights is exquisite.

We see the usual assortment of crazies camping out for an audition. It’s not gonna happen, people. We all know the ones to advance have all been pre-selected. That is, they don’t have to wait in line to audition with the riff-raff. They’re given appointments. But whatever. It’s a show.

Giraldo says he looks for honesty and for people who’ve suffered a little. Then we see a clip of him joking about texting. You know, because it’s so true and honest. Who hasn’t suffered trying to decipher a text or clumsily write one with their thumbs?

Leggero is looking for material, point of view and performance. That’s more like it. Just like Kindler, who says he’s open to anything as long as it comes from them. Agree completely.

Funny seeing Kindler involved. I should dig up the quotes from an interview I did with him years ago where he completely trashed the show.

The first contestant is pretty good and the judges are generous, constructive and funny in their comments. Nice. Now let’s see how they react to a brutal comic.

The next guy isn’t horrible, but not good, either. Giraldo and Leggero laugh, but seem to be laughing at him, not with him. Kindler is stoic, rain or shine, comedically speaking. But the guys like him and push him through.

The next guy is dressed up in a red devil costume and has a guitar. It’s a unanimous no. But again, it’s a funny and generous no, as opposed to years past when they were just mean.

One guy, Kirk Fox, withdraws on stage and still gets pushed through. I’m liking the show so far. Mostly because of the judges, but that’s okay with me. Kindler’s killing it. No surprise there, but maybe it is. Do some think he’s trying to upstage the contestants? I don’t, but I wonder if some sensitive souls not familiar with his comedy might.

***

We get to know some of the contestants who make it through to the evening’s competition: Fortune Feimster is funnier than her material, but Leggero says she exhibited “great joke writing”... L’il Rel grew up with the craziest teachers in the world... Marc Ryan got funny as soon as he got into it with Natasha, calling her Nancy. Or maybe it was just the awkwardness of the situation that I found funny. I have no idea if he made it through, but I doubt it... Kevin Small was an older Texan who hadn’t been doing stand-up long. The judges were iffy but sent him through anyway. Kindler pointed out the one joke structure I hate, too. In Small’s case, it was him being teased mercilessly about his name and how it relates to the size of his penis. The punchline being that it was his dad that said it. I love a good misdirection joke, but not that structure. The funniest thing was this little kick he did that the judges laughed at, so he kept doing it. Can’t wait to see how many kicks he does that night... Cathy Ladman was there! She has been around forever and is really, really funny. Sometimes it’s weird who ends up on these shows. But that’s what happens when you open it up to pros and amateurs... Rob Delaney also moved on, as did Shane Mauss, David Feldman (he’s got a great podcast, by the way), and a tall, skinny, bespectacled drink of water named Jacob Sirof.

***

More contestants: Guy Torry was friends with the judges. But while they brought him back, they didn’t give ringing endorsements, which is encouraging to see. Natasha gives a no and both Kindler and Giraldo are iffy. They think he’s better than his material... A live female version of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, named Edith Piaf, is just odd. Not horrible, but just oddly amusing. Not enough to be invited back, though... Taylor Williamson is okay. He says he’s learned some things about New York, such as pretty girls on subways don’t talk to young extremely talented up-and-coming comedians... There were more but that’s all you need to know. Especially so much after the fact.

***

Showcase night 1.

We get to see a bit more of the comics and see how they do to a room full of people instead of just three judges. There was some good material. I’m not sure how many will advance, but I’ll make my picks.

• Felipe Esparza sleeps with large women because he’s Mexican. Blah.
• The large Fortune Feimster makes a Precious joke off the top. Not sure about her stand-up but I think she could be a break-out star. Sign her to SNL. She’s just funny and larger than life.
• Rob Delaney. Judging from what we saw, meh.
• L’il Rel does really good character work. Again, don’t know about his stand-up but sign him up for SNL.
• Kevin Small died. Absolutely bit it. Thing is, for a guy who’s only been doing stand-up since November, his delivery was quite good. As for the material, that takes more work. A lot more.
• Laurie Kilmartin had some good and sick baby material. We’re used to the male perspective of hating their own kids, thanks to Louis CK, but it’s even sicker when the nurturing mother does it. Sick in a good way. Funny stuff. People think Britney Spears is dumb. “No, she lost custody; she’s a genius.”
• Jacob Sirof did Jewish material that was pretty good. Jews don’t feel they’re better than everyone else; “God does. And that’s in your book, too.”

So out of those brief clips, I’d put through Feimster, Rel, Kilmartin and Sirof, not knowing exactly how many can be put through.

***

Continuing with the showcase.

• Kirk Fox. The guy who tried to sabotage his own advancement. He’s a funny guy with a funny moustache. I bet he’d make a good comedic actor if he can act. His voice sounds a bit like Larry David.
• Taylor Williamson talked about his grandparents’ parents, who were first cousins. I can relate. Can you imagine the wedding? I think it would go a little something like... this (he didn’t set it up that way): Everyone sitting on one side of the aisle. Funny.
• David Feldman got political. I love a comic who can make his point by taking the opposite point of view to show the ridiculousness of it all. He said Obama destroyed America. “Remember how perfect this place was before he was president?” Beautifully succinct.
• Amy Claire. She looks familiar but I don’t know why. She’s dating doctor so she has a strong chance of accidentally getting pregnant. I like her persona.
• Maronzio Vance buys his Rice Krispees at the 99 cent store. The judges are laughing more than I think they should.
• Cathy Ladman. Hitler jokes! She’s hilarious. She imagines Eva Braun’s boyfriends before Hitler and what jerks they must have been. She marvels at their happy union when she and her husband are in therapy. “My husband’s a great guy, don’t get me wrong. But let me tell you something: he’s no Hitler.”
• Guy Torry didn’t elevate his material like the judges asked him to, in my opinion.
• Shane Mauss. Not bad but material is kinda generic. Meh.

The judges deliberate, but they still don’t say how many are moving on. From this group, I’d put forward Fox, Williamson, Feldman and Ladman.

So to recap, I’d advance Fortune Feimster, L’il Rel, Laurie Kilmartin, Jacob Sirof, Kirk Fox, Taylor Williamson, David Feldman and Cathy Ladman. That’s eight. If it’s fewer than that, then they probably don’t go with the older comics because I’m sure the producers have some say, meaning Feldman and/or Ladman would be goners.

***

The deliberations are over and the results are in:

1. Felipe Esparza. Really? Jesus, I’m oh-for one.
2. David Feldman. That’s a win for old guys with hairplugs everywhere. But he’s deserving. One-for-two. Fifty percent.
3. Maronzio Vance. Seriously? I’m losing faith in Kindler, Leggero and Giraldo. One-for-three.
4. Shane Mauss. One-for-four. I suck at this.
5. Guy Torry. One-for-five. This is getting ridiculous.
6. Kirk Fox. Two-for-six.
7. Jacob Sirof. Three-for-seven. Inching back to respectability.
8. Taylor Williamson. Four-for-eight. I know, I only picked seven, but I’m claiming whoever I can at this point.
9. L’il Rel. Five-for-nine. Back over 50 percent!
10. Fortune Feinster. Six-for-ten.
11. Laurie Kilmartin. Seven-for-eleven.

I guess that means seven of my eight picks made it through to the semis. I’m better than I thought I was. I wish they would have told us ahead of time how many would advance, but oh well. Gone are Cathy Ladman (for shame), Rob Delaney, Kevin Small, and Amy Claire. Only four didn’t make it? That seems high.

***

L.A. auditions, day 2. Everyone’s lined up in the rain. I thought it never rained in southern California. So much for truth in lyrics.

Rachel Feinstein has been doing stand-up for 11 years. She can do voices but I’m not so sure about her material. But the judges say yes... Michael J. Herbert arrives with a ridiculous mohawk and goes straight into a not bad joke. But the panel is thrown by his coif. They think he needs to address it right away. And because he doesn’t, he’s not advancing. At least, that was the impression they gave... And then we see the usual assortment of freaks and weirdos: jugglers, alien warriors, chicken impressions, shirtless fat guys, a sasquatch on stilts, none of whom advanced... Lastly was a fetching young Ethiopian Jew from South Central Los Angeles named Tiffany Haddish. Great attitude. I’m predicting she’s going to the semis right now.

***

Robinson is a great host. He’s easy-going and comfortable and, bottom line, funny without trying too hard.

The auditions continue.

Chip Pope describes himself as a big homo, so he’s got to advance, right? They don’t have a gay comic yet. They’ve got to cover all the bases... Cristela Alonzo gets the judges laughing at her suicidal ramblings... Chris Fairbanks talked about Campbell’s soup and got a big laugh just because he screwed up the name. I think he got a yes but I’m not sure... Christina Pazsitsky had a joke about eyelashes that Legarro loved. She’s coming back... Skippy Greene was a character with a cigar, hat, big glasses, and a moustache doing old-timey jokes. Kindler said no, Giraldo said yes, and I’m not sure what Leggero said. We’ll see, I guess... And Jonathan Thymius had a good joke about being mugged. He had no money so the mugger got him a job. “Now he’s there every payday.” The judges are iffy but he wins them over with a great tag to a joke about a breakfast cereal surprise.

***

It’s showtime.

Ah, that was Jimmy Dore we saw earlier. I knew I recognized him but all we saw was a wink and I didn’t hear the voice (he does a good podcast, too, called Comedy and Everything Else).

• Chip Pope started weakly, I thought, but I laughed out loud at his CSI joke.
• Paula Bel has got the angry schtick down pat. She sounds like another comic but I can’t put my finger on it just yet.
• Jimmy Dore on gay marriage. Okay.
• Christina Pazsitsky played the immigrant parent card. Meh.
• Tiffany Haddish wants boobies. She was wearing a tight shirt and I was just thinking it made no sense because she clearly had some boobies. Then she reached in her shirt and pulled out one of the fake boobies. Hmm. I had her moving forward into the semis. Now I’m not so sure. Although judging by who they picked in the first half, I’m sure she’s still a lock.
• James Adomian has played the Vancouver festival a couple times. He’s famous for his Bush impression, but now that W. is out of office, he’s doing more stand-up. He had an okay set about the lovable cartoon Mucinex blob.
  

Out of this group, I’d say Pope, Bel, and Haddish.

***

Showtime, night 2, part 2.

• Rachel Feinstein was okay. Better than okay, actually. But less than really funny.
• Chris Fairbanks just quit smoking. Or rather quit just smoking. It’s a longish bit but the payoff is funny.
• Jonathan Thymius enters wearing a gold lamé jacket. He’s got a great look. He looks much older than he is, I’m guessing, and plays it up. But the two jokes they showed were weak and unoriginal.
• Cristela Alonzo lies on her resume. Pretty good premise but she took it one step too far with the countdown tag, I thought.
• Jason Nash is the father of a 3-year-old WWII Japanese general. Pretty good.

That’s only five comics by my count. Out of these, I think Feinstein, Fairbanks, and Nash should advance. So that means I have Chip Pope, Paula Bel, Tiffany Haddish, Rachel Feinstein, Chris Fairbanks and Jason Nash. That’s only six. Eleven advanced in the first hour. But there were only eleven comics total in the second hour. So I’m sticking with my picks.

***

The results are in:

1. Rachel Feinstein. One-for-one. Off to a good start.
2. Chip Pope. I’m on fire. Two-for-two.
3. James Adomian. I like Adomian but didn’t pick him based on what I saw. So I don’t mind this pick at all. Two-for-three.
4. Jason Nash. I’m back. Three-for-four.
5. Paula Bel. This is too easy. Four-for-five.
6. Cristela Alonzo. Oops. Setback. Four-for-six.
7. Jonathan Thymius. What the? Well, he’ll be interesting, I’m sure. Four-for-seven.

That leaves out the lovely Tiffany Haddish, Chris Fairbanks, Jimmy Dore and Christina Pazsitsky. Odd that Dore wouldn’t advance, but then Ladman didn’t, either. That’s the thing with competitions: the best don’t always advance. It’s a crapshoot.

And just like that, it’s over. Next week they move on to New York for more of the same. I’m actually looking forward to it. I didn’t watch the last season or two, so this is encouraging.

Anyone else watch? Thoughts? Opinions? Do share.

June 6: Graham Clark

It's been a while since Graham Clark has graced our studio. Even though he's been with us more than anyone other than Kevin or myself (guested three times by himself, twice with Sean Proudlove, once as part of a comedy roundtable, and twice as guest host), it's been two years since we saw him last. The bearded wonder was busy with his daily TV gig, The CityNews List, for about a year, and he's still churning out one of the most popular podcasts in the history of popular podcasts: Stop Podcasting Yourself. So we're thankful he still has times for the little guys.

Ah, who are we kidding? We're just hoping for the Graham Clark SPY bump. So do your part and tune in tonight from 11 to midnight on 102.7 FM here in Vancouver or listen on-line at coopradio.org. And give us a call if you'd like to talk with him. That's something you can't do on his rinky-dink podcast! You can only talk at him, not with him. Our number is 604-684-7561. And if you can't listen tonight, we'll drop ours in a week or two and you can listen then. Either way, we've got you covered.

VHS Vault: Brent Butt

The success of Corner Gas has not been good for Canadian comedy. Why? Because it stole one of the best stand-up comics in the world away from what he does best. I've said it before and I'll say it again: there weren't many comedians funnier than Brent Butt. Funny thing is, I never felt he translated all that well to the small screen, stand-up-wise. Whenever I saw him do stand-up on TV, he was funny, but not great. Live, though, he was the king. I could – and did – see him perform literally hundreds of times and I never tired of his act. He was that good.

Now with his new series Hiccups getting renewed, I fear we'll never get the old Brent back. Despite what he says about stand-up being his favourite thing to do, he'll never go back to performing it full-time. It'll always be a sometimes thing for him. Sure, he'll do his big theatre shows once a month or so when he's on haiatus, but that's like going to the gym once a month. It's impossible to get in shape.

For such a prolific guy, it's amazing there's next to no representation of his stand-up act on-line. There's no logical explanation for it, since he's done lots of TV work. Chances are he just doesn't want it on-line and has taken measures to have it removed. So we'll see if this lasts. Hope so, because it represents a time when this is all he did. And, as you can see, he did it well. It's pre-Corner Gas and pre-Hollywood teeth. Enjoy.

Brian Regan transcript

If you're interested, the full transcript of the phone interview I did with Brian Regan is now available in glorious technicolor over on the Comedy Couch. Click on that hyperlink and it'll whisk you magically away to the date of March 30, 2010. It was the second interview I've done with Regan. The first was in 2007 and I see now that we used the same photo for both ones. Oh well, it's the same guy, afterall. You can read the earlier one here.

VHS Vault: Dane Cook

Well, look what we have here. It's a youngish Dane Cook performing at the Just For Laughs gala. This is about the time I first saw him and I liked him at the time. As you can see here, he had potential. Sure, he played the nostalgia card pretty heavily, but there were jokes there. I still laugh when I hear his mom explaining the cat noises.

I read an interview with David Cross in pitchfork.com today and he had some comments on Cook that I think are bang-on accurate:

I don't have any rivalry with Dane Cook. I've been on record as saying I don't think he's nearly as bad at stand-up as everybody says. He doesn't suck. What I find distasteful is his constant self-promotion, which just smacks of a wounded little kid, like: "Look at me! You guys think I'm funny, right? Hey, I've got a million Facebook friends! That makes me good, right?" That's what I don't like. And he steals material. He's just that guy right now. Ten years ago it was Carrot Top. Ten years before that it was Andrew Dice Clay. There'll always be a very successful comic who you're like, "Really guys?" But to say that he's not funny or a bad comic is disingenuous.

Take a look at this era of Dane Cook and you can see what he had going for him. It would still be a few years before he really hit it with mainstream audiences, but you can see why he was popular.

May 30: Kevin Foxx & Damonde Tschritter

We're back to live guests in studio tonight. And two of them! In our first year or so, we used to regularly have two guests. For some reason, we don't much anymore. I think because there's a finite guest list so I don't want to use them up any faster than I have to.

Anyhoo, our guests tonight are old friends Kevin Foxx and Damonde Tschritter. These two wily veterans have recently opened up a new room in Kits at the Cabin Eatery (formerly Tatlow's) every Thursday night. So tonight they're going to talk about that and tell us why this room will last, unlike so many others. I've been two of the four weeks it's been running and I can attest to its quality. But certainly that won't be all we talk about.

So tune in at 11 pm to CFRO 102.7 FM in Vancouver or livestream it at coopradio.org. It's the least you could do.

Meanwhile, have you all checked out the Doug Stanhope clip I posted yesterday? If not, scroll down. It's right below this post. It's a clip you won't see anywhere else.

VHS Vault: Young Doug Stanhope

Look what I found traipsing through ye olde video vault. It's a young(er) long-haired Doug Stanhope, complete with heavier Boston accent. But it's still the same Doug that we've grown to know and love. Still in-your-face funny. Not sure of the exact time-line, but it's most likely late 1990s or 2000. The recording quality isn't the best, but it's good enough. I had to clip the beginning and end and one extended bit of laughter in the middle to get it down to size to fit here, but you don't miss any of the words. Methinks you'll enjoy:

Four new episodes (#187ish-191ish)

While every other podcast drops new episodes one at a time and with more regularity, we like to keep you on your toes. We post 'em when we get around to it, which is what keeps What's So Funny? a ratings leader (in Bizarro World, anyway). Here are four relatively recent shows you may find to your liking. As always, listen here (this blog), there (Comedy Couch), or everywhere (iTunes):

From May 16, 2010, this is Phil Hanley's third appearance on the show, and his best. If you heard his second appearance, you know that was pretty damn funny, too. There's just something about the guy that makes it easy to rib him. There's also the added element of a new drinking game you can play while listening. Phil unwittingly unveils a new catchphrase. If you take a drink everytime he says it, you'll enjoy the show even more.
What's So Funny? featuring Phil Hanley

From May 2, 2010, this is Sugar Sammy's fourth appearance on the show. We did one in his hotel room, two in studio, and this one at a hotel bar. Sammy's a great guy and always opens up a bit more on our show than you'll see elsewhere. And he's everywhere.
What's So Funny? featuring Sugar Sammy

From May 9, 2010, Lars Callieou makes his third "appearance" with us. I use quotation marks because we didn't see him. He called in from his home base of Edmonton. Lars talks about his recent trip to Iraq. As an added bonus, I play a clip from an interview I did with Brian Regan that's well worth the price of admission.
What's So Funny? featuring Lars Callieou

And finally, from April 25, 2010, Vince Flueck makes his second appearance, and first solo appearance. Vince regales us with tales from Europe, where he's been living from the past couple of years, and recounts the story of his night being an imposter at a movie awards show.
What's So Funny? featuring Vince Flueck

The Comedy Mix

In preparing for my interview with Tom Segura tonight, I took a look at his upcoming schedule. Damned if he isn't playing right here in Vancouver at The Comedy Mix soon. Where? That's the name of the club that used to be Yuk Yuk's in the Century Plaza Hotel on Burrard St. They re-open as the Comedy Mix on June 1st with a Pro-Am show.

Looks like the folks at there are doing a good job of booking shows so far. Of course, it makes me wonder why I didn't just wait a few weeks to talk to Tom in person. But we'll discuss that tonight. Meanwhile, check out their line-up:

• June 3-5: Steve Patterson
• June 10-12: Kevin Fox
• June 17-19: Ian Bagg
• June 24-26: Tom Segura
• July 1-3: Andrew Grose
• July 8-10: Patrick Maliha
• July 15-17: Lachlan Patterson
• July 22-24: Erica Sigurdson
• July 29-31: Simon King

May 23: Tom Segura

American stand-up Tom Segura is our guest tonight. Tom's got a new album out, as you can see by the graphic. I've always felt he's had more than a passing resemblance to Jacko.

This is Tom's second appearance on the show, and like the first time, it'll be a partial appearance. The first time, we spoke for about half an hour outside the old Yuk Yuk's club on Burrard street between shows. Tonight, we'll be chatting via satellite (phones use satellites, right?) from his home in Los Angeles for about 20 minutes and playing a couple of tracks off Thrilled. Once you hear those tracks, you're going to want to do what I did and rush over to iTunes to purchase the album. He's a very funny dude and the album is great. Once we feel Tom has reached the requisite level, we'll have him on for the whole hour. But he's just not ready yet.

The rest of the show, we'll bring you some other top-notch comedy tracks, including from Paul F. Tompkins' Freak Wharf CD. Tompkins is in negotiations to play Vancouver now that more than 300 people have petitioned him to do so.

VHS Vault: Jerry Seinfeld

With the news that Jerry Seinfeld is coming to town in August, I thought I'd treat you to a little vintage Seinfeld. This is pre-Seinfeld Seinfeld. The sitcom started in 1989; this appearance by Jerry on Seattle's Almost Live! was probably 1984. Ross Shafer was still hosting the show he created and the format was still typical talk show before it became primarily a sketch show under the leadership of John Keister. Shafer went on to national fame (for about a season, anyway) when he became the last host of Fox TV's The Late Show in 1988. But this is classic Seinfeld, doing some of his early bits sitting down on the panel. I used to love his Robert Hughes material, which you can see here. It still holds up.

Eddie Izzard Stripped

I interviewed Eddie Izzard a few weeks ago. He was in Toronto at the start of his cross-Canada tour. The last time we spoke was ten years ago. Both times he was an engaging interview, which is surprising because he does tons of press. But maybe that isn't so surprising. Professionals like him who spend hours and hours with the media answering the same questions over and over treat it like a job. But not a job they hate. They actually try to connect to the interviewer. Makes sense if your goal is to sell tickets. Give a lousy interview and who knows how the writer will interpret it in the story.

When we first spoke ten years ago, I wasn't what you'd call an Izzard fan. I saw his show, though, and quite liked it. Then he came through town a few years ago (I can't keep the names of the tours straight) and I really disliked him again. Then this time his show charmed me. So I'm hot and cold with him.

The feature story on him I wrote is at the Georgia Straight website and you can read it here. I decided not to mention anything about his clothing. (Izzard, as we all know, is a transvestite.) I just thought, why bother? It has nothing to do with his comedy and we all know about it anyway. A note I got from an editor suggested adding a reference to it. I told them that would have to be an editorial decision. I didn't really care all that much, but I explained my reasoning. And to their great credit, they left it out. Does it matter? Not really. But it's interesting noting that in all the preview pieces I read about his Canadian tour, all the writers asked him about it and dutifully reported that he'd be in "boy mode". Well, at the show on Friday, and from what I've read about other shows in Canada and the States, he wore jeans, T-shirt, jacket with tails, lipstick and eye shadow, red nail polish and pumps.

Cut to: Row 3 of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. I'm sitting there scribbling notes in the dark. I do this with my notebook at or below my knees, with my left thumb moving down to guide the pen so I don't come back to a garbled mess. I don't look down when writing. No point since it's dark and I can't see anyway. The guy sitting to my right was writing on his iPhone, with his head down the whole time. I figured he was either blogging, tweeting or reviewing. When he finally stopped writing and looked up, it was 10 p.m. so I concluded he must have been on deadline with the dailies. Since the Province doesn't run on Saturdays, I therefore concluded he wrote for the Sun. I should have been a detective. I found a review there by music writer Graeme McRanor, who told us "he's not in drag for this one". Well, he wasn't wearing a dress, but I'd say he was definitely in "girl mode". Did he just read all the previews where Izzard said he was in boy mode and repeat it? And then he ended his review with, "Although, to be perfectly honest, he's sexier in heels." If he had lifted his nose from his electronic gadget once, he would have seen Izzard was in heels. Still, I give him full marks for writing a full review on deadline with his thumbs. I wouldn't want to do that.

My review is in and will be posted at straight.com no later than Tuesday. Once it's up, I'll link to it here. I'll also get the full transcript of the interview I did up on Comedy Couch sometime. There's also a Brian Regan one coming your way very soon.

VHS Vault: Kevin Rooney

Dipping into the old VHS Vault™ again, here's another blast from the past. Stand-up comic Kevin Rooney used to do Johnny Carson's Tonight Show all the time. That show gets a lot of credit for breaking so many top comics, but people forget there were dozens of others who were regulars on the show who are pretty much forgotten. Bobby Kelton anyone? Maureen Murphy? Kelly Monteith? Will Shriner? Those comics were regulars with Johnny and where are they now?

I don't know what Rooney is up to these days. Presumably doing comedy somewhere. But here he was in his prime:

Vancouver TheatreSports League's new digs

I was at the grand opening of the new VTSL venue on Tuesday night. What a great space. This one, at 176 seats, is a tad more intimate than the old space but each seat comes with its own cup holder, so that's gotta count for something, right? And the lay-out is theatre-style, so no giant heads will impede your view. There are also about a dozen tables down on the floor. This is a place they can call their own, too, now that the feds have ponied up almost half a mil towards its completion. What's doubly great is the bar and and patio, making a night out to see a show that much better. And the location, I think, is even better than the old Arts Club New Revue Stage. The new Improv Centre is right at the entrance of Granville Island beside Sammy J Pepper's, making it a bit more visible to the gazillions of tourists who visit the island every freakin' day.

Conservative politician and minister of something-or-other, James Moore, spoke at the shindig. My prediction: that guy will be the leader of his party one day. He's young, speaks extremely well, seems smart and has a fantastic sense of humour. He's really funny. And if he ever changes parties, I'd even consider voting for him. He had us all believing the Conservatives care about the arts. That's how good he is.

After the speeches, the enchanting Ellie Harvie came out to lead a stellar cast through some improv games. Randy Schooley, Denise Jones, Pearce Visser, Ted Cole, and Ken Lawson were as great as always and the capacity crowd ate it up. It would only have been better if Ellie had joined in the scenes instead of staying as ring master. But what are you gonna do?

Memo to Mark Breslin: Maybe you should approach the government for help getting a venue for Yuk Yuk's in Vancouver. There's a precedent!

VHS Vault: Viewer Mail

Who knows why I used to record what I recorded? Not I. But it's fun looking back. Most of what I recorded back in the day were comedians or comedy performances, but there are random clips of things like Phil Donohue and Morton Downey, Jr. I'll leave out the newsy clips and stick to comedy here.

This next clip is of David Letterman's old weekly Viewer Mail segment. Nothing special about it, although it's funny. As happens a lot with my recordings, the end is cut off. So it is what it is. Enjoy.

VHS Vault: Dennis Miller

Back to the VHS vault I go. This next clip is of Dennis Miller on the old Late Night with David Letterman show. Miller was then in his third season on Saturday Night Live. Miller takes a lot of flack these days for his politics. And deservedly so, in my opinion. There was a time I thought he had lost it comedically because his politics got in the way. But I've seen enough of him since then to appreciate his joke writing ability. At his stand-up shows, he's political for maybe ten minutes and the rest is just vintage Miller – arcane references and spot-on analogies delivered in his unique style. Granted, some people hated his style even before he became a spin doctor for the right. But I was a fan. And still am. It's really hard to say that because I disagree with his politics so strongly, but you gotta separate the man from his act.

May 16: Phil Hanley

The lovely and talented Phil Hanley will be our guest tonight. You've seen him around town for years*, you've seen him on The Tonight Show (if you didn't blink)**, you've seen him on his very own Comedy Now TV special***, you've watched the Hollywood feature film he wrote, Air Buddies****, now everyone's favourite stay-at-home son will make his return engagement on What's So Funny?. Phil has always had a Charles Grodin-like presence on the show so it's a lot of fun for me. No doubt we'll have a good spar.

Hanley lives in New York City now. He just happened to come home briefly to take full advantage of Canada's superior medical system and will be heading back to the Grande Pomme in about a week. So you won't want to miss tonight's episode.

* if you go out to live comedy in Vancouver, B.C.

** it was a taped joke they aired from the Just For Laughs festival. Several comics gave their best joke but Phil's received the only applause break from the studio audience in Burbank

*** I'm guessing here. Just about every comic in Canada has done one

**** but probably not, unless you have a little kid, let's be serious

Early Chris Rock

Well, look what I figured out. Not sure I'll be able to duplicate it but for the time being I managed to get some private video added. I think it'll be a good addition to the blog.

I've been going through my VHS collection. Man, I used to tape a lot of comedy (and other stuff) off the TV, some of it good, some of it bad, some of it boring. But over time, everything seems fascinating. I thought I'd share some of what I find here. Seems as good a place as any.

Here's an early appearance by Chris Rock on the Arsenio Hall show. I haven't seen this on YouTube so maybe this is the only place to find it. I know there was a mini-documentary on Rock from the same era floating out there now but this wasn't part of it. I love the old references. Let's just say you won't hear to many Miles Davis jokes these days. Stick around to the end when Arsenio has to move along very quickly from Rock talking about Johnny Carson. Classic.

Jerry!

Just got word that Jerry Seinfeld will be playing the Queen E Theatre here in Vancouver on August 20. Two shows, 7:00 and 9:30. It's been six years since he was here last and he put on a masterful show. Seinfeld's style of comedy may be on the outs, but I think that's more a case of the pale imitators than his work. He's always been a top notch joke writer. And his observations are only obvious after the fact. That is, as soon as he broaches a subject you immediately recognize it as being true without ever having thought of it yourself. Ticket prices are $79, $99 and $125. Yowza. Not sure anyone's worth that much, but if anyone is, it's Seinfeld. Tickets go on sale on Monday, May 17 at 10 a.m.

If he holds to form, he won't be doing any interviews but rest assured I'll be doing my utmost in bugging the good folks at Just For Laughs, who are bringing him to town, to get one. I won't hold my breath but you never know.

Which brings me to a problem I've been having with this blogger page. Recently I've been going through old VHS tapes I have and converting some of them to DVD. But for some reason I can't post any videos to this blog. Don't know why. One of the clips I was going to post, and would be perfect here, is a very old appearance of Seinfeld on the Ross Shafer version of Almost Live! Jerry does panel only and goes through some of his classic bits, my favourite being the Robert Hughes (aka World's Fattest Man) material. If anyone has any tips on posting video to this clunker of a site, let me know. I've done it before but can't do it anymore.

May 9: Lars Callieou

I'm sitting in the shitty Los Angeles airport which doesn't even have free Wi-Fi, if you can believe it (I've latched on to Air France's weak signal), after a week in Disneyland. But I'll be back in time for the show tonight. It really is a small world afterall. Just as an aside, Disneyland is as awesome as ever. The only drawback I can find is that as soon as you get "It's a Small World" out of your head, it's quickly replaced with "A Whole New World" from Aladdin. But that's a small price to pay.

Tonight we have Edmonton comic Lars Callieou joining us by phone from northern Alberta. See, I told you it was a small world. Lars just got back from a tour of duty, so to speak, in Iraq, entertaining somebody's troops. Not sure whose. I don't think we have any there, do we? I guess we'll find out tonight. And if he was entertaining the American troops, just what side would he be on if a war broke out between Canada and the U.S.?

Lars has come a long way since his first visit to our studio back in 2006. He was essentially a glorified amateur then. Now he's quit his day job and makes his living telling jokes both north and south of the border.

Also tonight, I'm going to play a clip of an interview I did with Brian Regan. I posted the transcript of said clip a while back so you can follow along at home. I just loved the way Regan told of his nightmarish gala at Just For Laughs. And we'll see if Lars has had any similarly nightmarish gigs in his young career.

Burrard and beyond

Now that the Yuk Yuk's at the Century Plaza Hotel on Burrard St. has closed down, is club comedy dead in the city until they open their new location at an undisclosed time and place later this year? Not at all.

The former Yuk Yuk's will re-open on June 1 as The Comedy MIX, according to co-owner Mario Cocchia. They're just three days into the transition and a media blitz will happen shortly, but in the meantime, Cocchia tells me, "We'll continue to provide a ProAm show Tuesday aimed at developing local comics. Wednesdays we'll showcase local professional comics and Thursday through Saturday we will be featuring the best comics from North America and beyond."

I gotta say, as a comedy consumer, I love it! I know each spot – Yuks and the MIX – will want to bury the other one, but I think competition is great for the market. In the past, when a new kid on the block has tried to go up against Yuks, they've always failed because they don't have the deep pockets of the national chain, or the infrastructure. And it's always tough getting the word out and getting people to go somewhere new. But in this situation, the old Yuks will be the new MIX. People are already used to going to the Century Plaza Hotel for comedy. If the new club manages to bring in good acts, put on a good show and provide a decent entertainment option for folks, they should be able to keep a good portion of the clientele who have been going there for years already. And Yuk Yuk's has the money and clout to get fans to their new location, wherever it may be. They'll do a big media splash, take out regular ads, and put on promotions, and soon people will find them. They have the advantage of a brand name, too, so when tourists are looking for a night out for comedy, they'll look up "Yuk Yuk's".

So conceivably two clubs in the city can, and should, work. It works in Edmonton and Calgary so why not here? Let's get ready to rumble!

Episode 187ish

The Steve Patterson episode has been up at iTunes for a few days now. I'm just getting around to telling you. I'm sure you've already got it downloaded and listened to it. But in the off-chance you haven't yet, get on it. Steve is a funny guy, both as a comic and a person. And that ain't always the case. Puzzling, that. Some hilarious comics are rather dry or not particularly funny off stage, and some less than hilarious comics are really naturally funny off stage. There's no rhyme or reason. But Patterson is one who's funny on-stage and off. You know him, of course, as the host of The Debaters on CBC-1. But he's more than that. He's also a former ad copy writer. You can tell in our chat because soon into it he comes up with a killer slogan for our province just off the cuff.

I'm still not able to put the show right here on the blog (the internet seems to be crumbling), but here's a link to the show on iTunes. And, as always, you can listen on the Comedy Couch.

May 2: Sugar Sammy (Sam Khullar)

No national/international comedian has been a greater friend to What's So Funny? than Sugar Sammy. Tonight marks his fourth appearance on the show. The first was recorded in his room at a dinghy New West hotel; his third and fourth spots were done live in our studio; and this one was recorded last month at the bar of the Pan Pacific Hotel. While munching on mixed nuts and sipping drinks, we talked about Indian women, taking stereotype roles in Hollywood, his opinion of Peter Sellers playing one of his people in the film The Party, Harry Doupe's Statelessness of the Industry shots at him, Quebec politics, his throwback tastes in music and women, and we find out which Vancouver comic is one of his favourites.

***

I took a trip in the wayback machine last night going to 1960s Las Vegas. It felt like it anyway. Actually, it was just Coquitlam and the Red Robinson Show Theatre. The evening started with Vancouver-based crooner Kenny Colman and a 14-piece big band. Kenny is one of the great singers, and great hard-luck stories, of Canadian show business. He's had his breaks over the years, doing early Tonight Shows with Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin Shows. He's recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra. People like Lou Rawls, Redd Foxx, Johnny Mandel, David Foster and none other than Frank Sinatra have all sung his praises. Yet he's largely unknown. When he came along in the early 1960s, rock was taking over. Now you've got young bucks like Michael Bublé co-opting the style that comes naturally to Kenny – and making way more than guys did in Colman's generation. While his chops aren't what they used to be, they're still pretty good. The guy can swing. And the band swung like a mo-fo, too.

He was a perfect lead-in for Don Rickles. The 83-year-old is a show business legend and while he moves a little slower and a little more hunched over, he's still in full voice. His jokes have never made complete sense and they still don't. You laugh at the attitude more than anything. And his references haven't progressed, so you get mentions of Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, lots of talk of buck-toothed Japanese soldiers and Jimmy Cagney singing I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy. Yes, that's right, hockey puck, the man sings. He employs the same big band and uses it throughout his act, often singing unironically. Despite what you'd imagine, only about 20% of the show is unscripted insults directed at the crowd, if that. But it is what it is. You can't judge it by today's standards. You've just got to get in the right frame of mind, sit back and enjoy.

Stanhope cometh

Lying in bed, sick as a dog, is a good time to scour the internet for upcoming acts. I unearthed a good one. Then again, maybe it's common knowledge and no one told me about it. It happens. Did you know (I didn't) that Doug Stanhope has a Canadian tour this summer? And he's playing Vancouver. The last time he played here, it was at Yuk Yuk's and he wasn't at his best. But that happens sometimes. I have full confidence this is a show not to be missed (unless you are a sensitive soul who doesn't like raw comedy). I see he's playing a venue I'm not familiar with: The Bourbon. I have no idea where it is but I've got a couple months to figure it out. Here's his northern itinerary. Gotta admit I'm kinda chuckling that he's bypassing Ontario altogether.

• July 17
  Halifax, NS, Canada
  Jokers Comedy
  
• July 18
  Winnipeg, MB, Canada
  Royal Albert Arms
• July 20
  Regina, SK, Canada
  JD's Nightspot
• July 21
  Saskatoon, SK, Canada
  Roxy's on Broadway
• July 22
  Edmonton, AB, Canada
  New City
• July 23
  Calgary, AB, Canada
  The Distillery
• July 25
  Vancouver, BC, Canada
  The Bourbon

The Grand Poobah speaks

I told you I'd get back to you. The always-charming Mark Breslin, the founder and CEO of Yuk Yuk's, answered my questions regarding today's press release (scroll down for previous entry). It turns out the four new lower mainland locations are neither as imminent as the press release implied nor (at least for one of the locations) as 'lower mainland' as it suggests. Highlights of his answers:

"You know, in Toronto we have five locations in the GTA. This should have been done a long time ago but we didn't have a franchisee interested in expanding the brand so now we're doing it ourselves. We've sought out new franchisees and we've got one certainly for downtown Vancouver and we're looking at others for suburban Vancouver. I can't reveal about the others yet. Because we're not closing down a club and opening up a new one [in these other locations], it's not as pressing to explain what we're doing quite yet. But the other thing [the new Vancouver location] is something that people are going to be wondering about what's happening."

The press release made it seem like all four locations would be opening this summer, but that's not the case.

"Our plan is to open up all the others. You know, licensing, all these different things come into play, but I'm hoping that within a reasonable amount of time that there'll be a circuit up and running of Yuk Yuk's in the Vancouver area."

He wouldn't reveal any of the other locations yet:

"Not yet. But soon. That's just a first press release. That's only meant to tickle your tongue."

But I managed to get one out of him when I asked about Victoria:

"Well, Victoria is actually what I consider to be another one of those in those four. If somebody used the term 'lower mainland' wrong then I guess they need to be slapped. But yeah, Victoria would be one of those locations, definitely."

When I mentioned the other club remaining open under another name, he informed me it won't be immediate:

"They have to close. Not forever, but they have to close down for a period of time. I don't have the legal thing in front of me; I don't know how long it is. But I guess you could find out from them. But it will not be a Yuk Yuk's with the traditional fun bells and whistles that Yuk Yuk's provides and the Yuk Yuk's talent that people like to see and the national vision that Yuk Yuk's has or any of those other things."

Is the summer 2010 timeline for sure?

"Is anything for sure in our world?, he said philosophically with a small Jewish lilt to his voice. Oy!"

Is it as for sure as things can be in this world?

"As sure as things can be in this world, yeah... It's not a hope, not a dream. We're actively involved in it but we haven't signed the other franchisees yet and they haven't found locations yet. Well, actually they have but they didn't work out. We've been working on this for quite a while, for at least the last two or three months. The downtown Vancouver franchise, that's real. There's a real person looking. There's an offer to lease already out. So that's why that one, I think end of summer, that's reasonable."

Final thoughts:

"Look, we're excited about the new challenge. I feel that it was never quite done exactly right with these other people but now we have a chance to do it closer to what we really see as the vision."

Breaking news

Just got this over the wire (I like to give the illusion I work in an old-fashioned news office). It's very interesting, to say the least, if a little fuzzy. I will definitely be making a few calls and getting back to you. First, read the press release and then we'll discuss:

YukYuks to open four new venues in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland

Burrard Street location set to close May 1

Toronto, April 26, 2010—YukYuks, Canada’s largest chain of comedy clubs, with 17 locations coast to coast, is pleased to announce it has found a new Vancouver franchisee and intends to open four new clubs in the lower mainland, beginning summer 2010. As a result, their Burrard Street location in Vancouver will close as of May 1.

Breslin said the future site will “blow all the past locations away.”

“For the past thirty years, YukYuks has been more than a set of comedy clubs; it’s also been a talent development system,” said Mark Breslin, CEO and founder of the chain. “Our work depends on all of our franchisees participating in our national vision, and frankly our Vancouver operator did not share our enthusiasm in building a strong Canadian comedy company.”

YukYuks has been in continuous operation in Vancouver since 1988, when its Davie Street location opened. In 1990, it relocated to the Expo site where it remained until 2003 and then moved to the soon to be closed Burrard Street location.

YukYuks was founded in 1976 in Toronto and quickly grew to its current status as the gold standard for Canadian comedy clubs. Among its alumni are Jim Carrey, Howie Mandel, Russell Peters, Norm MacDonald, Mike Bullard and hundreds more. Please visit, www.yukyuks.com.

My thoughts:

1. "Burrard Street location set to close May 1" From what I've heard, the current location on Burrard will close only as a Yuk Yuk's but will remain open as a comedy club under a new name. I will confirm and report back. I know this is something Yuk Yuk's has done in the past when a franchisee has broken ties with the chain. Head office in Toronto sends out a press release saying they're closing down which effectively tells casual fans of the club to stay away, there's nothing to see here. It's technically true, and certainly Yuk Yuk's is under no obligation to promote a competitor, but the information is only partly correct since people can still go to the same place and see a comedy show.

2. "has found a new Vancouver franchisee and intends to open four new clubs in the lower mainland..." One new franchisee is going to open up four new clubs? Who is this Mr. Moneybags?! Or is it four new franchisees? And where, exactly, in the lower mainland will these clubs go? Vancouver is a gimme, but the other three? A quick glance at Wikipedia shows me all the communities considered to be part of the lower mainland. Discounting the tiny burgs, that leaves us with Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Harrison Hot Springs, Hope, Cloverdale, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Delta, Langley, New Westminster, North Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, and White Rock, give or take a couple. If they are able to make a go of it in four locations in the lower mainland, kudos to them. That would be great for the Vancouver comedy scene. We lose too many comics to Ontario for the simple reason that there's so much more work there. Four lower mainland locations, plus the ones in Alberta, would be a godsend to working comics here.

3. By why stop there? BC has better locations than the lower mainland. How about my hometown of Victoria? I know there used to be a Yuk Yuk's there and Hecklers is proving there's a regular audience for good stand-up comedy. How about Kelowna or Kamloops, one or both of which already have a Yuks room (as opposed to a club)? How about the tourist trap of Whistler? I know there are regular comedy shows there. I haven't been to one but I'm sure they do well.

4. "Breslin said the future site will 'blow all the past locations away.'” Now this is curious. He's talking about a future site. Singular. Aren't there four sites? And where is the site? If you're going to announce it today, why not say where it is?

All very interesting. As I said, I'll keep you posted.

Episodes 185ish & 186ish

Here are two enjoyable episodes for your collection. You do collect all the podcasts, don't you? And trade them with friends? I apologize that they're slightly out of order but the station was having download issues. Whatever, they're timeless. Who cares if one originally aired before the last couple? Not I! Oh, and because of said station issues, I must also apologize publicly to Carter Hortie. He joined us on air several weeks ago and if you missed it, you missed it. That episode has been lost forever. I hate when that happens, especially when the episode is a good one. We've lost a few over the years. We'll never get back Rob Pue or Kyle Cease's second appearance or Sugar Sammy's first two appearances. Sigh. So sorry Carter, but you're in good company.

I can't post the episodes for you right here on the blog due to a problem with the server I use and my ignorance of other ones. But fret not, it's still easy-peasy. You can listen over at the Comedy Couch podcast page. And here's the link to all the shows over at iTunes. There are 186 (and counting) to choose from. But here are the latest, with individual links to the episodes.

Episode 185ish: Sean Kent talks about history, his two seasons on Last Comic Standing, his bout with cancer, politics, and a bit of basketball in an on-location interview downstairs at Lafflines Comedy Club in New Westminster, between shows. The show aired on April 11, 2010.

Episode 186ish: Local boy Jy Harris somehow managed to sneak by all these years without ever having done the show before. But we eventually got him. He brought the Polish Princess with him, who provided us with a nice distraction during the show. We talked about why he doesn't drink and his two experiences on The Jerry Springer Show, among other things. This show aired on March 28, 2010.

April 25: Vince Fluek

I'm never sure how to spell tonight's guest's name. Is it Vince Fluek? Vince Fluke? Vintz Fluke? Vince Flück? Not sure, but we'll have one of those guys on the show tonight. Vince is back in Vancouver for a short while having lived in England for the past year or two. We'll talk about his experiences in Europe, how he sees the Vancouver scene now, and whatever else I think of between now and tonight at 11. And I'll probably nail down the correct spelling of his name.

As always, you can hear us on CFRO 102.7 FM in Vancouver, at coopradio.org for live streaming from anywhere you happen to be, or (after the fact) on iTunes in podcast form. Got it? Good.

Ratings

The ratings are in and we are... who knows?

I don't have regular access to the numbers but I got a look today and it's just interesting to see the relative popularity of podcast episodes and transcripted interviews. There's no rhyme or reason that I can see. Obviously, the ones on-line for a longer time have a greater chance of more hits, but that's about all I can tell.

Most of my phone interviews I do for the paper are eventually transcribed and hosted at the Comedy Couch site. These are generally interviews with name comics. Here are the top 20 by request (presumably this means hits):

1. Martin Short
2. Greg Behrendt
3. Louis CK
4. Ryan Stiles
5. Cedric the Entertainer
6. Dave Coulier
7. Norm MacDonald
8. Don Rickles (the first interview)
   
9. Craig Ferguson
10. Bob Newhart (the second interview)
11. Russell Peters
12. Dana Carvey
13. Tommy Smothers
14. Colin Mochrie (the first interview)
    
15. Ellen DeGeneres
16. Keith Johnstone
17. Steven Wright
18. Colin Mochrie (the second interview)
19. Ron White
20. Nancy Robertson
    

Interesting that Nancy squeaks into the top 20 ahead of her hubby Brent Butt. And big ups to Colin Mochrie for being the only one to crack the top 20 twice. Well done, sir. Your fans love you.

Over on the podcast side, I've had a few celebrity comics on over the years, but mostly just working local comics and occasionally a national one. Here's the top 20 by request (once again, I have no idea how they come up with these; I'm just reporting what I'm reading).

1. Kevin Lee (guest hosted by Morgan Brayton)
2. Janice Bannister (guest hosted by Graham Clark)
   
3. Aubrey Tennant
4. Riel Hahn
5. Brent Butt
6. Barry Greenfield
7. Todd Allen & Phil Hanley
8. John Wing
9. Andrew Connor
10. Carter Hortie
11. Jenn Grant & Erica Sigurdson
12. Mark Dennison
13. Paul Bae & Dana Alexander (our very first show)
14. Alistair Cook, Taz VanRassle & Ryan Beil
15. Jay Brown
16. Kevin Foxx
17. Daniel Packard (his second appearance)
18. Sarah Silverman
19. Pete Johansson
20. Jeff & Ryan Gladstone

How'd you like that? The two most popular shows are when I had a guest host.

April 18: Steve Patterson

Tonight my guest is the host of CBC radio's The Debaters. Steve Patterson snuck into town a couple weeks ago to do a corporate gig and I nabbed him for an hour-long chat up in his hotel room. We talked about his talk show dreams, how he almost quit stand-up after doing a gig at a party standing on the couch, and how he wants to stay in Canada. And other stuff, of course.

Conan vs Regan vs readers

Sometimes I think I write in a vacuum. It doesn't matter who or what I write about, nary a comment or letter do I get. Oh, I expect that here in this little corner of the blogosphere, but over at the Georgia Straight they get reams of letters on politics, recycling and education. Hell, even the odd rant disagreeing with a theatre review. Yet nothing on comedy. Man, what I'd give to be a part of Payback Time in the Music section, where readers have it out with critics and vice versa.

So you can imagine my glee when I saw my review of the Conan O'Brien travelling road show received a comment on the Straight website. Somebody named jay3 wrote:

you only found it funny at times? you got some serious high standards.
i laughed 2 hours straight and my face hurt the next day.

best show ever.

To which I replied "Guilty as charged." I guess I do have "serious high standards". I thought the Conan show was lots of fun. As I wrote, it was a spectacle more than anything else. There were some laughs, but much of it was crowd-pleasing at its best: trot out a familiar character, run down the aisles to get close to the people, and drop as many local references as possible. That's a surefire way of getting cheap laughs and applause but it's not particularly original or well-crafted. Enjoyable? Sure.

I can't tell anyone what's hilarious to them. I can't say this wasn't the best show ever for them. I can only speak for myself. That's why I wish there were more papers doing regular comedy reviews and features. And why I'd love to see more comments and letters to the editor. Everyone's an expert when it comes to what they find funny. That's not in any way meant as an insult, either.

Two days after Conan's show, I got to see Brian Regan for the second time. Unfortunately I didn't have to review the show. Or maybe that's fortunate. Because I got to sit there without scribbling notes in the dark and just laugh... Yes, laugh. Me. My cheeks even hurt. So take that, jay3! In fact, the friend I went with said he'd never actually heard me laugh before. Regan passed through Vancouver three years ago and I've seen most of his video clips online, so I was expecting a lot of familiar material. But in his 90-minute set, I only recognized one small bit on string theory. The rest was new to me (except for the two requested routines in his encore). The guy is a comedic genius. He is inherently funny.

I was a little saddened at seeing a three-quarters filled lower section, though. But I figured he's still not that big a name in Canada. And I was even more saddened when I kept seeing the guy in front of me check his messages every ten minutes or so. I'm as addicted to e-mail as anyone, but that's beyond the pale. I mean, if you can't sit and enjoy the show without constantly checking an electronic gizmo then you don't deserve to go out. It wasn't until near the end of the performance that it all came together for me. The guy leaned over his date and stage whispered to the person to her right, "It's 2-2" that I clued in there was a hockey game that night. A playoff one yet. Which explained, but certainly didn't excuse, the empty seats and the compulsive internet checking. My God, people. It's a game. Game one, even. Don't they own a PVR? Can't you wait until after the show to get the score? I don't get it.

I won't say they missed the best show ever, but it was the best show of the year. And by far, hands down, the best show of last week.

Brian Regan's nightmare

Brian Regan is playing the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts (still the worst name for a venue in the city) on Thursday. I spoke to him a couple weeks ago and the resulting story in the Straight can be found if you follow this link. Funny story about that interview that I don't know if I should share. But I will.

It's not something a professional journalist should probably admit to, but it was the first time it's happened so my track record is pretty good. Regan is a morning person. And I'm not. Still, I'd done plenty of morning interviews over the years so his request to talk at 8:30 one Tuesday morning wasn't a problem. Or wouldn't have been had I remembered it. The night before, funnily enough, my wife asked me if I had anything coming up. I said I had to interview Brian Regan next week sometime.

Cut-to: The next morning. I'm lying in bed. My son is haranguing me to get up. I ask him the time. He says it's 8:15. i.e. way too early for me. I tell him I'll get up at 8:30. Well, 8:30 comes and I'm still lying there and the phone rings. Who the hell would be calling me at such a time? I figure it's my wife so I let my son answer. I hear a man's voice on the other end so I grab the phone, half asleep. "Hi Guy? It's Brian Regan." Shit! I had completely forgotten the interview was today. I had prepared no questions and he's a busy guy. There's no way I can ask him to call back. So I fake it. "Oh, hi, Brian. Can you hang on for just a second?" And then I scramble, running downstairs to find my iPod, which I record phone interviews with. Check. Then I need the mic attachment so I run upstairs. Not there. Run back downstairs. Not there. Run back upstairs and find it in my pants pocket. Quickly set up recording and then breathlessly greet Regan, who's waiting patiently on the phone. Good guy, that Brian Regan.

Then I proceeded to interview him without any preparation whatsoever. But I've done enough of them over the years I can fake it okay. We spoke for 25 minutes and I got some good info. But what I was most pleased in getting was his take on his Just For Laughs meltdown that I had heard so much about over the years. All I had heard was that ten years ago he had his first gala at the Montreal festival and that he kept stopping and restarting, exiting the stage and coming back out. But I had never heard his take on it. Part of me wondered if it was part of the gag and people just made too big a deal out of it. But Regan set me straight. None of this made it into the story because it's not exactly newsworthy a decade later. But I found it fascinating. And hilarious. Here's how the exchange went:

GM: Can I ask you about the Just For Laughs situation? About the time at a gala where you came out, left and came back. I keep hearing about this story but have never heard your take on it.
BR: Rough.

GM: So it is true?
BR: It is true.

GM: Because I thought maybe you were doing it as a joke or something.
BR: No. No, I wish. I mean, there are some people who say, "Was that like a performance art kind of piece?" I guess I could take the easy way out and go, "Yeah, people just didn't seem to get it." But it wasn't at all. (laughs) It was a disaster is what it was! An absolute disaster. I remember all four moments. I can actually defend every time I walked offstage and came back on but I guess in hindsight it sounds ridiculous. Ultimately, to make a long story short, it was one of the worst nights of my career.

GM: Really?
BR: Oh, yeah. That night I was so embarrassed and everything. I talked to my manager. This isn't like bombing at a corporate gig where nobody knows and you lick your wounds and go up to your hotel room; this is bombing in front of the comedy community! (laughs) I said, "I just feel horrible about this." He said, "You know what you ought to do?" – and I give him a lot of credit for this – he goes, "You ought to walk right downstairs" to where the bar was where everybody congregated at each night at the Delta, and he goes, "Just hang out. Have fun." And so I did that. I went down there. Everybody came up. Everybody wanted to talk about it. It was the talk of the festival! But at least I was there laughing it off. Hopefully I have a decent enough reputation amongst comedians where it wasn't a career killer, but it was about as close to a career killer as you could get without actually going down.

GM: When was it?
BR: It was about ten years ago.

GM: And obviously it didn't affect you.
BR: I don't know if it affected me at all but in my mind it certainly was an ouch moment, you know?

GM: Was it just that you flubbed a line? Why did you keep starting over?
BR: Well, the initial reason why I left the stage was Dame Edna was the emcee, the host, and she came out – he... she... I don't know what the politically correct way of saying it is – her character came out and did a lot of self-deprecating stuff saying, "Yes, it's truly me, it's truly me! Can you believe it? Yes, I'm right here before your very eyes! It actually is me!" And the crowd was going nuts. They loved the character. I was the very first comedian after her. I was the first comedian that she introduced. So she introduced me and I came out. And I thought I would be self-deprecating and make fun of myself, so I said, "Yes, it's truly me!" You know, like a little call-back to what she did. "It's truly me! Yes, can you believe it?! I'm actually here!" And they did not laugh at all. No one laughed. It just bombed. So in my mind I'm thinking, Wait a sec, maybe they thought I was making fun of her. Which wasn't my intention. I was trying to make fun of me! So then I got into my bit. I just started getting into my routine and it got nothing. Like, literally nothing! I'd never heard silence be so loud in my life. It was getting like nothing. I was like, How is this happening? And then I started getting paranoid thinking they must have thought that I was slamming her and now they just collectively don't like me.

GM: All these things just racing through your head.
BR: Oh, my gosh, my brain was just trying to figure things out and all of that. One time before in my career I had stopped a taping when I had flubbed a line and got off stage and came back out and redid it and killed. So I had that little red flag in my head going, "You know what I'm going to do? I'm gonna try that trick!" So I said, "Hey, folks..." I didn't want to try to over-explain it with the Dame Edna thing, so I said, "I think I messed up here. I messed up a line." I kind of white-lied it. So I left the stage, came back out and didn't do the "Yes, can you believe it's me?" stuff. I just went into the bit. And then they still didn't laugh at all! (laughs) They didn't laugh one bit.

GM: They were in shock. What did he just do?
BR: Yeah, I think they were stunned. Like, nobody knew what was going on. My manager, who I saw briefly backstage when I ran off, didn't know what was going on. Everybody was looking at me strange when I left the stage. So now I'm out there and I'm thinking, "They're still not laughing." So I stopped it that time and I said, "Oh, folks, just try to react naturally. You know, normally." Now I'm scrambling.

GM: "Laugh, dammit!"
BR: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I said, "Oh, this is for a TV thing. I know it's weird that I started again but if you could just laugh normally and it'll all be cool. Alright, I feel like a moron. I'll be back in a second." So I left the stage for the second time. I run back out and I start doing the routine again. Now they start laughing like sarcastically over-the-top. I said, "Hey, I'm Brian" and "Ahaha!" and huge applause. Now I'm thinking this is a nightmare. If anybody watched the tape, they're not going to show the first two, I'm thinking. So I stopped again, the third time, and said, "You know what, folks? I know you're trying to help me out and I appreciate it but this is for a TV thing so no one's going to understand why you're laughing like that, over-the-top. So just try to react normally." So I left the stage again! (laughs) And then I came back. Now this is my fourth time on stage. And now the audience, I'm sure, is like, "the hell with this guy!" So I started the bit again and they just stared at me for the entire time. I'm no fool! (laughs) I'm not going to leave a stage a fifth time! Only idiots do that! (laughs) So I stayed out there and bombed. Got nothing for my ten, twelve minutes and then just said goodnight and walked off to the most tepid applause I've ever heard in my life! (laughs) I was shell-shocked. I was absolutely shell-shocked.

GM: That's a great story. Maybe they put you on the French gala and they just didn't understand you.
BR: (laughs) Yeah, I wish!

GM: Did you ever think of defending it as some people thought, that it was performance art?
BR: No. I'm too honest. I like to live and die on my sword, or whatever that expression is. That actually happened so I just try to explain it honestly to people if they were curious. It was a tough deal, man. And I worried that it could have been a career killer at the time. But it ended up just a little bump in the road but it didn't hurt overall.

Now that's comedy! If you're not familiar with Brian Regan, do yourself a favour and check out his clips on YouTube. Here's one of my favourites:

April 11: Sean Kent

Look at me twenty minutes before showtime scrambling out a post. What did I do all day that I forgot before now? Beats me. Maybe because the show is pre-recorded. No excuses.

Our guest is Sean Kent, an American comic from Texas based in Seattle. We spoke between shows at Lafflines a couple weeks ago. I'd never met him before but we had a very interesting chat. I had seen him on two seasons of NBC's Last Comic Standing and that's almost all I knew of him. During the course of the interview, I learned he was a history buff, so we talked lots about that. Not funny but I found it fascinating. We also talked about his battle with cancer, why he's anti-social and his views on teabagging. And only ever-so-briefly about basketball.

Alright, gotta run. Got a show to do.

Episode 184ish: Allyson Smith

I've got some good shows lined up for the next few weeks. And they're in the can, as they say, so I can sit back and relax for a few Sundays. Check the upcoming guests over there on the right and you'll see just what I mean. More on them in the days and weeks to come.

Meanwhile, I've got another podcast for you. If you missed last week's live show, it was a goody. Allyson Smith is just fun to have around. And what a set of pipes on the gal. Once again, she serenaded me near the end of the show with a rousing rendition of I Could Have Danced All Night. Gotta love karaoke. It's not comedy, but it is. Anyway, give it a listen if you're so inclined. You can click below or over search it out at iTunes, remembering, of course, to leave a comment and/or a rating. One day, I swear, someone will and I shall rejoice.

Allyson Smith from Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010


(Due to some issues at the station, I'm bringing you this podcast out of order. Still to come are shows with Jy Harris and Carter Hortie. Look for those next week sometime.)

April 4: Allyson Smith

It's 10 a.m. as I write this and I have a belly full of chocolate already. And I've got plenty more to go (especially once I dip into the little one's Easter basket). Will I experience a sugar crash on air tonight? You'll have to tune in and find out. But you'll want to tune in for other reasons, too, namely the lovely and talented Allyson Smith. The last time I saw the former school marm was in Saint John, New Brunswick, back in October where she was nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award. She last visited us in studio back in 2007, when she was still a resident of this fair city after moving from Alberta. Now she makes her home in Toronto. Is she on the run? We'll find out tonight.

We've had plenty of guests over the years perform live humorous music for us, but Allyson – a karaoke queen – is the only one to belt out Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive, complete with orchestration. Gotta love the spirit. I'm going to beg for another song tonight and hopefully she'll comply.

March 28: Jy Harris

It's been a few weeks. What can I say? Sometimes I just get lazy... Sometimes? Okay, I'm pretty much always lazy, but sometimes I'm lazier than others. Plus I was sick. That's a legit excuse, isn't it? Sure, it was just a cold, but I'm a guy. Those things can lay me out for weeks.

Oh, and I went to Portland for a few days a couple weeks ago. While there, I took the chance to take in some professional men's comedy at Harvey's. I was told it's the most popular comedy club in the city. Judging from the packed lounge prior to the show, I don't doubt it. And they do three shows on a Saturday night, 5:00, 7:30 and 10:00! We were greeted outside by three huge headshots on the side of the building. I have no idea who two were, but the middle was Portland boy, and friend of What's So Funny? (and former guest), Dwight Slade. Unfortunately Dwight was performing in Minneapolis the night we were there.

With a two-item minimum, I decided to have a beer and a burger. You can't go wrong with a burger, right? But there will be no confusing Harvey's the comedy club with Harvey's the hamburger joint. Trust me, at Harvey's comedy club, they definitely do not make your hamburger a beautiful thing. Worst burger I've ever had.

Soon after I started going to comedy clubs regularly in the early 1980s, I realized it was a crapshoot. That is, you never know if the performers are going to be either up to snuff or to your tastes. I've always figured if I come away having liked just one of the performers on a given night, it was a win. So let's see how it played out:

One of my pet peeves is when friends see a comedian somewhere, rush back to tell me, then can't remember the comic's name. And now I'm going to do the same thing. The host's name was Doug. It's possible his last name was Edwards. Doesn't really matter. He was extremely rehearsed and there was no original thought to his pieces. He grew up with five sisters, so of course we got lots of menstruation jokes. And on this night it was the 1oth anniversary of his divorce. Maybe. Shades of Andrew Grose's wedding anniversary every time you see him. So we started off the night oh-for-one. No biggie. On to the middle act.

J.P. Linde was introduced as a Portland legend. Okay. But it's obvious to see why he never became a legend anywhere else. Longevity in any given place is laudable, but there should be other factors that get you legend status. He mentioned the airline crew that was caught drunk "three weeks ago". Forget the fact that story broke much longer than that, is having the pilot singing a rendition of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall over the P.A. really worth keeping that joke in your repertoire? Good Lord. He also broke the comedy lid off the notion that the seat cushion can be used as a floatation device. Finally! I've been waiting years to hear a comic expose that silly idea. Linde looks a bit like Andy Kindler, but he's the anti-Kindler. I don't want to be too mean, though. The guy retired that weekend from stand-up.

Okay, oh-for-two with one last chance to save the night. And headliner Steve White did just that. What a breath of fresh air. The guy apparently has been in five Spike Lee movies. I didn't recognize him, but I'm sure going to watch for him. Great energy and an infectious spirit. And naturally funny. That always helps. He entered by acting as if we were all surprised that he was black based on his name. "Negro!" he said, pointing to his face. "No refunds!" He remarked on the whiteness of Portland: "It's like they build [white people] here. I've never seen so many fucking Subarus in my life."

Other good lines I jotted down:

• "I have ADHD: Attention Deficit in Hi-Definition. I'm very clear about what I'm fucked up about."
• On thugs needing to maintain that macho facade 24/7 even if their mom dies: "I'm gonna miss that 'ho. She was my bitch."
• "Obama made history twice: First black president... and last black president."
  

Even when making a groaner, he celebrates it with fake bravado. "Kobe beef? What's that? Black beef that comes in a white bun?" Then he mimes hitting one over the fence. "That's comedy gold!"

So was the evening a success? Damn straight, it was. One-for-three, but the one more than made up for the others. I tried to embed a clip of White for you but for some reason it isn't working. But he's got a few short ones on Rooftop Comedy you can check out on your own.

***

Now, on with the show. We've been on the air for over five years and surprisingly we've never had stand-up comic Jy Harris on before. But that's all about to change. He'll join us for his debut tonight at 11. You know him perhaps as Crop Sitter in episode one of DaVinci City Hall, or Clerk in episode one of Life As We Know It. Or maybe you've seen him on the Jerry Springer Show. The Red Rocket is all over the map. I see he's also a lead in the future cult classic Bong of the Dead (see trailer below). Jy is one positive dude and it should be fun talking with him.

March 7: Carter Hortie

If they handed out Oscars for the best name in comedy, Carter Hortie would surely be nominated. I've never asked him if that's his real name, but I will tonight. Carter's been with us once before, back in May 2005 so no doubt we'll have plenty to talk about. Hortie and Patrick Maliha are organizing a fundraiser for the homeless planned for April 16th at the Legion on Commercial Drive. They hope to do one a month at different locations across Vancouver. This first one will go to the Union Gospel Mission Soup Kitchen and the following one to the Vancouver Foodbank's meal delivery program. So there's that to discuss. And we'll figure out some other things before now and tonight.

Episode 183ish: Ian Bagg

It doesn't happen often, but from time to time a comic will ask me not to run a particular episode he was on. Apparently my Svengali-like powers get them to open up a little more than they'd like. This was the case with Ian Bagg, who dropped by the studio last Sunday night. Well, my powers and the fact he had been celebrating the gold medal hockey game since noon that day. Thanks to the miracle of editing, I don't have to lose the whole show. A simple snip here and there and presto, another gold star broadcasting event. So this particular podcast episode is a little shorter than most but it's still damn entertaining. That Bagg character is a funny guy with lots to say. We talk about his recent "deportation" from his home in Los Angeles, starting out in Vancouver, and why he doesn't feel accepted in his home and native land, among other things.

While in town, Ian has been playing the local rooms so I took the chance to see him at the Kingston on Thursday night. He headlined, as can be expected considering the guy has some major credits to his name (Conan, Leno, etc.) It was a smallish crowd and he was expected to go 30 minutes. But he gave everyone there their five bucks' worth, going 75 minutes. And there wasn't a lull anywhere along the way.

As usual, you can listen here to the podcast, or get it at iTunes (where I'm sure you'll give us a rating and a comment, right?!):