Tag: comedy

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Recommended

Things I Have Been Enjoying Lately

I have been enjoying Jon Glaser. The name may be unfamiliar for people not in NYC, but you have likely heard his work – be it on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Cheap Seats, Wonder Showzen, Conan O’Brien, or School For Scoundrels. Glaser is what has been described as a “comedian’s comedian”, doing characters and bits that lead to highbrow discussions like “What is comedy?” and “What the fuck was that?”. I did not warm up to Glaser when I first saw him in 2003 – but slowly, gradually, I have understood his genius. I bring him up now not because of his excellent turn as Johnny Ding-Dong during the Comedians Of Comedy tour, but for his mindfudging of Trevor, the wily scamp from Wonder Showzen’s “Beat Kids”. If you have the Season 2 DVD – and you should – watch the “featurette” for the Knowledge episode. For more, I recommend reading [his AST fanthread](http://www.aspecialthing.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1664).

While I am only one third of the way through it, I have been enjoying the audiobook version of John Hodgman’s [The Areas Of My Expertise](http://areasofmyexpertise.com/), which is unsurprisingly [available from iTunes](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=182994253&s=143441). Hodgman’s way with facts, combined with occasional musical enhancement from [Johnathan Coulton](http://www.jonathancoulton.com/), is like listening to a very pleasant NPR show, were it written by non-partisan Stephen Colbert.

I have really been enjoying [The AV Club](http://avclub.com/), as they’ve become very good with interviews, always have intriguing features like *Random Rules*, and fair critiques and reviews.

Relatedly, I have been enjoying the mobile versions of [The Onion](http://mobile.theonion.com/) and [The AV Club](http://mobile.avclub.com/). Both load very quick, have full content for the week, and aren’t a cheap RSS-hacked-river-of-news-bullshit mobile page. Works great on my Sidekick 3 and my Treo.

I’ve been enjoying MC Chris’ latest album, [Dungeon Master Of Ceremonies](http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=184802407&s=143441). I got to see Chris do most of the songs live at UCB – which was an experience in itself – but the album is really far more solid than I expected. There are at least three standout songs (*FTW*, *Wiid*, and *Townie*), and the album on a whole has a nice, almost danceable groove to it.

The third season of The Office has been enjoyable enough to add into my standard television rotation, bringing the number of shows I regularly watch up to 4. It is amusing to go back and read the [Metafilter impressions of the first episodes](http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/40851), much like reading Slashdot’s original iPod post.

Despite being only a few minutes into the first one, I am extremely enamored by [JapanesePod101](http://www.japanesepod101.com/), a podcast that teaches you a few Japanese phrases a day. I am downloading them as fast as I can.

I am enjoying the fact that [GSN](http://www.gsn.com/) finally made their play-along-at-home games platform neutral. It’s nice to be able to play from home, even if there are a large number of cheaters.

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Recommended

Please Don’t Break My Kneecaps, Tony Carnivale

Friends, particularly those in NYC: Please come to Channel 102 on Monday.

If you are just tuning into me talking about 102 – it’s a short film competition that runs nearly every month. Up to ten television shows, of no more than five minutes in length, do their best to entertain the audience. At the end, the audience takes their ballots and votes for their five favorites. The top five survive, chosen to make another episode. The rest are canceled, never to be shown at 102 again.

Channel 102 has been the venue where a number of great, great shows have been screened. From the hilarious (Dr. Miracles, Cakey) to the silly (28 Day Slater, Cat News) to the strange and twisted (Sexual Intercourse American Style, Puppet Rapist) to the epic (Shutterbugs, Gemberling) – I could go on and on, but you can peruse the list of cancelled and failed shows on your own.

If you don’t come, there is a significant chance that Tony Carnivale will break my kneecaps. No one wants that. Tony has assured me he doesn’t *want* to break my kneecaps – but if push comes to shove, he might not have a choice. So come to the screening! I’ll be handing out ballots, taking photos, and hanging around the after party.

(I am joking. Tony is awesome and would never do anything to harm my kneecaps. I think.)

If you aren’t in the NYC area, you have a couple of options: add 102 to your MySpace, subscribe to the podcast to get new episodes, or hit the forums.

Categories
Enjoyed

Del Close Marathon 8 Wrapup

In total, I spent 14 hours at the 8th Annual Del Close Improv Marathon. I took in 26 shows across two days, and as can be expected, that much improv leads to one being a bit overloaded. It is hard to look back over that much hilarity and remember individual bits, suggestions given, scenes edited, etc.

But with that said, here are my best attempts at something resembling awards. I should note that these distinctions are only for the shows I saw – I am unable to praise that which I was not in attendance for. The 26 shows were (in chronological order): Kid Dervin, Death League Tea Party, Asia-Town, Neely O’hara, Pax Romana, Rogue Elephant, B-Roll, Primal Bias, I Eat Pandas, Mister Diplomat, Delaney & Merrit: Omlette Vision, The Upright Citizens Brigade, The Academy, Krompf Breakfast, The Improvised Mystery, Ugly Stick, Pearl Brunswick, Flux Capacitor, KNC, Dr. Fantastic, BirdDog, Scheer-McBrayer, The Swarm, Fivesome, MySpace, and Walsh & Roberts.

I should also note that I’m effectively giving one award to every group I really enjoyed. This isn’t to say the ones that didn’t get awards weren’t enjoyable (although a few were not), but these were the real standouts.

BEST TRADITIONAL IMPROV GROUP

The Swarm
What can be said about the veterans? Fast paced, great teamwork, and even a bit of wall breaking. Semantic arguments have never been so much fun. It’s a damn shame they don’t perform anymore.

BEST NON-TRADITIONAL IMPROV GROUP

I Eat Pandas
Mark my words: Glennis, Eliza, and Travis are going to be – if somehow they are not already – the next huge act out of NYC.

BEST CHAOS

Upright Citizens Brigade
Besides the previously mentioned accident: there was trying to jump the cooler over a ramp constructed out of plywood and Ian Roberts. There was Matt Walsh destroying a chair for no reason. There was a six person beer drinking contest. There was a two person banana eating contest, which had a fight on the cooler in the middle of it. There were scenes with nazis and six year old girl hockey pucks.

BEST BREAKFAST

Krompf Breakfast
Fresh bacon, lots of OJ, bagels, eggs with scallions, and unlimited Bloody Mary refills? KROMPF! Also, the improv was good too!

BEST USE OF GIMMICK

Flux Capacitor
Flux revisits the same situation from multiple locations. It worked better than I expected, with some great running jokes and unintended hilarity.

BEST TWIST ON THE FORMULA

Dr. Fantastic
Inspiration used for horrible jokes, and then doing scenes off of those? WHAT A TWIST! No, seriously, it was a good twist.

BEST AURAL JOLT

The Pearl Brunswick
Nothing will make you pay attention like five gifted women singing with all their might.

BEST MORNING IMPROV TEAM

Asia-Town
Out of all the morning teams I saw, Asia-Town ran away with my personal laugh count. Given that I was groggy as shit at that time, this says something.

BEST SEMANTIC ARGUMENT

Walsh And Roberts
Is sour cream a garnish? They argued for 15 minutes, and I’m still not entirely sure.

THE JEN MALINSKY AWARD

(given to one performer who stands out across multiple groups, as Jen did last year)

Tim Curcio – holy shit, he was everywhere, and he was great! Go Tim!