Tag: comedy

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Recommended

Hit The X

> *A few weeks ago I was walking down 31st Street near 8th Avenue and noticed a four-foot tall ledge protruding from a seemingly abandoned building.*

> *The next logical step was to stage an Improv Everywhere Mission with a suicide jumper on the absurdly small ledge.*

If those two sentences don’t sell you, I don’t know what will.

[Read all about it](http://www.improveverywhere.com/mission_view.php?mission_id=53), or [just watch the video](http://www.vimeo.com/clip=27810).

DID YOU KNOW: Will the Suicide Jumper shares a first name with [the hilariously funny guy who played him](http://willhines.net/)!

Categories
Debated

The Six Words Of Comedic Death

“Hey, do you guys like comedy?”

If you’ve ever walked through (or near) Times Square in the evening, you’ve undoubtedly heard this phrase. Every night, countless young adults aspiring to be the next big thing in comedy come out in droves trying to sucker tourists into coming to a comedy club. Every time I see a group wandering from shop to shop get suckered into talking to one of these poor souls, my heart aches for them. I want to walk up and shake them free of the poor comedian who will get an extra thirty seconds of stage time if he manages to sell them tickets. But my personal experience has always been limited; I have never in fact been to one of the comedy tourist traps that grace our fair city.

Last night changed this; last night, the shape of the NYC comedy scene finally became perfectly clear in my eyes. Take the post that follows as a warning, as a guide, and maybe even as light entertainment. And please, do not take it as an indictment against particular clubs, or acts, or even the poor folks who hawk tickets on Times Square; this is more a rant against what mainstream comedy apparently entails these days.

Continue reading “The Six Words Of Comedic Death”
Categories
Enjoyed

Eugene Mirman CD Recording Report

So, tonight was the first of two nights of taping for the next CD from the very funny Eugene Mirman. Here’s the notable bits:

Leo Allen opened with about 15 minutes of material, including a good bit about trying not to eat babies, even when they’re smothered in delicious baby sauce.

Eugene ran through a lot of his recent bits – the Edinburough hand-washing, the Planned Parenthood, a few others – as well as plenty I hadn’t heard before, which is always a bonus. Seeing the same comedians a lot in NYC can lead to recycling of material, so getting fresh material during tapings is always good – my laughs are a little more spontaneous, anyhow.

The thing I’ve grown to really enjoy about Eugene is his ability to stay aware of what’s going on. He chuckles as he goes, obviously enjoying himself. He’s aware when jokes aren’t working, and is able to cut himself off and playfully note that he’ll “fix THAT one for tomorrow night” or taunt “for those of you listening on the CD, you won’t hear this, as I’m cutting it out”. When technical difficulties abound, he can bounce back with some grace.

And boy, did he have to bounce back tonight – when he started one of his closing bits, which involved audio being played from the soundboard, he first managed to get the microphone stand wedged, unable to move with even the mightiest of forces. Then, while the bit was playing, it mysteriously crapped out, with the audio equipment breaking horribly. The solution? To have someone run downstairs and grab his bag from the coat room, bring up his iPod, and play the bit from there, which he had loaded on “just in case”. It ended up being smart thinking, and even with a low battery charge, he was able to get through the bit the second time.

It was a very good time, and hopefully the jokes that fizzled (and there were, sadly, a fair number) will be repaired tomorrow night for a nice full CD of material. Also making things enjoyable was the never-resting Kathryn Yu, who I do not actually disapprove of.

Eugene’s previous CD is, inexplicably, available twice from the iTunes Music Store, and highly recommended. The new CD will be available on SubPop sometime in the near future.