In the early seventies, for stand-up comedy, New York city was Ground Zero. The Improv and Catch a Rising Star were the most important, (and basically the only two) comedy clubs in America. The real magnetic pull that the Big Apple had was ‘The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson’. A singular show that could make or break a young comic’s career. The show had deep roots in Manhattan as it was hosted first by Steve Allen then Jack Parr, and was a descendant of television comedy hits like Your Show of Shows,  and radio comedies hosted by Jack Benny, Fred Allen, and many others. For several years and more, New York had been the place to be. The town to leave home for, to head off to make your bones in the world of comedy. The only place.

THE TREK WEST

In 1972 Johnny Carson left New York and moved the Tonight show to Los Angeles. Famously, most of the stand-up comics in New York soon followed. L.A. became the place you had to be to make it in comedy. Under Mitzi’s Shore’s care, the Comedy Store blossomed and became mecca for comics to be seen. Budd Friedman made the trek west and opened an Improvisation, NBC, and Norman Lear started shooting their sit-coms out there, and for young stand-ups, the shift became seismic.

For decades you had to be out in L.A. to make it. That was it. You had to play the Store or the Improv, or the Laugh Factory and get on Carson, or a sit-com, then get a cable special, then a Netflix special or a studio film or some version of anointment from the Hollywood powers that be. Even if you were doing a shot on a show in New York, a film out of town, the rules were made and the orders handed down in Los Angeles. That’s the way it was. Johnny followed the film business, and the comedians were happy to head west rather than east.

THE INTERNET CHANGED EVERYTHING

What the web finally didn’t subvert, Covid did. After a long dry spell for stand-up in the late 90’s, and early 2000’s, stand-up got very strong again with a hearty thanks to the internet. First Myspace broke Dane Cook, then podcasters started building their own fans, Marc Maron,  Paul F. Thompkins, Bill Burr, and others were doing their own shows and building a base they found they could sell tickets to that no one outside of their own sphere even knew about. Somewhere in there, Joe Rogan and his gang of friends, Brian Redban, Joey Diaz, Tom Segura, Ari Shaffir, Whitney Cummings, Chris Delia, Christina P, Bryan Callen, others were all taking off in an uncharted dimension that was wild, uncontrolled, hysterical, and freewheeling. This new solar system of broadcasting, this underworld, while not fully articulated yet, became profitable beyond their imaginations. They had turned the lights back on in the halls of stand-up comedy.

Then, just as quickly, Covid turned them off.

DARK DAYS

Covid days were dark ones for everyone. There is no doubt. But for comics? Who lived and breathed to be in front of people? Telling jokes? To a group of stand-ups who had struggled for years and could now fill theatres? Clubs? Finally? And now no one could go out? It was daunting, unfair, unfriendly, and unfathomable. Sure, there were workarounds, outside shows in fields. Drive in theatres. Parking lots, rooftops, but by and large they amounted to a small notch above staying home and complaining.

Playing for car honks rather than laughs? Playing to people spaced far apart with masks on, deathly afraid of each other. They did it though. The one upside was their comedy specials online were seen like never before. They concocted new content on Youtube and Instagram that was seen by people all over the world who had all the time in the world to watch it. Their podcasts doubled, tripled and more in viewership. A new breed grew to another level, stand-ups  like Sam Morril, Mark Normand, 85 South, Ali Macofsky, Shane Gillis, Annie Lederman, and Andrew Schultz.

SPOTIFY

In this low turn, this turn down, The Joe Rogan experience, which was already one of, if not the biggest podcasts in comedy, became something else altogether. He had already been selling out arenas when he went on tour, had already been the poster boy for Youtube podcasting, when another wave hit. As big as he was, the pandemic, the slow down of movies and television, the division of the country in politics, the rise of stand-up and other comedy podcasts, his skill level picking up, all came together as Spotify was ready to take on Apple, and Amazon, and formed a perfect storm. Joe was crowned King of the new world.

This would turn out to be momentous for so many sectors. Media. Podcasters. News. All areas of communications. Politics, you name it. None as much as stand-up. As I said, in The Comedy Store documentary, and many others have said, a shot on Joe Rogan is as big if not bigger than a shot on Johnny Carson used to be. The comics he has on now all become, if not maybe household names, in this day and age, then true, bonafied, stand-up and podcast stars. From his original porch pals like Ari Shaffir, Tom Segura, Bert Kreisher, Tony Hincliffe, Duncan Trussell, to his new guard of Mark Normand, and Shane Gillis.

THE COMMON DENOMINATOR

Rogan, in my opinion, is tremendous with scientist and doctors and authors who can talk about stuff he’s curious about. He’s like Carson that way. He’s a damn good interviewer. What he’s most watchable at though, by far, and what all his different groups of pals have in common, is sitting around and laughing. He loves to laugh, talk shop, life, shit, and turkey. To smoke, drink and have fun. And who doesn’t? He’s figured out a way to bottle it. He’s happiest, and his best stuff is when he has friends he’s most comfortable with and he’s flapping his gums puffing on a cigar. His face lights up. Is it P.C.? Is it diverse? Equitably digestible? Not really. But it’s working for a lot of people, and more importantly for stand-up fans, He’s lit the fuse that have set off some serious careers in this manner.

Would these guys be stars without Joe? Good question, right? Some of them? Bert would be. Segura would be. Tim Dillon? Maybe not. Time will tell. Tony Hinchcliffe I think is a unique beast. No doubt the little fucker’s rode Joe’s buffed-out back all the way to the bank, yet I think Tony is going to be just as important to the Austin tectonic plate shift, and the new world of Stand-up, as Joe in a way. (*See my piece on Tony here on the site, cribbed from my book, Standupworld.)

THE MOTHERSHIP CHANGES EVERYTHING

ADAM EGAT AT ‘MITZI’S BAR’ NAMED AFTER COMEDY STORE FOUNDER MITZI SHORE

(Photo courtesy Pauly Shore)

When Joe moved to Austin a lot of the heavy hitters followed. A lot of followers followed as well. There’s been a move south, no doubt. A lot of pioneers headed there and left. Couldn’t cut it. Their wagon trains broke down early and they headed back to L.A., but a lot of the heavy hitters are gone. You can feel the absence too in the clubs like the Store. A large group of what was murderers row are gone. It’s tamer. The Comedy Store doesn’t have the edge it always had. I know Peter Shore will fix it, but the truth is, the problem isn’t the Store or the Improv, or the L.A. comics. None of that is the reason for the energy change.

It’s Rogan’s move to Austin. It’s Johnny Carson all over again. The energy is in Austin. Stand-up doesn’t need to be in L.A. anymore. It isn’t the center of the world anymore and you can feel it. We’re all just doing sets. It doesn’t really mean anything. In the old days there was a magic about it. Any night something could happen. Someone could come in and change someone’s life. There hasn’t been a center to the world for stand-up now since before Covid, and now that The JRE is in Austin, with Tom Segura and Christina P and their base there, and Kill Tony is there, arguably the second most important podcast / T.V. show to make someone a hot stand-up star right now and with all the clubs and festivals down there, and then the Mothership lands?

Yes. Joe Rogan has moved the axis of the earth for stand-up comedy again. If someone is going to break out right now, chances are they are going to break out in Austin. Be it on JRE, and as a panelist on Kill Tony, a regular contestant, a combination of their own podcast and JRE spots, Kill Tony and Austin sets, like a Ryan Long, or William Montgomery, or someone of that ilk. It isn’t going to be some lame woman doing black dildo stuck in her ass  jokes or another one twirling around upside down on the stage of the Comedy Store main room talking about her pussy for twenty minutes making the audience uncomfortable. It’s going to be someone like Eleanor Kerrigan or Brian Simpson who lit out of town and are working the road,  going on the podcasts,  selling tickets and making audiences laugh by their own set of rules and their own codes of conduct.

If I were eighteen again, back in Detroit, starting out, would an eighteen year old Mike Binder go to out L.A? To N.Y.? Or head down to Austin? I’d probably go to Austin. I’d wait in line at the Mothership and at Kill Tony and all of the comedy clubs down there. I’d start as a doorman down there just as I started as a doorman for Mitzi Shore at The Comedy Store.

The world is completely different. Doesn’t mean it’s good or it’s bad. Just different.

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Chris Rock and Marlon Wayans put up game changing specials last week. One for Marlon Wayans, and one for Netflix and for Stand-up. The Chris Rock special did more for Netflix than it did for Chris. Not that Rock didn’t hit it out of the park, because he did. One hundred percent.

CHRIS ROCK’S AGENDA

It’s not that Rock didn’t have some mettle to settle.  Boxes to check off. He checked them all off. One by one. Beautfully. Here at a street level, he capped off months and months of some serious hard work, touring and club hopping, molding, working, re-working and  re-shaping to put together a sharp, brave, edgy, contemporary special. One with teeth. A piece that had danger to it. One that could show himself he was still Chris Rock. That would show the world he was still pound for pound one of the best satirist of modern culture we’ve ever had.

After taking some time off acting, and after what I personally thought, and understood why, was some ducking and covering to the wild winds of culture, and a bit of the playing to the trained seals and going with the grain in Tamborine, which was the opposite of what has made him great in the past, I think he needed and wanted to be brave. Bold. A shit-stirrer.

By the way,  this was before the ‘slap’ stuff. This was where he was going before all of that. His eye was on this prize before Will Smith and the Academy members dissed him and the art and craft of stand-up in a way that should never, ever, be forgiven or forgotten. This was a huge win here for Rock. This was like a heavyweight champ getting the belt back again after getting T-boned by a drunk driver or something.

BEYOND WILL SMITH

The win for this special, to me, had very little to do with the Will Smith sizzle and the social media bake-off that came after it. If anything the win for that can go in Robbie Praw, the Netflix stand-up bosses, column. He and his team did an amazing job on this one, which I’ll discuss later.  The win for Chris had very little to do with Will Smith’s meltdown. Almost nothing. The bounty Chris gets out of this special and the tour he’s been on, the eight nights at the Dolby in LA, crushing it at the O2 in London, all over Europe, will be the final settling in comfortable forever on the shelf alongside of Pryor, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, and most likely Dave Chappelle. Go backstage at one of Chris’s shows and see the galaxy of superstars from Paul McCartney on down who line up afterwards to kiss the ring. He’s there now, at a rare level, and he’s never leaving. There’s a lot of comics these days that are hot. And they are hot. No doubt. They’re selling tickets. A lot of tickets, and it’s damn hard to get there, but to get where Chris has now landed, what this special has done, what the work has brought, it’s another level. The numbers drop off drastically after this point.

THE WORK ETHIC

I’ll hit this one more time because everyone who’s been reading this blog since I started it last year knows that to me it’s everything. Rock works harder than the rest of them. He just does. I’ve seen it for years. He takes it so serious. If you’re a young comic and you’re wondering what’s the secret sauce there, it’s that he’s just always had an amazing work ethic. That goes for everyone who I’ve seen beat the pack. They just write more, get up more, rewrite more, study it more, think about it more, and analyze it closer. Rock, Chappelle, Sandler, Leno, Louis, Seinfeld, Burr,  Gervais, Cummings, Rogan, Neal Brennan, Damon Wayans these are some obsessed fucking people. Freaks actually, and Chris Rock is probably,  on some level, the premiere freak of the bunch.  You think golfers put the time in? Athletes? Could be that they do, but not more time than the comic greats. Not more time than Chris Rock.

THE MATERIAL

If you haven’t watched that special, go watch it now. If you have, watch it again. First off, I can rattle off at least thirty minutes of A level stuff I saw in LA and London that he didn’t do because he had too much stuff. There’s so many well thought out pieces on life today. As a man. A father.  A black man. Things even a black man isn’t supposed to say. (A throwback to the old Chris Rock. To the Bring the Pain Chris Rock.)  Things any man isn’t supposed to say in the new post Harvey Weinstein world. Yet he can say them because he’s found the funny. Found the humor that we couldn’t. He took the time, had the talent, scooped out the comedy. He gets to say the stuff you’re not supposed to say. Those are the rules. If you don’t like them, stand outside in the cold and protest while the comic is onstage making everyone else laugh. Just please, don’t try to change the rules. (*Everyone else; Don’t try to pretend those aren’t the rules, or that any comic has ever been cancelled for anything other than stuff he’s said off-stage.)

Rock’s set list in Selective Outrage is daring at the same time it’s personal, and revelatory. It speaks absolutely to this moment in time we’re living in. Parenting in this moment. Dating in this moment. Being alive right now. It’s precision paced and flawlessly put together in the manner and style of George Carlin’s best hours. Disciplined and formal. Thematic even without have a bone marrow point or motif other than that of the selective outrage. I think the cap-off of the final Will Smith stuff, which as far as I can tell was a late add-in, not in the shows I saw, yet simply organic and real, needed, and what he felt. What the audience wanted, what was deserved.  A nice topping on an amazing cake that was brought out to celebrate this moment in a remarkable career.

STAND-UP SPECIALS GET A BREATHER (OR DO THEY?)

Robbie Praw and his team at Netflix truly do need applause for pulling off what they did. They made a stand-up special, which has sadly become a very tired event,  an ubiquitous hour of television, streaming, cable, and internet, and somehow successfully pumped pageantry and life into it in a unique way. I think Chris’s stature and the Will Smith of it all obviously helped, but the brilliance of the before and after show at the iconic Comedy Store, using just the right version of stand-ups from past, present, and future to comment, tease, and play, was perfect. It turned it into not so much of a prize fight or an awards event, but a major moment in stand-up history. The first ever live streamed stand-up special that needed to be lionized and canonized with adulation, flattery,  and also equal parts mischief and mayhem, by a handful of comic rascals. It somehow came off perfectly.

GOD LOVES MARLON WAYANS

At just about the same time, HBO dropped a Marlon Wayans special that was a true game changer. From Marlon comes an amazing piece of work from someone who’s not really known as a stand-up.  Someone more known as a comic actor, film-maker, even sometime dramatic actor. A member of an iconic entertainment family. A loveable, funny little charming guy that’s been in show business since the doctor pulled him out of his mother’s thing a magjingy, slapped his ass and made him cry.  I love Marlon. I’ve known him for years, and I think the world of him. He’s just a first class guy. I’m so happy about this special.

GAME CHANGER

I’ll say it again but anyone who sees this special, and you should if you call yourself a fan of stand-up, will see Marlon Wayans in a different light, so it is a game changer. This is so much growth for Marlon as a stand-up. Not that he wasn’t good. He’s always been too talented not to be ‘good,’. The family has it in their genes. But Damon is the one that stuck it out in stand-up. Damon. Shawn. Damon, jr. Keenan, I don’t think has done it in years. Marlon let it go for a long time. Trust me. It’s not easy to come back.

This was a stretch. This was a big shot, This could have gone really south. Deep south. It didn’t.  This is funny, and damn fresh. Truly different. Unique. That’s so hard to do in a stand-up special.

ONE ISSUE. ONE TOPIC. THE WHOLE SPECIAL.

This whole special is about the Chris Rock/ Will Smith slap-dust up. The entire special. From Marlon’s point of view. That takes a special kind of narcissism, yes, but that’s what some great art is about. How does what’s happening in the world look through the artists eyes? Marlon takes this event we all had opinions on,  serious opinions on, about three people Chris, Will and Jada, that Marlon’s known so well for years, and tells some seriously funny stories and truths, that reveal so much about Marlon and life in Hollywood. At the same time, it’s nothing about Hollywood or show business. It’s at the end, in a full circle, a wonderfully told story about acceptance, faith, love, and the foolishness of coveting any life but your own. A story about gratitude and love,  acceptance. Really. It’s about what way you want to perceive the world.

It’s a spiritual piece of work with every dick joke he could muster. No laugh left off the stage. He goes for it in the true brand of Marlon Wayans, just honestly, taken up a notch in terms of cleverness in the writing, (hell I’d say several notches). There’s so much growth here. You see and feel, come to understand the reverence he has for Chris Rock and his older brothers,  and even Will Smith, but to me the great joy is that he’s grown so much as a performer and writer and come to respect the audience and the art form in such a way that he would push himself in this direction. Allow himself to be this honest and this real. Trust that the end result would be so funny. So relatable. So charming.

THE WORK ETHIC

This is another one that couldn’t be short sheeted. There was no way to put this together the easy way. He just had to find it, then work it out. Beat by beat by beat. It’s hard work. Things have to change, move, once one thing works it makes another thing not work. Then to think it would lay out and hold still for a full special? And to put it onto a God motif and bring the things he brings back and forth back again, and again, it’s really a lot or work, and scary. I don’t think I’d have the balls to do it. In fact, sadly, I know I wouldn’t.

It comes off pretty great though. I don’t remember anyone else doing anything quite like this. Then to release it at the same time as Chris’s special? To go up against one of the greatest comedians of all time with this special? Wow. You have to see this. If you love stand-up. This one’s a winner not only because it’s funny, but also because it’s a real ‘special’. It’s something so different. Not a play, not a one man theatre piece. No, it’s stand-up. Highly charged and joke strapped. That’s why I love it so much, that and because it’s someone taking a shot and scoring. Yes, it’s a game -changer. Marlon Wayans is a true fucking stand-up now. He’s in the game. What he wants to do with it is anyone’s guess, but he’s in it.

I’m really curious what you think of ‘God Loves Me’, but I do know he loves Marlon Wayans.

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Theo Von put on one hell of a show at the Wilbur tonight. One of like six or seven sold out shows he’s done there this week out of something like twelve concert venues he’s sold out this month in the Boston area alone. It’s pretty amazing. I’ve never seen Theo headline his own concert like that, and I have to admit I was more than a little surprised how impressed I was.

A COMEDY STORE KID

Don’t get me wrong. I know Theo’s a big shot. He’s just kind of a Comedy Store kid to me. A bit of a wounded duck or something. I love the guy, so much. When I got back to the store though, after all those years to do the doc, for some reason I knew him more as a guy that was friends with my son, Burt. I kind of know him out of the business too. On another level because we’re both dealing with stuff about being sober and trying to stay sober.  I never really listen much to his podcast. We did a piece on him and it in the Comedy Store doc and I didn’t really get why people were so into it but knew they were. It was obvious. We filmed him a few times at the store, in an interview setting and on stage in the main room. I thought he was really good. Strong with a lot of potential. I loved some of the stuff he did about his dad being really old when he was a boy. He was a rascal on stage. I related to that. When I was a kid, I was the rascal at the store.

LOUIS C.K. INTERVIEW

I’ve listened to his podcast a few times recently and I have to say it’s growing a lot. At least on me it’s growing. The drawback to it is the same problem I have with him as a person. There’s a wall up a lot of the time where you always get the feeling you think he wants something from you or he thinks y0u’re going to take something away from him. Hurt him in some way. He doesn’t seem to want to let anyone really be nice to him. I get that vibe sometimes with the interviews. It’s a dance not to get too real. It can be a blur where he’s always in character as the ‘rat’, being so homespun, his guests never can really get to real or settled. It’s funny as hell, but there’s a vibe where you want to learn something on the next level.

The Louis C.K. interview was awesome. He and Louis really talked to each other. Theo was the best I’ve ever heard him be as an interviewer. He obviously respects the hell out of Louie, but that’s not the whole game with Theo. Respect isn’t enough. At the time he had Burr on I have to think he respected him, and that was a bit of a train wreck. (And it wasn’t all Theo’s fault that one.) He was so good with Louis because he let Louis in. He let him be nice to him. Compliment him. Talk about what Louis felt listening to his albums on Itunes. What Louis thought about comedy. He wasn’t suspicious about Louis. His guard was down. It was nice. Such a good interview.

His podcast is obviously a huge hit. He’s selling out these theatres like a stripper that won’t take money. Every seat is full. Every night.

A UNIQUE PERFORMER

I really was crazy about the set tonight at the Wilbur. I love to laugh out loud, hard. It’s not easy for a comic to make me laugh my ass off. A lot of acts make me giggle, chuckle. Nod a lot. Laugh in appreciation. Even wish I wrote some of the stuff which is the highest compliment I can think of. To laugh my ass off though? Consistently? For over an hour? Maybe Richard Pryor when I was kid at the Comedy Store. Burr used to always make me laugh so hard my stomach was sore. Constantly. I’d travel around with that guy and go to bed feeling like I’d done crunches. A couple times Whitney Cummings has made me laugh so loud I embarrassed my son. Brian Holtzman has made me lose it. Dane Cook.  Jim Breuer. There’s a ton of really, really, funny people. Only a few that can make me hurt. Tonight this little Southern fucker made me hurt. I was dying. The whole theatre was.

Theo’s act has grown so much since I last saw it. I love that. What he’s doing is so unique to Theo. It’s an act. Yeah. A heightened version of himself. He’s also more of a character than most top stand-ups these days. A hybrid of the authenticity mode we’re in now, and the days of Emo, Judy Tenuta, Bobcat, early Howie Mandel, Jim Varney, etc, etc. Throw in a little Andy Griffin or Burl Ives on LSD and you’re almost there to what he’s doing. Speaking of that, he told a story last night that was one of the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.  One of the funniest stories I’ve ever heard.  This was this gonzo story about him doing acid at sixteen and ending up at his grandparents house that he hadn’t seen in ten years, as high as you can humanly be, and asking them if he can get into bed with them to fall asleep like he used to the last time he saw them when, he was six. It’s truly masterful.

His storytelling is it’s own unique genre. Southern gothic stand-up gonzo. Stories like the one about him him hooking up on a dating app, in the middle of night, high again, with a lady with no legs. These stories aren’t told in a careless, callous way either. They come from a place of warmth. A guarded, beaten down, battle weary warmth. A tortured, traveling soul, looking to be a good man somehow. The audience never feels any different. There’s never an undercurrent of hate or malice. It’s confusion. A bumbling kind of positioning he’s found himself to have here on the planet that he’s sort of going to be okay with.

The haircut say it all. ‘I could grow it out. But I’d still feel like this guy, so what’s the point?’

He’s touring all over the place now. I think seeing him live is a whole different experience then the podcast or the specials. Do yourself a favor. Go here to his website and find out what’s close and go see him.

https://www.theovon.com/

Or there’s a link to his tour dates and all his social media and podcasts here on the site!

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There’s something in the air. It can’t be denied. Some of the best comedians in the world have come out of the Boston scene. I don’t know what it is but it’s been happening long enough that it deserves looking into it. I just spent two weeks there playing the clubs, the bar shows, and the basements. Did a crash course in the Boston scene, and I loved it. Don Zollo a Boston comic who’s a veteran of the scene wants to do a documentary on the history of the Boston Comedy  universe and I think he’s onto something.

DAYS OF THE DING HO

When I met Jay Leno in the late seventies in LA he had fled Boston to New York and then LA. He had started in Boston and had played crazy clubs. Not comedy clubs. Strip clubs and mob joints. Music clubs. Anyplace he could get up. There really wasn’t a ‘comedy scene’. Later on though, from the days of Barry Crimmins and the Ding Ho, Jimmy Tingle and Lenny Clark, it was a different world altogether. I always remember Boston as being this magical comedy town. Disneyland for comics.

I used to come visit my buddy Bob Nickman who had moved there from Cleveland in the tip of the eighties to work his way into this bustling scene. It was unlike any other city. San Fran was a cool comedy town. They had a major comedy competition and some funky clubs, Robin Williams started there, Bobby Slayton and Kevin Pollack and of others when I was just getting going, Samuels and Cohen, Will Durst, but there wasn’t the bite to it that Boston comedy had. The feeling that it really mattered. That it wasn’t just gums flapping and jokes flying. Barry Crimmins, Jimmy Tingle, Lauren Dombrowsi, Jack Gallagher, Mike McDonald, Kevin Meany, Janeane Garafalo, Paula Poundstone, Don Gavin, Steve Sweeney, and Kenny Rogerson were all incredible comics. They could tear a room apart. Make a crowd wonder if they were gonna make it into work the next day. Lenny Clark, Tony V, all those guys, they were masters, and the Boston crowds were so good. I used to wonder if it was because they drank so much. It had to help. It was more than that though, they were smart, crisp, and sharp, they were a mirror of the comics. They too had a jaundiced view of the world. Were ready to laugh at it. Make fun of everything. Piss on anyone that had any kind of an attitude.

WHEN STAND UP STOOD OUT

Fran Solomita, a Boston comic who was around and working the rooms at that time made an excellent documentary of this whole first wave that lays this all out with majesty. It’s so worth taking a look at.

STEVEN WRIGHT

Oddly enough, with all of these ball breakers, and deep thinkers, and world class story tellers, the stand-up that sort of broke the Boston comedy scene onto the national stage was a little guy with an oddball style who told Salvador Dali-esque one-liners in a bit of a whisper. A Johnny Carson show booker was in town and saw him at the Ding Ho had him come out to LA and do the Carson show and Steven killed.  It more or less put the Boston comedy scene on the map.

BARRY CRIMMINS

One of my personal favorites to ever come out of Boston was Barry Crimmins. Just a really special guy. An amazing political comic. The Mort Sahl of his time. I really want to do a piece on Barry one day here. One of my favorite docs ever is the one Bobcat made. Call Me Lucky. If you’ve never seen it, you’re missing out. It’s so good. Barry was an amazing person and entertainer and he was such a force of nature. A major piece of the puzzle that created the Boston comedy scene. The Ding Ho alone is a bedrock piece in what would be Don Zollo’s documentary I’m sure.

THE NEXT WAVE (S)

After the Kenny Rogersons, and Don Gavin, Lenny, Tingle, Wright, Paula, Dennis Leary, Bobcat and that whole group, another class or even two, would follow that was even deadlier with comedy firepower. A group that, in hindsight, would make you think, ‘holy shit’, why would anyone start anywhere other than Boston?’ I mean they just kept coming. Dane Cook, Louis C.K, Bill Burr, Patrice O’neal, Joe Rogan, Bobby Kelly, and so many others, Joe List, Doug Stanhope, just killers.

TONY V

Tony V is a funny fucker. He’s a Boston legend. A typical example of the kind of comedy town Boston is. They have their own heros. Comics that are just saran wrapped perfect for the place. Tony is one of them. He lays it out simple, as if he was put on earth solely to make them understand some of the day to day shit that’s been placed in their way.  He’s so great. One of the highlights of my two week trip was sitting around smoking a cigar with Tony, two smart young Boston comics, Will Noonan, Andrew Della Volpe, and comedy club owner John Tobin,  in an old time Boston cigar joint in the North End. It was like waking up inside of one of Dennis Lehane’s novels.

LAUGH BOSTON AND THE BEST OF BOSTON HEADLINERS

I was on a show at Laugh Boston which is a cool comedy club in South Boston. It was the a group of some of the best new comics coming out of Boston and Tony V and myself and what I saw was damn impressive. There’s no reason to think the magic train doesn’t stop bring the goodies. I saw at least five stand-ups that could break big time with some years and a little luck. There was some serious talent that night. The best one though, who I would put money on, is Will Noonan. He has chops to fall in line with Burr and Louis C.K., Sam Morril, that crowd. He’s a tremendous writer which is the most important arrow in the quiver. He’s also got strong stage presence. A very American stand-up vibe. Going all the way back to Andy Griffith. He’s old fashioned and modern in the very same blink, which is dangerous. He has a new special coming out shot at Capo which I can’t wait to see.

KELLY MCFARLAND

Someone else that was great to watch that night was Kelly Mcfarland. It’s not fair to call her a new act because she’s been around a long time. She’s a pro and in fact I think she probably had the best set of the night. Her and Tony V.  It was a tough crowd, a Tues night crowd, and she was the one that really got them going. Such a strong performer.

The two weeks was, as I’ve said, a crash course. Illuminating. Educational. Humbling, and inspirational. Josh Mandel, also a funny young comic, does shows at a place called Article 24, which is a great little room. Will Noonan has a show in the basement of an elegant restaurant in Southie called Capo that is a gorgeous room and was a lot of fun to work. I had a great time there. The whole trip was perfect. It’s pretty daunting though. I have to say to think of all the history and all the world class Boston comics. It’s mind boggling. Nuclear comedy history. If you’re into stand-up at all, look into that world.

Hey, also, if YOU’RE IN LA on SAT. APRIL 8, at 8 pm come out to this show. It’s going to be fun. Some good friends are going to jump up as well.

BUY TICKETS TO MIKE BINDER AT THE ICE HOUSE

https://www.showclix.com/event/ice-house-mike-binder-and-friends-april-8-early-show/listing

 

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A lot of people have been liking the piece that’s up on Katherine Blanford whom was working Laugh Boston last weekend. I appreciate the feedback, she really is that good, trust me. Another stand-up I met last week was a funny ass-guy named Geoffry Asmus. He works out of New York, and is seriously one of the best joke writers I’ve seen in a long time. He’s such a great gag writer. He loves the gag. He has great timing as well and a unique stage presence. Granted, he’s not  quite as hot Katherine Blanford, although he’ll spend a lot of time on stage telling you what an ‘alpha’ he is which is pretty humorous with his delivery of it.

A STAPLE AT THE COMEDY CELLAR

I’m told by a few of my friends there that he’s become a staple at the Cellar these days which seems like the perfect place for him. He feels like a ‘Cellar’ comic.  He reminds me a little of Dave Attell. Not sure why. From the early days. Maybe just the love of the joke that Dave and Jeff Ross, and now Mark Normand and Sam Morril have. Love of the work. This guy will make you giggle. If not, something’s wrong. It’s you, not him. He’s a welcome addition. I promise, he’s going to blow up this guy.

THE CIVIL WAR IS COMING

 

THE NEW WORLD

Look, I like the new world, the modern style of comedy, what Sarah Silverman, Chappell, Maron, Burr, and Colin Quinn do. I like good observational stuff and biographical, and hell even prop comedy works if it’s funny, but the reason I go on and on about Mark Normand so much is because he’s such a throwback. He’s so steeped in a meter that feels like it respects everyone all the way back to Milton Berle. A form in love with the simplicity of a set-up followed right behind it with a punchline. Jeff Ross loves that world. It’s what the roast relies on obviously. Bob Saget loved that world. Some people can straddle both wonderfully like Jim Norton, and Erica Rhodes. Then someone comes along like Normand who freshens the sounds of the old jokes up, and this guy. Geoffrey, does that times ten. It’s a delight.

CLICK HERE FOR HIS WEBSITE

CLICK HERE FOR HIS INSTAGRAM

CLICK HERE FOR HIS PODCAST

 

 

 

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Katherine Blandford is an Instagram and a Youtube star who is selling out clubs and shows all over the country being a stand-up. That’s the old fart hack way to describe her. Let me throw some salt before I tell you how good she is. Let you know she’s not a real comic. Didn’t pay her dues. Didn’t get passed by Mitzi or Budd. It’s bullshit. She’s got it all. She’s the real deal. I was so impressed when I saw her at Laugh Boston last week. She held the stage for over an hour to a packed house of her fans. She’s a solid entertainer. She’s a fucking star.

A HARD WORKING GIRL FROM ATLANTA

She’s got a great work ethic too it seems which anyone that read this knows it’s what I think is a big factor. The other one’s are smarts and star power, and she’s got both boxes checked off.  She grew up, apparently poor, in Atlanta, (crybaby) and she uses her life in her act in some really great bits and does excellent crowd work. I don’t know her, we said hello when I did a guest set last thursday night at Laugh Boston before I started at Nick’s. She was headlining all weekend and I heard she had an amazing weekend. Again, the by product of my getting back into stand-up is meeting all these great new acts and she fits the bill. (The other I met this week is Geoffry Asmus. Also did a profile on him here.)  Like I say, it’s easy to want to write off a lot of these newer acts with social media followings as not real comics, but Katherine brings a full toolbox of skills. She truy is the real deal. Funny and clever and holds the room together perfectly. In a few short years she’s going to be a monster up there.

HER OWN STYLE

I think the most important thing she has going is that she has her own unique voice right out of the gate. You don’t see anyone else in her. I mean in another era not to long ago, every agent, manager and casting director would be all over her right now. She’s got a Cameron Diaz vibe maybe, but I don’t know what that gets you right in this moment, but as far as what she’s going on stage, it’s perfect. She’s quick, agile, sexy as hell while somehow being humble, human, earthy and ‘just one of the gals.’ She also has an odd nervous energy about her, which full disclosure so does my daughter who’s her age and all her friends, which I think is a very contemporary thing and may in fact be a big part of her appeal. Who knows?

DON’T TELL COMEDY

She had a great set on Don’t tell Comedy which is a modern version of a breakthrough in a way that a cable special or a shot on a network special used to be. If you score, it helps big time, and I think she did. Almost a half a million views already.

 

THE TONIGHT SHOW

It seems like the most traditional thing she’s done yet is The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and she knocked it out of the park. Jimmy seemed to really love her as well.

 

FULL STORY

Here’s a fun little story she tells about going fishing with her brothers and her boyfriend. Indicative of her skills and her charm.

Yeah I don’t what her deal is or what she wants to do, but if I were a manager or an agent I’d be all over her. She’s got a serious future. Also, if I were a fan of comics and I wanted to see someone who was going to go onto to be a major voice, I’d go see her when she came to my town as well. Go to her website or Instagram and get the details. You won’t be let down. Katherine Blandford. She’s really good.

CLICK HERE FOR WEBSITE

CLICK HERE FOR HER YOUTUBE PAGE

CLICK HERE FOR HER INSTAGRAM

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With Rick Newman, the Catch a rising star creator and czar’s passing, just one day after his lifelong best buddy Richard Belzer’s death, a long, mystical, mythical, and momentous chapter in American show business came to an official end last week. ‘Catch’ will forever hold a special place in the history of not only entertainment, but of stand-up comedy.

RARE SHADY SPOTS WHERE A STAND-UP COULD REST EASY FOR A BEAT.

‘The Improv’, The ‘Store’, ‘Catch’, The Comic Strip, The Holy City Zoo in San Francisco.  Sometime in the seventies after Phil Berger summoned a lot of us out of our homes and our shells with his near biblical book on stand-up, The Last Laugh, these legendary clubs became the rare shady spots where a stand-up could rest easy for a beat. We would huddle up in those rooms, at the bar and in the back, in between horrible auditions and road jobs that stripped our skin of any dignity. Or back from opening act work that taught you how not to be yourself for sixteen or so precise minutes in front of a large crowd taking their seats while not giving a shit about you in a similar way that everyone else in your life up to then had not giving a shit.

These comedy rooms where we all met and found each other, like minded silly souls, huddled up, each new grade or group, one after the other, dreamers and schemers, watching and wanting, were our new homes, hide-outs, hangouts, and meeting places. ‘Catch’ was the most magical though. It was the most cinematic of the group. It was a thin as a rail kind of place. At least to a kid from Detroit used to business and bars and nightclubs being wide and tall, having big parking lots next to them so everyone could park their Detroit made cars.

‘Catch’ was a railroad apartment version of a nightclub. By the time I made it out to New York to see it, by 1976 or so when Phil Berger wrote of it so perfectly, it was already a piece of heaven to a kid like me so it didn’t matter what size it was. It was already huge. I waited in line for potluck on a short reconnaissance trip I made from Detroit one spring break during high school. I met Larry David there. He was brand new, as was I. I saw Billy Crystal there for the first time. He wasn’t new. He was a hot shot. He leveled the room the night I saw him. Impressions,  bits, faces, stories, Muhammad Ali. Howard Cosell. He was almost too good. I truly thought I should give up. I saw the great Ed Bluestone who wrote some of the funniest one-liners I had ever heard. We had all taken note that he and Billy had been signed by Woody Allen’s people, who were apparently there regularly scouting new talent.

 

DAVID BRENNER

The legend of a lot of these clubs lift-off can always be charted to one comics rise. The ‘Stores’ is to Jimmy ‘J.J.’ Walkers. Robin Williams lifted the Holy City Zoo and they say Robert Klein and Bette Midler had a lot to do with the success of The Improv in Hell’s Kitchen.  The Comic Strip owed a lot of it’s Ooompf to Eddie Murphy and Jerry Seinfeld.  All of that could be legend and rear-view. Half and whole truth. It could leave a lot of other’s success and hard work in the dust bin, but that’s the way history is, I guess. The ‘Catch’ story is the David Brenner story. It’s Rick Newman’s version, so it’s probably laced pretty heavy with veracity.  The night in the mid-seventies that David Brenner, who was hot as hell at the time, came in and agreed to jump up, changed everything.

David Brenner was a Tonight Show staple which at the time was like being a Joe Rogan regular, having your own hit podcast, five Netflix specials, and, pictures of Ted Sarandos naked with a sheep. That’s how powerful he was. He fell in love with the place and was there all the time. Other big names followed.

JERRY

I started coming back to ‘Catch’  several years later after going home to Detroit, then moving to L.A. after high school and becoming a ‘store’ guy. Whenever I was in New York I would play ‘Catch. Rick was always really good to me. A lot if it had to do with my friendship with Larry Brezner, one of his best friends. Larry was Robin Williams and Billy Crystal’s manager.  Also, Richard Belzer who I knew from the Comedy Store helped out. Belzer had the run of the place and if he wanted you to get up, you got up. Whenever I was there back in those days, most times, Jerry Seinfeld was there. Jerry, Gilbert Gottfried, Larry Miller. Mark Schiff was there a lot. There or the Comic Strip. He was one of the funniest guys around. Another act comics would come from the bar, or outside, to go inside and watch you always hear about. *I was one of those acts that comics would go out to the parking lot to tell each other stories when I came on.

WALKING UP FIRST AVENUE

I remember walking up First Avenue on the way to the club, usually having just left The Comic Strip, or maybe having been down at Dangerfields. I was always in such a hurry to get to ‘Catch’. It always seemed like a place I could just breath. Like a spot in the middle of the city where I was normal, known, and somehow okay in. The truth is I wasn’t all that much of any of the three there. It just felt it. Rick was just warm enough, the other comics comfortable enough, the lights sort of low enough that the dream and the plan, or the lack of either, wasn’t in the way just enough that I could sit around and hang out and laugh until late at night.

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“The only time Chevy Chase has a funny bone in his body is when I fuck him in the ass.”

THE DEVIL

When I started in comedy Richard Belzer was the King of Catch of Rising Star and Catch a Rising Star was the coolest place in the whole God Damn world. Rick Newman ran it and he was the coolest guy in New York and Richard Belzer was his guy. Patty Benatar was his gal. She was a rock star and Belzer was the devil and he played the part of a comedian at night. Everyone was there then. Elayne Boosler, Billy Crystal, Larry David. Belzer was the first rock and roll comedian. He was Josh Adam Meyers grandfather. He was Big Jay’s great Uncle, and long before Slash and Axel Rose were coming to the ‘Store’ and doing lines up at Cresthill with Sam Kinison, and Sandler was pals with Springsteen, and Jeff Ross hung out with all the rock stars he does, Belzer was asshole tight with Jagger, Dylan, Tom Petty and the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stone was writing about him then, calling him out as the devil.

 HIDING BEHIND DARK SHADES

He wasn’t the devil though. He was just a nice Jewish funny as hell kid that liked to get high as a kite off stage. He wasn’t a mean guy. Not at all. He was a nice guy off stage. Onstage though he didn’t give a damn what you thought. He hid behind a pair of dark shades and just said whatever the fuck he wanted to say. He was one of a kind. One of the first. That’s why he matters. A lot of people zoomed right by him to success. They were better at playing the game. Controlling themselves. Controlling their demons. The problem with The Belz is he was the demon. He couldn’t control himself and didn’t want to for a long time. He was happy being Stand-ups Satan. He was happy being that guy, and for that reason no one else could be that funny, fuel that fire.

He would walk on stage and ask the crowd how they were. ‘Having a good time?’ If they responded ,’Yes’ He’d wait a beat, then say. ‘Yeah. I doubt it.’ But he was ballsy in a time most everyone else wasn’t. Maybe Pryor. That’s it. Everyone else in comedy was fishing for ten minutes sets on Carson and then a sitcom. This was even a hiccup before the cable specials. Belzer was only out to make the club audiences laugh then himself laugh and get off and get high.

A few years later he came out to LA and was a fixture at the Store and Improv. His act became even more brave and brusque during those years. Further down the road of non-compliance. We were all in awe of him because he so didn’t care. He also was so much fun to party with. As I said, he was a good guy, there wasn’t anything mean about him, he was just fun. He was also in love with his wife at the time who was one of the best looking women God had ever dropped onto the planet, and she just was pleasant to be around as he was. Maybe more.

He was once doing a special for HBO with Marty Callner for Chevy Chase and I remember this incident like it’s yesterday, where late one night after playing at the Comedy Store he got way fucked up and for some reason he was down on Melrose and smashed out several storefront windows with rocks. He got caught right away. Didn’t even run. He was arrested, and Robin Williams had to bail him out of jail and pay the damages to the store. I remember it so clearly because it was out of character a bit, and also because a few nights later we were all up at Mitzi’s in her living room, getting high again, and I asked him why he did it and his answer was priceless.

‘If I knew that, Baby Boy, not only would I be a wealthy man, I’d be sane.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz-JGUfaGnI

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The biggest thing about Richard is that he broke all the rules and he succeeded. He was the dark lord long before it was okay to go dark. Before that was cool or acceptable, watchable or sustainable. He taught comics it was okay not to care. He brought on Sam Kinison and Dice and many, many others. He didn’t have a safety net. He found love then got lucky with Munch. It wasn’t a plan. It was a gift. He didn’t set out to land safely. He did. Thank God. He was a good man. Love you, Belz!

 

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Okay so I want to say that in the year since I’ve been writing this blog I’ve tried not to do too much of anything negative. When I have, it’s been a mistake. I’m in a place in my life where I truly do love the art and craft of stand-up comedy. I love what it is, where it sits in the world, love where it came from, and where I feel it’s going. I love doing it again and enjoy chronicling it. I can’t go much further though just writing only about what’s working to me.

I have to be honest about what I see that is hitting, and what isn’t hitting and why from my point of view it isn’t firing. What I learn from it, and what it means to me. What I think I can explain to you about it.

A RARE OPPORTUNITY

This last week offered a rare opportunity to for me to do that in the delivery of two unique stand-up specials on two polar opposite platforms with two incredibly talented performers with drastically disparate results. Marc Maron released BLEAK TO DARK on HBO MAX and Roseanne Barr premiered CANCEL THIS on FOX NATION.

THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS

The biggest takeaways to watching both of these specials, very closely, is that there are no shortcuts to being great in stand-up comedy. Probably in anything. Shortcuts only get you a spot at the back of the line anytime, but in stand-up, it’s merciless. It doesn’t matter how rich or famous or infamous or how big a platform you have, you can’t skip the line in terms of the hard work it takes to build a first class hour. It can’t be done. You can’t jump time. You can’t cheat the hours. You can shorten them with the years of experience, you can hire writers to help. You can get more stage time at clubs to jump up and hone the act, to whittle, to grind, to dig, to polish, then dig and grind some more, but the work has to be done. There is no way around it. None. Not to be great.

Anyone that is great will agree with that.

Roseanne

Has been great. In the past. She’s not great here. She’s flat. She’s dull. She’s got no wind at her back here. She has no jokes here. None to speak of. Maybe three or four at the most. It’s all attitude and brass and silly faces. Anger and posture. I’m sorry to write this because there’s a lot I respect about Roseanne. About her journey. For the record I think the people at ABC shit on her and treated her badly. Overreacted when she made a mistake a few years back.  Susan Rice and her friends at ABC should have shown more humanity. They didn’t. She made a hit show and brought them an audience they didn’t really want which was silly, and they killed her character rather than using it as a ‘teaching moment’.

That being said, Roseanne blew her chance to craft a smart, reasoned, heartfelt comeback special here. To teach everyone a lesson in comedy, unity, valor, love, and understanding, in a time when we badly need that lesson. instead she showed a whiny, childish, lazy, immature, amatuer version of herself that validated the rancor that was dumped on her.

I don’t care what she says, she didn’t work hard on this special. Not like she did in her heyday. No way. She didn’t hit the clubs. Not night after night. Not for six months to a year. She didn’t record late night sets or drop in sets. Hundreds of them. No way. She didn’t watch them back  for hours at a time with confidants or writing partners or comic cohorts. Didn’t play comedy clubs doing the hour every night for six weeks in a row every single night week after week until the night of the taping. I guarantee she didn’t. She may have worked out a few times. Not a lot. No way in hell. Not nearly what I laid out here. Not nearly how she used to lay out her early specials or her early Tonight show shots.

Not nearly as hard as Chris Rock, and Dave Chappelle have worked out all of their last specials. As thoroughly as Whitney Cummings, and Bert Kreischer, Tom Segura, and Bill Burr worked out theirs. Not a chance in hell.

She had a good-ish joke finally about ten minutes in. After a lot of sass and attitude. A lot of crowd pleasing ‘I’m gonna get everyone back tonight’ stuff. A bit about growing up in Salt Lake City and her mom being Jewish and unlike the other Mormon wives she was the only wife in the house and had to do all the work. Yet it didn’t go anywhere. It wasn’t worked out. She didn’t take it anywhere. She took three minutes of chat to set it up and then threw the one-liner out and it was done and she was back to flapping her gums to silence. She wasn’t there. She didn’t bring it.

“The world has changed a lot since I was alive”

She had great notions and ideas. She has a great comics mind. She didn’t work them out at the Store or the Cellar or on the road in clubs, or on tour. ‘The world has changed a lot since I was alive.’ is followed by a lot of nothing. Funny notions about not having any ass  “being ass-less in an ass based economy” were never fleshed out. They weren’t given the months and months of repetition where night after night a new tag or idea would be added or replace something else so an idea would become a bit and a bit would become a hunk and a hunk would become a piece. That’s how a set is built. Slowly and methodically. Like putting a very tough puzzle together. You can’t get deep on a short dig. You can only get dirty. Messy.

Old people talking about their maladies.

Another notion that went nowhere that could have been something special was a routine about old people talking about their maladies. Instead of becoming something funny and raw, real and revealing about aging and dying, it just became ‘Oh just die already.’ and then it was done. The same with a nice idea about writing suicide notes to her loved ones and what she’d say. Unfocused. Scattered. Repetitive. Read off the paper and truly first draft stuff. This was a comeback special is all I’m saying. She’s a legend. Put some back ache into it.

The elephant in the room

The biggest problem was how she dealt with the elephant in the room. The tweets about Susan Rice. It was, again, all atitude. No jokes. Not a worked out routine. Just a lot of ‘they fucked me. They suck. It sucks. Not fair.’ Then moved on. She didn’t find the great comedy in the calamity. In the injustice. She didn’t use it. Didn’t take the high road or the low road. Just spit it all out in a way that a pissed off neighbor would be about a cop that arrested them unfairly a year later. You expect more from a great humorist. When you don’t get it you walk away empty.

I’ve made these mistakes/ I’ve watched others not make them.

I wasn’t a legend. But I had my shots and I used to get yelled at a lot by Leno and other friends, and for a lot of reasons, in my late twenties when I was doing stand-up the first time on a big stage, I couldn’t hear it. I didn’t put the sweat in. It came too easy. I didn’t understand the ‘craft’ part. I didn’t understand how hard the great ones were working. I only understood how much I wanted the rewards.

Back doing it again, watching the masters of today, older, soberer, a little wiser, I understand it better. You can’t skip the process. You either love it or you don’t. You’re either willing to do it or you aren’t. You can’t fool yourself that you’ll get over. You certainly can’t fool the audience. If Roseanne had done the work, had crafted a masterwork, which she could have, even if it was on Fox Nation, she could have turned some heads. She won’t. It makes me sad.

It also was poorly produced. I have to say that as well. It wasn’t all Roseanne’s fault, although this is her domain to be sure as well. The audience was overlit. Too many audience shots. It looked like a game show shoot sometimes. It had no sense of her status, or gave her none.

She did herself no favors. Comics should watch this. There’s a lot to be learned in the dead air and the attitudinal crutch- like moments. The anger that doesn’t feel even real, let alone funny. Not like the days of the domestic goddess. It’s a good lesson. I remember back when you had to wait to do the first Tonight show. You have to wait now to put out a special. Get it right. Get it tight. Have something to say.

Maron / The other side of the coin

I’m sorry again, because I have to kiss this guys ass. I’m a good friend but I can’t say I’ve ever been a huge fan of his stand-up. I’ve enjoyed his stuff. Always thought he was good. Smart. Talented. A good podcast guy. That’s for sure. This special though is another thing altogether. This is next level. Also something all comics need to watch. Very important. It’s a killer. It’s just opposite. The other side of the coin. A master class. This is an hour that was worked, pushed, pulled, tested, rolled, tried, written, rewritten, lived, re-lived, sweated, and formed from angst and emotion over a couple years. Marc didn’t tell me this, I didn’t read it an article. I understand it watching this show. It’s baked into the work. It’s as close to perfect as an hour special is going to be. Deep, dark, real, and funny as hell. Jokes. Jokes, and more jokes. Funny jokes. Real emotion, then more jokes. It doesn’t stop.

More importantly, it feels like you’re seeing something that someone put his soul into. His heart. His time. Someone worked really hard to get it to this point. It mattered to this person. He needed to get it a level that it would mean something to you, because it meant so much to him. There is air, but it’s not dead air. There is anger, but it’s not misplaced. You may not agree with the anger, but you understand his reasons for it. When he attacks Christians I’m not with him, but it’s clever, and funny, and I know what he’s saying and he makes me laugh. His opening piece about his ‘voices from the future’ one-man play is bleak and dark, as the title of the special implies, but it’s crisp, funny, unique and well thought out. He’s a great performer, yes, but he’s put his footwork into it get this to you.

Great jokes

Wrapped inside some heavy stuff are some great one-liners that I bet Woody Allen would even wish he’d have written.

“I believe there was some hilarious people in Auschwitz . I mean c’mon it was all Jews.’

On abortion;

“I can’t believe guys are silent on this.  Considering if they had any game at all they paid for at least one or two of them”

On Priests

“There’s a lot of priest around with a lot of free time and historically that’s not a good thing.”

By the way, in contrast to what I was saying about Roseanne, these one-liners all lead to, or are part of a much larger notion or routine. It’s all been flushed out. He never leaves the audience wishing he had gone down a road he had pointed to and didn’t go down.  He deals so poignantly  and brilliantly and yes, hilariously with the loss of Lynn Shelton, his elephant in the room, that it almost feels like a magic trick. Then he ends with a physical comedy routine which he acts out to precision, of attempting suicide with a baseball bat. It’s all so well done. So well conceived, without feeling manufactured. With so much real emotion.

Also much kudos to director Steve Feinhartz, and his production crew, and HBO MAX. The production here is so good and so cinematic. The flip side of the coin. The audience isn’t lit. Hardly at all. The stage is majestic. It’s really wonderful.

Again, every comic needs to watch both of these specials. I’m sorry to shit on Roseanne. I am. I wanted to champion her. It’s what I want to do here. Then I thought, if you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything. That’s not my mission statement for this platform though. I think we need to look sometimes at the data in the black box after the accidents at the same time we’re looking at the wins. Especially at the time when the form is going so well, growing so strong

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