I had a damn good time working with Rich Hall this week in Las Vegas at the Tropicana Hotel at The Laugh Factory. Rich makes me laugh, hard. He’s so damn likeable onstage, which is not easy to do when you’re a world class curmudgeon. He’s such a smart writer and storyteller and works the crowd in a way that very few others can. Very few others can get away with.

MULTI- TALENTED

It’s an overused word these days maybe, but that’s because the best artists have to wear a lot of hats and Rich wears a lot of hats. (in fact, oddly, he wears more hats than any other guy with a full head of hair I know does, shrug) but he writes, performs, his shows, plays, he’s done films, he’s a damn fine singer songwriter, he can deliver baby calves and sheet metal skyscrapers. I may have made up the last couple of those but the guy wears hats, trust me. He’s truly multi-talented.

SNIGLETS

His first shot to fame was with a little known verbiage he created called ‘Sniglets’ on HBO’s ‘Not Necessarily the News’. ‘Sniglets’ were names for things that didn’t have them yet. That needed names.

When your dog leaves slime on the window; PUPKUS.

Anticiparcellate: Waiting until the mailman is several houses down the street before picking up the mail, so as not to appear too anxious.

Strumble: That invisible object you always pretend made you trip, when it was actually your own stupid clumsiness.

Arachnidiot: A person, who, having wandered into an “invisible” spider web, begins gyrating and flailing about wildly.

Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

Brakenoia: The act or urge of stepping on the brake on the passenger side of the car

Carperpetuation: The act, when vacuuming, of running over a string at least a dozen times, reaching over and picking it up, examining it, then putting it back down to give the vacuum one more chance.

Dopeler effect:The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Ellacelleration: The mistaken belief that repeatedly pressing the elevator button will make it go faster

Essoasso: any person who drives through a corner gas station to avoid stopping at the intersection.

Exaspirin: Any bottle of pain reliever with an impossible-to-remove cotton wad at the top.

Execuglide: To propel oneself about an office without getting up from the chair.

Expresshole: A person who goes through the grocery store’s 12-item express lane with 22 items.

Fictate: To inform a television or screen character of impending danger under the assumption they can hear you.

FRIDAYS, SNL, ETC

He went on to be a regular on the variety show, Fridays which was an ABC version of SNL for a few years.

Then he did a season on SNL. This is one of my favorite sketches from that year.

Here’s a good piece of stand-up he did on the show, which by the way, was rare for a cast member to do.

THE UK

Years later Rich went over to the UK and did really well. He’s a regular at the Edinburgh festival and on British ‘telly’ for ages now. Not long ago I was there and we met for dinner and walking through the streets we didn’t get ten feet without folks wanting to say hello and take a photo with him or ask what he was up to. He tours there regularly and has a place in, I believe, Shepherds Bush.

TOM CRUISE

This is one my favorite of his stand-up bits.

THE EX-PAT

I love this piece as well. He’s great over there playing the American trying to help them understand us.

I will say if you ever get the chance to see Rich live make a point of it. He puts on a great show. He loves it. He’s a hell of a guitar player as well.