DANE COOK’S NEW SPECIAL – AVAILABLE NOW

Mike Binder on October 5, 2022

Dane Cook is a walking on the ice, change the game kind of guy. Let’s please not forget that. Back in Myspace days he took the folks of Myspacetown on a wild ride and gave the world a glimpse of The New World of Comedy. (Quick plug for my new doc series. Sorry.) Seriously, Dane Cook was and is a stand-up pioneer. Now he’s portaging again through fresh new trails, posting up his great new special on Moment, a platform for content creators to release their own work.

THE NEW WAY

This is now officially the way of the day and the future to come in a big way. This is where stand-up is going. The next level. HBO took it from Showtime, Netflix beat it away from HBO with a giant wallet. Now smart thinking comics with half a brain are realizing what Bill Burr said to me three years ago ‘a Netflix special isn’t special anymore’ and with their new commitment to pay comics way, way, less, and the ability for comics to self release on the level of what Dane Cook is doing, and what Andrew Shultz has done, selling their own specials direct to consumer, that may turn out to be their version of turning over the keys to the kingdom.

Add that in with the serious amount of views comics like Mark Normand and Shultz and so many others have gotten on YouTube and Roku and several other platforms, it doesn’t make sense for a comic to sell themselves for pennies on the dollars to Netlix, or to Showtime, or anyone for that matter. Dane has taken a page from this and tacked into the skid. He’s made a fantastic special with a long-time creative favorite of his, the legendary director, Marty Callner. He shot the damn thing in his backyard. Just turned the backyard of his Hollywood home. (Sorry Hollywood mansion) into a stage for a stand-up special.

It’s actually a really great idea. A guy just telling jokes on his front porch. How back to basics is that? It doesn’t matter that the front porch is like a thirty million dollar estate, what matters is the guy is happy to have his friends over to listen to him jaw.

MARTY CALLNER

Marty Callner did awesome work as always. He’s a true artist. Truth be told it’s not my style personally for a stand-up special to use cranes and swoop as much as this special does. I have a gut preference that the camera work for stand-up should be as simple as hell and pretty much stay the hell out of the way. That’s me. Marty happens to be the master of this style used here and it does give the show spectacle which it may need considering it’s just a guy on a porch, no matter how hoity toity the porch is.

It’s a beautiful looking special. Crisp, perfectly lit and moves like a race car. The sum total of it is a piece that’s big and game changing and at the same time small, acoustic, sentimental, and revealing. It’s quite a feat.

STORYTELLING

I happen to love story telling in stand-up. Robert Klein was one of my idols growing up and was a wonderful story-teller. Chappelle tells great stories. Pryor told a great tale. Sara Silverman has become a first class story-teller. Dane has plopped down on the shelf with all of these comics and showed that he more than belongs. This is a turning point special. You have to understand, he OPENS with a fifteen minute or so story. And it kills. It’s so good. I loved it. It’s a true story and I won’t say much. Just go buy this special and watch it. He follows that with stories about his life, and his fiance.

A 30 SECOND LAPSE

My favorite part of the special though is another really long tale of Dane in his early career having a moment where he wanted to quit stand-up. A moment he claims was singular. One thirty second lapse in belief that he was destined to do this. It’s one of my favorite stand-up pieces ever. I adored it. It’s wild and you don’t know where it’s going and it shows, to me, stand-ups great potential to entertain and more. The story in it’s journey is raucous, sad, inspiring, goofy, silly, and heartbreaking, and finally is everything that needs to be said about what it takes to believe in yourself. It’s truly a magic trick. The special is worth the price of admission for just seeing this piece.

THE MOMENT

https://www.moment.co/

The moment is a platform where artists can sell their wares directly to their fans. It’s their moment. Right now. This is a window opening to the future. This will be how it’s done for so many things. Stand-up, music, series, films, everything. It may very well be a streaming killer one day. We all may very well just buy the items we want rather than pay for the 10,000 shows we don’t want and the executives salaries we don’t need to pay. If you’re someone who has Netflix, HBO, Showtime, etc, you could buy a dozen specials a year, a dozen movies, and and a dozen tv series and still be in the realm of all you’ve spent on the streamers you’re signed up for.

It would also be a better group of shows, series, and specials for you. It would be exactly what you want. And you may just have Dane Cook to thank for helping usher it all in because the game is now on.

Go buy his special. You won’t be sorry. This one is special.

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LET’S NEVER FORGET; DAVID BRENNER

Mike Binder on September 19, 2022

‘DIDJA EVER NOTICE?’

David Brenner was one of my favorite comedians growing up. I used to love to watch him on the Tonight Show in my early teens. He, to me, in the seventies, was the best of the new comics Carson had on. He was one of the first of the ‘young comics’ of his day to win by doing repeated shots on Carson. I know the comics today work their buts off, and come up with a whole new hour with every special, but back then a guy like Brenner had to dig deep to constantly come up with six minute spic and span sets for television. It was hard tedious work. Stand up pointillism. Brenner was a king in this realm.

He did hundreds of Carson spots. In fact for several years, as he’s talked about, Carson made him come on and do a full stand-up before sitting down. Much longer than he made any other comic. One night during a commercial break Johnny asked David if he was curious why he makes him do a stand-up still after all this time on the show. Brenner was curious. Johnny told him that sometimes during the show he needed a break where he could sit back in the dark and laugh and smoke a cigarette. That’s where Brenner came in.

My favorite joke about first doing The Tonight show is one of David’s. We put it into the Comedy Store Documentary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-emIs_c8nZo

Brenner had a lot of class. He was also someone that truly befriended younger comics. New acts like Richard Lewis and Jimmy Walker talked often, and still do about his generosity of the spirit and heart and even how he helped comics out who needed money.

He really was one of the all-time best. He may not have changed comedy like a Pryor or a Lily Tomlin did, but he gave the joint a lot of class. He worked his butt off and he always put on a great show. Watch some of his stuff. He really mastered his craft. I hope we never forget this guy.

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STANDUPWORLD – A NEW PODCAST

Mike Binder on September 17, 2022

Check out my new weekly podcast. Standupworld. This is episode #1. It’s obviously going to take some time to get it right, but have a watch.

Thanks,

Mike

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PEARLS FROM THE YOUTUBE OCEAN; ARE YOU GARBAGE?

Mike Binder on September 16, 2022

If you aren’t into Are You Garbage yet, this is a great primer.  Stand-ups Kevin Ryan and H.Foley host a raucous fun podcast and also take it live to great effect. Check out their special on Youtube, and also their podcast.

THE SPECIAL

LIVE AT THE COMEDY STORE

 

THE PODCAST

These guys are great. So much fun. Truly out of their mind. Get into them now before they end up dead or in jail. (Or both.)

They’re on tour, check them out.

CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT THEM ON PATREON

https://www.patreon.com/AreYouGarbage

Thanks!!

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PROFILE; RACHEL FEINSTEIN

Mike Binder on September 14, 2022

HOT JEW BROAD MAKES IT BIG IN STAND-UP. (FILM AT ELEVEN)

I have to say Rachel Feinstein really should be a major fucking huge star. I mean, don’t get me wrong, she’s doing great, but in another time, she’d have a ‘That Girll’  or a ‘Rhoda’ like sitcom and be headlining theaters and maybe even arenas. I’ve never met her, but she’s truly one of my favorite comics. She and Yamaneika Saunders, Rosebud Baker, Jessica Kirson and, a few others are part of a wave and a generation of comics that are just gut funny and it has nothing to do with the fact that they’re women other than it’s what they joke about. They have all of the firepower, brass, sass, and oddity of the mind of the best male comics working.

Rachel is such a solid performer. A great joke writer, a great character comic, and mimic. She’s also sexy as hell. She got that thing that Rosebud and Whitney Cummings have which is supposed to be a rule breaker in that she’s great looking. You’re not supposed to be really good looking to be a comic. Rachel, and Rosebud, and a few other women working have basically shit all over that rule. I’ve compared Rosebud to Michael Keaton in the past, in terms of her instant likeability, and handsome charm, but Rachel, to me, feels like a throwback to the notes Marlo Thomas played in her heyday. I know it sounds sexist as hell to say this, but a great looking woman is truly fighting an uphill battle to be funny in a lot of men’s eyes. You’re looking and thinking about anything but the jokes you’re supposed to be listening to. Yet, a great comic is a great comic and once you settle into the fact that she’s got the chops, the looks are just an add-on.  Like something a car dealer is going to throw in for “an amazing” price when you go back into the office and close the sale.

I think, besides the jokes, her best asset though is her characters and voice work.

Watch the small sketch/ short on this Instagram post. It’s right after she does one stand-up joke, but then it cuts to a piece where she plays an older woman having a relationship with a guy in prison. It’s a lot of fun. (With @dansoder playing the convict.)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CiNeQwSvr03/

Rachel would be great on Saturday Night Live. I’m not sure if that’s something she’d want to do, but if Lorne Michaels were on his game, (which he hasn’t really proven to be for awhile now.) she’d have been a cast member awhile ago.

I love this piece. A PSA she does for women. “How to get a fella.’

Born in Bethesda, Maryland, Rachel grew up in a traditional Jewish household. It wasn’t until the family moved to New York when Rachel was seventeen that she was able to begin to practice her comedy. She appeared in Comedy Central’s Samurai Love Gods, a made-for-mobile production, was on her friend Amy Schumer’s sketch show, in an Amazon series and did a couple of her own Comedy Central specials. 

It took a few more years and flops before Rachel finally got her big break. Last Comic Ctanding had been a favorite of stand-up comedy lovers. The ability to watch new talent fight for their comedic chance on stage in a survivor-type-like show merged what many loved about reality TV and stand-up comedy. Having launched the careers of Alonzo Bodden, John Heffron, Josh Blue, and Iliza Shlesinger. Audiences finally got a chance to watch Rachel grow as an artist and a stand-up comedian. 

One of the most notable bits that Rachel performs involves stories based on intimate personal experiences, dick pics, and sending nudes to the wrong number. She regales the audience with the story of sending an intimate picture to the wrong number and then having her best friend also send a picture to the same wrong number. She wonders what it would be like to be on the receiving end of those pictures and what she would think.  

Rachel ‘s a force to be reckoned with. She is no holds barred, filthy, and knows it. She embraces her down-to-earth weirdness and runs with it. How else can a young white, Jewish girl from New York suddenly sound like a 250lb thug from the streets named Trey.

   

I also relate to her a lot. Maybe it’s the Jew thing, maybe it’s because she started really young and so did I, but even more than that to me she’s a perfect example of what I love in a comic. Someone with a whole set of tools in their bag, that’s spent a long time working it, and just comes off like such a craftsman. Like I said earlier, she does seem to be a little out of her time, and in fact in another era, Amy Schumer would have been known as her friend, but she’s also perfect for this time as well. Her Youtube pieces and her Instagram bites are a great way to showcase all of her tricks and tools. A road Marlo Thomas or Valerie Harper never had.

Do yourself a favor and go see her live when she comes to your town. I’m going to as soon as I get a chance. In the meantime watch these links here, and enjoy her work.

CLICK HERE FOR HER WEBSITE AND TOUR INFO;

Home

THE TOP SECRET COMEDY CLUB – LONDON’S BEST COMEDY CLUB

Mike Binder on September 11, 2022

I’ve spent almost the last week playing the Top Secret Comedy Club on Drury Lane in Covent Garden. It’s hands down the hottest comedy club in London. With a wild spark plug Punk rock beer spewn air to it, it’s a jam packed jungle of laughter that almost seems to shake side to side when the rooms are hit with the thrilling and throaty waves of uproarious laughter.

I went to the club the first time on the first of September when I arrived from Los Angeles. I was part of a contingent that met up there with Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle and Jeff Ross that descended on the place. Dave and Chris were jumping up onstage and it truly was like watching a nuclear fission go off the crowd was so excited to see them. I really don’t think that part of London had seen something that exciting in years. I sensed even Chris was shocked at how crazy the crowd was going. After finally getting them to settle down, he just calmly told them. ‘Please, try to manage your expectations.’

There’s two rooms at the Top Secret. The upstairs room which probably seats 150 and the downstairs room which I’d guess is a 250 seater. They’re both always sold out, and the downstairs room is the best room / non-safe space for comedy in London. It’s raucous and racy, with a young audience downing pitchers of beer and cheering on all the anti-woke jokes the world has to offer.

A PUNK CLUB

It does feel like a punk club. A punk club meets what you kind of feel the energy was like at the Cavern Club in Liverpool when the Beatles played there.

The club first opened in 2010 in a Community centre – one night a week – Friday – the owner, Mark Rothman,  a street performer at the time, was doing street shows in covent garden at the time juggling chainsaws, and he would do an a extra bit in his wrap up for money speech telling them about his new club and gave out flyers after the show to get people in.  It built from there and has become a true staple on the stand-up scene in London and I suspect all of England.

CELEB DROP IN’S

The Chappelle- Rock drop in was not that out of the ordinary either. Like the Original Comedy Store in Los Angeles, in the early days, and now, anyone and everyone drops into the Top Secret to work out new material. Pretty much the top names in Stand-up. Amy Schumer, Trevor Noah, John Bishop, etc. This week as I’ve been there, Paul Chowdhry has been jumping up to do guest sets and the crowds have been going pretty nuts for him as well.

MARK ROTHMAN

As I said, the club is the brainchild of the owner Mark Rothman who’s himself a damn great stand-up and former street performer. The hardest working little fucker I’ve ever seen in a Comedy Club or maybe even in comedy. He puts on upwards of twenty shows a week, goes on stage as emcee, works the door, the til, and just about every other job in the place. The vibe and vigor of the Top Secret is a direct result of Rothman’s energy. He’s a gift bag of all the tools of the great Comedy Club owners from Mitzi Shore to Dan Ward, Budd Friedman, and the Detroit Comedy Castle’s Mark Ridley. He loves comedy and he loves comedians. He’s a unique presence, and the heart, soul, and the DNA of the Top Secret. (He also pays his comics well, which I give him kudos for.)

 

VISIT THE TOP SECRET

If you’re in London, or visiting, you owe it to yourself to go and catch a show at The Top Secret.

Here’s their website to get tickets. Get them in advance. As I said, every single show sells out.

Click link or photo for tix.

https://thetopsecretcomedyclub.co.uk/

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PEARLS FROM THE YOUTUBE OCEAN; TYLER FISCHER

Mike Binder on August 31, 2022

Enjoy this new special by Tyler Fischer that just dropped August 11, 2022 on Youtube. It’s a pearl, for sure.

 

You can throw the man a little something as a thank you for the laughs. He self-produced this pearl. It’s not gonna hurt. Just do it. And in a worst case, watch it and toss it around on your social. He’s good one.

Venmo: @ComedyShow

PayPal: PayTylerFischer@gmail.com

Cash App: TipsForTyler

Join Patreon and get BONUS jokes/out takes and exclusive weekly vids: https://www.patreon.com/TylerTalks

Follow on ALL socials: @TyTheFisch

https://linktr.ee/TylerFischer

BONUS; Great Billy Burr spoof.

 

 

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