Joe Rogan: Talking Monkeys in Space

by John Delery

A loopy hour-long lecture with hilarious punch lines describes Talking Monkeys in Space, the latest CD from the always voluble and volcanic Joe Rogan.

Consider this release from Comedy Central Records, Comedy 303, a master class in creative joke writing from Rogan, whose onstage persona resembles that of an eccentric, engaging and thoroughly engrossing teacher. In the end, his wild theories about life, love and the loco weed loosely educate but mostly entertain the class, or, in this case, the audience listening to Rogan riotously rant at the Southern Theatre in Columbus, Ohio.

The hardly abstinence-minded professor imparts uproarious lessons in biology (identifying the microscopic culprits — commando sperm! — responsible for surprise pregnancy), anthropology (debating creationism and evolution without, unlike the Religious Right, going ape) and what amounts to a short course in rehabilitative theology (an imagined, well, sexorcism between the Rev. Ted Haggard and the Anti-Gay Team enlisted to vigorously shepherd the vacillating vicar back to the heterosexual flock).

The professor turns confessor throughout this album, which concludes with a raucous Q&A. He cheerily and endearingly spills his sexual and pharmaceutical peccadilloes with his students, disclosures that help ground his utterly outré approach to comedy.

To buy Talking Monkeys in Space, just click the graphic below.

Video interview with Dov Davidoff

by Punchline Magazine

There was no stopping our love for Dov Davidoff once his 2008 album The Point Is… hit the comedy scene. In fact, we chose it as one of that year’s 10 best albums. His breakneck pace on stage, his on-the-verge-of-complete collapse delivery style and his refreshing and just plain hilarious observations on family, growing up and relationships serve our souls well.

So, we’re tremendously excited that Dov will be premiering his own one-hour Comedy Central special Filthy Operation, May 1 at 11 pm EST. We were even more excited to get a chance to spend a few minutes with the LA-based comic at the Hollywood Improv. There, Punchline Magazine’s Matthew Gill chatted with the New Jersey native about growing up in a junkyard, losing his virginity and much more. Enjoy!

Dov Davidoff interview with Punchline Magazine from Punchline Magazine on Vimeo.

Now, check out some previews from Filthy Operation!

Jokes.com
Dov Davidoff – Bad Week
comedians.comedycentral.com

Jokes.com
Dov Davidoff – President Flavor Flav
comedians.comedycentral.com

Video interview with Nick Swardson

by Punchline Magazine

Nick Swardson is a busy man. How busy? The self-described hard partyer has had to severely cut back on his alcohol intake to ensure he’s bright eyed and sharp for his many meetings and call times to movie sets. He’s currently in the midst of filming the flick Just Go With It, starring Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman and Adam Sandler. What’s more is that we’ll see Swardson in his first movie lead role in September in Born To Be A Star, about a kid who follows in his parents’ porn star footsteps.

So in the middle of all this, Swardson made some time to sit down and chat with Punchline Magazine’s Matthew Gill at the famed Comedy Store comedy club on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles. The result was great. Matthew got a really sincere, thoughtful conversation out of Swardson. It’s a side of the otherwise goofy-on-stage comedian we rarely see. Bonus: Special guest appearance from Pauly Shore. Check it out and leave your comments. Enjoy!

Nick Swardson interview w/ Punchline Magazine from Punchline Magazine on Vimeo.

For more info on Nick Swardson, check out some of Punchline Magazine’s past coverage:

Live Review

Interview from 2009

Carolines Breakout Artist: Carmen Lynch

by Punchline Magazine

Print out this page and bring it to the venue to get $5 off Carmen Lynch’s show at Carolines on May 4! Ticket info here.

World famous comedy venue Carolines on Broadway and Punchline Magazine have joined forces to present the Breakout Artist Comedy Series. Each Tuesday, at Carolines in New York City, an emerging stand-up comedy star will headline their own show and prove just why they’ve been quietly building a name for themselves in the national comedy scene.

And since we here at Punchline Magazine are all about exposing the best comedians – well-known or not – we’ll be profiling each comedian taking part in the Carolines series each week. So let’s get to this week’s headliner: Carmen Lynch!

Carmen Lynch is the offspring of a petite Spanish nurse and a tall American Naval officer. She was born in California — that town where Clint Eastwood was mayor. She began her performance career flamenco dancing in Spain. She has pictures to prove it but doesn’t remember much– like a party where you drink too much, except she was five.

She received her psychology degree from the College of William and Mary, then applied to the FBI but failed the psychology portion of the exam. So she moved to New York to pursue acting. She fell into comedy by accident when I started reading my journals at open mics: “Dear Diary… WTF? I’m 6 feet tall and no one ever thinks I’m Spanish. It hurts.”

Carmen’s been on Comedy Central, NBC’s Last Comic Standing. HBO’s U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo., and some Spanish stuff like SiTV’s Latino Laugh Festival, toured as one of the Latinas of Comedy with Paul Rodriguez.

So, now, let’s get to know Carmen a little more!

Not including at a comedy club or comedy event, tell us about a time where being a comedian came in handy.
Well, I’ve performed for difficult audiences, and this only helps you become a stronger person. Now when I try to make my 4-year-old niece laugh and I bomb and she leaves the room, it doesn’t hurt as much.

Who do you think are the breakout artists of the next few years?
Any of the 17 other performers doing the “Breakout Artist Comedy Series” who don’t
break out this year. They just need a little more time.

You got into comedy by reading your journal at open mics. What would possess you to do such a thing?
I was too scared to write my own jokes, so reading from my diary felt like I was stealing from someone else. If I bombed, I wasn’t responsible.

Any particularly embarrassing entries?
Does “Dear Diary, I love you” count as embarrassing, or do other people write that kind of stuff?

You speak fluent Spanish and often do Latino comedy shows. Do you think that gives you any kind of extra advantage?

I’ve always been grateful for Latinos accepting me into their Latino community. Especially since I’m not Latino. So far only one booker got mad at me for being from Spain. He got all up in my face about being too tall and having pale skin. Then he accused me of lisping when I [pronounced "Cerveza," "Cervetha"]. I told him I love Shakira and eat enchiladas, but it made no difference.

What’s next for Carmen Lynch?
Why are we talking about Carmen as if she’s not here?

Where will you be in a few years?
Not in New Jersey. I’ve been in the same apartment for 10 years. I need to be on that show Hoarders. Hopefully. I will have been cast as a bad, bad person on Criminal Minds or at least as a dead person on CSI. I want to be in one of those buggy-eyed mouth-open dead- people scenes. I guess I’ll have a few more new jokes. Hopefully a CD and one of those Comedy Central Presents things and maybe sell a few more T-shirts on the road. Maybe more Twitter followers. And someone will read my sitcom. Stuff like that.

Check out Carmen live, as she headlines May 4 at Carolines in New York City. Get your tickets here. And remember: print this page out to get $10 off!.

Marc Maron delves into the real Robin Williams

by Punchline Magazine

Since Marc Maron launched his popular podcast WTF, he’s proven himself a deft interviewer– someone who’s able to welcome comedians (and the occasional non comedian) to his garage — the site of most of his episodes — or his guest’s hotel or in a parking and anywhere in between, and make them feel comfortable enough so that the result is as compelling a conversation you could hear on anywhere.

He’s admittedly pathologically narcissistic, but it’s obvious he’s just as interested in the way others process life and deal with emotions as he is with his own idiosyncrasies.

On Monday, Maron will release a pretty special episode of WTF, featuring comedy legend Robin Williams. If you follow stand-up comedy even a little, you’ll know that Williams has been dealing with some major life situations the past few years: a divorce from his wife of 20 years, alcohol rehab after two decades of sobriety and heart surgery (aortic valve replacement). Maron managed to land an hour long interview with the man.

“I had about one degree of separation with Robin Williams,” Maron tells Punchline Magazine. “We’d hung out a couple of times but we weren’t tight. I was taking a trip up to his neck of the woods. I thought I would try to track him down. So I did and he agreed to an interview.”

Maron continues: “No matter what your opinions may be of him he was, and might still be, one of the biggest comedy stars in the world. I was nervous because I didn’t want to get caught up in the Williams riff cyclone and be blown out without getting a real interview– a genuine conversation with him. We sat down for about an hour and he stayed still and focused and open. This is a rare chat with a huge star.”

And below, exclusive for Punchline Magazine readers, we have a trio of clips from the show before it posts in full on Monday. You’ll want to go to iTunes or wtfpod.com to hear the whole thing.

Maron and Williams talk heart attacks:

Maron and Willams talk Robert De Niro

Maron and Williams talk blackouts

W. Kamau Bell: Face Full of Flour

by Tom Keller

“I don’t mind the crowd dividing up,” W. Kamau Bell says after a collective should-we-laugh? moment early on his debut album, Face Full of Flour. “That’s when we’re getting to shit.”

Bell gets to a lot of shit in a hurry here, proving himself one of our country’s most adept racial commentators with a blistering wit and a willingness to say what you quickly realize you’ve always thought. He is relentlessly intelligent, fusing references to create a rich expression of incredulity in a post-Obama world.

He bemoans the fact that the first black president isn’t more of a dick; and his title track implores Obama to shield himself from criticism by making it look like he’s working harder than he really is, a la the mother in the old Rice Krispies Treats commercial who throws flour in her face, “even though,” Bell says, “we all know there’s no fucking flour in Rice Krispies Treats.”

Some weighty issues get handled with ease here, and Bell rightly credits himself after one joke for getting a 10 from the Russian judge for technical difficulty. He compares the recent town hall meetings to Casual Friday at a KKK rally, and in a riff on the Henry Louis Gates story (listen below), he suggests that your home exists precisely so that you can flip out there, which is why we get mad at homeless people for flipping out on the street.

Bell is head-shakingly clever when he hopes aloud the economy gets so bad that Native Americans use their casino money to buy the country back. And his vision of apocalyptic America has nothing to do with mushroom clouds, but with a mass liberal exodus to Canada had McCain and Palin won the election, and the cries of the left-behind conservatives: “Hello? I don’t know how to make a latte!”

This is a thinking man’s album for the common man’s problems, an applause-worthy effort from a comedian with plenty of important things to say about the world.

To buy W. Kamau Bell’s Face Full of Flour, click the image below. Do it. Seriously. Now.

Brian Posehn: Daddy Weirdest

by John Delery

If HGTV ever launches an adult channel, who better to host “Do-It-Yourself Sex” than Brian Posehn, the apparently frequent star of his own, well, one-man sex show. The virtually shameless longtime comedian takes the modern comic’s staple joke, masturbation, to a hilarious new high — or is it an incorrigible new low? — on Fart and Wiener Jokes, his new CD from Relapse Records, available on April 27.

Pulling himself away from his pastime long enough, Posehn speaks to Punchline Magazine about fatherhood, his longevity in the business, and the nearly limitless boundaries of comedy.

The last time we spoke was four years ago, when Live In: Nerd Rage was coming out, and at that time you were newly married. Now you’re a new father. It’s nice to see that you’re one of the few comedians who get married, become a father and don’t go all introspective on us. Is that conscious on your part?
Yeah, even before I had my kid I did this joke onstage about how I hate when comics have a kid and change — become as you said all introspective, or the word I use is “pussified.” I mean they’re no longer edgy and talking about abortion or whatever it was they talked about before. The next time you see them onstage, they say, “And then I looked into my baby’s eyes and saw how precious life is.” I kind of hate that, and I used to say, “If you ever see me doing that onstage after I have my baby, I want you to punch my baby.” Now that I have a kid, that bit has changed to where I do the setup, but then I say, “And now I have a baby, and I’d like for him to remain un-punched.” So it’s kind of about staying edgy…but there’s still the concern that someone’s going to hold me to it and punch my baby in a mall.

But it definitely is conscious. It’s not just about having a baby — I feel like I’ve always tried to do my own thing, and I’ve always tried to be a little more pure to myself, oh not always, but since I’ve become an older comic — in the past 10 years at least — I try to be more pure to who I am and to what makes me laugh and then I hope the people that like that will continue to like that. The friends I really look up to or the other comics I really look up to are guys who are really pure to themselves. I used to hate when comics would do bits about their kids and then I saw Louis C.K. do it, and he made it OK. And there are guys like Greg Fitzsimmons…and now watching Patton [Oswalt] going through the same thing I’m going through. Not that I think I’m as strong a comic as Louis or Patton, but, uh, I like to think I try like they do. Those two are just two of the best comics out there, in my opinion. One of the reasons I love them is that they’re themselves.

Off Lucky Louie and his stand-up, I don’t think we have to worry about Louis C.K. ever becoming a squishy, gooey-centered comic.
Or hacky at all either. But I think that comes from us really being aware of who we are and what we’re saying and constantly wanting to put our spin on things, even if we take a hack topic…I’m definitely guilty of that. I take topics that have been used before, but I always try to put my own spin on it, so if it’s not completely original, it’s mostly original, if that makes sense. Part of that comes from being around these guys and their purity rubbing off on me a little.

Is there a time limit on that sort of comedy — being you?
I hope that there isn’t a time limit on it. I feel like I wasn’t always that way. I feel like when I started, like everybody who starts, you don’t know who you are onstage. Some guys find it in two years, but most guys find it five or 10 years later. I feel like ever since I found it, I’ve been pretty true to that, and I just hope that people will grow with me and as my life changes, I’ll always be able to find what’s funny about myself or at least what I think is funny about myself. Like 20 years from now, when my kid’s in college, I hope I’ll still be able to talk about it. I want to be doing stand-up down that road. I feel like guys who pull away from stand-up…that’s what makes them not fit in anymore, you know what I mean? I don’t know if that totally makes sense, but if you stay into it, I think that shows.

Jokes.com
Brian Posehn – Suggestions From iTunes
comedians.comedycentral.com

Exposure on television, like yours on the Sarah Silverman Program, is what lures many stand-ups away from the stage. What makes you want to continue to tell jokes?
For me, it’s my main source of income. Being on Sarah Silverman [he says, laughing] only goes so far. Nobody’s getting rich off any shows on Comedy Central, other than the guys that already have: you know, your Dave Chappelle and your Matt [Stone] and Trey [Parker, the creators of South Park]. But nobody else is getting rich at that network, well maybe [Stephen] Colbert and [Jon] Stewart — so five people. The rest of us are not getting rich there. It just is what it is: It’s a fun job, and it’s been great, but I can’t count on it, you know. But stand-up I can, so I just continue to work on that and stay visible and stay in the clubs and hope I stay relevant or at least stay relevant to my crowd. I feel like I definitely have my audience, and I hope they stay with me.

Has that crowd grown through the years?
For sure, yeah, yeah. It’s been great, and it’s not just metal heads. It’s people who like me and a handful of other comics, and then it’s your comedy nerds, and I also appeal to nerds who maybe don’t love a lot of other comedy but like what I talk about. Then I’ve got the metal guys that don’t like anything else other than me. They like me and they like metal, then they hate everybody else [laughs].

How do you come to the determination that you have enough material to put out another album?
Once I realized I had another 45 or 50 minutes of nothing off the previous CD, I knew it was time to record this and start working again on new material. I recorded the CD almost a year ago because it took so long to do the music part of it [Fart and Wiener Jokes wraps up with two metal songs, a parody, “More Metal Than You,” and a surprising rendition of Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler”] and a couple of other things sort of slowed it down. Since recording, I now have 25 brand-new minutes, so hopefully a year from now — or less — I’ll record another one.

Some of my friends, like I was already mentioning, are more prolific that they’re able to turn it around in a year. I don’t know how anyone can write an hour of brand-new stuff in a year. It just seems, how do you do anything else? How do you see movies? How do you sleep? Have sex with your wife or do anything else?.

So the biggest process on this was the last two songs?
That’s what kind of slowed it down. I’d originally hoped that the record would’ve been out this past Christmas. We kind of got pushed because I took awhile with the music, and we also went into production on Sarah.

I was totally thrown — not in a bad way — by the inclusion of the “The Gambler.” Was that a tribute to Kenny Rogers or what? In short: Why that song?
It just came from me making my friends laugh doing karaoke, when my wife has dragged me to that type of establishment. I always try to make it funny because I don’t really think of myself as a singer. So what I’d do is take a song like “Vacation” by the Go-Gos or some random pop song or whatever and then I growl it death metal–style, and it’s made my friends laugh. I’d done “The Gambler” once at a restaurant or at some karaoke joint. Last year when I wrote “More Metal Than You,” I was trying to think of other original ideas, but nothing was really making me that happy.

Jokes.com
Preview – Brian Posehn – Where Do I Know You From
comedians.comedycentral.com

But one day I was driving, and, I don’t know, I thought of this song and thought of getting Scott [Ian] to do the music metal-style, and it made me laugh. So I called him and said, “Hey, what if we do ‘The Gambler’? I’d growl the whole thing and get someone like Jamey Jasta or somebody to make it hard-core,’ and Scott just laughed. He was like, “That’s awesome. I can’t believe no one’s ever done a metal version of ‘The Gambler.’” I went home and got online to make sure, and nobody had. It doesn’t totally fit in with my comedy, but it fits in with me being at this metal label and being with these metal friends and kind of being able to do whatever I want. It just felt like something that needed to be done.”

Its unexpected presence on the album is really what makes it funny.
I could’ve done a parody, but the lyrics are what really made me laugh. To me, it is sort of a metal song. If you know the band Hatebreed, where Jamey Jasta is from, they’re all about these mantras. Every hard-core song is, “This is the way I do things. This is how I live my life.” That’s what “The Gambler” sort of is. It’s this life lesson put to music.

Did you need permission from Kenny Rogers?
Only to shoot a video, so we’re not doing that [laughs]. He’ll get a piece of it — there is licensing — but I don’t know if he had to actually OK it; I don’t think he did. I’d love to hear that he heard it at some point. I think he would just be completely puzzled. I don’t think he knows who I am or Scott or Jamey, so I think he’d just be, “Who are these assholes? What did they do to my song, my beloved [song]?”

How has your life changed since the birth of your child?
Without getting too boo-hoo about what I do, it’s made it tougher. I’m very lucky to be able to do what I do, but sometimes it’s not that fun. I’m not a road dog, I don’t love being in a different place every night. I don’t love being around a ton of strangers. I kind of have my comfort zone, but being a headliner, it’s important to be out all the time or be out a good deal of the time. I am very thankful that I have crowds that come see me, but sometimes it’s not that fun, and especially when you have a little guy who you just want to be around. Without being too mushy, it is one of the greatest things to ever happen to me, especially now in the past couple of months when his personality is forming, and it’s new, it’s different every day.

And to be away for seven days in a row or whatever — usually I’m gone only like four or five days, but occasionally a week will connect with like a couple of one-nighters, and the next thing you know, I’m gone for eight days. It’s hard, but my wife [Melanie] does really well on her own, so I’m really happy that she’s not calling me every five minutes wondering, When the hell are you coming home? She understands that I’m doing what I have to do, and she does her end. But the other part is, yeah, I feel like I’m missing out on certain things. So when I’m home, I really immerse myself in being a dad.

How old is he?
He’s nearly 11 months.

What’s his name?
Rhoads.

Any significance to that name?
It came from the last name of Randy Rhoads, the guitar player for Ozzy Osbourne. But it wasn’t like we said we have to name him after Randy Rhoads. It came from my wife and me — she’s super cool — wanting to be original, but not wanting to be Hollywood assholes and giving this baby a [weird] name this poor bastard has to go through the rest of his life with. I came up with the idea of taking last names of writers and artists and comedians and musicians, and we were just saying all these names for a couple of weeks. At one point, we thought we were having a girl, and she would have been named after one of my favorite writers, Richard Matheson, who wrote I Am Legend and worked on The Twilight Zone.

Then we were looking for boys names, and there were some that would never work, like King — Stephen King is one of my favorite writers. And you don’t want to name your baby Dickinson. I don’t know, it just came from throwing out all these last names, and that one clicked. I said, “Rhoads,” and she went, “Hey, that’s cool,” and I’m like, “Yeah, no way. Let’s move on.” And then she’s like, “No, no I do really like that.” I like it because I said it, but then it stuck. At first my mom was like, “What is that? Can’t you call him something else?” But now everyone that knows him is, “He’s a Rhoads; that’s who he is.”

Talking about my kid makes me feel like what we were talking about: Being that guy. That’s why then I have to write jokes like masturbating while my baby cried. I’ve got to keep it edgy. Don’t want my baby to get punched.

You’re one of the few comedians I believe when you say, “True story.” Do you pride yourself on that?
Like I just did another interview, and someone’s like, “That Dennis Rodman thing [on the album] didn’t happen,” and I was like, “Yeah, it did.” If I say it’s a true story, it is. He walked into a roomful of people he’d never seen before, and he actually said, “Someone’s getting fucked tonight!” My friend and I just stood there looking at each other, like we can’t believe this is happening. As soon as we got into the car and were leaving this place, I’m like, “You know that’s a bit. Dennis Rodman just wrote me five new minutes, thank God. But that’s going back to ‘how do you stay relevant?’

My act has become so much about stories and then me kind of jumping off from these real stories and turning one-minute stories into a five-minute bit. You know at a certain point it becomes about living life or letting these experiences just happen. And I’ve even said to my wife, “Do something funny.” I’ve found that I can really get great material from her. So every once in a while I’ll say to her, “Hey, I’m running out of material, you’ve got to mix it up. Do something stupid or say something funny.”

Jokes.com
Preview – Brian Posehn – Where Do I Know You From
comedians.comedycentral.com

I believe the Dennis Rodman bit without hesitation, but the one joke I might be a little incredulous about is the one early on in the latest release. You’re lying in bed thinking you’re going to make love to your wife, and it turns out you’re not, so you resort to, well, a solo performance.
My wife said, “Do I have to be here for this?” I swear to God. She should’ve been a comic; she’s
a funny girl. She also should’ve been a voice actress — she’s hilarious. She manages comics; she was around Greg Proops for 10 years. She loves me, she gets me, so just from that you know she has a sense of humor. So she said that, and then the fart joke. She actually farted in my car as the valet was coming up to the vehicle, and I said, “Did you just fart?” In the act I say, “Did you just beef?” And she actually said, “Yeah, but he’s just gonna think it’s you.” So perfect.

Do you ever hang you head in shame?
[Laughing] Yes, occasionally. I do have a line — I mean it’s in my head, I will step over it, but I know where the line is.

For more info, check out brianposehn.com. And to snag yourself a copy of Fart and Wiener Jokes, click the image below. Do it!

On tour: Catching up with Bo Burnham

by Punchline Magazine

Bo Burnham, 19, likes to begin his comedy routines like Hitler began his speeches.

Recently at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, he strutted over to his piano leading a cheer of “Hey! Ho!” with the audience, and said Hitler gained power in the same way.

Burnham gained his power with an endearing, nerdy persona and YouTube. He was the youngest comedian to appear on “Comedy Central Presents,” and performed first for his family as a child at “Bo Shows.” He grew to 6′5″ but never outgrew of his need for attention.

In 2006, he posted videos on YouTube that he filmed in his room in Massachusetts. The videos had 10 million views in eight months. He’s moving from home movies to the big screen now, writing a script for filmmaker Judd Apatow. Burnham named the main character “Bo” in hopes of landing the starring role.

His floppy hair makes any joke seem less offensive, but he says he’s not in comedy to shock or offend. He hates being called a “shock comic.” His witty jokes and self-deprecating humor, often juxtaposed against dramatic piano chords, make him one of the biggest crazes on college campuses nationwide.

He’s touring the U.S. and Ireland this year in his Fake ID Tour with a piano, guitar, triangle, and a notebook of haikus.

The 400 seat venue at IUP sold out in less than a week. He took the stage with a Red Bull in hand, boasting that his “Where the Wild Things Are” t-shirt was a size medium.

Burnham is a fan of his fans, and didn’t let his security guard’s rules stop him from getting pictures with students after his show. He politely excused himself from his dressing room filled with Peeps, Red Bull, candy cigarettes, and a giant bowl of assorted candy to see his fans, saying that he felt bad for leaving them out there. Security soon told to him to go back inside.

His frenetic energy, or possibly a high from sugar and energy drinks, was as obvious on stage as in the interview. It was held outside near a semi-hidden staircase. He looked crowded as he perched his lanky frame on a cement wall for the casual chat, while my legs nearly dangled off the ledge. But, despite his subtle narcissism, Burnham isn’t one to make his fans feel small.

Where do you draw the inspiration for your comedy?
There’s no real huge angle I’m trying to get at. I’m not trying to say anything or prove anything. The comedy comes from the comedy I love. I just want to challenge the form a little bit. I think all the alternative comics did that, but just settled into this post-modern smarminess. It’s so weird, because in stand-up comedy the only rule is you have to stand on stage and talk and be funny, but for some reason, 95 percent of the acts look exactly the same.

Jokes.com
Bo Burnham – His Whole Family Thinks He’s Gay
comedians.comedycentral.com

Can you tell me about your “Bo Shows” that you did as a kid?
Well, I believe firmly that there’s nothing to respect about anybody that entertains for a living. They’re just little kids that wanted attention, and then, when they grew up, never learned selflessness and never learned every single day isn’t about them, and, sadly, get rewarded for it. It’s wrong and it’s horrible, and I’m aware that it’s a vice. But nothing has really changed from “Bo Shows” to now. The mentality has not changed. I’m still a 3-year old up there, just to be, like, “Look at me!”

How did you get discovered?
I posted some videos online and those spread around — the whole viral thing. It just slowly and invisibly built an audience. I kind of tried and, and it worked, and just kept going with it.

How has the notoriety effected you?
I’m not notorious in any sense. My personal life is no different than anyone else’s, really, except buzzing around and doing this stuff.

What do you do in your spare time?
I’m on the Internet a lot. I play piano. I read a little bit. I watch a lot of comedy.

What was your worst experience at a show?
I played a show at an army academy, and all the sergeants were in the background with their arms folded. I think I said something about “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and it didn’t go very well. They neither asked, nor told, nor laughed.

What did you think of the protestors at Westminster in March, 2009? What was your reaction to that?
They’re so bored, they’re like, “Oh, let’s protest a kid with a guitar.” They had misquoted lyrics. If you listen to my show for more than four seconds, you would realize, “Oh, it’s a comedy show. Ok.”

If you weren’t in comedy, what would you be doing?
I’d be at NYU studying theater. I’m glad I’m not doing that. I love theater, but I don’t know where that was gonna go.

Why did you decide to integrate music into your routine?
I stumbled onto it in the beginning, and now it’s more about trying to make music an integral part, and at the same time move away. I don’t want to be, like, a sing-songy concert comic. I want it to be more like a cabaret act.
It’s not learning where to integrate the music, but learning more if the music needs to be integrated. Does the music add another layer, or, are you just telling crappy jokes that are made decent because there’s a tune under it, which I don’t like. I definitely love the music, but I never want to use it as a crutch. The music needs to be there for a real reason.

Do you think you would have the same appeal if you weren’t a young, innocent-looking person? If you were, say, a middle-aged balding man?
That’s hard to say, because what would I be? How would I think? If I was a middle-aged balding dude with an 18-year-old voice, probably not. I don’t worry too much about that stuff. I think that’s a big problem when comedians try to write for the audience. What do people love nowadays? Snuggies! I’ll write a song about Snuggies!

When I started getting a little bit of success, I thought, “Well, I’m never going to write for anyone but myself, because that’s what got me here. If I was a 40-year-old balding dude, I would be writing about whatever I thought about as a 40-year-old balding dude. There’s that Sarah Silverman irony in understanding what your image is and playing off of that.

I think jokes should always be more clever than they are offensive, and the offensive stuff should just be like the King Lear. The higher they are, the bigger the fall, and the more dramatic it is. So, if you take something that’s very dramatic, and very elevated in people’s minds, then the comic fall will be bigger. So you use that. But, no, don’t just be like, “Aids!”

Jokes.com
Bo Burnham – Bo Raps
comedians.comedycentral.com

How has your comedy evolved since you first began?
My first CD was material that I never thought would be on stage. But this new act, I’m building it for the stage. A song should be embracing the lyrical way you can write jokes. I’ve been trying, with the music, to become more dense and more varied and more subtle. The big change is building the material for the stage, and building a cohesive show rather than like I’m playing around a campfire.

What are your plans, personally, for the future?
I don’t know. I’m not worried too much about that. I am a young comic that needs to find his voice. In having that young mentality, I feel like it gives birth to other experimentation. I just want to keep experimenting on stage and keep challenging myself to do other things.

For more info on Bo, check out boburnham.com.

Simon King: Unfamous Comedian

by John Delery

Dear java junkies and caffeinds of all kinds: To survive that, oh, one minute when Starbucks closes to clean the coffee machines and drag the bulging moneybags to the bank, may we suggest you mainline the adrenaline teeming from Unfamous Comedian, the Robin Williamsian–wild new comedy CD from Simon King.

Forget wind, solar and nuclear power: King may be the best alternative-energy source in America. He recorded this riotous release in one take at the Comedy Underground in Seattle — and in one breath, it seems.

Just listening to him race from joke to joke may qualify as an aerobic workout for everyone except King, who, judging from his Baconator body, exercises only his right of free speech. Always aggressive but never cruel, King walks onstage and then sprints through his eclectic set, opening the main vein of his imagination and unleashing all the quirkiness that makes this disc from Uproar Entertainment so different, so interesting and so vigorously entertaining.

He works at Robin Williams’ demented pace, but King has a bit of antic Jim Breuer and Frank Caliendo in him too. In laughably loony premises his animation and comic cred make plausible, King mocks (Nazis, Catholics, Cheney, Jesus and jihadists) and mimics (llamas, Brits, Aussies and the most insidious earthlings of all: the baby mamas and baby daddys on The Maury [Povich] Show). An hour later, King finally decelerates and relaxes, and the audience and listeners, like fitness fanatics, are left winded but exhilarated.

Click the image below to buy the album:

Video interview: Tom Green

by Dylan P. Gadino

You know Tom Green as the father of modern day Guerilla comedy. But he started his career in laughs as a stand-up comic when he was 15. Shortly thereafter he was gloriously derailed when he signed a record contract to put out rap albums. And by the way, the dude is no joke when it comes to rapping. He’s got serious skills.

But now, Tom is back to his stand-up comedy roots; he’s in the midst of touring the world to bring his hilariously eclectic show to the masses. And I recently had the pleasure to sit down with the man at Comix in New York City, as I tend to do for Punchline Magazine’s web series A Tight Five. Check out the results below.

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