Carolines breakout artist: Mike Vecchione

by Punchline Magazine

Print this page out to get $5 off admission to Mike Vecchione’s show at Carolines on June 29. Get more 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: Mike Vecchione!

Born in Youngstown, Ohio and raised Italian American and Catholic. Mike’s father was involved in a family business and his mother was and is an elementary school teacher. As a family, they moved back and forth between northeast Ohio and South Florida throughout his childhood.

Mike started playing contact football at age 9 in Florida and wrestling at age 13 in Ohio. Mike’s senior year of high school he placed second in the Florida AAA State Tournament and went on to college at Pennsylvania State University where he wrestled in 1991-1992 and tutored student athletes. He moved to Philadelphia in 1995 with his bachelors degree in criminal justice and began work counseling adjudicated teens and children with mental health issues.

He started teaching special education in the Philadelphia School District in 1998. He received his masters in Special Education in 2001 from Cabrini College and continued to teach in both public school and residential school settings.

Mike started stand-up comedy in 2000 and moved to New York City in 2003. He’s performed on Comedy Central’s “Live at Gotham” and you’ve seen him on IFC’s hit show “Z-Rock.” He was also a contestant on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” in 2010. In 2009 he won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Comic at the NY Comedy Festival. Mike was also the 1983 and 1984 Spelling Bee runner up at Pine Grove Elementary School.

He failed to advance to the national bee in Washington D.C. because of the complexity of the word “ruthless,” which he still spells with two o’s.

Who do you think are the breakout artists of the next few years?
The people who will break out in the next few years are the people working hard, under the radar right now. Hopefully I’m one of those people. If I’m not, you’ll probably see me connected to a ponzi scheme or oil spill.

Before you started comedy, you were a wrestler and a teacher. Do you find stand-up to be similar to wrestling? Teaching?
Wrestling and teaching are the perfect activities to prepare for stand up: Wrestling teaches discipline and hardwork, but most of all… overcoming adversity-(losing), then having to rebound. Teaching forces you into preparation, and dealing with situations on the spot, while everyone else is watching abd judging.

Teaching and wrestling go hand and hand….when a person is not listening, put them in a submission until they tap, signaling that they have had enough and they are now prepared to pay attention….

You’re currently a contestant on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing.” What’s the competition like? Are the performances more nerve-racking than usual? As it is a reality show, do the producers try to start fights or hook ups between cast mates?
Last Comic Standing is a great experience. It’s primetime television, so you are obviously trying to be as funny as possible in the time they give you to attract as many fans as possible; because it is a competition it helps to physically harm the other competitors if necessary — kind of like that prison show: Lock Up – when someone is a snitch.

Which reality show stars do you think would be the best at stand-up? Snooki? Heidi Montag? Tim Gunn?
The reality show stars I would like to see do stand-up are the Jersey Shore kids. They would learn rather quickly that you cannot fist pump your way out of bombing in front of a live audience.

What’s next for Mike Vecchione? Where will you be in a few years?
In a few years, I hope to still be doing stand-up, writing and producing and starring on a TV project. Here’s my project idea: I’m thinking a guy who moves in with a family in Connecticut to be a housekeeper, then jumps in and out of the future to PREVENT messes that he might have to clean up. It’s Who’s The Boss meets Quantum Leap.

Print this page out to get $5 off admission to Mike Vecchione’s show at Carolines on June 29. Get more ticket info here.

Louis C.K.: Escape to reality

by Rob Turbovsky

Louis C.K. gets a second shot at being a television star, as his FX series Louie premieres tomorrow. Regardless of ratings, however, the veteran performer has long ago locked up his position as one of the most important comedians of our time. Here’s why.

As sharp a comedian as he is, Louis CK has never quite succeeded in translating the dark hilarity of his stand-up into his other work. In FX’s Louie, however, he’s finally done it, distilling the fearless, painfully funny insights of his acclaimed specials Chewed Up and Shameless into a wholly original series that’s unlike anything on television. Louis exerts a degree of authorship almost never seen in TV: he is Louie’s star, its writer, its director, and its editor. He does everything but hold the camera himself, and as such, the show reflects his vision with few constraints of format or of content: it’s funny, it’s filthy, and it’s a little crazy.

Unlike his previous sitcom, the cancelled HBO series Lucky Louie, episodes of Louie unfold with a kind of loose, associative structure, often cutting between Louis (who plays himself) onstage at a comedy club and digressions into scenes that work like self-contained short films. Rather than follow a straight-ahead narrative, the show takes on the feel of an absurd trip through Louis’ angst-ridden mind. As such, it’s hard to say what it’s “about” exactly.

The first episode gives us a glimpse of his domestic and dating life as a divorced father of two young girls, while the second episode provided by FX (which is episode three of the series), features a heated confrontation with comedian Nick DiPaolo as well as age-related health problems that send Louie to see a doctor played by Ricky Gervais. Some segments are breezily funny, and some carry surprising dramatic impact, and we never quite know where we’re headed or how we got there.

In his best material, Louis often travels to a lonely, genuinely sad place, and yet the journey is always achingly funny. His comedy is never escapist. The jokes manage to be relatable and confrontational all at once. Louis examines the humiliations and injustices of life with honesty so unflinching that he forces us to be conscious of even the little lies that we tell ourselves to get by. If Curb Your Enthusiasm is the comedy of cringe, then Louie is the comedy of hopelessness.

“Everything that makes you happy is going to end at some point,” he says, in one of the more optimistic stand-up bits from the first episode. “And, nothing good ends well. If you buy a puppy, it’s like you’re bringing it home to your family saying, ‘Hey, look everybody, we’re all going to cry soon…here we go, countdown to sorrow with a puppy.’” The whole routine is startling in its ability to cause both belly laughs and deep, existential depression. It’s a complicated idea that represents the best of what Louis can do, a product of his extraordinary skill in transforming the brutal indifference of the world into comedy.

Louie premieres Tuesday night on FX at 11pm EST.

Louis called me from Los Angeles last week to talk about the show, his comedy, and some of his influences. With a few edits mostly for clarity, this is our complete conversation.

You pretty much run Louie behind and in front of the camera, from the beginning of the process to the finished product. It really feels like completely your own show, which seems rare in television. Do you feel like you can claim ownership of Louie in a way that you couldn’t even with Lucky Louie?
Absolutely. There’s definitely a massive difference. I mean, I would say that Larry David probably had his own show. And has. I don’t think anybody tells Larry how to do it. I think he’s doing things exactly the way he wants, which is, by the way, why Seinfeld was as good as it was. Because Larry did the same thing there. He’s a guy who is not going to do anything any other way. But, he did have to push through a gauntlet at NBC. I don’t know what it’s like for him at HBO, but I think he pretty much does what he wants.

Yeah, I don’t know a lot of examples of it. I’m extremely lucky to be getting a chance to do it. Literally, the way the show works is I write it, I don’t show the script to anybody, I just start making the show. When people come for casting, when actors come to read for stuff, we don’t send them the material ahead of time. They have to come, they have two minutes to read it, and then they come in to read for us. And, they leave the script there. FX hasn’t read it. They don’t read anything. They just see the show when it’s finished, and there’s no mandate to do the show any way specifically or to have stories be long or short.

Every episode is a new project. And, actually, every bit is a new project, because I don’t necessarily have to make an episode the way I said I would. Sometimes, I’ll write something that I think is going to be an episode, and it will feel like it’s not working, so I’ll cut it down to half an episode, or I’ll cut it into two different episodes with other pieces. It’s very organic, which is a word I hate.

Is there more room to do something different when you’re shooting a single-camera style show like this, as opposed to being on a set with a multi-camera format?
Well, yes. And also, we did that show [Lucky Louie] at Hollywood Center Studios, and we had a writers’ room, and we had a network executive run through. You spend literally a week of your time on network stuff. There’s a process to making a TV show, especially on a stage, work. It’s hard for a network to come to visit you on set when you shoot like I shoot. I shoot my show in New York City. I’m in all five boroughs and a different place every day. So, FX is invited to my set, but they’re rarely in New York, and when they are, they’re like, “Can we come?” And, I say, “Well, I’m shooting just me in a room, and there’s not really room for another person.” They’re like, “All right. Fuck it.”

But, when you have a set, which is like your address to the show, then people can come. And, there’s a process. There’s a process that’s old and tried and true. When I started Lucky Louie, I said, “We’re not doing it.” I said, “We’re not having a big screen in the writer’s room, where everybody gangs in on every word of dialogue. We’re not going through the re-write process and punching up every scene. We’re not doing the thing where we do one take, throw in a bunch of new jokes, and do another take. We’re not doing a network run-through. We’re not rehearsing and blocking forever and ever.” And, by the end of the season, all of those things were being done.

It’s a very hard force to fight. The reason for that is that’s how you make a responsible TV show. That’s how a conscientious staff of a show does a show. It’s an efficient system. It’s been done since the 40s, or whatever it is, and that’s how you do it. It’s very hard to do it any other way.

But now, I’m in New York, I’ve got a camera, and a pencil, and I do whatever the fuck I want, and nobody asks me.

The thing is I’m allowed to fail. I’ve shot some things that won’t be on TV. Because I just tried them out. I shot things that I weren’t sure were going to work. And, some of them destroyed, and some of them didn’t at all. You have to be able to try things that are unlikely to work to get to really special stuff. Either you’ll fail, and it doesn’t hurt anybody, or you’ll find success in a place nobody has found it before. That, to me, is the best thing. So, the way the show is done gives me that freedom.

It’s just like being onstage. You have that same ability, if you’re willing to bomb with something, and you surprise yourself by killing with it, not only did you kill, but you found an unlikely kill. That’s the difference between going to Florida and catching one of the million swordfish or going to the Galapagos Islands and finding some fucking two-headed weird thing.

As far as the little scenes that surround the stand-up, they don’t seem to be straight autobiography, but they definitely provide a sense of who you are.
What I call the show is autobiographical fiction. It’s about me, and it’s about how I feel my life is, and the way my life feels, but it’s not my life, really. Most of the stories are fictions. Even the flashbacks to when I was a kid, none of those things happened to me. I made up friends I didn’t have.

Robert Kelly plays my brother. I don’t have a brother. I didn’t plan to have a brother in the show. I just liked the idea. He’s such a puppy dog, that guy. He’s this big Boston kid, but he’s very sad. And, my relationship with him in real life is that I feel like he’s my younger brother. So, that’s what I made him, and it worked, so we kept him for two more episodes. But, next year, I might decide to have the reality be that I don’t have a brother, because in real life, I have three sisters. So, I’m able to do that.

You wrote a movie with Chris Rock, I Think I Love My Wife that was a reworking of a film made by [French director] Eric Rohmer [1972’s Chloe in the Afternoon]. Are you a fan of that era of French cinema and art cinema in general?
Oh, definitely. I’ve loved movies my whole life. Foreign films. I grew up in Boston. Most cities have one art house, and when I was growing up in Boston, there were like ten. There was one in Harvard Square. There was one in Central Square, this place called Off The Wall Cinema, which is actually where I started doing stand-up because they had comedy at midnight. There was the Coolidge Corner Theater and a place called the Nickelodeon. There was a lot of that out there. I also had a teacher in junior high school, who was technically a junior high school social studies teacher, but he would just show us weird Czechoslovakian dada films. I mean, he taught some history, but he mostly showed us really cool, startling, strange films that I’ll never forget.

When I moved to New York City, I discovered Kim’s Video, which was a place on Bleecker Street. They had the films or the videos arranged by director, instead of by the names of the movies or the genre. They had, like, a lighting designer section. If you like this lighting designer, here are his movies.

I didn’t go to college, so I educated myself at Kim’s Video. I would go to the Godard section, and just watch it. Spend two weeks watching [Jean-Luc] Godard. Or [Pier Paolo] Passolini. Or [Ingmar] Bergman. Martin Scorsese. Sam Peckinpah. And, French New Wave.

I’m glad you mentioned Godard, because his movies play with tone and mood in a really weird way, kind of like your show does. I think there’s a sense sometimes that if something is a comedy, it has to be just one kind of comedy. But, with what you do, sometimes the material is really silly but sometimes it’s really sad or dark or angry.
Yeah, that’s something I really love doing. I’m pretty much fulfilling every dream I’ve ever had on this show, whether it has anything to do with sitcom or comedy or not. I’m just doing it anyway. I have unfinished feature films I’ve written that are in this show. I thought, I’m never going to write this movie. I’m never going to make this movie, that’s for fucking sure. It’s too weird. Can I boil it down to a twelve-minute segment. Or a twenty-one minute segment? Or two? And use what I love about it in the show? And, I’ve done it with a few things like that, and some of them ain’t comedies.

I think everything is funny. I don’t think something has to be comedy to be funny. Actually, more cases than not, comedy is not that funny. Like, one of the funniest movies of all time to me is Goodfellas. I probably laughed harder at Goodfellas than I did at any SNL picture, because you’re taken to this real place, and you get to these nervous moments, and then someone says something, and you just die laughing. Raging Bull is hilarious. More comedians quote lines from that movie than they do from Bill Murray or whoever else. And, that’s a dark fucking movie.

I like the idea that no one knows what they’re going to see on this show. They think they’re watching a couple of people trade jokes, and then something happens, and all of a sudden, they’re wrapped up in this story. One thing I recognize is that I’m definitely taking risks. I don’t mean that in a heroic sense. I’m taking risks in the sense that a lot of people may not like this shit. There are going to be departure points for certain people.

I think there’s a sense in America that people are consumers of art. So, they’re like, “I want some laughter, so I’m going to go to the laughter store of this show.” Then, if they’re not laughing, they go, “Hey, can I talk to the manager? Because I’m not laughing right now.” I think it’s more fun, personally, to watch something, and just let it unfold, and wonder why they’re doing it the way they are and just open yourself up to it.

In the article in the New York Times about the show, Ricky Gervais talked about how he thinks that you both do the same kind of thing, but he admires you because you don’t do it with a veil of irony, like he says he does. Do you think there’s too much irony in stand-up comedy?
It’s not that I think there’s too much of it, it’s that I think there’s plenty of sources for it, so that people don’t need it from me. I don’t make a choice not to be one way or the other. I’m just sort of doing what I do.

But, I love irony. For instance, I love Ricky Gervais. He kills me. Ricky is a funny, interesting person. I see that there’s a struggle in him as a performer that I like watching. In other words, the reason he puts irony in stuff is because I think he feels a little guilty about some of the things he says. He has that cackle laughter, where he says really evil things, and then he starts giggling like a child. Because he knows he’s being naughty, and that’s because he’s British, and they put a lot of pressure on people to be proper there. But, I love that about Ricky.

So, I don’t look down irony, because that’s such a great example of it. You don’t know where you’re coming from with Ricky. I really love that. He’s like a knuckleball pitcher or something. Like a knuckleball pitcher who has a fastball, which is lethal. So, when he reaches back to pitch, you’ve got to get ready for some heat, but he might throw this fucking slow, weird pitch that you didn’t know was coming.

I’m more, “Just say the thing.” I just sort of “say the thing.” Although, look, in one of my specials, I said, “You shouldn’t rape anybody. Unless you have a good reason. Like…they won’t let you have sex with them.” I don’t mean that. [Laughs] I don’t think that. But, I liked saying something so bleakly simple and brutal, and for one second, I aspire to be able to do that too. Especially because people get a very reliable sense that I mean everything I’m saying. So, when I pull back and say something completely fucked up that I couldn’t possibly mean, it really throws them off balance. It’s a fun place to go. I think it’s just moderation or something.

You kind of have that little giggle that Ricky does too. We can see you laughing during the most potentially offensive bits. What’s the source of that? Catholicism?
It definitely is. In my newest special, which is upsetting me that it isn’t out yet, because it was done less than a year after Chewed Up…I really wanted to go one, two, three with those three, Shameless, Chewed Up, Hilarious…in Hilarious, at one point, I say something really awful. And, I start laughing, and I tell the audience, “I’m laughing because it makes me laugh to upset you.” And, it does. It’s funny to me when people get upset. I definitely laugh sometimes at what’s happening onstage, like, “I can’t believe I said that and look at how they’re reacting. This is hilarious. And, that one lady is leaving. Oh well.”

I caught your show at the Improv in Hollywood a few months ago, and you did a really interesting bit about Bill Clinton apologizing for supporting NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement], and how basically what America does is responsible for the fact that people in Haiti can’t feed themselves. And, people in the crowd got really uncomfortable.
Very.

It was awesome.
Yeah, I loved that.

How did that bit come to you?
I was workshopping a lot of stuff that night. I was trying to find stuff. And, I had just heard Bill Clinton say this thing to the Senate, about how he shouldn’t have passed NAFTA, and he took personal responsibility and said that NAFTA was directly responsible for starvation in Haiti today.

I got to it because I had done a thing [on nut allergies], which is funny, because I just did this on The Tonight Show, this is how successful a bit it is. I don’t do anything on The Tonight Show that’s not going to kill. I’m not there to fuck around and find stuff. I’m there to get viewers for my new TV show, so I want to succeed.

I did this bit about the school cafeteria, and my kids, and the “no nut” table. How they’re careful to keep nuts away from allergic kids, but then the poor kids that have free lunches all get peanut butter and jelly, and I say that’s because no poor kids have peanut allergies, because the ones that did are all dead now. I usually get a great, big laugh on that, but I also get like an “awww” upset sound from people.

And you did.
I did that night. I also said something like “nobody cares about a little brown child dying…” I said “brown.” And, then, people got testy. When that happens, especially if people are laughing at an idea, but then when I clarify it they find the stopping point, then I go for the jugular. I just leap on it. Because I feel like you should be laughing at B, if you’re laughing at A. So, when, I said “brown,” people got upset. So, I said, “Well, that’s what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about brown people dying, and nobody cares.” And, that just reminded me of the Clinton thing. So, I went down the road. Here’s my thought when something like that happens: I’m going to go down this road, if I find a joke here, it’s going to be fucking good. If I don’t, I’ll get them back, I have fucking great material. [Laughs]

This is something I learned in Boston, from a guy named Frank Santorelli, who still does stand-up. He taught me something that I’ll never forget. Frank Santorelli had a good forty-five minutes of stand-up that you cannot not laugh at, that you must laugh at. Because it’s so universal. He just had a fucking Mariano Rivera fastball that could come all night. Simple bits, about Super Bowl parties and people drinking in bars. Nothing provocative, but so beautifully honed, and he was so fucking good. He would hurt people. He was one of the first people who I watched live who would really hurt people.

What Frank enjoyed doing on stage was just sort of standing up there like a jackass and not saying much of anything. He liked doing that. So, what he did was he kept this A-material as his fastball to protect all of his off-speed stuff. He would just fuck around and fuck around, and you’d see the audience just about to lose patience with him, and he’d go, “All right…Super Bowl parties,” and then they’re in tears, they can’t breathe, they’re gasping, crying. And, he knows he has that, so he uses it that way. He has heavy artillery. So, with that, why not get in there and see what you can do?

And, by the way, what I learned afterwards is that’s usually how you find more heavy artillery. That’s where you find it. You use what you have to protect yourself as you go out there into the nothing to look for more. If you get hurt, you’ve got the horses that come fucking charging in. That’s where I learned that. That gives me the ability to do something like talk about Haiti. If I lose the crowd over the Haiti thing, it’s okay, because here I come with all this shit about the fucking cafeteria and about fucking a monkey.

The idea about “if they laugh at A, they should laugh at B” is such a Carlin-esque thing. You know that bit about capital punishment [in the 1996 HBO special Back in Town]? He’s talking about doing public beheadings, and the crowd starts to pull back a little, and he says, “Don’t bail out on me now, goddamnit. The blood is already on our hands. It’s just a matter of degree.”
No, that’s exactly right. And, Carlin never let anybody claim him as their comic, because he took everybody to a place where they weren’t happy being. Like, his bit about the environment, about we’re not saving the earth and the earth will be fine, and our arrogance [“The Planet is Fine” from 1992’s Jammin’ In New York]. Go back and watch that bit. It could almost be Glenn Beck’s opening monologue. It is beautiful. It forces you, if you’re an environmentalist, to go, “I’m a little bit full of shit.”

But, I’m learning on stage right now that one thing Americans really don’t like being reminded of is that they are living in a life of pleasure, and it is provided to them by other people’s suffering. And, that is an absolute truth. Piles of brown people have to die so that we’re comfortable, not even so that we can survive. It’s not even like a Darwinist dog-eat-dog. It’s a dog-use-dog-as-kindling-for-a-fire-just-so-it-will-be-cozy. There’s no need to eat that dog at all.

That’s what you seem to be saying when you talk about how you drive an Infiniti. [In the bit, from the Pilot episode, Louis riffs on the idea that “there are people starving, and I drive an Infiniti…it’s totally my fault.”]
There are times where people really like that stuff, and there are times they don’t. Also, there are times where when I do that bit about the homeless guy that my friend’s cousin saw on the street, and I start describing the homeless man, and I say, “He smelled like pee. So much that he was pee. He had garbage all over him. I don’t know if it was gathered for warmth, or if people just went ‘Ugghhh’ and threw it on him all day. He had dreadlocks.

Not medical marijuana dreadlocks but just clumps of hair from neglect.” Up to this point, people are howling. Everybody. Laughing, laughing, laughing. Then, I go, “A clump of hair for every year that no one knew his name or cared.” And, everyone goes, “Awwww.” They always moan and boo. And, I go, “Yeah, that’s who you’ve been laughing at for the last five minutes.” Because people have a point where they don’t want to hear anymore. That’s funny to me. It’s funny.

That’s actually an example of something that’s new to me that I really like, which is that I can take them to that place, and then I can make fun of them, and that always gets a laugh when I say that. “That’s who you’ve been laughing at for the last five minutes.” They even laugh at their own discomfort from seconds before.

Part of it is that we kind of trust you. There seems to be this core of decency that we pick up on, even as you call someone a “faggot.”
I don’t know why I sort of have a license. I’ve kind of become for some people, kind of a pharmacist for this stuff, do you know what I mean? Like a pharmacist that has a huge brown bottle of cocaine in his place. Like pure coke. “It’s okay, he’s a pharmacist, he’s not going to fuck up with it, he’s not going to bother anybody.” I think people trust me with certain material.

I think I’m trying to do the same thing with the show. There will be things that you will be watching, rather than hearing me say, that you will go, “Wait a minute, why am I watching this? I’m getting a little creeped out.” But, I generally do pay people off on some level. There are a few things on this show that do something that I don’t do onstage, which is there are stories that end with no payoff. There are stories that just end because I don’t want to tell them anymore. Usually, at that point, I go to me onstage. I try to pay it off that way.

But, it does do the same thing in story form that I do on stage, and I think it has the same feel, because the show feels so personal, and because I think it’s pretty clear to the audience that this is all me doing this. If they trust me onstage during the opening parts of the show, they’ll trust me when I take them down the road of these stories.

Do you like doing this kind of material because it pushes the audience to think of comedy as more than something that’s just supposed to make them laugh?
I do that just because I think it’s more fun. It’s a richer experience than just watching something. I read some review of the show, where it said, “I felt very pensive and melancholy.” Like, “It left me contemplative,” like as a gripe. [Laughs] Well, what’s wrong with that?

I remember seeing some film of speaking to people in France about movies, because in Europe, watching movies is like a sacred thing, or it used to be. They just watch the same shit we do now, and, by the way, they make it too. The idea that America is exporting bad films to Europe is bullshit, because all of those movies are seeded with European dollars. I know that now for having tried to get movies made. The key to getting a movie made is to get the foreign rights sold ahead of time, because that’s where they make the real money. Because they have worst taste than we do, so fuck them.

But, I remember seeing some black and white grainy film of a guy with a cigarette with no filter, in a French film, saying, “You go to the cinema with someone, and you watch the film. And, then, you go to a café and you talk. And, you talk and talk and talk.” And, you talk about what your thoughts were because of the movie.” To me, that’s was always what it should be like. Now, the way TV and movies are made is that a film is made to just satisfy you. Just satisfy you so you can walk out of there and feel like you got what you wanted, and you’re done. And, I think that’s a drag. I think it should leave you questioning. It should provoke. It’s more fun.

For more info on Louis C.K., check out his official site at louisck.net as well as the official FX Louie site here.

Janeane Garofalo: Comedy is her religion

by Emma Kat Richardson

Her film and television roles have surely helped Janeane Garofalo make an impression on the mainstream; but through the years, her stand-up is what has endeared her to hordes of dedicated comedy fans. So, why did she make them (and us) wait 13 years for a proper comedy special? More importantly, will June 26 get here soon enough?

In my hierarchy of personal intimidation, Janeane Garofalo beats out Rahm Emmanuel.

And she doesn’t just beat him out – really, she blows him out of the water. (One might be able to imagine the trailing oil slick that would follow his dripping wetness.)

When I tell her this, she is genuinely puzzled. In what asinine, sub-normal plane of existence might she, a venerable, savvy stand-up of 25 years and an accomplished actress who claims more than 20 film roles (a few of them iconic) to her credit, outweigh a frightening misanthrope who has the ear of the president, in terms of intimidation?

“You flatter me,” she says, forthright. “Thank you.”

Perhaps I’m gushing a bit too much, and may forfeit the ability to emerge from this profile with my dignity intact, but having grown up with Janeane’s sassy, spitfire presence as a near constant informant upon my pop cultural education, surrendering to intimidation proves a relatively easy cross to bear. After all, films from her repertoire like Now and Then and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion were sleepover staples in my middle school days; even her work in 2001’s Wet Hot American Summer and the finished product which followed so impacted my life, I was compelled to write my senior thesis in college on it.

But this is certainly no diva, given to bouts of extreme vanity, with whom we are contending. Janeane Garofalo remains an iconoclast of onscreen cynicism and trademark ‘90s snark, but captured in a candid moment, she is gracious and magnanimous; noble and knowledgeable; self-effacing and self-deprecating. She’s got a brand new stand-up special coming out (entitled If You Will, premiering on the Epix network June 26) which she hasn’t seen and never will – she doesn’t like watching herself outside of the fourth wall.

Luckily for us, we like watching her on camera. Witnessing the petite stand-up sling the mic as she spits wry, witty barbs – equal parts personal and political – we see something that even Janeane herself would never cop to: radiance. And I must concede – it’s hard not to be intimidated while staring directly into the sun.

First of all, I wanted to start off by saying that I’d probably be less intimidated right now if I was interviewing Rahm Emmanuel, and you know how scary he is.
Yeah, he’s something. Why would you be intimidated?

Well, I’m a big fan of yours.
Wow, you flatter me. Thank you.

But anyway, since both your parents were employed by the oil industry, I’m curious to hear your take on the whole BP situation.
Well, my mom worked for Conoco before she died – she died very young – so she was only there very briefly. She was a secretary, so she wasn’t really privy to the ins and outs of the business. I don’t mean just a secretary, but a secretary probably isn’t party to the hierarchy of power. And my dad’s an engineer, so he is not also privy to the things I’m certain Exxon does on a daily basis. But even if they hadn’t been working in the industry, I’d still have the same reaction to BP, which is, you know, typical corporate greed, profit motive, cutting corners; treating workers and people and the environment like disposable lighters.

I also am disgusted that the Obama administration kept all the corrupt policies of the Bush administration in place, and helped feed into this tragedy. I don’t even understand it – I don’t understand how the Obama administration kept the same people in the management service in place, and kept ignoring the safety warnings. They had Ken Salazar as the Secretary of the Interior, who’s corrupt. It just makes no sense. I have no idea why the Obama administration has been as heartbreakingly disappointing as it has. So yeah, I’m just disgusted. Other than that, I don’t know what else to say. I’m sure this type of thing will continue to go on and on and on.

I think even a week before the spill happened, Obama was talking about expanding offshore drilling.
Oh yeah, definitely, definitely. But at midnight, when Bush left office – literally, on the night they left – they signed into law all kinds of corporate-friendly things. I don’t get it. You know, the corporation will always dominate; it’s naive to think differently. But I don’t know what it’s gonna take for the political realm to stop allowing the corporate realm to be so blatantly corrupted. It’ll probably never end, because it’s probably just the way it is. I assume that’s just the way it’s always been, and will always be – it just doesn’t get exposed until there’s a tragedy.

Like, you’re always aware of it, but then it becomes shockingly transparent when something like that happens. I’m sure that British Petroleum will find a way to not really pay money and not really clean up. They always do. They’ll just litigate the shit out of it, and wait for the mainstream media to move on, which they’re happy to do.

You were raised both Catholic and conservative. At what point did you make the transition to being a liberal atheist? Was there something specific that made you open your eyes in a different way?
I had always had my suspicions that the conservative ideology I was being fed was kind of mean and exclusionary. I had those feelings as a kid, because certain things just didn’t feel very kind. My dad’s a great guy; I just assumed he knew what he was talking about. He’s an arch-conservative, like from his college days. Now, he’s not one of those Bill O’Reilly conservatives – he’s more of a Bill Buckley. He’s not the type of guy that would watch Fox. He’s more of your highbrow mean guy. [Laughs]

Like small government, less taxes?
All that, you know what I mean? He finds the Fox News and the Glenn Becks to be blowhards, but it doesn’t stop him from voting for people like George Bush. Having said that, because my dad’s such a sweetheart, and such a smart guy, I just assumed he knew what he was talking about. I know I had my doubts, but I didn’t have the wherewithal to assert them.

Then, I went to a very religious, conservative university called Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. And I started realizing, again, that these people who support these [things], as close to god as they purport to be, in the faculty and in my classmates, they tend to be the most small-minded, nastiest people I keep meeting, when it comes to their worldview, or their cultural vision. They seem to be just kind of petty and exclusionary, so these seeds of doubt just started happening. Then, as I got older and kept meeting new and different people, I started realizing that their vision – their emotional intelligence, if you will – was much more in keeping with a way of living that I thought would be wiser to aspire to.

Then I got exposed to Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, Emma Goldman and things of that nature: things that just make you realize that there’s a different way to live a meaningful life. It is pursuing good citizenship, I would think, being a liberal (although some people call it “progressive” because they’ve been bullied by the right-wing into not using the word “liberal.” Liberal is a word to be proud of). Being liberal and being a feminist… when people say they don’t want to be called a feminist, that blows my mind, too. Isn’t that the weirdest copout? All feminism is is, “Do you believe in social justice and gender equality?” How could you be against that?

It’s like, who bullied you into showing your weakness and not wanting to say you’re a feminist? Or how about when people say the fucking stupidest shit: “man-hater,” and all that lazy nonsense. I would say to them who, who? Who are you specifically referring to? Just gimme a name! Or when people say that about liberals: “they hate America,” and all that infantile thing. I would say to them, who? I need a name. Which one hates America? These kind of infantile tropes make me sick, and most of the infantile tropes come from conservative ideologues – just these false narratives that people keep accepting and swallowing. They just keep getting passed off like mainstream news.

Like the Tea Partiers – as if they are a valid group of people to go to for criticism of the president. Now, there is valid criticism, but not from them! Their problem with him is that he’s black. That’s not valid. Why do they get a say? What the fuck? Does that mean you’d allow a slave owner on, and I’m sure they would, if this had been a few years ago. That kind of nonsense makes me sick, and that kind of nonsense tends to be part and parcel with any fundamentalist ideology. They tend to be quite emotionally unintelligent, and it’s just something that I don’t want to cultivate in my personality.

At what point would you say you stopped believing in god?
Probably around 27. I used to go, “I’m agnostic,” which means you’re hedging your bets, and I thought that was cowardly. I thought, if there was a god, that wasn’t very fair. You might as well just go full-blown and say it: don’t be a coward. Don’t try to cover your ass to say you’re agnostic. So I was like no, I should own it. I am an atheist. And if there is a god or a higher power, I am absolutely willing to believe in it if you show me any evidence. I will be fine with it if you show me any evidence. I’m not saying that there isn’t for sure – there just hasn’t been any evidence to support that there is, so it would be, to me, not very interesting to pursue that. There are a lot more interesting scientific things to pursue that answer the big questions as well.

How do you think this evolution of you – from being Catholic and conservative to liberal and atheist – has informed your comedy?
Um, I don’t know, because it’s not like as a kid I would have labeled myself Catholic and conservative. I just was – I was indoctrinated into it, and I didn’t make a decision. There wasn’t a turning point where I went, “I am not Catholic and conservative. I am now liberal and atheist,” I just started evolving as a person, and if you evolve as a person, chances are you’re going to evolve toward knowledge and intellectual curiosity.

So that was unfolding, and then I realized my political views, which are actually just life views, were falling in line with people like Howard Zinn (sorry to use that example again, but he deserves it; the late Howard Zinn). Then reading The People’s History of America, you just realize that there is a far, more intelligent, kinder way to view people and the world and politics; culture and society in general, domestically and internationally, and conservatives don’t seem to do that.

And how did it inform my stand-up? I don’t know: I just in the way of, you know, when you’re just being yourself onstage, obviously yourself comes out. I started doing stand-up when I was 19, so whoever I was at 19 was doing stand-up, just as whoever I am now at 45 is doing stand-up. It just is the way I am in my perspective on things, but it would be tragic if I was still in my mind 19: behaving that way and saying those things. So I guess it’s just informed my stand-up in the way that anything in your life informs your stand-up, unless you’re the type of joke-writer or joke-teller that just doesn’t let themselves show through. That’s not a bad thing – it’s not a criticism – but they don’t really let the audience see who they are.

You mean somebody that affects a persona?
Either that or it’s just a joke-teller, but you don’t get an insight into who they really are. They’re maybe a person who sits down at a desk and writes jokes.

Someone like Steven Wright, probably?
It could be, but that seems like who he really is. I’m talking about like a skewed perspective: a journeyman, working, female or male stand-up who is like, “I’ve got to have six new jokes, and it doesn’t matter if they’re true. I’m going to pretend this happened to me at the bank today, or I’m going to say I had this observation about something.” There are some comedians like that, and as I said, that’s not a criticism of them: it’s just the way they do it, which is not my way of doing it. So if they change whatever’s going on in their life, it may not change how they do stand-up.

So do you always try to strive for a certain amount of realism as a rule in your stand-up?
Oh, I definitely slightly exaggerate. I’ve definitely slightly exaggerated for the sake of a story; just for the sake of entertainment value in a story. But I’ve never made up anything; I’ve never pretended something has happened if it hasn’t. I have certainly embellished. I might have embellished the absurdity of the situation, or I may have moved the timeline of things around for the economy of the story, or stuff like that. I may heighten absurd characteristics of something, but I don’t make shit up, and I don’t pretend something happened to me today that didn’t happen.

When you were a kid, you moved around a lot to different places that were not only geographically very different, but culturally very different. Do you think that played a big role in your comedic voice?
I don’t know. I don’t think so, because it wasn’t actually that traumatic. There was only one move that was traumatic, and it was kind of a bummer. Other than that, it was fine. I kept going back and forth, mostly, between Houston and New Jersey, so I was seeing some of the same people again. It was really bad on my older brother and sister: for some reason, they weren’t extroverts, per se, and it was very hard on them. But I was more of a… I don’t want to say extrovert, but I seemed oblivious to the nerd that I was.

Honestly, I was really like a socially awkward kid, but I didn’t recognize it at the time, and then there was a lot of years when I was a very overweight kid, which I also was impervious to that (I guess luckily). I realized I was kind of a doofus sometimes, but I was just kinda fine with it, so I don’t think that was it. Actually, the only time I really had a hard time, bullying-wise, was in college, where I didn’t expect it. It is weird, isn’t it?

You’d think people would be more mature by then.
Yeah, that’s what I thought. You know, high school was fine: I was neither popular nor unpopular. I was just fine. You’d be hard-pressed to find people who remembered me; it was just fine. And then I got to college, and I was very overweight, and I guess that made me an object of ridicule for some people.

I did have a little bit of a socially awkward personality, so for the first couple years of college, it didn’t go well. But then I started doing stand-up, and I was very happy, but I don’t know that any of this stuff informed it, because I knew from a very young age that I wanted to pursue stand-up, but that was just because I loved it. I would just listen to my brother’s comedy albums, and I really don’t think, to my knowledge, that my environment had an effect one way or the other.

Since you use a notebook onstage, do you perceive of any sort of stigma within the stand-up community about using a notebook onstage?
Some people have a problem with it. I don’t know why. They just take a position for some strange reason. Much less so these days, than it [used to be] in the ‘80s. For some reason, there are a very few people who believe there are rules about how you do stand-up. Why, I don’t know, but they feel the notebook is a real red flag of a shitty comic.

Then, there’s some people that use this term “alternative comedy.” I’ve never used it – there are others that use it. When I’ve used the phrase “alternative comedy,” literally what I’m talking about is an alternative venue to a proper comedy club. It doesn’t mean anything to me about the comic, but some people get tarred and feathered with that. Like, “so-and-so thinks she’s so cool! An alternative comic,” when I have never referred to myself that way. But, “oh yeah, they bring a notebook on.” You know what alternative comedy means? It means they’re not funny – I’ve heard that a million times from people, so there is a stigma. Like I said, it’s not much these days, but it used to be that any comic that used a notebook was not a strong comic, even though there were very strong comics, like Richard Lewis, and George Carlin, at times, used a notebook, but they didn’t get criticized.

You know, musicians use set lists. It’s the same thing. It’s just a set list, and because I don’t repeat myself over and over and over again (that’s not to say I have new material all the time, because I don’t), but I don’t do the same exact shit the same way, so I have a piece of paper. Sometimes, I never even look at the notebook – it’s just there. It’s been 25 years, and I’ve always had a piece of paper or a notebook. It’s just that I’ve never gone onstage without a set list, and I don’t know why some people feel that’s not proper comedy, but some people do.

I would think that would be preferable to someone who gets up there without a notebook and then forgets what they’re talking about.
Which I think is fine, if that’s their thing. If they freeform it, that’s fine. If they forget what they’re going to say and then go on a tangent, I like that. But then there’s some people who don’t have the notebook or a piece of paper because they say the same exact thing the same exact way night after night after night. Their defense would be, “Hey, I’m here to entertain and do a job, and this is my rock-solid set that I do.” And that’s okay; that’s you’re way of doing it, though. Not everybody does it that way.

Do you think that the contemporary comedy scene is more hospitable to female comics these days?
Yeah, and you know, it’s just that it’s always been hard for everyone. You know what I mean? Like, it’s hard for everyone. In ’85, I actually got into comedy at the right time, because there was a comedy boom starting. For whatever reason, between like ’85 and ’95, there was like this boom of comedy clubs and open mic nights, so it was like a really good time to start and get on-the-stage time.

It was always traditionally harder until around the early ‘90s for comics of color and for women. Just like in any line of work; it just was, and in the ‘80s, there would be club managers that had the nerve to say out-loud things like, “We had a woman booked in her last week, and she didn’t do very well, so we’re not going to have a woman again.” Whereas they would never say, “Oh yeah, we had a black comic,” or, “We had a white male comic who didn’t do very well.” It would never occur to them to say that, so that used to happen a lot. I don’t think many men would have the balls to say that out-loud – they might think it, but they wouldn’t say it out-loud.

And then there’s that ridiculous trope: women just aren’t funny. I would say to that: most people really aren’t that funny. There are tons of comedians and comedy actors who aren’t that funny. It has nothing to do with gender, but it just seems sometimes that women aren’t as funny because they are poorly cast in film; they are poorly written for; they rarely have any of the funny lines.

A lot of writers will say, “I don’t know how to write for women,” and that includes female writers. In the casting process, they only want young, pretty girls to play the comedy parts, which knocks about 80% of the talent off. Whereas for guys, they’re putting the best person for the role in. Does that make sense? Whereas with the girl, they’re not putting the best person for the role in: they’re putting whoever happens to look the best in. So then it perpetuates this myth that females aren’t as funny, but they’ve got the issue of casting and writing against them.

Obviously, there are hugely funny females. Obviously. And always has been. But there is just this persistent myth that some boneheads like to trot around, that women aren’t as funny – totally forgetting how many un-funny guys there are. Totally leaving out that there are so many not funny guys in their equation. Most people just aren’t that funny: there’s a lot of great comics, but it’s also subjective. There are plenty of people that are thought of as funny that I don’t find funny; there are some people that the mainstream doesn’t think are funny that I think are genius.

What do you think that you’ve personally done to pave the way for women in comedy? How do you see your career as an attribute to that?
Oh, I don’t know if I have. I’m not saying that to be self-deprecating – I just don’t know if I have. I would say that it’s just happened over the years that more and more females and more and more people of color do it. That’s the natural evolution of society. But I don’t know that I had anything to do with that. That would’ve happened no matter what.

But do you think that maybe your ability to get roles in big-budget studio projects has opened the doors for female comics who might not have been considered for that type of thing otherwise?
Well, that was a very finite period of time. That doesn’t happen anymore. There was a very brief window where I was cast in big studio films; that doesn’t happen anymore, and that was very brief and short-lived, but I don’t think it’s affected anything. I was never cast as an ingenue type, or anyone who was considered attractive. There always has been and there always will be roles for females that mainstream Hollywood deems less attractive, and they get the comedy roles. That happens a lot.

Speaking of your film and television work, would you say there’s a role from your vast body of work that most closely represents the real you?
Um… hm…

Is there one you maybe feel the most warmly about?
Oh, there’s a lot that I feel warmly about. You know, many people have accused me of being a shitty actor who’s just playing myself every single time anyway. (They would find this question funny.) But I was never asked to stretch terribly, and I wish I had been. I wish I did get more opportunities to show versatility through acting, but unfortunately, you get typecast, especially if you don’t look sort of classically attractive to the mainstream. You just get typecast.

But um… I guess the roles that I feel most warmly toward – I’ve enjoyed many of them – but I guess playing Anita Hoffman in the Abby Hoffman movie with Vincent D’Onofrio, called Steal This Movie. I felt very close to that; I felt very close to the role I played in The Minus Man, which was with Owen Wilson.

…Heather Mooney?
But that’s not, that’s nothing like me. [Laughs]. That’s the weirdest thing, is that is absolutely nothing like the way I was in high school for me, ever. People, for whatever reason, they think that, because I’ve been asked to play a lot of that kind of part, that I must be like that. Obviously, I’m quite chatty. And I like to think, quite polite. Neither in high school, nor have I ever been like that. You know, snippy and snarky and [affects voice of Heather Mooney] “Fuck you, Toby!” Never, never. I’ve certainly lost my temper, in certain things, but not related to that kind of stuff. I lose my temper in the political arena and in the “shitty script” arena. I fight for things, but I don’t fight with people.

So let’s talk about your new special a little bit. Can you tell me a little bit about the background of If You Will? What prompted you to record it? Why now?
It was just, honestly, the Epix people asked. Shout Factory had asked a few years ago – I was willing to do it then, but for some reason, I don’t know what happened, but we just didn’t do it. I don’t know why. And then, if nobody had asked, I wouldn’t have pursued it. I have just not felt comfortable with [the specials], because I have a couple that still air that embarrass the fuck out of me, from when I was younger. Because like I said, you change so much, and you say things, and then I’m like, “Oh no! That’s there?” There’s some footage that can still be seen from when I was 24 – it’s just embarrassing – and 30, 32, 29, all this kind of stuff, so I said no more. You know, like no more stuff that gets to be preserved.

And then there’s the aspect of, well, what if I do this stand-up special, and somebody feels cheated if I say the same stuff again? Because there’s some topics that I don’t want to abandon yet. I’m not done with them. They haven’t got to where I want them, but I did them on the special anyway, but they weren’t exactly where I think they could be.

Like what?
Um, probably most of it. I don’t really remember. There’s some things that I’m just not really ready to leave yet: whether it be stuff about the aging process, my ideas on marriage and children and religion, the political landscape, or even just little, tiny cultural things. Little frivolous things. Some of them I feel could’ve been better, could’ve been expanded upon, but I always wonder, did I burn that now? Does that mean if somebody sees the special – maybe people won’t, I have no idea – but if they see it, are they going to feel cheated if I go back to that well? Even though I’m doing it in a different way, are they going to be like, “I saw it. I heard it already,”? So I’ve been reticent to do that.

I have no idea; I’m not saying people in general, just whoever. There might be some people who are like, “I saw that.” And then it’s wrecked. So I don’t know: that’s just something I’ve thought about over the years, and then I always thought, well, why would I do a special? There’s no real audience, like eager, waiting with baited breath – you know, “Please! More content from you!”

But then, I met some very nice people from Epix, and they said, “Do you want to? We’ll shoot it,” and I was like, okay. But it was really that simple. Like I said, I had wanted to do one with Shout Factory earlier, and I don’t know why we didn’t. I love Shout Factory – I think they do great stuff, so maybe one day I’ll work with Shout Factory, but the Epix people were just really nice and friendly, and they seemed interested in doing it. I knew they had done a special with Lewis Black that I loved, and so I thought okay. Let’s do it. Let’s see what happens.

Like most of your stand-up, the special is a really great blend of topical and personal humor. Do you have a preference for one or the other?
I think personal’s easier, in that it just flows out more naturally. It’s just right there, and obviously it’s more evergreen, whereas with topical, some stuff you could talk about and then six months from now, people are like, “What? Why, what are you talking about that for?” That’s old news, and it seems like you’re being hackey, even though maybe you’re just not done thinking about it. There’s plenty of stuff that has happened culturally, from a long time ago, that I’m just not done trying to understand, like what the fuck? But it seems like you’re being a hack. So it’s weird.

So I guess the personal stuff – that’s also ever-changing and evolving. To me, that just flows more naturally: it’s right at the ready, and it’s easier. So I guess I prefer it.

How do you manage to find the balance between the two?
I don’t. I have no idea. Some shows are balanced and some are ridiculously lopsided.

One thing that kind of caught my attention was your love of Natalie Portman, which you mention in the special.
I do love her! That’s not sarcastic at all.

I love her, too. But I was just wondering if you knew that she signed the petition in support of Roman Polanski?
Which, you know what? I have nothing to say about that. The Roman Polanski thing: a) I feel terrible that his wife was killed by the Manson family; secondly, it’s a sexual issue that happened many years ago that disgusts me, but I’ll bet you that in that era, was very common. According to the young girl [the victim of Polanski’s rape], she herself wants this to go away. She has made her peace with Roman Polanski over the years.

And also, if you want to sign petitions – I mean, if you want to hunt people – let’s do the serious shit. Let’s get Dick Cheney. I mean, that’s fine if you want to go after him if you are also going after the people that are really destroying us. Roman Polanski does not negatively impact your life. He has very little to do with you, so whether somebody signs that petition or not, it makes no never mind to me. That’s a personal issue, in the same way that divorces mean nothing to me, and affairs. It doesn’t impact our society.

What does impact our society is white collar and corporate crime, and societal and environmental degradation. These are the things that I would like to see getting discussed on talk shows. You know, when people are like, “John Mayer said a racist thing,” I don’t give a shit! How about when the Republican Party says racist things? How about that? Let’s do a roundtable on that. That’s my issue with that. The Roman Polanski thing is a family issue, do you know what I mean?

So that doesn’t bother me at all, if someone wants to sign that petition. And like I said, here’s a guy who was probably severely traumatized, and I think the young girl in the hot tub’s mother brought her to his home. You know what I mean? I don’t think she was unaware of what was going on, and I’ve seen interviews with that young girl, who’s now a middle-aged lady, who asks that we would all stop talking about it.

Changing topics entirely, I wanted to ask you about your tattoos, since I actually just got my first one this year.
Congrats!

Thank you! Do yours still hold significance for you after all these years of having gotten them?
I suppose so. I don’t even see them – you know, like there’s many of them and my dad was right. I got my first one when I was 18, and he said, “When you’re old you’re going to go ‘what?’” and I was like, no I won’t. But yes, that was true. There’s a number of them that I could do without. They’re here, and that’s that.

Do you plan on getting any more?
I don’t know. I don’t think so, but it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility. But I doubt it. I think enough is enough, and it’s so hard to cover them that it really makes me rue the day that I started getting so many on my arms. On the rare occasions when somebody wants me to show my arms, it’s about a four-and-a-half hour process of all this pancake makeup that never really covers them. And I hate that.

Do you ever think you might get any lasered off?
Oh no, no no. They’re fine, and the laser process looks shitty.

So how do Janeane the actress and Janeane the comedian differ?
Well, Janeane the actress is at the mercy of business I have no control over. I just have to hope that someone wants to hire me, so it makes me feel very out of control and very insecure. As a comedian, I love it. I’ve been doing it so long, and I would miss it if it was gone, and I get to control where I work and when I work, for the most part, which is nice. I also control the content, and what I wear, and stuff like that.

It’s just a very gratifying thing, where with acting it can be very un-gratifying to have somebody else completely directing you, editing it, putting you in a wardrobe you may or may not have chosen; that kind of thing. But having said that, it’s a good job when you can get it, but it’s not up to me when I can get the jobs. I have to always wait, and hope that somebody lets me audition, or meet them, or they just have faith that I can do it. It makes you feel really… what would be the right word… left out of the process.

Do the two Janeanes have anything in common?
Uh, yeah: I am still the same person. I happen to be exactly the same person, and I’m not a good enough actress that can metamorphize into a completely different being. As I said, I never really get offered roles where I have to undergo a transformation of any kind.

Have you ever thought about writing your own screenplay?
Yes. They’re never good, so… I’m not one of those people that will just do it for the sake of doing it. I won’t just create content for the sake of, like, “Look! I wanna do this!” If I was a better writer in the screenplay genre, and if I had a story I felt would be nice to tell, would be worth seeing, I would absolutely pursue that. Until that happens, there’s just no reason for me to create content for the sake of it.

Be sure to watch Janeane’s new special, If You Will, premiering on EPIX on June 26 at 10 pm EST (Details here). And for more info on Janeane, check out her official site at janeanegarofalo.com.

Joe DeRosa: The Depression Auction

by Rob Turbovsky

In The Depression Auction, Joe DeRosa mixes outrage – a solid stand-up staple – with something much less common but more interesting, an attempt at maturity. He doesn’t let anyone off the hook, including himself. Rare is the comic who makes himself relate to George W. Bush in those seven infamous minutes that he sat there, reading to children, after being informed of the 9/11 attacks. DeRosa does it by imagining the complete, hysterical meltdown he would have had were he president at the time.

Throughout the album, DeRosa qualifies his indignant criticisms of reality television or human behavior with equally unsparing looks at his own problems, from drinking too much to being a little too quick to dispense with hecklers. In a seemingly tossed-off but very revealing moment, the crowd and DeRosa almost mistake a woman’s quick cheer of support for an insult, and DeRosa narrates his decision-making process as he stops himself from instinctively calling her a cunt.

The same is true of the bonus track, which includes material edited out of the album of DeRosa’s repeated, frustrated attempts to deal with a real and persistent heckler: DeRosa is never not funny as he channels angst, rage, and earnestness all at once to plead with the woman to quiet down.

It’s a sign that while The Depression Auction might be DeRosa’s debut album, it’s a solidly written and well thought-out set, the clear product of years of horribly embarrassing events, as well as even more years of refining the stories of those events to fit into DeRosa’s sarcastic, everyman worldview. The album is a mix of some fan favorites (an unfortunate run-in with the fans of the Insane Clown Posse, more on that later) as well as new material.

He tells a bride-to-be in the audience to “remember that your wedding is a goddamn burden to your friends and family,” talks about his 63-year-old father, who refuses to wear anything but bikini underwear in the heat, and in one terrific bit, describes the exact moment in an argument when he realizes that he’s wrong but has to stand his ground anyway (in this case, during a shouting match with a subway operator about whether 14th Street is indeed between 23rd and 3rd).

DeRosa is a relatable, conversational comic in the Bill Burr mode (they co-hosted a satellite radio show “Uninformed,” now available as a podcast through iTunes), though he’s not yet at Burr’s level of crushing, brutal social criticism (but then again, who is?). My only criticism of an otherwise very strong album is when his political average Joe material seems to flirt with a surprising hesitation to take a stand. DeRosa opens the bit by saying, “I’m politically stupid and easily led” and then describes ping-ponging from one opinion to its polar opposite on the issue of whether torture should be legal as he listens to differing arguments from Barack Obama and Dick Cheney.

It stretches the bounds of believability (or maybe it’s just me) that DeRosa would have no real feelings about torture. Here, I would have liked to see him venture further in the direction Burr has gone in recent years: state upfront he has no idea what he’s talking about (which DeRosa already does and gets well-deserved big laughs doing so) but then propose a bold and radical solution anyway.

Of course, if you have any idea of who Joe DeRosa is, it’s probably because of his near-legendary story of performing at the Gathering of the Juggalos, a kind of Woodstock (or, in DeRosa’s case, Altamont) for fans of the Insane Clown Posse (who he calls “the worst band ever in the history of man”), held in the woods of Ohio.

On a track appropriately titled “The Worst Gig Ever,” the story is told here with detail so hilarious you can feel the surreal panic of the moment in which he insults someone in the crowd and thousands of ICP fanatics in clown make-up start angrily chanting “Family” at him, over and over again. Anyone could wallow in the shame of that moment, and DeRosa deservedly does, as he confesses, “It was the lowest point of my goddamn life.” “But, here’s the funny part,” he adds, in a wonderful, self-deprecating turn that proves both his talent and his potential, “A year later, they offered me double the money, and I took the gig.”

Download the entire album by clicking the image below.

Comedy Matters with Ray Romano, Tom Rhodes, Amy Schumer

by Jeffrey Gurian

Ray Romano Comes To The Strip

Ray Romano accidentally made $7 for his very first paid gig ever in his career, at The Comic Strip. He was supposed to be doing a non-paid “late night” spot, when the last booked comic of the evening didn’t show up, and Ray was asked to take his place.

After his spot, one of the other comics told him he was supposed to get paid for that, but Ray didn’t have the nerve to ask for it, so the comic told the bartender to pay Ray, and before he knew it, he was seven dollars richer. Ray says he gave all of that to his wife to show her he was finally making money doing stand-up.

That story, and the story of why he spent his first six months performing under the name “Jackie Roberts” were among the many stories he told for the book I’m writing, with owner Richie Tienken, for the 35th anniversary of The Comic Strip.

Letterbox Pictures was there to film the interview for the documentary film being Exec. Produced by Chris Rock. The film’s trailer will debut next month in Montreal at the Just For Laughs Festival, the biggest comedy festival in the world.

Ray came to the interview with his longtime manager Rory Rosegarten of The Conversation Company. He and Ray met at The Strip and have been together for some 22 years, one of the longest show biz marriages I’ve heard of. Ray is extremely loyal in a business where comics have been known to leave their original managers as soon as they make it big.

I hadn’t seen Ray in a while and brought an old photo of us together from the time I brought internationally known singer Michael Bolton to meet Ray on the set of Everybody Loves Raymond.

One of Ray’s writers from Raymond was there, writer/producer Tom Catalbiano. Tom is also quite a photographer, and he told me had a great photo of me with Patricia Heaton taken at the party for the Raymond DVD a few years back.

We all went into Richie’s magnificent private office where you have to be inserted as if you were a coin in a slot, like in a washing machine (it used to be a coat room).

We went in the office to watch the trailer for the Comic Strip documentary, and also to watch one of the old Christmas videos that Ray made for many years for the annual holiday party. In the video we saw, which I think was the last one he made, he got the entire cast of Raymond to make believe they were at a show at The Strip to find a comic for someone’s birthday party. Brad Garrett, kept making fun of Angel Salazar’s signature line, saying “Sheck it out, … sheck it out!”

They called The Strip a “s#*thole”, and each of the cast members took turns making fun of different Strip comics like Scott Blakeman, and D.F. Sweedler, who they said nobody got. Seeing it for the first time, I actually thought it was a real episode of Raymond until the late Peter Boyle said, “I really liked that joke about the guy f#*king a horse.” That kind of gave it away. I didn’t think that line would get past the censors.

Ray is an unbelievably nice guy. Very often success makes people obnoxious. Ray is as nice as a guy who never made it! We got to congratulate him on the success of his new TNT show, Men of a Certain Age.

Comedy Central Auditions

Doug Herzog himself, Pres, of Comedy Central, showed up at The Strip to hold auditions for talent, in a show where Mike Britt was the MC. Among others, he got to see up and comer Jermaine Fowler, who just got back from performing in Aspen at the Rooftop Comedy Festival, Shang Wang who you’d never believe by his name was Chinese, and Kurt Metzger who explained why the USA is best. “We own the moon!”

Amy Schumer was there to audition as well. She’s so clever and what I like best about her is that every line is so strong. As a writer, I respect people who don’t waste half their stage time asking the audience where they’re from. Jimmy Brogan made that work for him, but that was 25 years ago. Maybe more! Most of the time it just looks like you ran out of material. It’s great for the MC to warm up the crowd, but not for the guys who hit the stage after.

Amy said she just went out with her high school crush, and now he expects her to go to his graduation! In Miami, it seems she got stung by a jellyfish. She said, “At least that’s what the guy who was peeing on me told me. I don’t even remember going in the water!” I like Amy Schumer.

Hannibal Buress, was also very good, and kindly told his assistant to “fax that for me, and here, fax something for yourself too!” I got to see Anthony Jeselnik for the first time, and found him to be very funny, and edgy, with good stage presence, and a very interesting delivery.

Montreal Auditions

Jeff Singer and his crew came down to audition people for this summer’s Just For Laughs festival. I got to see Adrienne Iapalucci, who says kids are so annoying she can’t understand why anyone would be a pedophile. Reese Waters, who’s dating a girl with very light skin because her mother is white, and her father is white, and the great Mike Vecchione, who according to him looks like “if Nick Lachey was on the Jersey Shore.”

Mike also just came back from performing in Aspen, where I’m sure he told the story about the time he was “fist-fighting a vegetarian” in the street. You don’t even need to hear the end of it to know it was funny.

Other stand-outs were Dina Blizzard, Josh Rabinowitz, Sean Patton and another favorite of mine, Joe DeVito, whose family believes in the motto, “If you can’t say something nice, scream it across the dinner table!” All these guys keep me from performing cause I always think, “How can I compete with that?” If you’ve never seen my stand-up it’s online on my website at jeffreygurian.com with me performing at Stand Up New York.

Gotham Happenings

Everybody, it seems, is writing a book. I got to see Jay Mohr at Gotham and then a few days later went to see him at his book signing, for his new book, No Wonder My Parents Drank, at the Barnes and Noble down on Warren Street in Tribeca. Jay entertained his book signing audience with fantastically accurate impressions of Al Pacino, Chris Walken, and Eddie Murphy, among others. He said his best experience while on SNL was seeing Chris Farley every time he walked into the building. He kind of choked up when he said, “It’s not often you get a chance to stare into the sun for two years.” That’s the kind of guy Jay Mohr is, plus he’s crazy about babies, and wants more!

The fabulous Pablo Francisco from Mad TV and Comedy Central headlined one weekend and I made sure not to miss him. Pablo is definitely a comedic experience you want to have. Once you’ve seen him do his thing, you will definitely return to see him again. He’s a dynamo who doesn’t stop for a minute.

Jon Fisch hosted the show, and Jon was so good, that I asked him to perform in a show I was producing out on Long Island at the Old Westbury Country Club, which you’ll be reading about in the next column.

Jon’s advice to the audience was, “When you realize you’re going bald, turn to whoever you’re with and propose.” Lines like that, that people get hysterical over are funny, but they also come from truth. Pain + Time = Comedy. It’s an equation that’s sad but true. Jon also said he stayed in a hotel that had free wireless in the lobby, but cost $9.99 a day in the room. He said, “Apparently they want me to masturbate in the lobby.” Jon Fisch will soon be a headliner himself.

So I shot an e-mail out to Pablo to give him a heads-up that I was coming, and wanted to see him after the show to get a photo. After the show he disappeared and I couldn’t find him, which is why I’m using a photo of us from last winter.

Comedians and lots of other creative people are not too good with the concept of time, but the day after the show, I got an e-mail back from Pablo saying, “Thank you bungbung, lots of love, Pablo.” As if I didn’t have enough to do today, now I have to find out what “bungbung” means!

Mitch Fatel was another old pal I hadn’t seen in too long, so when I found out he was headlining Gotham I made sure to be there. He has such a likable stage persona that no matter what he says, you have to like him.

Mitch is honest and says he’s “very famous” and gets to have sex with lots of girls. He was out on a date, and he suddenly felt like he was gonna have sex with the girl, because she went to the bathroom, and left her drink with him! One girl wanted him to call her a “bad girl” but he embellished upon it and told her she was so bad, she should have been incarcerated years ago.

Also on that bill were two other great comics Vic Henley, who was the MC, and Marina Franklin, who is a crowd pleaser wherever she works.

At Anthony Anderson’s monthly mixtape show it was great to see Royale Watkins take the stage again to do some stand-up, because as one of the producers of the show, sometimes he’s too busy to do that. He talked a lot about “Ho’s” and how they now have their own show. It’s called “Basketball Wives.”

Brian Scott McFadden had a great line. “This next guy is a favorite on the B,D, and E lines and has appeared on security cameras all over the city! Marshall Brandon claims that racism still exists. People follow him every time he goes into a store to steal something.

iSatiristas!

Speaking of books, Paul Provenza, of The Aristocrats fame, and host of the new show The Green Room with Paul Provenza on Showtime, came out with a book called iSatiristas!, written with Dan Dion the photographer known for his portraits of famous comedians. Dan’s work graces the walls of Gotham Comedy Club, because owner Chris Mazzilli is a classy guy and spared no expense to make the club look fantastic.

Everyone loves Paul, which is why he was able to get so many comics to do The Aristocrats and why he got so many comics to be in this new book, which attempts to examine the state of comedy today by interviewing everyone from George Carlin to Lewis Black and Stephen Colbert.

Paul and Dan had a book signing at Gotham, followed by a show in which Colin Quinn performed some of the material he will be doing in his new show Long Story Short which just opened at 45 Bleecker.

Colin made fun of Paul’s shirt which he said he enjoyed seeing on the cover of the first Cat Stevens album. Colin is a master at deconstructing every thought any human being ever had, and showing you the folly of how we think and act. There’s no one quite like Colin. He’s a master wordsmith, who actually paints a picture with his words, yet he’s very open to telling the audience how hard it is to exist within the confines of the comedy world.

Paul and I go way back. We first met while doing a radio show with Jackie Mason. Then Paul went on to star in an off-Broadway show called Only Kidding which was rated the #1 off-Broadway show by Tim Zagat. They moved the show to a larger theatre and I invested, and lost every cent. Everyone did, and no one knew why. That loss kept me from investing in Blue Man Group, which was looking to raise money at the time. But I was gun shy after my loss in what seemed to be “a sure thing.”

Needless to say, Blue Man is still running and I would have made a fortune! But the loss had nothing to do with Paul. He was the main reason I wanted to invest because he was so good.

Paul also wrote the forward to my book, based on my writing for the Friars Roasts for so many years, called “Filthy Funny, and Totally Offensive.” It was filled with the favorite nasty jokes of over 250 celebs. Go buy his book on Amazon! (and mine too, while you’re at it!)

Comedy Shorts

Mark Anthony Ramirez produces a show called “Tickle Me Tuesday” at Iguana on Manhattan’s West side, and I went there with a TV producer who’s been filming me for a potential TV pilot based on this very column. The show would sort of bring this column to life and take the audience backstage to meet the comics they enjoy on a personal basis.

This night I ran into the hysterically funny John Fugelsang who took over hosting America’s Funniest Home Videos from Bob Saget. John is so quick that when my producer interviewed him, he came up with such hysterical stuff, I thought he had it prepared, but he had no idea we were coming. Mark is a funny man and puts on a great show. He puts a huge amount of effort into everything he does.

Adam and Todd Stone, twin comedians, and Friars, from NBC’s Last Comic Standing opened a show at the Kraine Theatre called “Set in Stone.” I like what they do and went on opening night to support them, but I wound up actually loving the show.

They do this thing where they talk at the same time, and instead of it being annoying, it’s actually quite funny. Their humor is also very “out there” which I enjoy, like a bit where one says, “My great-grandfather had rabies, and my grandfather had rabies, and lately my father has been acting a little strange. So he went to the doctor who told him that rabies is not genetic, and my father said, “But how about the tendency to want to touch raccoons?”

I slipped into The Slipper Room, on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side, to catch a very bizarre, and different kind of alternative comedy show produced by James Habacker who owns the room. James is a fascinating guy who comes out dressed as different characters. The night I was there he was dressed as Pan, the Greek god of shepherds, and companion to nymphs. (Unfortunately there were no nymphs there that night, except the one I brought!)

He’s closing later this month for massive renovations where he’s putting in another floor, but this is a place I want to hang out, and maybe perform in.

How would you mix comedy and belly dancing? I’m not sure but I want to try and figure it out since I met Lale Sayoko and saw her do her amazing thing in a spectacular show called Bella Gaia. She’s like a human vibrator, but gorgeous and Japanese, and if I bring back Uncle Nat’s Traveling Peep Show I think she’d be a big hit! Or she could star in a new film I’m working on “Women Who Massage Fruit.”

All Rhodes Lead To Tom

In 1995, I attended the first Aspen Comedy Festival, and met Tom Rhodes who was just about to get his NBC sit-com Mr Rhodes, which ran from 1996 to 1997. We became friends and hung out several times, and after his show went off the air, I heard he became a big TV star in Amsterdam. Sounds like a dream come true considering all I’ve heard about Amsterdam.

It had to be at least 10 years since I saw him, so when I heard he was headlining at Gotham, I decided to go and surprise him. And boy, was he surprised. We had a great time reminiscing, and I may wind up going to Amsterdam next October to see him perform.

After New York he was heading to Okinawa to perform for the Marines. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that World War II ended 60 years ago! (How come we still have Marines stationed there???)

Tom has performed all over the world, in Beijing, Paris, London, and many other places I will probably never go. His show is really funny, like when he wonders about comics who are called “the bad boy of comedy.” You never hear that in other professions. Like you never hear anyone say, “He’s the bad boy of gynecology.”

Hysterical!

Anyway, remember, until next time, … (in case anyone should ask), … COMEDY MATTERS!!!

Carolines breakout artist: Nate Bargatze

by Punchline Magazine

Print this page out to get $5 off admission to Nate Bargatze’s show at Carolines on June 22. Get more 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: Nate Bargatze!

Nate Bargatze grew up watching his father, who is a world class magician, and decided to follow his footsteps in the entertainment business. Since he made his television debut on CMT Comedy Stage in 2007, he has had two appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, performed on Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham, and at the 2008 Just For Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival in the ‘New Faces’ category receiving critical acclaim in the Hollywood Reporter.

In 2007, Nate wrote for the Video Game Awards. He recently returned from his third tour in Iraq performing for the troops in Baghdad. He continues to keep the momentum going working every night in New York City comedy clubs when he’s not on the road.

Who will be the next breakout artists of the next few years?
Yannis Pappas, Chris Laker, Luis Gomez, Justin Silver, Dan Soder…. Oh wait, you said who WILL BE the next Breakout artist? Then, I say Geno Bisconte.

How did you get involved with going overseas to perform for our troops in Iraq?
I went with my good buddy and very funny friend Dustin Chafin the first time and now have gone back two more times with Comics Ready To Entertain which was started by comedian Scott Kennedy who has been over there 37 times. I hope to get to keep going as long as they are there.

Do you edit or change the routine you use? Do you now consider yourself a vet and hang out at VFW lodges?
I don’t edit but just choose the jokes I think will work for the situation— which I am usually wrong about. I consider myself a vet of performing at VFW lodges.

You recently won the 2010 Final Four Competition at Carolines on Broadway. Congrats! Has it given your career a boost yet? Or is it mostly bragging rights and an over-sized check?
I didn’t even get an over-sized check. Right after I won I had an audience member tell me how she didn’t think I should of won. I enjoyed it for about eight seconds. It has helped me with Carolines and will get to do the New York Comedy Festival, which should be awesome. I have been in the contest before and it felt great to win it. I think I am happiest I don’t have to do it anymore.

What’s next for Nate Bargatze? Where will you be in a few years?
Improv. I don’t think they have had their boom yet. I also will be doing my podcast called ‘it could be better’ with Yannis Pappas and Chris Laker. Go to itcouldbebetter.org and subscribe on iTunes and listen!

Print this page out to get $5 off admission to Nate Bargatze’s show at Carolines on June 22. Get more ticket info here.

Nathan Timmel: Smarter Than Your Average Idiot

by John Delery

If Garrison Keillor, aka Mr. Prarie Home Companion, had a blue streak, he would be Nathan Timmel, less a conventional comedian and more an insightful and often raunchy raconteur.

On his chummy, chatty (self-released) CD, Smarter Than Your Average Idiot, Timmel blends childhood anecdotes, current events and combustible social commentary into an entertaining, provocative and occasionally anarchistic highball.

The drinking analogy fits because when Timmel revs up his rant (including a solution to the Iraq conflict that would simultaneously lower the crime rate in South LA, to kooks who kill for the most selfish of motives, infamy, to playgrounds that have gone from precarious but instructive launching pads of life to soulless, mirthless, padded municipal-liability indemnifiers), he could be mistaken for the loudmouth lush whose lips loosen more and more with every swig of liquid lubricant.

A pair of big differences distinguishes Timmel from that dark, inebriated know-it-all: Onstage he’s neither churlish nor belligerent. His observations are equally sardonic, sarcastic and, well, sobering. Like most comedians, Timmel admits that he writes and performs jokes to relieve past pain and to make some sense of the senseless. Risking the occasional lull in the laughter, he fearlessly mines deep for memorable and personal material.

To buy Smarter Than Your Average Idiot, click the image below!

Paul Provenza: Master of the green room

by Punchline Magazine

By Jonathan Morvay

Every Thursday at 10:30 pm EST on Showtime, comedy veteran Paul Provenza welcomes a handful of the best minds in comedy to the Green Room. And now, we get to finally listen in!

I had my first true green room experience recently. I was asked to perform on a show in Los Angeles with some big name comedians, and was, of course, excited to meet them.

When I got to the venue (the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre), I was lead to the backstage space where I found some of my favorite faces in stand-up comedy, all in one room. Some smoked weed, some had a beer, and some simply sipped on water. The banter that went on throughout the next two hours was something I’ll never forget. The topics ranged from married life to first jokes to peanut butter. The environment was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced, and something I hoped everyone would get to see for themselves one day.

This is an idea Paul Provenza shares as well.

A veteran of stand-up comedy for over 30 years, and director of every comedy nerds favorite flick The Aristocrats, Provenza is the host and executive producer of a new show on Showtime rightfully called The Green Room. The premise of the show is exactly what I described in my recent experience – and we, the viewers, are afforded a fly-on-the-wall perspective of what’s discussed in this most sacred of comedy institutions.

I was fortunate enough to watch an advanced screening of the first season; it’s something no comedy fan wants to miss. From the clever introduction where Provenza warns “if you have ever been offended by anything” to stay away, we know we are in for an interesting look into the minds and banter of stand-up comedy legends. Each episode features some of the most well known names in comedy – think Roseanne Barr, Robert Klein, Patrice Oneal, Andy Kindler – as they sit down with Provenza with a small studio audience circling the laugh masters.

Shortly before the show premiered last week, Provenza released his new book Satiristas!, a collection of intimate stories told by some of the greatest political and socially aware minds in comedy– both vets and newbies. I recently caught up with Paul for a quick chat about his new show and book. Check it out.

How did the idea for the show come about?
I was doing this for a while— live around the world at various festivals. It started way back in the 80’s on Comedy Central. Then it was called Comics Only, and the idea behind the show was, ‘What if we did the Tonight Show with just comedians?’ And that was me trying to recreate what it’s like to be with comedians. As Judd Apatow describes in Satiristas! – I felt like the girl in the bee costume in that Blind Melon interview. I found other bee costumes; I found out I’m not alone. Comedy is all people that don’t fit in anywhere. Hanging around with comedians is a whole different lifestyle.

It’s a different way of looking at the world and being in the world. So I thought, ‘how can I convey to other people how I felt when I discovered this?’ So I started doing it live at festivals and it worked. It was hard to break down comedians. The audience isn’t supposed to be there but they’re allowed to be there. I wanted to get the comics to perform for themselves – not the audience – but for each other. So that was the vibe we tried to make with this show.

Tell me about the way the show was shot, and where it was filmed.
It’s a lot like trying to mate pandas in captivity. Everything has to be just right or no one is getting a hard-on. I gotta give props to Barbara Roman, my producing partner on this. It’s not shot like conventional TV.

We filmed it at a great nightclub called the Vanguard in Los Angeles. We built a little environment within that. We wanted the audience to not have the feeling of a TV show. We wanted the performers to feel like the comics are not on a television show. The people can sit wherever they wanted to. Those people aren’t gonna move so it’s up to you to get the shot. The camera crew was amazing. Every aspect of the production is artful.

Did you think the comics felt comfortable on set?
They walked in the room, and they could tell the audience was a notch above how most people are in comedy. Larry Miller saw the space we were shooting in and saw the people milling around and turned to me and goes, “there’s some serious comedy in this room.”

How else is the show unique?
No bullshit applause signs. We had the audience getting to know each other eating and drinking before hand. They didn’t know who was gonna be on the show. Everything was very unplanned. The closest paradigm to it which is different but the closest is Playboy After Dark – took place at a cocktail party.

We wanted people to think, “wow, this is an event.” We even used footage from people’s cell phone cameras.

How many comics are on each show? And who are some of the guests we can expect to see?
Three or four comics, plus myself. The guests include Eddie Izzard, Drew Carey Larry Miller and a comedian from the UK, Reginald D. Hunter, Roseanne Barr, Bob Saget, Patrice Oneal, Martin Mull, Bobby Slayton, Jim Jeffries from Australia, Paul Mooney, Jonathan winters, Robert Klein, Rick Overton. Andy Dick, Andy Kindler, Dana Gould, and Brendan Burns.

What sorts of things do you discuss?
No format, just jazz. Somebody just starts talking and it goes where it wants to go. It runs the gamut. Every show has a totally different feel. The show with Patrice and Saget and Roseanne gets personal and intimate. They discuss religion, Full House, politics. Another show could just be great comedy stories. Another show is very racially charged with Mooney and Slaton.

Let’s talk a little about your new book, Satiristas!
It’s conversations with about 50 or 60 comedians who all work very artfully with socially critical comedy— people who have something to say. They have all these different perspectives from craft, technique and audiences. Rather than journalistic interviews, they’re more conversations. The book also deals with my own personal issues of what I believe and feel— where I come from and where they come from. They’re very personal conversations.

Who are some of the people in the book?
Lewis Black, Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert, Robin Williams, Billy Connolly, Kids in the Hall, UCB, Patrice Oneal, and Roseanne Barr. There’s also some unknowns like Lee Camp and Jamie Kilstein. The book closes with George Carlin who was interviewed a week before he died.

What does Carlin talk about?
He talks about why he did what he did, and his worldview. He never considered himself as a political comedian. He talks about humanity in a way that’s compelling and artful.

How does the photography in the book come in to play?
The photography in the book by Dan Dion is fantastic. Dan photographs comedians as artists and tries to get a moment from them that says something about them. It’s compelling and provocative. That drove the style of the interviews. The conversations… you feel things from them. They both rest on Philosophy 101, which is ‘show don’t tell. Show me how you feel, don’t tell me.’

For more info on Paul, check out paulprovenza.com. And check out the Green Room’s official page here for a full schedule of shows. And to buy Paul’s new book Satiristas! just click the image below.

Robert Klein: Forever funny

by Punchline Magazine

By Nate Billy

Robert Klein’s Unfair And Unbalanced premieres tonight, June 12, on HBO, at 10 pm EST.

What can you say about Robert Klein? He’s a comic legend, that’s what.

Klein has managed to entertain audiences for well over 40 years, and is credited with being one of the first truly observational comics. Throughout his spanning career he’s been a part of the improvisational group Second City, was one of the first hosts of Saturday Night Live, and has been nominated for a Tony and an Emmy.

Klein also paved the way for all comedians by being the first to ever have an HBO stand-up special; that happened in 1975.

I caught up with him before the airing of his 9th special for HBO, Unfair And Unbalanced, premiering tonight at 10 pm EST, to chat about comedy, politics, and the blues.

What can we expect from your new HBO special?
I think it’s the edgiest stuff I’ve done in awhile. There’s a lot of politics. I’m always careful with my HBO specials, this is my ninth one, you know? I’m careful not to do anything too ephemeral that’ll be forgotten in two weeks. So, the political stuff is kind of historical and will stay for a while. Like the wonderful Senator Craig from Idaho was caught trying to have sex in the airport’s men’s room, a guy who’s voted against every gay marriage initiative.One of these values guys. A story like that will last a long time. This special is just a little more pokey.

How have things changed from your first special to now?
You know, I did the first HBO special in 1975 at Haverford College and it was a great idea. They only had about 400,000 subscribers in eastern Pennsylvania, Manhattan and Long Island. They have 43 million now, and it’s entirely my doing. Well, no, but seriously it was a wonderful idea. And it was not referred to as HBO in those days it was called Home Box Office and they emphasized that. Mostly they had started with movies. Big movies that were in the theatres just a few months before and you’d see them at home, and you’d get cursing and everything.

So this guy got this idea for the show and I was doing a lot of college concerts. Now you see these concerts, there was no such thing when I started. The only exposure comedians got on television was extremely sanitized appearances on the Tonight Show, Merv Griffin, and Mike Douglas…and Letterman who came a little later…but only for a few minutes at a time. It’s not that these were worthless; I mean funny people were funny on them, but this was a chance to really show your stuff. So through the years it’s been a two-way street. They’ve been accommodating with respect to artistic preferences, and you know, not second guessing material. Stuff like that. What can I say? It’s been a great thing and the Home Box Office thing is a real crown jewel of Time Warner.

The special is called Unfair and Unbalanced, and you’ve stated that it’s certainly more political, so is the title a shot at Fox News?
I BEG YOUR PARDON! I have to call my lawyer on that one, and get back to you. Well, gee…I guess. They’re very litigious these people at Fox. Originally we had one logo that was so dead on to theirs that the lawyers at Time Warner got very, very nervous. It’s not that they wouldn’t win the case, they’re just uninterested in having any case.

I’ve always admired Roger Ailes [president of Fox news channel] genius though. Years ago when he worked for President Nixon I referred to him on the Tonight Show – or some show – as an evil genius, and I got a call from Ailes. He started, on camera, a kind of new career at MSNBC in the early days, and he asked me to substitute for him for a week. But you know the Fox network isn’t legitimate news, it goes way beyond. The coverage is slanted, and it’s badly obvious; so to say fair and balanced is to me satire. You know?

Unfair and unbalanced is kind of the obvious opposite. It’s not that I don’t watch it, because it’s important to watch what everyone’s saying, but when you think of the painstaking droning, and plotting of the New York Times to get it right – and they do, and they try – then you think of this crap where they say anything they want. And it’s not confined to Fox. I was just on Keith Olbermannn the other night, and I like him very much, our politics are similar, but I think sometimes he’s too shrill and should tone it down.

But then there’s Glenn Beck, who’s a perfect example of a demigod. He’s fantastic. I can only watch him a few minutes at a time, because it becomes too painful. He’s too good. There’s a movie, write it down. You know a vintage place you can rent old movies?

I have Netflix, so I can get it.
There you go. It’s called A Face In The Crowd. It’s an Elia Kazan movie made in the 1950’s. Andy Griffith plays a down-and-out-no-good country drunk from the south that plays guitar who becomes a demigod-ic icon on television. Beautiful story, and a great parable for our times. You know when people go on television they can really influence you. Father Coughlin was one, an anti-Semitic raver of the radio in the 30’s. There have been others; Rush Limbaugh is a perfect example.

Yep.
And I want a complete report on this movie from you! I have three Doctoral degrees – all honorary it’s true…

Well, you did attend Yale too.
Yeah, but the drama school doesn’t count as the real Yale.

So how do you prepare for a special like this? It’s your ninth one; you must have it down to a science by now.
Well, It was tough. You know it has to be all new, and of the eight I’ve done previously, which are available in a box set now, two of them were 90 minutes long. So that’s nine hours of material and this one makes it to 10 hours of material. You know what, I get a rhythm going. I do a lot of clubs. I go to these small venues. We went everywhere, from Richard Pryor’s hometown of Peoria, Illinois, to LA, to Texas, Boston, Washington, Indiana, and I just kept on recording the shows. I playback what I said and say “Let’s refine it.” Unlike the writing process I used for my book The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue – which was written conventionally with a word processor where you’re writing and looking at a screen. This is improvisation, remembering or recording what was said, finding something different that would make it better, eliminating something that doesn’t get a laugh two or three times in a row – maybe more – unless I really believe in it.

There’s a certain instinct. And lo and behold a beautiful show appears. Much of the creative process I believe is more in kin to Jazz then it is to literature in many ways. It kind of erupts in my head, almost word for word.

So you start off with a basis, then kind of riff on it, and refine it over time?
Well, it begins as something. An idea. It flies out of my head. Like years ago I did a whole thing about being bitten by a squirrel and I said “A squirrel is a rat with good public relations,” and I never thought twice about it. It just happens. An idea flies into your head, sometimes it’s unrefined and must be honed, and other times its complete; it’s there. You know there is a certain way of saying something. It’s a process, and I don’t know how it works, but it’s glorious, because I’m 68 and the shit can fly out of my head as quick as ever. I’m really much better at my profession then I ever was.

I mean I’m less agile physically, I’m geezer-ized, and have got a bit of a belly, but I’m in pretty good shape because my head is still thinking of this stuff. It’s amazing, the process is still there for thinking funny. I don’t know how it works, and I don’t think it jinxes it to find out, but I couldn’t tell you more then that. It just happens. You have to be in the mood. I mean sometimes there are off-nights and it’s just not happening. Sometimes I’ll think of an idea at home and I’ll write it down, and I’ll say, “I’m going to do this on stage,” and also sometimes an old bit will suddenly explode into a whole new bit. One thing leads to another.

I mean I’ve been preoccupied with colonoscopies for a while, I did this colonoscopy song and it got nominated for a prime time Emmy award. Now I have new stuff about colonoscopies that I do with the old.

About the colonoscopy song, when did you start incorporating music into your act?
From the start I used music. From the very first HBO special in 1975, and on my album Child Of The 50’s from 1973. But the music has to be good. My idea of comedy and music is that the music has to be impeccable. If it’s Blues, it’s got to be good Blues. If it’s Doo-wop, it’s got to be good Doo-wop, and hip-hop and whatever else.

I know you have a fascination with the harmonica; when did that start?
I had friends when I was a teenager; we all loved folk singing and jug bands, and I took up the harmonica. Then the real break came when I worked with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee. Sonny was the greatest harmonica player I ever knew, and I worked with him twice at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village. He’s got these big lips, these big hands, and he’s blind. He had this fishing vest with all his harmonicas in it. And Brownie was lame, I mean he had a high shoe and he played acoustic guitar – not very well – Sonny was the real virtuoso.

Brownie was very cranky and between shows they’re drinking scotch and milk, which I’ve never seen before in my life, and they keep on calling each other “River.” “What chu want River?” “I don’t know River! What chu want River?” “You want to change the set for the next show?” “Yeah River I wanna…” And I went “Hold on a minute Brownie. I notice you keep calling each other River. Why do you call each other River?” He said, “Because it goes on and on.”

Robert Klein’s Unfair And Unbalanced premieres Saturday, June 12, on HBO, at 10 pm EST.

Interview: ‘I Am Comic’ director Jordan Brady

by Rob Turbovsky

If it were possible to apply the themes of a documentary as heartbreaking and inspiring as King of Kong (2007’s geeky video game players documentary) to a profession as drug-ridden as stand-up comedy, I Am Comic just about pulls it off.

Former stand-up Jordan Brady mixes memorably funny interviews about the basics of comedy with an unexpected and inspirational tale of creative rebirth. Brady takes an Aristocrats-style approach to assembling subjects, opting for a wide range of interviewees including Phyllis Diller, Nick Kroll, Sarah Silverman, and Jeff Foxworthy. As he documents the every day existence of the stand-up comic, with expected discussions of the challenge of honing a routine, surviving hell gigs, and working the road, Brady moves the film along with a fun visual zip usually absent from the few other nitty-gritty stand-up documentaries.

And, a handful of the interviews, including Louis CK’s detailed explanation of how he assembles his shows and Carlos Mencia’s bizarre pseudo-admission of stand-up theft, offer real insight into the comedians in addition to all of the fun of seeing stand-ups pull back the curtain. But, it’s not until Brady’s narrator/guide Ritch Shydner finds himself once again falling in love with performing comedy that the film finds its heart.

Shydner, a fellow recovering stand-up comic and co-author (with Mark Schiff) of the road stories collection I Killed, joins Brady initially to assist in interviewing comedians for the film. Along the way, Shydner rediscovers his own passion for performance, and I Am Comic threads its interviews around Shydner’s difficult journey back into the comedy trenches as he attempts to build a stand-up act after a nearly 15 year absence from the stage.

I Am Comic debuts on Showtime tonight, June 11th at 11:00 pm EST. And it will be available on demand through July 9.

Brady and Shydner will screen the film in person at the Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles as part of the Cinefamily’s 2nd Annual Comedy Festival this Saturday, June 12th, at 7:30pm.

I interviewed Brady about the film over lunch in Culver City, CA.

Why did you want to make this documentary?
I knew I wanted to do a film about what it takes to be a comedian. What it is to be a working comedian. Because I was a stand-up comedian for a dozen years, made a nice living, got some TV opportunities, and then started directing. And, constantly, like on the set of a commercial, a client would ask “I heard you were a comedian. What was that like? What do you do the other 23 hours of the day?” And, if McDonald’s is paying you six figures to run a commercial, you can’t really say that you smoked pot, watched cartoons, and went to the mall. You want to sound a little more responsible than that. So, I said, let me try this documentary. [Ritch] Shydner I got in touch with later. I had opened for him [back in the day]. I think we did coke off of a stripper’s ass in North Carolina together after a show. It was in the heyday of the boom. And, he remembered me.

Had you stayed in touch with Ritch in the intervening years?
Not at all. I got in touch with Ritch because of Amazon.com. Amazon recommended I Killed this book Ritch wrote with this other comic [Mark Schiff], of these road stories. I wanted to do a more encompassing documentary. But, Ritch has always been a great guy. And, he has goodwill out there in the comedy community. So, I said, “If you’re not doing anything, I want to make this. Why don’t you help me wrangle comedians, and we’ll work on questions, and we’ll explore the occupation of being a comedian.” That’s how it started. So, really, I have to thank some weird logarithm in the universe that Amazon.com said, “Hey, Jordan, you may enjoy this book.”

You also have to thank that stripper whose ass it was. But, had you naturally transitioned away from stand-up in your own career?
The short answer is my first real break was hosting this MTV game show that went nowhere. But, it was on for a half a year, and I did a bunch of episodes, and from being a game show host, NBC had me host this kid’s show. Mario Lopez was the host, and I was the co-host of Name Your Adventure. It was like the host’s job to take a kid and go to space camp with him, or learn to be a chef in chef school. The show was like Make A Wish for healthy kids. I started directing my own segments. Then, I started directing Mario’s segments. The more I started directed, the less I cared about being in front of the camera. So, I wrote some scripts, got some shows made, started doing movies, and then fell into commercials.

Do you not do stand-up any more?
Once a year. Stand-up to me is like having genital herpes. It breaks out once a year. You take care of it. You don’t talk about it a lot. And, then it subsides. How much of what we see in the film, of Ritch feeling compelled to return to stand-up, actually happened the way we see it? He will tell you that I manipulated him. Because we would do the gang bang of comedians [being interviewed]. We did one at the Improv, one at the Laugh Factory, and then one in New York at the Comedy Cellar.

We’d have 15 or more comedians, and we’d spend twenty minutes with them, and put it on a data card. When the data card was up, we’d go onto the next comedian. I used the crew from my commercials. Then, after the taping at the Cellar one night, we bought everybody dinner, and then we watched the show. We didn’t film a lot of stand-up. We’d just watch the show, because it was a nice thing to do. Ritch gets up and leaves the Comedy Cellar. He can’t take it. Literally, he bolts. I run into him later, in the park in Washington Square. I had texted him, like, “Where the fuck did you go?” He said, “I had to get out.” I said, “You want those laughs.” He said, “eah, yeah.” I said, “You gotta do stand-up. Because a series of talking heads is not a movie. We need a narrative thread. Why don’t we follow you?” I said, “Ritch, you’ve got to go up.” He said, “Okay, you pick the place.”

So, we found the Liquid Zoo, signed him up, and it was just him, the line producer, and myself. We went to the Liquid Zoo, and before he went on, he’s nervous, right? That’s real, that’s all in the movie. I said, “Ritch, if you go up there, and you kill for five minutes, no pressure, it’s going to be great for the documentary. But, if you bomb, it’s going to be a great to the documentary.”

Back in LA, he agreed to go up, and we went to the UCB [Upright Citizens Brigade Theater], and he really did say, “I can’t watch this any more.” Which was perfect [and is seen in the movie]. So, the moment that triggered the idea wasn’t on film, but then it happened again after he’d committed to doing it, and the story kind of fell into place. Ultimately, I think the question of what’s “real” in these kinds of narrative documentaries can be beside the point. I don’t want to show you behind the veil of filmmaking, but when I saw [the heavy metal documentary] Anvil… that was inspirational, because you know some things were staged, versus someone like R.J. Cutler [director of The September Issue among other works], where it’s all verité. I bought a camera to put on Andy Kindler’s head. I looked online to get Ritch Shydner a comedy coach, which I knew would make him boil.

How did you prepare for the interviews, given that you were only going to spend twenty minutes with each comic?
Ritch and I wrote questions together. So, everybody got asked the same couple of questions, and if they wanted to go off and tell a story, they did. Larry Miller is a wonderful storyteller. The Sklar Brothers have a wonderful energy. And, the cool thing about Larry, him and the Sklar Brothers, in editing, you can’t chop them up. Jim Gaffigan, you can take a soundbite here. Dave Attell you can take a bite. But, Larry, you need to let him build, and then he screeches on the brakes and does the funny thing. And, the Sklar Brothers, they start slow and they bubble to a boil. So, you have to let them have their time. As the edit came together, I knew I needed Ahmed Ahmed to talk about minority night.

And, Carlos Mencia was last, so I said, “Carlos, talk about performing for your own audience,” because that section needed it. Then, one guy who is not in it but will be in the DVD, Bobby Collins, he talks about cruise ships.

When Mencia says that he steals material, is he being ironic there? [Note: The Mencia interview – and this conversation about it – took place before his recent series of interviews on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast.]
That’s a great question, isn’t it?

What were you feeling in the room, at the moment?
Carlos Mencia is a gentleman. And, he’s smart. And, I think his management had mentioned we were not to ask him about that topic. And, we were done, and we turned off the camera, and I said, “You know, Carlos, you’re the last interview.” He was the last interview in the whole thing. He and Lewis Black, who we had four minutes with. So, I said, “Is there anything you want to say? Do you want to have the last word on anything? Because, you know, people think certain things…” And, he said, “I know what you’re saying.” It was never really spoken. But, you know, people think a certain thing about him. I thought it would be funny if he had fake tears coming down his face. I brought in the make-up guy, and he did the bit, the one time, and at first, I thought, “Oh, this is genius,” but then I watched it and I thought he’s not truly copping to it, but he is enough that he’s acknowledging that it’s out there. Some people think it’s a total put on, that he’s not copping to it.

I liked seeing Jeff Foxworthy in the movie. Not only does he really take you inside the mind of a comedian, but his genuine love for the craft wins you over even if you don’t care for his material.
Foxworthy had a few gold medal stories. One’s in the movie. The other is hosting the ESPY Awards. Ray Charles is the next guest. And, the stage manager goes, “Three, two, one…Ray Charles had to go to the bathroom. Stall.” So, Jeff said, “I just had to start talking, but in my mind, I’m wondering, ‘Does Ray Charles go alone? Did he take something to read? Is he going number one or number two? How long will he be?’” But, he started telling a story, and he got big laughs. And, it’s different from Larry, but the same in that there’s always a beginning, a middle, and an end to his stories. So, that one will be on the DVD. How do you actually know when you’ve finished making a documentary like this? At what point does it feel complete? When you run out of money. I was stalking Dave Chappelle.

And, I shot his very first Comedy Central thing ever, and I thought I had an in. Didn’t get him. I had an in for Chris Rock. Didn’t get him. Patton Oswalt said he was all “doc’d” out, because he had done Comedians of Comedy. You know how many managers said no?

Is there anyone you wanted to get but couldn’t?
I wish there were a few more young guys. Sean Patton I interviewed, but the interview wasn’t as funny as he is. Nick Kroll I had to get, because I’d seen him online. Aziz I think was busy being Aziz. I was going to go behind the scenes when he taped his special, but the night before I [heard] it wasn’t going to happen. Have you heard of Jo Koy?

Sure.
Want some dirt?

Of course.
Jo Koy was the headliner when I shot Nikki Glaser. Jo Koy didn’t want to be interviewed, wouldn’t let Ritch do a three-minute guest set in Tampa because it might hurt his hour and ten minute show. I don’t think he’s very funny, but I will say this: I saw him get three standing ovations in Tampa. The people got more for their entertainment dollar than I’ve ever seen one person give on stage. “They tell me I’m going too long here for you people. They tell me I have another sold-out show, and I’ve got to get you out of here, but I’ve got more love to give.” But, he refused. Now, I don’t want to sound like an asshole, but I’m proud of the breadth of comedians. There’s something for everyone. It’s not even my personal taste.

What has the reaction been like from those who’ve seen it?
Dana Gould wrote me the nicest note. He said, “Now I have something to say: Watch this, this is what my life was like.” Jeff Foxworthy: “That’s the closest thing to telling the story of my life.” So, I’m very proud of how the comedians have responded to it, but the civilians had to be able to understand it. That’s Shydner’s story. Once Ritch went up at the Laugh Factory, I knew I had an ending. Ritch gives it a human face. Once I had Ritch’s story, I’d edit around Ritch.

Comparing Roseanne saying “It’s the greatest feeling,” then, in that same chunk Janeane [Garofalo] saying, “If I don’t go up for a week, I get rusty,” cut to Ritch, doing stand-up for the first time after thirteen years, going, “Ah…I’m going to die. I can’t remember the bit.”

Has anyone seen it and been unhappy with it?
No one has hated it, no one has not liked it, but Ritch Shydner, early on, said, “I’m not going to be your Orny Adams!” And, Ritch, I think it’s very sane of him, there are parts when he walks out at a screening. My hat is off to him. He’s taken down to the mat in this movie. And, if he wasn’t made uncomfortable, there’d be something wrong with him. When we screened it at Slamdance, it was an indie film crowd, which is the audience I want to get, and a guy afterwards said, “Ritch now doing stand-up feels very much like independent film. He’s not in it for the HBO special or the CBS deal. He’s in it for the love of stand-up.”

And, the film, I made it because it was a low year in commercials, and I’d been trying to get it off the ground for a couple years, and I made it for me and for comedians. If the common man, if the civilian laughs, that’s great. There was certainly an eye towards making it broader than just comedians. If it was just for comedians, the section on merch would’ve made it.

For tickets to the Los Angeles screening, Saturday, June 12th at 7:30pm, visit cinefamily.org. I Am Comic premieres on Showtime on Friday, June 11th at 11:00pm.

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