Carolines breakout artist: Rory Scovel

by Punchline Magazine

Print this page out to get $5 off admission to Rory Scovel’s headlining show at Carolines on Aug. 3. 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: Rory Scovel!

Who do you think are the breakout artists of the next few years?
I hate this question because I feel there are so many people and I always forget everyone when I am asked this.I think Jon Dore is already a breakout artist but I think he is only going to become bigger and bigger the more exposure he gets. Andy Haynes is a great NYC comic, who is also on this show on the 3rd. Jason Weems from DC is a great comic despite some recent shinanigans about meaningless ownership to material. Nick Mullen out of Austin, TX, he gets better and better every time I see him perform.

You’ve performed at a lot of comedy festivals – Any particular favorites? How is a festival audience different from, say, a night club or college audience?
Depending on the setup for the show, festival shows can be amazing or a disaster. Sometimes music festivals add comedy tents and its a difficult environment for comedy so the show is a lot of work and usually doesn’t come across the way it should. This isn’t always the case, Sasquatch this year was really fun. The Charleston Comedy Festival in South Carolina is amazingly great. TheHaveNots run that and they are awesome. Bridgetown Festival in Portland, OR is one of my favorites because the comics really showcase creativity more comfortably. If a festival is run properly it can be the same as being in front of a really enthusiastic college crowd.

You’re also known as a comic who does a lot of improv. How essential is improv to stand-up? And what’s your opinion of improv groups in general?
For me, improv is essential to stand-up because it keeps things interesting if I don’t have new material. Improv also helps me find new material inside of old material and create new jokes that I wouldn’t have found without pressuring myself in the moment to improvise on stage.

I think improv groups are just like sketch groups and stand-ups– some are absolutely amazing, some are okay, some should try a different hobby. I personally feel that good improv should inspire stand-up. Reggie Watts improvises every show he does and it inspires me to do the same and take bigger risks.

What’s next for Rory Scovel? Where will you be in a few years?
Not sure, which is what I love about this job. You just keep going and you see what happens. Year to year I just hope to get better. I feel that this has been the case. Avoiding any sense of being stagnant is my only goal.

The Journals of Christopher Columbus from Rory Scovel on Vimeo.

Print this page out to get $5 off admission to Rory Scovel’s headlining show at Carolines on Aug. 3. Get more ticket info here.

Video interview: A Tight Five with Hannibal Buress

by Punchline Magazine

The online comedy world has been abuzz all this week about the release of comedian Hannibal Buress’ debut album My Name is Hannibal. We’d like to believe our early review of the disc weeks ago helped create said buzz. More than likely, however, it’s just that the album, put out by Stand Up! Records, is great and that Buress is an exciting, young comedian who happens to be super easy to root for.

A month or so ago, we got to chat with Hannibal at the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival. For your education and for your comedy pleasure, we’ve posted the result of that conversation below. So, check it out. And if you haven’t bought his album yet, just click the image below the video to do so. Enjoy!

Jake Johannsen: Confident comedy

by Punchline Magazine

By Joe Zimmerman

One of the most respected comedians in the comedy world, Jake Johannsen, maybe more than any other comic, knows exactly who he is and how to practice his art. In this interview, comedian Joe Zimmerman has a comic to comic chat with the man himself.

I had a chance to sit down with Jake Johannsen last week, comic to comic, at the fourth annual Laugh Your Asheville Off Comedy Festival in Asheville, NC at the beautiful Diana Wortham Theater.

There were over 45 young comics from around the country, and Jake was the festival anchor, closing out both shows on Saturday and receiving back to back standing ovations. It was great to see such a prolific veteran hanging around at the festival and enjoying the shows.

“This is top drawer” he said of the festival, “This theater is absolutely beautiful.” He also enjoyed the non-competitive format, saying “competitive stand-up comedy is kind of like competitive art.” His new hour long Showtime special I Love You, is now available on Netflix, and I highly recommend it.

Many comics struggle with keeping it clever and intelligent, because we often perform late at night and the audience is drinking. How have you been to do what you do, in these kind of environments?
I don’t have to work the really rough rooms, but even at a nice club you get a drunk crowd that can be rowdy. But the way I look at it, you’re being hired as a comedian; your job is not to entertain whoever shows up. Your job is to do your act in the most entertaining way you can.

Ultimately you have to make people laugh most of the time, but not every time, and not no matter how drunk they are. I feel like you just want to work on your show – your vision of a comedy show – and hopefully you succeed or fail based on that. But if you change your act to succeed in some room that’s a little rough, you can wind up having to work that room again, and then the more times you work that room then the more you change your act to make it succeed in that room, and then all at once they don’t want you on Letterman, because you’re sort of rowdy and dirty.

If you could go back in time to when you first started in comedy, what advice would you give yourself?
It’s tricky, because I feel pretty good about most of the decisions I’ve made. Even the ones that are sort of iffy – there’s no telling what would have happened, if I had done the other thing. Is that cryptic enough for you?

So you wouldn’t change anything?
Yeah, my advice to comics, you know… there are a lot of comics that kind of have this idea that they’re hip and they’re artists and they never want to sell out…and my thing is look, if it’s a job and it seems like fun and you can make some money, you should take that job if you think you would enjoy it and don’t really care so much if other people think you’re selling out. You go do that job, you have a good time, then you see what that leads to, and then you wind up where you wind up at the end…and that’s not so much that I regret turning anything down.

But I do see a lot of comics struggle with that idea, like ‘I don’t want to be the game show host’ for example, and then you look at Howie Mandel… He’s been an actor, a hugely successful comic, and now he’s hosting a game show. Greg Kinnear was hosting Talk Soup I believe, and then he winds up to being an academy award nominated actor, so I would say just do what you enjoy, and make the most of it.

Jokes.com
Jake Johannsen – Chicken Donut
comedians.comedycentral.com

What is your method of writing? Do you go on stage and work it out, or sit down and write?
I kind of make little notes while I’m talking, and go on stage and work it out. If I can sit down and be disciplined about it, that always pays off, but that’s just a harder way for me to do it. Comedy is a good job for a kind of, talented lazy person. Not that I’m bragging…about being lazy.

What’s your theory on how much new material you should work in each year?
My theory is, as much as possible. It’s hard though, to turn over your whole hour once a year. I know Louis CK has sort of blown himself up by touring with a new hour every year, but I almost think for comedy clubs at least, that’s a little fast. You know, because I think it kind of takes two years before everyone has seen that material.

So if you’re turning over 30 or 50 percent a year, you’re going pretty fast. I mean, we’re all just doing our best, right? Just like it’s hard for major league athletes to retire, even though they can tell they’re not quite at their peak anymore, it’s hard to stop doing a joke that everyone still loves.

Many of the comics I meet who have been doing the road 25 plus years seem miserable. Where do you stand?
I feel like, early on, I made a realization that for me, if I was working more than two weekends a month, then I would start to get kind of angry and tired and frustrated…and so now in my career, every once in a while I’ll work three weeks in a month, but I find on average if I can keep it to about two weekends a month, I can stay sane…and if you do more than that, you’d probably get better material, but it kind of makes you crazy.

I realized when I was waiting tables a million years ago, that if I was working three or four shifts a week it was fine, and the people you’re waiting on could behave however they wanted, and it didn’t bother me, ‘Yeah okay, I’ll get you some more bread,’ and then if I was waiting five or six shifts, it’d be like, ‘I don’t like the way you just asked me for water.’ So I feel like you gotta pace yourself for being on the road, but I still like it – I think it’s fun to do shows. A lot of guys I know who were doing stand up years ago and quit, got back into it because they were like, “Hey, this is a fun job.”

If you were offered an LA writing job, where you could make a great living off the road, would you take it?
I don’t think I would now. It’d be hard – I guess I’d have to hear the offer, but the problem is now I know that if you take a year off the road, you can’t just go back out, because your act isn’t up to it, and you haven’t been at the clubs for a year, so now it’s been two years since your last visit, so now they don’t know if you’re going to sell any tickets. So you gotta take a pay cut and go back and prove yourself, so I feel like… well I’d rather stay out there, do my once a year at the clubs I really like, and the clubs that really like me, and try out a new club here and there every once in a while.

If you would pay to see one comic, who would it be?
My answer is always the same, and there are a lot of them – guys who I love, if I could see A. Whitney Brown again I would love to, if I could see Kevin Meaney he’s always great, Bobby Slayton, Kevin Pollack, Paula Poundstone – they’re always great. But the guy who I started with in San Francisco, who I would buy a ticket to see (besides Larry Miller – who wasn’t in San Francisco, but I would also pay to see Larry Miller)… I would pay money to see Dana Carvey, any chance I got, and advise anyone reading this to do the same.

When I was starting out, he was a headliner in the Bay area, before Saturday Night Live, and you would go to a comedy club for a week, and he would get a standing ovation encore, at least four out of the six shows, and most of the time, all six shows – like okay here, let’s bring him back out. When you see him live, he’s having such a good time, and you’re having such a good time, and it’s so silly – but the punches…explosively funny.

Jokes.com
Jake Johannsen – Homeless Doctors
comedians.comedycentral.com

When did you feel like you had found your voice? Did it happen naturally?
I feel like it was kind of natural, but I think at the time – and I think now there’s a real emphasis on everyone trying to be unique, and sometimes people try to figure out what everyone else is doing, and think ‘what can I do that would be different from what everyone else is doing,’ and I think the big epiphany for me was to just be myself – just try and talk about the things that I thought were funny, in the way that I thought they were funny.

I mean, we’re all unique like snowflakes (laughs). You know what I mean? If you go up there and you just are who you are, the more you kind of let that out, and trust that, the better off you’ll be…and so that’s what happened to me. I just finally quit trying to be something unique, and just started trying to be more me, more honest, more this is what I think, this is how I’m talking to you.

For more info on Jake, check out jakethis.com. To download is album Live at Cobb’s Comedy Club, just click the image below. You can check out some of author Joe Zimmerman’s comedy at RooftopComedy.com.

Carolines breakout artist: Joe Larson

by Punchline Magazine

Print this page out to get $5 off admission to Joe Larson’s headlining show at Carolines on July 27. 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: Joe Larson!

Chosen College Comedian of the Year at the Las Vegas Comedy Festival, Joe was also nominated as best up-and-coming comedian at NYC’s MAC awards and was part of this years prestigious Johnny Carson Great American Comedy Festival. Joe has also been featured on screen many times including Comedy Central, Loco Comedy Jam and in the film “Stand-Up 360.”

Who do you think are the breakout artists of the next few years?
I am not sure but I have been hearing quite a bit of buzz about this Steve Martin guy.

You come from a family of comedians – father is a famous Seattle stand-up. Do you think you were destined to be a comedian? Would you have followed in your father’s footsteps if he were, say, the manager of a Bennigan’s?
I never wanted to be a stand-up. And quite frankly during some shows that aren’t going well, I still don’t. My dad, Elliot Maxx is one of the funniest guys I have ever seen. When I told him I was going to do stand-up he tried to talk me out of it for a year an a half. Even at that he has been a huge help. The first time I opened for him he gave me a little piece of advise that I have never forgot. The MC was introducing me and he put his arm around me and said “son, I have been doing this 30 years, I have learned a lot and I have a piece of advice for you… Don’t fuck up, makes me look bad. Go get em.”

You were once named “College Comedian of the Year.” Do you prefer the college circuit to the night club circuit?
Clubs. College kids are too easily offended. I like an audience that has been shit on by life. They know that things probably won’t work out and life isn’t fair so you might as well laugh at the things that are funny.

Addendum – Did you yourself finish college – or are you also the recipient of the “The Most Ironic Comedy Award of the Year” award?
I never graduated, but I have performed at every college that I was rejected from. Cashing those checks was the greatest feeling ever! After cashing them I was promptly removed from the bank by a security guard for yelling “Suck it, college!”

What’s next for Joe Larson? Where will you be in a few years?
Probably therapy. Where will I be in a few years? I think that depends on the therapy.

Print this page out to get $5 off admission to Joe Larson’s headlining show at Carolines on July 27. Get more ticket info here.

Rob Schneider: Our next big political comedian?

by Emma Kat Richardson

His first ever comedy album, Registered Offender – a collection of sketches — is officially out this week, he’s on a nationwide stand-up comedy tour through February 2011 (so far) and well, he’s got a lot of smart shit to say. Forget what you thought you knew about Rob Schneider. Things are about to get real serious.

Chatting with Rob Schneider – comedian, actor, animal, gigolo, hot chick, surf ninja – is something of a surreal experience. No wait, scratch that: it’s a very surreal experience. And as the conversation progresses into a 45-minute think piece, this sense of surreal-ness begins to stem increasingly not from the realization of speaking with someone whose work I idolized as a child, but from the things that the much-maligned oddball comic is discussing with me at length.

“I don’t find Obama’s policies any different from Bush’s or Clinton’s,” he says, for example. (An utterance at which, I’m ashamed to admit, I have to bite back my tongue to refrain from replying with a plaintive “makin’ copies!”) “He’s the same guy, because at the end of the day, you can’t change this military industrial complex or this medical industrial complex, and you just think it’s unchangeable. And what’s really going to sink us is not our 40% spending on the military – it’s that no country has ever survived spending that much on the military.”

Huh? Can this highly educated, well-rounded bit of biting social commentary really have sprung forth from Rob Schneider, the star of decidedly un-intellectual fare like The Animal and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo? Indeed, Schneider is full of surprises – the living embodiment of an enigma wrapped in a mystery, microphone clutched firmly in hand as spitfire smarts rain down on his crowds from atop his onstage perch.

If you’re a member of the Millennial generation, like me, chances are you owe a great deal of cultural debt and comedic awakening to the early ‘90s Saturday Night Live powerhouse troop of Schneider, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Chris Farley, god rest his limber, light-footed soul. Who could quickly forget the social reverberations of the “Gap Girls” sketch, or the innocuous ripple effect caused by Schneider’s Richard Laymer character. (See aside on Obama quote above.) But if you do indeed count yourself among the SNL quoting elite, chances also are that you’ve been largely disappointed with Schneider’s film career – a seeming waste of a genuine comedic original and talent on one outlandish, convoluted plot-line after another.

But this year has seen Schneider step out of the clunky shoes of Deuce Bigalow and into the role of a born again stand-up comic – one who has been criss-crossing the nation nonstop in his first headlining tour, and causing audience members both young and old to fall into stitches with a healthy dose of sharp, insightful wit, at that. “You know, it’s interesting, because I used to be a stand-up. I hadn’t done it in 17 years,” he says. “I’m like a performing butterfly – ‘he emerges every 17 years from the ground to…’ It’s like about my life, it’s about being 40 now, and having a different take on things. But I really take it seriously, the art form. I’m not just some celebrity doing a victory lap.” (Note: portions of this interview and introduction were originally published in Real Detroit Weekly.)

Where did the idea for this comedy tour come from? What propelled you to do it?
Adam Sandler has been telling me for 10 years, “Hey, you should just go back and do this, blah blah blah.” Then I saw George Carlin’s last concert. He was amazing! It made me think that man, I never got that killer hour, and this guy’s been doing stand-up for 30 years.

Then, I worked with Chris Rock and Adam Sandler in Grown-Ups last year, and I asked Chris how to go it, and he was like, “You’ve just got to get back into it, man.” So I… I did. I started writing jokes last summer, making notes for stuff, and then I started kinda doing it here and there, but then I said screw it, and just took a year off to do it.

What sort of sources did you tap into for your material?
There are so many things going on in the world that you could talk about. It’s interesting to me; you know, whether it’s the economy, or whatever. I’m enjoying just having contact with that immediacy. You know this movie we made, Grown Ups – we did it a year ago, and I couldn’t even tell you the jokes in the movie. It’s taken a year for it to come out.

It seems like it’s a sort of “back-to-your-roots” career move.
Yeah; I like it a lot. It’s just kinda fun to talk to all the people who I can’t believe all the movies they’ve seen. It’s when the real fans come out. I just want to put on a good show for them and have fun. America’s kind of bitter and angry – I’ve never seen it like this before. It’s like a sense of a real, terrible… well, actually Jimmy Carter never used the word “malaise,” but there’s a really, kind of settling into the [attitude] of, “Wow, things aren’t going to get better any time soon.” It’s such a new kind of attitude; I find it to be almost British, where we’re screwed, and that’s just a wonderful backdrop for comedy.

Do you think it’s almost easier to do comedy now than when you first started out?
Absolutely. First of all, I’m smarter. I’m adept at this because, hey, I made it already. I don’t have to prove anything, so now I can just talk about what I want to talk about. I mean, literally. And I don’t want to be too self-indulgent, but I feel like I need to do stuff that’s interesting to me, otherwise why am I doing this? So in that sense, I still have to entertain first, but I want to talk about what’s interesting for me to talk about. If that makes sense.

Since there was such a long gap between when you last performed and now, was there anything in particular you did to get back into the swing of it?
Well, my fiance is a wonderful lady. I’d been doing a week of gigs, and the first couple shows were rocky. And I said, honey, I don’t know. But she just pushed me and said, “You can do this, you can do this.” But anyway, there’s no shortcut. I mean, if I go three to four days without performing, I feel stiff. I miss performing all the time. I’ve written some jokes and I’ve written some routines and stuff I like to talk about, and I’m figuring it out as I go. I’m really more kinda turned on by this than I’ve been in a long time.

What’s the main difference between Rob Schneider the stand-up and Rob Schneider, the actor?
Well, I think people are always kind of amazed that I have some grip on the issues. They’re much more shocked about that than anything else. There’s [this conception] that there’s not much thinking going on in comedy, but comedy’s much more complex than you feel. If the comedy in a movie is not working – and there are so many things that can kill it – the chemistry’s off, the music can be off, the editing can be weird, there are so many things that can kill it in a comedy movie. No one really ever says, “Wow, they worked hard on that comedy.”

It’s either funny, or it isn’t. And that’s why comedy hardly ever gets nominated for an Academy Award, but you ask Al Pacino or any other actors about comedy, they’ll tell you it’s the toughest. But I respect them, and I kinda like to do things a little difficult.

But with stand-up, you really have to work to kind of constantly keep it tight. There’s the thing about comedy and brevity going hand-in-hand, so I can’t take too many little breaks just to talk about what I want to talk about. But at the same time, I feel I need to push it, and see if the audience is receptive to being pushed. That’s a good little struggle, and I’m not minding it.

Do you feel that you’ve developed a lot not only as a performer, but also as an individual?
Absolutely. We’re not the same people we were a few years ago. I don’t think we’re the same people we were two years ago. Like, I don’t know who they thought Obama was, but that guy turned out to be a real disappointment in our leadership, and it’s not just his fault; the Republicans have tried to stop him at every turn. But at the same time, I don’t find Obama’s policies any different from Bush’s or Clinton’s. He’s the same guy, because at the end of the day, you can’t change this military industrial complex or this medical industrial complex, and you just think it’s unchangeable.

I think it’s kinda sad, in that sense, and I don’t know who we thought he was. He kinda ends up being a little bit of a war-mongerer, like Kennedy, but we’re dumb because we voted for him. He said, “I want change!” but yeah, I didn’t realize it was minute change. It’s the same status quo that exists without getting rid of these insurance companies, taking that money, putting it into the medical program and saying, “This just doesn’t work.” And what’s really going to sink us is not our 40% spending on the military – it’s that no country has ever survived spending that much on the military. Nobody ever has because you can’t survive that way, and that’s why we’re broke.

At the same time, what’s really going to bankrupt us is our healthcare. It’s not that we can’t [reform] it, it’s that we don’t have healthy people. Like we tax cigarettes, we’ve got to start taxing fast food. That’s what makes people sick. And instead of the corn lobby… there’s this whole idea that there’s a free trade agreement. There’s no free trade agreement. It’s a free abuse agreement. We protect our corn, we protect our timber industries, and corn gets subsidies, but corn makes people sick.

It’s an unfair trade practice, because when it subsidizes your industry like that, corn in other countries can’t compete, and that’s why the Mexican corn industry went bankrupt. So now they’re coming over the border to get jobs, and we’re having the immigration issue. This is all because of NAFTA, and unfair trade. It’s illegal immigrants that are doing it, and they’re paying them lousy, substandard, almost slave wages. This stuff is ridiculous, and government regulations aren’t meant to handcuff it – it’s to protect the people. So this is part of the things we need to educate ourselves with. And I love talking to people, because maybe I can have more of an impact than with making movies.

Is this a sampling of our stand-up that I’m getting here?
Well, this is the more straight version, but you’ve got to start talking about some things if you want to make change. So when Obama talked about change, it was minute change. You know, not closing Guantanamo Bay is cowardice. We need to throw a lot of it out; we need to start over. Unfortunately, in this country, we’re susceptible. Until we change, until we [get rid of] lobbyists and make a more democratic system, we’re going to have a democracy that’s for the rich, rather than for all the people.

Do you tend to invoke more topical anecdotes on stage, as opposed to biographical material?
Yeah. Well, I do a little bit of half and half.

Have you been getting a good reaction to it?
Oh, they love it.

Why do you think people aren’t as familiar with this side of your personality?
Because people just know me as an actor. I don’t want to be famous for being on TV, doing stump speeches about politics. I like to get to people through a comedy club setting, because it’s a lot more interesting. I don’t like to preach, but I like to talk about these issues in a way that they can get to people. A comedy club setting is very subversive – even Hitler knew you’ve got to be careful about what we allow on the screen.

It’s funny to me when people talk about the left and liberal media. There’s no such thing as the liberal media. If you think Time Warner is a liberal media, you’re wrong: it’s not anything less than the right wing. I’m sorry, but until we see Noam Chomsky hosting a program on CNN, I’m not going to say that that’s a liberal outlet.

You know, most of the damage that was done to the banking was done not under Bush, but under Clinton. Clinton was the one that really let the banks get away with deregulation, and let the banks take over. The idea was that Clinton was looking out for the best interests of the average Americans was hogwash. How flawed his health care plan was, it was the first genuine effort to help poor people.

Rich people are always going to be okay in this country, but you have to help out the people who are going to be left behind. I always hear attacks that socialized medicine sucks, but hey, you’ve never been to Canada; you’ve never been to France. Only four percent of the American population has passports, but they think they know what goes on in other countries, and just believe the crap you see on the news. That’s what Noam Chomsky talks about in Manufacturing Consent. There’s so much propaganda, because people believe the New York Times. It’s just so much, and with most of the stuff, you have to fight to get an interesting, consumer-related story in there.

Are you active in many political causes or non-profits?
Yeah, but in a way, it’s like I don’t want to be famous for that. It’s going to be a lot more tougher [sic] now, because it’s going to be more and more of a push to cut back. The schools are already butchered; we have a 50% dropout rate in Los Angeles Unified. We’re just creating two groups of people: people who have no chance in society, and are going to struggle their whole lives, and then people who don’t. It’s proving to be what I joked about 20 years ago, which is like the middle-class, which is the strength of the American society, is going to end up being, in the second-half of the 21st century, an apparition that has outlived its time. It’s just funny, though, because the same kinds of people that are the victims of the right wing Fox News propaganda are the people supporting it. It’s the same people being punished by these programs; they’re buying into this propaganda.

It’s an interesting time, but I think at the same time, it’s an opportunity – an opportunity for Americans to wake up and realize what’s most important. I just hope we realize it before it’s too late, you know? America is a very well-intentioned country, but we’ve caused a lot of harm. I mean, the reason why Pakistan has nuclear weapons is because of the United States.

What do you think needs to be done to make Americans more aware of these issues?
I think they’re going to have to hurt a little bit more. I think people are going to have to do some ground-roots support, and people are going to have to realize that the Republican Party and the Democratic Party aren’t really there to help people. We’re going to have to have another group that challenges us.

We also need to realize that presidential powers have been abused for the last 30-40 years. If you look back at the leaders we admired most, there was George Washington, and this was a guy who walked away from power, from more power.

People are just going to have to get involved, and I think a parliamentary system would work a lot better than what we have now. We really have, in the United States, one of the oldest forms of government that exists. It’s not really responsive to meet to the needs of the people. It’s completely usurped by big money, and just by lobbyists. It’s almost impossible to be in Congress right now without this huge, constantly, endless campaigning. I think it’s democracy usurped, whereas real democracy is ugly, in the sense that it’s messy.

In the ‘60s, when people were protesting in the streets, they called it democracy in action. It’s supposed to be messy, but people have been pacified here. I remember with the Iraq war, for the first few months people were in the streets, but then they just went back to their jobs. If we want things, we’re going to have to really protest. But people are going to have to stand up, because they’re not going to get better, they’re going to get tougher, and if they want to keep their rights, they’re going to have to stand up. But look, hey, we’ve got to get involved, and if I can have a positive impact in some small way, that makes all the difference.

Is this one of your goals with your stand-up tour; to educate people about these issues with humor?
Absolutely. Rather than keeping your kids off drugs, I’m like, “Keep your parents off drugs.” Prescription drugs, of course.

I don’t think a lot of people realize how dangerous these drugs can be, even though they’re legal.
You’ve got the military industrial complex, but you’ve also got the medical industrial complex. That’s why every commercial on TV is some kind of medicine. They’re just drugging America to death, and it’s all about money. They never used to allow advertising of drugs on TV, and now it’s every other commercial. Why? Because the lobbyists were able to change the laws, and now there’s no way to double check; it’s exactly what the big pharmaceutical companies want. It’s all about profits, of course; they don’t care about us. This is just this insane system that has not been changed under this new health care program. It’s not helping people – it’s helping big business.I’m not saying the whole medical establishment is evil: it just needs to be completely abolished and started over.

How do you reconcile these two parts of your personality? There’s of course the goofy, comic actor that everyone is familiar with, but what I’m hearing here is a very civically minded, tuned-in individual.
Well, people are of course free to not come to my shows if they don’t want to. I just think at the end of the day, people want to laugh, and there’s fun in that. Those movies, I had a lot of fun with that, but after my dad passed away – he was on 10 different medications at the end, and none of them were helping him – he died at 68, and I realized, this is so totally unnecessary. All this stuff is making him more sick. For whatever reason, I’ve achieved whatever fame I have, but if I can just affect a few people in a positive way – not being too preachy, like I am now – they can sit and talk to me and find that I do have knowledge about this stuff, and I love to talk to people about it.

I got my mom off all her drugs: she was on arthritis, blood pressure, pain pills, cholesterol, water pills. I said, mom, you’re going to die if you keep doing all those things, and I got her off all of them. Now she’s doing great – she works two full time jobs, and she’s 81. We’ve got to get all the old people off the drugs. The death of a society is not allowing… the most valuable members of our society are our seniors and children, and by not feeding them well or not educating them, then we’re losing out on both ends of our society.

Why don’t you want to be known for this?
I do; I mean, I’ll talk to people about it, but I just don’t wanna, I don’t know. To me, I’m an entertainer. I’m talking to you about it right now, so it could end up in the newspaper tomorrow, but I’m not ready to run for Congress. I think I could do more as an entertainer.

Why not? Al Franken did, and he’s been pretty successful with it.
Well, Al Franken isn’t an entertainer. He’s a very selfish, self-minded guy. It makes perfect sense that he ran for senate, because Al Franken was always out for Al Franken. That isn’t to say hey, Rob Schneider isn’t out for Rob Schneider, but whatever. I’d rather have him in there than that moron who was there before him. That really staunch conservative guy who’s now in a think tank… Norm Coleman. As much as I don’t particularly love Al Franken, I know that he’ll have the interests of Minnesota a little bit more instilled in him.

The Democrats are a mess, but at least they in some way resemble what America looks like. There’s women, there’s Latinos, there’s blacks, there’s whites, there’s middle income people and lower income. That’s more or less America, whereas you look at the Republicans, and there’s just gated communities, white people, wanting to build up fences and not spend any money, protect themselves. I find that to be very transparent.

What are some of your other goals with this stand-up tour, as opposed to just using it to educate people?
Um, I eventually want to film a movie of it, and do an independent film, but I also just want to talk to kids, and get them more involved.

Would you say that it’s a fair assessment to say your comedic side is some of a catharsis, since you’re obviously a very serious-minded individual?
Yeah, I mean, I’m able to talk about things, but at the same time, I just think that if people aren’t sitting down and talking about these things, well, somebody’s got to. For whatever reason, I feel that it’s made sense that I’ve finally been able to be in a place where I can. People have to step up and use whatever influence they have.

But I tell ya, if the Republican Party points to Sarah Palin and says, “That’s our guy,” and if Fox News doesn’t have its license pulled by the FCC… this is so blatantly just for big business, and it’s no longer news; it’s just pure propaganda. Yet look at their shows – they’re much more popular than CNN.

But you have to admit that Palin is a comedic goldmine.
Well she is, but so was Hitler. If you look back at articles in the late ‘20s, it was all like, “Eh, [the Nazis are] just a bunch of thugs.” She had to be within a heartbeat of the presidency. The Democrats only win when the economy tanks so badly, and look at Obama. He said change, but we should have asked what that was. His policies are no different from George Bush’s or Bill Clinton’s, with the exception of this health care bill, which is just a watered down piece of garbage.

Unlike Hitler, don’t you feel that Sarah Palin’s all talk and no action?
No, I think she’d be just as dangerous. I don’t want to be a fear-mongerer, but I find loathsome, her lack of knowledge. She’s just a reactionary. I think if you want to run for higher office, that should make you ineligible. I think what we should do is have the most talented, educated people, like from Harvard Business, Cal-Tech, MIT…

Be careful – that’s where Bush came from.
But Bush, he got grandfathered into it. We take the most talented people we have, in business and in the arts, we stick them all in a hat and be like, “Here you go, you run things for the next couple of years.” They would make some unpopular decisions, like, “We have to cut this, get rid of this.” That’s one of the things that’s disappointed me with Obama.

How do you see your career continuing to evolve? Are you going to stay focused on stand-up for a while?
Yeah, I wanna do it at least for a year, and then see where it goes. I mean, I’ve made 40 movies; it’s not like a new movie is going to make that much difference for me. I’ve been very fortunate, and I would like to see where this leads. I’m not interested in a political career, but I am interested in seeing peoples’ response to talking about things like this.

Have your shows been attended by both your older fans and also newer converts?
Yeah, both. I’d like to see younger people keep coming out, because those are the people you can really reach and make a difference with. You can make change pretty quickly, if you want to.

For more info on Rob, including tour dates, check out his official site at RobSchneider.com. Buy Rob’s album by clicking the image below.

Steve Byrne: Exclusive video interview

by Punchline Magazine

By Matthew Gill and Becca Scheuer

We’ve done something a little different here. Never before, in our nearly five years online, have we presented a video interview simultaneously with a traditional Q&A. But we’ve done it here. Call us crazy, call us in love with comedy; call us poor planners. Call us thorough.

Comedian Steve Byrne’s new hour-long special (his second), The Byrne Identity premieres on Comedy Central on Sunday, July 25 at 10 p.m. EST. All you’ll need to watch and read to prep for the big day is below. You’re welcome.

And now, if you’re looking for more on Byrne, continue reading below!

Steve Byrne’s stand-up has always relied heavily on the topic of his Korean and Irish background. But through a trip to China, he began to focus on the deeper identity issues that go along with being an American of mixed descent and how our personal identities shape all of us.

Talking on this difficult subject matter proved to be the turning point for his comedic style, which has always been more observational and physical. However, now his voice has evolved to use a more mature, argument oriented comedy that tries to prove points and examine issues rather than string observations together.

A Pittsburgh native, Byrne worked his way up at New York clubs and eventually scored a half hour Comedy Central Presents special in 2006 and his hour long special, Happy Hour, in 2008. Now you can see him in his latest special, The Byrne Identity, which focuses on the identity issues that everyone faces, whether due to race, gender, or even music preferences.

Steve sat down with us at the Starbucks that fuels the great comedic minds at 30 Rockefeller Plaza to talk about his upcoming special and how he found his new voice and writing style.

Pittsburgh isn’t exactly a comedy hot spot, so how did you get interested in comedy and start doing it?
I went to Kent State in Ohio, so after I finished at Kent, my folks moved here [New York]. My father got transferred here; he’s originally from here. And I walked up and down Broadway looking for jobs, to get like a job at a restaurant, and I walked into Carolines comedy club. Someone had just been fired, and the manager was right there when I asked and he said, “Yeah, come in tomorrow, you got the job,” and I said great. So I started working at the comedy club and just started seeing all these comedians go up every night, so that was a lot of fun. I never thought it’d be a full-blown profession and that I’d be making a living doing it, but it was fun, so I kept going and going and going.

How did you learn how to do it?
The only way you can build material is by going up every night and failing. For every 10 jokes you write, one’s going to work, and for the one that works, god knows how many times it took me on stage to try to really hone it and make it funny. The wording, the pacing, the hard stuff, it just takes forever to get a joke that finally works. And I hate when people are like, ‘Oh, if I saw you last year, am I going to see you this year with all new stuff?” It’s like, gee, well it takes a while to write this stuff, you know? It doesn’t just happen overnight. I do think that I turn over material faster than a lot of guys. In 2006 I had my half hour, in 2008 I had Happy Hour, and then in 2010 I have this one, so every two years I’m trying to put out another special. So that’s the goal for the next one.

How did you survive it when you first started and were playing clubs all the time?
I don’t know that it’s surviving it, it’s just doing something you love doing and also fantasizing that it’s going to get better. I always had a positive outlook of it, thinking you know it’s gotta get better–it can’t get any worse. So I would sit back and dream of all the things I wanted to accomplish and slowly but surely they started happening.

From that beginning, how do you think your comedy has evolved in terms of style or otherwise?
I think everybody when they’re starting off, you have no idea what you’re doing. My stuff was always very observational, physical, animated, and I think that was due to a lack of experience. The more comfortable you are, the more sane you seem up on stage. I think this special has a lot more weight to it, it’s a lot more intelligent, I think, than the other stuff I was doing. And it’s coming from a place that I’m passionate about it and want to talk about it, because of my background, Korean and Irish, it’s always been kind of a big thing. Well who am I? And thinking about that became the basis of the whole thing: Who am I? And that became who are you? What makes anybody anybody? How do you identify people? And it’s through race, and music, and sex, not like sex but male female sex.

So the special has a strong focus then.
It’s split up into three chapters. Racial identity, musical identity, and then my thesis with males and females was that men are just sexually immature and they come up with terms like donkey punch and stuff like that, and women don’t. Like when I think about a guy’s first toys, they get like a gun or a bike, but a little girl’s first toy is a little girl. I think girls are always kind of forced to be the mature one, whereas guys are given free will to be whatever they want. So that was kind of the tilt I took at that and the thesis I came up with and I tried to hammer that home. It’s really in three chapters for me in this one.

As you’ve gotten “more intelligent” with your humor, is the thesis statement something you try to use as an organizational tool?
Yeah, because before it was just a collection of observational thoughts, and you put the strongest stuff at the end, whereas with this one I’m really trying to tell a story and write about a particular subject. It became a lot easier for me to write this. I basically wrote this in one year. I had about 30 minutes of other material, and it was going to be basically a sequel to the other one, just observational stuff, and I said no, this can’t be what I keep doing, I’ve gotta up the ante and be better. And that’s when I started saying, well, what do I want to write about? What makes me me? And maybe somebody can relate to what I’m talking about. So that was kind of the basis of how it started.

You spoke about your evolution from using observational humor to finding more of a thesis, but how did you find that individual voice?
I think it literally just came from–well it started from taking a trip to China. And one thing that everyone kept asking each other is, “What are you?” And I’m like, “I’m American.” And then I come back to America and it’s like, “Oh, I’m Korean and Irish.” Or you might be Irish and German, Swedish, whatever, and it’s like why can’t everybody just be American? And that’s kind of how that started, with who am I.

Well I’d like to be, and I consider myself, American. Not Korean and Irish. I never wanted to be an Asian comic, because I’m not all Asian. And I don’t want to be an Irish comic, because people look at me and go, “Well you’re obviously not all Irish, what are you?” So it just became a thing–I’m an American, I’m going to write about that, here’s how I view things and here’s what kind of ticks me off about everything. And I just started writing, and it was kind of like I opened the floodgates, and I started writing and writing and writing. So that’s how I discovered the voice for this particular one.

It gave me a lot more license to say, Oh, well I can write about anything now, if I hone in on a subject and start going off on it. So that became how I discovered my own voice, or my new voice, I should say, and really how to write for myself, which has always been kind of difficult for me.

Was there any reason for the trip to China, or was it just for fun?
For fun. Yeah, I went with a buddy of mine; he had two tickets to the Olympics, and he said, “Do you want to go?” And I said, “Hell yeah, I’ll go!” So I went and it was an amazing experience; it literally became the starting point of the special. If I didn’t go I’d probably be doing the same stuff like observations.

You taped the special in November of 2009; since then have you been working on material with this new kind of style?
I’ve actually been working on a new special now that I hope to have out in another two years.

You’ve also done a couple movie roles?
I’ve had a few bit parts in movies; it’s always like 10 seconds. It’s a nice pay day, it’s a break to get off the road. It’s nice. It’s good for the credits. I haven’t done anything that’s really stuck with anybody, that’s like, ‘Oh you were in that great scene.’ So you know, maybe someday I’ll get one of those.

Do you want to break into acting? Or is stand-up your biggest focus?
Well, I’m a comic. To get notoriety, to get people to come see you, you have to have something, whether it’s film or TV, that’ll draw people back into clubs to come see you. You almost need to get to that point.

So you said you’re working on a special; is there anything else you’re working on right now?
Well I just wrote a script for a pilot that my friend and I are going to start shopping around, and we’re looking to sell that. In a few weeks I’m going to Chicago to film a little role I have with Vince Vaughn and Kevin James in a movie they’re filming. Ron Howard’s directing that, so that’s pretty exciting. So right now I’m really concentrating on getting that script sold for a TV show and really just writing the next special.

Is there anything else you want our readers to know about you or about the special?
Just that some people go on these late night talk shows and read a couple jokes to promote a movie, and they might have had a small hand in it. But comedy, you could spend two years, you could spend 10 years working on an hour of material. And all you’re asking people to do is not leave their house; they don’t have to pay for anything, just turn on your TV and tune in.

I really busted my ass on this one, and I think that it’s as good as anything I’ve seen come out in the last five years. So I’m really proud of it, and I hope people get out of it what I put into it. It was really backbreaking at times, some of these jokes. So I hope I see the payoff at the end of it, from all the work it was. We’ll see what else comes out of it.

The Byrne Identity premieres on Comedy Central on Sunday, July 25 at 10 p.m. EST. For more info on Steve Byrne, check out his official site at stevebyrnelive.com. And to order the uncut DVD version (with bonus features), click the image below.

A Tight Five: Video interview with Shane Mauss

by Punchline Magazine

In a new special installment of our video interview series A Tight Five, filmed at the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival a few weeks ago, we chat with quickly-rising comedian Shane Mauss. We talk about everything from his new Comedy Central album Jokes to Make My Parents proud to farts to Wisconsin to farts again and more (farts).

So, sit back and enjoy. And if you’re looking to download’s Shane’s album (we highly recommend it), then just click the graphic below the video.

Carolines breakout artist: James Smith

by Punchline Magazine

Print this page out to get $5 off admission to James Smith’s show at Carolines on July 20. 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: James Smith!

James has appeared on the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, and Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham. He has performed at the Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival, and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival numerous times.

A former banking and finance lawyer, James became one of Australia’s best stand up comedians. The winner of Australian Star Quest, and the Australian Public Speaking Championship, he was selected to compete in the World Debating Championships at Princeton University.

After studying acting, and with many TV appearances to his name, he worked as a writer and performer on TV and Radio. He’s currently writing material for a new stand-up special.

Who do you think are the breakout artists of the next few years?
Jerry Seinfield, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Eddie Izzard.

You were a lawyer before being a stand up. Any of the skills transfer from law to comedy?
Yes, constantly manipulating the truth.

When you practiced law, ever practice any material on clients or judges?
Oh yeah! The legal profession is an absolute riot! We would laugh and laugh….. No, I’m kidding. There was no outlet for comedy in that world. They are very serious, and I can’t relate to that.

You joke a lot about your transition from life in Sydney to life in New York. What are the differences between the Australian Stand up scene, and the American, particularly New York scene?
The real difference is size. NY obviously has a larger scene due to it’s population. Essentially though, all of the same rules apply.

What’s next for James Smith?
I’m headlining Carolines this Tuesday, July 20th at 8pm. Isn’t that why we’re doing this interview?

Where will you be in a few years?
Living a palatial life in exclusive locations around the world, with my supermodel girlfriend—all due to the success of this upcoming show at Carolines on Tuesday.

Live at Gotham
James Smith – Commercials and Insecurity
www.comedycentral.com

Print this page out to get $5 off admission to James Smith’s show at Carolines on July 20. Get more ticket info here.

Exclusive video interview with Myq Kaplan

by Dylan P. Gadino

At the end of last year, we let you know about a pair of comedians that we felt you needed to look out for in 2010— rising stars, if you will. One of those comics was Myq Kaplan, who since we last featured him, has become one of 10 finalists on NBC’s contest show Last Comic Standing. With thousands of hopefuls, that’s not an easy feat— not that we’re surprised.

A few weeks ago, I caught up with Myq at the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival for a video interview in one of the green rooms at the Wheeler Opera House. For your viewing – and educational – pleasure, here are the results of that chat. Enjoy!

To buy Myq’s album Vegan Mind Meld, just click the image below!

Carolines breakout artist: Marina Franklin

by Punchline Magazine

Print this page out to get $5 off admission to Marina Franklin’s show at Carolines on July 13. 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: Marina Franklin!

Marina Franklin is emerging as one of the hottest comedians in the comedy scene today, with such notable appearances as The Jay Leno Show, Chapelle’s Show, NBC’s Last Comic Standing Season 2, VH1’s Black to the Future, Oxygen’s Girls Behaving Badly, Comedy Central’s Premium Blend, Awkward Comedy show, and Showtime at The Apollo. She is a favorite in Comedy Festivals across the world, like Montreal’s Just For Laughs, New York Comedy Festival, Ireland’s Kilkenny Comedy Festival, and Nashville’s Bonnaroo Music Festival. She’s viciously likeable, if there is such a thing

Who do you think are the breakout artists of the next few years?
I personally see a lot of new young talent sprouting throughout the city. I chose to feature them on my show Tuesday. The youngest is a Jermaine Fowler from Washington. I see him week after week honing his craft. Very funny and the audience falls in love with him. He reminds me of a young Eddie Murphy. The other comedienne is a Leah Bonnema, she is a talented raw comedienne that goes uncensored and that makes for the best comedy in politically correct world. I am proud to have both artists on the show.

The new documentary you’re in, The Awkward Kings of Comedy, shows you interviewing four other “Awkward” comedians. What makes a comedian ‘awkward?’ Is it always a disadvantage to be ‘awkward?’
What makes a comedian awkward is most likely his ability to talk about those experiences on stage. Most of the comedians in the awkward comedy show have moments where they were pure nerds or not comfortable in their environment, making them different and weird or awkward. For example, I talk about growing up in a white neighborhood and then moving to a black neighborhood and how I had culture shock within my own culture. The challenges of that make for an awkward individual/comedienne and some fun ass material to go with it.

As an alum of Last Comic Standing, what was it like to live in a house filled with comedians? Recipe for disaster?
The best part of Last Comic Standing was not living in a house filled with comedians. I went all the way to Vegas where they decide which comics make it to the house. First, I was upset that my comedy did not take me that far but when I saw how comics were treating each other I was relieved. I’m not that type of comic personality. I’m not willing to throw another comedian under the bus to get noticed on TV.

What’s next for Marina Franklin? Where will you be in a few years?
What’s next for me is very simple, more comedy. Where? That’s being discussed right now. (Sorry, you’ll have to get the updates from my facebook page www.facebook.com/marinafranklin. I originally got into stand up because I love performing and making people laugh. So, you can see me almost any night in New York City performing. Where will I be in a few years? Really? that question is so loaded I really shouldn’t answer it. But , okay, I’m thinking in a few years I will be in a place where more people will know the comedy styles of Marina Franklin. Shake – A- Dang! Dang!

Print this page out to get $5 off admission to Marina Franklin’s show at Carolines on July 13. Get more ticket info here.

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