In honor of Comedy Central’s “November Comedy Month,” Punchline Magazine is giving away a stellar South Park prize package. One reader will win South Park: The Hits, Volume 1, South Park: The Complete Seventh Season and South Park: The Complete Ninth Season.

So this is what you need to do to win: Send a photo to contest@punchlinemagazine.com. This photo must show you and/or your friends enjoying PunchlineMagazine.com; the most creative and original will win the prize. You can enter as many times as you’d like.

Along with the photo(s) please include your first and last name and a mailing address. We’ll announce the winner on our blog on Friday, Dec. 7. Good luck!

Remember to sign up for the free PunchlineMagazine.com newsletter and be the first to know about other giveaways, hot comedy shows in your area and the latest comedy news! Click here to sign up now.

DON’T MISS THIS: Don Rickles, has a new HBO Special: Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project. It premieres Sunday, Dec. 2 at 8 pm ET/PT.

From Director John Landis, the man who gave us Animal House, Mr. Warmth celebrates this comedic legend. The special weaves in interviews with Robin Williams, Chris Rock, Clint Eastwood and Sidney Poitier (to name just a few) with live clips from Rickles’ live Las Vegas show.

Enjoy this clip:

Oh, and on the Punchline Magazine Comedy Space you can find another clip of this special.
So go laugh your hockey pucks off.

-Bill

Over at the all new Late Night UNDERGROUND website, I found an important message from Conan O’Brien regarding the strike, his personal health, and facial hair.

Click here to enjoy!

Rejoice, comedy fans. It’s Friday, which means the comedy-friendly Danny Lobell Show airs today live at 1 - 3:30 p.m. EST. If you’re in New York City, tune into 87.9 FM. If you’re in any other place in the world, log onto comicalradio.com and click “listen.”

Remember to tune in early so you could hear PunchlineMagazine.com’s “Weekly Comedy Wrap Up,” where we give you all some much-needed comedy news and let you know about the hottest comedy shows for the next week.

For now, check out some video of comedian Orny Adams’ pre-interview from a few weeks back on the Danny Lobell Show.

In a little over a week, Dave Attell’s Captain Miserable will premiere on HBO. Remember to check out our front page this coming Monday for an in-depth interview with the man himself. For now, check out this short clip of Dave at Comedy Central’s Last Laugh ‘07, which premieres this Sunday at 10 p.m.

The following is a guest post by comedian/actor, Bob Bledsoe. I read it today on his Myspace blog and it was too good not to share (with permission of course!)

Gramps was a butcher. Gramps was called “Pops.” Some didn’t call Pops “Pops” though. They called him “Sarge,” cause he was in the military. I never called Sarge “Pops” or “Sarge” though. I just called him “Steve”. But I only called him that in my head. When I spoke to Steve, I would call him “Old Man.” No one knew I called him that though, because when other people were in the room I would call Old Man “Grandfather.” His closest friends called Grandfather “Chief.” I never called Chief that though.

I remember running home from school and stopping at his butcher shop. I would place my hands under the meat grinder when ever he had fresh pork. He would fill up my little hands and let me keep as much meat as they could hold. He would say “Oh, you’re getting big Bobby! That’s got to be almost a pound of ground meat!” And I would giggle. Then he would say, “You’re going to put me out of business with the amount of ground meat you take from here… Now run home Bobby! Run as fast as you can!” Then he would flash me his familiar smile and I would run. Sometimes a little meat would fall out of my hands, but that was okay because I knew I could come back for it.

Gramps filed bankruptcy in 1991 and closed the business. He’s now in a home for the elderly and he doesn’t know his name - probably because so many people called him different things. Now everyone just calls him “Mister.” I visit Mister each week and I bring him a handful of meat. Sometimes he’s feeling good and sometimes he has salmonella poisoning - but no matter what, he always flashes that familiar smile, and I think to myself “Yep, that’s Steve.”

Daily Show veteran and NYC-based comedian Paul Mecurio just uploaded a few solid videos to our new comedy-themed networking site, ComedySpace. I liked this one a lot, where Paul takes the concept of engaging the crowd to an all new level.

For many more videos and to join in the fun, this is the link you need to bookmark:

http://www.punchlinemagazine.com/comedyspace 

“Cranky” Ricky March is a road-seasoned veteran who tours the country 20 weeks out of the year and is planning to produce The Innappropriate Comedy Tour. He writes a very popular (and very funny) MySpace blog that boasts a large and extrelmely dedicated following. He is quick witted and armed to the tounge with jests and insults, which reminds me a lot of the comics of yesteryear. “Cranky” recently took a moment to answer a few questions for Punchline Magazine.

So, Cranky, what the heck is your real name?
My name is Aric March, but I hate the name so I like to be called, Ricky.

Where did the ‘Cranky’ moniker come from? Or is it a Jewish thing that I wouldn’t understand?
Well there was a “Pretty Ricky,” so I figured why not “Cranky Ricky.” It’s just a stage persona, similar to Don Rickles’ “Mr. Warmth.”

Why stand-up? Why not real estate, or some sort of other career?
I worked on Wall Street as a Foreign Exchange Trader right out of college. Came back to Chicago and began a Telecommunications Company called MHA COMM. I was always a wise guy. I always had the most inappropriate comment at the most inappropriate time. And people laughed. Although some threw things).

Traditional bavarian cream donut or the Krispy Kreme icing filled?
I’m gonna give you the Dunkin, Chocolate Cake/Glaze Frosted. Although, anything but jelly in a pinch.

Which comics did you admire when you first took an interest in stand-up?
My parents took me to see Rickles when I was 12. He never cursed. He had audiences in tears, and he was making fun of people. This was before things were politically correct too, so he played off all the racial epithets: Chinaman, Spanish kid, Colored man, and of course Jew.

Do you have any idols or veterans that you hope to follow?
I grew up listening Bill Cosby and Allen Sherman records. And Rickles, of course. I enjoyed the style of Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce. They went for it and stayed true to character. I was lucky to see Sam Kinison perform before he passed. Incredible! And I’ll pay to see Lewis Black anytime.

Who (if any) newcomers do you see out there that have really impressed you?
Comics today are concerned about being “edgy.” If the joke ends up with a minister feasting on a ferral love child from David Hasselhoff and Jodie Foster is it funny? I guess. But the Lenos and the Lettermans and the bigger clubs want “creme of wheat comedy” and I never liked “creme of wheat.” There are a ton of fresh faces and not so fresh faces that are great comics, but I think they’re too concerned with being “underground” or “offbeat.”

So, who do you think should quit?
No one should quit, but they should work at it, write new stuff, and practice at open mics as much as possible. Although I think Dane Cook should stop making movies.

The Writers’ Strike: any thoughts?
I’m a capitalist and it’s very sad that our society rewards only the “star.” Using the sports metaphor, A-Rod gets the mega bucks, but it’s not like his personal trainer is living in a box. When I found out what exactly writers make on residuals, I got queasy. I think it came out to be 30 cents for every 100 million dollars. That just stinks.

Any advice for Britney, Lindsay, Paris, the Olsen twins, Owen Wilson, or whoever wins Dancing with the Stars?
Yes, bless them all with good health and continued bad judgment going forward– for without them comics would be bereft of hack jokes.

You can catch Cranky Ricky live at the Eclipse Nightclub on Dec 1.

On Dec. 8, HBO will premiere Dave Attell’s one-hour special, Captain Miserable. For true comedy fans, this was a long-time coming. While Attell has made quite a name for himself over the last five years or so – turning in multiple seasons of Comedy Central’s Insomniac, a Comedy Central album, and a few DVDs – it seems Attell, one of the most respected comics of our time, has flown slightly under the radar.

I’ve seen an advanced copy of Miserable; it’s everything you’ve come to expect from the 20 (21 years in January) year comedy veteran— except this time he’s traded in his bowling shirt for a blazer.

I won’t review the special here; I want you all to check it out and be surprised. But I did want to give you all a taste of the Attell interview we’ll be rolling out this Monday, Dec. 3. Below, I asked Attell to talk a bit about joke thievery:

Comedy is all about the joke. So if you’re doing a joke and it turns out it’s someone else’s joke, then why do it? For me, I’m constantly checking my jokes. I’ll call up like five different people, like [Greg] Giraldo and Greg Fitzsimmons and say, ‘Hey, have you heard anything like this?’ No? Ok good. I’m sorry I bothered you.’ And that’s the way to do it.

It’s usually the jokes that work the best or the easiest where you’re like, ‘Someone else has got to be doing this.’ So you check around. But someone is always doing something like it. It’s rare that you come up with a whole new concept for a joke.

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