Like I say in this here video interview with comedian Ryan Singer, one of the best things about listening to so much comedy every year is that rare “comedy find.” That’s when you’ve never heard of a comedian but then you see or hear an album from said comedian, and are pleasantly surprised by how fantastic it is.
Singer is one of those finds for me. So, it was cool to sit down with the man and chat a bit about his album How To Get High Without Drugs — an album that seamlessly combines the comedian’s knack for theater and sketch with stand-up — and about where his career is headed. If you need further convincing about Ryan’s talents, check out our review here.
Be sure to buy the album. Just click the image below. Do it!
Aspen, CO — Yesterday, I hung out with some of the comedians performing at the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival at the official kickball game. So, naturally I had to chat with some comics. In the clip below, comedians Ryan Singer (read his album review here) and Chris Fairbanks (read his album review here) talk about their kickball strategies. Fun!
Aspen, CO — Earlier today, a sporty group of comedians performing here at the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival descended on Koch Park to play kickball, drink beers and just “hang,” as the kids say. While there, I shoved a camera in the faces of comedians Moshe Kasher and Hari Kondabolu (and Rooftop Comedy’s Chris Garcia for a short while) and asked them a few questions. So this is how that turned out. Enjoy!
Congratulations are in order for comedian Pete Lee, the winner of CMT (that’s right, Country Music Television) and Rooftop Comedy’s search for the Next Big Comic. Having survived through five weeks of stiff competition based on online voting, Lee earned himself a spot in the upcoming Aspen Comedy Festival, his second time in as many years that he’ll to perform there.
The competition started back in February when 12 comics were selected by Rooftop Comedy to compete, all established comedians in their own right but were only on the verge of breaking out. Through the weeks they were slowly eliminated, until only four remained. Given the caliber of talent that made it that far, including John Ramsey, Jessi Campbell and Ryan Singer, it should be considered quite an honor to win.
Lee made an acceptance speech, which is featured below in addition to his award-winning set. Check it out, and be sure to catch him at the upcoming Aspen Comedy Festival. Well done, Mr. Lee.
When I was in Aspen a few weeks ago to cover the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival, comedian Josh Sneed invited me to hang out on his podcast, The Detention Show. It was a good way to spend the afternoon hours before the stand-up shows going on that night. I have to say, Sneed runs a tight operation. His mobile podcasting system is high tech, complete with lots of knobs and microphones and headsets—you know, all that stuff that makes you feel like you’re taking part in something that’s important, whether it really is or not.
Besides myself, the hour-long show featured an all comedian panel: Robert Hawkins, Chad Daniels, Dan Cummins, JR Brow, Daniel Kinno and Lachlan Patterson. I make my entrance at the 47-minute mark. But you should check out the whole thing. Good times were had. Check out the podcast’s official site here.
ASPEN, CO — The second night of the Aspen Rooftop Comedy festival found us at the Wheeler Opera House for three shows, the first of which was Rooftop’s Best and Brightest, featuring Cameron Esposito, Moshe Kasher, Jessi Campbell, Ty Barnett and Matt Braunger. Of this lineup, I was only unfamiliar with the work of Esposito, and Kasher, save for a few quick glances online at their Rooftop Comedy clips. So let’s start there, shall we?
Esposito has carved out a solid following in Chicago from which she hails – having been nominated for best female comic in 2007 and winning Rooftop Comedy’s Snubfest competition – filtering her down-to-earth charm through odd-colored glasses and an animated presence that – I would think – most hip comedy audiences couldn’t help but get drawn into.
When she wasn’t convincing the Aspen crowd that she has great hair – and she does have great hair – and toned arms (which were covered by long sleeves), she was telling jokes about her personal life: during a UK tour, an audience member asked if she was related to the Espositos who trained racing birds for the queen (she told the audience member “yes”); her South African girlfriend’s favorite native food is a dish wherein you dip cheese into a paste made of meat—that was enough for Cameron to ask her to marry her. Hers is a dry wit for sure, a challenging taste of stand-up for a mainstream comedy crowd. Check out a clip of Esposito below.
As for Kasher, I was immediately drawn in. His appearance, no doubt, helps; he’s a slight, pale guy with jet-black hair (he calls the style the Gitler, “the gay Hitler”) and sports large-framed glasses and a less-than-masculine interpretation of what a dude is. The Los Angeles-based performer has a powerful comedic voice and amazingly wide range. He seamlessly shifts from traditional blue humor to heady material that finds Dante’s Inferno the subject of a joke; he also does moderate physical humor, poking fun at himself for owning a thicket of hair on his forearm and none on his bicep, not to mention an oddly bendable wrist that, he jokes, he sometimes tucks in his shirt, exposing what looks like a nub, to make strangers feel bad for him. Watching Kasher try to tie his shows with said nub makes for a cheap laugh, but it’s funny nonetheless. Check out Kasher’s take on his hairy arm below.
When Campbell took the stage, it had felt like I’d seen her perform live many times before, having watched and re-watched her vast collection of clips on Rooftop Comedy. It didn’t take long to see why Rooftop viewers voted Campbell into the Aspen fest. She’s plain fun. She tells a joke based around an apparent real-life event wherein a woman is eaten by a bear after feeding the monster trail mix from her hand. Turns out, when the trail mix was gone the bear was still hungry. That’s like bear food (the woman) feeding the bear more food, Campbell explained. “I don’t blame the bear,” she says. “If a piece of pizza walked up to me and handed me a donut, and I finished that donut, I’m eating some fucking pizza!” Check out the clip below; Campbell also did a version of this last night.
Barnett and Braunger represented the bigger names of the show, the former making tons of late-night appearances as well winning the runner-up title on the fourth season of Last Comic Standing, the latter scoring a cast member gig at MadTV, shortly before it’s demise, winning last year’s Rooftop Best of the Fest title and steadily gaining a massive following in the alt comedy scene.
It’s no mystery why Barnett advanced so far on a stand-up comedy contest show on network television; the man’s got mass appeal. He’s incredibly affable onstage and knows just how far to push the envelope and still maintain the interest of a middle-American crowd. His take on the word “nigga” as opposed to the real n-word: popularized by 2Pac’s song that creates the positive acronym “Never Ignorant, Getting Goals Accomplished,” Barnett explains you can’t just dress a word up like that and change its vile original meaning. “That’s like coming home and finding a pile of shit on the floor and then putting candles and whipped cream on it,” he says. Check out the clip below of a bit Barnett did last night in Aspen.
And speaking of poop, don’t let anyone tell you that poop jokes are simply juvenile and never funny. They may always be juvenile, but that doesn’t mean a good comedian can’t craft well-written jokes and add insight into feces-inspired bits. Enter Braunger, a man that has the charisma and smarts to turn a typical Taco Bell joke into an extended and wholly entertaining joke about incredibly painful pooping and bad decisions— getting drunk and heading to the Bell to ingest a “big greasy sack of Mexican wrong.” In his set last night, Braunger also related to the crowd what he feels is one the worst things on Earth: when he’s watching porn and the guy, mid-stroke, looks into the camera and addresses a dick-in-hand Braunger. Not cool. Check out the clip below of what has arguably become Braunger’s most well known bit. It was filmed at last year’s Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival.
Starting today and going through Sunday, I’ll be in Aspen, CO attending the second annual Rooftop Comedy Festival, produced by our good friends at Rooftop Comedy. In addition to attending a mess of shows — the likes of Ted Alexandro, Will Durst, Finesse Mitchell, Lisa Landry, Josh Sneed, and more are performing — I’ll be speaking on a panel about new media and how it relates to stand-up comedy. I’ll also be doing some video and audio interviews with comics: you’ll be able to listen to the latter right on this page ot Punchline Magazine’s front page on the Punchline Podcast player we just installed. That’s all for now. Keep it tuned here as well as our Twitter page at twitter.com/punchlinemag.
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