Comedy Death-Ray: Various Artists

by Dylan P. Gadino

As with any art compilation — whether it’s a book of landscape paintings, a CD of jazz standards or a double-live album collection of some of LA’s best known and under-the-radar comics — there’s  going to be, at best, some disposable samples and, at worst, so much collateral damage that you spend most of your time sifting through the rubble for something with a pulse.

Luckily, in the case of  Comedy Death-Ray, Comedy Central Records’ new 18 tracks of stand-up, it’s more of the former. And even at this collection’s lowest points (see Andy Daly’s excruciatingly heavy-handed satirical take on cliched comedy premises and one-liners or Neil Hamburger’s needlessly slow-paced 11-and-a-half minute series of bad (and not in the ironic way jokes) you’re still experiencing something unique.

More than a random selection of comics,  Comedy Death-Ray gives its listeners a peek inside an entire culture of comedy. This weekly show in LA (from where the name of the album derives) showcases talented comics, and, over the past five years, it has also created a community. And while it’s surely an exclusive community, it also brings together comedians of wildly contrasting levels of popularity.

While obvious stars like Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Maria Bamford and Paul F. Tompkins turn in killer sets on  Death-Ray, what makes this album such a satisfying listen is that it’s exposing newer talent.

Coming off an excellent showing in the New Faces show at Montreal’s Just for Laughs comedy festival, for example, up-and-comer Ian Edwards proves on Death-Ray that he belongs with the big boys and girls.

His shark-attack bit — wherein he pits Bethany Hamilton’s supposed bravery at facing another surfing accident against most people’s common sense that tells them never to go in the water again — is hilarious and also well-measured; somehow after spewing venom, he avoids sounding like a cynical jerk.

Guitar-wielding comic Nick Thune turns in a down-tempo series of concise, smart quips: “What if you could respond to what people wrote in your senior yearbook?’ Thune asks. “Dear, Mackenzie: Thanks for encouraging me to have a kick-ass summer. ‘Cause I did. Sincerely, Nick. P.S.: I haven”t changed.”

Doug Benson, recently knocked off this season of   Last Comic Standing, proves that with a little insight and a lot of talent, a comic can take contemporary traditional comedy premises — O.J. Simpson, TiVo, smoking pot (he’s the Rosa Parks of pot smokers) and make funny jokes out of them.

But if there’s a best part of these two albums — and why not have some balls and pick one — it would be Jimmy Pardo taking 9 minutes, 3 seconds to get to his first joke. He uses all that time to mess with the audience, start and stop the first lines of bits and explain that he’s about to tell jokes; it’s hilarious.

Pardo’s faux cockiness and his perfectly proportioned old-school, buttoned-up-charm-meets-hipster-swagger make for an incredibly funny and wholly welcomed recursive comedy ride.

That it’s safe to assume that Pardo was the host of that night’s CDR show, and thus was afforded a lot of time to soften up the crowd (where other comics were expected to launch right into jokes) doesn’t matter. You’d struggle hard to find another comic who could entertain so thoroughly for that long without telling one joke.

Bob and Tom: Ambassadors of Comedy

by Noah Gardenswartz

For nearly a quarter of a century, Midwest radio gods Bob Kevoian and Tom Griswold have been pushing some of the greatest (but underexposed) comedians into the spotlight. With a new Comedy Central special, DVD and massive tour set to launch, the duo has just given comedy fans three more reasons to laugh.

In 1983, radio personalities Bob Kevoian and Tom Griswold joined forces in Indianapolis to create The Bob & Tom Show. The morning radio program that started as a local phenomenon quickly became a national favorite on account of the two hosts’ ability to apply humor to their daily broadcasts, whether it be analyzing national headlines or by simply chatting with their guests– many of whom — and this is key — are well-known comedians.

The show has been nationally syndicated since 1995 and is now broadcast in more than 150 markets. The tandem has decided to parlay the strength of their radio show into a comedy tour that will be traveling across the country beginning in the fall, with the first show airing on Comedy Central on Sept. 6. Half of the pair, and the producer of the Comedy Central show, Tom Griswold, chatted with Punchline Magazine to discuss the duo’s success, their future and the state of stand-up comedy.

Throughout the course of the national Bob & Tom Comedy All-Stars Tour there are a lot of comedians rotating in and out of the line-up. How did you guys go about selecting which comedians got to be a part of the show?
For the most part they’re friends of ours that have been on the show and done well. Now there are some comedians that I love and think are great at stand-up that don’t do well on radio because their material doesn’t translate.

Sometimes it’s because their material relies a lot on visuals, or they can’t clean up their act to make it appropriate for radio and still be funny. But most of the comics on the tour are people that I think are great stand-up comedians, and our listeners have enjoyed them on the show as well.

Who’s your favorite comedian?
I don’t really like to play favorites, but for my money, right now, it doesn’t get any better than Mike Birbiglia. He’s just such an original thinker. He truly does have his own voice.

How did the idea to turn the radio show into a stand-up tour originate?
About three years ago, after one of my daughter’s friends was diagnosed with a serious illness, they were trying to raise money really quickly to help with the medical bills. So I called a few comedian friends and we arranged to do a benefit show kind of on the spot, and we ended up packing a room and entertaining more than 300 people, most of whom had never been to a comedy show before.

It went really well, and I realized that there are a lot of people who have never seen live comedy that would enjoy it. So I figured to do this in a theater style setting with a comedy tour would be a lot of fun and very successful. We’ve been doing it for almost three years now.

What’s your preference: radio or stand-up comedy?
Radio for me, but that’s because I’ve been doing it so long and I’m just comfortable being on the radio. One advantage to stand-up comedy, though, is that there’s a live crowd right there to feed off their energy, which is not the case in radio.

After doing so many shows on the radio, day in and day out, how do you keep it fresh for your listeners?
We’ve been lucky enough over the years to have great guests, ranging from comedians to politicians to Peyton Manning, so that always helps. And you know, we’re funny, but we still do news, so the advantage to being on so early in the morning is that we have first crack at the news. Every day the newspaper gives us dozens of new headlines that we can make funny.

Outside of the radio show and the comedy tour, you also produce a lot of albums, both comedy and rock. Is that a side passion for you or something you’d do full time?
It’s definitely a passion of mine, and over the years I’ve just become so familiar with the studio equipment that I’ve learned how to do it well. I’m actually very proud of the fact that Bob and I have recorded or produced more than 50 albums over the years and donated a lot of money from the proceeds to different charities.

With all the success you guys have found, have you pretty much done all you’ve set out to do? Or do you plan to keep on going for a while?
There’s no point in stopping now, we’re having too much fun.

For more information on The Bob & Tom Show, check out bobandtom.com. For dates and venues for the upcoming tour click here; and click here to buy the new DVD.