Happy New Year from Punchline Magazine

by Punchline Magazine

It’s that time of year again, faithful PunchlineMagazine.com readers. It’s time to reevaluate our lives and make some changes. Or at least type them out in resolution form, show the world and then do nothing to make those promises a reality.

This year, as a nod to all comedians – not just the ones selling out comedy clubs and theaters, but the ones doing it for gas money to get to the next gig – we coerced stand-up comics from across the nation to give us their New Year’s resolutions. So without further exposition, we present to you PunchlineMagazine.com’s Comedian Resolutions ’08.

Jonathan Katz
jonathankatz.com
If I call someone up, try not to say, ‘Now is not a good time.’

Pete Correale
myspace.com/petecorreale
If someone wants to chat with me, I’ll find a better opening than, “it’s cold outside” or “man, is it hot.” From now on, I will no longer respond to flippant quips about the weather. I’ll step up and find something more interesting to open with.

Daniel Tosh
danieltosh.com
I resolve not to give away free material to comedy websites, because web traffic and exposure is not a recognized currency.

Rick Shapiro
myspace.com/rickshapiro
Truth is, I don’t have any resolutions. I’m not structured, rigid, or brainwashed.
Grant Gordon
myspace.com/grantgordon
I resolve to stop masturbating in my good socks.

Jane Condon
janecondon.com
I will not drive with Britney Spears on my lap.
Rob O’Reilly
thecampuscomic.com
I resolve to tie John Mulaney to my radiator and force him to write jokes for me.

Leah Bonnema
myspace.com/leahbonnema
I will try to cut down my negative thoughts about myself to under 25 times a day.

Dustin Chafin
myspace.com/dustinchafin
I’ll stop drinking back what I deserve to be paid at comedy clubs’ I also write more dick jokes.

John Poveromo
johnpoveromo.com
I’m going to work harder on having better moral outrage. I realized the other day morality only goes so far. I chewed out my friend the other day because she’s a slut and cheats on her boyfriend. But then I realized I wasn’t mad because she was cheating, I’m just mad she didn’t choose me to cheat on him with.

Brian McGuinness
myspace.com/moganus
My resolution for ‘08 is to make the world laugh every night, one racist joke at a time. Jews.

Pat Breslin
myspace.com/patbreslin
This year I’m finally going to quit comedy and just become a pro athlete in Boston.

Sara Benincasa
myspace.com/sarabenincasa
I will wax regularly. Not myself. Other people. Strangers. On the subway. As a surprise.

Lance Weiss
lanceweiss.com
My New Year’s Resolution is stop bombing like when you throw a football left handed.

Pat Dixon
youaretheenemy.com
I resolve to up my limit on Netflix. I don’t even get around to my movies as it is, but it would be nice to have more choices.

Phil Palisoul
philpalisoul.com
In 2007, I didn’t do well finishing things I started. So in 2008 I resolve to do a better job of…

Greg Warren
gregwarrencomedy.com
I resolve to not worry so much about what other people think.This resolution is cool right? I mean I put a lot of thought into it…It seemed cool when I wrote it…I could do another one.

Stephanie McHugh
stephaniemchugh.com
My New Year’s resolution is to become a famous comic then quickly fall from grace so I can get on the next season of Dancing with the Stars and win…it could happen…oh yeah right, like you’re going to lose 10 lbs.

Matt Vogl
myspace.com/milehighscifi
In 2008, I resolve to get control of my anger. When people make me mad I resolve to try to consider their point of view, and count to 10 before I murder them.

Henry Cho
choindustries.com
My New Year’s resolution is to define the difference between what my wife says from what she means.

Doug Benson
myspace.com/doug_benson
I resolve not to believe everything I read. Because I saw a dog in a cage that had a sign on it that said, “I bite.” And I was like, that is good to know, doggie. But you should make a sign that says, “I make signs.”

Ralphie May
ralphiemay.com
A couple years ago I made a resolution never to make resolutions again and so far so good. Five years and counting— resolution free.”

Robert Hawkins
myspace.com/roberthawkins
In 2008, I, Robert Hawkins, the one that did NOT shoot up a mall, resolve to repair the anonymity associated with this name that I have worked so hard to gain for the last 17 years in show business.

Pete Dominick
petesbigmouth.com
In 2008, I plan to look at much less online porn but to actually masturbate more often.

Greg Proops
gregproops.com
I resolve to buy an extra big thesaurus because I am running out of words to describe my hatred of W.

Jen Kober
kobercomedy.com
I will visit more museums, galleries and libraries and fewer strip malls, strip clubs, and donut shops.

Maria Bamford
mariabamford.com
My New Year’s resolution is to master and defeat death— and drink more water.

Greg Giraldo
greggiraldo.com
My resolution is to join a gym and to not get AIDS any more.
Mike Birbiglia
birbigs.com
Sell my impractical A-Team tour van. Get amphibious boat-car for tour of Great Lakes region.

Bill Burr
billburr.com
I’m going to take Jiu Jitsu and learn to start a fire without a match.
Dana Gould
danagould.com
The key to successful New Year’s resolutions is to establish realistic goals and not set yourself up for failure. To that end, in 2008, I resolve to eat too much, not exercise enough, disappoint my loved ones and watch a lot of online porn. And this year, I’m really gonna do it!

Tom Papa
tompapa.com
I resolve to eat fewer potatoes and work on my abs a little less.
Kyle Grooms
kylegrooms.net
Normally I don’t make resolutions. I say i’m just gonna do better than I did last year. But if I have to choose one, it would be to work on not procrastinating. I’ll work to do what I said I’m gonna do when I say I’m gonna do it.

Myq Kaplan
myqkaplan.com
I resolve to gain a lot of weight so that I can more easily resolve to lose weight in 2009.

Lenny Marcus
lennymarcus.com
I have the same resolution every year. I’m going to write more, complain less about the unfairness of the business, and date a really nice normal girl. Then I realize misery is good for comedy. By January 2nd I’m back to my lazy, bitter, wacko-dating self.

Charlie Ballard
myspace.com/funnycharley
I resolve that when another dude I’m attracted to tells me he’s not gay, I’ll believe him.

Andrew Davis
myspace.com/andy_social
I resolve to send a threatening letter to a celebrity.
Earthquake
myspace.com/quakeshouse2
I resolve to stay away from crazy women.

Jeff Caldwell
standupguy.com
This year, an achievable goal: I’m not going to smoke in ‘08. Of course, I’ve never smoked.

John Novosad (aka Hippieman)
hippieman.com
I never keep my New Year’s resolutions, so for 2008 I’ve adopted a different approach. This New Year I resolve to smoke, drink and eat more. If I stay true to form with past resolutions I should be tobacco free, sober and in great shape by February 2008.

Marla Schultz
myspace.com/marlaschultz
I resolve to have enough willpower to leave the mini bar alone and intact forever!

DC Benny
dcbenny.com
I resolve to install a 007-style ejector seat in the passenger side of my car. This way on long road-trips, when the comic opening for me wants to do a dry-run of his act thinly masked as conversation, a button can be depressed and he will be catapulted into another dimension of space and time… before my ears start to bleed.

Billy D. Washington
billydwashington.com
I will go public with the man crush I have on Whoopi Goldberg.

Josh Blue
joshblue.com
I resolve to start smoking cigarettes and to never eat tofu.
Greg Fitzsimmons
myspace.com/fitzdog
My resolution this year is to support Barack Obama’s campaign as much as I can. Sadly, America is still a divided place with a lot of prejudices and stereotypes. But getting this fine man elected will prove to the world and to ourselves that we are ready for this country to be led by an Hawaiian.

Vanessa Hollingshead
vanessahollingshead.com
I resolve to meet a nice guy!
Ricardo Aleman
funnymexican.com
My resolution is to not wait till the beginning of each new year to make changes. Every moment is a new opportunity to assess what’s working and what’s not and make changes. I also want to be an Ultimate Fighter. But I’m ticklish, so that might not work out.

Ray Mills
myspace.com/sllimyar
My New Year’s resolution is to learn how to dance. I call it my ‘Dance Dance Resolution’; DDR for short.


Ed Murray
myspace.com/edmurray
I resolve to be more disciplined when it comes to my writing, to get as much stage time as possible, and to finally seal that deal for my HBO hour-long special. I also resolve to grow a second dick.

Steve Hofstetter
stevehofstetter.com
I gave up my New Year’s resolutions for lent.

Devon Wild
myspace.com/devonwild
I resolve to hack Dane Cook’s MySpace and steal his 2,000,000 friends!

The Danny Lobell Show: Comedy Radio’s Motley Crue

by Dylan P. Gadino

For the past five years, New York City comedian Danny Lobell and the staff at The Danny Lobell Show have been hitting the airwaves with bizarre banter and comedian interviews. But will 2008 turn the lights on for the up-and-coming radio team?










By Dylan P. Gadino I Photos by LaMott Jackson

Every Friday at 1 p.m. EST, a small, yet rapidly growing afternoon radio show broadcasts out of a modest FM station – and streams online around the world as part of ComicalRadio.com – from Baruch College’s WBMB in New York City. A young comic named Danny Lobell steers the dysfunctional ship that bears his name.

But he’s not alone at The Danny Lobell Show: Fellow comedians Katy Olson and Chris Iacono, along with hilarious oddball Dave Kasten, join him each week to interview the country’s best up-and-coming comics, well-known headliners (past guests include Marc Maron, Doug Stanhope, Jake Johanssen) and comedy legends; think George Carlin and Pat Cooper.

With a slick, newly designed official site, where past episodes are archived, and a stellar list of future comedian guests, 2008 is set to be The Danny Lobell Show’s best year yet. Punchline Magazine recently chatted with the, um, colorful staff of the show about their hopes and dreams—purely serious stuff.

It wasn’t our fault the discussion degenerated into masturbatory death fantasies about Hannah Montana. Read on.

When did The Danny Lobell Show start?
DL: I started about five years ago doing a show called Dan and Bob In da Mornin. When “Bob” (Aryeh Teplow-Phipps) left it became The Danny Lobell Show. Over the years it evolved and I’d say it started to really take form two years ago when David and Katy joined, then Chris Joined a year later and the chemistry just felt right and things started to take off.

What inspired you to do this type of radio show?
DL: I got bored with real life!
CI: The freedom we have on the air. We never hold back when it comes to topics and content. We talk about whatever we want, and it allows us to be edgier then most other shows that have strict FCC guidelines.

How did you become involved with The Danny Lobell Show?
KO: Honestly, I was drunk at a club one night and Danny asked me to come and guest host. Later, he asked me to be a regular host on the show. I had never really thought about doing radio, although ever since we were kids my prostitute brother said I’d be good on the radio. I take all my career advice from prostitutes.

What’s the biggest changes in the show since the first show to now?
DL: It doesn’t suck anymore!
CI: The guests are bigger and which means Danny doesn’t have to talk to himself for two hours.
KO: When we first started we didn’t stream online so we didn’t have nearly as many listeners as we do now. Also, I think it takes time to find the right group of hosts for a show like ours. The group we have now is definitely the craziest and most talented we’ve had. Chris said we’re like a comedy band all fucked up in own our different ways constantly bickering— yet somehow we can get it together long enough to do the show each week.
DK: We’ve been steadily building more and more false hope. Also, Katy has become bitchier as time goes on.

Do you pattern your show around any other popular radio show or hosts?
DL: Not really. I rarely, if ever, listen to radio. I used to work night security and I would listen to this show called John and Jeff. They where really good, but not funny and nothing like what we’re doing. So I guess that has nothing to do with the question. I also used to watch Howard on TV on occasion. I think we’re very different but I have the utmost respect for Howard.
CI: No.
KO: I think we were all influenced by Stern and Opie & Anthony to some extent. Our content and our style of comedy is dark like theirs. But I think our best shows are the ones were it feels more like we’re all just hanging out than doing a show.
DK: Of course not. What are you trying to say— that I’m a copy of someone? Go to hell!

Who’s been your favorite in-studio guest?
DL: Pat Cooper. He just cracks me up! I feel if I’m entertained, my listeners must be too. He’s a legend for a reason.
CI: Pat Cooper. He’s always on fire and never misses a beat
DK: Colin Quinn, because he’s a big name and only because he’s a big name.
KO: Pat Cooper. He’s so fast and sharp that all you really have to do as a host is sit back and try not to fuck it up.

Who’s been the worst in-studio guest?
DL: “The Cancer Guy.” This guy survived cancer and had no sense of humor about it, yet he runs cancer comedy shows? He was the true definition of “Radio Cancer.”
KO: The worst guests are the ones that don’t show up on time. There’s nothing more awkward than coming back from break and going “I swear they said they’d be here.” It’s like being stood up on a very public Internet date.
CI: Nick Griffin. He was totally lame. We tried to convince him to commit suicide after the show.

What are your full-time jobs?
DL: I’m a full time stand-up comic. So basically, I’m unemployed.
KO: To quote The Godfather, don’t ask me about my business. But basically I’m a bum living off food stamps and free drinks.
DK: None.
CI: Stand-up comedy, Comical Radio and making my girlfriend happy.

What are your hopes for The Danny Lobell Show?
DL: I want to see us grow the show to the point where we can have a large national audience. A nice paycheck would be cool too.
KO: I hope one day very soon we get picked up on satellite so I can curse and get paid for it.
CI: A steady paycheck, eventually getting David Kasten laid…and health insurance.
DK: That I will bring holiness into the world and that it should bring people to do many good deeds and that they wash their balls or vaginas before they come in the studio. Also, that people learn to be courteous and give each other reach-arounds and they say, “Oy what a thrill!” Oh, and I hope to get myself a 16-year-old girl to fuck.

Say something nice about one other DLS staffer.
CI: Danny Lobell can get any chick he wants.
DL: Dave Kasten is by far the funniest guy I’ve ever met.
DK: Our previous intern, Dina that was homeless and pretty, has beautiful Ginzo breasts.
KO: What is this, group therapy? Kasten is great on the radio because you never know what crazy thing will come out of his autistic mouth next.

Say something mean about one other DLS staffer.
CI: Danny Lobell can get any drunk chick he wants.
DL: Chris Iacono is a cartoon of an Italian, to the point where if you wrote a comic book exactly documenting the words and actions of Chris Iacono it would probably offend the Italian community and would be considered a ridiculous stereotype of what ignorant people think of Italians. For Christ’s Sake his best friend growing up in Brooklyn was called “The Pepperoni” and he lives with his Eggplant Parmesan-cooking, old-school Italian grandma in the basement in Bensonhurst and says things like “forget about it.” He also has a tattoo of snake eyes on the head of his penis because it’s an old family tradition.
KO: David Kasten is going to die holding his virgin penis in his hand with Hannah Montana on the TV.
DK: Our current intern, Andrew, is flat.

What new things do you plan on bringing to the show in 2008?
DL: Just a lot more great shows, great guests and this guy Jared who puts different sharp objects all the way up his nose, I know it’s a visual but I still think we can make it work nicely.
DK: I intend to keep bringing it even though its already been brought… and to dip my testicles in a shot glass before each show— one ball for me, one for my homies.

For more info, check out www.comicalradio.com.

Dave Attell: Captain Comedy

by Dylan P. Gadino

By the name of his new HBO special, Captain Miserable, you’d think veteran stand-up comedian Dave Attell has a few bones to pick with life. But it’s just that he thinks the dark side of existence is funny. Turns out, he’s right.










By Dylan P. Gadino I Photos By Heidi Kikel

Just as there is such a thing as a man’s man, there are those who are a comedian’s comedian. That is, there’s a handful of comics who take to the stage each night who not only make their audience laugh but also make their professional cohorts nod in amazement.

Veteran comedian Dave Attell is, by many comics’ accounts, a comedian’s comedian. He’s one of the hardest working, well-respected and most prolific joke writers of our time. Comedian Jim Gaffigan, of Comedy Central special, sold-out theater tour and Sierra Mist commercial fame, was even quoted last year saying, “The fact that Dave Attell thought I was funny was very important.”

Come January, the road warrior comic will have 21 years of stand-up comedy experience under his belt. And as he was winning the respect of his peers during that time, he’s been giving a generation of true comedy fans a great many things to laugh about. He’s shown us the humor in the dark underbelly of life during the four seasons of his wildly successful Comedy Central show Insomniac, his 2004 album, Skanks for the Memories and the tour DVD that bared his show’s name two years later.

And in a few day’s time the New York City native, will have reached a mark most comics could only dream of: He will have premiered his first hour-long HBO Special, Captain Miserable (Saturday, Dec. 8 at 10 p.m. EST); three days later, the show will be available – with extras – everywhere on DVD.

Punchline Magazine recently caught up with Attell and chatted about prepping for the big HBO show, how to avoid joke thievery and the problems that arise from censoring comedians.

So can you tell us anything about the HBO special?
Well, there’s everything from magic to Steve Irwin on the new special.

Are you performing magic or just telling jokes about magic?
I don’t want to get into that.

You’re just a bucket full of secrets— very mysterious.
I really am.

Where does landing a one-hour HBO special rank on your list of career achievements?
When I first started comedy, the ultimate thing you could do is the HBO one-hour special. You’d watch George Carlin, Richard Kline, Richard Jeni, Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence— they had these hour specials and they were raw and dangerous. That was what you wanted to do.

Now, people ask you, ‘What have you been up to lately?’ And you say, ‘I just shot an HBO special.’ And they say, ‘What else have you been doing?’ I guess you have to be a comic to appreciate it. People would rather hear me say that I just did a Dell computer ad. People are really more interested in TV and having a sitcom than someone doing a special.

So do people’s attitudes dilute the way you feel about the your HBO special?
No, I wish I had gotten it a year earlier. I’ve done a lot of stuff for Comedy Central but HBO is the place where you could really let it all hang out. You don’t have to edit or clear stuff with them. Comedy Central is really good too. But they have these things about endorsements and mentioning products too.

Did the HBO shoot intimidate you at all or was this just another gig for you?
I wish I had approached it like another gig. But yeah, you get frightened; you get nervous. You want it to go well. There’s always problems. It was cool to do it in a theater but I’m more of a club comic. So I think next time we do something like this, it’ll be in a smaller venue.

What about the taping made you nervous?
There were editing problems and continuity problems between the first and second show. And it comes down to the littlest things— like the water bottle. There’s a label on it. But the label isn’t on some of the shots because we filmed two different shows. So it looks weird when I take a sip. The bottle comes down and it has a label on it. Real comedy fans jump on that shit. They blog about it.

So it’s not so much your performance you were stressing about; it was the technical things?
Yeah, but it seems with me the jokes always get better as soon as it’s on tape. As soon as you put a joke on tape, you say. ‘Oh, I should’ve said it this way.’ That always seems to happen whether you’re doing a Leno or a long form thing. It’s just you always come up with better ways after you tape it.

How different is Captain Miserable than your first CD or your last DVD?
It’s not very different. It’s still drinking and sex jokes. I do some travel stuff. I talk about doing the USO tour a little bit. It’s jokey. I think that’s what people like about the Skanks for the Memories CD— there’s a lot of jokes on it. And people love those jokes. They way they edited that, there was no time in between each joke; there was very little breathing room.

This one maybe has more breathing room in the material. But I agree with fans when they say CDs are the way to go. Sometimes they like to listen to them in the car as background. With a DVD, you really have to devote your whole body and consciousness to it.

Will Captain Miserable come out on CD as well?
I don’t know about that. As of now, no. After it airs. it’ll just be a DVD that’ll come out Dec. 11. There’s some stuff on the extras from when I went to Iraq and me hanging out with other comics. And there will be a few more bits that didn’t make the actual special. You’ll have a Flavor Flav joke in there.

You’ve always said that you’re more of a club comic than anything else. But are you going to be hitting theaters after the special airs?
I’ve been touring constantly for the last 10 years. I feel like the more I’m on the road the more I can fall into my old self. So I’ll go out on a little theater tour but it’s nothing like a 50-city thing or anything like that. And I won’t be doing the bigger venues; I want to do the under-a-thousand seat places.

I think that’s way better and way more intimate than these gigantic, crazy 2,500- seat, 5,000-seat places. For me, it’s kinda ridiculous. I’m not going to sell it out. I’m not that huge or popular. And I want to give people the best show I can. And that could happen in a smaller venue.

I’m sick of these people that know you from TV and then get disappointed in person. I’m just sick of that. I’d rather get that out in the beginning. It doesn’t seem like I’m converting them into liking stand-up comedy.

Yeah. You definitely lose something when you see comedy in such a big place.
Some guys can really perform there. At that point it’s much more of a performance than it is an act. You can’t really deviate from what works because you can’t disappoint 3,000 people. You gotta hold their attention through every little punch line. You gotta make sure they get it. You don’t want to leave anyone behind.

Usually with me, I get drunk people and they’re heckling me from the darkness of the balcony, so it gets really difficult to focus on what’s going on. I’m really fine with the smaller places. The Blue Collar Tour does it right. I don’t need to do that.

Did you do anything differently to prepare for the HBO show?
I wore a jacket on stage. I tried to be more adult by wearing a jacket instead of like a bowling shirt. I started thinking, ‘How am I going to be when I’m like 50?’ You look at Rickles— he wears a tuxedo. He was smart. He made that decision early on.

Whenever I ask other comedians to tell me which working comics they respect the most, it seems your name is always on the list. In fact, last year, Jim Gaffigan was quoted saying, ‘It’s flattering when somebody likes your stuff … but the fact that Dave Attell thought I was funny was very important.’
When people say that about me, I think that’s pretty cool. It’s probably because I’m a huge tipper or I buy a round. I usually pay for a lot of booze. I guess what they like about me is that I’m always trying to write new jokes. Eighty percent of comedy is writing new material. Once you learn how to perform on stage, it’s all about coming up with jokes.

People are always like, ‘What’s your persona?’ I’m like, ‘Let the jokes guide you there.’ The jokes that you come up with, the ones that feel right, are really the ones you have to work on. The guys that I like the most are the ones thinking up jokes. I appreciate a joke writer.

Steven Wright was a big influence on me with joke writing. Also, George Carlin of course and Richard Pryor for his story telling jokes. And by watching Richard Jeni’s act at Carolines when I worked for him, he was the one who showed me how to get the most out of every bit. He was really a master at that. It’s sad that he ended that way but I think that he’s very important to comedy. He really did take it to a cool place. I learned a lot from watching him.

There’s a lot of people I think who should be more famous than they are— like Doug Stanhope, who’s a buddy of mine. I think he’s the most Bill Hicks-like of everyone out there, in the way that he does his act in bars. He’s not really in the coffee shop in LA preaching to the converted. I really do look up to him and I always go to him for advice whenever I do something whorish for money. If he’s not drunk, he’ll usually tell me straight. Sean Rouse, too, who I tour with a lot, is great. Thanks to XM and sites like yours, people are getting to know some of these off-the-radar comics.

It’s settled down a bit recently, but this year brought about a lot of talk of comedians stealing jokes. Is that something you spend time thinking about?
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.

So you do a little research.
Yeah, I go to my office, which is me on my couch.

Other comics call you a workhorse. Do you feel you have a strong work ethic?
I like to perform. I like to go up a couple times a week. The more you give comedy, the more you get out of it. The real workaholics are people like Jerry Seinfeld. I used to read that before he did Letterman or something, he would start jogging and training for it like it was a fight. That always stuck in my mind. That wasn’t me. I wouldn’t do anything like that. I try not to drink the night before a big show.

I go up on stage and try things. I’ll write down an idea and bring it up on stage, tape myself and listen to it. And then like over a week, sometimes a month or sometimes longer, maybe months, you start to figure out what it is you thought initially was funny and then you shape it. The hardest part for me is that after you tape yourself you have to listen to yourself— and a lot of times you’re bombing. It’s kinda like a near death experience every time. Unless you really have a huge ego, listening to yourself rambling on, is dumb and hard.

But that’s my work ethic. I try to always have something new to say. When I go on the road, that’s where I make my money and put my shows together. When I’m in [New York] City, I’m really here to work on new material. I go up there and have fun or I take something that’s old and I’m tired of and change it around and experiment and talk to the crowd.

What do you think about the state of stand-up comedy?
I started out in the late ‘80s during the [Andrew] ‘Dice’ [Clay] boom; Dice was the biggest comic in America. And now people have a lot of things to say about him. But he still does comedy. When I started it seemed like a tsunami of guitar acts, impressionists and a lot of sweater comics— a lot of Cosby-esque comics. And I’d say comedy is way better and more interesting now than it ever has been.

The only problem is that we’re kinda falling back into this PC, mall comedy that I don’t like. A lot of clubs are not supporting comics, especially on the road, when they tell them, ‘We don’t want you to be dirty, we don’t want you to talk about this or that.’ The editing of the club comic is wrong. People look at the Kramer incident as a horrendous thing. And it was a horrible thing. But the fact there’s still a place where people can really go and see raw material is cool and more people should be into that. But I guess a lot of people are into having it more sanitized and wrapped in a pretty package for them.

That’s how I think people should be selling stand-up comedy instead of ‘You’ve seen this guy on this or that’s the guy that was in Scary Movie 4 or whatever.’ It should be raw and as hardcore as possible. And if the audience doesn’t like that, they could sit at home and watch America’s Funniest Home Videos.

That’ll actually happen on the road where clubs will tell you not to say certain things?
Not me, but they’ll tell the openers and the middles. Outside of New York and LA, there’s a million little clubs and I think people forget that these clubs are where local comics get their start in their own town. They have to come up through that club system just like we do here in New York. I could tell you there was a comic who talked about abortion and someone got offended and they fired him. If people can’t take it, then they shouldn’t come down to the club.

The clubs took the side of the audience before they took the side of the comic. Outside of the comic performing an abortion on stage, I’d say you should be allowed to do whatever you want. And that’s what stand-up comedy should be. The audience needs to catch up to the comedy now. For a while it was the comics that needed to catch up to the audience.

Comedy clubs are really important for the development of comics. Theater tours are good for comics making money, but that doesn’t really help stand-up comedy. What helps stand-up comedy are these clubs surviving and thriving and letting comics say whatever they want. People now, don’t’ want to see just any comedy. They want to see someone that they know. When I started out, people just wanted to see comedy. People would come down and give it more of a chance. And we need more of that now.

For more info, check out www.daveattell.com. For the full airing schedule of Captain Miserable, check out HBO’s official site.