Lisa Lampanelli not scared to make fun of Barack Obama

by Chase Roper

President Elect Barack Obama has thus far gone unscathed in the comedy world. Lisa Lampinelli is eager to turn that around in her upcoming appearance at the South Beach Comedy Festival this month in Miami and her soon to air HBO special, Long Live the Queen on Jan 31. Lampenelli told the Miami Herald that [...]

Comedy Central Stand-up Showdown update: The Ladies of the Top 20

by Chase Roper

Let’s face it, the Stand-Up Showdown is a sausage fest. The deep honor of being part of the Top 20 – and thus having your half-hour special re-aired during the Stand-Up Showdown Marathon – has mostly always gone to the guys. Yet, every year there seems to be a few ladies at least that make [...]

Steve Martin lays down bluegrass album

by Brendan McLaughlin

It ends up Steve Martin lost the arrow but hung on to the banjo. On Jan. 27, the actor/writer/comedian will release an album of bluegrass music.
The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo will be available exclusively through Amazon for the first 90 days of its release. The album features guest performances by Dolly Parton [...]

Monday stand-up video: Dwayne Perkins

by Punchline Magazine

There’s comes a time in a man’s life when he realizes he’s never going pro. Comedian Dwayne Perkins testifies. Check it out.

Robert Schimmel: Life Since Then

by John Delery

When the moment is right (as they say on those way more creepy than sexy Cialis commercials), most people shut the boudoir door and bolt it behind them. Not comedian Robert Schimmel. During his hour-long sex act, he flings open the door and virtually invites spectators into his bedroom. You get the feeling he may even have stadium seats in there.

Schimmel has much more than one comedy gear, but in Life Since Then, his new Showtime special, which premieres on Wednesday, Jan. 14, at 10 p.m. (and comes out on DVD in stores the day before), the conversation somehow shifts to sex even when it starts out being about parasailing, swimming with dolphins, terrifying roller coaster rides or the horrifying aftermath of chemotherapy on his apparatus. (Hint: Not even Rogaine could help his problem, shhh, “down there.”)

Maybe we would all open up about sex at work like Schimmel does if our office were a stage or comedy club. Judging from the opening minutes of the show, he had the sex talk with his children in utero. The funny thing is, no matter how raunchy the jokes are, Schimmel never comes across as lecherous. Graphic sex is just his uproarious comedy shtick.

Near the end of the special, he even becomes intimate with the audience (though, no, not that way). He turns serious and sentimental when explaining that the title refers to his life since June 5, 2000, his D-Day, when doctors diagnosed him with Stage III non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He started chemotherapy immediately, and almost nine years later, he can joke poignantly onstage and in his hilarious and heartfelt book, Cancer on $5 a Day, about the struggle to beat the long odds and the dreadful disease.

After laughing convulsively for 60 minutes, viewers may wonder who has the better sense of humor, Schimmel or his apparently embarrassment-proof sons and daughters?

Check out Showtime’s site for full listings. Buy Robert Schimmel’s Life Since Then.

Kristen Schaal: Indie comedy goddess

by Emma Kat Richardson

New York-based comedian Kristen Schaal has quickly moved from bar room comedy gigs, to the national comedic elite. Starring on Flight of the Conchords and the Daily Show will do that.

It’s not often that a comedian can claim credit for preserving a dying breed of endangered bears (think polar), but Kristen Schaal is just such a lucky jester.

The breakout star of comedic television gems like HBO’s hipster hit Flight of the Conchords (where she plays the musical duo’s number one super fan), Schaal has spent the past few years morphing into a crush-worthy darling for the indie comedy set.

And with a star-making role as the Senior Women’s Issues Commentator on Comedy Central’s little news show that could, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Schaal has burst into the public spotlight by repeatedly lampooning political notables like Sarah Palin with a wry, insightful edge that even Tina Fey must be envious of.

Exactly as sweet and adorable as you’d expect her to be, the curly-coifed comedian checked in with Punchline Magazine just days before the Jan. 18 season premiere of Flight of the Conchords to discuss the nature of alternative comedy, why she’s similar to Andy Kaufman and how making fun of Wasilla, Alaska’s biggest star was actually beneficial to the environment.

What called you into the world of comedy?
I definitely knew I always wanted to perform. I think that comedy called me because people were laughing at me when I was trying to be serious.

So was it a childhood trauma thing that propelled it?
Oh, no, I was, like, pleasantly surprised, and I figured out how to use it to my benefit.

You’ve been associated with the term “alternative comedy” a lot. What, in your words, defines alternative comedy? What differentiates it from “traditional comedy?”
I think alternative comedy just means that there’s more comedy than usual. And I think that that word is probably going to become a mixture again, because alternative comedy was a word that described comedians who weren’t working in the bigger clubs in New York— people who were doing shows for no money, like on the Lower East side and in Brooklyn, so we became the “alternative” to the clubs.

Really, because the work that we produced was more experimental in the fact that the audience wasn’t paying just to see a joke, so we didn’t have to please a booker or an audience. [Laughs]. So it was just a different way to explore all the different ways to make people laugh, other than just telling jokes; but, they call comedians who just tell jokes “alternative” comedians, too, so I think mainly that word was created because of location, and not because of content.

Do you mean regional location, as in, around the United States?
No, I mean it’s like the difference between performing at a stand-up comedy club and performing in the back of the bar.

Do you prefer improv or stand-up, or is there really no comparison?
I don’t know if I prefer one over the other. I find improv more relaxing, and I look forward to doing it because it’s something that I don’t have to prepare for, so you just go with the flow. With stand-up, it’s the most stressful thing that I do because it all depends on me – whether it goes good or not. So, you know, I’m running the whole show and it takes so much preparation; but, when you walk away from a stand-up set that goes really well, compared to an improv set, you’re of course going to be more proud of the stand-up set.

Nick Di Paolo: Funny How?

by Dylan P. Gadino

Midway through a two-minute bit about how he abhors Rosie O’Donnell, veteran Nick Di Paolo gives a quick anti-disclaimer to the packed room listening to him record his latest comedy album: “This ‘ain’t According to Jim. This is a comedy club. Buckle up. This is the only place where we can say shit like this anymore.”

A lot of comics who claim to fight against political correctness tend to fall short in doing so. Rule of thumb is this: If they protest too much, there’s a reason. That reason? They’re not all cutting-edge.

That’s not to say Di Paolo is cutting-edge; in fact, he’s a throwback to the time when stand-up comedy was politically incorrect in a much more organic way. On Funny How? – recorded at the Acme Comedy Club in Minneapolis — the former Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn mainstay and current Comedy Central-roast favorite rarely makes an issue out of the fact that he’s consistently politically incorrect. Instead, he just is.

You see, Funny How? is a place where fat jokes still prosper, where Barack Obama is not the savior of this country and where gay folks aren’t necessarily the victim – but the target – of punch lines. O’Donnell’s a fat wildebeest capable of bringing down a skyscraper during a step class, Obama’s not even black (since Nick’s nipples are darker than Obama’s skin color) and Abercrombie & Fitch is an inexcusably “faggy joint.”

But before anyone too quickly cries foul in the name of misogyny, racism and homophobia, know this: Di Paolo is just as critical of himself throughout his hour-long set. Of course that doesn’t give a comic license to bash groups of people the way Di Paolo does. But that’s the beauty of stand-up comedy. You don’t need a license to do it, no matter what horrible things you say.

And despite the seemingly venomous bits throughout, not once would a well-versed comedy fan get the sense that Di Paolo is a hateful person. Like the master he is, he knows when to pull back from outside targets and shit on himself. Though you may not agree with everything he says, you can’t help but want to destroy that sensitivity chip in your brain for the hour he’s onstage. Only then can you fully enjoy what Di Paolo has to say.

It’s as if Nick has given the crowd the release it’s been seeking — the permission to laugh at a good old-fashioned, mean-spirited zinger, like when he jokes about his aging, descending testicles: “My wife said you oughta get a tattoo on your thigh that says, ‘Beware of falling rocks.’ I said I will, if you get one on your tits.”

Thanks, Nick. Thanks for being a funny prick.

Check out a track from the album below and buy Nick Di Paolo’s Funny How? here.