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Adam Hunter: Being Adam Hunter
by Emma Kat Richardson
July 29, 2009
What is it like, to be Adam Hunter? Only one man on Earth can be absolutely certain, but if the young comedian’s most recent album, Being Adam Hunter, is any indication, it’s an experience something akin to heading up a frat house with extra Ritalin prescriptions to spare.
Not that this is a bad thing, necessarily. The album’s 14 tracks are a killer dosage of cocky laced with cheeky, and it’s Hunter’s manic, kinetic style that gives Being Adam Hunter a sporadic sense of charm that an album like this would otherwise be lacking.
With lightning quick subject changes, Hunter calls to mind a sloppier, boorish version of Steven Wright. Barely any topic is left untackled as Hunter plows through 42 minutes of sex, violence, religion, politics, drugs, music, and, well, he wouldn’t be much fun if he didn’t swing right back around to sex again.
But rather than offending, the album is guilty of being charming when, by all rights, it should be off-putting. Tracks like “GILF” and “Sooo Broke” are downright hilarious, sparking more than just a scant few laugh-out-loud moments. (“I work for this nonprofit company,” Hunter professes in “Sooo Broke.” “It’s called my career.”)
The best thing about Being Adam Hunter, really, is the comedian’s uncanny ability to punctuate bouts of gross-out humor with surprisingly astute observations. It’s all well-worn territory here, but being young and contemporary only works in Hunter’s favor. If anything is proved, it’s that sex jokes don’t need to remain stale and stagnant – these days, they can be spiced up with Facebook and Twitter references.
Perhaps Hunter himself sums it up best in a track called “Myspace, Facebook,Twatter”: “I used to smoke pot and take Ritalin. Made me focus really hard on nothing.” Being Adam Hunter may not be the most dignified position in the world, but it sure is a helluva lot of fun.
Video interview: Dan Cummins
by Punchline Magazine
July 29, 2009
In a special video interview, we chat with comedian Dan Cummins about the breakout year he’s about to have. Check this out. He’s just released a killer album called Revenge is Near on Warner Bros records and he’ll be taping a one-hour special for Comedy Central this fall. What’s more is that he’ll be moving from Washington state to Los Angeles in the next few months to make himself more accessible to the entertainment industry.
For now, check out the video below where Cummins gives some outstanding tips on getting drunk and more! Listen up, kids. Lots to learn. You can also read our interview with Cummins from last year right here.
Purchase Dan Cummins’ Revenge is Near by clicking the graphic below.
Pat Dixon: Goodbye Forever, Fatty
by Tom Keller
July 21, 2009
If you didn’t know better, you might mistake the title of Pat Dixon’s newest comedy CD, Goodbye Forever, Fatty, as Dixon suggesting he’s grown up from an awkward, pudgy former version of himself. You’d have taken the hook. When, seconds into the album, you find out it’s actually the thing he always says after a good blowjob, you’ve been properly briefed for a mischievously hilarious set that keeps the audience off balance and on edge.
It’s not comedy for the faint of political correctness. Dixon gleefully pushes the envelope with playful ragging on women and observations like how most Christians treat the Bible the same as an online licensing agreement— just scroll to the bottom and click “I agree.” But the material is too well-written to be ignored, and Dixon masterfully manages never to lose the crowd where lesser comics might.
In fact, Dixon flexes considerable crowd-control muscle, actively seeking out feedback and addressing it with the confidence of a man who’s done it many times before. He takes control of a rowdy bachelorette party, unflinchingly cuts down a man’s love of country music and pokes fun at a woman who says he’s generalizing about her gender by saying, “Yes, I am generalizing…and you’re taking it personally.”
When a mere mention of Barack Obama draws boos from the crowd and a subsequent joke gets lukewarm laughter, Dixon brings down the house by tagging, “It’d be funnier if you guys didn’t make a rally out of it.”
While the laughs are dying down after one particular joke, an audience member can be heard yelling, “Yeah, baby!” It sounds almost involuntary, the kind of rise that Dixon can coax without you even realizing it. Another night, another crowd won.
Jim Breuer: Positive comedy vibes
by Dylan P. Gadino
July 20, 2009
The times of Saturday Night Live and Half Baked for Jim Breuer is over. And he’s fine with that. Breuer’s got a new outlook on life and comedy. And with his upcoming Comedy Central special and DVD, the stand-up world is about to play witness to his transformation.
For the past six years, Saturday Night Live alum and longtime stand-up comedian Jim Breuer has been slowly going through a metamorphosis of sorts– from stoner friendly joke slinger to family man; three young daughters will do that. In fact before our interview began, his 4-year-old Dorianne came by to show Dad her nails. “They’re beautiful,” Breuer exclaims, and then asks for a kiss, which he dutifully gets.
If you became a fan of his daily radio show on Sirius — Breuer Unleashed — you may have picked up on his family dedication. If not, you would’ve had to do a bit more digging. After all, compared to the major visibility he enjoyed after his 60-episode stint on SNL and his starring role alongside Dave Chappelle in 1998’s cult comedy Half Baked, Breuer hasn’t been as much in the comedy scene’s conscience.
That’s about to change.
His brand new hour comedy special airs on Comedy Central July 25 and is out in stores on DVD three days later. He’s also recently been cast in Adam Sandler and Kevin James’ upcoming flick The Zookeeper, a live-action comedy. So, comedy fans– get used to having Breuer around a lot more. Punchline Magazine recently talked with Breuer about his new movement of stand-up comedy, why he tours with his father and much more.
So your new special finds you less of a stoner, more of a family man. Are you worried you’ll drive your older fans away?
When I first tested this material it was mostly all colleges because I knew that was the crowd that was coming out to see me from Half Baked and Saturday Night Live. And they gave me so much. They put away all the fears I had. I did have fears, like they were going to say ‘Oh, he went all fairy on us now.’ But they were absolutely phenomenal; that was last year’s tour. I didn’t take money from the colleges, only the door. I said just give me a mic and a stage and lighting and I’ll come do the show and charge five bucks.
We did 25 colleges and a couple of clubs. All of them gave me standing ovations and I ljust talked about my dad and family for 45 minutes. And these guys let me know that they were with me. That’s when I knew I should film a special and get something going. On this special, I just want people to watch and I want my fans that I had to be sustained and go, ‘You know what, that’s where he’s at now.’ He was the Half Baked guy but now he has kids and I like the way he does the kids stuff.’
I just hope people really like it. I hope people love it and they talk about it. And there’s pieces in there where they’re like you know what . I want everyone to be calling each other a ferret. That’s what I want. And people will say, what the fuck is that. And they’ll say, ‘Oh, dude, you have to watch Breuer’s special.’ And it becomes the biggest word in America in the next three years (trademark goofy laugh).
If people go to your site or watch the new special they’ll know that you travel with your father to most of your tour dates. Were you always close with your dad?
No, but he was always there. You have to understand, he comes from a different generation. He’s a World War II veteran. Not many people my age can say they have a father like that. People say to me, ‘Is that your grandfather?’ No, it’s my father. I think he had me when he was 45; it was a total accident. But he was always there. And the older I got, the more I discovered what a great fucking man this guy is. Ten kids, no mother and his father was a raging, abusive alcoholic. He grew up on his own and by the time he was 18, he was in World War II; he was in the jungles for three years. He comes out, drank heavily for a while and started a family. The wife left and then he banged my mother and then I came out.
When I was growing up, he could’ve easily went the route of saying ‘My life sucked.’ But I never heard any of that. So were we close? No. Would we play baseball in the street? No. Did we play games? No. He’s super quiet and he was always there. In little league, he was there. Was he yelling like, ‘c’mon! You can hit it!?’ No. But he was there. When we played in the street he sat on the porch. He was almost like a silent bird. Like, that bird don’t do shit but he’s always up in the tree. What’s he doing I don’t know. I’m in the next neighborhood but the bird is still fucking there.
He’d walk into my bedroom and I’d have my headphones on and instead of doing homework I’d be thrashing my balls out to Metallica or AC/DC and I would just look in the doorway and he’d be there and he’d have this look in his face, just shaking his head, like ‘What the fuck is wrong with you?’ He never yelled. He never hit. When I started doing stand-up when I was young he would give me gas money and stuff. He was silent. He didn’t say I love you and he didn’t hug but there was a quiet closeness. We’d watch the game together and be silent the whole fucking time. The older I get the more I really appreciate it. When he’s gone, I’m going to really, really miss him.
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Is part of the reason you bring him on the road to keep yourself in line?
No, it’s almost the opposite. I feel like I’m giving him extra life. I feel like I can leave this man – who’s almost like a child – in the house. He can’t drive. He can’t travel around. Who’s going to come visit him? Nobody. So I bring him out on the road to give him life and let him talk to people. And he loves it. He thrives on it. That’s really why I take him.
Does he ever hold you back?
Once in a while, yeah. Like I said, it’s like bringing a kid around. So once in while I feel like I just need to get out— and not just to tear up the night. It’s like I want to go to the movie theater and I don’t want to have to walk him to the toilet in the middle of the movie. I just want to sit down, enjoy something and not have to worry about like, ‘did you crap yet?’ or ‘What do you mean you’re hungry? We’re going to eat later.’
You hosted Breuer Unleashed on Sirius for more than four years. Now, it’s Sirius XM and there’s no Breuer Unleashed, just your Friday afternoon show you do solo. Why did the original show go off the air?
I’m going to go out and say we had one of the best radio shows that came around in a long time. But [Sirius] had no clue of the cult following. Neither did I, until we ended it. I get e-mails everyday saying I can’t believe you guys stopped doing this. The show was so real. It was the real Entourage before even Entourage went on the air. It was me and my best friends, you know? One guy’s a hippie and one guy’s working at FedEx after the radio show.
But then every day started slowly becoming exhausting. I never really had a producer so that became a little straining and the promotion absolutely sucked. It was so frustrating. We have Metallica in there or I’m singing with Judas Priest or I have Seinfeld hanging out and nobody has a clue. Whereas if this happened anywhere else, it would be all over the place. It’s almost like they didn’t realize until it was gone either. So that was a little frustrating. We were doing all this stuff for nothing. And then I wanted to start going back into television and film. And unless the host is there, the show doesn’t move on. And so when I started doing that, it’s not like the other three didn’t get a long, but it just wasn’t working.
I listened to your Friday show the other day and you told a long story about how your wife is Born Again. How does your marriage and wife affect the new, slightly more family friendly material you’re doing now?
She loves it. She’s 100 percent for it. The real reason I first started going in this direction was that I wanted my kids to eventually be able to watch me and I want them to be proud of me. I start to think of my dad as I get older. Here’s a man with no money, worked his balls off, did what he had to do to get by but doesn’t have the big house and all that to show for it.
But I respect him and honor him for everything he did. I want my kids to do the same thing. I’m making people laugh, but I’m not really touching lives. The older I get, that’s so much more powerful for me. I get more out of leaving a show and hearing, ‘Oh my god, I was going to kill my children and my wife until I watched you. I’m into Metallica and I’m a dad I’m glad there’s someone like you in the same boat.’ And I want them leaving thinking ‘Fuck yeah, I could be a dad. ‘Fuck yeah, I could be married for 17 years. I’m tired of ‘everything sucks.’ Every comedian is like ‘This sucks, this blows, life is awful and lets gang rape this one.’ Enough. So, she’s all for it. That’ll probably will be the next special— being married to a born again.
Bonus interview: Check out my video chat with Jim from last year. -dylan
Yeah, I’m sure that carries a stigma.
I tell her that all the time. She’ll say ‘I’m Christian’ and I’m like, ‘Do you have to say that? Can’t you just be?’ She’ll say, ‘Well you’re Christian.’ ‘I’m not Christian. She’ll say ‘Yes, you are. Who do you believe in?’ And I say I believe in a lot of things. I believe in my mother, and Bob Marley and John Lennon. I believe in Jesus, sure. But I’m not going to go label myself so someone can judge me.
So you think, in general, stand-up comedy is bogged down right now with negativity?
I haven’t seen one comedian with the exception of like a Brian Regan that’s [positive]. I’m not saying it’s wrong and some do make me laugh. A lot of that was just shock and yes, it’s funny and its shock. Chris Rock’s first special is the greatest special that’s come out in the last two decades. No one has touched that. And I’ve realized that those things are so far and few between. Mitch Hedberg, probably before he died, would’ve done it. He probably would’ve been the next one to knock one out. And I still think I have one in the next five years where people go ‘Oh my God, you gotta watch this.’
For more info, check out jimbreuer.com. To purchase Jim’s new DVD, Let’s Clear the Air, go click on the graphic below.
Moshe Kasher: Everyone You Know Is Going to Die, And Then You Are
by John Delery
July 17, 2009
Moshe Kasher stands onstage and makes people laugh, so the dictionary definition of comedian fits him, though the terminology needs some tailoring. After all, the description does not always suit Kasher snugly on his new CD, Everyone You Know Is Going to Die, And Then You Are.
Occasionally on this release from Rooftop Comedy Productions, Kasher digresses from the typical comic’s checklist and humorously but pointedly raises issues with haters and homophobes. Without the superciliousness of Keith Olbermann or the fury of Bill, no, make that Bilious O’Reilly, Kasher transforms himself from an inventive goofball into a diverting social commentator.
On the most compelling of the 22 tracks, Kasher recites offstage from a thank-you note he wrote to the audience at a comedy club in Modesto, Calif. He spends eight minutes, 24 seconds sarcastically thanking the men and women for making his performance there so uncomfortable, first by booing him for being Jewish (a heckle-able offense and worse in 1930s and 1940s Germany and, of course, in the Middle East — but now, in Modesto?) and then by hollering threats to homosexuals. Damn! Et tu, Modesto? The revolting reactions belie a city, according to its official Web site, “proud of its…multicultural lifestyles.”
The scorching soliloquy stands out for its valiant counteroffensive (comics rarely censure the customers, comedy being a funny business and all) and because it sounds so unlike any other track. Throughout, his silly side definitely overtakes his serious side. He pokes himself with most of the barbs in his act, mocking, among other things, his hybrid haircut (hint: the first letter of a homosexual euphemism + the last five letters of the surname of a despicable Nazi maniac = his sorry style). Though two of the other long asides definitely could use snipping, Kasher’s is a voice and CD worth listening to.
Al Madrigal: Half Breed
by Tom Keller
July 17, 2009
“Always get the name of the dog.” That’s a common refrain among journalists, a reminder that the beauty of any story is in the details.
On Half Breed, Al Madrigal’s latest comedy album, the master storyteller gives you the dog’s name, address, favorite color and Social Security number. The veteran comic’s jokes unfold less like set-up-beat-punch line and more like exquisitely conjured scenes from a novel.
Consider the real-life pictures the Californian paints: Standing at an inner-city Burger King filled with assorted miscreants, including an unintentionally bearded lady working the counter and a Filipino man behind him in line who starts complaining loudly without ever speaking in plurals.
Going to a nightclub in Mexico and finding a floor covered in sawdust, tourists dutifully avoiding the water but throwing up from Jell-O shots – they’re not making them with Evian, Madrigal says – and a geographically ambiguous DJ who botches song lyrics and gives shout-outs only to people from Canada. Or riding to school as a kid in San Francisco and wondering how peculiar he must have looked wearing a sailor suit on a trolley and singing “Freres Jacques.” With a writer’s eye for detail and a musician’s ear for pacing, Madrigal weaves these tales so seamlessly that by the time the laughter dies down, it’s hard to imagine he’s just filled three solid minutes without ever slowing down the narrative.
He also deals skillfully with his peculiar nationality, calling himself a “modern-day Paul Reverez” with the warning of “the Mexicans are coming!” And he devotes plenty of material to his two kids, whom he describes with the adjectives guinea-pig and let’s-not-make-the-same-mistakes-again. It’s the most authentic form of the art – comedy that’s not just written, but lived.
Click on the graphic below to purchase Al Madrigal’s Half Breed.
Todd Glass: Thin Pig
by Emma Kat Richardson
July 8, 2009
Thin Pig’s opening line says it all: “Do I look like Fred Flintstone and Mel Gibson had a baby?”
As one of comedy’s most reliable every-men in the game, Todd Glass winningly combines the weed pulling neighbor-next-door appeal of Fred Flintstone with the outspoken brashness of Mel Gibson, and his latest effort, Thin Pig, proudly carries on this tradition of poking fun at mild inconveniences.
Beginning his stand-up career at the remarkably young age of 16, Glass has successfully maintained a comedic persona that fuses the best of childlike wonderment with gruff, wry observational-style humor.
Coupled with just a dab of the self-effacing and self-deprecating humor, Glass’s bright, exuberant style makes it easy to see why his thoroughly likable stage presence has made him an instant fan favorite.
Witness whimsically hilarious tracks like “Biting a Puppy,” in which Glass ponders a rather unorthodox reaction to the overwhelming cuteness of infant animals. Still other tracks like “Words” find Glass stumbling over multi-syllabic vernacular— a concept that touches upon the trials of aging as it reconciles its content with an indirect allusion to the trials of childhood. Whimsy is not the only card in Glass’s deck, though; on “Dinner Party,” he sharply reprimands uncouth party guests for such sins as showing up an hour early and arriving equipped with questionable choices in food.
Glass is no stranger to the concept of unrelenting social criticism, and it shows in his uproarious ability to tackle pedestrian, everyday activity. Granted, he never shatters any unusual surface, nor does he shake the boundaries of untapped material – the fare here deals mostly with tried topics like relationship dynamics and societal faux pas. It’s nothing new, but frankly, Glass’s core audience doesn’t need it to be. All one needs is for Todd Glass to keep being Todd Glass; to play the nice guy while continuing to deliver the power punches and hilarious anecdotes, one one-liner at a time.
Thin Pig is a digital-only release and is available on Amazon and iTunes. Read Punchline Magazine’s interview with Todd in our archives.
Video Interview: A Tight Five with Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter
by Punchline Magazine
July 8, 2009
This is a first. Never before had we spoken to two comedians at one time on an episode of A Tight Five. But somehow we pulled it off. Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter sat down with Punchline Magazine’s own Dylan Gadino to chat about their new show, Michael and Michael Have Issues — which premieres July 15 at 10:30 pm on Comedy Central — as well as their late foray into stand-up comedy, what “boner fries” are and much more.
A Tight Five is a co-production between Punchline Magazine and Rooftop Comedy and is filmed at Comix in New York. For more episodes of A Tight Five, check out atight5.com.
Click the graphic below to purchase the newly-released The State complete series DVD, of which Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter were founding members.
