David Cross: Drunk on the power of comedy

by Brendan McLaughlin

Comedy nerds, rejoice! David Cross’s relative absence from your world is over. He’s back with a new book, a new tour and the same attitude.

For the past year or so, David Cross fans, and there are many, have been going through withdrawal. Aside from a one-off live appearance here and there, the comedian, writer and actor has kept pretty much off the radar. Re-watching every episode of Arrested Development and Mr. Show on DVD is a great pastime – maybe the best – but it only makes us miss him even more. Where’s he been?! Well, it turns out he wasn’t just sitting around drinking. Well, actually he might have been doing some of that, but the point is, he was doing it for a reason.

Turns out, Cross was working on a new book, a TV pilot and is prepping to go on tour. The book, I Drink For a Reason, comes out today. Punchline Magazine had the pleasure of catching up with Cross recently to discuss the book, his comedy and his favorite beer(s). Oh, and Mrs. Featherbottom.

Where did the idea of you doing a book come from?
It was not my idea. I’m just a naïve simpleton that sits in a teepee in the woods, and then people come to me with these ideas. Seriously though, like almost every worthwhile project I’ve been a part of – not all of them, but most of them – this was somebody else’s idea. Somebody at Warner Books, which was the name of the publisher – they just switched names to Grand Central – but they called an agent I think and said, ‘Hey would David Cross be interested in writing a book?’ And that agent, who I’d never met and have yet to meet, said, ‘I don’t know, let me check.’ And he checked, and I said, ‘Sure.’ Then the agent said, ‘All right, let me hang back from this, but I still get 15 percent of all the money you make,’ and I was like, ‘All right. Sounds good.’

The book’s foreword is about the very universal activity of putting off writing. How was the process of writing this book for you? Did you enjoy it? Was it annoying? Fun?
It was all those things and more. I tend to work pretty well with a deadline or under pressure. And because of that, I have lazily adapted all that procrastination. I mean, I need to go to a fucking hypnotherapist or something, because I will just put shit off and put shit off, with the idea, and this is really dangerous and just detrimental to the process, of just being like, “Oh yeah. I’ve got plenty of time.” And then as it approaches it’s like, “Oh my God, I’ve got no time. I wish I didn’t do that.”

So, in the beginning, it was fairly easy. I’d just write shit down, I had a while to turn it in. And then in the middle, as the deadline started looming, it was awful. It was a really frustrating experience— frustrating because I was angry at myself for doing it yet again. The middle part of writing is really not the fun part. But then as you start laying all that stuff out and it starts taking shape and it becomes a real thing, then it gets fun. Then the last month and a half was really – I don’t know if ‘fun’ the right word – but really enjoyable. Satisfying. You know, putting it together, moving this over here, doing some editing. It was pretty cool. I should say that also, I had an enjoyable working environment. It wasn’t like I was sitting in a trailer on set in between shooting Alvin and the Chipmunks. I had a lot of free time. I was at my house upstate. I was with my girlfriend, who was working on her book. It was really a good environment.

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More David Cross
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Do you feel that same love/hate, procrastination process when you’re writing stand-up material, or when you have a tour coming up?
Absolutely. Yes, very true. And the problem is, and again it’s brought about completely by myself, I don’t have a good writing discipline. And I’ve never sat down and ‘written stand-up.’ I’ve never been one of those guys who’s like,’I’ve gotta write 10 new jokes today!’ I just don’t work that way. But I am relatively good at riffing onstage, and accumulating material from those loose sets, and putting it into a semblance of a show.

Again, I psychologically trick myself into going, ‘Yeah, it’ll all be all right!’ And then as the day’s coming it’s like, ‘Oh shit! I gotta put this thing together! What the fuck am I gonna do?’ You know, I’ve got all the material there, but I just don’t have it in an economic form. So yeah, it’s the same thing. But that’s the thing. Writing is a tangible thing with tangible results that you can look at, hold and edit. Stand-up, or at least my stand-up, is completely different. A lot of it is kind of in the moment, you know?

A lot of pieces in the book feel like the kind of material you do onstage. Was any of it originally intended as stand-up material?
One piece in particular definitely was: the ‘Ask A Rabbi’ thing. Every Chanukah, Yo La Tengo does this series of shows at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. I’ve been doing them for, God, eight years? It’s a benefit. Each night it’s for a different charity, and they have different comedians and guest bands. That piece is something I’ve done for those shows; I’ve done it seven or eight times. And then I did it once again for a Christmas show that Eugene Mirman was doing. But I’ve never done it outside of that context. So I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll put that in the book.’ You know, I wouldn’t really say, it’s part of my stand-up, but I’ve definitely performed it onstage. I know there are some other ideas in the book about global warming and the Orthodox Jews that, I’ve said onstage probably a thousand times.

Speaking of alternative shows, since the start of your career, you’ve been known for playing a lot of shows outside of comedy clubs. What made you go elsewhere?
Well, 90 percent of it is the audience. I thought, and I was correct in my assumption way back when, that my stuff and especially my style would probably go over better in front of younger, hipper people that could relate to what I was talking about. That’s, as opposed to the typical person you might find in a suburban comedy club. I worked a lot in Boston during the comedy boom there. And they just had to fill the stage with somebody. So I was very lucky to be there in the time I was, at the stage I was developing in, because I think in most other places I probably wouldn’t have gotten much work.

I didn’t have the most audience-friendly set. But they needed to put somebody on the bill so they didn’t give a shit. They’d say, ‘Yeah go in the middle at Sully’s, it’s a pizza bowling place. You get 25 minutes and you’ll get 85 dollars.’ So, I know that kind of audience well. And once that whole alternative scene started – when I moved to LA it was really starting to burgeon there – it was kind of a natural move to make.

In the book, you speculate on who would play you if you sold your story to Hollywood after appearing on Survivor. Who would play you in a movie of I Drink For A Reason?
Umm, it would be a pretty brutal, international casting call. It would probably take a year or so. It would probably come down to Jean Reno vs. Kenneth Branagh. And it would end up going, most likely, to Topher Grace. It would be a long, arduous process. The whole world would be on the edge of their seat.

Do you have any worries that someone will confuse I Drink For A Reason with I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell by Tucker Max? For instance, if someone were to buy a fan of yours the wrong book by mistake…
The only, only bad thing about that is that would unfortunately go toward supporting Tucker Max. That would be kind of funny. Or vice versa. I’d love people to go, ‘Aww bro, you have GOTTA check this book out! It is fucking awesome, bro!’ And then they get my book and the guy’s like, ‘Yeah, I KINDA liked it. It wasn’t THAT funny.’

In the book, you talk about one occasion where you responded to a negative blog review of one of your shows, in which you were accused of being a bigot. What’s your general practice for dealing with that kind of anonymous criticism?
Well the response, and I certainly have been a part of that as well, is measured and thoughtful, and hopefully rational. But you’re responding to an anonymous person who is just like, ‘You suck!’ And I did that a number of times for a couple of years. And it’s very much a no-win situation, as I’ve discovered from experience. And you’re responding – I can’t speak for everybody – but it’s not out of ego or hurt feelings, but more like, ‘This is wrong, and it’s very, very wrong, and I feel obligated to set the record straight from my end.’ This isn’t a couple of people shootin’ the shit at a bar or a coffee shop. This is all over the place and it exists forever, you know? I wouldn’t give a shit if they were talking at the table next to me. That would be kind of amusing. But whatever subsequent comment or criticism or observation is made about me or my act, it’s all predicated on a false premise. And it’s just wrong.

I read that you worked on a pilot in England. Do you think they appreciated Mrs. Featherbottom?
Umm, I can’t say that they did or didn’t for sure, but I can tell you there is a huge Arrested Development fan base in the UK. I spent a lot of time there over the past year, and I’d say, no exaggeration, every day at least one person would ask me about it or talk about Arrested Development, or tell me how much they loved it or whatever. Every single day.

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David Cross – Dead Body
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Mr. Show is the same way. It’s almost seen as a band that wasn’t hugely popular while it was around, but it just has this huge, enduring influence. What’s it like for you to look back at the Mr. Show stuff?
I think as we were sort of winding it down, we had a feeling, although unspoken, that the last year was in fact going to be its last year. We never verbalized it, but I think we sort of felt like that was what it was resigned to become. Neither Bob or I are upset about it. We were very proud of it and remain very proud of it. You know, we were very careful about not dating too much of it. When we would want to make a reference to what was then a very topical pop culture reference, 90 percent of the time we’d not make it that person specifically, but make it an amalgam of different people – a person in power, or a celebrity or whatever – so it wouldn’t feel dated.

You know, it’s not like watching an SNL rerun with a guy playing Clinton. So, we kind of felt like, ‘Oh, that’s where this thing’s headed,’ but that’s not a bad thing. And it’s really par for the course for both Bob and I. I don’t think either one of us were destined to be wildly successful and popular, and I think we’re both very, very fond of that.

You drink for a reason, but what’s your favorite beer?
In the Summer, when it’s hot out I like Pabst, Bud Light, Coors Light, I like light beers like that. And then in the Winter, I like Harpoon IPA, I like your Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, or an Anchor Steam-type of beer. And then in London, always go for a Fuller’s London ESB. London pride. Gotta go with the London pride.

I Drink For a Reason comes out Monday, Aug. 31. Click the image below to snag yourself a copy. Once you pick that up, be sure to visit IDrinkForAReason.com for video extras relating pieces in the book.

Bobcat Goldthwait: The anti comedian

by Emma Kat Richardson

You know Bobcat Goldthwait as a comedian and an integral part of your Police Academy movie watching enjoyment. What you might not know are the movies he writes and directs. With his new dark comedy World’s Greatest Dad, starring Robin Williams, you’ve got a good excuse to change that.

Bobcat Goldthwait does not like stand-up. It’s a surprising admission for one of most seminal staples of America’s landmark 1980s stand-up club scene, but frankly, he seems more or less just plain sick and tired of it. After all, isn’t there only so many times one can expect to reprise a role in the Police Academy movies and still find the work fresh and funny?

These days, it’s mostly about movie making for the man called Bobcat, even though the occasional comedy club appearance does seem to rear its hilarious head every now and then. With his latest cinematic effort, his movie World’s Greatest Dad (premiered Aug. 21), which stars Robin Williams as a high school poetry teacher who yearns to be famous – Goldthwait wrote, directed, and cameos briefly in the film – and even a few comedy dates being sprinkled around the country, stand-up comedy’s favorite prodigal son checks in with Punchline Magazine to talk filmmaking 101, being a nostalgia act, and why he’s not a hot chick by the pool.

Why do you not like stand-up comedy?
If you, as a little boy, had an interest in magic, and then became a magician, after a while, once you know how the tricks work, it’s kind of boring. I don’t want to watch stand-up; I just don’t. Most comedians worship stand-up comedy, and are bitter about how someone else is doing better than them. They’re all sitting at home, trying to write the perfect Obama joke, or some kind of bullshit like that, and I just don’t really care about it. Even in my early stand-up, I was just trying to make fun of stand-up comedians, and then I became one. For a night out, I would much rather go see a movie or a band. Comedians take comedy so seriously, that they’re really not enjoyable to be around. For me, watching stand-up would be like my old man going to watch guys working with sheet metal.

So your priorities now lie more as a filmmaker?
Well, I like making movies and I hope I can continue to do it. It’s funny because recently, I’ve actually started to enjoy doing stand-up again for the first time in about 20 years. I get nervous before going onstage now for the first time.

Let’s talk about World’s Greatest Dad a little bit. Where did the idea for the story come from?
The characters in that movie are all just based on people I know. About a day into making the movie, Robin said to me, ‘Oh, I’m playing you, aren’t I?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, kinda.’

So the film is autobiographical?
Well, the way the events play out and the way Robin does things and reacts to things – yeah, that’s autobiographical. My movies are kind of more personal than my stand-up was.

Do you prefer directing or acting in films?
I don’t like acting. I’m not a very good actor. I’m not like the hot chick who’s standing by the pool in a t-shirt. I really know I’m not a very good actor, and would much rather be behind the camera, directing. I make a cameo in this movie, but only because Guillermo Rodriguez from the Jimmy Kimmel show couldn’t get the day off to play the part.

So it was a cameo out of necessity?
It’s a cameo where it was uncomfortable, and definitely out of necessity. It’s not even that strange, because in the movie they’re supposed to be in LA, and I don’t think it’s that much of a stretch for the guy from Police Academy to be the limo driver.

What do you want fans of your stand-up to take away from a movie like this?
I don’t know if they’re one in the same, you know? I don’t think that those who come see me do stand-up are aware that I write and direct movies. That’s ok; I don’t expect them to be. At this point in my life, stand-up and films never criss-cross; I’ll go out and do stand-up on the road, and I’ll have a couple people go, ‘Oh, I saw that movie you made,’ but for the most part, people aren’t aware. I’ve been a nostalgia act up until recently. I was like Whitesnake or Poison.

Are you playing at the county fairs and stuff?
Definitely playing at the county fairs! I was playing once with REO Speedwagon, and I’m laughing to myself thinking, oh my god, that’s REO Speedwagon, they’re probably thinking I’m Gilbert Gottfried or something.

Since you said that you’ve recently started doing stand-up again, where have you looked for fresh material?
Well, one factor is not having a comic persona. So you can get in a room where you tell stories, and they’re framed differently from when I had a comic persona to hide behind. It’s funny; that’s such a crutch. People came up to see you, expecting you to do your persona, and you had to think or work hard to maintain it, but now it’s like I’m back to where I was 20 years ago, and I have an idea, jot it down, go onstage, and try to work on it a little.

What sort of reaction are you expecting from audiences that go to see World’s Greatest Dad?
So far, the reaction has been pretty nice. Folks are saying that they like the movie. When it was at Sundance, it was really nice to see people laughing and stuff at the movie, but it was more exciting for me when people would walk out and get into these big arguments and conversations about honesty and stuff. That’s the theme of this movie.

You and Robin Williams have a longstanding comedic partnership. Did that relationship help influence the film creatively in any way?
Yeah. As far as the way we went about approaching the way we were going to work. The night before we went to get started, everyone was freaking out, like, ‘Is Robin going to work well with the director, or is he going to be like ‘Hey man, I have an Academy Award and you have Police Academy.’ [Laughs]. But that wasn’t the situation. With Robin, it’s like you do a take, and he does a take. We were on the same page, and we discussed everything a lot before we shot any of it. I definitely wanted his input and ideas and stuff, and I got that from everybody in the movie. I didn’t write the lead part with Robin in mind; he read the script and he was going to do a cameo to help me out, but then he called me and said, ‘You know, I’d actually like to be the guy.’

Do you think you’ll be making more movies together in the future?
Yeah. While we were in the middle of filming, he was like, ‘I want to be in all your movies.’ You know, there are a lot of heavy scenes in this movie and it was quite exhausting. The way I make movies, it’s outside the studio system, so there’s nothing fancy about it. I was really happy when he said that.

When you sit down to write out the script for a movie, what creative well do you draw from for material? Is it the same one you used for writing jokes when you were doing stand-up, or does it come from a completely different world?
No, I think it’s the same kind of thing; you know, when you’re writing comedy, you take notes all day long and you think of things and just jot them down. It’s the same way with screenplay writing. I have ideas and I jot them down, but the only difference with writing a screenplay is that I’ll go away and go to a hotel or something for three, four, or five nights, and I’ll write and write until the screenplay’s finished.

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Bobcat Goldthwait – Detained by the Authorities
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What’s your single favorite moment from your career so far?
That’s a good question. I’m pretty lucky, you know? I would have to say that one of my favorite memories from my career happened during the first movie I had at Sundance: I was sitting with my daughter, and this woman wanted to get up and walk out because she thought it was supposed to be a romantic comedy, but there was a scene of bestiality. This woman was trying to leave, and I was trying to talk her into staying, and about an hour into the movie, that same woman was crying, and my daughter was like, ‘Look at your friend now.’ This woman was crying because she was moved by the movie, and my daughter was like, ‘Yeah, you cry, bitch. You cry.’ That’s one of my fond memories.

When I used to go out and do stand-up, I used to joke about it being the alimony tour, but I’m really excited now that I’m writing again. I know there are people who are disappointed when I show up and I’m not doing the Grover voice, but I can’t. I have to store those characters now.

Would you say you’re in a new period for your career, like a transitional period?
Yeah. At the end of the day, I’ve got to think that I’ve got a hopeful career in directing, and I wanted to get out of stand-up. I never thought that the career directing would actually give me the balls to bring my stand-up act back, or that I would even be interested in it. Now, I really enjoy going out there.

For more info on Bobcat, check out his official site at bobcatswebsite.com and the official site for World’s Greatest Dad.

Video interview: Josh Sneed

by Punchline Magazine

CLICK HERE to watch the video.

Another video interview from our trip to Aspen this summer, this one features Cincinnati-based comedian Josh Sneed. We get to talking about his recently-released Comedy Central Records CD Unacceptable, singing songs about comedians and more. Make sure you watch until the end to see a special guest appearance.

Video interview: W. Kamau Bell

by Dylan P. Gadino

While I was in Aspen earlier this summer for the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival, I got to chat with comedian W. Kamau Bell outside one of the many after parties. We talked about how he deals with making fun of Barack Obama in his act, how his parents formed the way he performs comedy and his one-man show, The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Ending Racism in About an Hour, which is playing through Aug. 29 as part of the New York City Fringe Festival. Get ticket information here.

Laurie Kilmartin: Five Minutes to Myself

by John Delery

Laurie Kilmartin walks onstage, assumes the Larry Craig “wide stance,” and then crosses the line separating civility and comedy — not because she’s vicious but because it’s her job.

Using a sharp tongue instead of a steak knife, the mom in Kilmartin carefully cuts stinging social commentary into sound-bite-size wisecracks, the easier to feed them to connoisseurs of sarcasm.

But even then, judging from the what-did-she-just-say-can-we-laugh-at-this? reaction of many audience members listening to Kilmartin record Five Minutes to Myself, her new CD from Rooftop Comedy Productions, some people still find it hard to swallow rips on abortion, racial stereotypes and, yes, rape. Well, lighten up, people, and listen up: Kilmartin is adorably grim.

’Fess up, overworked, undervalued moms everywhere: Like Kilmartin, you secretly want to scream at your bellyaching brood, Go to your womb! She calls out men for being what most of them are: impervious jerks-in-progress, though she sensitively lessens the blow by using a rubber mallet instead of a pickax to bludgeon the oblivious brotherhood.

By fearlessly probing her netherworld – and exposing it publicly – on Five Minutes to Myself, Kilmartin twist-ties together 24 horrifyingly uproarious tracks instead of creating just another string of jokes.

Buy Laurie Kilmartin’s Five Minutes to Myself.

Whitney Cummings: Comedy’s emotional ninja

by Dylan P. Gadino

She just released her debut stand-up album, had a strong set on Comedy Central’s Roast of Joan Rivers, was seen on Showtime’s Live Nude Comedy and will appear on the upcoming special Comedians of Chelsea Lately on E! So does Whitney Cummings have your attention yet?

At 26 years old, Whitney Cummings is certainly not what you’d consider a veteran comedian. But since her move out to Los Angeles after graduating from Philadelphia’s University of Pennsylvania she’s proved her comedy mettle time and again. Quickly becoming a stand out talent in the huge pool of comics on the West Coast, Cummings has been able to turn her LA stand-up club successes into high-profile accolades— like being named one of Variety’s 10 comics to watch in 2007 and being featured in Entertainment Weekly’s “future stars of comedy” section.

Most recently the Chelsea Lately regular gave one of the most memorable performances of Comedy Central’s Roast of Joan Rivers and appeared on and produced Showtime’s new stand-up series Live Nude Comedy (stand-up and burlesque, anyone?). Add to that, her profile as a budding actress – she played one of Michelle Monaghan’s best friends in last year’s Made of Honor with Patrick Dempsey – and her just released stand-up album Emotional Ninja put out by New Wave Dynamics and what you get is one of the most exciting comedians of 2009. And you’ll be able to catch the Washington, DC native on Aug. 21, when she appears on the comedy special, The Comedians of Chelsea Lately on E!

Punchline Magazine recently caught up with Cummings to chat about why she laughed hysterically over someone getting stabbed, the pressures of doing comedy in Los Angeles and much more.

You recently appeared on Comedy Central’s Roast of Joan Rivers. Since it was your first big-time televised roast, were you scared that people at home would wonder who the hell you were and why you were roasting Joan Rivers?
I wasn’t scared. Stand-up prepares you for this kind of thing. Plus, roast jokes are kind of one of my strengths and it’s not like a gift. It’s a twisted, sick thing to be able to do so easily. The roast is a really familiar vibe for me. It’s cool to see it televised but that’s what it’s like every night at a comedy club with my friends. So it’s like me and Dov Davidoff, Steve Byrne and Sebastian [Maniscalco]– all we’re doing is fucking making fun of each other. For me, the roast is just like a televised version of what happens every night.

Also, I was a writer on the Flavor Flav and Saget roasts so I knew exactly what people would expect. I was very familiar with the roast and all the writers. So for me that was really helpful. I went up eighth, which in the actual taping was like two hours in. The first couple of comics weren’t sure how they were doing, because the key to the roast working is the roastee, in this case, Joan Rivers, enjoying it and laughing. But with Joan it’s impossible to tell what expression she has on her face. People thought she wasn’t laughing and she was miserable but it’s just because her face is so fucking frozen. So nobody could tell if she was laughing or not. But then between takes she was like, “those were funny!” And then she started clapping and doing other things that made it clear to other people that she was enjoying it. So by the time I got up there. I sort of knew that Joan was into it.

How did your environment growing up lead you to a life in stand-up comedy?
You hit the jackpot here. I came from a broken family for sure. I had to work very hard to get my parents’ attention, hence my performer mentality. My mom was always working and my dad was always on business trips. So I had to work very hard to get their attention and I think that still holds up. ‘I’m on the Roast, Dad. Now will you call me back?’ I joke about it all the time. Every time something big happens, I say, ‘Did you hear that, Dad?’ But my dad is hysterically funny. My whole family is actually funny; everything was always a joke. All my friends say that I’m emotionally dyslexic. [ed. note: hence the name of her album Emotional Ninja].There was a lot of intense emotion and tragedy in my childhood but no one ever took it seriously. Stress was never felt real. Things would never stay serious for too long. Everything that’s tragic is hysterically funny to me.

One time I was having dinner with my friends and one friend showed up late. And he said he was sorry he was late and he was in tears. He said, ‘My assistant just got stabbed at Universal City Walk; a gang stabbed him in the leg five times.’ And everyone at the table was like, ‘Oh my god!’ And I was hysterically laughing. I was in tears. I had to leave the table I thought it was the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. You know, who gets stabbed? So I think that helps a lot as a stand-up. That’s played a big part of me gravitating toward comedy.

It seems you’re able to prove yourself to both mainstream and alternative comedy audiences. Why do you think that is?
Some more mainstream comedians say I’m alternative. And some alternative comics think I’m mainstream. I hope that I’m just funny instead of just indie or mainstream or alternative or commercial or whatever. I don’t know what the definition of alternative is as opposed to mainstream. If you were to ask anyone at the UCB or the Laugh Factory what the difference between alternative and commercial I don’t know that anyone would know what the answer is. To me funny is funny. I’m not sure where I stand. I guess it’s more the venues you play but I’m able to do UCB and the Laugh Factory.

But why would mainstream comics call your alternative. Is it that they think you have a marginal appeal?
Sometimes it’s a compliment to be called alternative. When people say you’re alternative, I say, ‘What does that mean?’ And a lot of times the answer is that ‘Your jokes are smart and you’re very clever.’ But I don’t want to accept that definition because I don’t want to imply that mainstream comics aren’t smart and clever. I think it just means that your jokes are maybe more cerebral. I hope it doesn’t mean that I have a smaller appeal, because that’s not a goal of mine.

Maybe it has something to do with clever construction of jokes, which I used to do more of. Now I’m just breaking open onstage more than I’m telling well-crafted jokes. Dan Mintz is a great example of someone who does brilliant jokes with no emphasis on presentation. He’s considered an alternative comedian but his material is funny to everyone. I don’t think anyone would walk in and not think his material was hilarious.

You’re on television constantly and been in major movies. Those aren’t the traits of an alternative comedian.
I think the labels are meaningless. Like Zach Galifianakis used to be considered an alternative comic and now he’s one of the most famous comedians. He’s got incredibly widespread appeal. Paul F. Tompkins too. And Patton Oswalt is now doing huge movies. The point of being on TV is to get as many people as possible to respond to you and appreciate you. I don’t want to alienate anyone with haute comedy. I don’t want to belittle, alienate or make anyone feel stupid. I just want to connect with people. So if that’s mainstream, then fine, I’ll take it.

Do you ever have to hold back from writing certain material for fear that you will alienate people?
About a year ago, I was all about what people would say to me after a show. It used to be that people would come up to me and say, ‘Oh my god, those are such good jokes, you’re so funny.’ And that used to be what was validating to me. But now, I’ve changed what I’m doing a little bit. So now the goal is to have people come up to me after a show and say, ‘Oh my god, that’s so true.’ Because now I’m trying to write stuff that’s more personal and stuff that’s less elitist. I’m trying to connect more with people. I don’t judge my audiences. I don’t believe in audiences showing up and you telling them how stupid they are. I don’t believe in someone paying $20 to get in, $40 for food, a two-drink drink minimum, not to mention parking. They could be paying $100 to come see you. I don’t believe in, ‘You guys are idiots.’

A non-comedian said this to me the other day: ‘So doing stand-up is basically asking someone to pay you $20 to listen to you talk for an hour.’ And I was like,’ Yeah, I guess that sounds pretty fucking arrogant.’ To go watch Meryl Streep or the biggest blockbuster movie that costs $200 million to make, they’re only asking to pay $12. We’re asking $20, plus everything else you have to pay for. Meryl Streep is only asking $12 at the theater. It’s a big responsibility and I take it seriously. I never want anyone at any show I’m performing at to not get it, to not relate to it, or to feel stupid. It’s really important to me that people don’t come out of shows thinking, ‘She thinks she’s better than me.’ I want to connect and respect that people made an effort to come out.

Why do you think you’re able to let of the anger that so many other comedians hold onto onstage?
Comedy is a very combative job. People always say comedians are fucked up. I don’t think comedians always start out fucked up. I think doing comedy fucks them up. I think they start out perfectly normal and then after 10 years of doing stand-up, then you’re a nightmare and you’re on drugs. I think the terms we use onstage proves that: I killed, I slaughtered. It’s always such a violent terms. Going onstage can be war sometimes.

But I think there’s a lot of anger in comedy because it could be a very frustrating job. No matter how big or how great a comedian is, the last three shows they did, I’m sure one of them was bad. You’re always being challenged. If you’re doing great, and you tape your hour special, then you have to write a whole new hour and get back in the trenches again and get rejected again. You’re putting yourself out there every night to be either rejected or accepted.

Comedy attracts very aggressive people because it takes a lot of balls. I consider the Comedy Store to be my home club in LA. A lot of people stay away from it because they think it’s dark and toxic, but it really is the best place to get better at comedy. That place has been a gift for me. The lighting is set up so that you can’t see the audience so you’re defenseless against hecklers. So you get really strong with hecklers; I don’t fear them anymore because I feel like I’ve been in the trenches there. They don’t serve food, so the audience is not distracted. They’re just staring in your eyes. They say a giggle at the Comedy Store is like an applause break anywhere else. You just have to eat shit. Chris Rock was in there a couple months ago and he was like. ‘Ah, back at the Comedy Store’ because he was just doing ok. It’s a lot of people that don’t speak English, a lot of tourists. So no matter how good you think you are, you can always eat shit there twice a week.

Roast of Joan Rivers	Encore Friday 10pm / 9c
Whitney Cummings – On Joan Rivers
www.comedycentral.com

Are their pressures you face in LA as a comedian that you wouldn’t have in other cities?
Most comics here don’t do more than one spot a night. So nothing is ever on time. If you’re in New York and you have a spot at 8:52 pm, you’re on stage at 8:52 pm. It’s like clockwork. You can do five spots a night and it’s always on time. Here, since there’s a lot more celebrities here, there’s more people popping in. So your spot’s at 10 pm but then Drew Carey comes by or Carlos Mencia comes by or Seth Rogen wants to do a set because he’s filming a movie and so you’re constantly getting bumped all the time. It’s also harder because there’s so much industry here. It’s annoying when you perform at the Comedy Store and you hear there’s people in the crowd casting for HBO and you wanted to work on new stuff. I feel like I have to go to the Ice House in Pasadena or to Hermosa Beach to the Comedy and Magic club just to get away from industry to be able to work on new stuff.

In New York, you hear a lot about LA comedians using stand-up as a stepping stone to television and movies. Do you find that accurate?
I’m going to get defensive about that. I don’t think it’s necessarily right to ridicule people who want to work. Guess what? Being on TV gets you more roadwork so you can do more stand-up. Being on television could be very liberating because it helps you do more of what you love. For me, TV has been helpful because it helps me do more stand-up, what I want to be doing. I want to be supportive of comics that do that and not a hater. But we’re also living in this crazy time with YouTube. Bo Burnham, for example. He was in Boston, not LA, and he got a half hour special because he was putting clips on YouTube. The game is changing. And you don’t have to be in LA to get TV opportunities.

For more info on Whitney, check out whitneycummings.com. And buy Whitney’s new album, Emotional Ninja here.

Paul Mecurio: When comedy and sports collide

by Brendan McLaughlin

Comedian Paul Mecurio isn’t much of an athlete, but he knows where to find the humor in pro ballers, fighters and beyond. Turns out, you don’t have to look too far. The proof is in his new HBO web series Got No Game with Paul Mecurio.

As a founding writer for The Daily Show, Paul Mecurio has skewered presidential candidates, mainstream media and greedy members of the medical profession, winning Emmys and a Peabody award in the process. As a stand-up comic, he’s a stage veteran who’s covered pretty much every topic in pretty much every respected venue across the country. In his new HBO web series, Got No Game with Paul Mecurio, the comedian settles his focus on the world of sports. According to Paul, someone’s gotta do it.

A while back you produced a pilot called Sports Central. How did that show lead to HBO and Got No Game?
Well, I’m basically a whore. There, you got it out of me. You’re an intrepid reporter. Actually, HBO Sports’ Ross Greenburg saw it and liked it, thought it was a great idea, and with the help of Kendall Reid, and their digital media department, we were able to produce this series. And there’s just this feeling that this is a big part of our culture – sports – and nobody’s satirizing it. And who better to satirize it than a guy who failed at every sport he ever tried?

So you’re not at all athletic?
If you consider doing shots of Jack Daniels and smoking while you’re doing sports athletic, I am a gold medalist. Curling is my sport, because curling for me is nothing more than bowling for people who can’t bear to part with the ball.

Would you consider hitting the gym to be your sport?
No, I’d consider mocking people as they go to the gym to be my sport. Like, ‘Hey, idiot, why are you doing that when you could be doing what I’m doing, which is watching TV and drinking beer?’

You have a son, right? Are you a big sports guy when it comes to parenting?
My son’s into sports. At first he played soccer. First of all, parents whose kids play soccer are out of their minds. And kids who play soccer, at seven or eight years old, they’re like a bunch of drunk midgets. The ball hits them everywhere except in the foot. But the parents were the ones that intimidated me. Parents live through their kids when it comes to sports, especially soccer. There was this one guy, he was fine at first and then literally a minute later he’s going, ‘Kick the ball, Billy. Kick the damn ball! You’re an idiot! And your mother’s sleeping with the mailman. Kick the ball!’ A kid’s team lost a soccer game once and I saw the kid standing in the parking lot watching his father drive away with a kid from the winning team. That’s how intense it’s become.

And you know I’m a Red Sox fan. And you know, Ortiz has been outed on that list for steroid use, along with Manny Ramirez. And that hurts us as fans, and it taints the 2004 championship because they were both on that team. So now what does the city of Boston have? I mean, this is a city that was suffering for self esteem. The last time it felt good about itself was in the Coolidge administration. Now, what do they have to fall back on to feel good about themselves? Their claim to fame up to that point is that they were the last team in baseball to integrate.

The fact that Manny Ramirez is on that list, especially has to hurt.
My thing about Manny Ramirez is I’m not sure that he even took steroids because if he took steroids with the way he plays the outfield, he just wasn’t paying attention. He tripped, he fell, a needle ended up in his ass. It was an accident. He didn’t intend for that. Also, there’s this big mystery in Boston. You know, every time Big Poppy hit a home run he’d cross the plate, he’d pound his chest and he’d point two fingers up to the sky. And everybody’s like, ‘Who’s he paying tribute to?’ And now it’s clear that it’s his dead drug dealer.

So basically, these guys and guys like them have made it easy to mock sports. Take Plaxico Burress: his whole thing with the gun. [ed. note: Burress was indicted Aug 3. on weapons charges after accidentally shooting himself in the leg at a club in November. He had stuffed his gun down his sweatpants.]

First of all, Velcro! All he needed was a little Velcro and that would have solved his problem. And you know the NRA changed its slogan to, ‘You can have my gun when you uneasily unclasp it from my cold dead Velcro hand.’

And then you’ve got Michael Vick coming back, or maybe coming back. We don’t know. By the way, with Vick, they’re gonna get it out of him. They’re just gonna hook his testicles up to a car battery. He better not lose either because he’s gonna get put down, or at the very least, chained to a fence for a day. But you know you look at the news cycle in sports, and all of that came out over the course of five days. So there’s so much going on in sports and nobody’s satirizing it on a regular basis. That’s part of what we want to do, and also just have fun with it.

Like inhaling helium with ring announcer Michael Buffer? (see video below)
Wasn’t that great? It blew me away that he did it. Everybody was saying, ‘You’ll never get him to do this,’ and I was like, ‘I’ll talk to him, we’ll relax him and get him to do it.’ And he did it. He turned out to be a really cool guy. There’s another piece with Jim Lampley. He just went off. I had like a dozen questions prepared, and I got to two of them, three of them at the most. Just incredible, he was great. We’ve also got some sketches coming out—like did you ever wonder what’s going on in the replay booth during a football review play? And we’ve got another piece coming up about race in sports.

You come to sports with a stand-up background. A lot of comics say that sports can be a tough topic onstage. With the wrong crowd it can be like talking about a movie no one’s seen.
If you’re talking about a particular team, I can understand that. But if you’re talking about big issues in sports, which is really what I’m more interested in focusing on in this series – steroids, gunplay, salaries – everybody understands that stuff. You don’t have to follow sports to understand that. You know, Rashard Lewis from the Orlando Magic just got busted for using performance-enhancing drugs. It’s everywhere. If you go into Cincinnati and you start doing jokes about the Oakland Athletics, then yeah, there’s going be a disconnect.

You taped a few episodes in Las Vegas during that big fight week. What was the most interesting thing you learned during that trip?
The biggest shock to me was being in the arena during the Manny Pacquiao- Ricky Hatton fight when Hatton got knocked down, and the blood curdling desire from people screaming. It was a different kind of yell than at football games or basketball games. You know, at a football game if your team scores you go, ‘Yay!’ This was like, ‘Kill him!’ It was the closest thing to what I think it would have been like at the Roman Coliseum.

So it was like the Roman thumbs down?
Close to the thumbs down. I actually did get a bath with several other men just to get a sense of what it was like back then. But seriously, if you haven’t been, even if you’re not a boxing fan, go to one big-time match. It’s people from all different social strata. We’re talking rich people, poor people, people in the middle, and they all just go insane in a really scary way.

Like cheering when the bad guy gets blown up in a movie but with a real person?
Yeah, exactly! If they would’ve let the crowd into the ring to finish him off, they would have.

Well, it sounds like Got No Game is a fun show not only to watch but also to make.
Our goal is the 18-35 year-old male demographic. We want to get them to watch this just before they switch over to transvestiteporn.com.

Check out Got No Game with Paul Mecurio at hbo.com/gotnogame. New episodes premiere every Friday through Sept. 4. For more info on Paul, check out paulmecurio.com.

Video interview: Robert Hawkins

by Dylan P. Gadino

When I was in Aspen earlier this Summer for the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival, I got to chat with a lot of great comedians on camera. This one is near and dear to me, as it finds hilarious comedian Robert Hawkins and I sharing a quiet moment on a bench in a beautiful park. Listen closely and you’ll hear birds chirping. Robert lets us in on the new Ron White pilot he’s been working on for Comedy Central, his incredible mustache and much more.

You should also know that Robert has just released a brand spanking new album titled In Charge Around Here. You can get it free by visiting his official site roberthawkins.biz. For now, enjoy this video interview and share it with your friends.

Doug Benson: Unbalanced Load

by John Delery

Doug Benson doesn’t use vastly different building blocks than other comedians to create his jokes; he just plays with them better. You can’t help but applaud his 100-percent-natural mischievous delivery or laugh at a guy who’s having as much fun as Benson is onstage.

But then you hear Unbalanced Load, the title of Benson’s new CD, and you think, Whaaaaaa? Benson, the prankish “pro-weed professional humoredian,” is suddenly seditious, dangerous, maybe even Charles Manson-y. Naaah! The release from Comedy Central Records is impishly silly, exactly like its merry stoner creator.

The guy who sounds as if he’s always high goes as low as telling TWO knock-knock jokes during his 55-minute set — dare you not to cry laughing at them, even after repeated listens.

The aforementioned gags are part of an inventive premise: a monotone guide at Hoover Dam who harbors a secret desire to be a comedian. That’s just one highlight of the 15 tracks (well, 16, counting the not-so-hidden and gleeful bonus track). On two other meta-clever tracks about segues and hecklers, Benson basically and ingeniously whispers, “Psst! I’m poking fun at my profession. Don’t tell anybody,” another reason this is one of the best comedy CDs of 2009.

Purchase Unbalanced Load by clicking the graphic below.

Comedy Matters with Mitch Fatel, Finesse Mitchell, Kevin Spacey

by Jeffrey Gurian

TEN THINGS I LIKE ABOUT LARRY MILLER

In 1999, Touchstone Pictures released Ten Things I Hate About You starring among others, the late Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Gabrielle Union, and the great Larry Miller who played the strict Dad, Walter Stratford.

Ten years later, it’s hitting the small screen as a TV show, on the ABC Family Channel on Tuesday nights, with the same director, Gil Junger, but the only one of the cast that’s the same is Larry Miller. Larry is reprising the same role he played in the original film!

He came to town to prepare for promo appearances on both The View and Letterman, and of course showed up at his old home, The Comic Strip, to polish up his Letterman set.

Larry was one of the originals at The Strip and will be featured in both the book and documentary film we are doing on it’s almost 35 year history. Needless to say, (then why do I say it anyway?), he has his own way of doing things, and when he rehearses for a TV set he performs without a mike onstage.

I saw him do it at Stand-Up New York, and then I drove him over to The Strip where he did it again. He tells the audience he will be performing without a mike, in preparation for his TV appearance, and they seem to love him so much I don’t think they’d care if he did his act through two paper cups with a string tied between them.

He likens it to “swinging with two bats.” I know that’s probably a baseball reference that I just don’t get, but I didn’t ask him to elaborate for fear of looking like an idiot! I don’t know about sports, but I’m an expert on Schwartz! Wide World of Schwartz! My favorite show.

There’s a man at The Strip that doesn’t get enough attention; its JR Ravitz, the man behind the scenes, kind of like The Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. JR has been with The Strip for about 15 years, and was actually a performer himself until he went “behind the camera” and started running the club. Every so often he gets up on stage and does a bit, like a dramatic reading from The Yellow Pages.

Since legendary manager Lucien Hold passed away, JR has been helming the ship, booking the acts, and making sure everything goes smoothly, and somehow always manages to stay in a good mood. JR will also have a lot to say in both the book and documentary film.

GOTHAM HAPPENINGS

Gotham always keeps me busy with its exciting line-up. I hadn’t seen my old buddy Kevin Meaney in a while, so I was excited to see him at Tom Ingegno’s Omnipop Industry Showcase at Gotham. Kevin spent five years on Broadway doing Hairspray.

In his illustrious career, he has starred in his own HBO special, appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Saturday Night Live, Oprah, The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Meaney also starred on the CBS sitcom Uncle Buck and had a featured role in the movie Big.

Some of his catch phrases like “That’s not right” and “We’re going to lose the house” (delivered in the voice of his mother) are classics guaranteed to get big laughs.

Vinnie Brand was the MC and cracked me up by intro’ing Joe DeVito as the two-time winner of the Joe DeVito Award. Joe said Sonia Sotomayor is nothing like the Latinas he knows from The Bronx, otherwise her robe would be two sizes two small, and she’d have a red, white and blue tube top under it.

Comedian Helen Hong has come a long way. She wondered if there could be a less sexy name than Helen. She claims Asian parents give their daughters unusual old-style names, as evidenced by my gorgeous model friend Evelyn Liu. She hoped she did well at comedy so she didn’t feel she could have made more money giving Happy Endings at some Asian massage parlor.

And comedian Nore Davis doesn’t want to be a cop, because you can accidentally get shot by a co-worker. He notes, “You never see a garbage man accidentally throw away another garbage man!”

The concept of “throwing a person away” is hysterical and reminds me of the line I wrote for Brett Eidman’s show, “he was so useless, when he died they didn’t bury him. They just crumpled him up and threw him away!”

Comedian Buddy Fitzpatrick said his wife left him after 23 years just as he was morphing into Frank Purdue. (Great visual!) And Rodney Laney spoke of his home in The Poconos, and introduced himself as the first Black Pocononian ever seen.

DON’T MESS WITH FINESSE

Back at Gotham to see Finesse Mitchell, he told the audience it was a good time to mess with bill collectors. One called him up and said. “Mr. Mitchell, you’re six months behind on your mortgage and you owe $5,700. What do you intend to do about it?

Finesse answered, “Well I watch the news and I see that you’re $57 million dollars behind in your payments. What do YOU intend to do about it?”

Finesse is also a great actor and talked about girls being gullible, and not realizing when a guy isn’t good for them. He went into a character named Terrence meeting a girl named Keshia in a bar. When she asked him what he did for a living, and he told her he was a pirate, instead of running away, she said simply, “Oh really, do you have your own ship?”

ALEXANDRO THE GREAT

Anytime I can, I catch Ted Alexandro perform. Not only is he talented but he’s a special kind of guy, and very genuine. He headlined Gotham and had a great show. Buddy Fitzpatrick was a perfect host, and Veronica Mosey was also very funny.

Comedian Wali Collins found out that he’s responsible for his actions in his wife’s dreams. One day he woke up to find her yelling at him, “Why didn’t you save me when that pig monkey was chasing me?”

Ted was his usual low-key self on stage; it’s amazing to come across that relaxed. I don’t think I’m that relaxed when I’m asleep. Some of Ted’s most hilarious observations: Pirates are back and The Renaissance Fair people were all excited. Maybe we’re next M’lod.” Referencing Obama – Do you think that someday we’ll have a woman President? Or maybe a half woman?

“A woman would not declare war, they would declare the silent treatment,” he said. “Everyone listen, we are not speaking to Iraq.”

“George Bush is loved in some parts of America and hated all over the world. He’s kind of the exact opposite of David Hasselhoff.”

Ted should have his own show. (And he should bring me on as a writer!) In the meantime he did Letterman last Friday, which just proves that until you get your own show, you should do someone else’s.

Actually about a week later during Mitch Fatel’s show, Ted came up to rehearse his Letterman spot, in which he observed that not only is Obama our first Black Pres. but it’s the end of white Presidents forever, … cause you know what they say! Once you go black…”

I hadn’t seen Mitch Fatel in too long but he’s still one of my faves. Comic Gary Cannon from LA opened for him and his rapid-fire delivery and strong stage presence really pumped up the audience for Mitch.

Mitch uses a childlike innocence to cover every aspect of sexuality and sexual aberration, but he does it in such a way that you can’t be offended. It’s like a child bragging about himself. It starts when he opens with “I’m very talented. I like being talented cause lots of girls go out with me.”

He also says, “I know I’m famous, cause at the end of the show everyone says, “You’re really famous, come and smoke crack with us.” Another “Fatelism” – “Girls can have two different types of orgasms, and yet they still wanted the right to vote!” Mitch said he wanted to be in the Comic Strip book, and that made me very happy, and made me smile, because he’s very funny and very famous.

COMEDY MATTERS QUICKIES

Uncle Snappy “the man of many hats” who does the door at all of my special events showed up at Tavern on the Green at our Thursday night event, and surprised social impresario and creator of V&V energy drink Erik Von Broock with his hat that can only be described as a small sombrero.

Wendy Diamond, publisher of Animal Fair Magazine who has produced several comedy events with stars like Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Mario Cantone, Richard Belzer and Jeffrey Ross to raise money for the proper treatment of animals, came out to play one night and hit the comedy circuit with me.

Nick Loeb is running for the Senate in Florida and had a big fundraiser at his Dad’s home in Manhattan. He also received a glowing recommendation from our past mayor Rudy Giuliani which is on his site at nickloeb.com.

Nick’s Dad just happens to be John Loeb, Jr. the ex-ambassador to Denmark, and it was a great event. His Dad asked me if I would make Nick’s speeches funnier, because he realized that sometimes you can make a point using comedy, often more effectively than by being serious. So if Nick reads this and he asks me, I’d be happy to do it! (As long as he promises to introduce me to his wife Anna!)

I don’t know much about politics, I just know we need some real people working for us, and someone with a sense of style and humor, and that’s Nick.

WHEN IN ROME

Rome Kanda is a great comic who just happens to be Japanese. I know that for a fact because an entire crew of Japanese TV people flew over from Japan, and came to my apartment once to film Rome and I talking about comedy for a big Japanese TV show.

They were so polite they brought me food, and presents and everyone was bowing to each other. It was so crowded that two of the men were actually injured in a bowing accident! The trick is, you must make sure to leave enough room between you and the other person when you bow.

Rome also happens to be the first Asian host of an American game show. It’s called I Survived A Japanese Game Show, and it’s so successful it’s in its second season. Watch it Tuesday nights at 9 P.M. on ABC.

THE UNSEEN ARE SEEN

I’ve written about The Unseen before. The Unseen is a two-man mentalist/magic act and the two men are Oz Pearlman and Ken Salaz. They had a sold-out show at Gotham where they did things I had never seen before. They hit a balloon out into the audience, that got knocked around and was caught by a random audience member. Inside the balloon was a paper with information written on it that pertained to the person that caught the balloon. Just incredible stuff.

Shortly after, we wound up at a lunch at Michaels with theatrical and film producers Beverly Camhe, Patty Watt, and Jamie Cesa, and at the next table was Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb from NBC.

Unable to contain my enthusiasm, I brought Ken over to the table to show Kathie Lee and Hoda some amazing things, which he did. Not wanting to stay too long while they were eating, we went back to our table, and shortly after Kathie Lee approached.

It was so cute. She was like a shy, sweet little girl and she asked if she could ask me a question. She said Ken had left a playing card on her table, and she was holding it against her chest so no one could see it. She asked if Ken could tell her which one it was. She was testing him. I don’t know about Ken, but I was nervous for him.

He asked her to think of the card in her mind, and then calmly told her she was holding the ten of clubs. She was. Amazing!

NEW YORK COMEDY CONTEST

Jim McCue of Boston Comedy Festival fame was in New York holding a contest to find new hot comics for his festival and he asked me to be one of the judges in the semi-finals and finals. I was happy to do it because I slept one night many years ago, and have not felt the need to do that since.

The finals were held at Cal Wynter’s Green Room at the Theaters at 45 Bleecker Street, where both Mike Birbiglia and Marc Maron have been running their shows. The great Judy Gold came and opened the show.

Jim McCue is a very funny guy, who actually made me laugh out loud which is not an easy thing to do. Speaking of skin cancer, which is not ordinarily funny, he said it’s prevalent in pale people with red hair, and freckles, and he wondered, “ Why don’t they just say Irish people?” nick-naming himself Jim McMelanoma.

He explained that he was 6’6”, and at that height sun block is more expensive than chemotherapy! I also got to see three great new comics like Joe List: A girl said to him, “Would you still have sex with me if I gained 300 pounds?” And he said, “I don’t even know if it’s possible to have sex with a girl who weighed 600 pounds!”

Josh Homer : “I’m half White and half Black which is why I look Dominican.” He’s married to an Indian girl whose father said to Josh, “If you marry my daughter we will throw a huge party to show people we are not embarrassed.”

Myq Kaplan: (he won the contest): Have you ever had a conversation with someone who’s not too smart and they check with you on facts you don’t have? “So I was banging this chick, … right?” “ I don’t know. Probably not!”

BONDING WITH MATTHEW MODINE

Matthew Modine is known for involving himself with humanitarian causes, so it was no real surprise to run into him at a Paper Magazine party to raise money for a school in India. He has a long filmography, including several comedies, and he and I had a synchronicitous connection that he wasn’t aware of. Just after I co-wrote the film Face to Face with actor Scott Baio, Matthew made the movie Very Mean Men also with Scott Baio, and a host of other stars like Martin Landau, and Charles Durning. I was out in LA with Scott and we attended the premiere for Very Mean Men, and the after party at Planet Hollywood. Both films got great reviews.

Unfortunately, neither film ever got released in this country or got any kind of distribution due to a strange decision by one of the producers. It was a tremendous disappointment to all the people who had worked so hard on both films. Years later, Matthew and I got to both commiserate, and laugh about it, all thanks to Paper Magazine!

KEVIN SPACE AND ROBIN WILLIAMS IN SHRINK

In the new movie Shrink, Kevin Spacey plays Henry Carter, a spaced out psychiatrist who smokes dope 24/7 to deal with his wife’s suicide. One of his patients is a guy named Holden, played by Robin Williams, who for some reason I did not see credited either at the end of the film, or in the production notes where the cast was listed. I’m sure there’s a story behind that.

Anyone who’s ever been in Robin’s company knows he’s always “on,” so I asked Kevin what it was like to work with Robin. Robin plays a character who has a lot of problems, among them a desire to cheat on his wife, and Kevin has to call him on his B.S., which Robin tries to parry with jokes, until he finally crumbles.

Kevin said there was lots of improvising with the script, and Robin was going off, as is his custom, but to his credit he let Kevin stop him, and reel him in. Kevin said he respected Robin for that, as his character realized that all his joking around wouldn’t help him in the end. A valuable lesson for many comics! I got to remind Kevin when we used to hang out at Columbus Café hundreds of years ago, when he was famous for playing a character named Mel Proffit in the show Wiseguy starring Ken Wahl, another old friend I haven’t seen in many years.

I brought a card with me that had yellowed with age, on which Kevin had written his manager’s name and his agent’s name, and I asked him if he knew what happened to both of those women. They still rep him after all these years. Kevin Spacey is a loyal guy!

Anyway, until next time, remember … COMEDY MATTERS!!!

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