Though he's been credited behind the scenes as a writer for The Late Show, Late Night, and The Dana Carvey Show (which was fantastic), these days most people have heard or seen Louis CK behind a microphone or acting on tv.
And although he comes in at #2 on my personal list (who gives a shit about lists?) CK could quite easily be the best standup on the planet right now if only because he's quite frankly the ballsiest. His formula is to just get in front of an audience and spill his pathetic guts out in the form of jokes, even if it means alienating the people closest to him. He says the things you won't even admit to acknowledging about life.
Here's one of his more famous appearances on Conan in October 2008.
Because not all good stand up can be based on politics, religion, and an overall dark world outlook.
Patton Oswalt continues to be comedy's King of the Nerds. Though he does incorporate some atheism into his act, most of his bits are derived by applying his nerdy D&D playing, Star Wars obsessive, english major's perspective to pop culture topics. He earns additional credit in my book for willingly including inside stories about his acting career into his material, which is rare for comedians with lucrative side careers to do. Both of his last two albums, Werewolves and Lollipops (2007) and My Weakness is Strong (2009) have spent time at #1 on the US Comedy chart, though admittedly I have no idea whether or not that's even difficult. Let's assume it is.
Here's Patton explaining the noble thing he'd do if given access to a time machine.
Throughout the entire tenure of Conan O'Brien's Late Night, Marc Maron appeared as a guest 44 times, and I can't think of a time he wasn't funny. Of course, on the east coast that meant you could only have seen him after 1am, or else waited until a few years later when youtube was invented. So you may have missed him, but it's not your fault. Unlike most mainstream comedians, Maron hasn't done any television or movie writing or acting in a very long time. His non late-night guest appearances are limited to a brief stint as host of Comedy Central's Short Attention Span Theater in the early 90s and a 2002 run as host of the VH1 game show Never Mind the Buzzcocks that literally lasted for 1 month. Lately he's been associated with a few podcasts and radio shows in the Air America Radio family.
The reason I think Maron's success as a comedian is limited to stand up appearances and other spoken word formats is that he seems to be funny only as a product of a seriously skewed world view and depression. I don't mean to say he doesn't write jokes, just that the jokes he writes need to be explained and are only funny in the correct contexts, which for him are best explained and explored straight on as stand up comedy instead of re-interpreted as sketches or plots. As a result, you'll hear him say "hear me out" at least once a set, as he strings the audience through his thought process. Like David Cross his topics tend to skew toward the religious or political, but only because he finds a way to see a tongue-in-cheek "conspiracy" in all of the forces that act on his life. He's highly funny and grossly underrated as a comedian, but I understand why. Any one of his 3 CDs is absolutely worth checking out.
Here's a 2001 appearance on Late Night in which Maron is disappointed with modern technology and also somehow offends Adam Sandler fans everywhere.
David Cross is a master of sarcasm, but what sets him apart from other comedians is his perspective. He grew up in the south, outside of Atlanta. You wouldn't know it by looking at him or listening to him, but his experience there was certainly atypical and often finds its way into his act. He's jewish for one, but only by birth. His religion is actually atheism which is probably the more outlandish of the two given where he grew up. Then there's the open letter to Larry the Cable Guy, and the super liberalism he can't help but bring out in his bits.
Cross would be higher in the Top 5 if he did more stand-up work, but he hasn't recorded any original material since 2004. To his credit, that's mostly because he's being doing more lucrative work, as his writing and acting are both top notch as well. You'll remember him as Tobias in Arrested Development or in various roles on HBOs Mr.Show. His stand up is pretty NSFW, and his topics are mostly political or religious. So when I set out to find an example of his funnier stand up work, I tried to avoid all three. I failed, but this is still funny.
So here's David discussing heaven at his most recent appearance in his hometown of Atlanta.
Score a point for the good guys in the battle for a decent vampire movie. Daybreakers is fantastic. If you liked the first two Blade movies, you'll like this.
....for Cisco By now you've surely seen Ellen Page shilling for Cisco in a series of television commercials. It begs the simple question, why?
I've got nothing against Cisco, and I've certainly got nothing against Juno, but its not often celebrities whose careers are aimed in the positive trajectory who are the ones selling out, right? Especially not for products which have little or nothing to do with the celebrity's established on-screen personae.
Speaking of Aziz, you may have also noticed over the weekend that Comedy Central was running a marathon of his sketch comedy show Human Giant, which recently completed its second season on MTV. It was a nice opportunity to catch up on this hilarious and underrated show which may not run for a third season because of Ansari's other commitments. Human Giant consists primarily of writer/actors Aziz Ansari, Rob Heubel, and Paul Scheer, but always features well known guest comedians like Will Arnett, Patton Oswalt, Tracy Morgan, Bill Hader, David Cross, and Cubsicle favorite Andy Samberg. The show's comedic perspective skews slightly toward the dark and cynical, making it stand out from other, more well known sketch comedy shows.
Check out their YOUTUBE PAGE for a wide variety of their work.
Parks and Recreationsuperstar Aziz Ansari has been funny for a long time, but is just now starting to get the attention he deserves.
Over the weekend, Aziz moved into a top 5 spot on my favorite comedian list with his Comedy Central Special Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening, which will air again uncut tonight at 1am or censored this Friday at 8pm. It's definitely worth watching or at least recording. It is 2010, people just record stuff now, right? Anyway, if you're wondering what to expect from an Aziz Ansari stand-up hour, his comedy is basically a dirtier Tommy Haverford.
I can't link his whole performance, but HERE is Aziz performing some of the material on Conan.
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass In my mind, Ok Go will forever be the champions of the music video league. Case in point, their latest video for "This Too Shall Pass," from their new album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. This one was supposedly filmed live and features the Notre Dame marching band. Check it out HERE.
I learned a new phrase this week while listening to sports talk radio. "The Irish Goodbye." From urban dictionary:
irish goodbye: leaving the bar or anywhere for that matter, without closing niceties, like a kiss goodbye to that annoying girl or mentioning something to your friends
So the existence of this phrase must mean it's a completely acceptable form of leaving, right? RIGHT?!?!
Other notes: This blog will probably pull an Irish goodbye if I get the promotion I'm interviewing for tomorrow. Also, if I ever start a band I think you know what I'm going to call it.
Rarely are compilation albums worthy of having for casual fans of a certain band who aren't avid collectors or just want to hear "the hits." Nobody got into The Beatles by listening to Past Masters. But in rare cases, a compilation can be the perfect starter kit. For example, I present Exhibit A:
Oasis - The Masterplan
1998's The Masterplan contains material that Oasis considered b-side but would have made worthy A material for most other bands. They were just hitting their stride in America at the time and figured they could lucratively put out an album of songs that could previously have only been obtained by import. It ended up going platinum in the UK (no surprise) and reached #51 on US charts. For anyone who enjoyed "Wonderwall" but doesn't know a lot about Oasis, I'd recommend The Masterplan.
B-Side entry:As a 7th grader in 1998 my Music Class was actually pretty cool. Every class we'd listen to snippets of popular music from all time periods and have "bonus quizzes." For an essay we had to write about a band and "tell their story." I chose Oasis having just received The Masterplan for Christmas and having been unable to stop listening to it. I had no idea it was a b-sides album, and I was thrilled that it included a cover of "I Am the Walrus."
The Green Day documentary The Only Rhyme That Bites, which sat in my Blockbuster queue for over a year as "unavailable," was finally delivered about a week before Christmas. Up until that point I had no idea what it was. I had no idea what the title was alluding to because it's not a lyric or a Green Day song title, but the dvd was described the same way at a bunch of trusted websites:
Green Day: The Only Rhyme That Bites documents the history of the rock band. Charting their progress from one of the many bands that were part of the San Francisco punk scene of the early nineties, to their breakthrough album Dookie, to their worldwide success with the punk opera American Idiot, the movie offers never before seen footage of the band.
As a fan of Green Day, I thought "hey, why not? It's got never before seen footage." So as I fired up the dvd you can imagine my concern when the first image was that of words saying "This documentary is unauthorized. No licensed Green Day music is contained herein." Fantastic. A Green Day documentary without any Green Day in it. I gave it a chance anyway, for about 15 minutes. At one point the focus shifted to a hard hitting interview with the drummer's mailman, and one of the more lengthy interviews involves a kid in the back seat of a cab who is billed as "US Green Day fan."
Next time I'll do a little more homework. Now I know why it took so long to come. It's probably Blockbuster's only copy.
Here are the best video games of 2009, as played by me. Once again the format is best to worst. 1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 2. NHL 2010 3. Batman: Arkham Asylum 4. Left 4 Dead 2 5. Beatles: Rock Band
The list has changed ever so slightly since my Summer Movie Roundup, so here they are, best to worst: 1. Inglorious Basterds 2. The Hangover 3. Fantastic Mr. Fox 4. District 9 5. Star Trek
Honorable Mention: Watchmen, Taken, Sherlock Holmes
