Two Comedy Reviews: Paul Conyers and Tony B

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2019

Images from the Internet

What follows are two comedy digital releases. The opening bits of both comedians are linked below both reviews.

Tony B

Day Drinker

Uproar Entertainment

www.uproarcomedycd.com

www.facebook.com/UproarComedy

Tony B is a self-professed 38-year-old half-Italian, half-Persian. His specialty seems to be discussing bar culture and its denizens. It is not all that this release is about, but enough of it that it could have alternatively been titled just that.

Day drinking…I can’t relate. I have hung out at bars to hear live music, but even then, well, nah, which made it a bit difficult for me to identify and get those a-ha moments. As a comedian, of course, who would perform in comedy clubs across the US, Tony would be more familiar with the environs. And at least the first half of the album is about just that.

Even other topics are viewed through this lens, and some of it is actually quite accurate (from what I understand). While it doesn’t pander to that audience, it certainly acknowledges it. For example, when he talks about aging, he weighs in on choosing either food or women.

This leads to the most solid section of this half, where Tony posits the attitudes of women over 30 out with friends vs. their social media content, and wiped-out married men in the same situation. This was both funny and pithy at the same time, as he presents some personal examples that he has seen, including while telling these very jokes.

When he breaks out of the barroom for a few minutes, he talks about why he loves dogs over kids, which may make you smile. Though when he told a story that substituted the term “Mildred” over the f-word/gay slur, which he seemed to like even though it was directed at him, I understood what he meant, but wasn’t impressed.

Other topics did, however, touch the a-ha funny bone, such as discussing the infamously Trump-level University of Phoenix, and especially his piece about the attitudes of cabbies and Ubers (not that it matters, but I still use cabs; keep the money local, I say). Amusingly enough, this brings us back to the bar culture tale of Tony getting a DUI in college, a story reminiscent of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” soliloquy.

Overall, the tone of the release is adult without being vulgar (I can’t recall a single cuss word). I did enjoy it. And appreciating the bar culture? Must be nice.

Paul Conyers

Above the Fray

Uproar Entertainment

www.uproarcomedycd.com

www.facebook.com/UproarComedy

Paul Conyers announces right off the bat that he’s 6’7” tall. Man, that’s a Joey Ramone-level of height. And this has nuthin’ ta do with nuthin’, but he was born in 1985, ten years after the first time I saw the Ramones play. A coincidence? Irrelevant, yes, I know.

Paul’s shtick (not the Biblical Paul) is to jump on PC terms and twist them around, playing with them like a cat with a toy. Be it short people (“anyone under 5’11’’, he jokes), Feminism and gender politics, woke culture, or veganism, these are just some of the topics just towards the beginning bits.

Whether you are offended by the poking or not, know that this is more jab in the ribs than lambasting, in most cases. He tends to touch on the topics rather than hounding them for any extended length of time. He doesn’t go too deep on any subject, but grazes over them like a surfer shooting the tube.

From the Bay area, Paul likes to tell a lot of stories about places, such as California and strip clubs (discussing “tits” – his word – that can-and-did break a man’s nose), but he also discusses  family, such as his sister and fiancé.

Paul relies a bit too much on non-PC language just for the shock value. He’s not like a shock-jock, but he does not hesitate to use words that have, over time, become dog whistles for the Right, and trigger words for the Left. Do I think he’s Right leaning? No, I genuinely believe he is just trying to get a laugh and a reaction. Despite that, he doesn’t rise (fall?) to the level of a Sam Kinison or Andrew Dice Clay, though there is that touch of using uncomfortable words and ideas that are meant to trigger.

What I like most about Paul is that he tells stories and describes events, and builds his jokes from those, rather than just relying on negative one-liners. I definitely got a few laughs out of this collection.

DAVE STREET’s in the Wild [1981]

Text by Nancy Foster / FFanzeen fanzine, 1981

Introduction © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen blog, 2017

Images from the Internet

This interview was originally printed in FFanzeen, issue #7, dated 1981. It was written by a Nancy Foster, whose Facebook page is kurrently Kandy Kabot.

Dave Street is an odd duck, and I say that with affection. Sure he was a New York-based punk rock stand-up comic back in the day, but he was also a fan and hung out with some of the illuminous stars in the scene. When this interview occurred, it was while he was working at Natasha’s Clothing Store on St. Mark’s Place when it was still cool. This is an insider’s story about hanging out on the scene.

In the period after the interview, he would go on to appear on Uncle Floyd and The Joe Franklin Show and write songs with Bobby Steele and the Undead which still continues. Lately, he works on environmental projects, and is in the process of making a horror film titled Monster Bizzness. Along with other not-for-profit causes such as programs for teenagers in homeless shelters and detention centers, he still writes and performs at various events. – RBF, 2017

FFanzeen: What was the most memorable thing about your writing period?

Dave Street: Trying to get paid as a freelance writer. That is why I ended up working in the store [Natasha; 1 St. Mark’s Place, NYC – RBF, 1981]. You don’t get paid when you write freelance. Also, interviewing Frank Zappa and trying to avoid the Editor-in- Chief…

FFanzeen: After that, you didn’t really want to be connected with writing anymore – you wanted to be involved with something else, like acting?

Dave: I had a punk acting company. We were called Robot Factory. That was before I was funny. That was when I was still negative and violent. We used to go onstage and give people cancer.

FFanzeen: Where did you do your act?

Dave: Our big thing was that we went onstage before the Dead Boys and the Cramps in Hollywood, on the closing night of the Masque (Club).

FFanzeen: When did you first start doing comedy? Did you tell jokes in school? Were you like a class clown?

Dave: No, actually, I’ve led a very painful life, to the point where I was either going to hang it up, literally, or start laughing at myself. I was forced to become a comedian just to be able to deal with my own miserable existence. Sniff, sniff, whine, whine.

FFanzeen: Oh, that’s one of those lines like, “Live been asexual for 5 years!”

Dave: I have. No, that really is the truth. At different points I have hated myself, my parents, my family, my employers and everybody else in the world. Not wanting to be a hateful person, the only alternative I had to hating was laughing. This is a very sombre conversation.

FFanzeen: Who are some of your favorite comedians?

Dave: Lenny Bruce, Bill Cosby, Bob Hope, Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory, Groucho Marx. I’m sure I forgot a few of them, but those are my main ones. Bob Newhart. Yeah, those are my main comical influences. I listened to a lot of old stand-up comedy albums from the ‘50s and ‘60s.

FFanzeen: Do you listen to comedy albums more than you listen to rock’n’roll?

Dave: Now I do, but I used to always listen to rock’n’roll. I’ve only started listening to comedy albums over the last year. It took me about half a year just to get a collection. One thing that is interesting about collecting comedy records is that the comedy records that you can learn much from, like the most radical comedians who are the most against the system, their records cost more than anybody else’s to buy.

FFanzeen: Like who, for instance?

Dave: Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory, Lenny Bruce – their albums cost about $30. But you find a Marx Brothers album and it’ll cost you about $5.

FFanzeen: Do you think that Lenny Bruce was killed? Some people think he was given a hot shot.

Dave: Yeah, they killed him because he was a junkie.

FFanzeen: You get any ideas for routines from living with your boss?

Dave: I sure do! It is a super real reality. What could be the epitome of the worst possible working relationship than living with your boss?! Especially if you want to do something else with your life. It’s depressing and depression makes me funny. Of course, if I wasn’t depressed all the time, I wouldn’t have to be funny. This not just living with my boss; it’s living with and simultaneously trying to avoid…

FFanzeen: When and where was the first time you did your comedy act?

Dave: Before I did my comedy act, I did a one-man show last Fall at Hurrah’s called I am the Center of the Universe. This was an extension of what I had done with the punk acting company. It was like a violent confrontation of self and the whole “Me! Me! Me!” ego of the 70s.

FFanzeen: Did you abuse the audience?

Dave: Yeah. A writer from the New York Post asked me, wouldn’t everybody else and I be happier if I made people laugh with the same energy instead of trying to project my own unhappiness onto the audience and trying to make them as unhappy as I was? …Anyway, I started to think about it and started writing stand-up routines. A month later, I did my first gig at 5 AM at Studio Zero.

FFanzeen: What was the audience’s reaction when you first started this?

Dave: It was like, “Who do you think you are?!” The audience reaction was like one big beer bottle thrown at me.

FFanzeen: Does that mean they like you?

Dave: That means I got a reaction from them anyway, which is better than having them walk away. No one walked away, but a lot of people were antagonized. A lot of people didn’t think what I was saying was funny. They thought it was insulting. A lot of people who share the same pain as I do wanted to laugh at it. But there are others that don’t want to be reminded of it at all. So when I make jokes about it, their attitude is, “I don’t want to hear about that!” The funny thing is that they have that attitude until they meet me. People who threw bottles at me would come in the store with a friend and say, “Hey! I’m the guy who threw the beer bottle at you last week.” And I’d say, “Gee! Thanks! Why’d you do that.” And they’d say that they didn’t agree with what I was saying, but added, “Now that I know you, I’m doing to laugh and I’m going to beat up anyone who does throw a beer bottle!” Note the fact that they still might not agree with me, but the fact that they don’t agree with me has nothing to do with it anymore because they know who I am!

FFanzeen: So, what does that have to do with anything? That you should make friends with the audience so you won’t get killed?

Dave: It shows that the solution is to perform less and throw more parties. I should throw a party before every performance so that everyone knows me. Then, by the time I go on, the whole audience will like me.

FFanzeen: Who was the comedian who opened for the Rockats at the Rock Lounge?

Dave: I don’t talk about other comedians. It is against my principles to talk about anybody who is not helping my career. The only comedian who is helping my career is Tessie Chua, whose movie I am in. I’ve done a film called The Scary Truth About Roaches and Landlords [could not find any reference to the film – RBF 2017], in which I play a deranged tenant, in case you haven’t seen it. It was at the Mudd Club [d. 1983 – RBF, 2017]. Steve Mass [Mudd Club’s owner – RBF, 1981] plays the landlord. He’s one of the main characters. In my scene, I play off Steve Mass. I, of course, have always had a lot of arrogance towards the very premise of the Mudd Club’s existence, so I had a lot of fun working with Steve. I felt a lot of natural hostility in a friendly way [hunh? – NF, 1981] that kind of made it work.

FFanzeen: A love/hate relationship?

Dave: Yeah, it’s like knowing I belong there, but being opposed to being there ideologically [hunh? – NF, 1981]. I am opposed to the fact that there’s someone at the door telling people that they can’t come in [I agreed then and now – RBF, 2017].

FFanzeen: That’s not happening now. They are courting the non-hipsters now, dahling.

Dave: They didn’t let me in last week. I work so hard – 10 hours of the day, every day of the week – and I’m usually too tired to go out at night. But I went there after not being out for about four months, and the doorman didn’t believe that I was Dave Street; so, he didn’t let me in – not because he didn’t know who Dave Street was, but because he thought I was using Dave Street’s name to try and get into the Mudd Club free.

FFanzeen: You should have said you were Gloria Vanderbilt! Oh, I heard that you had a little confrontation with Deborah Harry at the Mudd Club.

Dave: I wish I had. I don’t think I have achieved that world importance yet.

FFanzeen: Tell me about the David Johansen film, Thau in Love [never officially released – RBF, 2017].

Dave: I’m in two brief shots. I might be on the screen two minutes if I’m lucky. But I had a lot of fun working with David. I think David is brilliant at setting up the premise of action – the way he assembled people and set up situations really make it work well.

FFanzeen: Did he write the script, or is he just directing?

Dave: Yeah, he wrote it. I don’t know about other people’s roles, but my script was somewhat improvised – not the storyline, but the actual verbal interaction was partially ad-libbed. I’m in a short shot where I play myself. I come into Marty Thau’s [Red Star Records – RBF, 1981; d. 2014 – RBF, 2017] office. I tell him obnoxious jokes and he blows smoke in my face. In the next scene, I’m a go-go boy.

FFanzeen: What do you wear as a go-go boy?

Dave: I just dressed as a regular person. I just danced funny. As a result of that, I’m working on a whole routine about dancing funny, and I’m in Clem Burke’s video of the Colors, doing the same thing.

FFanzeen: So, you’re broadening your career options? How did you get connected with Johansen?

Dave: He called me up at the store. I do an impersonation of David, too. I do a “Pray-Tell Records” ad which pokes fun at the commercialization of New Wave songs: “Twelve of the greatest unoriginal New Wave hits!” I do David Jo’s grandson doing, “Punky But Weak” [mocking a soulful yet spiritually wracked voice]: “I got a black eye that somebody gave me / When I got into a fight and nobody would save me / I’m punky, punky but weak…” I do that in the film, too, but I might be cut. One never knows what’s going to happen in the editing room. We all know the politics of film are often more important than the actual performances. You can do a great performance and the editor might not like you for personal reasons.

FFanzeen: Do you do spoofs on other rock’n’roll people?

Dave: I do funny marriages. Like if Rachel Sweet married Nick Lowe, she’d be Rachel Sweet’n Lowe. In which case, the FCC would probably find out that listening to her music causes cancer and all her records would have to be taken off the shelves. If Bette Midler married Eddie Money, she’d be Bette Money, but don’t bet your life and never bet more than you can avoid paying back. If Cherry Vanilla married Iggy Pop, she’d be Cherry Pop.

FFanzeen: Yum-yum.

Dave: Fizz, fizz. We completed that routine, anyway.

FFanzeen: Would you ever be part of a comedy duo?

Dave: Occasionally I do do things like that with other people that I can play off of; I’m working on a film script right now with some young people, including Rip Torn’s daughter, Angelica Torn [known as Angelica Page after 2010 – RBF, 2017], and her boyfriend, Joe Witty. It’s going to be a rock’n’roll East Side Kids sort of comedy. It should be about a one hour video.

FFanzeen: When did you get connected with the local rock’n’roll scene?

Dave: I was still living in New Jersey in 1975 [as he does now – RBF, 2017], but I was coming to see the Ramones from the first week they played [1974 – RBF, 2017]. I was hanging out in the scene from the very beginning. I was coming to see the Dolls in the glitter days. I was going to see the Mothers [of Invention] when they were cool, back in 1965. I’m 30 years old and I’ve been coming to New York City since I was 14, seeing these 35 year old guys hanging out in rock’n’roll clubs talking to pretty girls and I said, now I know what I want to do when I’m 35! I don’t want to be a doctor, I don’t want to be a lawyer; I want to hang out in rock’n’roll clubs and talk to pretty girls!

FFanzeen: Do you get a lot of disco-babies coming into the store?

Dave: I sell the exact same clothes to disco people as I sell to punks. Disco people say, “I want these clothes so nobody will say, I’m punk,” and the punks say, “I want these clothes so nobody will say I’m disco.”

FFanzeen: What do you like to do for fun when you’re away from the store?

Dave: I’m not allowed to have fun.

FFanzeen: What about when the two go-go girls came in the store and raped you?

Dave: They broke my year-long asexuality. I said I had sex with them; I didn’t say I had fun with them. I felt an obligation to give in, but I didn’t feel any obligation to have fun. When I get drunk and insult people at the Mudd Club is the only time I ever have fun.

Women of Comedy: My Jokes are Up Here! Tour, Broadway Theatre, Saskatoon: March 7, 2016

Text and photos (c) Robert Barry Francos

The  day after the show, March 8, would be International Women's Day, so the My Jokes are Up Here tour that features three Canadian comics put on a fundraiser show for the local YWCA Saskatoon (where I work): Christina Walkinshaw, Jen Grant, and Erica Sigurdson.

I've been a fan of stand-up for as long as I can remember. It may have started when someone gave me the early Jackie Mason I'm The Greatest Comedian In The World Only Nobody Knows It Yet album, or perhaps it was George Carlin's infamous groundbreaking AM and; FM. Then again, it could have been my very early (5 years old) crush on Shari Lewis. Who knows, but I've enjoyed the art form for nearly as long as I can remember. Funny thing is, I haven't seen much of it from an audience, but lots on television, Netflix, and rentals.

The women this night were on fire, and I'm sure it was not just because they were recording it for an album. I may be on it indirectly, as they mentioned "the guy taking photographs." I didn't use a flash, as I know that can be distracting, so the pix tend to be a bit on the fuzzy side; at the end of the show, though, they all posed for me, and I'm proud of that one (at the very bottom here, and yes I used a flash on that one).

Yeah, they were hilarious, and it was a great night.

Christina Walkinshaw

Jen Grant

Erica Sigurdson

Final bows

Posing for my camera

CD Review: Gallagher: I Am Who I Pretend to Be

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2014
Images from the Internet

 

Gallagher: I Am Who I Pretend to Be
Produced by David Drozen
Uproar Entertainment
70 minutes, 2014
www.uproarcomedycd.com   
www.mvdvisual.com

In case you are wondering who (Leo) Gallagher is, I don’t think it would be an understatement to say he was as influential in the stand-up world as Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and Robin Williams. Arguably, you could even add George Carlin. Was he as funny as them? Well, that’s a matter of the style of humor you enjoy, but it was Gallagher that almost single-handedly brought the stand-up series of specials to cable television, 14 shows over the years that had millions of viewers each. Some say the existence of the Comedy Channel in some part was created due to Gallagher’s on-air popularity.

I have to say, I found him extremely funny. I viewed probably about 5 of those specials, and saw him a number of times on the likes of Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show. He was outrageous without being overly shocking (profanity is in his cable shows, but not his mainstream presentations). He had a unique style, using his own creative props that were inventive on the level of engineering, and unlike some other prop comics like, say, Carrot Top, Gallagher was not manic (though he screamed a lot) and was actually enjoyable.

From North Carolina, he had a bit of a twang and a unique way of phrasing things, often using some colloquialisms, such as saying “them people.” Considering how much of the use of language a key part of his act is, I’m not sure if this was an in-bred way of patter, or was part of his stage persona. I don’t ever remember seeing him talk off the stage.

The reason I use past tense in this piece is because this show is part of Gallagher’s retirement tour. After serious health issues, he has decided to professionally call it quits.

When the CD starts, honestly, it doesn’t sound like him. He has a particular way to talking and it takes a while before I can “recognize” his voice. But that’s okay. I also wondered about a vocal-only recording, because he usually is quite visual, including using a sledge hammer on a watermelon (yeah, that’s the guy). That is probably why he has all these television shows and only one other vocal recording from the beginning of his career.

One of the things that appeals to me about Gallagher is the way he has a slight twisted way of looking at life that seems to make sense until you really think about it. For example, he often posits (including here) that they ought to give deaf people houses by the airport. Or that that they should make Jehovah Witnesses mail carriers because they’re going to come to your door anyway (not included). Illogical logic?

In the hour-plus of this CD, I did notice something that I had not realized before, but has been a consistent theme of his act, and that is he promotes cultural gender-normative stereotypes. Sort of a “You know what you guys do?” “You know what you ‘girls’ do?” Then comes out the controlling image of women who love to go shopping, and men who are slackers around the house who don’t do much tidying, and how both drive each other crazy. He’s been focusing in on these for thirty years now, and honestly, the timer is up on it. It’s a dated notion that is okay to acknowledge that times have changed. More men work around the house, and more women are in the workforce. That being said, I thought the line about a version of Playboy for married men that has the same centerfold model in each issue was pretty funny. Okay, I’m done with that cultural rant.

Gallagher has always been a bit of an American jingoist, but tends not to be overly obnoxious about it, like Ted Nugent, for example. He loves “Amurrka” (as he pronounces it) and hates to see foreign interests changing the landscape, as it were. Is his material racist? Well, there is definitely singling out some cultures, such as Mexicanos, but it’s not nasty any more than his pointing out gender norms. I did cringe, however, the one time when he used the expression “that is so gay.”

Once you get beyond those, and he finally gets fired up, as he does here, his two strong suits come out. The first one is pointing out the sheer ridiculousness of our culture, and how we look at things. He would make a powerful General Semanticist. It could be how we may be viewed by aliens (stating how from space telescopes we have to look up to the stars find any kind of intelligence, rather than back at Earth), weirdness about how people view the Bible, and how crazy is our justice system. His analysis using a spork (spoon-fork a la KFC) as a springboard is quite smart.

Then his second strong point comes out that is my favorite, which is Carlin-esque in how he points out the randomness of grammar and language. In this particular case he looks at the “enemy” of the English language, the French, and how their mother tongue has influenced us in nearly a poetic rant.

The bonus track, “Words of Wisdom,” is a bit I’ve heard before, and in fact there is a smattering of repeating here and there (this is true of many comics, including Robin Williams, with his Mr. Happy bits).

Yeah, he’s still sharp and witty, and considering his heart situation, he’s definitely still Gallagher. That’s something that’s worth a listen.

 

Bonus video from the ‘80s (unrelated to this CD):

 

Two Comedy CDs: Andrew Norelli and Keith Lowell Jensen

Text © Robert Barry Francos
Images from the Internet

Andrew Norelli
Cut Above Stupid
Uproar Entertainment, 2011
Uproarcodmedycd.com

Andrew Norelli, I would like to point out at the top of this review, was the winner of the 2010 World Series of Comedy, in Las Vegas.

I get the feeling that the title of this release does not seem as much self-depreciative as the way he views the world. But it’s this observational direction that makes him so humorous.

His formula is based on a simple set of principles: the topic, the person saying it, and the verbalized thought bubble of what he would like to say, or thinking. From that simple method, he brings to light the ridiculousness of the world around us, sometimes with a “are you kidding me?” feel, and other times as a smart ass.

For example, he discusses Lady Gaga, not for her music as much the shock value of her fashion in the cutlure, or more acturately the question of why it is such as big deal. He points out that she’s a pop star, so of course she does this, it’s expected in the field; now if she dressed like that as a real estate agent, that would be something else.

At another point he talks about a friend who is covered in tattoos, who claims it’s addicting. Norelli points out that considering some of the other vices in his life, it’s obvious that self-control is issue rather than dependence.

One of my favorite comments is when he asked the nerds to please stop updating the technology because he keeps falling behind. The way puts it is make makes it a gem, of course.

Of course, there is more about gays and grass, how banning marriage is not going to stop homosexuality and how people use medical reasons as an excuse to get the weed.

I am trying to not step on his material because there is so much of it that is quoteable that it would be an easy thing to do. Okay, I’m going to relate one of his punchlines, so if you wish, skip the rest of his paragraph, and my apologies to Andrew, but I liked this direction that much: in the final bit he wonders how Afgahnistan can be the number one producer of heroin and not have one decent band. He goes on further giving a band name example that really made me laugh.

Andrew Norvelli’s pieces are mostly pretty quick and the topics change often, so if he talks about something that doesn’t touch your life, just give it a minute. He’ll get there.


Keith Lowell Jensen
Cats Made of Rabbits
Apprehensive Films, 2011
Rockass.net
AtheistComedian.com

I was a bit nervous at the start of this hour-plus comedy record by “irreverent” comedian Keith Lowell Jensen (KJL), who goes by the title of “The Atheist Comedian.” His introduction by pointing out that his show opener, Chazz Hawkins, is black (despite the nice nod in the liner notes), seemed a bit, well, unoriginal, as was the following bit about old people and forwarded emails.

Then, not long into his routines, he starts commenting on his wife’s pregnancy, and I started smiling with what he was saying. Sure, there was the standard I-don’t-know-why-I’m-saying-‘I’m’-pregnant, yet he brings us into the delivery room in a way that kept bringing me back.

However, it’s the bit after that, “Into the Woods,” where he truly had me. The story of how his 11 year old nephew and 10 friends takes him out into the woods (of a gated community, he points out) to show off some BMX trix, and what results from it, stays funny throughout. While I’ve never BMX’d in my life, the events in the story touched moments in my own life and had me laughing.

From there, he never lets up. He discusses dreams of trees with vaginas, and working for pro-marijuana and gay causes, though he is a non-smoker and straight. The way he describes his own homophobia is hysterical, i.e., afraid of gays as opposed to being hateful (KJL points out that gay-bashers aren’t homophobic, they’re “assholes”).

His strongest focus, and one of the things he is noted for (other than being profane) is saved for a large section that covers multiple tracks, and that is knocking the self-righteous religious, and their lack of belief in science, or in this case evolution (“they believe that Jesus rode a dinosaur”). And what is the focus of his rant to prove evolution? The track title “Crazy Dick Party” says it all. And his wife’s feminist approach had me LOL-ing. Yes, I went there.

Somehow, this leads to the topic of the positiveness of East Indian call centers, and by the time he reaches the title cut, he’s still going strong. When he comments about what to do if aliens show up, I had to sit and laugh; I didn’t see it coming.

Most of the style is observational of his life, but easily reflects to the listeners; well, most of them. If you’re upset by talks of atheism, the blindness of religion, or are turned off by vulgarity, you may want to think twice. But as for myself, obviously, my fears were unwarranted, and I received my laugh-share.

This show is also available in DVD form (see clip below).

Two Comedy CDs: Jonathan Winters and Sean Kent

Text © Robert Barry Francos
Images from the Internet

Jonathan Winters
Final Approach
Uproar Entertainment, 2011
Uproarcodmedycd.com

During the 1960s and into the ‘70s, Jonathan Winters was not just a comedian / actor, he was a force of nature. His improvisational skill is legendary, and has a legion of fans that include his acolyte, Robin Williams (who helped re-kickboost Winters’ career with a role in Mork & Mindy). I remember watching him on music and comedy shows as a kid, and just howling. Now at 85, his newest collection (perhaps last by it’s name) is “totally improvised.” In 2000 Year Old Man fashion, Bob Shaw takes on the interviewer role, though he is certainly no Carl Reiner; however, this was recorded in a studio, rather than taped at a party, so there is no audience.

When I saw the package, I said to myself, “Wow!” and immediately put it on, something I rarely do. But hell, this is Jonathan Winters, after all. There are a dozen cuts here, and in each Winters gets to do a different accent and personality, including a “100 Year Old Man,” an “English Poet,” the “Pope’s Haberdasher,” and a “Leading Terrorist” (yes, each track is named after the character). Thing is, I don’t know if I cracked a smile more than a couple of times, never actually laughing. In fact, this made me a bit depressed, honestly.

On the CD case is a quote from Winters: “I would like to dedicate this CD to people that have an unusual sense of humor.” I’d like to include myself in that category, but it’s kind of an abstract notion. I mean, would one call Russell Brand and Dane Cook “unusual”? I find them nearly entirely mundane. Winters, on the other hand, normally has a brilliant mind, but he doesn’t seem to be reaching it here. Perhaps what they should have done is have him do the routines four or five times, then pick and choose and edit together. The way it comes across now, Jonathan and Shaw sometimes trip over each other, and Winters fumbles a few times because of it.

Saddest of all, though, is his reprisal of Maude Frickett, his classic old lady with a lusty demeanor (her catch phrase was about feeling things – i.e., horny – “Aaaaaall over mah body”). Here, Winters bring her into Tex Antoine (yes, the weatherman…look it up) territory, which is inexcusable, even at his age. Y’know what I want? I want a redo; I want Winters to make another CD, with a better questioner on the level of a Johnny Carson or, dare I say it again, Carl Reiner, who can coax some of the brilliance that I bet still lay in the mind of Jonathan Winters. Your fans, me included, deserve and are wanting for that.



Sean Kent
Waiting for the Rapture
Uproar Entertainment, 2010
Uproarcodmedycd.com
Seankent.com

For a while there, comedians like Dane Cook nearly ruined stand-up, using anger, yelling, and sarcasm, and just not being funny. Fortunately, comedians like Sean Kent have adapted it, and are employing it with much more success.

Using profanity, yelling, and often explicit depictions, Kent looks at the negative sides of our culture, thereby making the point of how ridiculous much of it is. For example, he talks about how much people who jumped on the rescue Haiti bandwagon are hypocrites, because Haiti has actually been suffering for 400 years, with the earthquake just making it thismuch worse. This leads into a humorously sharp rant about Anderson Cooper being a ratings-seeking “pain whore.”

While much (but not all) of his talk about sex (e.g., kwefs, BJs and shaved bits) is a bit of his own pandering for shock value, most of the rest of his material is pointed when discussing technology, the Right’s reaction to the Left’s politics, and the Walmart mentality.

When Kent nails it, as he often does, his material has a sting, such as pointing out the ignorance of “teabaggers” (i.e., the Tea Party) that don’t want the government to touch Medicare when Medicare is a governmental agency.

The fact that he’s playing to a Seattle audience, in a city that’s a haven for liberalism, does not make the pro-left material seem forced, but rather that he’s in his element. He drolly comments that Seattle is an anomaly, referring to the rest of the state as not eastern Washington but rather western Arkansas. He does, however, chastise an audience member for answering a rhetorical question with an answer that was as funny as his own. Perhaps Kent could take a lesson from Eddie Murphy’s Delirious where an audience member shouts out a funny line, and he drops the microphone, laughs hard, and then applauds the commenter.

I especially enjoyed Kent’s talking about the difference between Google and the library, and his details about the Dewey Decimal Sys(sssshhhhh). Another line that had me laughing is when he discusses the only way people hear about libraries now is when they “ironically” read about it. Actually, often when he mentions things that are more than 10 years old (the Walkman, the Final Solution), he suggests the audience “Google it.”

Speaking of modern technology, he does a rant about texting that alone is worth to journey to this CD. Though the sex-related material seems kind of meh, not really having any point other than titillation, the rest is good (not) clean fun.

DVD Review: The Death of Andy Kaufman

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2011
Images from the Internet



The Death of Andy Kaufman
Produced, written and directed by Christopher Maloney
Wild Eye, 2011
80 minutes, USD $15.95
Wildeyereleasing.com
MVDvisual.com

As with so many of others of my g-g-generation, I found out about Andy Kaufman from watching early Saturday Night Live broadcasts. The rest of the world would discover him as Latka Gravas, on Taxi, but for us college students, it was his regular appearances on late Saturday night. Therefore, it seems appropriate that what starts off this documentary directed by Christopher Maloney is a full clip from that show where Kaufman gets audience members on stage to lip sync to Billy Williams and His Cowboy Rangers’ “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” It would also have worked If Maloney had shown clips of Mighty Mouse lip sync, the Foreign Man (who would develop into Latka) doing imitations, including a killer Elvis, or any of a dozen other of his early oddball bits.

After the opening bit (obviously from an old VHS tape), Maloney takes us to Andy’s grave at Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, NY (just east of the Queens border), clearing the snow off the stone to clearly ready the name. For the next while, Maloney takes the viewer on a ride on the life of Andy Kaufman, from his rise, to his bizarre performance art (can one really call it stand-up?) where he either naps in a sleeping bag on stage, or eats cereal for his entire allotted time, to his in-your-face misogynist wrestling period where his popularity plummeted. Kicked off SNL and out of his Transcendental Meditation group (so much for peace, love and understanding), having Taxi cancelled, and an audience that was so confused by what he was doing that they couldn’t find the humor any more, he faced a questionable future.

By the time he announced he was diagnosed with cancer, either his fans didn’t believe him, or his ex-audience seemed to no longer care. Oh, that Andy! His truly had been a life of “Cry Wolf.”

Maloney clearly shows how Andy had thought about faking his death before he actually loosened the coil. In fact, he had met with Alan Abel, famed hoaxer extraordinaire who actually did manage to convince the media he had died, and they printed his obit - just to have him show up a week later. Tah-dah! Andy believed this was brilliant, and questioned him about it. By the time he did come down with a rare form of cancer, one he had already ascribed to his character Tony Clifton, it seemed that it was one more shtick. This reminds me of two stories: one is when actor Dick Shawn was performing on stage, he had a heart attack, and everyone laughed as he collapsed; by the time people realized what was going on, it was too late. Similarly with Jackie Wilson, he used to do a twirl and collapse while singing, and one time he did it, the audience didn’t know he was having a stroke, and again a delayed reaction caused him to be mentally handicapped and hospitalized the rest of his life due to lack of oxygen to his brain.

While in the middle of radiation treatments, Andy went to the Philippines to try to get some psychic healer to help, who was charlatan. Pictures circulated, and in 1984, in a hospital under the assumed name of Nathan McCoy, Andy died surrounded by family and loved ones. I had heard at the time that comic Elaine Boozler - his ex-girlfriend and long-time friend - was there, but haven’t seen any reference to it since, including on this DVD. I am still waiting to hear her talk about it (she did discuss it in an issue of Esquire back then), and she would have been a nice coup to get for the documentary.

Faced with Kaufman’s past as a derisive and trickster Loki character, Maloney went on a personal journey to find out some truth on whether Andy had faked his own death or not. He started with a collection of questions which were decent, but some I knew the answer to beforehand [in brackets below], which didn’t really solve the bigger mystery. For example, photos of him at the time have him bald from radiation treatments, but he still has eyebrows and chest hair. Another is that even though he had a Jewish burial, he had an open casket [while the tradition is to have it closed, it is not unheard of for there to be an open one, and I have been to a couple like that]. Thirdly, why does the tombstone say “Andy” rather than the usual full name of “Andrew” [you can put anything you want on a tombstone; Elvis Aron Presley’s stone says Elvis Aaron Presley, for example]. Then there is why he was in a room assigned to the aforementioned Nathan McCoy [my guess it was his “travel” name for privacy, such as Paul McCartney registering under the name Ramone, which is how the Ramones got their name].

Meanwhile, we are presented with many partial clips, interviews, and video examples of Andy’s career, and photos of his illness and funeral.

The third chapter of this story is a rare interview with Andy’s brother, Michael Kaufman, who explains some of the answers to Maloney’s questions, and is open about what he believes happened (I won’t give it away). This is one of the pieces that make this documentary so strong.

As a character / narrator, Maloney is passable. He has a droning kind of voice (probably trying to match the seriousness of the topic) which gets tiresome, but the subject matter definitely pops and keeps the viewers’ interest right to the end. Taped in 2008, this was released a couple of years later.

After the feature, there is an 11 minute Q&A short by Robert Hauschild recorded in 2011, titled “Chasing the Little Ghost: The Making of The Death of Andy Kaufman.” With title card questions, a now short-haired Maloney answers about his own motives and findings, having had a decent period to process all the information he collected and presented in the documentary, which makes the short also worth viewing.


Bonus Video: