I Let My Fists Do The Talkin’

Didn’t love this one; none of the panelists are on my short-list favorites. Both of the BBC1 series (this season and last) seem heavier and slower than the earlier seasons. Maybe it’s me.

Perhaps this will be the new exclusive use for this blog… just posting youtube links to British panel games

This is a radio show hosted my David Mitchell (so, you’ll just be looking at his headshot for the duration; no video) which I’ve not had much luck finding more than 2-3 other episodes online.

It’s also some kind of QI cross-over, so it has BUILT IN APPEAL.

If you’re in town and can’t sleep, the Chelsea Clearview Cinema will be showing 2 episodes of Cakey! The Cake from Outer Space as the short before the Raspberry Brothers’ midnight screening of Snakes on a Plane.

One of the show organizers is a big Cakey fan and asked if they could show them and we could be there to do a Q&A or what have you. He actually asked us to do commentary under them as they played, but a big part of me says most of the audience (there to see snakes, plane, et al.) are seriously not going to care about our show.

But Cakey itself will be on hand to do a Q&A and shake hands (with its mouth)! You can touch Cakey if you come. That’s my pitch to get you to come see the show.

Two shows:
Friday, May 8, 2009 at 12:00am
Saturday, May 9, 2009 at 12:00am

The Raspberry Brothers: Snakes on a Plane
(b/w 2 episodes of Cakey! The Cake from Outer Space)

$15 (expensive!)
Clearview’s Chelsea Cinema
260 West 23rd St
New York, NY

Tonight I am revisiting two old shows I thought I had put behind me.

At Channel 101, of which I have not been partaking much in the last year, we are saying bon voyage to the insanely long-running Defenders of Stan. I wrote and edited two “commercials” which will be edited into their finale (starring Mitch Magee, Bill Buckendorf and, most spectacularly, this plastic Thor helmet)

I will post my video (standing alone) tomorrow.

After 11 PM, there will be a reunion of most of the improv “Monkeydick” as a part of some anniversary thing. However, the two individuals most considered the “face” of Monkeydick over the years will not be performing. I am of course speaking of…. the Bosniak brothers. (This joke is only for the benefit of Will Hines)

Anyway, see most of Monkeydick at that show. It is of particular draw to any of my students who heard that I was good on this team; the out-of-practice shuffling, stumbling performance I plan on giving should disabuse you of that notion in no time.

I want to draw attention to some links acronymically-branded commentators DW and QI left some posts ago .

The first is a ridiculous archive of the BBC radio panel show “I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue,” which I am ashamed to admit I had never heard of. It was a spin off of the ‘70s BBC comedy radio show “I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again,” which I had heard of, merely because it’s always mentioned in formative histories of Monty Python as John Cleese was a writer/performer. The majority of the panelists were on another seminal UK comedy group—The Goodies (that never got popular in the US and of whom I’ve only seen in one sketch on some Secret Policeman’s Ball benefit)—that Wikipedia compares either to The Monkees or Stella… take your pick.

If any improv/comedy friends actually are still reading this blog you can understand the impulse that created “I Haven’t Clue” in 1974… they thought, “Why are we putting so much work into actually writing this dumb radio show for so little reward… let’s just wing it without scripts”. And so they did. And it ran continuously up to last year (and is coming back in the near future; the “chairman” or host recently died and bummed everyone out.)

A weird mix of shortform-style improv games (only played the pun-abusing British casual manner as opposed to the manic eager-to-please shit US ComedySportz style), meta radio nonsense bits, and singing.

I’ve stuck mostly to the last 10 years, enjoying a lot of guest stars I recognize from QI. As I’m getting into the ‘90s, there’s more names I remember fondly from the UK Whose Line Is It Anyway (the UK show was a revelation when it appeared on Comedy Central; the USA one is a fetid turd in a wineglass full of AIDS blood).

John Cleese is in some of the very earliest ones from the ‘70s. Unless you’re mad for Cleese, I’d stick to the ‘00s with great appearances from Rob Brydon (who was the only funny thing in Tristram Shandy), Stephen Fry, Jeremy Hardy (QI), Bill Bailey (one line in Hot Fuzz), etc.

It’s way too British in parts for me to follow; I get about 50% of it. And the older the episodes get, the more incomprehensible the reference, mostly political figures (which Wikipedia helps with). The other odd British-US disconnect is when they sing popular songs (to the tunes of other popular songs) which makes me believe: a.) all comedians in England are required to know a massive amount of old-timey music hall novelty numbers b.) the “hits” that international stars like Elvis or Tom Jones are known for are completely different than they’re know for over here c.) Their Top-40 is totally Bizarro-inverse from ours of the same era; “Teenage Dirtbag” was a mega hit in England it seems.

MP3s of I’m Sorry, I Haven’t A Clue

Commenter QI gets fewer points—another fundamental difference in US-UK culture is that they don’t seem to care who wins on these “game shows” and points are thrown about like confetti. You lose an Empire and all of a sudden you stop caring about the most important thing – FUCKIN’ WINNING! USA USA USA!—for recommending a BBC radio show I’ve already heard (some wag posted them on YouTube with a still picture as the visual): David Mitchell’s The Unbelievable Truth.

MP3s of The Unbelievable Truth (Ep 1-6 only)

Get your head out of the oven. Matt DeCoster is doing a trapeze show.

For people who don’t know, Matt DeCoster is the ridiculously hard-boiled actor/comedian seen here—

—who with I was on Monkeydick and I directed his sketch show with Will Hines, flyer below

So, aside from being an improv comedian and a trial lawyer, he also is a trapeze artist. Yes, I know.

Alt-trapeze shows tend to be the same crowd as alt-burlesque scene—Busty Bedford Ave girls with tattoos and Bettie-Page-bangs and a lot of drag queens. Then Matt DeCoster comes out (with what Rob Huebel calls a “gay porn body”) in a spangly unitard and you’re waiting for him to start “cleaning up the bar” in the style of an 80s JCVD action-adventure. But instead he does the most physically grueling trapeze act you’ve ever seen.

Wednesday, December 17. 8 PM

Matt sez: “These shows tend to get crowded and to start late. I believe you can make a reservation at TheZipperFactory.com.”

If you’re not convinced, watch this clip of Matt nearly killing a guy (UCB Manager Alex Sidtis) at the UCB Theatre Fight Club boxing match—Weapons of Matt DeCoster

In everyone’s hooplaing and gazooksing about over this Obama fellow, people overlooked the passing of someone very special. A man from another age who was not equipped for our time. A small man with giant glasses and a passion for talking in a weird stiff manner which supposedly was modeled after Jackson Pollock.

Mister Glasses has died.

Mitchell Magee, my friend and sometimes-collaborator (although not on Mister Glasses despite what people think) did not produce a new episode for this month’s Channel 101 screening and, according to the rules, forfeited his slot on the ballot and was immediately canceled.

Mitch didn’t write or shoot anything this month—the stress of the huge production, scheduling, frequent cast changes, expense of making a show for free while living on a limited budget chips away at one’s enthusiasm pretty quickly. He had been talking about ending the show for months, but waiting until he finished the episodes focusing on each member of Mister Glasses’ entourage and after the NY TV Festival in October. By anyone’s standards (except the absurd Defenders of Stan’s), Mister Glasses had a terrifically long run even if you discount the two Welcome to my Study specials that I worked on (but you shouldn’t because Study is awesome and Mitch wrote those, too).

And now… I will present an interview with Mitch about Mister Glasses.

Dyna: What is the origin of Mister Glasses? It’s an unusual idea for a web series, for sure, which tends to be more on the quick and obvious tip.

Mitch: Well, as you know, Dyna, you were pretty intimately involved with the conception of the idea. The two of us were walking around Manhattan and I looked up at a building (it may have been the Urban Glass House) and I said, look at that—that was made by…you, know…Mister Glasses.” I was thinking of the architect, Philip Johnson, but I couldn’t remember his name. You immediately said, “you should do a show called “Mister Glasses.”

So, a lot of people who read this but don’t know me in real life won’t know this, so a bit of background: New SNL featured player Bobby Moynihan is a UCB guy originally, as am I and as is Rich Sommer (in so much as we studied comedy there, performed there and know each other from there).

Bobby was in a duo (and later trio) called Buffoons which had a long running show which Rich Sommer would admit himself was a major fan of. Kind of obsessed with it, even. He was at every show, according to Bobby (who is a notorious exaggerator). It was a fucking hilarious show, but it was scripted—it was pretty much the same every week.

When the word came down that Jon Hamm was hosting SNL a couple months ago, before sketch one was on paper, and I was talking to Bobby about that he immediately said “I want to play Rich.”

He said after the show that he had a minor panic a minute before the sketch went up—“I need a wedding ring!”—and he ran around backstage trying to borrow one. He got one in time and ultimately, he admitted, it’s probably not even going to be visible on screen.

It could have been even more meta meta meta if very pregnant Amy Poehler (UCB founder) had played pregnant-but-denying-it Peggy Olson, but she went and had the baby right before the show. Nice job ruining everyone’s fun, Amy Poehler and Baby Archibald.

My mouth tastes like vomit and the tequila I intercepted for Michael Gladis.

Fred Armisen said I was cute.

Matt Weiner and Jon Hamm (seperately) hugged and kissed me unprompted.

I will be performing tomorrow at UCB Theatre’s School Night as member of the Suburburban-Virginia-and-Maryland-Themed improv group Beltway Bandits.

This is a red (line) letter day… I never do improv.

In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop….. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in, and many called up wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. To this question, the BBC diplomatically replied that they should “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”

(from Swilkes)

Despite the fact it may forward the curse, I watched the rest of Roadhouse this weekend, then followed it with The Great Moment (out-of-character Sturges heroic dentist biopic) and Real Life (showcasing Albert Brook’s horrifying shoulder fur)

My parents were in town, briefly, and I went to the Met (museum, not opera) with them. They’ve renovated the 19th/18th Century painting area (I can’t remember what the old gallery looked like… I probably could reconstruct the layout of the National Gallery in DC from memory, though). The three temporary shows were a parade of snooze and yuck though… Courbet,Poussin, and Jasper Johns: Gray.

However, on Sunday, I have found a new obsession. I’ve been a cranky snob about the last couple years about the revival schedules put up at Film Forum. They flipflop from being paint-dryingly dull retrospectives of the third-best forgotten masters of Japanese drawing room dramas where 2/3 of the movie is people emotionlessly staring at each other or, the UA screening coming up, so broad and mainstream that every movie on the ticket is available at your local blockbuster. Although, I really do applaud Film Forum’s ability to work my favorite movie “One, Two, Three” into EVERY series. Hooray!

Anyway, due to a listing in the New York Times (that I was only reading because my parents had a copy in their hotel room), I saw the New-York Historical Society (I don’t know why it’s hyphenated) was showing a double feature of silents. Turns out this group—Silent Clowns—has been showing extremely rare silents for the last 10 years. I finally found a film series nerdy/unpretenious enough to meet my specific film needs.

They seem to have a show once a month from fall through spring—there’s only two showings left this month. Next month is some guy with a mustache but the next one after that is Laurel & Hardy (meh) shorts AND a female slapstick duo and I’m intrigued. One is tall and one is short and in the promo picture they seemed to be tied together at the waist with a guilt look on their faces—that says “comedy” to me!

I’ve always liked the line-art “doodled in a notebook” style of Built-by-Wendy’s t-shirt series, usually showing scenes from cult movies (Birch Harms has the To Kill A Mockingbird one and someone else has the Bad News Bears dugout one, but I can’t remember who).

I checked their site recently, and they’re totally pandering to comedy nerds (or suddenly hipsters are all really into cusp-of-70s/80s comedy). Not only do they have a Gene Wilder/Gilda Radner shirt, but also a Bob & Doug MacKenzie shirt.

I just finished Michael Palin’s Diaries 1969-1979, which AV got me for Xmas. I was doing a lot of reading back in January, finishing three books in two weeks, but I kinda fell off. I still have another book my parents got me and an old copy of

Pride and Prejudice

I’ll expand on this entry later; I’m going to go get a haircut now.

It cheapens the whole having-an-astral-body-named-in-your-honor for the other honorees.

Channel 102 is Monday night.

As if you need an additional reason to go… we’re showing a sneak preview of one of our new Cakey! episodes we made for SuperDeluxe. They won’t be online for a month at the very earliest, so the live screening is your first chance to see Cakey back in action.

After the regular Channel 102 program starting at 7, the special Cakey episode will be shown.

Channel 102
Monday, February 4, 2008
two shows—7:00pm & 9:30pm

at
Pianos
158 Ludlow Street (near Stanton)
New York, NY

If I recover, I’ll see you there. Still horribly sick.

Why am I wasting my time making internet videos, when this guy already completely mastered the form?

Silvija allowed me to accompany her yesterday, courtesy of Playbill press tickets, to see The 39 Steps on Broadway, gratis.

You can see the best and worst qualities of this play in my picture on the left—the fantastic poster and my post-show haze of boredom and underwhelmity. Like many other Broadway shows I’ve seen, I hesistate to criticize as my first through is always “I am not the audience for this.” But, this is a comedy stage adaption of a Hitchcock film classic. On paper, it’s 100% in my wheelhouse; however, in audience, I flipped between being apologetic for not enjoying it more to being angry about the camp winky-ness and telegraphed jokes to just being peeved.

I knew nothing about the show beforehand. I actually thought it was going to be a straight adaption. Silvija said it’s a monster hit in England. The history in a nutshell is: there was a 2-man cast adaption of the film first (like Irma Vep or Gutenburg!, I suppose) and the producer of this version expanded to a central actor in the lead, a woman who does 3 female roles and 2 clownish-looking swing guys who play everything else. I’m fine with that (though it’s a missed opportunity the female actor never played any other swing roles and no male roles; the two buffoons play a variety of arch “bad drag” roles), but the majority of the show there’s no joke beside “look it’s crazy how many roles these guys are playing… oops! he’s gotta find a reason to leave so he can play that other guy again! Oh, the wackiness.”

Silvija, at intermission, still in apologetic mode, said she wished the script was funnier. It seemed like a second draft of a show, in desperate need of punch-up in the long talky scenes where there was no physical comedy. The pacing overall was weird and you could feel real impatience from the crowd when a physical bit was outstaying its welcome and repeating over and over without really growing or changing. That said, there are a handful of moments of vaudeville-y stuff that do deliver—a guy takes a punch to the face and literally falls over backwards, rolls up onto his head and over and another scene has some “comedy sleeping” that I will embarrasingly point to as something that delighted me on my deepest, dumbest level. There is some great object work and miming, but it’s constantly brought down by mugging, winking, breaking the reality with 4th wall call-outs. They shoehorn in the names of 5 Hitchcock films into the dialogue, which is fine… groanworthy… but every time they do there’s a take to the audience, rewarding them for “getting it” and grinding the proceedings to a halt. The “games” of the show that made me the angriest were the endless mugging and pointing out how hard it is to do a whole movie with four actors, which by the second half had become a recurring gag of “You guys stop wasting time… you’re not a river/pile of rocks/10 policeman, you’re just a man waving a sheet around and get on with it.”

I mean, this show didn’t make me want to kill myself (as other Broadway shows have… I’m looking at you, second act of Spring Awakening) and there was enough interesting stagecraft to pull me through. Should YOU get free tickets (or cheap tickets), it’s worth a look. But steel yourself for mugging.

Welcome to my Study is currently on the front page of FunnyorDie.com. Please vote “funny.”

I almost wrote “FurryorDie” which would be a different sort of site.

If you haven’t already read it, check out Mitch’s blog post about performing at the Andy Kaufman Awards in Las Vegas in which he was a finalist based on the Andy-ness of Study.