Comedy 101

Bill Maher was on The Tonight Show last night (yes, it still exists) and held nothing back with either Jay Leno or the uptight audience. I'm always amazed when a crowd can groan and moan at a comedian when they already know exactly how he thinks. Check out this clip, which really gets good around 5:45...

You've gotta give it up for Maher, to go on the most politically correct show and totally take over. Leno, as always, offers up a couple mumbles and says nothing. Beyond saying what he feels (which too few comics actually do), I admire Maher for not going for cheap laughs and most importantly not caring what the crowd thinks of him. A good lesson for me and a great lesson for Leno.

Now where is my rubber chicken and trick bow-tie?

Not That There's Not Anything Wrong With That

Bumped into Jerry Seinfeld this afternoon. Yadda, yadda, yadda, he won't be doing The Six Pack anytime soon.

So, instead of a Seinfeld interview, I here offer you a German-subtitled "Not that there's anything wrong with that" moment, complete with "YMCA" in the background. I think that makes perfect sense...

Man, He's Smooth

The Presidential Seal fell off his lectern as President Obama was giving a speech on Tuesday night. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a minor technical problem or drunken heckler just wreck a comedian, but Mr. President is pretty slick right here. And somehow I don't think any of the ad-libbing was on the teleprompters...

Rush to See Family Guy

And now back to comedy.

(Phew.)

Rush Limbaugh will be play himself on Family Guy this week. I sense a classic...

On a Comedian I Never Met

Comedian Greg Giraldo died today after a prescription-drug overdose this past weekend. You may not know Greg, he wasn't a huge household name, but was someone who had had some success and was well respected and well liked in comedy circles. (And trust me, it ain't easy to find comedians who are well respected or well liked by other comics.) If you do know him, it is probably from any of the Comedy Central Roasts as he was a mainstay at the events.

I actually never met Greg personally, and only saw him to stand up a few times, but actually we did cross paths quite often and he probably didn't even know it. He lived somewhere up here on the Upper West Side just a few blocks from me, and I would often see him walking his three kids around, including just a couple days ago. Actually, when I saw him the other day I remember thinking how it was nice to see a comedian who had built some kind of normal life for himself.

I also saw him a couple times a week at the gym, which somehow makes this all the stranger. Someone who on the outside appeared to be successful, have a family, taking care of themself and all the rest of it. I'm certainly not saying any of these things weren't true, and the overdose was accidental, but it just shows how tenuous life really is.

Come to think of it, my one other recent thought of him was when I happened to turn on "Last Comic Standing" a couple months ago. He was one of the judges and I kept thinking how tough it must be for a good comic to have to watch all these cookie-cutter, crappy comics, and actually pretend that some of them were good. He did it quite well though, with just enough exasperation to let people know that he knew what was up, and that he got it. I wish I would have asked him about that one of the times I saw him.

In a bizarre but fitting twist to all this, Greg's last two tweets were about a an upcoming gig and another comedian who died too soon...

@greggiraldo
I will be at The Stress Factory in New Brunswick NJ tomorrow thru Sunday night Tix here: http://bit.ly/bkz4vQ
22 Sep

@greggiraldo
Very sad about comedy great Robert Schimmel. We lost a brilliant brave and original comedian and one of the most decent guys I've ever met.

So long to someone I have a feeling was one of the most decent comedians I never met...