#comedy now

[notmystarwars77]

Russell Peters | Comedy Now 2004

[comedy-is-tragedy]

They keep telling me to just keep looking for her; just keep looking for my happiness. I'm fucking tired of looking for her. Why isn't she looking for me!? I haven't even met her yet and I already think she's lazy as hell. - Jason John Whitehead

[hcfm]

behold the comedy stylings of Dawn Whitwell, one of my good homies.

blogged with implicit consent.

[mashatupitsyn]

Loss as material

While doing dishes tonight, Seinfeld plays in the background like ambient sound. I know the words to practically every episode at this point. I've always been a person who pays attention to words and what people say, and Seinfeld is a language show. Not situation comedy but the situation(s) of language and the language of situations. I think about what Jerry Seinfeld said to Chris Rock, Ricky Gervais, and Louis C.K. about his comedy in HBO’s Talking Funny (Talking Funny could easily be another name for Seinfeld). About why his stand-up is “clean;” how he crafts and constructs distant and reflexive meaning and humor. And I think, Louis C.K. could never have been a 90s zeitgeist comic. Why C.K. is the comedian for and of now—the 21st C. The 90s were still about repression, distance, evasion, and discomfort—not talking about things as a way of talking about them—while C.K. is all about self-degradation, humiliation (something George Costanza, Larry David’s alter ego, catalyzed and took to a whole new level), and shamelessness as shame. Being shameless about shame (After all, C.K. even has an HBO comedy special called Shameless). Lena Dunham has a similar approach with Girls. You are apparently only as funny, smart, talented, desirable, successful, or feminist as you are willing to be humiliated or chronicle your humiliation. This is the way most mass entertainment and art functions now. This is also our current form of truth and honesty. "Failure used to be unthinkable; now it's almost a point of pride. Today, people are failing bigger, failing better, and living to profit from it: how did this happen?," asks Kaitlin Fontana in her article "How We All Became Failures." "We’ve always failed," Fontana goes on to write, "and yet contemporary humans celebrate our smudge-like, failure-ridden lives with relentless bravado, on social media, aloud, on television. We’re all ugly, boring, screaming maiden aunts at a wedding running for the bouquet, falling in the cake; we stumble and fall ad infinitum, but we now perceive those stumbles differently—we have forgotten to be embarrassed by them. The very culture around failure is changing… Humans once placed a great premium on success (read: not admitting to failure)." What is the line between a healthy admittance to and exploration of failure and shame—particularly the relation between failure and success—and our desire to disclose and depict every shitty thing we think, feel, and do? Shamelessness is not inherently or automatically transgressive, yet the only solution or alternative to shame (and repression) that we seem capable of is shamelessness, as though there is nothing in between. For me, Louie is the most interesting stage of C.K.’s comedy because it is mediated, punctuated, and deepened by fiction and broader influences, both personal and cultural. C.K.’s stand-up, especially pre-divorce, was often cocky, macho, and crude. Before his divorce, C.K. was mostly just a talented frat boy whose life view was lacking in empathy, humility, pathos, nuance, and self-reflection. But loss and sadness changed that. In fact, loss is, in many ways, the best thing that ever happened to C.K.’s comedy. In despair, C.K. finally found his humor and his voice. Having said that, so-called transgression—both artistic and commercial—has hit a wall with showing all, or what I call abject identification. This new style/model/approach is not inherently more progressive or honest. Most of the time it isn’t either. Rather, what is at work is an exteriorization and expulsion of repression and experience. Shamelessness becomes a defensive stance. If you shame yourself, no one else can. Moreover, there is a sense that shame and experience exist only (and are only meaningful) to be theatricalized, commodified, performed, narrated, spectacalized. What we have is a rearrangement of inside/outside. Into inside-out.

[mmegz-blog]

"I was watching this documentary on how sharks are going extinct and at the end they have these facts to drive the message home. Like did you know more people are killed by soda pop machines than sharks each year. Presumably that’s supposed to make you less afraid of sharks, does it? Doesn't it just make you more afraid of pop machines?"-Mark Little

Comedy Now ep1403

[spacelionsgetscared]

Guys, Comedy Now is on.

I'm so excited.

Guys.

I love watching stand-up comedy.

You have no idea.

Somebody please come laugh with me.

[phlegmfitz]

this comedian told an x-men joke. he was saying his favorite x-men character was professor x.. he went on to say "if he could move buildings with his mind, he should be able to move his legs"

YOU FUCKING GINGE BASTARD. PROFESSOR XAVIER IS NOT A FUCKING TELEKINETIC HE DOES NOT POSESS ANY FORM OF TELEKINESIS HE IS A TELEPATH. TWO VERY DIFFERENT THINGS. FUCK YOU, YOUR JOKE SUCKS ASS. 

this guy is fucking terrible though, he yells all of his punch lines. it doesn't make it any funnier to shout your fucking terrible jokes. fuck you.

[vancomedy-blog]

Patrick Maliha: Now and Then

So, I have known Patrick now for about 6 months when I first met him at D'Arby's.  He was hosting an ongoing comedy show every Tuesday night for four years.  He's been in the comedy scene for more than 20 years and has made a name for himself on television, and many, many local venues.  But before he did his Comedy Now Special, before he was dubbed as Canada's master impressionist, Patrick must have had to have a start.  Much to my discoveries, Patrick posted a video in his first year of comedy (above). It's no surpise that Patrick's start as a stand up comic was a struggle.  In fact, if you read the comments on the video, people do agree with the title that he was "the worst comedian ever," yet it was Patrick that posted the video.  At that time, he went by the name "Khalid Maliha." On top of that, the host mentioned that "he improved amazingly" in the time he's been doing stand up comedy.

So so you're saying that he was WORSE than the video at one time? 

But here's Patrick Maliha now...I'm sure the video speaks for itself.

So, what happened between now and 1990?  I'm sure Patrick would say that a lot of persistence had to be a key factor.  On top of that, enjoying his craft as comedic artist is a definite must.  Nowadays, you will find Patrick at a lot local venues including a few regular shows that he organizes.  Make sure to follow him on Twitter to find out where he's performing, and what he's up to.

Lastly, thanks Patty for letting me use these videos!

Twitter: @PattyFatty Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/PatrickMaliha