Film Festival Podcast: The Comedians of Comedy
This week I’m joined by stand-up comedian and stand-up guy Kyle Ayers as we discuss the 2005 documentary The Comedians of Comedy, the 2004 tour featuring Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford and Zach Galifianakis. The film itself is more than a tour documentary, however, and begins to delve deeper into the form and processes of the modern alternative comedy scene.
You can listen to the podcast below, or subscribe in iTunes by clicking here.
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Tags: Brian Posehn, Comedians of Comedy, Film Fest Podcast, film festival, Kyle Ayers, Maria Bamford, Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifianakis
June 24th, 2010 at 9:49 am
I’ve been waiting ages to talk about this one. I watched it the day the film fest lineup was announced!
Loved it. Absolutely loved it. I hadn’t followed any of the featured comedians very closely, though I had seen each of them before; Maria Bamford more than anybody else. I’ve loved her stuff since the 90s. But the one I was most impressed with was Brian Posehn. I knew he was a good comedian, but that guy really blew me away. The segment about him not changing his joke about his dad dying was really, really cool.
What I really love about the movie, though, is the “inside baseball” stuff they show about comedy; the creative process, collaborations, etc. That stuff is really interesting to me, and watching a great comedian is like watching a great musician – or any great artist, really.
Nice pick. Again.
June 24th, 2010 at 9:55 am
I really enjoyed this one. I was actually a fan of all of these comedians before this film came out. Who can forget Maria Bamford’s (who was on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast a few weeks back and was great. One of the best comedy podcasts out there that goes behind comedy.) role on Full House where they played uncle Joey’s girlfriend? Everyone but me? Damn.
June 24th, 2010 at 10:01 am
I haven’t finished this one yet (thanks poor hotel internet) but it reminded me of a similar comedy documentary “Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show.” It also shows a lot of inside stuff, but you have to like Vince Vaughn to appreciate what he was trying to do. Production values were far better, but that doesn’t necessarily make it any better of a film.
June 24th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
I also enjoyed this one quite a bit. The only comedian from this that I had ever seen before was Zach Galifianakis, and that was just because of The Hangover. I got more laughs out of him I’d say then the others. One of my favorite parts was the relatively short piece where he dressed up like someone from the 1700s. “What’s with Ben Franklin and that electricity shit?”
The parts when they were in and around the comic store were great – it really showed how “normal” these people are, even though they are all fairly famous comedians.
June 24th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
I mentioned in the podcast that I would post a list of other comedians/podcasts you should check out if you like what you see here.
Podcasts:
Jordan, Jesse, GO!
The Nerdist Podcast (Hilarious and endlessly fascinating at the same time)
Comedy Death Ray Radio
Never Not Funny (first 20 minutes free, $20 for a 26 episode subscription, worth every penny)
Doug Loves Movies
Superego (Amazing audio sketch show)
You Look Nice Today (Very free-form. Takes a few episodes to get the style, but worth it)
Comedy albums (In no particular order):
Patton Oswalt – “Feelin Kinda Patton,” “Werewolves and Lollipops”
Maria Bamford – “How to Win!”
Eugene Mirman – “The Absurd Nightclub Comedy of Eugene Mirman,” “En Garde Society”
Kyle Kinane – “Death of the Party”
Chris Fairbanks – “Fairbanks”
Andrew Daily – “9 Sweaters”
Paul F. Tompkins – “Freak Wharf”
Mitch Hedberg – “Strategic Grill Locations,” “Mitch All Together”
Louis C.K. – “Chewed Up”
Moshe Kasher – “Everyone You Know Is Going To Die, And Then You Are!”
Sean Cullen – “I Am a Human Man”
Basically, everything I just listed is fantastic and should absolutely be checked out. Eugene Mirman was on subsequent Comedians of Comedy tours, and is amazing. If you haven’t heard of Mitch Hedberg or Louis C.K. yet, you’ve been doing something wrong. Both are among some of the greatest comic minds of all time, and that’s not just me being hyperbolic. Chris Fairbanks is really great, and has a super weird, quick free-association style that I can’t even begin to explain. Andrew Daily’s album “9 Sweaters” was recorded over several months at the UCB theater in Los Angeles, and each track is about 10 minutes of him performing as a different character. It’s really high-concept stuff, but insanely funny.
June 24th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Louis C.K. is the only comedian you will ever need.
June 24th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Well, let’s not get nuts here. But yeah, Louis CK is great. He and Lewis Black are my two favorites.
June 24th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
I really liked it. Brian Posehn and Patton Oswalt are great both on and off the stage. I love when they’re talking about comics and and how they’re not quite comfortable being close to 40 and still loving comic books so much. What I love about it is the basic “fuck it, it’s what I love” attitude they settle on.
I didn’t like how Maria Bamford always seemed to be “performing”. Where Oswalt and Posehn had moments of sincerity, I never found her to have any.
Zach Galifianakis can be downright hilarious, at times, but relies a little too much on schtick for me. That’s only personal preference, though, not a shot as his comedic value.
As for the film, as a whole, I really loved it. I haven’t listened to the podcast, yet, but it should be downloaded so I’ll pop back in here after I do.
June 24th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
I don’t know what a .m4a is but I do know nothing on my computer or my mp3 player will play it. :/
And I will say again: WTF with Marc Maron is really good. http://www.wtfpod.com.
I’m also a big fan of Red Bar Radio and Nobody Likes Onions. Those 2 don’t really get the big name comedians, and RBR is mostly Chicago comedians who mostly just do Chicagoland/Southern Wi/Indiana and sometimes Michigan. But some people from this group have broken out, like TJ Miller, Hannibal Buress and Mike Bridenstine.
As for what shows listed… I’m really digging Doug Loves Movies. But does The Nerdiest Podcast have a website? All I can find is iTunes links and I don’t have iTunes.
And I really wish David Angelo Radio would come back.
June 24th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
@skeletonframes – I actually disagree on Maria Bamford. Rather tnan always performing, I thing she’s just always being herself, even onstage. (Kyle and I touched on that in this week’s podcast). Every time I’ve heard her on a podcast or somewhere else, she’s always achingly sincere, but what you see of her on stage is essentially her persona.
@Rusty – You can find the Nerdist podcast at nerdist.com. His most recent episode is actually just audio from his interview with Ozzy Osbourne for Digg Dialogue, but reach back into the archives and you’ll find some gold. Almost every episode is just out of the park. Some of the funnier ones include the Tom Lennon episode, but some really fascinating episodes include the Ok Go episode and the Mike Shinoda episode. I’m not really a fan of either Ok Go or Linkin Park, but both of those episodes revealed those guys to be insanely smart, insightful and hilarious guys, and there are some great conversations about creativity and expression in general. Just fantastic stuff.
June 24th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Nevermind about that m4a stuff. I forgot about another media player I have.
June 24th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
And thanks, Mitch.
June 24th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
I fully agree on the Carlos Mencia episodes of WTF.
Sorry for the triple post.
June 24th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
@Mitch – I’m going to agree with you, almost, completely.
I listened to what you and Kyle had to say about her on the podcast. I totally agree with that, and I get it now. I don’t know a lot about her backstory and when watching the film, I honestly thought she was joking about her depression. Knowing, now, that it’s a real thing, I understand.
The part where I’m still a little split from you guys is that she’s still “hiding”. Earlier, I thought it was performance, but it’s not. One of you, on the podcast, mentions that she never breaks. I don’t think it’s really dedication, it’s more a defense mechanism. I think she’s kind of performing, but it’s so natural because she’s been doing it her whole life. The problem is, you don’t know which voice is really Maria. It kinda makes me a little sad.
That said, She opens up, a little, at the end when they’re giving their toasts and that’s a beautiful moment in the film. I coulda swore she almost teared up, too.
June 24th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
P.S. Louis C.K. is, as stated earlier, the funniest man alive. Whether he’s doing stand up or just talking on the Opie and Anthony show. And, second place is Doug Stanhope.
June 27th, 2010 at 7:02 am
I wasn’t bowled over by this one. I like all the comedians in theory, but there was never a long enough segment to give them time to develop a flow (in the eyes of the movie viewer). Some of the “these people are people too” segments were good, but I have to admit I was checking the clock about 2/3s through.
June 28th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
I am really thankful for Doug Loves Movies and Nerdist. It has given me a lot to listen to over the last week and it was a great week to do it since I listen to a lot of gaming podcast as well as comedy and gaming podcasts tend to be worthless the week after E3. While E3 is going on it’s great to get daily audio updates from these places but then the week after they give me a show full of E3 talk that they could have done the week after (unless they weren’t there like DGR and Player One.) So these comedy shows really helped me from having to hear about how awesome Nintendo’s showing was and how Microsoft’s sucked and how Rock Band 3 lets you play a real guitar this time for the 40th time.
July 4th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Doug Loves Movies is outstanding. The Benson Interruption is also worth checking out. It’s Doug Benson throwing in his two cents into his friends’ sets. It sounds like a recipe for assholery, but it’s actually very funny.
I would also second the recommendations for podcasts that Mitch gave, especially WTF, which is catnip for stand-up comedy nerds. His recent episodes with Carlos Mencia and Dane Cook are really outstanding. Also, for the couple of people that said Maria Bamford came off as fake, listen to her episode of WTF, as she gives some insight into the reason behind her using the voices.
A couple of other comedy podcasts I would recommend are:
Comedy and Everything Else (Jimmy Dore)
Monday Morning Podcast (Bill Burr)
Fitzdog Radio (Greg Fitzsimmons)
The Joe Rogan Experience (actually very funny, the guy has some whacked out theories)
July 4th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Oh, and I forgot to add Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show. I’m not a fan of Pollak’s stand-up or acting, but he is a good interviewer. The show is basically a long-form (up to 2 hours) of Charlie Rose style interviewing.