Recap: Ultimate Comedy Bash, Solvang, October 9 and 10, 2009

The Los Angeles Upright Citizen’s Brigade community took a road trip to the beautiful (and very silly) California wine country town of Solvang, about 120 miles north of Los Angeles. The result was a sun-drenched, wine-soaked two-day festival dubbed The Ultimate Comedy Bash.

The opening night show was held here at the Maverick Saloon. Before the initial show started, I asked spent a few minutes in front of the saloon talking with Matt Besser about why he decided to bring these shows to Solvang. “I think it’s obvious,” he said. “Wine, windmills and bakeries — what funnier place is there?”

“We looked at several spots,” Besser continued. “We wanted the location to be driving distance from LA, but far enough away to reach a new audience. And we wanted the location to be a beautiful place for the performers to hang out in.”

I asked whether this event might be the start of a new tradition for the LA UCB. “Possibly. We have the Del Close Marathon in New York, but we don’t have anything similar here. We want a west coast equivalent, but we don’t want to do exactly the same thing.”

“So could this become an annual event?” I asked.

“Yes. We don’t know whether it would be here or at a different place each time. We are just feeling it out. But we are treating it like the Del Close — like a party that we perform at. We’ll see how it goes, but it is certainly cool to hang out here.”

The evening’s host, Paul F. Tompkins, waits to go on stage.

The Maverick housed a small performance space separated from the bar by a wall that, above waist level, was composed of massive windows that allowed patrons on the “show side” to peek at events on the “drinking side”. Tompkins noted that, as the evening pressed on, the progressively drunker patrons on the other side of the glass started to look more and more like fish in an aquarium. I would add that they were largely a rare species of friendly, lager-infused, cowboy-hat-wearing fish. All the more interesting to study.

Kyle Kinane told wonderful stories about what he had seen in Solvang earlier in the day.

An unusually silly moment with Matt Braunger. I have no recollection of snapping this photo.

Josh Fadem demonstrating his prodigious pratfall skills.

The Birthday Boys did a sketch about protecting the secret recipes for Coke, Pepsi and Tab. These last two gentleman, as you might have surmised, represented Tab.

The next day, the shows moved to the Solvang Festival Theater, an amphitheater in the middle of town.

The first event of the day was an ASSSSCAT improv show featuring a re-united Upright Citizens Brigade (Amy Poehler was in attendance) collaborating with Horatio Sanz and Danielle Schneider. The monologists were Tom Lennon and Ben Garant.

Later in the afternoon, Matt Besser, Matt Walsh and Ian Roberts hosted the Best Comedy Show Ever.

The opening band was Don’t Stop or We’ll Die featuring Paul Rust, Harris Wittels and Michael Cassidy.

The first stand up act was Paul F. Tompkins who started his set by running the perimeter of the amphitheater seating and then returning to stage.

Upon returning, he poked fun at the 1972 book “Go Ask Alice” and expounded upon the story’s use of the phrase “freak wharf.”

Nick Kroll rapped the start of his set, though he assured us that the rest of his act would be “far more Jeff Goldblum.”

Throughout the afternoon, Matt Besser tried to break several “comedy records” — including “Most Jokes Told in One Minute” and “Jokes Told from the Greatest Height.”

James Adomian went out and spoke to the crowd as Huell Howser, the overly enthused and easily impressed host of the PBS series California’s Gold.

Sadly, I had to leave before the show ended, but the last act I saw was Tom Lennon and Robert Ben Garant pretending to be with Cirque du Soleil. An act almost as silly as the town where it was performed. It was, for me, a perfect close to the weekend.

October 14, 2009 Posted in: Uncategorized No Comments

Asylum video from the 2009 Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival

Watch more Asylum on Location videos on AOL Video

“It takes art and shoves it right up entertainment’s ass.” — Eugene Mirman

October 6, 2009 Tags: Bobby Tisdale, Eugene Mirman, Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, John Hodgman, John Mulaney, Larry Murphy, Morgan Murphy, Reggie Watts Posted in: Uncategorized No Comments

Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival 2009: Tearing the Veil of Maya and Closing Night Party Recap

“‘[T]earing the Veil of Maya”, according to the show’s MySpace page, “is a weekly comedy show on Sundays at Union Hall run by Michael Showalter, Eugene Mirman and Julie Smith. Each week people who are famous secretly tell stories, jokes, or list their fears. No one has ever thrown up during the show. The bathrooms are uni-sex. Past guests have included four of the following: David Cross, Benjamin Bratt, Jon Glaser, Billy Ruane, Todd Barry, Mike Birbiglia, Emily Dickinson, Hegel.”

Hint: no one on this evening’s bill discussed transcendental idealism, so I hope that narrows it down for you.

First act of the evening was Leo Allen who did a piece about Wikipedia’s most visited pages. Number five, by the way, is Wikipedia. Number ten is Facebook. He read 30 to 40 with softer lighting and music for poetic effect. If you’re curious, #31 is Megan Fox; #35 is World War I; #36 is vagina; #37 is “List of House episodes”; and #39 is Martin Luther King, Jr. A touching testament to the priorities of the online community.

Next was delightful Irish comedienne Maeve Higgins. If you have never seen her work, you must look her up. Her appearance and demeanor are sweet and adorable, but her material is biting and twisted. She also wins my prize for best phrase of the night “Google Your Own Wombat.” No context necessary.

I’m providing additional pictures because I want you to remember this face. She is absolutely fantastic and, if possible, you must try to see her while she is in the U.S.

Seeing both Maeve Higgins and Daniel Kitson perform here in the States was a privilege and, on its own, worth the trip out from Seattle. Both have stand out charisma and stage presence. Also, delightfully, each has a tone and style quite distinct from most American stand ups. Honestly, we should start up a fund now to send Mirman to travel every summer in Europe. That way, if we are lucky, he can again befriend some of the the most interesting and talented performers there and convince them to perform at his festival. (Quickest way to start this fund: buy Mirman’s new CD).

Todd Barry did a fantastic piece I hadn’t see before based on an article from Esquire called “How to Feel Good to a Woman”. It thoroughly ridiculed the author’s weirdly elaborate, indulgent and misleading set of “instructions” for male readers. Clever and well-delivered, it was also interesting to me that I only saw this piece here (even though I saw Barry perform at both Bumbershoot and the Vancouver ComedyFest during the last month or so). I don’t know whether it is because performers have longer sets at this festival or whether they simply feel free to try more creative material, but it once again made me very happy that I bothered to travel so far for this show.

The surprise unannounced guest of the evening was Jim Gaffigan. It was wonderful to have an opportunity to see him since we had missed his performance the night before. And yes, he did discuss the pasta bread bowl.

Reggie Watts closed out the evening with one of the longest and most dynamic sets I have ever seen him perform. I think I’ve seen him perform roughly six times in the past two months — and the crowd loved him every time. But this set built in volume and speed to a fever pitch of Dubstep delight, which made it the perfect end to a tremendously fun festival.

Oh! There were also silly wristbands. A different one for each evening. And here they are:

The red one says “I’m in show business: Ask me for a deal.”

Thanks again to everyone who produced, organized, performed at and/or hosted this event. All of us left feeling that we’d had a unique opportunity to see some of the nation’s best comics preforming some of their more creative work in a friendly and intimate setting. Also: we really loved the pudding.

October 6, 2009 Tags: Eugene Mirman, Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, Jim Gaffigan, Leo Allen, Maeve Higgins, Reggie Watts, Todd Barry Posted in: Uncategorized No Comments

Andy Kinder’s “I Wish I Was Bitter” now available for pre-order

From Big Phony Studios, in association with Straight to DVD Enterprises, comes Andy Kindler’s new CD “I Wish I Was Bitter”, now available for pre-order on his website.

“With good-natured rage, comedian and professional trouble maker Andy Kindler ridicules popular culture, show business, and himself in this never before seen 2003 intimate stand-up comedy performance.

If you’re sick of everything, this is for you.

Full Length Audio Commentary: Andy on Andy. Known for commenting on his act while performing his act, Andy adds more analysis in this bonus feature.”

If you order now, you will receive the “Special Collector’s Edition DVD with 2003 Glossary. Do you remember 2003? No one does. That’s why you need a glossary.”

This is Kindler’s debut DVD, so it’s already a “must have” for any serious comedy lover or collector.

October 5, 2009 Tags: Andy Kindler Posted in: Uncategorized No Comments

UCB Ultimate Comedy Bash this weekend!

If you live in southern California, you need to see this. Call in sick on Friday and come join the fun! You can join our carpool up from LA; but only if you’re willing to leave early. We’re hitting three wineries (minimum) before the first show at noon.

Comedy + wine + friends + sunshine = Love.

Whoever assembled this event is a genius.

October 5, 2009 Tags: UCB Posted in: Uncategorized One Comment

Eugene Mirman’s “God Is a Twelve-Year-Old Boy with Asperger’s” Review

“My first thought, whenever I walk into any place, is ‘[W]hat’s the weirdest thing?’” That early line sets the perfect tone for Eugene Mirman’s newest CD God is a Twelve-Year-Old Boy with Asperger’s. It’s a mischievous ride through an absurdist mind and absolutely not to be missed.

This is Mirman’s third CD (the others are “En Garde, Society” and “The Absurd Nightclub Comedy of Eugene Mirman“) and his voice still sounds fresh and novel. Mirman’s brain, I’m convinced, doesn’t see our ridiculous world through the standard-issue prism and that slightly skewed perspective keeps him from veering into boring observational material. His work remains charming and unique because, in his playful mind, bears can gentrify the suburbs of poor towns. And a lovely Cape Cod whale watch is actually an opportunity to confuse and befuddle tourists. To Mirman, if an airline loses your luggage, that’s not fodder for some easy quip about corporate bureaucracy; rather, it’s an invitation to create radio theater and large-scale performance art. His world is a gleeful space to inhabit for 41.5 minutes.

God Is a Twelve-Year-Old-Boy with Asperger’s comes out on Oct. 6th, but you can pre-order it today from Sub-Pop Records.

October 4, 2009 Tags: Eugene Mirman Posted in: Uncategorized No Comments

Trailer for the upcoming Eddie Izzard film “Believe”

Offered without comment for now, but I am certainly curious.

October 2, 2009 Tags: Eddie Izzard Posted in: Uncategorized No Comments

Jordan Morris: Rock Band Therapist

Downside: Blink 182.
Upside: Jordan Morris with a pipe? Adorable.

September 30, 2009 Tags: Jordan Morris, Rock band therapist Posted in: Uncategorized No Comments

God is a Twelve-Year-Old Boy with Asperger’s by Eugene Mirman – Available for Pre-Order at Sub Pop

You should totally pre-order this CD today. For at least two reasons.

1. I heard Mirman perform the title bit at Bumbershoot and it was genius. I think he seriously influenced the theological path of the man sitting next to me.

2. I have the tote bag that comes free with the pre-oder and it’s completely adorable. Also: it holds like 12 apples, easy. Enough for a several pies. And autumn is upon us, folks. You’re gonna want a *lot* of apples. To summarize: Buying this CD = more pie for everyone!

Seriously, though, if the rest of the CD reaches near the level of the title track, this will be gold.

September 30, 2009 Posted in: Uncategorized No Comments

An Interview with Sam Seder

While we were in NYC for the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, I had the chance to interview Sam Seder. Seder is a writer, director, radio host and comedian. He co-wrote, produced, directed, and acted in the feature length comedy Who’s the Caboose?, and also co-wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the six-part mini-series sequel to Caboose, entitled Pilot Season. Pilot Season can currently be seen on MyDamnChannel and will soon be released on DVD. Seder also produced the comedy feature A Bad Situationist which you can acquire on DVD here.

Here are a few clips from A Bad Situationist, starting with the opening minutes:

And here is one of the many great extras that come on the film’s DVD. It features a young Steven Colbert and brief bits of Jon Benjamin and Ross Brockley. (Was that Leo Allen on guitar?) Seriously: why don’t you own this already? And you call yourself a collector? Pathetic. Please remedy this oversight now. Thank you.

And now [ahem] on with the bio:

Sam also hosted a series of talk radio and internet shows for Air America including Majority Report (with Janeane Garofalo), The Sam Seder Show, Maron v Seder (with Marc Maron) and Breakroom Live (again with Maron). The shows established him as a political commentator and also led to multiple appearances on CNN, MSNBC and CNBC. In 1996, Seder also co-authored F.U.B.A.R.: America’s Right Wing Nightmare with Stephen Sherrill.

Seder has also written numerous comedy half-hour pilots for NBC, Fox, CBS and a number of studios. His acting credits include ten network sitcom pilots. Sam commented on a number of these pilots when he participated in the Mirman festival as part of the delightful panel titled “Why Talented People Make Terrible Shows.”

Sam Seder and Jessi Klein at the 2009 Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival

Resilient Rabbit: Thanks for taking time to talk with us.

Sam Seder: No problem.

Resilient Rabbit: The first thing that your followers would probably want to know is, now that Breakroom Live is over, are you planning to continue working in either live radio or podcasting?

Sam Seder: Absolutely. I am currently trying to put something together for radio and podcasting.

Resilient Rabbit: That’s good to hear. You’ve assembled such a diverse career to date — working as an actor, director, writer and radio host. Is there any one type of creative work that you prefer? Which is your favorite?

Sam Seder: I’ve found that I like doing radio. My experience with radio has been very straightforward. I didn’t have to deal with everything I had to deal with when doing television. I just got a job and did it for five years. Though it took me a while to get used to how disposable it was.

Resilient Rabbit: What do you mean by disposable?

Sam Seder: You do 15 hours of programming in a week. That you prep perhaps a total of 15 hours. But when I did Pilot Season, producing a half hour could take three or four months.

Resilient Rabbit: Right, but then it can have a longer life. Various audiences might see it multiple times in different formats. So let’s talk about that a bit. I’m interested in hearing the story of how Pilot Season made it to MyDamnChannel and what made you decide to take it over there. Must be gratifying to see it reach a whole new audience, but how did that all come about?

Sam Seder: It was fairly straightforward. I had done Who’s the Caboose? in ’97. It was wildly unsuccessful commercially. Or even in the independent film circles. Because it was really the first all-digital video fictional movie converted to film. We had the prototype digi-beta camera. It was a little ahead of its time in that way cause everyone was like “Why did you shoot this on video?”

Resilient Rabbit: Do you think people weren’t ready for the way that it looked?

Sam Seder: No, they couldn’t really tell. But the agents didn’t take it as real. And the other part was that people like Sarah Silverman, David Cross and Andy Dick were just not yet known. Particularly in the film world at that time. They were known primarily by comedy fans. So I had this and Lauren Zalaznick at Trio had seen that movie and had always liked it. And we were going back and forth and I’d always had this idea to do a sequel. I loved the idea of doing a sequel to a movie that nobody had seen. And at that point I was a big fan of documentaries. Are you familiar with the Seven Up series?

Resilient Rabbit: Absolutely.

Sam Seder: I thought that was kind of fun. I could do a fictional Seven Up series. Pilot Season was a combination of Seven up series and Helter Skelter because I wanted to see what would happen to the characters when they watch the old movie. So you’ll notice that each character in there watches the old movie and that steers them off in one direction or another. Or at least most of them. And so we did it on Trio and as you know, or may not know, when we delivered they essentially announced that the network was going under. It was their first and last scripted series.

Resilient Rabbit: I didn’t realize that Trio’s life span was that short.

Sam Seder: It was only on for – three months, maybe? Maybe not even that long relative to anyone’s ability to see it. Because within about a month of us being on Trio, they had lost about 90% of their clearance. I’m not exactly sure why. So it was kicking around for a long time. I think Lauren was trying to get it on Bravo, but there was just no home for it. It was more or less orphaned. So I contacted them and said “If you aren’t going to do anything with it, can I have it back?” And they said “Sure.”

And that must have been about one year ago. I was doing Eugene’s festival last year and was on a panel with David Wain – a reunion for Apt 2F – and his stuff is on there [MyDamnChannel]. So I asked him how he liked working with them. They are one of the few that is doing original video content. That is doing it properly.

Resilient Rabbit: And what does “properly” mean to you in this context?

Sam Seder: They are more focused. It’s not social media. It’s not user-generated. And they are focused on doing series.

Resilient Rabbit: Which brings me to this: you mentioned Seven Up, have you considered doing a sequel to Pilot Season?

Sam Seder: I am sort of batting that around right now.

Resilient Rabbit: That would be wonderful! I hope we’ll hear more about that. Changing the subject a bit: I was listening to an old interview Jon Benjamin did with The Sound of Young America and he mentioned that you used to do a bit of stand up back in the day. Did you enjoy it? Have you ever considered doing it again?

Sam Seder: No. I did stand up for about five years and then I started doing characters in the alternative scene. I came down to New York in 1994, the week that Rebar was starting. By the end of that year, I think I was booking the Toyota Comedy Festival there. That was 94 or 95. I stopped doing stand up in 96. Every year or so, I’ll do five minutes. But I don’t like it. It’s not the medium for me. I don’t like doing the same routine each time. I ended up doing a lot of anti-comedy. Which was successful in that it was not funny.

Resilient Rabbit: Is that the definition of anti-comedy?

Sam Seder: (laughing) It is to me!

Resilient Rabbit: Fair enough. So you mentioned that you were part of one of the panels for Mirman’s comedy festival last year. Was it a fun festival to work on?

Sam Seder: Sure. It was very fun. We did a reunion for Apt 2F. And everyone who showed up had a different idea of what the panel was supposed to be.

Resilient Rabbit: And then the panel that you are doing this year “Why Talented People Make Terrible Shows“. I noticed you mentioned on Twitter that you are going back and looking at a great deal of your past work for this one. Does that mean you will be airing some of the same clips you showed on Breakroom Live in the “Sam Coulda Been Somebody” segment?

Sam Seder: Yes. That’s where I was weeding through. This panel is fairly unambiguous. The Apt 2F reunion there were different levels of irony involved. For this one, I’m going to be showing clips from Guy Island and the retrospective of my acting work that Bill Buckendorf created. Because it has so many shots of me kissing Nancy McKeon. It would be wrong of me not to share that with the world.

Resilient Rabbit: I appreciate that. Do you have your own theory as to why talented people make terrible shows?

Sam Seder: Can you hold on a sec? The UPS guy is here.

Resilient Rabbit: Sure.

Sam returns with a big box.
Sam Seder: This is exciting!

Resilient Rabbit: What is it?

Sam Seder: Speaking of people doing terrible shows, I think we are going to be making a DVD of Pilot Season!

Resilient Rabbit: That’s fantastic!

Sam Seder: I’m so business savvy. It occurred to me just the other day that “[H]ey wait a second. There are almost 200,00 people watching each episode of Pilot Season on MyDamnChannel. Maybe now would be a good time to sell it on DVD!” So pathetic that it took me that long! Sort of indicative of a problem that I have. I’m too satisfied with the notion of “[A]t least people are seeing it.”

Resilient Rabbit: Well, with independent film, having people see it is an excellent start!

Sam Seder: That’s the thing. With “Caboose” I was thinking “[E]veryone that I wanted to see it, has seen it so far.” But that was only 15 or 20 people! And that was not a smart attitude to have because I financed that whole project myself. I’m not still paying it off . . .

Resilient Rabbit: That’s good.

Sam Seder: . . . but I certainly have not made the money back. That’s for sure.

Resilient Rabbit: I suspect that it’s hard, as an independent, to make the money back on every project that you do.

Sam Seder: You’re not supposed to spend that kind of money on your own films. And I’ve done it now on multiple occasions. I can’t say that I regret doing that . . .

Resilient Rabbit: To say that you are “not supposed to” would seem discouraging to new independent film makers . . .

Sam Seder: [interrupts] I spent too much money.

Resilient Rabbit: Well, that’s a separate issue I suppose.

Sam Seder: When we did “Caboose”, there was no Final Cut Pro. And on the Avid we were using, an eight gig drive was the size of this box (holds up the large UPS delivery). And we were like “[I]t’s so amazing that we can do this!” But just to get stills from the movie, I had to break into Broadway Video and do it. The stuff that you can do now is so much easier.

Resilient Rabbit: So what is in the box?

Sam Seder: These are extras that were cut out of the original film.

Resilient Rabbit: How fun! I’ll look forward to seeing those. Okay. Final question. I read recently that you’ve moved your family back into the city. Does that mean we are never going to hear from Survival Sam again?

Sam Seder: Oh. I don’t know. We’ve got to figure out what to do with our house upstate. The new Survival Sam may be about dealing with an underwater mortgage.

September 29, 2009 Tags: Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, Sam Seder Posted in: Uncategorized 3 Comments

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