The show went great. I, in particular, was amazing. I basically was the best comedian ever to grace a stage (Sinbad not included.) I didn’t realize until yesterday morning that it was June, 6th. (6/6/6) Oh fuck! The mark of the beast. Not a good omen for a comedy show. The last time there was a comedy show on that date, was in 1906. It was a vaudeville performance and the performers, a clown team called, “Silly Willy and Goofy Ben”, were struck by lightning in the middle of their juggling bit and the whole town caught on fire and died. That’s not true. I just made it up. But thankfully, nothing terrible happened last night at least not that I know of. In other words, Everything went off without a hitch.
That’s a saying. It means everything went off without a hitch.
B. The evening started with some fantastic music courtesy of the band King Of France .
They sang the song “What’s A Body” from the closing end credits of The Baxter. I highly recommend checking them out. Steve Salett the lead singer is also the brother of Peter Salett who did music for Wet Hot American Summer and The Baxter. So, back to the show, Here’s a transcript of my opening remarks: Hello everyone and welcome to the first installment of this four part series here at Rififi: “Michael Showalter’s Bogus Journey Into Night.” Now before we begin I’d like to first pay tribute to the two men who inspired the title of this show. They are, in no particular order, Eugene O’Neill and Keanu (which I pronounced Kah-noo) Reeves. That’s right, Eugene O’Neill and Kanu Reeves. One, Eugene O’Neill, a great playwright and Pulitzer prize winning dramatist of such works of art as, “Desire Under The Elms”; “Morning Becomes Elektra” and “The Ice Man Cometh.” The other, Kanu Reeves, a shitty actor in some pretty good movies, such as “The Matrix”, “Sweet November”, “The Devil’s Advocate” and “Johnny Mneumonic.” Tonight’s installment concerns itself with that most elusive and sometimes painful phenomenon of creative inspiration, the failed experiment. Now there have been many failed experiments throughout history certainly the Holocaust ranks high among them: New Coke: The current war in Iraq: David Bowie’s rock band Tin Machine. We have a common saying in the comedy world: “Kill Ratio.” What does this mean, kill ratio? Well, it refers to the number of jokes that a comic writes against the number of jokes that he or she actually performs. Commonly a comedian might write 5, 6, or 7 jokes for every one joke that actually makes it onto the stage. I myself have a one-to-one joke written, joke performed ratio but that’s because I”m lazy and not very imaginative. Tonight, I have asked some very special guests to dig into their own personal joke graveyards and retrieve some of that discarded material, comedic b-sides if you will.
Leo Allen performed some earlier work. He told a joke he’d written about how he had advice for crazy people, “Stop it with all the faces.” That was my favorite. Eugene read aloud from the journal of a hook-handed murderer. It had lines in it like, “Went to store today and bought long trench coat. Hung out in woods for 3 hours alone. Saw teenagers making out. They’re playing with fire.” Janeane Garofalo ranted about how fucked up our country is.
House DJs SEANKATE.
Next week’s show: Andrea Rosen, Chelsea Peretti, Demetri Martin. It’s SLIDE SHOW WEEK. Other things too…
11 Comments
That looked like it rocked. you rock & I like the kill ratio concept- that’s very interesting. I wish I could have been there-
Good Job Champ!
good going, M. Night Showalterman!
ohhh, a show! how fantastic! sounds like it was a blast, a ball! a blasting ball! I need money, and I need it quick, for your next show. its sucks that getting from here to new york city for a night and back itself costs me about 50 bucks. not that you care to hear about my financial issues, but its 5 am and I have nothing better to do with no humans to interact with and not a bit of the sleepies. that’s why I come here to thank you for entertaining blogs. wanna make a date to go see the apple cube on 5th ave? my life would be complete if you’d agree. all my love.
I just got the Baxter soundtrack in the mail yesterday. Totally awesome. I couldn’t get that Baxter theme out of my head. I tried but I kept passing out. Even if I suceeded I’m not for sure if my computer would play spoonfuls of brain anyway. Time for upgrade?
Good thing iTunes wouldn’t listen to me to add it because I would have missed Elliot’s eclectic taste in music. That Elliot doesn’t even know how funny he is which is funnier because I feel more superior than him. The End.
THOSE DJ’S ARE HOTT
Yeah the one on the left is uber hot, I’d hit it.
Yes the DJ’s are totally hot- & I’m saying that as a sraight woman.
I like this blog, Michael, but why’d you slam Kahnew so hard? I mean, jeez. Have you ever seen “River’s Edge”?
I’m so glad King of France is on Myspace. I really dig that song.
Hello webmaster…I Googled for sinbad comedian, but found your page about …and have to say thanks. nice read.