Saturday 1/12
This is one of my favorite podcasts, and the thought of seeing it live embiggens my soul. It’s the only must-see show on this page.
The conceit is that these are original radio plays performed by a troupe of talented comedic actors. Paul F. Tompkins, Paget Brewster, Busy Phillips, Nathan Fillion, Patton Oswalt, John Hodgman, Colin Hanks, Joshua Malina, Alison Brie, and I can’t continue any list after mentioning Miss Brie. She’s a list-stopper.
The writing is whip-smart, hilarious, and often more touching than it has any right to be.
There are several recurring “shows” within the Thrilling Adventure hour, but the 2 main ones are “Beyond Belief” and “Sparks Nevada, Marshall on Mars”. Underrated is “Captain Laserbeam”, especially since they added a gravelly-voiced Dark Knighty character (Phillip Fathom).
Beyond Belief stars my comedic hero Paul F. Tompkins and Paget Brewster as a Frank & Sadie Doyle, a pair of happily married and joyfully alcoholic NY socialites who see ghosts and solve supernatural mysteries. They are ridiculously good at delivering the silliest of lines. I could listen to Paget recite names of African animals all day. Also they talk about and drink booze a lot. It’s episodic, but the depth comes from the love & devotion the characters have for each other. Here’s an older snippet:
Winnie Cooper getting all femme fatale
The other “headliner” is Sparks Nevada. It’s the story of a Earthling (Marc Evan Jackson) who becomes a sheriff on the Wild West-like planet of Mars. He takes himself a little too seriously, is not emotionally available, and is easily grossed out. Also, he has robot fists. He has a Martian sidekick Croach (Mark Gagliardi) who is a stickler for the pronunciation of his home planet and for the varying levels of “onus” that tie him to Sparks. There’s an on-again, off-again love affair with The Red Plains Rider (Busy Phillips), and countless other opportunities to make puns that mix the old west with outer space (e.g. there’s a showdown with a robot called “Techs”).
This has longer story arcs, character development, and genuine pathos. You actually come to care about these characters, which is the basic litmus test for good fiction.
This is not the best clip, but trust me, it’s good. This MP3 is a better example.
I’m totally from Earth too! We have so much in common…
Given that we’ll be leaving Philly at 7:30AM on Saturday, I doubt we’ll be up for this midnight show. But if we are, it sounds interesting.
Here’s a 6-year old “best-of” reel.
There are lots of Community bit players in this video.
Plus, it has Brendon Small, who made Home Movies.
Sunday 1/13
7:30 – Asssscat (UCB-FREE)
Free improv with Matt Besser, Ian Walsh, Andrew Daly, & Ian Roberts? Yes, please.
This looks like a pilot for a Comedy Central show. I would have watched the hell out of this. And not just because it mentions Al Albert’s Showcase!
I probably won’t see Amy Poehler AND Tina Fey, but I better see one of them, goddamit.
Then there’s this one, which is like an unaired Comedy Central pilot for Date Rape Cops.
“Yeah, but I’m the guy who showed up…”
He might be the funniest guy on Twitter.
He likes his women like woman think women should be liked.
9 - Power Violence (Complex Hollywood – $?)
This show starts off with moshing and seems to devolve into a ramshackle mix of standup, sketch, and not sure what else. Zach Galifianakis made an appearance this year, so that’s something.
This show is sold out, and why wouldn’t it be? You’ve got Jean-Ralphio from Parks & Rec and the one decent male character on Happy Endings. And a squirrelly third guy I don’t know.
There is a stand-by line, so we may try to get into that and then just yell at the third guy to name something he’s been in.
Jean-Ralphio’s hair was very Jean, not very Ralphio at this point in their career.
Not since Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa has there been such a Oreo Double Stuffy romance.
I love the almost Dennis Farina reference.
Monday, 1/14
This was a weekly show in Brooklyn that I always meant to see, but never got the chance. Now I do. We’ll need to decide between this and What’s Up Tiger Lily?, but this week’s lineup which features Paul Scheer, Jonah Ray, Jon Daly, & Jane Borden probably trumps WUTL?’s lineup of Marc Maron & some other guys and gals.
Love Kristen Schaal, and the spirit exhibited in this non-embeddable video seems fresh and fun and then fresh again.
You may think I’m crazy, but this “Works in Progress” show will probably lose out to one of the other shows with multiple comedians. Oh well, we’ll always have Mystery Men.
Someone took the time to take this clip and post it to YouTube. It’s over, man.
Maria Bamford and another blond host this show, which has had some killer lineups in recent weeks. Based on name recognition alone, however, this week, as mentioned above, is a bit underwhelming. Marc Maron would be interesting, but I’m not familiar with the other comedians. Feel free to correct me about how wrong I am, man.
This is the only clip I could find, so it is what it is.
Secretly filmed behind a menu.
11 – Stage Four (Anthony Jeselnik – $5)
Saw AJ at the Troc last year and it was just OK. He crafted great jokes, but every joke was pretty much the same Roast format that has jump-started his career. It got repetitive. As the clip below, shows, he’s capable of different things, so may be 11 PM on a Monday will bring a little more variety.
But if we go to this, we might be able to see Amy Schumer bend over and pick stuff up.
Tuesday, January 15th
Another of my favorite podcasts. Host Doug Benson has a loose format that involves guests discussing movies they’ve seen recently, then playing movie-centric games. Games you’d play on long car rides to pass the time.
The best game is The Leonard Maltin Game, in which the contestants try to guess a movie based on unhelpful clues from Leonard’s review of said movie. Oh, and they can bid Name That Tune-style on how many actors (from bottom-billed upward) they get as extra clues.
It’s very much dependent on the guests. sometimes the games provide fodder for comedy (i.e. people don’t understand the game) and sometimes no one cares about the games.
The best eps I remember are (1) Paul F. Tompkins impersonating 3 different celebrities (Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Garry Marshall, & Ice T) and (2) TJ Miller, Jeff Garlin, and Pete Holmes, who’ve all hijacked individual episodes, combined to take the podcast to Cuba. I think it was 10 minutes in before Doug got a word in edgewise. And they talked so long, not a single game was played or fuck given.
If Paul and Allison Brie made a baby, I would imprint the shit out it.
This is taking over Comedy Bang Bang’s long-running Tuesday night slot, so there’s a lot of breathy anticipation about it. They haven’t listed the comedians yet, but its debut show had a great lineup and good word.
May have to decide between this and Holy Fuck.
One benefit is that people who go to the DLM show can stay for this one.
A Flock of Seagulls called and want their royalties because they signed a shitty licensing deal.
This probably gets squeezed out, but it’s a great concept, and it has Dan Telfer who makes the best dinosaur humor.
The best dinosaur is the one in your heart.
9 – Holy Fuck! (Downtown Independent Theater – FREE)
They’re recording an album over 4 different shows with some pretty cool comedians:
TJ Miller
Eric Andre
Sean Patton
Andy Peters
Hampton Yount
Raj Desai
Lizzy Cooperman
Sean Green
Jake Weisman
Matt Ingebretson
Jeff Wattenhofer
Dave Ross
It’s getting ironically romantic all up in here!
9:30 – Flyover Comedy (Hollywood Improv – $14)
Koechner!
Kasher!
Sklar!
Sklar!
