The man. The myth. The Best of Fest (of the just past 2009 Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival). The Guest Editor, Moshe Kasher. Himself. In the text.

Action Items:
- Buy his new (Rooftop Comedy produced) album, “Everyone You Know is Going to Die…And Then You Are” on iTunes.

- Those in the San Francisco-esque area attend Moshe’s CD release party for the aforementioned album at the SF Punch Line on July 7th.

With that said, here are his picks.
Blackass
It’s like he says, everybody needs a blackass sometimes.

Jeanne Donaldson
Jeanne talks about what a lot of us…let’s face it, ALL of us, go through. The constant habitual harassment faced by the butt virgins of the world from the buttfucker community. Bill Hicks shot and missed when he tried to approach Jeanne’s level of comedic honesty and social commentary. Move over Hicks, there’s a new legend in town.

Chris Schiappacasse - You’re a whore
Sometimes, music breaks through barriers and allows the “inner cynic” to let down its guard and just laugh. That’s what “you’re a whore” is to me. And let’s face it, you ARE a whore.

Kerosene
Kerosene used to take me with him on the road to the various Improvisations and Playboy clubs around the country just like Shecky Berman used to do for him. If anyone has influenced my style directly, it’s Kerosene. Watch a master at work and try to learn something.

Moshe Kasher - A new haircut
Frankly, this guy just sucks.

July 1st, 2009
Categories: Ruminations, theorizations and stuff

Its just another Tuesday at Rooftop Comedy.  Each member of the production team sits staring blankly at the computer screen, wondering if time could possibly pass any slower.  Then, a tired and somewhat delirious Emily Heller decides to send out an email in Medieval speak.  Boredom is averted, bursts of laughter fill the room at increasingly close intervals, and the rest my friends, is email history.

Emily H wrote:

GREETINGS from your benevolent overlord!!! The following ASPEN
clips have been programmed into this week’s episodes and need
to be produced. Can we can divide and conquer before Thursday?
Or as they said in ancient times: Thor’s day?

ALL HAIL ME
Emily
P.S. i didn’t get very much sleep last night
_______________________________________

blasphemy and the like…

July 1st, 2009
Categories: Overheard at the Rooftop Offices

It’s like you’re living your life thinking that everything from this year’s has been said and done and posted on ye olde blog or on the Rooftop Comedy Twitter or whatever, and now, what’s this?

The critically acclaimed series, A Tight 5ive, starring Punchline Magazine editor/dashing rogue Dylan Gadino shot some Tight 5ives in Aspen. And it is my pleasure to debut the first of what I’m sure to be a few episodes from Aspen. Two great tastes that taste great together. Now that’s what I call synergy ™.

So everybody, Ted Alexandro!

July 1st, 2009
Categories: A Tight 5ive

Guest interview by Jason Tanamor of Zoiks! Online.

And yet another tip from your Uncle Lar.
By Jason Tanamor

“You know what makes good crowds? Funny Comedians. That’s a tip from your uncle Lar.”

Another tip from Uncle Lar is this. “Everyone should drink. Alcohol is taxed and the money goes to schools,” Reeb said. “So drink up. You’re not a drunk, you’re an education provider.”

Larry Reeb, better known across stages as Uncle Lar, dishes out tips and one-liners to audiences throughout the United States. “I was working at an amusement park in the day, while I did stand-up at night,” Reeb said. “Everyone working there was like 15, so they started calling me Uncle Lar. On stage, after a joke I threw in, ‘That’s a tip from your Uncle Lar,’ and it stuck.”

Having said this, Larry Reeb does have jokes with his advice. In fact, he mixes up each show with new material. “I just do my thing but if it’s an older crowd I will clean it up a little bit,” Reeb said. And if he doesn’t think the material is working, he has a unique way of parting with the less than spectacular jokes. “I try a new joke 4 or 5 times. I try wording it in different ways then if it still doesn’t work, I sell it to a new comedian.”

He’s kidding of course. Unless there are some takers.

Read the rest of the interview, after the jump!

June 30th, 2009
Categories: Ruminations, theorizations and stuff

“Annie, get online!”
“Did a cat just get in a sweater and do a dance?”

June 29th, 2009
Categories: Overheard at the Rooftop Offices

Yesterday was a sad day for a lot of complicated reasons. Music fans everywhere are lamenting the loss of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, one of many people’s childhood icons and one of the greatest performers of all time. Meanwhile, hacky comedians everywhere are mourning the death of Michael Jackson, alleged super creep turned punchline. Let’s not forget, though, that before he became the go-to reference for lazy humorists everywhere, he was just an unbelievably talented kid singing about how he had no idea what he’d grow up to be…

June 26th, 2009
Categories: Ruminations, theorizations and stuff

According to Page Six, everyone’s favorite Ghostbuster/melancholy comedic actor, Bill Murray, has been spotted multiple times in the past year partying with 20-something Brooklyn hipsters. His MO, apparently, is showing up unannounced, engaging in random conversations, and then leaving a room full of partygoers bewildered. Well, I guess if I were Bill Murray, I’d do it too.

Thanks to Chris Garcia for the tip!

June 24th, 2009
Categories: Ruminations, theorizations and stuff

“There’s no ‘E’ in the word ‘vagina,’ anywhere.”

“Yes there is. Next thing you’re gonna say is there’s no ‘Z’ in ‘penis.’”

June 24th, 2009
Categories: Overheard at the Rooftop Offices

It’s Paul F. Tompkins! From the TV! With Dylan from Punchline Magazine! At Comix Comedy Club! It was supposed to be a routine interview, but Paul had a bone to pick with Punchline Magazine! See for yourself:

June 24th, 2009
Categories: A Tight 5ive

In the future, once children learn about the TekWar, I believe that the legend of Cedric Devitt and Kriston Rucker needs to be told in classrooms across America. Who are Cedric Devitt and Kriston Rucker, you ask? They asserted America’s birthright as Earth’s most rockingest country of all times. By founding US Air Guitar and sending a US team to the Air Guitar World Championships in 2003, where like in D2: The Mighty Ducks and Rocky IV, USA was more than just a-okay and we took home first place in the Air Guitar World Championships.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

With Devitt’s and Rucker’s place in history secured, why not check out some of their Guest Editor picks below? It’s your civic duty, after all.

Cedric Devitt’s Picks
Christian Finnegan - My smelly movie moment
Chris deserves a shout out here. Mostly because he was the MC at the very first US Air Guitar Championships show in New York at the Pussy Cat lounge in 2003. And also because I think we still owe him fifty bucks for doing it.

Finesse Mitchell - Kids’ names are getting worse
Yes, it’s true that children’s names have become ridiculous. But not in a bad way.
I for one, intend to name my three children after a car….Daewoo, KIA and Mercedes.

Haji Outlaw - Dressed to fall
When you think about it, there’s so many things you can be too good looking for, right.
But not gravity. funny.

Kriston Rucker’s Picks
Alex Koll - 1999
I liked this clip because I’ve always enjoyed scrutinizing the lyrics of popular music, in search of logical inconsistencies or inexplicable nonsense. This particular inconsistency had inexplicably eluded me.

Green and Gray - Trainee mugger
I liked this clip because I’ve considered in the past…well, not so much being a mugger as being a somewhat more generalized robber, or perhaps burglar. I had no idea how to prepare though, and in the end stayed a more lawful course.

Tig Notaro - No moleste
I liked this clip because the real joke is actually about someone who didn’t understand the joke in the first place. This is just the kind of subtle self-consciousness we try to promulgate via instrument-less music competitions.

June 23rd, 2009
Categories: Guest Editors