Four very funny comedians still stand in the running for CMT’s Next Big Comic. Get your votes in today before these comedians face off at the Stardome, Rooftop’s partner club in Birmingham. Here’s a list of who is still in the running:
Michael Palascak (Orland Park, Il)
Cy Amundson (Minneaplois, MN)
Keith Alberstadt (New York, NY)
Nate Bargatze (New York, NY)
Now get out there, tweet, blog, shout, poke, post and show your love for your favorite comic!
You’ve returned to me! How glad I am to see you back! Truly, if you love something, set it free, and if it returns –as you did– then it was meant to be. Tell me, Reiders, did you know our fates were spun together? Did you know that this moment was written on our hearts?
I love you.
Happenings! Last week I performed that 20 minute set I was booked for (discussed in the last blog post) and ended up headlining the show, having one of the best sets of the night. It was great to do so much time, especially as a good feature set has been my goal now for a while. Before I came out to New York, I had felt I was getting ready to start featuring –I had the time, I liked the jokes, it had been hinted at by the owner of my home club. But there’s a big difference between being able to do a feature set and doing one you would be proud of. It’s no longer that I simply have enough jokes that I could string together for 25 minutes. From constant performing and writing and revising I now have a series of polished bits that get consistent reactions, stand out, and are fun to do. Of course I still need to get used to that amount of time, learn how to use it properly and get more comfortable in it, but I now feel my material is where it should be for that kind of set.
I feel like I’m getting closer to finding my voice. I know the kind of jokes I like to do, and it’s not a small specific kind –I constantly use Jack Handy of “deep thoughts” fame to explain. In his essays and writings, he covers a wide variety of topics, a wide variety of formats –rarely does he reuse material or beat the same idea or kind of joke to death. Rather, Jack Handy has perfected a brand of humor. He has a point of view, a persona, a series of subject matters and particular way of phrasing things so that as diverse as his jokes may be, they have a unique Jack Handy feel to them that’s in some ways as hard to pinpoint as it is easy to instantly recognize. That’s my big goal: I want not just a character on stage, a gimmick or a demographic to call my own, I want an entire brand of humor. I’m not there yet, I may never fully be, but now more than ever I can sense that my steps are in the right direction. I have a new found certainty in my writing, I’m not just writing jokes, I’m really writing “Reid jokes.” Or maybe I’m just arrogant.
Finally, highlight of the (last two) week(s): I did an open mic a Friday or two ago, in a strange Asian-urban performance venue. Somehow, between the five minute set of the guy before me and my set, the hosts managed to spend 45 minutes introducing other people from the bar, including a fight choreographer/martial artist who spent twenty minutes sharing karate stories, illustrating a round house kick, sparring with his wife, and most notably chopping a cucumber in half on my stomach with a sword. I’m not sure what I learned from this. I didn’t even learn “don’t do that again,” because it got a really good reaction when after he left I came on stage to do my set. I’m afraid I now I associate “threatening my own life” with “doing a good job!” Hooray?
Luckily, the armistice in the war of words these days muzzles our combative Congress, not comedians. Even luckier for us humor-hungry civilians, our irascible representatives have yet to enact fun-control laws, thereby not depriving the rabble of Auggie Smith and other amusing agitators like him.
From his post onstage, Smith, dedicated protector of our unalienable rights to laughs, liberty and the pursuit of happiness every !@%&@ second of our !@%&@ lives, freely unloads on the charlatans and idiots who’ve made the mistake of ending up in his comic crosshairs (sorry, Sarah Palin, we mean comic surveyor symbols).
Unlike the working dead — spiritless adults who every weekday robotically wake up, get up and show up at monotonous jobs — Smith sounds like he has tons o’ fun at work. The point of becoming a comedian, agreed? You sense it in his Lewis Black lite attitude (inflamed but not spontaneously combustible) and hear it in his voice (peeved but not postal) on Smell the Thunder, his equally derisive, incisive and clever new CD from Rooftop Comedy Productions.
Comedian Hari Kondabolu has appeared on John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show,Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Live at Gotham, but on February 11th, he’s hitting even bigger marks: his very own Comedy Central Presents.
Nathan Timmel shot Hari some questions via email, and after snafus involving spam filters, received these insightful answers…
NT: You have a strong educational background; what pulled you towards artistic expression, specifically comedy?
HK: I’ve been writing jokes since I was 16 and I first did stand-up at my high school when I was 17, so comedy has been a part of my life for quite some time. Making people laugh was always the biggest rush I got as a kid and since I wasn’t athletically gifted or had any musically talent, comedy seemed like the only reasonable thing for me to do given my skill set. I dabbled in poetry for a bit in high school too, but when people started laughing at my heartfelt scribbles about teenage longing and unrequited love…my direction was clear. I mean, as I got older and my world view started to develop, I started seeing the power of standup as a way to express frustration and create a unique experience for myself and the audience that was not only funny, but potentially powerful for those who could relate to what I was talking about.
NT: How would you describe your comedic style to someone who has never seen you?
HK: I like to play between the space between discomfort and laughter. I like long set-ups that build to something. I’m most interested in the big topics like racism, religion, sexism, colonialism…etc…and the ways even small day-to-day things could have larger implications and a history. Actually, as I type this, I realize that this will not help anyone who has not seen me perform to imagine what I do on stage. Don’t they have e-mail? I’ll just send them a clip of my stuff. Probably the bit about Cocoa Butter or the ridiculousness of Mexican stereotypes.
NT: Did you bring an overall theme to your Comedy Central Special, airing on Feb. 11th?
HK: I think the special I taped didn’t have a clear theme, but did show my range. There was definitely a lot of discussion or race, religion and the environment and some weirder stuff too. Again, no firm theme, but I felt it was a strong collection of material. I’m looking forward to seeing how 40 minutes of tape was edited for television.
NT: You keep a blog; is it for comedy, other thoughts, both, or neither?
HK: The blog on my webpage (http://www.harikondabolu.com) does a little bit of everything. It used to be primarily for essays and rants, but it’s turning more into a place where I post pictures and videos I’ve made. I do sometimes use the space to write about things I find funny or interesting and want to discuss in greater detail than jokes generally allow.
NT: You’ve written/produced a short film—Manoj. Is writing/acting where you see your career heading?
HK: I’m definitely interested in film and television, especially the writing aspect. I don’t get too many opportunities to act, but I’m collaborating with someone whose on the same page, it can be extremely rewarding. I don’t know where my career is heading exactly, but I definitely plan to keep writing a variety of things and performing.
NT: What are the best and worst aspects about performing live?
HK: When you have an audience that gets what you are doing, it’s pretty incredibly. Your frustrations feel validated. You feel like all the work is paying off. You feel like you’re not alone in the world and people are seeing what you’re seeing and are appreciating what you’ve just contributed to their lives. You feel free up there and are able to talk off the cuff and let the jokes fall where they may. When there is a disconnect with an audience, either because your point of view and style is not connecting…or they are extremely drunk, and it’s a struggle up there or 20, 30, 40 minutes…you being to ask yourself existential questions like “What am I doing? Why am I here? Am I living a life worth living? Socrates felt “an unexamined life is not worth living.” All I do is examine my life and then share it on stage. This is a good thing? Didn’t they kill Socrates for doing this? I bet, no one in this little basement knows who Socrates is.”
CMT’s Next Big Comic Competition is back! Last year’s winner was Pete Lee, and this year we have 12 more Rooftop Comedy comics vying for the honor.
Here are this year’s contestants:
Andrew Norelli, Los Angeles, CA
Cy Amundson, Minneapolis, MN
Keith Alberstadt, New York, NY
Tom Segura, Los Angeles, CA
Kelly MacFarland, Boston, MA
Nate Bargatze, New York, NY
Andy Sandford, Atlanta, GA
Tim Harmston, Minneapolis, MN
Matt White, Atlanta, GA
Sean Keane, San Francisco, CA
Andy Woodhull, Chicago, IL
Michael Palascak, Orland Park, IL
The first round of voting is underway, so please visit CMT and cast your vote today!
Here’s this year’s voting schedule:
2/7-2/13 – Round 1 – Online voting eliminates 4 comics, bringing it from 12 to 8
2/14-2/20 – Round 2 – Online voting eliminates 4 comics, bringing it from 8 to 4
2/22 – Final Four Event at partner club Stardome in Birmingham, Alabama – final clips will be generated during this show
2/28 – 3/6 – Final Round of online voting
3/7 – Winner is announced!
Tweet, blog, post and spread the word – there are some of Rooftop’s favorite comics in this competition and we want to support them!
St. Cloud State is new to NCCC this year, but their comics are already top notch! The Quarry in Atwood was packed with students who were treated to a very funny show by comics of all levels of experience and all different styles. Congrats to the St. Cloud team! Next up, St. Cloud will compete against the University of Minnesota on March 21st at House of Comedy.
Kelly MacFarland is one of Boston’s most beloved comics, leading a career that has taken her from NBC’s The Biggest Loser to Caribou, Maine and everywhere in between. Kelly’s debut comedy album, Bombshell, showcases her style that is equal parts smart, sassy, charming, and confident. Rooftop and Kelly recently caught up on Boston running culture, her new album, and what life lessons you can take a away from having a prosthetic leg hurled at you on stage.
Rooftop: Does Bombshell draw on jokes that have long been a part of your comedy or is it mostly highlighting new material?
Kelly MacFarland: It’s a mix of both. It’s a shorter album. I feel like it’s a good first album for me and there’s plenty more material, so if I want to do a follow-up, I’ve got plenty already in my holster to do that. Plus I try to write new stuff all the time. So it’ll be good to get this album out there, get fans a little bit more excited and finally when I’m working on the road and people say, “Oh, do you have any CDs for sale?” I can actually say, “Why yes I do”.
RT: How did you go about finding so much material in health and wellness?
KM: I probably started exercising more six or seven years ago. I think comedians tend to write about what they’re doing currently in their life—whatever excites them. So for me, I think I am just always out doing something new to be taxing on my body and that seems to be what I’ve been writing about for a while. I also write about not having kids. I guess if I got knocked up I would suddenly start writing about having kids.
RT: Do devout yogis and runners appreciate your humor?
KM: I have a lot of people who come up to me after shows andI get a ton of letters, mostly from runners, that will say, “You know, I run and you’re absolutely right. You’re dead on”. I think it helps them to not take themselves so seriously. I’m kind of a curvy girl and I have to work out. If I didn’t work out, I would have to be doing a podcast of my stand-up, because I wouldn’t be able to fit out of my house. I’d still be adorable, but I’d have to be lowered out on a crane. But I literally feel like I started telling those jokes because I couldn’t take myself too seriously and I think what is appealing about my stand-up—not that there’s a long list—but what is appealing is that I kind of help people realize that maybe you’ve taken something a little too seriously and maybe there’s some humor there. So I get a lot of runners who come up. They’ll see me and then a week later, they’re out with their running club and they tooted or they have to pee their pants.
RT: That must be especially refreshing in Boston’s hardcore running culture.
KM: They are so annoying. We have so much snow here right now and they’re still jogging. It’s ridiculous. Get inside and have some wine.
RT: What was it like to open for the long-running show, Puppetry of the Penis?
KM: Well the human penis is way more pliable than I ever realized. It was the first time I was working somewhere where I wasn’t allowed to talk about the main event. I think that for me was almost like comedy boot camp, because everybody in the audience knows why they’re there. They’re there to see two naked guys. They know that they’re going to do things to themselves that’s going to make everybody wince and I couldn’t mention anything about it. So it’s not like I was at an insurance company and not allowed to talk about insurance. This was people doing penile origami. It was really kind of challenging, but it was a good lesson that I could focus on my own comedy and not think twice about what was going to happen after.
RT: I read somewhere that you once got a prosthetic leg hurled at you onstage. Please tell me more.
KM: I had probably been doing stand-up for a year and a half maybe and I worked this club up in Caribou, Maine. It wasn’t an Elks Lodge, but it was the equivalent of one and I probably hadn’t really found my voice yet as a stand-up. I was still kind of just doing my jokes and just trying to make it through my time with some laughs and feel good about what I had done, but this one…It was a group of four people at a table and they were being really loud and really obnoxious. They were being a little relentless and I was like, “I appreciate you guys are having a good time. Just try and bring it down”. They quieted down, but then a couple minutes later, this prosthetic leg came flying through the air and landed at my feet on the stage. It had an orange hunting sock with a work boot and it was a really genuine moment for me, where I was like, “Are you f-ing kidding me right now? This is your rebuttal for me asking you to be quiet? You’re just gonna toss your leg up here?” And then he stood up to come get it and I was like, “No. I don’t think so. I’m gonna be keeping it until we’re done with the show”. So I perched it on the stool and then proceeded to do the rest of my set.
Awesome event tonight at Emerson College in downtown Boston! Students chose comedy over the Super Bowl and packed The Cabaret to cheer on their friends. We had over 20 students show up to perform with some really impressive talent. Super fun. Congrats to the Emerson Comedy Team!
Wow, awesome event at Boston College. Nearly 400 students came out on an icy night to support college comedy. We had 20 performers try out for the team – with just eight advancing. The competition was stiff and all performers were solid. Next up, BC will compete against Emerson at the Regional Rivals on 3/30 at Mottley’s!
