Tig Notaro returned to the Conan stage last night, building off her hilarious last visit in September. Topics of the day included unusual reflections on her name, the bathing style of toddlers, and stool sounds. Be sure to watch all of Tig’s Rooftop clips. You can catch Tig on her weekly podcast Professor Blastoff, where she is joined by Kyle Dunnigan and David Huntsberger. Great job Tig!
Rooftop Comedy Productions is proud to release Christina Pazsitzky’s It’s Hard Being a Person. Christina’s debut comedy album shows off her style of comedy that’s taken her everywhere from Last Comic Standing to Chelsea Lately. Christina’s not afraid to wear her “Going Out” sweatpants to someplace fancy like Applebee’s or talk about her thing for fat guys, including her very funny husband Tom Segura. We recently chatted with Christina right before Thanksgiving to discuss this generation’s Brett Butler, her personal identification with sausage, and comedy in old Hungary.
Rooftop Comedy: Are you doing any traveling for Thanksgiving?
Christina Pazsitzky: No. Thankfully, my relatives are here in Los Angeles. My husband and I are hosting this year to get our drink on.
RT: You’ve expressed your intense dislike for the term “girl comic”. Do you think there’s still a degree of pressure on funny female stand-ups to be cutesy?
CP: I think the pressure is always there for girls to be agreeable and attractive, comic or not. The culture is starving for a female voice that doesn’t reinforce the norm. It’s all well and good to be girly—I’m not taking a dump on the girls that do that—but I think the culture is ripe for somebody like Roseanne or Brett Butler to kind of be that other voice. There needs to be balance in the comedy universe.
RT: Just this week, GQ magazine named Kristen Wiig “Bro of the Year”.
CP: Like Kristen’s so funny, she’s guy funny? It’s odd to have Comedians in GQ at all. Gone are the days when you could just have a personality and have a career. I’m trying to think…who’s that guy? Marty Feldman? He had one wonky eye and that guy was in a bunch of movies in the ‘80s. Well that culture is gone. I think it’s because of people like— not to knock him or his comedy—but Dane Cook, who was the first of that, “Oh my god. You’re so attractive and you’re funny?” Dane can sell tickets to guys and the girls who think he’s hot. But as far as posing for lad mags…I don’t see myself doing it, unless it’s the way Sarah Silverman did. She posed in a gorilla costume, which is great.
RT: So you were born in Hungary.
CP: Actually, no. For storytelling purposes, I condensed the details a bit. That popped out of my mouth in a Chardonnay haze during recording. My parents escaped from Hungary in ’69, fleeing the Communist regime, and they were put in a camp in Italy for a year and then the Catholic Church sponsored them to go to Canada. I was born in Canada, in Windsor, Ontario, across from Detroit. My father worked at a car factory in Detroit and we moved to Los Angeles when I was four. I grew up in a working class immigrant household. My parents never told me I was a “little princess” or any nonsense like that. On the outside, I look like a white blonde girl, but I’m made of sausage. I’m made of Hungarian kolbasz.
RT: Speaking of, sausage seems to be a common theme on It’s Hard Being a Person.
CP: I think it’s such an unconscious thing for me, because I really have a love for all processed meats. It’s just part of my upbringing. If you opened my father’s fridge right now, you would find at least 4 links. To me, sausage really speaks to what class you’re from, because it’s all the meat you’re not supposed to eat, but if it’s flavored just right, you can make it really good. But you can’t think about it. It is kind of a metaphor for life. You’re given these nasty bits and you try to put it together and make it palatable and tasty.
RT: What’s the comedy scene like in Hungary?
CP: I don’t know what exists now, I’m assuming they get our movies and stand-up. Stand-up is a really American art form, with some Brits and Australians thrown in, too. The only Hungarian stand up I ever knew of was a guy named Hofi Géza and he was a stand-up comedian during the Communist regime. Hofi was one of the very few subversive elements allowed during the regime, because he would make jokes about stuff that you knew had a double meaning. He was taking jabs at what was going on, but it was permitted because everyone loved Hofi. I’d listen to my dad’s records of Hofi when I was a little girl. I’d pick up on stuff here and there. I didn’t understand all the humor.
RT: When you were on MTV’s Road Rules, was there any pressure from the producers to be the funny blonde woman?
CP: I was actually, for many years, goth and punk growing up. I was very angry and very depressed. When I did Road Rules, I was studying philosophy in college and took myself very seriously. At best, I was snarky and sarcastic. They didn’t cast me because I was funny. They casted me because I was—I don’t know why. I was dumb, that’s for sure. I just wanted to see the world. I know my humor comes from being an angry, 14 year-old punk. I love that fiery, conscious, action-driven, DIY ethic. I’m proud though, to have been on Road Rules and in a time when they didn’t vote people off or set them on fire. Nobody even hooked up on my season. We were just a bunch of douche bags in a Winnebago having fun—good clean, honest, drunk fun. I’m still very close to a couple of my cast mates, they’re like family.
RT: What factors went into your decision to release an album now?
CP: It was time and I was finally a full-time comic. The title, It’s Hard Being a Person, came from a promise I made to myself when I was working in telemarketing years ago. I was so miserable. It was one of those jobs where you just call people every day and just get shit on—rightly so, because you’re calling people at home and offering them a survey on eggs. This guy David I worked with was so funny. One day, I just slammed down the phone and was like, “Man, I fucking hate this job”. He goes, “Yeah, well, it’s hard being a person” and I thought “Ah! That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard”. The most existential—it is hard being a person. I swore that when I became a full-time comic, I’d name my album that. The time came and I did.
RT: Do you like working the rooms in LA more than touring all over?
CP: I love LA. Because I grew up here, I understand the crowds better. I like to develop new jokes here. I do the Comedy Store a lot when I’m home. Bits are born in LA and then taken on the road to be honed. I see no value in being a comedian that only five people get. Your job as a communicator is to make your ideas understandable to a large audience. I’ve really started to enjoy the Midwest a lot. At first, I didn’t know what to expect, because I grew up in LA and had no idea how the rest of the country lived. But they’re down to earth people. They care about family and the neighborhood. And they love hot dogs. I can respect that.
The New York Comedy Festival is kicking into high gear with tons of great shows through the weekend. One show we’re really excited about is the “Comics to Watch” showcase, a festival staple that gives a spotlight to some of the fastest rising comedians out there today. You can watch the entire show here, filmed at the renowned Carolines Comedy Club. This year’s winners who made the cut are as funny as ever, with several Rooftop favorites making the cut. See the complete list with videos after the jump:
Maria Bamford brought her signature style of hilarious characters and weird voices to the Conan stage last night. Needless to say, she killed it. The audience loved her material–motherhood and religion were the standout themes. Watch her set below and you’ll quickly learn why you should always call baby Jesus back and what it exactly means to worship in the church of People magazine (lots of Kirstie Alley). Great job Maria!
Be sure to catch up with all of Maria’s clips on Rooftop Comedy. You can follow Maria on Twitter here.
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.
Here I am again, as promised, with all the funny lady news you can stomach.
Tina Fey won a Golden Globe or two for 30 Rock, and had a couple choice words for her internet foes.
Stand-up comic, Daily Show correspondant, Flight of the Conchords actress, and improv all star Kristen Schaal has an interview up at PunchlineMagazine.com. In it she talks indie comedy, the future, and the impact of Sarah Palin on women in comedy.
Apparently Ann Coulter says the crazy things she does in the name of COMEDY. She is a COMEDY writer. Ohhhh. So she’s like Seinfeld! That makes TOTAL sense… what?
Renowned psychic Paula Roberts predicts that 2009 will be the year of some epic Sarah Silverman/Tina Fey catfight. I hate that term ‘catfight’. It’s so sexist. Can we just call it a dumb bitch battle?
Though they are still woefully underrepresented, a few ladies made it to the Top 20 of the Comedy Central Stand-up Showdown. Punchline Magazine recaps. Our very own Lisa Landry is in there!
Among the funny people set to appear/perform at this year’s San Francisco Sketchfest, some amazingly hilarious women: Rachel Dratch, Tig Notaro, Janeane Garofalo, Maria Bamford, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Laraine Newman… and me! (I’m with Things We Made on the 31st). It all starts this Thursday!
Amy Sedaris narrates the new six-part PBS series Make Em Laugh. It’s about comedy. Promise. As a promotion, they released an online-only episode about the WWW.
Being the token Golden Girls fanatic in my (vast, vast) circle of friends, many have alerted me to a current phenomenon of homemade GG merchandise selling like hotcakes all over the internet. Necklaces, tote bags, plush dolls, and more. Kind of creepy. Kind of amazing.
Now I’ll leave you with my Standup Women pick of the week! The EXTREME Maggie Faris (of extrememaggie.com) brings you: “Dink!”
Hey everybody. Welcome to our newest, and yet, most beloved feature: the Standup Women (stand)Update! The latest news (in brief) about women in comedy. Here’s a little run down of the latest!
- Tina Fey gets a huge spread in the most recent issue of Vanity Fair, with fancy photos by Annie Leibovitz and an article by Maureen Dowd. They talk about the scar, Sarah Palin (of course), her marriage, and her resemblance to alter-ego Liz Lemon. However, a good chunk of the article focused on the fact that Fey is admittedly the end-product of a huge makeover. When she started writing for SNL, she was pudgy and unkempt but then she lost weight and “glammed up,” and that’s when they put her on Weekend Update. It’s almost disheartening to hear what a huge difference it made:
[Former SNL writer Adam] McKay recalls Fey telling a story about her heavier days. “Steve Martin walked right past her at the coffee table, and then, after the makeover, he was like, ‘Well, hel-looo—who are you?’ ”
Steve Martin: kind of a sleaze apparently.
- This trailer for ‘Spring Breakdown,’ starring Parker Posey, Amy Poehler, and Rachel Dratch looks amazing. Too bad it’s only getting a DVD release. WTF? I’m trying to get stoned and go see this with my mom! Not get stoned and… rent it… with my mom.
- Were you wondering what to get me for Christmas and/or Hanukkah? WONDER NO MORE! I AM SO SERIOUS.
- Maybe you can buy it for me at the new Feminist Bookstore? Holler at Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen aka Thunderant.
That’s all for this week. I’ll leave you with my pick for my favorite Standup Women clip of the week! Surprise, surprise: It’s Jessi Campbell. My hero.
Oh, and if you have any hot tips, let me know! emilyh (at) rooftopcomedy (dot) com!
