Charlyne Yi battles the audience, saves them from bear attack

We went and saw Charlyne Yi at El Cid last night. She is a one of kind performer and possibly the actual heir to the throne of Andy Kaufman. Her work is not so much straight forward comedy as it is a hybrid of performance art, music and stand-up. She had a doppelganger in the show, led the audience in chanting rituals and challenged a drunk audience member to punch her in the face on stage. (He did, but it didn't hurt because of magic.) The grand finale of the show involved a bear attack and ended up with the entire audience on the stage together.

The show was being taped by a large film crew for some documentary starring Charlyne. If anyone out there is working on this film, drop me a line I would LOVE to consider it for my film festival.

Matt Berry

I will watch anything Matt Berry does. His too brief appearances on The IT Crowd led me to discover Gareth Marengi's Darkplace and this treasure:

Then, last Christmas my brother got me his rock opera AD/BC, a musical retelling of the birth of Christ from the POV of the inn keeper. Matt stars and wrote the songs. I gotta order some more import DVDs of this guy stat. Next on the list has to be the Darkplace spinoff, "Man to Man With Dean Learner."

Maybe it's just my brain and it's addiction to hooky songs but I think he's a genius. Also his acting style intrigues me. It actually looks like he is often out of sync, in lots of stuff. I think it's just that he is so strangely intense he seems to be out of sync with our plane of existence. I really think he has invented a whole new acting style here and would not be surprised if he blew up to become the next comedy mega star to come out of the UK.

Here is a sketch show with him that is a big hit on Digg today, it's titled "She Has A Boyfriend"

She Has A Boyfriend - Watch more free videos

Zach Galifinackis at Largo last night

Zach had a great set at Largo last night. One highlight was one of the openers Nick Kroll who you might know as one of the stars from the short lived TV series Cavemen. (Tom and I loved this show!) He's pretty great, I might start following his shows too.

Zach was solid as always. Probably my fave line that I remember (drinks minimum became a maximum) was "Is it a sexual innuendo if a tell a woman I want to put my sexual in your endo?"

The real highlight though was when he pulled a group of strangers off the street and onto the stage. I had heard of him doing this before but never seen it myself. The "deer in the headlights" moment of realizing you are being thrust onto a stage was priceless. I also enjoyed when one of the girls told Zach that she knew who he was, his response: "you are gonna finger yourself when you get home tonight." Then they did a shot of tequila together on the stage, had a few more laughs and called it a night.

Ricky Gervais in GTA IV

Ricky Gervais will appear in the game Grand Theft Auto IV. He recorded a (mostly) original short set and was motion captured for the game. So as you are going around killing people or whatever, you can pop into a comedy club and just happen upon Ricky doing his stand-up. And then you can pop him in the head with a lead pipe I suppose, although I don't know who would want to. (Except Karl.)

The Maria Bamford Show!

As you already know I'm a big fan of the "Comedians of Comedy." Lucky me I stumbled onto the below online series by funny time lady-comedian Maria Bamford. I think it's a brilliant distillation of her particualr brand of comedy and particular brand of neurosis. Tell me what you think in the comments below.

If you like it, Super Deluxe has a bunch more episodes to fill your weekend with the Bammer! "Don't be a martyr, get a cart!"

Where is Mike O'Connell

Unfortunately his website is having a technical problem but Mike O'Connell is somewhere in Los Angeles right now....I think. If you are in Los Angeles you should seek out the next possible show by this madman. At AFI FEST this year we showed his unexpectedly original first film THE LIVING WAKE after it had a successful premiere at Cinevegas. O'Connell's madness swept across our entire theatre. Below is one of O'Connell's online videos not related to the film but still very funny. If you like it there is more out there.

Minchin's in New York

Tim Minchin is in NYC right now getting some great reviews. The Internet Gods tell me that I have a couple of readers in New York, so go out and see this guy. The online videos do very little justice to experiencing the live show, trust me. (Lyndsey Brown took this excellent photo.)

Best commercial ever

Many others will agree with me that Tim and Eric are comedy genius. Zach Galifianakis, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim were commissioned by Absolut Vodka to make a film for their website. God bless corporate sponsorship with creative freedom, it creates insane collisions like this. The resulting commercial is below:

Tim Minchin

It's hard to pick a favorite moment from the Aspen comedy arts festival and I don't want to make that kind of statement but the performer who stuck with me more than most was the one, the only Tim Minchin. He came out to Los Angles recently and we rushed across town, almost missing him. Minchin is a musical comedy genius from Australia (funny side note, I remember the guys from Fight of the Conchords saying that while they can be classified as "musical comedy" musical comedy sounds like something not very funny at all -- and FLOTC was another discovery to come out of the Aspen comedy festival! Another example of the reason why that event was so great and how it will be missed.)

Anyway, every single time I go to the grocery store I hear this song in my head:

Requiem for Aspen Comedy Arts

Around this time for the last couple of years I'd be heading up to Aspen for HBO's Aspen Comedy Arts Festival. A number of factors have caused this event to be no more. I have such great memories of this festival, the first year I went up I saw Dave Chapelle do a live stand up set (!) and then the next year I was introduced to the magic of Charlyne Yi who I previously mentioned here. I got to witness many other discoveries in Aspen including the brillaint Aziz Ansari. I'm going to follow this post up with couple of other things I loved about Aspen and reasons why I'm so sad to see this festival die.

Another funny video from my friend Mary Elizabeth Ellis

Frangela revamps the Oscars

The latest addition to my "Friends" sidebar, Frangela, were on NPR this morning talking about the Oscars telecast. Like anything from them, it's very funny stuff indeed. To appreciate it fully you must listen to the NPR story, not just read the highlights.

As an added bonus, I'm including a video clip below of Frangela discussing idiot Creationists on The View. Hilarious!

Ricky Gervais, Atheist

I love this essay by Ricky Gervais describing his arrival to atheism as a young boy. This is a short piece but it's clear and quite an elegant little essay from an incredibly intelligent man.

"I no longer needed a reason for my existence, just a reason to live. And imagination, free will, love, humor, fun, music, sports, beer and pizza are all good enough reasons for living. But living an honest life - for that you need the truth."

I just saw Charlyne Yi on TV!

The only reason I want to go see the new Will Ferrel flick Semi-Pro is becasue it has Charlyne Yi in it. Watching on the tv just now I saw a glimpse of her in a trailer (can't find it online, sorry.) She was in a wheelchair hold up sign that says "sucks." Susan and I saw Charlyne in Aspen at the comedy festival last year and she ruled the mountain. Below is one of her many funny videos. Enjoy.

Lots of funny from Derek Waters

One of the funniest people I've met out here in Los Angeles is this guy. (We were in the Second City comedy program together a few years ago.) Mary Elizabeth told me about his Drunk History videos this weekend and they are freaking great. I see Derek pop up in a bunch of movies and shows every now and again. You also should check out the online series Derek and Simon that he did a little while ago. In fact any video on Funny or Die or You Tube with Derek pretty much makes me ROFL.

Ricky Gervais at the Kodak Theatre!!!!

My brother and I set the alarm and hopped on ticketmaster as soon as tickets went on sale for Ricky Gervais Live at the Kodak Theatre. I'm a huge fan but my brother is a full on obsessive, owning 37 hours of the Ricky Gervais show podcasts. His knowledge of all things Ricky is borderline scary. It's going to be a fun night, if anyone wants to come along I've got a few extra tix!

Funny video from my friend Duncan Birmingham

Funny video from my friend Mary Elizabeth Ellis