Here's something you might be interested in.
You can argue which comedy troupe you think is the best. Monty Python, to me, were always overrated. And, that British humour is so hit-and-miss.
The original Saturday Night Live cast was amazing. It's hard to top John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Dan Akroyd, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtain, and Chevy Chase (Lorraine Newman, who cares). But, as one of the cast members of a lame season of Saturday Night Live once said, "They did bad skits, too. You just don't see those in the reruns. And, a lot of people just think about the stuff they did after that...like Animal House, or the Blues Brothers movie."
It's a great point.
For me, nothing beats those 5 guys from Canada -- The Kids in the Hall.
No, they're not a gay troupe. Only one guy in the cast is homosexual. The reason they wear dresses, is no women were in the group. So, if they played gossipy secretaries (Kathy and Cathy), or wives, or moms (oh...Happy Mothers Day), it just worked better. And, I think that goes a long way back in the history of comedy (Didn't Milton Berle wear a dress on one of the very first TV variety shows?)
I drove up to Anaheim to see these guys live the other night.
I've seen them live both times they came to San Diego. At Copley Symphony Hall downtown, where I met Bruce (the short guy, aka "the poo guy") and Kevin McDonald (the one my mom calls the ugliest guy on the planet). He's the founder of the troupe.
The seemed a bit depressed, and didn't talk much.
When I saw them in Escondido, they were great, but all the skits were ones I had seen on their TV show.
It was a pleasant surprise to see them do almost all new material.
A skit about a "hateful baby" that nobody wanted to tell the couple they disliked.
A skit about a time machine (which one guy just used to go back 10 minutes and beat "last call").
There was a chicken lady skit, which is classic. She had ping pong balls flying out into the audience, which everyone jumped for.
I swear, I had 2nd row seats. And, at baseball games, I couldn't care less about a foul ball. But, I wanted a ping pong ball shot out of Mark. It just seemed like such a cool item to have.
Actor Kevin Pollak was in the crowd.
I noticed that when the head crushed came onstage with a camera, showing the audience (and there he was).
One of my favorite characters, the nerdy boy Gavin, harrassed a couple of Mormons that came to his door.
And, the best part was when we walked to our car, anticipating a long drive to the hotel, a nice security guard said, "Those guys are going to be at the merchandise booth talking to the fans."
We went back in, and had the best conversation with them.
(I'll share that tomorrow....just got back from a concert in L.A. and I'm falling asleep at the keyboard)
You can argue which comedy troupe you think is the best. Monty Python, to me, were always overrated. And, that British humour is so hit-and-miss.
The original Saturday Night Live cast was amazing. It's hard to top John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Dan Akroyd, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtain, and Chevy Chase (Lorraine Newman, who cares). But, as one of the cast members of a lame season of Saturday Night Live once said, "They did bad skits, too. You just don't see those in the reruns. And, a lot of people just think about the stuff they did after that...like Animal House, or the Blues Brothers movie."
It's a great point.
For me, nothing beats those 5 guys from Canada -- The Kids in the Hall.
No, they're not a gay troupe. Only one guy in the cast is homosexual. The reason they wear dresses, is no women were in the group. So, if they played gossipy secretaries (Kathy and Cathy), or wives, or moms (oh...Happy Mothers Day), it just worked better. And, I think that goes a long way back in the history of comedy (Didn't Milton Berle wear a dress on one of the very first TV variety shows?)
I drove up to Anaheim to see these guys live the other night.
I've seen them live both times they came to San Diego. At Copley Symphony Hall downtown, where I met Bruce (the short guy, aka "the poo guy") and Kevin McDonald (the one my mom calls the ugliest guy on the planet). He's the founder of the troupe.
The seemed a bit depressed, and didn't talk much.
When I saw them in Escondido, they were great, but all the skits were ones I had seen on their TV show.
It was a pleasant surprise to see them do almost all new material.
A skit about a "hateful baby" that nobody wanted to tell the couple they disliked.
A skit about a time machine (which one guy just used to go back 10 minutes and beat "last call").
There was a chicken lady skit, which is classic. She had ping pong balls flying out into the audience, which everyone jumped for.
I swear, I had 2nd row seats. And, at baseball games, I couldn't care less about a foul ball. But, I wanted a ping pong ball shot out of Mark. It just seemed like such a cool item to have.
Actor Kevin Pollak was in the crowd.
I noticed that when the head crushed came onstage with a camera, showing the audience (and there he was).
One of my favorite characters, the nerdy boy Gavin, harrassed a couple of Mormons that came to his door.
And, the best part was when we walked to our car, anticipating a long drive to the hotel, a nice security guard said, "Those guys are going to be at the merchandise booth talking to the fans."
We went back in, and had the best conversation with them.
(I'll share that tomorrow....just got back from a concert in L.A. and I'm falling asleep at the keyboard)