He’s an amazing stand-up, a writer for @midnight, and he was kind enough to pull this week’s album up on his phone since I gave away my vinyl to the last guest who picked it as that week’s album. Dan Telfer breaks down his love of “The Great White North” and sketch comedy in general, and then, because we haven’t had the discussion on the show yet, we talk Cosby. Because we both used to love him, and we both have our ways of expressing our change of heart. It’s a good episode.
Brian Kiley is a stand-up, writer for Conan, and author of the book The Astounding Misadventures of Rory Collins. Somehow, we haven’t covered this album since our first three episodes, so it was definitely time for a revisit. We sat down and talked about the changing world of stand-up, as well as Bob’s influence on Brian’s work.
Comedy on Vinyl is recorded at Fort Awesome Studios in beautiful downtown Burbank. The samples played in these non-commercial (see: free) podcasts are used without permission under the provisions of fair use for the sake of commentary, and are intended to sell more albums, not to endorse Vinyl Piracy. Please subscribe to us on iTunes, follow us on Twitter and like us at the Facebooks.
Jason C. Brown is the director of an upcoming short film called Imaginary Friends, which is currently funding on Indiegogo, hence our unusual posting of a COV bonus episode this week. I may be biased (see me in the promo video below), but I think you should go send some money their way so that this movie gets made! Jason sat down with me to discuss one of his greatest influences – SNL. We delve even deeper into the album than we did the last time we covered it, and end up way too perplexed about the straight-up Coke ad at the beginning.
Comedy on Vinyl is recorded at Fort Awesome Studios in beautiful downtown Burbank. The samples played in these non-commercial (see: free) podcasts are used without permission under the provisions of fair use for the sake of commentary, and are intended to sell more albums, not to endorse Vinyl Piracy. Please subscribe to us on iTunes, follow us on Twitter and like us at the Facebooks.
The Independent Shakespeare Company’s own David Melville returns, to again open up our comedy minds to the works of George Formby. Still a respected name in English comedy, his work never quite traversed the ocean sufficiently, so it’s time for some mind expansion. Formby’s double-entendre-laden ukulele tunes are played with an unusual skill on an instrument mistakenly seen as simple, especially given its current ubiquity. Enjoy some fun tunes and, if you’re in LA, go see the Independent Shakespeare Company at Griffith Park this summer.
Craig Rowin of Your Pretty Face is Going To Hell drops by (and so do I, this was “on location” in Hollywood) to talk about Weird Al’s perfectly-timed “Off The Deep End.” Now, before you write me an e-mail about this being a CD-era album, I’d advise you to go to the Netherlands. Where they released this album on vinyl, apparently. Craig squeaked it, but I’m glad he did. This has one of my all-time top Weird Al songs, and we had a blast talking about (individually) meeting Weird Al, as well as, in his case, working with him. Continue reading →
It’s not often you get to talk to someone about playing their own father in a movie. In 1992, that’s exactly what Rob did, for a cameo in “Heart and Souls.” We discuss how that came about this week, as big fans of his dad, but we also discuss his own introduction to comedy by the likes of Richard Pryor and George Carlin, the former passed down from his father. The album we’re holding isn’t discussed in this episode, but we are holding it for a reason – it has the first recorded mention of Rob’s name, in track one of side 2, in which Bob talks about becoming a father. Continue reading →
On Sunday, August 2nd at IOWest, we helped kick off The 13th Annual Los Angeles Improv Comedy Festival with a tribute to Robin Williams, with Robin’s close friend, Rick Overton, and special guests Josia Elliott and Jamie Costa. Josia’s a big Robin fan, and if you haven’t seen Jamie’s moving tributes to Robin in the form of impressions, you should go here: youtu.be/Shg53iv4B9o
We had a wonderful time talking about Robin, his work, and getting a little sidetracked about impressions. But it wouldn’t be a tribute to that great mind if we weren’t a little all over the place
Joseph Scrimshaw is back! And this time, we do something I’ve been waiting to do a long time on this show – let the guest pick from the archive and we both listen to it, fresh. This week, we listen to one of two comedy albums (in the same year) by “The Human Joke Machine,” Morey Amsterdam. Perhaps best known as Buddy on The Dick Van Dyke Show, here he rattles off joke after joke in a variety of strange, fun little songs, and we pick it apart.
Part of the The 13th Annual Los Angeles Improv Comedy Festival at IO West, and featuring the hilarious Rick Overton, our second-ever live tribute show will celebrate the life and work of Robin Williams.
The live podcast is free to all Festival participants and $10 to non-participants. The Chris Farley House (the Festival’s beneficiary) will receive money from all the panels, workshops and shows.
Every once in awhile, because of this show, I’m fortunate enough to meet an official archivist for a legend. This week, I talk with Christopher Bay, who is the archivist for not only Shelley Berman, but for Woody Woodbury. Christopher talks about his experiences with Shelley, including discovering him and imitating him from a young age. We do talk a bit about this, Shelley’s first album, but it’s pretty all-inclusive, especially with this episode’s final clip – a rarity, courtesy Christopher himself.
