Hey folks, I have decided to put this website on an indefinite hiatus. Don’t worry, it isn’t your fault, it’s nothing that you have done. I’ve just been busy with other things in my life at the moment and it has been difficult keeping up with the ins and outs of the Philadelphia comedy scene. But you probably knew this already due to the lack of activity here lately. It’s boring stuff that I’m working on, but it’s also not bad, so don’t worry about it (not that anyone is worried).

If you’d like to know when it’s all up and running again, subscribe to the RSS feed to the right. Comics can continue to submit new profiles for the database if they’d like, but the calendar won’t be updated and will just digress once the upcoming shows have come and gone.

As always, thanks for reading!

I often find myself in the minority when expressing my admiration for Craig Ferguson – the Scotsman turned American who beat out Michael Ian Black many years ago after Craig Kilborn left his late-night show. His apparent openness and honesty on air are refreshing (like when he abandoned his regular format the night after his father’s death to spend a full hour offering a remembrance in black tie) or when he talked frankly about his own struggles with addiction a few years back in the midst of the media frenzy around Britney Spears meltdown. His ability to find humor in both of these situations without being either maudlin or mean-spirited was impressive and genuinely funny. So when Ferguson started hawking his autobiography on his show a few months back by having celebrities read random passages from it in a Masterpiece Theatre setting, I thought it might be worth a read.

I picked my copy up on a whim at the airport when a flight got delayed and managed to speed through about half of it before getting home. Ferguson has a spare style that reads easily and keeps things moving, which is frankly a good thing – the first sections of the book, which focus mostly on his relatively normal upbringing in and around Edinburgh, aren’t particularly interesting (especially since if you’re familiar with his life you already know what’s to come and can see any foreshadowing pretty blatantly). One thing is obvious: that early life is important to him. There are many shout-outs to friends and his early attempts at stardom as a punk-rock drummer are chronicled pretty extensively before we arrive at the comedy about half-way through the book.

And when he does discuss his career, the stuff is good. Talking about how he created his first comic persona – Bing Hitler – leaves you impressed by both his calculation, and his drive to find any way to be successful. He’s also frank about how alcoholism and drug addiction prevented him from achieving fame earlier in his comedy career and led to several stumbles. While he moves away from comedy to talk about bottoming out and rehab, that material is also compelling. It’s in these sections that Ferguson seems to write very truthfully about the extent of his problems, and how his own inability to turn down a drink may have ironically saved his life. And once his life is on the mend and he moves to Hollywood we get to some great discussion of how the town works, the difficulties of finding rewarding work that also pays, what a struggle it can be to maintain artistic control of your ideas (and the accompanying funk that comes from failing to do so). When Ferguson writes about the rigorous audition process for The Late Late Show you remember what a long-shot he was considered, and it’s great to read about Johnny Carson’s former producer Peter Lasally at work.

Beyond the stuff about his comedic career though, the book can seem sentimental. There’s an obvious attempt to make it a great “coming to America” type story. While there’s little doubt that Ferguson really did have those feelings of wonder about New York as a child – and that he does, rightfully, consider himself a true example of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps – we’ve heard this story before and with almost the exact same details.

The bottom line is this: if you’re a fan of his Late Late Show then you’ll enjoy reading all of the book. If you’ve wondered how a Scot ended up in an American late-night chair or enjoy a frank discussion of how Hollywood often works, you’ll find the discussions of his career interesting and insightful. Those who have never liked him and don’t care much for behind the scenes stories, or people who are looking for a humorous read, are probably better off leaving Craig’s mugging smirk and patriotic kilt on the bookstand.

Greg Maughan is of the founder and current executive director of the Philly Improv Theater.

Ok, folks, let’s try this again. Last October I wanted to give away a pair of tickets to see Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black at The Troc, but the show was postponed. But never fear, the show was re-scheduled for this Friday, again at the beautiful Trocadero Theatre [show info].

So if you want to enter the random drawing for the tickets, send an e-mail to comicvsaudience@gmail.com by Friday at noon. If you sent an email back in October, you don’t have to again.

You remember Showalter and Black of course from the sketch trio Stella with David Wain or going even farther back as members of the sketch group The State. Their other credits in film, albums and books are too numerous to mention, but it’s fair to say that these guys are everywhere.

Live the two usually do their own sets of stand-up and spend the rest of the time hilariously messing around on stage. When they performed at The TLA a few years ago, that included dancing to awful songs from their iTunes collections and spending a good amount of time talking to hecklers.

At the risk of losing all site visitors, I’m just going to say it: I’ve never watched more than three minutes of Lost. Ok, anyone still here? Hello?

Well, whoever is left should check out this video by the sketch duo Animosity Pierre (profile). The ladies just want some nookie, but the dudes want Lost love. Can they sum it all up in five minutes?

This is Animosity Pierre’s second Lost video. The first one saw Dave get caught up on it all over a three-day marathon.

Hey, did you hear Lost is coming back tonight? Yes, it’s true, Lost. Ok, see you later (Lost).

Looking to join an improv group? The very funny Rookie Card [profile] guys are looking for a few members and it could be you! If interested, e-mail rookiecardimprov@gmail.com with your availability, experience and anything else you think is applicable to be scheduled for an audition. It all happens this Sunday between 11AM-2PM Philadelphia Latvian Society (531 North 7th Street).

And Here’s the Kicker is a must read for anyone who has ever put pen to paper in attempt to make others laugh. The brainchild of Mike Sacks, a former writer at The Washington Post who now contributes to Vanity Fair, the book features interviews with a wide variety of comedy writers about the craft of comedy writing. Far more than a Chris Farley Show-esque series of sitdowns where the author asks inane questions like “remember when you created The Office?,” these interviews tend to feature slightly less famous subjects taking far more extensively about process – when they write, what they feel informs their style and approach to humor, the mechanics of a good monologue joke, etc.

Not only do these slightly less obvious choices (he interviews Stephen Merchant instead of Ricky Gervais, Allison Silverman instead of Stephen Colbert, and Paul Feig instead of Judd Apatow) create more honest and interesting interviews, but the range of time he covers is pretty incredible. The oldest subject in the book wrote for Milton Berle, and he includes people behind some of the most recent comedy touchstones like Arrested Development and The Colbert Report). After that he does manage to land some big names, too: Dick Cavett, David Sedaris, and Dave Barry all have great interviews in the book.

Sacks deserves a lot of credit for his editing of each interviewee as well. Knowing what to include, what to cut from the several hours he spent with each person must have been a challenge… but it seems like the best its have all made it to the page. Sacks also knows how to get a subject’s voice and cadence across on the page – an under appreciated skill – and his capturing of the quirks of language and recall that, say, 93-year-old Irving Brecher had in person really add something as you read. Every interview has little nuggets tucked away in it, and almost every writer was a story that is entertaining or at least relates a behind the scenes sense of something every comedy nerd knows. Bottom line: for the price of admission, the wisdom and anecdotes contained within this book are best deal you’ll find. Next time you’re in the bookstore ignore that “Comedy Bible” with the wacky cover and grab this one instead.

Greg Maughan is of the founder and current executive director of the Philly Improv Theater. There are great live shows at the theater this week and next.

Look, don’t ask me…I just post these.

Chances are you’ll see some interesting characters on stage at an improv show. But Victorian time-traveling women? That’s exactly what Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fanastical Balloon Ride is, playing now through January 31st at The Latvian Society and produced by the Philadelphia Joke Initiative.

Although details are murky, it appears that Cecily (Karen Getz) and Gwendolyn (Kelly Jennings) have traveled through time to Philadelphia to study our culture. Their “stage” is on the floor of the hall with the audience’s seats in a circle around the performers. There are tables throughout the room with observational material; one table has some random supplies and a microscope. Another has various literature, dictionaries and a Barbie DVD. You see, the two woman are here to observe our customs, dialect, and way of life.

Essentially they do this through what would be considered by a stand-up comedian as “crowd work.” They ask members of the audience questions and being that they are expressive characters in control of the room, the answers are usually short and shy in response, and usually followed by giggling. It happened to even myself, I meant to take some pictures of the two, but never felt like I had a good moment to do so. Even if they weren’t looking at me, they would surely hear the snap of my camera and they would point me to out to everyone else. What was I doing with a camera, they would surely ask. They weren’t supposed to be the ones observed, after all.

Comedy, for the most part, comes from honesty and Getz and Jennings extend this to the audience. As they ask questions, they “observe” their subjects and their body language, ticks, tone of voice and more. They play off of these things for the humor and at times it appears that we learn a thing or two about the audience members, provided that they are telling the truth. Additionally, they ask members of the audience to draw and take notes throughout the evening and their review of these at the end of the show is yet another way to observe their subjects.

Not much is disclosed about Cecily and Gwendolyn, however. Seemingly there’s a more of a back story there, but they didn’t spend a lot of time on themselves. At the show that I went to, they discussed eating dinner in Chinatown and wondered if they should speak Chinese there. But Mandarin or Cantonese? Cecily remarked that her Mandarin was very rusty. So have they traveled all over the world? For how long? Is Cecily a lesbian? Could Gwendolyn be as well? Hmm.

Playing through the end of January, Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fanastical Balloon Ride is worth seeing before presumably they go off to the next town, in perhaps a different time.

As Matt Nelson at Phillyimprov.com reported yesterday, there are three more Philly comedy shows this weekend to benefit Haiti:

Tonight at 10AM, improv group King Friday will be donating all of the proceeds from their monthly BYOB pay-what-you-can show at Studio 34 in West Philadelphia to UNICEF. [show info]

The N Crowd will donate proceeds to Red Cross from their weekly show at The Actors Center tomorrow evening at 8PM [show info].

And on Saturday night at 7:30 [show info] and 10PM [show info], ComedySportz will donate proceeds to Mercy Corps.

It’s also worth noting that there is another benefit this weekend. Pat House, Carolyn Busa, Chip Chantry and Jared Bilski will be performing on Saturday to benefit The Children of Marjorie Gormley Goodwin Fund. [show info]

Look, you don’t need me telling you that the situation in Haiti right now is awful. But if you are looking to donate some funds while seeing a great comedy show at the same time, think about making it out tonight to Connie’s Ric Rac for Bedtime Stories, the monthly themed sketch show [show info]. According to host/producer of the show, Gregg Gethard, all proceeds from the show will go to Haiti relief:

One of the coolest things about running Bedtime Stories is that, every so often, we get to raise money for some pretty great causes. We’re partnering up with the Samuel Dalembert Foundation next week in order to raise money for relief efforts in Haiti. The earthquake there is one of the worst tragedies of our lifetime; any little bit can really help out since, even in the best of times, a lot of people who live in Port-Au-Prince don’t have access to running water and proper health care.

In case you don’t know, Samuel Dalembert plays for the Sixers and was born in Haiti. His foundation was set up in order to assist children in his homeland. The foundation is now focusing on providing relief efforts since the tragedy of this past week.

Any money we make from the show is going to go to the The Samuel Dalembert Foundation. Also, we’re going to pass around a bucket (or something) so people can toss in some extra money.

Please come to this. On top of being for a really good cause, it’s going to be a great show. The topic is Philadelphia and we’ve got a bunch of awesome acts performing, including, for the first time at Bedtime Stories, the Hopper Brothers!

Also slated to be on the show are Jon Goff, Secret Pants, Meg and Rob, Camp Woods, Randi Warhol, Feeko Brothers and more.

The Comics Comic has a listing of other relief shows (pretty much all in NYC). And if you can’t make it to the show, there’s a list of good relief organizations here.