Our bi-weekly comedy talk show returns tonight from 7-8PM EST with our friends at Gtownradio.com (The Sound From Germantown).

Your host Dave Walk will be talking to comedians, playing not-funny songs and other great stuff, so make sure to set your internet dial to Gtownradio.com. Now, since we’ll be doing our live show in New York City at Under Saint Mark’s that evening, how can both things going on at the same time at different places? Well, let’s just say that one of them was pre-recorded. On the show this week:

Christian Finnegan is a New York City stand-up comedian that has been on The Dave Chappelle Show, Best Week Ever, and Countdown with Keith Olbermann. His new stand-up special, Au Contraire! was recently released on CD and DVD and was filmed in Philadelphia at The Trocadero.

Plus we’ll play clips from the new stand-up comedy CDs by Marc Maron and Maria Bamford.

Remember, that’s 7-8PM TONIGHT Eastern Standard Time U.S.A., streaming at Gtownradio.com.

By the way, you can listen to G-Town Radio on your iPhone or iPod Touch!

It’s time once again for THE MINISTRY OF SECRET JOKES, comic Doogie Horner’s monthly game show/comedy show at Fergie’s Pub (1214 Sansom) starting at 8PM.

This month, expect stand-up comedy from Ryan Carey, Dave Walk, David James, and Joey Dougherty, an Omniana battle between champion Brendan Kennedy and Luke Giordano and a good ole’ rap battle. Plus, there will supposedly be a dancing bear. Yes, a dancing bear. Just don’t look him in the eyes, that makes bears angry.

Ladies and gentleman of New York (and we know you’re out there), this Thursday there will be a very special Comic Vs. Audience Comedy Show in your dear city! Featuring three of the very funniest stand-up comedians from Philadelphia, the show will be kicking off a weekend of Philly Improv Theater shows in New York at Under Saint Mark’s in Manhattan. Click here for a full listing. Details:

The Comic Vs. Audience Comedy Show
Thursday, May 28th
8PM
at Under Saint Mark’s (94 St. Mark’s Place, btwn. 1st Ave. and Ave. A) [directions]
$10

Featuring:

Aaron Hertzog
Brendan Kennedy
Doogie Horner

with host Dave Walk

Wes & Eugene’s Cabinet of Wonders – Thurs. May 21, 2009 – World Cafe Life

New York comic Eugene Mirman seems to be on tour constantly. Just in the past few years he’s performed live with The Flight of the Conchords (stopping off at the Tower Theatre), with the Comedians of Comedy (The TLA), and with the sketch trio Stella (Keswick Theatre). Each time, of course, with other comedy acts. Makes sense, right?

Yesterday he was back in the area, but this time as part of “Wes & Eugene’s Cabinet of Wonders” at World Cafe Live in West Philadelphia. “Wes” is the British folk singer and writer John Wesley Harding that started the Cabinet to bring together literary, comedy, musical and even ventriloquial worlds in a variety show format. World Cafe Live was a perfect fit for the show as the venue is a partner with the public radio “adult alternative” radio station WXPN which currently plays Harding’s songs on the air. Judging by the reaction from the sit down and eat audience, almost everyone was there because of Harding.

The rule, for the most part, is that live music and comedy don’t mix well, but this wasn’t the case with Mirman. While the crowd was probably a little, well, older than most comedy show crowds, it didn’t matter. What should you do if bears attack, elevators in Russia, hotel in Fargo with a weird view, how to nab a husband, everything got a great response. He also took time to mention that the last time he was in Philadelphia was for a Democratic Primary debate last year that had 12 anti-abortion protestors. Mirman joked that the protestors held up signs and screamed things like “this fetus never learned Skype!” He also workshopped a part of the commencement speech that he will give to the graduates of his former high school in Lexington, Massachusetts in which he congratulates the graduates on escaping the “knowledge prison” that is school.

Later there were readings by writers Ken Kalfus and David Morse and singer/songwriters Chris Mills and Jonatha Brooke played a few songs. The underlying theme for the evening seemed to be light-hearted material with a dark edge that didn’t take itself too seriously. Mills’ songs included some pretty violent themes, Kalfus read a fictional tale of an American that straps on a suicide bomb after 9/11 and Brooke played a song based on lyrics by Woody Guthrie that she described as “sexy” by the name of “My Sweet and Bitter Bowl.”

Mirman came back on stage to sing “Mrs. Robinson” with Harding and while I’m not much of a music critic, I thought his baritone singing voice was pretty dead-on and complimentary to Harding’s. Then later Mirman came up on stage again to recount a recent tale in which Delta Airlines lost his luggage. It was good to see the comic known for jumping from topic to topic to do something more long-form and the story ended with an act of revenge that pleased the audience and Mirman alike.

And finally the eclectic evening ended with a singalong by all of the performing again touching on the crappiness that is Delta Airlines with a rousing, catchy chorus.

This past Tuesday on Air America’s Break Room Live (which you should probably be watching), Jim Gaffigan joined host and stand-up comedian Marc Maron to discuss comedy, his role in the new film Away We Go and parenting. It’s an interesting discussion between two old friends from “way back when” in the stand-up scene of New York and a must see for the comedy nerds that Gaffigan confesses to being.

Jim and Marc both have new stand-up albums entitled King Baby and Final Engagement, respectively.

Tonight (and only tonight), New York comic Christian Finnegan visits Helium as part of his “Au Contraire” tour. Earlier this month his new CD and DVD stand-up special of the same name was released and there’s a Philadelphia connection. It was shot over two shows last October at The Trocadero in Chinatown.

To promote the special, Finnegan filmed the “Jokespirations” series in which host Rolly Chedwick interviews real people to get “to the nitty-gritty of what makes a brilliant comedy mind like Christian’s tick.” Here’s the first one with a real-life pole vaulter.

Whenever a book comes out that I’m interested in I have to wait for it to come out on tape. You don’t really expect me to take all that time to read it, do you? I mean, come on.

Comedy by the Numbers, written by Eric Hoffman, a writer for Mr. Show and Gary Ruderman from the Annoyance Theatre in Chicago, was released by McSweeney’s in 2007 as a list of comedy characters, bits, scenarios, sketches, skits, shtick, and more that can help you be funny. “As we all know,” the writers claim, “true creativity comes from simple formulas and the memorization of data.” There are 169 formulas in all that can help you be funny in any situation that you find yourself including “Contact With Something That Isn’t Dry,” “Blind Dates,” “People Who Don’t Speak Our Language,” “Rubber Legs / Limbs” and a lot more.

The book is now a book-on-tape CD released by A Special Thing and available at online retailers of live readings by the some of the biggest names in comedy. David Cross tackles “#24 Cursing”, Paul F. Tompkins reads several numbers including “#5 Barbs, Retorts, Come-backs, Sassiness, Zingers & Cappers”, and Sarah Silverman goes over “#119 Self-deprecation” to name a few (tracklist here).

Finally you, yes you, can become a hit at parties, wakes or wherever comedy is seen as acceptable. And you don’t even have to know how to read!

Wacky News w/ Brendan Kennedy

There was no C vs. A Radio Hour this week, but we had to share this clip that would’ve aired if there was a show. Stand-up comic and funny guy BRENDAN KENNEDY joined host Dave Walk in the studio to share some “Wacky News” that’s been in the news lately. It was a fun time and as Brendan always says: “wocka wocka!”

Subscribe to the podcast feed (iTunes)

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(Feel free to write a review in iTunes!)

Subscribe to the podcast feed (in another podcast reader)

Listen to this episode (4:11):

Download this episode (as a .mp3)

Brendan will be performing stand-up tonight at Studio Luloo (916 White Horse Pike, Oaklyn, NJ) and he’ll be defending his Omniana title at the Ministry of Secret Jokes on May 27th.

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