It's Bad For Ya: Carlin on HBO Saturday Night

George Carlin used to be hilarious. His 70's stuff puts him, in my eyes, right up there with Richard Pryor as one of the great comics of all time. Starting in the mid-80's, his stuff became more hit-and-miss, and I can't say I find his cranky old man character much funnier than the cranky old men I know in real life. In fact, the last time he really cracked me up was about 12 years ago, with a routine that started out about creative ways to execute murderers and ended up proposing a reality show based on turning the midwest into a penal colony or something. Anyway, his latest HBO special premiers tomorrow, and you never know, he might be funny this time.

I figure everyone's seen the Seven Words You Can't Say on TV and A Place For My Stuff, so here's something from a little later, probably my favorite routine from the Grumpy Old Man era:

BBC Documentary on Richard Pryor

One look at the image on our header should let you know how we feel about Richard Pryor 'round these parts. YouTube user Ish0tJR posted this recent BBC documentary on the master on YouTube in 6 parts. Here's the beginning:



...and here's the rest:
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Enjoy.

Welcome To Headliner Magazine

What do you think? Pretty snazzy, huh? Allow me to take an awkward moment to introduce you to Headliner Magazine, the online magazine of standup comedy. What can you expect to find here? All things related to the art and business of standup, including news about comedy, reviews of comedy albums, DVD's and live shows, reports from the comedy scene, think pieces about comedy, humorous pieces written by comedians, and probably a lot of other things that we haven't even thought of yet.

Our goal is to make this blog, magazine, whatever we're calling it (how about "blogazine?") an essential part of the standup community. And we'll need your help to do it. If you're in any way involved with the world of standup comedy, we would welcome your contributions. If you have something you'd like to contribute, please contact me (laflizard at yahoo dot com) or Bobbie (bobbie at bobbieoliver dot net), or leave a comment. We want to make this a big, inclusive project for the promotion of comedy, the most dangerous art form.

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History of the Joke on The History Channel

There's an interesting documentary showing on THC called The History of the Joke. Narrated by Lewis Black, it doesn't do much to give a real historical survey of comedy, but it does provide a thorough overview of the comedy world, touching on topics that include physical comedy, political comedy, "dirty" jokes, and our favorite subject, the roots of comedy in pain. All of this is illustrated by a huge range of famous and aspiring comics ruminating on the nature of comedy and telling jokes. George Carlin, Penn and Teller, Kathleen Madigan, Dave Attell and a whole heap o' funny people make appearences over the course of two hours. My favorite was the section covering the persistant libel that female comics aren't funny, which Kathy Griffin skewers hilariously ("She's funny AND she has a vagina? How can this be?").

The History of the Joke airs again Saturday night at 10 (when of course all comedians and comedy fans are at home sipping chamomille tea). The DVD is also available from THC for $29.99.