Work has been keeping me too busy, so I haven’t done much of anything lately, but I had the opportunity to go to a Comedy Central taping in Glendale on Friday night with my significant other. It was for an hour long stand-up special featuring Paul F. Tompkins. I didn’t recognize the name, but when I googled him, I realized that he used to be on that Best Week Ever show, which aired on VH1. Look familiar?
Despite not knowing or caring who Paul F. Tompkins is, I actually had a really fun time. There was one line in particular about Daniel Day-Lewis/There Will Be Blood that made me bust up. It was interesting to see what goes into taping a special. Before anything started, the people in charge had the audience applaud a bunch and fake laugh (very silly!), just in case they needed to edit in more sound later. Also, during the actual performance--which lasted at least an hour and a half--Tompkins would redo lines if he got tongue tied. Oh, and we were instructed to wear "hip, upscale attire"... whatever that means.If you’ve ever watched a stand up special before, you can tell that they’ve edited stuff out in order to add in the commercials. So, to accomodate that, after the bulk of the show--but before the encore--Tompkins filmed a series of intros. so that everything would flow when the show airs (in spite of parts being cut). This required a lot of fake laughter from the audience, which was super duper awkward—especially since he’d have to start over if he messed up, meaning you were expected to laugh at the same part over and over.
Although I didn’t know anything about Tompkins going into it, I have seen a few live stand-up shows featuring some of my favorite comedians over the years. For example, I LOVE Eddie Izzard, and I had the opportunity to see him at the Wiltern back in 2003. If you don’t know of Izzard, he’s an English actor/comedian. Recently, he’s been on United States of Tara and The Good Wife (in addition to other television shows/movies here and there). Here's a link to IMDb: Eddie Izzard He’s amazingly intelligent (much of his work deals with history) and is a transvestite. My dad, sister, and I quote his jokes all the time.
I just saw that, according to the internet, “In 2009, [Izzard] completed 43 marathons in 51 days for Sport Relief [which brings together the worlds of sport and entertainment to raise money to help vulnerable people in both the UK and the world's poorest countries] in spite of having no prior history of long distance running.” Pretty cool.
I also saw Louis C.K. at Largo over the summer. He currently has his own show called Louie on FX where he plays a fictionalized version of himself.
Live stand-up is great. How often do we get to laugh our butts off on a regular basis? I’m hoping to catch Aziz Ansari the next time he tours. He's hilarious on Parks & Recreation, and I'm assuming that he'd be just as spazzy/funny in real life.
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Wow, I had no idea all that went on for taped stand-up comedy! Seems extremely awkward to have to fake laughter on cue; I don't think I'd be able to do it for very long. I've seen quite a bit of stand-up on Comedy Central featuring other people I've never heard of, and they're pretty good. Unfortunately, I've never heard of Paul F. Tompkins, but if it was taped I might run into him eventually. Maybe I'll go to a comedy club one of these days and catch some up-and-coming comedians. Seems like fun for sure!
ReplyDeleteI too, did not think you liked comedy. You seem like a very dedicated person to your job and students. I like comedy too but I have never been a stand up comedy show live. That is cool that you attend them. It must have you laughing hard. I love Aziz because he is really funny and entertaining. You should definitely Youtube him lol.
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