Making a Case For Dark Comedy #5: Don Rickles

Comic legend Don Rickles died last week.

The first thought I had was "Uh-oh, I hoped he's recorded his voice work for Toy Story 4! Please! Please oh please!" (For what it's worth, it doesn't appear he had recorded anything for the film.)

The second thought I had was "Aww...he died." And then I became happy thinking of all the great memories I had of him doing comedy on TV when I was a kid, most especially within the realm of the Late Night Talk Show Circuit. One way or another, this short, wrinkled old guy would appear on one of the late night shows, sit down and tear into the host—or anything that caught his attention—for the next seven or so minutes. He seemed absolutely irritated to even be there, completely put out at the prospect of having to go on another one of these stupid shows. But he was also hilarious. He knew the right jabs and how to land them at the exact right moment. And oddly enough, it looked like he was actually having fun out there... How could somebody so angry actually be happy?

Chris Rock Has About 5 Options As To How He Will Host the Academy Awards

This Sunday, February 28 is the 2016 Academy Awards Oscar ceremony. Comedian/actor/director Chris Rock is hosting and many are wondering what his comedic approach will be as he delivers his opening monologue and skewers celebrities in between awards announcements.

This year in particular seems to be a perfect storm for Rock and his comedic sensibilities. For some reason, the academy chose to offer zero nominations to African American or minority actors (despite there being numerous worthy choices), while also selecting America's most prominent and incendiary black comedian as its host (instead of offering it to Billy Crystal again). The lack of diversity in this year's Oscars has sparked a funny but enlightening twitter category #oscarssowhite, led a number of prominent Hollywood types to boycott the event, and has even caused Chris Rock to entirely revamp his routine for the night (instead of boycotting it). This has lead to speculation as to how exactly Rock is going to take on the current situation in the Academy. 

As I see it, he has about 5 different options before him, all with varying levels of probability of actually happening:

Unanswerable Questions #4: Louis C.K.

Here's to hoping Louie has the answers.

Unanswerable Questions--an ongoing segment here at PostConsumer Reports where I ask questions to people of interest who will most likely never answer them, simply because I do not know them and probably never will. Still, the questions come and I have got to ask them somewhere. I have so many questions. So so many...

Up today is comedian Louis C.K. who has season 5 of his FX show Louie debuting now. He's basically my favorite. If you have Amazon Prime you can watch the first episode of season 5 for free as well as all the previous seasons (it's also on Netflix). 

Jim Gaffigan and the Physicality of Comedy

Is dad fat? Dad is fat. Fat is dad. Is fat dad?

Jim Gaffigan is coming to Peoria on March 21 at the Peoria Civic Center Theater. Check out his website for ticket info: http://www.jimgaffigan.com/tour-dates

Last month my wife and I and another couple from our church went to see Jim Gaffigan live in Champaign, Illinois.  I guess it was a bit of a pilgrimage of sorts, as a lot of people we knew were there as well. If I could make a recommendation it would be this: go see a top-of-the-line standup comedian sometime or at least try to spend an evening laughing as much as possible. It is good for the soul and good for the body.  In my opinion nothing provides more minute by minute laughs than standup comedy (over than say a sitcom or a comedic film), but whether it is having fun with friends or reading a joke book (do people even do that?) give yourself some extended time to just laugh. (I can see it now, my new self-help memoir "Eat, Pray, Laugh, Love"...) 

I tend to be the analytic type and so right in the middle Gaffigan's set I stepped outside the present moment of receiving his barrage of tightly packed 10 or more jokes per minute, in order to do some thinking.  I became increasingly aware of how as my brain connected with the jokes it was simultaneously affecting my body, my actual physical condition; that the joy I was experiencing was at once psychological and sensual; that my pleasure was both in the mind and of the body.  What I was coming to terms with was the utter physicality of comedy. In this, I am not referring to physical comedy, where a comedian or actor does something with his or her body to get some laughs (think the slapstick of Jerry Lewis or The Three Stooges), but the actual physical effect humor has on a person who is listening to and watching a comedic routine.

I will say more on my physical experience of the show later, but first I wanted to make some observations about Jim Gaffigan himself.