You demanded it for so long and it’s finally happened! A new, earlier start time! This and every month here on out, we’re kicking off at 8pm. Also, come check out the new look & menu at Elda’s! 2 for 1 drink specials immediately following the funny. $5, 21+

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Join Jed Davis (the J) and Kevin Marshall (the K) for an evening of comedy, music, and performance! Featuring stand-up comedy from William Hughes, Henry Phillips, and much more. Part of Troy Night Out

WHERE: The Daily Grind (4th [...]]]> THE J/K FOLLIES
hosted by Kevin Marshall
with music by Jed Davis

Join Jed Davis (the J) and Kevin Marshall (the K) for an evening of comedy, music, and performance! Featuring stand-up comedy from William Hughes, Henry Phillips, and much more. Part of Troy Night Out

WHERE: The Daily Grind (4th St., Troy NY)
WHEN: Friday, July 27th @ 8:30pm

HOW MUCH: Pay What You Will (suggested donation: $5)‎

1. Pay what you will DOES mean free if you can’t afford it. Or even if you can drop literally a couple bucks. Five dollars is only suggested; not mandatory! And we will not pressure anyone. We’ll even accept candy.
2. This show fits the gap between the TNO activities that normally end a little after 8 and the Official Unofficial TNO After-Party at Daisy Baker’s that doesn’t kick off until about 9:30 or so.
3. YOU SHOULD ALL COME BECAUSE THIS WILL BE GREAT.
4. Make sure you go to http://www.jeddavis.com/ to get a preview (and hopefully download!) his new album, “Small Sacrifices Must Be Made!”

Speaking of that last one, you can listen to Jed’s new album streaming RIGHT NOW! Check it out:

Tom is mayor of The Atlantic Ocean. That’s some Aquaman shit right there.

My first [...]]]> Last night, while refusing sleep because my life has proven more than anything that i’m predisposed to bad decisions, I became a digital witness to a great milestone in the life of fellow comedian/pal Thomas Attila Lewis:

Tom is mayor of The Atlantic Ocean. That’s some Aquaman shit right there.

My first thought, as seen above, was “Tom needs a trident.” I jested, of course, then thought more seriously about it and owing to that statement earlier about bad decisions, decided to at least look at what it would take for me to obtain a Trident.

Here are the options given to me by the internet:

 1.

Our first option didn’t really…I don’t know, there’s something missing here. Sure, it’s a trident. It’s big and it has three prongs. But there’s nothing regal at all in its design. I mean, what the fuck would you do with such a dull-colored trident?

2. eBay’s collection of trident spears

Not actual full tridents, but just the spears. Pass. I tried searching for just Tridents, but it’s a term that’s been co-opted for everything from gum to cheap cellphones. Don’t these people know that there’s people like me that are pretending to have interest in buying real, actual tridents at four in the morning on a Monday?

3. 

There we go. This is a LITTLE more like it. But again, look at how dull that is. It’s got the right idea in terms of design (not like that pussy shit in Item #1), but still, the colors! What Mayor of the Atlantic Ocean would be caught dead with such mendacity on a red carpet?

4. The Hobo Trident

Seriously, I wouldn’t even make Ocean Master lug this thing around. It’s insulting. If I was elected Mayor of the Atlantic Ocean and someone gave me that as a gift, I’d throw it on the ground and cry a little.

5. For the Guy Who Can’t Count

THAT’S NOT A FUCKING TRIDENT. Count the points! That’s five! That’s a Quindent!

In conclusion, I guess I’d go with number one? It’s the only one with an elegant design. But what’s odd is how much trouble I had finding a good, regal-looking Trident available for purchase on the internet. What a disappointment.

Tom can be found at TomDog.com. Because in addition to being Mayor of the Ocean, he’s also a dog. Essentially he’s a Silver Age, Pre-Crisis DC Comics character.

On the most recent episode, Besser [...]]]> I listened to Matt Besser’s “Improv for Humans” podcast for the first time yesterday. Click here or subscribe on iTunes. It’s great and hilarious, and if you start listening regularly you can be cool like me. But not AS cool as me, because I was listening first.

On the most recent episode, Besser had Chris Gore on the podcast. Gore I know from his appearances on “Attack of the Show” and a variety of other programs. He was brought on for the last half-hour or so to discuss something he said to Besser at a recent event they attended. Gore postulated that “Improv is for pussies.” Why? Because he does improv all the time. He then proceeds to, as Splitsider’s Jesse David Fox at Splitsider put it, “talk out of his ass” about improv.

Besser, to his credit, was super patient and quite informative. As someone who hasn’t done any improv, I learned a lot just from listening to him for a few minutes. Chris Gore, on the other hand, came off as kind of an ass, and not even for his incorrect assumption of what “yes, and…” is all about.

No, what really got my goat is when he compared doing improv to stupid shit people do in public to elicit a reaction. The most glaring and ridiculous example was what he claims he did on a first date with a girl who dated him for two and a half years, when he suddenly and without warning jumped out of his chair and yelled “you’re pregnant?!”. Gore not only claimed that the girl found this funny, but that the entire restaurant burst into applause and laughter at his wildly clever antics. Which is sort of a weird thing for an adult to expect another adult to believe, but there are also a lot of comedians who bless their heart always say they “killed” when the reaction was…well, okay, but was not in danger of inducing death via hilarity.

Improv is a form of expression that takes work, commitment, and talent. As Besser notes, there’s plenty of bad improv out there, just like there’s plenty of bad stand-up comedy and filmmaking. Existence alone doesn’t merit praise; a point which Gore, to his credit, concedes. But that doesn’t mean that obnoxious pranks you play on people to dick around with them can be considered improv or even anything remotely resembling it. Or, even, comedy as a whole.

Thankfully I don’t think this is a prevailing view. In my brief experience, people seem to at the very least understood that there’s effort and craft behind putting together a set and performing it. There are, however, guys (and gals but in my experience it’s mostly guys) who think stand-up comedy is as easy as joking around with their buds, or they have a joke they think you should tell (note if you’re reading this – please don’t do that). It’s kind of maddening, but passable. But to hear it on a big stage like that from someone who I think honestly knows better (Gore) is sort of maddening.

I’d go more into it but I want you all to listen for yourselves. It’s not embeddable, so check it out and listen for yourself. The conversation with Gore starts around the hour and fifteen minute mark.

Here’s how it works (in case you’re unfamiliar with mad libs): we write a set with blank words. Then we get a volunteer from the [...]]]> One of the things we do at Laughs on Lark to keep the show moving and the audience engaged is a segment called Comedy Mad Libs.

Here’s how it works (in case you’re unfamiliar with mad libs): we write a set with blank words. Then we get a volunteer from the audience (July was Karlo who spells his name with a C but I decided was a K). Without seeing the set, we have the volunteer fill in the blanks by giving us words. Then s/he performs it.

It’s a chance for the audience to get a taste of our brand of non-stardom and have a little fun. Plus they win free prizes! This month was an OFFICIAL Jaye McBride coffee mug.

Ohhhhhhh snap! That coffee mug is fuckin’ TIGHT.

So to give you an idea of what you’re missing (look at that sweet mug you coulda had for free!), here are the prompts and the set created as a result of Karlo‘s answers.

(I know, I wish I’d save the original and just scanned it too, but I didn’t think to do this until now. GFY.)

1.  Verb
   Karlo chose: Fuck
2. Name of a person you showed up
   and/or are sitting with tonight
   Karlo answered: Jackie
3. Emotion
   Karlo said: Angry
4. Name of a drug
   Karlo said: Marijuana
5. Verb
   Karlo said: walk
6. City in the Capital Region
   Karlo chose: Schenectady
7. Your name
   Karlo chose: Carlo
8. A disease
   Karlo chose: Syphillis

Karlo’s answers were plugged into the set below:

Kourtney Kardashian had her baby. I FUCK babies!  And I hear her baby is already smarter that Khloe!

The Olympics are coming up. I like them. They’re the sports I like, but can only tolerate being around once every four years. Kind of like my friend JACKIE.

The TV show Breaking Bad is back this Sunday! That makes me ANGRY. I wonder if my teacher made MARIJUANA in High School. That would explain why he would always WALK after we had sex.

Fast food chain Slater’s 50/50 now serves a burger made entirely of bacon. I guess because they want the whole world to look like a CDTA bus stop in SCHENECTADY.

Thanks everyone, my name is CARLO and attention (ladies or gentlemen), the doctor says that my Syphillis isn’t contagious right now!

First, let’s get a few quick things out of the way: (1) This is totally in keeping with Daniel Tosh’s humor and style. He’s a lousy Reddit thread come to life, which is [...]]]> The Vulture summed up the stuff about Tosh in a similar manner as I did, but (again) much more effectively:

First, let’s get a few quick things out of the way: (1) This is totally in keeping with Daniel Tosh’s humor and style. He’s a lousy Reddit thread come to life, which is why he is so popular! (Just ask Jeff Dunham.) (2) Don’t heckle comedians, no matter how offensive and crappy you think their material is. (3) There’s no such thing as off-limits in comedy, and comedians are always — always — entitled to make jokes about whatever they want. But “entitled to” and “obligated to” are not the same thing, and comedy is not immune to criticism.

The emphasis is mine, because those were my two primary points when I spilled digital ink over it on Tuesday. Unfortunately, because of the sensitive nature of the subject, some I talked to after the fact took what I said to mean that I make jokes about the act of rape itself, I think they’re great, I think that making jokes about rape is just swell, and/or I think it’s okay to do it at all.

But I never would and I don’t and I don’t and I don’t. To anyone else who thinks otherwise, read it again. Also come out to my shows because that ain’t my shit at all. I don’t know what else I can say to make it clearer: I don’t think they’re cool, if one’s ever been funny I certainly don’t remember it, and taboo subjects/tragedies without context aren’t jokes. Often they’re just incitement or provocation, and that alone does not constitute comedy.

Also, we need to take into consideration (and not shout down those who bring it up) the fact that this is just some random person on the internet giving her take on what went down. We probably shouldn’t take it as gospel, especially considering that Tosh and the club’s owners specifically said it didn’t go down at all like she said. And too often overlooked, even by myself at first, is that this is actually all secondhand anyway; the person posting it on her Tumblr is actually relaying it from her friend, who was the one who shouted out during the performance.

I’ve seen these points brought up in more than one forum, and invariably someone compared it to blaming a rape on the victim. To which I can only say that equivocating this incident with an actual rape isn’t all that much better than telling “jokes” about rape, and for God’s sake, let’s keep this in its proper context.

Speaking of which, in the follow-up post the author of the Tumblr writes:

My friend (who wishes to remain anonymous) is very surprised to have gotten any form of an apology and doesn’t wish to press any further charges against Daniel Tosh.

“Doesn’t wish to press any further charges?” Oh, c’mon.

Special thanks to Jaye who, in addition to performing [...]]]> Thanks to this evening’s comedians: Anna Phillips, AJ Friedman, Jaye McBride, and Jennifer McMullen for making my first time hosting Laughs on Lark so easy. They nailed it, to say the least, and I couldn’t have asked for a better first show.

Special thanks to Jaye who, in addition to performing tonight, is the co-founder & co-producer & was kind enough to take me on this journey with her.

But even bigger thanks to all who came out and continue to come out to the shows. We couldn’t and wouldn’t do it without your consistent support.

NEXT MONTH: we celebrate our 2nd Anniversary with a NEW regular start time of 8pm! That’s 8/8/8 – August 8th at 8pm. Come out and see what will by then be the new look & taste of Elda’s On Lark.

See you next month!

And be sure to give us a like on Facebook, will ya?

My first time hosting this shindig and I have a great lineup. Lucky guy, I am.

And don’t worry, we ain’t gonna suggest you be raped or anything. We’re not [...]]]> Tonight, Wednesday July 11th @ 9pm

Elda’s on Lark (corner of State St. & Lark St., Albany NY)

$5, 21+

My first time hosting this shindig and I have a great lineup. Lucky guy, I am.

And don’t worry, we ain’t gonna suggest you be raped or anything. We’re not like that.