An AmericasComedy.Com Interview

No one ever accused comedian and writer Laurie Kilmartin of being being “Mommy Dearest,” but then again, she hasn’t received her “Mother of the Year” award yet either.

Seasoned comedian and writer, Kilmartin is back in LA for awhile (or, at least, until the lease on her apartment expires) after being voted off as one of the top 10 finalists of the Last Comic Standing, Season 7. Not to worry, however. Kilmartin, a noted and sought-after comedy writer, who moved to back to California from New York to write for the now canceled “Bonnie Hunt Show,” vows to continue to advance her 20+ years as a stand-up and writer.

Kilmartin, who launched her stand-up career in the San Francisco Bay Area and then moved to New York, is unstoppable. She continues to write and perform, in spite of the pressures of single parenthood. Her act has changed considerably over the last three years. An unplanned pregnancy, a dark sense of humor and an absent baby-daddy tend to color her stand-up material. Sometimes, she brings her son, William, on the road with her. At other times, she doesn’t. She’s convinced that, someday, William will have an even darker sense of humor and tell jokes about his mommy.

“He has been exposed to my negativity and seems to not give a damn. He seems okay. I’ll tell him they’re just jokes, Mommy is being a comedian at work. He’ll be okay.”

“When I travel alone, it’s nice to completely escape and just be by myself like I was in the ‘80s and ‘90s, where I was just this lazy douche bag on the road who just did what I wanted to do and then did a show at night. Although, when I do bring him on the road, it’s very tiring, but we have a good time and he gets to see different parts of the country. So one’s good and the other is good, too.”

Kilmartin has performed at the Montreal, Aspen and Edinburgh comedy festivals. She has done stand-up on “Comedy Central,” “Jimmy Kimmel” and “Showtime,” and appeared on “Best Week Ever,” “The Today Show,” “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “Fox & Friends” and “Oprah.” Kilmartin was also a ‘Top Ten’ finalist in season 7 of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing.” As if that is not enough, Punchline Magazine called Kilmartin’s CD, “Five Minutes to Myself,” one of the “Top Ten Comedy CDs of 2009.”

As a writer, Kilmartin was on the staff of the “The Late Late Show,” “Tough Crowd” and “The Bonnie Hunt Show.” And, she co-authored Sherri Shepherd’s memoir, “Permission Slips.”

Recently, we had the good fortune to chat with Laurie.

I’m finding a niche of people who want to know more about the comic and listen to the non-performance riffing than just watch a comedy special.
“It’s so neat that there is a market for that now. It seemed that comedy was dead for a little while. And, then, all of a sudden the Internet caught up. Whatever it was doing for music, it caught up with stand-up in the past couple years really quickly. Live comedy is like a million times better than what you see on TV and YouTube, you know. It’s just like the electricity of being there, being in the room with somebody makes all the difference really.”

What made you go to New York?
“You know, I got to see new faces in Montreal in 1998. There, I met a woman who would become my agent for a little while. She said, ‘Why don’t you come to New York?’ I visited it and I loved it! I was only going to stay for a year and I ended up staying for ten years. It’s really a hard city to leave. I still am kind of sick inside that I am not there right now. The comedy scene was amazing there. It was like Noah’s ark, there’s like, not two of every race, but a hundred thousand of every race in a housing project. It’s just amazing. I love it!”

Have you ever thought about doing television, movies, that type of thing?
“I have a really hard time auditioning. I get very angry at auditions, because I don’t like being judged, which is probably the wrong attitude to have if you’re trying to have an acting career. Maybe I can try to mature and see if there’s anything open for me along those lines, but I feel more comfortable doing stand-up and writing. You just go out less vulnerable than you are when you are running around to auditions and memorizing copy that probably isn’t that funny. You know it’s not funny, but you’re supposed to be a comedian so that you’re supposed to make it funny. It’s hard. I have a hard time with that whole process.”

You found a niche in early 2000 in writing. You did some dynamite writing. Is that something you enjoy more than stand-up?
“Thanks. No, I don’t enjoy writing more than stand-up. I had a great time writing on ‘Tough Crowd,’ but I was writing for comics about a show starring stand-ups. It just was part of my world. Since then, writing jobs have been a little disappointing. I have not had as much fun on a job as I had on ‘Tough Crowd,’ but it’s a decent way to make a living and it’s hard to turn down that kind of money if you have the offer. But I do prefer stand-up.”

So, your son is 3-years old?
“Yes, my son is three. That whole pregnancy and having a baby, that really knocks you down. Not to say that the comic dads aren’t decimated by that experience, as well, but if you’re the one who’s having the baby, it’s just really frickin’ hard to bounce back immediately and get right back into stand-up, roadwork and stuff. So, that was a nice reason to take another writing job.

Your comedy is pretty dark when it comes to motherhood and your son. Do you have a plan to explain to him as he’s growing up that Mommy’s a comic and she didn’t mean it?
“Yeah. Someone brought that up on stage recently, saying, ‘The first time I saw this woman, she had twenty minutes of abortion jokes and she was pregnant at the time.’ Actually, I remember that time. When I was pregnant, I was openly debating, via jokes, whether I was going to have the baby and keep him and all that stuff. So I think that, since in utero, he has been exposed to my negativity and seems to not give a damn. He seems okay. I’ll tell him they’re just jokes, Mommy being a comedian at work. He’ll be okay.”

You just released a new CD called “5 Minutes To Myself.” Are you doing all new material now or are you just kind of gradually fine-tuning your set?
“I’m like, ‘Wow, if I don’t need this chunk anymore, I will be so happy.’ That’s my attitude toward stuff. Since ‘Last Comic Standing,’ I went to New York for 2.5 months and worked on a lot of new material that I was not allowed to perform, but it’s ready to go. I’m excited and feeling very creative and full of ideas. I will have a significant portion of new material at the Punchline that’s not on my CD.”

Do you sell your CDs when you are on the road?
“Yeah, I guess so. I have a bunch. I should get rid of them. I hate that, but I’ll bring some. Usually, what I try to do is hide. You will actually have to find me to get the CD. I can’t really sit there as people are leaving and make eye contact. I feel like, ‘My job was to make you laugh and now I’m done.’ But if you want a CD, you can go through a series of trap doors and hidden rooms and find me and I’ll sell one to you.”

Is “Last Comic Standing” as highly manipulated with the editing as we’ve been told?
“I’m not really sure. They do edit. My set that got me picked for the ‘Top Ten’ was me telling 2.5 jokes. Other people’s full sets were shown. That’s a way to manipulate because you’re seeing someone else doing 2.5 minutes and me doing a minute and a half and one of the jokes doesn’t have a punchline. Anytime they’re going to edit the stuff that a comedian does, that’s manipulation. What the comic’s intention was and what you’re showing are two different things. Part of comedy is the rhythm of the set and, if it just seems jumbled and half-broken, it doesn’t feel funny.

The other thing that’s really horrific is that people get angry with you if you’re still in the competition and they don’t like you. If you saw me in a club and you didn’t like me, you’d be like, ‘Whatever.’ But you wouldn’t hate me and go online and say that I suck. You just wouldn’t be that invested in it. The emotions that a comic’s success brings out in people are kind of scary. It’s like, ‘Well, could you just direct that anger toward BP or Goldman Sachs and not at a fucking comic who is telling a joke?’ I mean, what are we supposed to do, turn down an opportunity to be on prime-time television when we’re asked?”

Are you big on social media?
“I like Facebook. I like the immediate commentary and to find out if someone likes a joke. It’s very addicting. Yeah, I like Facebook a lot.”

Watch Kilmartin’s piercing insight and bald sarcasm at The Sacramento Punchline where she will regale you into joyful delirium, August 13th and 14th.

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An AmericasComedy.Com Interview

Paul Provenza wants to take you behind the scenes where only comedians hang out. He knows that the funniest, most creative material comes after the show: in the parking lot, at Denny’s at 2:00 AM and in the green rooms of comedy clubs across the nation. He’s your ticket to the comics’ world where personalities take precedence over material.

Provenza is a comedian/actor/producer and the director of the critically acclaimed 2005 documentary, “The Aristocrats.” He is currently executive producer and host of Showtime’s hit show, “The Green Room,” and co-author of the bestselling book, “Satiristas: Comedians, Contrarians, Raconteurs and Vulgarians” with internationally noted San Francisco photographer, Dan Dion.

Both of these endeavors showcase the fact that Provenza, by virtue of his stand up, past and present, has the unique ability to bring out real conversations with other comedians. To set a stage where they feel comfortable enough to have an uninhibited conversation that that they share with us.

We caught up with Provenza while he was in Montreal for the “Just for Laughs Festival,” where he was hosting Second City’s 50th Anniversary bash and giving book readings and signings.

Tell us about that eye patch you wore as a youngster.
“Yeah, yeah, I wore an eye patch. I had eye surgery. It was the bane of my entire childhood. I’d been wearing glasses since about the age of three. Back in the 1960s, eyeglasses were not unbreakable and bendable. I always had these big clunky glasses, and because I had amblyopia, which is ‘lazy eye,’ I wore an eye patch.

Because I was really only looking through one eye during most of my childhood, I had terrible depth perception. I was constantly bumping into things, falling over, tripping and spilling and breaking things. Among the things that I would break would be my glasses. My parents were like, ‘You know what, you’re going to have to learn to be more careful.’ They wouldn’t buy me new glasses; they would just put a big hunk of scotch tape on the corner. I was seriously a sad little kid. I was destined for comedy.”

Is a talent for comedy something you’re born having?
“As a matter of fact, my partner on ‘The Green Room,’ Barbara Roman, and I are working on another project with comedy writer Ron Zimmerman which very much addresses how a sense of humor in comedy is something you are born with.

“It’s a gift to be funny . . . .”
“Some people are born funny. If you have a kid who’s born with an amazing musical talent, you celebrate. If you have a kid who’s gifted with a sense of comedy and a sense of humor, they’re maligned and told to shut up and go to the back of the classroom. It’s about equating the ability to be really, really funny with a musical gift, or a gift of dance or drawing, or all that stuff we champion in any kid, except for comedy.

In my case, it was because of the ‘lazy eye’ and the eye patch and bumping into shit and just being a big klutz when I was a kid. How that related for me was that around five years old, I went to see a Jerry Lewis movie with my family. There I am watching Jerry Lewis, who is a goofy star and loved by millions, doing exactly what I happened to be doing.

Very consciously at a very young age, I realized and decided that if I’m going to get laughed at and mocked and get in trouble anyway, I may as well make it look like it was my idea and go for the laugh. You can shut up and pretend like shit didn’t happen, whine about it or feel miserable and psychologically abused for it. I just turned to comedy and that’s how it really started for me.”

Did you ever do dramatic acting or mostly just comedy?
“While I was in college, I decided I wanted to get a theater arts degree and the University of Pennsylvania did not offer one. At the time, they were in the process of building a theater arts program, but I couldn’t wait. I only had a couple of years left, so I went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (R.A.D.A.) in London. I did the first year and a half of their three-year program, returned to the University of Pennsylvania and, basically, filled in all the missing pieces to an actual theater arts degree. The university had to see what I was doing and say, ‘Well, he’s filled in all the gaps we haven’t filled in yet.’ After about a year of cajoling and whining, they issued me their first theater arts degree. But that came from my going to R.A.D.A. to study classical theater.”

“The Green Room” is groundbreaking. Is its style on purpose or by accident?
“It was very calculated. You know we had done the producing part with Barbara Roman. If you notice the way we shot it, the show opens mid-conversation. What we tried to do was not have any conventional trappings of a television show, because television shows are set up with an opening, an agenda, an ending and all this formality that immediately takes it away from any sort of reality or truth. So, we open in mid-conversation because I didn’t want the hey-the-show-is-starting-now vibe. I wanted it’s-already-happening, you get on board with it, right?”

Like shooting news or sports…
“We shot ‘The Green Room’ almost all handheld. We told the camera guys, ‘Listen, this is like shooting news or sports; we don’t know where the ball’s going; we don’t know who’s going to attack whom. Just be ready for anything.’ So all the handheld cameras are part of the vibe, in that they’re going to catch the thing that they’re not ready for. And so you, as a viewer, you get the sense of movement and spontaneity and unpredictability.”

Doing comedy the other way around
“It was a very conscious manifesto. I’ve always felt like the things that are emotionally involving about comedy fall away when it’s on television because its all so programmed and stale. One shot, two shot, two shot, one shot and it’s all predictable. Why does comedy always have to adapt to media and television? What happens if you do it the other way around? And so that’s what we set out to do.”

From “The Green Room’s” co-producer, Barbara Roman
“I’ve been producing comedy for a long time, live and television. Paul and I both agree that the funniest stuff we ever heard was after the show, in the green room or at the deli or bar. You know, it’s like, ‘If people could hear this, they would be blown away.’”

Buy tickets to a place you are not allowed to be, “The Green Room.”
“More great comedy has happened in parking lots at three in the morning than has ever happened on stage. My original intent was to sort of just capture it live and give comics a form to be uncensored, so it was a late night thing. The audience was all told, ‘You don’t belong here, but we’re allowing you in. This is the comedian’s space.’ They buy tickets to go to a place they’re not allowed to be.”

A crew chosen for their humanity
“It’s very conscious. There’s no detail that was not filtered through meetings and sensibility. For everything from top to bottom, every aspect of it, we brought people on board to do things like set and sign and lighting and directing. And all the key people we brought on board, we interviewed them and our real motivation in choosing anybody was not based on their resume or anything like that. (In fact, we moved a lot of people up a notch.) But it was based on humanity, like what kind of people are they? Are they going to be good people to work with? Are they going to get what we’re all about?

And then it was a question of having everybody break down all the conventions that they’re forced to work with in television. As a result, they all got wind under their wings. They were like, ‘This is cool. I’m actually getting to do something creative and interesting and unpredictable,’ and they loved it. So the fact that everybody’s passionate about the project comes through, as well.”

Life-changing

“Comedy changed my life. It saved my life really. If it weren’t for comedy, I’d be on a water tower with a high powered rifle. Seriously, it changed my life.”

Most people are not aware of comedy as a sophisticated art form with real depth with rich humanity involved, and how really, really expressive and honest and truthful it can be. ‘The Green Room’ is a little bit about giving back, which is what ‘Satiristas’ is about, and which was what ‘The Aristocrats’ was about. I want people to have an experience that’s not so much about the comedy, but the experience that I had when I found comedy and all of the sudden I was part of a community and I was amongst other people who were also misunderstood and felt outcast and all of that sort of stuff.”

I realized I wasn’t alone and found a real family that’s been with me my entire life. What I’ve been trying to do is not only create comedy that’s funny, that people are enjoying, but also to give people a bit of an experience of what’s really is going on in comedy. What we tried to do with ‘The Green Room’ was to create an experience where you can walk away feeling the things that I felt when I first became part of the comedy world.”

“It’s more about creating an experience than it is about being funny, . . . . Being funny is the foundation of it all, but we try to create a context where more is going on than meets the eye, where you can feel things about comedy, not just watch comedy.”

Do you and Barbara choose the mix? Are you and Barbara responsible for that?
“Yes, very much. Barbara and I have had some line-ups set when somebody had to drop out and we’d have to cancel the whole show because it’s all about the combinations of people, not necessarily about the individuals. It’s very, very well thought out. Some of our choices are driven by logistical realities, like who’s available when, and things like that. But, even given those parameters, people are put together for very, very specific reasons, either because of what I know about their work, what I know about them personally, or what I know about the relationships they have with each other.

Sometimes, it’s the really subtle things. For example, I knew that Bob Saget, just loves to joke, loves to whip out one liners. It’s really hard to get Bob to be real. But I also knew that he and Patrice O’Neal go back a long way and I know that Patrice is the kind of guy who will not tolerate you not being real with him, so I thought, ‘Here’s the perfect combo. Put them on the show with Roseanne (and he didn’t know that Roseanne was a huge fan of his) and there was a little intimidation factor being on a panel with Roseanne.’

I knew that Bob would be safe because Roseanne loves him (he didn’t even know that). Then we put Sandra Bernhard on that show because I knew that she and Roseanne had a great relationship. They egg each other on a lot and have known each other for years, so that gave Roseanne a level of comfort.”

I heard “Satiristas” builds. Do you do callbacks throughout the book?
“I don’t even know how to explain it. ‘Satiristas: Comedians, Contrarians, Raconteurs and Vulgarians’ is not journalistic, but comprises slices of conversations between myself and the other artists, as well as remarkable photography by Dan Dion. I took slices of the conversations we had and flowed them together so things sort of bounce off one another, reiterate and conflict. Different ideas merge at different paces and so they resonate in different ways when you read it in sequence.

I tried to approach ‘Satiristas’ in as artful a way as I could that would somehow complement the artfulness of Dan’s photography. So rather than it being either literal or journalistic, it’s more evocative. ‘Satiristas’ is another example of where I tried to do something that would create feelings and emotional responses or intellectual challenges to people as they’re enjoying the comedy, more than focus on the people who do the comedy.”

In your opinion, what’s the difference between a comic and satirist?
“Well, you know, ‘Satiristas’ gets into it a little bit about how ultimately that satire is irrelevant. ‘Satire,’ in its classic definition, is very, very specific; it’s an ancient Greek rule. Satire is embodying the idea that you want to mock to such a degree that it becomes self evident. Stephen Colbert is the best example of that. But, today, satire has become known as basically any comedy that has a point of view that is about political or social issues.

A lot of comedy is just people showing off. We’re focusing more on the people who have a little more substance than that and have gone through their own journeys and have points of view. Another thing I’m proud of in the book is that there is no overriding point of view. When we first started doing it, we thought that we were going to have to balance a left wing, right wing, and all that sort of stuff. It became very clear, very quickly that these are all independent, critical thinkers. With some notable exceptions, they’re not really party members. They call out bullshit where they see bullshit. That’s one of the things that I love about the book.”

Refusing to STFU, regardless of the price
“There’s something very empowering about the book, too, because it’s all about all these people who have gone through their own personal journey and refuse to shut-the-fuck-up, regardless of the price. We live in a society now where if you’re out with friends and you’re having a conversation and some politics come up and you get animated in this discussion, and you get a little passionate about it, some idiot will always give that hack sitcom, off-the-show, poor excuse for an original idea, ‘Hey tell us what you really think,’ as if there’s something wrong or worthy of scorn in being passionate and concerned and interested. That’s one of the things that everybody in “Satiristas” defies. There’s something empowering in it. And there are life lessons in it, too, for people to be inspired to not think like everybody else and to find some connection with the fact that a lot of people don’t think like everybody else. It’s having an interesting impact on a lot of people.

They don’t take no shit for nobody. They say what’s on their mind and they say it how they say it.
“And they’ve turned what is potentially destructive in their lives into valuable content. So there’s that other sort of empowering self-help aspect that you know these people have taken the worst parts of their lives, the hardest things about being them, and turned it. Instead of shoving it in the closet and hoping it doesn’t become a problem in life, they grab it by the horns and they get on it and ride it into the sunset.”

A lot of comedy is still mediocre . . .
“Yeah, I do wanna point this out. It’s something that I feel often needs to be stated because I know that there are people who have not experienced the level of artistry and comedy that we were talking about here. The truth is, that on any average night, you go to any average comedy venue, and you’ll probably see mediocre comedy. You’ll probably see people trying to sell what they think people are going to buy. Or, you know, people who are doing sexist, racist, homophobic or even worse stuff that’s about the status quo, maligning anyone who’s different or unusual. But we’re not interested in that kind of comedy. What we’re trying to put forth is the alternative to that… that there is real artistry, real heart and soul, real compassion, and real thought and intellect in a lot of people doing comedy. A lot of what I’m doing between ‘The Green Room’ and ‘Satiristas’ is championing the good rather than criticizing the other stuff.”

The real crime
“I’m trying to make people enjoy the process of learning about these things and experience these things if different ways. On a personal level, I feel like the crime is not that there’s crap comedy out there, but that the people who are doing good comedy aren’t celebrated and separated from the pack and given their due. So, rather than deal with the negativity of lambasting everybody who sucks, I would rather focus on the people who are really extraordinary and elevate them in some way, if I can.”

An AmericasComedy.Com Interview

Comedian Cedric The Entertainer is one of the hardest working men in the entertainment business. Perhaps you love him from his roles in Barbershop, Be Cool or The Original Kings Of Comedy. You may have became a fan of his voice-over roles in Madagascar, Charlotte’s Web or The Proud Family. Maybe it was his staring role in the hit Johnson Family Vacation. Anyway you look at it, Cedric IS “The Entertainer.”

Even with his success as an actor, producer and director, Cedric The Entertainer is coming to Sacramento’s Memorial Auditorium and going back to his roots of stand up comedy.

We spoke to Cedric, (Mr. Entertainer?), by phone as he was recovering from a minor surgery performed last week.

Have you ever worked in the Sacramento area before?
Yeah, I was in Sacramento about 3 years ago at one the local clubs and then at, I think the same venue that I am playing on Thursday, so it’s been awhile.

Fantastic! I know that you rescheduled from Saturday, and you tweeted out that you had some minor surgery.
Yeah, I had a little hernia I had to take care of.

Everything’s Okay now?
Yeah, I’m ready to get back at it, you know, I’m up moving around and doing 110 crunches a day, so I’m good. (chuckling).

Cedric, you are truly a complete package as an entertainer. You act in comedies and dramas, animated movies and plays on Broadway. You also write, direct and produce. What gives you the most satisfaction?
I started with stand-up and I think that probably ranks pretty high up there with the opportunity to get immediate reaction to your thoughts and commentary. Having that audience response so immediately, is one of the greatest satisfactions.

I also enjoyed directing my first movie and I look forward to seeing what people think about that when it comes out.

Have you decided on a title yet? I heard it was a toss up between “Chicago Pulaski Jones” and “Dance Foo Fighting.”
We decided that the title is “Dance Foo – The Legend of Pulaski Jones” (laughs)

So, nobody won, but you just compromised!
Yeah, (chuckling), at least that’s settled.

Most people don’t know that before you were Cedric “The Entertainer” you were Cedric “The Insurance Salesman.” What was the big step you took that put you on the stage?

I started stand up almost the same week that I started at State Farm (Insurance), and it was kind of weird that I felt like my life was calling at the same time I found the best job that I had ever had since getting out of college. But I worked for State Farm for over 2 years before I decided that I could do comedy full time and so I just built my initial career around St. Louis then got an opportunity to tour on a national tour with the Funny Bones comedy clubs and that’s when I decided to go for it.It was a relatively short period for most comedians. I know a lot of guys that put their 13 or 14 years into their careers before they got a real break.

I always knew I was a performer. My mother was a school teacher and was all about the education in our household and I remember trying to convince her to let me know to a performing art school where I could sing in talent shows and stuff like that. I have always had a knack for it. But I didn’t really try to act until I was out of college.

The story about how you got the “The Entertainer” moniker was that you wanted to charge more money so you had to do more time.
Yeah, (chuckling), You know comedy is all about time. The opener does 10 minutes, the feature act does 30 minutes and the headliner does an hour, so when I started, I wanted the money for at least the 30 minute guy.

I didn’t have a lot of material so I would sing songs, do poetry, paint pictures.I would do whatever I had to do. They said I was entertaining and the guy (MC) kept calling me a comedian and I said, “No, don’t call me a comedian, call me an entertainer.”  So, he introduced me as Cedric “The Entertainer,” I had a good show, the name stuck and that’s what it’s been.

You have a daughter who’s 6 years old and a son who’s 9 years old. You have done a lot of animated shows and movies including; Charlotte’s Web, Madagascar and The Pride Family doing voice overs and you worked with Oprah Winfrey. How do your kids react to watching and hearing their dad?
They do get more excited about the other people in the films though I do love telling the story that my son had no idea who Oprah was. When I was doing Charlotte’s Web, we (Oprah and I) were in the studio together at the time and I said to my son, “This is Oprah Winfrey,” and he goes “And you do what? Do you know that my dad is Cedric The Entertainer?” (laughing) and I told him, “There you go son, that’s telling her!”

You’ve worked with so many of the greats in comedy, sports, actors and even politicians, who have you most enjoyed working with the most?
I guess I’d have to say that I have had the most fun working on the “Barbershop” movie with Ice Qube who is a very interesting character to work with. We had great laughs with Jim Carrey on “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” and also in “Be Cool” with John Travolta, he was actually a very cool dude too. He liked to sing old Motown songs on the set and we had a good time.

Is there anyone that you still want to work with on projects that you haven’t yet?
Yeah, even though I kind of got to work with him while doing voice work on “Dr. Doolittle 2,” I still would like to do something with Eddie Murphy. Something big like a comedy where there’s a lot of comedic minds there and we’re all having a great time. I also have the opportunity to work with Tom Hanks in his latest movie, “Larry Crowne” so that’s a big deal. Eddie Murphy will probably be someone on the top of that list  that I would want to have the opportunity to be around and laugh, do something funny and create something special and unique with.

Is there any one project that you have worked on that you look back and say, “I wish I hadn’t done that?”
No, not really where I wish that I hadn’t done it. The Honeymooners was something that I really enjoyed and it was a big brand. We had another idea that we were going to do when we started off and then the studio got involved and changed it and made it something else. It was one of those things where I wish we could have done our original ideas. It would have been a lot funnier and more true to the characters that Mike Epps and I were going to bring to it. At one point it didn’t turn out that way. It was such a big franchise and we would have had the opportunity to make so many more and add to it’s success. Sometimes you just look back on it and say, “man, that was really disappointing!”

The bigger the budget the less control you have?
The less power you have. You don’t have the say in the overall direction of the movie. We had  a new executive come in on the movie and change the movie into something he thought would make sense. He was trying to make a name for himself at the studio. You had to deal with the politics of that and that’s what was going on. You end up falling prey to studio politics.

I heard that you were interested in doing more TV. Do you have anything in the works?
We are developing a couple of different things. The title of one project is “Anger Management” based on the Adam Sandler, Jack Nicholson movie. It’s a sitcom so it would be about me as an anger management therapist who actually has anger issues of his very own. It is set in Brooklyn, New York and I am looking forward to doing that. It is still in early development though.

I’m also developing a reality show where I show up and kick in on people’s family reunions where I try to convince the families to try to eat better. We thought it would be fun to go to family reunions, Superbowl parties and anytime people are gathered together, eating wings and drinking beer and I’m like, “Alright fool, can we change this out and try something different?”

You’re one of the hardest working people in the business. Do you have any thoughts of taking a break or retiring anytime soon and just kicking back and enjoying life?
I’ve always kind of set my eye on being 50 years old and being able to down shift a little bit. I have about 4 or 5 years left for that. Yeah, I’m definitely planning on being able to slow down and travel and enjoy life and just do the fun things before I’m just old and gotta do it on a cruise ship. I just want to be able to still cause some debauchery and trouble, maybe get on the news!

Cedric The Entertainer is appearing at 8:00 PM at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, 1515 J St., Sacramento, CA, 95814 Tickets Here

An AmericasComedy.Com Video Interview

Iliza Shlesinger is sweet, smart and sexy. In addition to being the first woman winner of NBC’s Last Comic Standing in Season 6, she is also the youngest person to win that honor.

In a fortuitous turn of events, AmericasComedy.Com caught up with Shlesinger in the green room at the Pepperbellys Comedy Club in Fairfield, CA where she graciously allowed us a spur-of-the-moment interview before her show. Lucky for us, we had our video camera with us!

Watch as she talks about Last Comic Standing, how the $250,000 prize changed her life, her dog Blanche with the floppy vagina, and the fact that she has, in fact had sex. And the fact that although she loves Facebook,  she is an angry tweeter.

Please enjoy and excuse our production values!

Click Here To Watch Iliza’s Interview on YouTube!

Headlines July 24th For One Night Only!

“Lady Business,” the name of the newest, and to our knowledge only, all-female improv troupe in the Sacramento area is quite the misnomer. These six very funny girls certainly aren’t “ladies” in the conservative, Emily Post kind of way.

We were able to meet up with this troupe of very sexy, very funny ladies as they were practicing together at the Sacramento Comedy Spot in mid-town in preparation for their fourth consecutive monthly appearance there on July 24th.

Improv-ers all, Micaela Smith, Mel Gelbart, Becca Costello, Brittany Birrer Stacy Beckley and Lisa Spivak constitute this hilarious and ribald troupe that presents a point of view that women can relate to and men can only fantasize about. The July 24th show will also feature Tiffany Shultz who is standing in for Beckley who is unavailable.

Using the long form improv style as their vehicle, the women break down their 40 minute show into two main categories. During the first half, the women each do monologues and group montages and in the second, they utilize the audience for ideas and concepts for them to create from.

The women are all veterans in improvisation and regular players at the Sacramento Comedy Spot. Birrer and Shultz are also full time members of the long running improv troupe, Anti-Cooperation League and many of the other members are regulars in the Comedy Spot’s Wednesday HAROLD night show and are all currently competing in the 3 on 3 competition at the mid town venue. 

“We swear a lot but so far have not done any masturbation sketches,” Gelbart replied to our questions of what constituted a women’s point of view. “Not stupid boy humor,” added Shultz.

Plan on attending this show at the Sacramento Comedy Spot, Saturday, July 24th at 8:00 PM. Admission is only $5 or you can attend both Lady Business and the Anti-Cooperation League’s 9:00 PM show for only $10.

Melissa Peterman takes her time weaving through the audience, savoring the tidal wave of energy she has created, even stopping to dance with a lucky young lad in the front row before taking the mic and unabashedly flirting with an even luckier older lad in the front row… who just happens to be out with his wife, daughter, and her date…who just happens to be the aforementioned younger lad.  And the stage is set.

Before the night is over, Peterman has invited a recent divorce onstage to flaunt her newfound freedom, knocked over a table in a fit of blonde rage, and made older-lad’s wife spit out her water.  Melissa Peterman is an unstoppable force on stage.  Well versed in improvisation, she transitions seamlessly between audience play and a sharp set that is elegantly balanced between physical comedy and intelligent wit. Not a single inch of the sold out room was left unattended by Peterman for a solid 60 minutes.

If you missed Melissa Peterman the first time around, fear not!  You may be able to catch her weekly on her new CMT sitcom, “Working Class” which is one of four pilots ordered for two slots. After watching Peterman, we know that the odds are stacked WAY in her favor!

Here is some raw video of the AmericasComedy.Com interview with Melissa. Due to some technical difficulties, the volume is a little low and only one camera was used. We are working hard to get the corrected version online! In the mean time… Enjoy!

Click Here To Watch Melissa’s Funny Interview on YouTube!

A SacramentoComedy.Com Interview

Listening to comedian Felipe Esparza is a cross between listening to Cheech Marin from Cheech and Chong fame and hanging out with your funniest “homeboy.”   They both have the East L.A. accent and down to earth sense of humor that comes from growing up in the barrio.

We spoke to Esparza recently just after his advance to the semi-final rounds of NBC’s Last Comic Standing, Season 7.

“The next step is to have a big battle between the semi-finalists in New York and Los Angeles,” Esparza said. We asked him if he anticipated any drive-by shootings in the heated East Coast/West Coast face-off.

“Naw, everyone is telling me to leave my Blackberry at home, though.”

Apparently, one of Esparza’s best friends is comedian Gabriel Iglesias, who has the distinction of being the first and only comedian kicked off the “Last Comic Standing” show in the fourth season for smuggling a cell phone into the comic’s sequestered quarters so he could text his girlfriend.

“Gabriel will always represent ‘Last Comic Standing’ to me,” he exclaimed.

The friendship between Esparza and Iglesias goes back to 1998 and we suspected that there was more to the story.

“I was running a one nighter room in Montebello called ‘Gotham’ and Gabriel showed up one night. He wanted to meet me but at 20 years old, he was too scared or shy so he sent some kid over,” he said. “‘Gabriel really thinks you’re funny Felipe. He wants to do some time on stage’ (the kid said).

“I just told him to tell Gabe that if he wants to perform, he needs to get his scared ass over here and ask me himself. Gabriel did get up that night, did a lot of voices and killed.”

Esparza just finished a movie called, “I’m Not Like That No More” that co-stars comedy great, Paul Rodriquez as Esparza’s dad.

“We shot the movie in 9 days. It’s based on my stand up comedy and most of the plot comes from my CD called What’s Up Fool?

“I play the lead and throughout the movie, everyone will freeze while I narrate what’s going on in my head,” he said. “Then the story continues almost like (the movie) ‘Ferris Bueller.’ It’s pretty cool!”

“Then, I even got to make out with my co-star, Deborah Baker Jr.,” he said. “She’s a hot blond! My first sex scene!! What???”

He laughed, then paused like he was contemplating his ‘next’ sex scene.

The movie will premier at the New York Latino Film Festival in July. To see more information and view a short trailer, you can go to www.imnotlikethatnomore.com.

Esparza, who grew up in the Latino neighborhood of Boyle Heights in East LA and now hails from Echo Park, first performed on stage at a coffee shop in LA called The Natural Fudge, where the comics were required to buy food in order to get a chance to perform.

Along the way, Esparza got to perform and hang out with the likes of Alonzo Bodden, the “Last Comic Standing” winner of Season 3, and Freddy Soto, while eating his way to fame.

From there, Esparza began appearing at venues throughout the LA area including The Laugh Factory in Hollywood, which had a Latino-themed show on Mondays.

“Were you always this funny or did you have to work for it?” – we wanted to know.

“Back then my style was really ‘deadpan’ like Steven Wright. I’d talk real slow and try to enunciate but that was a really hard style in those rooms,” he said. “One room I used to work also was a biker bar. We used to have the same crowd every week so we had to come up with different jokes every week and as I got better with my comedy, the crowd got better with their heckling! It was a rough room.

“I got my first TV credit in 1996 on Showtime’s “Latino Laugh Festival” with Paul Rodriquez. You should have seen my hair back then, I was a ‘thug.’ But then I grew it out because the cops were profiling bald Hispanic people,” he said. “My first (head shot) is still on the wall at the Comedy Store right next to Gilbert Iglesias’ who’s dressed in a sweater.”

Esparza’s star just keeps shining brighter. His TV credits include: ABC’s “Comics Unleashed,” Showtime’s “Comics Without Borders,” BET‘s “Comic View,” and “One Mic Stand,” and Galavision’s “Que Locos” (where he holds the title of most appearances by any comedian) and now his opportunity to shine on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing.”

You can follow Esparza’s appearances at comedy clubs, comedy festivals, television and theaters at his Official Facebook Fan Page.

You can also listen to (and buy) Esparza’s latest acclaimed CD, “Rebound Material” at Amazon and iTunes.

A SacramentoComedy.Com Interview

Henry Cho’s fairytale career began in 1986 when, as a student at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, he entered a “Funniest Person in America” contest sponsored by the Showtime network.

Cho, who is a full-blooded Korean, but raised in the heart of the South, walked onto the stage and in his deepest, most Southern drawl stated, “So, I’m from the South. So I guess that makes me South Korean.” It was a juxtaposition “hook” that launched his career.

“It was my first joke, so I had to explain who I was,” he said. And that hook has served him well. The late Steve Allen, first host of the original “Tonight Show” and a huge supporter of Cho’s, once commented that there were very few original jokes left and Cho had at least 12 of them.

I just happened to hear about (the competition) and called to see if I could go on stage,” he said. “I was on the waiting list and somebody canceled so I got the last spot. I was the last to go on and received a standing ovation. That was on Monday and the club owner immediately offered me a job for Wednesday. By Friday, I dropped out of college to do stand up full time.”

Cho also had another hook that set him apart from most all other comedians. He only does “clean” comedy. Can a mainstream comedian be funny and clean at the same time? Cho thinks so.

“I pride myself on never using a cuss word on stage. Ever.” Cho brags. “I headline in Las Vegas every year, and this summer I am performing on an Alaskan cruise. Not too many comedians can pull that off. Funny thing is, my show doesn’t change for Vegas.

“My show is an adult comedy show, but it isn’t offensive. Your kids could listen to it, even though I hope they wouldn’t ‘get’ most of it. But I get a lot of fan mail from soccer moms saying ‘I love having your CD because I can listen to it with my kids in the car.’”

That clean act is partially responsible for his early success. A quickly rising comedian named Jerry Seinfeld was performing in Atlanta and looking for an opener that would perform totally clean. Cho was the perfect candidate and toured extensively with Seinfeld.

“So, when Jerry moved to Los Angeles, he told (Gary) Shandling and Leno and these guys that I was funny so I ended up working with the top 10 comedians in the nation in my first two or three years doing stand up.”

Have there been any hardships or “hell gigs” along the way?

“Well, in 1989 or 1990, Tim Allen, myself, Seinfeld, Larry Miller and Dennis Wolfberg were hired to do the White Mountain Cooler Tour. We traveled around the country and had to do eight venues. One stop was in Jacksonville, Miss., and unfortunately the comedy club there had closed two weeks before so they put us at a place called The Docks. It was actually a dock and people would come off of their boats and there was only four tables so everyone had to just stand around. That’s not even the worst part. We had to do four nights there, one show a night and it was exactly the same people each night. By the end, we were just chatting with the audience asking things like, ‘How’s was your job interview, Bob?’”

Cho moved to Los Angeles in 1989 and then to Tennessee five years later.

“Everything was great and my career was on the upswing, but it was just making me somebody I didn’t like. I’m not an L.A. kind of guy. I just have a different moral compass, so I moved back to Tennessee to buy a farm. I commuted every week for two years after that, while I was hosting ‘Friday Night Videos’ for NBC, I would just commute.”

Even though Cho appears on television and in movies, including the 1996 movie “Material Girls” with Hillary Duff, Cho has lived and owned a farm in Tennessee raising Black Angus cattle with his wife and three kids since 1994. Since it was a working ranch, we asked him if he raised anything else.

“Nope, kids and cattle. That’s enough!”

Cho works on the road about eight to 10 days a month and shares his child-raising and family duties with his wife.

“I take time off through the holidays and the summer so we can hang out with the kids.”

“There’s no down-side to my life,” he said. “If my television show (currently being marketed) doesn’t get picked up then it’s no big deal because I get to stay in Nashville and do what I do. I have a blessed life.”

It is also a good thing that being a comedian doesn’t have an age requirement.

“My wife asked me how long I am planning to be a comedian and I just told her that George Burns was performing until he was 100.”

Since Cho has performed with many great comedians, we asked him if he would give us some quick thoughts about some famous people he knows. He agreed.

Bill Envall: “One of my best friends! His son is one of my godsons. Great mentor.”

Jeff Foxworthy: “Another great mentor and dear friend. I have so many stories with him about working back in the day before the ‘Blue Collar Tour.’”

Tim Allen: “Tim and I go way back from our time on the road. I see him occasionally.”

Phil Nee (the only other Korean comedian performing nationally when Cho was beginning his career): “I hear that he isn’t doing comedy anymore. Some of the young Asian comedians nowadays find that between Phil and I we have done almost every Korean joke there is, so it’s hard for them to find their own version.”

Craig Ferguson (co-Producer of Cho’s comedy pilot): “Most producers of television shows just put their names on there like a vanity plate. Craig went to the meeting with Paramount with me, the meeting at CBS with me, and is a class act.”

Jerry Seinfeld: “Seinfeld set me on the right track. He told me, when I had been doing comedy for less than a year, ‘People are going to throw all kinds of stuff at you, they may want to give you shows with a stand up theme, but don’t stop doing stand up because very few people can do it as well as you can do it.”

Cho admits that he made a decision early on that he would choose to be successful over being famous.

“You know, I stay right under the radar and I get all the great perks that go along with where I am. But when opportunities arise, like doing a television show, my wife and I talk about and pray about how that exposure affects the entire family and our lifestyle. Early on, I wanted to be an actor, but it just isn’t conducive to my raising a family. I can’t go away for six weeks to do a movie in Australia, no matter how much they pay me.”

With over three television pilot scripts to his credit, Cho is a member of both the Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild.

“Today, it is hard to get a show that is created by the lead actor. Shows like ‘Rosanne,’ Tim Allen’s show ‘Home Improvement’ and even Ray Ramono’s ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ were ‘based on the stand up of…” and not created by the comedians themselves. To be able to get a “co-created by” gives you the control over the show, which is what I have to have. I want to control what my show is going to be.”

What can the audience expect to see next month at the Cache Creek Casino?

“I usually know what kind of show that I want to do when I get up on stage, but it often doesn’t work out that way. I have a God-given talent for thinking fast and ad-libbing on the fly, and so a percentage of my act is “riffing” with the audience and I usually have a question-and-answer segment that I do toward the end of my show. I like to interact with the people and know what they think.”

Cho will appear Friday, June 18 at Cache Creek Casino. Follow this link for more information about Cache Creek Casino Entertainment. Must be 21 or over. Admission is free with a Cache Creek card or $20 at the door. A Cache Creek card is free and can be obtained at the Customer Service desk on the day of the show.

A SacramentoComedy.Com Video Interview

Ahmed Ahmed, comic, actor and now producer/director appeared at the Sacramento Punchline recently on his headline tour. While he was here, we got a chance to sit and visit with Ahmed and talk about his name, his career and his new movie, “Just Like Us” which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.

Join us as the interview is already in progress!

Click Here To Watch Ahmed’s Interview on YouTube!

A SacramentoComedy.Com Interview

You may not think that the name “Ralphie” is something you would call a390-pound man. But, in the case of comedian Ralphie May, it’s just fine. May, 38, who was named one of the “Top 10 Comics To Watch” in 2008 by“Variety Magazine,” was given that nickname as a young boy growing up deep in the heart of the south.

May, who will be performing his two-hour show Thursday at The Crest Theatre, likes to tell people that his shows are about two hours in length for a reason.

“My average fan works for about $20 per hour, if they are lucky enough to have a job,” he chuckled, “and then factoring in insurance, taxes and such, they’re maybe bringing home $15 per hour. If my tickets are just under $30, it took them about two hours of their life to make the money to come see my show. Why shouldn’t I give them two hours too? That way I am not any better than anyone else.”

Born in Chattanooga, Tenn., Ralphie didn’t have it easy. Like so many famous comedians, May knew he wanted to be a stand-up comedian by the time he was 9. He performed at talent shows at 13, and before he could establish himself as a serious performer at 16, May was involved in a life-changing automobile accident.

“I broke 14 bones in 64 different places and was in a coma for 10 days,” he explained. “Yeah, it still hurts! Now, whenever it gets cold or it’s about to rain, I think I’m gonna die.”

But can May usually turn any personal challenge into part of his act?

“Without a doubt. More importantly, it has provided me with empathy. I think that that is a necessary trait to being a great communicator, and to be a great stand-up you need empathy for others. Put yourself in different people’s positions, that way you can see the angle from inside the joke rather than from the outside.”

May learned his craft by performing at open mics and showcases throughout the southern states. Was that “southern” environment different from, say Los Angeles, Chicago or New York?

“Oh yeah, without a doubt. There was a lot less competition. I started doing stand-up in 1989 in Arkansas. I was only 17, attending both high school and college at the same time. I was doing open mics and showcases when I won a radio talent show and got the opportunity to open for Sam Kinison. It was on Sam’s advice that I moved to Houston to pursue my career.” He then added,

“When I performed in Houston, I realized that it wasn’t really a ’southern’ town. It’s a Texas town and has a different feel. It’s a melting pot and one of the most diverse cities in the world. It was great just being a kid from Arkansas to be around so many different types of people.

“What was weird, though, was that when I got there, I was still only 18, (and) the white clubs wouldn’t really work me that much. I started my stand up at mostly ‘urban clubs’ like the Comedy Showcase and the Hip-Hop Comedy Club, opening for people like Steve Harvey. It was crazy.”

One of May’s most recognizable physical features is his weight. From a top weight of almost 800 pounds, May has had gastric bypass surgery and is committed to diet and exercise to keep his weight under 400 pounds.

“I’m half the man I used to be…” May sang as I pointed out that he has lost more than another person in body weight.

May appeared on the VH1 reality fitness show “Celebrity Fit Club” during its first season. During the two months he appeared on the show, May lost 78 pounds of fat, 18 inches around his waist and gained 24 pounds of muscle.

Those impressive numbers came with a certain amount of physical damage, however.

“I tore two tendons in my foot, and I gave myself an eight-inch hernia, but still it was great. It hurt, and the subsequent surgeries weren’t fun, but it really helped me and gave me a lot of new (nutritional) information that I never had before. As soon as my foot heals up, I am going to hit it again and lose more weight in 2010.”

May had stated when he was hovering around the 600-pound mark that there were two goals he had had regarding his weight loss. Riding a bike with his wife (then girlfriend) and going surfing. We asked how he was doing on attaining those goals.

“I ride a bike with my wife at our home in Nashville, and I am about 150 pounds away from surfing.”

May and Lahna Turner, his wife of five years, both perform stand-up. They have homes in both Los Angeles and Nashville. I wondered whether he stays home to take care of their two young children, a daughter, age two and a half, and a son, almost 1, when his wife was working and he wasn’t.

“We have a nanny, and she usually goes with Lahna because our son is still breast feeding. But most of the time, we like to tour together.”

May and Turner’s senses of humor didn’t stop when they had kids. Their daughter’s name is April June May, and their son is August James May. We wondered whether those names corresponded to the months that they were born.

“No, August was born in June, and April was born in September.”

Does having a family and two young kids affect your material now? Does it keep you from being as edgy as you have been? I guess what we are asking is, are you making diaper jokes now?

“NO! If anything, I am probably edgier now. People always ask me if I am going to be a family comic now and tone down my rhetoric and my bullshit. But I’m like, ‘Why?’ First of all, I can’t do family jokes like Mr. Cosby. Mr. Cosby has been doing that family shit for fucking 40 years. He’s covered every fucking angle on jokes that deal with the family. When a comic is talking about family, if you don’t think you are ripping off a joke that Cosby has done over the years, then you have to be retarded. Bill did it all.”

May exploded in popularity in 2003 after taking a highly protested and controversial second place behind winner Dat Phan on NBC’s freshman season of “Last Comic Standing.”

Many people believed May was ripped off for the title win because he and fellow comedians Rich Vos and Dave Mordal were very mean to Phan when they were all cooped up in the “comic house.”

May laughed. “I don’t think that Dat Phan robbed me of anything. NBC picked the winner. You can spin it anyway you want to. You can say that the people picked the winner, but what they were shown was at NBC’s discretion. NBC chose to show Rich and I busting Dat Phan’s balls, but we busted everybody’s balls because we’re ball busters. That’s what we do. But Rich is one of the sweetest people on the fucking planet.

“Dat Phan kept on wearing the same fucking clothes over and over and over again. Rich finally asked him, ‘Don’t you have any other clothes?’ and Dat, very meekly said, ‘No, I don’t.’ Rich was mortified and just said ‘Holy shit! Are you serious?’ and then Rich passed the hat and we all pitched in and collected $100 and bought Dat Phan a new set of clothes. Nobody ever said that, and NBC never showed that. It would have made great TV, but nobody shared it because they wanted to control the outcome.

“I was told by Jay Mohr, (the MC for the first season) that if I didn’t get a standing ovation each week that NBC would throw me out. They didn’t know what to do with me. You never see anyone at 650 pounds on TV. But, in trying to finagle the competition, they actually did me a favor. They galvanized my fans to be loyal and fight for me and become active and motivated and buy my albums to prove everybody wrong. And it worked. That is why my first album, ‘Girth of A Nation’ went platinum.”

We wanted to know how the opportunity to do “Last Comic Standing” came about.

“I had worked with Jay Mohr at ESPN Sports, writing and producing his show, ‘Mohr Sports’ in 2002, and Jay said, ‘I’ve got this show called ‘Comic House’ I’m working on, and you should do it.’ Then, 15 months later,  I was working in Honolulu at The Laugh Factory when he called me on a Thursday. He said, ‘Dude, I need you to audition for this show called “Last Comic Standing” on Saturday.’ Hey! I’m working, I told him. You don’t need me to audition, you know my work. But he told me that everything had to be above board with no favorites because NBC was involved.

“I looked up the cost of the flight back to Los Angeles, and it was over $800, and I didn’t have it. I was broke. My girlfriend said, ‘I believe in you, and I think you can do this. You should just go and do it.’ So when I told her I didn’t have the money, she just said, ‘I’m not going to let you miss this
opportunity just because you don’t have the money. Here, put it on my Dad’s credit card.’ Now, her rent was $900 a month, and she just spent almost an entire month’s rent on a charge card because she believed in me. The funny thing also was that her parents hated my guts!”

You married that woman, right?

“Yes, she is one hell of a woman. I would be worthless if I didn’t have her in my life. I would be a piece of shit. She had my best interests and believed in me when no one else would, including me. She’s amazing!”

That belief paid off. After his “Last Comic Standing” participation ended, May appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and was the first comedian in more than 10 years to receive a standing ovation. He also appeared on most every late night show to rave reviews.

May has released three comedy albums to date, with his most recent, “Ralphie May: Austin-Tatious,” released on DVD and CD in May 2009. It was recorded live to a sold-out crowd at the Paramount Theater in Austin, and May is due to appear with Neil Patrick Harris and Amy Sedaris in the new movie, “Best and The Brightest,” later this year.

But you don’t have to wait. Watch May perform live May 13 at The Crest Theatre . Showtime is at 7:30 and tickets are $29.75

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