At a recent gig at the 8th Street Comedy Club in Odessa, Texas, comedian Pauly Shore, who last thrilled television audiences as "The Weasel" on MTV in the '90s before moving on to a movies of dubious quality, was punched by a guy in a cowboy hat (clip, after the jump, contains swearing). I'll let you guys have at it in the comments about whether or not Shore deserved the beating based solely on not being especially funny.
comedy club-related stories
Pauly Shore gets punched - VIDEO
Continue reading Pauly Shore gets punched - VIDEO
Wayans and Dick weigh in on the N-word
A couple of more TV celeb-related incidents post-Michael Richards rant have been making the news. First up, Andy Dick. You know him from News Radio, Less than Perfect and his MTV series The Assistant. He jumped on the stage at the Improv during Ian Bragg's set and, in an attempt at "too soon" humor, brandished the n-bomb. He's been apologizing ever since. A legitimately funny and meaningful use of the "n-word," however, came from Damon Wayans' of Showtime's The Underground. Wayans took the stage at the now famous Laugh Factory last night with a stack of twenties. Since Richards' rant, the club owner has banned the word - levying a $20 per usage fee and three month ban on any comedian who uses the word. Wayans proceeded to drop the n-word sixteen times saying, "I'll be damned if the white man uses that word last." That's $320 price tag for a little freedom of speech, if you're counting.
Real Kramer says he's not fake Kramer
One forgotten victim in this whole "Michael Richards goes nuts and screams racist remarks" controversy just might be Kenny Kramer, the real-life guy who was the inspiration for the Cosmo Kramer character on Seinfeld. While it's great to have the fake Kramer be associated with the real Kramer during good times, it can be sort of disconcerting if people start to associate the real Kramer with the fake one when things are bad.
Kramer (the real one) is upset that news outlets such as The Drudge Report and Michael Savage are saying "Kramer's a racist." Personally, I don't see how the two could possibly be confused. I mean, to be honest, do people really even think of the real Kramer that much? I don't think the news outlet's are saying "Kramer's a racist" to confuse anyone, and I don't think it's misleading. They're using the last name because it's the name of one of the most famous (and beloved) characters in TV history.
Richards went on Jesse Jackson's radio show over the weekend to explain himself, apologize, and to begin the "healing." In a related story, the character of Kramer will now be edited out of all the Seinfeld episodes he appears in.
Zach chats with a porn star
Some of us here at TV Squad are big fans of comedian Zach Galifianakis, but while I always find him entertaining whether he's acting on a show or just doing stand-up, I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to see him interview a porn star. Thankfully, YouTube has filled this particular void in my life with a clip of Galifianakis interviewing porn vixen Monique Alexander for XXX Comedy Night in Los Angeles. I've placed the video after the jump. The sound quality isn't the best, but you can still make out what's being said. Galifianakis gets some great questions in, but I found it amusing that while he's always great at thinking on his feet, Galifianakis actually becomes tongue-tied a couple times thoughout the video. Anyway, take a look:Continue reading Zach chats with a porn star
Albert Brooks talks comedy
Albert Brooks, the quintessential comedian's comedian, recently did an interview
with The Onion where he spoke about his new movie Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World. Of course,
TV viewers know Brooks from his numerous appearances on late night talk shows, most notably on Johnny Carson's
Tonight Show. What I found especially interesting was his take on how stand-up comedians today often
don't stand a chance because everything they do is "focus grouped" within minutes:
"I just, man, I'm telling you—I don't know how you get a Sam Kinison out of that world. I don't know where Bill Hicks comes from. I don't know how anyone special can go anywhere, because the guards are right in the very embryonic stage."
That was refreshing enough, but what really capped it off was when he later said, "I just read where somebody got high on the Billboard charts with [a comedy album]. I forget who it was." If anything from that interview made me respect this iconic comedian more than I already do, it's that he neither knows, nor cares, who the hell Dane Cook is.
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