Can’t come to LA? The City of Angels comedy can come to you in a nice, two disc package from Comedy Central that offers an array of comics, some better than others for your sampling.
Reno 911! © Glenn Harris / Photorazzi
LA’s best known and under-the-radar stand-ups are featured.
"Comedy Death-Ray," Comedy Central Records’ produced two disc CD features 18 tracks of stand-up, and starts off on Disc One with Paul F. Tompkins, who has withering memories of working at Tower Video on the famous Sunset Strip.
He talks of his encounters with Fabio and his own self-loathing stuck behind the counter: “You are just never ready to see Fabio,” he quips.
"Comedy Death-Ray" is more than a collected LA comedy moment, but a real clannish group of talent who work frequently together, staging all-nighter pajama parties that feature 50 comics back-to-back throughout the night.
Scott Auckerman and BJ Porter, the founders and proprietors of "Death Ray" describe their home in the Upright Citizens Brigade theater location in Los Angeles as “across the street from the Scientology Celebrity Center! See famous weirdos in person!” The next all-nighter is scheduled for Saturday, October 1st; only 100 tickets will be sold.
David Cross
David Cross follows Tompkins, and shares his DVD find in a porno store, “My Ass Is Haunted.”
“Finally! I like to jerk off, and have a good scare,” jokes Cross, the funnier half of "Mr. Show."
Cursed with a TiVo that has a mind of its own, and stuck in a sexual dry-spell, “I only have sex in months that end in ...bruary,” Doug Benson talks about O.J., his “written” book, and muses it was a shame he didn’t write it so there were more suspects than just him.
Next is Maria Bamford - flat out the best comic next to Patton Oswalt on this compilation. She follows Benson and wields her many voices for comic mayhem. “Honey, when you don’t wear makeup you look mentally ill,” cautions her worried mother voice.
Bamford continues her dialogue in many personas and voices seamlessly.
Todd Glass follows and does his act. He was accused of looking like a “young. thin John Goodman" and his act seems to be desperately trying to emulate the great Dom Irrera.
Hard N’ Phirm follows and does their bit to the strains of a harmonica. Their shtick revolves around all kinds of sex. “Hey I’m writing a pedophile opera!” “Great, what’s it called?” “Cats...who f*ck children.” Meh.
Disc two thankfully begins with Patton Oswalt, who I love. In fact, I wish he had done Hard N Phirm’s set too.
Patton Oswalt
Patton is always the star of any celebrity roast, and his acting is spot on too. He has “it,” that takes a stand-up comic from stage to film, to TV and well beyond.
Inhabitant of a parallel alternate Universe where spinach is poison and Schwarzenegger is in politics, Patton talks of the KFC “bowl” experience. “Those creepy f*cking bowls are KFC’s top selling item in the history of their company, they cracked the code. . . 'make me a failure pile of food in a g*d*mned sadness bowl.'”
Patton talks of futile attempts of being hired to punch up already made comedy films in post. “Waggedy, flaggety boo.”
An unusual comic in the compilation is high energy Jimmy Pardo, taking nearly nine minutes to get to his first joke. He uses all that time to “Don Rickles” it up with the audience. No one in his immediate line of eyesight is safe. Pardo’s bit is old school Vegas meets the Improv, and breaks up the CD nicely.
Neil Hamburger is one of those comics that one out of 100 people will love, the rest will hate him more than a root canal without anesthesia. “What did Santa Claus give Paris Hilton for Christmas? Audience answers, “what?”
The phlegm filled W.C. Fields mimic Hamburger trails off.
Ian Edwards likes the beach, and his homeboys share that there are sharks in the water. “Shark attacks never happen…we live in the land, sharks live in the water, you get caught down there you trespassing…” Solid, respectable set.
Appearing in Sarah Silverman's Comedy Central show, Brian Posehn has new rules for having gay sex with your friend, it's okay if you bring “Slayer” into it.
BJ jokes abound. “We’re gonna make a mouth baby.” Hot girls make him mad, like Kate Beckinsale. “I can never have you!”
Guitarist and comic Nick Thune turns in a nice low key set of stories: The most awkward place to run into a homeless person? “On your way to the Coin-star.”
“What if you could respond to what people wrote in your senior yearbook?”
Scott Aukerman takes it out on US Weekly. The tabloids get his comic withering gaze, “Stars they’re just like us, they ride bicycles built for two!” He talks of the tabloid fashion police’s lame IMDB material research, exposing their hacky writing.
Back fat hatin’ Chris Hardwick hashes over prolific American ears of corn and Britney Spears. “Now she’s some white trash chick with two kids?” Cracker Barrels and Wal-Mart’s tiling the country get mentions too, “there’s always a country store where you can buy teddy bears hugging the flag...NASCAR shirts...”
Mindy Kaling is up next, her set exposes her penchant for perhaps stealing a car. “I would steal a car… if the person who owned the car got to keep the car.” She had a lot of friends in the audience the night they recorded this CD.
Dan Mintz continues the guys’ obsession of onanism. He’s writing a screenplay, his voice is annoying.
Andy Daly picks up the tempo, and yells his act. He veers into “Married People” land. He must be doing his act naked onstage because there is lots of laughing, but I have no idea why.
Reno 911! Comes on stage, Dangle (Thomas Lennon) is a hot pants wearing genius, and sings a cautionary ditty of Meth and how it ruins third graders lives with his Reno co-hort, Travis Junior (Ben Garant), classic and hilarious: “P is for the pledge we take so we won’t do meth or crack and pray to Jesus…”
"Comedy Death-Ray" double CD set hit the stores September 12 and will also be available at http://www.shop.comedycentral.com .
Your Talkback on this Story