EPISODE 111: HI, HOW ARE YOU?

Surprise, a bonus episode!  Hope you enjoyed this one.  Harris “Hair-Of-The-Dog” Wittels, auction winner David Guy Levy, and a “surprise” guest who brings with him controversy during every appearance.  What more could you want?

How much would YOU pay to be a part of the fun that is a CBB taping?  Is two thousand dollars too much?  Too little?  Some would say that such an opportunity to be immortalized in the podcast Hall of Fame is priceless.  Others would agree, but would argue it doesn’t have a price because it isn’t worth anything, and the podcast Hall Of Fame does not, nor will it ever, exist.

For the past three years, we’ve been doing a year-end benefit / auction / fundraiser for the L.A. Regional Food Bank, and wonderful place that distributes food to those in need all throughout the county we call home.  We’ve raised over $100,000 for them, basically from the wonderful comedians who have donated their time to providing fun “experiences” upon which regular “non-coms” can bid.

I’ve done four “anyone can host” live shows with winners, and they’ve all been fantastic (albeit draining) opportunities for me to work with novices or people with less experience.  We just finished our latest one, with Dr. Hal Lerman, a dentist who had never done standup before, and it was very rewarding for both him and me.

This is the first podcast auction we’ve been able to complete (2010’s winner had trouble scheduling it during the year for which he bought it, and we’ve missed each other each time he’s been in LA since then).  I never know who these winners are – it’s always a surprise to me when we finally get in contact, and I find out their level of familiarity and interest in the comedy scene.

I found David Guy Levy to be a little different than the winners I usually deal with – he had ties to a bunch of people I know, including having produced a movie Adam Scott appeared in.  Everyone told me he is a great guy and “gets it,” so I knew I could breathe a little easier, and not be in my usual state of mind when I meet auction winners – i.e., wondering if they’re going to murder me.

David had an idea for his show – he wanted to “surprise” me with a guest, Brett Gelman, with whom he was already friendly.  He thought it would be great to bring back some of the fake tension he loved from our previous encounters.

A little backstory – Brett and I, regardless of how it may seem, are great friends, and have worked together quite often.  He’s one of the most talented guys around, and in real life, I support his art unequivocally.

For his second CBB appearance, Episode 35, I asked him to perform the now-legendary “iBrain” story, a piece I had seen on the CBB live show a few months back, which made me cry from laughter (especially after a considerable amount of time wondering “what in the fuck does he think he’s doing?”).  The supposed friction between us during that show was a lot of fun, and the “banning” of him was supposed to be a delightful little story element that might or might not be followed up upon in the future.

I will say that, while it’s added a sense of drama to his every appearance, this particular storyline has become a bit of an albatross to deal with during every episode on which Brett would appear.  In reality, we have no problems with each other, so the fact that we would have to go over the story every time, and reiterate why he was banned, became something that, after a few episodes, I was angling towards trying to leave behind.  In order to, hopefully, get back to Brett just coming on and having fun, like most guests get to do.

Ergo, David’s idea, while a great one, was met with a little trepidation from me, as it wasn’t an area I necessarily wanted to revisit.

(Add to that, a few days after we taped this episode, we taped the infamous Episode 102, “Behind The Music,” with Tim Heidecker and Neil Hamburger.  Another episode fraught with fake tension – and one I’d like to write about soon – but ultimately, conflict and anger are not something I want to be the thing you think of when you think of CBB. )

But a winner is a winner, and I am bound by the compact I had entered to fulfill Mr. Levy’s every desire!

David and I agreed it would be good to have someone on my side during the taping, so it would be more of a fair match.  He agreed to let me pick my co-conspirator, and Harris immediately came to mind.

I always enjoy playing off of Harris, because, while I respect him immensely, he doesn’t mind playing lower status than me, and sometimes being the butt of the joke.  Plus, we had the results of the poll to get to, and I was anxious for him to hear how many people voted for him to never return – a whopping 150!  More than could even fit into the UCB Theatre.

With this matchup set, we met briefly beforehand to figure out how the show should be structured.  David was nervous about being on mic for the first time, as is normal for anyone.  We suggested that it’s always fun to shit on Harris, and he agreed to try that tactic for the first part of the show.  Then, in the second segment, Brett would enter and surprise me, and we would eventually direct it toward revealing that he and David had a previous relationship, and this was all a plan to secure Brett an Earwolf podcast.

(For those of you wondering – the Gelmania podcast is real, and coming soon.  In fact, that’s part of the reason I held the episode for so long after we taped it – like I said, it was taped during the CDR period, and I had to actually edit out every instance I said the old name.  We were waiting for Brett’s show to be able to come out the day this episode dropped.  Unfortunately, as is the case with most things in show business, it’s taking a little longer to put together than we’ve anticipated, and I had to put out the episode in time for the release of David’s movie Terri.  Plus, Harris was tired of not being on the show while we waited for it to come out.)

In the first segment, Harris debuts some ridiculously awful Foam/Phone Corner jokes, for which David, playing to our wishes, is unnecessarily harsh.  I do want to reiterate this was our suggestion, and not just David being a dick (I even edited some of the harsher things he said afterward, because I didn’t want listeners to turn on him).

Then Brett came out and goes into his usual insane mad genius bits, and I got to try to figure out a way to make it entertaining and not just angry.  When I hit on the passive-aggressive “you paid two thousand dollars, so you can do whatever you want” tactic, I feel like I really found a way to make this different from all of Brett’s previous appearances.  And it was making those guys laugh, so in the end, I’m happy we did it.

And I make no promises that the drama between Brett and I is over… I do have fun engaging in it.  Fans of his will find that his podcast is full of Kaufmanesque tension and mock arrogance.  Hopefully, though, for my show, we can get back to just enjoying each other.

Was it worth it for David?  I really hope so.  Two thousand dollars is extremely generous, and I know the Food Bank appreciated it, so I hope he found it to be a pleasant experience.  With any luck, you all went out and saw Terri, and will look for his name in future projects.

And who knows?  Maybe this wasn’t the last episode of CBB on which David will appear.  Just writing this gave me an idea that it might be fun having him be Brett’s sidekick on future episodes.  What do you think?

(By the way – to donate to the LA Food Bank, please go here: https://www.lafoodbank.org/CDR2010/donate-now.aspx)

You can listen to Episode #111 here.

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EPISODE 98: A WORTHY UHHH

This episode had one of the most surprising reactions to it from the fans, and one I didn’t expect: They seemed to extremely dislike it.  Some almost intensely so.

I remember leaving the taping so excited about its release.  I couldn’t wait for everyone to hear what I thought was another awesome episode with a madcap, surprise twist ending.  So what went wrong?

Let’s back up to the beginning: The first piece of the puzzle that went into the making of this ep was the booking of Adam Scott.  Adam is a great actor and funny guy whom I’ve known for maybe around a decade.  You, of course, know him from Parks & Recreation, Step Brothers and Party Down. When we first met, through “Tall Jon” Schroeder (a man whom you’ll hear much about in both this blog and, hopefully, your life), he revealed himself to be a big fan of Mr. Show.

This put me at ease, as I am generally uncomfortable around celebrities.  We struck up a mild acquaintance; where we didn’t really keep in touch and seldom saw each other.  Yay, friendship!

(One thing about doing this show, and the Tuesday night UCB show, is that they give me opportunities to see people like Adam much more often than I would if I were sitting at home not doing anything but writing.  So I have it to thank for sort of “reconnecting” us, as it were.  He’s a great guy, and really helped me out recently with agreeing to be in, and committing a LOT of time to, the CBB TV pilot.)

When I started doing the show at Indie 103.1, they made it clear that me getting celebrities on was an important part of why they let me do the show.  So I went about trying to book anyone I knew who had some sort of connection to show business.  I put a feeler out to Adam, whom I didn’t much expect to get back to me in a timely manner, if at all.

So consider me surprised when he immediately got back to me and said he would love to do the show.  That episode, 49 (Family Counseling) was a pretty good one, as I recall, but Adam’s legacy in CBB history was cemented on his second appearance, Episode 80 (Enigma Force Five Reunion), alongside Maestro James Adomian.

(I’m sure I’ll talk about that particular episode at some point, but if you haven’t heard it, do yourself a favor and download it.  Or at least stream it, you goddam computer-memory-skinflint!  It’s what they call in the biz “a stone cold classic.”)

So, prior to this episode, I was itching to get to a reunion of Adam and James.  Eighteen weeks later, the domino pieces fell, and they were both available.  HISTORY IN THE MAKING, AMIRITE?

Gulp.  What resulted is, I feel, a very funny episode, with an incredibly weird and bonkers ending, initiated by Mr. Scott, that transcends the usual.  But, surrounding it is some improv that isn’t quite working.

As Jason Mantzoukas said to me a few days after its release, “Okay – we know it didn’t work.  The question is why?” What was the problem?

Most of you know (and if you don’t, get ready to HAVE YOUR MIND FUCKING BLOWN, BROOOOO) that most of what we do on the show is unplanned – sometimes to the extreme, where seconds before we start, we sort of say, “Hey, what are we doing this week?”  And everyone is there, waiting for the show to start, and I don’t want to waste people’s time, so I just kind of rush through it and say, “uh-huh, yeah, okay – that all sounds good.  Let’s just start.”

In hindsight, I don’t think James Adomian actually wanted to do an Alan Rickman impression.  I believe that he just wanted to do the character of “The Sheriff Of Nottingham,” who would be obsessed with capturing Maid Marian, but eventually revealing himself to be a Machiavellian homosexual (which is based on a piece in James’s wonderful standup act, which, unfortunately, at that point, I had not seen).

Even though we started there, for some reason – either I was confused, or I didn’t think that particular character was going exactly as well as I thought it should have – I threw James a curveball.  I threw out that he really was Alan Rickman, playing the Sheriff of Nottingham.  I sold his character out.

Now, James is a professional in every sense.  A true improv genius, who says “yes and” in any situation.  So, of course, he agreed that he was really the actor Alan Rickman.  And we went with it, and he started in about how he wanted to steal the studio’s gold, like Alan Rickman’s character wanted to in Die Hard.

Ultimately, however, I think James came in wanting to do more of a caricature of a villain.  And, to my dismay, reviews of the show centered on how his Alan Rickman impression didn’t sound much like the real Mr. Rickman.  This is one-hundred-percent my fault.

But that’s not the only thing misfiring.  If you listen to the episode back (and we left everything in – no edits – because, remember, I thought people would love it and want to hear every second of it), you’ll hear what I think is a fascinating glimpse into people trying to find the “game,” or the hook, of their improv.  You can hear us circling around each other, trying to hit upon something that we know will work and we can further exploit.

Now, I have never taken an improv class, so I also believe this to be also my fault – perhaps were I more skilled at it, it may not have taken so long for us to hit on a usable angle.

And if I weren’t so in love with the ending, maybe I would have gone home and edited down some of the dead spots.  I wonder if the show were only 1 hour 10, would people have had more patience for it?  We’ll never know.

But I still love that ending – instigated by Adam, where he just, for some reason known only to him, started repeating “A worthy, uh…” over and over and over and over again.  God bless him.

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Hey, it’s the world-famous Scott-A-Bot here, with the first in an occasional series of “looks back” or “peeks behind-the-scenes” of Comedy Bang Bang episodes.

I don’t anticipate writing these to be very funny, probably, but why should I change my style now?  Instead, I want to offer a few tidbits of trivia or glimpses into what was going on my ol’ noodlehead during the tapings.

EPISODE 109: THE ANDY SAMBERG SPECIAL

Andy and I are relatively recent friends.  I met him around the taping of Episode 3 or 4, when I was put together with him to maybe serve as his head writer for the MTV Movie Awards.  I told him that I had been playing his songs from Incredibad on the show, and I think that tickled him.

Something about him, both professionally and personally, really hits my sweet spot.  I feel the same way about his work that I did when I first saw Bob and David’s live shows before Mr. Show got on HBO.  I just get excited to see anything he does.  Additionally, he’s one of the most genuinely nice guys I’ve met in this blessed business of show.

One of the weird things about booking so many things (the live show, the podcast, our Xmas albums, the charity auction, etc. etc. blah blah blah) is that I have to straddle a fine line between bugging people to do me favors and providing them with an opportunity to be on a good program to which a lot of people listen. With Andy, I definitely feel like what I do should be so far beneath his radar, and not worth his time, but he never makes me feel like that.  But I definitely pick and choose my moments to ask him for a favor like being on the show.  (I also sneakily got him to film something for the CBB TV pilot, which he graciously spent another hour doing after the podcast wrapped.)

Meanwhile, Adam Pally is a recent acquaintance… super funny guy who does a great job on one of my favorite TV shows of the moment, Happy Endings. I believe he is relatively new to LA, having performed in NYC for most of his career.  When I reached out to him regarding being on the show, he seemed very excited, even calling me “Hot Saucerman,” which made me feel very comfortable, knowing that he was already a fan of the show.  After the taping, he even said it was a dream come true for him to be on a show of which he was such a fan, which is really cool for me to hear.  We also ended up taping about a two hours before we planned to, due to Andy getting a free window earlier than expected.  And Adam was great about rushing over to be there to meet us.

I really could talk to Andy for hours without saying much, just joking around and talking about nothing.  But I know that could be frustrating for the listener who is tuning into the show for the first time, expecting something of substance (we knew this episode would be a lot of listeners’ first), so I tried to keep our conversation relatively on topic to his new album.  But I genuinely am interested in his process.  Keeping to a straighter interview is always easier when I know a lot about and have a genuine enthusiasm for the subject.

Meanwhile, Adam got there and asked us which character he should do… “Bro,” my weed dealer seemed like the easiest one for the audience (and us, because we didn’t have a lot of time) to understand.  Sometimes, with the characters on the show, I’ve seen them onstage prior to a taping, so I know what to expect.  But with Adam, I had no idea what his “game” would be, or where it was going to go, so that was kind of exciting.

An interesting note:  Andy and I talked about this after Adam left and we were filming that thing – the funny thing about dealing with an “annoying” character is that you genuinely start to get annoyed at the performer.  Even though it’s all in the service of comedy, and you know what they’re doing is really funny, there’s something about trying to improv with someone who is acting as the spanner in the works that gets your dander up.  Hopefully you can hear that in some of our interactions with him.

Meanwhile, I have to apologize for how little work I personally put into the show this week… between prepping to film the CBB pilot, and my other day job, I was super tired and at my wits end.  So the “Hollywood Facts” segment was written in about five minutes right before we started taping.  I believe it shows!

One last fact of interest: This show was actually taped previous to the taping of Episode 108, but then two things made me postpone it.  One, we found out that we could get an iTunes banner ad if we delayed it a week.  And two, we had just done a show with a plane break the week before, and I didn’t want people to get sick of them.  So we rushed to record another episode in time for the 108 slot at the last minute, with Rob Corddry, Erinn Hayes, and James Adomian.

Additional post script: The pizza was real! Check out the pic of us eating it.  The couch may or may not have been real, but we have a picture of it too.

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