Culture Fiend

Simpsons Writer Dana Gould Wants You to See Plan 9 from Outer Space at SIFF

“It’s incompetence aspiring to be greatness.”

Posted by: Matthew Halverson on Dec 07, 2011 at 12:30PM 0 Comments

Unspeakable horrors! Terrible special effects! It’s 1959’s Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Dana Gould, the quick-talking standup comedian and onetime writer for The Simpsons, does his funnyman thing at Laff Hole at Chop Suey tonight. But he’s sticking around to host a screening of the legendary B film Plan 9 from Outer Space, Ed Wood’s endearingly awful sci-fi “thriller,” at SIFF Cinema tomorrow. He’ll be joined by Mystery Science Theater 3000 alums Frank Conniff and Trace Beaulieu to provide a running commentary over all those aliens and zombies and…is that Béla Lugosi? Hopefully Gould will include a story or two about his friendship with Plan 9 star Maila Nurmi, aka Vampira. And, if we’re lucky, a few potshots at Waterworld.

What makes Plan 9 so fun to watch?
What’s amazing—truly amazing—about Plan 9 is that it continues to find new ways to be fucked up. Most bad movies get boring. But with Plan 9, just when you think they’ve run out of tricks, they come up with a whole new batch. And the other thing that’s great is that they really were trying to make a good movie—they just did absolutely everything wrong. It was incompetence aspiring to be greatness, which is charming. It’s not like The Postman or Waterworld, where it’s people with a lot of money and a lot of power thinking they’re geniuses and just screwing it up. It’s people aiming for the fences and coming up short.

I gotta admit, I’ve never seen Plan 9. How ashamed should I be?
Not too ashamed. I’ve never seen The Usual Suspects. It’s like when people ask you if you like Yo La Tengo. You just nod and say, “Yeah, yeah. Sure.”

How did you get to know Maila?
I interviewed her for the Sci-Fi channel in 1995, for this special I was doing about horror movie hosts. She was very reclusive, but we became friends. We’d go to lunch every couple of weeks. And then over the years, we just stayed friends. When I was on a sitcom called Working —with TV’s Fred Savage—she would always call the next day and say stuff like, “They didn’t give you much this week.”

That’s sweet.
It was. But she was no joke. She was a real sort of gum-snapping beatnik chick. She would say stuff like, “Everybody calls Orson Welles a cinematic genius. But to me he’ll always be that guy who gave my roommate the clap in 1948.”

Plan 9 from Outer Space, with live commentary by Dana Gould, Frank Conniff, and Trace Beaulieu, screens Dec 7 at 7 at SIFF Cinema at the Uptown.

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Tags: Film, Comedy, SIFF, Celebrity Interview

Seattle Son Nick Thune Returns for a Night of Comedy at Intiman

He grew out his facial hair for the occasion.

Posted by: Matthew Halverson on Nov 29, 2011 at 01:00PM 0 Comments

Nick Thune with his “mockumentary beard”

Seattle native Nick Thune has performed his brand of guitar-aided standup on everything from Conan to Letterman, opened for Mike Birbiglia, and dropped his first comedy album, Thick Noon, in 2010. But just because he’s doing the LA thing now, we won’t let him forget he got his start covering Enrique Iglesias songs with Seattle band No Hablos. On December 1, he’s coming home for a one-night reunion tour at Intiman Playhouse. (He says he’s "reuniting with himself.”) But first, he talked to Seattle Met about the time he worked in casting for the short-lived reality show Nanny 911.

You must have some crazy stories from Nanny 911.
There was one kid who I definitely thought was Satan. He definitely had some kind of demon in him, and it was one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen. His parents tied him to the bed—which the doctor suggested, by the way—when he went into these rages. We sent the tape to CPS and said, “This is a situation that might be out of hand.”

You say you’re reuniting with yourself on this tour. Where were you before?
Let’s see. The last time that I played with myself in Seattle must have been, I don’t know, two years ago.

What was that like for you?
It was a good time. The thing is that I have such a huge heart, so sometimes it’s kind of nice to take time away because I know that when I come back it’s going to be that much better.

You’re married, but you refuse to tell Who left the toilet seat up jokes. That’s a pretty rich vein of humor you could be mining.
I know. But my style of humor is, I think, more directed at people who don’t find love.

By the way, in almost every picture of you I see, you’ve got some form of a beard. Today, on a scale of Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line to Joaquin Phoenix in his mockumentary, what’s the status of your facial hair?
I’m going to have to go mockumentary.

That bad, huh?
Yeah, it’s pretty bad right now. But I think you either have a fake drug problem or a real drug problem. And I think the mockumentary drug problem is more enticing to me. I don’t even know what that means.

I don’t either.

Nick Thune is at Intiman Playhouse on Dec 1 at 8pm.

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Tags: Comedy, Intiman Theatre, Nick Thune

Emmett Montgomery Keeps Things Weird…and Awesome

The local comedian reveals what’s funny about Seattle.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Nov 04, 2011 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Photo courtesy M. Kyle Moseby.

Originally published November 2011. Emmett Montgomery followed a typical path to comedy fame: Leave Utah for Bellingham. Suffer severe loneliness. Resort to making paper-bag puppets. Move to Seattle and manage a Hollywood Video. Do stand-up on the side dressed as a unicorn. Cofound the People’s Republic of Komedy and become the “mommy the lost boys of Seattle comedy always wanted,” to quote his Komedy colleague Barbara Holm.

For the past decade Montgomery, whose mustache precedes him, has delighted in what’s zany about the Emerald City—so much so that he’s created a monthly variety show for Annex Theatre called, simply, Weird and Awesome with Emmett Montgomery. “I like stuff that scares and excites the imagination,” he said. The 90-minute show ventures from traditional stand-up to a parade of robots, puppets, and cartoon monsters. “It’s different every time. It’s nice to have a show where I can kind of push the limits. It’s the best thing I can do right now.”

Why do people insist that 
Seattle isn’t funny?
Nobody’s ever told me that—but they probably wouldn’t tell me that to my face. I think all the elements are here for unique, creative stuff. This is a literate city, so there’s a fair amount of weirdness, bitter weirdness… The sky doesn’t exist for nine months of the year, so it causes people to retreat into things like booze and good food and dark corners, which is where comedy tends to happen. I think any city with a high suicide rate is going to have a really good comedy scene. I’d say they’re both acts of desperation.

What’s the future of Seattle comedy?
I firmly believe there will be a sketch boom soon, a lot like there was five years ago for stand-up. Sketch group the Habit is back, and SketchFest is talking about having a year-round presence. And I see a lot of young, hungry minds making wonderful things.… There are pockets of wonder hidden in this gray and despair.

What local comedians make you laugh?
David Crowe is one of the most intelligent and funny comics around. Also Rylee Newton, Kermet Apio—I’ve never seen him not be funny—and John Keister. I really like Mike Drucker, who’s written for SNL and The Onion and is here to work for Nintendo. We are losing a bunch of comedians, [people] moving to LA and New York, but I think that’s good. We’re exporting a good product.

Most importantly: How do you keep such a sleek ’stache? Any advice for people growing facial hair for Movember?
I’d just tell people to cut off the parts of your facial hair you don’t like and keep the other parts, and then wait. And have a lot of Viking DNA.

Weird and Awesome with Emmett Montgomery is Nov 6 at Annex Theatre, and the first Sunday of every month. Read on for more reasons why Seattle is funny.

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Tags: Comedy, Annex Theatre, People's Republic of Komedy, Emmett Montgomery

John Hodgman Will Prepare Us for the Coming Global Superpocalypse

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Nov 02, 2011 at 03:00PM 0 Comments

“If you are not concerned about identity theft and ferrets, then you are living in a fantasy world.” — John Hodgman

What, you haven’t heard of Ragnarok, the coming global superpocalypse? (Not to be confused with the Mayan apocalypse, which some say already came and went. Surprise!) We’re talking about the latest prediction by John Hodgman, The Daily Show’s longtime resident expert and purveyor of fake facts, in the final installment of his Complete World Knowledge trilogy, That Is All (on sale November 1). He’ll coach us on how to prepare for the end of the world at Town Hall next Monday, but before then, here’s a handy tip on “how to make essential household products yourself” postapocalypse.

“Like all things with computers inside of them, microwave ovens will be rendered useless by the omega pulse. So if you want to enjoy good, old-fashioned microwave popcorn, you’re going to have to dip into your dried corn stockpile, and then kidnap one of the descendants of Orville Redenbacher, about a third of whom still carry his telepathic mind-popping gene."

Hodgman’s arrival is yet another reason Seattle is a hilarious place to be this month.

John Hodgman is at Town Hall on Nov 7. This event is presented by Elliott Bay Book Company.

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Tags: Comedy, Elliott Bay Book Co, Town Hall, Books & Talks, John Hodgman

Which Office Star will Join Rainn Wilson at the Paramount This Year?

Hint: She loves Hello Kitty.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Sep 20, 2011 at 02:00PM 0 Comments

“I had a great time in high school, but it wasn’t the high school experience you see on teen dramas, where people are in serious romantic relationships, and hanging out in parking lots or whatever (isn’t that loitering?). I had fun in my academic clubs, watching movies with my girlfriends, learning Latin, having long, protracted, unrequited crushes on older guys who didn’t know me, and yes, hanging out with my family. I liked hanging out with my family!” —Excerpt from Mindy Kaling’s new book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, due out November 1.

Just got word yesterday that Mindy Kaling—who plays airhead Kelly Kapoor on NBC’s The Office—will join costar Rainn Wilson for his music-and-comedy benefit show at the Paramount Theatre on November 19. This, my friends, is excellent. Despite her character’s passion for celebrity gossip and Hello Kitty laptop covers, Kaling is a bright effin’ comedian who frequently writes and directs episodes of the show, and was recently promoted to executive producer, according to Vulture.

If you missed last year’s show, Seattle native Wilson brought Craig Robinson (Darryl) and the real-life buddies pulled together an evening of one-liners and keyboard singalongs. (Check out the video recap of Rainn Wilson and Friends.)

Also on the program this year: singer-songwriter Andy Grammer, Visqueen, Colin Meloy of the Decemberists, and Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones.

Tickets ($26–$101.25) are available Sept 24 at 10am at the Paramount box office or Moore Theatre kiosk, at stgpresents.org, or by calling 877-784-4849. All proceeds support Seattle-based education nonprofit the Mona Foundation, one of Wilson’s favorite charities.

Rainn Wilson and Friends is Nov 19 at 8pm at the Paramount Theatre.

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Tags: Paramount Theatre, Comedy, The Office, Rainn Wilson, Celebrity Stalking, Mindy Kaling

The Gregory Brothers Want to “Songify” Your Life

They even created an app for it.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Aug 19, 2011 at 03:00PM 0 Comments

Photo courtesy Denny Renshaw.

The Gregory Brothers (from left) Andrew, Evan, Evan’s wife Sarah, Michael

If you’re looking for a way to kill time this afternoon, sneak off to a conference room at work, close the door, and download the free Songify app. The product of tech company Khush and the Gregory Brothers—Brooklyn’s Auto-Tune kings—allows you to record the “most mundane malarkey and turn it into a catchy song,” much the same way that producers spiff up mediocre pop albums. But I have to admit: My reading of my pay stub and the Gettysburg Address wasn’t quite Billboard 100. That’s what separates the Gregory Brothers from other wannabe YouTube sensations. Evan, Andrew, Michael, and Evan’s wife Sarah (“winner of the Girliest Gregory award”) are actual musicians with an ear for melodies, the skills to add accompaniment to spoken word, and the goofy sense of humor required to recognize that a viral video about a “Double Rainbow” can be an iTunes hit.

The Virginia natives (plus San Antonian Sarah) tried their luck as a blue-eyed soul band before discovering a latent talent for Auto-Tuning news clips during the 2008 election. All it took was pitch-correcting software and a laptop. (According to a six-page (!) profile of the Brothers in last Sunday’s New York Times magazine, “[Joe] Biden is one of the top unintentional singers of his time.”) The Gregory Brothers have since gone from novelty to national news—and soon, on September 3, they’ll be a Bumbershoot comedy act.

To familiarize yourself with Songify, just watch two of the Gregory Brothers’ latest creations below: “Can’t Hug Every Cat” had 6,461,763 views last time I last checked, and “Best NASCAR Prayer Ever” had 1,792,854 views since its debut July 28, 2011. Boogity boogity boogity, amen.

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Tags: Comedy, YouTube, Bumbershoot 2011, Gregory Brothers, Auto-Tune

Jerry Seinfeld, Kathy Griffin, Anthony Bourdain Make STG’s 2011–12 Lineup

Posted by: Laura Dannen on May 16, 2011 at 02:00PM 1 Comments

“All right, hey, you’ve been great! See you at the cafeteria”. –Jerry Seinfeld

Wonder what Jerry Seinfeld’s been up to lately (aside from producing the so-bad-it’s-good TV show The Marriage Ref)? He’s not planning a Seinfeld reunion anytime soon, that’s for sure. “My show business philosophy is: don’t give the audience what they want. They’re just going to want more cake, until they throw up,” he told the Herald Sun recently. Instead, Seinfeld’s on the road doing stand-up—new material, from what we hear—and he’s coming to Seattle on October 1 as part of STG’s 2011–2012 lineup.

Also on the schedule:

Comedian Kathy Griffin does two nights of celeb bashing at the Paramount (Nov 4 & 5).

The Merce Cunningham Dance Company performs seminal works by the late Cornish alum—including his 1968 Andy Warhol collaboration Rainforest and 2007’s Xover—in the final year of the Legacy Tour (Oct 27 & 29). Following a New Year’s Eve performance in NYC, the company will disband in accordance with Cunningham’s Legacy Plan that he set before his death last July.

Mark Morris Dance Group’s send-up of the Nutcracker, The Hard Nut, celebrates its 20th year in production and makes its Seattle debut; Seattle Symphony accompanies (Dec 1–4).

Foodie bad boy Anthony Bourdain and friend Eric Ripert, chef of three Michelin-starred Le Bernardin, dissect the restaurant business at the Paramount (Feb 11, 2012).

And then there are all those Broadway shows coming to the Paramount.

For the ever-growing STG season lineup, go to stgpresents.org. Subscriptions are on sale now.

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Tags: Paramount Theatre, Dance, Comedy

Seattle Improv for Japan

In a bid to help the disaster-stricken country, Seattle’s improv troupes are making it up as they go.

Posted by: Allyson Marrs on Apr 20, 2011 at 03:30PM 0 Comments

Laugh for a cause this Sunday at 7, when 10 local improv comedy troupes share a stage for Improv for Japan. All proceeds go to Mercy Corps in an effort to help the victims of last month’s earthquake and tsunami.

“It’s a unique opportunity for someone to see all of these groups together in one night,” says Mike Christensen, event organizer and Wing-It Productions cofounder. Players include Wing-It’s new Quiz Show, Unexpected Productions, UW student troupe the Collective, husband-and-wife team Carskee, and the Twisted Flicks crew, known to re-dub cheesy B-movies (The Abominable Snowman, anyone?) with even more ridiculous dialogue than they originally had. (Proof in the clip above.)

Each group will perform for 20 minutes; Christensen warns that the jokes may not be PG-13, so it’s best to leave the kids at home to sleep off their Easter sugar lows.

Improv for Japan is Sunday, April 24, at 7pm at 5510 University Way NE, home to Jet City Improv. Tickets are $15.

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Tags: Comedy, Japan Relief Efforts, Wing-It Productions, Improv Comedy

On Sale This Weekend: Patton Oswalt, Craig Ferguson Tickets

Two sardonic dudes hit the mic with live standup.

Posted by: Allison Williams on Mar 23, 2011 at 09:30AM 0 Comments

Be part of a live DVD taping of Patton Oswalt’s new comedy special at the Moore in May.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Be part of a live DVD taping of Patton Oswalt’s new comedy special at the Moore in May.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Craig Ferguson, late-night host and class act, is also at the Moore in May.

Patton Oswalt may not have achieved the fame of his former comedy partner Zach Galifianakis, but his cranky sensibility has built a respectable following—he’s as big as a comedian gets without a movie franchise. In his standup, he rags on his own weight (don’t they all?), pop culture, and, of course, fast food, namely the “failure pile in a sadness bowl” on the menu at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Watch him record his next comedy special at the Moore Theatre on Saturday, May 14 at 7pm; tickets ($23) go on sale this Friday, March 25, at 877-784-4849, tickets.com or stgpresents.org.

Then on Saturday, grab your pass ($43-$63) to Craig Ferguson’s show at the same venue (different date: May 25 at 8pm. ) Once upon a time, Ferguson was merely the late-night TV host who wasn’t Letterman, Leno, or O’Brien (but at least avoided being Carson Daly). This February, the great Scot became America’s unlikely voice of reason by refusing to make jokes about Charlie Sheen —he thought it was like laughing at mental illness. Who knew that the boss from The Drew Carey Show would turn out to be a class act?

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Tags: Ticket Alerts, Comedy, Standup

On Sale Feb 12: Sarah Silverman Tickets

She seems so innocent…until she opens her mouth.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Feb 09, 2011 at 01:00PM 0 Comments

Sarah Silverman wet her bed until the age of 16. She’s happy to tell you about it.

I just spent my lunch break trying to find a video of Sarah Silverman that wasn’t entirely bleeped out…but then realized that wouldn’t do the outrageously filthy, surprisingly sweet comedian any justice. She has that big smile, and then — wham — she’s singing about “F*cking Matt Damon,” or riffing on September 11 or the Holocaust. For one of her latest projects, new memoir The Bedwetter, she talks candidly about wetting her bed until the age of 16 (watch the clip below), then delves into sex, drugs, and other celeb memoir fare. But she also has a very endearing chapter about her (equally funny) father, and the “voicemail gold” he leaves on her cell phone.

But Sarah will probably fill you in when she comes to the Moore Theatre on April 8 at 10pm. Tickets ($30) go on sale Saturday, February 12, at tickets.com or stgpresents.org.

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Tags: Ticket Alerts, Comedy

Christian Lander: “Seattle Is Very, Very, Very White”

Author of Stuff White People Like comes to the palest corner of the Pacific NW.

Posted by: Matthew Halverson on Dec 01, 2010 at 10:00AM 0 Comments

Christian Lander: the Jane Goodall of white people. Photo courtesy Jess Lander.

Christian Lander is the Jane Goodall of white people—if Jane Goodall had a thing for satire and self-loathing. Lander’s blog, Stuff White People Like, playfully skewers liberal, affluent, white culture (sample entries: “Knowing What’s Best for Poor People” and “Wes Anderson Movies”), and it’s so on point that he’s managed to publish two books on the subject. He’ll be at Elliott Bay Books on December 7 to read from the latest, Whiter Shades of Pale: The Stuff White People Like, Coast to Coast, from Seattle’s Sweaters to Maine’s Microbrews. Oh, and in case you were wondering: Yes, he’s white, and yes, he’s making fun of himself.

I’m not making this up: The illustration of the Seattleite is my neighbor. The only difference is that he heats his house with wood.
He heats his house with wood? Homeboy is hardcore. Here’s the thing. We laugh at him right now, but ultimately this is the white race’s inherent sense of self-preservation. When the apocalypse comes, these are the dudes who are going to make it. Not me. I’m done.

On a scale of Stephen King to Malcolm Gladwell, how white would you say Seattle is?
Jonathan Franzen. The West Coast, the further north you get, the whiter it gets. Portland is amazingly white, but Seattle is very, very, very white. This is the joke that I’ve been making when people ask me how you define a white city: Anywhere where property values outstrip income, that’s a white city.

How long until “self-aware mocking of their own foolish tendencies” stops being something that white people like?
Man, if I had to guess when it started, I would have said it would have happened a year and a half ago. But I think as long as white people are pretentious, it’s going to work. And I don’t see that ending any time soon.

In studying white people, which of their habits have you picked up yourself?
I’m as predictable as anybody on these things. I get so suckered into stuff like, “Oh, this new restaurant that makes really expensive hot dogs, I have to go. I’ll totally wait in line for three hours. It’ll be the best hot dog I’ve had in my life.” I’m a foodie, so I’m into that stuff. The one thing, however, that I will never get caught up in, ever, is camping.

I thought everyone from Canada camped.
No thank you. My ancestors literally died to get out of the hell that is nature, and I’m not going to insult them by going back. You could get a disease, you could get killed by an animal, you could get killed by another camper, you could get lost. And the one good thing that happens is that you come back. That’s the best case scenario of camping.

I went camping with friends a lot in college. We went out into the woods and drank.
You know you can drink inside now, right? We have bars and stuff, which are great. When you run out of beer, you can go up to the bar and get another one.

Touche.

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Tags: Comedy, Books & Talks, Stuff White People Like

“Nut-Based Conversations” with David Sedaris

The humorist returns to Seattle for a reading of new book Squirrel Seeks Chimpunk.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Nov 30, 2010 at 02:30PM 1 Comments

David Sedaris wanted to call his latest book Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls. But his editor, in a moment of brilliance, refused to have the word “diabetes” anywhere near the title. They settled on Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, a collection of 15 fables that would make Aesop blush.

Is that little anecdote fact? Fiction? Who cares! Much like Sedaris’s “autobiographical” essays, the point is that the story is hilarious—the kind of wit that makes funnyman Jon Stewart jealous. “I am angry with you, and your ability to write hilarious books quickly,” Stewart says in the Daily Show clip below. (Hold out for the snail joke at the end.) The author of two novels and four collections of essays is now touring behind his latest New York Times best-seller, and we’re in luck: He’s coming back to Seattle on May 1 for another sure-to-sell-out reading.

So Sedaristas, take note: Tickets ($38-$47) for his Benaroya Hall show go on sale December 1 at 10am at benaroyahall.org, by calling the box office 206-215-4747 or by going there in person (Third and Union, downtown Seattle). Good time to buy a holiday gift, don’t you think? (Hint hint Mom.)

David Sedariswww.thedailyshow.com

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Tags: Ticket Alerts, Comedy, Books & Talks