Tig Notaro on Comedy and Release
Though she gives a brilliant interview to Ashley Hoffman of Time (8/25/2017), Tig Notaro only briefly mentions something that touches on my theme here: the idea...
Author: nwilson
Reggie Watts, Stand-Up Comedian?
Same ol’, same ol’ I watch stand-up sporadically, sometimes going on binges where everything I watch is stand-up, sometimes taking a long hiatus. S...
Daniel Fernandes on Comedy as Art
A lot of comics express (perhaps unknowingly) the idea that audiences are passive objects that they “make laugh,” and Daniel Fernandes is another on...
Michelle Wolf Isn’t Trying to Change the World
But perhaps she should be. I talk a lot on this blog about what comedy can do, and my main soapbox is that it can do whatever we let it do. If comics tried to...
Marlon Wayans on Truth in Stand-Up
I’ve talked a lot on this blog about whether stand-ups tell the truth about their lives. Of course some do, but most fudge a bit. Even among those who g...
Jeff Foxworthy and Tension Release
In an interview with Edward Pevos of MLive (8/22/2017), Jeff Foxworthy describes his theory of humor in a way that resonates with the Relief theory of humor: I ...
Dick Gregory Fought for Political Stand-Up
I’m a Dick Gregory fan; I saw him at the Kansas City Improv just a few months ago. I avoided interrupting my queue of topics just for his death (or Jerry...
Add Bill Engvall to the List of Comics Who Don’t Do Politics
In an interview with Bill Hixon of The Beach Reporter (8/22/2017), Bill Envall says, I think that’s probably one of the main reasons why I’ve worked...
Deon Cole on Stand-Up as Truth Telling
Deon Cole gave an interview to Amy Young of the Phoenix New Times (8/15/2017), and has a few things to say about comics and truth telling (parrhesia). What come...
Kenneth Burke’s Perspective by Incongruity
After Burke lays out his method of Dramatism, in his second book, Permanence and Change, Burke introduces the term, perspective by incongruity, but in the next ...