Misch on Personas, Truth and Ethics
In his article for Splitsider.com (7/6/2017), comic, critic, writer and teacher David Misch notes that there is an idea (held by at least one professional criti...
Category: Comics Talking Shop
These are my analyses of when comics talk about the craft: joke work. how to write and perform comedy, what is humorous, etc. Comics are explicitly saying something about comedy.
David Misch on Five Jokes
In his article for Splitsider.com (7/6/2017), comic, critic, writer and teacher David Misch brings up five jokes to make a point about authenticity in comedy: L...
Update: Pastemagazine.com Interview with Deon Cole
Persona After reading this interview, I made some updates. The first is an update to post on Persona – where I talk about whether stand-ups “just b...
Update: Elle.com’s 2017 Women in Comedy
Here’s something I came across recently that sparked an update to the post on Persona– where I talk about the idea of comics being themselves on-sta...
Mike Birbiglia on Jokes
I’ve been a fan of Mike Birbiglia for a long time now, bought his merchandise, watched all his specials and both his movies (Sleepwalk with Me, 2012 and D...
Why Academics Should Listen to Comics
Comics are critics One of the premises of my work is that comics are social and cultural critics. Comics frequently operate in a critical mode, and they home in...
Jay Leno on Anti-Political Funny Stuff
Tim O’Shei interviewed Jay Leno for The Buffalo News (6/23/2017) about his philosophy on stand-up, and in Leno’s responses I see a few popular notio...
Persona
I’ve already written a bit on the documentary, Dying Laughing, but there’s a lot more to say there [plus, I transcribed quite a bit of stuff, so I&#...
Iliza Shlesinger and Jokes About Vaginas
Controversy I’m a fan of Iliza Shlesinger; seen her live, watched all her specials. So when, on Monday (6/12/2017), Deadline’s Matt Grobar posted an...
Are Audiences Dying Laughing?
Audience Metaphors There’s a lot going on in the series of interviews masquerading as a documentary, Dying Laughing. However, I’d like to start with one I’ve b...