Ticketmaster.com / Ticketmaster Charge by phone at 800.745.3000
Force Majeure is the most extensive comedy tour ever; launched in March of 2013, the tour will take Izzard to 25 countries on five continents. From Cardiff to Kathmandu and Moscow to Mumbai, Force Majeure will play throughout Europe, Africa, Russia, the U.K., Canada, the U.S., India, Nepal, The Far East and Australia. Izzard recently completed runs in France performing entirely in French and in Berlin performing entirely in German.
One of the most acclaimed comedians of his generation, Izzard’s unique, tangential, absurd, and surreal comic narratives are lauded for their creativity and wit, earning him a New York Drama Desk Award and two Emmys for Dress to Kill, two British Comedy Awards for Top Stand-Up Comedian, and an Olivier Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement.
In the U.S., Izzard is the first solo stand-up comedian to perform at the Hollywood Bowl, has sold-out three consecutive nights at Radio City Music Hall and toured arenas throughout the U.S. including a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden.
On TV, Izzard most recently guest starred in the series, Hannibal, on NBC. He starred in and served as a producer on the critically acclaimed FX Network Show, The Riches, opposite Minnie Driver, guest starred in the final season of Showtime’s United States of Tara, and his 2010 documentary, Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story, received an Emmy nomination.
His long list of film and stage credits includes Valkyrie opposite Tom Cruise, Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Thirteen and Ocean’s Twelve opposite George Clooney and Brad Pitt, David Mamet’s Race and The Cryptogram, the title role in Marlowe’s Edward II, and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg in London and on Broadway which won him a handful of awards, including a Tony nomination for Best Actor.
Internationally renowned comedienne, Emmy-award-winning television talk-show host, Tony-award-nominated actress, and bestselling author Joan Rivers returns to DPAC on Saturday, November 8, 2014. Joan’s first DPAC appearance in September 2012 sold out, so don’t miss your chance to attend this intimate evening of outrageous stand-up with Joan Rivers.
Ticketmaster.com / Ticketmaster Charge by phone at 800.745.3000
An entertainment legend of unparalleled talent, Joan was the first woman to break the glass ceiling of Late Night Television. After she was chosen to be the only permanent guest host on The Tonight Show for 3 years, she then went on to become the first woman ever to host her own late night talk show – The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers on the Fox Network.
After creating and hosting Live from the Red Carpet for the E! Network (1996-2004), Joan returned to anchor their popular and successful franchise Fashion Police, hosting both its hour-long weekly broadcasts and its awards-season specials. From hot new trends to red-carpet risks, Joan hilariously takes viewers through a recap of the week’s celebrity fashion and ultimately decides who sizzled and who fizzled.
Joan also dominates the world of reality television with her daughter, Melissa Rivers, in their weekly hit series on WEtv, Joan and Melissa: Joan Knows Best?. This inimitable duo addresses the question that has plagued daughters since the beginning of time: Does mother really know best?
Joan is also a vastly accomplished author, and her 11th book, I Hate Everyone.…Starting With Me, was published by the Penguin Group in June 2012. It instantly became a New York Times Bestseller. Prior to that, she wrote the other bestselling titles, Men Are Stupid and They Like Big Boobs: A Woman’s Guide to Beauty Through Plastic Surgery and Murder at the Academy Awards: A Red Carpet Murder Mystery, both published by Simon & Schuster.
In 2012, Joan recorded her live concert performance at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Illinois for a comedy special entitled Don’t Start with Me, which premiered on Showtime in November and was released on DVD and iTunes in January 2013.
Despite being constantly in motion, Joan continues to work tirelessly on behalf of charities that are close to her heart: God’s Love We Deliver, The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Guide Dogs for the Blind. She also dedicates her time to the National Osteoporosis Foundation and Wounded Warriors, among other remarkable organizations.
Joan Rivers is a force of nature, one of the hardest working celebrities in the world. She has enjoyed an illustrious career spanning more than four decades in the entertainment industry and beyond, and as her recent accomplishments reveal, she’s as robust and hardworking as ever.
An entertainment legend of unparalleled accomplishment and talent, Joan is an internationally renowned comedienne, Emmy-award-winning television talk-show host, Tony-award-nominated actress, bestselling author, playwright, screenwriter, film director, columnist, lecturer, syndicated radio host, jewelry designer, cosmetic-company entrepreneur, and red-carpet fashion laureate. Her continued relevance is made clear by her growing group of more than 1.5 million followers on Twitter. Above all things, however, Joan is a proud mother and grandmother.
Joan Rivers is a true pioneer: She created her own brand of irreverent, unconventional comedy and forged her own remarkable rise to stardom in the entertainment world. Enduring tawdry clubs, Borscht Belt showrooms, and grimy Greenwich Village cabarets, her career skyrocketed in 1968 when she appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Within three years she was hosting That Show with Joan Rivers, one of the first syndicated daytime talk shows. She soon made television history as the permanent guest host of The Tonight Show and helped launch the nascent Fox Network in 1986 with The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. In 1989, Joan triumphantly returned to daytime TV with The Joan Rivers Show, winning an Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host. Joan continues to dazzle live concert audiences in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and across the entire country.
Gary Owen is a fast rising star in comedy today. He has appeared in movies Think Like a Man, Ride Along and will reprise his role as Bennett in this summer’s Think Like a Man Too. He has appeared as a regular on Tyler Perry’sHouse of Payne. His comedy special Gary Owen: True Story is one of the most popular on Netflix. He has been a part of some of the best comedy tours going today and now he is coming to Raleigh.
Gary Owen is coming to Raleigh, along with the rest of the Top Shelf Comedy Tour, to the Duke Energy Center on January 31st.
MAS – For your show that is coming up, what kind of new material do you have in store for us?
Gary Owen – It is all new material, nothing that is on the internet. I just finished some of my new hour special back in November. Once you do an hour special you try to put that material to bed and you start working on a new album. The thing about it is nobody in Raleigh has seen it because the album isn’t out yet. So, it will be all new material that’s for sure.
MAS – How has the tour been for you? I know with all your work on TV and in film being on a tour like this has to be different, how is it going for you?
Gary Owen – The tour is actually a little easier than doing comedy clubs. It’s just one a night, you’re in and out. Usually we are doing two cities a week, it’s like you leave home Friday and you are back home Sunday. It gives you all week if you want to film something, if you are on a TV show or you’re filming a movie. It easier to work around your schedule; the tour is the easiest to me.
MAS – Putting the paycheck aside, what would you prefer to do the most; Movies, TV, Touring, Clubs?
Gary Owen – The comedy club is like your gym. That is where you work out all your new stuff, get your timing down, move a joke from the beginning to the end of your set to see where it goes. The big theater shows, like when I come to Raleigh; that’s our game day, like if you were an athlete. That’s when people are getting their hair done and they got their clothes in the cleaners; you know you gotta look good. You gotta give them a good performance because the probably paid a little more than they would in the comedy club. But you are also getting four headliners, instead of one. I think it all works hand-in-hand. One hand feeds the other. It is not like you like one better than the other it is just… With movies and TV, it builds your fan base a lot faster than hitting the road. That is really what, in the end, dictates how many people pay to see you.
MAS – I saw Think Like a Man and loved you in it, you were hilarious. When I saw that all you guys were back together to make Think Like a Man Too, I was like “cool”.
Gary Owen – The sequel, we filmed it all last summer in Vegas. I think it is coming out June 20, that’s the tentative release date. In the sequel, you get to meet my wife, finally. A lot of people have been asking about that. My wife is Wendi McLendon-Covey who is from Bridesmaids; she is on The Goldbergs right now. She also used to be on Reno! 911; that is who my wife is. Our chemistry, on set, is crazy; as a couple. You know, Bennett is kind of like the homebody and you wonder where he gets that from. It’s just funny to see… You are always curious to see what his home life is like, because he is always going home to his wife. You don’t really know what to expect. I don’t want to give too much away, but we are just a very funny couple.
MAS – In doing some looking at it on IMDB, I was scrolling through the cast list and it looks like this has quite the cast assembled. This could be one of those “sleeper” movies of the year.
Gary Owen – The thing about it is, if you get a summer release as a comedy the studio is thinking two things. Either they are very unhappy with it or they have huge expectations. For them to give us a summer release; that’s when all the blockbusters come out; they are expecting big things from the movie. I’m excited, I can’t wait. Every day we came on set you had no idea who was going to be there. There are some cast members that are not announced that I’m not allowed to say, they are under wraps.
MAS – I get that feeling, Ndamukong Suh, lineman from the Detroit Lions and running back Steven Jackson makes an appearance. That is a little interesting.
Gary Owen – There is a lot more of that, and not just in football. There is some huge entertainers, let me put it that way.
MAS – You have another movie out, Ride Along. Tell me about that one.
Gary Owen – Kevin is gonna get engaged to Ice Cube’s sister. Ice Cube goes, “You wanna be a cop, I’m gonna take you on a ride along”. It’s like a play on Training Day, with Denzel and Ethan Hawke. It’s like a comedic version of it. So he takes him on a ride along and shows him all these scenarios during the day. Basically, what happens is I have a grocery store held hostage and Ice Cube tells Kevin, “You need to go arrest this guy. This guy doesn’t have a gun, you can handle this one.” Kevin doesn’t handle me very well. To anybody that doesn’t like Kevin Hart, you are going to enjoy my character; I beat the shit out of him.
MAS – You know, comedy seems to go in cycles. Ten years ago, Chappelle was the thing, before that you had Jeff Foxworthy as the thing. Today, guys like Kevin Hart are becoming the thing. That cycle seems to keep comedy getting better and better and more dynamic. Do you think you would be as successful as you are now, 10-15 years ago?
Gary Owen – Here’s the thing about this business, you never know when your number gets called. Just have to be ready. That is what I tell comics, be ready. What I always tell up and coming comics, the best way to make it in this business as an up and coming comic is be on time for the show and do your time while you are that show. Which means, if you are scheduled to do 15 minutes, do 15. Don’t do 25 or 30, do 15. Then the other comics will be like, “Oh ok, you know, I wanna work with him. He does what he’s told.”
You had the Kings of Comedy there for a minute. It went from them to Mike Epps. You know Mike Epps has really sustained for the last 10 years. It kinda went Chappelle and then Katt for a second and then now it is Kevin, probably. You just never know. I’m being funny of course, but it’s like an email goes out to the country saying “this is who we’re going to go see now.” Some unknown email gets sent to everyone in the country, “Alright, this is the comic right now, this is who we are all going to go see.”
MAS – In your touring history, you have obviously been through North Carolina before. Where all have you been?
Gary Owen – I’ve been to Charlotte, to the BoJangles Arena. I’ve done that a few times. Me and Mike Epps were on tour last year, so we hit every major market. Raleigh, obviously I have done Charlie Goodnight’s numerous times. I’ve done all the colleges in Raleigh, every single one. I think I’ve done the two-year school; I’ve done some many schools in Raleigh. The Shaq tour came there a year and a half ago. I like Raleigh; I like it a lot. It’s a clean city.
MAS – As far as the crowds go from city to city how do your audiences change or are they pretty consistent everywhere you go.
Gary Owen – Well I make the joke that I have to be the only comic in the history of comedy that has to crossover into my own race. Black people know me; it’s the white people that are finally getting to know me now. It’s funny, at the airport or malls when black people see me and they ask for a picture, you see the white people going, “well who is it?”
MAS – That’s something else too about you that I think is truly funny. Watching your standup, I’m watching the audience go nuts laughing. Then they will do the camera shots of the one or two white guys in the audience that are afraid to laugh. They are like, “He can get away with, but can I get away with that?”
Gary Owen – I don’t think that it is they are afraid to laugh, I think they are in shock that the crowd is in such hysterics over a white dude. They are like, “I never thought I’d see this.” A lot of the time, if you look at the crowd, the white guys or white girls are looking at the audience members. They are like “Whoa!” It’s almost like seeing a Johnny Manziel play or seeing a white guy win a 100 meter dash at the Olympics. You are not expecting it, so when you see it you are like, “Whoa, did I just see that?”
It is changing, especially over the last year. A lot of it can be attributed to Think Like a Man and me being on Netflix. Now they are getting familiar with me. Now you are getting lots of people paying to see me and they don’t care who else is out there. In the past the black people were paying to see me and the white people might be coming just to see a comedy show just to go to get a night out.
MAS – Every comedian is good for a stinker or two during their careers, you haven’t had one yet. How have you kept you material at such a high quality?
Gary Owen – It’s odd; I don’t have a lot of joke jokes like with setups, middles and punchlines. A lot of them have just been stories about my life. Honestly, my act is my life on HGH and steroids. It is really my life; I am just adding stuff into it to be funnier.
That’s why it is always important to hit the comedy clubs because that’s where you really work out your material. There’s jokes like my Black and White Church joke, when I first wrote that joke it was a one-liner that I used on a Sunday night where I said, “Glad you guys made it out of church because I barely made it here.” The crowd went into hysterics and I was like ‘whoa, there is something here’. I took down a note that just said, “Black Church.” Let me keep working on this.
Something else about that joke in particular. People would want me to do that joke and I don’t really do it anymore. So what I did was, in my newest hour special, which we filmed back in November in Atlanta, I’m gonna open that special with the church skit. Like I really turned the joke into a skit now, it’s going to be me going into the black church; you see me reacting. I did it at a real black church and I hired real church members; I didn’t hire actors and actresses. It came out so funny; I can’t wait for everybody to see it.
MAS – I know it is a really old joke too, but your “Boy Bands” routine… It has the funny words, but then the physicality that you put into it just put it over the top. You would do very well in an improv type thing.
Gary Owen – A lot of times I do that. A lot of times when I am at The Improv or Funny Bones I will close my show and just say, “What do you guys want to talk about?” I’ll get jokes out of that as folks yell stuff out. It’ not me attacking the audience, it’s me having fun with them.
MAS – One of my buddies sent me a YouTube clip of you handling some heckler named “Dusty”…
Gary Owen – Aww crap, yeah!
There’s some backstory to that. I was getting ready to do the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. I live in Cincinnati, so I drove up to the Dayton Funny Bone because I wanted to work on my 5 minute set. It was open-mic night, so they were going to have me close the show.
So this guy, named Dusty, had heckled all the open-micers and they were getting ready to kick him out. I said, “Don’t kick him out, put me up next. Don’t kick him out, I’ll handle him.” So I was standing up for the young guys that couldn’t. So they put me up about half-way through the show instead of closing it and that’s when I just attacked the dude; he ended up leaving. They only showed about 5 minutes on YouTube, I went at him for about 45. He was done.
It’s funny, there was only about 100 people in Dayton Funny Bone that night but you would think there was thousands. I get it all the time, “Dude, I saw you handle Dusty” and I’m like, “No you didn’t there was like 100 people in the room that night.”
MAS – I admit, it was on YouTube for me because I don’t live anywhere near there… When you broke out “The Whistle” joke on him…
Gary Owen – <Laughing Hard> I don’t know where that came from. I hadn’t told that joke before and I haven’t old it since.
MAS – You were in the Navy and decided to pursue comedy afterwards. You won Funniest Black Comedian in San Diego. I think that is hilarious on its own. You were the one and only white guy to ever host BET’s Comic View. What do you attribute that crossover success to? It can’t just be because of being in an inter-racial relationship; I’ve done that and got nowhere near the level of acceptance you have.
Gary Owen – Dave Chappelle said it a long time ago that most comics start comedy because they have always wanted to do it, and they want to try it. Before you start thinking about it as a business or money. Another reason comics go into comedy is to pick up girls, you find out girls like you.
For some reason, I don’t know what it is, I always liked black girls. I don’t know why. I always say it was like being gay. Gay guys know they are gay but they don’t want to come out the closet because they are scared of the backlash they will get. It was the same way with me growing up. I was like, “I really find black girls attractive” but I don’t want to say anything because it wasn’t always cool.
The reason that I am accepted, and white, is because I am the same guy onstage and off. I’m not a character onstage; my pants aren’t sagging I’m not using black lingo to get the jokes across. When I first got on scene some black comics were kind of standoffish because they were like, “Let me see what he’s about.” Since then, I’ve been accepted in the black community, especially with black comics, because, “Ok, he’s being genuine with this stuff. He’s really married to a black girl; he really does have mixed kids.”
I think a lot of times when the only black comedy you know is the Apollo or Def Jam you don’t give black audiences enough credit. With me, I’m just myself and that’s all they have wanted. They don’t want you to be a character, just be yourself.
I think a lot of white comics don’t take that chance with black audiences; they don’t market themselves toward it. Just because of that fact, “I don’t want to get booed.”
His show is one long verbally articulated stream of comedic consciousness.
There are several different ways that you can approach comedy and be successful. We have all see performers that do hilarious impressions like Frank Caliendo. We have truly successful ventriloquists like Jeff Dunham. There is also the tried and true method of finding a societal subject or stereotype to focus in on like Jeff Foxworthy and so many others have done to create a routine.
One of the less often used methods to find a laugh is the style that is used by Myq Kaplan. When you listen to Myq perform, it is almost better if you are able to NOT laugh at his jokes. He delivers one-liner after one-liner in such fast succession; you will often miss a follow-up joke because you are still laughing a previous joke. I would describe his style as automatic rifle comedy; once the trigger is pulled you no longer have control of the number jokes you are going to get.
During our conversation, I tried to pin Myq down to learn how he developed his routine. What I got was very enlightening; from Myq, “Stylistically, in the beginning it was just a joke then another joke, a joke, see if it works, another joke see if it works. A few years later I had chunks of jokes that were still one line things. But now here were all the lines I had about being a vegetarian. Here are all the lines I have about certain movies, TV shows, books, relationships, sex, religion, or whatever; so, little topic chunks started forming.”
Every comedian has jokes that don’t always work, when Myq talked about his experience with dud jokes, he showed me how is used it to get better. “It is possible that it was out of insecurity, initially, that I wasn’t comfortable with the silence. It would often accompany a joke not working so, ‘Oh there is silence there; move on to the next joke, move on to the next one. When the jokes started working a lot I still had that ‘Oh that jokes over, move on to the next one’. I was packing more punch lines in the setups.”
As we continued to talk about his development Myq let me in on some not-so -secret, secrets of comedy as it relates to joke writing and connecting with the audience,“When most people start out doing comedy, if you know anything at all, you know that, probably, you are not good at it or are not going to be any good at it for a while… I never wanted to just write something that an audience would like, I wanted to write something that I enjoy and see what the audience likes.” He continued, “In the beginning it was more passive like ‘is this funny’ and then see if they said yes. Now it’s more, ‘this IS funny’. Over the course of time, I gained more confidence in some of the jokes by sheer volume. Some of them started working more than others.”
As Myq continues to talk, I learned that he really is machine-like with his comedy, “I don’t necessarily use that information to craft new things, but I get more confidence in myself and in those jokes in general and become a better performer. I can then go back and those jokes that didn’t work in the past, I do actually like them and now I am a better comedian and can use them better.”
Myq succinctly sums up his style in saying, “What I have done is not necessarily actively to pursue anything specific other than to talk about what I think is funny.”
This weekend, we have the opportunity to see this unique comedy style in person at Goodnight’s Comedy Club in Raleigh. Myq Kaplan will be performing a series of 4 shows on Friday and Saturday night. Be sure you take this chance to see a truly unique comedian.
One of the country’s premier comedians, Jay Leno has performed hundreds of comedy shows around the United States for the past 20-plus years. Experience America’s favorite TV personality when he comes to DPAC March 28, 2014 for an unforgettable night of stand-up.
Jay Leno – named America’s Favorite TV Personality in the 2009 Harris Poll – had been America’s late night leader for almost two decades before moving from late night to primetime in September 2009 and then returning to host “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” in March 2010.
Jay served as the host of the Emmy®Award-winning and top-rated “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” since 1992. His engaging manner enabled “The Tonight Show” to capture its time slot for a remarkable 15 consecutive years, while making the show one of the most valuable properties not just for NBC but in all of television.
Indeed, Jay’s “everyman” style and personality have helped him earn millions of fans worldwide, people who relate to his personable style and work ethic. He has been touted as one of the nicest people in show business and the hardest-working — a winning tandem for the man who says “Anyone can have a life – careers are hard to come by!”
This weekend Raleigh is being treated to a series of shows at Goodnight’s from funnyman Gary Gulman. Gary brings a comedic style that uses random aspects of everyday life to build material. He will have you laughing about items as mundane as grapefruit and as complex as the impact of the Old Testament on the Jews of today. Tickets are available HERE
MAS – In just a couple weeks you are going to be performing at Goodnight’s in Raleigh. A lot of you contemporaries like to make special requests, did you have any? Like maybe fresh cut grapefruit halves and Vanilla Ice playing in your dressing room?
Gary Gulman – {Laughs} No, I just want to get a check at the end of the week. That would be my only request. I like compensation for services rendered. No, I guess just a hotel with fresh sheets and flights were my only requests.
MAS – You are not like a lot of your contemporaries.
Gary Gulman – {Laughs} Yeah, as long as I can sleep and fly, I am okay.
MAS – I recently had the pleasure of talking with Natasha Leggero and she told me that she got into comedy due to not being loved enough by her parents. What sent you into the life of comedy?
Gary Gulman – {I would say that most of your comedians are going to have a lack of attention paid to them when they are growing up or somebody thinks that everything they say is brilliant and hilarious. Those are the two ends of the spectrum.
I fell in love early with the power that jokes and comedy had over other people. I would memorize the jokes that I heard on Saturday Night Live or on The Tonight Show or whatever stand-up comedy shows I watched. I would just memorize them and then the kids at school would really react. It was early on that I realized how powerful and how exciting it could be to get laughs off of people.
MAS – You are able to make generally random parts of life truly hilarious. For example, your bit on grapefruit had me rolling.
Gary Gulman – Wow! Really? Thank you. That is from a really long time ago, like maybe 2006. I always get requests for that at shows. I guess the origin of that probably was as a child being confused by the disparity of the fruit grape and the grapefruit. That was just something that I finally had the knowledge and the vocabulary to construct.
MAS – In general, with your jokes, are you just sitting around saying, “I haven’t heard a good Discman joke in a while, let me see what I can come up with?” How do you pick topics you make jokes about? They just seem to be random, but always funny.
Gary Gulman – I find that the longer you do it, if you see somebody with a Discman now that you do a double-take or things that occur in your life or are striking in the hypocrisy or the confusion or lack of common sense involved. Like the fact that they have those things on the side of the highway that tell us how fast we are going but there is not one that works equally as well inside the car, like in the dashboard. Those were the types of things that I was interested in at the time when I wrote them. Usually when I identify something as a subject I can talk about it onstage. 9 times out of 10 I can find something funny just by talking it out and then I will try to remember it for the next show. That is usually my method.
MAS – So there really is a certain degree of spontaneity to it?
Yeah, initially, then when I find humorous parts that really stick out or get a great response, then the next time I do it I have to make it seem like it is spontaneous. That becomes the real joke to it after a while.
MAS – In watching “Boyish Man”, I thought it was very funny, especially the bit on Hanukah. Most of my family is Catholic, but a big part is Jewish. We have those discussions over dinner at Thanksgiving. So that part hit home for me.
Later in that show you talked about the contributions of the Chinese. That also had me rolling, especially the handcuff joke.
In talking about Jews and Chinese, there are enough people in this world that have hypersensitivity and what I call the “PC disease”, has anyone ever approached you acting all offended by a joke you did?
Gary Gulman – Not those particular ones. I don’t specifically remember what I talk about with Hanukah. There are certain things that I talk about, like the overall treatment of my people in the Bible by God and our neighbors. I always say that The Old Testament could have easily been called, regarding God, “He’s Just Not That into You.” With God, we’ve been chosen, but he is just very hard on us. He might be trying to break up with us.
To me, that type of thing is light-hearted and fun. To my family it is sacrilege and blasphemous. So when I think about something like that, it is like, “Oh, this would really aggravate my older brother or really make my father uncomfortable.” There is a bit of mischief there and some risk at least in my family if my family was to hear these jokes. They would be furious, so it makes it a little more fun.
As far as the general public goes, I have not had too much trouble with people being offended. To me with comedy going further and further, I am considered tame.
MAS – I can’t think of anyone else that has a style like yours. Who influenced you? Where did you get your style from?
Gary Gulman – I was influenced later on by the comedic actor, Chris Elliott from the Letterman show and Life. I always loved that he was always great at playing people that were over confidant, arrogant, losers. I always admired that. I tried to take some of that confidence into my act. There is just a charm to that type of attitude that I have always loved.
The other thing, as comedians we really love words; the use of words, word play and vocabulary and stuff. So I am really influenced by a lot of authors and rapper and poets and people who are really into getting the most out of a sentence or a word.
MAS – You have appeared on just about every late night show that there is to appear on, been a part of many tours and performed at countless clubs. Is there any one particular show that you did that, looking back, you wished you didn’t? Sort of like Laurence Fishburne in Pee Wee’s Playhouse.
Gary Gulman – Last Comic Standing and Tourgasm were my most well know TV shows. They were forms of reality shows, so there were trade-offs. I would have rather gotten on TV doing something that was strictly my stand-up. So, there is a trade-off; some competitions, some contests and just stuff that had nothing to do with stand-up. You wish you could just do the stand-up but it was a fair trade-off as far as the fans I was able to make and the exposure of getting to play in front of as many as 18-20 thousand people at once. You can’t prepare for that unless you do it. That was very helpful, and I would not trade that for anything. I would have liked to have been able to hold onto a little more privacy.
MAS – I have checked out ”Conversations with Inanimate Objects”, “Boyish Man” and “No Can Defend” all of which were very funny and well worth the visit to Amazon. When can we expect to see a new album or maybe even a comedy special from you?
Gary Gulman – I was just talking to my manager about that. I am going to shoot for the spring to make a new special, which would make it two years from the last one. That is faster than a lot, but not as fast as say Louis C.K. or George Carlin who put them out every year. I’m trying to keep up with them, but it isn’t easy
MAS – Go for quality instead of quantity. George is an icon and a legend, but some of his stuff just wasn’t funny.
Gary Gulman – That reminds me of that Lenny Bruce quote, “I’m not a comedian, I’m Lenny Bruce.” George Carlin transcended stand-up he went into philosophy and social commentary. I guess I’m glad that the he put them out every year, but maybe if he had went every other year he would have been a different type of performer.
MAS – For the show that is coming up at Goodnights, what should we expect from you?
Gary Gulman – They won’t really see anything from my specials or my album. You know, I am close to recording a new special so everything will be new. If there is time at the end, I ask for requests from anything from an old album. It’ll be new, I’ve been touring so my skills are sharp and my brain is moving at a high rate. I was just down in Atlanta and had some really great shows. I will do about an hour or more and I really feel good about the shows I have been doing.
Amy Schumer is quickly becoming the hottest star in the world of comedy, with her blend of wholesome, girl-next-door looks and edgy comedy. Amy is the creator, star and writer of Inside Amy Schumer, her Comedy Central television show which will premiere on April 30th. Amy is coming off her one-hour stand-up special, Mostly Sex Stuff, which became Comedy Central’s second-highest rated special this year. She was one of the featured comedians on Comedy Central’s Roast of Roseanne, following her breakout performance on the 2011 Roast of Charlie Sheen. Amy was most recently on Louie and in Season 2 of HBO’s Girls.
Schumer has appeared on The Howard Stern Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Conan, and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. She was featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and as one of Entertainment Weekly and Los Angeles Times “13 Faces to Watch in 2013.”
She had a recurring role on Season 3 of Adult Swim’s Delocated and guest starred in the latest season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. In 2011 she filmed the feature Seeking a Friend for the End of the World starring Steve Carrell and Kiera Knightley and Price Check, an independent feature opposite Parker Posey which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Her album Cutting placed in the top 5 of the Billboard Charts and has been included on multiple Best Comedy Albums of the Year awards’ lists.
Her network debut came in 2007 when she starred on NBC’s Last Comic Standing and soon after co-starred on 30 Rock, and her own Comedy Central Presents special. She co-hosted Hoppus on Music with Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 on Fuse and this summer made her fourth appearance at the Montreal Comedy Festival
This weekend (Jan 9-11) Raleigh, NC will get hit by the bus that is the ever controversial, always opinionated, American Degenerate that is Jim Norton.
Fresh off of his hit Epix comedy special, Jim will be at Goodnight’s in Raleigh performing 5 shows. You can get tickets HERE
A couple of weeks ago, I was given the chance to speak with Jim about his upcoming show. I decided that instead of talking about his show, I would talk to him about his take on issues of the world today. What I got out of the experience is a new found respect for the man and an item I can look back on and say, “wow, that was cool”.
MAS – I am online and I see that A&E has suspended Phil Robertson. What is the first thing that comes to mind for you?
Jim Norton – It’s one of these things that I jump all over on Twitter. I like to know that I live in a country where we care what one hillbilly asshole thinks about homosexuals. It is mind-boggling that anyone cares what this guy thinks, but he has done nothing wrong by expressing his opinions. I am very pro-gay marriage, I am very pro-gay, and I still have to defend the guy.
MAS – I couldn’t agree with you more. Me personally, everybody lives their own life; do what they want to do. I may not agree with it, but I am going to stay out of it. I grew up Catholic in the south and there are two groups that are going to face a lot of harassment here, Blacks and Catholics. As a result, I grew up to be very tolerant.
What I have seen over my 35 years; I have seen tolerance go to an extreme. I have seen tolerance become codling. What do you see there?
Jim Norton – America is a very phony place when it comes to tolerance and freedom of thoughts and diversity in ideas. It has just gone the other way now. I don’t know why we’re pretending to be surprised. We have never really been a place where we allow for ideas that we don’t agree with. Today, it just seems like we have people that are willing to get in trouble for saying something we find disagreeable.
MAS – The idea of something being off-limits because it has a violent connotation. I agreed with your stance where, “If an actor can portray the role, why can’t a comedian make the joke?” Where do you think we need to go as a society in order to overcome that mentality?
Jim Norton – Individuals are self-righteous, social networking allows us to be self-righteous in a group. Rape victim’s pain is very real, and I think that rapists should be castrated. But, the pain of a rape victim is just as real as the pain of a 9/11 victim, the same as an AIDS patient the same as a molestation victim. Look within the Catholic Church. Look at all the molesting priest jokes; there are a million of them. A, Catholicism has brought that upon themselves by protecting those pigs. B, are you going to tell me that the pain of these kids who are molested is not real? Of course it is! Everyone’s pain is real. You can’t look at any of it as off-limits; otherwise you are going to be talking about balloons and puppies. Do you want comedy that is only making fun of sour milk? I mean, there are social issues that we should make fun of. The fact that there is a real pain associated with that shouldn’t negate the ability to make fun of it.
MAS – Let me put things into context for you, in the last week I have interviewed four stand-up comedians. In order; you, yesterday I spoke with Gary Gulman. Before him, Tracy Morgan and last week I spoke with Natasha Leggero. One of those four does not belong.
Jim Norton – Wow, you could take any one of them. You have a woman, a black guy and a Jew so you could say it is any one of them. Or do you mean by what they have said?
MAS – No, you went exactly where I was going. Why is it that you can have four different comedians that are totally different in every possible way all making jokes that go against social norms, yet you and Tracy are the ones that seem to get blasted the most.
Jim Norton – You know, it is really weird. I haven’t gotten it. People have come after me on Twitter, but no one has threatened my job. I have never had that happen because of what I have said. Tracy got it because he had a network gig and that is why Tash got in trouble. When you have a network gig, there is a lot of money at stake, and the networks come after you. So the comedians will just say, “The hell with it, fuck it, let’s just say we are sorry and move along.” I think that is why they went after Tracy because he had a network gig so they pressured him that way. Believe me, I wish I had that problem. I don’t have any type of network affiliation; I am only a moderately successful guy so I have a little more freedom.
MAS – As a fan, putting aside the whole media side, I have a lot of respect for people that will speak their minds and challenge the societal norms. I hate to say it, I almost hope you don’t get a network deal so that I can keep hearing you just let it go.
Jim Norton – Thank you man. You know on the Opie and Anthony Show, that I am on every day, I have had tremendous freedom there. I have my CDs and my DVDs; I have a lot of freedom, I can pretty much say any opinion that I want. I have been very fortunate in my career and I have chosen that path. You might take a little bit less network accessibility for it, but I really like what I do on stage.
In American Degenerate, I blasted the press. It felt great to blast them, and there is nothing they can do about it. Not that they want to do anything, but nobody can do a fucking thing about it. My job as a comedian is to be, hopefully, funny and honest; I don’t always have to be right. I think I am like every other scumbag in this country; half the time I’m right, half the time I’m wrong. I’m just like Fox news, just like CNN, just like everybody else.
MAS – I watched both of your most recent stand-up DVDs and even dug up your old HBO special. In one of them, you lay into Al Sharpton. He has, sort of, dropped out of relevance. People can now see him for what he really is. Who do you think personifies what is wrong today?
Jim Norton – Great Question… You are right; Sharpton is a lot mellower than he used to be.
I don’t know if you can find any one particular person, I think it is the umbrella in which special interest groups operate because they always target people for speech. Then again, they don’t make the firings, the networks do the firing. Then again, the networks don’t WANT to do the firing, they only do it because the advertisers are upset. Then again, the advertisers are only upset because they think they are going to lose sales because the average person, like you or I, don’t push back. It is very hard to find one person that personifies what’s wrong because it is a very weird cyclical thing. We, the population, could end it immediately. Take right now; there is a Facebook page for the people of Duck Dynasty about “Don’t watch A&E until that guy is back on.” They are supporting him. In a few hours they have gotten a half a million “Likes”. A&E is absolutely going to back-pedal on this because they are going to lose a lot more. Society, that is usually very quiet, decides it is not offended and is instead really pissed off and is standing up to push back. So, I bet you that A&E will, fucking, back-pedal on this.
It is a great question; I don’t want to bring just one person. Because, oh yeah, Jessie Jackson is an annoying asshole, but again Jessie Jackson doesn’t fire people. It is not Jessie who fires people; it is the cowardly executives who fire people. So Jessie is annoying, but I think that these executives who stand up for nothing are even worse. The public in general who fucking, just sits there and takes special interest dick, we are all at fault for not speaking up and not defending each other; for not defending each other and our right to say stupid things and our right to say unpopular shit.
MAS – I am going to disagree with several people, an example will be that “church” out in Westboro. Even though I absolutely abhor everything they say and do, I also have to defend them for having the guts to stand up and say what they believe.
Jim Norton – That is exactly right. I mean, I hate the fact that they do it. I have issues with them, simply because they go to these funerals… there is almost something dishonest about them. They remind me of little children standing on the porch yelling the “F word” knowing that mommy is right behind them to protect them. If they had real courage and they really had faith in God they wouldn’t need to get permits to march, they would just show up without police protection. If they really thought God was protecting them, they would just show up without police watching.
But, you are right. I believe in their right to do what they do. I think they are a great statement as to what we will tolerate in this country. They are just a great image. The whole country thinks that they are just fucking pigs, which they are. However, they have the right to say something so reprehensible. It is just a great statement about our country and what we can and do tolerate at times.
They have really hurt themselves by using such inflammatory rhetoric. Their rhetoric is so inflammatory and so childish and they say things like “God hates fags.” Even people who may be inclined to agree with them have turned against them, even people who are religious and don’t really like homosexuals. They are using such babyish, child terms that people look at them and say, “These people are just absolute assholes.” All the younger members of their congregation are leaving; they have backed themselves into a corner and bitten their own asshole out which is really great to see.
MAS – Hopefully we will see a day when that type of attitude will go away and be replaced by real tolerance, real understanding and real compassion.
Jim Norton – My opinion is, I think that people who do not like homosexuals are lousy. I think that if you do not like gay people, then you are kind of a shitty person. I think that is an ignorant point of view. But I think that if you don’t like gay people, but you still want them to be able to get married and have all the rights you do I think you are a shitty person, but a great American because you realize your personal views shouldn’t interfere with someone elses life liberty or the pursuit of happiness.
I don’t care if people hate gays or hate blacks, that is within your right and you should be able to feel that way. Just don’t ask for your rights to be one iota more than theirs.
MAS – I am in North Carolina; I am going to live up to the southern stereotype on guns. I am one of those “gun toting lunatics” that gun control advocates talk about. I also believe in responsibility, I believe in doing what is right for society and what is right in general. I can’t help but get offended when I get lumped into the same category as the guy in Colorado, that nutcase in Connecticut. It sends me into orbit that I am seen as a pariah because I own a weapon.
Jim Norton – There are many opinions that I hear that find offensive or vile. The difference is, it is okay to be offended or upset by something someone says, but I don’t want them penalized for it. People are always coming up to me, “don’t you ever get offended?” Sure I do! But I understand that is the price you pay for living in a free society. Some people are going to say things that I find shitty, some people are going to have opinions that I find dumb, or retarded or vile. There are people that are going to hate my guts, it is what it is.
The problem is that we want each other penalized for it; we are a country of hall monitors
MAS – I am finally going to ask you about your show… What can we expect as material?
Jim Norton – I talk about Anthony Weiner, I talk about technology, Paula Dean and you can bet I will be talking about Duck Dynasty, plus my use of prostitutes and addiction. I promise to be funny, it is a new set and completely different from my stuff on American Degenerate. I promise it is good.
ecsguestwriter
MichaelSmithNC
Melissa Anne Cain
Eastern Carolina Style 