San Francisco Comedy Blog

Check out Mr. Louis Katz lookin’ all classy in a tie on last night’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon:

by Sean Keane

TOM GREEN Live @ Cobb’s Comedy Club
Oct. 1st, 2nd, & 3rd

- READ PART ONE-

I don’t know if this was a conscious choice, but when you were on The Tonight Show, your bits were more restrained. You took on more of a straight man role.

TG: I didn’t edit those pieces. I was just working for Jay as a correspondent. It wasn’t like the kind of thing I did on my old public access show or my MTV show. I think I learned a lot from working on The Tonight Show for a couple years. Literally, the first thought I had was that they weren’t as crazy as what I’d normally do. But then they’d show the studio audience and they’d be dying of laughter. They were very successful, and I think it opened my eyes to the idea that you can be broad sometimes. You don’t necessarily have to be polarizing and shocking, and you can still get a lot out of it.

I think that’s the difference between Jay Leno, and David Letterman or Jimmy Kimmel’s show. I think his genius comes from really understanding America, and not just appealing to the nutjob audience that I’ve always tried to reach out to.

Do you have specific role models as a host?

TG: Oh yeah. I decided as a kid that I wanted to be a talk show host when I saw David Letterman. I thought, “Oh my gosh, this is so crazy. I want to sit at a desk, and go out in the streets and do crazy stunts with a megaphone, be annoying and outrageous.” Letterman was the first time I’d seen anything on television in that format pushing the boundaries of ridiculousness. When I saw the show at age thirteen, fourteen, it was kind of like the internet is today: you felt like you were watching something no one else knew about. So I love Letterman, but I’ve also gone back and become a huge fan of Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, Tom Snyder. I like those single-guest format shows where the guest really gets a chance to speak. I’ve pretty much modeled my living room after the Tonight Show set.

It’s interesting that while you’re doing a very new, unique show, the conventions of it are very classic, in terms of the look and orientation of everything.

TG: I love all the old talk shows of the ’60s. It was an amazing time for television because everything was new. And while there are so many great talk shows today, it does seem to me that all the talk shows on the air are attempting to do their version of Johnny Carson. They have their own variations, but they have the desk, the band…

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by Sean Keane

Tom Green took a Canadian public-access show and made it the highest-rated show on MTV, before continuing on a career of acting, directing, and music that took him to the cover of Rolling Stone and the guest host spot on Saturday Night Live. His film career includes “Road Trip,” “Stealing Harvard,” and “Freddy Got Fingered,” and his hosting acumen has taken him to his own MTV late-night talk show to guest-hosting The Late Show With David Letterman to his current gig, hosting “The Tom Green Show” on the web out of his own living room. Recently, Green embarked on an international stand-up tour, which has taken him through Australia, Canada, and from October 1-3, it takes him to Cobb’s Comedy Club in SF.

TOM GREEN Live @ Cobb’s Comedy Club
Oct. 1st, 2nd, & 3rd

Thanks for talking with us. I interviewed Harland Williams a few weeks ago, because all Canadian interviews default to me.

TG: Harland is amazing. He’s a good friend of mine and one of my favorite stand-ups. I grew up watching him in Ottawa, Canada when he’d come through the Yuk Yuk’s club. Very inspiring.

Yuk-Yuk’s is the main chain of clubs in Ottawa?

TG: It’s nationwide in Canada. It would be kind of like the Improv in the U.S., where there’s a club in every city. I would do stand-up there on amateur nights when I was fifteen years old, and I started doing little opening spots when I was in high school. Harland was my favorite – him and Norm MacDonald.

Had you been doing much stand-up in the interim period between when you were a kid and the current tour?

TG: I’ve never really done a full-time tour like this, where I’m on the road playing comedy clubs and theaters. I’ve always written a lot of stand-up – I’ve done monologues on my show, hosted award shows, and worked with a lot of great stand-up comedians and comedy writers. I’ve never really said, “I’m going to go on the road full-time. I’m going to write a set.” So this is pretty new for me.

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Tonight is the opening night of the $25,000 35th Annual San Francisco International Comedy Competition, one of the oldest and most prestigious comedy competitions in the country.

Past competitors include Robin Williams, Dana Carvey, Ellen Degeneres, Patton Oswalt, Dane Cook, Steven Wright, Louis CK, Mitch Hedberg, Roseanne Barr, and many many more.

This year’s contestants for preliminary round 1 are:

Chris Bennett, Tempe, AZ
Daniel Carroll, New York
Solomon Georgio, Seattle
Vahe Hova, Walnut Creek, CA
Jonny Loquasto, Los Angeles
Jay Montepare, Los Angeles
Toby Muresianu, San Francisco
Patrick Nye, Chicago
Sammy Obeid, Fremont
Rob O’Reilly, New York
Sean Ottey, Tacoma
Marc Patrick, Las Vegas
Lizzy Pilcher, Seattle
Marianne Sierk, Los Angeles
Auggie Smith, Portland
Insane Wayne, Stockton

Night 1: @ Biscuits & Blues, SF, 9/15
Host: Will Franken
1. Auggie Smith, Portland
2. Marianne Sierk, Los Angeles
3. Solomon Georgio, Seattle
4. Rob O’Reilly, New York
5. Jay Montepare, Los Angeles

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by Drew Harmon

Beginning September 18th, watch LOUIS C.K.: HILARIOUS on cable channel EPIX. If you don’t get EPIX, you can also download the film from their website.

The film is also showing on Wednesday, September 15th, 7:30pm at Embarcadero Center Cinema. (Tickets)

Louis CK opens his new concert film, “Hilarious,” by somehow referencing Hitler, reminding the audience of their inevitable death and acknowledging how awkward it can be to start a show. And then, he proves himself wrong – because he’s completely in charge of the stage from the moment he steps on and picks up the microphone.

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by Sean Keane

Harland Williams is a Canadian actor, comedian, author, artist, and musician. An accomplished stand-up comic, Harland is known for memorable roles in some of the most beloved comedies of the last twenty years, as well as his eclectic and unpredictable late-night talk show appearances. On Saturday, September 4th, he comes to the Herbst Theatre for a night of stand-up and sketch comedy. (Tickets)

You’re coming to San Francisco for just one night in September. Is there something special about the show that makes it a one-night-only engagement?

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Chris Garcia likes his Snuggie a lot.

Every Thursday at 8pm, Justin Scales aka “The Scalesman” presents live comedy @ The Purple Onion.

Watch Sammy Franco interview Justin about Purple Onion Thursdays:
(”The audience knows they’re naughty, and they want you to spank them.”)

8pm every Thursday
@ The Purple Onion
140 Columbus Avenue
San Francisco
$10 cash at the door

Upcoming shows:

February 4th:
Hoogie & Gumps
Featuring Comedy Central’s John Hoogasian, and a medley of Bay Area comedians/Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. servers.

February 11th:
Eddie Ifft
NBC’s Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central, worldwide headliner

February 18th:
Brendon Walsh
Montreal Comedy Festival, has a big beard, tours with Doug Stanhope

Februay 25th:
Brent Weinbach
Winner of the prestigious Andy Kaufman Award, conductor of legendary fart orchestra, once delivered a pizza to Brad Pitt

Why is it that so many performers go forgotten and so few are remembered? Why is it that today’s new generation of comedy fans are just as familiar with the tortured monologues of Richard Pryor, the meta-comedy of Steve Martin, or the absurdity of Andy Kaufman- decades after those performers made their initial debuts?

The answer: Originality.

In this unorthodox comedy workshop held at the legendary Purple Onion nightclub, highly-acclaimed comedian and performance artist, Will Franken, instructs students on how to develop their own unique twist on humor in order to become a more visible presence in the often monotonous world of entertainment.

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By Drew Harmon

After two months of competition and a field that began with 36 performers vying for the title, on Wednesday night the 2009 San Francisco Women’s Comedy Competition came to a conclusion and named Janine Brito the winner.

The competition began with preliminary rounds at The Brainwash, the popular café/Laundromat/performance space located on Folsom near 7th in San Francisco, where it could be argued every Bay Area comedian must do standup at to be considered part of the club. After multiple rounds the shows moved to Club Deluxe during the popular Monday night comedy shows near the historic Haight/Ashbury intersection.

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