Comments on: Barry Sobel refresher course http://www.sfstandup.com/blog/2008/12/03/barry-sobel-refresher-course/ Guide to stand-up comedy in the San Francisco Bay Area. Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:09:46 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: James Sallito http://www.sfstandup.com/blog/2008/12/03/barry-sobel-refresher-course/comment-page-1/#comment-52599 James Sallito Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:38:07 +0000 http://www.sfstandup.com/blog/2008/12/03/barry-sobel-refresher-course/#comment-52599 I'm sorry. Am I missing something? Is there a desperate need for this guy to return? Is there any humor beyond the kitsch factor? You're right to call him "Icon- Comedian" because without that qualifier it would be wrong to call him a comedian. I think he is a great symbol for a moment in time when tepid, mildly racist, and loosely ethnic comedy was tolerated by a few people who were afraid to love Eddie Murphy. You can tell that Carson thinks he's an idiot. You can tell that Hanks wants to kill him right there on the Oprah set. The reason Hanks character in Punchline was brilliantly desperate was because Barry Sobel was the "stand up comedy advisor" that he had to deal with on Punchline, and he saw how sad and broken a person can be in that business. That bit he begins with on Carson is embarrassing. It's like a half-committed Robin Williams bit without the edge. I don't mind him doing the black thing, it just wasn't funny. And the Eddie Murphy impression? Help us. I also don't mind resurrecting a dead career if the career or person being resurrected is worthy of it. Let's bring back a reliable Dennis Miller or Paula Poundstone or very early Judy Tenuta? Or Martin Mull for goddsakes. He's an icon. He's doing something funny right now and nobody is talking about it. Barry Sobel is an icon like Judd Nelson is an icon. Their value is that they trigger a memory of from High School when the virus of pretending you're black took hold. I will give him this: he has stuck around. It's better than I could do. And I don't take that away from him. I think his only entrance back into culture is the same route the two Coreys took: make fun of the fact that you are who you are and it's absurd that you were what you were. But unfortunately he was not in The Lost Boys and hasn't built the steam up to let out. I invite other opinions. Point me to something to change my mind. I’m sorry. Am I missing something? Is there a desperate need for this guy to return? Is there any humor beyond the kitsch factor? You’re right to call him “Icon- Comedian” because without that qualifier it would be wrong to call him a comedian. I think he is a great symbol for a moment in time when tepid, mildly racist, and loosely ethnic comedy was tolerated by a few people who were afraid to love Eddie Murphy. You can tell that Carson thinks he’s an idiot. You can tell that Hanks wants to kill him right there on the Oprah set. The reason Hanks character in Punchline was brilliantly desperate was because Barry Sobel was the “stand up comedy advisor” that he had to deal with on Punchline, and he saw how sad and broken a person can be in that business.

That bit he begins with on Carson is embarrassing. It’s like a half-committed Robin Williams bit without the edge. I don’t mind him doing the black thing, it just wasn’t funny. And the Eddie Murphy impression? Help us. I also don’t mind resurrecting a dead career if the career or person being resurrected is worthy of it. Let’s bring back a reliable Dennis Miller or Paula Poundstone or very early Judy Tenuta? Or Martin Mull for goddsakes. He’s an icon. He’s doing something funny right now and nobody is talking about it. Barry Sobel is an icon like Judd Nelson is an icon. Their value is that they trigger a memory of from High School when the virus of pretending you’re black took hold.

I will give him this: he has stuck around. It’s better than I could do. And I don’t take that away from him. I think his only entrance back into culture is the same route the two Coreys took: make fun of the fact that you are who you are and it’s absurd that you were what you were. But unfortunately he was not in The Lost Boys and hasn’t built the steam up to let out.

I invite other opinions. Point me to something to change my mind.

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