New figures.com review

Here's another figures.com review. You may have forgotten about these. Truth is, I have a few backed up they haven't published yet. But I'm always working.

Check out Mongul from Mattel's DC Superheroes line!

Star Trek: the Sitcom update

When I uploaded Star Trek: the Sitcom last week I was hoping for maybe 500 hits. So far it's gotten almost 25,000. Never bet against borrowed interest.

At 5000 hits I was a genius. At 24,000, I'm a douchebag. The internet reviews have gotten harsh. All of a sudden there's a hype I'm not living up to. One viewer said I should be devoured by fire ants. I put a laugh track on three minutes of a Next Generation and I'm getting death threats.

Welcome to fame in the internet age. I was just listening to an interview with Jeph Loeb. He said he got the worst reviews of his life at the end of the Batman story he did with Jim Lee; Hush. They said he simply couldn't write. But then he checked the website. It got about 6000 hits. The book sold 400,000 copies. He figured that's an okay average.

Am I brilliant or a worthless human being? Watch it again and you tell me.

Renee

Today is her birthday. And she's way pregnant.

So be nice.

Marshall Rogers

When I was in the third grade, someone passed me an issue of Detective Comics during class. I was always nervous about getting into trouble so I just glanced and passed it on. The one page showed the Penguin in jail, struggling against the rust stained bars while Deadshot escapes from the next cell. All I knew of Batman was Adam West and Superfriends. This was dark, adult, frightening. I felt like I wasn't ready for it yet.

That was my first exposure to the modern Batman, and my first exposure to Marshall Rogers. His run on Detective Comics remains one of my all time favorites. That's why I'm really saddened to learn he passed away in Flushing.

Most tributes will focus on his Batman work and rightly so. But I also recall his relaunch of the Silver Surfer comic in the late 80's. The character had many tries at a full length series and this was the most successful. Rogers' art was a big reason why. His Surfer soared in three dimensions and moved like an actual surfer. Space seemed vast and beautiful under Rogers pencil, and full of possibilities. He will be missed.

Long Weekend

It's Monday and I'm exhausted. I did a toy run with Joe Franzem Saturday and a gig at the Side Street Grill last night. The both went well but the same as last time. So go back and look at those. I'm on five hours sleep.

This.

And this.

Larry 'Bud' Melman

Calvert DeForest passed away after a long illness.

When I was about 10, I discovered 'Late Night with David Letterman'. I didn't understand it but I loved it. And no one exemplified that early tone like Larry 'Bud' Melman. The writers would send him to the bus station or down the hall in a bear suit or just make announcements on the air. He was so not camera-ready that he was adorable.

Here he is at the bus station. There's no real bit here other than Larry doesn't know how to work a microphone. It's hilarious.

The Japanese Foreign Minister

I can't decide if this guy is offensive or hysterical. When your foreign minister is making blatantly racist remarks they might as well be as benign as this.

Then again Renee's host mother once said that Star Trek was a show "only children would watch". I'm not giving Japan a lot in the tact department.

To All My Friends on Line for "Last Comic Standing" Right Now

I don't envy you.

JLU

The final season of Justice League Unlimited comes out on dvd today. I'm gonna get one. Right now.

Bye.

Star Trek: the Sitcom

You give me some free time, this is what I'll make.

Enjoy!

St. Patrick's Day

Enjoy amatuer hour.

Gaffigan

Here's an article about Jim Gaffigan that's pretty informative. Turns out he worked for Ogilvy and Grey as a copywriter. Wow. We've shared the same stage and the same jobs. Next time he stops by I might actually be able to start a conversation with him.

Captain America and Colbert

Aw, dammit. There is nothing not to love about this.

Lack o' Etiquette Post Wrap

Just to let you know, that show went great. So great that Mike Drucker picked up the idea we dropped and are going forward. I'll tell you more later.

Everyone killed. I taped the whole thing and Ed and Tim have posted their sets on google video. Since it's my cinematography, I'm taking credit and posting it here.

Ed Murray:


Tim Warner:


Now go support live comedy you lazy cretins!

Revel in Failure

Rotten Tomatoes is listing its 100 worst reviewed movies. Most of them are recent. All of them are bad.

Richard Jeni

Richard Jeni was one of those comics who was coming up when I first noticed stand-up. At one point he seemed to be on a different show every night and I couldn't have been gladder. He had an easy comfortable style that I took to instantly. So it was a genuine shock to find he died over the weekend in an apparant suicide.

The thing that makes me saddest is the CNN headline, "Comedian Dead in Apparant Suicide." Comedian. You get five hour specials, your own sitcom, appearances in hit movies and you still can't get your name in your own obituary. Disrespectful.

Alex Grubard's found some great Jeni clips on his myspace blog.

Dream

Last night I had a dream.

I went to an open mike and asked the guy if there was still room to go on.

"Sure, but you're the last comic so you'll be in the 'grind down'."

"What's that?"

"We have a sketch group that needs to go on. So you go on at the other end of the stage. You both do your acts at the same time and whichever one we listen to wins."

Tim Warner walked up next to me. "Wow," he said. "I'll trade with you."


I woke up and couldn't believe it had been a dream. Knowing comedy, I assumed it would HAVE ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

Ron Moore

Like Battlestar Galactica? Bet you do. Like Star Trek? Bet you don't.

But here's an interview with Ronald D. Moore about both. He spent ten years as a Star Trek writer before recreating Galactica ias a bigger hit than it was originally. It's a huge article that gets into the politics of writers rooms, how deals disappear and how great it is when executives ignore your work.

Show Business

I'm freelancing at an agency again. Yesterday I was in my ACD's office and his itunes was running. Harry Connick Jr. was singing a slow version of "There's No Business Like Show Business". It was so slow I could focus on the lyrics:


The butcher, the baker, the grocer, the clerk
Are secretly unhappy men because
The butcher, the baker, the grocer, the clerk
Get paid for what they do but no applause.
They'd gladly bid their dreary jobs goodbye for anything theatrical and why?

There's no business like show business like no business I know
Everything about it is appealing, everything that traffic will allow
Nowhere could you get that happy feeling when you are stealing that extra bow

There's no people like show people, they smile when they are low
Even with a turkey that you know will fold, you may be stranded out in the cold
Still you wouldn't change it for a sack of gold, let's go on with the show

There's no business like show business and I tell you it's so
Traveling through the country is so thrilling, standing out in front on opening nights
Smiling as you watch the theater filling, and there's your billing out there in lights

There's no people like show people, they smile when they are low
Angels come from everywhere with lots of jack, and when you lose it, there's no attack
Where could you get money that you don't give back? Let's go on with the show

There's no business like show business like no business I know
You get word before the show has started that your favorite uncle died at dawn
Top of that, your pa and ma have parted, you're broken-hearted, but you go on

There's no people like show people, they smile when they are low
Yesterday they told you you would not go far, that night you open and there you are
Next day on your dressing room they've hung a star, let's go on with the show


Something stirred inside me. I didn't care about pharmaceutical websites. I didn't care about account reviews. I didn't even care about my day rate. I just wanted to put on a great show. I couldn't wait to get out and bark for "The World" that night.

Of course it was 17 degrees outside and the show was cancelled but it's still a nice story.

Captain America

If you want an expensive comic that comes out today ruined for you, go here. Or just talk to dfx.

Rap

CNN is asking "Has Rap Music Hit a Wall?" If it has, its because someone shot the driver. Expect seven tributes songs by April.

Ninja Comedy

Mike Drucker has been doing this bit for months so I thought it was time I shot it. I'm really happy with the way it came out.

Joker Pulls a Boner

Just read it.

Barking Last Night

EXT- STREET- NIGHT

I am barking.

ME
Stand-up comedy. Free tickets. 10 o' clock show.

Two teenagers dressed like Gns n' Roses are still popular pass by.

TEEN
10 o'clock dick.

ME
That's why you're dressed in black, sir. The inability to think of something clever.

TEEN
What?

ME
Further proof.

The teens flip me off.

MIKE DRUCKER
Enjoy your trust fund.

Buffy Midnight Screenings

As I mentioned before, I borrowed Monica's dvds of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and it became one of my favorite shows. But it wasn't until the musical episode, which came pretty late in the run, that I fell in love with it. Joss Whedon reportedly took six months off and taught himself guitar to write it. They blew the budget for the entire season on it. It ran ten minutes long. And they released a soundtrack weeks after it aired. Even among hardcore fans, it ranks as one of the best.

For years, people have petitioned to turn it into a stage musical but there's a major problem. One of the brilliant strokes of Joss Whedon's writing is that the musical episode mattered. It took the plot threads from earlier episodes and advanced them in unexpected ways and set up later stories. It's a perfect episode but not a complete story. Casual audiences couldn't "get it".

So hardcore fans have done the next best thing. They're having midnight screenings and sing-alongs. Much like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (which is a film that deserves its notoriety less) groups have gathered at the IFC to celebrate the show. I just wish the article told me the next time it was happening.