Hey, check me out, all using de-intensified urban hues for my cartoon of Dana Gould and stuff. I thought he'd be easier to draw so cut me some slack, a'ight?
When I was a kid of 19 or so and the local cable company finally got the Comedy Channel or Ha! before they merged into Comedy Central, I was really into comedians and comedy in general. I remember watching "Evening at the Improv" late on Sunday nights when it used to be an A&E staple. Well, maybe not staple. More of a fastener with one busted prong.
I remember trying to make a homemade version of SCTV with some friends back in high school (freshman year). Ah, to be young and not understand that such things as life experience and learned knowledge can only help comedy as opposed to hurt it. While I was busy doing silly impressions or phony commercials for John Liebrand's video-camera or over-dubbing episodes of Mr. Rogers (complete with many an off-color joke about my German teacher Mr. Wagner), most kids were outside playing basketball and football or . . . um . . . playing football and basketball. Maybe some of those same kids tried to incorporate their love of the two by creating new games combining both. I wonder if they would have called it "basket-foot." Then again that was the nickname for this nearly blind girl that had the biggest mane of curly hair and a gimpy leg.
One of the funnier commercial parodies we did was a spoof of Oreo cookies called "Oleo cookies." Yup . . . it was exactly what you'd think it was: a cookie stuffed with margarine. My buddy Phil had the honors of eating it on camera while the remaining group of freaks and geeks watched on in giggling horror (more Uncle Floyd than SCTV, come to think about it). Another staple of our brand of young comedy (aside from grossing out friends) was appropriating, borrowing, or stealing jokes from comedians. The more obscure the comedian, the more likely you got away with it.
My favorite comedians were (and still are) Dana Gould and Jake Johannsen. I didn't dare take their jokes and/or observations partly out of respect and partly because I'd be found out quite easily. Not because the majority of my friends would know their bits and routines, but their material was so advanced it'd have been quite obvious the jokes were not mine. As I got older, I stopped stealing jokes and tried to think of my own for homemade comic books and comedy magazines (shout out to Urban Lunchmeat, the finest National Lampoon wannabe that never really came to be). My favorite article would have been "Death of Henry" asking the question that was on everyone's mind: whatever happened to the silent comic-strip star Henry. He just disappeared and my friends and I speculated with glee. The other was a satire of diet books which never saw print.
Okay . . . enough reminiscing. I finally got to see Dana Gould last week. Saw him at Helium, a comedy club, in Philly. He was just as sharp and hysterical as I remembered. He even spoke to me from on stage during his set since I had a seat at the very front and was just sitting down as he started. It was one of my greatest nights ever. Going with someone I think is the cat's pajamas didn't hurt either. That was one helluva red scarf, by the way. Do cats wear pajamas? I know monkeys do especially when their owners wear banana hued fedoras.
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