Me On Ferguson Last Night

Wow. This Review Almost Made Me Cry.

From DVD Talk: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/37828/state-the-complete-series-the/ The State: The Complete Series Paramount // Unrated // July 14, 2009 List Price: $79.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon] Review by Francis Rizzo III | posted July 8, 2009 | E-mail the Author | Start a Discussion

C O N T E N T V I D E O A U D I O E X T R A S R E P L A Y A D V I C E DVD Talk Collector Series E - M A I L this review to a friend P R I N T Printer Friendly In 10 Words or Less Probably the best thing MTV's ever aired Reviewer's Bias* Loves: Sketch comedy, The State Likes: MTV in the early '90s Dislikes: Music replacement Hates: MTV now The Show While MTV occasionally offers up something worth watching, seemingly by accident, there was a time when they were on a hardcore winning streak, and that was the mid '90s, when the channel rolled the dice and managed to craft a truly unique and entertaining line-up with original series like Unplugged, The Maxx and, of course, The State. Handing the keys of a nationwide sketch comedy show to a gaggle of kids just out of college, whose biggest accomplishment to that point was working on the much-forgotten, yet prescient crowdsourcing series You Wrote It, You Watch It, was an actual programming risk, unlike airing yet another Laguna Hills series. That risk paid off though, at least for those who watched it, as The State delivered three or so seasons of sketch genius that deserved a place alongside the true legends of the genre, mostly because they were from a new generation of comedy troupes who learned from the pioneers, but wanted to blaze their own trail, a group that included The Kids in the Hall and the Upright Citizens Brigade. Taking influences from Monty Python and adding a healthy helping of pop-culture flavor, The State bent the expectations for sketch comedy and yet managed to practice the art to near perfection, until an ill-advised move away from the comfort of MTV to the more corporate, less-nurturing CBS ended their show. From the moment the unusual theme song kicks in, with it's rough, loud "Boys and girls...action! Action!", you know this show is something different. Utilizing links to move from sketch to sketch, filming with a mix of multiple camera and single camera shoots and mixing longer sketches with quick bits, the show built a legitimate sense of momentum that helped the group's absurd sensibility create a show where anything truly could happen. In a single episode you could have a slapstick-style food fight, a commercial parody, a kabuki scene, talking, vengeful seamonkeys and the story of a relationship with a toothbrush. There's no such thing as the prototypical The State sketch, with only the recurring character sketches bearing any resemblance to each other (and even those are parodies of recurring characters.) All the credit obviously goes to the troupe, who wrote and performed everything, and the talent they brought to the show is obvious in the success so many of them have had in the years since the show left the air. Considering how organic the group's origins are, with them being college pals and improv group colleagues before getting the show, the variety of styles they bring to the table is surprising, with a bit of everything amongst the 10 guys, including the overwhelmingly funny Michael Ian Black, Thomas Lennon and Ken Marino, and an unbelievably versatile and hilarious lady in Kerri Kenney-Silver. Of course, with just one female member, drag is also a big part of their arsenal, with their technique coming in somewhere between Monty Python and the Kids in the Hall, as there's not a lot of an attempt to be feminine, but the women don't tend to be as grotesque as some of the females portrayed on the Flying Circus. Truthfully, unlike SNL or many other sketch shows, there's not a weak link in the bunch, with even the lesser-known stars, like Todd Holoubek and Kevin Allison, having their moments of brilliance and overall solid performances. With hundreds of sketches included, it's hard to pick out a handful to highlight, without leaving out a ton of great ones, so instead focusing on the genres makes sense. The recurring characters, which were mostly foisted upon the group by MTV, looking to build popular bits, actually ended up becoming popular, despite making fun of the idea of a sketch built around a catchphrase. Thus we get several segments with Louie (Marino), a guy whose sole attribute is a desire to dip his (golf) balls in various items, and announcing that desire, along with teen rebel Doug (Michael Showalter), who is unable to cope with understanding authority figures, and busts out his own exit catchphrase (which itself is parodied in a sketch.) It's amazing how many times it feels like they are trying to not make a legitimate sketch, only to create a memorable one, like "The Animal Song," a bizarre musical scene, or the Barry and Levon bits, which center around $240 worth of pudding. The show has aged surprisingly well, with bits that aren't hugely timely, though most of the MTV-focused segments, including an MTV Sports parody and several "Free Your Mind" commercials, may fall on the deaf ears and blind eyes of younger viewers. Making fun of talk shows, kids getting in trouble and sneakers that make piggy sounds when you step down on the heel are simply universal concepts, as is the extreme absurdism the show trades in. A commercial for cereal where everyone is at least mildly mentally retarded is an example of where this show is coming from, and that's just the first episode, as it just gets weirder from there, touching on monkey torture, dinnertime prayers for fratricide and Eastern European variety shows (the origin of the later Viva Variety series.) Having a line that's hard to cross, or no line at all, will go a long way toward helping you enjoy this series. The DVDs Just to start, according to The State's site, there were only three seasons on MTV, with the third being aired in two parts, but this set is broken up into four seasons. Considering the group was heavily involved with the discs, there's no reason to doubt this organization, but it is a bit weird. On the other hand, it made it easy to split the four seasons over four discs, with a fifth for more bonus material. The discs are held in a trio of black ThinPak cases, which are inside a loose-fitting slipcase that also holds a note from The State (explaining the music replacement (see The Quality for details,) and some promo inserts. The DVDs feature animated full-frame menus with options to play all the episodes, select shows, check out the bonus material and activate audio commentaries. There are no subtitles and no audio options, but closed captioning is available. The Quality The episodes were remastered for re-release (on iTunes first and then on DVD) and the results are clear on these full-frame transfers, especially when you compare them to other shows from the early '90s. There's an odd inconsistency to the footage though, with some scenes looking like they were shot last week, with a clean image that sports bright, appropriate color and a good level of detail, while others look like home video I shot with my old Sears shoulder-mouth camcorder, with that distinct dull, soft look that only VHS does justice to. It's not even like you can compare in-studio to location shoots, as they vary in quality no matter where they were shot. No matter what you're looking at though, there's no obvious damage or compression artifacts, though there's a bit of blurring that's distracting, as copyrights are upheld on posters and such throughout the series. The audio is presented in pretty standard Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks that do a fine job of recreating the early-'90s basic cable sound of the series, with clean dialogue and clear music, though there's nothing dynamic about the mix. Now, about that music replacement... When the show aired, they were free to use a wide range of music due to deals MTV had with the major labels. So there were a lot of well-known music tracks throughout the series. Those deals didn't extend to video, so most of the music had to be replaced ("The Power" by Snap somehow slid through.) It's frequent, but, as the updates were done with the cooperation of the troupe, the creator of the rocking theme, Craig Wedren of Shudder to Think, was brought in to do fill-in tracks, and he's done an excellent job of recreating the feel of the original songs. The most memorable example of music in the series is probably the iconic use of The Breeders' "Cannonball" in the classic "Pants" sketch, but it's imitated with some heavy bass use to good effect. It's not ideal, but as noted in the packaging, the cost of the music would have prevented the DVDs from being released, and some rights were simply not available to them. The only real down note is the removal of a link sketch where the cast sang part of a Pearl Jam song, but only the most hardcore fans will miss it or notice its absence. The Extras The main extra here is a massive one, as there's an audio commentary on all 24 episodes, with various combinations of the 11 cast members participating together in the room (with some on the phone.) There are times where they find themselves just watching, but for the most part they provide a good deal of background info about the sketching, including plenty of location notes, while there's a lot of joking around amongst these old friends. It's a treat to be able to watch the shows along with the cast, especially since they point out the majority of the music replacements, keeping you in the loop on what's changed. Each of the four season discs has a set of classic interviews from the days of the show (check out that MTV News mic flag and the young Staters!,) plus a set tour by Black, for a total of just over 26 minutes of footage. They talk about basic topics like how the group started, the characters they play and their catchphrases, and though the nostalgia is nice, perspective would have been better, though I guess the commentaries help cover that. Also spread across the four discs are over 17 minutes of outtakes, which can be viewed individually or all together. There's some funny bits in this pile of goof-ups and extended scenes, but you'll be sitting through a lot of material that most would consider just OK. You'll find even more unseen footage on the fifth disc, which has a collection of 43 unaired sketches and another six minutes of outtakes. The unaired sketches, of which there are a whopping 91 minutes of, come from across the show's several seasons, and are available with optional commentary by Allison, Holoubek, Joe Lo Truglio, Michael Patrick Jann, Marino, Showalter and David Wain. Several of these bits were better off excised, and the commentators freely admit that, but then there are sketches like the bizarre "Drag Dad," "Porno Sex Lover" and "Tar Baby" which are simply too good to have been unseen so long. For those interested in seeing how the show first looked, which isn't too far off from what made it to air, the pilot episode has been included, with optional commentary by the same crew from the unaired sketches. Some of these bits made it into the show, the classic "Hormones" sketch was reshot, and some just went away, making this a show most fans will want to look at. The same goes for some special appearances included on this disc, including an appearance on MTV's The Jon Stewart Show, a dirty little sketch from a 1996 Spring Break special, Shut Up & Laugh, Panama City (with bonus awkward hosting by Norm McDonald), an assortment of "Spring Break Safety Tips" and a poorly-produced '80s-style music video from an MTV Christmas Party. There's also over 12 minutes of promos for the series, which are a lot of fun, especially the first one, "Miserable Crap," which uses the show's bad early reviews, and a bunch of amusing "Next on The State" commercials, which work on numerous levels, as each cast member gets to do their bit, while the others goof around in the background. If there's anything I simply love the fifth disc for, it's the redux of the theme song that plays on the main menu. It's "Boys and Girls," done by boys and girls. Brilliant. The Bottom Line Incredibly, The State remains truly hilarious, even with the dual demons of timeliness and music copyrights working against it, thanks to a fantastically funny gang of creators working with a relative level of freedom. After years of hoping by fans, a complete collection of episodes has finally arrived, and it looks and sounds very nice (despite many changed music cues), while packing some impressive extras to boot. Though the music and blurs are frustrating, I can't think of anything else I could ask for in this set, aside from the CBS special, which is likely a rights issue (though aren't they all Viacom now?) As such, I feel I have to give this the highest rating possible, if only for finally fulfilling the wishes of so many. It's a fantastic walk down memory lane for longtime fans, and a chance for a new generation of fans to dip their balls in The State.

Fevered

Being sick is terrible. At the moment I am in Los Angeles, California where all things are terrible most of the time already. When you add illness on top of that, you have a whirling vortex of horribleness. My illness settled over me this morning like a thick, smelly dog. A thick, smelly dog that I don't know who wandered into my house from the woods covered in ticks, drooling, and possibly infected with rabies. At first I thought I was maybe dehydrated or just suffering from poker hangover, which is a made-up medical condition whose symptoms mostly just include guilt from spending seven hours sitting at a poker table with eight other degenerate gamblers. Around the time I told the cast of "Good Day LA" that I was masturbating during our interview, I started to realize that this slobbery dog was not going anywhere and that I might, in fact, be sick.

Illness for me is rare. I am almost never sick, which angers my wife to the point where she wishes terrible sickness upon me if only so I can be more sympathetic to her when she gets one of her forty-two annual colds. As it is, I basically tell her to buck up and shut up, which does not go over well when the person you say you love is suffering from a fever and has to watch two children while you go off to work playing make-believe.

On those occasions when I do fall under the weather, I am reluctant to tell her because I know it is a gleeful moment for her and I know that my job as a husband is to keep her from glee, lest she come to expect it all the time. But I did call because my desire to keep her gleeless was trumped by my desire for sympathy. You might think that she would be unwilling to give me sympathy because I am such a bastard to her when she is sick, but you would be wrong because by giving me the attention and sympathy I crave when I am the one who needs it, she is successfully one-upping me in our marriage's never-ending game of "I am a better person than you."

She told me I should stay in Los Angeles an extra day to rest if I am really sick, which is probably the most passive-aggressive thing she could have said. A better response would have been, "Get home so I can cuddle you and spoon you Campbell's chicken noodle soup." But no. She said she didn't want me getting other people on the plane sick. Fuck the other people on the plane. They're not the ones with a new show on Comedy Central. I am, and I need to get home!

These are my symptoms:

• Headache
• Chills
• Achiness
• Slight nausea
• Loss of appetite
• Lack of desire to appear on "Loveline" tonight with Dr. Drew.

The "Loveline" part is probably more a result of my illness than an actual symptom of it, but the thought of talking sexy talk for an hour when I am feeling like this leaves me feeling, at best, non-plussed. But I am a trouper, and I like that show and I think Dr. Drew tans very well, so I will give it the old college try. Besides he is a medical professional so maybe he can give me some of that intravenous anaesthetic that Michael Jackson had to take some of the edge off.

Low-level celebrities are dropping like flies. This does not portend well for me.

'The State' & 'Parker Lewis Can't Lose' DVD reviews - Sepinwall on TV

by Alan Sepinwall/The Star-Ledger

Thursday July 02, 2009, 6:10 AM

'90s comedies "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" & "The State" are both coming to DVD.

When you revisit something you loved when you were younger, there's always a danger it won't hold up under more mature eyes -- and that seeing it again could ruin fond memories. So it was with some trepidation that I cracked open a pair of new DVD releases of '90s comedies: "Parker Lewis Can't Lose," which I loved when I was in high school, and "The State," which I was obsessed with in college.

To my great relief, "The State" (which comes out on DVD on July 14) holds up remarkably well, give or take some legal issues. And while "Parker Lewis" (which came out earlier this week) hasn't aged as gracefully, it at least works as a time capsule of a certain era of comedy (and fashion).

"The State" boxed set, collecting the sketch comedy series that MTV aired from 1993-95, was, for years, the Loch Ness monster of TV-on-DVD: its existence oft-rumored, but never proved. At the time it aired, MTV had a deal with the major record labels to use their music on all of their shows, so "State" sketches were crammed with popular songs of the period. The problem was, that deal didn't apply to home video, so "The State" was stuck in legal limbo. (This is the same reason other shows like "The Wonder Years" and "China Beach" have never been released on DVD.)

Eventually, all the songs were stripped from the soundtrack and replaced by new instrumental scores, many of them designed to closely resemble the original. In "Pants," a sketch where Michael Ian Black realizes he needs to start wearing pants (as opposed to just underpants) so women will talk to him, the new track sounds remarkably like The Breeders' "Cannonball," which was such an integral part of the original sketch. (During one of many lively cast DVD commentaries, Ken Marino notes that the "Pants" music is different, and Thomas Lennon leaps down his throat to holler, "Well, kill it for everybody, why don't you, Grandpa?")

The replacement music is, unfortunately, never as good as a fit as what was once there, and it becomes awkward when the dialogue refers to the original tune. One of the series' more memorable recurring sketches featured Lennon and Black as Barry and Levon, '70s-style lounge lizards fond of sitting in giant mounds of pudding and dancing to Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" -- which becomes a problem when they talk about Marvin even as the soundtrack features a generic R&B track.

But even with the replacement soundtrack, much of "The State" set -- which features all 24 episodes the troupe made for MTV, plus an unaired pilot and a wealth of unaired sketches -- is wickedly, if bizarrely, funny.

Where MTV was often requesting recurring characters and a focus on pop culture spoofs, the cast's interest was in stranger areas. They would do recurring characters, but in odd ways, like a sketch where Barry, Levon, rebellious teen Doug (Michael Showalter) and catchphrase-repeating Louie (Marino) performed kabuki theater together. In one of the most durable "State" sketches, a marvel of deadpan timing combined with plot illogic, Black plays a suburbanite patiently trying to find out why his mailman (Kevin Allison) is delivering tacos instead of the mail. In another, a mustachioed, half-naked Lennon tries to solicit money for the U.S. Men's Bikini Thong Rollerblading Team, whose members perform classic plays of the '30s and '40s like "Our Town" and "Waiting for Lefty" clad in nothing but bikini thongs and inline skates; "For several reasons," he admits, "the US Men's Bikini Thong Rollerblading team is not sponsored by the Olympic Committee."

The tension between the troupe and the network is most obvious in "Porcupine Racetrack," an elaborate, largely joke-free mini-musical that Lennon introduces by explaining, "MTV asked us specifically not to do this skit." In the commentary, Robert Ben Garant says that, "MTV really didn't want us to do this one -- for obvious reasons."

But while the troupe fell apart after a brief, disastrous marriage with CBS (their one CBS special isn't on the DVD, alas), most of its members continue to work in movie and TV comedy, sometimes alone, sometimes together in projects like "Reno 911," "Wet Hot American Summer" and Comedy Central's upcoming "Michael and Michael Have Issues," which debuts the night after "The State" DVD is released.

With "Parker Lewis Can't Lose," a high school sitcom about a popular, conniving teenager (Corin Nemec), the alums still making an impact in the business are mostly behind the camera, and not always where you'd expect. Co-creator Clyde Phillips is one of the lead producers on Showtime's serial killer drama "Dexter," for instance, and directors Bryan Spicer and Rob Bowman later became institutions at "24" and "The X-Files," respectively.

It's not hard to see why. While the actual jokes on "Parker Lewis" feel fairly dated -- one episode, in a 30-second span, features punchlines about Vice President Quayle and the idea of Tom Petty as the biggest rock star in the world -- as do the wardrobes (Parker Lewis and Vanilla Ice apparently shopped at the same boutiques), the show's stylistic template still feels impressive, particularly compared to other comedies of the time.

Phillips and company were committed to giving the show the feeling of a live-action cartoon, with exaggerated sound effects and camera angles, and characters -- like Abraham Benrubi as gigantic bully Larry Kubiac, or Melanie Chartoff as wicked principal Grace Musso -- set a half-step away from reality. Later Fox comedies like "Malcolm in the Middle" owe a creative debt to "Parker Lewis."

"Parker Lewis" debuted in 1990, at the same time as NBC's "Ferris Bueller" remake, and while it was initially dismissed as a rip-off, it turned out to be the much better, and longer-lasting (it ran for three seasons), comedy. Where "Ferris Bueller" star Charlie Schlatter was so smug that he accentuated all of his character's most insufferable qualities, Nemec offered up the same kind of innate sweetness that Matthew Broderick brought to the original character in the big-screen "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

Watching "Parker Lewis" on DVD, I didn't exactly find myself wondering why I found it so funny nearly 20 years ago. It just felt like I had outgrown it. (If there was a way to digitally alter the fashions and remove all the period references, it wouldn't be hard to see these episodes doing well on the Disney Channel.)
Thankfully, I don't seem able to outgrow "The State." It's still blessedly silly and funny. And I suspect that those DVDs are going to get a lot of play in my house.

Alan Sepinwall may be reached at asepinwall@starledger.com, or at 1 Star-Ledger Plaza, Newark, N.J. 07102-1200. Include your full name and hometown.

Less Than Two Weeks To Go!

Less than two weeks to go until our mighty new show premieres. I feel like my wife did when we were expecting our first child: nauseous and craving mashed potatoes. After a year of working on this show, it's exciting to see the whole thing finally coming together.

In the next couple weeks, Sho and I will be doing as much press as we can to promote the show. He's going to be on Letterman, I'm going on Ferguson, we're both going on Fallon, and lots of other print and radio stuff. Doing press is sort of fun and sort of a chore. The tough part is answering the same questions over and over again. Already, there are certain questions I've grown sick of:

1. So what are your "issues?"
2. Where's David Wain?
3. Which Michael gets top billing?
4. Why is Showalter such a dick?

The thing I am most looking forward to about finishing is getting to be with my family again, who I feel like I have not seen in two months. I guess the reason I feel that way is that I pretty much haven't seen them in two months. Once we started shooting, the hours were so long that I could only get home on the weekends, which made for a fairly monastic existence.
As populous as it is, New York can also be a lonely town, particularly if you make no effort to see anybody or do anything - which is what I did. That's because work is so energy-intensive that I just didn't want to hang out when I was done for the day. Consequently, my only friends during those long days were my internet connection and Ambien.

Once the press is done, I'm going to take off the rest of the summer and just be with the woman I love. And also my wife.

Home Alone

Home for the weekend. Normally that's a good thing except my family is away until after the Fourth of July, which means I'm alone. Again, that's normally a good thing except that I've been alone a lot in New York working on the show, and so it would be nice to have human contact with people over whom I have dominion (my kids) and one over whom I claim dominion (my wife). Even the dog is at the kennel, so I am totally by myself. Tonight though I'm going to a birthday party for a friend who is turning forty. I remember when my mom turned forty somebody got her a penis cake. I was twelve at the time and very embarrassed, although not so embarrassed that I did not eat a slice. That single slice of cake is probably most responsible for why I turned out the way I did.

So we continue to edit our new TV show. All in all, I would say that it's going well. Comedy Central seems pleased with everything, except for one sketch that we have a big disagreement about. For a show like ours it's pretty good to only have one big disagreement. The way we've decided to resolve it is pistols at dawn, which seems a bit extreme to me but Showalter is very committed to the idea and I want to present a united front to the network.

So yeah, it's a slow weekend here at my Connecticut mansion. I gave the entire staff the weekend off, which was very generous of me especially considering the fact that I don't have a staff. But if I did, I totally would have given them the weekend off because that's the kind of rich guy I would be if I were rich.

I'm Finally the #1 Something!

This is from a blog called "TV or not TV." According to this, I am the #1 person who should be a lot more successful. I guess that's a compliment?

Why Aren't They More Famous...?

Last week I went to see a little movie called ‘The Hangover’ at my local multiplex and in spite of people still not being able to abide my law of the cinema (no talking after the second Pearl & Dean clip) I thoroughly enjoyed a very funny film that I would highly recommended to anyone (check last week’s blog for a more in depth review).

The main reason I went to see ‘The Hangover’ was its three male leads: Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms – three very funny men whose work I have always enjoyed immensely. ‘The Hangover’ should be the big break that these three previously shockingly overlooked comedy actors deserve and hopefully we will now get to see a great deal more from all three of them.

This got me to thinking though: which other actors/comedians are there out there who are criminally virtually unknown to the mainstream and deserve wider recognition for their comedy genius?

So here are five very funny men who, I think, if there’s any justice in the world, are due a ‘Hangover’-esque big break…

5. Jeff Garlin

Sure he co-stars in one of the best TV comedies out there but beyond his work on ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Jeff Garlin has been criminally ignored.

I’m willing to overlook his misjudgement in agreeing to dress like a giant carrot to appear in ‘Daddy Day Care’ because this man is a very funny stand-up comedian with great comic timing as an actor.

Garlin has directed two other brilliantly funny stand-up comedians in Denis Leary and Jon Stewart for their respective HBO Specials as well as directing several episodes of ‘Curb’ and writing/directing a feature film.

He has guest starred on a plethora of TV comedies but it is his work as Larry David’s put upon agent Jeff Greene in the award-winning ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ that is Garlin’s most recognised. Garlin also produces ‘Curb’ and his contribution to this ground-breaking show cannot be underestimated.

One of my favourite Garlin roles was that of host at the painfully funny ‘The Comedy Central Roast of Denis Leary’ (Lenny Clarke’s “fuck the Kennedys story still makes me laugh just thinking about it!) where he proved that he could handle hosting duties with suitable aplomb – I personally think he’d be a great choice for the OSCARS.

‘Curb’ has obviously opened doors for Jeff Garlin and even if it has just exposed a few more people to a very funny man then it has done its job – although many people will probably know his voice more than his face after his voice roll in the sublime ‘Wall*E’.

Jeff Garlin is a larger than life (literally) character and deserves to be so much more renowned than he is, he may not be getting any younger but if ‘Curb’ continues to enjoy success then there still could be time yet for Jeff Garlin to become one of the world’s biggest (literally) comedy stars.

Follow him on twitter - http://twitter.com/jgarlin


4. Kevin Nealon

As I have discussed in the past, American comedy institution ‘Saturday Night Live’ can either be a gift or a curse to its alumni – and unfortunately the very funny Kevin Nealon has been struck by the latter for many years.

Nealon debuted on ‘SNL’ in the 1987-88 season and remained with the show for nine seasons, during which time he became anchor on the show’s popular ‘Weekend Update’ segment.

In the years since ‘SNL’, Nealon has appeared in several films with his former ‘SNL’ co-star Adam Sandler, like Jeff Garlin he also made the ill-advised decision to appear in the lamentable ‘Daddy Day Care’.

Nealon is a very funny man, his background in stand-up obviously giving him a strong foundation for the jump to screen – he has great screen presence and comic timing, can make you laugh with a simple look and has an acerbic wit.

His appearances on one of the most unintentionally hilarious shows of recent years ‘Celebrity Poker Showdown’ were always a highlight as it gave him a chance to showcase his biting sarcasm, yet quite warm personality. Like many a fine comedy actor, Nealon was also excellent in his cameos on the genius ‘The Larry Sanders Show’.

Nealon has recently gone some way to ridding himself of the dreaded ‘SNL’ curse with his role on a show that I really need to get into properly – the very black comedy ‘Weeds’.

As Doug Wilson, the fun-loving city councilman with a penchant for smoking weed, Nealon is perfectly cast – even going as far as improvising a large amount of Doug’s dialogue.

‘Weeds’ is currently airing its fifth season in the States on the vastly improved Showtime network, in its previous four seasons it has garnered a number of award nominations and wins, but as yet Nealon has been overlooked.

If he continues to be one of the best things about the show though, then maybe he will finally get that recognition he so richly deserves.

Follow him on twitter - http://twitter.com/kevin_nealon

3. Jason Jones

When former ‘Daily Show’ lead correspondent Rob Corddry left the show he jokingly claimed the reason was that Jason Jones had raised the bar too high and that he wasn’t able to say the things to people that Jones does.

While many of his former ‘Daily Show’ peers, such as Corddry, have left and gone on to bigger things Jason Jones has remained on the show that made him.

Since we finally got ‘The Daily Show’ in the UK a few years back, Jones has consistently been my favourite ‘Daily Show’ correspondent – he recently had me in tears with his gag to New York Times executive editor Bill Keller.

During a report on how traditional newspapers are struggling against the internet, when Jones asked Keller to tell him a joke (I forget the context) Keller suggested Jones tell him one – has this guy never watched ‘The Daily Show’!? – to which Jones duly replied “What’s black and white and red all over?”

A classic right…? Quick as a cat Keller replied innocently “a newspaper” to which Jones beautifully responded “no, your balance sheets…”

‘The Daily Show’ special reports are designed to, in a similar vein to Sascha Baron Cohen’s comedy creations, expose people’s ignorance by making themselves sound stupid. Jason Jones just does it in the most hilarious fashion though, and he has quickly become Jon Stewart’s MVP.

Outside of ‘The Daily Show’ Jones’ work has been limited; he has appeared in the inexplicably popular US sitcom ‘How I Met Your Mother’, as well as several commercials.

Married to fellow ‘Daily Show’ star Samantha Bee, with whom he has two children, Jones is reportedly currently working on a sitcom with his wife in which he will star.

Given the success that other, less funny, ‘Daily Show’ alumni have gone to achieve it should only be a matter of time before Jason Jones goes on to achieve great things and although it will be sad to see him leave ‘The Daily Show’ I would be the first person in line to check out whatever he comes out with next.

2. Eric Christian Olsen

Eric Christian Olsen played the ill-fated George Mason’s son on season 2 of ‘24’, and as if that wasn’t cool enough; he’s also a very funny actor.

Olsen moved to tinsel town just before the turn of the Millennium and quickly found success and critical acclaim in TV drama such as ‘ER’. His first series role was on the short lived FOX dramedy ‘Get Real’ opposite Anne Hathaway.

Olsen soon found his forte though when he made the move into comedy and he has racked up supporting roles in a veritable smorgasbord of comedy films, invariably being the best thing in gash films, i.e. ‘The Hot Chick’, ‘Not Another Teen Movie’, ‘Beerfest’ and ‘License to Wed’.

Olsen also had the unenviable task of filling Jim Carrey’s shoes when he played Lloyd Christmas in the horribly ill-conceived ‘Dumb and Dumber’ prequel – Olsen was again the best thing in the film and actually came away from the film not only unscathed but with certain plaudits.

Eric Christian Olsen first came to my attention playing Jensen Ritchie on the short-lived second season of ‘Tru Calling’ and Olsen has continued to combine both supporting roles in drama and comedy on both the big and small screens.

After stealing the show in yet another supporting film role in the Zach Braff-starring ‘The Last Kiss’ – which boasted an excellent cast (Braff, Casey Affleck, Michael Weston), Olsen landed a series regular slot on yet another TV show that wouldn’t survive too long when he played Sully on ‘The Loop’ opposite ‘Reaper’ star Bret Harrison.

In his short career Olsen has proved himself to be a versatile actor but it is his aptitude for comedy that should eventually make him a massive star. He has the goofy, slacker friend shtick down to a fine art, but hopefully his drama work should prevent him becoming typecast, as he is capable of so much more.

Olsen’s gift for comedy has gained a cult following in the last year or so thanks to Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s website Funny or Die. There are a series of videos circulating starring Olsen as Perry Hilton – a borderline retarded male socialite unashamedly based on Paris Hilton.

The video of him annoying Jeremy Piven is great and there is also a spoof sex tape with Eva Longoria, but it is the video of Perry being caught drink driving that always has me in stitches and features the genius line: “I went over to Lindsay Lohan's barbecue. And by barbecue, I mean she heated me up a hot pocket and blew me."

Hopefully Perry Hilton could start the internet buzz that kick starts Olsen’s career and just remember: “life’s tasty”.

Follow him on twitter – https://twitter.com/ericcolsen



1. Michael Ian Black

Michael Ian Black is the proverbial ‘Jack of all trades’ – comedian, writer, actor and a damn good poker player.

His book ‘My Custom Van… And 50 Other Mind-Blowing Essays’ is a spectacularly funny read and has turned me into a huge fan of this very funny man.

Please follow the link below and start following him on twitter, he has some of the funniest, non-sequitar updates I’ve seen and the fact that he has amassed close to 700,000 followers speaks volumes.

He even instigated what he dubbed the “World’s first twitter war” with Levar Burton (the guy who played Kunta Kinte) to see who could get the most followers.

Black first came to real prominence in the States as a commentator on the ‘I Love the…’ series – we get Kate Thornton they get Michael Ian Black, how’s that fair!?

Along with members of his comedy group The State, Black performed on the shows ‘Viva Variety’ and ‘Stella’, he also had a supporting role in the dramedy ‘Ed’.

He has recently been seen on the awesome ‘Reaper’ as a gay (now dead) demon alongside another very talented comedy writer Ken Marino and his new Comedy Central show ‘Michael and Michael Have Issues’ with frequent collaborator Michael Showalter begins next month in the States.

Black co-wrote ‘Run, Fatboy Run’ with Simon Pegg – a man who has great taste in comedy – and he also wrote and directed, slightly less impressively, ‘Wedding Daze’, the spontaneous marriage comedy that starred “the pie-fucker” himself Jason Biggs.

As with Nealon and Garlin, Black also appeared on ‘Celebrity Poker Showdown’ and was consistently praised for his poker playing as well as being extremely entertaining at the table.

Black’s comedy is very pop-culture heavy and is the sort of thing that I personally eat up, he has proved with his screenwriting, his stand-up and his book that he is an exceptionally funny man and it’s about time that more people knew about him.

Follow him on twitter – http://twitter.com/michaelianblack

Editing

So now we're editing, which means we're putting together everything we shot into an actual TV show instead of just hours of footage of Showalter forgetting his lines. The way you edit is load everything onto super computers and then nocturnal people with big eyes use magic to make into it a movie.

So far, the editing is going well. We've got first cuts of all of the episodes, which is good considering we start airing in less than a month. Our goal is to have everything pretty much done by the end of June so that if time shrinks it'll still be ready for our July 15th premiere. (By "time shrinks," I meant the literal shrinkage of time-space, which is also one theoretical way you would travel at warp speed.)

I will say that I'm thrilled to be done with shooting. Shooting is hard work, and as I get older I realize more and more that I was not cut out for that sort of thing. Easy work, yes. Shooting Klondike commercials, for example. That's pretty easy work. Writing, acting, directing, and producing? Not as easy. So it's good to be onto the final phase of our show.

Increasingly the question in our minds is: will anybody watch? Fortunately I have little control over that, so it's not something I spend a lot of time worrying about. I would say I worry as much about how many people will watch as I do about the state of Jon and Kate's marriage, which is to say I worry about it, but not so much that it's affecting my appetite.

That's A Wrap

"That's a Wrap" is not only a terrific name for a pseudo health-conscious sandwich shop, it's also what we said last night around eleven o'clock to signify the end of shooting on "MMHI." The announcement was greeted with many hugs, tears, ass grabs, etc.

The end of a long shoot is always a time of mixed emotions. On one hand, one is happy to be finished with the long, long days and questionable catering. On the other hand, intense friendships are formed over the weeks, and we haven't had a chance to have terrible falling-outs yet, which is how I know a friendship has completed its cycle.

Our entire crew was magnificent, doing heroic work on a very tight budget. Each one of them is the film equivalent of a really hot stewardess on a discount air carrier.

The next step is editing. After that we put the shows on the air and then obsessively check the internet for every single random mention. The premiere is less than a month away. Sho and I are very excited and nervous. I'm also nauseous but that has more to do with eating my first "finger steaks" here in Montana than with anything having to do with the show.

Observation: any food that incorporates the word "finger" is probably not going to be the smartest choice, although Butterfingers taste pretty good.

A Very Quick Bonnaroo Wrap-Up

Although I am surely not the first person to call it “Bongaroo,” I was nonetheless pleased with myself when I thought of renaming the hippie-dippy Tennessee music festival from which I just returned. Michael Showalter and myself spent a scant few hours at Bonnaroo, but we had a great time during our brief stay and I definitely went apeshit on the free Butterfingers.

Butterfinger sponsored the comedy tent where we were performing, so there were lots of tiny individually wrapped candies in lieu of the fresh vegetables and dip that we usually have backstage. Is that a good thing? I guess it depends on your perspective, but I will say that Butterfingers taste surprisingly good dipped in Ranch dressing.

The shows themselves were good. Nick Kroll and Aziz Ansari performed with us, and during the first show the lovely Margaret Cho showed up and did a surprise set. So that was cool. Both Nick and Aziz were hysterical, especially one of them but I’m not going to say which one because it would definitely upset the other one. But ONE of them was amazing. AND good-looking. The only downside was that the shows were only scheduled for around an hour and fifteen minutes so Showalter and I didn’t have a lot of time to perform, since we were hosting the night and wanted to make sure everybody had time for their sets.

There is a common misconception that comedy and music go hand in hand. That’s usually not the case. Doing comedy at a music festival is actually very difficult since comedians do not compete well with musicians on any level. We’re not as cool, and we’re certainly not as loud. Last year, Sho and I went to the Sasquatch Festival in Oregon. The Mars Volta was playing while we were doing our show, the result of which was that our audience was able to see us, but hear the Mars Volta. Pretty sure that’s not a good combo.

Bonnaroo actually did a very good job of keeping the two things separate. There was a tiny bit of spillover from the music, but they had a great big air-conditioned tent for the comedians which worked well. If they invite us back, I’d love to go, although next time I’m hoping we can stay for more than a few hours. The reason we had to come and go so quickly is that we’re still in production on our TV show and there just wasn’t time to hang out and enjoy the amazing bands they had: Bruce Springsteen, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, Band of Horses. They also had Phish! You will note I separated Phish from the list of amazing acts. Actually, I’ve been making fun of Phish a lot but the truth is, I honestly don’t even know their music. My mockery is coming entirely from a place of ignorance based on their genre: jam band. I’ve never been fan of free form musical experimentation because I am not a fan of being bored.

Anyway, thanks Bongaroo for having us and thanks Butterfinger for providing hours of jokes based on your name.