Judd Apatow in NYC Plus News From James Mattern, Kerri Louise and Aaron Berg
Jeffrey Gurian is a writer and comedian in New York who loves to Jump Around. Follow his regular column right here, to find out what’s happening in comedy, and who Jeffrey Gurian ran into this week in and around New York. This week Jeffrey covered the scene at New York Comedy Club, Gotham, and more.
Judd Apatow Checks Out Comedy Juice
Comedy Juice announced a special guest as I was sitting there and who did it turn out to be but Judd Apatow. The audience went crazy. To me Judd is the undisputed king of Hollywood comedies, and he always has a great set with really funny real-life stories. He told a great story of how he first met Steve Martin when he was 13 and Steve was his idol. He and his brother were in the car with their parents I assume and drove by Steve Martin’s house in LA and he happened to be outside. Judd made whoever was driving stop the car and ran over to get Steve’s autograph, but Steve refused him. He said he didn’t want to encourage people to come to his house. Judd left dejected and when he got home to NY he sent Steve a letter telling him how mean he was. Six months later he got a book of jokes in the mail from Steve apologizing for his behavior, with a note that said, “ I didn’t know you were THE Judd Apatow!”
After his set Judd and I chatted outside the showroom, and he told me he was bringing his oldest daughter with him to Montreal as she’s a big Veep fan and Julia Louis-Dreyfus will be there with some of the cast of Veep. He also disclosed to me that he will be doing something cool with Nick Kroll and John Mulaney at which point I disclosed to him that I will as well. And what that will be will remain secret until next week’s column! Can’t wait? Me either!!! Judd gave me a blurb for the cover of my book “Laughing Legends”. I asked him if he likes Monty-Pythonesque type absurdist comedy and he said he did, so I gave him a copy of my other new book, Man Robs Bank With His Chin and we took the photo that appears below.
I’ll see him on the red carpet later this week when he receives this year’s “Generation Award” in Montreal, honoring him as one of the most important comedic minds of his generation. Judd is currently in New York producing Pete Holmes’ HBO series Crashing.
So many people will be in Montreal, it’s gonna be crazy. James Mattern who was hosting Juice this week will be there and he told me he’s hosting all 12 shows of Kevin Hart’s Laugh Out Loud series where he’ll be presenting new talent including Vladimir Caamano. James is one of the strongest hosts in the game, which is why he gets to do what he gets to do!
Ryan Ling’s monthly Bird Brain Comedy Show at the Ace Hotel was slammin’ this month hosted by Akaash Singh of the new Girl Code vs. Guy Code. He brought up Nimesh Patel to open the show who joked about having two brown comics in a row. Then I got to see Emily Lynne who had a great, and very edgy set, and who I did not know until then was Kate McKinnon’s younger sister. I was glad to see Damien Lemon who I had just seen hosting truTV’s Comedy Knockout. Sydnee Washington disclosed during her set that she’s coming up on her two year anniversary with her girlfriend, so guys needn’t bother! And Carly Aquilino closed the show with a strong set and told me she was headed up to Buffalo to do Helium, just finished taping a new TV show called Air Sex which I assume is like playing air guitar, but much more fun, and besides doing Girl Code, is now also doing Guy Code vs. Girl Code which plays the guys against the girls and also on her team is Nicole Byer, Jamie Lee, Annie Lederman, Tanisha Long, Awkwafina, who I love, and Nessa.
NYCC Roast Battle Gets Brutal
It was a particularly brutal and hilarious Roast Battle at New York Comedy Club this week, with Mike Merkovich thanking Melissa Diaz for leaving mints on his pillow, which made me laugh out loud, and Wendi Starling going in hard against Alex Engelbert, and vanquishing her with jokes about her lady parts, and drinking habits. The judges were Yassir Lester, Chrissie Mayr and Sean Donnelly. Sean told me afterwards that he too will be in Montreal doing his Dumb Friends podcast with his partner Dan St. Germain, who now lives in LA. So they do the podcast remotely with Dan in a studio in LA and Sean on Skype. Chrissie told me she’s in a WFMU radio contest in Jersey City called The Toxic Comedy Contest in which you tell jokes about pollution and vie for a $500 prize along with Danny Palmer, Usama Siddiquee, Ben DeMarco from Fat Baby, and Angela Cobb. Chrissie had done the Roast Battle before a couple of times, but it was her first time judging. Afterwards we all hung out at the bar and club owner Emilio Savone told me about their deal with SiriusXM to put on a couple of their shows, namely Jay Nog’s Paid or Pain, which I attended the next night, and Emma Willmann’s Check Spot which is already airing on Raw Dog Channel 99.
Derek Gaines Getting Ready to Record
I ran over to Gotham to catch Rachel Feinstein who was so busy greeting her fans, she just had time to yell out to me that she’s opening for Louis C.K. and performing at the Kevin Hart Gala in Montreal. Then I ran back to The Stand to see Derek Gaines, who told me he’s psyched about the new season of Joking Off that he’s on which starts in August. He’s in nine episodes and has been working on material for the taping of his first album, which currently has a secret title. He shared it with me and it’s good but I promised not to reveal it yet. He’s hoping to tape it at The Stand sometime at the end of September. And I’m hoping to be there for it!
Paid or Pain Has a Deal with SiriusXM
Paid or Pain had a new co-host this week. It was Jay Nog with Mehran Khaghani in a bright red sequined jacket, along with dominatrix Lady Zombie who let’s comics awarded with pain choose their punishment from her “deck of pain.” Drew Longo went up first and almost as soon as he started people in the audience yelled out for pain. And pain he got as he picked “Mummification” from the deck of pain and wound up taking off his shirt before being wrapped in cellophane which is how he left the stage. Not sure how he freed himself. Freddie G went up next and did great. He was awarded to be “Paid” but for some reason insisted on receiving pain anyway. Freddie is extremely pale with reddish orange hair and said that people often ask him if he’s a Black albino, which he said basically means he’s so white that people think he’s black. That is HILARIOUS! And Michelle Conrad also insisted on Pain even though she got Paid and received a nice whipping. Rene Polanco escaped without Pain for two reasons, he was funny and he convinced the audience that he looked like a little boy.
I spoke to Dice and he’s psyched about coming to New York next weekend, but unfortunately I will be away in Montreal. The Diceman will be holding it down at the Ford Amphitheater in Brooklyn on the Coney Island Boardwalk, so do me a favor and show up and tell him I send him my best, okay?
Tim Dillon’s new podcast Tim Dillon’s Going To Hell debuted strongly on iTunes. He said he defends evil all over the world and it’s very controversial, just like his Facebook posts.
Sherrod Small’s New Show About to Debut
On my way over to The Stand I ran into Sherrod Small who I hadn’t seen in much too long. He was happy to hear that he is in my new book Laughing Legends along with a cool photo of us from back in 2008. And I was happy to hear that his show Black and White begins on A&E this week. He said it’s about race, culture, getting along and just plain fun. I asked him how he picked his co-host Christian Finnegan and he told me they had been friends for like 15 years. They first did Best Week Ever together on VH1, and then did the sitcom together Are We There Yet? on TBS with Terry Crews. He said they had so much downtime on the set and that is where they came up with the idea for Black and White. We wish them lots of luck with the show.
Aaron Berg was sitting outside The Stand holding court, with Neko White and Lawrence DeLoach. He and Geno Bisconte credit me and this column for them getting their podcast In Hot Water on the Cumia network, and he brought it up again. He said that shortly after I wrote about the podcast, after having only done a few episodes, they got the call.
Guys We Fucked Take Live Route
I caught the last of four sold-out test shows for the live version of Guys We Fucked brought to you by my girls Corinne Fisher and Krystyna Hutchinson. It was a packed room at SubCulture on Bleecker Street, a very popular theater that used to go by another name where I’ve gone to see shows by Colin Quinn, Mike Birbiglia, and Des Bishop to name just a few. Having been a guest on the podcast GWF, I was wondering how they were going to bring it to life, and they did a magnificent job. It was a real mix of crazy things starting off with a male comic going full frontal and running through the audience. That takes balls! Literally. It was a very interactive show and their fans turned out in force. Fans were really into participating, even sharing personal sexts from their phones, and coming on stage for a variety of things that were very funny. Each of the girls also got to do a stand-up set as well. I’m purposely being vague so you’ll go out and see it when you get the opportunity. Next stop for them are two sold out shows in Montreal coming up this week at Just for Laughs, the biggest and most prestigious comedy fest in the world. I will be there as I have been for the last 25 years at least. After the show a lot of the audience hung out by the bar waiting for a very casual meet and greet with their anti-slut shaming heroes Corinne and Krystyna, and a couple of them even came over to say “Hi” to me having recognized me from their website.
Kerri Louise Has a Book Out
Kerri Louise, who also happens to be Tom Cotter’s wife wrote a book called Mean Mommy. She told me she wrote it “to give me another venue to show my creativity in this sad, no rules, no rhyme or reason comedy career of mine. It was a great way to stay home with the kids, keep my brain working, and keep me motivated to write.” When I asked her to go further she said that having kids really affected her career. It did not allow her to do any of the week-long road gigs anymore, and a lot of the bookers actually wrote her off. According to her, “they didn’t think I could be a mom and be funny at the same time.” So she wanted to prove them wrong. Some people do well in the face of adversity. She worked on the book for 10 years accumulating a lot of “No’s” along the way on the proposal. The success of her Mommy Minute vlog on YouTube inspired her to get back to the book, and now it’s a reality. She also fought dyslexia in writing the book which made it take even longer. And boy, do I relate to that. My ADD or ADHD really kicks my butt when doing such a detailed project like a book. She finally found a publisher and then it took another 8 months to bring it to fruition. To sum it up, the book is about her life with three kids, and how difficult it can be at times while juggling a comedy career and married to a husband who is also a comic.
Buy My Book!
The Comic Strip is seeing a resurgence with lots of young talent coming to hang out and perform and with the specialty shows that Richie Tienken is promoting like the Muslim shows and the Latino shows. Comics still line up to audition on Tuesday nights in front of the legend himself and Richie told me that last week he did something he had never done before. He passed three young comics all in a row, and they were so excited they could hardly contain themselves. It had been their dream to pass at The Strip. There will also be a big book signing event coming up with the tentative date of August 10th for my book Laughing Legends – How The Comic Strip Changed The Face of Comedy and more to come on that after Montreal, when all will be confirmed. But in the meantime hold that date! And PLEASE feel free to order the book on Amazon and leave a review! Especially if it’s positive!
And on that note, … I’m OUT!!!
Jeffrey Gurian is a comedian, writer and all around bon vivant in New York City. Subscribe to his YouTube channel, Comedy Matters TV. Photos below Jeffrey Gurian with Judd Apatow, Sherrod Small, Carly Aquilino, and finally with Corinne Fisher and Krystina Hutchinson.
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