Posts tagged with comedy
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The Creators of NYC: CollegeHumor’s Vincent Peone
Josh Wool spent a decade as an executive chef, opening restaurants across the south. But all that changed in 2010, when the carpal tunnel in his hands meant he could no longer work. To keep from going stir crazy, he picked up a camera and found his next calling. Two years, thousands of portraits, and a move to New York later, Wool is documenting the people who inspire him on a daily basis. Welcome to Creators of NYC.
Vincent Peone
For the last seven years, director and cinematographer Vincent Peone has been making comedy shorts and feature films. He also works for CollegeHumor. I met with Vincent in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to talk about his work and experiences.
How’d you get involved with the CollegeHumor crew?
I was a student at the School of Visual Arts studying cinematography when my old sketch group, DutchWest, got recognized by CollegeHumor. We had been producing these shorts (some not so short) and putting them up on our website before YouTube became a thing. CollegeHumor was making the jump from strictly aggregated content to original content. They first hired Sam Reich to head up the department, and soon after, myself and my cohort, Josh Ruben, to shoot/direct the originals. Those roles have evolved slightly, but the biggest change has been that we have all developed a good amount of smile wrinkles.
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The Creators of NYC: Comedians The Dependable Felons
Josh Wool spent a decade as an executive chef, opening restaurants across the south. But all that changed in 2010, when the carpal tunnel in his hands meant he could no longer work. To keep from going stir crazy, he picked up a camera and found his next calling. Two years, thousands of portraits, and a move to New York later, Wool is documenting the people who inspire him on a daily basis. Welcome to Creators of NYC.
The Dependable Felons
Comedians James Chupka and Murf Meyers met sometime around 2009, in a rat-infested row home in Northern Philly (their words). Now part of comedy troupe The Dependable Felons, the duo are making their way into the New York comedy scene with a particular brand of psychedelic absurdity — and a new tour that takes them into people’s living rooms. We caught up with them in their Park Slope stomping grounds.
Your newest gig is a called the Whiskey Tango Living Room Tour, which actually takes you into the homes of New Yorkers. Why host a comedy show in people’s living rooms?
The Felons were inspired by our lower-middle-class upbringing, where friends and family would gather in each others homes every weekend to share spirits, jokes, and stories. Cheaper than any movie or concert that would pass through Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. With the Whiskey Tour, we want to make our shows more accessible.
Is it ever awkward being in the private homes of strangers?
Sometimes it takes a moment for both the performers and the audience to get used to the intimacy. But once everybody settles in, it becomes a funky experience. The weirdest thing we’ve dealt with was putting a host to bed. He clearly had too much to drink, so we escorted him to his bed and tucked him in. All in a night’s work.
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![Rob Delaney is a Political Beast
At this point, others have probably written as much about Twitter-star-slash-comedian Rob Delaney as he’s said about himself — in the 10,000-plus 140 character missives he’s tweeted. Many of followers have stuck around for the weird, often-NSFW humor, others for his deadpan celebrity-baiting. But over the past few months, Delaney has stumbled on his deepest goldmine yet: turning his troll-tweeting to politics — and one candidate in particular. He’s also picked a fight with Newsweek, inspired a political cartoon (above), and is self-releasing a $5 online-only comedy special — today. We caught up with Delaney as he prepares for a West Coast tour, and the DNC hits full swing.
So, Mitt Romney pretty much has a whole persona on your Twitter feed. How’d you decide Jar Jar Binks would be his favorite Star Wars character?
This is ad hominem, but Mitt Romney is an unlikeable brand that the GOP is trying to sell. Jar Jar Binks was George Lucas’s attempt to lure in younger viewers; a mercenary decision and it showed. Jar Jar Binks sucked. I feel he is a wonderful, accurate proxy for Mitt Romney, and the popularity of this tweet suggests the United States of America agrees with me.
You’ve talked about how Twitter has landed you gigs. But why release your special online too?
I’m very interested in the old-fashioned methods of comedy delivery. My favorite thing to do is stand-up … [But] Twitter functioned as a wormhole for me to blast into another galaxy. Twitter allowed me to sell tickets on the road in a sustainable way, so that I was able to make a living. But since I can’t be in Sydney and Amsterdam and Pittsburgh at the same time, I thought, “What the hell?” I might as well do this thing that Louis C.K. and Aziz Ansarihave done and self-release a special.
You’ve said you don’t like to let politics seep into your standup. Do you think that disappoints your online following?
What am I gonna talk about — a political party? A policy? A candidate? Those things are like the wind. They’re ephemeral, whereas the shame you feel about your own genitals… for some reason that endures a lifetime.
So you won’t be talking politics on your upcoming tour. But do you have any predictions for the DNC?
It’ll be more dynamic and interesting than the RNC. I’m not a Democrat, but the Republicans do one flavor and they do it well. I’d call that flavor EXPEN$IVE VANILLA, if you know what I mean. In 2012, Democrats are just more nuanced and multi-faceted than Republicans, so their “gala event” or “prom” or whatever — since conventions are just utter bullshit — will be more compelling television.
More compelling than Clint Eastwood?
If the RNC was a movie, it was Braveheart. Great movie, but a significant portion of the populace didn’t see it. Or if they did, they didn’t enjoy parts of [it] because they didn’t like seeing people’s faces literally bashed in with maces. The DNC will be more like Superman, where a much larger swath of Americans can watch and say, “Whoa, that was awesome.” It’ll just leave a better taste in viewers’ mouths. Or rather eyes, since people probably won’t be eating it.
Has either political camp ever reached out to you?
Yeah, in fact. Since I make fun of Mitt Romney so much, the Obama campaign did reach out. At first I came to their attention because of the fake Obama retweets I do, where I just have Obama saying silly things [like] wondering if a human and a dog could procreate. But then they gathered that I’m not a Romney fan, so they emailed asking if I’d want to formally help.
And?
I told them, “Let me tell you a few things about how I feel, then you tell me if you’d still like me to help.” I told them that I wanted Obama to be reelected as much as David Axelrod does, but I would never expound on the excellence of Obama as a person. I don’t ‘drink the Kool-Aid,’ as it were. Yes, I’d like Obama to win the second term, strictly because of his policies on healthcare and education, but I’m never gonna be like, “Barack Obama is the candidate who can…” Because I don’t really care about Barack Obama: he’s a crazy, megalomaniac politician. Anyone who wants to be president is bonkers.
So you’re not a fan of politicians.
I’m of the mind that anyone who self-identifies as a Republican or Democrat in the year 2012 is a crazy person. Those terms don’t mean anything anymore.
You were in the middle of a Tumblr feud between Newsweek and the Huffington Post last month — over abortion rights. What happened?
Let me put that together in my head again…oh yeah. I roasted Newsweek’s Tumblr — which is quite good — because they expressed shock at the Huffington Post for showing a coat hanger to suggest that’s what the GOP policies on abortion would lead to. Now, that’s fine to express that opinion, but it isn’t fine to do that when you just had Niall Ferguson write a cover article that is devoid of fact and poorly written. That is embarrassing for Newsweek’s record.
And so what happened?
I said, “It’s not so suggestive that the GOP platform would lead to more coat hanger [abortions],” which is, in fact, true. People are going to get abortions whether you want them to or not. And I don’t like Huffington Post! If someone sent me a link to a Huffington Post article, I wouldn’t even read it.
That’s pretty heavy. Where do you draw the line between your jokes and serious opinions?
The first thing I do is something that I don’t do, which is worry about it. I enjoy being funny, and I enjoy funny things, so my mind usually operates in that realm. But I trust people [to understand] when I turn on a dime from funny to serious.
Why use Tumblr as your official website?
I warmed up to it. There is an elegance to the way Tumblr works. You’ve got one ever-refreshing column of images, videos, links…it’s just a very clean way to get stuff. Facebook is a disaster; it’s like if you pulled together a bunch of garbage and tried to hold it together with yarn or old shoelaces. It’s contradictory, ever-changing, just nonsense, whereas Tumblr’s like, “Nope! Here it is. Like it or don’t.”
—Devon Maloney
(Mitt and Rob cartoon by Josh; Delaney portrait by Erin Gibson)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9jmy4MH0c1rrpm57o1_r2_1280.png)
Rob Delaney is a Political Beast
At this point, others have probably written as much about Twitter-star-slash-comedian Rob Delaney as he’s said about himself — in the 10,000-plus 140 character missives he’s tweeted. Many of followers have stuck around for the weird, often-NSFW humor, others for his deadpan celebrity-baiting. But over the past few months, Delaney has stumbled on his deepest goldmine yet: turning his troll-tweeting to politics — and one candidate in particular. He’s also picked a fight with Newsweek, inspired a political cartoon (above), and is self-releasing a $5 online-only comedy special — today. We caught up with Delaney as he prepares for a West Coast tour, and the DNC hits full swing.
So, Mitt Romney pretty much has a whole persona on your Twitter feed. How’d you decide Jar Jar Binks would be his favorite Star Wars character?
This is ad hominem, but Mitt Romney is an unlikeable brand that the GOP is trying to sell. Jar Jar Binks was George Lucas’s attempt to lure in younger viewers; a mercenary decision and it showed. Jar Jar Binks sucked. I feel he is a wonderful, accurate proxy for Mitt Romney, and the popularity of this tweet suggests the United States of America agrees with me.
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Connor Ratliff for President: He’s Old Enough!
Connor Ratliff, member of Upright Citizens Brigade improv team The Stepfathers, is running for President. What makes him qualified? In his words, “I’m 36 and that’s old enough to be President.” He’s been traversing the Isle of Manhattan to make his case, from a press conference in Battery Park to General Grant National Memorial (Grant’s Tomb), featured here in a video for 92nd Street Y’s Campaign for the American Conversation. His story serves as a reminder that we are living the Constitution every day, as the Founding Fathers intended. Drunk and hot.
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Amy Poehler Answers Tumblr’s Questions
You may recall that we solicited your questions for Amy Poehler, to be asked during a recent talk at the 92nd Street Y. We received almost 600 questions via comments, reblogs, asks, and emails. As you can imagine, Amy couldn’t answer them all — so we put together a dozen of the best, and they only had time to ask four, and here we have the best three questions of those. The successful Tumblr question-askers were kevinsweeney, talkdirtytotheanimals, and terminusundefined. Enjoy, and thanks for playing!
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![Aziz is Bored, But Not Boring
His hip-hop loving alter-ego has spawned a dog lookalike tumblr and at least one food blog. But Aziz Ansari, the man behind Tom Haverford on NBC’s Parks and Rec, has enough fans in his own right that even the president competes with him.
So, Obama recently bragged at a fundraiser that he’s got more Twitter followers than you. What was it like to get a shout-out from the president?
It was crazy. I still don’t think I’ve processed how crazy it was that I got to meet him. He was just very cool and relaxed and charming.
And are you guys still competing? For Twitter followers?
I think he’s got a little bit of an unfair advantage because he’s the president of the United States.
You recently released a standup special, Dangerously Delicious, exclusively online. How’d that come about?
I was deciding to record the special last year, and looking at how many views I had on Youtube versus how many DVDs I’d sold. And it was just very clear that people were listening to my stuff online. And then I was with Louis CK when he was editing his online special last year, and I was curious to see if that’d work — if he’d have the same reach without the traditional marketing behind it. But he put it out, and people really got behind it. And I just thought, since I was planning on releasing it online anyway, let’s just do it, and see how it goes. And people seem to be really into it.
Have you always used social media to get your work out?
I just found both [Tumblr and Twitter] to be interesting ways to share funny things that may not necessarily work in my standup or TV work. And with websites like YouTube or Funny or Die, you can make content and anybody can watch it anytime, instead of hoping someone can catch it on TV. So that definitely helps with access.
I was listening to you on NPR recently. What’s it like to have Terry Gross ask you about your “dateability”?
Those interviews are so fun, because it’s just like a long conversation. It’s NPR, so it’s funny, that juxtaposition of someone like me, this kind of goofball who does comedy about kind of vulgar things, talking on this very serious program. But it really works.
Are you anything like Tom Haverford in real life?
We’re both into nice suits and hip-hop and after that the similarities kinda end.
What about R. Kelly? You often come back to him in your standup. What do you love about him so much?
I talk about going to his concert, and it became one of the bits that got passed around. So then when I was doing the Dangerously Delicious tour, people would always shout out and ask for like an update about R Kelly, so I wrote a bit about what he’s been up to.
And what has he been up to?
I just talk about how he put out this video. He talks about how he put out this song called “Echo,” and a lot of people didn’t know what an echo was. So he made a video like defining the word echo. And then the way he defined it was just so weird that I just talk about what it would be like if there was like a whole R Kelly online video dictionary.
We’re building a video studio in the Tumblr closet, because it’s the only space we have. We’re going to make a series called “Trapped in the Tumblr closet.” Will you come perform R Kelly in the Tumblr closet?
We’ll have to see about that.
—Jessica Bennett
(Photo by Ruvan Wijesooriya)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4prbuIcNL1rrpm57o1_1280.jpg)
Aziz is Bored, But Not Boring
His hip-hop loving alter-ego has spawned a dog lookalike tumblr and at least one food blog. But Aziz Ansari, the man behind Tom Haverford on NBC’s Parks and Rec, has enough fans in his own right that even the president competes with him.
So, Obama recently bragged at a fundraiser that he’s got more Twitter followers than you. What was it like to get a shout-out from the president?
It was crazy. I still don’t think I’ve processed how crazy it was that I got to meet him. He was just very cool and relaxed and charming.
And are you guys still competing? For Twitter followers?
I think he’s got a little bit of an unfair advantage because he’s the president of the United States.
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