Posts Tagged Andy Kindler

Just for Laughs Video With Huge Stars-Montreal-30th Anniversary

Every July in Montreal, the city gets taken over by hundreds of thousands of comedy fans from all over the world, all wanting to see their favorite comedy stars. It’s the biggest comedy festival on the planet! (There may be bigger ones on other planets,but I’m not privy to that information! I no longer own the Hubble telescope!)

This year for the 30th anniversary I was an official videographer, and got to shoot around 40 interviews with some of the biggest stars in comedy as well as the up and comers! The huge stars of the future!

Chelsea Handler with Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV at the Just for Laughs Awards Luncheon where she won the award for “Comedy Person of the Year”!

Marc Maron of WTF fame with Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV. Marc credits Jeffrey’s hair with making him feel safe during the “dark” times in his life!

I shot for four days straight and got some amazing interviews with people like Chelsea Handler, Bob Saget, Howie Mandel, JB Smoove, Marc Maron, Adam Carolla, Triumph The Insult Comic Dog, and his Dad Robert Smigel, Todd Barry, Joel McHale, and the Sklar Brothers.

Wayne Brady with Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV backstage at the gala that Wayne hosted at JFL!

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog making nice to Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV after insulting him in every way he could think of! (But fortunately it was all in jest!)

Plus interviews with newer stars like Jay Pharaoh from SNL, who read an excerpt from Chris Rock’s intro to my new book “Make’Em Laugh”, in Chris Rock’s voice, Chelsea Peretti, Hannibal Buress who won for Rising Comedy Star of the Year, Myq Kaplan, Moshe Kasher, Jermaine Fowler and Lil Rel from the new In Living Color, Joe Mande, Grace Helbig from That Damn Channel’s “Daily Grace”, Kenny Hotz, the only Canadian to have two American TV shows on at the same time, “Kenny vs. Spenny”, and “Testees”, and Jessica Williams the newest correspondent on The Daily Show who let me swing her around like we were in the playground!

Jay Pharoah from SNL with Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV, who’s trying to learn how to hold his fingers like that!

Grace Helbig from My Damn Channel’s “Daily Grace” with Jeffrey Gurian from Comedy Matters TV at the Comedy Conference on You Tubers at JFL!

All of this on camera! Check it out right here!

And a second shorter video with just the A-list stars and hosts of the galas, Chelsea Handler, Bob Saget, Howie Mandel, JB Smoove, Marc Maron, Adam Carolla, Joel McHale, Marc Maron, and Triumph The Insult Comic Dog, with his Dad Robert Smigel!

And for a longer, more in-depth article and photos check out the previous post:

http://wp.me/p1pHIm-192

Posted in: Celeb Photos, Comedians In The News, Comedy Clubs, Comedy Events, Comedy Festivals, Comedy Matters, Comedy Videos, National Lampoon, Nightlife Events, Podcasts, Red Carpet Events, Sketch Comedy

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Just For Laughs Montreal- 30th Anniversary

I have been going up to the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival for more than 20 years. Maybe 25 years! It’s hard to imagine but it’s true. JFL is the biggest, most prestigious comedy festival in the world, and this year, thanks to Robbie Praw and “the powers that be”, I was given the honor of being one of the official videographers of the festival for my Comedy Matters TV channel.

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with Chelsea Handler at the JFL Awards Luncheon, who won for Comedy Person of the Year!

There was so much to see, so many shows, and so many comedians that it would literally be impossible to see all of them. Fortunately so many of the comics are friends that I was able to find them in the hotel lobby, at parties, in the elevator, on the streets, in the dining room, and just about everywhere you looked, and I got over 35 interviews with fun people like Bob Saget, Chelsea Handler, JB Smoove, Gina Yashere, Howie Mandel, Adam Carolla, Joel McHale, Jay Pharoah, Todd Barry, The Sklar Bothers, Marc Maron, Hannibal Buress, and even Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, and his owner Robert Smigel!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with Wayne Brady who hosted a gala at JFL’s 30th Anniversary in Montreal!

I got there on a Wednesday, unpacked, got my “All Access” pass for me and my producer Rob Krieg, and went right off to Patton Oswalt’s show at The Metropolis. Patton was there with his manager Dave Rath from Generate,and it was a great show. Patton has enjoyed a high profile lately after having spent nine years as a regular on The King of Queens, his Comedians of Comedy tour, and his part in films like ” A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas”, and Steve Carell’s “Seeking A Friend for the End of the World!”

He also presented the Comedy Icon Award to Robin Williams at the Comedy Central Comedy Awards 2012,and delivered the Keynote Address to the attendees of this festival, of which there were many! It was nice to see Myq Kaplan opening for Patton. I’ve been a fan of Myq’s ever since I was a judge on the NY part of the auditions for the Boston Comedy Festival, a couple of years back, and Myq won.

After congratulating Patton and Myq backstage we ran over to catch “Best of the Fest” hosted by Jessica Kirson, featuring Key and Peele, John Heffron and Joe Mande who I met on the set of Nick Kroll’s new show, simply called “Kroll Show” out in LA. Nick called me out to do some sketches with him and John Mulaney and it was the best!

I’m still editing the over four hours of video I shot, but I wanted to present some of the highlights of the festival in this column and then follow it up with the videos.

When I reminded Chelsea Handler that the first time I saw her I knew she’d be HUGE cause she was doing “b.j. jokes” and her Dad was in the audience she said,” I take every opportunity I can to torture my father!”

Chelsea Handler with Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV the first time they met back in 2005!

At the JFL Awards Luncheon, Chelsea received the award for Comedy Person of the Year that Louis CK received last year. Everyone was very excited to see her and people were amazed that I got my video interview. It’s all about timing.

I ran into her in the lobby the night before and told her I’d be looking forward to shooting something with her after the luncheon so she was prepared when she saw me. She even suggested we do it before the luncheon since it was less crazy than trying to do it afterwards. She was on her way to the Olympics in London and had gotten guest hosts for her TV show for the very first time. Needless to say she looked gorgeous, as usual, (and if it’s needless to say, then why did I say it? Because it’s my column and I can do anything I want! LOLOL)

Howie Mandel with Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV who assured Howie that next year he would definitely get lunch!

Howie Mandel was “upset” that he didn’t get lunch at the awards luncheon. He felt bad that he didn’t get anything at all. Just as I suggested getting in touch with co-founder, and President of JFL Andy Nulman to complain, who should happen to come along but Andy Nulman in the company of the other co-founder Gilbert Rozon, and they joined my interview telling Howie that next year they’d make sure he got lunch. It gave him something to look forward to.

I hadn’t seem Howie since 2007 when he helped me promote my first book “Filthy, Funny, and Totally Offensive” while we were up in Montreal!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with Howie Mandel at JFL in 2007, who was kind enough to help promote Jeffrey’s book “Filthy, Funny, and Totally Offensive!”

Andy Nulman and I also filmed a very funny video clip of us walking down the red carpet together to the Variety party for the Ten Comics To Watch, while he made my cameraguy/producer walk backwards to film us with no one guiding, or protecting him. Luckily he made it and it looked very funny!

I got to literally jump around with Jessica Williams from The Daily Show, who shared with me that she likes to play, and I taught her to spell it “pleigh” instead of “play.” I grabbed onto her and we just swung each other around, like a fast version of “Ring-A-Round-Of Rosie”! (I don’t think I ever wrote those words out before in my entire life!)

She just makes me feel like doing that when I see her so I did!

My old friend Marc Maron remembered that he never gave me the interview I wanted last year, but we did a great one this year to make up for it, and he even treated me to breakfast the next day! (No, … we didn’t spend the night together! LOL)

I found it interesting that he’d remember something like that, because I certainly did, but it just goes to show you that people do remember things, and if we were on WTF together that would probably be something we’d talk about. The awkwardness of wondering if someone remembers something like that. Every time we saw each other last year, I’d say,”Remember I wanna talk to you on camera”, and he’d say “Sure” but the whole festival went by and it didn’t happen.

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with Marc Maron at JFL in Montreal!

I happened to meet him in the elevator, and it was only the two of us, and it was that awkward moment where you don’t know if you should just say “Good seeing you” and walk away, or if you should continue walking with the person. So when we hit the dining room and were still talking he invited me to join him, and was kind enough to treat me.

We had a great talk about all kinds of things, and in the video interview he said that over the last 75 to 100 years in comedy, at every major comedy event, the only thing that was a constant was my hair! And in his deepest moments of despair he thought of my hair and it got him through!

I was glad I got to tell him how happy I was for him for all of his recent success with WTF. No one is honest like Marc Maron when it comes to sharing his feelings on stage. I still remember cringing at some of his revelations in “Scorching The Earth” his one man show about his break-up with his ex-wife.

I met his ex-wife many years ago through our mutual friend Ardie Fuqua, and it turns out that’s how Marc met her too!

Adam Carolla and I kicked it backstage after his podcast while David Alan Grier looked on with Rob Barnett from My Damn Channel, and Adam’s manager Mike August, who I also hadn’t seen in quite a while.

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV backstage with Adam Carolla after Adam’s podcast with Howie Mandel!

I know Mike back from the days when he was an agent, I think at William Morris, but maybe not! In those days, he always hung out with James Dixon, now of Dixon Talent who handles Jon Stewart, John Oliver and stars of that magnitude.

I did a fun interview with Grace Helbig one of the stars of My Damn Channel for her show “Daily Grace.” She gets millions of hits and she’s so fun and adorable. I wanted to swing her around too, but I didn’t get the chance!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with the oh-so-fun Grace Helbig from My Damn Channel, at the Comedy Conference at JFL in Montreal! Next time I have to swing her around too!

Walking through the lobby at night I ran into Keith Robinson and Chelsea Peretti and we had a really fun interview. Then I interviewed Joe Mande who was one of the “Ten Comics To Watch At All Times, No Matter What Else You’re Doing”, and such a bizarre thing happened. I had already interviewed Chelsea, who was sitting next to me and Joe Mande sat next to her, and all of a sudden some girl comes over, kneels down and starts talking into my mic saying how some company is poisoning children in Africa.

Now I thought she was joking and was a friend of Chelsea’s. Chelsea thought she might be a friend of mine, and Joe didn’t know what to think, but after a few minutes of this girl ranting and raving we all realized she was nuts! I couldn’t get rid of her.

I went over to interview Tom Cotter about his upcoming appearance on America’s Got Talent, and she broke in screaming about children being poisoned. I was ready to poison HER, but instead I got security and they wound up having to physically remove her from the premises.

Turns out she was not a comedy person and didn’t even belong there. It was just funny that we all thought she was a friend of someone else’s so no one wanted to insult her! Chelsea made me promise to send her the video which I will as soon as we’re done with the rest!

Joel McHale, who hosted the closing gala, couldn’t get over my outfit. He wanted to know why I chose to wear a wifebeater under an open Hawaiian shirt plus a seersucker jacket with white shoes! He was just being Joel McHale.

He introduced a comic on the show by the wrong name and refused to correct it right away. He must have gone through 5 or 6 takes each time purposely messing up the comic’s name. So when he called me Perez Hilton I wasn’t totally surprised! Look what he does to Ryan Seacrest and he’s his friend!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with JB Smoove in character as Leon Black from HBO’s hit Curb Your Enthusiasm!

JB Smoove was hysterical as always. He was there with his manager Rick Dorfman and his beautiful wife Shahida Omar a singer, who couldn’t have been nicer. When JB thought he was too tired to do the interview after his show, (which he did as Leon Black from Curb Your Enthusiasm), she encouraged him to do it cause I had been waiting so long. I couldn’t have done that, but SHE did!

JB told me all about how he got started as a hip-hop dancer named J Smoove, which is why he moves so well, but the guy is just funny. He doesn’t even have to say anything. And his new DVD is killer, “This Is How I Dooz It”!

One of the other highlights for me was Jay Pharoah who was there with his manager/sister Shayna. Jay read an excerpt from Chris Rock’s introduction from my new book “Make’Em Laugh”, that I wrote with Richie Tienken about the 35 year history of The Comic Strip. But not only did he read it, he read it out loud in Chris Rock’s voice for JB Smoove and a bunch of other people hanging out in the lobby. I got it on video and trust me you’ll laugh your ass off. He does a great Chris Rock!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with Jay Pharoah from SNL after Jay read Chris Rock’s intro in Chris Rock’s voice!

Robert Smigel woke Triumph The Insult Comic Dog out of a deep sleep in his backpack to do an interview with me backstage at Bob Saget’s “Triple X show”, which Bob said was more like ” Triple R”! It was really very kind of him despite the fact that Triumph roasted me, but that’s what he does. He’s an insult comic dog. He said I always looked hideous, but this time I really outdid myself.

A rare photo of Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with Triumph The Insult Comic Dog and his owner Robert Smigel! The rare part is getting Robert and Triumph in the same photo! They don’t always get along!

And Robert did a great imitation of Jeff Singer, who booked him onto Saget’s show by telling him how perfect he’d be for it.

I’d have to say one of my most special interviews was with Bob Saget himself. I wasn’t sure I was going to get it, cause Bob has been working tirelessly to prepare for hosting his gala, and even his publicist, my old friend Michael O’Brien told me he couldn’t guarantee it.

So when I went backstage after the show and Bob saw me, he asked if I minded waiting a few minutes. For Bob Saget I’d wait months! (LOL) He’s that nice a guy.

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with Bob Saget backstage in Montreal after Bob hosted the Triple X show for JFL! According to Bob, he just couldn’t say “No!”

During the interview he said the kind of things to me that my parents would have said had I been interviewing them! He said on camera that he had to do the interview because ” No one says ‘No’ to Jeff Gurian!” And he went on to basically interview me, even asking me for my cell phone number on camera! I gave him my e-mail cause I knew I could trust him not to tell anyone! (LOL)

He ended the interview by saying “Be well” which he said is what one Jew wishes another. I added,”the real expression is ‘You should live and be well!” which he agreed with because he said, “You’re right! What good is it to be well if you’re dead?” And that interview with Bob is one I really can’t wait to put up!

Other interviews I got were with The Sklar Brothers for their show Sklarboro Country, Hannibal Buress who won for Breakout Comedy Star of the Year, someone else who won for the star whose face broke out the most last year, the great Kenny Hotz, the only Canadian comedy star to have three shows on American TV,Kenny vs. Spenny, Testees, and Triumph of the Will, (which had nothing to do with Triumph The Insult Comic Dog!), Nigerian comic Gina Yashere on her way to do a comedy special in San Francisco, L’il Rel and Jermainne Fowler who are two of the cast in the new “In Living Color” coming up soon, Todd Barry, Moshe Kasher, Godfrey, Paul Telner, Myq Kaplan, Lynn Koplitz, Jared Logan, Joe Machi, Mick Foley, Calise Hawkins, Alonzo Bodden who hosted the JFL Awards Luncheon, Andy Kindler who gave his usual SRO “State of the Industry Address”, which everyone waits to see, and his manager Bruce Smith from Omnipop films, and then I did some non-comics like Kimberly Hannwacker, Julie Lawless the comedy booker, (not hooker!) from Australia, Ben Relles from Barely Political, and The Key of Awesome fame who’s now with You Tube and Google, Lee Aronsohn the co-creator of Two and a Half Men, and Rob Barnett the head of My Damn Channel.

Whew, … that was a looooooong sentence! And a lot of interviews. The editing should be done very soon, and you guys will be the first to know!

Let me leave you with a few more fun photos until the videos are ready!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with Todd Barry in the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel at JFL!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with Mick Foley holding Jeffrey’s new book “Make ‘Em Laugh”!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with L’il Rel from the new “In Living Color”!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with Alonzo Bodden who MC’ed the JFL Awards Luncheon and presented the awards to Chelsea Handler and Hannibal Buress!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with Nigerian comic Gina Yashere at JFL, Montreal!

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A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Party Machine’s "Yacht Party" In Brooklyn

This post may make me look like a moron, but hey, … so be it! (LOL)

A couple of weeks back at the request of Nick Kroll I went out to LA to shoot some “Oh, Hello” sketches with Nick and his partner John Mulaney from SNL for Nick’s upcoming show on Comedy Central, tentatively titled “The Nick Show Kroll.” The reason I say tentatively is cause that could change, according to Nick!

John Mulaney as George St. Geegland, Jeffrey Gurian, and Nick Kroll as Gil Faizon on the set of Nick’s new show in LA!

On the set, in my trailer was a copy of the script and where it listed the writers it said “Jessi Klein.” I had not seen Jessi Klein for probably several years since I was pitching a comedy news project up at Comedy Central,which was before I launched GNN (Gurian News Network), your source for “All The News That’s Fit To Dance To!” GNN was based on stories I used to write for the legendary Weekly World News.

I had my own column called ” Gurian’s World of the Bizarre” which featured hard to find stories missed by mainstream media, like “Rare Virus Sweeps Japan-Victims Too Weak To Bow”, and “Man Impaled On Spike Still Shows Up For Work On Time!” I also remember Jessi from the old Chicago City Limits theatre on 61st Street and 1st avenue, where I debuted my award-winning short film “I Am Woody” about a violent mob boss, ( is there any other kind?) who was obsessed with Woody Allen. I recall her being there when I did the Q&A.

But I hadn’t seen her for quite a while which I guess is because maybe she moved to LA and when you live in New York, and someone else lives across the country, you tend not to run into them. Except for Helen Hong. She moved to LA and I run into her wherever I go. As a matter of fact, I ran into her in my living room this morning! (LOL)

Jessi wasn’t on the Nick Kroll set. The only writer there was Joe Mande who’s also a stand-up, and who was actually voted “Best Comedian” by Time Out New York.

So anyway, when I got a FB invite to “The Yacht Party” from The Party Machine, out in Brooklyn at Union Hall, I saw three names inviting me, Jessi Klein, Arden Myrin, and Lisa Delarios.

Now I go to tons of events and parties, so I thought this was going to be a comedy party of some kind, which I admit did hit me as being a little bit strange, since most young comics I know are too busy performing to have parties,and they certainly don’t have yachts!

But I had heard from a comic named Tyler Fischer, who performs on my latenight show at The Comic Strip, that Union Hall was a good scene in Brooklyn for comedy, so I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to check it out! Here comes the part where I think I’m about to embarrass myself! (LOL)

I called my assistant Corinne Fisher, who is also a comic and sketch performer with her partner Krystina Hutchinson, (her COMEDY partner! LOL), and asked her if she wanted to come check out this comedy party with me in Brooklyn. I NEVER go to Brooklyn, and I don’t say that as a badge of honor or anything, it’s just the truth. It’s a long drive when there are so many comedy shows right here in Manhattan, but I figured, “What the heck, I’ll give it a shot!”

Corinne mentioned to her boyfriend Frank Hejl from the award-winning sketch group Onassis that we were going to this “Yacht Party” out in Brooklyn, but by the time he checked it out and told her it was a show and not a party, we were already there!

On the way, we hit a ton of traffic, but because I still thought it was a party, and that the party started at 7:30, I wasn’t stressing. Who wants to be the first one at a party? I figured we’d make an “entrance” about 8:15 and we’d still be cool. What kind of party is over in 45 minutes, right? It should just be getting good by that time.

When we walked in to Union Hall around 8:10, I saw lots of people playing what looked to be bocce, I think, but no party. I was so glad to finally get there that I didn’t even really hit me that people were playing bocce. I asked some guy who worked there if there was a comedy party going on, and I don’t think he really heard me over all the noise, but he directed me to the back and downstairs.

I had just seen Arden Myrin last week, performing in a Comedy Juice show at Gotham, but didn’t have a chance to say “Hi” cause I had to run and host a show at The Comic Strip. So I thought I’d look for her at the party, and tell her I liked the show.

And Lisa Delarios is one of my FB friends, so I thought I should show up and support! I thought maybe it was a comedy fundraiser or something.

I love her last name cause it’s like a combination of “hilarious” and “delirious” both of which are good states to attain! (LOL) But when I saw her, I didn’t recognize her the way she was dressed and told her that Lisa Delarios invited me, to which she said, “That’s ME!” Moron feeling #1.

Lisa Delarios seemingly perplexed by the size of my big pink pen!

So anyway, as you may have guessed by now,the party turned out to be a show, and by coming late, we missed at least the first half, if not more. The room was packed, and Corinne and I squeezed into a space along the wall in time to see Arden Myrin and Lisa Delarios dressed in “yachting attire” and looking very retro, introduce a comic named Ben Krongold to perform.

That’s when I realized I was not only NOT at a party, but I was at a very different kind of show. Kind of a “hipster” comedy show if there is such a thing, and I’m sure there is! Ben came out looking like a cross between maybe like a young Marc Maron, and a man who lives alone in the woods, and could possibly be a serial killer! As a matter of fact there is a You Tube video I came across starring Ben and Jena Friedman, in which Ben is actually playing a killer!

He was sporting a thick beard, (not as thick as Jason Mantzoukas who I also ran into on the Nick Kroll set, and tried to get him interested in my new invention, the battery-operated beard), and not as big as the one worn by Zach Galifianakis, (who I think is friends with all these people), but Ben still had a hearty growth of foliage, enough for a small bird to build a nest in.

Jeffrey Gurian, Jason Mantzoukas, and Jason Mantzoukas’ beard which will soon be seen in the new Sascha Baron Cohen flick, “The Dictator!” On the Nick Kroll set in LA!

Ben’s delivery was very unusual, and he thumbed through a small notebook to present the audience with facts, mostly involving “poop”, and then asked the audience questions, which ended in ” Why is that?’ a bit which which the audience loved. I particularly liked when he said, “I don’t like to call my step-dad my step-dad. I like to call him my “faux-pa”, which I thought was so clever cause I like that kind of silliness. Ben’s act made me think that traditional stand-up comedy, like we do at The Comic Strip, might not work in this part of Brooklyn.

It might seem too contrived to come out on stage as if you knew what you were going to say, and had your material at your fingertips. That didn’t allow for as much awkwardness as this audience seemed to demand. It was really very interesting. And I’m so glad I got to go.

I also really loved Sasheer Zamata, who I had never seen before but who had great stage presence, great characters, and something very special. Plus Adira Amram and The Experience, which were her back-up dancers Jessi and Maresa. Adira has a great voice and the music was bangin’ as were her two back-up hip-hop dancers, in their fun costumes. If you have some free time later, try saying Arden Myrin and Adira Amram ten times fast!

Now this could have been a party! Maresa, Arden Myrin, Lisa Delarios, Jessi and Adira Amram, down in front, at Union Hall in Brooklyn!

I heard I missed Bobby Tisdale, and some other funny comics, but I did get to meet producer Emily Kindler, who is related to my old pal Andy Kindler. I’m anxious to see more of her work!

Lewis Black, Jeffrey Gurian, and Andy Kindler in Montreal during the Just For Laughs Festival for Andy’s “State of the Industry” speech, circa 2001!

Lisa Delarios, who “one-upped” my big pen with a HUGE drink, Arden Myrin, and producer Emily Kindler at Union Hall for The Yacht Party! (LOL)

One of the most unusual aspects of the evening was the large amount of infants that attended the show. They all sat together which was fascinating to me. And when I went over at the end to ask one of them how they liked the show, it made a face at me. At first I thought the infant looked familiar to me, but then I realized you never see an infant that looks familiar to you!

One of the many infants that attended the “Yacht Party” show! She said her name was Adrienne before she made this face at me!

I would definitely come out to Brooklyn to see them all again, but next time I’ll get there on time as one should do for a show, and not a party! (LOL)

Read about my recent Nick Kroll and John Mulaney adventure in Comedy Matters right here:

http://wp.me/p1pHIm-Ou

P.S. Jessi Klein by the way, was not there! (LOL)

Posted in: Jeffrey Gurian News

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Mike DeStefano Left The Stage

The first time I ever remember seeing Mike DeStefano was at a small show at P.J. Landers club, Comedy Village. Maybe he was working out some new stuff, but I wasn’t that impressed. He just seemed angry and spoke about every topic I didn’t think was funny. I had a visceral reaction to his performance and it wasn’t good.

Then I started seeing him perform around town and thought he must have had a twin cause the guy I was seeing now was REALLY funny. By the time he got Last Comic Standing I had a feeling he might win. I had written about him several times in Comedy Matters, and I looked forward to seeing him perform whenever I could.

I know he was a favorite at The Comic Strip, and owner Richie Tienken really liked him and wanted to do something special with him, using the club as his base.

Now none of that can happen. It was so weird seeing the tape of him being judged by Greg Giraldo, and realizing that they’re both gone. They’re up there with Robert Schimmel, Rich Jeni, Bill Hicks, and Mitch Hedberg probably making spirits laugh and just goofing around.

Rest in Peace Mike. You will be missed!

Posted in: Comedians In The News

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