Dom Irrera talks

If you don’t know who Dom Irrera, he’s sort of the Godfather of road comedians— stand up is a punishing trade, and comedians try to get away from it when they can. It’s also a […]

Phil Austin 1941-2015

Very sorry to hear we lost another comedy legend last week: Phil Austin, from the Firesign Theater— an incredible surrealist satire troupe, if you don’t know them; they’re really the American Monty Python. Austin was […]

Comedy break

While I’m embroiled in working on the new rock-and-funk book— which is in the wonderful snowballing-on-me-and-just-about-needing-a-total-reorganization phase— enjoy some classic turn-of-the-90s comedy: Get A Life, starring Chris Elliot. If you haven’t seen it, it is […]

Stan Freberg 1926-2015

A few clips by comedian, satirist, and ad man Stan Freberg, who died yesterday. His heyday was before my time, but we had several of his albums in my dad’s record collection, and I memorized […]

A waste of time

Here’s a good video in case you ever wonder “Am I wasting my time geeking out on this drumming nonsense? Does anyone really care if I get such-and-such particular little drum thing together?” The answer […]

For Casey

My girlfriend/partner Casey Scott is in Ashland, Oregon, acting and playing bass in Family Album, the new Stew Stewart play, as a part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and they’re starting their final week of […]

Tape for sale, cut up

Need to get rid of that horrible ring in yer snayer drum? Well, these guys are selling a product that may be said to be the answer: As the man said, that drum sounds awesome. […]

Melancholia

Sometimes it can be really hard to just do the the obvious unfinished work in front of you. A fairly unproductive week put me to mind of this famous engraving by the artist Albrecht Dürer, […]

Al Feldstein 1925-2014

A bigger cultural milestone than most people know has been passed today: Al Feldstein, the editor of Mad Magazine for many years, has passed away. From Huffington Post: Before “The Daily Show,” ”The Simpsons” or […]

Waterloo bullet

All right, people, we are going to be on really, truly, unconscionably light posting through most of the next week as I do my taxes, get it together for, and then go play the Ballard […]