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Moontower Festival
April 29, 2012
Moontower Saturday: The Amazing Johnathan and Marc Maron: Something old, something new(ish)
Marc Maron performs at “The Triple Play” show during the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Fest in Austin, Texas on Saturday, April 28, 2012. (Photo by Jack Plunkett)
My experience on the closing night of the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival was a study in contrasts. The twisted, vaudevillian comedy magic of The Amazing Johnathan led into standard standup fare capped off by the unique and highly personal revelations of comic and podcaster Marc Maron.
Johnathan, the longest-running comedy magic act in history, brought a scaled-down version of his Las Vegas revue to Cap City for two shows Saturday. I attended the early show, which was a scream. Highly scripted, even with a single audience volunteer alongside the comic for almost all the show (who barely had time to say much — Johnathan manipulated the poor guy masterfully) the set was maybe 10 minutes too long, but packed with bizarre signature bits.
The comic tortured his audience non-volunteer (one gets the impression Johnathan knows exactly how to pick the perfect foil from any crowd) for close to 45 minutes by stealing his money, pretending to slip him LSD, tricking him into telling a horribly racist joke and setting him up for a post-show, parking lot mugging.
Much of his act was crude and in decidedly poor taste. At one point, when the crowd appeared to turn on him, Johnathan shook a rattle at the audience and told them to “enjoy your car accidents.” There were plenty of dumb puns, too. Suddenly interrupting one of his routines by taking a long swig from a Windex bottle, the comic explained that he had a sudden urge to take off his close and run around the audience and the liquid was supposed to “prevent streaking.” Stupid, but funny.
The audience reaction was beyond enthusiastic. The comic had many in the crowd laughing so hard that they were sent into coughing fits. This even though he was moving a little slowly, possibly due to lingering effects from a severe car accident in February. You’ll notice I’ve been referring to The Amazing Johnathan as a comic and not a magician. I counted two actual magic tricks in his act and neither of them was all that good. But that was the point — comic magicians are funniest when they fail.
Maron’s set as the Scottish Rite Theatre closer of this year’s festival couldn’t have been more different from Johnathan’s. Following other biggish names including Andy Kindler (more hyper, verbose and manic, but not as humorous as the previous night on the same stage) and “24’s” Mary Lynn Rajskub (charming, but clearly still finding her standup voice), Maron commanded the crowd from the moment he appeared before it.
“I’ve been judging you from backstage,” he said. “I have deemed you to be a … decent audience. Not great, but good.”
Most of Maron’s set was performed by the comic sitting on a stool with his head down, and seemed truly extemporized. He talked a lot about his current relationship with a younger woman (Maron’s in his very late 40s) who was in the audience. He asked if anyone in the crowd had seen his appearance earlier in the day on Congress Avenue and then reenacted chasing the woman down the street begging her to come back.
It seemed dangerous. When Maron insisted that he would be paying later for something he would say during the show, you knew it was true.
He acknowledged the absurdities of being an older man dating a younger woman, recounting moments including picking up a remote control in a hotel room and asking his girlfriend if it was a phone. He joked about incompatible pop culture reference points.
The soul-bearing was very funny, if a little uncomfortable, and the crowd ate it up. Ironically, the only time Maron started to wear was when he began to rely on material he’d obviously performed before. It was still funny, but you could tell the comic wasn’t enjoying himself as much as when he was riffing off the cuff. He repeatedly began telling the crowd that he was tired of listening to himself.
The crowd obviously wasn’t. Maron’s honesty was thrilling.
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Moontower: Steven Wright and John Mulaney
The greatness of comedy past and future were present at the Moontower Festival Saturday night. The timeless Steven Wright kept a packed Paramount rolling with his slow-motion machine gun torrent of one-liners, while 29 year-old, baby-faced John Mulaney held a sold-out Parish in his hand with his narrative style comedy.
Watching Wright, one marvels at not only his clever wit but his ability to simply remember so many jokes. He does about 3 jokes a minute for an hour. We’re talking close to 200 jokes. And they all crush. His deadpan delivery has been aped for decades by a throng of pretenders to the throne, but Wright remains a unique talent.
I’m addicted to placebos, he joked. I’m thinking about quitting, but it wouldn’t make any difference. The brilliance of Wright comes not just in his delivery but his precision. Though some may seem flippant or simple, each one is carefully crafted and fine tuned. His word play is as silly as it is brilliant. His joke about getting an MRI to see if he has claustrophobia highlighted the virtue of his style: innocent, smart, playful and clean. He’s a legend of the comedy world.
And, standing in the Paramount lobby, I realized there is nothing more awesome than the sound of laughter pouring out of a crowded theater.
Over at the Parish, Mulaney, a writer for “Saturday Night Live,” played off his boyish looks, mixing stories about his childhood with some light crowd work and a healthy amount of local references.
The TV junkie told a story about almost being mistaken as a pervert and pedophile while touring Pflugerville High School with his girlfriend and comic Joe Mande as part of an epic “Friday Night Lights” set tour. Though he butchered the pronunciation of the word “baja” (it’s not bah-jah), the midwesterner killed with his tale of aggressive grackles at Torchy’s Tacos. He called the pests “cracked out ravens” and “‘Breaking Bad’ ravens.” He also said he saw a group wearing tales walking down Lamar Boulevard (obviously going to Eeyore’s birthday). His description of the quasi-hippies as the Predator if he let himself go, bought a hand-drum and decided to more fully explore his consciousness was priceless.
Mulaney, like his peer Seth Meyers is clean, smart and personable, and he uses his personality to win over the audience with fun stories about high school and childhood that reveal a joyfulness and innocence that is appealing and relatable.
His bit about being 3/4 gay due to being flowery and having hard opinions was self-effacing and charming. He saved his Bill Clinton anecdote for his final bit. A long story about his mother and father’s relationship with the former president featured a great “The Fugitive” deviation, a hilarious portrayal of his parents’ personalities and conflicting political opinions and revealed the comedian’s childhood love for the “smooth hillbilly” from Arkansas with the golden touch when it comes to ladies.
I have a feeling Mulaney will be returning to Austin again — despite the fact that the now-sober comic said his teatotaling meant he could only enjoy 10% of what our city had to offer — and I wouldn’t be surprised if the next time he is the one playing at the Paramount. Mulaney is great storyteller, a warm spirit and one of comedy’s rising stars.
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Review: Wanda Sykes at Moontower
Wanda Sykes performs at the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Fest Saturday night at the Paramount Theatre. Photo by Jenni Jones / for the AMERICAN-STATESMAN
The first Moontower Comedy and Oddity Fest ended on a defiant, well-received note with Wanda Sykes, a comedy headliner that is about as sure a bet as you can make in the world of stand-up.
While there were still tickets available at the last minute before the 10 p.m. Paramount Theatre show, you wouldn’t know it by the overpacked lobby and by how loud the audience was when it greeted Sykes when she finally appeared after unexpectedly sensational opener Keith Robinson.
Sykes was loose and a little scattered at times, but she made sure to open the show reminding the audience that the birth of the comedy festival is great not only for Austin but for the comedians it’s hosting.
“This is huge. For real,” she said of Moontower before slipping into an act that was as profane, barbed and explosive as fans of Sykes could expect.
She addressed everything from her exasperation with Occupy Wall Street (“It really is a downer for those of us who have money”) to her anger at the Republican party for allowing fringe characters to take over the political agenda this year.
Sykes likened the name “Mitt Romney” to an old-fashioned drink you’d see characters order on “Mad Men” and expressed her wish that President Barack Obama “would let that black man out” and verbally abuse those who try to bring him down.
(She gave a few examples that can’t be repeated here. You can imagine.)
Sykes, who in recent years has become (perhaps not completely by choice), a spokeswoman for gay rights, showed some of her ambivalence with that in a bit about her stomach roll (named “Esther”) and the decision not to eat at Chick-fil-A anymore. Esther the belly roll proclaims that unlike Sykes, she’s not gay.
sykes was as on-target with topical bits about the recent Secret Service prostitution scandal, but some of her political humor didn’t seem as sharp or surprising as what you might see every night on, say, “The Daily Show.”
The real surprise was how strong her material was about being a wife and mother of twin 3-year-olds. It turns out she’s as willing to cast an unsparing, cynical eye on her own family as she is on, say, Rick Santorum (whom, she says, doth protest too much about gay issues).
Her material about the tics of her son and daughter (he’s got a huge head that bobs like he’s listening to jazz; she calls Sykes “Mammy”) was tart and delivered with Sykes’s trademark exasperation and attitude (which, remarkably, never veers into cruelty, no matter how far she goes into misanthropy).
Not all the material was brand new if you’ve seen her on the talk show circuit talking about her French wife or about aging, for instance, but she’s as quick-witted when something unexpected happens as she’s strong with prepared material. When a large moth came near her on stage, she instantly struck a kung fu pose and joked that by the time the show was over, her blazer and pants were going to become hot pants and a t-shirt.
Sykes performed what felt like a greatest-hits set, a good mix of the personal, political and the universal (a chunk about the aroma of a part of the male anatomy, which she said helped turn her into a lesbian, got a huge reaction).
Opener Keith Robinson was so good, by the way, that Sykes referenced his bits several time in her own set. He made the crowd explode with the line, “Pedophiles don’t want to be called pedophiles anymore… they want to be called priests” and he reveled in being an increasingly idiosyncratic, creepy man in his 40s.
He schooled the front row on how dating shifts from your 20s to your 30s and matched Sykes in energy and prickly personality.
Organizers of the fest at the top of the show expressed plans to keep Moontower going for the next 10 years and said that 101 comics had performed in the fest’s 79 shows.
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Review: Theme Park at Moontower - a giddy pop-culture high
Theme Park is an improv show that’s been performed at high-profile comedy festival mixing on-the-fly monologues with long-form improv, all built from a single audience suggestion.
Perhaps audience members were there to see Newman or Oscar Nuñez of “The Office,” but what they got was a strong set of pop-culture bits inspired by everything from Jules Verne to “The Hunger Games” to the rat pack.
Performers Jessica Makinson (known for voice work on shows like “South Park” and “Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole) and San Francisco Sketchfest co-founders Janet Varney and Cole Stratton were all strong in a high-energy performance that started with the audience suggestion of “Mike Tyson.”
Newman went from that to her love of speech impediments, which eventually led to a story about twin sisters swapping out before a wedding, a man curious about the sex lives of mer-people, and battles between tributes in “The Hunger Games,” which was a recurring bit.
Some of the giddiest moments included a father running the Heinz ketchup empire who somehow also has sired Gregory Hines and Duncan Hines (but not Ciarán Hinds) and a bit that took place in the audience aisle involving horror movies, inspired by one of Newman’s monologues about her love of scary movies.
It was much more hit than miss, but the MVP for Theme Park may have been Stratton, who landed most of the funniest segues and buttons on improv segments and who showed off impressive imitations of Owen Wilson and Quentin Tarantino.
In a festival dominated by high-profile stand-up comedy, this was a good example of long-form improv that doesn’t take itself too seriously, executed by pros.
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April 28, 2012
Moontower: Friday night 'lights
Highlights, that is. And there were a lot of them, folks.
After watching a guy drive a four-inch nail into his noggin with a claw hammer, I headed over to the Mohawk to catch stand-up comic and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” favorite J.B. Smoove knock out a completely filthy outdoor set during which his microphone often played stunt double for a part of his anatomy. I won’t even hint what the mic cable represented — you really don’t want to know.
The slightly-less-raunchy portions of his set included riffs on how slow, automatic doors on todays minivans make it next-to-impossible to kidnap people. He also knocked out a hilarious riff on the fact that police officers carry all the equipment necessary for their jobs right on their belts. He imagined office workers and fast food workers having to carry computer monitors, scanners, staplers, chicken, fryers and secret herbs and spices around their waists, too.
The audience was in the palm of the fast-talking comic’s hand all night, and also enjoyed openers Chris Cubas and Bob Biggerstaff (the wildly unkempt Cubas, in particular, was hilarious).
I had to duck out early to drive over to the Scottish Rite Theatre to catch the 10:30 start of Dana Gould and Friends. Gould is a brilliant comedy writer and an engaging, affable performer. Looking like the love child of Greg Kinnear and Rick Moranis and dressed like a frumpy college professor, the bespectacled Gould started the evening with a very funny and day-going, conversational set, then acted as emcee, cracking wise between the other comics’ sets.
Calling Austin “a fantastic city surrounded by Texas,” Gould’s best bit and weirdest centered on John Lennon. Gould said he understood Yoko Ono’s appeal to the former Beatle.
“By the time he’d slept with 6 or 700 of the best looking women from each country, who’s left to have sex with? Lobsters and Yoko Ono,” Gould said. The bit then spun out into a bizarre stream-of-consciousness that ended with an impression of Lennon having sex with a Cicada bug who was only sleeping with him to get a gig as the Beatles’ clarinet player.
Gould had some more conventional stuff, too. At one point, he said that if his wife left him, he imagined he’d go to a bar and approach a woman. “Excuse me, I saw you siting there alone and I thought maybe you’d … have a list of chores for me to do.”
Maria Bamford took the stage next, doing her tripped out set that relies too much, in my opinion, on weird vocal tics — one highly reminiscent of the same annoyingly high-pitched whisper comic Jim Gaffigan uses. Bamford’s not my thing, but she got off some good lines, noting that chef Paula Deen’s recipes read like suicide notes and asking the crowd, hack comic-style, “Is anybody here aging?”
Apparently Bamford had performed the same set in previous Moontower gigs, which could be a problem for audience members who’d seen previous shows. Comedy doesn’t repeat well, but I haven’t found this to be as big a problem as it was at the comedy portion of SXSW, where I caught the exact same sets of some comics three times in the span of several nights.
Andy Kindler gave a free-form, loose set full of extrapolation and some genuine vitriol. “I’m tired of hearing about the Titanic,” he bemoaned. “If I want to revisit a tragedy, I’ll watch Jay Leno.”
The late-night host wasn’t the only target for Kindler’s pointed barbs. He also took down Jimmy Fallon and, finally, fellow comic Dane Cook, who Kindler said came out with his own font: Sans Comic.
Kindler did some local bits, noting that Austin highway Mopac was actually the Three Stooges’ Political Action Committee. “Why remake that movie?” he wondered. “What stone did the original stooges leave unturned?”
Writer and stand-up Chelsea Peretti tackled a number of subjects including Facebook, surfer laughs and eating bananas in public, the last topic ending in a hilarious and visual bit that can’t be recounted here but is not what you’re thinking it was.
Late addition Tom Rhodes, comedian, podcaster and Huffington Post writer, had the most fun with the Scottish Rite venue, suggesting that the audience freak out the Masons by all joining up after the show. He continued to refer to the audience as Masons throughout his set, which was the edgiest of the evening, touching on politics, racism, sexuality and gender identity. Dressed all in black with a gravelly, accusatory voice, joked about Austin and Whole Foods.
Calling the city “the ironic mustache capitol of the world,” Rhodes said that Whole Foods had to be the easiest store in the world to hold up. “You could rob it with a lit cigarette,” he cracked, pantomiming scaring employees away by thrusting one at them.
The comic launched a gentler attack on England. “The food is terrible there,” he said. “The Germans should have dropped cookbooks.”
John Ramsey, a local comic who took 2005’s “Funniest Person in Austin” title and often appears on television, closed out the night with a quick one-liner (“I think we should spell ‘efficient’ with one f) and an extended and crowd-pleasing rant about an embarrassing incident spurred by drinking the water in Africa.
Friday was hands-down my favorite night of the festival so far. Let’s see if tonight can top it.
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Moontower: Here's the 'oddity' part
Comic Scott Harvey works the crowd outside the Frost Bank Tower Friday during the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival. (Photo by Dale Roe/American-Statesman)
A handful of comics took to a stage Friday evening constructed on the ground floor terrace of the Frost Bank Tower at Fourth Street and Congress Avenue downtown as an unofficial part of the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival.
The comics, including Kerry Awn and Scott Harvey, joked about the area being a wind tunnel, which was a pretty apt description (while a handful of revelers lounged on inflatable bean bag-type seating, others lounged at tables with tablecloths anchored by rocks to keep them from blowing away).
The informal setting allowed the comics to joke with passersby, lending a much more improvisational air to their sets than I’ve seen in the more formal, indoor venues.
The biggest and most welcome surprise was this self-described sideshow freak, who performed on the sidewalk and finally brought some actual oddity to the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival by walking on glass, setting a mousetrap off on his tongue and, as seen in the video below, hammering a four-inch nail into his skull.
Take a look, if you dare:
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April 27, 2012
Moontower review: Seth Meyers
So that’s what Seth Meyers’ knees look like.
The actor and host of “Saturday Night Live’s” Weekend Update faux news segment commanded the Paramount Theatre stage Thursday sans Update’s anchor desk or the White House Correspondents Dinner’s podium (he performed at the 2011 event) to hide behind.
Not that Meyers needed to hide. The audience was clearly in love with the smart (and smart-alecky) comic who, slightly unshaven and dressed casually in jeans, Nikes, and a plaid shirt, delivered a one-hour set that was much looser than his televised set-up/punchline routine but just as expertly crafted.
He scored early points with his anticipated political commentary, especially the wisecracks aimed at Texas Governor (and former Republican Presidential candidate) Rick Perry. Calling the Governor a “not book-smart George Bush,” Meyers said that when Perry entered race, the GOP thought it was getting Bush 2.0. “Instead, they got Bush .5,” he joked. “If you liked Bush, but thought he was too cerebral, then Perry’s your man.”
Meyers told the packed house that he had lived in Amsterdam for two years, which prompted knowing laughter. “It’s not what you think it is,” he continued. “I lived in Amsterdam because weed is legal there. So, don’t jump to conclusions.” After a year in the country, Meyers said, you turn into Matthew McConaughey, quit your job and start a hackeysack factory. After two years, you become Owen Wilson. He performed spot-on impressions of both actors.
Meyers talked about sex, relationships and pornography, but in a much more cerebral and charming way than many Moontower comics are tackling the subjects.
While every 12-year-old boy wants to see pictures of naked women, the comic noted that it was much more difficult to do when he was a child, comparing the effort to a “Lord of the Rings”-style quest. And when he and his friends finally got hold of such a picture, they “celebrated like mission control at NASA, if mission control at NASA was afraid of waking up its parents.”
The biggest laughs of the night came during an extended, but unprintable bit about former U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner’s self-distributed genitalia photos.
Regarding his appearance roasting President Obama (and Donald Trump) at the Correspondent’s Dinner, Meyers noted that he was probably the one guy in America who reacted poorly to the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. Armed Forces (the raid happened during the annual event and was announced the following day).
Meyers was extremely happy with his performance at the dinner and couldn’t wait, because he imagined that it was all that everybody in the country would be talking about come Monday. He says he deals with the disappointment that bin Laden’s death knocked everything else out of the news cycle by rationalizing that the President staged the raid only because he knew that Meyers had bested him in front of the correspondents.
At the end of the show, Meyers traded on his “SNL” fame by asking the audience if it would like to hear some Weekend Update jokes that the NBC censors had nixed. When the crowd responded enthusiastically, he cracked that “the legal term for what you guys just gave me is ‘consent.’”
An audience member who then shouted “here, here!” prompted the comic’s only back-and-forth exchange with an audience member all night. Realizing that the shout emanated from the elevated box seats on either side of the stage — what he called ‘the opera seats‘ — Meyers began to laugh.
“Here, here!” he said back to the man in the audience, in his best haughty accent. “When you sit in those opera seats, you get fancy! You’re probably the first person in Texas to ever say ‘hear, hear!’”
Meyers’ only mis-timed moment came after the hilarious segment, when he thanked the crowd for its enthusiastic laughter, prompting a standing ovation when he still had one bit left to perform. The joke ended up being anticlimactic and there was no second standing ovation, but the performance, as a whole, should stand as a shining highlight of the Moontower Festival.
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Offerman, Rajskub, bacon bouquets, Meyers and more, day two at Moontower
The second night of the Moontower Comedy Festival featured some big names from TV (Megan Mullalley, Nick Offerman, Mary Lynn Rasjkub and Seth Meyers) and a massive group hangout at the Stephen F. Austin bar.
A few highlights:
Duncan Trussell and former Austinite Brendon Walsh hosted the Show House showcase at The Parish, and between bouts of intentionally awkward and blue banter, the fellas took a swipe at SXSW. Trussell, who had taken issue on Twitter earlier this year about SXSW not paying comedians, joked that it was good the massive March festival did not pay talent because once you get paid, you lose your creativity. The duo then mocked the homeless-as-a-wi-fi-hotspot gimmick featured during SXSW, and said that Moontower, by comparison, was using the homeless as ATMs. They then brought Austin comic Chris Cubas on stage, introducing him as a homeless person, and he proceeded to pull down his pants, his butt facing the crowd. Trussell and Walsh then took an ATM card and swiped it on Cubas’s backside. The crowd didn’t know what to do with themselves. As for Cubas, who I heard killed with a set Thursday night, I wonder how many people this weekend have mistaken him for Reggie Watts. I’ve heard the mistake made in person and on social media multiple times already.
Mary Lynn Rajskub made her fame as Chloe on “24,” and the charming actress had some fun with the confusion that must always go with portraying a popular character on a long-running show. No, she’s not a computer wizard, she admitted. In fact, during the heated scenes on “24” when she was banging away nervously on the computer, she says she was actually typing affirmations to herself. With a limber physicality, she did a few intentionally hokey bits playing men off of women, parodying talents with less imagination and self-awareness. While there is no denying that Rajskub is cute, she closed with a bit about wanting to be one of those truly sexy women, the kind who know they are sexy and not much else. She then veered hard with a segue from her physical comedy into a quick joke about breast feeding. She was really hitting her stride when her time ran out. Rajsub performs again this weekend at the ND as part of She Bang and at the Scotish Rite with Triple Play.
The audience may or may not have known Brody Stevens, but the comedian made sure people recognized his pedigree. Doing a familiar bit, Stevens mildly berated the audience with an extended self-effacing rant of his resume, delivered in a loud monotone. Did you know he was in a couple of scenes with Robert Downey Jr. (RDJ) in “Due Date”? Or that he has warmed up audiences for TV shows that his friends are on? He hikes in the same hills as Kathy Griffin. And, oh yea, he spent a lot of time with the New York Yankees of the late 90s when all they were doing was winning hardware, baby.
The extremely likable, smart and inoffensive Seth Meyers played to a packed Paramount. He described the positives and negatives that come with the transition from living alone to living with a woman, and he really came down to towels. The negative: He never knows which towels to use for which purpose. The positives: He now owns more than one towel and won’t die in the musty old rag of a towel his father bequeathed to him as he entered college. He brought some of his Weekend Update material to the stage, as well, reading from pieces of paper jokes that got spiked by the NBC censors. If the NBC censors spiked them, you can bet the Statesman won’t want me repeating them here. Meyers, with his broad grin, sharp wit and gentle touch seems like every parent’s dream son-in-law.
Michael Corcoran neatly summed up Nick Offerman’s performance, and his undying love for his adorable wife, Megan Mullally. I will only add by saying the man who created the persona of Ron Swanson pretty much shamed every man in the room with his mixture of manly bravado and vulnerability as it related to his staggering love for his wife. Offerman, no stranger to Austin, thanks to his work with director Bob Byington, gave the men in the audience 11 tips for living a purposeful life. Included: Engage in romantic love, eat red meat, get a hobby, avoid the mirror, go outside and stay there and use intoxicants.
But my favorite part of the Offerman experience came when I spotted him at the Stephen F. Austin bar, where he delivered to Mullally a bouquet of bacon that resembled red roses. Game, set, match, Offerman.
Speaking of the Stephen F. Austin, when I spoke with Paramount marketing director Stacey Fellers earlier this year, she said one of the things she loved about attending the Montreal Comedy Festival was the shared camaraderie between comics and fans. She hoped the same scene would repeat itself in Austin, and her wish came true. The scene at the Stephen F. Austin following the 10 p.m. shows last night was bursting with energy, as fans mixed with comics and comics with one another. Spotted in a brief period of time were Marc Maron, Chelsea Peretti, Bill Dwyer, Matt Bearden, Walsh, Rajskub, Trussell, Cubas, Meyers, Offerman, Mullally and many more. The party showed no signs of slowing when we ducked out around 1 a.m.
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Moontower review: Austin Wildcards
The drinks were flowing, cheap and potent. The comics were funny. The room was perfect for stand-up.
And the audience was non-existent.
Stand-up comedy is difficult enough to pull off in front of a packed, enthusiastic audience. When the number of people in the crowd (and I use that term loosely) minus the volunteer workers padding the seats is less than the number of performers, it must be tough. When it’s the second show of the night for the same roster of performers in front of a similarly teensy group, it’s got to be brutal.
Nevertheless, nine terrific stand-ups, including emcee Kerry Awn, squeezed decent laughs out of the handful of Moontower Comedy and oddity Festival-goers Thursday night at the 29th Street Ballroom’s Austin Wildcards showcase.
Awn, sizing up the audience, remarked that it seemed more like a prayer gathering than a crowd. The performers, including Maggie McDonald, Matt Willis, Ryan Cownie, Nick Mullen and Kerry Lendo, were probably backstage praying that more audience members would show up.
Cownie joked that he moved to Austin two years ago when he received a call informing him that Austin was planning a comedy festival and they wanted him to perform. He would do his act in a venue 45 miles away from the rest of the festival, he was told, and no audience would show up.
“Are you in?” he cracked.
The lack of audience wasn’t the comics’ fault. Similar local showcases have drawn much larger crowds at the Stateside Theater, presumably because of its proximity to the Paramount. It’s not the Ballroom’s fault, either — usually a host to bands, it turned out to be a great room for stand-up.
Still, Moontower organizers should seriously reconsider using the 29th Street ballroom as a festival venue in 2013. Even though it’s just 10 minutes or so north of downtown by car, it seems a lot father away and is, psychologically, miles and miles removed from the exciting throng of festival attendees crowding downtown streets.
While shows such as these will undoubtedly give the performers stories to tell — hopefully to much larger audiences — they don’t do much to build up the festival’s reputation, just now being formed.
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Jeffrey Ross: free show at Moontower tonight
The Moontower Comedy & Oddity Festival folks have opened up tonight’s show by Jeffrey Ross to everyone, as a thank you to Austin from the first-year fest, which organizers are already calling “off the hook.”
Ross, known as “Roastmaster General,” performs at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Paramount Theatre and plans to “roast Austin.”
From the fest: “as a humble ‘Thank You’ in appreciation for such an amazing local turnout and response to this inaugural festival, Moontower is now releasing all remaining tickets and making this a free show for badge holders and the general public.” No worries if you already bought a single ticket: Organizers are comping those, too.
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Videos from Moontower's comedy show Inside Joke
Check out the most recent videos from Inside Joke, an online comedy show featuring exclusive interviews, backstage material, sketches, updates, and reports from the Moontower Comedy Festival, according to their website.
Episode features exclusive interviews with comics Aziz Ansari, Hannibal Buress, Ian Karmel, and Moshe Kasher. Plus mini-golf with Austin comics, and John and Kerri deal with their new intern.
Episode of John and Kerri as they prepare for hosting duties and audition house bands. Plus, exclusive interviews with Austin comics Chris Cubas, Kath Barbadoro and Ramin Nazer.
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Nick Offerman inspires crowd and really loves his wife
The name on the marquee of the Paramount Thursday night said “Nick Offerman,” but the sold-out Moontower Comedy Fest crowd of 1,100 came to see Ron Swanson, the deadpan Libertatian Offerman plays so brilliantly on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation.”
That this was unmistakenly a show by Offerman was apparent when he wandered onstage shirtless and stubby-headed. “Minor nudity advertised. Minor nudity achieved,” he said, finally donning a red, white and blue workshirt.
But even more un-Swansonlike was the self-snicker that followed some of his offbeat quips and observations, such as how the best way to get away with selling meth as a teenager is to become a born-again Christian.
It also became quickly apparent that Offerman is not a natural standup comic because he kept talking about how much he loves his wife of 12 years, Emmy-winning actress Megan Mullally (“Will and Grace”), who opened the show with a short, yet appealing musical set of ancient ditties. Such expression of matrimonial bliss at a comedy fest is akin to a politician praising taxes, but it worked in the context of Offerman’s “10 Tips for Prosperity.”
In an hourlong set that could be described as Zach Galifianakis skinnydipping in Lake Wobegone, Offerman mixed coarse storytelling with oft-puerile songs about handkerchiefs, sex and the Internet (“I’ll Stay Offline” to the tune of Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line”). But what really resonated in this “American Ham” show was when the passionate woodworker talked about how limited our lives have become by addiction to Twitter and the like. He talked about how the energy has been sucked out of New York City by folks constantly looking at devices in their palms instead of glaring at each other. “Instead of playing ‘Draw Something,’ draw something!” he said. “Have something to show for your time.” Such sentiments gave the show a strangely inspirational air.
Like Louis C.K., Offerman gave funny commentary on how people have become soft and spoiled in the wormhole of social media. (Tip No. 6: “Go outside. Remain.”) Although LOL at times (sorry, Nick) Offerman lacks the indignant fire and cut-to-the-bone rhythm of top standups. Anytime an hourlong show is billed “An Evening With…” you know there’s going to be some lumber.
The concert ended on a delicious note, however, when Mullally and her band (featuring Austin’s Stephanie Hunt on gorgeous harmonies) joined Offerman onstage for a country parody number on evolution that showed Mullally to be a perfect possibility to play Tammy Wynette. Great voice. Then, they got everyone on their feet and singing along to “Little Sebastian,” from “Parks & Rec.”
No easy feat, it was a show that made up for an unorganized and potentially dangerous situation that had sweating fans, unable to move, in a jam-packed lobby for more than half an hour before being let into the theater.
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April 26, 2012
Aziz Ansari blows it out as first Moontower headliner
Aziz Ansari, performing Wednesday night at the Paramount Theatre. Photo by Rodolfo Gonzalez / American-Statesman
How does a new comedy festival go on when its opening-night headliner completely destroys all that’s been laid out in front of him and there are three more days to go?
Somehow, the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Fest will have to go on after “Parks & Recreation” actor and comedian Aziz Ansari delivered a commanding, confident set at the Paramount Theatre Wednesday night.
The first of two sold-out shows attracted a huge line around the theater, those with tickets and those with badges hoping for a chance to get in once the ticketholders were seated. (Yes, South by Southwest attendees, it’s the reverse of how these things usually work.)
Ansari, fresh off offering his self-produced “Dangerously Delicious” comedy special online for $5, seemed even more amped-up and in charge than he was in that year-old performance, which he referenced early on.
“That $5 goes to me. All of it goes to me,” Ansari said, “I can buy tacos or cigarettes for kids.”
Wearing a dashing blue suit, white tie and white carnation (or perhaps it was a rose), Ansari did about an hour of material including an encore and some stunningly effective crowd work. The highlight of the entire set, apart from his usual rhythmic, scientifically sound material, was an exchange with a pregnant woman in the front row and her husband.
Tying in to some material about engagements, the husband revealed that he proposed to his wife in a cabin in Fredericksburg instead of in Cabo San Lucas as he’d originally intended. That was all Ansari needed to launch into a hysterical recurring bit about a cabin in Fredericksburg. Soon, the word “Fredericksburg” itself, which Ansari was previously unfamiliar with, became its own punchline.
The 29-year-old comic brayed at the audience at times (on the bad decisions of people who get married too soon, he barked at the balcony, “You got bad seats — it proves you make bad decisions!”), but never lost control of the audience, even when he accidentally said it was Friday night or when he did a risky extended bit about child molestation.
He touched on the differences between online dating services like eHarmony and OKCupid, spoke about a holiday visit to India, revealed the best racial stereotype ever (it involved African-Americans and magic tricks), demystified why men engage in unwanted sexting and in the encore, spoke about his cousin Harris’s quest for free yogurt via Twitter and encounters with singer Seal and President Barack Obama.
Ansari has transitioned from a brilliant sketch comic with Human Giant to a funny TV actor on “Parks & Rec” to a formidable stand-up whose increasing skill has him on a trajectory to be, if he continues to hone his swagger and methodical delivery, his generation’s Chris Rock.
The Moontower performance was masterful and it was easy to see why so many were crowded outside waiting on the second show.
A group of young teenagers exited the theater and one kid, about 14 or 15, said repeatedly, out of breath, “That is… literally… the most I’ve ever laughed in my whole life.”
I’m 37, kid, and it was right up there for me, too.
Opening act Chelsea Peretti, who writes for “Parks & Recreation,” was also strong, with confident material that was well-received, whether she was making fun of her own off-putting personality at parties or comparing the defection of Hitler’s troops to people ripping off their wristbands at a bad music festival.
More: check out our photo gallery of the first night at the Moontower Fest.
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April 25, 2012
Moontower begins on an odd, unsettling note
Shayla Rivera performing at the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Fest’s “Divorce Show,” Wednesday night. Photo by Omar L. Gallaga / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
There’s a term you could use to describe comedians asked to perform a show about breakups and divorce at 6 p.m. on a Wednesday: cannon fodder.
“The Divorce Show,” the first performance of the first year of the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Fest at Stateside at the Paramount attracted a small, but lively crowd. Like an opening festival party going on down the street at the Stephen F’s Bar & Terrace, “Divorce Show” brought out a disproportionately loud audience even as it only filled about a quarter of the large theater.
Forget the time or the theme, they were ready to laugh. But the comics grouped together around the loose theme of heartbreak and divorce offered a tentative lineup. Host Barry Weintraub started strong, advising audience members to hold off on Tweeting and “Let people wonder what you did for an hour and a half,” but lost the crowd on bits about the celebrity divorces of Deion Sanders and Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt. Perhaps it was being forced to stick to a theme, but eventually, he began to acknowledge how hard a time he was having connecting with the crowd.
Shayla Rivera fared better with stories about her days as a rocket scientist (no, seriously; she studied engineering at Texas A&M) and her relationships with men, sprinkling the set with Spanglish and attitude.
But the show gained its footing with Steven Kent McFarlin, who said he was recently recovering from Bell’s Palsy (he’d just gotten rid of his eye patch). With his shaven head and handlebar mustache, he told the audience, “I wil give you just a moment to get used to looking at me.”
He did a mix of curveball relationship humor, a short joke with a harmonica (leading into a profane bit about an ex) and a series of one-liners from a therapy journal. He got the best response of the comics I saw.
Margaret Smith, unfortunately, lost that energy with a low-key set of observations and backed-away-from punchlines that belied the confidence she showed when she hit the mic with, “How about a hand for… that guy?”
Her wordplay and digs on marriage (“It should be, ‘Till my esteem grows and I upgrade do us part.’ “) were clever, but her act lost steam and she misfired a punchline near the end of her time.
The line for headliner Aziz Ansari began forming long before the last performer, Pat Dixon, went on stage at around 7:20 p.m. This seems like it’ll be a problem for the festival; those fest goers wanting to see smaller ensemble shows are going to have to decide whether to risk missing headlining acts when performances like “The Divorce Show” run long by sticking around.
When I left, it seemed like Dixon was making some headway with the audience, but overall, the “Divorce Show” felt like a sputtering end to something that might have been great, not the start of an intoxicating love affair.
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March 27, 2012
Sykes, Offerman, others added to Moontower fest
The Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival just added a lot more big names to its lineup.
The new acts coming to Austin are: Wanda Sykes, Nick Offerman, Laraine Newman, J.B. Smoove, The Dan Band, Ari Shaffir, Casey Ley, Big Jay Oakerson, the Walsh Brothers, Lynn Koplitz and Steve McFarlin.
They joing a lineup that includes more than 70 comics. Many of their single shows are going on sale March 29th, joining several others already available, including festival headliners. Badges are also on sale.
Here are the details:
Wanda Sykes at the Paramount April 28th: 10:00pm - Reserved seating for $47 - $64
Left, Right and Ridiculous at 29th Street Ballroom April 27th: 7:30pm / April 28th: 10:00pm - $15
Blue Moontower - Aka The Dirty Show — Triple X Rated at the Mohawk April 28th: 9:00pm - $15
Hannibal Buress at The Parish (late show added) April 25th: 10:00pm - $15
Comedy Close-Up at Beale Street Tavern April 25th: 10:15pm - $10
Show House at The Parish (three shows) Featuring Brendon Walsh, Eric Andre, Brody Stevens, Chris Trew and Brent Weinbach April 26th: 10:00pm - $15 Featuring Nikki Glaser, Maria Bamford, Moshe Kasher, Lucas Molandes and Brendon Walsh April 27th: 10:00pm - $17 Featuring Rachel Feinstein, Joe Mande, Chelsea Peretti, Brody Stevens and Brendon Walsh April 28th: 10:00pm - $17
Moontower Mash-Up at Scottish Rite Theatre Featuring Andy Kindler, Brody Stevens, Rachel Feinstein, Chelsea Peretti, Duncan Trussell, Bil Dwyer and Brent Weinbach. April 25th: 8:00pm - $17
Lunatic Fringe atStateside at the Paramount April 25th: 8:30pm - $25
The Dan Band at the Mohawk April 25th: 9:00pm - $25
Double Header at Beale Street Tavern Featuring Rachel Feinstein and Baron Vaughn April 26th: 8:00pm - $10 Featuring Erin Jackson and Sean Patton April 26th: 10:15pm - $10
JB Smoove at the Mohawk April 27th: 9:00pm - $17
Dana Gould & Friends at Scottish Rite Theatre April 26th & April 27th: 10:30pm - $17
Nick Offerman at the Paramount April 26th: 10:00pm - $36
“You Betcha I’m Somebody” Badge purchasers will have one/third of most venue’s seats reserved, with a few exceptions at the Parmount, Cap City and New Movement Theater. At $129, the badge gives you access to 11 venues, more than 70 comics, 60 shows and more than 100 performances, plus parties. Also, the badges get you downtown parking every night of the fest.
To purchase tickets for individual performances as well as “You Betcha” badges ($129) and “Hell Yeah I’m A VIP” badges ($799), go here. You can also get them at the Paramount Theatre box office or by calling 512-474-1221. The box office is open Monday - Saturday 12pm - 5:30pm and is closed on Sundays.
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March 8, 2012
Moontower update: Lineup tweaks, more single-show tix on sale
More funny for your money.
The folks behind the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Fest announced a few new performers today, including Bil Dwyer, Dana Gould and Marc Maron.
They’ve also put more single-show tickets on sale. Options include showcases with Maria Bamford, Matt Bearden, Moshe Kasher, Oscar Nunez and Mary Lynn Rajskub.
And they’ve made a few tweaks to the schedule.
The fest runs April 25-28 at venues around town. Four-day passes start at $129 and go all the way up to $799 if you’d like the VIP treatment.
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February 20, 2012
Individual tickets, dates and times for Moontower headliners announced
Tickets for the three Moontower Comedy Festival headliners go on sale Thursday at 10 a.m.
Tickets start at $38 for Aziz Ansari’s two shows at the Paramount Theatre on Wednesday, April 25. Seth Meyers performs at 7:30 the following evening, with tickets going for $40. Steven Wright will perform Saturday, April 28, at 7:30 p.m. at the Paramount, with tickets going for $41.
New additions to the Moontower lineup include “Parks & Recreation” writer and master of the Twitters, Chelsea Peretti. She will perform Thursday, April 26th at 7:45 p.m. at The Parish, with tickets going for $15.
For more information about individual ticket sales, passes and VIP badges, visit MoontowerComedyFestival.com.
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February 13, 2012
Andy Kindler coming to Moontower
The Moontower Comedy and Oddities Festival today announced the addition of several comics to the lineup. Self-deprecating Andy Kindler leads the list that includes “Saturday Night Live” writer and scribe behind the brilliant character Stefon, John Mulaney, W. Kamau Bell, Tom Rhodes, Holly Lorka, and Jonathan Pace .
Twitter feeds for: Kindler | Mulaney | Bell | Rhodes | Pace.
The Moontower Comedy and Oddities Festival takes place at about a dozen venues in town, including the Paramount and State theaters, on April 25-28. For more information about the festival, visit MoontowerComedyFestival.com.
- Previous coverage: New festival aims to cement Austin’s comedic standing
Picture of Kindler taken from NBC press day for “Last Comic Standing” in 2010.
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