May 2012
5 posts
A note to the bar near my apartment advertising...
So wait, are there five?
It’s four, right? It’s gotta be four. Three? No, four, for sure. Four normal TVs that happen to be flat-screened, and one of something that’s not technically a TV, but serves a similar function. Like an iPhone, or a Photo Hunt machine. Or maybe one of the TVs is next to a really big mirror.
The point is that I don’t think you meant five. Because if you meant five, you...
April 2012
4 posts
March 2012
3 posts
The "truth" behind Adam Sandler, post-Oscars...
Here’s the piece I wrote and read last weekend at The Paper Machete, Chicago’s premier live magazine series. It’s about Adam Sandler, so get ready to discuss THE GREATEST ACTOR ON THE PLANET.
These days, Adam Sandler looks like he constructed a scarecrow version of himself, then stuffed that version full of really sweaty money. I’m not just talking about his general Jew-y...
February 2012
3 posts
January 2012
6 posts
HERE’S THE THING: Dane Cook gets really defensive...
Welcome to HERE’S THE THING, where I talk about comedy-related things in a very HERE’S THE THING-type way.
My friends and cohorts at The A.V. Club started a shitstorm on the Internet yesterday when they posted about Dane Cook’s horrible stand-up set that was, to borrow the words of Sean O’Neal, “…the egotistical ramblings of a narcissist who has lost all touch with humility and quite...
December 2011
6 posts
HERE'S THE THING: Advice for aspiring journalists,...
Welcome to HERE’S THE THING, where I talk about comedy-related things in a very HERE’S THE THING-type way.
Sometimes I get emails from people who ask me how to get involved in journalism. Sometimes those emails ask about producing comedy shows or even just simply being affiliated with The A.V. Club in any way. Sometimes those emails ask me to approve the Facebook friendship of a...
November 2011
6 posts
HERE'S THE THING: Can you really trust comedy...
Welcome to HERE’S THE THING, where I talk about comedy-related things in a very HERE’S THE THING-type way.
I got to see Norm Macdonald perform at the New York Comedy Festival last Saturday. I say “I got to see,” because the ticket was paid for by the wonderful Julie Seabaugh, a fellow comedy journo who’s launching a new stand-up review site in the near future. I...
When Amy Poehler first met Nick Offerman, he was...
I’m working on a profile of Amy Poehler for Variety, and during our conversation, she had this to say about the first time she met Nick Offerman, the man of many faces, in Chicago. He looked…very different:
“I remember meeting Nick Offerman in the early ’90s before I moved to New York. He was doing straight theater, A Clockwork Orange on stage [with Defiant Theatre]. He had...
October 2011
10 posts
3 tags
HERE'S THE THING: Something else is now called...
Welcome to HERE’S THE THING, where I talk about comedy-related things in a very HERE’S THE THING-type way.
Alec Baldwin has a new podcast on WNYC which he’s calling “Here’s The Thing,” even though a more fitting name would be, “Here’s The Five Minutes Of Set-Up For A 23-minute Thing.” I haven’t listened to the whole first episode, which includes...
3 tags
HERE'S THE THING: Lessons from Los Angeles about...
Welcome to HERE’S THE THING, where I talk about comedy-related things in a very HERE’S THE THING-type way.
I just returned from six days in Los Angeles, which was a trip I took for two reasons: 1) To visit my wonderful friend Dave Carp, who recently moved out there, and 2) to get some answers. Two years ago, I quit my job at The A.V. Club’s Chicago section so I could pursue freelancing...
I appeared on an episode of Wolf Den and spoke... →
Plus the episode title is, “Who Is Steve Heisler?” DEEP. Aren’t you curious?
"Jello Shot" would agree this was a sound... →
September 2011
16 posts
4 tags
