this reminds me of how i felt when seeing demetri martin do a set on leno ( i think it was leno?) for the first time, as a senior in high school, in 2002. and of the subsequent ravenous scanning of “premium blend” and “comedy central presents” to find new and exciting (to me) comedy by people like zach galifianakis, slovin & allen, todd barry, and morgan murphy herself (who’s written below).
2 years agoJordan Rubin wrote something funny on twitter this morning: “Deep coma” seems redundant. People don’t have light comas. “How you feeling?” “Meh. I think I’m coming down with a coma.” That reminded me of an old sketch from Chris Morris’ series “Jam,” about a condition called “Symptomless Coma.” Then I got to thinking about how much I loved his stuff when I first saw it.
When I was about 19 or 20 I got a region free DVD player and started going off the deep end with comedy from the UK (mostly). Some Japanesy & Australian stuff, too. My favorite comedy “discovery,” hands down, was Chris Morris. The Day Today, Brass Eye, Jam…it was my first insight into anything beyond mainstream American comedy: SNL in the 90’s, stand-up specials, In Living Color, etc. That’s what I watched because I didn’t know to LOOK for comedy (or music, or anything else). I knew to watch what was put in front of me. I appreciate everything I ever saw, I’m not discounting the influence of seeing Leno live for my 16th birthday, or watching an old Rosie O’Donnell special with my mom around 1995 and thinking that nothing could get funnier. That was my frame of reference. I wasn’t hip, I didn’t have older siblings or edgy friends who introduced me to anything “outside”…I grew up with my mom…she listened to talk radio and loved “Mama’s Family,” so that’s what I did. I think I’ve written about this before, but I distinctly remember lying about having seen Mr. Show years after it had ended. I was at Largo in LA, after I’d started doing stand-up but before I’d started doing stand-up THERE, and I’d hear time and time again that so-and-so had been on Mr. Show. I was insecure that I hadn’t seen it, so I’d say I had. I was too old to be doing that, but I’m too old to be doing most of what I do. At some point I got the Mr. Show DVDs and watched them all. I loved it. It was so good…but everyone else had known that for years. Chris Morris, Steve Coogan, Armando Ianucci….there was something adolescent about finding them. Something almost vinyl. You see folks digging through bins to find records, that’s what it felt like to find a show I’d never seen in the region-free section. I wasn’t buying stuff off the internet at that point, so I’d go to the store (usually Cinefile on Santa Monica Blvd.) and spend what money I had on anything imported…and yes, I’m very aware that I’m describing the year 2000 like its 1968. Who cares. The way some older friends (and characters in movies) describe listening to Zeppelin in their parents basement, that’s the only comparison I have to holing up in the room I lived in (a “studio” behind a guys house), watching DVD after DVD on a TV that sat next to a hot plate that sat next to a microwave, which when all turned on at once would short out the power and leave me fucked (and possibly forced to cook in the bathroom). I didn’t intend for this to get so groovy-nostalgic, but I don’t have much that makes me look back and smile this earnestly, so no apologies on my part. In any case, there’s that. No real purpose to this whole thing, other than I started writing, and this is where I stopped. (throw to clips)
