B.J. Novak in the flesh (and cake)
I made an apple coffee cake last night, and it is delicious. I love baking... I wish I did it more than once in a blue moon! This time it was more than justified because we have a 1/2-bushel of apples from taking my roommate's New York friends apple-picking last weekend. This recipe only ended up using two, though! (One more would have been nice, as it turns out.)
***
So what I really wanted to post about is the fact that B.J. Novak (Ryan from The Office; also one of their main writers) came to my school and did a stand-up show last weekend, and my roommates and I got tickets.
I wasn't sure what to expect because I haven't seen a lot of live comedy (well, plenty of improv, but not stand-up) and the bits I've seen on Comedy Central I generally don't find that funny. But since I know B.J. can write funny dialogue it seemed like a good shot he could be funny on stage.
There was a warm-up act, an undergrad, which in itself was impressive. His delivery was, as you'd expect, unpolished, but he had a few very funny bits. Imagine being 20 years old and getting to open for a professional comedy writer in front of an audience of two thousand! B.J. was really nice to him, too, and complimented him at several points during his own act.
Then B.J. came on and I could tell right away it was going to be good. He bowed to the inevitable and led with a "that's what she said" joke. But then he went into a string of very amusing bits. He said that he had been reading about Ben Franklin lately, and joked that the discovery of electricity was impressive in more ways than one: "Have you ever tried to fly a kite under ideal conditions?" He also pointed out how lucky it was for Franklin that he did discover electricity, imagining the conversation with the other founding fathers if he hadn't: "So, Ben, Adams saw you out the window last night... Oh, looking for a 'magical force of power,' were you? Yeah... did you find it?" (I checked when I got home to see if B.J. wrote the Ben Franklin episode of The Office, but it was Mindy Kaling.)
He actually placed a call to Mindy Kaling (aka Kelly Kapoor) from the stage, which was cute. He put her on speakerphone and asked everybody to tell her how much they liked the Wedding Episode, which she wrote. I haven't seen it yet, but of course I applauded with everyone else. Sadly, he'd lost the call and she didn't hear the cheer! But they bantered for a bit. She seems to have a Kelly-ish sense of humor in real life, because she asked him if there were any cute guys there, and he responded coyly: "There's one on stage." (2:20)
I'll give you just my favorite few bits from the rest of the show. He led one riff with: "I think it's adorable that dinosaurs are what God created when he was little." Hee! According to B.J., God made dinosaurs, but when he got a bit older he was embarrassed and threw them away because he wanted to be treated like a grown up. There was also a very funny, inappropriate bit about panda sex. B.J. remarked on how odd it is that panda numbers are decreasing because they won't mate - which means that pandas don't think pandas are cute. "If I were a panda, I would f* the s* out of pandas, just for the cuddling afterwards!" He also did a bit where he "tested new material," reading quick jokes off index cards and throwing them in a trash barrel if they didn't get a big enough laugh. My favorite, also very inappropriate: "Battered women. Sounds delicious. Doesn't make it right."
He was great at interacting with the crowd too, responding to things people shouted out and referencing back to them. (Though he gracefully ignored the drunk idiot who kept yelling "Where's Jim?") All in all a very fun evening out, well worth the $10 ticket.
***
So what I really wanted to post about is the fact that B.J. Novak (Ryan from The Office; also one of their main writers) came to my school and did a stand-up show last weekend, and my roommates and I got tickets.
I wasn't sure what to expect because I haven't seen a lot of live comedy (well, plenty of improv, but not stand-up) and the bits I've seen on Comedy Central I generally don't find that funny. But since I know B.J. can write funny dialogue it seemed like a good shot he could be funny on stage.
There was a warm-up act, an undergrad, which in itself was impressive. His delivery was, as you'd expect, unpolished, but he had a few very funny bits. Imagine being 20 years old and getting to open for a professional comedy writer in front of an audience of two thousand! B.J. was really nice to him, too, and complimented him at several points during his own act.
Then B.J. came on and I could tell right away it was going to be good. He bowed to the inevitable and led with a "that's what she said" joke. But then he went into a string of very amusing bits. He said that he had been reading about Ben Franklin lately, and joked that the discovery of electricity was impressive in more ways than one: "Have you ever tried to fly a kite under ideal conditions?" He also pointed out how lucky it was for Franklin that he did discover electricity, imagining the conversation with the other founding fathers if he hadn't: "So, Ben, Adams saw you out the window last night... Oh, looking for a 'magical force of power,' were you? Yeah... did you find it?" (I checked when I got home to see if B.J. wrote the Ben Franklin episode of The Office, but it was Mindy Kaling.)
He actually placed a call to Mindy Kaling (aka Kelly Kapoor) from the stage, which was cute. He put her on speakerphone and asked everybody to tell her how much they liked the Wedding Episode, which she wrote. I haven't seen it yet, but of course I applauded with everyone else. Sadly, he'd lost the call and she didn't hear the cheer! But they bantered for a bit. She seems to have a Kelly-ish sense of humor in real life, because she asked him if there were any cute guys there, and he responded coyly: "There's one on stage." (2:20)
I'll give you just my favorite few bits from the rest of the show. He led one riff with: "I think it's adorable that dinosaurs are what God created when he was little." Hee! According to B.J., God made dinosaurs, but when he got a bit older he was embarrassed and threw them away because he wanted to be treated like a grown up. There was also a very funny, inappropriate bit about panda sex. B.J. remarked on how odd it is that panda numbers are decreasing because they won't mate - which means that pandas don't think pandas are cute. "If I were a panda, I would f* the s* out of pandas, just for the cuddling afterwards!" He also did a bit where he "tested new material," reading quick jokes off index cards and throwing them in a trash barrel if they didn't get a big enough laugh. My favorite, also very inappropriate: "Battered women. Sounds delicious. Doesn't make it right."
He was great at interacting with the crowd too, responding to things people shouted out and referencing back to them. (Though he gracefully ignored the drunk idiot who kept yelling "Where's Jim?") All in all a very fun evening out, well worth the $10 ticket.