The Handsome Funny Guy Axis
Last week was the double bill of ridiculousness that was Comedy Bang Bang Nativity Pageant and the LACMA Live Read of The Princess Bride. Long story short, it was one of the greatest weeks in the history of ever. I will now take this opportunity to detail them with pictures and too many words:
Last Tuesday was the five-hour marathon of amazing that was the Comedy Bang Bang Nativity Pageant.
A quick plug/a little background: Comedy Bang Bang (formerly Comedy Death Ray) is a podcast and, according to the site, "a high-spirited get-together between host Scott Aukerman and his funny friends! You can expect conversation, music, improv, games, and most importantly plugs." It's indirectly linked to the weekly Comedy Bang Bang stand-up show at UCB Theatre, so the guests are largely UCB-related, which is not a bad thing when those people consist of the likes of Amy Poehler, Andy Samberg, Andy Richter, and all those amazing people listed on that poster. CBB is hilarious, wonderful, often times absurd, and free. It's worth a listen, especially the recent-ish episode with Adam Scott and Parks and Rec writers Harris Wittels and Chelsea Peretti. The ep devolves into ridiculousness pretty quickly and doesn't let up from there. It's amazing.
Anyway, Comedy Bang Bang holds an annual holiday show to raise money for the LA Regional Food Bank. It's a great cause and a great line-up, so going was a pretty easy decision. I mean, look at that line-up. Even if all of the names don't look familiar, their work is all over TV and movies, so it was sure to be a great show. There were also rumored "special guests," who were more or less obvious if one was familiar with the CBB or any of the UCB-related podcasts. The same (great!) people appear a lot, is what I'm saying.
The whole night was a little bit of a blur of great comedy. And did I mention the show was five hours long? Because it was five hours long. I thought it was a joke when Aukerman said it would run till 1 AM, but that was completely accurate.
But there was also free beer and drinks in the lobby, so it wasn't all that bad. Aukerman even acknowledged it was a long show, so we should feel free to get up to get refreshments at any time, and it wouldn't bother anybody. Between sets, I looked around at all the people getting up and vaguely wondered if it really wasn't rude to leave when someone was talking onstage. Something happened on stage, which resulted in a loud reaction from the audience, but I was still idly looking away.
It took a sharp elbowing and a hissed, "It's Adam Scott!" from my friend to bring my attention to the stage. Sure enough, there was Adam Scott, dressed in a tux and reading off an invisible teleprompter as if he was presenting at an awards ceremony, complete with pausing as the nominee reel ostensibly played and ridiculous nominee names (I believe "poop" and "fart" were said a couple of times), as Aukerman asked what the hell he was doing.
I can, with great bias, say that it was one of the funniest things to happen all night. But objectively, it was genuinely funny, mostly because Adam Scott sells "serious straight man" like nobody's business.
An hour or so later, Todd Glass took the stage. I contemplated taking a bathroom break during his set because I'm not the biggest Todd Glass fan. Turns out that his bit where he yelled at someone off stage to get his jacket resulted in this:
Look at that GQMF and his chiseled jaw. Jon Hamm didn't say anything, and I'm not even sure why Matt Braunger (right) came out, too, but it was as effective as a silent cameo can be. The crowd, of course, loved it.
The rest of the show was pretty damn fantastic. Where else can you get that much great stand-up in one place? Some of the stand-outs (no pun intended) included Nick Kroll (who does the best original characters), Kumail Nanjiani, Anthony Jeselnik, Chelsea Peretti (who I thought was hilarious before she was a Parks writer but will now forever love because she's the credited writer for 'Smallest Park'), and (future Oscar nominee) Patton Oswalt. All of those comics on the poster are worth checking out, really.
While the amount of talent who showed up was astounding, it was still difficult to slog through it. Around midnight, when there were about 5 comics left (the poster was projected as the background the whole night, so I started mentally ticking off people as the night progressed), I mentally noted that we should leave right after Thomas Lennon, a man who will always have my respect for not only co-creating Reno 911!, but also regularly outfitting himself in some uncomfortably short shorts. Of course, Tom Lennon was last. What was surprising, though, was how much energy still seemed to be in the room when he came on. I don't remember much about his set other than a running joke about a post-show orgy in his Prius and his sparkly, sparkly suit jacket. It was a pretty fantastic set. It was the perfect way to end the night.
And then. And then! As if that marathon of stand-up greatness and Adam Scott and Jon Hamm sightings weren't enough, what followed was quite possibly the most transcendent moment of pop culture I've been lucky enough to witness: the LACMA Live Read of The Princess Bride.
A little background: director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up In The Air) started a monthly series for the Film Independent program at LACMA wherein he asks a handful of actors to table read a classic film script in front of an audience. There's no practice, so every performance is new to everyone in the room. All in all, it's a pretty inspired series. The first Live Read in October was The Breakfast Club, and I hear it was quite delightful. Live Read in November was The Apartment and had the likes of Steve Carell, Natalie Portman, Pierce Brosnan, and Mindy Kaling being pretty wonderful.
But this month. Oh, this month. It was none other than The Princess Bride, which happens to be my favorite book and one of my favorite movies. I bought tickets before even knowing what the featured script would be in December, and holy crap, did I flail when they announced what it would be. Between that and Reitman's announcement two days prior that Westley would be played by PAUL EFFING RUDD, my friend--we'll call her Abie--and I vowed to get in line early. We were third in line, but we did not get there any where near the people who started waiting stand-by at 4 hours prior to the start time.
So Abie and I waited in line in the rainy LA coldness, huddled around the generously offered space heater, and made friends with the guys in front of us who semi-jokingly wondered how much they could get for their tickets and front-of-line spots if they auctioned it off to the stand-by people (I guessed at least $100/ticket, but we'll never know.). Then there was Gray Sweatshirt behind us who, at first, seemed like a friendly, mildly crazy fangirl with whom I considered swapping Twitter SNs. It quickly became apparent that she was more the really-crazy-oversharing-fangirl type who did not notice that I kept trying to steer her into non-scary topics of conversation and that all of us fell into uncomfortable silence whenever she butted into our conversations. Goes to show that first impressions aren't always accurate. (As littlehands so succinctly put it, it's like the internet in real life!)
When we were let into the theater, my and Abie's plan to not be in the front row backfired when I asked a lady in the second row if she could shift over a seat so I could sit with my friend. She matter-of-factly told me, "No. I like my seat. I like where I am." I stared at her with my mouth open for a full 10 seconds before settling into seats in the front row, slightly right of center. It wasn't perfect because it looked like Paul Rudd and Mindy Kaling's faces would be mostly obscured by their stands, but it was also the first row, so we really shouldn't be complaining.
As we settled into our seats, Abie said off-handedly, "Hey, there's BJ Novak." I immediately perked up, and sure enough, there he was at the left side of the theater, saying hi to someone in the reserved seats. Presumably, he was there for Mindy Kaling. And of course, I was mentally freaking out. Abril later said I kept it together, but it felt nothing like that.
Eventually, BJ Novak disappeared backstage, and the Film Independent curator Elvis Mitchell appeared to intro Jason Reitman, who I will always think looks like a slightly chubby Edgar Wright. Reitman first introduced the people previously announced:
(L to R) Jason Reitman, Kevin Pollak, Bill Fagerbakke, Goran Visnjic, Patton Oswalt, Paul Rudd, Mindy Kaling, Cary Elwes, Nick Kroll, Colette Wolfe, Fred Savage, Rob Reiner (photo from celebrity.com)
Patton Oswalt's spoon-foley work is too fast for a mere point-and-shoot camera to capture.
Overly detailed notes from the Live Read, hopefully in chronological order:
The casting was pretty perfect. Paul Rudd had the perfect charm and comic timing of Westley. Also, he's not a bad looking guy in person. In fact, he looked like Clueless-era Paul Rudd, which isn't even fair. Goran Visnjic was a perfect Inigo. He had that same quiet intensity Mandy Patinkin had, and you can tell he studied the source material to get the performance right. It was quite a feat given how everyone else was hamming it up. Bill Fagerbaake was also great as Fezzik. He captured that strong yet gentle spirit of the giant. Mindy Kaling was, admittedly, a little meh. As soon as I expressed this to Abie, I realized that it's Buttercup. She really didn't do much in the film anyway. Kaling would've been better suited for Valerie. It's not like Colette Wolfe did much with it.
What made the whole experience even better was how everyone on stage seemed giddy about it, too. Whenever a famous line was coming up, some of the others would look up at the respective actor in anticipation of its delivery. Whenever Fred Savage had a part, though, everyone on stage looked directly at him, smiling like kids on Christmas morning. That didn't happen for anyone else.
I spent the whole time grinning like a loon, and I don't regret a second of it. Everything about it was happiness. That makes no grammatical sense, but it's the only way I can properly describe it. At various times, I kept looking at Patton Oswalt and Paul Rudd and thought, "Those are two of my favorite actors, sitting right next to each other. As they read one of my favorite movies. This is amazing." That gave way to "Holy crap, I'm sitting in direct line of sight of Paul Rudd, in front of Nick Kroll, and in throwing distance of Fred Savage delivering the lines he said as a child. Holy crap."
The giddiness followed us well after the show. If I remember correctly, our post-Live Read recap conversation consisted mostly of "Holy crap" and "Oh, my God, that actually happened." There's another Live Read next month! Luckily, I have my tickets. I don't know what it is or who will be there, but I can't wait.
And with that, I completed sightings for the entire "Handsome Funny Guy" Axis in one week. I think I'm going to start a bucket list just so I can check that off.
Last Tuesday was the five-hour marathon of amazing that was the Comedy Bang Bang Nativity Pageant.
A quick plug/a little background: Comedy Bang Bang (formerly Comedy Death Ray) is a podcast and, according to the site, "a high-spirited get-together between host Scott Aukerman and his funny friends! You can expect conversation, music, improv, games, and most importantly plugs." It's indirectly linked to the weekly Comedy Bang Bang stand-up show at UCB Theatre, so the guests are largely UCB-related, which is not a bad thing when those people consist of the likes of Amy Poehler, Andy Samberg, Andy Richter, and all those amazing people listed on that poster. CBB is hilarious, wonderful, often times absurd, and free. It's worth a listen, especially the recent-ish episode with Adam Scott and Parks and Rec writers Harris Wittels and Chelsea Peretti. The ep devolves into ridiculousness pretty quickly and doesn't let up from there. It's amazing.
Anyway, Comedy Bang Bang holds an annual holiday show to raise money for the LA Regional Food Bank. It's a great cause and a great line-up, so going was a pretty easy decision. I mean, look at that line-up. Even if all of the names don't look familiar, their work is all over TV and movies, so it was sure to be a great show. There were also rumored "special guests," who were more or less obvious if one was familiar with the CBB or any of the UCB-related podcasts. The same (great!) people appear a lot, is what I'm saying.
The whole night was a little bit of a blur of great comedy. And did I mention the show was five hours long? Because it was five hours long. I thought it was a joke when Aukerman said it would run till 1 AM, but that was completely accurate.
But there was also free beer and drinks in the lobby, so it wasn't all that bad. Aukerman even acknowledged it was a long show, so we should feel free to get up to get refreshments at any time, and it wouldn't bother anybody. Between sets, I looked around at all the people getting up and vaguely wondered if it really wasn't rude to leave when someone was talking onstage. Something happened on stage, which resulted in a loud reaction from the audience, but I was still idly looking away.
It took a sharp elbowing and a hissed, "It's Adam Scott!" from my friend to bring my attention to the stage. Sure enough, there was Adam Scott, dressed in a tux and reading off an invisible teleprompter as if he was presenting at an awards ceremony, complete with pausing as the nominee reel ostensibly played and ridiculous nominee names (I believe "poop" and "fart" were said a couple of times), as Aukerman asked what the hell he was doing.
I can, with great bias, say that it was one of the funniest things to happen all night. But objectively, it was genuinely funny, mostly because Adam Scott sells "serious straight man" like nobody's business.
An hour or so later, Todd Glass took the stage. I contemplated taking a bathroom break during his set because I'm not the biggest Todd Glass fan. Turns out that his bit where he yelled at someone off stage to get his jacket resulted in this:
Look at that GQMF and his chiseled jaw. Jon Hamm didn't say anything, and I'm not even sure why Matt Braunger (right) came out, too, but it was as effective as a silent cameo can be. The crowd, of course, loved it.
The rest of the show was pretty damn fantastic. Where else can you get that much great stand-up in one place? Some of the stand-outs (no pun intended) included Nick Kroll (who does the best original characters), Kumail Nanjiani, Anthony Jeselnik, Chelsea Peretti (who I thought was hilarious before she was a Parks writer but will now forever love because she's the credited writer for 'Smallest Park'), and (future Oscar nominee) Patton Oswalt. All of those comics on the poster are worth checking out, really.
While the amount of talent who showed up was astounding, it was still difficult to slog through it. Around midnight, when there were about 5 comics left (the poster was projected as the background the whole night, so I started mentally ticking off people as the night progressed), I mentally noted that we should leave right after Thomas Lennon, a man who will always have my respect for not only co-creating Reno 911!, but also regularly outfitting himself in some uncomfortably short shorts. Of course, Tom Lennon was last. What was surprising, though, was how much energy still seemed to be in the room when he came on. I don't remember much about his set other than a running joke about a post-show orgy in his Prius and his sparkly, sparkly suit jacket. It was a pretty fantastic set. It was the perfect way to end the night.
And then. And then! As if that marathon of stand-up greatness and Adam Scott and Jon Hamm sightings weren't enough, what followed was quite possibly the most transcendent moment of pop culture I've been lucky enough to witness: the LACMA Live Read of The Princess Bride.
A little background: director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up In The Air) started a monthly series for the Film Independent program at LACMA wherein he asks a handful of actors to table read a classic film script in front of an audience. There's no practice, so every performance is new to everyone in the room. All in all, it's a pretty inspired series. The first Live Read in October was The Breakfast Club, and I hear it was quite delightful. Live Read in November was The Apartment and had the likes of Steve Carell, Natalie Portman, Pierce Brosnan, and Mindy Kaling being pretty wonderful.
But this month. Oh, this month. It was none other than The Princess Bride, which happens to be my favorite book and one of my favorite movies. I bought tickets before even knowing what the featured script would be in December, and holy crap, did I flail when they announced what it would be. Between that and Reitman's announcement two days prior that Westley would be played by PAUL EFFING RUDD, my friend--we'll call her Abie--and I vowed to get in line early. We were third in line, but we did not get there any where near the people who started waiting stand-by at 4 hours prior to the start time.
So Abie and I waited in line in the rainy LA coldness, huddled around the generously offered space heater, and made friends with the guys in front of us who semi-jokingly wondered how much they could get for their tickets and front-of-line spots if they auctioned it off to the stand-by people (I guessed at least $100/ticket, but we'll never know.). Then there was Gray Sweatshirt behind us who, at first, seemed like a friendly, mildly crazy fangirl with whom I considered swapping Twitter SNs. It quickly became apparent that she was more the really-crazy-oversharing-fangirl type who did not notice that I kept trying to steer her into non-scary topics of conversation and that all of us fell into uncomfortable silence whenever she butted into our conversations. Goes to show that first impressions aren't always accurate. (As littlehands so succinctly put it, it's like the internet in real life!)
When we were let into the theater, my and Abie's plan to not be in the front row backfired when I asked a lady in the second row if she could shift over a seat so I could sit with my friend. She matter-of-factly told me, "No. I like my seat. I like where I am." I stared at her with my mouth open for a full 10 seconds before settling into seats in the front row, slightly right of center. It wasn't perfect because it looked like Paul Rudd and Mindy Kaling's faces would be mostly obscured by their stands, but it was also the first row, so we really shouldn't be complaining.
As we settled into our seats, Abie said off-handedly, "Hey, there's BJ Novak." I immediately perked up, and sure enough, there he was at the left side of the theater, saying hi to someone in the reserved seats. Presumably, he was there for Mindy Kaling. And of course, I was mentally freaking out. Abril later said I kept it together, but it felt nothing like that.
Eventually, BJ Novak disappeared backstage, and the Film Independent curator Elvis Mitchell appeared to intro Jason Reitman, who I will always think looks like a slightly chubby Edgar Wright. Reitman first introduced the people previously announced:
- Miracle Max, originated by Billy Crystal: Kevin Pollak
- Fezzik, originated by Andre the Giant: Bill Fagerbaake
- Inigo Montoya, originated by Mandy Patinkin: Goran Visnjic
- Vizzini, originated by Wallace Shawn: Patton Oswalt
- Count Rugen, originated by Christopher Guest: Nick Kroll
- Valerie, originated by Carol Kane: Colette Wolfe
- Buttercup, originated by Robin Wright: Mindy Kaling
- Westley, originated by Cary Elwes: Paul Rudd
- The Grandson, originated by Fred Savage: Fred Savage
- The Grandfather, originated by Peter Falk: Rob Reiner
- Prince Humperdinck, originated by Chris Sarandon: Cary Elwes
(L to R) Jason Reitman, Kevin Pollak, Bill Fagerbakke, Goran Visnjic, Patton Oswalt, Paul Rudd, Mindy Kaling, Cary Elwes, Nick Kroll, Colette Wolfe, Fred Savage, Rob Reiner (photo from celebrity.com)
Patton Oswalt's spoon-foley work is too fast for a mere point-and-shoot camera to capture.
Overly detailed notes from the Live Read, hopefully in chronological order:
- As Fred Savage said his first line, sounding exactly the same as in the film, you could almost feel the collective intake of breath from the audience. As soon as he finished, there was a loud round of applause. The whole time he spoke, I had my hands clutched to my chest, and I thought (or possibly said out loud), "I. Can. Not. Handle. This." It was all too amazing for me to take.
- After Paul Rudd said his first "As you wish," he turned to Cary Elwes and mimed "Good or bad?" I cannot imagine the stress Paul Rudd was under, having to read an iconic role while its originator sat two seats from him. After he did his second "As you wish," Cary Elwes gave him two thumbs up.
- Cary Elwes at first played Humperdinck pretty straight, but he seemed to realize that everyone else was going balls-out and started to ham it up. At various points when he really got into it, Patton Oswalt and Paul Rudd just watched him, looking positively tickled.
- Right before Goran Visnjic said the famous Inigo Montoya line, he visibly took a breath to calm his nerves. It was adorable and understandable given how iconic it is. He nailed it, though, and got a huge round of applause for his efforts.
- After Patton Oswalt's first "Inconceivable!" he stood up and took a bow. Well-deserved, though, because he nailed it. He was pretty perfect as Vizzini, as evidenced in his spot-on monologue during the poison scene.
- For the sword fight between Inigo and Westley, Patton took out a pair of spoons to make the appropriate sound effects. He was impressively spot-on with the timing. It was hilarious.
- Nick Kroll's Count Rugen got slimier as the story progressed, which means it only got funnier. Nick Kroll as anybody, really, is amazing.
- I figured Patton would be the albino, partially because he'd be perfect, partially because Vizzini dies pretty early on. What I didn't expect was his choice to make the albino speak like a game show host. It was such as strange yet hilarious acting choice.
- Kevin Pollak as Miracle Max was as hammy and Jewish as you'd expect. Colette Wolfe did nothing to help, other than deliver her lines at the appropriate times.
- Nick Kroll as the Clergyman. Oh, my God. Amazing. I could've listened to him do that voice for an entire movie.
- Paul Rudd as Westley delivering the "To the pain" monologue to Cary Elwes as Humperdinck did very confusing things to my brain. Elwes's "I don't think I'm quite familiar with that phrase" got a big laugh, too.
- Towards the end, The Princess Bride theme started playing the background. When it came time for Westley and Buttercup's big kiss at the end, Paul Rudd just kind of grabbed Mindy Kaling's head and did a comedically over the top make out session. Their stands were mostly blocking my view, so I didn't exactly see what was going on, only that it went on for a very long time, and part of it involved Paul Rudd rubbing his head on top of Mindy Kaling's.
- Fred Savage's final lines asking his grandfather to read to him again were equal parts adorable and bittersweet: sweet because, again, he sounded exactly the same; bittersweet because the amazing night was coming to end.
The casting was pretty perfect. Paul Rudd had the perfect charm and comic timing of Westley. Also, he's not a bad looking guy in person. In fact, he looked like Clueless-era Paul Rudd, which isn't even fair. Goran Visnjic was a perfect Inigo. He had that same quiet intensity Mandy Patinkin had, and you can tell he studied the source material to get the performance right. It was quite a feat given how everyone else was hamming it up. Bill Fagerbaake was also great as Fezzik. He captured that strong yet gentle spirit of the giant. Mindy Kaling was, admittedly, a little meh. As soon as I expressed this to Abie, I realized that it's Buttercup. She really didn't do much in the film anyway. Kaling would've been better suited for Valerie. It's not like Colette Wolfe did much with it.
What made the whole experience even better was how everyone on stage seemed giddy about it, too. Whenever a famous line was coming up, some of the others would look up at the respective actor in anticipation of its delivery. Whenever Fred Savage had a part, though, everyone on stage looked directly at him, smiling like kids on Christmas morning. That didn't happen for anyone else.
I spent the whole time grinning like a loon, and I don't regret a second of it. Everything about it was happiness. That makes no grammatical sense, but it's the only way I can properly describe it. At various times, I kept looking at Patton Oswalt and Paul Rudd and thought, "Those are two of my favorite actors, sitting right next to each other. As they read one of my favorite movies. This is amazing." That gave way to "Holy crap, I'm sitting in direct line of sight of Paul Rudd, in front of Nick Kroll, and in throwing distance of Fred Savage delivering the lines he said as a child. Holy crap."
The giddiness followed us well after the show. If I remember correctly, our post-Live Read recap conversation consisted mostly of "Holy crap" and "Oh, my God, that actually happened." There's another Live Read next month! Luckily, I have my tickets. I don't know what it is or who will be there, but I can't wait.
And with that, I completed sightings for the entire "Handsome Funny Guy" Axis in one week. I think I'm going to start a bucket list just so I can check that off.
