Austin Improv

kbadr wrote:I used to love Conan. I haven't watched him in years, though.

I've really been enjoying Craig Furgeson lately, which is odd because he's just another late night talk show host. He seems to be very playful and improvisational, inspiring himself pretty consistently. He really does just riff and ramble and find ways to make it amusing.

Ferguson's great, maybe the most purely charming of the current late-night hosts. His low budget and b-list guests give him the freedom to keep things loose, which really suits him.

My favorite is when he ditches the opening monologue (typically the lowlight of any late-night show) in favor of random goofs like this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-4tEUTxdjs[/youtube]

kbadr wrote:I used to love Conan. I haven't watched him in years, though.

I've really been enjoying Craig Furgeson lately [...] he really does just riff and ramble and find ways to make it amusing.

Also:  puppets.

ETA:  ha!  Curtis beat me to it.



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[...] all I'm really doing is chucking a bunch of forks to hit a lone pea in a dark room.
      -- petorma discusses LOST theories at "What's Alan Watching?"

Curtis + computer wrote:Ferguson's great

He's totally my tv boyfriend.

All this hating on Leno. I agree with Justin. He's one of the hardest working men in television and comedy in general. Plus, sometimes, I get tired of Letterman's aloof/apathetic attitude. Jay seems happy-go-lucky and sometimes that's fun to watch.

I can't wait for Conan's new show. ANDY! Maybe they'll do staring contests again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DollarBill wrote: Letterman's aloof/apathetic attitude.

Letterman is like the Simpsons to me. It took a long time for me to admit that he's dipped in quality. I watched him all the time. I loved his weird segments. Then when he repeated them so many times that they got unfunny and tedious, like "Choose your cuts of meat" nearly every day for months and months, it just got stale.

He's still the best interviewer, I think. Although, the interviews are the part of late night shows that I don't really care for.

Curtis + computer wrote:

kbadr wrote:I used to love Conan. I haven't watched him in years, though.

I've really been enjoying Craig Furgeson lately, which is odd because he's just another late night talk show host. He seems to be very playful and improvisational, inspiring himself pretty consistently. He really does just riff and ramble and find ways to make it amusing.

Ferguson's great, maybe the most purely charming of the current late-night hosts. His low budget and b-list guests give him the freedom to keep things loose, which really suits him.

My favorite is when he ditches the opening monologue (typically the lowlight of any late-night show) in favor of random goofs like this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-4tEUTxdjs[/youtube]

Agreed. I dig Ferguson.

I didn't realize til Conan's Late Night was going off the air how much of a comedy hero/influence he is of mine. The fact that they don't care how weird it is, it just is what it is, that was so huge for me watching it when I was young. There's no "too cool for school" in it at all, just pure joy and silliness, but he and all the writers are so smart that there's this underlying intelligence. It generally works (and when it doesn't, they acknowledge it and move on).

And I think he's easily the second best interviewer (after Letterman). Conan's pre-interview style fits my style way more, though. I love the fact that Letterman has no mercy for his interviewees, though. It's amazing to watch when it works.

Jay is hard working and clearly loves it, but goddamn, I can't stand watching him. I think he's awful. Clearly he has a set audience and sensibility, so I can't hold it against him that it doesn't line up with mine. But I still don't like watching it (which is why I don't). I like a streak of danger in my comedy.

scook wrote:Jay is hard working and clearly loves it, but goddamn, I can't stand watching him. I think he's awful. Clearly he has a set audience and sensibility, so I can't hold it against him that it doesn't line up with mine. But I still don't like watching it (which is why I don't). I like a streak of danger in my comedy.

I remember a few times sitting near the writers and having one storm by, frustrated that a sketch got rejected and saying something like "Conan would have used it."

It is a "set audience" very clearly. They have a target audience and they cater to that audience... like any other industry and any other segment of the entertainment industry. You don't like Leno and most of the rest of us don't like Leno because we're not in that target audience. But his popularity and his ratings numbers have to count for something.

Comedy is very broad. I went to visit Comedy Central in college and one of the executives told us that when they started the network, they thought that comedy was comedy and they could just put anything on there and the "comedy audience" would go for it. They quickly learned that people watching current stand-up would not necessarily stay tuned if it was followed by a Bob Hope movie from the '40s.

That said, I still have a lot of problems with the programming decisions that Comedy Central makes. I think they need to revisit that lesson.

York99 wrote:That said, I still have a lot of problems with the programming decisions that Comedy Central makes. I think they need to revisit that lesson.

Like the decision to let E! snatch up the rights for SNL reruns?

ErikAdams wrote:

York99 wrote:That said, I still have a lot of problems with the programming decisions that Comedy Central makes. I think they need to revisit that lesson.

Like the decision to let E! snatch up the rights for SNL reruns?

There are bad moves like that one and the decision to greenlight Krod Mandoon or whatever that hell that was. And there are also the consistency issues like thinking that the same audience that likes the Colbert Report also will watch B.A.P.S. six times in a row.

A wonderful Leno skewering, courtesy of another show Comedy Central forgot how to handle:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKFUkpNePwE[/youtube]

York99 wrote:

ErikAdams wrote:

York99 wrote:That said, I still have a lot of problems with the programming decisions that Comedy Central makes. I think they need to revisit that lesson.

Like the decision to let E! snatch up the rights for SNL reruns?

There are bad moves like that one and the decision to greenlight Krod Mandoon or whatever that hell that was. And there are also the consistency issues like thinking that the same audience that likes the Colbert Report also will watch B.A.P.S. six times in a row.

That's the thing that irks me. I know the movie channels buy up rights to a lot of movies, but it seems like there are so many comedies out there that rarely air and Comedy Central seems like the ideal place.

Then again, I'm the guy who would watch a current, funny stand-up comic and then stay tuned to watch a Bob Hope movie from the '40s. A "Classic Comedy Night" makes perfect sense to me.

HerrHerr wrote:Agreed. I dig Ferguson.

So has anyone caught the first two nights of Conan (the episodes are on Hulu.com if you haven't)? What do people think? I like the segments, but it seems there are far fewer than there used to be in the previous slot. Good to see Richter back but I haven't seen them really use him yet.

Asaf wrote:So has anyone caught the first two nights of Conan (the episodes are on Hulu.com if you haven't)? What do people think? I like the segments, but it seems there are far fewer than there used to be in the previous slot. Good to see Richter back but I haven't seen them really use him yet.

I watched the first night and some of the second night.

The first night was a lot of fun. Nothing amazing (though I liked his run across America), but it kept me watching. I'm looking forward to the point when he gets his mojo going and isn't doing material realted specifically to his move out there.