HBO: Talking Funny (Chris Rock, Seinfeld, Gervais, Louis C.K.)

[L.Kizzle]

Conan O' Brian
Robin Williams
Stephen Colbert
Aziz Ansari

Dude's been doin stand up for 5 years, what's he gonna talk about with those cats?

[iamgine]

Norm Macdonald is always fun to have a candid conversation with.

Only if he's serious. If he's in character, he'll be terrible for the conversation.


I wanna see

Jeff Dunham
Russel Peters
Jimmy Carr
Ricky Gervais (host)


or old timers

Bill Cosby
Eddie Murphy
Gilbert Gottfried
Ricky Gervais (host)

[arkain]

Larry David is another one that comes to mind, but he will never do it, unless Jerry begs him.

[Thorpesaurous]

what's everyone's feeling about aziz?

I like his act, but I feel like he's blowing up really fast like dane cook was. do people think he'll fizzle out or have the skills for longetivity?

I'm not really a fan, but I think it's because I haven't liked the work his done on film, like his little run on the tail end of Scrubs. But I think my perception of the characters he seems to consistently play, which are almost always arrogant little pricks, tint my perception of his material.


Chappelle would be fascinating, but it would be hard to do one of these with him without things drifting toward his personal life.
Colin Quinn would interest me. I don't even find him that funny, although I do like him, but because of his now nearly 30 year run as something of a Patriarch to the NY comedy club scene, and his reputation as a real student, would make him good in conversation.
Norm would be great too. He did a podcast with Bill Simmons the week before his sports show came out, as part of his marketing run, and he was still droll and dry, but he was far more candid and real than his normal exageration of himself.
Larry David would be great to get that writers perspective.
Ray Ramano, who I'm not crazy about, can give you a similar story to script perspective.

Lettermen would be interesting, because he's done it as a standup, and from the other perspective of getting people a break. Carson too really but he's a bigger recluse than Letterman.

[RidonKs]

bringing guys like Billy Crystal or Bill Murray out of the woodworks would be awesome. Steve Martin could be great. as could Bob Sagat. Woody Allen? maybe not. Gervais was on the Daily Show doing rounds to publicize this special, and he and Jon seemed to come to an agreement to do another one. Dennis Leary and Stewart always have hysterical interviews together, so using those two would definitely up the chemistry. Chapelle is the obvious choice for the next 'token' black guy, though i suppose you could split it 50/50 between white and black. no Russell Peters please and thank you, that would suck suck suck.



i forgot that i haven't actually commented in this thread yet. i think i started writing a post when i was pretty drunk a night or two ago but never actually submitted anything. agreed with a lot of what thorpe and prof said, nice posts fellas. and also with ljj re: Gervais, of whom i'm not a huge fan anyway, but in this setting he came off as brutally phony. i enjoyed the slightest bit of tension in the air when Jerry called him out directly a few times, flat out disagreeing with what was said. not that any real tension is possible with these guys who are so skilled at cutting it away, but it was a wee bit noticeable. loved the joke deconstruction like everybody else, and the reminiscing back; first other funny person you met, first joke that really connected, first performance, etc. the reverence of jerry by the others was pretty weird, but he played right into it, as somewhat of a master of the art. which i suppose he is, if you buy into that pure observational crap. then again, i think the other half of comedy in its purest form is more situational, which is exactly what Louis has mastered more than anybody else. no coincidence that those two happen to be my favourite comics of the four. rock did get a little shunned, but he didn't seem too bothered by it.

i knew i'd love watching this and it didn't disappoint at all. brilliant stuff. i really hope there will be another one along similar lines.

[Thorpesaurous]

I've often said that Jerry and Rock have a lot in common. Both do a very observational style of comedy, it's just that Jerry is Micro, on specific things, minutea, while Rock is more Macro, his observations are more on large social structure type stuff. But they both take those everyday observations that seem so obvious once they bring them op and just tweak your perception of them ever so slightly. Rock's obviously got a far more dramatic presentation, but in terms of the structure of their material, I find them somewhat similar to each other.

Eddie or Cosby would be cool. Cosby's gotten a little too grumpy in his old age. And Eddie may be a bit disconnected, but getting his perspective from back then would be awesome.

Richard Belzer is a guy I like, who could go back that 70s club golden age and he's still something of a student and structure specialist.

If you wanted to replace Ricky with another foreigner, I've always thought Eddie Izzard was really funny.

[Gundress]

I watched last night and I thought it was a very interesting show....I also think it should be on every week,but with different comedians to see how they relate to an audience and to each other and should do the next show with Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher, comedians that are more politcally minded. Ricky Gervias' girlish laugh was a bit forced too

[ZeN]

Ricky Gervias' girlish laugh was a bit forced too

Look up some of his interviews.. he tends to laugh like that a lot.

[SCREWstonRockets]

"Sitting on a c0ck cause I'm gay.....................whistling............"

Did he do the whistle?

[RidonKs]

I've often said that Jerry and Rock have a lot in common. Both do a very observational style of comedy, it's just that Jerry is Micro, on specific things, minutea, while Rock is more Macro, his observations are more on large social structure type stuff.

well put. that makes a lot of sense.

[pete's montreux]

Does it get better after the first 10 minutes? I caught the beginning last night before bed and it was some of the fakest and phoniest shit I've ever seen. I think I saw one genuine moment.

[L.Kizzle]

Does it get better after the first 10 minutes? I caught the beginning last night before bed and it was some of the fakest and phoniest shit I've ever seen. I think I saw one genuine moment.

Who was the fakest too you, I actually missed the first ten minutes.

[vinsane01]

I saw this last night. I find it funny that gervais was over-analyzing the jokes and how comedians make people laugh. But i guess that is what the show was all about. Ricky didnt sound like a prick or fake in my opinion. I think he genuinely wants too know what other comedians think about an issue and at the same time wants them to know how he sees it from his own perspective. Out of the four, he seems like my kind of guy i want to have a drink with the most. But his laugh is kind of annoying though.

[bagelred]

Did he do the whistle?

Haha....no, but they were joking about including the whistle.

[RidonKs]

"but you're hardly kunta kinte, are you?"

that was great. one genuine moment pete? you're crazy. apart from the few stabs at jokes and bits, i thought the whole conversation was thoroughly authentic.