the bill maher live hbo special was enjoyable enough, especially the second half. the crowd tried to ruin it in parts which was pretty annoying.

The challenge Aziz has is he's always been 80% delivery and 20% material. That's tough to maintain for a career. If I had to choose I'd rather be 80% material and 20% delivery, because I know I could improve on my delivery over time. That said he could always get a writer to help him out, I guess we'll see.

I'm going to be amused the day Aziz settles down and has kids. I feel like him doing the kids jokes has potential, it will certainly give him 2-3 acts worth of new jokes.

Yeah I was not sure how Maher would hold up for an hour since his entire act is basically "lol republicans"... but I thought he was very funny.

while we're on the topic of maher, i love the first half of this

Saw Dave Atell last night. He was really good. Real dirty sense of humour. Brought up a hot mom and her 17 year old daughter on stage. Boundaries were definitely crossed. Talked to them about anal, vibrators, and the assumedly loser dad.

It's JFL42 in Toronto now. Seeing Amy Schumer tonight, Mike Birbiglian on Sunday, and Tig Notaro and Chris D'elia next week. Will probably sign up for a couple others as well.

Also see Funches and Stevens mentioned in thread recently. They are also at JFL. Could check them out

I've not seen any of Chris D'Elia's stuff, I might have to check it out. I'm always slightly suspicious of good looking comedians.

A while back I used to listened to the short podcast he does with Bryan Callen and Will Sasso, aptly named the Ten Minute Podcast, which was pretty good.

Roger Goodell is killing it right now on ESPN.

Edit...it has actually turned into more of a roast.

100% agree.

I feel that Bill Hicks was a great talent at mixing politics, religion and comedy together.

lmk how tig is housenuts. i've of course heard good things, and she's in sydney soon, but, without going down the whole female comedian debate again, i'm not sure there are any i'd pay sydney prices for.

I dunno what Sydney prices are, but I would def pay to see amy schumer if u get a chance.

Brody is funny, why would you think otherwise?

I don't understand why you wouldn't pay to go see Tig, she's one of the best

Two joke ideas I'm working on.

The tramp stamp is still alive and well, it has just relocated to the neck as women think it's classier but still a bullseye. I've started calling it a rape nape as it as yet to be named. Joke is vulgar, not really setup/punch line, just observational.

Studies now show best way out of poverty is direct cash injection not social programs. I'm going to fix the homeless problem by giving them money. The money is counterfeit so either they get a sandwich or go to jail, win-win. Also the secret service was started w focus to catch counterfeiters, what a wild pivot to protect the president.. Odd they've Been called the secret service entire time.

I'd love to workshop ideas in here w you guys if anyone's interested.

My semi-professional advice: don't make a rape joke, or a joke where the punch line is "rape nape". Even if you're just going for shock value, it's not nearly funny enough

ok checked out some reviews and have got tig tix. they were only $50 each (that is cheap).

I'd also avoid using rape jokes early on in your career. Reason is simple, you won't be able to control the crowd well enough should it turn on you. Pros can do it because they can actually dominate a crowd very quickly, most of the time. In your case it's not worth taking that risk, yet.

Second one didn't really click with me, maybe just because it wasn't delivered the way you may finally deliver it. I do like the premise of a joke that starts with "Shouldn't the secret service have a better name, if it wants to stay so secret?" and go from there.

Ha $50. The JFL pass in toronto was $100 for schumer and 10 days of as many other acts as you want to go to. Schumer was great last night. Preferred Atell, but both were top notch. Seeing Tim Minchin tonight.

Debating between Iliza Schlesinger or DJ Demers on Monday for a date. Ian Karmel also an option. Don't know any of these people.

Iliza won last comic standing a while back, she's okay. I think ian karmel is who I'd see out of those 3, dont know dj demers though.

$100 for an unlimited deal at a comedy festival is pretty sick heh. the edinburgh festival is basically $20-$25 per show now.

Yeh there's been a bit of controversy about the increasing Edinburgh festival/Fringe prices over the last few years. I've heard a number of performers complaining about the costs going up, meaning they have to raise ticket prices or lose (even more) money (Stewart Lee discussing it).

On the plus side, I believe The Free Festival has grown quite a bit.

I went to the oddball comedy tour in Dallas last night (great deal for $25) and imo Hannibal blew away a line up of Louis C.K., Sarah Silverman (worst of the bunch), Marc Maron, Jeff Ross (great MC & his improvised roast of the audience was really funny), Julian McCullough and Whitney Cummings (she was pretty funny as well).

I'm not familiar enough with Hannibals material to know if its new or not but it was damn good. He did a rap that was funny as hell, you couldn't understand much of it and then he stopped the DJ and did it acapella which revealed the "punch line"

My rankings so far.

Atell > Minchin > Schumer > Birbiglia

They were all really good. Minchin probably the best date one. Plays a lot of piano and girls love that. Also saw a comedy troupe which was fun.

Is Tim Minchin well known in the US? I generally really don't like comedy music but think he's great.

only a ginger can call another ginger ginger.