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Spit Take Saturday: Fred Stoller

stollerWelcome to Spit Take Saturday, courtesy of Brown Paper Tickets’ Comedy Doer Julie Seabaugh and her professional comedy criticism site The Spit Take. Julie’s goal with the site is to “elevate the public perception of stand-up comedy to that of a legitimate art form, and to enable comedy criticism be taken as seriously as that of theater, film, music, food, even video games. No a**-kissing. No bias. No mercy. Just honest, unfiltered, long-form reviews written by professional, knowledgeable comedy critics.” 

Every week Julie will select an entry from the site to be included on our blog and hand-pick some related events happening that week that she feels all you comedy lovers out there will appreciate.

So, without further ado, let us introduce you to this week’s Spit Take Saturday!

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Over the past 30 years, self-described “schnooky” comedian and character actor Fred Stoller has racked up more than 60 appearances on a number of hit TV series including “The Drew Carey Show,” “Murphy Brown,” “Friends” and even “Seinfeld,” where he also spent a year in the show’s notoriously competitive writers’ pool. He’s also appeared on flops barely anyone remembers, such as the “Married…with Children” spinoff “Vinnie & Bobby” (alongside a pre-fame Matt LeBlanc) and the extremely short-lived NBC sitcom “Singer & Sons,” which lasted only four episodes.



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Spit Take Saturday: Erik Griffin

erik griffinWelcome to Spit Take Saturday, courtesy of Brown Paper Tickets’ Comedy Doer Julie Seabaugh and her professional comedy criticism site The Spit Take. Julie’s goal with the site is to “elevate the public perception of stand-up comedy to that of a legitimate art form, and to enable comedy criticism be taken as seriously as that of theater, film, music, food, even video games. No a**-kissing. No bias. No mercy. Just honest, unfiltered, long-form reviews written by professional, knowledgeable comedy critics.” 

Every week Julie will select an entry from the site to be included on our blog and hand-pick some related events happening that week that she feels all you comedy lovers out there will appreciate.

So, without further ado, let us introduce you to this week’s Spit Take Saturday!

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Erik Griffin has achieved a unique but far from rare acting milestone as a “That Guy,” someone who gets recognized regularly even if it’s only for his familiar face or character’s name. Though he’s earned the title from portraying bawdy braggart Montez Walker on Comedy Central guy-com “Workaholics,” he’s still had to admit “I just had my name on the marquee” of the Laugh Factory in an interview on Dom Irrera’s podcast.

Griffin mentions his That Guy-ness at the start of debut stand-up album “Technical Foul: Volume One” presumably to get it out of the way in the same manner that fellow comedian Tom Wilson, best known for playing bullying Biff in the “Back to the Future” trilogy, sarcastically recites some of his more famous lines or sings his viral hit “The Question Song.” Instead, by acknowledging that he’s not one of the show’s “cute ones,” Griffin is able to provide an illustrative introduction to his self-deprecating style.
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Spit Take Saturday: Harland Williams

harlandWelcome to Spit Take Saturday, courtesy of Brown Paper Tickets’ Comedy Doer Julie Seabaugh and her professional comedy criticism site The Spit Take. Julie’s goal with the site is to “elevate the public perception of stand-up comedy to that of a legitimate art form, and to enable comedy criticism be taken as seriously as that of theater, film, music, food, even video games. No a**-kissing. No bias. No mercy. Just honest, unfiltered, long-form reviews written by professional, knowledgeable comedy critics.” 

Every week Julie will select an entry from the site to be included on our blog and hand-pick some related events happening that week that she feels all you comedy lovers out there will appreciate.

So, without further ado, let us introduce you to this week’s Spit Take Saturday!

________________________

Silence is the worst thing a comedian can hear. A heckler can at least give them something to work through on stage or let them know that their audience hasn’t suffered a simultaneous brain hemorrhage during their act. Silence, however, feels like you’re trying to make Death itself laugh followed by his cold hand slapping across your face.

Harland Williams conducts a similar, interesting and sometimes entertaining experiment with his latest DVD special, “A Force of Nature.” Where Maria Bamford entertained a familial audience of two for her recent “the special special special!”, he has literally no one to bounce his material off of for his 53 minutes of stage time. The entire performance takes place on a flat hilltop in the Mojave Desert with nothing between him and those watching at home except for a couple of cameras, a constant wind and the occasional crow.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwDP3h496VI]
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