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Spit Take Saturday: Pete Holmes

holmes-330x330Welcome 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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Pete Holmes is a “friendly fellow,” he says, unable to contain his giddy chuckles. He’s “the kind of guy that likes to get to the airport a couple hours early, get a few white wines in me and start telling old people they still got it.” And if your name’s Anna, he’s calling you “Banana.” The You Made It Weird host is a silly, silly man.



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Spit Take Saturday: Nikki Glaser and Sara Schaefer

Welcome 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!

________________________

Live Review: Nikki & Sara & Friends at the NY Comedy Festival, Liberty Hall at the Ace Hotel – November 10, 2012

As hosts of the weekly podcast “You Had To Be There,” Nikki Glaser and Sara Schaefer have an obvious rapport—one that earned them their own show on MTV, which debuts early next year. As part of the New York Comedy Festival, Glaser and Schaefer hosted “Nikki & Sara & Friends” at Liberty Hall—quite possibly the most awkwardly arranged venue in the city’s storied comedy history—with Gary Gulman, Pete Holmes, Dan Soder, Kyle Dunnigan and Bonnie McFarlane.

Glaser and Schaefer opened the show with a 10-minute set, the highlight of which was a discussion of Schaefer’s experience as part of a foursome. “Basically it was just me and another girl watching them have sex,” Schaefer said. Glaser segued into an anecdote about how two guys propositioned her for a threesome, which she found odd because not only were they probably gay, but “Who has a threesome on a Wednesday?”

The duo works well together: they don’t step on each other’s toes, their timing is admirable and they unquestionably elevate each other’s work. Glaser and Schaefer each performed a solo set between comedians, but it would have been nice to see them in action together more. With five comedians in tow, it’s hard to blame them for limiting their joint stage time, but considering how smoothly they work together, it would have only enhanced the show.


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Spit Take Saturdays: Paul F. Tompkins

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Fans of urbane podcaster and “Mr. Show” veteran Paul F. Tompkins have likely watched his recent Comedy Central special, “Laboring Under Delusions,” which shares much of its material with this audio-only version.

But “Live in Brooklyn” [ASpecialThing Records] also contains 19 more minutes than even the “uncensored” Comedy Central DVD, and since Tompkins is both a gifted storyteller and jaunty improviser, “Live in Brooklyn” is worth the price of admission—at least if you’re dying to hear such elaborately-titled “riff suites” as “Vaudeville Moths – The Great Chandelier Debate – The Organs of the House Skeleton,” which opens the album.

Recorded at Brooklyn’s Bell House, it’s looser than the TV special, which took its name from Tompkins’s stories about odd jobs and general professional embarrassment. Those stories remain in roughly the same order, but their delayed intro blunts the thematic unity when compared to the special. Tompkins’s improv is charming and witty, as usual, but the edited-down version was more presentable to general audiences for a reason.


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