Paul Dooley, Jeremy Kramer, Rick Overton, Chris Pina, Janie Haddad Tompkins, and Robin Williams. Musical Guest Will Ryan And The Cactus County Cowboys. Written by Dylan Brody, Frank Conniff, Ray James, Guy Nicolucci, Steve Rosenfield, Robert Smigel, and Ben Zelevansky. Executive Producer is Troy Conrad. Mixed and engineered by Alex Steen. Edited by Darren Ayres, our production assistant is Alicia Cordova. Special thanks to Rebecca Erwin Spencer, David Steinberg, Alan Minsky, Ali Lexa , Matt Perez and Jimmy Dore. Originally Broadcast on Pacifica Radio November 18, 2011.
Brendon Burns’ television career began, alongside Sacha Baron Cohen and Ricky Gervais, as a performer on Channel 4’s late-night spontaneous comedy show The Eleven O’Clock Show. He has subsequently appeared as a presenter on the ITV show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, and as the conductor of masterclasses in stand-up (again on ITV).
Burns appeared on ITV2’s Comedy Cuts. Brendon won the if.comedy award for his show So I Suppose This Is Offensive Now at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Also at the 2007 Fringe, Brendon Burns appeared alongside Adam Hills and Sammy J in a stage version of Breaker Morant by The Comedians’ Theatre Company directed by Phil Nichol.
Burns’ albums include: Buckets and Sulphur, Misspent Childhood, Not for Everyone, Brendon vs Burnsy, All My Love All My Rage, Sober not Clean, And The Thinking Mans Idiot.
He famously gave out Magic Mushrooms (then legal) to an entire audience at the Glastonbury festival as part of a documentary being filmed by friend and film maker Paul Provenza. Today’s show was edited by Ben Schultz.
Air America Radio writer and correspondent, internationally renowned political satirist and author of the acclaimed Seven Stories Press book Never Shake Hands With A War Criminal helped bring the Boston Comedy scene into the modern age when he founded two of Boston’s most fabled clubs: The Ding Ho and Stitches. Such acts as Steven Wright, Paula Poundstone, Bobcat Goldthwait, Kevin Meaney, Jimmy Tingle and many, many others cut their comedic teeth in the rooms Crimmins started and at shows he produced.
The Boston Herald’s Robin Vaughn’s review of one of Barry’s shows included a concise Boston Comedy history lesson.
“In 1979, Crimmins, a politically minded comedian from upstate New York, started booking Boston’s brightest, brashest young wits into the Ding Ho, a seedy Chinese restaurant in Inman Square. The club, run for and by comedians, was an unpedigreed underdog, but broke conventions of the day in paying its performers reasonable fees and maintaining Crimmins’ comedy booking standards. He was hell-bent on originality and unforgiving of plagiarism. It was boot camp for the best comics in Boston and some of the most successful standups in the country. ”
According to that same Vaughn review, Crimmins hasn’t lost any prowess as a performer.
“To his old crowd, Crimmins is the patron saint of original, creative comedy in Boston and a brooding ideologue. His wit is as sharp as his sense of social justice, which has been known to eclipse a joke or two. But his hour-plus show, ‘Chicken Soup for the Vegetarian Soul’, served as a persuasive example of what intelligent stand-up comedy, politically themed or otherwise, can be.”
After helping jumpstart Boston comedy, Barry left production to concentrate on performing. In short order he gained attention as one of the top political satirists in the country. He has made countless television appearances on everything from The NBC Nightly News to The HBO Young Comedians Special to The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. He has recorded two CD’s: Strange Bedfellows on A&M and Kill the Messenger on Green Linnet. His writings appear regularly in the Boston Phoenix as well as several other publications. He was a staff writer for the syndicated Dennis Miller Show and has toured in performance with Billy Bragg, Jackson Browne, Utah Phillips, Michelle Shocked, Steven Wright, Dar Williams and numerous others.
This show was edited by Ben Schultz.
Andrea Martin, Rick Overton, Eddie Pepitone, Frank Conniff, Kevin Rooney, Steve Rosenfield, Jane Edith Wilson, Chris Pina. Written by Steve Rosenfield, Frank Conniff, Ben Zelevansky and David Weiss. Sketches include Klown Kamp Massacre, Muntz, Reality Bible, Frank Conniff’s America,That’s Not Funny, and Futterman’s. Paul F. Tompkins reports from Comic-Con. Mixed and engineered by Alex Steen. Edited by Darren Ayres. Executive Producer Troy Conrad. Originally broadast on KPFK 90.7 FM July 21, 2011.
Showtime’s Green Room begins a new season starting July 14th. Paul Provenza, one of the world’s leading experts on standup comedy, stops by to discuss his show and what he continues to learn about the sweet science of making people laugh. This is the full unedited interview with Paul featured on our Pacifica Radio show which had to be trimmed due to time constraints.
From The Simpsons Dana Gould joins comedy writers Kevin Rooney and Beth Armogida on the topic of whether writing for television can lead to any satisfaction. Plus Dana plays John Boehner. Gene Pompa plays Jew Or Nazi. David plays with himself. Written by Kevin Rooney, and Steve Rosenfield. Featuring Beth Armogeda, Carol Davis, Troy Conrad, Kevin Rooney, Mark Thompson and Dana Gould.
“What I love about ‘The David Feldman Show’ is I’m listening to a middle-aged guy getting radicalized, but he still can’t stop telling dick jokes with his comic friends from the ’80s.” – Michael Brooks, The Michael Brooks Show
“I love how David gives both sides of a story: profound and anti-found.” – Congressman Alan Grayson
“A podcast for folks who believe that strong political convictions and a sense of humor do not have to be mutually exclusive.” – Nathan Rabin, The AV Club
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