Page Turner Gift Guide

Sick and tired of donning the hazmat suit and goggles needed for trips to the mall? We've all grown weary of the post-apocalyptic dreamscape that is our current reality and that is why we're helping transport you to a time when your biggest worries were the height of your hair and if your legwarmers matched your sweater.   This holiday season we've picked a crop of 80s themed books that are guaranteed to bring you back to a simpler time when we could only imagine the world we live in as the plot of a bad sci-fi movie.

Brat: An 80's Story, by Andrew McCarthy

A fascinating memoir with a peek behind the scenes for those of us curious about what it was like to come of age in the midst of the infamous "brat back". If you caught yourself pining for the soulful-looking McCarthy as a zit-covered teenager, this is the guilty pleasure read for you.

Life & Death on the NY Dance Floor 1980-1983, by Tim Lawrence

If you want a no holds barred look at the New York dance scene, the clubs that made the news, and the DJ's that made them the place to be, then this blast from the past will send you right back to that extremely unique time in New York City history. This fertile artistic and creative timeframe spawned some of the best stories of New York nightlife culture and the people behind it. 

In between Days: The Cure In Photographs 1982-2005, by Tom Sheehan

The audience for this one might be a little slimmer (ie; Cure fans) but if you want a comprehensive visual history of the band shot by a photographer who worked with them over three decades, then this is for you. An extra bonus for longtime followers is some never-before-seen pics and a forward by Robert Smith himself.

Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the '80s Changed Hollywood Forever, by Nick de Semlyen

If you were a child of the 80s, you grew up on the comedy and films of Belushi, Chase, Murray, Aykroyd, Murphy, Martin, etc, and they eventually helped create the movies and tv that became the cultural touchstones of our generation. This is an honest, warts and all love letter to our favorite funny men and their work. Any book that starts off with a fistfight between two comedy legends is on my must-have list. 

Life Moves Pretty Fast: The Lessons We Learned from 80s Movies, by Hadley Freeman

Looking for inspiration and a guide for rewatching all the magical movies that shaped you into the human being you are today? Stop searching because Hadley Freeman has a comprehensive, well-researched book that includes lists, interviews, social commentary, and personal anecdotes to help drive home exactly why the movies that hit so hard three decades ago are still must-watch cinema for so many of us. Stop pretending you didn't lister to Ferris. take a day off, steal your best friend's dad's car and spend the day in the city as a teenager and order this immediately. 

Nöthin But A Good Time: The Uncensored History of the 80s Hard Rock Explosion, by Tom Beaujour 

And finally, for our hard-rocking hair metal fans, here is the over-the-top history of the 80s heavy metal explosion that came to define a decade of excess and the overuse of hairspray.  A frothy walk back through the era that helped everyone forget the blandness of their everyday existence and step into the glory years of leather, big hair, and screeching guitars. 

Pod-Fascination: Topics

Pod-Fascination is a regular column in which I recommend podcasts and specific podcast episodes. Tweet your suggestions to me @robinhardwick.

Topics
As a fan of now-legendary comedy troupeThe State, I am always overjoyed to see members of the group still collaborating on projects more than two decades after the group formed. Members of The State are behind such pillars of comedy as Wet Hot American Summer, Reno 911!, Viva Variety, Childrens Hospital, and countless others. Any current successful comedy likely involves at least one alum of The State.

Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter, reuniting after their brilliant-but canceled Comedy Central show Michael & Michael Have Issues, have started a weekly podcast called Topics. Aptly named, the two discuss philosophical and erudite topics such as "Does God Exist," "Power," "Utopia," etc. As expected from these two, the humor comes from farce and satire. Michael Ian Black maintains his persona as a condescending pompous jerk, while Showalter falls easily into the voice of reason. Michael Ian Black has maintained his asshole persona so well, that it is sometimes hard to tell if it really is a persona, especially after some recent Twitter feuds.

The conversations are inane, misguided, and quite frankly ignorant, which is the fun of it. This is not for the typical comedy podcast listener who likes broad characters and elaborate setups. Defenses of Hitler have come up in several episodes, for example. The thing that makes it more layered than other comedy podcast is that the podcast contains a lot of anti-humor, which is acknowledged by the hosts, which makes it even more anti-humor.

The podcast has also included in-between episodes that address listener emails, which only adds to the justification of the hosts' (or the hosts' personas') ignorance. Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black have used this formula in several projects for a while now, but why change when it works so well.

Erik Griffin: The Culture Brats Interview

If you're a fan of Comedy Central's Workaholics, you're already familiar with Montez Walker. Erik Griffin is the comedian who brings the character to life. We sat down and spoke with him about his upcoming comedy album, his Comedy Central special, his record label, Workaholics, and horror movies.

How are you doing today?
I'm good, just tired. I've been doing a lot of traveling, so it's good to be home for a few days.

I heard you filmed your special for Comedy Central last week in Boston. How did that go?
You know, it went great. I was surprised how many actual fans were in the crowd. I really enjoyed it.

Do you when it'll air yet?
I have no idea. They didn't tell me any info, but I believe it's like the summertime. Probably late summer.

Cool. You recently signed to SideOneDummy and you're the only comedian on the label. What's that like?
I was just really moved by the owner of the label, Joe Sib. His enthusiasm for wanting to do comedy, his watching me a few times, and us having a real heart-to-heart conversation about it. It was like, "This is where I want to be." And what's more punk rock than a comedian being on a punk rock label?

Have you met any of the bands yet?
No, just passing through the office I've seen a couple of them. I've seen the guy from Flogging Molly. I'm down to meet more of them. I want to meet the Restorations because I really want to do a song with them because I want to do some comedy music also.

I've heard Technical Foul: Volume One and I think it's hilarious—--
You don't have to say that because of doing this. You can be honest.

I am being honest. I laughed all the way through it, especially--
That's great! It's really great to hear that because I haven't talked to anybody other than people in the label and the few interviews that I've done, so you're like the fourth or fifth person that's outside the label to hear the album so I'm really glad to hear that you feel that way.

For me, it brought me back to when I was young. It's been so long since I've sat down and listened to a comedy album, but that was something I did when I was a kid. I grew up on Raw and stuff like that.
Yeah, me too. I know exactly what you mean. That's why I did it. I always wanted to do it because when I was a kid, I would listen to comedy albums and they don't really do that anymore. YouTube and everything has taken that away and I was like, "You know what? I still want to do a comedy album."

You're right. You see the Comedy Central shows and YouTube and that's basically it other than just a few artists here and there.
Yeah. I'm trying to bring it back. It's old school, man.

Was it taped during various stops on your tour?
No, I actually did that in one shot at the La Jolla Comedy Store.

How does that work? Do you try to get friends and family to show up?
Nah. We advertised it and just wanted to get fans there, really. Not just friends, but fans because the fans are the ones. They go to comedy shows, they know how to act at a comedy show, and they're going to be more excited to see me. And they were.

How's the PledgeMusic thing going?
That's a new thing. I think I was the first comic on there and it's hard when it says PledgeMusic. It's kind of so-so. Some people did sign up. Some people are excited about it. I think it's a great system and if I was putting out a music album, I would definitely use that again. I would actually still use it again, regardless, now that I know more about it.

Workaholics, in my opinion, is one of the funniest shows on television. Is any of it improvised?
We improvise a little bit, but it's mostly based off the script. It's mostly scripted. It's from the mind of the boys, you know what I mean?

Some of it's pretty out there. Has there ever been a time when they came to you and asked you to do something and you just couldn't do it?
You would think that from the stuff that I've already done, that's already been asked. I trust their comedic sense and everything they've had in there so far: eating boogers, being naked, jumping in the pool. All of the stuff that they've already have has been... interesting.

Who do we have to talk to in order to get Montez on there more often?
Maybe start a Facebook fan page about it or something? I agree completely.



I love how you turned part of the one episode into "My Queen." Could you see yourself doing an entire album of songs?
Yes I do! I would love to do an entire album. I had so much fun making that song and doing that video.

Would you do it straight up or comedic?
It would be comedic because I'm a comedian. I'm a fun guy. I would take it serious, but it would still be fun.

One of my favorite bits on the album was about the scary movies. What are your five favorite horror movies to pop into the DVD player on a date?
I would never do that because I wouldn't want to be at home frightened in front of someone.

But it's one of the four types of movies they love!
If I had to pick five, it would be People Under The Stairs, Pet Sematary, of course Insidious, the movie I talk about.

Right.
Probably The Exorcist III and The Omen. Any of The Omens.

Thanks for taking the time to talk with me for a few minutes and I wish you the best of luck with the album. I think it's great and I think it's going to do very well.
Thank you very much. I really appreciate that.

More Erik Griffin: Official | Facebook | Twitter | PledgeMusic

Pod-Fascination: Ronna & Beverly And Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend

Each week, I recommend two podcasts that are worth your time, as well as plug my own podcast.

Ronna And Beverly
To me, the most impressive type of comedy is character-driven. The ability to embody a developed character and to be put in any situation and to react in character takes a special talent. Right now, there's no better example than Ronna and Beverly. Played by thirty-something actors, Ronna and Beverly are older Jewish women in their sixties living in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Elderly Jewish women? Like Linda Richman in Coffee Talk? No, not even close. Instead of relying on one-liners and your typical yenta stereotypes, Ronna and Beverly are fully developed characters with deep backstories and psyches that motivate their actions.

Ronna, a wealthy widow, is the voice of reason of the two. She enjoys the luxuries in life and makes sure she tells others how they should be living their best life. Beverly, on the other hand, is often inappropriate, drama-fueled, and often has a dark side. There are the expected idiosyncrasies of Jewish stereotypes, including their stifled racism, love for food, and obsession with telling people how to behave in relationships. As a longtime listener, I can't help but get wrapped up in the world that have created. One in which Beverly talks about her twin daughters, the beautiful one and the "heavy" one, her ex-husband, guidance counselor Aaron Ginsberg, and the drama she has with the Sisterhood of her local synagogue (their friends, known as the "Barbaras").

Each week, a comedian/director/actress is interviewed, rather, bombarded, by Ronna's drilling over how they should quit show business and get a real job, forced to talk about their sex life with Beverly. Generally, the more game the guest is to be berated by the duo, the funnier the results. It's all in good fun, except when Marc Maron shows up, for a delightfully uncomfortable episode. I look forward to the inevitable moment of each episode when Beverly turns on a guest for not supporting Israel, or uses her special power of seeing men as a unique animated inanimate object. Or Ronna's incessant use of "Isn't that funny? Isn't that cute?" as a self-congratulatory phrase.

Ronna and Beverly is more than a podcast. To me, it's a transformative experience. This is where great theater and great comedy combine. Jamie Denbo and Jessica Chafin, the women who play the characters, deserve so much more acclaim than they have. Although they do have a show that currently airs in the U.K., I hope they get more recognition in their homeland soon. And, for those of you (un)lucky enough to live in the Los Angeles area, they have a popular monthly show at the Upright Citizens Brigade.

TV Review: NTSF:SD:SUV:: The Best Show You're Not Watching

NTSF:SD:SUV:: (short for National Terrorist Strike Force San Diego Sport Utility Vehicle) is the perfect Thursday companion to its preceding show, Childrens Hospital, both premiering on August 9th on Adult Swim. Conceived by comedic Renaissance man Paul Scheer, the show emerged from a series of parody trailers that aired during Childrens Hospital. The name of the show was the main joke, a take on all the CSI and Law & Order shows. It's a pretty funny joke, but to develop it into an actual series? Would that really work?

Oh, hell yes. It works just perfectly.

The basic story structures are based on a secret government anti-terrorist group run by a strict leader, played by Kate Mulgrew (Star Trek Voyager!), and includes the nerdy scientist who is supposed to be nerdy but is Hollywood beautiful (Rebecca Romijn), the tough black guy (Brandon Johnson), the ass-kicking babe (June Diane Raphael), the intelligent robot that doesn't seem to have a purpose, and the nerdy tech guy (played by Martin Starr, playing his best Martin Starr). Leading the cast is Paul Scheer as hot-shot Tent Hauser, who provides the David-Caruso pun-and-sunglasses schtick on every show. And no, it never gets old.

The scenarios involve the gang fighting terrorism and evil plan-hatching masterminds, but like its Adult Swim companion show Childrens Hospital, its genius lies in broad, visual gags and parody. Surprisingly, this show is filmed with what looks like a very hefty special effects budget, so we get the visuals of a Michael Bay film with the comedic commentary of stupid action flicks. However, like most Adult Swim shows, no stereotypes, language, or topics are off-limits.

Nothing is too over the top for this show to cover. In fact, the more over-the-top, the better. Last season, evil talking dolphins, nuclear weaponry, cruise ship hijacking, and mind control were all featured. The season two premiere episode, "16 Hop Street," is a direct parody of 21 Jump Street. Even though the movie was released this past year, that film was a self-aware commentary on the show, but NTSF creates a direct parody. Guest star and comedy podcast superstar Jon Daly guest stars as the undercover cop who's been in deep cover in the high school for over 15 years and is the suspected perpetrator. The team enrolls in high school, where Piper becomes more concerned about her status as a the popular mean girl than the mission, and Trent keeps almost blowing his cover by injuring people.