Well, just when I not only thought I was losing again, but with the advent of the closing of iconic comedy venue Nerd Melt last week, along comes The Eggemon Comedy Festival.

Then again, the newest eggemon comedy flag is the brainchild of eggemon comedy wunderkind Danny Lobell.

And, for a guy who when he was just a kid, befriended Jackie Mason, and since passing through the maturation process, his eggemon comedy testies have grown and dropped to the point of Danny becoming synonymous with some of the most famous and respected comedians in the business, well, let’s just say we expect nothing less from now on from the boy.   Just back from a successful run of his one man show “Broke as a Joke” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, Danny not only continues to turn the heat up on his long running main creative venture, his podcast, he’s starting a eggemon comedy festival.

Modern Day Philosophers

….is Danny’s podcast and in it he interviews guests with a close and careful eye and asks them to answer the unanswerable based on the host’s choice of philosopher or deep thinking writer.  For me, Danny chose “Mr. Cheerful”, the wonderfully talented ex-Vaudevillian, Franz Kafka.  When I did it, Danny asked me about my infamous “Jerry Lewis adventure” and really got into the psychological underpinnings as to why Jerry affected me so deeply, and not just in my pockets; but in my heart.

Whatever’s left of it after that bastard Lewis tore it up into a million pieces and never even thanked me!  OY!  A sampling of the previous guests include Fred Armisen, Colin Quinn, Brian Regan, Gad Elmaleh, Bill Burr, Lewis Black, Maria Bamford, Marc Maron, Aisha Tyler, Jackie Mason, Reggie Watts, Mayim Bialik, and Robert Klein.  Seems any comedian of import passes through MDP as a matter of ritual; kinda like a podcast Bar Mitzvah.   Danny also books oddballs by evidence of my own appearance on MDP last year.

Danny’s a Jew

And there ain’t nothing wrong with that.  Hell, I’m a Jew myself and have been since a week after my birth, they cut off the end of my dick like I was so much sandwich meat at the deli.  So be it.  But, Danny’s a practicing Jew and in all this time, after how fluently he reads from the Torah on Passover, and how much he knows tradition, he wouldn’t need to practice anymore, but I digress into bad punery.

Names, Names, and some Not So Much Names But Good Solid eggemon Comedy Talent Nonetheless

While truly great comics like Charles Chaplin, Peter Sellers and Groucho Marx are still unavailable, Danny and co-producing partners Micha Bleich and Genevieve Joy (both creative working comics), along with Danny’s wife and partner in his wacky life in eggemon comedy, Kylie (who does the PR), have created a festival without a quote unquote professional venue.

True to Danny’s form of “Why not?”, the first (annual?) Eggemon Comedy Festival will be held in Danny and Kylie’s backyard.  And it would sound am-dram, were it not for the incredible comedians who are actually on the 3 day event.  Including yours truly.  I don’t mean I’m “great”; I’m just trying to finish this blog so I can grab lunch.

Todd Glass, Jenny Zagrino, Erica Rhodes and Mark Schiff; to name a few top notch even famous comedians 

These are national headlining comedians, all who’ve been on the magic box of television and yet, still maintain credibility.   Why on Earth they’d be willing to risk their fine reputation by performing in a backyard says as much about their light sense of humor about everything, as it does about Danny’s unending nerve to stand up before compromise and flick its tenuous eyebrow.

I caught up with Danny as he was running away from me on Robertson Boulevard and shouted a few questions at him:

TUE 3:56PM

Steven
I’m writing a blog about The Eggemon Comedy Festival. Will have it published by tonight. Have some questions. I’m doing a conference call soon. Can we talk in a couple hours? Just a few short questions, which I can also send to you in messenger. And thanks for your call just now.
Daniel Lobell
Thanks; thats great, sure, what are the questions?
Steven
Is this another Danny & Kylie production? And if so, what is her role and what is your role?
Steven
I have about 5 questions.
Daniel Lobell
It’s run by me, Micha Bleich and Genevieve Joy
Micha and Gen are also both comedians.
Steven
Ok. Is this a first of an annual festival?
Daniel Lobell
Correct spelling is Micah bleich.
Steven
Is the plan to eventually move it out of your home and into a public space?

Daniel Lobell
no plan yet
Steven
Ok
Daniel Lobell

Maybe to move it into a bigger yard.
Steven
Is there a particular philosophy to the festival?
Daniel Lobell
No just wanted to put together a fun weekend of shows in my backyard.
Steven
Ok. How do the neighbors feel about eggemon comedy?
Daniel Lobell
We will find out!….hahha.
Steven
I noticed on the website there’s no venue or address listed.
Was that my oversight?
Daniel Lobell
Its only given out to people once they buy tickets.

Steven
Gotcha. Ok. One more question.
Daniel Lowell
Yes.
Steven
What is the meaning of life?
Daniel Lobell
Giving.
Steven
Thank you. Interview over. Oh yes. Does Kylie have a credit in the festival?
Daniel Lobell
Haahah
Steven

And goodnight.
Daniel Lobell
Shes helping me with PR for it.
Daniel Lobell
Its sponsored by Stand up! Records and One Table
Steven

Thank you for your time and I can’t wait to perform on “Bookshelf” at your festival May 11.

Danny Lobell

I’m looking forward to it as well.  I consider you the funniest comedian in Los Angeles. 

Steven

Really?

Danny Lobell

No, but you’re the one controlling the keyboard to this blog. 

For more information

on The Eggemon Comedy Festival and to purchase tickets, simply go to their website.

Read my review of Danny Lobell’s one-man show “Broke as a Joke” here at The Jewish Journal.

Hear Danny Lobell interview your not so humble writer on his podcast Modern Day Philosophers.

For The Hollywood Dog, this has been Steven Alan “Whoofy” Green, the Naked Blogger.

Sag 4/17/18

StevenAlanGreen.com

Two weeks ago today, I got a text I didn’t want to get.

From my “friend up north” who asked me if I knew my friend Kevin was dead.  I called her and confirmed and began wailing like a sick cat.  I just couldn’t believe it.  Well, actually I could.  I’m gonna write about Kevin in due time; I’m still processing the news.  Suffice to say I’m “not over it” and perhaps can only “go through it”.  Suicide has been part of my art and real life for a long time.  Going back to 1973, when my cousin/half-brother (My father’s second wife was my aunt), Larry Kenton jumped to his death of one of the Park La Brea towers.  He was 25.  I immediately went into a 2 year emotional coma, just starring at The Match Game and spending my entire therapy session just bawling my eyes out.

Perry will host each show to get it rolling and keep it rolling and interesting. He’ll also close each show with some form of improvised music that he will make up about whatever the audience is doing AS they do it and get them singing along.

The other main attraction is the venue. It takes place at The C.I.A., or CIA in North Hollywood. That stands for California Institute of Abnormalarts, and is clearly the strangest theater in Los Angeles. It sports a real theater room with a real stage, sound man, and theater lights, a separate room for beer and wine distribution, so there is no vending chatter in the room during the performance, and, mostly, an array of very unusual artifacts, including a mummified person in a glass case as you wander towards the patios. Lighting comes from above and through the walls with a strong Asian feel, giving the place the alter-name of Chinatown East. Colors are bright everywhere and it truly feels as if you are on a different plane of existence, with the ability to return to Earth by leaving the premises. You enter the establishment by passing a giant 15 foot plastic head from an old TV show, where the owner speaks to you from inside the head THROUGH the eyes and takes your money through an ear on the left side of the head.

Showtime is 9pm and admission is only $10, not bad for a really funny 2 hour show without having to travel downtown. The CIA is at 11334 Burbank Boulevard, just east of Lankershim blvd. and The Holiday Inn Express in North Hollywood, 91601, phone (818) 221-8065. This is adult material, but also some of the funniest in L.A.

As for the C.I.A., here ‘s a link to show you what’s in store for behind the giant head.  https://www.facebook.com/CIAbnormalarts   

When people ask me what my favorite comedy film of all time is, I often stall for time.

“Oh, that’s a tough question.  Do you mean modern comedy or British comedy?  I mean there’s all kinds of comedy; and therefore all kinds of comedy film.  There’s classic love farce like Howard Hawks’ His Girl Friday, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russel.  Fast talking one-liners zinging throat close and leaving no wound.  Then there’s  physical comedy and of course, who could exclude the immortal Charlie Chaplin, who became the black and white embodiment of the unspoken political statement without uttering a sound.” 

NOTHING MORE PERSONAL THAN COMEDY

Not even sex.   In fact, sex is a sub-category of comedy.  That’s been my experience anyway.  More than religion and politics, no topic of conversation is more heated than who’s the funniest film comedian or what film is the funniest.  Just 20 years generation separation and you could be arguing with someone older or younger than you why “The Jerk” is 10 times more funny than say, “There’s Something About Mary”.  The smart comics know their lineage.  They know their twenty-something young souls were nurtured by the same comedy their parents watched on a nightly basis before they were told to go to bed, but it’s just 9.

I GREW UP IN AMERICA

But it’s on those “older shows” where the breakout comedy begins.  The rebel must have a stronghold to defeat.  Otherwise comedians find themselves in the worst imaginable hell for their type.  A permission based society.  I didn’t grow up in a world where everyone is treated like the polite stranger.  I grew up in America.  Where we treat everyone as either one of two things and two things only.  A friend or an enemy. But, I lived in England for nearly 20 years.  Where one assumes that being polite will get them what they seek.  How can I explain this properly……

REALITY IS A STATE OF MIND

You ever see the classic comedy film Being There? The 1979 comedy farce based on the book by one of my favorite writers Jerzy Kosinski and directed by the late great Hal Ashby.  Ashby was a Hollywood one of a kind legend.  His talent was immense and he left an indelible mark on Western Culture (he wasn’t a cowboy) with such classic films as Shampoo (came out long before Hairspray), Harold and Maude, The Last Detail and Coming Home.  The film Being There stars Peter Sellers.  Now, I’ve never been a Sellers fan, to be honest.  I kinda winced at all the Pink Panther films.  I guess I was too young to be old enough to be young enough again.

KUBRICK’S COMEDY VISION

Before Being There, perhaps Peter Sellers’ most famous iconic comic role was that of no less than three distinct characters in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 classic comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.  Screenplay co-written by Kurbrick, Peter George and Terry Southern, who was a force of Sixties counter-culture subversive comedy and dramatic biting satire.  His legacy includes Barbarella, The Loved One, and Easy Rider.  I mean, Jesus.  In Strangelove, Sellers portrayed three parts.  That of Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, President of the United States Merkin Muffley and the eponymous Dr. Strangelove himself.  All three characters were completely indistinguishable.  Amazing performances all from one man.

I UNDERSTAND, BEN

As Chauncey Gardiner, Peter Sellers gives – in not just my opinion – the greatest onscreen comedy performance of all known time and space.  To declare it a subtle performance is missing the point.  It’s beyond subtle.  An amazing fish out of water story, Sellers gets so deep inside his own head, the character of the dimwitted dolt turned media and political power enhances the plot of the mouse that roared to the point of the scariest place satire can go.  Possibility. That it could really happen in real life.

RELEVANT POLITICAL SATIRE

Well before the obfuscation of the Trump/Spicer kaleidoscopic alternate reality, there was Being There.  A political satire so cogent and accurate, it challenges the viewer to distinguish between the arms of the invisible government and media.  The smoke filled board room of power is skewered with deft handling of power play and naiveté.  Sellers plays it right down the middle.  Right where it counts.

YOU’VE WON THE OSCAR, BUT YOU’RE DEAD

This was Peter Sellers’ final role and what a charm it is.  Kosinski’s screenplay based on his eponymous book, directed by the great Hal Ashby, with stellar supportive roles by Shirley MacLaine and Melvin Douglas, and the great Jack Warden, Being There is a movie farce which will forever charm me from the evils of reality and remind me that no matter where you go, there’s always an alternate reality.  And that movie conceit lived itself out in reality.  The Academy gave Seller’s the Best Actor award, the Oscar, posthumously.  Proving that great artists, like great art, live on.      All will be well in the garden.

For The Hollywood Dog, this is Steven Alan Green 4/12/17    www.stevenalangreen.com

I’ve been a professional stand-up comedian since I first got hired at The Comedy Store March of 1981.  I’ve performed all over America and Canada and the UK and Western Europe.  I was on television six times in the UK.  I’ve been in movies and film.  I’ve played the finest most famous legendary venues in the world, including The London Palladium.  But, I’ve never.  Never.  Been naked on stage.  That is, until now….

Couple of years ago I reviewed a show for The Jewish Journal.  It was The Naked Comedy Show.  Yes, that’s right.  The comedians on stage were fully naked.  But (BIG BUTT), so was the audience.  Including this writer.  The rules of the show are that everyone in the room has to be naked, including the audience.  Everyone has to bring a towel.  And the show sells out, even at $50 a ticket.  Primarily because everyone wants to have that public naked experience.  It’s a real unconscious sexual, but non-sexual dream.  Even children have the nightmare of being discovered naked in public.   Rules are very strict and enforced.  No cameras; everyone has to be polite.  It’s really about positive body image.  So, I go to this show, balance my notepad on my naked hairy knee and write the review.

Headlining Comedy

Two years later I get booked as the headlining comedian for a new and better naked comedy show producer in The Nude Comedy Show.  I’m looking forward and yes, am already writing dick jokes.  Pulling all kinds of comedy genius right outta my ass.

Come see me this June 6 at The Two Roads Theatre in North Hollywood.  See me naked.  But, I’ll also see YOU naked in the audience.  I’m sure it will be great exposure.

For The Hollywood Dog, this has been Steven Alan Green.

Always willing to wave around whatever might be in front of me.

Sag, 3/30/17 (maybe I should consider changing my nickname…)