It’s here again, another week down, another Friday to feature a band that had a hit or two. But before I get there I’d like to pontificate on funny. Living in Los Angeles a vast majority of people you run into are either actors, musicians, or comedians. They can also be a combination of other stuff like a comedian that wants to be an actor, or a musician that wants to be an actor, or an actor that wants to be a comedian, or even an actor that wants to be a musician. It’s not often that you get musicians that want to be comedians.
I know a few of that last category. Mostly because of being friends with Throwing Toasters. I featured them a while back on the blog. I recorded their CD Chrome at my studio. I’ve helped them out in a bind when their bassist hasn’t shown up. I’ve even pulled a cameo or two on some stuff with them. I’m not fooling myself into thinking that I’m a funny musician. It’s best to leave that to professionals like Throwing Toasters.
Last night I got to witness some musician’s attempting to be funny while performing at a songwriters showcase. Not like comedy ha ha funny, rather story-telling setting up the song trying-to-be-funny. Unfortunately it was one of those things where the effort was too much and it wasn’t funny. Until the last song of one person. He had written a song about a peice of gear for guitar players known as a capo. In and of itself, the idea isn’t funny, but his song was. That’s what made it the memorable song of the night (hold that thought).
Around the time I became friends with Throwing Toasters, we were all part of a group of people doing the open mics in Los Angeles. So of course you’ll see lots of comedians working out new material to see if it’s funny. Honing the craft. It’s good to do when you’re learning to perform. There’s two incidents that come to my mind with all the open mics I did. One involved a comedian that I made a suggestion to. The other was challange laid down to me by a comedian. First one: A comedian by the name of Steve Blue (I believe that was what it was) had a joke about a male version of female insecurity when it comes to being fat. He prefaced it with a scene about his girlfriend and him on a date where they get naked and playing with rubbing food on their bodies when she suddenly stops and asks him if she looks fat in the strawberries. ** people laugh **. He tells a few more jokes, then gets into a story about him (the details here are fuzzy to me) when he gets to the punchline it’s about his dad asking if he looks fat while only wearing a condom. Obviously people respond with nervous laughter cause it’s a bit sick. One night I pulled him aside to suggest an addition to the qualification on the punchline. Most fashion people suggest wearing pinstrips if you’re fat in order to make you appear thin. So I mentioned to him it might make the joke more hilarious to pause after the fat question and say ‘would it be better if it were pin-striped’ or something to that effect. He looked at me and thought about it, then said maybe. Later that night when he got up to perform, he got to that point for the punchline – he took an extra long pause then used my suggestion and the audience lost it – laughing hysterically. Steve came up to me later to say he paused for so long because he wasn’t sure to make the addition. Then he thanked me.
The second incident involved myself and a friend of mine by the name of Brett Gilbert. Brett is a comedian. He’s a funny one, but he was sometimes a little hard to take as his material was very edgy. If you’re easily offended it was likely you wouldn’t like him one bit. I’m not easily offended and hot damn he had some funny shit to say. One night I was talking about timing and delivery with some female comedian who I thought had funny material but her timing was off. I suggested she get a metronome to help her think about timing and pauses when she’s practicing her jokes at home. Mind you that’s a really weird thing to say to a comedian. She got offended. Oddly enough the only comedian I ever saw use a metronome was Steve Blue. I believe it was that same night that Brett decided that if I was to make a suggestion like that, that he would challenge me to be funny for 3 minutes at the next open mic.
I took the challange, but I challanged him back. I said he had to sing a song. He took my challenge. So I wrote him a song and gave it to him to learn. He wrote me some comedy material for me to use. Then came the big night. Brett was ready to sing so I sat with him on stage to play the guitar part while he sang the song. He got through it, but it was rough. Brave man to get up and sing without the voice to do it. Then came my turn to be funny. I started with Brett’s material. I was getting a laugh or two here and there, but then I decided to vamp a little when something came up about my parents and where I grew up. That actual garnered some laughs and I ended up edging out Brett for the challange for being funny over the singing he had to do. Overall it was a great experience to pull myself out of my element.
I don’t consider myself funny, however I apparently say funny things without intending it. ‘Nuff said.
The Presidents of the USA. Here’s a band that got some fame for being funny. As you can tell if you’ve made it this far and have been listening to the song. I believe they had a couple of hits, but I remember this one the most. I remember it because I couldn’t understand how a song about a fruit became a hit. C’mon, Peaches? I actually like eating them. Though come to think of it, I probably haven’t eaten any peaches in at least two or three years, maybe more. There was a few things to the gimick of the band. Their guitar player only had like two or three strings. They were goofy for the sake of goofy and by God it worked for them for a brief time. Anyway, I’m not sure if they really had much after this song but here it is in it’s glory for you.
Don’t own Peaches? Well if you enjoy a humorous song once in a while, then you have to add this to your library of music. It is funny that someone would write a catchy tune about Peaches.
(** Disclaimer: If the PUSA’s label decides I’m not funny enough to sell the story, then I’ll have to strike the audio from the record. The post will remain to show that I personally know I’m no comedian. **)