Tyrone Kahn explodes some myths

My pal Tyrone Kahn has a thing about profanity, at least where Kahn Man’s Comedy Corner is concerned, because he considers his monthly podcast to be family entertainment.

For example, Tyrone has created his own backwards version of the word shit, which he pronounces as yaish. Nobody’s the wiser, eh?

Farts are another story. On the phone, Tyrone farts frequently and without shame. “I can smell that one from here!” I tell him, while marshaling my forces for a return blast. Continue reading

Posted in: Interviews at 12:39 am Wed, Feb 3, 2010.

Goldstein gang renews gigglefest

I call it a stage persona, you call it a bad first impression.

Gotta admit, though, that I just can’t help myself. The invitation to appear on a rare episode of Schnauzer Logic flips my joke-writing switch and starts me churning out the sort of dark, political, Yiddische commentary I would have hoped to read at Lenny Bruce’s memorial service.

Alas, once the show begins, I realize I’m expected to engage in conversation with a panel of literate grownups, all born too late for What’s My Line? and too smart for radio, but perfect foils for the independent new medium of podcasting. Continue reading

Posted in: Interviews at 8:04 pm Fri, Dec 25, 2009.

How To Write Stand Up Comedy

What? You funny?

Honestly, I expect that reaction. Who made this nudnick the spokesmodel for stand up? By what authority is some would-be, who’s never been closer to a Comedy Central special than his TV remote, now the go-to guy on getting laughs?

Well, there’s your first and most important lesson in show business: You don’t have to be good. You just have to know somebody. And I know George Smyth. Continue reading

Posted in: Interviews at 12:54 am Sun, Dec 20, 2009.

The kid can write his own ticket!

City For Conquest: Sensitive composer Arthur Kennedy’s sitting at the piano during mobster Elia Kazan’s fancy blowout, and reluctant welterweight Jimmy Cagney implores him, “Come on, Eddie. Play that song that I like.”

So Arthur Kennedy begins his sweaty classical masterpiece, and the partiers ignore him, start talking even louder, and Arthur Kennedy responds, bitterly, “I’ll show them,” and breaks into a wild, cheap, popular number he’s been holding in reserve. Continue reading

Posted in: Interviews at 8:46 pm Sat, Mar 28, 2009.

Alive and kickin’ with Trevor and W.C.

Some radio people, the bad ones, the yukkers, fear nothing so much as dead air, that second or two of silence where thoughtful people might consider what they’re going to say next, but where radio people imagine listeners spinning the dial over to some other babbling idiot.

And so I’m surprised, pacified, relieved of tension inside the KNON FM 89.3 studio, where Texas Trevor and his sidekick, the convivial W.C., banter at the boom microphones like a pair of trail-worn ranchhands, exchanging dubious pleasantries about the weather. Continue reading

Posted in: Interviews at 4:43 pm Tue, Mar 10, 2009.