Splitsider

 
Careers
10

The Road Less Travelled: Eight Comedy Stars Who Took Different Paths to the Top

by | August 11th, 2011

Oh fame, you are fickle temptress! While the Bill Hickses of the world receive your clammy embrace only after death, you mount yourself on a Dane Cook like a teenager after her first taste of Peach Schnapps! But there are no guarantees in this life. And there are no sure paths to becoming famous. Hundreds of top-notch stand-ups and sketch/improv performers are toiling away in obscurity at this very second (okay, maybe not this very second, but you get the gist).

So, how the hell do you become the next comedy sensation?

While most of our most renowned comedy performers have come up either through stand-up or sketch/improv (the two have been combine for brevity’s sake), there are a few talented writers and performers who find a work-around. Here are their stories. READ MORE

Movies
5

But How Does it Hold Up?

by | June 15th, 2011

A few weeks ago I re-watched the venerable Mel Brooks film, Blazing Saddles. I hadn’t seen the movie in at least seven years, mostly because due to my near nightly screenings of it during my teens and early twenties, there was no point. The film had been committed to memory. After finding out that my girlfriend had seen the movie only once (obviously she must have had a full social life as a young person), I decided it was high time to see this film again.

But while watching it, I began to feel uncomfortable. In my memory, this was a madcap romp with jokes flying fast and furious, speeding past me like the bullets from Black Bart’s guns. What struck me, however, was that the pace was not nearly as quick as I remembered. The jokes didn’t fly at a devil-may-care pace. In fact, it moved pretty damned slowly.

Now, I would never argue against Blazing Saddles’ rightful place in the pantheon of classic comedies. It was and is a truly courageous, biting, and most importantly, hilarious comedy that performed double duty as fantastic spoof of the Western genre and as a brilliant satire of racial relations in America at that time. But the fast paced and layered comedies of today, such as Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Community, Knocked Up, and even The Hangover may have ruined my ability to enjoy the older classics such as Blazing Saddles. READ MORE

Older posts »