OVERNIGHTSCAPE CENTRAL [ 316 ] – Seinfeld (12/19/16)
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(1:30:00) Seinfeld is the topic this week. Amoral? Over-hyped? Superb television? Listen in and see what Smidge Kurdlebaum, PQ Ribber, Frank Edward Nora and Shambles Constant have to say. Jimbo too! All this and the “Week in Review”!
You’re all invited to be a part of next week’s show; you can tell us all what’s on your mind about the following topic:
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Released December 2016 on The Overnightscape Underground (onsug.com), an Internet talk radio channel focusing on a free-form monologue style, with diverse and very clever hosts presenting unique programs, historic archival material, and nocturnal audio.
great show!! i disagree, however that people trying to ‘be funny’ ever gets anywhere. frank is funny when he is funny. people ‘trying to be funny’ as a conscious effort, over content, almost always is contrived and ‘over-reaching’. i think our hosts ‘being themselves’ with as little pretension as possible is key to what makes ONSUG unique. much like our mentor, jean shepherd, is at his best simply monologing and letting the funny kind of flow as it goes…..
Comment by pqribber — December 20, 2016 @ 8:42 am
Yeah, that’s why no one listens to Marc Maron, Joe Rogan etc… Ever heard of a ‘set’? Ever heard of ‘comedians’? These people are TRYING to be funny and usually are. 😛
Comment by Jimbo — December 20, 2016 @ 9:48 am
I think a distinction needs to be made between “being funny” and “using humor.” When you write and prepare a routine ahead of time, you can do both, but when improvising or rampling, it’s usually better to use humor first and foremost, and let the funny stuff happen naturally (or not happen). If you come up with something genuinely lol funny out of that, great, but forcing yourself to be funny often results in the opposite.
Frank’s sense of humor comes out in pretty much every show he records – it’s a key element in expressing his personality – but that doesn’t mean his shows are laugh-a-minute. Or that he would want them to be.
Comment by Shambles — December 20, 2016 @ 4:03 pm
Joe Rogan and Marc are not funny to me. Jocular, kind of, and no doubt they PAY WRITERS and they do a mainstream show. Frank, as he is now is far more amusing, funny, and insightful than those guys will ever be. A really good and kind of sad example I can offer is our own Jean Shepherd… when he is in the studio, he relaxes and does incredible monologues. When he performs live at the Limelight, he is ‘trying to be hip and funny’ and too often it really fails. All of us, I feel, are ‘funny’ just doing what we do, naturally, and affectations arent needed.
Comment by pqribber — December 21, 2016 @ 7:13 am
Welp, true story, 19 out of 20 shows I ***try*** to be funny. I rarely if ever write my material down beforehand. But I still try to be funny. It is what I do. When I was in school I STRIVED to be the class clown. People enjoy the class clown more than the like the serious guy. That’s just the way it is.
And remember, I’m the guy that don’t like Sheps.
Comment by Jimbo — December 21, 2016 @ 12:10 pm
I will vouch for the just being yourself kind of funny instead of trying too hard. I definitely have done things in the world of podcasting which I’ve tried to plan out and script ahead, and then it just really doesn’t work (at least all of the time)! I also find that interacting with certain other people can change the whole game. I was on a Static Radio episode a while back & tried to plan out a funny story ahead which completely crashed & burned! But then the interaction with Bob & his partner Miles took it all in a different direction (and hilarity did ensue)!
Also, I remember hearing Frank with his old partner Mad Mike doing that return of their ABM show a few years ago & I couldn’t believe how funny it was! I never heard Frank like that before. But I think his interaction with Mike brought out a different comic side to his personality. And that is what I would say in argument of “Seinfeld.” All those actors (love them or hate them) came together and the comic results probably could never be replicated again. Those 4 actors together brought on a unique kind of comedy which they could probably not achieve on their own! I’m pretty sure at least Shambles will agree with me about Seinfeld! 😉
Comment by Smidge Kudlebaum — December 21, 2016 @ 3:37 pm
I thought Seinfeld (show) was mostly amusing. Certainly not the most amusing thing I’ve ever seen and very often predictable. But I did watch the entire series in about 2 months, so I did find it amusing.
Comment by Jimbo — December 22, 2016 @ 6:00 am
Seinfeld (to me) totally was a situational comedy. It was the many outrageous circumstances they were all thrown into that made it funny. Maybe when you single the characters out on their own you couldn’t really say they were totally funny (or even likeable). So this just maybe begs one question: “Who are these people?” (lol)
Comment by Smidge Kudlebaum — December 22, 2016 @ 2:53 pm