Artwork by REXPLUNA EDITOR’S NOTE: There is more to Sarah Silverman — who kicks off a two-night stand at the Keswick on Sunday — than just ‘fake-racist meta-jokes’ and fucking Matt Damon. There is also doody jokes. But seriously folks, after 34 episodes of The Sarah Silverman Show, 30 movies, two Emmys, and one memoir, she’s just getting started. On the doody jokes. Just kidding. You’ll see. The following is an exclusive excerpt from my 6,300 word 2014 MAGNET cover story. Enjoy. ________ BY JONATHAN VALANIA When I meet Sarah Silverman for the first time she is coming out of […]
SNL: Hillary Actually
Sigh.
STOP MAKING SENSE: A Q&A With Fred Armisen
Photo by GENE SMIRNOV BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR VICE Last night, comedian Fred Armisen (ex-SNL cast member, star of Portlandia and Documentary Now!, sidekick/leader of the Late Night With Seth Meyers house band) kicked off an East coast run of live comedy dates that mix the glib wackiness of his stand-up with sneak previews of the forthcoming seventh season of Portlandia and live renditions of the music of his various faux-bands (the cluelessly pro-authority punk of Ian Rubbish & The Bizarros, the ersatz Laurel Canyon soft-rock of The Blue Jean Committee, the artsy-fartsy New Wave nonsense-making of Test Pattern, etc.). […]
Win Tix To See Fred Armisen Make The Funny Live
Tomorrow night, comedian Fred Armisen (ex-SNL cast member, star of Portlandia and Documentary Now!, sidekick/leader of the Late Night With Seth Meyers house band) kicks off an East coast run of live comedy dates at The Grand in Wilmington wherein he will perform the music of his various faux-bands (the cluelessly pro-authority punk of Ian Rubbish & The Bizarros, the ersatz Laurel Canyon soft-rock of The Blue Jean Committee, the artsy-fartsy New Wave nonsense-making of Test Pattern, etc.). We have a pair of tix to giveaway to some lucky Phawker reader. To qualify to win you must do the […]
Lin-Manuel Miranda Slays The Howling Hate Beast Of Trumpism With The Righteous Sword Of Love
PAJIBA: Taking place in a phone booth in the middle a corn field — an image that evokes both the loneliness and the vulnerability of the immigrant experience — Miranda plays a Latino immigrant who uses a calling card to phone home to talk to his mother. He speaks in Spanish, except when referring to the huge, bizarre wonders of North Dakota — the marshmallow salad, Little Debbie snacks, big mounds of yellow and orange foods — and he tells his mom about the friend he made working as a dishwasher. Preston. He’s the QB of his high school football […]
LET IT BE: A Q&A With ‘Mats Biographer Bob Mehr
BY JONATHAN VALANIA In the Amerindie rock underground of the mid-80s, The Replacements, along with Husker Du and REM, formed a troika of indie-rock royalty that produced some of the greatest music of that decade or any other. Nineteen eighty-four was their annus mirabilis. REM released Reckoning, and Husker Du released Zen Arcade and New Day Rising. The Replacements released Let It Be, which despite the co-opting of the Beatles song for its title was in fact their Beggars Banquet. All three soon signed major label deals with varying results. Husker Du lasted just two albums, the uneven Candy Apple […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR: Three kids meet in junior high, grow up skateboarding, doing graffitti and shooting stuff on home-video cameras, then eventually get jobs together on Saturday Night Live. It sounds like an adolescent fantasy, but for former SNL cast member Andy Samberg and former SNL writers Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer, it actually happened. “We were not ambitious,” Schaffer tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “We were just kids who liked comedy, and we liked music, and we were nerds about that stuff.” Samberg, Taccone and Schaffer work together under the name The Lonely Island. Their new film, Popstar: Never […]
SNL: Voters For Trump
LOUIE CK: Please stop it with voting for Trump. It was funny for a little while. But the guy is Hitler. And by that I mean that we are being Germany in the 30s. Do you think they saw the shit coming? Hitler was just some hilarious and refreshing dude with a weird comb over who would say anything at all. […] Please pick someone else. Like John Kasich. I mean that guy seems okay. I don’t like any of them myself but if you’re that kind of voter please go for a guy like that. It feels like between […]
SNEAK PEEK: Star Trek Beyond
Scored with “Sabotage” by The Beastie Boys. In theaters July 22nd. PREVIOUSLY: The U.S.S. Enterprise Vs The Death Star RELATED: Six Year Old Watches Star Wars With His Dad And Asks Exactly 278 Questions RELATED: SNL’s Overgrown Star Wars Fanboy Super Nerd Spoof
HUNGER GAMES: A Q&A With Carrie Brownstein
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Some say Sleater-Kinney is/was the Nirvana of Riot Grrl, that early ‘90s punk-rawk insurrection of punk poetesses and feminist studies majors storming the ramparts of indie-rock armed with little more than jagged guitars, spastic rhythms, thrift store chic, and the radical notion that feminism means women are people, too. And that goes double for rock n’ roll. Carrie Brownstein would probably just say that Sleater-Kinney was the Sleater-Kinney of Riot Grrl, which is more or less the takeaway from Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl, her fascinating and revealing new memoir about the chaos and confusion of […]
SPARKS AND RECREATION: This Is What It Sounds Like When Bill Hader Gets High With Seth Rogan
Click on volume icon bottom right. VARIETY: IFC is betting big on “Documentary Now!,” giving a second and third season to Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Seth Meyers’ parody project ahead of its series premiere on Thursday. The “Saturday Night Live” alums created, wrote and and executive produced the seven-part series that offers a different look at some of the world’s best-known documentary films. It’s also co-created and executive produced by Rhys Thomas and exec produced by Broadway Video’s Andrew Singer. It employs familiar “SNL” names: Thomas and Alex Buono serve as the show’s directors, John Mulaney is consulting producer […]
FUNNY BUSINESS: Q&A w/ Comedian TJ Miller
EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview first posted on Feb. 6th 2014 BY BRIEN EDWARDS T.J. Miller is a funny motherscratcher, which works out well since he is also a stand-up comedian/comedic actor. Perhaps you recognize him from 2008’s Cloverfield or Get Him to the Greek or She’s Out Of My League, or How To Train Your Pet Dragon. Or perhaps you recognize the 32-year-old Denver native from Curb Your Enthusiasm, The League, and The Gorburger Show. Or No Real reason, his 2011 Comedy Central stand-up special. Or as part of the voice-acting cast of the hit Academy Award-nominated How To […]