James P. Connolly, THE MASTER PLAN comedian: Mr. Media Radio Interview

BY BOB ANDELMAN

I was stuck in the car a few weeks ago, waiting to pick my wife up at work, tuning around the Sirius Satellite Radio dial, looking for a few laughs. I had already heard the Howard Stern show earlier in the day and went a few clicks past him and landed on the Blue Collar comedy channel.

The voice I heard—the inflection, particularly—sounded like Steve Martin. It wasn’t him,  but the performer had me laughing the way I used to laugh 30 years ago upon hearing new material from Martin.

This was a fellow named James P. Connolly and he had me in stitches with his routine about how men—when it came to sizing up women—were either ass, breast or leg men. I won’t try to tell his jokes here, but it was so funny I put it on pause and replayed it for my wife when she got in the car.

AUDIO EXCERPT: "When I was in Desert Storm, we were there for a little over a year, and the day we were leaving, they issued us desert boots. It was like a game show parting gift... When I go back to entertain the troops now, I strap those babies on because they probably cost the government $7,425—per boot."

Mrs. Media is not usually in the mood for standup comedy—from me or anyone else—when she gets out of work, but this time I insisted she listen. Three minutes later, she was laughing as hard as I was and I was convulsing all over again.

So I did something I never did before—I tracked down a comedian I heard on Sirius and invited him on the show based on maybe five minutes of material.

Connolly is not an unknown, having performed at the Comedy Store and the Improv, hosted “Movie Obsessions” on VH1 and appearing frequently on the nationally syndicated “Bob and Tom Radio Show.” He’s also released a CD, “The Master Plan,” which you can order on his website.

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Copyright 2009 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

Jonathan Bennett, VAN WILDER: FRESHMAN YEAR; MEAN GIRLS star: Mr. Media Radio Interview

By BOB ANDELMAN

When I was a freshman at the University of Miami back in 1978, Animal House was all the rage and the coolest guys on campus wanted to be like “Otter,” played by Peter Riegert. He knew all the girls, glided through school and was envied by all the guys.

Well, it’s 30 years later—damn, where did the time go—and now all the young college dudes want to be like another National Lampoon character: Van Wilder.

There have been two Van Wilder movies and two talented actors who played the smooth, suave young dude: Ryan Reynolds—whatever happened to him?—and my guest tonight, Jonathan Bennett, who starred in National Lampoon’s Van Wilder: Freshman Year.

AUDIO EXCERPT: "There are more Vans down in the pipeline... I will play Van Wilder until I'm 90, I love that character so much. We can do Van Wilder: The Senior Years and do it in the retirement home!"

A heavy responsibility befalls the man who wears the crown of a guy like Van Wilder, the model of horny, party-going young men everywhere, but I suspect Young Master Bennett can handle the pressure—he’s made a cottage industry of being second to step in time-honored roles, including starring as Bo Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning. You may have also seen him in Mean Girls as Lindsay Lohan’s boyfriend, Bachelor Party Vegas, opposite Kal Pen of Harold & Kumar fame, or in the Steve Martin movie Cheaper By the Dozen 2 as Bud McNulty.

But this Saturday night, September 19 at 8 p.m., he faces a real challenge as celebrity host of Acme Comedy Theatre’s “Acme Saturday Night.”



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Copyright 2009 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

Robert Schimmel Returns, CANCER ON $5 A DAY author, standup comedian: Mr. Media Audio Interview

Robert Schimmel was my guest on Mr. Media recently and despite an hour of conversation, I felt like we barely began talking when time ran out.

And based on listener response, it seems many of you felt the same way, so I’ve invited Robert back to pick up where we left off. So please welcome back to Mr. Media one of the best stand-up comedians in America and the author of Cancer on $5 a Day, Robert Schimmel.

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© 2008 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.

Robert Schimmel, CANCER ON $5 A DAY, author, standup comedian: Mr. Media Audio Interview

I tried my hand at stand-up comedy twice in college, once as a freshman at the University of Miami and again a year later at the University of Florida. And no, I wasn’t so bad at Miami that I was asked to leave. They were a lot more subtle than that.

Anyway, I gave up that dream early. It’s a tough, humiliating life, not for me.

Now, Robert Schimmel, on the other hand, is one of the best stand-up comedians of his generation. He, like Richard Belzer before him, is the guy other comedians watch and measure themselves against. He is naturally funny and naturally crude, rude, and not recommended for listeners under the age of 18.

That’s my way of saying if you’re too young to drink or if you’re easily offended, tune out now. The button-down mind of Bob Newhart this definitely is not.

These days, Schimmel is still out doing his job making people laugh, but there is a twist. In 2000, when his career was reaching new heights, he was diagnosed with Stage III non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, cancer. Not good. But he underwent aggressive therapy and routed the disease, even discovering a new source of material for his act in process. And he’s written a book, Cancer on $5 a Day: Chemo Not Included, How Humor Got Me Through the Toughest Journey of My Life.

Click here to READ the transcript of this interview!

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Well, Excuuuuuuse Him!

"I cut my hair, shaved my beard, and put on a suit. I stripped the act of all political references, which I felt was an act of defiance. To politics I was saying, 'I'll get along without you very well. It's time to be funny.' Overnight, I was no longer at the tail end of an old movement but at the front end of a new one. Instead of looking like another freak with a crazy act, I now looked like a visitor from the straight world who had gone seriously awry."

-- Steve Martin, writing in his quasi-autobiography Born Standing Up about the development that took his act from small time to one of the all-time comedy greats. If you're looking for a great read and have any familiarity with Martin's stand-up career in the 1970s, this is a must read. Hopefully, he's already at work on a sequel covering his early movies...