The Ivy League of Comedy Shaun Eli Breidbart

Shaun Eli chats with comedian Scott Blakeman about the end of the pandemic, political comedy and its pitfalls and what it was like to work at, or being in the audience at, The Comic Strip, one of NYC's first comedy clubs. They also talk about doing shows at synagogues and about making sure that the line-up of a show is properly balanced. Also discussed- working overseas and how comedy shows are different elsewhere in the world.

In this episode we talk about what’s involved in running a comedy club, why Al went from being a comedian to hiring them for his comedy clubs, how he chose the name for his most recent club, how much pandemic relief money some clubs received and some of Al Martin’s pet peeves as a club owner. We also discuss that Al invented the bringer show, which is a subject of much discussion and scorn among comedians.

In this episode I talk to blind comedian Brian Fischler about his charity Laugh for Sight and their shows in NY, LA and Miami. Brian explains about using a screen reader on the internet and how he can listen at such a rapid speed that sighted people can’t follow it. We talk about changes in the real estate market as a result of covid, and how Brian got a mass of emails from comedy club bookers that shows were being cancelled as a result of the virus. Brian talks about lower-level comedians being the insecure, obnoxious ones and about drunken audience members wanting to pet his seeing-eye dog when he’s working.

Our first Caponeless episode, with comedian Shereen Kassam. We talk about working overseas, racial and gender discrimination in comedy, what our parents think of our career decisions, and whether comedians should date each other.

Mike talks about how comedy has to be in the right setting, that comedy isn’t an essential service, how he’d always wanted to be a comedian and how he got started in stand-up. Shaun explains that when you start out in comedy you have to pay to perform at open-mic nights (usually just five dollars). Mike says that new comedians think they have hours of material but it’s really only three minutes. That he was never the class clown but he still said stuff he thought was funny. That before stand-up he was an actor and had a lot of experience being on stage in front of an audience. Tom asks if Mike started with lessons or coaching and the usual debate ensues about whether you can teach people to be funny.

In this episode Myq and Shaun talk a lot about language and linguistics as Myq has a master's degree in linguistics and language features prominently in his act. Myq talks about his latest comedy album being nominated for a Grammy and how he hopes to become a member of the academy to vote for future nominees. Tom, Shaun and Myq talk about on-line ads and how advertisers may be tracing not just your activities on the web but also your conversations and email content, and how that may play into presents you receive. Then Shaun and Myq talk about how language changes and that the use of the word "fun" has changed.

(may have an occasional curse word)