This guy is DAMNED good that I want him to have his own installment of Under the Rock. And, I happen to be a bit tired and have run out of Mountain Dew to think of another one inspiring me as much as him at this very moment. And, I have to get off my ass and write some of my own stuff so I can someday work with this hilarious bastard.

Tim Minchin.

This installment of Under the Rock is going to be video heavy. Why? Because it needs to be. That’s why. I feel I have been remiss by not embedding more videos of the artists that I have been writing about instead of just linking you to their stuff. Although just having to click a mouse once or twice seems as though it would be quite simple to do, let’s be honest. Nowadays, if it is not right in front of our faces, we seldom will click our way to find it unless it is a thing or person we are seeking out on our own.  So…

I am going to embed some funny videos that I watch over and over and over again due to their awesomeness, originality, hilarity, or just plain nonsensicalness. I hope you also enjoy these videos as it would be a great indicator of the future of our growing, burgeoning friendship. If you do not like these videos, it is okay. It is better we find out now that we are not truly compatible than finding it out after we have moved in together.

Tim Minchin is one of my new favorite people in the world. He is so funny and he is huge overseas. I had not heard of him until recently and my life is so much better now because of it. The first video I ever saw of him was not necessarily a hugely hilarious video, but I think it speaks to a couple of things: He is insanely gifted and he has an incredibly wide range, which will be exhibited by the videos I am embedding to follow. The first one will take 6 minutes of your life and you will be glad it did, if not wishing it took more. Further speaking to his bad-ass-ness, he has a youtube video so his fans can watch videos of live performances. This video is one such case:

White Wine in the Sun – Tim Minchin

This next video is of the sillier variety and I think you will like it as well.

Canvas Bags

And one more, showing how he can really get to the heart of my sense of humor

Bears Don’t Dig On Dancing

Admittedly, I have been somewhat slacking on the updating of this series that I have started.  My apologies to the 4 people, that includes Farley, that read this.  Or maybe I am grossly underestimating the amount of traffic this particular series generates even though it has a very special place in my cold, dark, dead heart.

Here is something I have noticed about myself recently:  I am digging A LOT of San Francisco based comedians and comedy.  I don’t care if its cliche or what not to say, but they are doing some inventive, crazy and hilarious shit out there.  Don’t get me wrong, I think the Cincinnati scene that I suppose I am a part of is pretty rad, too.  But, its a numbers game.  San Fran is bigger and seemingly more alive creatively due to opportunity.  The citizens of that city are more likely to support live art or maybe there is just so many more of them that you can do more?  Either way, I’m really digging what is getting dropped out there on the comedy scene.  Don’t worry, I am still in love with where I am now and all the cool shows, etc we do around here.

Here are a couple more San Fran based freaks that are doing things in super awesome way and it is only a matter of time before I drag my stupid ass out there to force them to collaborate with me in some unholy and fun-filled project.

Mary Van Note -  If you live in San Francisco you know her.  If you live in San Francisco and don’t know her, what the fuck is your problem?  She is currently on the “pumpkin penis tour” and if that doesn’t pique your interest, I am not sure what will?  But, enough of that, let me explain what is unexplainable – her comedy.  You have to be exposed to it to know what I am talking about. Unfortunately, theres is not a ton of her stand up online, but that is not to say you cannot get an awesome amount of her stuff online.  As we all know seeing something live is so much better than not, but until you can get out to see her, here’s her Andy Kaufman Award submission video:

She also has a really kick ass web series The Mary Van Note Show and if you know me, you know I love web series more than anything.  I guarantee you have not seen a show like this and if you have, I will come over and suck on your toes or do some other kind of thing that you think would not be enjoyable for me.  That is how confident I am.  If you want to lose many hours of your life watching online videos of great variety and hilarity, check out here youtube channel, too.  You may not know who she is now, but you will soon enough.

Chris Garcia – This guy, kid, whack job, maniac, future superstar, champion of killer outfits will mystify you with his ability to make you laugh with stuff you cannot wrap your brain around even after the fact.  He is part of the awesome web series, “Elevator to Space” with Under the Rock alum Alex Koll.  One of my favorite Garcia pieces is this absurd video that is one of those things that would draw a line in the sand of our friendship.  If you do not like it, maybe we should just part ways:  Billy’s House of Shawarma Presents: Hamburger Harry Time:

Billy’s Haus of Shawarma Presents: Hamburger Harry Time! from Chris Garcia on Vimeo.

Chris unfortunately does not have much to grasp onto, at least not that I could find of his stand up comedy online.  But, you can get lost down the rabbit hole of comedy and good times by going to his Vimeo Channel.  There are certain artists in the world that you just know you can count on making funny and well done comedy art for the rest of their lives and Garcia is one of the many that fall into that category.  His website is a great place to go and get turned on to what he is doing and what he is in to at the moment.  I was lucky enough to be able to use one of his kickass videos for the Flick My Clip Film Festival we put on at Go Bananas earlier this year and I want to put that video here as well.  The very funny Ali Wong who comprises the other half of the sketch group “Rice & Beans” is also in this video:

American Apparel from Chris Garcia on Vimeo.

The more I sit and reflect, the more I realize that most everything that is of import in my life has come to my attention through comedy. Save for my family and friends before I started. Someway, somehow, directly or indirectly all the things I surround my ear hole devices and and eye capturing mechanisms with have come from comedy. For example, I now know someone with a Chaucer tattoo. You read that correctly and I defy you to not want to drop everything and be that person’s best friend for life. Go ahead, I will wait as you try to resist that urge.

This next group of talented artists come to us from the city of Cincinnati. They are to the best of my knowledge not from here originally, but all have convened upon the Queen City for school at Xavier University. They are The Beards of Industry.

The Beards consist of Andrew Short, Reid Faylor and LaMar Ford (if you see him in public you should just yell at the top of your lungs dramatically, “Reggie! Reggie!”). They are technically three people, but one super group of awesome film-making badass-ness. Here is the link to their youtube page.  You can lose yourself on this page and successfully procrastinate from doing tons of work by watching the ridiculousness they birth into this world that needs so much more it. These young and brilliant bastards will be making enjoyable and hilarious things for many years if we’re lucky. I’m sure you’ll hear of them soon enough!

I could list their credits, like winner of the best short film award at the Rooftop Comedy Festival in Aspen this past year from submissions from college students all across the country, a finalist again for the 2010 Festival, and the ability to use a green screen.  The last one is more of a skill, but shit, I do not have any idea of how to even begin to do that – so its impressive to me!  Here are some more of their videos and there is also standup clips online of Reid Faylor and Andrew Short.  Some of my favorites:

Cat Forum

My Roomate

I can gush all I want here because I know the people I am writing about this week most likely will not read this and even if they did, it is something I would or already have told them to their faces.  They cause that inner turmoil any performer feels when they see something done so damned well that they are inspired to become greater themselves and also to question their own merit, “What am I even doing this for?  I cannot do it any better than they already are!”  And so we have the next two creatures that not only live under the rock, they just might be its inhabitants’ leaders.

Robert Hawkins -  Robert is everything and more that most comedians strive to be…incredibly funny, all the time.  One of my best friends in comedy and former “Under the Rock” comedians said it best about him, “Is he ever not funny?  He is the one guy that is consistently funny all the time, no matter what is going on.”  And he was never more right.  If you do not navigate within the circles of comedy you may not know who Robert Hawkins is and that is not only a shame, it is huge comedy crime.  If you are a young comedian and you are reading this and do not know who he is…stop reading and click this link now!  Think of it like this, if you like pizza, beer, candy and ice cream, Hawkins will make you a comedy pizza made of beer, candy and ice cream.  And you will be hungry for me after it is over.  Seeing him live is the only way to truly appreciate the frenzy of his words and you will not pick up on all the funny until you see him over and over and over again.  I have never asked for your trust before, but you can trust me on this one.  Oh, and his latest cd is free for download on his website.

Henry Phillips -  If you like music and do not even try to tell me you do not or you are a robot.  You will have to see Henry live and in action.  There are comedians out there who say that, “guitar comics are hacky!” or “guitar comics aren’t comics!” blah blah blah blah.  These are guys or gals who have no idea of which they are speaking first of all and secondly, have never seen Henry Phillips live.  Just as in any art form there a good examples and bad examples of how it is done.  Henry is the ultimate example of how to do it great.  There is nothing but originality that spews from his guitar and his mouth for that matter.  Imagine you were watching VH1′s Storytellers and it was hilarious.  That is the best way I can think of to sum up his show.  He much like Robert Hawkins lives under the rock with such a sterling reputation and held in high admiration by any and all who occupy this dimension of comedy.  You find me someone who does not like Henry Phillips’ comedy and/or him as a person and I will show you someone I would never hang out with or be around without a loaded pistol held to my head.  He is king and ruler of original guitar style stand up comedy.  I’m not saying he invented it, but I am saying he is the best in the business today and that is saying something considering there are other great ones out there.

One of the joys, if not the biggest joy of this job is getting to hang out with some of my heroes and idols.  The performane aspect is what I strive to get right, but the sense of being a part of the comedy community is the real payoff, at least for me.  Each weekend I am out working somewhere, I try to have at least one moment where I am completely aware of just how lucky I am to be doing this.  Sometimes that moment is a lot easier to come by than others.  It is extremely easy to have thousands of those moments when I am working with someone who absolutely hilarious and live under the rock.  The first guy is just one of those guys…

Eddie Gossling -  here is a guy that will make you laugh your ass off every show, all weekend long.  I do not care if you are one of the most jaded comedy fans under the sun, I dare you to try not to laugh at Eddie.  He is currently working on the Comedy Central show Tosh.0 and so far, so great.  Here’s his website that has all kinds of goodness on it.  He’s got a bunch of clips up at rooftopcomedy.com.  I have had the pleasure of working with Eddie and the one of the many things you can gleem from his act is that no show, no audience is below getting some damned great comedy.  It is only a matter of time before he has a place in the mainstream eye and I am convinced that his already substantial career has only gotten started.

Mike MacRae -  is the pre-eminent impressionist of our time, my time I think anyways.  There are a few other people out there doing impressions, but my generation has one guy who has been doing unique impressions long before other people jump on certain character bandwagons and its Mike.  He ranges all the way from the most unique interactions between Ozzy Osbourne and Peter O’Toole ordering a pizza to a magical journey of Fox News characters.  Trust me when I say that nobody is doing this kind of stuff.  Throw on top of all this that he is a hell of a guy and damned good joke writer even when impressions are not involved.  He has the best Roe v. Wade joke you will ever hear…period.  The cherry on the sundae is that I locked us out of a condo after midnight with no shoes, no cell phones and no wallets and he did not lose his mind.  Check him out now, fools!

I really appreciate the artist who works their ass off.  Why?  I think it is obvious.  The truly great ones at anything are not only born with the ability, but also work hard to master that ability.  And sooner or later the world will be aware of these hard workers.  People have said to me that the entertainment industry is not fair and there is no guarantee that the truly talented will ever “make it.”  The truly talented who work hard will “make it” I believe.  I believe it is inevitably so because the universe does have a sense of justice…even if it takes awhile.

Tom Simmons -  Tom is the perfect example of what some people call, “too smart for you own good.”  I could not disagree more with those people.  His comedy is evidence that you do not have to hit people over the head with your politics to make a good and smart point all the while maintaining the comedic integrity of a joke teller.  People always default to Bill Hicks, at least most comics do when talking about relevant and political humor.  The reason I think this is true is because he never forgot about the joke.  Tom never forgets about the joke.  In fact, even if he has to go away from the joke for a little while, he ensures there is a well trained and responsible joke sitter there in his abscense, which he is constantly calling to check the status of the joke while he is gone.  I think you get the point.  To further clarify the type of comedian he is I will use these quick examples.  He has been told by numerous club owners, “You need to dumb it down for the people.”  Or, “Why don’t you tell jokes that aren’t so real?”  And other variations of those kinds of sentiments.  Someday this thought provoking comic will crawl his way to the top of the rock.  Here is some more of his stuff, but this bastard is another one of the creatures that needs to step up his online presence game.

Matthew Ryan -  Here is a musician that owned my ears for at least a year straight with his album May Day.  He was first introduced to me by my good friend Heath Galley.  The first time I heard him was on a burned disc as I drove from D.C. to Dayton, OH.  It was the only thing I listened to the whole drive.  I was convinced this album was a soundtrack to my life at the time and still need to be convinced otherwise.  Sometimes an artist can grab you by throat and command you listen to them over and over and over again.  Matthew Ryan’s grip still holds strong.  He is ahead of the curve by constantly putting his music and other videos online for his fans to check out.  He keeps his online world fresh, so as keep people like me appeased with new offerings of his awesomeness on a regular basis.  He may not be a household name, but his music is staggering.  If your life needs and injection of some fresh, gut-wrenching, edgy, beautiful, honest, and just awesome music, do yourself a favor and check him out.

This is the third installment of this series and this time I am going to be very selfish and self-centered.  I am taking this opportunith to possibly introduce you to two of my best friends in the business.  There styles are different, but their funny is extremely high.

Geoff Tate -  Geoff is the type of guy who will sneak up on you with his funny, brash and unapologetic style of storytelling and joke making.  If you want to know what the life of that crazy son of a bitch was like that you probably knew when you were younger who was into drugs and seemed to have a death wish, sit back and listen to Geoff.  Well, its all come full circle for him now as he balances his crazy ass past with his seemingly adult and mature present with a wife and dog.  One thing growing up hasn’t done is take the edge off his ability to make you laugh.  Simply said, he’s a beast on stage with a seemingly endless vault of material.

Dave Waite -  If there was a clear way to describe this whack job of a guy, I would do it.  But, there is not.  You have to see Dave to know what I am talking about.  He is the perfect example of a headshot and bio not giving you any real idea of the funny you will witness.  If there was ever a reason to go to a comedy club and see a live show, Dave would be it.  Some of the best experiences I have ever had in a comedy club is watching an audience not get Dave.  It only makes him amp his energy up even more.  I really try hard not to judge people, but I will judge whether or not someone has any clue about comedy by whether or not they think Dave is funny.  If they do not, I will not even talk to that person.

I know most of you are too busy to stop and turn this rock over by yourself, so I am going to do it for you. You may already know some of these comedians, but we can just chalk that up to you being an astute comedy fan.  You will have your hands full trying to absorb all you can about the next two creatures I am showing you that live “Under the Rock.” It won’t be long before they, too are atop the rock.

Andi Smith – I get tired, I get down and I get a little indignant from time to time. But, I know I always can count on the dark and brilliant mind of Andi to make me laugh at all the horrible bullshit around me. If you think women cannot be funny, I’ve got news for you – you’re wrong and Andi will tell you you’re wrong. Not only will she tell, she will prove it by dropping some of the best jokes you will hear and then force them down your close-minded throat. If you like comedy that is real, even too real for the common, strip mall comedy club patron, you will thank me if you’ve never heard her stuff. Enjoy.

Hannibal Burress – Check Hannibal out and you will be reminded that yes, stand up comedy is still an artform and there are still people out there doing it for the love. There are easy ways to the top and there are the longer, round about ways to the top of this game and everyone Under the Rock takes the round about way. The round about way is the unrelenting, stay true to yourself way and Hannibal could be the poster boy for it. Some comics make you feel like you’re watching a tennis match with all the movement on stage, Hannibal sits back and lets the words do the talking. His comedy is like lethal injection, not the electric chair…and it kills.

I know most of you are too busy to stop and turn this rock over by yourself, so I am going to do it for you.  You may already know some of these comedians, but we can just chalk that up to you being an astute comedy fan.  This will be the first of many installments, but trust me when I say that no matter how long it is until the next one, you will have your hands full trying to absorb all you can about the first two creatures I am showing you that live “Under the Rock.”  It won’t be long before they, too are atop the rock.

Mary Mack -   I dare you to try to wrap your brain around a “technique” or “formula” that Mary uses in her comedy, because you will not be able to do so.  Not one word is contrived or forced, it all just flows.  Just sit back and enjoy some of the best and most original comedy you have heard in awhile.  And I should warn you that you set aside plenty of time in your morning, day or night to watch her “Coffee Blogs” because once you watch the first one, you are in for the long haul.

Tim Northern -   There is not a whole helluva lot of stuff out there written on Tim if you are interested in knowing what goes behind his joke writing madness even though you will want to know more after seeing him, but there are clips a-plenty out there for you to view if you love some of the most intelligent comedy on the planet.  Do not misunderstand me though, when I say intelligent, I do not mean boring and “trying to change your mind” on issues and shit.  If Einstein and the word “silly” had a baby, that baby would be named Tim Northern.