500% Italian moves in to Ochi's!

The debut of our new Italian-American comedy show at the P.I.T went gangbusters (Not gangsters, gangbusters. Open your mind.) Now we have a monthly show premiering this Monday at Ochi's Lounge. Come on down and laugh it up.

An ethnic comedy show doesn’t have to be filled with cheesy stereotypes. Once a month, 500% ITALIAN features 5 of NYC’s most original comedy minds, who all just happen to have roots in the country shaped like a boot. Featuring stand-up, sketches, stories, videos, special guests and whatever else they want to do. If there’s an “altern-italian” comedy scene, this show is its Vatican City. Not Italian? No problem. After all, nobody’s perfect. Starring Katina Corrao, Anthony DeVito, Joe DeVito, Giulia Rozzi and Law Tarello.

Monday, December, 17th- 8 PM
Downstairs at Comix - 353 W. 14 St (just east of 9th Ave)
New York , NY 10014
Cost: 1 item (food or drink)

500% ITALIAN ON MYSPACE

No more Scrubs.

Seriously. It's on like 20 times a day.

Enough.

Comedy, Thy Name is SCTV

The past few days I've been re-watching my "Best of SCTV" DVD set. It's so chock-full of pure comic genius that I had to tell the world my SCTV story. And by the world, I mean the 4 people (5 tops) who read this blog.

There's footage on Disc 5 of Conan O'Brien hosting a cast reunion at the 1999 Aspen Comedy Festival. Conan's experience with the show was exactly the same as mine; discovering it as a kid in the late '70s, in syndication of all places (buried on Channel 9 in NYC) becoming instantly fascinated by it and claiming it as "My Show." None of my friends watched it, nobody wrote about it in magazines; people looked at me sideways when I would go on about Count Floyd or Johnny La Rue or Lola Heatherton, like I was making it all up. The only other person who found it as funny as I did was my father, who's taste in comedy influenced me at an early age. From The Honeymooners to Monty Python to Young Frankenstein, he was the one who knew what was good. He's the reason I like Daffy Duck much more than Bugs Bunny.

And of course, my love of SCTV made the teenage me so much cooler than those poor ignorant rubes who only knew SNL, with its hipster baggage and druggy rock-star bloat. SCTV was the comedy version of the new wave band you were into that nobody else had a clue about. This special insider knowledge made me feel so superior, in that special way only teenagers and born-again Christians can muster and sustain.

The sketches still make me laugh as hard as they ever did. And I still strain to hear all the brilliant little throw-away lines and mumbled asides. But now they also inspire me with their writing, acting, timing and the pure commitment of every cast member.

If you claim to be a fan of comedy, you have to love SCTV. I know my birth certificate says Brooklyn, but I think I might have really been born in Melonville.