San Francisco Music Blog

Beware, San Francisco. The VIP dwelling, bottle service-ordering, loud cell phone-talking douchebags of the world are organizing. They demand a new, politically correct respect from all you snide hipsters out there. And they've made a video (posted on Laughing Squid earlier in the week) to prove it.

Funny little spoof on Where the Wild Things Are, stupid vests, vegans, being over it, Los Angeles hipster bars, smoking American Spirits, music snobbery, and much more...

Q: when is a puppet show not just a puppet show?
A: When the puppets referred to are the Puppet Folk Revival Band.

On July 31st, CellSpace hosts the West Coast concert debut of Rockin' Puppet Mayhem: the Puppet Folk Revival Band. Described in their PR as "an unholy blend of the puppetcraft of The Muppets performing a morphed version of faded and jaded rock survivors like Metallica and Spinal Tap--all sprinkled with the very blue banter of Red Orbach, an English-speaking Israeli version of South Park's Cartman."

Alrighty-then.

The spectacle of five life-sized puppets who appear to play their own instruments while performing satirical, Tom Lehrer-on-opiates originals (often ad-libbed) and pop culture covers has already been a huge hit in Israel, where PFRB originates from. But not only will PFRB's performance be something special (especially strange, at the least), it also marks the first musical concert ever presented by the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Watch a video of PFRB performing Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" here, Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" here, and David Bowie's "Space Oddity" here.  For more info, click here.

Killing My Lobster really killed it on this one: a travel video that attempts to convince Dolores Park hipsters that there's a budget vacation for them in this exotic place across the bay called Oakland. Lots of riffing on white kids in skinny jeans here, but the best part of this clip has to be the footage of ghost riding the Subaru.

p.s. Poor Dolores Park. This week it was ground zero for not one but two clips making fun of the cool elite. Below, My First Earthquake's "Cool in the Cool Way" video. Not as funny as Killing My Lobster, but just as wary of what goes down in the Mission's greenest catwalk. (Little do they know the real hip kids get down at Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park these days. It's all about no shoes and dogs on ropes. Duh.)

Ukranian illusionist Eugeniy Voronin in Teatro Zinzanni's "Sultry Summer Magic"

As Teatro Zinzanni's new show, "Sultry Summer Magic," came to a close beneath the giant spiegeltent (that's the fancy Belgian word meaning "mirror tent") at Pier 29 Wednesday night, I only had one question. Why had I lived in San Francisco for more than a year and never been given a proper explanation - via friends, newspapers, or even marketing - of this show?

As I sat down to write about it, though, I quickly figured out the answer. Beyond the fact that tickets range from $117 to $167, which means that the attendants are mostly tourists and filthy rich people with whom I don't normally associate, there are two barriers to learning about Zinzanni. The first is that the broad words that likely come to mind to describe it - mysterious! surprising! wondrous! - are practically meaningless. If someone told me that performance was full of mystery and surprise, I probably smiled, ignored that person, and forgot about it.

But the other option - to tell somebody about the specifics - seems an even greater disservice. It would taint the best part of Zinzanni, which is, aside from the incredible talent of its performers, its sheer unpredictability. What is given away and not given away needs careful balancing, perhaps as careful as a performance of, say, the tango on a trapeze (which is, in fact, part of the show).

Thomas Blake Jr.

Point Break Live!
Cellspace
April 10, 2009
Better than: Plays that don't require protective clothing.

Inflating the sheer absurdity of the 1991 Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze bank - robbing - surfer - action - homoerotic - extreme - sports - thriller - American classic Point Break seems like an impossible task. You might as well try to make tomatoes taste more like tomatoes. How does one make a parody of something that is already such a perfect parody of itself? Why would you even try? Maybe it's because you knew the result would be Point Break Live!, brainchild of Jamie Keeling.

Upon entering the theater, every attendee of PBL! is supplied with a plastic baggy that contains a cheap plastic poncho and some fake dollar bills. The poncho is provided to protect audience members from what promises to be a very wet show. The rain garments all have little pointed plastic hoods, which had the strange effect of making attendees look like tiny, outdoors oriented members of the KKK. The sound of beers being cracked open and excited murmuring was accompanied by the white noise of plastic crinkling. The stage was decorated with nothing but a poorly constructed island sprouting an inflatable palm tree. More promising sets have been produced at Summer Camps. But you don't go to PBL! for the frills.

Love Mad Men, but have a soft spot for A Charlie Brown Christmas? This excellent "remix" of the old cartoon favorite -- into a bunch of bitter, bickering, advertising execs--is hilarious. PS:"Son of a bitch" is the new "good grief." -- Jennifer Maerz

(Jonathan Katz)

We've got a ton of laughing to look forward to as the SF Sketchfest brings a month's worth of hilarity in January, but there's a few pre-game shows to tide us over until the new year. Jonathan Katz reprises his role as Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist at the Herbst Theatre Dec. 9, where he'll be counseling Todd Barry, Bob Odenkirk from Mr. Show, and Laura Silverman from the Sarah Silverman Program. The Sketchfest Preview Show follows the next night at Cobb's Dec. 9, where highlights and headliners for the upcoming festival will be announced. Tickets for both shows are available now. --Oscar Pascual

Due to permit problems at the Edinburgh Castle, Mary Van Note's monthly series of "Comedy, Darling" events -- a hip, cabaret-like mash of stand-up jokesters, musical performances, and other sundry entertainments -- has been on hiatus since the early summer. But Van Note "revives the brand" (as slimy MBA types might say) for a December 6 show at Club Deluxe on upper Haight, headlined by comedian/podcaster Jason Nash. Van Note and Bucky Sinister will also take turns on the mic. For more info, go to the "Comedy, Darling" MySpace or visit Brown Paper Tickets to buy a duchat or two. — J. Graham

Kanye West may have moved on to profound heartbreak since his super-fun "Glow in the Dark" tour earlier this year, but Human Giant's Aziz Ansari is still happily hilarious. Ansari's upcoming stand-up comedy tour will bear the same name, but I'm guessing that he'll leave the grandiose light show behind, as comedy clubs don't really have the capacity for that sort of thing. Ansari's tour stops in SF Jan. 22-24 at the Punchline. Ticket info soon to come. --Oscar Pascual

The charming bloke who helped make Forgetting Sarah Marshall one of the funniest Rom-Com's is visiting SF this fall. His snarky humor, which was the only thing I enjoyed from this year's MTV Video Music Awards, could prove to be just as hilarious in stand-up form at Cobb's Comedy Club on Nov. 5 and 6. Tickets go on sale this Friday, Oct. 17 at 10 a.m., and are available at Live Nation. More info after the jump. --Oscar Pascual

(Brian Posehn)

We all know you're going to get your drink on for New Year's Eve, but you can also get your laugh on at this year's Comedy Countdown at the Palace of Fine Arts. Ring in 2009 with the comedy stylings of Brian Posehn from the Sarah Silverman Program, Doug Benson of Super High Me fame, Greg Proops, and Arj Barker. Tickets go on sale Saturday, Oct. 19 at 10 a.m. --Oscar Pascual

Forget having to cross the bridge to blaze out with Cheech and Chong on their Light Up America & Canada tour, man. The perpetually stoned duo are now playing SF's Nob Hill Masonic Center on Nov. 23, so roll that dutch a little fatter now that you're saving some gas in your lowrider. Tickets go on sale this Friday, Oct. 3. No need to get up at 10 in the morning you lazy pothead, 'cus this one goes on sale at 4:20 p.m. --Oscar Pascual

Artie Lange
Nob Hill Masonic Center
September 19, 2008
Review by John Geluardi

Comedian Artie Lange took San Francisco by storm Friday night with a cohort of the misguided, mutant and malformed from the Howard Stern Show.

Lange was the headliner at the sold-out Nob Hill Masonic Center, which is a far cry from opening for other acts at crummy city comedy clubs as he did in the mid-1990s.

Lange was on location in San Francisco for three months in 1998 while filming “The Bachelor.” During that time he grew fond of the city, which he says has an East Coast feel. The rotund comedian got a huge roar from the crowd when he said he preferred San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles, which he called a city of “bullshiters.”

There were also appearances by Rev. Bob Levy, Yucko the Clown, Beatlejuice, Eric the Midget and… who else… oh yeah, Sal Governale (ho hum).

Despite being in the spiritual homeland of political correctness, the raunchy Lange did not hold anything back and the audience, clearly avid Stern fans, loved it. Nothing was sacred, gays, girlfriends, race, “retards,” midgets, or his recent heroin relapse. “I was recently in Afghanistan and I couldn’t help thinking this where heroin comes from,” he says. “I always wanted to try some fresh heroin, you know something that hasn’t been smuggled in a Puerto Rican girl’s ass for three years.”

(Photo via ChristopherTitus.com)

Christopher Titus
Cobb's Comedy Club
September 18, 2008
Notes by Janine Kahn

Better than: Seeing Rob Riggle last time we hit Cobb's. Titus was sharper, though not necessarily more demented material-wise.
Watch: An old Titus episode. Ah, nostalgia.

Two years ago, Christopher Titus filed for divorce after realizing it really wasn't normal to live with a woman who stole six figures from his bank account and passed it off as identity theft. These days he's free of his cheating, boob job-getting, knife-waving psycho wife and is back on the stand-up beat, wearing his failed relationship battle scars proud -- and telling everyone who'll listen his side of the story. It's almost like some bizarre sort of therapy for the comedian, but the audience liked his dark anecdotes enough to line up and have him sign stuff after the show.

"I'm bitter but I'm funny about it," Titus told a relatively full Cobb's Comedy Club last night, after launching into the familiar litany of parts his ex had surgically enhanced on his dime. If your wife gets a boob job over a decade into the marriage, he told the crowd, "don't go thinking it's for you. That's fresh meat on a new hook."

Despite the April '08 passing of event founder Jose Simon (pictured right), the annual San Francisco Comedy Day will still bring the laffs, yuks, chuckles, guffaws, and groaning eye-rolls to Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park. The 2008 event happens on Sunday, Sept. 28, starts at noon, and features Will Durst, Tom Rhodes, Diane Amos, Brent Weinbach, Joe Klocek, Mike E. Winfield, Marga Gomez, W. Kamau Bell, Tom Ammiano, Drennon Davis, and 20 other comedians. How much for all this joking and jocularity? Nothin', of course. Comedy Day is (and hopefully always will be) free for all ages. Log on to ComedyDay.com for more info and performer lineups. — J. Graham

Better show up early to see former SF comedian Aisha Tyler this weekend, otherwise you might as well go home and play Halo by yourself:

LATE SHOW CANCELLED.

Live Taping!
AISHA TYLER
Saturday, August 16th, Doors 6:30PM Show 7:00PM
The Fillmore
Tickets are $27.50 for seated general admission plus applicable service charges...all ages

The late show for Aisha Tyler scheduled for Saturday, August 16th at The Fillmore has been cancelled.
Tickets for the late show will be honored at the early show. Additional seats are now available for the early show.

--Oscar Pascual

Pineapple Express comes out next week, but Cheech & Chong would like to remind you that they were the original Dale and Saul with a reunion tour. Blaze a fatty boom batty with the forefathers of stoner comedies at the Berkeley Community Theatre Nov. 22. Tickets go on sale Fri. Aug. 8 at 4:20 pm, bro. --Oscar Pascual

If you're a long-time reader of ASD, you know we love Katt Williams. His character from "The Boondocks" never ceases to drop heavy knowledge, as evident in the totally NSFW clip above. Let Katt Williams school you on the fallacy of "bros before hoes" at this year's WiLD 94.9 Comedy Jam. Get your tickets starting Sun., July 20 at 10 a.m. --Oscar Pascual

There's a whole lotta swearing here (so keep the volume low if you're in an office that cares about that stuff), but damn these are some hilarious videos.

First up, "Bug in Mouth Brings Out the Street in Reporter" proves that a little fly can make a man hate his entire life.

And then in "RV Salesman Commercial Outakes" an RV salesmen gets Tourette Syndrome of the "shit shit shit" variety so bad he makes the proclamation "No listen ... I don't want any more bullshit at any time during the day, from anyone, that includes me." In the end, well, that doesn't include him. -- Jennifer Maerz