(8.30) A back-to-school special of sorts. This week’s installment of Movies on the Block features the 2003 Will Farrell vehicle “Old School.” Elvis Mitchell had this to say in the New York Times,

This sloppy, dumb, though occasionally funny comedy is so derivative of ”Animal House” (and, more specifically, its children) that it’s like one of those by-the-numbers imitative movies Homer Simpson is so obsessed with.

Look for Snoop Lion (née Dogg) and James Carville.

Running time 91 minutes. Rated R.

Free, Dusk, Thursday, August 30, Movies on the Block, Grant’s Block, Westminster at Union Street, (directions)

(6.13) And now for something completely different, the comedic stylings of Neil Hamburger. He’s opened for Tenacious D, Tim & Eric, and Faith No More. His TV credits include Fox News’ Red Eye, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, and Jimmy Kimmel Live, and his most recent album “Live At Third Man” was produced by Jack White in Nashville. From the New York Times,

A brilliantly awful persona of an old-school, C-list funnyman—the kind with an ill-fitting tuxedo and an enormous, greasy combover—on a very bad night. Neil Hamburger toys with an audience’s expectations (and patience), and indeed his act is a kind of rude commentary on stand-up comedy altogether.

This show is an ‘Editor’s Pick’ in The Phoenix; they cite Reggie Watts as a big fan, adding “Hamburger (Gregg Turkington in “real life”) excels in the comedy of discomfort. Dig into his greasy, disjointed weirdness . . . .”  Duncan Trussell opens.

$15, doors 8pm, show 9pm, Wednesday, June 13, Fête, 103 Dike Street, 401.383.1112

Attention fans of Flight of the Conchords and about a million other shows on tv, the stupendously impassive, but droll as hell, Eugene Mirman is bringing his act to The Met in Pawtucket tomorrow night.

Eugene Mirman is a comedian and hero who lives in Brooklyn, NY. Currently, he plays comedian/mobster Yvgeny Mirminsky on Adult Swim’s Delocated and does the voice of Gene on Fox’s new animated series Bob’s Burgers. In the streets he’s sometimes recognized as Eugene, the landlord, from Flight of the Conchords. On Aqua Teen Hunger Force he’s Dr. Eugene Mirman and on Home Movies he was Eugene, the Russian foreign exchange student. Eugene hates auditioning for things, but likes being cast as Eugene in stuff (hopefully he will play Eugene, the baby on Mad Men, one day).

Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door for a great night of comedy with Eugene Mirman, Kumail Nanjiani, and Reggie Watts. (Go to the Eugene Mirman website and launch that feature ‘The Marvelous Crooning Child’ to see the young Eugene singing Black Dog and Walk This Way among other rock classics.)

Pretty Good Friends, Doors 8pm, Show 9pm, Wednesday, The Met, 1005 Main Street, Pawtucket

Newly formed improv group  — The Long and Short of It — will be doing their thing downtown Thursday night, January 27th, on the 3rd floor of the Providence Public Library. The individuals of the five-member cast — Jimmy Sorel, Beth Hicks, Adam Michael Kennedy, Daniel Wood, and Bryan Kimmelman — have been knocking around town in the local improv/acting community for a while, and decided the chemistry and timing was right for the creation of this new project.

The group’s name references the format of the show — a half-hour of long form improv followed by a half-hour of short form improv. On tap for Thursday’s show; games involving marshmallows, a game involving music, and audience participation in the form of suggestions. . . possibly sound effects. Mr. Kimmelman invites everyone to come down and bring friends, the more the merrier.

Free, 7pm, Thursday, Barnard Room, 3rd floor, PPL, 150 Empire Street

Where young people go to retire. And if you don’t get why that’s perfect, this new Fred Armisen show may not be for you. (Honestly, think of the people you know who have moved to Portland). This six-episode sketch series airs Friday nights on IFC (first episode up now at the Portlandia website). SNL regular Armisen created the show with Carrie Brownstein, rocking singer/guitarist of the now defunct Portland band Sleater-Kinney. Dave Itzkoff writes in The New York Times,

. . .together Mr. Armisen and Ms. Brownstein, two guileless if unlikely collaborators, hope they possess enough street cred to serve as ambassadors of Portland’s counterculture and to present their version of it, in “Portlandia,” to an audience beyond the Pacific Northwest.

These gals here may be the feminist bookstore owners. The show looks quite promising. Not clear how the people of Portland are taking it, although I suspect many residents take great pride in not watching any television at all.

10:30pm, IFC, Fridays, starts January 21

“We’re not adding content, we’re just adding another hour.” So says a ‘producer’ in the pilot of the great satirical send-up Wake Up World, one of comedian Lizz Winstead’s recent projects. Wake Up World — America’s Only 6-hour Morning Show! skewers the vapid network void that is morning television. All these perky idiots are sadly recognizable TV types, including its ‘guestperts’ and a ‘consumption advocate’. (Winstead’s onscreen persona is Hope Jean Paul.) The website nicely mimics segment teases with a “Coming Up…” box, as in, “Teenage Drinking: Five ways to tell if your child has had more than 10 drinks!”.

Winstead never seems to run out of creative vehicles for exposing the lazy media, venal politicians, and the wretched institutions that cynically exploit both to the detriment of our country. (She was also co-creator of Air America Radio, and can also be heard every Friday on MSNBC’s The Ed Show.)

In a recent conversation, Winstead — who, as co-creator of The Daily Show, brought on such talent as Stephen Colbert and Lewis Black, and has since worked with The Man Show and guested on Politically Incorrect — discussed women in television comedy. She immediately drew a distinction between the late night shows with their ‘boys club’ writers rooms, and shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report where the writing submissions are handed in blind, and there are many women on staff — phew, I really want to like those guys — adding, “These shows aren’t so much a boys club as a nerd club.”

Winstead’s latest project is the one-woman show, My State of the Union, coming to the Mixed Magic Theatre in Pawtucket. She is touring mid-sized cities discussing the events of the day, constantly tweaking the material as events play out, giving a slightly different show in each town. Ms. Winstead has concerns for our institutions of democracy, “It used to be we had the media to keep an eye on the politicians. Now we need the comedians to keep an eye on the media. We’re a sort of Fifth Estate.”

My State of the Union plays two shows, 7pm and 9pm, on Friday and Saturday (buy tickets here). Photo credit: Mindy Tucker.

[Additional Note: Saw the show and laughed a lot. She's mad about all the same things/people I'm mad about. Nice intimate little theater — it was like hanging with a smart, funny friend for about 90 minutes. Best unscripted moment: drunk blond girl wandered in from the festival looking for the bathroom. BC]

$20, Friday and Saturday (August 27 + 28th) Mixed Magic Theater, 171 Main Street, Pawtucket, 722.1881

This would totally be the worth the trip to Newport, and I do not say that often (Flo’s Clamshack). This is a good ‘get’ for the Newport Summer Comedy Series — Louis C. K. may be the best stand-up guy out there. His recent work includes his nuanced performance as Dave, the unsophisticated, but nobody’s fool, policeman on Parks and Recreation. As Leslie Knope’s suitor he is vulnerable yet strangely confident, and just really appealing. Louie C.K. now has his own comedy show on the FX Network. Louie is structured much like the old Seinfeld (not that there’s anything wrong with that) with Louie’s daily struggles book-ended by segments of his stand-up (the bit about the homeless guy is insanely funny). What sets the show apart are the new twists on old standards — see the blind date episode — and his ability to find the perfect word every time.

Louie airs Tuesdays, tonight, 11pm on the FX Network.

Louie C.K. Live, $35, 7:30pm, Sunday, August 1st, Newport Yachting Center, 16+

This Friday marks the 15th anniversary of the original airing of the “Lisa’s Wedding” episode of The Simpsons. This anniversary is notable as the episode takes place 15 years in the future — in 2010. For me, it doesn’t seem nearly so long ago that the episode aired, but it’s funny to look back now that we’re living in the year of that imagined future.

While a lot of the episode’s future jokes are backwards-looking, it does seem to get it right at many levels. The Rolling Stones “Steel Wheelchair Tour 2010” hits home, and the consolidation of ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN into one network seems appropriate, even if it’s not totally accurate. The “40 Classic Films Starring Jim Carrey” joke is even more interesting in light of somewhat recent critical opinion.

Having made it to 2010, we’re starting to hit the prime time of these sorts of run-ins with past future-based fictions. Marty McFly and co. are just around the corner in 2015.

Hulu clips plus more after the jump.
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As we accrue more evidence of this joke-of-a-governor’s detest for civil liberties, I’m reminded to wonder: How did he ever manage to live down his mini Patriot Act of 2004?

The 18-page bill included language from ill-considered laws dating back to World War I — a time of public hysteria, when American rights came under assault. The Carcieri bill would have made it illegal to: display foreign flags in a way that suggests other countries are superior to the United States; “speak, utter or print” statements supporting anarchy; or speak in favor of overthrowing the government. It would also have allowed businesses and government to keep secret from the public whether they were complying with safety laws.

Frank Santos, the R-Rated Hypnotist, is dead.

Santos was working at Big G Supermarkets and saw a hypnotist perform at a company party, Michael Janusonis reported in a story about the entertainer in 1990. Santos took classes in hypnotism, opened a hypnosis center in Cumberland and put together an act, which quickly packed rooms.

“We all started doing comedy at the old Periwinkle’s at the old Arcade,” comedian Charlie Hall said Tuesday. Although Santos had a following that jammed the club, “the genius of Frank was that he knew that he wasn’t the star of the show.” Audiences loved seeing their friends on stage, singing as if they were Madonna or Mick Jagger. “He got people to laugh at themselves,” Hall said.

Laugh out loud as you and your friends play improv comedy games with ‘Bring Your Own Improv’. BYOI’s unique audience-participation show gets you up on stage and makes you the star. No experience necessary.You must be at least 18 years old.

$5, Wednesdays at 9pm, Fridays at 11pm, The Spot, 286 Thayer Street.

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This ad’s been out on the internet for a while, and is now wrapped up in the back-and-forth over the stimulus package with with Congressman Eric Cantor:

We find it pretty charming, but suppose Cantor’s intentions weren’t benevolent.  It’s hurt him, and helped the union, either which way.  Go AFSCME!

Things to do today — buy a calendar.  Things to look forward to in the new year — the new season of Flight of the Conchords starts January 18th, 10pm on HBO.

I know you’ll all be partying tomorrow night, so I’m getting this out of the way now.

It’s my favorite video of the week of things we’ll miss and things we *really* won’t miss from 2008. It’s set to the song “New Lang Syne (Thank God It’s Over)” by Jim’s Big Ego and was created by a group that stirred some controversy a few years ago with a Bush/Cheney montage set to JBE’s song “Asshole” (at least when a teacher showed it to his classroom of what I think were maybe 8th graders).

Tonight is the premiere of A Colbert Christmas:The Greatest Gift of All! — obviously a spoof of the genre.  The gold standard in this category is, of course, Pee Wee’s Christmas Special. Judging from the mixed review in The New York Times, this new entry will not knock Pee Wee out of first place. Alessandra Stanley writes,

Mr. Colbert is delightful, a few of the song parodies are clever, but over all, the show is too long and more than a little strained, much like the holiday specials it mocks. Elvis Costello is one of the guests and he is misused, forced into silly mock-skits that are no funnier than the cloying fluff they parody.

But she goes on to say that the two perform a duet at the end that is “quite wonderful”. (Photo:Kristopher Long)

10pm, Comedy Central, with Toby Keith, John Legend, Willie Nelson, and (attention Eric) Feist