Comedy Hero: Greg Proops

[Click the hyperlink, if you're wondering whether or not GREG PROOPS IS GAY. ]

As I was driving last night, I came across a radio program (do people even listen to those anymore?) on CBC called, The Debaters. The reception wasn't amazing, but I did hear a familiar voice as one of the debating guests. You may know him from the popular TV show, Whose Line Is is Anyway?. He appeared on both the American and the original British version. (Don't we Americans have any original TV show ideas of our own? We always bite off of the Mother country--the British.)

Today, this post is on, American comedian Greg Proops.

Gregory Everett Proops first started his career in Improv and even studied it at university. He eventually graduated to stand-up comedy. He seems to have his feet in both worlds of Improv and Stand-up and does both very well. If you've seen Whose Line is it.., you know he still exercises his improv muscles quite often.

He still performs stand-up and according to Comedy Central.com, "...[he's] toured the UK four times, sold out Edinburgh Fringe Festival seven years running and has kicked it live in Montreal, Aspen, Ireland, Paris, Norway and the United Arab Emirates." Whew! Aren't you tired, Greg? I sure am after reading that! He also has a very successful career providing voices for characters like, Bob, in a British TV series called Bob the Builder for the four seasons of "Project Build-It".

Proops hails from San Francisco and whenever mentions it, he quickly follows it with, "but I'm not gay." He professes to be a screaming liberal, but also reams liberals in his stand-up act. I love it! He's unpredictably liberal! I also find him strangely attractive, much in the same way I find Eddie Izzard attractive. Both comedians have a keen, unique, and distinct use of language and vocabulary. Go figure? I like wordnerds.

In his appearance, he reminds me of a strange cross between Eddie Izzard and Elvis Costello. Maybe it's the close connection to England. Although, his actual performance reminds me of a more watered down, more easily digestible version of Dennis Miller. Where Dennis Miller is heady and obscure, Proops is friendly and relatable.

Well, let me stop babbling and you can witness him yourself:

I do enjoy Mr. Proops' act. It's often hard to distinguish his stand-up from his improv. They are so closely linked in style, one sort of bleeds into the other. I find him entertaining to watch and I love to anticipate what whacky long-winded descriptor will come out of his mouth next. I'm a word geek and if you have a strong command of English language, higher than most, and can be funny with it, I'm buttah...perhaps even puddin'... in your hands.

Awwww yeah, $240 worth of pudding.


[ Official Greg Proops Website |
Greg Proops on Wikipedia | Greg Proops Comedy Central profile ]



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Tina Fey and Jerry Seinfeld--Improv and Stand-up Collide...!

Two TITANS will clash tonight on NBC!!

That's right--Fey and Seinfeld!

Two schools of thought (on comedy) become one tonight on television. And I'm going to be right there, glued to my seat. My two favorite people in comedy on TV, on one channel. (I don't even have to flip back and forth between stations to catch all the comedy goodness!)

One Rock... Two Rock... 30 Rock...

Ok..ok... maybe I'm over-hyping it. But they're both awesome in their own right. They both have cool, "before they made it" stories.

Tina Fey has her background in Second City in Chicago. She was so motivated and ready for the Improv and Sketch world that she up and left Pennsylvania for the big city.

Seinfeld didn't to travel too far for his training ground--just a hop, skip, and jump over the Long Island Expressway.

Another cool celebrity factoid: Seinfeld and Alec Baldwin, a main character on 30 Rock, both grew up in the same town. (Man, Hollywood is small!!!) They weren't exactly friends, however Seinfeld did know Baldwin's father who was a football coach at Seinfeld's high school.

So let's review: What happens at 8:30pm (EST) tonight on NBC?

Answer: Two powerhouse comedians go head to head.

Tonight 30 Rock Premiere

Spoiler warning: If you really can't wait until 8:30 tonight, then I can offer you this link, but don't say I didn't warn you!

And Jerry has even a shameless plug for his new movie, Bee Movie. And I can only respond, in Seinfeld's own voice, we get it,we get it already!


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Serendipity, yet again?

So I attended School Night at UCB theatre. It's a place for comedians, mainly improv acts to debut their work. It's a fairly solid show, for it to begin at 11pm. But it's FREE, so no complaints. I was disappointed to see no standup comedians, but perhaps once I get my act down, I'll try out the UCB audience.

Well let's get to the Serendipity, shall we?

I was restless before, during, and after the show. Simply put, I was ready to go home after a pseudo-comedy run (I say pseudo because I attended a hot, sweaty, and humid party called SHINDIG. Oh, by the way? Did I tell you there was a real live nudist there, enjoying the party in his all hairy glory? It was funny to see him casually walk around the party as if he was not naked. While the party was packed and everyone was squeezed in to listen to the band, the nudist could glide through the room easily because of the 3 ft radius that developed around him. (Who wants to touch a naked, hairy, sweaty 40 yr old by accident at a party?) He sauntered around and it was like watching the proverbial parting of the Indie Rocker Red Sea all over again.)

Okay I digress, back to the UCB theatre show- School Night:

Before I take my seat, I usually pull my cell phone out of my pocket and place it nearby, within my peripheral vision because a) I don't want to sit on it uncomfortably b) it won't scare the bejesus out of me when it buzzes c) I can see it flickering and flashing within that brief distance, glance at the number, and decide whether or not it's worth answering, all the while never interrupting fellow audience members.

Now I always set it on vibrate, after experimenting with several other standard ringtones (There's no way you'll ever catch me purchasing a ringtone for my phone... unless of course it's either New Order or Soft Cell 'Tainted Love.' I don't even like 'Tainted Love' that much, but a friend of mine had it as his ringtone.. and I thought it was this coolest thing since fresh soy milk.)

Back to the show:

So remember I'm restless, and as soon as School Night is over. I'm out the door like a bat out of hell (to quote my dad.) Anyway, I got about 1 block and a 1/2 away from the theatre missing the lumpy feeling in my pocket. DAMMIT! So I hot foot it back to the theatre!

I walk in and there are about 20-30 people MORE in the theatre. There was a minimal turnout for School Night, so this seems a bit ridiculous. I shuffle about and then head for where the cell phone was last seen. Naturally curious, I asked the couple that had replaced me in my seat if they had seen my phone.

"Here ya go!" She smiles and hands me the phone, happily. I, happily, accept.

"So what's going tonight?" I ask.

It was then that I learned about 3 pilots that were handed-picked from regular UCB theatre acts and they were debuting all the pilots tonight. SWEET!

[Clearly Network and Cable TV is heading the way of improv and examples are Human Giant (MTV)]

Here were the pilots:

"Improv Everywhere" - creator Charlie Todd http://improveverywhere.com/ (NBC)

"Fat Guy Stuck in the Internet" - creators John Gemberling and
Curtis Gwinn](Adult Swim)

"We Used to Go Out" - creators Jessica St. Clair and Jason Mantzoukas](HBO)

I used to have a dire hatred of improv and sketch comedy. But perhaps, improv isn't so bad afterall...

food for thought!

I got a chance to speak briefly with Improv Everywhere's Charlie Todd. But it was too short to comment on here. I hope to run into him later on. I really respect his website/idea.

~Lucy

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