Comedian Colin Quinn has been around a long time.
How long?
This long:
Yikes.
Quinn has come a long way since 1990, but unlike some of the comedians he came up with, like Jon Stewart and Ben Stiller, his career has been a series of, shall we say, lateral moves.
Sure, he was the “Weekend Update” guy on Saturday Night Live for five years, but his movie career never quite took off (A Night at the Roxbury, anyone?).
He took up stand-up comedy after he quit drinking and needed something to take up his sudden surfeit of sober free time. Nearly thirty years on, Quinn remains a workhorse, and is sometimes called “the comedian’s comedian” (which some comics and fans consider a dubious designation, a backhanded compliment that’s synonymous with “too brilliant to ever make it big”).
It’s the Colin Quinn of Tough Crowd (2002-2004) I’m most familiar with: the fast-talking, working-class Brooklyn autodidact whose dry quips sometimes flew over the heads of the audience, not to mention the fellow comics who debated current affairs with him in the midnight hour.
Come on: if Lincoln could opine to Douglas and those assembled that “there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together,” then surely we can use the elevated word “debate” here, too (EXTREME language and content warning):
So I brought a lot of enthusiasm to Quinn’s latest production,”Long Story Short.” He’d workshopped the material for a long time in clubs, then took the 75-minute one-man show about the history of the world off-Broadway. It seems stupid to talk about a performer who started out in 1984 as “getting his big break” in 2010, but that’s sort of what happened when Jerry Seinfeld signed on as producer/director: with that big name attached to the production, “Long Story Short” made it to Broadway.
HBO turned “Long Story Short” into a special, which was nominated for an Emmy. When it came out on DVD a few weeks ago, it topped my to-watch list.
Categories: Humor
A lot of fun, Kathy, thanks.
That’s some funny stuff. It funny how comedy can disarm people and get them to not only listen but be persuaded by political points that would otherwise simply make them angry.
Robert Wuhl had an HBO special called “Assume the Position” that went even further along this Sowell-like road. In the special, you can clearly see the young people in the “class” being won over by his argument because of the clarity, humor and persuasiveness. Blind siding people in this manner is probably the only way to get people to change their minds on political issues.
Sure, seeing a comic show isn’t going to change one’s stance on gay marriage and other issues but the point is that if such a satiric look at the Left’s talking points could come to suffuse our culture, something might change and a more centrist Saturday Night Live would be welcome.
We need more Gutfelds and Wuhls who may have their own “sides” but are not simply agenda driven morons who repeat moral stances as if they were born in a stereotype factory like the OWS crowd or those depraved women on The View.
is it safe for kids? teens? ones who’ve seen cbs- which means a lot implied?
b/c i think my kids would think it was HI-LAR-I-OUS even if I didn’t get the jokes. ( they’re getting a better education than me)
What? No reference to the timeless “Sing Along With Colin” segments from “Remote Control”?!? Blasphemy!
Ari,
This sounds dumb but I don’t have kids and your question wasn’t top of mind while I was watching. I don’t remember hearing any cursing, though.
You’re joking right? There is massive cursing. If you’re not joking, watch the videos.
Samash, I’m Catholic not Protestant so I’m not calibrated to count swears in TV shows. So, if you say so…
You don’t watch the videos you present to us to watch? I am Catholic as well and I’m fairly sure that somewhere in my old Catechism book you’re playing with Purgatory. Although you may get a pass for not actually watching the massive swearing. Plus every bleeped curse is like a Hail Mary or Our Father.
Well, since even standing in line at the grocery store is an education far beyond what children ought to be getting- women’s magazine covers ought to be wrapped in brown paper, these days- I’m not exactly squiring around Rod and Todd Flanders.
and, they watch regular tv with their dad, and play video games. Which I think makes them normal, average, exposed to raw language sorts of kids.
So, would you be comfortable showing this to a nephew or niece? That’s what I’m asking.
Because, quite seriously, my kids would like history of the world humor with a bite. They both know more history than me, courtesy of TV documentaries. This means- my sons know Good Professor Victor Davis Hanson as a long-time friend, and reliable teacher. They make jokes about unpronounceable Greek historical figures, and laugh together, and I feel stupid, b/c I’m trying to get the door open, wiggling the key, and I’m thinking- I just missed a phrase-not ‘wow, I have no idea what you just said.’ which I can’t say, when I ask them to repeat the joke.
So- yes? or Yes, wait a couple of years?
And, no I’m not going to do due diligence and watch it ahead of them. so don’t suggest it. spouse might. but he lets them see more than I’m comfortable with. so it’s a pointless shadow of protection.
a “pointless shadow”?
is that like an overshadowed shadow, or a shadow with no source?
hehehehehe.
no- just, every last single stupid parents magazine thing says “watch this before your kids do.” I’ve learned if I want my kids to really get into something good, they have to ‘discover’ it on their own; then they tell me I have to see it. If I sound like I know what’s in it, they give up.
Like, Psych, the tv show? they watched it first, and then shared it with me, and then their dad.
and I was totally skipping VDH essays, here, b/c they looked complicated, and the kids were like “Hey- he’s the guy on the Roman’s show!” which I still haven’t seen. I walk by, with laundry baskets, and their watching something with maps, and vdh and grown men in purple capes….
so, for good stuff like that? I can’t do the “mom’s goodhousekeeping seal of approval” routine.
So, that’s why I need to know if I can have it lying around, and they can ‘discover’ it.
I loved “Tough Crowd” and Opie & Anthony (where a lot of those guys still show up regularly). Patrice O’Neal who just passed away was my favorite.
They talk like Soldiers and Marines – insulting each other is a major sport and a way to pass the time. They HATE the liberal PC left at least as much as the Christian right.
Just this morning they were talking politics on O&A – most of them are Ron Paul guys – Fiscal Conservative / Social Liberals.