How to Succeed in the Music Biz, by Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu is a really funny lady.

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Comedy Babies: Patton Oswalt and David Cross

Ain't they adowable?

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The Roots + Wale and Chrisette Michelle on Letterman

Via my mom.

When did The Roots become a go-go band? Not that there's anything wrong with that.

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Prince at Coachella

Jim Real, "The Master of Would You Rather" called me from Coachella today to tell me that last night, he saw the greatest performer in the world.

Above video (1999) via BrooklynVegan, who have some great photos, too.

Below: Radiohead's "Creep"

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Spot the TSOYA Guest

One thing I wish I'd had on mic from the time I spent with Kenna was the talk of working on Ashlee Simpson's album. Kenna had nothing but good things to say about the time he spent working on her record (he at least co-wrote or co-produced most of it), and about her. He said she had good taste and a solid head on her shoulders, and a good sense of song craft.

Finally we got to check out what he was talking about. He wrote this song, which was produced by Timbo. Not bad.

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Keak's Sneakin' Again!

Above: conclusive proof to Jordan, Jesse GO! listeners who don't live in the Bay Area that Keak da Sneak is NOT a made up rapper! He's real! And this is the single from his new album!

Surprised to see that the new version of this track (released in the Yay six or nine months ago) features Prodigy and The Alchemist (rapping?), but it's good to see that Keak da Sneak is back. New album dropping soon on Koch... I wonder if he'll come be on TSOYA. I just emailed his publicist.

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Spam Theater from BBTV

I know what you're thinking: "This is very funny, Jesse, and I love BoingBoing TV. But when will you and Jordan appear on this internet video program?"

The answer is soon, my little darling. Sleep now, and perhaps when you awake, we will be ready.

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Kids in the Hall - The Car Fuckers

Brand new from The Kids in the Hall, and hilarious, to boot.

Don't miss them on tour, I've seen their new live show and it really delivers. Lots of great new material, plus old faves.

If you are a fan of The Kids in the Hall, you should probably listen to this show with Dave Foley (and Chuck Klosterman, to boot!).

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B.o.B. - Haterz Everywhere

I'm getting kind of excited about B.o.B. -- he feels like a 2008 iteration of the Dungeon Family, even more than, well, the Dungeon Family does.

This isn't his best track, Rich Boy's not much of a rapper, but it's a pretty good one, and an interesting take on the "trance-hop" meme that's been going around. We'll see if B.o.B. has depth to match his style, but as I said... I'm excited.

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Scheerstravaganza: Court TV Acting Reel from Human Giant

In the business, this is known as Scheer Mayhem. In my book, it's a Scheer delight!

Well, I'm off to drink some Scheerly Canadian!

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Mitchell & Webb: Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Since we're on the subject of Mitchell & Webb, here's a favorite from "The Mitchell & Webb Look." BBC America is holding a marathon of the show on Sunday, by the by.

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Elephant Larry - Your Mother

Great new stuff from Elephant Larry. As usual.

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Jay-Z and MJB - Can't Knock the Hustle

Lovin this. Mary is even on pitch for much of the song. I would say they have the US Open - advantage Jigga.

One question, though: what's the story with the horn players pretending to play horns while the keyboards play the horn parts? Did they run out of microphones? Did they accidentally have a casting call for dancers when they meant to have one for saxaphonists? Oh well.

Slick like a gato, fuckin' Jay-Z.

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Armando Ianucci and Steve Coogan on The South Bank Show

The South Bank Show is a long-running British arts & culture magazine show, from what I understand. Below, two of the kings of UK comedy, Armando Ianucci and Steve Coogan, discuss their craft. If you're not already familiar with their work, try seeking out "The Day Today" on the video sites.

Above, Cougan, below, Ianucci.

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"Into the boingle bucket!"

Is there anything not awesome about this commercial for an early-70s Rube Goldberg machine toy?

Thank you BoingBoing.

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Barack Obama-sistible

I'm not here to endorse candidates, but I will say that Jon Glaser and Detroit Octane have convinced me of ONE candidates "Barack Obama-sistibility."

Above: the music video that's sweeping the nation. Below: the making of.

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Ashkeezy is burning up the YouTube charts...

Our man Ashkon's video "Hot Tubbin" has exploded since we posted it last week -- going from a few hundred views to over a hundred thousand. It helps, of course, that it's on the front page of YouTube this week, but really, truly, I think it's because of the power of the MaxFun community.

So... cop a copy of Ashkon's mixtape, which is great. Then cop a copy of his new album "The Final Breakthrough" when it comes out in April. And most importantly, check out the director's cut of the video above, which includes a snippet from his HOT hip-hop single "Freedom."

And why not call your local radio station and request Hot Tubbin? We can finally find out if KMEL is really "The People's Station"!

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"This is a building that deserves my piss." - The Internets Celebrities

I wish all internet videos were hosted by The Internets Celebrities, a pair of funny, lumpy, charming guys from New York City. Their videos thus far have been a sort of hip-hop corrolary to Jonah Ray's similarly funny Freeloader's Guide to Easy Living series -- a guide to living cheaply in the Big City.

This video above, their latest, is a how-to on finding a place to urinate in New York City. Bear in mind that this video is about peeing, so if that bothers you (or your employer), don't watch.

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The Knux - Cappucino

Interesting new group... apparently they're gonna get a big push from Interscope, Iovine thinks they're the next big thing. They're brothers, and this is a good single. The one dude is sweating Big Boi's style kind of hard, though... and the video's sweating De La... we'll see what the LP holds.

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Ashkon - Hot Tubbin : The Video!

Maximum Fun Pal Ashkon has just released his first ever music video for his Yay Area acoustic hip-hop smash Hot Tubbin.

If you don't know: Ashkon can rap his ass off, but this one is sweet, melodic and fucking hilarious. We're gonna get Ashkon back in the studio for another Jordan, Jesse GO!, because shit is about to BLOW THE FUCK UP.

Ashkon's album, "The Final Breakthrough," is coming to iTunes next month, and it features Mistah FAB and Boots Riley, among others. Watch for that shit.

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Snoopdewoop f. Short Dogg & Fabby Davis Jr. on Conan

Always nice to see the Yay represented on national TV... even if I tried to book FAB recently and failed. This is Snoop's new single "Life of the Party."

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The Dana Carvey Show on Hulu

The Dana Carvey Show aired on ABC when I was a teenager. You know how people are always talking about the huge impact The Ben Stiller Show had on them? That's how I felt about The Dana Carvey Show.

At the time, I didn't know who Robert Smigel, Steve Carrel, Stephen Colbert, Louis CK, Dino Stamatopoulos, Spike Feresten, Dave Chappelle, Jon Glaser or Charlie Kaufman were, but each of them were contributors to the show. What I did know was that Skinheads From Maine was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen. In fact, when I had a brief opportunity to gush to Stephen Colbert last year, that was what I gushed about.

Dana Carvey is an interesting performer. He can be fantastically funny, but like another Bay Area legend, Robin Williams, sometimes that humor can be overwhelmed by... I dunno... broadness and a whiff of desperation. Here, he's surrounded by a spectacularly capable crew of writers and performers, and while he's occaisionally a bit over-indulgent (do we need interstitials from the Church Lady?), he's generally superb. The rest of cast, including the lesser-known figures like Bill Schott is uniformly excellent, as well.

The show has been astonishingly difficult to find for many years. Relatively recently it's shown up in digital form (I spent college scouring the interwebs looking for it), and now, it's in convenient digital form on the new multi-giant-conglomerate media site Hulu. I urge you to check it out.

One odd side note: for some reason, episode one, which featured the "controversial" opening sketch with Bill Clinton feeding a broad variety of barnyard animals at his teat, is not featured in the lineup.

Below, Skinheads From Maine, touchstone for 15-year-old Jesse.

"Nice sunset, there."
"Yeeeauhh. Weathah's the only thing the Jews don't control."

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Improv Everywhere: Food Court Musical

A kindly homosexual tries to teach Jesse to dance in one ill-fated night

Improv Everywhere (previously on TSOYA), if you don't already know, are an organization of fun-loving people whose goal is to "cause scenes." I'd call their works pranks, but their goal is not to dupe people, but rather to create moments of wonder and amazement in ordinary places. They call them Missions.

IE is based in New York City, where founder (and committed MaxFunster) Charlie Todd is based. Last year, they were taping a pilot and shot a few missions here in LA. Charlie was kind enough to invite me to participate, and one of the missions he created out here has finally been posted on the IE website: The Food Court Musical. Essentially, a group of ten or fifteen people, seated in various spots in a mall food court, stood up and played parts in a complicated musical number called "Can I Get A Napkin Please?"

I can't say enough about how enjoyable the whole process was, from soup to nuts. Everyone involved was super-awesome, from Charlie to the IE regulars to the UCB folks to the random people who came in from craigslist. The song is wonderful, and I realized about halfway through that the star was also Jordan, Jesse Go!'s cheap video game reviewer.

The mall chosen to be the site of the mission is in south LA -- you might know it as the place Chris Rock interviewed people coming out of a Magic Johnson theater one time for the Oscars. We actually performed the song a few times during the course of a day, and the reactions on the patrons ranged from, "white people are crazy! I find that amusing." to "white people are crazy! I find that confounding." The editors chose to highlight the former, but watch for a lot of the latter on the edges of the frame.

Fortunately for you, my brief solo (as "Man in Suit") was cut, as was all of my (extensive) dancing, but I think the finished product is a lot of fun, and you can still spot me reacting to a thrown broom and in the closing tableau. Check it out for yourself below.

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"Lost"

A MaxFunster named Thomas di Napoli sent me this funny, charming short film he made. It concerns a bitter breakup and a missing sixth disc of a box set of "Lost." Be aware that there are no "Lost" jokes in the film, or if there were, I didn't get them, because I've never seen Lost.

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Ask your local public radio station to carry The Sound of Young America

Hey... I'm posting this to ask you to do me a favor.

Here's the deal: you probably noticed that in July of last year, The Sound of Young America started being distributed by Public Radio International. PRI are a bunch of really cool, nice folks in Minneapolis who are committed to what's next in public radio. They're the folks who decided to pick up This American Life after NPR turned down Ira Glass twice, for example.

Anyway, it was a really gutsy move for them to pick up a show produced by a 26-year-old in his apartment. Most people in public radio still think this is pretyt much insane.

I would love it if you would help me show all the doubters that they're 1000% wrong.

If you think the public radio station where you live is ready to be more awesome, please drop them a line. Write them a letter, send them an email or make a phone call. Tell them that you love public radio, and you love The Sound of Young America.

Lots of stations are looking for younger programming, but a lot of stations are also worried about alienating older listeners as well. Tell them that despite its name, The Sound of Young America is awesome for everyone. Tell them why you love it. Send them a link to a favorite podcast. Tell them that you're ready for something new.

Almost every public radio station's website has a contact page. If you can't find contact information for your favorite station, email me at jesse@maximumfun.org and I'll give you direct information. I've created a thread on the message board at maximumfun.org where lots of people are talking about their experiences doing this, and they're almost all positive. When you write, share! Public radio survives on listener donations, so they're all about listening to their audience. Tell them what you want!

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This is fucking hilarious.

Probably the only thing funnier than this video of John Legend and Stephen Colbert dueting on the song "The Girl is Mine," is the original video, with Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney on that fucking hayride.

Edit: a bigger Paul McCartney/MJ duet fan than I has pointed out that the hayride was in the video for the OTHER hit MJ/PM duet, Say Say Say.

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The Roots f. Dice Raw & Peedi Crakk - Get Busy

I feel like it's been six months since I've seen a hip-hop video *not* directed by Rik Cordero. He must be charging $20 apiece, two for $35.

Also: am I mistaken in thinking that ?uest is getting his Milton on?

Anyway, Kamal is killing it with that keyboard line, and Peedi and Thought kill it on the mike. Half Mandrill half Mandala? That's ill, BT. Also: Dice Raw gets line of the song award for "I'm kinda like W.E.B. Dubois... meets Heavy D and the Boys."

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Richard Feynman Needs His Orange Juice

Can there be any doubt that this man is the greatest sciencist of the 20th century?!

Can there be any doubt that this man has got to have his orange juice?

A THOUSAND TIMES NO!

via metafilter

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Jordan interviews Will Ferrel, Andre 3K, Will Arnett and Woody Harrelson

I am a good interviewer. Jordan Morris "Boy Detective" is a great interviewer.

SEE ABOVE

QED

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Human Giant Season Two is Coming!

TSOYA Pals Human Giant have a second season of comedy hurtling towards your television. You can already download episode one of season two in iTunes, or for free using Amazon Unbox, though for the latter you'll need a special player (wtf, amazon?).

Hard to imagine that it was only ten months ago that the HG fellas first visited The Sound. Or that it was only a few years ago when we first saw HG director Jason Woliner's brilliant and hilarious Dick Cheney's Alive!.

Kudos to you, Human Giants! You are a delight to us all!

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Kenna & the Neptunes on Letterman

This song's a jam, but my question is this: did they just add the Neptunes to Kenna's regular band? Because Pharrell is definitely playing the drums, and Chad is definitely on the keys. But there is also another guy playing keys, and another guy playing drums. Now: Chad can really play keys and Pharrell can really play drums. I don't think it's a trick. But I guess the regular drummer and keyboard player were like, "Oh hell naw, I'm not gonna NOT be on Letterman!"

Anyway, here's my interview with Kenna from a few months ago. I just re-ran it on the radio, and got a lot of emails about it.

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Podcast: Joel Hodgson, Frank Conniff and J. Elvis Weinstein of Cinematic Titanic and Mystery Science Theater 3000

Joel Hodgson, Frank Conniff and J. Elvis Weinstein are 3/5ths of Cinematic Titanic. The series of DVDs and digital downloads combines old, terrible films with comic commentary. If the description sounds familiar, you might be thinking of the long-running cult comedy classic Mystery Science Theater 3000, of which Hodgson was the original host. We talk with Joel, Frank and J. Elvis about their careers in comedy, why they got the band back together, and more. We even delve into their relationship with Rifftrax, a similar outfit run by some other MST3K expats.

Discuss this episode on the forum!
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