words & photos by David Andrako

"Everyone here looks like they are in a band. You guys are going to do great things for no money." -Big Jay Oakerson

Reggie Watts

Comedy Central held an invite/CMJ-only "Midnight Showcase" at Comix Comedy Club last night (10/21). The show literally began at midnight aned ran into Friday morning. It was hosted by Julian McCullough and featured sets from Big Jay Oakerson, Amy Schumer, Hannibal Buress, Anthony Jeselnik and Reggie Watts. Previously announced acts Joe Derosa and Bo Burnham didn't appear due to scheduling issues. The crowd greeted the news of Burnham's no-show with an audible groan, to which McCullough remarked "We'll we know who the underage table is at the club tonight."

The most remarkable set of the evening was Reggie Watts's which closed the show. Accompanied by his looping machine, Reggie worked through 20 minutes of beat-boxing, singing and even took the time to answer his phone and chat with a friend who called mid-set. Having seen Reggie at The Conflict of Interest show at REBEL NYC on Monday and several other shows over the last couple of months, it has become apparent that every set he performs is unique and while he may perform the same song at multiple shows, they almost always morph into a freestyle riff on a audience member or a callback to joke earlier in the evening. Be sure to check out him out at the BrooklynVegan Day party on Saturday at Public Assembly or later that night at Union Hall, or any time you get a chance.

More pictures from the show below...

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Comedian and musician Dave Hill was summoned to Bonnaroo this past weekend to be part of both the comedy and music going-ons at the four-day Tennessee festival. I asked if he'd mind sharing his experiences (and pictures) with BrooklynVegan.com. He agreed. I regretted it. He sent it anyway, so here it is (starting with some MP3's by his rock band Valley Lodge), but warning: this post is not for the squeamish (NSFTS)...

DOWNLOAD: Valley Lodge - All of My Lovin (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Valley Lodge - Hangin On (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Valley Lodge - The Door (MP3)

Dave Hill tests face-melting licks out on some chairs

I've just returned from four magical days and nights at Bonnaroo, where my rock band Valley Lodge was the house band for Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's "Bonnapoo 2009" shows, which featured all sorts of awesomeness from Robert Smigel aka Triumph as well as sets from the great Todd Barry, Amy Schumer, and Kumail Nanjiani.

"Smigel performed four sets as Triumph at Bonnaroo, which annually hosts a comedy tent along with its smorgasbord of music acts, spread out over five main stages on a farm in rural Tennessee.

"My live act is a huge undertaking because Triumph kind of thrives on the immediate, discussing what everybody's thinking about," said Smigel while whisking past festival-goers in a golf cart, puppet on hand." [AP]

The excitement started on Wednesday night when I got on a plane to Nashville with my close personal friend Janeane Garofalo, Pete Holmes, Kumail Nanjiani, and the rest of my rock band Valley Lodge. If you've ever wanted to be on a completely hilarious plane, you could do a lot worse than to have been on this plane. As you can probably imagine, all of us were running back and forth between our seats spraying each other with seltzer bottles and throwing pies in each others' faces. At one point, Pete Holmes came over to my seat to shake my hand and it turned out he had one of those joy buzzers on his finger. Man, was my face red. I got him back though by spraying him in the face with a prank flower I was wearing at the time. We both just laughed and laughed after this happened. He couldn't stay mad at me.

Once we got to Nashville, some unmarked vehicles took us all to Murfreesboro, the popular Tennessee town where we all stayed at the Doubletree Hotel, which is really classy. Because I snore and also like to get up to all sorts of hardcore banging in hotels, I had my own room. When I dropped off my bags, I looked around the room and got all excited about all the snoring and hardcore banging I would be doing in my room over the next few days and nights.

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Continue reading "What It's like to be a VIP at Bonnaroo 2009 by Dave Hill"