last100 » Video show of the week

Just for laughs: 8 comedy video sites

Daniel Langendorf — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:51:02 +0000

If comedy is your thing, the Web can be a funny place. Finding the laughs, however, is no laughing matter.

I thought it would be easy to put together a review of my top 5 or 10 comedy video podcasts. But narrowing down favorite comedy into 5 or 10 shows is like finding my 5 favorite grains of sand on a California beach.

So instead of 5 or 10 video podcast comedies, I’ve collected some of my favorite places to find video comedy on the Web. I’ll mostly leave it up to your funny bone to find something that makes you laugh, although I’ve snuck in a few for your viewing pleasure.

Comedy Central

Comedy Central is one of the first places to look for comedy video on the Web, just like it is when you’re looking for laughs from the television. I like the fact it’s semi-organized, which YouTube is but isn’t, if you know what I mean. I can find comedy videos at YouTube, and user ratings help me find good clips, but it’s a lot of work and you never really know what you’re going to find.

The folks at Comedy Central have taken care of that for me on the Web. There’s the big-dog stuff from Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and South Park, but there’s also Web Shows (produced for Web consumption) like “All Access: Middle Ages,” “Balloon Heads.” “Good God.” “Guacamole,” and “Meet the Creeps.” You can download, or subscribe to, stand-up comedy segments from shows such as Motherload Web Shows, Stand-up, and Live at Gotham at the iTunes Music Store.

Another great source for comedy video on the Web is through Comedy Central’s Insider blog. Here I found comedians I’d never heard of, links to their sites, and occasional videos to watch or download.

Cracked.com

Stepping away from Comedy Central, but not too far, is Cracked.com, another site that features comics, videos, articles, listings for comedy clubs, viral videos, original productions, and cartoons. You can spend a lot of time poking around in here. I did.

Louis C.K.

Louis C.K. is a fairly accomplished comedian and has an impressive web presence. His site includes “Best Of” video clips, as well as a link to purchase his HBO Comedy Special on DVD. He’s also on MySpace, with more show links, and some really funny and surprising stuff (the meaning of the Catholic church is one of them).

Louis C.K. represents a lot of comedians on the Web who are using a variety of strategies, tools, and networks to get their name and material to the masses.

Funny or Die

Funny or Die was launched earlier this year amid much fanfare and is an excellent source for quality “professional” to amateur comedy videos. Funny or Die is a site that has the financial backing of Sequoia Capital, the same Silicon Valley investment firm that socked money early into two startup companies called Google and YouTube.

Funny or Die also launched on the heels of a little video that took 45 minutes to shoot and cost nearly nothing to make — “The Landlord,” featuring comedian Will Farrell and a potty-mouthed, cute 2-year-old named Pearl. By the end of May it had been viewed more than 30 million times. The sequel — and Pearl’s final cinematic performance — was “Good Cop, Baby Cop” was equally as funny. As Pearl says so convincingly, “I break bones and laugh.”

Comedy365

Comedy365 launched in June 2005 as an online radio station and became a place for up-and-coming talent on the fringe of London. What I liked about the site is it collects YouTube comedy videos, through selections of the week, and allows me to cut through the crap — the laughing baby videos and skateboarding dogs that have been viewed 6,496,983 times but are known to kill brain cells.

Secret Pants

I love the tag line for Secret Pants: Sketch Comedy for People Who Don’t Like People. Sketch Pants includes, obviously, sketches, but also bios of the sketchers, photos, tour information, and such. The latest is “The Franklin Pleaser”, which really made me laugh once I figured out what the pleaser was all about (wink wink).

All Day Breakfast

All Day Breakfast is “authentic video comedy” served up in a diner-like manner, complete with Today’s Comedy Specials. On tap, “The Wild Burger,” “The Jingle Man,” “Lucky Stalin.” and my favorite commercial, “Dumbass.”

iTunes Music Store

The iTMS, naturally, includes comedy video podcasts, but surprisingly they were not nearly as easy to find and I had hoped. Featured comedy video podcasts include the same old, same old: “French Maid TV” (yawn), “Tiki Bar TV” (funny a while ago, but yawn), “Joe Cartoon” (been there, done that), “Ask A Ninja” and “Ze Frank” (both favorites, as you know, but been there, done that, too), “Cute with Chris” (cute and cuddly animals mixed with not-so-funny satire), Mark Day’s “For Parody Purposes Only” (great accent and look, but no where near as insightful or funny as the Ninja or Ze Frank.).

One show I found refreshing, oddly enough, was “Happy Slip,” which appears to be written, produced, and acted by solely by a woman named Christine. I’m hooked on Soap Opera, a nice satire on those shows my wife watches all the time.

All of the sites listed provide browser-based viewers for their clips. Many allow downloads to your computer in the Quicktime format or iPod-compatible standards. Some, but not all, 0f the shows can be found at the iTunes Music Store, but search directly and do not rely on directories as the shows may be buried.

Note: This is by no means a comprehensive list. Please feel free to add your own favorite comedy video destinations in the comments.

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Videos of the week: all in HD

Daniel Langendorf — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:55:54 +0000

While there is no high definition content to purchase from the iTunes Music Store yet, there are HD video podcasts that can be downloaded and viewed on various devices including PCs, video iPods, XBox 360, and the AppleTV. These, no doubt, are showing us what the future of downloadable HD content looks like.

All I can say is: Wow.

I chose to watch five HD video podcasts from the Featured Video Podcasts tab at the iTMS — “DiveFilm,” “Hidden Universe,” “Beautiful Places,” “Cool Hunting Video,” and “TRGtv”. These “programs” range from user-generated content to indie professionals. I’ve always heard from my HD buddies that the best HD has to offer is seen in nature shows, and these do not disappoint even as downloadable content.

Let me say it again: Wow.

“DiveFilm”

DiveFilm is a website dedicated to showcasing and creating underwater digital video for the Internet. The site, which began streaming videos in 2000, focuses on underwater short films from filmmakers around the world.

Episode 3, “The Realm of Sharks”, was filmed by Shawn Heinrichs in Cocos (Costa Rica) and Malpelo Islands (Columbia). During the 6:33 film, we see pilot whales, silky schools, silver tips, hammerhead schools, manta rays, ruby lipped bat fish (my favorite), a white-tip shark frenzy, and marble rays.

Heinrichs provides no commentary, letting the underwater life — in all its brilliance and color — tell the story. Jacques-Yves Cousteau would be proud.

The filming style for Episode 7, “Micronesia”, is similar but visually even more spectacular. Filmmaker J.D. Duff caught on “film” a sea of jelly fish, sea turtles, and all sorts of other underwater life in Micronesia, a range of islands in the Pacific Ocean.

“Hidden Universe”

“Hidden Universe” is an video podcast highlighting some of the discoveries from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (website, Wikipedia). The images from outer space, as seen in high definition, are spectacular and mesmerizing.

What I liked about “Hidden Universe” is that the filmmakers again let the images tell the story, although they provided captions that let viewers know what they were seeing. In “Eta Carinae”, there are stars forming in the region of Carina Nebula, which is about 10,000 light years from Earth. The region stretches 200 light years across space — in glorious HD.

“Beautiful Places with Tony Farley”

Host Tony Farley is a high school teacher in San Leandro, Calif., who happens to be an avid hiker and mountaineer. He loves to climb high mountains and visit beautiful places such as Redwood National Park, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Yosemite Falls.

Farley carries an HD camera with him and documents for viewers the breathtaking places he visits (website). I like the fact that he mixes in just the right amount of commentary with utter silence as he pans the gorgeous scenery around him. One of these days, I’m going to the North Dome.

As a side note, Farley is a true amateur content creator and is self-funded. Viewer support is important to keep “Beautiful Places” on the air.

Cool Hunting

The “Cool Hunting video podcast” is categorized as “design” by the iTMS. The blog is a daily update on ideas and products in the intersection of art, design, culture, and technology, and it features weekly videos of artists, musicians, designers and other innovators for an inside look at inspiration and process.

In the two-part show, “To Catch a Web,” Cool Hunting tags along with Emil “Rocky” Fiore as he captures spiderwebs and mounts them on glass. The first episode documents his process using spray paint and varnish on a pier along New York’s Hudson River. In the second episode Fiore ventures into the forest to capture smaller spiderwebs.

At first glance this doesn’t seem very exciting, but the HD quality illuminates the river and foothills around Fiore while highlighting a spiderweb’s beauty. Without HD, the spiderwebs might have looked washed out and no where near as “artsy.”

Fiore’s work can be seen at his website, Whirled Wide Webs.

TRGtv

“TRGtv” is produced by Teton Gravity Research, an action sports and entertainment production house formed in 1996. TRG uses outtakes and short clips from its extensive filming for TRGtv, which obviously is used to introduce and showcase its work to a larger audience.

While TRG has a stable of producers, directors, and cinematographers — not to mention a helicopter — it’s high definition footage makes the skiing of Ian McIntosh, Doug Coombs, and Marc-Andre seem even more insane.

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Video of the week: “the show with zefrank”

Daniel Langendorf — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:03:51 +0000

It’s a bit odd to be writing a review about a video podcast that began on March 17, 2006 and ended on March 17, 2007. Today, in case you don’t know or have to look it up, is August 3, 2007.

But this is no ordinary video podcast. It’s living beyond the end. “the show with zefrank” is still a Featured Video Podcast (comedy) on the iTunes Music Store. “zefrank the songs”, a soundtrack for “the show” featuring such ditties as “If the Earth Were a Sandwich” and “Stinky Nipples”, is also being sold on the iTMS.If you’ve never seen “the show with zefrank,” go to the archive section of his website and begin watching. Ze (rhymes with “say) Frank suggests that, “like any good conversation, it can be a bit confusing if you join in the middle. to get caught up, watch some popular episodes and check out what the sports racers created.”

The sports racers are us, the viewers, and we’ve — well, not me personally, but the fans — have kept “the show” alive by creating and maintaining a comprehensive wiki and a forum dedicated to all things ZeFrank. It’s well worth the time and effort. And contrary to what ZeFrank says, you can start with almost any show and work your way through the catalogue, using the wiki for help if you don’t understand a particular term, but it’s not really needed.

ZeFrank, born Hosea Jan Frank, once studied neuroscience at Brown University and somehow ended up as an online performance artist, humorist, and public speaker based in Brooklyn, N.Y. As an experiment in 2006, he created “the show”, a 3 to 4 minute video podcast in which he speaks to us, the sports racers, about current events and news of the weird, provides us anecdotal observations about life, and throws in the occasional stunt.

“The show” is sort of like Andy Rooney meets Jon Stewart and the Daily Show, although the visual style of “the show” is more “YouTube” than “60 Minutes” with edgy, quick-video edits and severe close-ups. ZeFrank’s eyes bulge and he rarely blinks as he looks at us directly through the camera lens.

“The show” is completely improvisational (except for two episodes) and topics range from George Bush and the bomb in North Korea to theme parks and the Super Bowl (transcripts). He’ll talk insightfully about Robert Putnam and his book “Bowling Alone” in one episode and in another pour chocolate milk over himself in a non-slapstick, I’m-making-a-point sort of way. He’s as insightful and self aware as any of the top stand-up comedians performing today.

His sign-off line — and I love this — is, “This is ZeFrank, thinking so you don’t have to.”

Early in Ze’s experiment, more than 10,000 viewers visited his website daily for “the show” and more than 50 million people have spent time at the site, which features other work besides “the show”. He reached Internet fame long before the video podcast: in 2001 he threw together an online listing of silly dance moves he called “How to Dance Properly” and sent it to 17 friends. They in turn forwarded it to others, and it became one of the early viral hits on the Web having been viewed more than a million times in a week.

Sadly, ZeFrank ended the show as planned but at the peak of traffic and the height of popularity. He’s been featured in articles from “Slate,” “The New York Times,” the “Los Angeles Times,” “The Guardian”, and “Newsweek” and has spoken at the TED Conference, among others. He’s signed with the United Talent Agency of Beverly Hills, Calif., and has also served as an adjunct professor at ITP/NYU, Parsons School of Design, and SUNY Purchase.

The ending of “the show with zefrank” reminds me of the recent ending of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series, although on much less of a grand scale. “Harry Potter” ended at its peak, and so did “the show”, but the work of Rowling and ZeFrank live on for the next generation of readers and viewers.

“the show with zefrank” is best available at ZeFrank’s website in Flash format. “Best Of” episodes are currently available at the iTunes Music Store in the iPod-compatible format and may be subscribed to via an RSS feed.

Photo credit: Scott Beale, Laughing Squid.

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Video of the week: “Ask A Ninja”

Daniel Langendorf — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:08:31 +0000

I have to write a positive review about the video podcast “Ask A Ninja“, or I will be attacked, maybe killed by a silent sword-wielding Ninja. My family will never be safe. Even the dogs will be threatened.

It’s a good thing I love “Ask A Ninja”.

“Ask A Ninja” is the clever award-winning (YouTube’s best series of 2006) creation of two Los Angeles improvisational comedians, Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine. Sarine is the man in the Ninja mask and assassin attire who karate-chops his way through an email-a-show question from viewers on subjects such as Ninja training, Ninja skills, Ninja love, how to kill a ninja, Ninja recipes, and non-ninja subjects like podcasting, Net Neutrality, Pop!Tech, and reviews of the movies “Pirates of the Caribbean 3” and “Blades of Glory.”

Each episode is filmed in an L.A. apartment and starts off with the wonderfully catchy theme music “I Am Ninja“, performed by the German pop band The Neu Tickles. The show lasts about 3 minutes and features the mysterious Ninja in front of a plain, colored background, generally without props. He speaks in an authoritative, husky voice, makes emphatic sharp-witted and often funny declarations about ninjas and culture, all the while moving his hands with deadly accuracy for emphasis. He’s fond of using linguistic blends of speech involving the word “ninja” — “ninternships”, “ninjuice”, “ningiants”.

Nichols, 31, and Sarine, 33, originally wanted to make an animated movie about a ninja. Neither could draw or animate, and money to back the show was scarce. They turned instead to the Internet and the phenomenon of user-generated content. Officially starting in November 2005, “Ask A Ninja” began with about 40 subscribers but since then has turned into a branding juggernaut, reportedly earning the duo up to $300K a year.

“Ask A Ninja” is downloaded between 300,000 and 500,000 times when a new episode is released bi-weekly. Popular shows such as “Ninja Love” tops more than 3 million viewers. In the past year, downloads have reached more than 20 million, catching the attention of traditional media.

Hollywood has inquired, and the Ninja team — formally known as Beatbox Giant Productions, LLC — has organized a team to explore offers. Nichols and Sarine have sold a book, tentatively named “The Ninja’s Handbook”, to Random House’s Crown Publishing unit for six figures. It’s due in 2008. NPR has reported on the Ninjas as well.

Capitalizing on the show’s success, the “Ninjeers” have opened their own Ninja Mart Store, selling shirts for guys and girls, hats, and ringtones. They’ve released the first 40 episodes on a DVD for $20. And the Ninja community is growing, as fan films are also showing up on the web.

So I highly recommend “Ask A Ninja”, not because I am being threatened by a Ninja, but because I like it. And Ninjas are more fierce than pirates or vikings.

“Ask A Ninja” is available at the iTunes Music Store, on YouTube, and at the “Ask A Ninja” website. It’s available in Quicktime and Flash formats.

Photo credit: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

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Video of the week: “InDigital”

Daniel Langendorf — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 18:59:15 +0000

Hi, my name is Dan, and I’m a gadget head.

See, there. I’ve admitted what my wife and friends have said for years. I am a gadget head, whether I own the equipment or not. And this love affair with technology and gadgets is what attracts me to tech podcasts and video podcasts like Revision3’s gadget show “InDigital”.

Billed as “Your Life in Gear”, “InDigital” explores the devices of our digital lifestyles: cameras, camcorders, cell phones, GPS, media centers, HD Radio, music players, computers, accessories. Name a gadget, “InDigital” and it’s hosts Hahn Choi, Jessica Corbin and Will Wheaton have deftly covered it.

In reviewing several recent episodes, Choi and Corbin — Wheaton was missing — informed me about upconverted DVD players, the iPhone, HD Radio, media centers for the living room, iPod with video accessories, digital cameras, a camcorder, an internet phone, and gaming consoles.

Choi, Corbin, and Wheaton are experienced in all matters gadget, and if they are weak on a particular subject they bring in special guests like the amazing Robert Heron of “DL.TV” fame. Choi was a former tech analyst on TechTV’s “Fresh Gear”, the “ScreenSavers”, “Call for Help”, and “Filter”. Corbin is the former host of “Fresh Gear” and has an extensive background as a TV host. Wheaton, is, well, Will Wheaton, actor, author, denizen of the Internet.

As far as tech podcasts and video podcasts go, I found Choi and Corbin intelligent, informative, affable, but bland, especially when cross talking between reviews. They seemed like musicians vamping between songs, or a television reporter filling broadcast airtime.

Chemistry between hosts and guests is always an important ingredient, no matter if they’re on traditional television or radio or the Internet. The banter between Leo Laporte, John C. Dvorak, and others on “This Week in Technology” is a part of the show’s success. The friendly but testy relationships Steve Gillmor had with the former “Gillmor Gang” members added tension and interest.

Choi and Corbin are just likable, not memorable.

The format of their show is also somewhat limited. “InDigital” covers gadgets. It reviews gadgets. During the course of a review Choi and Corbin may touch on news or topics of interest, but the show is still dedicated to … gadgets.

To me, education about gadgets, technology, and their uses is just as important and fun to watch as the reviews. “InDigital” provided Heron’s discussion about digital TV technology, 480p, 1080i, progressive scanning, interlaced sets, which was great. I’d like to see “InDigital” do more of these stories.

It occurred to me watching the show that “InDigital” reviews hundreds of products and is a tremendous resource for us gadget heads. So why don’t I use it when I am in the market for a new gadget? I should. I invest time in watching the show. I’ve grown to trust the opinions of Choi, Corbin, and Wheaton, but when I go to buy something I turn to amazon.com or CNET or some other non-podcasting or video podcasting source for customer reviews and information.

As with most tech shows, I can go to its website or blog and look at show notes. “InDigital” does a nice job of this, listing all products reviewed, price, and availability, and it has an accompanying forum for viewers to discuss the shows. But it’s way too cumbersome to use, even for us gadget heads.

“InDigital” is available at the iTunes Music Store and other podcast or video podcast directories. Feeds include Quicktime, Theora, Windows Media, and Xvid, both large and small downloads. The website also lists Torrents feeds.

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Video of the week: “Bad Sinatra”

Daniel Langendorf — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:24:33 +0000

This is a new weekly feature where we’ll be reviewing an online video show or podcast every Friday. It’s our goal to introduce interesting content for all of our cool digital lifestyle devices, including iPods and PSPs, Apple TV, Windows Media Centers, gaming consoles, TiVo, even cell phones.

I’m giving Steve Gillmor a mulligan on this one.

Steve Gillmor, the irascible technology journalist of ZDNet fame (and others), has finally returned to the podcasting airwaves with a wonderfully-named show called “Bad Sinatra,” only this time he’s wielding a camcorder, not a microphone.

When we last left Gillmor, he was curmudgeonly as ever as the host of the tech podcast “Gillmor Gang,” which was originally hosted on ITConversations and later Podshow. The sometimes-weekly show featured a Who’s Who of tech journalists — Doc Searls, Dana Gardner, Dan Farber, Mike Vizard, Jon Udell, and later Mike Arrington and Jason Calacanis.

The Gillmor Gang

You either loved the show or hated it. I loved it. Hosted by the cantankerous Gillmor, the Gang was loosely scripted, very rough around the edges from content and production-value standpoints, and oftentimes frustrating to listen to because of the attitude and manipulative style of the host himself.

Yet buried in each show were wonderful nuggets of insight, discussion, and spirited debate — better than any I found in other tech podcasts. Gillmor was often at the forefront of ideas, pushing his guests to exasperation with relentless comments about Microsoft Office being dead, links being dead, how Gmail rules, and the fact that Google will crush Microsoft and Yahoo! I never kept score, preferring to look beyond his sensational statements at the meaning of what he was saying.

Seinfeld meets Gillmor in “Bad Sinatra”

Gillmor abruptly ended the Gang in November 2006, and I’ve missed him ever since. So I was delighted to stumble upon his latest venture, “Bad Sinatra”. The first episode “stars” Gillmor, along with Marc Benioff, Dan Farber, Mike Arrington, Robert Scoble, and Doc Searls. Farber says “Bad Sinatra” is Gillmor’s version of “Silicon Valley cinema verite.”

While I liked the show, I was ultimately disappointed because it was Gillmor acting like filmmaker Michael Moore. I didn’t even care that the video was rough, in need of editing, and the sound quality sucked. That’s Gillmor’s style. I’m used to it. He walks into Benioff’s offices at Salesforce.com, orders about a receptionist (ala Moore), but to no end. Farber sums up the whole 38:30 program by saying, “You don’t have a plan. You just go point and shoot.”

Which may have worked for a podcast, but I am not sure it will for a video production. In “Bad Sinatra” Gillmor wanders from interview to interview with Benioff, Farber, Arrington (who looked totally annoyed), Robert Scoble, and Doc Searls — all A-listers in Silicon Valley — but performs his stale Microsoft/Google schtick, although he does update it a bit with quasi-questions about the new iPhone. At times it felt Seinfeld-ian, a show about nothing.

Gillmor says about “Bad Sinatra,” “No, it’s not the Gillmor Gang, but who cares.” I don’t. I don’t want Gillmor Gang 2.0. But a new show, particularly one moving from audio to video, demands progress, a stepping forward for our hero. Instead, he duffs his first shot off the tee.

“Bad Sinatra” is available in Flash video and mpeg4 at badsinatra.com. It’s also available for download at PodTech in video (mpeg4) and iPod formats and from Gillmor’s GestureLab blog. As per his quirky style, Gillmor does not offer (yet) a link to subscribe to the show.

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