Pete Holmes and Artie Lange are both respected and beloved stand-up comedians who appear on the HBO show Crashing. Created by Holmes and co-produced and often directed by Judd Apatow, Crashing is a semi-autobiographical sitcom about an aspiring comedian named Pete, who is so obsessed with making it as a stand-up, he neglects his put upon wife who cheats on him, leaving him homeless, pitiful, and at the mercy of more established comedians like T.J. Miller, Sarah Silverman, and Artie Lange. The cast and crew are currently shooting the second season of Crashing and the first season is now available on Blu-ray and DVD for your home viewing pleasure. I recently had the chance to travel to Brooklyn, New York for an event to promote Crashing while also benefitting REALgirl, a program that aims to “help end gender inequality by fostering the ability of girls to discover their truest selves and develop the skills, knowledge, confidence and courage they need to consistently make informed life-choices from a place of self-knowledge, self-love and strength.” So yes, there was a night of stand-up at the Bell House in Brooklyn featuring amazing sets by Pete Holmes, Artie Lange, Dov Davidoff, and Beth Stelling. Earlier that day, I caught up with Pete and Artie for a chat about Crashing. They were on a press junket so I was told I’d only have nine minutes with them. But I think because I flew down from Canada and also because we had a nice rapport, Pete bought me a bit more time. It probably helped that Pete and Artie seemed to like my long, salt and pepper hair. At least Artie liked it; Pete found it sucpicious. You’ll see. I’m a big fan of Pete and Artie’s work, both alone and together, so this was fun. Sponsored by Pizza Trokadero, the Bookshelf, Planet Bean Coffee, and Grandad’s Donuts.
Tag: HBO
Daniel Romano is a multi-talented musician, producer, label co-owner, and fashion entrepreneur who lives in Fenwick, Ontario. Over the past 15 years, he’s made a name for himself in bands like Attack in Black and Daniel, Fred, and Julie and as a solo artist exploring the far reaches of folk and country music. His fifth solo album is called Mosey and it may well be his most ambitious record to date. It’s out worldwide via New West Records on May 27 and Romano and his band hit the road hard right around then. Here, Daniel and I discuss living in Fenwick, Ontario on a compound, communalism, Spencer Burton rolls around with pigs, The King of Mosey, boxes, temporality and cultural identity, world war, hopelessness, revolution, cultural orthodoxy, there’s no style, Dan’s promo photos, classic country music fans, being a student in different classes, false futurism and reverence for history, unintentional influences, Lee Majors, The Fall Guy, cinematic influences and instrumentals for an abandoned short film, poems, where the strings come in, the song “Mr. E Me” and its potential autobiography, knowing himself, Slim Twig and David Bowie, how people fear change, grip of the industry, consumers, no one is taking chances outside of hip-hop music, devaluation, becoming a dog person, relating to his audience, Snoop Dogg in a cowboy hat, sartorial iconography and intent, the united states of Americana, good is gone, desperation to sustain something vapid, how actress Rachel McAdams wound up playing a character on the song “Toulouse,” Rachel laughing, earnestness and humour, it’s all gone, how film and television people learned what not to do from the music industry, how we pay for HBO and it always delivers, worse jobs than musician, art is everywhere and it pays nothing, why hip-hop is thriving in an age of self-promotion, a denim storefront in Fenwick called Friday’s Child, stage wear, unsettling individuality, his power-pop project Ancient Shapes and their new record, which is out May 27 via You’ve Changed, the song “Hunger is a Dream You Die In,” how and why Dan tends to play every instrument himself, and then we had to mosey.
Related links: danielromanomusic.com newwestrecords.com vishkhanna.com
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