Anyone else see this on Netflix? I have a few stray observations:
I respect Armisen a lot more than I like him. He kinda skeeves me out, but a lot of his premises and his level of commitment to the bits can be funny. Overall, this was good and funny, and his skeeviness was well managed. He really, really, really likes showing off - this special is all about you stopping and going “wow, he’s really good at a wide variety of Music and Comedy and Sheer Intelligence-type things.” But they are showcased in such an entertaining way that it is worth the hour.
The parts that were for drummers were legitimately for drummers. I got most of them and they were cute, but I am sure drummers must’ve gotten a kick out of it. I would be curious to hear from non-musicians - did you find this funny? Or was it more specific and amusing, like Steve Martin telling his plumbing joke? His moving through the various drum sets to illustrate the evolution of drumming over the decades was interesting, fun and funny. Just a left-field approach that was cool for musicians like me, showcased his excellent drumming skills and made you realize that being a “comedic drummer impersonator” could actually be a Thing.
Without question, the piece that got me to burst out laughing was the cameo bit with Sheila E. Everything about that stupid joke was perfect, down to Sheila just killing it on a complex (okay, fictional in this case) piece of percussion gear, and doing it in spike heels. She did this all the time touring with Prince.
His non-drummer riff on accents around the US was really quite interesting. I don’t know what I found more interesting: the accents themselves and hearing how they did, indeed, morph the way Armisen says, or watching Armisen go through his process of framing that accent, finding the phrase or character that captures it. It was also (to me) an obvious build on Al Franken’s famous bit where he draws a map of the United States, a pretty cool feat itself.
I watched the whole thing, but it only rated as mildly amusing in parts to me, at best. I expected to enjoy it much more. I just found most of the jokes flat and just disjointed thematically. And I tototally did not understand what the heck that Thomas Lang bit was about, and when Tre Cool came on stage, I was starting to feel a little playfulness in the show, and they kept him up there for, what, one stupid observation about in-jokes in bands? Seemed like a waste of his time to me.
Have not seen this, but folks might not know that Armisen tried for years to make it as a musician playing in a band. He was the drummer. He sort of fell into comedy by accident and partly because his band gig wasn’t paying the bills. He was featured as a guest on Henry Louis Gate’s show on PBS, Finding Your Roots, and he has a very, very interesting family background.
I get that he wanted to do jokes for a narrow audience; I’m not a musician but I’m clued in enough to get the humor. But the whole thing just seemed to consist of a disjointed set of musical impressions, “did you ever notice?” gags that feel more at home in a Seinfeld parody (not actual Seinfeld material) and just general oddness. The audience was supposed to be all drummers, and even their reactions were mostly tepid.
I like Fred a lot and appreciate his talent, I just felt that whole thing was awkward, disorganized, ill-prepared, and could have used a lot more workshopping and refinement than it apparently had.
I did genuinely love the Sheila E. sketch. I think Fred’s comedic talent lies a lot more in sketch than standup, anyway. I remain a dedicated fan of his SNL work and Portlandia.
Heh. That was pretty much exactly what was running through my mind at a number of those jokes: “this is like a parody of 90s observational comedy or something.” That said, as obvious as the joke and set-up was, I did chuckle also at the NPR singer-songwriter bit. A big softball of a target, but I enjoyed it.
Hi Wordman. I’d seen that on the NetFlix menu but my eye/mind had registered the title as Standup for Dummies. Your post fixed that misapprehension, and I watched the show. It was enjoyed. Your summary was good, although I didn’t find it as ego-centric — show-offy — as you seemed to. I thought it was more a case of “write what you know”.
The John Waters flashback seemed heartfelt, and I believed that Fred was truly trying to be “original & funny”, which is a perilous undertaking. It wasn’t screamingly funny, but few things are. I pretty much don’t watch stand-up specials, so just by sucking me in (via the title), and keeping me involved for an hour earned the show a solid A-.
Sound and mics are a mystery to me… isn’t there anything Armisen could have used besides the hand-held microphone? Some kind of lav? He was struggling all evening, figuring out where to put that mic as he switched traps and props. Maybe that was a running conceptual gag.
Hey all good. Glad you decided to see it and join the discussion. Great question about the mic - I believe I have heard Standups say that because the mic + stand + chord (if not wireless) are the only things on stage, each comedian develops their own relationship to them and typically like them to be a certain way. Maybe that’s just a tic of Armisen’s.
And yeah, it was a bit of mixed bag - he couldn’t just do Drummer stuff, and is other stuff was very Premise/Act Out and move on…
I liked the 15 seconds at the beginning that had people proving they were drummers in order to be admitted. Some used sticks, but at least one just used hands. The bit hinted at things, but didn’t elaborate: did every attendee have to pass a test? Did any of them, really?
I liked the equally low key finish, where they brought out the three guest drummers, started a group rhythm, and acknowledged them one by one. And the drummers did NOT do 20 second solos. That may have been an historic first, but it was played deadpan. Nice.
I’m rhythmically illiterate and might not be able to name half the items in a drum kit, but got most of the gags — which seemed acessible to anyone who has seen a lot of bands in small clubs.
I tried to watch this on Saturday, due entirely to this thread. I had a generally positive impression of Armisen, and I’m a musician (though not a drummer), so between those things and WordMan’s review I expected to be entertained. Alas, I was not.
After 20 minutes I hadn’t even cracked a smile, so I stopped watching. I was kind of annoyed by the unoriginal “we all hate jazz, right??” bit that happened early on; in fact, I started getting the impression that Armisen hates any music that isn’t rock. Of course that may not be true, and there may have been later bits demonstrating exactly the opposite, but he randomly slammed a few genres right up front – not even good insults! – and it took me out of the show a little. As others noted, in general it felt all over the place. And the accents bit didn’t really impress me: I don’t think it takes much talent to be able to imitate various accents, and none of the examples seemed particulaly spot-on or humorous.
I feel like the evolution of drumming bit mentioned in the OP might have been worth seeing, and Sheila E., but on Saturday I’d forgotten about them and I decided that life was too short to keep watching it. I’m OK with the idea that I might have missed some genuinely funny moments. (Maybe someday I’ll try fast-forwarding to those parts.)
I didn’t feel like it was a test at all, just a joke – “let’s make everyone play a drum before they come in.” Funny how our impressions of such a short bit can be completely different.
I watched the first half of it then gave up. Maybe it really was for drummers, because I don’t think I laughed once. I rarely rate things 1 star on netflix but that was 1 star.
