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Famous singer/comedians recomendations


steve mac

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Whilst I am always trying to add new songs or trying to relearn ones I haven't done for a while, I also am always looking for comic ideas (it's a big part of what I do) and will plagerise with pride (heavily adapted for my crowd) . The U.K. has a few singing guitarist comedians but am struggling to find good US ones. There is a chap called Rodney who was okay and a churchy type guy who had his moments but beyond that options appear limited.

I am sure there must be lots, so as always any suggestions for me to check out much appreciated.

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I saw Jann Arden live, and she was quite funny but she was mainly talking about things like her bra not fitting right. I don't think that would translate all that well to you Steve! As mentioned in another post, Colin Hay is pretty funny but a lot of his material is spur of the moment, and specific to the crowd and venue - and maybe beer...

 

Early Steve Martin of course.

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I think some of this really needs to be spontaneous, and I do a lot of spontaneous/topical things.

I got in trouble years ago for singing "Billie Jean King is not my lover..." I'll leave the rest to your imagination...

 

My earliest inspiration was Allan Sherman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FeVoDO_HKg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz6pC85z2ZA

 

Then of course, there is the venerable Weird Al Yankovich; Second City did some great parodies, as did the National Lampoon Radio folks [Lemmings, Radio Dinner], which, combined, led to the Saturday Night Live thing; your Brit friends from Monty Python [The Rutles being an exceptional effort], and the Firesign Theater troupe.

 

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Maybe not what you're looking for, but I keep promising myself I'll learn a set full of mostly Mose Allison, Dave Frishberg, and Randy Newman. They all do serious material as well, but each has a reputation for writing clever, humorous lyrics.

 

Some of Tom Waits' tunes are pretty funny, if you're in the right frame of mind.

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some folks have no sense of humor... had a table request a few tunes that were slightly off color one evening.. a small joint, and slightly rowdy crowd. one patron yells out " get drunk and screw" so, we cover it and immediately figure" hey, these folks are game". we had been rehearsing commander cody's " not fit for airplay, everybodys doing it" as a lark... its a tight ,hard and fast swing with incredibly beautiful harmonies and crude lyrics... we nailed the tune and afterwards? pin drop... two tables quietly get up to leave and the very woman that requested the jimmy buffet tune was berating us for using the F bomb... hey? wtf? it was great harmony!!!

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Took my son to see a popular comedian probably 9 years ago. The opening act was "The Guitar Guy" He had some good routines. I still remember this line about his college experience. " The dean called me into his office and said look son you can either buckle down and go to classes and do the work or you can smoke pot and play guitar all day - Wow... I didn't even know that was an option!"

 

Google the guitar guy I'll bet he has a joke or 2 you can steal, err, borrow.

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Waits, however, really is skewed to a very hip adult audience.

Frishberg's 'I'm Hip' is a longtime favorite of mine [blossom Dearie really nailed it with her version]. 'Peel Me A Grape' and 'My Attorney Bernie' are classics as well.

Mose is Mose; I do cover Your Mind Is On Vacation...[but your mouth is workin' overtime]

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"The Piano Has Been Drinking" might be useful, especially if you've just butchered another song (haven't done anything that bad yet, knock on wood.)

 

"I'm Hip" would definitely make the list.

 

I've heard a number of solo acts do "Your Mind is On Vacation." Handy when you've got a loud mouth sitting down in front. I'm currently doing "Getting' There" and "I Don't Worry About a Thing."

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Interesting seeing the Roaring Lion tune. I've heard the Jimmy Soul tune, Don't Make An Ugly Woman Your Wife (or something like that) which I assume came from this. The chicken dance melody interlude between verses was also amusing. Fascinating stuff for me as I only got to hear the "second generation" calypso stuff as a kid.

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I met David Frishberg way back in the eighties, back when his hit Bernie was big, and Vancouver had a real Jazz scene. A buddy of mine and I went down to see him play, and somehow we wound up across the street going for after the show pizza and beers. He struck me then as a guy not sure of his place in the musical scheme of things, but primarily he struck me as a gentleman and a scholar. Funny the things you forget until something jogs the memory.

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