Lionel Nation - Lionel Appearing at the Cutting Room ➞14 January 2022 CE
Aired: 2022-12-08
Duration: 12:02


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[00:01:30]  I am asking and respectfully requesting the honor of your presence on January the 14th as I return yet again to my official venue here in New York City, The Cutting Room.
[00:01:49]  The Cutting Room is a, well, it's a veritable, I don't want to say a mecca, I don't want to use the incorrect word, but it is the Wellspring, the Citus, the Polestar, it is the best venue for what I do.

=== Why Stand-Up Comedy Is Dead (09:50) ===

[00:02:11]  And I want you to join me on January the 14th of 2023.
[00:02:16]  Can you believe this?
[00:02:17]  Yes, we're singing.
[00:02:18]  As in the next year.
[00:02:20]  Tickets are available below.
[00:02:22]  Let me tell you what I do.
[00:02:23]  First, it's not stand-up comedy.
[00:02:26]  I'm going to say a few things to you first and foremost as I intersperse my observations of the world with my entreaty to you to join me.
[00:02:38]  First, this is not stand-up comedy.
[00:02:40]  I hate stand-up comedy.
[00:02:42]  Stand-up comedy is dead.
[00:02:44]  The reason why it's dead is because it's everywhere.
[00:02:46]  It is so ubiquitous.
[00:02:50]  It is so, you've seen this.
[00:02:52]  Why do I want to go see someone?
[00:02:55]  And you might disagree.
[00:02:56]  But if I have seen every single thing they've ever done, I know their new material, I know their style, I get to watch it again.
[00:03:07]  There was a time when people would actually go out to see people because they just never, you never saw them.
[00:03:13]  You never saw them.
[00:03:15]  Think about that.
[00:03:17]  Now granted, times have changed.
[00:03:19]  It was a time when we used to travel 300 miles to see a fat man who weighed maybe 300 pounds.
[00:03:25]  Today, kids weigh 300 pounds, but that's a different story.
[00:03:29]  I hate stand-up.
[00:03:31]  A couple of reasons.
[00:03:32]  First, it seems to have been, dare I say, infiltrated with people who are not even remotely Possessed with any artistic ability to wax comedic.
[00:03:49]  I'm sorry, I don't mean to be that rude, but it's true.
[00:03:55]  There are some greats, don't get me wrong, I'm not going to go through them.
[00:03:57]  There are some who I think are formulaically and formalistically, in terms of the formatics, they're absolutely textbook perfect in delivery.
[00:04:09]  And the reason, now listen carefully, The reason is that what you are seeing is the burnished, polished, tightly choreographed wording of a routine, of a bit, of a recitation that's been done many, many times.
[00:04:32]  At the cutting room one time, after one of my shows, immediately following was Dave Chappelle.
[00:04:40]  So I kind of opened for Dave Chappelle, sort of.
[00:04:44]  And it was fascinating because he was trying his new material, working things out, which is what Carlin did, everybody else did.
[00:04:50]  And it's a very, very smart and wise thing to do.
[00:04:55]  In fact, the best thing to do is to give people the impression that what you're doing is almost off the cuff.
[00:05:04]  So he is...
[00:05:06]  Extremely wise and extremely expert at this.
[00:05:09]  But not everybody is.
[00:05:11]  They just closed Caroline's in New York City.
[00:05:13]  Caroline's was the venue of venues.
[00:05:16]  I played there many, many times.
[00:05:19]  Because I've been doing and did do what used to be called stand-up comedy from 90...
[00:05:25]  Oh, God.
[00:05:27]  Almost 30 years ago.
[00:05:28]  In 93?
[00:05:30]  93?
[00:05:31]  Played everywhere.
[00:05:33]  Because New York, years ago, was a comedy showcase in Jersey, Connecticut, and New York.
[00:05:40]  I played Bronx and all the boroughs and name it.
[00:05:44]  Name it.
[00:05:46]  Atlantic City.
[00:05:47]  And it was a much, much different time.
[00:05:52]  Something happened concomitantly to the world of comedy.
[00:05:57]  And by the way, remember, what I'm doing is not comedy.
[00:05:59]  I'll explain in a moment.
[00:05:59]  What happened was, and I don't want to use this term, but I will.
[00:06:02]  This radical left, but mean, mean, angry, scattered, kind of a diffuse, this blunderbuss, we hate Trump, this isn't very funny.
[00:06:21]  What I do is simply this.
[00:06:23]  Number one, and despite what you might think, I start off with the premise that I let the situation Lure me into it.
[00:06:32]  I find things very funny, not necessarily because of my particular take, but because of what they are.
[00:06:39]  Now what I do, and here's the payoff for five minutes if you're waiting for me.
[00:06:45]  What I love to do, and we did this last time at the cutting room, we had some 3x5 cards left at all of the tables with little pencils.
[00:06:57]  Like scorecard pencils when you play golf or bowl.
[00:07:01]  Anyway.
[00:07:03]  They would write the questions out.
[00:07:05]  And the questions were brilliant.
[00:07:10]  Brilliant!
[00:07:11]  Which made me think.
[00:07:14]  And it made me respond.
[00:07:16]  And it made me talk to you.
[00:07:19]  It made me respond to you.
[00:07:22]  And to others who were saying, yeah, that's pretty good.
[00:07:25]  Now, The reason why stand-up comedy cannot do that is because you cannot have interactional interchange and exchanges because of the fact that it throws off the pattern.
[00:07:40]  One time somebody said, do you mind if I go on?
[00:07:45]  Can I go on?
[00:07:46]  Yeah, sure, help comics, I guess.
[00:07:48]  Because I have a tight five.
[00:07:50]  I didn't know what that meant.
[00:07:53]  A tight five?
[00:07:54]  What does that mean?
[00:07:55]  He goes, he worked forever on five minutes.
[00:07:57]  My first professional act ever in this area was at the Claridge in Atlantic City.
[00:08:04]  I did it over an hour.
[00:08:06]  I didn't know you didn't talk an hour.
[00:08:10]  I did not know.
[00:08:11]  Nobody said, you know you're not supposed to go an hour.
[00:08:14]  You're just starting off.
[00:08:15]  I had no idea.
[00:08:16]  I couldn't stop.
[00:08:18]  Because the world, the world is my...
[00:08:23]  It's my set list.
[00:08:24]  The world is my tight five.
[00:08:27]  The world is my...
[00:08:29]  How do I say this?
[00:08:32]  It's the basis of this.
[00:08:34]  So what I also do is I intersperse it with bluegrass.
[00:08:38]  I play the guitar.
[00:08:40]  Cut bucket.
[00:08:41]  Country funk.
[00:08:43]  Bluegrass.
[00:08:44]  I will pattern some songs that I write myself.
[00:08:46]  Most stylishly penned.
[00:08:49]  There'll be a sing-along, perhaps.
[00:08:51]  But it would be a combination and an admixture of me talking about things plus you.
[00:08:57]  Now, if you think I'm going to go out and extol the virtues of Carmelita Harris and Joe Biden, I'm going to tell you right now, that is not the case.
[00:09:05]  I'm warning you right now that I can almost guarantee you that there is, I think I say this, nothing that I find favorable, but absolutely funny and hysterical, anented regarding Mr. Biden et al.
[00:09:22]  So please, do me a favor.
[00:09:24]  Do me the favor.
[00:09:25]  Join me and groups of your like-minded fellow travelers on January the 14th in New York City.
[00:09:35]  Now, let me explain something to be very, very clear.
[00:09:38]  New York is open and ready for business.
[00:09:41]  I don't know what you've heard.
[00:09:42]  I don't know what you're thinking.
[00:09:43]  If this is like some death wish, you know, crime, this maelstrom, this vortex of Gomorrah.
[00:09:52]  No.
[00:09:53]  No.
[00:09:55]  You should see this.
[00:09:56]  You should see Christmas.
[00:09:57]  It's beautiful.
[00:09:59]  Rockefeller Center, as we speak right now, it is incredible.
[00:10:04]  So I want you to join me again.
[00:10:06]  I'm going to have the information, the tickets available below, as usual, which makes a lot of sense.
[00:10:11]  And the tour, by the way, is called Slouching Towards Armageddon.
[00:10:15]  And for those of you who might remember Yeats and the Joan Didion essay, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, this is indeed the hearkening, the anticipatory, yet pythonic, vatic.
[00:10:32]  Announcement of an apocalyptic denouement.
[00:10:38]  Eschatological, perhaps.
[00:10:40]  I don't want to get too heavy about this, but that's exactly what it is.
[00:10:44]  Because right now, we are in a world that doesn't exist, has never existed, and the rules make no sense whatsoever.
[00:10:56]  So please, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, thank you so much for being a part of my presentations through the years.
[00:11:04]  Thank you for liking this and retweeting and subscribing.
[00:11:08]  But please join me.
[00:11:10]  I promise you.
[00:11:11]  And also, you get to meet like-minded individuals.
[00:11:14]  I shake every hand.
[00:11:16]  I'm not one of these, hey, how are you?
[00:11:22]  Out the door.
[00:11:24]  This is about a movement.
[00:11:27]  It is about A grand and glorious time that we, as brave and as intrepid and frankly petrified patriots, can certainly enjoy.
[00:11:40]  So anyway, thank you so, so very much.
[00:11:42]  January 14th.
[00:11:45]  Stage time.
[00:11:46]  Curtain is at 7. Doors open at 6. Great venue.
[00:11:50]  Great food.
[00:11:51]  An institution in New York City.
[00:11:54]  One of the, dare I say, coolest venues, the Cutting Room.
[00:11:58]  Tickets available below.
[00:11:59]  Thank you so much.
[00:12:00]  Have a great and a glorious day.