This just makes me want to ride my bike. Happy early birthday to Nichole. Thanks for the pic.

MP3 of H. Jon Benjamin calling a radio show and posing as a Smirnoff Ice ad executive. H. Jon recommends drinking the following drinks: Smirnoff Ice Shackleton adventure (Smirnoff Ice and ice cubes), Smirnoff Ice Mexican Jam Session (Smirnoff Ice and a shot of tequila), Smirnoff Ice Canterbury Tale (Smirnoff Ice and a fig leaf), Smirnoff Ice Detante (Smirnoff Ice with a shot of Absolut), Smirnoff Ice Bomb (Smirnoff Ice and a shot of Hennessy) and my personal favorite, The Jew Nose (Smirnoff Ice in a tall glass only about half full). Many more on the MP3. I’ve listened to this probably about 5 times and it never gets old.

Michael Showalter, one of my favorite dudes ever, recently added a blog to his site.

That’s MS on the far right looking toothless, me on the left, and Michael Ian Black in the middle. Though that may look photoshopped, the image is totally real. In fact Waino (David Wain) took the photo. Just before that I interviewed all 3 of them. Which you can read here if you haven’t yet.

Anyway, you can read Show’s blog here and the dude’s off to a prolific start with 8 entries in 2 days. It warms my heart to see that he’s keeping up with the Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarism controversy, recommending fashion labels, and suggesting humorous ways to order peanut M and M’s at the movie theatre. He’s putting Waino’s blog to shame and has just made the daily reading list.

Stephen, Ricky and Karl of The Ricky Gervais Show

From the NY Times:
“Karl Pilkington has debated the merits of eating a kangaroo’s penis for breakfast, envisioned a wristwatch that counts down the time left in a person’s life and proposed a new population control system in which elderly women give birth at the moment of their deaths. He has mused on topics ranging from caveman “bear pants” to dishwashers on Mars, and reported “news stories” about the triumphs of chimpanzees as bricklayers and television talk show hosts. In so doing, Mr. Pilkington, a 33-year-old unemployed radio producer from Manchester, England, has become the object of a global Internet cult, a Guinness world record-holder and the unlikely harbinger of a technological revolution.”

The Ricky Gervais Show should really be called The Karl Pilkington Show, as the whole thing is pretty much Ricky and Stephen, who co-wrote and co-directed “The Office” and “Extras,” talking to Karl and getting Karl’s incredibly weird take on things. Karl is amazing. Never has one man been so stupid and brilliant at the same time. Or so entertaining.

Here’s a video of Karl from Ricky’s Politics DVD:

And here’s Karl, Ricky and Stephen watching “Brokeback Mountain”:

If you want to hear the podcast that got everything started, you can download all the episodes from the first season for free, right here. The second season can be downloaded (also for free) here.

Doug Benson, of VH1’s “Best Week Ever,” The Marijuanalogues, and who is also one of the best and nicest comedians performing these days, was recently interviewed on the AST Radio Podcast. Once a month Doug hosts a show at the UCB theatre called “The Benson Interruption.” Comics will go up and do their material and Doug will constantly interrupt them. It sounds like it could be annoying, but it’s actually totally hilarious. Anyway, Doug discusses his career, the interruption, and everything else. It’s a good listen.

You can download it here.

And I also recorded a set of his back in February if you want to get an example of what his material is like. Listen here, and if you want to hear him interrupting Demetri Martin, who is another amazing comedian, listen to this.

Phil Hendrie announced yesterday that he’d be retiring from radio on June 23rd. If you’re not familiar with Phil Hendrie, check out his wikipedia entry. The man is a comedic genius and this is a tough blow.

Here’s what he does: live on air Phil talks to a variety of outlandish “guests,” who are actually Phil in character. Phil has a phone in one hand and a microphone in front of him and will go back and forth, having a conversation with himself. He’ll spend a bit of time explaining the story, interrupting himself and employing a variety of tricks to make it sound entirely believable that the guest is real. People who aren’t in on the joke will then call in, and get into some serious arguing with the guests. Phil as host will interject intermittently, and the craziness of the call will keep increasing until Phil normally ends up hanging up in disgust on the “guest.”

Here are some of my favorite recent bits:

Chris Norton-Deep Knee Bends

Jay Santos-Weedhead Son

Justin McAlroy-One Nation Under Albus Dumbledore

Tonight I’m going to see a retrospective of Werner Herzog’s work, as well as a live interview onstage, and then following that they’re going to show his newest film, “The Wild Blue Yonder.” Herzog has the distinction of making one of the most enjoyable stoned movies ever, “Grizzly Man,” as well as many other classic films. The dude’s a supreme bad ass who “is afraid of nothing.” Seriously. Check out the video below where he gets shot by some crazy person with a pellet gun while being interviewed by the BBC. Dude bleeds through his purple boxers (which he reveals when he pulls down his pants to show his wound) and keeps going with the interview, simply stating that the bullet was not “significant,” and laughing the whole thing off. Totally amazing.