All Episodes

May 17, 2022 82 mins

Wayne Federman is a standup comic, actor, producer, writer, comedy historian, and USC professor. He has been in about 90% of my favorite comedies: 40-Year-Old Virgin, Step Brothers, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The League, Community, Always Sunny, Tough Crowd, 50 First Dates, Knocked Up, Crashing, Silicon Valley, Legally Blonde...among over one hundred other credits. And he is the author of the excellent book, "The History of Stand-Up: From Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle." Wayne is also a producer on the upcoming HBO Documentary "George Carlin's American Dream," which premieres May 20.

The History of Stand-Up: https://www.amazon.com/History-Stand-Up-Mark-Twain-Chappelle/dp/B08YRP1R2G/ 

George Carlin's American Dream: https://www.hbo.com/george-carlins-american-dream

00:00 Introduction

02:00 Comedian Richard Nixon

04:00 How Wayne got into comedy

8:50 Freddie Prinze's Tonight Show appearance

15:30 Wayne's TV and movie career

17:00 How Judd Apatow found success 

18:00 The golden era of comedy movies 

22:00 When did standup start? 

26:30 Comedy's short shelf life

29:20 Friar's Club

34:15 Vaudeville's role in comedy history

45:00 Hugh Hefner's role in comedy history

48:50 Where did the classic brick wall and stool originate?

54:10 Saturday Night Live

59:00 Comedy Central's rise and (debatably) fall

1:04:00 Dane Cook and the rise of the internet

1:08:10 Louis CK and self-publishing

1:18:30 George Carlin's American Dream 

  ––––  

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Eric Cervone on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericcervone

Eric Cervone on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericcervone 

https://www.ericcervone.com/

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