Mandee Johnson - Super Serious: An Oral History of Los Angeles Independent Stand-Up Comedy

Super Serious copyright 2020 by Mandee Johnson. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.

Andrews McMeel Publishing

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ISBN: 978-1-5248-6594-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020930092

Editor: Allison Adler

Art Director: Sierra S. Stanton

Production Editor: Julie Railsback

Production Manager: Tamara Haus

Digital Production: Kristen Minter

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This book is dedicated to my partner and the love of my life, Joel Mandelkorn. I wont be who I am without youyou are my everything. I love you.

This book is also dedicated to my amazing parents, John and Eileen Johnson.

Thank you for allowing me to bully you into sending me to photo school, where I met Joel.

Thank you for supporting us even when you didnt quite understand what producing live comedy meant or how exactly it was going to pay the billsit kinda still doesnt.

Thank you for always believing in us; it means more than words can express.

Hi. Welcome.

Mandee Johnson here, one of the producers and creators of The Super Serious Show . Joel Mandelkorn, my coproducer and partner, is here too.

We started The Super Serious Show in the summer of 2010. We are not comedians, but we set out to build a stand-up show that represented everything we loved: great music, cheap eats, free beer/wine, and a well-curated lineup. We didnt start this show with big plans. We just wanted to be part of the comedy community.

I took two 4x5 Polaroids of each comedian at The Super Serious Show over the past ten years. It became a deeply personal series to meit documents not only our show and the comedians themselves, but a moment in time in our city's independent comedy scene.

This book, the portraits, and the interview selections contained within are a reflection of our shared history and community. Thanks so much for stopping by. We appreciate it.

Mandee (and Joel)

Hey! Thanks for coming out to Super Serious .

My name is Harris Mayersohn, and Im tonights host-host.

What a night!

Now, to introduce the book youre looking at right now, please welcome the incomparable Demetri Martin!!!

What exactly is a host-host?

Well, in live comedy its gauche for the host to just come onstage, completely cold, without a proper, enthusiastic introduction to get the crowd all hot n bothered. Usually, though, its just some anonymous voice from the tech booth going, Put your hands together for your host, Demetri Martin! and thats it.

Not the case at The Super Serious Show.

Joel and Mandee, more so than anyone I know, are always thinking of how to make those little moments of a live showeven something as innocuous and generally unnoticed as the top-of-show introfunnier and more vivacious. And thats how they came up with the role of host-host.

Crowds rarely remember their host-host, but host-hosts never forget their crowds. Host-hosting felt like my first big break. The first chance for a young comedian (again, me) to perform a thirty-second bit and get a taste of the action in front of a sold-out crowd before a much better comedian (see Demetri Martin) makes the audience forget the host-hosts name (Harris Mayersohn).

While there are tons of famous comedians featured in this here book, there are at least thrice as many unknown comedians who Joel and Mandee have given meaningful opportunities, like host-hosting, to grow and experiment. In an industry full of folks who dont care about anyone but themselves, they always seems to put their friends, audiences, and performers before themselves.

Anyway, thats what a host-host is. You can go back up.

FORWARD

Thank you, Harris. And thank you, Mandee and Joel, for having me. This gig is a little different. Im used to doing spots on stage, in front of live audiences. But this one is on page, for well, sort of a live audience, I guess, with a bit of a time delay to get to each person, and the seats are way more spread out. But still, no drink minimum! Anyway, thanks for coming to the book. Weve got a great lineup tonight (or whenever youre reading this). I dont want to waste any time, so lets keep the book moving and get right into the foreword.

Stand-up comedy is a unique job because comedians, more than any other creative workers, need live audiences in order to do their work. Lots of live audiences, every step of the way. You might say, So do strippers and birthday clowns." And I might respond, Yes, but let me finish, because its not the same, which is exactly the point Im making or Please dont heckle me while Im writing a foreword. Okay? Anyway, what I was trying to say before I was so rudely interrupted by myself is that we comedians actually need to be in front of live crowds not just for the making-a-living part of our job or for the tears-of-a-clown part of our personalities. For each of us, audiences are essential to the very process of creating comedy. You can write jokes at home, think of bits in your car, work out stories in your head, or compose funny songs on your toilet. But without a live audience, no comedian can ever really develop an act or figure out who they are as a performer. Live audiences are our creative partners, editors, focus groups, guinea pigs, and teachers. They sharpen our timing, guide our improvisations, and shape not only our material but our very comedic identities. And because of that, each of us who performs comedy, over the course of our careers, will do shows in thousands of different rooms of all sizes and several shapes (and sometimes with strippers and birthday clowns). Many of the rooms will be not good. Some will be rough. Even more will be horrendous. Others will smell. A few will be great. And a very small handful will be special.

The Super Serious Show is special .

And it has been for a decade. The crowds are always warm and attentive. The lineups are consistently diverse and unique. And the atmosphere backstage has been supportive and positive since day one. Whenever I get to perform on The Super Serious Show , I know Im going to have a good night, and I always leave feeling better than I did before I got there, even when my new material sucks or Ive accidentally worn a shirt thats not that comfortable. So what makes The Super Serious Show so special? How does it have all of these great traits? And what is this third question doing here? The answer (to the first two questions) is simple: The Super Serious Show is exceptional because its exactly like the people who created it. Mandee and Joel love comedy and comedians, and they produce every one of their shows with genuine enthusiasm and real love. They are supportive and attentive. Theyre enthusiastic and warm. And yes, Im listing a lot of the words I just listed a few sentences ago, because theyre worth repeating. Also, the answer to the third question above is that I wanted to have a third question to go with the other two, but Im a procrastinator, so what was a placeholder is now a permanent part of this paragraph.