STAND-UP TUESDAYS: Comedy Underground with Dave Attell

May 6th, 2014

Angie Frissore

Stand-Up Tuesdays is a weekly comedy spotlight written by the wonderfully talented Angie Frissore. Covering both known and unknown comics, Stand-up Tuesdays is your new source for all things funny.

This week, Angie puts a spotlight on Comedy Central’s Comedy Underground with Dave Attell. If you or your comedy troupe would like to be featured on Stand-Up Tuesdays, please email utgjames@gmail.com.

I’ve decided to change things up a bit this week – rather than focus on a particular comedian for this week’s Stand-Up Tuesdays, I instead would like to enlighten you to a new series on Comedy Central that you absolutely should be watching, if you aren’t already. Comedy Underground with Dave Attell premiered a few weeks ago following the airing of Attell’s much-loved special, Road Work, and is an unfiltered, uncensored half hour of raw and dirty comedy. And it’s wonderful.

Bringing viewers the closest they can get to a live stand up comedy experience, Comedy Underground with Dave Attell truly replicates the energy and excitement that come with a visit to a comedy club. The venue is dark and packed, and people are ready to get crazy. Add in the comedic talent of acts like Joe DeRosa, Artie Lange, Nikki Glaser and Ralphie May (to name a few), and you’re guaranteed to have the best viewing experience possible.

While comedy on television is nothing new, it is usually the theater-style acts who dominate the landscape. It’s been a long time since there has been a truly realistic comedy show that brings the club atmosphere to one’s living room, and Comedy Underground does just that.

“There are other stand up shows – on the network, in other places – but to have an unfiltered place where the comics can do their rawest, dirtiest stuff is really important. It’s important for comedy; it’s not really about me. It’s important for comedy,” Attell told me last month in an interview. “This kind of comedy isn’t peachy-to-death. There’s still a place where you can do a raw joke and the crowd gets it and sees it as a joke and nothing more. New people coming up, and people who have been on the road for years, you know, the old guard – we can come and do a quick five minute set in front of a crowd that gets it. I just think that that’s something that I want to be a part of.”

Comedy Underground with Dave Attell offers no apologies, and nor does it have to – and with its 1:00 a.m. ET time slot, Comedy Central isn’t censoring anybody.

“You and I both know that a joke is a joke is a joke, and people put too much meaning behind it. They react to it in the wrong way. I mean, you can boo or laugh, and that’s pretty much what you’re supposed to do with jokes. You’re not supposed to take it any further than that. Getting a crowd in a club is hard enough, but all the computer stuff and apps and stuff, to a live performance is difficult. And then, to have them sit through the raw stuff is becoming a rarity now,” Attell told me. “I know with my own crowd, guys are groaning at sex jokes, which is almost unheard of. Everyone’s so metro – they shut down. This isn’t an Xbox game; this is live, this is happening now – enjoy the moment. Maybe it’s just the way we’re headed, but I do want to make sure that there’s a place where comics can do this kind of stuff. I know I’m rambling on about but I feel strongly about it. I think all the comics do. We let the audience take us to a place – we’ve either got to be silly or poignant. We should really get back to the roots of comedy, which is club sets – raw, dirty. Tell it like you want it and let it all sift out. I think that’s what we’re doing here.”

Get More: Comedy Central,Funny Videos,Funny TV Shows

Be sure to check out this week’s Comedy Underground with Dave Attell, airing Saturday, May 10 at 1:00 a.m. ET on Comedy Central. You will not regret it nearly as much as that blind date you just dropped off.