Post by cinemaguy1 on Sept 10, 2007 0:25:29 GMT -5
The first time I saw Maria, I was intrigued because I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. I mean I understood the words, but I remember thinking she must had thrown a bunch of words in an hat and pulled them out randomly. With her, you simply have no idea where a joke is heading sometimes. I love that about her!
I first saw her on TV, probably during the season of Comedy Central Presents in which she did her first special. I do remember being glued to the TV. I was pleased to find a woman in comedy that fit into every area of funny. I find that most stand-ups are men and the woman that stick with it enough to get noticed are not very good. I don't say that in a way that puts down women. It's only been my experience and perhaps yours too. If not, then I am jealous of you. I guess the lifestyle that goes along with being a stand-up is just not that appealing to women. I've done a little bit of it myself and it's a very gruellng and lonely existence. One, mostly any rational person would give up, hence the reason men would stick around longer.
Maria being a woman has nothing to do with her humor though. She is who she is and while you tend to learn about her more from her character's points of views (which I believe makes it more interesting) I feel she is being extremely honest about her own life even if it's not her really talking about herself. At least that was the impression I had after first seeing her on TV.
The funny thing was that after I saw her, she stuck in my mind, but I couldn't bring anything she said into my consciousness. All I remembered was she made me absolutely lose it in uncontrollable laughter upon her invoking the word "Jazzercize" and the sense of sadness I had when her act completed. It was a marathon I was watching while I was babysitting and while the kid I was sort of watching was asleep, I moved on to the other episodes and finished out the marathon and hoped the kid was still alive. He was by the way if I remember correctly. If not, I owe back some money of that check the parents wrote me for the last few hours.
So, after the job ended, I went home and more or less forgot about Maria, at least in sense of remembering who she was or looked like. But the word Jazzercize became a fixture in my everyday speech and I continued to laugh every time I said it.
Years passed and honestly in the past two months or so, I thankfully was reintroduced to Maria and her comedy. I had come across her work such as when talking to the bank girl in the game "Escape from Monkey Island" for the PS2, which is an equally hilarious game by the way if you haven't played it. Great performances all around there! And I even remember her from Darma and Greg now that I go back and rewatch the clips. But the complete connection wasn't made until a friend of mine and I were recently talking about how aside from Ellen, there weren't many female comedians out there that out performing. We talked about Wanda Sykes, who I've also adored for years and a few actresses, but no out and about standup comics. We both had seen some bad ones, both local and on television and we're both pretty in the know about those kind of things usually, so we challenged ourselves to name the best we could think of.
Of course, my buddy mentions Maria Bamford. And I still feel like an idiot because my instant response is "Who's that?" (Sorry Maria!) So he talks talking about Comedians of Comedy and tells me about it and the premise and everything. He mentions Zak's name and he is a guy I definitely know by name. Sad, I can remember Galifinakis and not Bamford. I loved Zak's show and missed it from VH1. He interviewed my two favorite bands ever in the same week and I got hooked. He also called my musical hero "Beard-o." Ten extra credit points if you can name who that was. He even interviewed Ricki Lake while she did her dishes in her house. How can you not like that kinda stuff? So I agreed to sit down and watch this movie my buddy owned.
So we get a little bit into it and Maria comes on. I don't instantly recognize her, but I know that I've seen her before, most have been about a decade before afterall. The whole movie, I get the usually first impression thoughts about her. The voice, the characters, the thought that this woman is nuts, ect... (In a good way just fyi
I know I know her and I see her do this Old MacDonald joke that leaves me on the floor and tell people about for the next few days and by that point I'm hooked. I proceed to scout out all the media I can on her to get that laughter again and I even found an online video again of the Jazzercize joke along with the Old MacDonald joke and I'm still not sure which one made me laugh harder, but it's at this point all the memories from babysitting and running from the police come back to me. Everything clicked and it was odd to remember something that specific from almost a decade ago.
Also, I came across the SuperDeluxe stuff and flew through those in a sitting. Love them. Wish I could download them and throw them on my iPod. I still laugh everytime and have several favorite moments in it. My buddy and I are continuing our dialog as well about Maria and are both up to date with the show awaitng more.
It's weird to find a new comedian and realize you already knew and were smart enough to like her the first time around as well, but it's enormously fun to go back and see all the things you've missed along the way and see you actually in fact didn't miss them at all; you only needed a prompt to connect the dots. And a decade later, connect the dots I have.
So, we all have our own stories (and threads) of how we were introduced to Maria's humor and in an unique way, I kind of have two. Do I get two threads?
Keep on rockin' Maria!
I first saw her on TV, probably during the season of Comedy Central Presents in which she did her first special. I do remember being glued to the TV. I was pleased to find a woman in comedy that fit into every area of funny. I find that most stand-ups are men and the woman that stick with it enough to get noticed are not very good. I don't say that in a way that puts down women. It's only been my experience and perhaps yours too. If not, then I am jealous of you. I guess the lifestyle that goes along with being a stand-up is just not that appealing to women. I've done a little bit of it myself and it's a very gruellng and lonely existence. One, mostly any rational person would give up, hence the reason men would stick around longer.
Maria being a woman has nothing to do with her humor though. She is who she is and while you tend to learn about her more from her character's points of views (which I believe makes it more interesting) I feel she is being extremely honest about her own life even if it's not her really talking about herself. At least that was the impression I had after first seeing her on TV.
The funny thing was that after I saw her, she stuck in my mind, but I couldn't bring anything she said into my consciousness. All I remembered was she made me absolutely lose it in uncontrollable laughter upon her invoking the word "Jazzercize" and the sense of sadness I had when her act completed. It was a marathon I was watching while I was babysitting and while the kid I was sort of watching was asleep, I moved on to the other episodes and finished out the marathon and hoped the kid was still alive. He was by the way if I remember correctly. If not, I owe back some money of that check the parents wrote me for the last few hours.
So, after the job ended, I went home and more or less forgot about Maria, at least in sense of remembering who she was or looked like. But the word Jazzercize became a fixture in my everyday speech and I continued to laugh every time I said it.
Years passed and honestly in the past two months or so, I thankfully was reintroduced to Maria and her comedy. I had come across her work such as when talking to the bank girl in the game "Escape from Monkey Island" for the PS2, which is an equally hilarious game by the way if you haven't played it. Great performances all around there! And I even remember her from Darma and Greg now that I go back and rewatch the clips. But the complete connection wasn't made until a friend of mine and I were recently talking about how aside from Ellen, there weren't many female comedians out there that out performing. We talked about Wanda Sykes, who I've also adored for years and a few actresses, but no out and about standup comics. We both had seen some bad ones, both local and on television and we're both pretty in the know about those kind of things usually, so we challenged ourselves to name the best we could think of.
Of course, my buddy mentions Maria Bamford. And I still feel like an idiot because my instant response is "Who's that?" (Sorry Maria!) So he talks talking about Comedians of Comedy and tells me about it and the premise and everything. He mentions Zak's name and he is a guy I definitely know by name. Sad, I can remember Galifinakis and not Bamford. I loved Zak's show and missed it from VH1. He interviewed my two favorite bands ever in the same week and I got hooked. He also called my musical hero "Beard-o." Ten extra credit points if you can name who that was. He even interviewed Ricki Lake while she did her dishes in her house. How can you not like that kinda stuff? So I agreed to sit down and watch this movie my buddy owned.
So we get a little bit into it and Maria comes on. I don't instantly recognize her, but I know that I've seen her before, most have been about a decade before afterall. The whole movie, I get the usually first impression thoughts about her. The voice, the characters, the thought that this woman is nuts, ect... (In a good way just fyi
I know I know her and I see her do this Old MacDonald joke that leaves me on the floor and tell people about for the next few days and by that point I'm hooked. I proceed to scout out all the media I can on her to get that laughter again and I even found an online video again of the Jazzercize joke along with the Old MacDonald joke and I'm still not sure which one made me laugh harder, but it's at this point all the memories from babysitting and running from the police come back to me. Everything clicked and it was odd to remember something that specific from almost a decade ago.
Also, I came across the SuperDeluxe stuff and flew through those in a sitting. Love them. Wish I could download them and throw them on my iPod. I still laugh everytime and have several favorite moments in it. My buddy and I are continuing our dialog as well about Maria and are both up to date with the show awaitng more.
It's weird to find a new comedian and realize you already knew and were smart enough to like her the first time around as well, but it's enormously fun to go back and see all the things you've missed along the way and see you actually in fact didn't miss them at all; you only needed a prompt to connect the dots. And a decade later, connect the dots I have.
So, we all have our own stories (and threads) of how we were introduced to Maria's humor and in an unique way, I kind of have two. Do I get two threads?
Keep on rockin' Maria!
