By John Mendels(s)ohn

I have gone on stage as an actor, an orator, a musician, and a solo comedian. Take it from me; one never feels more naked than as a comedian. So the one thing the Next Generation of Madison Standup Comics, as seen at the Klinic’s open-mic night every Wednesday, must be acknowledged to share is courage. Trying to maintain one’s confidence and timing over the roar of the oblivious patrons of the bar half of the club (what is it with bifurcated Madison clubs, of which Café Montmartre is another?) must certainly be among the most daunting tasks a Wisconsin performing artist will have to face in 2008.

If only they were as funny as they are brave.

Good afternoon from Dane101's Department of Better Living! We've put together some quirky, funny, and/or just plain bizarre links to brighten up your lazy Sunday. Click on each description for a laugh (or a WTF?! moment).

* McSweeney's: Coach
Barry Murphy's Inspirational Quotes. Lifetime Record: 14-91-1.

* Cracked: "It's time for the NCAA tournament: the one week out of the year that your office turns into a Vegas sports book. Here are the six people you're going to want to choke out by the time the Final Four roles around."

* Nerve: The Sushisexuals: How a blog defined one man's dating history.

* FunnyOrDie: Rollin' with Bob Saget-- "The illest motherf*#@er in a cardigan sweater."

* CollegeHumor: "In our inebriated state we discussed some songs that we would sing along to only when drunk. Luckily for you, we then filmed ourselves singing those songs."

With the acquisition of its MercLab rehearsal and storage space on 930 Fair Oaks Avenue, Mercury Players Theatre has also provided an occasional performance venue on Madison’s east side, and the only venue in the city where you can cover yourself with a quilt, recline on a couch that once appeared onstage in a “slasher comedy,” and see a live show.

Tonight, April 11 & 12, and May 9 & 10, 8 p.m., local comedy troupe Rabid Badger Theatre Company performs at the MercLab with a mix of new sketches and sketches previously seen at the Madison Center for Creative and Cultural Arts.

Nick Mortensen is in Portland Oregon, having been invited to the first annual Bridgetown Comedy Festival. The festival is in its infancy, but already has gained credibility among the Alternative Comedy Nation by snagging Patton Oswalt. This is Nick's first comedy festival. He's been Wisconsin's Funniest Comedian twice and has earned himself a rabid following around Madison by performing weekly 25-minute off-the-cuff comedy sets at "Good Clean Fun, All Slutted Up" - the Wednesday evening free-for-all of comedy at Park Street's dive-tastic Klinic (Wednesday nights, free, beginning at 9 p.m., entry to those 18 and up). The Bridgetown Comedy Festival is headlined by legendary Alternative Comedian Patton Oswalt, who might be better known as "Spence" from T.V's "King of Queens" or as the lead voice in Pixar's Ratatouille.

I got to Portland okay. I'm still a little downhearted about Brett Favre, but optimistic that maybe he'll come back after a few weeks of sitting home. The main source of my bummer is the awesome new T-shirts I had printed to complement my "Gay for Favre" material. It is my first foray into merchandising and I wanted to do it perfectly. I hate how comedians sell crappy t-shirts at their shows. I decided money was no object on the t-shirts and ended up spending $12 each for these great American Apparel t-shirts, thinking that I would break even on the first batch and start turning a small profit on subsequent, larger orders. It looks like those plans are off- at least with that design. Get yours while they are still available. They really are super comfortable. American Apparel stuff is really a cut above.

Good morning from Dane101's Department of Better Living! We've put together some quirky, funny, and/or just plain bizarre links to brighten up your lazy Sunday. Click on each description for a laugh.

* Yankee Pot Roast: Some Thoughts on Improving Hannukkah! “How about a song extolling the virtues of the beauty of conserving oil. That ought to be big with the Hot Topic crowd; all those emo-kids and whomever else. I mean, look at the price of gasoline; this could be Al Gore–big. How about the kid from Moron 5 (yes, they’re terrible but the kids love them).”

* Cracked: 10 Things Christians and Atheists Can (And Must) Agree On: “Celebrating the death of someone you disagreed with pretty much makes you a dick.”

* gapingvoid: Cartoons drawn on the back of business cards

* McSweeney’s: Hot Chocolate is the Loneliest Life: “Instant-mix cocoa can get in the way. They're insincere. They aren't authentic. But they're hot chocolate, too. I know that. I know, in some ways, they're hot chocolate as much as I am.”

* xkcd: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language

* Jezebel: The Vagina Monoblogs: “Anyway, Meghan McCain's blog is mostly unmockably anemic, right down to a Jeff Buckley/Dandy Warhols/Kanye West iPod playlist that can only be described as NOW That's What I Call Music They Play At Retail Outlets!”

* Coudal Partners: Booking Bands: “Even Cowboy Junkies Get the Blues”

* Funny or Die:Understanding Vander: “A brief glimpse into the everyday, house-squatting life of the wandering musician known simply as ‘Vander.’

*Gizmodo:Rumors: Super Mario Galaxy Coming to a DS Near You?

* Emule: Commercial for Tickle Me Emo

Good morning from Dane101's Department of Better Living! We've put together some quirky, funny, and/or just plain bizarre links to brighten up your lazy Sunday. Click on each description for a laugh.

* The MishMash:9 Telltale Signs You’re Probably an Asshole

* YouTube: Sidesplitting video of The Mom Song, sung to William Tell Overture: "Can you even hear a word I say?Answer the phone! Get off the phone!Don't sit so close, turn it down, no texting at the table..."(be sure to check out the full text of lyrics in the sidebar)

* Cracked: “There are more people playing World of Warcraft in the U.S. today (2 million) than had indoor plumbing 100 years ago. There are more people with blogs today (31 million) than had Internet connections 10 years ago. Thomas Edison said it best, "Change happens with ball-flattening speed.”

* Wordlustitude: “This blog is a growing dictionary of ephemeral words--also known as nonce or stunt words. All readers are strongly encouraged to use these terms in their blogs, poems, prophesies, and recipes.”

* The Force In The Flesh: This guy wrote the book on crazy ways to get your body Star Wars-ified. No really. Here’s his top ten.

* The Sneeze: Steve, Don’t Eat It! One man says “F*** you” to his tastebuds

* The Morning News: Making the Case for Music Fanboyism: “…inside every Radiohead bootlegger, every Sisyphean Ryan Adams discographer, every record-store clerk claiming to have lent Stephen Malkmus his contact-lens solution—anyone who’s ever loved anything wrapped in cellophane—beats the heart of Comic Book Guy, The Simpsons resident nerd, the ultimate fanboy.”

* Deseret Morning News: At Last—Mitt Tackles Important LDS issues

* Slate: Romney’s speech, with superimposed line graphing viewers’ gauge of his sincerity. Plus, while we’re on the topic, Christopher Hitchens weighs in.

Madison's newest entries into the burgeoning short video comedy scene is a video troupe called Rhymes with Stomach. It's members - Mark Kump, Chris Waelti, Adam Waldron and Mike Schmidt - are familiar faces to those who have been following the Stand Up comedy scene in Madison over the past two years. On Friday night, they'll take their collective and individual comedy aptitudes to the stage for their first group performance at the Klinic on Park St.

I thought I'd find out a little bit more about the group and I sat down with members Adam Waldron and Chris Waelti to enjoy some tea, talk about why improv is lame and those "Chad Vader guys," and discuss the cocksmanship of Pete Sampras.

Good morning from Dane101's Department of Better Living! We've put together some quirky, funny, and/or just plain bizarre links to brighten up your lazy Sunday. Click on each description for a laugh.

* Nerve: The erotic appeal of the Lands’ End catalog

* Dr. McNinja: “Should anyone need the services of a ninja or a doctor, my door is always open.”

* Something Awful: This is Why People Hate You: Habits "Snoring is the 'Guess what? Chicken butt!' of sleep."

* Cracked:The 5 Least Manly Sports Movies:“Hollywood loves to take the cojones out of everything. How else can you explain the movie-industry hoi polloi taking a dick-swinging genre like the classic "sports movie" and slowly turning the whole thing into one big pussified monstrosity?”

* Funny or Die: Everyday normal guy rap song: “I’m not very good with the women, I’m a pretty shy guy and I’m average lookin’… And I make pretty good spaghetti sauce, motherf***er!”

* Intl. Society of Supervillains: Selected Recipes from the Cookbook of a Chef whose Fiancee Just Left Him (we recommend the Why Did You Abandon Me, Rebecca? Black Forest Cheesecake)

* In the Motherhood: Chelsea Handler and Leah Remini dish about motherhood and girly girl stuff: “I dated a doctor once.” “No, you got a Pap smear.That’s not dating. That’s like an hour.”

* Comedy Central: Comedienne Rachel Feinstein sounds off on turn offs.

* Despair: Some great demotivating gift ideas for the upcoming holidays—increase success by lowering expectations.

The last time Neil Hamburger was in town Madison was in the midst of a major snowstorm. Regardless, Madisonians turned out in droves to catch the off-beat, often perplexing, and typically disturbing - wit of America's Funnyman. Bessie Cherry caught up with Hamburger and his chronic cough as he prepares to make a likely triumphant return to Madtown with a show at the High Noon Saloon tonight. Cherry and Hamburger cover everything from Madison's Awesome Car Funmaker, Paris Hilton, the "dark side" of comedy, and chunky pancakes.

Bessie Cherry: The last time you visited Madison, it was in the throes of a legendary snowstorm. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be sunny and 90 degrees. What type of weather do you perceive as being ideal conditions for a Neil Hamburger show?

Neil Hamburger: Well, I’ll tell ya. Last time I did a show there I nearly became the house comedian for the rest of the year, because I nearly got snowed in at the Motel 6 there… the snow nearly buried the car. But that would have been fine. Because I really liked the town.

A pair of comedy groups that debuted in 2006 maintained their creative momentum and performed new shows this June. Rabid Badger Theatre Company put on an encore performance of Kumquats for Bambi at the Madison Center for Creative and Cultural Arts. And as “Mazer guy” predicted in his comments to the post about Mazer’s first show, Polemique, the two young writers and actors of Mazer Comedy put on a new show at the Overture Center’s Rotunda Stage.

The Prom Committee, the elder statesman of local sketch comedy, is holding the second and final performance of its Family Reunion show 8 p.m. tonight at the Barrymore Theater. The troupe comprises seven performers, the most recognizable of whom are probably Duck Soup Cinema emcee Joe Thompson and Urban Theater host John Urban. Two acts’ worth of sketches plus a 15-minute intermission puts the show at over two hours. There’s a mix of new and old material, though with their most recent show having been in 2003, I didn’t immediately recognize some of the “repeats” as such.

Chris Farley was born and buried here. Another former Saturday Night Live player Joan Cusack went to the University of Wisconsin. We have multiple improv troupes, including the Monkey Business Institute, the Understudies, and Atlas Improv Company. We have The Comedy Club on State Street and the Wisconsin Stand-Up Comedy Project. The films of Blame Society Productions, and even John Koviac’s comic Dork Tower originate here. This is only a small sampling of the rich culture of comedy that Madison has to offer. But one comedic genre that has been missing from the recent history of Madison comedy is that of a regularly performing sketch comedy troupe. Enter the Public Drunkards.

Click here to read more.

Rabid fans of the Rabid Badger Theatre Company accelerated wildly to the Madison Center for Creative and Cultural Arts (MCCCA) on September 30 for the company’s new show of comedy and satire, Punch and Pie. This Saturday, Dec 2, the company will give an encore performance of Punch and Pie at MCCCA, 7 p.m. The production features thirteen sketches (or maybe it’s fourteen) that, as with An Evening with the Rabid Badger, featured imaginative and amusing premises that were played out for just the right amount of time. Some of the characters from the previous show came back, but not in such a way that newcomers would feel left out.

For a city its size Madison has an extremelly vibrant comedy scene. There are many contributors that help make it so, including Monkey Business Institute, Public Drunkards, the Comedy Club on State Street, and the Wisconsin Stand Up Comedy Project. Chris Woldt is a member of the latter. Last night he performed as part of a WISUC showcase at Cafe Montmartre. This clip is from his bit about pop star Michael Jackson. Woldt is also one of the finalists for Madison's Funniest Comic competition taking place on Wednesday, Dec. 6 at the High Noon Saloon.