conan o’brien Tag

Jimmy Pardo Weekend

So who, exactly, says never meet your heros?

I do, actually. I once paid $50 to meet DEVO post-show, talk, get autographs, that sort of gear. All that happened was we watched a bunch of old musicians come down from a performance high surrounded by fellow nerd-stains like myself, while way-out-of-place gorgeous young women model-types strode around who I guess thought that night, they’d get to sleep with ‘Il Divo’. Swing and a miss, ladies.

If you don’t know, and you should, Jimmy Pardo is the host of one of the best podcasts out there, Never Not Funny. He was the warm-up for the Conan show on TBS and just finished up the first season of Race to Escape on Science Channel and Who-The-Hell-Knows Network in Canada.

Three years ago Ian Atlas, tired of my caterwauling about Pardo not coming to Toronto, booked him for a weekend at Comedy Bar. I hosted. He did my podcast. It was wonderful. This past weekend Jimmy returned and brought with him his podcast co-host and Matt Belknap to do two recordings of their podcast after each of Jimmy’s Friday and Saturday shows. Awesome.

(Note: Ian brings in fantastic comedians to perform in Toronto and you should go see them when they get here. Here’s a listing of his events to come.

So, Awesome? Why Awesome? Jimmy has one of the sharpest minds in comedy. Ever. His ability to weave multiple stories all at once while spinning the plates of audience engagement is glorious. It’s the type of thing that makes you go, “Why do I bother with MY jokes about MY penis?” The stand-up is great and the podcast is “great x great”. Unencumbered by the individual audience engagement of stand-up, he is able to interact with his guests and drive funny into the audience. Staggering.

The Friday I hosted, bringing up to the stage as opening acts, friends and funny people Kate Davis and Luke Gordon Field. With my work done, I snuck to the back to watch Jimmy do his thing. Fantastic. At that point I thought my night would be over and I’d be able to enjoy the live podcast stress-free.

Nope.