Bob Saget podcast
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
Former “Full House” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos” star Bob Saget has reinvented himself in recent years with his stand-up routine and blue humor, most famously captured in the 2005 documentary The Aristocrats, as well as his 2006 direct-to-video comedy Farce of the Penguins.
How do you sense the audience’s reaction to the paradox of your off-color humor compared with your image from “Full House” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos” now as opposed to a few years ago?
[After the two shows ended] I started hitting the clubs more, trying to figure out where I lost my funny gene. For me, it was like a 12-year project. I’m always a comedian. It’s the root of what I do and what I want to do. I found out what I thought was funny again and I always kind of talked the way I talk now, but I’m 52 now, when I was 32 hosting those shows, and a guy will change, hopefully. I started not to care as much and do what I thought was funny. Through the whole process audiences thought it was funny, so it’s the longest 15-year overnight transition that an artist can grow through.
Pablo Francisco has a way with words, or at least the sounds of other people’s words. His gift for impersonations has people thinking he’s Don LaFontaine, the now-famous movie-trailer voice-over genius. Francisco brings his fast-paced stand-up routine to the Punchline from Fri.-Sun., April 18-20.
Theatrical Outfit’s ATLEXIS 2008 fundraiser offers “an evening of Words, Wit and Wisdom from Southern Literature,” of which there’s a ton, with readings and music by a host of celebrity guests Sat., APRIL 5. The most notable of the group, besides our own Mayor Shirley Franklin (natch), is actor Tony Shalhoub (right), the three-time Emmy-winning star and executive producer of TV’s “Monk.” (Shalhoub’s sister, Susan Shalhoub Larkin, is a local theater figure, and will also read.) Shalhoub will be joined by wife/actress Brooke Adams in reading from Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam and Eve. Other, more local celebs include Tom Key, Monica Pearson and Ferrol Sams, along with singer/songwriter Kate Campbell and WSB-AM’s (750) Scott Slade hosting. $110 gala tickets; VIP tickets sold out. Reception, 6 p.m.; performance, 7:30 p.m. Rialto Center for the Arts and Balzer Theater, 80 Forsyth St. 678-528-1511. 
Paula Poundstone performs Fri., MARCH 28, at the Ferst Center for the Arts, and her material is as fresh as ever. $21.60-$37. 8 p.m. Ferst Center for the Arts, 225 North Ave. 404-894-9600. 
The timing of the writers’ strike couldn’t have been worse for D.L. HUGHLEY, who was set to take a second swing at a late-night talk show (this time on BET) when the bad news hit. So it’s a good time for the former star of his own sitcom (and the recent HBO special “Unapologetic”) to focus on his stand-up chops as he pulls into Atlanta Fri., NOV. 23. Hughley deftly mixes political and topical observations with his unabashedly scatological humor. “I was driving down the street through Virginia and I saw one bumper sticker that said, ‘I support the NRA,’ and right next to that was another bumper sticker that said, ‘What would Jesus do,’ he observes on his HBO special. “Ain’t that a bitch? I ain’t no Bible scholar but I’m gonna guess he ain’t gonna have no gun.” His previous Comedy Central TV talk show, “Weekends at the D.L.,” had short-lived success but showed Hughley could be the next Bill Maher if given the right opportunity. Click here to listen to a a podcast interview with Hughley. $39.50. 8 p.m. Center Stage, 374 W. Peachtree St. 404-885-1365. 
