DESPITE STAR POWER, ROGEN’S NETFLIX SHOW LESS THAN STELLAR
A fundraiser for Alzheimer’s research, Hilarity for Charity fails to impress viewers
Montrealers, be warned: Seth Rogen’s Hilarity for Charity show, which is now streaming on Netflix, is definitely not to be confused with the Just for Laughs gala of the same name, one of the highlights of the 2014 fest.
This latest, like the JFL show, was a fundraiser for Alzheimer’s research and awareness. Hilarity for Charity was founded by Rogen and his wife, Lauren Miller Rogen, as a tribute to her mother who had been beset with the disease.
But while this Rogen-hosted spectacle, shot recently at the Hollywood Palladium, may be long on charity — reputed to have raised $400,000 for the Alzheimer’s cause — it is, sadly, short on hilarity.
It wasn’t for lack of trying. Rogen conscripted some of the biggest names on the comedy scene to participate: the justannounced JFL gala host Tiffany Haddish as well as Kumail Nanjiani, Sarah Silverman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Michelle Wolf, John Mulaney, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Che and The Muppets.
But put it this way: the highlight of the show isn’t a standup act, but rather singer Post Malone, accompanied by comic/ musician Craig Robinson & The Nasty Delicious band.
Then again, Seth Rogen doesn’t help his cause by beginning proceedings with remarkably limp and juvenile dick jokes — with replicas of enlarged male members to drive home his message, whatever that might be.
Next up is Che, so smooth and sardonic as the Weekend Update co-anchor on Saturday Night Live. But rather than take political potshots as he does on SNL, he recounts a lame tale about — really? — a “visibly gay man” trying to get Che drunk in order to get him into the sack. It’s worth noting this is met with near-silence by the audience.
The mindlessness continues with Wolf worrying about immigrants getting booted out of the country, thus leaving Americans to take their place as masseuses. She fears that any American masseuse could well be a serial killer.
Silverman and Mulaney, normally such standup stalwarts, are not able to generate many guffaws, either, with their stream-of-conscience riffs on, respectively, being baby-less and peeing one’s pants.
Not even the usually deadpan
and reliable Fozzie Bear and his Muppet cronies are able to inject much levity.
Haddish is the best of the comic bunch with her tale of jubilation at being dissed in a Beyoncé song yet making it into a Beyoncé post- Oscar party.
In all fairness, the comics have been given relatively short sets in which to bring the house down. Save for the appendage-fixated Rogen, who is more adept at writing and performing in scripted film comedies than at standup.
The latest show is in stark contrast to Rogen’s JFL charity gala, where hilarity did, indeed, rule.
Rogen, who had pledged to pander to the Montreal audience, did so in the most Canadian way imaginable: Youppi came out on stage with a wheelbarrow full of Timbits and tossed them to the crowd. Women dressed as carhops dished out Coffee Crisps and ketchup-flavoured potato chips. Best of all, P.K. Subban (still a Hab at the time) showed up with a Stanley Cup replica filled with beer, so Rogen could fulfil a bucket-list dream of drinking from it.
And those weren’t even the noteworthy parts of the show. That honour went to American actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who crooned, guitar in hand, a complex Jacques Brel classic in perfect French.
In the midst of the lunacy there was much laughter, courtesy of Hannibal Buress, Jerrod Carmichael, Al Madrigal, Joe Mande, Jim Norton and Michelle Wolf.
And, oh yeah, Rogen was also on fire, both hosting and acting out an impromptu and bizarre love story with an audience member.
As for the 2018 version: Better luck next time, Seth.
‘LIKE OLD TIMES’ FOR MALANOS
At 31, Jon Malanos is going back to high school. But this time, the Montreal standup will be performing at his alma mater, John Rennie, where he got his comedic start — as class clown.
The show takes place Saturday night in the school auditorium and features a couple of other John Rennie grads, Chris Venditto and Matt Michaud, as well as non-Rennie alum Joshua Clarke opening for Malanos.
“It was like old times for me, waiting outside the principal’s office once again,” says Malanos, just back from a cross-Canada comedy tour. “I felt like I was in trouble and was feeling tense and anxious all over again, even though this time I was just making arrangements for the show and not there for another detention or scolding.”
Malanos is also back at his parents’ home in the West Island, after having spent the last few years in Toronto.
“I was living with a bunch of other Montreal comics (including Massimo) in Toronto, but when our lease was up, we decided we were all fed up there, so we all moved back here,” explains Malanos, who made waves with his one-man play Above the Law at the 2015 Montreal Fringe fest.
“I feel like my life has come full circle. Nothing much has changed from when I was 17: I’m still single, still living with my parents and still having growing pains. Not so pretty, but at least it has fuelled my comedy.”
While this Rogen-hosted spectacle, shot recently at the Hollywood Palladium, may be long on charity it is, sadly, short on hilarity.