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Jokes Up His Sleeve
VIDEO INTERVIEW with ADAM ULLIAN for am New York
Joke of the Week: Harrison Greenbaum
CNBC.com, August 26th, 2009 Recession Humor: A Fed Chief, Car Czar, and Rabbi Walk into a Bar... The recession has provided a lot of fodder for comic relief. From joke sites to chat rooms, everyone it seems has a joke about the economy….. "We should have known the economy was screwed when Deal or No Deal began airing—That's a show about a banker giving away other people's money, then trying to buy it back with more of other people's money,” said Harrison Greenbaum, a stand-up comedian with a degree from Harvard University, who has performed at every major comedy club in New York, including Comix and Caroline's. “There's a reason you only see the banker in silhouette,” Greenbaum explained. “It's because he's Bernie Madoff.”…. Of course, it takes a little trial and error — telling a recession joke isn't that easy…. “It’s important to know your audience,” Greenbaum said. “Jokes making fun of the people responsible for the economic meltdown are usually safe bets—unless you're talking to the people responsible for the economic meltdown.” Of course, if you do find yourself in the precarious position of telling jokes to the Bernie Madoffs of the world, Greenbaum says, you have to ask yourself: “Why are you telling them jokes and not yelling at them for being responsible for the economic meltdown?!”
Inside with: Harrison Greenbaum The Apiary, a prominent New York comedy blog, published a lengthy interview with Harrison.
"Like any drug, the more you do it, the more you need to do it, so I tend to do as many shows as I possibly can" --Harrison Greenbaum
MAD published Harrison's humor article, "If Different Stand-Up Comedians Told The Same Joke" in its May 2008 issue Download the .PDF by clicking on the thumbnail below!
Upstanding Ivy Leaguers Harrison Greenbaum, Harvard ’08 (regional semi-finalist) is freakin’ hilarious. For real, someone buy this kid a beer–in the middle of his stand up comedy routine, he busts out a magic trick.
Festival is Happy Helping Rising Stars For the past eight years, Boston Comedy Festival co-founder Jim McCue has thrown everything he can think of into the festival.... While the shows like "Lewis Black & Friends" and the Emerson event, which will feature Denis Leary, Anthony Clark, and Bill Burr, bring in the crowds, McCue wants people to know, "You're also going to see people who, in the future, are going to be big stars." Harrison Greenbaum and David Ingber founded the Harvard Stand-up Comic Society, which will showcase its talent Tuesday at Dick's Beantown Comedy Vault, with the hope of training those future stars. Harvard is known for humor writing through the Harvard Lampoon and for its theater group, Hasty Pudding, but not for stand-up, even though it boasts alums from Al Franken to "The Office" star B.J. Novak. "We really want to show that there's some really funny stand-up comedy and this art form is not something that Harvard has sort of forgotten," says Greenbaum. "It's very vibrant, and we have a lot of people who are really good at it." The club, officially recognized by the university in January, has a core of about seven members, which can swell to 20 at any given time. They meet regularly to brainstorm and critique one another's material and have produced several shows on campus, which, according to Greenbaum, have all sold out. They've already branched out to New York City with a weekly Thursday show at the Sage Theatre, where the group's more polished performers get a chance to play for a paying crowd. "A lot of clubs at Harvard people join because there are connections and an alumni network," says Greenbaum. "David and I realized early on that since we're the founders, we sort of have to be that alumni network. People who do really well at our club at Harvard have the opportunity to be in an incredible, professional stand-up comedy show in Times Square." Boston comic and Harvard graduate Baratunde Thurston had just moved to New York when the show started, but he admits he was a bit suspicious about the quality of the performing at first. "I knew it was some kind of Harvard comedy thing," he says, "but that doesn't mean it was a funny thing." There was no group like SUCS at Harvard when he graduated in 1999, and Thurston isn't even sure the Harvard kids hanging out at the second-floor bar of the Hong Kong knew the Comedy Studio was just upstairs.
And so now, with trumpets, we blare to the heavens that there is a clip on their web site that is hilarious! And original! And doesn't make our life hurt! It's a single take of Harrison Greenbaum '08 performing standup at the Comedy Studio (a brilliant Chinese restaurant attic of a comedy club where half of us spent our high school weekends getting a real education).
Students,
Cancer Convene for Night of Revelry
The show began rather dryly with two somewhat awkward jocks shyly shaking their derrières for a meager $15. However, the humorous and flamboyant antics of the night’s emcee, Harrison R. Greenbaum ’08, offered some needed comic relief. He even referenced a certain SNL skit to familiarize the audience with the finer points of charity. “Don’t put your dick in the box,” Greenbaum joked, “I don’t think we can donate that to cancer.”
First
Stand Up Show Very Risqué If you were looking for sheer comedy last
Friday night, the place to be wasn’t with Stephen Colbert or John Negroponte
at the Institute of Politics, but in Science Center D... |
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