It’s no secret that former Mercury columnist and one of the funniest, smartest people alive, Ian Karmel, loooooves the Portland comedy scene. It’s also no secret that Ian doesn’t think Willamette Week likes the Portland comedy scene very much. (Correction: They might like it if they thought it actually existed.) For those who miss Ian, here’s a clip from his passionate screed on the subject which he posted to his Tumblr yesterday.
Portland is full of outstanding comedy. Am I being self-serving pointing this out? Am I being self-serving trying to get the Willamette Week to cover comedy? Fuck it, maybe, but to be frank there isn’t a goddamn thing coverage from the Willamette Week can do for me at this point in my career. I’m writing this because I love Portland, I love Portland’s comedians and it’s become increasingly evident that the Willamette Week doesn’t have a stand-up comedy problem, they have a problem with stand-up comedy.
The Willamette Week’s coverage of Portland’s stand-up comedy scene demonstrates not an actual curiosity, but a determination to start at a preconceived, jaded, stereotyped conception of a stand-up comedian and work backwards from there until the story fits the basic, boring box they’ve built for it.
Ouch! And trust me, there’s much more. Read the rest here!
Hey, if the model worked for music …
C’mon, Portland comedians. Just jack up your water bills to exorbitant levels and you’ll finally get that prized WW coverage.
Man who doesn’t live in Portland has tumblr hissy fit about an alt-weekly not adequately covering his hobby? Tempest in the tiniest teacup ever created by man.
It’s not a hobby, Graham, it’s my job and I make way more money than you doing it. I make enough money to have some of my shit shipped up to Portland for you to eat. Whats your address…
Way more money? No, you don’t.
Yeah-huh.
Let’s be honest, tinier tempest-laden teacups do exist, and they often are the fights you pick with others on Blogtown, Graham.
Ian vs. Graham in one picture: http://i.imm.io/1gG7k.png
300 Portland Comedians (and a couple dozen funny ones) beg to differ on the alleged lack of a scene.
Yeah for a lot if us it isn’t a hobby, but our jobs. Ian can I have a loan?
@ Skiang Iang
Your first mistake was assuming that the Willamette Weak offers any sort of a relevant valid opinion on anything other than what a bunch of white people and one token brown person happened to be wearing last Tuesday within a five block radius of their offices.
In some ways they are doing you a favor by keeping a horde of besuited BMW driving fleshy pink plasticine mannequins from showing up at one of your friend’s shows and trying to turn it into a wine tasting/ black tie fundraiser.
Martin Cizmar is the worst thing to happen to WWeek in years. I’m perpetually embarrassed for him.
Willy wept.
Maybe they’re just afraid of all the comics getting too big and leaving…