The Comedy Couch - Brian McKim Interview

GUY MACPHERSON: Tell us what sheckymagazine.com is.
BRIAN MCKIM: It is a magazine that my lovely wife and
I started April 1, 1999. We are both professional
standup comics and we decided to start a magazine
about standup on the internet and we did it and it's
sheckymagazine.com and we have been coming up here to
Montreal for the past seven Montreals. This is our
seventh one. And what we do every time we come up here
is we upload daily updates about the festival to our
website so that folks can get an idea about what's
going on up here. We upload text and pictures. Nobody
else does what we do.

GM: Great in-depth coverage, too. And I just wonder,
when do you do it?! I mean, I see you here every time
I'm not at a show and presumably you go to shows, too.
And you probably stay up late. My guess is that you're
getting up early in the morning.
BM: That is correct. A typical day... We arrived here
at roughly 2 p.m. eastern on Wednesday. I went over
here [to the Delta Hotel] and got our press
credentials. On Wednesday night we went and saw a
comedy film. We schmoozed here at the Delta bar until
about 2 or 3 in the morning, then went back to our
hotel room and arose at about 10 a.m. after only about
six hours of sleep, filed our update after about two
hours of furious writing and uploading, and then went
back into the fray. And that's pretty much our
schedule. It's an intense 96 hours. But I'll tell you
what, it's exhilerating and we get it done and people
appreciate the hell out of it. We take great pride in
providing coverage. It really gives people an idea of
what's going on. So it is gruelling, but I'll tell you
what, when we go home - we're going to go home on
Sunday morning - we will be utterly exhausted. We will
be husks when we get there.

GM: Did I hear you used the phrase, "Get 'er done"?
BM: Uh, yeah, I used a variation on "get 'er done".
Yeah, Larry the Cable Guy. You know, we have an
editorial policy. We really actually do like Larry. We
admire him. In fact, we were just quoted in the
Philadelphia Inquirer, our major daily. A
Knight-Ridder paper. They did a piece on Larry because
he's appearing in... He's just done two sold-out shows
in Atlantic City this past weekend and they called us
for a bit of insight into Larry. We said he's a
tremendous comic. I do believe he is. He's a
traditional comic in the mould of... We compared him
to Rodney [Dangerfield].

GM: What is your editorial policy? Is it that you're
just fair and open-minded to any form on standup?
BM: Pretty much. We narrowed our focus to standup. We
love standup. We've been doing standup ourselves
personally for, like I say, twenty-plus years. And we
just love anybody who makes an honest attempt to make
folks laugh. We've interviewed people as varied as
Shelley Berman and Mitch Hedberg and Richard Lewis and
Bill Engvall and Rusty Warren.

GM: Woody Woodbury.
BM: Woody Woodbury! Exactly. So we really cover the
gamut. Anybody who's professional and has been doing
it for a while and is a veteran and knows what they're
doing, we think that our readers are going to want to
hear about it because our readers are savvy standup
comedy fans who love the art, the craft of standup.

GM: So it's not just the hip, popular guys of the day.
I mean, the title of the magazine itself is a tribute
to Shecky Greene. Is it?
BM: It is and it isn't. You know, it's a funny thing
about that. It is called sheckymagazine and it is a
definite direct reference to Shecky Greene, who is a
great comic and was, at one point, the highest-paid
entertainer, comedy-wise, in Vegas. But the word
"shecky", the name "Shecky", has become sort of a
generic term for somebody who likes to cut up and make
merry and be a wise guy. So that's why we adopted it
for the name of the magazine.

GM: The magazine has changed formats slightly. You
used to have more columnists; now it's more blog
formatted. Is that correct?
BM: Yes. In fact, it's a funny thing, we started in
1999 and the worldwide web pretty much started in
about '95 or so, so the whole technology was all new.
We realized that what we started in '99 was going to
have to change by necessity because as each new bit of
technology became available we tried to incorporate it
into the magazine to keep it fresh, keep it new. So we
went blog just about over a year ago. Mainly in order
to comment in almost real time on Last Comic Standing,
which was a phenomenon at the time. The second season
of Last Comic Standing started and one of our
columnists, Bonnie McFarlane, was a contestant on it.

GM: She was my favourite.
BM: Oh yeah, well she was a lot of people's favourite.
Bonnie has been responsible for a great tide of hits
for us because she has captured the fancy of the
comedy public. And they love her. And on the internet
people do searches on Bonnie and they find her through
us. Same thing with Mitch Hedberg.

GM: Now there are a lot of issues that you're
covering. You're not afraid to state your opinion on,
for instance, a living wage for comics.
BM: It's a funny thing. Since we went to the blog
format, what we've been able to do is we've been able
to comment on things that are happening pretty much as
they're happening. We're linking to columns and we're
linking to articles all over the worldwide web. And
one of the things that came up was the living wage
thing in New York City. And we have definite opinions
about this and that, about what a comedian deserves to
be paid or should be paid, or is paid. And if you read
the magazine for any length of time, you get a handle
on what we think and how we think about it. It's just
one of the many things. We talk about the image that
comics have in the popular culture. We talk about the
media and how they treat comedians. We try to take the
media to task when they portray comedians as psychos
or as miserable people.

GM: Come on, some of them are, you gotta admit!
BM: Well, certainly. But no more so than, say, brain
surgeons or cops or taxicab drivers or anything like
that. Some of us are screwed up but like I say,
there's no higher concentration among standup comics
as there are in any other walk of life.

GM: You and your wife, Traci [Skene], are standup
comics, as you mentioned. Have you ever played
Montréal?
BM: Oh, my God, yeah. In fact, it's funny, we were
driving up listening to the radio on the way up here
and they said, "This day in history, in 1986 Sid and
Nancy was released in the UK." And I said, "Oh my
lord!" One of our favourite films was Sid and Nancy.
And the reason why was because we saw it at the
Cineplex Odeon Theatre here in Montréal as we were
working for Ernie Butler's Comedy Nest here in
Montréal. And I said, "Oh my lord, Ernie has
essentially booked me here in Montréal since 1986." So
we have been coming up here since 1986. We've been
very familiar with Montréal. We love the town, we love
the food, we love the people. It's been a great
opportunity to come up here as media now for the past
seven years to cover this festival.

GM: So almost twenty years of performing in Montréal.
Have you performed at the festival?
BM: Not officially. I think it was 2000 or 2001 we
came up here for eight days - a gruelling eight or
nine days. In addition to our coverage, Ernie had
arranged for us to do some gigs here in the Montréal
suburbs and in some clubs downtown for charity. And we
did it willingly for charity. But I must say it was a
gruelling eight or nine days and it gave us some
insight into what these performers do up here. Some of
the schedules they have these performers on are just
ungodly. Sometimes they do four or five shows in the
space of three days and they're dragged around. They
do radio, they do TV and they do interviews with
people like you. And it's torture. But we do it
willingly and we get high because of the adrenaline.
It's a wonderful place to be for five or six days up
here.

GM: How many festivals do you get to in a year?
BM: It's a funny thing. Festivals are popping up all
over the place. We've done the Calgary festival, we've
done the Boston festival, we've done the Chicago
festival three times, we've done Montréal seven times.
I might be missing a couple here and there. Oh, we did
the Vegas festival once. We're always open.

GM: Aspen?
BM: We have never done Aspen mainly because it's in a
remote area of the country and it's wildly expensive
to go there and be there and stay there. We're just
not interested in spending all that much money in
order to provide coverage. We don't have a budget.

GM: And that's why you haven't been to Vancouver yet!
BM: Well, yeah. We'd love to come up. We'll definitely
come up and do the shecky treatment to the Vancouver
fest if the terms are agreeable. (laughs)

GM: Is Montréal still the biggest festival in the
world?
BM: Undoubtedly. This is still the biggest festival in
the English-speaking world. Nothing else comes close
to it. I don't even know if Aspen's come close because
Aspen doesn't really, I don't think, aspire to be as
big or as sprawling or as comprehensive as this
festival does. And I don't think anyone will for some
time because I don't think anybody has the energy or
the situation or the business model to compete with
it. It is quite spectacular in its scope.

GM: Hasn't industry now favoured Aspen? It used to be
that they'd all come to Montréal. Is it changing
slightly now, do you think?
BM: You know, I really can't speak to that because as
observant as we are and as much information as we
have, I'm not quite sure that the industry favours one
over the other. Like all things, it's cyclical.
Montréal, although it may be a little tiny bit quiet
this year, like I say I think it's cyclical. I think
it follows the business cycles but not exactly. By
that I mean that standup was on the downturn for a
little while maybe in the '94, '95 period and then it
came back. But I don't think that Montréal necessarily
follows that rigidly. I think that standup has never
been in a better position than now. But I don't think
that Montréal is going to exactly shadow that. In
other words, in two years from now I think Montréal
will be bigger than ever.

GM: So there's a real resurgance now in standup
comedy?
BM: Without a doubt. We've kept a handle on it. It's
largely anecdotal evidence. I mean, we're not very
analytical. As far as numbers and business are
concerned. like I say we're largely anecdotal. I think
the standup business right now is at or near its peak
in terms of the number of clubs, the number of
comedians working, the wages, etc. etc. I think it's
actually back. It's back and bigger and possibly even
better than ever.

GM: What is your primary focus in coming here [to
Montréal]?
BM: Our focus in coming here, like I said, is to give
our readers an idea of what the festival is all about,
what happens up here, what it's like. And I'll tell
you what: This year, oddly enough, we went and all we
did was see films featuring standup comics or by
standup comics. We didn't see one live performance
this year. And I don't think JFL's going to revoke our
press credentials next year because in our coverage we
don't just talk about things that we personally
experience; we talk about things that we hear about,
we talk about the people that we run into, we talk
about the people that are depicted in our photographs,
etc. etc. So we give a comprehensive view of what's
going on up here even if we can't get to each and
every show. Case in point is this year we really
haven't even gone to one live standup show. We have
seen four movies, but we haven't seen one live standup
show. But we still are going to give people an idea of
who's up here, why they're up here and what's going
on.

GM: So you're gossip-mongers is what I'm hearing.
BM: (laughs) We experience it all, too. We're here,
we're live, we know what's going on.

GM: Have you seen The Aristocrats?
BM: Yes, we have.

GM: And your opinion, Brian McKim?
BM: We had a wonderful time. The folks at TH!NKFilm
went out of their way to get us seats in the house and
we had a wonderful time. And I tell you, we wrote what
we think is the definitive review of the film and it's
up there on the upload. Yesterday's upload, as a
matter of fact. So hop on and check it out. I never
give up an opportunity to pump the magazine!

GM: Thumbs up or thumbs down, in a nutshell?
BM: Definitely thumbs up, without a doubt. It's
beautifully done. Paul Provenza had a vision and he
followed through on it. Penn Jillette, from Penn &
Teller, helped him out on it financially. Another
fellow that we just met for the first time - we
conversed with him via e-mail but met him for the very
first time in the flesh this week - was Emery Emery.
He's a comic who edited it. And we've had the pleasure
of working with many of the comics who were featured
in it in the past, and we've met a couple of people
who were featured in it this week. And it's just been
a real blast to be able to be involved, at least in
the periphery, in that film.

GM: Is the joke funny?
BM: Of course! The joke has a certain sort of internal
logic to it in its irony. The film is joyous, I must
say. It's really fun to see comedians having a blast.
And wall to wall that's all it is: comics having a
blast. And if you love standup comedy, you will love
this film.