Maria Bamford Show

Oh hi

I haven’t had time to comb obsessively through the bowels of the Internet searching for Wiretap hodge podgia because I just spent the last 4 hours watching every single episode of The Maria Bamford Show back-to-back.

The webisodes have come and gone in two full seasons so you may already be familiar with her or her other work, which has appeared on:

• Comedy Central
• Dharma and Greg
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
• Mystery Science Theater 3000
• Jon and Kate Plus Eight (????)
• Charlotte’s Web 2 (The straight-to-video sequel)
• Full House as Roxy, Joey Gladstone’s girlfriend
• Comedians of Comedy

Oh and wait…one more notable appearance:

• CBC Wiretap with Jonathan Goldstein!

She appears in “The Quick Fix,” where she guides Jonathan in a one-man trust fall and “Life and Afterlife” where she does outreach for atheists. She’s probably in a couple more but those are the most recent ones.

Anyway, I highly recommend watching the show and listening to both of those episodes. And, while you’re at it, you could go ahead and despise Mary Mack, who many believe is a Maria Bamford ripoff except with more atrocious musical comedy (perhaps the lowest form of humor), which, to my knowledge, Bamford has only done once (I’ll let it slide this time).

For good measure, here’s a picture of Maria looking absolutely batty in Vancouver. See, all things lead to Canada. And Wiretap.

More On: Jen Kirkman

So, Jen Kirkman was on Wiretap in February talking about apples. It’s quite a different medium for a stand-up comedian – Jonathan Goldstein’s psychiatric-esque stoicism is a bit removed from the guffaws of a comedy club. JG has a way of making funny things sound somehow sad and vice versa. Anyway, I researched some Jen Kirkman in context and, I must admit, judging by the top Google hits, you might mistake her for a Web porn starlet. Here:

• Jen Kirkman’s Blog – “You’re in my Area.”
• “Bad Sex” on Nerve.com – a quick story about fantasizing about Frasier.
• Jen Kirkman on Spike.com’s “Fifteen Minutes of Fem.” Topics: jumping the housekeeper, not having kids, going to hell
• Google Doozy of the Year – Jen Kirkman video for “Female Masturbation” (SFW, though you really shouldn’t be watching standup comedy videos on the clock)
  

Oh, plus, she’s on Myspace, too which, I guess can be construed as a little risque.

Anyway, more coolness abound, Jen Kirkman regularly performs at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, Largo and has opened for Maria Bamford, who, appears on several other Wiretap episodes (i.e. “Life and Afterlife”, “The Quick-Fix” and others), which is perhaps how JK got in touch with JG, hmmm? Maybe not. She seems a pretty significant comedian on her own. She’s apparently also toured with Greg Behrendt and is a writer on Chelsea Lately. She also a does a bit of voice acting, showing up in cartoons such as “SuperNews!” (as the voice of Hilary Clinton) “The Very Funny Show” and “Home Movies.”

I’m considering buying her album off Amazon.com and I’m going to comb my records to see if she appears in any other Wiretap episodes. I’ll let yinz know re: its funniness.

OR Check it out yourself:

Jen Kirkman - Self Help