Did Kristen Schaal bomb on TV? | Some seem to think so...

Did Kristen Schaal bomb on TV?

Some seem to think so...

Kristen Schaal has caused a stir among American stand-up fans – after Comedy Central aired a special in which she apparently bombed on stage.

Such showcases are usually slick affairs, in which comics present their most well-honed material to win over the TV audience. Yet about 30 minutes into her Life At The Fillmore show, thing started to go wrong.

She told a joke about a lazy eye, which fell flat, and seemed upset the poor response, saying the joke had been her grandmother's. Then she started nervously asking for water, and repeatedly stumbled over the word ‘airplane’ to the live audience’s obvious confusion. She then slunk off stage to regather her thoughts.

Schaal said the taping had not gone as planned in an interview with her friend Kurt Braunohler, before the special aired.

She told Braunohler, who also appeared in the show singing the overlong Kristen Schaal Is A Horse song: ‘I am not excited about it. You and I both know that it did not go well. 

‘ It definitely didn’t go the way I wanted it to go. Because it went badly. I just can’t even believe they’re going to air it. I think it was a nightmare.’

In its review of the special, which aired at midnight on April 1, The Hollywood Reporter said: ‘Here the horror of secondhand embarrassment, usually felt far more keenly at an amateur stand-up performance than a sleek one-hour production on a comedy network, really set in. Schaal completely unraveled, and things only got worse as the audience went silent and sat in shock as she raced off the stage.’

However the whole episode seems to be a joke, which the critic – and many online commentators – failed to appreciate. Her fans, on the other hand, said the performance was worthy of Andy Kaufman’s anti-comedy stunts.

The gag was revealed when Schaal returned to the stage and was heckled by a little girl, who she put down by saying: ‘I’d like to see you do better...’

The girl obliged, taking to the stage with three minutes of high-energy, sassy, stand-up in stark contrast to Schaal’s own absurd style.

And that fact that the show aired in that form – and has even been released on DVD – is surely a giveaway that the performance was exactly what Flight Of The Conchords star Schaal intended... even if she has remained tight-lipped on the matter.

Clips from Comedy Central in the US are not available to UK viewers, but the DVD can be ordered on import here

Published: 3 Apr 2013

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