Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert, Lewis Black, Billy Connolly, Patton Oswalt, Robin Williams, George F-ing Carlin. They are all Satiristas! -- a cadre of independent comic provocateurs targeting political hypocrisy, media distortion, complacency and the institutionalized ignorance infecting American culture.
Through candid interviews and intimate art portraits, stand-up comedy veteran and filmmaker Paul Provenza and comedy's go-to photographer Dan Dion shine a spotlight on some of the most interesting comic artists who influence and critique American culture.
Provenza and Dion offer up the most unflinching, the late night commentators, the veteran greats, the legends, the household names, the virtuosos, the film and television icons, the cult favorites, the provocateurs, and the literary comics -- everyone weighs in for a funny and fearless celebration -- and an extensive survey of the modern art of satire from the contrarians, protesters, and troublemakers who make Americans respond with equal parts laughter and outrage.
Bio
Dan Dion
Dan Dion is the world's leading photographer of comedians and comedic talent. As house photographer of the Fillmore Auditorium and head photographer for Bill Graham Presents, Dion has access to the greatest touring performers in the world.
His photos have been published in Rolling Stone, Time, Spin, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, People, Vibe, and more than one hundred other publications.
Paul Provenza
Paul Provenza is the director/co-creator of the critically acclaimed comedy/documentary "The Aristocrats." A thirty-year stand up veteran and actor, Provenza has had recurring roles on countless TV series including "The West Wing," and starred in "Northern Exposure" and in Steve Martin's play "Picasso at the Lapin Agile."
Provenza has written, produced, and starred in several comedy series and specials, including "The Incredible Man-Boy" for Showtime, and "Comics Only" on Comedy Central. He is a regular panelist on NPR's Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me, and co-produces and hosts "The Green Room with Paul Provenza," a new uncensored, improvisational comedy series for Showtime.
Artistic form in which human or individual vices, folly, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, sometimes with an intent to bring about improvement. Literature and drama are its chief vehicles, but it is also found in such mediums as film, the visual arts (e.g., caricatures), and political cartoons. Though present in Greek literature, notably in the works of Aristophanes, satire generally follows the example of either of two Romans, Horace or Juvenal. To Horace the satirist is an urbane man of the world who sees folly everywhere but is moved to gentle laughter rather than to rage. Juvenal's satirist is an upright man who is horrified and angered by corruption. Their different perspectives produced the subgenres of satire identified by John Dryden as comic satire and tragic satire.
That feeling is why we should bury the word- it makes people think, even for a moment, about murder. Hearing that bastard say that word repeatedly in his reading.Tech Updates
As a African-American I hate to hear black people use the N-word- it makes me want to yell. Hearing a white person say it, even when they fancy themselves ironic or satirical in doing so, makes me want to kill them in the worst possible way. That feeling is why we should bury the word- it makes people think, even for a moment, about murder. Hearing that bastard say that word repeatedly in his reading, with all of those laughing white people getting a great chuckle out of it, thinking that he was making a great point about language and irony, was enough to make me email all of my friends not to buy this crap book. So far, those who have watched this have been just as angry.
regarding the introduction in which the fact that Colbert could stand up and poke fun at the bush administration is portrayed as the democratic spirit incarnate; I think it also demonstrates an absence of a politically motivating core in comedy. I believe this is why the only left wing shows on the mainstream media in america are comedic; the programmers can sense that comedy and laughter is more of an opiate than something incendiary.
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