Demetri Martin

"I keep a lighter in my back pocket all the time. I'm not a smoker, I just really like certain songs." -- Demetri Martin

One of my favorite performers at Bonnaroo this year wasn't even a musician. I caught Demetri Martin's set in the comedy tent, and he might have been the most entertaining comic I saw the entire weekend. Prior to the show I knew him primarily through his "Trendspotting" pieces on The Daily Show, in which he explains to Jon and the audience current trends in youth culture. His profile of MySpace has become almost legendary, I'd say. Classic.

While Martin's taped segments are usually hilarious, he has won acclaim as a stand-up comic and comedy writer (primarily with Late Night with Conan O'Brien). His style as a comic is defined by rapid-fire punchlines and observational humor, often accompanied by music at some point in the show. Here are a few of his performances I've acquired or captured, beginning with his performance last year on Comedy Central Presents. Hopefully they'll help you start the work week with a smile.

Demetri Martin
Comedy Central Presents (2005)
1. Observations
2. Material Enhancers
3. Jokes with Atmosphere
4. Where My Jokes Come From

If you'd like to watch a video of part 2 with the "material enhancers" viewable you can do so via YouTube.

If that's just not enough for you, here are a couple of full, brief live sets by Demetri from the last couple years:

Demetri Martin - Invite Them Up [August 10, 2005]
Demetri Martin - Melbourne Comedy Festival [May 2006; video here]

You want more, you say? Well, I'm happy to oblige. Here is the aforementioned Daily Show segment profiling MySpace. If you, like me, sometimes find yourself spending too much time on that site you'll probably get a kick out of this too. And you have to love the emo-rock ode to MySpace that closes the piece. Take a gander if you haven't seen it:

And here's the full "studio" version of the song mentioned above, ripped from the stream on his own MySpace page:

Demetri Martin - I Got 9000 Friends

Notably, in the months since that piece aired he's skyrocketed up to nearly 50,000 friends. Dude is more popular than Zack Morris, Brandon Walsh, and Summer Wheatley combined. Damn. And C&T has a mere 600+ friends. Sigh.

You can also hear an NPR interview with Martin and more material here.

By the way, anybody seen Strangers With Candy yet? I'm thinking about going this week. Thoughts?

Have a good Monday, y'all!