I once mistook Leo Allen for Ken Marino in a wig. It was in the online video for 92nd St Y Tribeca's goofy New York Times commercial parody, passed along throughout the internet and loved by all haters of the real TV advertisement promoting subscriptions to The Weekender. The ad was created by Michael Showalter and featured an array of popular alternative comedians, some from the world of stand up, others from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, plus friend Paul Rudd enjoying the Socks and Politics Section. In the spot, Allen claimed "I got a bad cold from one of my co-workers". His fringe of bangs flopped over his Clark Kent glasses, and all I could think of was how funny Ken Marino looked in that wig, and then I remembered how we have the same birthday. (December 19th, y'all).Here it is:
About three months later, it occurred to me. That's not Marino. That's Leo Allen. The stand up comedian who is half the team of Slovin and Allen. That Leo Allen. The one who co-created the "Time Machine" sketch I love so much from the comedy special he and Eric Slovin starred in on Comedy Central at the beginning of this decade. The guy who read 100 books in one year starting back in 2005 and discussed it on NPR. The Leo Allen who wrote for Saturday Night Live and hosts Whiplash at UCB. I don't know how it got past me, but I did spend last Monday night watching eight innings of Mets/Rockies baseball thinking the game was at Coors Field when they were actually playing in Citifield ("Wow, they sure do have a lot of Mets fans in Colorado!" Says I). So, I'm not always the brightest bulb on the marquis.
Leo Allen came to mind for today's post, because he showed up on Michael and Michael Have Issues last night as Nick Flynn, the new Editor for Sho and Black's pretend yet very real show. There was some thick romantic chemistry between himself and the very uptight Marla, M&M's Associate Producer, played by Jessi Klein, another funny person. Allen was a charmer, especially when he put his foot down about not wanting to date a chick who wanted to pee on him. Wow. Who knew that behind her glasses Marla harbors a fetish. Still, nice to see Leo as part of the Issues guest stars.
Before all that weird stuff came down, Sho and Black played matchmaker:
| Michael & Michael Have Issues | Wed 10:30pm / 9:30c | |||
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Here's some of Leo Allen's collaboration with writing partner Eric Slovin on the aforementioned Comedy Special of 2001, Slavin and Allen.
"Time Machine"
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| Slovin & Allen - Time Machine | ||||
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