Brooklyn resident (and Russian immigrant) Eugene Mirman is a really great guy and comedian. After escaping the clutches of communism, he grew up in Lexington, MA (where the American revolution began through no fault of Eugene’s). He attended Hampshire College and designed his own major of Comedy — doing a onehour standup act as his thesis. People made fun of him for it, because they were majoring in practical things, like playwriting and semiotics.
Since college, Mr. Eugene Mirman has appeared on television, which is still a relevant medium for another few years. Some examples include: his own half hour special on Comedy Central, appearances on Conan O’Brien and Carson Daly, a recurring role on HBO’s Flight of the Conchords, MTV, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Home Movies, Lucy, Daughter of the Devil and the new Adult Swim live action series Delocated.
Mr. Mirman tours the US regularly. He performes often as part of Patton Oswalt’s Comedians of Comedy, and has toured doing standup with bands such as Yo La Tengo, Modest Mouse, The Shins, Cake, and more.
In 2004 Eugene released his first comedy album, Suicide Squeezes’ The Absurd Nightclub Comedy of Eugene Mirman (Voted Best of 2004 by Time Out New York and The Onion). In 2005 Eugene and Bobby Tisdale released Invite Them Up, a 3CD/1DVD compilation on Comedy Central Records of their charming now defunct East Village alt-comedy staple. His most recent album En Garde, Society! is available from Sub Pop records.
Wait! He is also an author! Eugene just completed The Will To Whatevs, an outlandish self-help guide to modern life for Harper Collins due out in the winter of 2009. Eugene is thrilled he got to use the word outlandish.
Currently, Eugene makes short videos for the website 236.com and is working on a documentary of visiting Russia for the first time since he immigrated to the United States.
There’s lots more, but who cares, right? Are you really going to be any more impressed to find out that Eugene once did one of those crappy VH1 talking heads things, was a suspected arsonist on the hour long drama Third Watch (holy shit! No way!?) or played a spokes-potato on Food Network during potato weekend in 2002? Probably not. But you should know that Pete Townshend (from The Who!) e-mailed Eugene in 2001 to say he liked Eugene’s Marvelous Crooning Child. That’s great.
Some quotes from news outlets and various folks:
“Eugene Mirman is the funniest man on the planet. That’s not true. But he is really
fucking funny.”
— The Stranger
“Mirman has a skewed observational wit rather than a sweaty Friar’ Club shtick…and kills with self-deprecating ease.”
— Spin Magazine
“Equal parts Andy Kaufman and Andy Warhol.”
— Esquire Magazine
“The future of American comedy — that is, if the good guys win.”
— Rockpile
“A welcome relief from Dane Cook.”
— Rolling Stone Magazine
“The man is so consistently, delightfully silly.”
— Time Out NY’s Best of 2007
“Here’s something you can say about Eugene that you can’t say (and be right) about 99.7% of all other comics sweatily thrusting their shitty jokes and observations any and everywhere they can: you won’t see material like Eugene’s performed anywhere else by anyone else, ever.”
— David Cross
“Best of Albums 2004: The Absurd Nightclub Comedy of Eugene Mirman.”
— Time Out New York and The Onion
“Attention world press: I also have written for magazines and newspapers, so I know how hard it is to sniff out a “good story.” Well let me tell you: a good story smells like Eugene Mirman. Not only is he one of the most consistently disarming, low-voiced, and funny people I have ever encountered, but he is also a very warm person who likes to drink scotch and stand near you at bars, and he is a foreign person who came to this land as a child with but one dream: to make people laugh, and thereby gain some kind of acceptance and avoid being deported. He also started a website, so there you have a tech angle as well. You can print what I say and put your name on it, and guess what?: article done. That’s fine with me. The most important thing is that you, and I, and your magazine and/or e-mailing and/or newsletter spread the word about Eugene Mirman, the most heartwarming person I know.”
— JohnHodgman, writer
“The son of Soviet refugees, Mirman spouts the sort of funny, absurdist truths that could have gotten his parents thrown into the gulag. This being the U.S.A., all he deserves to get is attention.”
— Sarah Vowell, Author
“More than just a gifted standup, Eugene Mirman is a True Comedian, meaning every gag comes straight from some honestly irrational reality, with not a single false note in the mix.”
— Todd Hanson, Staff Writer, The Onion.
“The funniest new face in the underground scene since Patton Oswalt.”
— The Athens Banner Herald
“Top 100 pop culture people of 2004: #84. Eugene Mirman. In an ideal world, Eugene
would become the next Seinfeld, dominating airwaves with his deadpan humor (it doesn’t
get any funnier than drugs and death and sex and children!)”
— USATODAY.com
“Eugene is one of the most gifted of a very talented crowd of comics and writers who are
doing their damnedest to eliminate bad memories of painfully cheeseball 80’s-style
standup-comedy.”
— Newyorkcool.com