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Lee camp redacted tonight7/18/2023 Do you feel like their comedy is just softer in general? Is that why they have mass appeal? But Stewart and Colbert seem to have tricks to appeal to people who don’t always share their political beliefs - as does Oliver, to an extent. You have referred to your show as “The Daily Show” with sharper teeth. There was always the possibility of like HBO or Showtime but outside of that, I didn’t really think that would happen for me. And so I had kind of given up the idea that any television network would want me. So there’s very few networks that really want my voice and what I have to say because it’s anti-corporate. I had kind of given up on having my form of commentary on television because a lot of what I do is anti-corporate America, it’s anti-the-largest-entities-that-are-the-backers of most of the channels. I think comedians are always looking for a home for what they do. I’ve been shopping around my entire career in a sense. In an interview about the show, Camp told Salon that he has free rein in his content without worrying about whom he pisses off - a rarity in comedy, and one that's especially important when you are interested in activism and outreach. But it may also be what is preventing the show from becoming accessible and finding an audience, things "Redacted Tonight" very much needs in order for his activism - which he so passionately believes in - to work.Įven if your politics don't align with it (Lee is sympathetic to aspects of the controversial, resource-based economy Zeitgeist Movement), "Redacted Tonight" is worth paying attention to as an interesting experiment that tinkers with ideas of free speech, comedy, political activism and the role of corporations play in all of this. Camp's style is heavy and his vision is unyielding, which is what gives his comedy "teeth," as he says. "Redacted Tonight" won't hold your hand the way "The Daily Show" or even "Last Week Tonight" does - you're expected to understand the news, or at least to keep up with it. Though the show is filmed in front of a live studio audience, it's so small that one Reddit commenter mocked it as an " Indie Podcast Laugh Track"). (And because RT America is a smaller, newer network, of course the production quality isn't of the same caliber. Oftentimes the dark humor comes off as an angry diatribe or a rant -a tactic that may work in a YouTube video by a well-known celebrity, but not for a comic on a small network. The jokes come fast and fall quickly, sometimes cramming in multiple topics in just a minute. O’Donnell and Phillip Chang - and follows the same format as "The Daily Show." Being not only Camp's first television show, but also the first comedy show for the Russian-owned network, it's clear that the show is still trying to find its voice and tempo. "Redacted Tonight" runs for 30 minutes each week with a scrappy team of just four people - Camp, Sam Sacks, John F. It was then that RT America, a network already familiar with his commentary from its shows "The Keiser Report" and "Breaking the Set," invested in Camp and gave him free reign over a comedy show oriented around the news. In 2011, he started a YouTube series called "Moment of Clarity" that produced about 300 episodes tackling darker issues like the government and global warming. Camp has been performing stand-up for 15 years. But there's one comic who brings Russell-Brand-level wrath to the format of the "Daily Show." He has gone largely unnoticed by the American media the past few months: his name is Lee Camp and his show is RT America's "Redacted Tonight."Ĭamp has comedy in his blood (or at least in his extended family): His brother is Dean Fleischer-Camp, filmmaker and co-writer of viral hit "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On," narrated by comedian Jenny Slate, who also happens to be Fleischer-Camp's wife. Then there's Russell Brand's YouTube rants against Fox News pundits, which are angrier still. "Last Week Tonight" has become America's moral compass in just a few months on the air. In the world outside cable news, Bill Maher and John Oliver dial the anger up a few notches. Liberal as their leanings are, their targets are outlandish enough that many moderates and conservatives can enjoy their takedowns, too. On one end of the spectrum, we have "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," which offer a temporary reprieve from the lunacy of the 24/7 news cycle. Americans are looking to a growing assortment of comedians to help them digest the news and respond to current events.
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