I don't have any in depth info about him but he seems like the type of guy that doesn't care about fame or being rich at all, Just does what he wants to do. What other type of person would go from saying they were kinda broke recently to one of their main plugs being for a charity?

Yeah on Ron and Fez he talks about donating $25,000 dollars to charity what an awesome dude.

met him at a gig here in florida a few years back and i asked him why he wasnt bigger. Best repsonse ever, "I dont give a fuck about it"

He is the consummate comedian's comedian. He's probably happier this way. While Jimmy whines and tries to lose weight because he thinks he deserves this or is jealous that he doesn't have that, Dave does what he's always done and we still think he is the legend that he is.

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Doesn't fit into any pigeonhole, he's just a dude who's an amazing comic. If he had a 'gimmick' he'd likely get more mainstream buzz, but that doesn't seem to be what he's about at all.

Ya, I think that's exactly it. He doesn't fit into any of the molds for the typical TV show, Insomniac was a brilliant one-off idea, I think he's been trying to replicate that ever since. And although he's one of the best comedians, his specials don't seem to resonate with the mainstream.

If he had kept that show insomniac going for another 2-3 years. Who knows?

The poor guy lost a lot of money with Dave's Old Porn. Apparently he paid for a lot of it himself. Sucks that it had to get canned. It was an interesting concept and very funny. Dave's the man.

He talked about it yesterday, that he lost money while the show was on Showtime, but he made some money when he moved he show to online only.

Which goes against all logic: Lose money on TV, make money online only. Shows the shift everything is making.

Not really. TV is a dying media. If you're not putting out mass appeal laugh track garbage it's hard to get Neilsen ratings. If you're not on HBO, you're screwed.

TV can't die soon enough for me.

Doesn't really go against logic though; online budgets can be much much much lower. Lower overhead can make all the difference.

The days of "be on TV, make instant money" are over.

Yeah, I guess I meant the old logic. Hell even HBO is considering making their online only app HBO-GO separate from their subscription, a-la Netflix.

I remember when Louie CK talked about why it was easy to work with FX. When Louie was pitching his show, he wanted to direct/edit/cast etc.. the show and FX was over-joyed because they didn't have much money to budget the show, so Louie was saving them money by wearing many-hats. So he was able to get total creative-control through frugality. (Rob McElhenney & Glenn Howerton stated the same thing about It's Always Sunny)

I hope TV completely rots. After years of mass-marketed garbage, cable monopolies, and impossible to watch on devices I wanna watch on bullshit, nothing would make me happier than watching every television company collapse under the weight of its own arrogance.

Exaggerate much? There is great stuff on TV, even if it's only .01%. You don't want to get rid of ALL TV.

I want the business model to end. I want the extortion of customers to end. I want the monopolistic shit to end. I want this "protection" of their shit to stop making it hard for legitimate paying customers of the product to watch a show they already pay for on their cable bill to watch on a tablet, for example, and that's just ONE example.

Burn it to the ground so that it can be rebuilt, but with an eye toward being consumer-friendly and actually competitive.

So no, I'm not exaggerating.

Maahhhn!

Okay I earned that lol

I had to check to make sure I was in the /r/opieandanthony. I actually gushed a little when I confirmed I was.

I hear what you are saying about the whole shebang, I'm just not as militant about it. I just hope that good art/entertainment will always find an outlet because as humans we appreciate art.

Sadly when TV dies, the internet will replace it, but in the same way. We sold off the internet. ISPs can chose to favor certain websites over others to extort money from companies like amazon and netflix. Those costs will roll to consumers. Plus, once everything is on demand and streaming, there will be no DVR to fast forward through commercials with.

If you don't want commercials, you buy the subscription to download it, ala iTunes or Amazon.

Once things like HBOgo can be purchased without a cable plan, things will change FAST. The cable companies know it. I recently called Comcast to turn my cable off, as the first year was over and the bill jumped to $250 a month for cable + Hbo + Showtime, Blast internet and phone. Just complaining about the price, they chopped $100 off the bill. They know we're ready to bail.

Plus no unions required if you're just doing a show with a few people.

He's not a shameless self-promoter. Same with Colin.

This, I don't think he cares. He doesn't even seem to plug very much for a comedian.

Attell KILLS live. One of the best comedians I've ever seen.

Jews holding him back

The same reason Colin isn't. It's too, for lack of a better word, "smart". People just don't get it.

Same kind of smart people that love Big Bang Theory and hate Community?

No, those are faggots.

Oh, right.

i'm looking forward to Road Work. i remember him saying to joe rogan (iirc) that he knew he worked best in clubs -- that he felt stilted and weird in a theater context. he's a smart guy and lots of fun to listen to.

"Super famous" is usually reserved for comedians whose bulk of work is safe for tv.

We might call Louis CK super famous, but I don't know if he can fill arenas outside of ny and LA.

Carlin would be similar.....he could fill a theater anywhere but I don't know if anyone had done an arena back then.

Dice doing arenas in his prime was an anomaly because people hadn't had such easy access to blue comedy before.

Dane was big because college girls really got into him via social media.

Kevin hart is huge with African Americans.

Russell Peters is huge with ethnic audiences.

Most other high level comics consider him to be one of the best comics alive right now, he just has a dark and depressing style of comedy that can't be distributed to the main stream. Everything I said above can also be applied to Doug Stanhope.

He's pretty fuckin famous for a comic though. God damn I love when he's on the show. Always reminds me of him shitting on Bob Levy for performing in a restaurant!

He's pretty fucking famous. He's just not that mainstream and clean. But TONS of people know who he is.

I think it's integrity. You'll never see an "Attell" sitcom on NBC/CBS. He's never made an entire movie based on his act. Stuff like that.

He's got DIG-NI-TY!

Because he's a "Commedians' Commedian"

He is very famous to people who love stand up

I fucking loved Insomniac and Dave's Old Porn on Showtime. Guy is a serious talent.

Patrice had the same problem, although i also feel right before he died that things were coming around for him and he was on the come up. Patrice would always talk about who his crowd was, who were the main people who supported him and he couldn't think of any. Patrice was a lone wolf who didn't really cater to any particular crowd, he could have easily found some niche in the black community but he never just spoke to one group of people. I feel like before Patrice died he sort of found his groove in talking about the relationships between men and women. People find attell funny but who is his crowd? What group of people are the typical dave atell fans?

The same crowd who love Doug Stanhope.

Because then he would never be on O&A.

It kind of depends on what you mean by famous. Stand up famous and tv/movie famous are different things.

As far as stand up, it's basically because he doesn't do a clean act, he's a little weird, and he's not very polished as a performer.

Other than Louis CK, the top 10 most popular stand ups are all clean acts and have fairly polished sets. And all of them are at least relatable as people to enough people. I don't find Larry the Cable Guy, or George Lopez funny, but they're at least relatable to enough people to have an audience that relates to them.

As for television or movies, I think some of it comes down to how you look and your acting ability, your ability to write or do something conceptually creative, and your professional relationships.

He's not broad-safe enough. For a comedian to become really famous, usually women have to find him attractive somehow, and he has to do jokes that women can laugh at (usually some sort of safe material, sometimes boring, e.g. dane cook).

His standup must be a hoot because, to be honest, when I hear him on the show and other podcasts he is mediocre at best with an occasional great line. I get the whole 'comedians comedian' thing, but he's no Colin Quinn or others who share that moniker.

because supposedly he's an actual drunk or at least has been. Alcoholics aren't quite known for getting shit done. He's in my top 3 along with Jim Jeffries, but once again... that booze seems to get in the way :D

He's ugly. Unfortunately that's what it comes down to with the general public.

Unlike Louie and Burr who are just gorgeous.

I think he and Colin are in the same boat. They have style that takes a while to truly appreciate.

Burr's a pretty good lookin guy.