Andrew J. Lederer

Andrew J. Lederer is a New York-based comedian who has also starred in low-budget movies and worked in writing and production.

Overview

Growing up in New York City, Andrew appeared as a vocal soloist with the "Brooklyn Borough-Wide Chorus", both in live performance and on CBS-TV. He became a comedian as a teenager and acted in movies and television, including "Family Ties", "The Facts of Life", and "Fame" plus starring roles in the movies "Out of Control" and "Body Count" (and an excised scene - later restored on DVD - in "This is Spinal Tap") [http://imdb.com/name/nm0496465/ retrieved April 21, 2007] . Later, he became an entertainment journalist, working as a writer and/or editor for "Film Threat Magazine", "Wild Cartoon Kingdom", "Sci-Fi Universe" and others (even the "National Enquirer"!) [http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.12/2.12pages/2.12ledererquestel.html retrieved April 24, 2008] .

Andrew wrote a substantial portion of the famous "Disney/McDonalds Trivia Challenge" (which was so hard it was reported on in the major newsweeklies and caused the overworked library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to suspend its information line for the duration of the contest). His original screenplay,"Won't Fade Out", was given its own chapter in the book "The 50 Greatest Movies Never Made" (St. Martin’s Press, 1999), alongside unfinished efforts by the likes of Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder, and Alfred Hitchcock [http://www.amazon.com/review/product/031220082X?showViewpoints=1 retrieved April 24, 2008] .

With Dave Feinman, Andrew created CWA, a semi-cooperative management company that represented many of the better Los Angeles comedians for acting work during the late 1990s.

Andrew is a prominent “alternative” comedian. His long-running "The Second Show" and Eugene Mirman and Bobby Tisdale's Invite Them Up were the first comedy shows at Rififi/Cinema Classics, one of alternative or indie comedy's most important New York venues. His one-person shows, "Petula Clark's Greatest Hits", "Bridge-Burner", and "Me and Hitler" [http://archives.zinester.com/87118/71039.html retrieved June 2, 2008] were all presented as part of the "Edinburgh Fringe Festival" [http://www.comedycv.co.uk/andrewjlederer/index.htm retrieved February 6, 2008] [http://www.edinburgh-festivals.com/reviews.cfm?id=1236892006&sid=13808 retrieved April 24, 2008] In 2007, Andrew was a consultant for a new Fringe venue, The Green Room [http://thefixonline.com/article.php?issue=9&article=571 retrieved February 6, 2008] . He recently made a high profile return to singing as part of the "Loser's Lounge Tribute to the Bee Gees" [http://www.loserslounge.com/shows/03/bee_gees.html retrieved February 6, 2008] . He has a daily blog on the UK's Chortle comedy website [http://blogs.chortle.co.uk retrieved April 24, 2008] .

Style

Lederer's performance style has increasingly tended toward storytelling rather than a recitation of jokes or more standard comic observations. His one-time roommate, Marc Price. Has called him the "father of alternative comedy" but, as Lederer points out, this could only be true if any of the major practitioners had actually been influenced by him, which they provably have not.

Influence

Lederer has often worked in the background, privately providing material for other performers and writers. He advised and contributed to animation and film histories by Jerry Beck and others. Wrote sequences performed by comedian Jackie Diamond (Michael Rosenberg) on Fox TV's "Comic Strip Live", and produced segments for Marc Price on CBS TV's "The Midnight Hour" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0786178/fullcredits retrieved April 24, 2008]

As a consultant to Will Ryan, he was a key player in some of the more recent attempts to popularize the animated character Elmo Aardvark [http://www.laughinghorse.co.uk/af.htm retrieved April 24, 2008] .

He suggested comedian Harris Peet for the role of Muddy Mudskipper on The Ren and Stimpy Show and directed his audition tape [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0786215/fullcredits retrieved April 24, 2008] . And though Lederer generally "works clean", edgy, underground comic Rick Shapiro (who very much does not) has credited seeing Andrew with making him realize he could talk about what he wanted to on stage and not be limited by convention.

The burgeoning comedic storytelling scene in the UK was largely inspired by Lederer's "Anthology" series at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival [http://dotdwyer.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_archive.html retrieved April 24, 2008] [http://threeweeks.co.uk/edinburgh/3wks2008_week1.pdf retrieved August 12, 2008] [http://dotdwyer.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_archive.html retrieved April 24, 2008] . Both Sarah Bennetto's "Storytellers' Club" and an earlier Amused Moose effort were started by veterans of the "Anthology" shows [http://www.fringereport.com/0508anthologyfree.shtml retrieved May 6, 2008] . Lederer's 2007 and 2008 London "Anthology" presentations have been Critic's Choices in both Time Out and the Evening Standard [http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/comedy/article-23412029-details/Critic's+choice:+top+five+comedy+shows/article.do. retrieved April 24, 2008] . It has recently been announced that he will be hosting a month's worth of "Anthology" shows at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival [http://www.chortle.co.uk/shows/edinburgh_fringe_2008/a/16082/anthology retrieved May 8, 2008] .

Work as Producer

Andrew has been producer or co-producer (often with Parker Entertainment) of a number of live productions [http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm?int_news_id=4420 retrieved April 21, 2007] including many of Scott Blakeman's political comedy shows and the play "Lysistrata 100" [http://www.untitledtheater.com/Lysistrata.htm retrieved February 28, 2008] .

He co-produced comedian Ahmed Ahmed's Richard Pryor Award-winning 2004 Edinburgh Festival show and the Edinburgh run of Rain Pryor's "Fried Chicken and Latkes" in 2005.

Andrew, with Parker, also produced the musical variety series, "The Savage Breast".

Notable Shows and Venues

Lederer has at various times been a regular performer at New York's fabled Comic Strip, Improvisation, Catch a Rising Star and Caroline's comedy clubs and at Los Angeles' The Comedy Store.

Alternative venues have included New York's Surf Reality and and L.A's Creativity Bookstore.

Recent live credits include Heeb Magazine's storytelling show [http://www.hellohilarious.com/2006/07/07/62/ retrieved April 24, 2008] and The Onion's comedy series [http://blogs.chortle.co.uk/everyone/2006/11/ retrieved April 24, 2008] , both at Joe's Pub [http://www.joespub.com/component/option,com_shows/task,view/Itemid,40/id,2197 retrieved August 12, 2008] . Also "The Rejection Show" [http://www.rejectionshow.com/index.php/main/info/8 retrieved April 24, 2008] at Mo Pitkin's, Nick Kroll and John Mulaney's "Oh, Hello" and Sherry Weaver's "Speakeasy Stories" [http://www.speakeasystories.com/ retrieved April 24, 2008] .

List of One-Person Shows

* "AJL: Work in Progress" (1996)
* "Adventures in Clothing" (1997)
* "Petula Clark's Greatest Hits" (2003)
* "Bridge-Burner" (2004)
* "Me and Hitler" (2005)
* "Anthology (Free!)" (2006)
* "Every Day I Write the Book" (2007)

External links

Reviews

* [http://www.chortle.co.uk/shows/edinburgh_fringe_festival_2004/a/1361/andrew_j_lederer:_bridge_burner Chortle review of 2004 Edinburgh Festival show, "Bridge-Burner"]
* [http://www.thestage.co.uk/edinburgh/reviews/review.php/9111/andrew-j-lederer-me-and-hitler The Stage review of 2005 Edinburgh Festival show, "Me and Hitler"]

Interviews

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/edinburgh2004/questionnaire/andrew_lederer.shtml BBC]

References