Neil Hamburger performs at the 9th Ward at Babeville on Sunday at 8 p.m. The event is sold out.
During the fearful haze of the spring of 2020, when the world-at-large was in its first shutdown as a result of the coronavirus, entertainers who work the road like Gregg Turkington were suddenly out of a job.
The prospects for Turkington’s Neil Hamburger persona—a character willing to take a comedy gig anywhere and everywhere—to suddenly be allowed to perform nowhere, were especially dim.
Turkington was losing work, and wasn’t thrilled by the Covid-era adaptations in stand up comedy presentation.
“I don’t know about (Buffalo), but around here anyway and elsewhere, people started doing these online comedy shows that you could buy a ticket to. And I just thought there couldn’t be anything worse than watching a comedian sitting in front of their stinking computer.
You’re not reading the room, you’re not responding to anything, it just seemed very bleak. I wanted to keep doing stuff but I did not want to do that,” Turkington said.
Turkington would stumble upon a postcard writing concept, where he’d send a handwritten message on vintage postcards as Neil Hamburger to anyone, anywhere for $10. I ordered one for myself and another for a Hamburgerhead friend in Atlanta.
When the postcard arrived a few weeks after ordering, I laughed at Neil’s selection of a Cornwal-Massena International Bridge postcard and bawdy message suggesting I’d prefer a picture of a “nudie cutie”. I was humbled that a comedy hero would put pen to paper to write to me, even if modestly compensated.
Somehow, a check-in from the weird world of Neil Hamburger into my new uncertain reality was cathartic. It just fit at a time when so little was fitting together.
Turkington sent postcards around the world, some to repeat customers. He said there were days that his wrist was sore from writing.
“It was good because I got to keep the character alive and in my mind and keep the character moving forward,” he said. “I think people appreciated getting something in the mail that came from a real person.”
Well, sort of a real person. Or maybe more of a real person framed through the psyche of the caustic Hamburger, a disturbingly sloppy lounge comedian who specializes in weird, filthy puns and pointed barbs for celebrities and uncooperative audience members.
Hamburger’s current live routine revolves around a punchy set of ridiculous question and answer jokes.
“Why did the sexual deviant love hummus so much? Because, the chick pees.”
A pun like this will result in big laughs at a modern Neil Hamburger show. His audiences are mostly in on the joke, although that hasn’t always been the case. The resulting tension can lead to the occasional audience confrontation, something that’s only made worse if the confrontation isn’t genuine.
“I still do have plenty of truly unpleasant situations where you have that antagonism. But then also, the antagonism has to be genuine. If it’s just a schtick, it’s kind of horrible, you know,” he said.
The Neil Hamburger persona is just one of Turkington’s creative works. He published punk zines, released albums, and played in a series of San Francisco bands in the 1980s and 1990s. Turkington has also worked as a writer, a voice actor, and a film and television actor, including a role in 2015’s Ant-Man.
Turkington’s involvement in Ant-Man was crossed over into On Cinema at the Cinema, the massive world of comedy content created by Turkington and comedian Tim Heidecker. On Cinema is centered around a movie review show the duo host as alternative versions of themselves.
Over the past decade, On Cinema has expanded from a podcast, to a web series, to an Adult Swim property that resulted in multiple mini-series, movie shorts, and a faux-murder trial. Today, On Cinema exists as a fan-funded subscription service available at Heinetwork.tv.
With 12 seasons of history, hundreds of side characters, and an extremely involved fanbase, I asked Turkington if he has considered an On Cinema fan convention.
“That is something I’ve been advocating for a little while. So, yeah, I think it would be great. I think the fans are just really nice people, they get along with each other and they make pals through this stuff,” Turkington said. “I think it would just be a great event because you could have the bigger aspect of it, but then you could have so many rooms for these weird little panels and sideshows.”
The logistics of where to host an On Cinema convention need further discussion, with Turkington acknowledging the advantages and disadvantages of hosting in Los Angeles, where the series is filmed.
On a personal note, this is an event I’d want to go to. My online On Cinema friends have become real pals and collaborators, especially during the pandemic. Some I’ve even had the privilege of meeting “in real life”.
My On Cinema story isn’t uncommon, Turkington notes.
“I’m sure a lot of people that find this world funny are the people that are sitting there at horrible Hollywood comedies, not laughing when everyone around them is laughing, and that’s a bad feeling,” he said. “And it’s a much nicer feeling where you find some other people who are like, ‘Yeah, it’s finally something for us!’ And if I wasn’t on the show, I would definitely be one of you guys watching the show, that’s for sure, because it’s definitely my kind of thing and the fans are really funny people.”
On Cinema fans can look forward to a new season later this year and additional content on the subscription platform, as well as a series of trading cards, Turkington said.
Neil Hamburger’s show at the 9th Ward at Babeville on Sunday at 8 p.m. is part of his current US tour with Major Entertainer and J.P. Incorporated. Turkington also plans to tour as Hamburger in Great Britain and Australia, and release an album of original music this year.