Sunday morning music

 

I'm sure many of my readers have heard of comedian and musician Rob Paravonian.  From his Web site:

With the mind of a comedian and the soul of a musician, Rob Paravonian seamlessly fuses sharp comedy performances with top notch musicianship. This perfect blend is evident everywhere from his viral Pachelbel Rant, his observations on popular music, to his well-crafted original songs.

Rob’s act is accessible and he works with minimal profanity so there are few limitations on where he can perform or where his albums can be played. He regularly works comedy clubs and cutting edge venues in New York, as well as cruises, all-ages venues and corporate events.

For those who don't know his Pachelbel Rant, it's coming up on its 20th anniversary of going viral next month.  Again, from his Web site:

In November of 2006 I uploaded a video to the relatively new site YouTube and it’s hard to imagine what my life and career would be had The Pachelbel Rant not become as popular as it did. Looking back over 20 years I’m grateful for the fans it helped find me, the friends and peers it helped me connect with, and the opportunities it opened up.

If you knew me before YouTube, or are a fan of the Dr. Demento Radio Show, you probably know that the Pachelbel Rant is even older than 20. It was a bit I started doing shortly after moving to New York and it was a regular feature of my sets at The Big Bad Music Show at Catch a Rising Star. An audio recording from Catch made it onto my 1998 CD American Cheese, simply titled “Pachelbel,” and it got played on Dr. Demento in 1999, making the Funny Five in the summer and the Funny 25 at the end of the year.

I had a few other songs make it onto Dr. Demento in those years so I didn’t realize the unique potential the piece had until YouTube came along. And I didn’t know what to expect from posting it, videos of over 5 minutes were rare in those early days.

In 2006 I recorded video of a bunch of live shows to get the most current version of the ever-changing and constantly updated rant. I chose to upload the version from a show at Penn State because the audience was really energetic and, most importantly, the audio turned out really good. (For you tech nerds: I used an Audio Technica wireless lavalier mic, omnidirectional. I think I chose the make and model because Doug Stanhope recommended it in a newsgroup)

In the first few weeks of YouTube it got a few hundred, then a few thousand views. These were the days before social media allowed people to blast out posts to millions of people at once so word spread more slowly and organically. I plugged it on my blog and on MySpace (ahh, wistful sigh for MySpace), but it was when YouTube chose it as a featured video on their front page that it really took off.

A lot of college students started finding the video, either having it sent to them by friends or finding it on a site like College Humor. One of those college students was the granddaughter of George Carlin’s manager, who sent it to her dad and grandfather with the suggestion that I could fill in for Carlin’s regular road opener, fellow guitar comic Dennis Blair. That led to me opening about a dozen shows for Carlin between 2007-2008, which led to opening for Lily Tomlin in 2009 at the MGM Grand.

I enjoy his music precisely because he keeps it clean.  He doesn't need profanity or innuendo to be very funny indeed.  Congratulations to him on the two decades of success sparked by his Pachelbel Rant.  Here's the original 2006 version.

You'll find more of his music and comedy at his YouTube channel.

Peter