The phenomenally talented comedian Greg Giraldo died of an accidental overdose this week, and though he had battled problems with drugs and alcohol for years, it doesn’t make his absence from the comedy landscape suck any less. Despite his success, Giraldo was constantly hounded by feelings of failure — feelings that he shared in this interview by Psychology Today. The whole thing is pretty enlightening (and depressing), but here’s the essence:

The reality is I’m not this person with this driving “get it done” attitude. I’m a complete f*ckup and I’ve f*cked up a lot of things in my life. I’m constantly tortured by a sense of failure. I feel like quitting all the time. I feel like hiding in drugs or alcohol. I feel like I’ve failed in terms of what my potential is.

Michael Ian Black — a comic actor with his fair share of successes and failures — shared the article on Tumblr and added his perspective:

The lesson I take away from it is one I hope I’ve been learning over the years: have gratitude for what you have and forgive yourself for what might have been. We are all failures in one way or another, but failure is more than the end of something. It is the opportunity to begin something else. Enjoy your successes, accept your failures. Move on from both. But keep moving on.

Whoa, I didn’t expect Friday to start out so heavy. With the exception of the occasional depressed mood, I don’t think I’ve ever been so wrapped up in my own failure as Giraldo and Black. I’ve also never been accused of being “talented” or “funny” like them, though, so I guess it evens out in the end. Well, not for Greg. He’s still dead :(

After a disappointing start the first two weeks, “Michael and Michael Have Issues” finally hit its stride last night.  The skit above, in which Michael Ian Black goes shopping for sweatpants after a bad break-up, damn near killed me.

The meta “behind the scenes” half of the show is coming along, too, as the Michaels are growing into their vain, petty alter egos.  I still don’t like it as much as the skits, but that’s because the “Curb Your Enthusiasm”/”Arrested Development” style of humor-through-awkwardness is hit and miss with me.

Whoa, whoa!  Put down your pitchforks!  I didn’t say anything bad about “Arrested Development”!  I was merely talking generally about a style of humor!  Hey, that’s real fire on your torch!  IT BURNS!  I take it back!  I’m sorry!  Michael Cera is a genius!

Yesterday in Brooklyn, television stars gambled for charity.  David Cross (left), Michael Ian Black (right), and “This American Life” host Ira Glass (standing at table) all participated in the Honest Elimination Poker Tournament at 826NYC, a non-profit organization that provides free tutoring and various creative writing workshops for children.  Impressively, out of about forty players, Cross and Black finished third and fourth, respectively, while Glass busted out early but stuck around to deal to the final table.

I was called into service for the event because apparently, people who run non-profits in Brooklyn aren’t degenerate gamblers — but if they’re lucky, their volunteers are!  So I ended up dealing for a couple hours before turning to glorified tasks like changing out chip stacks and shuffling the second deck for Glass.

All three were friendly, engaging, and funny (as well as adroit poker players).  Cross downed beers and cheerfully interacted with his table, while Black’s familiar mannerisms came through in everything he did.  And both of the comedians made fart sounds, which is something I can always appreciate.  Black also took his loss with good humor: he was big-stacked until his pocket aces lost to pocket fives (four spades on the board gave the underdog a flush), and he reacted with a shrug and merely said, “It’s okay, I sucked out earlier today.”  (Though he later tweeted, “Poker literally ate my dick today. Literally.”)

Since the event was for charity, no cash prizes were given, but the three celebs did sign the trophies for the top two finishers (Cross: “F-ck you.”  Black: “JEWS!”).  More pictures of the event are here, and you can see me sweating out the previous night’s booze here.  And remember, it was all for the children.  I’m such a selfless functioning alcoholic!

We’ve known for a while that “The State” — MTV’s subversive sketch comedy show that helped build the foundation of humor for a whole generation of kids who would grow up to become bloggers — is coming to DVD on July 24th, but this is the first I’ve seen of the trailer, so let me just reiterate my feelings on the subject: AWESOME.  WANT.

I’ve been re-watching Season 1 online at MTV, and it’s great to see how well most of the sketches have held up — everything is just so GD insane.  I hate to admit it, but a show like this — where an entire comedy troupe gets to air their vision of comedy intact — will probably never happen again, thanks to the Internet.  Sketch comedy that gets a viral video following may provide opportunities for individuals to become stars, but networks aren’t going to take a chance on an entire troupe.

Whoa, I just got nostalgic thinking about a time when MTV took chances with daring, edgy content.  And now it craps out shiny turds like “The Hills.”  I wonder who died or got fired over the course of 15 years to make that happen.  “All right, everyone, it’s gonna take a lot of effort to change our image, but we need to make everything stupider, top to bottom.”

Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter (of “The State” and “Stella” awesomeness) will be reuniting on Comedy Central, which has signed up for seven episodes of “Michael and Michael Have Issues.”

“Michael and Michael Have Issues” stars Black and Showalter in a new twist on narrative and sketch comedies that features the long-time comedic partners as the hosts of their own fictitious sketch show.  Sketches will be interspersed throughout the narrative thread of each episode.  Behind-the-scenes of the show-within-a-show, viewers will get a first hand look at issues, both big (in an attempt to broaden their appeal, the guys turn their show into a frat house spectacle) and small (the two Michaels fight over the approval of a teenage intern writing an article about them for his high school newspaper.) that the two misguided stars wrestle with as they confront their own issues of insecurity and jealousy as each attempts to undermine the other.

Whoa, that’s a whole lotta meta.  Charlie Kaufman approves.  Maybe one of the sketches on their show-within-a-show should be about them playing actors who have a show-within-show!!!  Then they could have a sketch-within-a-sketch!  And they could hold a picture of themselves holding a picture of themselves!  AHHHH I just shit my pants from having my mind blown!