LOS ANGELES – Last night musicians and comedians gathered at the Ace Hotel to honor the 60th anniversary of Allen Ginsberg's groundbreaking poem “Howl,” in the form of a benefit concert thrown by the David Lynch Foundation. The non-profit centers on spreading the word about the benefits of Transcendental Meditation.
Sounds like a laugh riot, right? Actually, everyone fared pretty well…
“David Lynch… the man who made me afraid of hallways.”
Musician Kevin Drew, as an introduction
“Live abortions! Raise your hand if you've had an abortion… or you can just slap me five when you leave.”
Amy Poehler
“I love rap music but I despise poetry.”
<p style=” margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;”> <a href=”https://instagram.com/p/1Mu89KIE4u/” style=” color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;” target=”_top”>Amy Poehler and Chris Parnell rap Allen Ginsberg's "The Ballad of the Skeletons" at the David Lynch Foundation's benefit at L.A.'s Ace Hotel</a></p> <p style=” color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;”>A video posted by HitFix (@hitfix) on <time style=” font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;” datetime=”2015-04-08T03:32:04+00:00″>Apr 7, 2015 at 8:32pm PDT</time></p></div></blockquote> //platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js“>Chris Parnell, prior to rapping “The Ballad of the Skeletons” with Amy Poehler
“This should go for two or three hours. Let's round it up to six… Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness. You have to if you wanna see Nic Cage.”
Actor Michael Kenneth Williams, humorously hyping the appearance of Nic Cave.
“BIRDBRAIN!”
Immaculate Noise favorite Peaches performing Ginsberg's “Birdbrain,” enabling her to scream it frequently
“I'm a comedian, unless it doesn't go well, then I'm a poet.”
Comedian John Mulaney
“'I am waiting / for them to prove / that God is really American.'”
Famed composer Van Dyke Parks, reciting the line that got the most audience rise from Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem “I Am Waiting”
“This is not intermission. It is the halftime. There are two rules. You have to stay seated. Two, you have to listen to the music… actually it's pre-halftime. Didn't have anything more planned.”
Actor Will Forte
A man wearing in a buffalo head
dancing with his hips to “The Vomit Express” by Ginsberg and Bob Dylan, as performed by Devendra Banhart
“'The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we”ll both be lonely…'”
“That's nice.”
Forte, ad-libbing along to Fred Armison's performance of Allen Ginsberg's “A Supermarket in California”
“'F*cked in the *ss'… 'endless balls'… 'cock'… 'assh*le.'”
Chloe Webb and Hal Willner performing a brilliant version of “Howl,” the response of the crowd erupting in laughter at the mention of genitals. Never gets old.
Other fine moments:
+ HitFix favorite Nick Cave (not Cage) playing “The Mercy Seat” solo, “Love Letter” with The Section Quartet, and “The Ship Song” with Beth Orton
+ Courtney Love singing “Sugar Sugar” with its original songwriter, Andy Kim, and Broken Social Scene member and solo artist Kevin Drew
+ Tim Robbins playing Warren Zevon's “Don't Let Us Get Sick” on guitar
+ Sam Amidon. Just, like, all of Sam Amidon.
+ Lucinda Williams singing “Unsuffer Me” and letting the house band break it down
And, no, David Lynch did not make an appearance, so no “Twin Peaks” update yet.