Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Funny Blood



My Aunt Helen sent me the following.


Hey KRANKI Martin -

Hope all is well. Let me know how its going. Just wanted to pass on this info, since this guy's been in the news lately:

I think I told you that Demetri Martin (the comedian) is your blood relative (but not through the Martin line - strange coincidence that you have the same last name). Your great-grandmothers were sisters. Your grandmothers are 1st cousins.

He's been on Jon Stewart, written for Conan, will have a new Comedy Central show in 2008. He's about your age. His grandmother Dina and uncle Johnny were at Aunt Mary's funeral and I sat with them at the luncheon. The uncle have me his dvd and cd (not the latest), which I can send you if you want. Demetri often uses his mother & grandmother in his comedy, talking about Yiayia, growing up Greek, has his grandmother respond to his jokes, etc.

Anyway, you said your Australian friends know of him. His humor is a bit like yours - cerebral and observational. Below are some links. Don't know if you would want to reach out to him, since you have so much in common. (I even think he was briefly married in his early 30's and is now divorced.) His website/myspace invites people to e-mail. Just a thought. To me, its almost surreal, parallel-universe-type stuff, so I just had to pass this info on.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14653866 - recent NPR radio interview

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7120270 - NPR radio interview

http://television.aol.com/news/story/_a/jon-stewart-backs-demitri-martin-show/20071003065809990001

http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/videos/demetri_martin/index.jhtml - video spots on Jon Stewart

http://www.demetrimartin.com/main.html - his website

{BTW, here is how you are related:
Demetri's great-grandmother (Evangelitsa (Sissas)) & Matthew's great-grandmother (Anastasia (Sissas) Bendo-Poulos) were sisters.
Demetri's grandmother (Dina Agrapides) & Matthew's grandmother (Effie (Bendo) Yovanopoulos) are first cousins.
Demetri's mother (Lillian (Agrapides) Martin), married Dean Martin (Greek Orthodox priest, now deceased). Lillian and Effie are 2nd cousins.
And besides the above blood connection, Demetri & KRANKI are also connected via the Finale family through different marriage lines! It's a very small, very close, world.)

Keep in touch,
Helen

I'm not sure how I would go about communicating with somebody I am a fan of. It has a rather sycophantic, star-fucker quality to it that rubs me the wrong way. Would I even want to meet him if he were just my cousin who had some boring office job? Probably not. But if he was a funny cousin with a boring office job I think I would.

Does contacting him make me a star fucker? Did I mention I don't like star fuckers and hangers on? That's probably why I didn't ride some body's coattails to fortune back when I worked in Hollywood.
Please take a moment to weigh in with your opinion.

7 comments:

Joe said...

I think Demetri Martin is unfamous enough for you to make contact and not seem TOO star-fuckerish. Plus, you're family.

Demetri is funny and seems like a pretty cool dude. You're a cool dude too. And funny. You two should totally hook up. I know you're not gay, but that just makes it more "wrong" and exciting. Plus, you're family, which makes it even more "wrong" and doubly exciting. Do it.

Enny said...

You should totally contact him.

How to do it without it being awkward, I have no idea...

Perhaps send him a link!

lucyrogue said...

You can just be like-
"Hey cuz haven't seen you in a lifetime eh? Come around and we'll throw back a few cold ones and catch up on all those great (grandmother) times. I hear you're into comedy and I'm happy to say that I also dabble..."

He could NEVER say no to that.
Anyway he's not a star. I've never heard of him and let me just say I KNOW the people whom one should KNOW.

Anonymous said...

Have you seen his Comeedy Central Special?
Have you seen him on Flight of the Conchords?

He's my new favorite comedian!

You should totally contact him and if you check out his website he seems pretty cool about chatting with folks .

Sherriff said...

Fucking brilliant.

Send him the letter, and be you, it'll work out. It's material, right there.

I always thought you had a big nose. I mean, were funny.

kranki said...

Thanks y'all for your advice and support. I sent him an email and hopefully he'll respond. I'll let you know. I'm just happy to have another funny guy in the family.

I have not seen him on Flight of the Conchords or his Comedy Central special.

Got any Utube links?

Anonymous said...

you tube link from comedy central special

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueam5eywqco