JZA vs. Todd Barry
A Short Chronology
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Contains minor spoilers for Todd's show "Icky". circa April 14-17, 1999 Comedian Todd Barry appears on Late Night with Conan O'Brien April 17, 1999 Jean posts her weekly Conan review, where she dubs Todd Barry the worst guest of the week and describes him as 'icky'. April 17, 26, & 28, 1999 GreyPoopOn, a probable Todd Barry alias, posts a few messages in defense of Todd Barry (or at least seeing that people get his name right). LettusPrey might also be Todd. August 12, 1999 Todd Barry makes another appearance on Conan, where he mentions alt.fan.conan-obrien and reads part of JZA's review disparaging him. August 14, 1999 Jean posts her weekly Conan review, where she again names Todd Barry as the worst guest of the week. August 16-22, 1999 Todd Barry, using the alias NerdRaid, posts to alt.fan.conan-obrien to defend himself. He also posts a survey under the name KyraGray, to see how he compares to Chris O'Donnell and Matt Damon. September 8, 1999 peterg238 posts a message about meeting Todd Barry at a Starbuck's in NYC, where Barry seemed amused by the first "worst guest" award, but thought the second "worst guest" award might actually hurt his chances at getting re-booked on Late Night. peterg238 seems to be another Todd Barry alias. September 9 & 10, 1999 Two different people claiming to be Matt Besser post, the first to protest Jean's naming Barry as "worst guest" twice in a row, the second to accuse the first of not being the real Matt Besser. Since the second Matt Besser email address is an aol account, I think it's not Matt Besser but Todd Barry having a joke. Fall 1999 Todd Barry writes "Icky", a play about his internet experiences, and he starts performing it at the Upright Citizens' Brigade Theater in mid-October. Directed by Matt Besser. October 8 & 12, 1999 cheesetrain, possibly a Todd Barry alias, posts about Todd Barry. October 24 (& 28), 1999 NYUJake, yet another likely Todd Barry alias, posts this article in response to a posting my wife Jean wrote, where she erroneously says I told her she should heckle Todd Barry. As someone who has written and performed with members of the Firesign Theatre, I wouldn't suggest "heckling"; I suggested talking to him after the show. Eesh! October 25, 1999 peach99975 seems to be yet another one-shot Todd Barry alias, this time pretending to be one of his old girlfriends. Whatever turns your crank, I guess... October 27, 1999 a.f.c-ob regular Damone writes a detailed, favorable review of the show; Todd Barry reveals his NerdRaid alias in the show, and has used others. A number of newsgroup regulars are quoted in the show, and people start talking about the copyright issues, including, presumably, Todd Barry as peterg238. GernBlanston and Tears97 look like more likely Todd Barry aliases, though GernBlanston posted a later denial. Todd has more personalities than Roseanne. October 31, 1999 Added a spoiler warning to this page, as it reveals some of the elements of Todd's show "Icky", at the request of Tears97. CrumbCake44 is a possible Todd Barry alias -- in a bizarre twist, Todd seems to have borrowed Tom Ryan's AOL account and posted as DotComTom; notice how DotComTom signs off with CrumbCake44's signature... NOTE: This was apparently Tom Ryan as CrumbCake44; see November 2 below. November 1, 1999 Added lots of probable Todd Barry aliases to this summary. November 2, 1999 I post a reply to Tears97 explaining my criteria for deciding if a poster is a Todd Barry alias. Tom Ryan posts this article explaining how he is the real CrumbCake44, not Todd Barry. November 5, 1999 Jean attended "Icky" and talked with Todd Barry onstage after the show. Stills and streaming audio of this should appear Sunday or soon after. November 16, 1999 Last(?) scheduled performance of "Icky" at the Upright Citizens' Brigade theater at 8 PM. |