'Soup' to nuts, he has it covered

As host of the E! network's "The Soup," Joel McHale has plenty of material to feed his stand-up act.

According to a Nielsen report released in May, average Americans watch more than 28 hours of television a week. Amateurs.

That wouldn't cut it at "The Soup," the weekly look at pop culture on the E! network hosted for the past four years by Joel McHale. McHale, who's at the Roxy tonight, and a team of writers and producers comb through every minute of TV footage available each week to find the funniest, most cringe-worthy moments. From the worst "American Idol" interview to the most bizarre Home Shopping Network item hauled out at 3 in the morning, "The Soup" is on it.

"Thank God there's 14 people who work at 'The Soup' now and they get to watch all the shows," McHale says from Hawaii, "because I would go nuts if I had to watch as much as I did when we first started the show. I was watching so much television it was making me blind."

McHale has been hosting the show since it began in 2004, born from the ashes of "Talk Soup," which focused mainly on talk shows. "The Soup" is a bit broader, covering all things pop culture, from reality shows to the occasional YouTube clip. Little surprises McHale anymore, even if some things leave him grasping for words.

"Now it gets to the point where, if you're watching Tila Tequila and she's having a competition to see who can eat the most pig [parts], that's pretty much . . . the goalie has been pulled, the shark has been jumped," he says. "It's over. The next step is really just celebrity firing squads."

Most everything is fair game, but in an environment drowning in snark, McHale did something extraordinary in January, signing off the show by responding to the media swarm surrounding Heath Ledger's death. "And one last thing," McHale said on the show, "Heath Ledger passed away this week, and in all the years we've been doing this show, we've never had cause to mention him. So stop digging through the dirt, weasels. A talented, decent guy is gone and our thoughts go to those who knew him."

Perhaps contrary to popular opinion, McHale says most celebrities don't call attention to themselves, and "The Soup" generally only picks on those who make targets of themselves. "If you're one of those people who just needs attention all the time, then we're going to make fun of you," he says.

McHale is aware of the launching pad "Talk Soup" was for its hosts, most notably Greg Kinnear, and he may be starting to make inroads of his own in film. He just wrapped shooting for Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant," in which he has a major role. "To work with Matt Damon and Scott Bakula, and to work with Steven freaking Soderbergh, man, was a dream come true and something I never had imagined."

He's also somewhat new to stand-up comedy. McHale came to "The Soup" with a degree in acting and a wealth of experience as an improviser, but he considers his hosting job a form of stand-up.

"So for the last four years I've been basically doing stand-up, so I take a lot of that and put it into my act," he says. "And hopefully people enjoy it."

Laughs on the island

Former Boston comic Kevin Flynn has been performing an annual comedy series every July and August in Nantucket for 16 years. This year, he decided to build a festival around it. Flynn kicks off the weeklong Nantucket Comedy Festival Monday with a show at the Theater Workshop of Nantucket. The schedule includes Mike Birbiglia's "Sleepwalk with Me" on Tuesday, a rare chance to see Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara on Thursday, "A Night of Political Comedy" hosted by Chris Matthews and starring Will Durst on Aug. 1, and the "All-Star Comedy Gala" with Lenny Clarke on Aug. 2, plus daily comedy events for kids.

That's a lot of big-name talent for a first-year festival, but Flynn figures the location helps.

"It's not hard to get people out to Nantucket sometimes, you know what I mean?" he says. "It's a nice place."

Around town

Renata Tutko hosts at the Comedy Studio tonight, where you can also catch Myq Kaplan and look for a new sketch album called "Lampshades & Ottomans" by Studio regulars Dan Hirshon and Micah Sherman. . . . Kevin Knox headlines Dick's Beantown Comedy Vault tonight and begins his regular Monday night series next week.