Other than that headline, there’s not much to add here other than a hearty YES! Amy Schumer is taping a TV pilot. So there’s a chance to get some free last minute tickets to see Amy in action taping for Comedy Central.
The show tapes tomorrow (Wed, Feb 1st) at 1pm and 3pm in New York so you must live nearby to be able to go. You can then tell all your friends things like “that’s my laugh” when you watch the show with them. Sign up for tickets here.
Austin is becoming a fully fledged comedy town. In addition to SXSW beefing up it’s comedy programming the Paramount Theatre is launching its inaugural Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival. The 3-day festival will run from April 25th-28th.
Their lineup is already an impressive list of comedic voices including Seth Meyers, Aziz Ansari, Steven Wright, The Amazing Johnathan, Maria Bamford, Joe Mande, Rachel Feinstein, and Hannibal Buress along with Austin-based comedians.
Their website hasn’t yet released the full lineup of the festival but tickets are going on sale tomorrow, February 1st so get ready to drop some loot. They are offering up VIP passes, badges, and even single tickets for the night ranging from $99-$799.
In addition to the great names on the lineup, heavy hitters, The Onion and Funny Or Die and Hell Yes will be some of the key stage sponsors of the event as shows will run at The Paramount and Cap City Comedy Club and 10+ venues total.
“I’m so excited to come back to Austin. I can’t wait to eat at Torchy’s Tacos, Uchiko, and hopefully finally try Franklin BBQ. Oh, I’m also doing standup I think,” says Aziz Ansari.
The lineup thus far:
Andy Kindler
John Mulaney
W. Kamau Bell
Tom Rhodes
Holly Lorka
Jonathan Price
Seth Meyers
Aziz Ansari
Stephen Wright
The Amazing Johnathan
Maria Bamford
Joe Mande
Rachel Feistein
Hannibal Buress
The same designer responsible for the metal comedians released another two shirts in a similar vein. This time, they meld Louis C.K. with The Dead Kennedys and Sam Kinison with Samhain. While you can buy them at the designer’s website. However, seeing both shirts reminded us how metal and comedy truly go together splendidly. In fact, the worlds of stand-up comedy and metal have collided on many occasions. So with that in mind, we decided to list the top five most metal comedians.
We’re including Jay on here more or less as one to watch. He’s gone on tour with the Jagermeister Music Tour opening for Korn, then got to reprise his time with them later that year on the Mayhem Fest.
He fancies himself less of a comic and more of a storyteller, hence the name of his first album, An American Storyteller. He’s also appeared on the IFC show Z-Rock. If he keeps the ‘metal comedian’ thing going, who knows where else it might take him?
While some know him best as Goat Boy from SNL or as Brian from Half Baked, Jim Breuer is also a beloved comedian in the metal scene. In addition to doing stand-up comedy with a backing band, Breuer has also sang with Rob Halford and Sebastian Bach, and is also good buds with Metallica (who obviously enjoy his impersonation of James Hetfield as much as we do).
While it turns out he’s not exactly on good terms with Mr. Zakk Wylde, he also does a great Ozzy Osbourne imitation, along with Rob Halford and Brian Johnson. So while his idea of ‘metal’ seems to stop around 1982 or so, he’s still spot on with his impressions.
Speaking of people whose metal frame of references run out around 1982, we feel a little bad for lumping these two together. but both co-host VH1 Classic’s That Metal Show along with Eddie Trunk. The similarities don’t end there, though. Both comedians are also signed to Metal Blade Records.
As Jamieson puts it, they’re on the same label as King Diamond! Plus, each have opened their fair share of metal concerts (in fact, Florentine opened for Damageplan right before Dimebag Darrell’s death).
Though the title of his second album implies so, Posehn’s material isn’t only made up of fart and wiener jokes. In fact, he talks a great deal amount about metal (we still love his story about meeting W.A.S.P.’s Chris Holmes).
On top of that, though, Posehn also gets cred for the songs he records with the likes of Anthrax’s Scott Ian, Lamb Of God’s Mark Morton, Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta, and numerous others. Plus, he was probably one of the first comedians to sign a recording deal with a metal label (Relapse Records). Fun little trivia fact: our column Metal By Numbers was named after his first metal tune of the same name.
Sam Kinison was the original ‘metal’ comedian. While he was a preacher, he rebounded from that with a vengeance. His level of acceptance from the metal community might best be on display in the video for “Wild Thing,” which not only featured his ex, Jim Bakker conquest turned Playboy model Jessica Hahn, but also members of Guns N’ Roses, Ratt, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Poison and Billy Idol.
You also might also know him from his signature scream, which was famously sampled in Anthrax’s rap parody “I’m The Man.” He also had all the coke problems that came with being an ’80s metal star. Sadly, while he hadn’t completely cleaned up, it wasn’t his fault that his car was struck by a drunk driver, killing him five days after he had gotten married in 1992.
While Andrew “Dice” Clay is a footnote to some by now, he was legitimately huge in the early days of his standup career. Starting out as a character actor in the ’80s, he decided to do standup as “Dice,” modeled after his role in the movie “Making The Grade.” Signed to Def American in 1990, he appeared on the label alongside Slayer, Danzig, Masters of Reality and Wolfsbane.
He was able to sell out stadiums doing standup in his heyday, which ran from around 1990 to 1993. His macho routine and trademark leather jacket made him huge among the metal community. While some took him seriously, others just enjoyed the comedy. And though his material doesn’t necessarily stand the test of time, it’s still fun to bust out a dirty nursery rhyme every now and then. Plus, he’s regained a bit of popularity thanks to his recurring role on Entourage, and will even be appearing at this year’s Bamboozle Festival.
This post originally appeared on our sister site, Metal Insider
CBS isn’t the first network I’d think of when one hears “twentysomethings” and Louis’ name but as they tend to skew toward older demographics and broader sitcoms. But the success of How I Met Your Mother does show they can bring in cooler, younger people. It’s also wise for Louis as he’d be a big/different player on the network pretty much guaranteeing the eyeballs as opposed to the mess that are the NBC’s comedy ratings and ABC who already has very strong young comedies in Happy Endings and Modern Family. CBS could prove wise for the comedian, where he can jump to a broader audience for his booming profile and along with Feresten (who wrote the Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld) still write quirky comedy. And for those that want the comedian’s edgier stuff, there’s still the FX show for that.
Last Tuesday we left the TLB Towers and met up with comedians Robert Kelly and Joe DeRosa to record an episode of Kelly’s podcast, You Know What Duuude. Robert invited us onto the show to talk about his upcoming first ever live podcast taping we are presenting at Gotham Comedy Club on February 8th. As that was gotten out of the way within the first few minutes of the show, things quickly turned to what comedians do best…make fun of people. Those people just happened to be us this time around.
We talked about comedy code, diets, and came out of the whole thing with a few new nicknames. We’d like to thanks Robert and Joe for inviting us out, and someday, when we get our own podcast, we’ll be sure to get you two on it as payback.
Take a listen to the episode on the podcast’s website or download it from iTunes. The language is dirty so if you are in an environment where someone might get offended, make sure you turn it up.
IN STORES
The Big Year [DVD]
ON TELEVISION
Monday, January 30th
Rob Schneider on Late Show with David Letterman
Marc Maron on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Brad Wollack, Jen Kirkman, Dov Davidoff on Chelsea Lately
Maya Rudolph, Chris Gethard on Conan
Tuesday, January 31st
Stephen Merchant on Late Show with David Letterman
Chris Franjola, Heather McDonald, Gary Valentine on Chelsea Lately
Wednesday, February 1st
Howard Stern on Late Show with David Letterman
Tracy Morgan on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Glenn Howerton on Last Call with Carson Daly
Michael Yo, Natasha Leggero, Josh Wolf on Chelsea Lately
Thursday, February 2nd
Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Dan Maurio, Ross Mathews, Heather McDonald on Chelsea Lately
Jenny Slate on Conan
Friday, February 3rd
Jo Koy, Sarah Colonna, Bill Bellamy on Chelsea Lately
Saturday, February 4th
Channing Tatum (host) and Kelly Clarkson (musical guest) on Saturday Night Live
The cast of the cult comedy Wet Hot American Summer reunited at SF Sketch Fest for a live radio read of the movie. Much of the original cast showed up with few exceptions (Bradley Cooper, David Hyde Pierce, Janeane Garofalo) but that allowed for many other guest drop ins like Busy Phillipps, Colin Hanks, Bobcat Gothwait, and David Cross.
Want to know who was there? Well here ya go.
Cast
David Wain - Narrator
Michael Showalter - Coop/Alan Shemper
Marguerite Moreau - Katie
Michael Ian Black - McKinley
Paul Rudd - Andy
Christopher Meloni - Gene
Molly Shannon - Gail von Kleinenstein
Ken Marino - Victor Kulak
Joe Lo Truglio - Neil
Amy Poehler - Susie
Samm Levine - ArtySpecial Surprise understudies:
Busy Philipps - Beth (originally played by Janeane Garofalo)
David Cross - Henry Newman (originally played by David Hyde Pierce)
Joshua Malina - J.J. (originally played by Zak Orth)
Colin Hanks - Gary (originally played by A.D. Miles)
Marc Evan Jackson - Ben (originally played by Bradley Cooper)
Bruce McCulloch - Aaron (originally played by Gideon Jacobs)
Jessi Klein - Abby Bernstein (originally played by Marisa Ryan)
Gillian Jacobs - Lindsay (originally played by Elizabeth Banks)
John Hodgman - Keith – Caped Boy (originally played by Gabriel Millman)
Mark Gagliardi - Steve (originally played by Kevin Sussman)
Craig Cackowski - Mork Guy and Moose
Hal Lublin - Melvin – Medieval Kid
Annie Savage - Mallrat Girl/Cure Girl and Godspell Girl
Zandy Hartig - Nurse Nancy (originally played by Nina Hellman)
Andy Richter - Ron von Kleinenstein (originally played by Judah Friedlander)
Bobcat Goldthwait - Can of Vegetables (originally played by Jon Benjamin)
Photos by Jakub Mosur
The SF Sketchfest runs until February 4th.
Heyo fools, want the chance to get your laughs recorded on an album? Well of course you do. Comedian Lee Camp is set to record a new live comedy album in a few weeks. If you aren’t following Camp’s moves of late, he’s been involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement reporting and performing from the scene and rolling out Moment of clarity videos on his website.
Lee’s new stand-up special will be recorded on February 18th at 10pm at The Bowery Poetry Club. Tickets are $8 and according to the comedian’s announcement, free chocolate brownies. The night will also include Ted Alexandro and Katie Goodman.
Grab tickets here.
The cast from Monty Python’s Flying Circus are reuniting for a live action/animated CGI film, Absolutely Anything. The flick will be produced by longtime friends of the Python camp, Terry Jones and Mike Medavoy. The film is set to film this spring in the U.K. with the Pythons performing the voices of key roles as a group of aliens who give an earthling the power to do “absolutely anything” with the intention of seeing what kind of mess he will make with the powers. In addition it’s being reported that Robin Williams will join the crew as a voice actor.
“It’s not a Monty Python picture, but it certainly has that sensibility,” Jones told Variety. The production team is no stranger to Python films, as Medavoy was a producer of Life Of Brian and Jones co-directed Monty Python And The Holy Grail and was the sole director of Brian, and The Meaning Of Life.
The entire cast (sans the deceased Graham Chapman) has agreed to do the voiceover work as they are nearing finalizing the deal with Eric Idle.
This reunion would be the first for the 5 remaining members who last appeared together at the 1998 Aspen Comedy Festival which was taped for a TV Special.
If you missed the opening of the second episode of 30 Rock last night, you missed yourself one of the best spoofs we’ve seen in a long time as they performed a send-up of all those terrible mega ensemble films that revolve around a holiday.
But since all the good holidays already have films, they’ve now moved to the “Monday” holidays. First up MLK Day followed by Columbus Day we’re sure.
The other day this teaser video was released showing a grown-up Matthew Broderick opening a window and doing something very reminiscent of his iconic character Ferris Bueller from Ferris Bueler’s Day Off. The video states, “We hate to be such a tease, but on a day like today, we just have to. Stick it out until the Super Bowl, or take a “day off” on Monday and catch the big reveal.”
Alright so it’s going to be a Super Bowl ad…
Now, the web has burned it’s ass ever since to try to figure out what it means - new movie? Returning cast? What’s it about?
Our theory: it’s just the 2012 version of a 2010 Super Bowl commercial that reunited the Griswolds. Ferris is in a hotel room (maybe with Sloan) thanks to the folks at HomeAway.
That’s our guess.
UPDATE: Or this.
During his career, Stephen Colbert has conquered many forms of media but it appears he hasn’t been able to crack the literary nut, until now. Twice this week he sat down to talk with beloved children’s book author Maurice Sendak. It seemed like it was just Colbert’s chance to just mock another old person.
However what we got instead was a Maruice Sendak full of piss and vinegar, ready to take stabs at everything from terrible literature, censorship, to politics. At around the 3 minute mark of the first clip was the moment I realized I wanted Sendak to be my grandfather - an old man that not only can go with the joke but able to toss barbs back. Making things funnier as you’d expect kind old souls when you see someone in their 80’s. Sendak elevated Colbert’s run-of-the mill spoof interviews and gave us a look at what the character of Colbert might be like filtered through the mind of your grandpa.
Part 1
Part 2
Additionally the masterminds of two of our favorite TV shows The Office (Stephen Merchant) and Freaks And Geeks (Paul Feig) both open up about their iconic shows while team Weezer engage in a rousing game of trivia over on Doug Loves Movies. But don’t take our word for it, get all the details below!
ESSENTIAL LISTENING
Thursday, January 26th
Patton Oswalt on The Adam Carolla Show
Patton Oswalt is one of the funniest comedians around and he’s been perfecting his craft for 25 years. “I dedicated and took a lot of risks to do something I kind of love and want to keep doing it,” he explains at one point during the interview. But don’t worry, it doesn’t get too serious, just check out their rousing game of Totally Topical Tivo Trivia Time.
Wednesday, January 24th
Stephen Merchant on The Nerdist
Stephen Merchant may not be a household name but alongside Ricky Gervais he was the co-writer and co-director of the original british version of The Office and this episode sees Chris Hardwick probing his brain about the horrors of stand-up comedy and what it takes to create a truly likable character. Trust us, neither of those things are as easy as you think.
ADDITIONAL LISTENING
Friday, January 20th
Jim Norton on The Adam Carolla Show
T.J. Miller, Peter Holmes and TI West on Doug Loves Movies
Anthony Jeseinik and Jonah Ray on The Todd Glass Show
Chris Gethard and Katie Notopoulos on How Was Your Week?
Saturday, January 21st
Graham Elwood on The Nerdist
Sunday, January 22nd
JB Smoove on The Adam Carolla Show
Monday, January 23rd
Tig Notaro, Ronna Glickman and Beverly Ginsberg on Comedy Bang Bang
Chris Fairbanks on Never Not Funny
Kurt Metzger on You Don’t Know What Dude!
Tuesday, January 24th
Andy Richter on Girl On Guy
Ralphie May on WTF?
Wednesday, January 25th
Dennis Prager on The Adam Carolla Show
Pat Wilson, Josh Freese, Brendon Walsh and Graham Elwood on Doug Loves Movies
Joey Diaz and Brian Redban on The Joe Rogan Experience
Thursday, January 26th
Jon Stewart and James “Babydoll” Dixon on The Adam Carolla Show
Duncan Trussell and Brian Redban on The Joe Rogan Experience
Paul Feig on WTF?
OUR PODCAST LIST:
Christopher Titus Podcast with Christopher Titus
Citizen Radio with Jamie Kilstein
Comedy Bang Bang with Scott Aukerman
The Comedy Cellar Live From The Table
Comedy Metal Midgets with Jim Florentine
Deathsquad with Brian Redban
Doug Loves Movies with Doug Benson
Fitzdog Radio with Greg Fitzsimmons
Girl On Guy with Aisha Tyler
How Did This Get Made? with Paul Scheer and Jason Mantzoukas
How Was Your Week with Julie Klausner
In The Tank with Jon Fisch
Mike And Tom Eat Snacks with Michael Ian Black
Mohr Stories with Jay Mohr
Monday Morning Podcast with Bill Burr
My Wife Hates Me with Rich Vos and Bonnie McFarlane
Never Not Funny with Jimmy Pardo
The Onion Radio News with The Onion
Sklarbro Country with Randy and Jason Sklar
SModcast with Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier
The Adam Carolla Show with Adam Carolla
The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling
The Joe Rogan Experience with Joe Rogan
The Jersey Jerks
The Nerdist with Chris Hardwick
The Pod F. Tompkast with Paul F. Tompkins
The Ricky Gervais Podcast with Ricky Gervais
The Smartest Man In The World with Greg Proops
The Todd Glass Show with Todd Glass
WTF? Podcast with Marc Maron
You Know What Dude with Robert Kelly
You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes
John Mulaney stopped by Conan last night for a set to promote his special, which premieres on Comedy Central this weekend. A few observations for you, dear readers. 1) John wears nice suits. 2) Raylan Givens himself was a guest on the show! This pretty much makes this the absolute best time for the comedian to appear and secure himself the audience of women who like badass cowboys on basic cable and the men who wish to be like badass cowboys on basic cable. And that’s about everyone!
Drop it on us John!
Want a chance to see Ned Ryerson himself live in NYC? Well, here’s your chance to do so.
Our buddies at Bumpershine, are helping make that happen. The ‘shine teamed up with producer Caroline Creaghead to produce a live version of Stephen Toblowsky’s podcast, The Tobolowsky Files live at The Bell House in Brooklyn.
Dave from Bumpershine states, “I was so passionate about getting them to come here too, that I reached out to the show’s producer David Chen and asked him if he’d like to bring the show to Brooklyn. Fast forward a couple of months, and thanks to the good efforts of producer extraordinaire Caroline Creaghead and myself, the show has now been set for February 28 at The Bell House.”
The Tobolowsky Files follows the actor as he tells stories from his interesting life experiences and also working on a companion book this summer. This show will be a debut of the podcast in NYC. Tickets just went on sale so you gotta get yourself ready to make it happen.
The Tobolowsky Files
Tuesday, February 28th
The Bell House
7:30pm
Purchase Tickets
Here’s more fodder for the rumor mill.
More news from the Sundance Festival, this time around it appears that the once rumored stand-up tour that would team up Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle for a comedy tour seems to be a possibility once again. Our pals at Humor Mill mentioned rumblings of the tour back in October 2011 but that was about it. But when Rock was interviewed by Vulture about his new film 2 Days In New York at the festival, he mentioned that he’d been talking to Chappelle and trying to get him out on the road.
Rock compared a tour by the pair to the recent Kanye West and Jay-Z tour. After seeing Kanye and Jay-Z, I was like, “Me and Dave should do this.”
We’re back in the new year and it’s time for some more live comedy. We’re tremendously excited about our first The Laugh Button Live! of 2012 and we’re teaming up with comedian Robert Kelly for the first-ever live recording of his popular podcast, You Know What Dude. Join us with Robert and pals from his podcast and podcast network, Riotcast for a night of laughs and live podcasting!
Robert Kelly’s You Know What Dude Live Podcast!
APPEARING LIVE: Robert Kelly, Joe DeRosa, Bonnie McFarlane + more!
Wednesday, February 8th
Gotham Comedy Club
208 W. 23rd St. NYC
Doors: 8:30pm
$15 in advance + 2 drink minimum
$17 at the door + 2 drink minimum
*Call (212) 367-9000 to make a reservation, or purchase tickets here or here.
*A very limited edition poster will be available for sale at the show. But when they are gone, they are gone.
Well, the Oscar nominees have come in and there’s pretty slim pickings in the world of comedy. I almost feel like I can’t count Woody Allen anymore in these situations because he’s an Academy darling pretty much anything he writes gets a nomination and this remains true for his latest, Midnight in Paris which pulled in Best Picture, Best Writing in an Original Screenplay, Art Direction, and Directing.
Bridesmaids, the great white shimmery-shiny hope to pull in some nominations did not fare well against the competition for best picture, and has to settle for two nominations for Best Original Screenplay for Kristen Wiig and her partner Annie Mumolo and Best Supporting Actress for Melissa McCarthy. Which to be honest would be pretty cool to see her follow up an Emmy with an Oscar win. But nothing else of note for the movie. One of these days, the right shitting in a sink joke will resonate with the Academy and comedy will get its due.
For me, the best nod in comedy overall has to go to Flight Of The Conchords’ Bret McKenzie who penned all the original music for The Muppets and earned a nomination for best Original Song for “Man or Muppet”.
You can read all the nominations here.
Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalk With Me has another achievement it can put on its mantle. The stories, turned radio segment, turned one-man show, turned book, turned album is now taking a turn for the movies.
Birbigs screened the movie of Sleepwalk With Me at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend which was written by Birbigs himself. If you wonder why the clip has a bit of a This American Life kinda vibe to it, well that’s because he enlisted the help of TAL’s host Ira Glass for the screenplay. And for all you Six Feet Under fans, Claire Fisher herself (Lauren Ambros) is also in the film.
If you happen to be at Sundance, here are screening times. If you aren’t watch this clip which is the film version of the “Dustbuster Olympics” story.
Don’t Be An Asshole: A Common Sense Guide to Common Courtesy in the Age of Facebook and Low-Rise Jeans.
A few weeks ago I posted the first chapter of my little guide of “how to stop being yourself for 30 seconds and think about the other people around you” tips. Part I was about Electronic Communication. If you need to work off a few calories after all that sitting and electronic communicating, here’s Part 2: Don’t Be Asshole at the Gym.
Dear Spin Class Lady that sprints at a 1 while the rest of us schlep up the “hill” at a 10: We’re not impressed! Follow instructions! Don’t be a spinning asshole.
If you know the treadmill next to you doesn’t work, say something to your fellow gym patron. Don’t jog silently while some poor schmuck push buttons to no avail. Don’t be a treadmill asshole.
Gym equipment is not furniture. If you have to sit on a machine & stare into space for 5 minutes in between reps, you’re not ready for that many reps. Don’t be a taking up space asshole.*
*PS – This tip is for men. Men just loooove hanging out at the gym, just sitting there, staring into space or watching ESPN while I passive aggressively hover over whatever machine they took over and turned into their own living room. Ladies, I applaud our “get in, get out” energy. We’re sweating, wearing ugly clothes and we could be doing fun things like eating, drink, sleeping and not wearing a sports bra! Why would you be in the gym a second longer than your need to be? Move!!!
Wipe. your. sweat!!!! Don’t be a disgusting piece of shit asshole at the gym.
Kyle Cease has tackled one of the latest video memes floating around the internet called “Shit Girls Say.” In which we get a rapid-fire list of the subject saying very true and hilarious statements about themselves. Preferably in a bad wig imitating the opposite sex or group being mocked. The comedian decided to turn everything up a notch and gave us “Shit Murderers Say”.
Enjoy your Monday.
Morgan collapsed after his speech and had to be rushed to the Park City Medical Center. Everyone speculated as to what caused the collapse and TMZ reported that the comedian appeared to be slurring words and intoxicated. A spokesperson for the hospital later stated that no alcohol or drugs were in Morgan’s system and the comedian’s rep later stated that the alcohol reports were false and it was a combination of “exhaustion and altitude.”
A video released by CNN shows Morgan walking the red carpet headed into the event. In it he appears mellow in comparison to his usual animated self, but definitely not drunk or belligerent like originally reported.
Morgan has had issues with his health in the past, most recently in 2010 where he had to miss part of the season of 30 Rock to get a kidney transplant.
IN STORES
50/50 [DVD]
IN THEATERS
One For the Money
ON TELEVISION
Monday, January 23rd
Tina Fey on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Reggie Watts on Last Call with Carson Daly
April Richardson, John Caparulo, T.J. Miller on Chelsea Lately
Tuesday, January 24th
Tina Fey on Late Show with David Letterman
Larry The Cable Guy on The Tonight Show
Eddie Izzard on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
Judah Friedlander on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Fortune Feimster, Joe Matarese, Jo Koy on Chelsea Lately
Wednesday, January 25th
Robin Williams on The Tonight Show
Matt Braunger, Sarah Colonna, Bill Bellamy on Chelsea Lately
John Mulaney on Conan
Thursday, January 26th
J.B. Smoove on Jimmy Kimmel Live
John Mulaney on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Liz Carey, Bobby Lee, Josh Wolf on Chelsea Lately
Russell Simmons presents The Ruckus premieres on Comedy Central
Friday, January 27th
Ali Wong, Chris Franjola, Kerri Kenney-Silver on Chelsea Lately
Saturday, January 28th
John Mulaney New In Town premieres on Comedy Central
Last night our pal, and TLB Hanukkah list maker Jon Fisch made his network television premiere on Late Show with David Letterman. He rocked a five minute set and even delivered one of our favorite and first jokes we ever heard him tell. You can also take a behind-the-scenes look via the photo album Jon posted on his Facebook page.
Let’s take a watch the tape.
Congrats Jon!
If you’ve ever wondered about the intellectual of someone’s comedy well here’s a clip for you. In it we have Nick and Nora (yup) a couple that used to date and Norah is accusing Nick of joke thievery so this is only something that can be solved down at The People’s Court. Though it’s been years since judge Wapner sat on the bench, this is a call for the man!
Upon first watch of this clip, you think it’s just some other silly People’s Court lawsuit moment. However Nick’s interview at the end it raises questions about the validity of the whole thing.
And we even get some some Harvey Levin commentary about joke thievery at the end.
But we’re not content to stop there and correspondingly this week sees podcast hosts such as Todd Glass and Marc Maron becoming interview subjects themselves while director Joe Berlinger gets serious with Alec Baldwin about his latest documentary Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. So pick your favorite podcast, cue it up and start listening. Hey, in between laughs you might even learn something.
ESSENTIAL LISTENING
Thursday, December 12th
Steven Wright on WTF?
This week on WTF Marc Maron has on comedy legend Steven Wright who manages to tell a countless number of amazing stories with his signature deadpan delivery. During the course of the interview Wright talks about how he wanted to be a comedian ever since he was a teenager and elaborates on how he developed his unique brand of comedy. “They don’t care about [the style], they just want to hear something funny,” Wright says at one point—and aspiring comics should take that to heart.
Friday, January 13th
Patton Oswalt, David Cross and Wayne Federman on Doug Loves Movies
Doug Benson always has great guests on Doug Loves Movies but he took the cake this week when he had Patton Oswalt, David Cross and Wayne Federman on the show to bring the audience up to speed on their various projects and play the Leonard Maltin game. Spoiler alert: Doug Benson summarizes the entire plot of We Bought A Zoo in twenty seconds during the podcast if you haven’t had a chance to see it yet. Seriously.
ADDITIONAL LISTENING
Thursday, January 12th
Donald Faison on The Adam Carolla Show
Skyler Stone on Mohr Stories
Steven Wright on WTF?
Todd Barry and Chris Gethard on The Best Show On WFMU
Chelsea Peretti and Bobby Miyamoto on The Todd Glass Show
Frank DeCaro and Kate Beaton on How Was Your Week?
Sunday, January 15th
Dr. Bruce on The Adam Carolla Show
Graham Elwood on Doug Loves Movies
KWR and Dangerous Joe on You Know What Dude!
Joe Berlinger on Here’s The Thing
Monday, December 16th
Nick Offerman and James Adomian on Comedy Bang Bang: The Podcast
Margaret Cho on Girl On Guy
Dana Gould on Never Not Funny
Steven Rinella and Brian Redban on The Joe Rogan Experience
Todd Glass on WTF?
Tuesday, December 17th
Pete Holmes on The Adam Carolla Show
Wednesday, December 18th
Ian Edwards on The Adam Carolla Show
Hamilton Morris and Brian Redban on The Joe Rogan Experience
Marc Maron on You Made It Weird
Thursday, December 19th
Fred Stoller on WTF?
OUR PODCAST LIST:
Christopher Titus Podcast with Christopher Titus
Citizen Radio with Jamie Kilstein
Comedy Bang Bang with Scott Aukerman
The Comedy Cellar Live From The Table
Comedy Metal Midgets with Jim Florentine
Deathsquad with Brian Redban
Doug Loves Movies with Doug Benson
Fitzdog Radio with Greg Fitzsimmons
Girl On Guy with Aisha Tyler
How Did This Get Made? with Paul Scheer and Jason Mantzoukas
How Was Your Week with Julie Klausner
In The Tank with Jon Fisch
Mike And Tom Eat Snacks with Michael Ian Black
Mohr Stories with Jay Mohr
Monday Morning Podcast with Bill Burr
My Wife Hates Me with Rich Vos and Bonnie McFarlane
Never Not Funny with Jimmy Pardo
The Onion Radio News with The Onion
Sklarbro Country with Randy and Jason Sklar
SModcast with Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier
The Adam Carolla Show with Adam Carolla
The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling
The Joe Rogan Experience with Joe Rogan
The Jersey Jerks
The Nerdist with Chris Hardwick
The Pod F. Tompkast with Paul F. Tompkins
The Ricky Gervais Podcast with Ricky Gervais
The Smartest Man In The World with Greg Proops
The Todd Glass Show with Todd Glass
WTF? Podcast with Marc Maron
You Know What Dude? with Robert Kelly
You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes
Want to see the first image from the set of Judd Apatow’s sequel to Knocked Up looks like? Here ya go. The sequel, This Is 40 plays off similarly to Evan Almighty did for Bruce Almighty by taking one of secondary characters and thrusting them into the leading role. We get to hang out with Pete and Debbie a few years after Knocked Up in This Is 40 which places Apatow’s wife Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd as our leads. The kids, yeah same kids and now they are grown.
And since Seth Rogen doesn’t seem to be returning, a quick glance at the movie’s IMDB page shows Rogen’s pals played by Jason Segel and Charlene Yi and tosses in some Albert Brooks for good measure.
What’s going on tonight
Bar 82
4pm – Open Mic
Broadway Comedy Club
7:30pm – Tommy Koenig
9pm – Best of Broadway
Carolines On Broadway
8pm - Donnell Rawlings
10pm - Paul Mooney
CB’s Comedy Club
9:30pm - Joe DeRosa
Comedy Cellar
8pm – MC William Stephenson w/ Lenny Marcus, Gregg Rogell, Keith Robinson, Todd Barry, Ted Alexandro & Tom Pappa
10pm – MC William Stephenson w/ Amy Shumer, Sherrod Small, Modi, Nick Griffen, Dan Soder, Godfrey
Comic Strip Live
8:30pm – Host Ray Ellin w/ Carmen Lynch, Jim Mendrinos, Modi, Patty Rosborough, Lee Camp, Pat Dixon & Dustin Chafin
Eastville Comedy Club
6pm – Open Mic
9pm – DC Benny, Mike Britt & others
Gotham Comedy Club
8:30pm – Pete Correale
Highline Ballroom
8pm – Upright Citizens Brigade Tour – SOLD OUT
10:30pm - Upright Citizens Brigade Tour – SOLD OUT
Kabin Bar and Lounge
9pm – Comedy as a Second Language w/ Sean Patton & Cheslsey Calloway
Laugh Lounge
8:30pm – The Big Show
10:30pm – O* K Productions Presents Comedy
Luca Lounge
9pm – Lasers in the Jungle
Lucky Jack’s
8pm – Open Mic
New York Comedy Club
6:30pm – Super Ego Comedy
9pm – Steve Aron’s Show
Stand Up | NY
10pm – Hard Knock Laughs w/ Wil Sylvince, Greer Barnes
The Pit
7pm - Empoweration! with Acorn Nazlett
UCBEast
11pm - Daniel Kitson
UCB Theatre
6:30pm – SPANK
After the disaster that was Lana Del Ray’s performance this weekend on Saturday Night Live [TLB recap] comedian Whitney Cummings is coming to her aid. Cummings posted a lengthy blog post to state that she’s not saying “support bad music or that she deserved to be there or anything,” but she sympathizes with the young female singer because performing is, “fucking hard” and challenging.
Cummings stated:
“Everybody calm down. It’s a little troubling that when a young girl fails at something that we keep kicking her why she is down. I get very protective of girls, especially young performers, because they live a hard, emotionally challenging, often physically challenging life where you are constantly given reasons to be insecure and have panic attacks. I totally get the stuff about her not deserving to be there and I don’t mean to insult musicians in any way if that’s how they feel obviously, but this is an opportunity to show us how hard being a performer is so maybe they can all be cut some slack. Flack? I think we take our performers for granted. It’s super fucking hard to entertain people and it takes a lot of work.”
Cummings views this as a learning experience that can be applied to all and we shouldn’t lead lives that seem so chock full of schadenfreude. “Other people’s success doesn’t fuck up our lives and other people’s failures should not brighten them. Let’s forgive her for being human and all be kinder to each other. Let’s all just have more love and less venom all around, eh?”
All it took was for the word to get out that Mike Birbiglia would be filming something for Sundance at The Comic Strip and the place was packed, even on a Monday night.
Mike came in with a small crew and filmed a 90 minute show performing as a character named Matt Pentamiglio for the filmed version of his hit show Sleepwalk With Me, that will be shown in Sundance later this month.
Back in 2008, Mike had a hit show with Sleepwalk With Me, about his experiences with his sleepwalking problem. It opened at Cal Wynter’s Bleecker Street Theatre, and enjoyed a very successful run there. I attended the opening and knew right away that it would be a hit!
Mike is not only a funny comedian, he’s a world-class story-teller, which of course is an art form in itself! Very different from stand-up. I can’t picture Mike doing a five minute set. I’m sure he could do it, but his material lends itself to longer pieces, so he can build his story in layers!
So he came to The Strip to film because that’s where he got his start. He feels at home there with Richie Tienken the owner and founder of the club, which Richie opened on June 1, 1976. On June 17th, 1976, a young Jerry Seinfeld came in to audition, and stayed there using that as his home club until he left for LA four years later.
Richie managed Eddie Murphy for 11 years and also discovered Chris Rock there, when Chris was only 19 years old, and setting up tables in exchange for stage time.
Chris’ brother Tony also came out of that club, and now their youngest brother Jordan, almost 21, is appearing there almost nightly.
Mike is a visual artist who paints pictures with his words. When he describes the jackal that appears in his bedroom, during one of his sleep malfunctions, you feel like the jackal is in your own bedroom!
I caught up with Mike, … or Matt, …backstage at The Strip and did a little exclusive video interview for Comedy Matters! You can see that right here!
For more on Jeffrey Gurian, visit his website or the Comedy Matters Vlog. You can also email him at Jeffrey@jeffreygurian.com.
Harvard Sailing Team is a nationally-renowned “Ivy League” sketch comedy group that’s earned critical praise and been featured on national television. They also have a fanatic YouTube following. Things took off for the group with their their “Boys Will Be Girls” series of videos. They earned an MTV Comedy Award nominee for Best Original Viral and gathered nearly 7 million views to date.
The group also hosted the both the longest-running and highest-grossing weekly sketch show in NYC’s Peoples Improv Theater (The PIT). The show features their sharp style of clean-cut sketches combined with music & dance surprises. The weekly sketch show recently closed down so the team can take their show on the road, touring colleges and comedy venues nationally while they perform in their trademark argyle sweaters and Converse sneakers.
They’ve appeared on Comedy Central, VH1, and CBS. Been written up in Huffington Post, NY Mag’s Vulture, and Cosmopolitan. Were an official selection at the 2010 Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal as well as an ECNY and INNY awards for Best Sketch Comedy Group; and what might be the pinnacle for anyone…been featured on Sesame Street.
The Harvard Sailing Team will once again return to The Pit this weekend for two sold out shows on 1/20 and 1/21. Some walk up tix might be available if you get moving fast.
Where the live comedy is Wednesday…
Bar 82
4pm – Open Mic
Broadway Comedy Club
9pm – Best of Broadway
Cameo
8pm – The Big Terrific
Ella Lounge
8pm – Sweet w/ Seth Herzog
Carolines On Broadway
8pm - Ed Lover & Friends
CB’s Comedy Club
9:30pm - Jared Logan
Comedy Cellar
8pm – MC Ardie Fuqua w/Gregg Rogell, Keith Robinson, DC Benny, Pete Correale, Tom Pappa & Robert Kelly
10pm- MC Ardie Fuqua w/Lenny Marcus, Amy Schumer, Ryan Hamilton, Modi, Sherrod Small, Jay Oakerson & Godfrey
Comic Strip Live
8:30pm – Host William Stephenson w/ Lenny Marcus, Jon Fisch, Brian Scott McFadden, Modi & Ryan Reiss
Eastville Comedy Club
6pm – Open Mic
9pm – Prodegy Comedy w/Liz Barrett
Gotham Comedy Club
8pm - Stewie to the Rescue & Rescuzilla Comedy Show Fundraiser Featuring: Karen Bergreen, Mark Riccadonna, Buddy Flip, Marina Franklin & hosted by Harris Bloom
8:30pm – New Talent Showcase
Laugh Lounge
9pm – Mixed Nuts Comedy: Hosted by Jonathan Randall
9pm – Funny Fellas
Lucky Jack’s
8pm - “Ghandi is That you?”
Magnet Theatre
7pm - Megawatt
New York Comedy Club
9pm – Top Headliners Comedy Show
9pm – Hugs and Laughs
Stand Up | NY
8pm – The Bob Dibuono All-Star Showcase
10pm - Thomas Dale, Jay Oakerson, Dave Smith
UCBEast
7:30pm - Doppleganger & The Outlook of The Poet
9pm - The Two Man Movie
10pm - Hot For Teacher
11pm - The Improv Jam
UCB Theatre
8pm - DC Pierson is at Girls
9pm - Commercial interruption
11pm – School Night, Hosted by Justin Purnell
What are your comedy plans tonight?
It’s 2012 mofos! Time to look forward to the year ahead! Here’s a list of 8 comedians you should keep your eye on in the new year. Some you may know, some you might not. Either way, seek them out when they come to your town next and keep an eye on them in the new year.
Wil Sylvince
Why: Because they are rebooting In Living Color in 2012 and there’s no comedian we’d like to see more on the new cast than Wil. He’s all the Wayanses and a young Eddie Murphy wrapped into one.
Kurt Metzger
Why: Because the Mayan’s unlocked the secrets of the universe and it’s ending in 2012 but they couldn’t figure out the secret of pockets? We’re with you Kurt.
Amy Schumer
Why: Because there will be another roast in 2012 and her presence must be had!
Kyle Grooms
Why: Because it’s an election year and no comedian working today has better Obama material. Maybe Grooms is the solution for a suitable replacement to Fred Armiesn’s “just okay” Obama on SNL?
Kumail Nanjiani
Why: In 2012 we hope for the rumored new stand-up special/album and more cameos in Portlandia. Time it with second season of the TNT bro-mance show Franklin & Bash in which Nanjiani plays an agoraphobic sci-fi computer wizz paralegal. Not to be confused with the video game loving, geek podcast guesting comedian he is in real life.
John Mulaney
Why: This Saturday Night Live writer/producer is not only making us laugh on TV but he he also has a new stand-up special that will kick off the funny times in 2012.
Morgan Murphy
Why: Because we think 2012 is the year the former Late Night with Jimmy Fallon writer catches up to 13 year olds and their technology.
Ron Funches
Why: Because Ron has our vote to start playing every new character on the next season of Portlandia.
After a NY Times piece on comedian Eddie Brill hit the web this past week it’s now being reported that Brill is stepping down as the comedy booker for Late Show with David Letterman. A position he’s held for 11 years in addition to being the warm-up comedian for the talk show.
The article, which many believe has a slight take-down vibe suggests that Brill believes women aren’t funny, raising the age-old debate on the topic which continued in the comments section on a Mirth.com piece where Brill, comedian Amy Schumer (who’s quoted in the article), and Jason Zinoman, the Times writer who originally wrote the piece all commented.
Bonnie McFarlane the director to the forthcoming film, Woman Aren’t Funny is coming to Brill’s defense. Brill appears in the movie and, in a statement released to The Laugh Button by her management, McFarlane stated “People need to stop taking exception every time someone makes a slight towards female comics.” She continued, “We’re winning, already. Relax, take a victory lap.”
McFarlane’s documentary focuses on the question: “are women as funny as men?” In it, she interviewed Brill for almost an hour. “Eddie Brill was in our movie and I can honestly say that during the 40 minutes of raw footage he states over and over again that he thinks women are funny and perhaps even funnier than men.” She joked afterward, “Of course, for the movie, we took this footage and rearranged it to make him look like a misogynistic asshole.”
Bonnie and her husband comedian Rich Vos, who is the Executive Producer on Women Aren’t Funny have a working relationship with Brill that’s stretched over a decade. “Eddie Brill booked me, a lady comic, on Letterman twice and although it was a great experience, it really did nothing for my career. Point being, if you don’t make it on Letterman, it really doesn’t matter.”
Monday was a special episode of Marc Maron’s WTF? Podcast because it reminded us of the power of the podcast’s ability to take things beyond just talking about comedy and gave us a deeper peek into people’s lives.
Todd Glass, the well respected and veteran comedian was the guest on the podcast where he jumped right into the topic of his sexuality where he revealed that he is, in fact gay. The 47-year old comedian struggled to find the words and didn’t completely feel comfortable using descriptive words as he made his announcement. In fact Maron said the words for Glass at first bue he quickly followed it up, “don’t get this wrong. I don’t want anyone to be ashamed of who they are—especially younger people. I always hated using that term and that’s partly why I’ve always been sympathetic to people who don’t [want to be labeled certain things]. I hate that word. But I like it better than the other word—homosexual.”
The two comedians had a very frank conversation about it as Glass told stories about feeling comfortable with his parents growing up yet struggled to identify with being gay. But different conversations with friends and other comedians where he was welcomed helped. Glass also stated that his best friend, Jimmy Dore has known for a while and recalled a coming out story to Louis C.K. on a plane a few months ago. He even recalled Dave Chappelle’s joke comparing being gay to being black - which Chappelle stated you can hide being gay but not hide being black. Glass, while not criticizing Chappelle stated, “empathy is not a competition” they can be measured on different scales but and hating on either is wrong.
Glass continued stating he knew since he was about 13 and very close friends of his have known for a while. He officially came out to his parents 15 years ago, even though they, “knew before that.” Glass also stated that he’d been in a long-term relationship for the last 15 years. While was saying what “a lot of people already knew,” he felt he couldn’t keep with his secret mainly because of the rise in young gay men and women taking their own lives because of bullying and abuse, “I can’t do this any longer.”
Glass was angered with hateful speech when it comes to gay Civil Rights, “if you are homophobic, and you are out there, you better be positive that you are right. Because this is going to blow if all these kids are killing themselves…have a soul-searching moment now, go into your house, shut the door and be fucking positive. Because you are making kids feel like crap for no good Goddamn reason.” It turned to politics as well, “I watched those debates and I was going out of my mind. It seems like we’re going backwards. We’re going to live to see when these people are embarrassed about what they are saying…not 20 years, in 10 they are going to have to show their grandchildren this footage and look like fools! They’re going to be mortified!”
The podcast ended with thoughts that no one of any kind should be bullied because of who they are, “I always thought my cause wouldn’t be ‘pro-gay’ rather ‘leave everyone the fuck alone’. How about if you are not gay at all and are a football player but you want to be in the ballet…You know what, I feel bad for him too! Leave him the fuck alone! It’s time that bullies stopped bullying and we started bullying them. Anybody that wants to do anything good…I’m sure that kid would never in his whole life want to tap into something creative, so leave them alone, leave everyone alone.”
As a fleeting joke at the very end of the interview, Glass stated that he was dating Daniel Tosh but it was obvious it was just a joke.
We wish Todd the absolute best, the conversation was honest and cathartic for him. The entire hour and a half conversation is something that should absolutely not be missed. It’s a pretty frank and honest conversation and will go down as a great moment for not only the comedy community but for everyone.
Visit www.wtfpod.com or download and listen to the entire episode with Todd Glass here.
Where to find the live comedy Tuesday…
Bar 82
4pm – Open Mic
Broadway Comedy Club
9pm – Best of Broadway
Carolines on Broadway
7:30pm - Breakout Artist Comedy Series: Andrew Schulz
Comedy Cellar
8pm – MC William Stephenson w/Amy Schumer, Ryan Hamilton, Keith Robinson, Tom Pappa, Robert Kelly
10pm – MC William Stephenson w/Dan Naturman, Lenny Marcus, Gary Gulman, Lynne Koplitz, Nick Griffen, Dan Soder & Godfrey
Comic Strip Live
8:30pm – Host Dean Obeidallah w/ Brian Scott McFadden, Tom Van Horn, Marina Franklin, Mike Burton, Modi & Paul Mecurio
Eastville Comedy Club
6pm – Open Mic
Gotham Comedy Club
7pm – New Talent Showcase
9:30pm - New Talent Showcase
Laugh Lounge
5:30pm – Mark’s Open Mic
8:30pm – Mixed Nuts Comedy: Hosted by Jonathan Randall
Littlefield
7:30pm – Pointless: hosted by Kurt Braunohler
Magnet Theatre
7pm – Test Drive: “Ephemerama”
8:30pm - Megawatt
New York Comedy Club
8:30pm – Jeff Lawrence
Stand Up | NY
8pm – Nick Griffin, Rachel Feinstein, Teddy Smith
UCB Theatre
6:30pm - New Team Harold
8pm - Harold Night
11pm - Chaos Night
UCBEast
8pm – Hot Dang! A Comedy Variety Show w/Sheng Wang, Dan Black, Katina Corrao, music by Tanner Walle, & special guests
Union Hall
8pm – Mr Coconuts Comedy Show w/ Gabe Delahaye, Dave Hill, Mike Albo, John Roberts and more…
What are your plans for the evening?
Did you happen to catch Ricky Gervais host the Golden Globes last night? After his clash with attendees last year, many tuned in to see what the comedian would say this time around. Here’s a list of some of our favorite jokes made by the comedian.
1. “Tonight, you get Britain’s biggest comedian, hosting the second biggest awards show, on America’s third biggest network…I’m just kidding. It’s the fourth.”
2. “Who needs the Oscars? Not me, and not Eddie Murphy. He walked out on em, and good for him. But when the man who said yes to Norbit, says no, you know you’re in trouble.”
3. To Johnny Depp - “I want to ask you a question. And be honest. Are you on recreational drugs? I’m joking, that’s not the question. And we all know the answer. Have you seen The Tourist yet?”
4. “We’re already five minutes over.You don’t need to thank everyone you’ve ever met. Just thank the main two - your agent and God. That’s what I do, because I know my agent and God have the same amount of input in my career.”
5. “[The Hollywood Foreign Press] is a non-profit organization, just like NBC.”
6. “Please welcome the man who will literally wear anything Tim Burton tells him to, Johnny Depp.”
7. The Golden Globes are to the Oscars what Kim Kardashian is to Kate Middleton. Bit louder, bit trashier, bit drunker, and more easily bought - allegedly.”
8. “[Melissa McCarthy] made her mark in comedy this summer by defecating into a sink [In “Bridesmaids”]. Amazingly, that’s still less demeaning than what most of you have done to make it in show business.”
9. “Last year, our next presenter won both the Golden Globe and the Oscar for her work in Black Swan. This year, she took some time out to have a baby. Consequently, she’s been nominated for nothing. Really pathetic. But she learned that valuable lesson you all already knew: Never put family first. Please welcome the very foolish Natalie Portman.”
10. “Bit of trivia for you. Eddie Murphy and Adam Sandler between them played all the parts in the movie “The Help.” Isn’t that brilliant. They were brilliant. I cant believe they’re not here. Or maybe they are. They’re masters of disguise.”
Best Ricky Gervais joke made by other person…
While standing next to Kate Beckensale “Hello, I am Seth Rogen and I am currently trying to conceal a massive erection.”
Where the live comedy is Monday…
Bar 82
4pm – Open Mic
Broadway Comedy Club
7pm - Beverly Bonner
9pm - Best of Broadway
Carolines On Broadway
7:30pm - New Talent
Comedy Cellar
8pm – MC Ardie Fuqua W/ Gary Gulman, Billy Manchington, Ryan Hamilton, Keith Robinson and Robert Kelly
10pm – MC Ardie Fuqua W/ Lynne Koplitz, Ted Alexandro, Nick Griffin, Dan Soder, Veronica Mosey,Kurt Metzger and Godfrey
Comic Strip Live
8:30pm – Host Barry Weintraub w/ Joe Bolster, Mike Burton, Jim Mendrinos, Kevin Flynn, Dustin Chafin, Ryan Reiss, Teddy Smith &Jon Fisch
Eastville Comedy Club
6pm – Open Mic
Gotham Comedy Club
8:30pm – The Gotham All-Stars Featuring Marion Grodin, Dean Obeidallah, Joe Derosa, Rachel Feinstein and Wil Sylvince
Laugh Lounge
5:30pm – Pudge’s Open Mic
8:30pm– Mixed Nuts Comedy: Hosted by Jonathan Randall
Littlefield
7:30pm – Hot Tub w/ Kurt and Kristen
Magnet Theatre
7pm – Test Drive: “Eat Pray Potluck”
Stand Up | NY
8pm - Andrew Shulz, Nikki Glaser, Bob DiBuono
The Pit
5pm – The Joe Moses 1 Man Showses
Cornelia Street Café
8:30pm – Morrison Motel w/ John Morrison
UCBEast
8pm - Adam Wade: Big Heart
10pm - Improv Nerds
UCB Theatre
9:30pm – Maude night
11pm - Whiplash
Union Hall
10pm - Mike Birbiglia: My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend: Unplugged
Ross will stop off in Canada for a few dates as he’s loved up North. He shares a mutual affection for the country as he recently Some of the dates stop off in Canada and the last time Ross was in Canada, this video below happened… no one is safe.
Jeff Ross Roasts America Tour Dates (tickets)
1/18/12 - Portland, OR: Aladdin Theater
1/19/12 - Seattle, WA: Neptune Theatre
1/28/12 - San Diego, CA: House of Blues
1/29/12 - Dallas, TX: House of Blues
2/02/12 - Milwaukee, WI: Pabst Theatre
2/03/12 - Madison, WI: Barrymore Theatre
2/04/12 - Minneapolis, MN: Varsity Theatre
2/10/12 - Winnipeg, MB: Burton Cummings Theatre
2/11/12 - Toronto, ON: Queen Elizabeth Theatre
2/12/12 - Ottowa, ON: National Arts Centre Theatre
2/16/12 - Calgary, AB: McEwan Hall
2/17/12 - Edmonton, AB: Myer Horowitz Theatre
2/18/12 - Vancouver, BC: Vogue Theatre
2/23/12 - Charlotte, NC: The Fillmore Charlotte
2/25/12 - Silver Springs, MD: The Fillmore Silver Springs
3/01/12 - Tampa, FL: Ferguson Hall
3/16/12 - Las Vegas, NV: House of Blues
IN STORES
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star [DVD]
ON TELEVISION
Monday, January 16th
Melissa McCarthy on The Tonight Show
David Cross on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Ali Wong, Chris Franjola, Kerri Kenney-Silver on Chelsea Lately
Stephen Merchant on Conan
Off Their Rocker premieres on NBC.
Tuesday, January 17th
Ricky Gervais on Late Show with David Letterman
Natasha Leggero, Josh Wolf, Greg Fitzsimmons on Chelsea Lately
Fred Armisen on Conan
Wednesday, January 18th
Will Arnett, Dana Gould on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Moshe Kasher, Heather McDonald, Ben Gleib on Chelsea Lately
Thursday, January 19th
Kathy Griffin on Late Show with David Letterman
Wanda Sykes on The Tonight Show
Tom Arnold on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Steven Wright on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
Louis Virtel, Arden Myrin, Loni Love on Chelsea Lately
Friday, January 20th
Dana Carvey on Late Show with David Letterman
Larry The Cable Guy on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
Bill Maher, Bobby Lee, Sarah Colonna, Matt Braunger on Chelsea Lately
Saturday, January 21st
JB Smoove: That’s How I Dooz It premieres on Comedy Central
It’s Harry Potter time folks, so gather around the boob tube and see what host Daniel Radcliffe had to show off as he handles the hosting duties on Saturday Night Live. Radcliffe is not far out from releasing a new movie (The Woman In Black) and someone’s gotta get out there and shill for the man. On the other hand, musical guest Lana Del Rey stopped by to try to live up the the internet hype she didn’t get as Lizzy Grant, failed chanteuse circa 2010. Her debut album is set to be released on July 31st and it’s the first time since Natalie Imbrulia a musical guest showed up at 30 Rock before an album of recorded material was out in the public. Turns out there’s a reason why but we’ll get to that in a minute. In the meantime, let’s see how Radcliffe fared.
Cold Open: Mitt Romney in South Carolina
Presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney always catches hell for not appearing to be a normal person, so it’s pretty vital that he starts to act human as we head into a presidential race. There was a nice reference to the Denver/New England bloodbath football game that was happening just hours before the show aired.
Monologue
Radcliffe’s monologue took some nice shots at parents that are way too into the kids books (next stop these people please!) I do think a running list of all the terrible Harry Potter characters needs to be drawn up.
Ricky Gervais Promos
Back-to-back Jason Sudekis, is this going to be his night? If he keeps up with a pretty killer Ricky Gervais impression, that might just be okay. Granted the joke about gunfire erupting at the BET awards is so tired a premise I can overlook that much.
Target Lady
Since the announcement of her killing off Gili, it seems Kristen Wiig has tried to not repeat characters much this season which is probably a good thing for Target Lady is definitely starting to adhere to the law of diminishing returns. Even Daniel Radcliffe in a pony-tailed mullet trying to show a bit of chest hair isn’t going to save it.
You Can Do Anything
Millennials, hassling amiright!? I love the idea of a sketch that taps into the unbridled self-esteem matched with the unskilled youth of today. It’s in this scene where Radcliffe drops the line, “I gave it my best and therefore no one should criticize me.” Which might sum up most of the night, Radcliffe seems to be putting forth his best effort so far, but things aren’t yet gelling.
Spin the Bottle
Bobby Moynihan drops his second awesome moment of the night, the first being Snooki in Jersey Shore Harry Potter in the monologue and the second in this clip that kinda appears to be a Digital Short but isn’t.
Delaware Fellas
“And you can be magically whisked away to… Delaware. ‘Hello, I’m in Delaware’”. This could be one of the most quotable sketches of the night like “Let’s go see a Lighthouse,” and “Strut like a guy through Wilmington.” Unfortunately and probably because of the songs in the clip, they weren’t allowed to put the clip on the web. But here’s a bootleg to get on until the bootleggin’ is no good no more.
Harry Potter Epilogue
What happens when Harry Potter peaks during his high school years? Well you have this. And it was pretty much a given that Radcliffe was going to break out the Potter-ness in at least one sketch and here we got one. I also dig Bill Hader’s Snape impression.
Lana Del Rey: “Video Games”
I don’t get the Lana Del Rey groundswell that has happened as of late. Most artists these days don’t seem to live up the hype, and after watching her performance, it’s pretty safe to stick to stick to this theory. And according to the internet buzz post performance, I’m not the only one.
Weekend Update
I’d like to see a real life “5 Second Raul” and since there are no more dictators on this planet, and it makes sense to recycle the two best friend sketch for the new North Korean leader. By far the winner of Update was bringing in Casey Anthony’s Dog as Radcliffe nailed it.
2112
Let’s diorama 2012 in one hundred hears. This sketch brought some chuckles, but for the most part it was just okay, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to start making moves to domesticate wolverines, that’s something I’m totally for as soon as possible.
Mayor 1
There’s pretty much nothing you can’t do in the era of Super Pacs and funding of political commercials, that’s unless you turn the focus on pointing out your own mistakes as you run for office. These clips are quick, generally okay, but could’ve been separated throughout the show better rather than the quick cluster we got them near the end of the night.
Mayor 2
Mayor 3
The Jay Pharaoh Show
This sketch came across to me that they are trying to figure out where they can utilize Jay Pharaoh’s talents, and I’m not sure if this is the best place.
Lana Del Rey “Blue Jeans”
Nope, it wasn’t a fluke the first time around. Nothing was better the second time. This song needs a deeper, more sultry voice singing it, not whatever this was.
Exit Polling
This was a fairly forgettable sketch but Kristen Wiig is entertaining enough even though it coulda been cut down a minute or two.
Headz Up App Commercial
Oh look, finally an Andy Samberg sighting, that’s about all I remember from this sketch. Oh well, they can’t all be zingers.
And that’s about it for the evening, Radcliffe’s hosting duties went well but don’t rank as a particularly standout episode. He seemed willing for much of everything and likeable enough for people to be willing to interact with him, but in the long run this episode missed more than it worked. I also don’t usually factor in the musical guest into the overall equation but Lana Del Rey did no favors easier.
Did anyone that notice the commercial for the new Betty White show, Off Their Rockers? That might have been the funniest moment of the night and it wasn’t an SNL moment. Let’s regroup in a few weeks on February 4th when Channing Tatum and Bon Iver throw down.
That did you think of Radcliff’s episode? Sound off.
This Yelp account has everything!
Hopefully somewhere Bill Hader and writer John Mulaney are grinning their asses off.
…now you didn’t.
Levy dropped in the last segment of The Office last night. He played the moderator at the trivia championships in which a group of folks from Dunder Mifflin pulled out a comeback victory to get to. As Levy delivered questions, I couldn’t just help but think, “hey Dan! Congrats on your success”.
Watch the clip.
I just received a press copy of the new Patrice O’Neal album, Mr. P in the mail. There will be a full review of the album forthcoming but I thought the dedication written on the inside of the album by friend and fellow comedian Colin Quinn was touching and special.
Patrice’s new album comes out on February 7th with all monies raised going toward his family so pre-order it
I just finished listening to Patrice O’Neal’s new album.
If you want to understand what comedy is supposed to sound like, you have to listen to this. If you want to understand what a comedian is supposed to sound like, listen to this. If you want to listen to somebody who just can’t stop opening up about what he thinks of himself, and what he thinks of you, then listen to this album.
Patrice never “phoned it in,” because he couldn’t. When he performed a live set, the audiences were never allowed to be a group of anonymous people laughing at a man on stage doing his act. You had no choice but to be involved! He needed you to be involved. Contentious and antagonistic, he wants you to feel what he feels. The absurdity of this world. He couldn’t do a set without bringing in the audience if he wanted to. You can hear that on this album.
This recording covers all the same subjects that a lot of comedians cover. Race, politics, sex, etc. So then what makes it so special? It’s all the specifics. The point of view. The dialogue. The language. The unpredictability. You think you know where he’s coming from and then he takes a U-turn. “The only position I have is 3 AM till 4:15.” The word “OK.” “You hunt what you know you can catch.” “A lot of ouches now.” There’s about a hundred little moments that you can savor.
Patrice was a pure comedian. He didn’t play well with others. He burned all the bridges that came into his path. But that’s because he knew what he wanted to say and anything that twisted it or edited it softened it, he couldn’t tolerate.
He did not do comedy to be liked. This is a very important part of him. He did not do comedy to be accepted by the audience of the industry or anybody else. He did comedy because his mind was busting with opinions, ideas, and questions. He never catered or pandered to any audience, ethnicity or political taste. He never did what he was supposed to do, or said what he was supposed to say. That’s what made him great. So please enjoy this stand up comic named Patrice O’Neal, because you won’t see the likes of him anytime again.
COLIN QUINN
November 2011
When I first listened to the album, it was about 11 AM. I was coming down from a coffee rush, reading cliché Facebook posts, and had just spilled Cocoa Puff milk on my pants. In short, my privileged first world life was starting to feel rough. And then Tom Papa reminded me that we don’t get to be happy all the time; that we get only one day a year to expect happiness and its called our “birthday”; that none of us really “fit in.” He goes on further to explain life with this awesome metaphor: “Life is a pair of skinny jeans and you are a big fat ass.” Win.
Papa is certainly heavy on the jokes about marriage and children, and as a young whippersnapper, I have no experience with such things (I also refuse to make a bad joke about his last name being a synonym for father). All aside, my inexperience does not stop me from laughing for most of the hour, especially when he describes his animalistic children. “You ever open up a pack of M&Ms around little kids? They come at you like goats in a petting zoo—no hands, just heads. Bahhh.” Papa also refers to he and his wife as “business partners in this awful non-profit organization.” However, as much as the comedian talks about the pains of marriage and raising children, he still argues that it’s better than being alone.
Papa moves on to talk about health, diabetic cats, marijuana, and “gross” old people, but he still keeps the theme of family in tact, which is great in my opinion. It’s more real that way. If a comedian tells a bit about his family, moves on to a story about a recent smoke out with Snoop Dogg, and then forgets to mention that he probably shouldn’t be there at all because he has kids, it eventually seems a little less plausible in the whole scheme of material. For example, Papa tells a story about sneaking away from his wife at a musical to go smoke a joint in the bathroom—I can see that happening and his description of events is hilarious.
I’ll also go ahead and say “nice job” to the guy who introduces Papa on the album (ed note: Rick Crom). He did his job and got me as pumped as I could be at the time. Those hype men don’t get enough love.
All in all, Live in New York City is a solid album and a great add to any comedy collection. I suggest you buy it if you can. The Comedy Central special premiered on Sunday January 8th, but you can enjoy a clip here. Not to mention, Papa recruited Rob Zombie to direct it and that’s rad.
If you are planning on headed out for the SF Sketchfest, Reggie Watts is going to set up shop and deliver a 4-part series at separate venues in San Francisco, each of them original and different in his unique Reggie Watts style.
Here’s where “Reggidency: a Reggie Watts series” is going down.
Reggidency part 1: Reggie Watts solo: just the music
Date: JANUARY 31, 8 PM
Venue: YOSHI’S SAN FRANCISCO
Reggidency part 2: Reggie Watts + Garfunkel & Oates: the comedy
Date: FEBRUARY 1, 8 PM
Venue: MEZZANINE
Reggidency part 3: Reggie Watts + Robert Glasper: the jazz collaboration
Date: FEBRUARY 2, 8 PM
Venue: YOSHI’S OAKLAND
Reggidency part 4: Reggie Watts + Silent Film: an improvised scoring
Date: FEBRUARY 3, 12 MIDNIGHT
Venue: THE ROXIE THEATRE
Oh, and if you were wondering where I got the picture of Reggie above? Well he has a small cameo in the new LCD Soundsystem final show trailer, Shut Up And Play The Hits.
Before season two of the show begins, BBC was kind enough to make the first season available on DVD if you happened to miss it the first time around.
Better yet, we’re offering up a chance for two winners to enter to win a copy of Season 1 of An Idiot Abroad on DVD. All you have to do is enter your information below, we’ll pick two random winners from all proper entries, bazinga!
THE RULES:
John Mulaney’s new stand-up special, New In Town is set to air at the end of the month on Comedy Central, and along with it comes the release on DVD and CD. Both of which I’m pretty excited about especially considering the DVD bonus content will also include a bonus commentary in which Anthony Jeselnik and Dan Mintz watch the special and critique Mulaney’s performance.
The special was filmed at the Skirball Theater in NYC a few months back, one we got the chance to attend one of the takings and it doesn’t make us any less excited to see Mulaney return with a new hour of material, his first since he premiered on the scene with The Top Part back in 2009. Get some!
Before we get too deep in the new year we thought it would be a good time to take a second to reflect on what were our biggest comedy stories of 2011. It was a year chock full of highs and lows and here are the stories that had the most people reading the site in 2011.
10. Our interview with Steel Panther This fall, the comedy/musical band Steel Panther released a new album and we got the chance to chat with them about the album. What happened instead was one of the most ramblingly awesome interviews we ever had. Death to all But Metal.
9. The passing of Patrice O’Neal It’s shitty when news breaks of someone’s death and it’s even shittier to have to write a story about it. But by running a website that covers comedy news, when it breaks, it’s important to to inform our readers, the good and the bad.
8. Gallagher walks out on Marc Maron’s podcast When Marc Maron had Gallagher on his podcast, things got prickly pretty fast as Maron prodded Gallagher about his newer, racially themed comedy. Gallagher never seemed to gel with the host, wasn’t 100% sure of the technology, got upset the two argued a bit and the watermelon man promptly walked off the show after about 10 minutes; sparking controversy and marking another notch in the lore of Maron’s podcast.
7. TJ Miller’s No Real Reason stand-up clips. T.J. Miller was a frequent topic of discussion this year, and rightfully so. He had a busy year with the release of a hip-hop comedy album but also a stand-up special on Comedy Central and release of the special on DVD. TLB readers were really into Miller, making our release of clips from the special one of the most watched posts of the year.
6. Our interview with Mick Foley Mick Foley, the former professional wrestler has now set his sights on stand-up comedy. When he was in town, or writer Blake Garris got the chance to catch up with Foley to talk comedy on camera and the resulting clip is the result of that.
5. That story about Dave Attell watching porn Dave Attell launched a new show on Showtime and that show consisted of him and his comedian friends watching some pornography. As the web tells us, searching for porn is a popular pastime so thanks to the power of the web, we have ourselves our 5th most popular story of the year.
4. Lisa Lampanelli premiers clips from her special Tough Love. The queen of mean released a new special and gave us some clips to share with our readers. She then told her fans where to find said clips and the fans flooded the site to check them out.
3. A change of scenery for Aqua Team Hunger Force. What happens when you take a cult show off hiatus, change its name, and story-wise move it to a different state with very little explanation? Well, you get what happened to Aqua Teen Hunger force. It also single-handedly made our explanation of the event our most “discovered via Google” story of the year.
2. Tosh porn O: What is used on the web more than porn? Well, Facebook but that’s a recent development. When we broke the story that there was going to be a porn parody of Daniel Tosh’s popular Comedy Central story, it didn’t take long for everyone to find out. In addition, The Daily Wha? link to this story and the rest they say is history.
And our top story of the year is…
1. That time Louis C.K., Ricky Gervais, Chris Rock, and Jerry Seinfeld sat down together in a room It’s always a big deal when a well-respected comedian discusses his craft. So it made total sense when 4 of the best living comedians today got into a room and spend an hour just talking to each other about their approach toward the art and what they find funny. Talking Funny premiered on HBO in the first half of 2011 and remained one of our most consistently searched for and read stories of the year.
The internet has been abuzz the last few days about the story of Patton Oswalt’s confrontation with a woman who began recording a set of his material at a recent small comedy show at The Palace in Los Feliz, CA.
If you aren’t familiar here’s what happened in a nutshell… Oswalt dropped in on a small show to test out new material, all was well until some point in his set when a woman in the audience pulled out a camera or smartphone and began to film the comedian as he performed new material. Oswalt confronted the woman, she gave him some half-assed reason as to why she thought it was okay, Oswalt said it was not and began to rip into her. The insults got so bad that the woman left. After the show, one of the comedians on the bill Barbara Gray took to her tumblr with a statement as to why she thought Oswalt was wrong, describing him as an asshole.
This didn’t fly well with Oswalt who shortly thereafter released a pretty lengthy response with his side of the story. Blasting Gray for not realizing that he’s in charge of the material he writes and when comedians let people in the audience bootleg their material and release it on the web prematurely or not in the way it was intended by it’s owner, it not only hurts the bit, but takes potential money away from the comedian who spends the writing, honing, and sharpening the material. Oswalt added that the joke in particular being recorded was a very new and personal bit he was working on, and the smug nature of the woman recording it weighed heavily on him.
Many people will have varying opinions as to who is right and who is wrong in this situation but with that being said it does raise the larger question about the use of technology in comedy and what it means to be a good audience member. When is enough enough? And when does something shared no longer become your own? This isn’t the first time Oswalt has taken to the web to point out moments when he’s been wronged. His response also highlights times when he’s had to take measures to preserve his material, reaching out to people who post bootlegged material on Youtube only to be met with weird responses from those posters people thinking they were was no wrong doing on their part, in fact they were doing him the favor.
There are pretty obvious reasons as to why a fan would want to document an experience; and with the increased ease in which this became possible, it’s also paved the way for the growth of outright rude behavior by audiences to do so. This idea that can be applied even further as it’s nearly unbearable to patron a movie theater and other public forums sometimes. Many of today’s audiences have at some point forgotten that being an active audience means being present and making it an enjoyable experience for everyone present. Not everything needs to be documented, Tweeted, Facebooked, filmed, or disrupted to take the attention away from what’s happening on stage.
As a comedy website, we tend to side with the comedian in these cases as they are the ones out there day in and day out testing, tweaking, writing, and re-writing their material into something great. As Oswalt relayed, the material was personal in nature and in addition to blinding him with a light on the camera, the woman recording made a glib remark that she was doing him some sort of favor by recording the bit. A truly weird statement, as if in his 20+ years of being a comedian, Oswalt never thought that he himself could set up a camera or friend up in the back to tape his set for future reference? Removing the personal nature of the jokes for Oswalt as no one would know these details besides Oswalt himself, the other two factors he mentioned in his statement should be reason enough to consider the woman as acting rude.
A well-seasoned comedian like Oswalt has definitely had to deal with his share of disruptive people; and deciding to dispatch or ignore them is part of the job as a stand-up. Granted there is a fine line between giving a heckler what they deserve and continuing to berate someone long after they’ve left. Those present have differing stories and everyone else has secondhand knowledge at best. So it’s wrong for anyone to assume its entirely one-sided as to how the events played out that night.
It’s a topic many comedians have addressed in the past, and with the rise of social media, breaking down walls and transparency have become the name of the game. It does not change that we as people in polite society must uphold certain social contracts when it comes to operating in public. If this sounds like blame can be assigned to someone, it probably could. But in the end it doesn’t fix the larger problem of potentially putting a black eye on comedy in general. From the comedians performing, to the crowd, to the club paying attention to the crowd, everyone needs to be better about their role.
As someone who’s witnessed a well-known comedian loose it on a crowd member recording his act I can wholeheartedly understand where the comedian is coming from in these situations. I also witnessed how awkward it made the other 300 people in the room feel as it happened, and then witnessed the absolute lack of the club security stating/policing policy as it happened. Letting one or two people make the entire experience bad for the comedian or audience makes everyone think twice about returning to pay money to see a show, investing time to hone jokes, or investing money to showcase comedy. And if that happened, it might be the biggest travesty of all.
What is your take on the situation? Sound off in the comments.
