TCB Debriefing 8/11-9/21/24: Emmys, Langston Kerman, James Adomian, Tim Robinson, Tommy Dassalo, and more!
*apologies for taking so long to getting to posting these. running a theater and a bureau is almost humanly impossible
1. Even though an actual comedy, Hacks, won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series at this year’s Emmys, The Bear still won plenty of categories this time around, enough to make the case for getting rid of genre in the Emmys or whatever the hell we have to do to make What We Do in the Shadows get another goddamn Emmy.
2. Good news for all the I Think You Should Leave faithful: HBO has made the very wise decision to greenlight Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin’s series The Chair Company. While the premise of a man stumbling into a conspiracy at the company he works at after an embarrassing incident is vague, Robinson and Kanin might be the very best in capturing how absurd corporate culture has become that it makes the collective unconscious want to scream about the tiniest minutia.
3. Simply put, Langston Kerman has the most flowery ways (given his background in poetry) to exquisitely paint some of the darkest jokes we’ve heard in recent memory and, as such, his new hour special, Bad Poetry, is a luminous, yet dark, enthralling gem of stand-up comedy (and one of the very best specials of 2024). Please enjoy Bad Poetry, now streaming on Netflix.
4. James Adomian is such a comedic force of nature and has been for years and years, on stage, screen, and podcast, in costume and out, it’s criminal that Path of Most Resistance is only his very first hour special (amongst many other things). Adomian, of course, delivers on the goods in this new hour; the goods being his signature masterfully impressions (often sounding like a dead ringer for whomever James is impersonating) that are infused with his whipsmart, sharply drawn observations on even the most niche facets of culture and politics (making a bit on nature doc legend, David Attenborough, hilariously accessible). We would be hard pressed to say that even a good percentage of comedians leave it all out on the stage for an hour special, but the progression of sweat through Adomian’s shirts throughout the special should prove that he gave you his all and getting “all” from Adomian is something to be truly cherished.
Please enjoy Path of Most Resistance, now streaming on YouTube here.
5. Beloved indie comedy outfits, The Pack Theater and World’s Greatest Improv School AKA WGIS, are being reborn, yet again, right next to The Clubhouse in LA. They’ve got a GoFundMe going to pay for their basic needs in remodeling and having important things like, you know, A/C. Please donate/support/share here. When set, Los Feliz might have the greatest concentration of comedy in LA, specifically the 1600 N. block of Vermont Ave.
6. It’s not like Will Ferrell hasn’t been in funny tearjerkers before (Elf if you’re thinking too hard), but the doc, Will & Harper, in which he goes on a road trip with one of his closest friends, a former SNL head writer, looks to be on a whole other level. Peep a look at all the emotional strings it will pull in the trailer here, then look for it on Netflix next week on Sept. 27th.
7. Ben Stiller has taken a bit of a shine, as of late, to being in the producer’s chair with his hands in everything from Severance to and In the Dark. That said, don’t count him out as top-billed marquee talent as TIFF hit, Nutcrackers, got snatched up by Hulu in a sizzling 8 figure deal. It’s a classic-ish fish-out-of-water comedy set in the world of ballet, but done so out in the sticks. Fingers crossed that they don’t put all the best bits in the trailer.
8. Boon Joon-ho might have landed on his most “fun” movie yet. Quotation marks necessitated as this dark comedy follows a not so distant future where people can volunteer for scientific study that has them die and get reprinted (rather than reborn) with their consciousness intact. Robert Pattinson might be on to a performance here that might outdo him playing Batman, truly (and don’t forget a stellar supporting cast of Toni Collette, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, and Mark Ruffalo). Take a look at the wicked dystopian mischief of Mickey 17 with the trailer here, then look for it in theaters on Jan. 31st.
9. Armando Iannucci, one of the sharpest voices and mind we have in comedy in this Golden Age of TV, is putting his sights on comic book movies or, rather, the insanity that goes into making them with his latest HBO series, The Franchise. Get a taste of what’s to come here, which looks promising as it’s the satire of In the Loop and Veep, but in an MCU movie.
10. Nikki Glaser is set to host the next Golden Globes and will likely make up for many of the missteps that Golden Globes have made in the recent past. Also, don’t be surprised if Glaser, with what should be an arsenal of gleaming roast jokes, will outshine Ricky Gervais’ past heralded Golden Globes hosting performances.
11. All late night guests, please take notes from Conner O’Malley on Seth Meyers and please make your interviews more entertaining/worth watching.
12. Just For Laughs isn’t dead. Following a bankruptcy scare, they have set dates for their return that will not include the heralded Montreal festival, but one in Sydney later this Fall. New owners ComediHa! have a tall order ahead of them if they’re aiming to bring back JFL to the prominence that it had about 15 years ago.
13. For all that’s bandied about whether comedy specials are really that “special”, Aussie comedian Tommy Dassalo really went for something wildly different (and subsequently very special) with his new hour show Scam Artist. The giant screen filled with his very own animation that’s sequenced in with his material on top of a carefully woven about the infectiousness of being scammed to only turn around and getting into scamming yourself is a beautiful mash-up of pastel playfulness, subversive bite, and unfettered honesty. Dassalo’s raising the bar on specials (without cutting away to doc footage or a sketch) and doing so while telling a wickedly funny story about fooling people into thinking he’s part of the seminal electronica band, Hot Chip. Please enjoy Scam Artist here.
14. Only Murders in the Building keeps marching on as one of the pinnacles of comedy intersecting America’s obsession with true crime as season 4 has already set off and very little time passed before getting a season 5 renewal order.
15. The latest comedic offering about time travel, specifically time loops, is here with Omni Loop, now in limited release and on demand. This Bernardo Britto feature boasts a cast of Mary Louise Parker and Ayo Edebiri (and the fun device of a black hole growing inside one’s chest cavity). See for yourself with Omni Loop’s trailer here, which suggests something way better than the overrated Palm Springs.
16. Secret line-up, live comedy pop-up juggernaut, Don’t Tell Comedy, has struck a first look deal with TheYearOfElan to produce unscripted content, a far cry from just doing pop up shows in backyards.
17. Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the creator of BoJack Horseman, finally has another animated series lined up, Long Story Short. It’s a comedy that follows the dynamics of a family over time, which, if you know BoJack Horseman, ought to go some pretty radical places. Look for its premiere in 2025 on Netflix.
18. The dark mind that brought us Oldboy and Decision to Leave is finally getting into a comedy. That’s right, Korean auteur Park Chan-wook is making a comedy, I Can’t Help It, adapting the American novel The Ax by Donald Westlake. Considering it follows a man who gets violently desperate after being laid off by a paper company, this very well might be what Chan-wook would do with an episode of The Office.
19. Inside Out 2 is the first animated movie to gross over a billion dollars overseas. That’s pretty much a guarantee that you’ll see Inside Out 3, 4, and probably 5 (and you’ve got to wonder if they’ll get as existential as the Toy Story franchise).
20. See what often lies on the other side of film school with the trailer for Morgan Evans’ Micro Budget, filled with a cavalcade of comedy stars including Bobby Moynihan, Chris Parnell, Maria Bamford, Emilea Wilson, Patrick Noth, Brandon Micheal Hall, Jordan Rock, Nichole Sakura, Carla Jimenez, Hal Linden, Jon Gabrus, Kate Flannery, Matt McCoy, Mike Mitchell, and Neil Casey.
21. Please read up on what Emmy/Grammy award winning Alex Edelman learned from doing a Broadway show about hate here.
22. For all the jokes that are made about astrology, documentarian Peter Kerekes follows a real life astrologer, Luciana, and her clientele to see where their hopes and subsequent readings take them. From the looks of Wishing on a Star, the sheer truth of it seems highlight how quietly absurd (and hysterical) life can be. See for yourself with the trailer here.
23. Ruben Östlund and Roy Andersson have served Sweden well in offering some of the most innovative, genre-redefining comedies in recent memory. Ernst De Geer might end up joining them with his debut feature The Hypnosis, a dark comedy about a hypnosis going sideways, perhaps not the way that some folks wanted. Take a gander at the trailer here, then stream it on MUBI now.
24. Ted Lasso is very close to having a season 4, which definitely means you’ll have another crack at Coach Lasso’s biscuits when they gear up for this next season.
25. While Netflix will have a Jamie Foxx comedy special touching upon his recent medical emergency, Hulu and Amazon are continuing to stack their comedy special deck with Ilana Glazer, Jessica Kirson, and George Lopez.. Expect more big time specials from all the big time streamers throughout 2025.
26. We’ll leave you with this: Just askin’; anyone want free tickets for Ben Schwartz on 10/5 at the Orpheum?
