With the holiday season upon us, we’re getting a special gift of Neil Hamburger doing his residency show at The Satellite on a weeknight.
Joining Neil next Thursday will be a stacked line-up of Melissa Villasenor, Jon Daly, Ian Abramson, Michael Rayner, and Minori Hinds.
As always, tickets are $8 and you can (and should) get them here.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, open mics, and maps can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
“Joe Pera Helps You Find The Perfect Christmas Tree” Now Streaming at Adult Swim
Odds are that you probably already have a Christmas tree at this point, but we’d bet that it’s something that you settled on.
Fortunately, for all of us, the sweet, kind, eccentric Joe Pera had a whole holiday special dedicated to finding what the perfect tree for you might be, perhaps for next Christmas and it’s streaming for your convenience at AdultSwim.com.
Click the link above to watch Joe Pera Helps You Find The Perfect Christmas Tree.
Jena Friedman’s American C*nt Comes Out as an Album on Inauguration Day
Previously only available as a special on Seeso, Jena Friedman’s great hour “American C*nt” will be available as an album on the day Trump gets inaugurated.
After the many important things that you should be doing on that day, please do get this album so you can enjoy Jena Friedman’s whip smart comedy as well as revisit a more hopeful time.
In case you forgot when Inauguration Day is, look for the album version of American C*nt on January 20th.
Conan’s great recurring segment of “leaked calls” between President Obama and Trump got in its last round for this year.
As that’s the case, Team Coco made sure to make the ending for this edition a little extra special.
As pointed out by Desus & Mero on Viceland, John Hodgman is in a unique position to weigh in on being a longtime spokesman/character for a big brand, especially when it comes to Paul Marcarelli defecting from being a Verizon spokesman to one for Sprint.
Above all, you get to see John Hodgman, outside of his deranged millionaire character or being the PC in those Mac commercials, get heated about something.
The 100th episode and last live Largo taping of his completely improvised Spontaneanation with Paul F. Tompkins podcast will take place on Saturday, January 7th at 8:30PM.
Don’t miss out on this special performance and get your tickets as soon as you can. They’re $30 and you can get them here.
Art by Nathan Diffee
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, open mics, and maps can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
David Gborie is unequivocally a delight and has been so for the years that we’ve known him and seen him going up around town.
This first late night on last night’s Conan set is a trip to “applause break city” throughout and shows off David’s undeniable charm and how great, insightful, and heartfelt his material is.
You can watch Gborie’s set on Conan here.
The weekend of Donald Trump’s inauguration will come with plenty of protests as well as a nationwide comedy festival. Over 20 cities will be having comedy shows as part of the WHAT A JOKE Comedy Fest, raising money for the American Civil Liberties Union or ACLU.
Thanks to the efforts of NYC based comedians Jenn Welch and Emily Winter, the following cities (even one in the UK) will have WHAT A JOKE shows from Thurs., Jan 19th-Sat. Jan 21st:
Albuquerque
Atlanta
Austin
Baltimore
Boston
Chicago
Denver
Des Moines
Knoxville
Los Angeles
Madison
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
New Orleans
New York
Oxford, UK
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Pittsburgh
Portland, ME
Portland, OR
Salt Lake City
Seattle
Tucson
Washington, DC
Get more details, line-ups, and tickets here.
From this trailer, you see that Kristen Wiig, Norm MacDonald, Lewis Black, Bob Einstein, Christoph Waltz, Cedric the Entertainer are all guests this season in Jerry Seinfeld’s ultra lavish hang-out show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, now in its 9th season.
The new season starts streaming on Crackle on January 5th and new episodes will be released on Thursdays.
Do take note that 9 seasons is also the number of seasons that Seinfeld had before it concluded. We’re not sure if Jerry would stop just because of that, especially since this show is, as we said before, a really cool hang out between Seinfeld and his favorite funny people.
Wes Anderson’s latest film, Isle of Dogs, is in the works, and Wes has been gracious enough to give a bit of a taste of what’s to come (with a very Wes Anderson-y cameo by Edward Norton too).
He also has been gracious enough to, in support of film preservation around the world, open an opportunity for a lucky person to go to London and voice a dog in the film. That’s right; you could be in a Wes Anderson movie about dogs.
Learn more about possibly voicing a character in Isle of Dogs and the charity being supported here.
Watching Ben Schwartz go through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance in the setting of a blissfully aloof morning show with the uber-cheerful Lauren Lapkus is a performance worthy of some awards attention.
Branded content (Cap’n Crunch is prominently featured) doesn’t get much more out there and, at the same time, better than this.
Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally’s Summer of 69: No Apostrophe is coming back once more for a taping, this time at The Irvine Barclay Theatre. Be witness to one of comedy’s most passionate and best couples next month on Saturday, January 14th at 7PM and 9:30PM. Even if it’s in the middle of winter, we’re sure you’d want to see Offerman and Mullally do whatever they want to do at any time of year.
Tickets are $39 and you can (and should) get them here.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, open mics, and maps can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
6 years ago, writer/director Mike Mills made an astounding film called Beginners. The story followed a son processing the death of his father and remembering his father’s very colorful life through all of its ups and down over many years all while managing the ups and downs of his own life. It’s hysterical and heart wrenching and gives a great glimpse into a very specific person’s life over decades of time, but it never ever feels jarring. If anything, it’s comforting to see the intertwining tapestries of lives between family, friends, and lovers and Mills presents that exquisitely.
Mills’ latest 20th Century Women, in many ways, is a great, spiritual-sequel-of-sorts to Beginners as it follows a bit of the same framework and achieves a similar life-affirming euphoria when the credits roll.
Everyone gives a damn fine performance here from top to bottom. Annette Benning, Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning, Billy Crudup, and Lucas Jade Zumann live and breathe all the rich detail and depth for their characters that Mills has dreamed up for them. The humor is so deeply rooted in each characters’ personal human experience that it’s both laugh out loud funny and moving at the same time.
Also, as the title suggests, it showcases women in a very complete, unique, 4 dimensional way that comes in at a very crucial time for visibility of women in film.
Get a bit of a taste of what we’re talking about in this clip. 20th Century Women comes out in theaters this Christmas and, already, is a contender for a few awards.
You Could Win a Chance to Make TruTV’s Next Show with NYTVF and TruTV’s Comedy Breakout Initiative
TruTV is looking for some new blood on their development slate and has opened their doors, partnering with the New York TV Festival, with this Comedy Breakout Initiative that will take in submissions on new formats for their network and pick one creator and project to give up to $25K to develop the idea.
Submissions will run from January 25th, 2017-February 17th, 2017 and finalists will be announced in March and then winners in May.
Get more details and guidelines here.
Oh yeah, best of all, there’s no submission fee.
The latest gathering of Jenny Slate, Gabe Liedman, and Max Silvestri, otherwise known as Big Terrific, will be on January 13th, 2017 at Largo at the Coronet Theatre. I
It’s never quite clear when the next Big Terrific is, so you might want to snatch up your tickets now. Get them here.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, open mics, and maps are embedded at www.thecomedybureau.com.
Believe it or not, the idea that we need to talk to each other more in America is happening, albeit under strange, Twilight Zone-ish circumstances with the impending Trump administration only a few weeks away.
Trevor Noah reached out to political pundit and Trump advocate Tomi Lahren and had a civil discourse on The Daily Show. On last night’s Full Frontal, Samantha Bee reached out in a somewhat similar spirit to the one and only Glenn Beck.
You can see Beck as an anthesis to Bee, but it just so happens that they have come together against Trump.
That makes for this weird, funny interview between the two, which will undoubtedly be happening more often between satirical news show hosts and guests that have opposing views.
Heather Anne Campbell and company continue to do amazing, twisted, hysterical work at AOK.
Here’s their latest, which Midnight Show fans should really enjoy.
TBS Developing Moon Cruise from Wet Hot American Summer Team Starring Michael Ian Black
David Wain, Michael Showalter, Jonathan Stern, and Michael Ian Black do their version of the Love Boat set in space with Black starring.
That’s the gist of this project and, from just that, we’re ready to hear about a series order coming down from TBS.
Really, TV is only better when we get to see more from the power players behind Wet Hot American Summer.
Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Marc Platt Set Musical About Corporate Musicals at Amblin
Marc Platt is deservedly riding high off of his work in La La Land and the attachment of Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig make this even more high profile of a project.
Beyond that, we’re actually more than intrigued about a musical about corporate sponsored and themed musicals, which is the focus of the source material, the book “Everything Is Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age Of Industrial Musicals”.
It’s high concept and meta to be sure, but this project has plenty of potential.
Earlier this month, renowned singer-songwriter Fiona Apple did her own version of the classic holiday tune, The Christmas Song, with a bit of a zeitgeist-y twist.
The satirical, Trump inspired version of the song that give a ‘darkest timeline’ vibe to the normally heartwarming song went viral, almost a forgone conclusion of a Fiona Apple anti-Trump holiday parody.
Apple has been performing the song live and in this recent performance gives a bit of extra bite to the changed lyrics.
We really have a feeling this song might get more play even beyond Christmas over the next few years.
Seeso Orders Second Season of Take My Wife
Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher and their charming TV show, Take My Wife, will have another season at NBC’s streaming service Seeso.
Add this to the list that you’re probably already making of what to look forward to in 2017.
Some of the best puppets and stand-up and music and modern clowning and way more are coming together to offer up a damn fine variety show, When Puppets Are Your Only Friends, hosted by Molly Fite and Jared Ramirez, this Tuesday at The Virgil.
Best of all, admission is free. Get more details here.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, open mics, and maps can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
Lisa Best’s first album Brain Bank, just released this week, lays the groundwork for what we think could be a very fruitful career in stand-up comedy.
Lisa has clearly got confidence in her own charming self-deprecation, which is really hard to nail on a freshman album. She shifts gears through succinct observations of the world around her and herself (ranging from The Middle East to cosmetics) easily and the sound of her voice alone is fun to listen to.
With all of that said, Lisa Best’s Brain Bank from Comedy Dynamics here.
Rushmore, Funny Girl, and Putney Swope Just Added to National Historic Registry
Basically, it’s like the federal government’s version of “desert island movies”, but they get to keep adding movies every year.
Specifically, the National Film Preservation Act, adds 25 movies of cultural, historic, or aesthetic importance to the National Historic Registry of the Library of Congress.
This year, that includes vaudeville comedy Beau Brummels (1928), Buster Keaton vehicle Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), Billy Wilder and Barbara Stanwyck screwball comedy Ball of Fire (1941), Barbara Streisand shining in Funny Girl (1968), the uber-subversive Putney Swope (1969) from Robert Downey Sr., the live action-animation hybrid Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) and Wes Anderson’s milestone work Rushmore (1998).
Not a bad run of desert island movie, right?
Get the full list of films added to the National Historic Registry at the link above.
Comedy Crawl and Open Mic Run All Updated for This Week
Christmas is this week and we have you covered for both comedy shows as well as open mics.
Do check back frequently as the listings, especially for open mics, are subject to changes due to the holidays.