TBS Ordering Second Seasons of People Of Earth and Search Party
At this point, it’s getting harder to remember the TBS of old and that’s a good thing.
High concept ensemble sitcoms, Sam Bee, Conan globetrotting, and more have proven a great move for the cable network and we look forward to People of Earth and Search Party getting to push forward with their genre-bending premises in their second seasons.
This second season of Ian Abramson’s stand-up-comedy-equivalent-of-a-Skinner-Box, 7 Minutes in Purgatory, really showcases the stark contrast of what performing comedy without an audience while another audience enjoys it in a separate, remote location.
Just see how Maria Bamford beautifully handles performing in front of a 1000 empty seats while there’s a smaller, but mightier number of warm bodies three stories above her thoroughly delighting in her performance.
You can also see how host Ian Abramson, Jon Dore, Michelle Buteau, Colton Dunn, Caitlin Gill and Bobcat Goldthwait all handled the existential quandary of 7 Minutes in Purgatory in all different sorts of ways as well some inside commentary from their fellow performers/purgatory dwellers.
A prep academy debate team will go up against drunk comedians in Drunk Debates next Wednesday at The Westside Comedy Theater.
Conan staffers Laurie Kilmartin and Brian Kiley will be on the ‘drunk comics’ along with Billy Bonnell and going against All State Debate Team of Vanderlick Prep Academy.
If you like what might be a way cooler, grown-up version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, you can get your tickets here.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, open mics, and maps can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
74th Golden Globe Comedy Nominations: Deadpool, Atlanta, 20th Century Women
*comedy nominees in italics
FILM
BEST MOTION PICTURE-COMEDY OR MUSICAL
20th Century Women
Deadpool
Florence Foster Jenkins
La La Land
Sing Street
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Annette Bening, 20th Century Women
Lily Collins, Rules Don’t Apply
Hailee Steinfeld, The Edge of Seventeen
Emma Stone, La La Land
Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Colin Farrell, The Lobster
Ryan Gosling, La La Land
Hugh Grant, Florence Foster Jenkins
Jonah Hill, War Dogs
Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE IN ANY MOTION PICTURE
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Simon Helberg, Florence Foster Jenkins
Dev Patel, Lion
Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nocturnal Animals
BEST MOTION PICTURE-ANIMATED
Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
My Life as a Zucchini
Sing
Zootopia
BEST MOTION PICTURE-FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Divines (France)
Elle (France)
Neruda (Chile)
The Salesman (Iran/France)
Toni Erdmann (Germany)
TELEVISION
BEST TELEVISION SERIES-COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Atlanta
black-ish
Mozart in the Jungle
Transparent
Veep
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Sarah Jessica Parker, Divorce
Issa Rae, Insecure
Gina Rodriguez, Jane the Virgin
Tracee Ellis Ross, black-ish
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES – MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Anthony Anderson, black-ish
Gael Garcia Bernal, Mozart in the Jungle
Donald Glover, Atlanta
Nick Nolte, Graves
Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent
As always with the HFPA and The Golden Globes, there are some out-of-left-field surprises with their nominations like War Dogs or Graves, which didn’t gain nearly as much praise as perennial prestige comedies like Transparent or Veep.
Still, Deadpool is showing strong with a Critics Choice win last night and nominations here today. That’s especially impressive considering it’s a movie that’s an R-Rated action comedy, one of the most underrepresented types of movies when it comes to awards season. Also, Atlanta continues to an impressive freshman run and bodes well for FX.
Though a potential dark horse late comer, keep an eye out for Mike Mills’ 20th Century Women, which one of favorite movies of the year.
Get the full list of nominees here.
We’ve been longtime fans of Matt Porter and Charlie Hankin making sketches and web videos in their clever, yet grounded alternate universe as Good Cop Great Cop.
Their latest work “Talent” highlights high they expertly toe the line of the real world and a darkly comedic one.
Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ Renewed For Seasons Three and Four at Seeso
We can only wonder if Million Dollar Listing will see Bajillion Dollar Propertie$’s crazy and raise it a bajillion or two.
Season 3 is set to start streaming in Spring 2017.
SNL, James Corden, TJ Miller, and Meryl Streep All Win Big at This Year’s Critics Choice Awards
FILM
BEST COMEDY
Central Intelligence
Deadpool *WINNER*
Don’t Think Twice
The Edge of Seventeen
Hail, Caesar!
The Nice Guys
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Ryan Gosling – The Nice Guys
Hugh Grant – Florence Foster Jenkins
Dwayne Johnson – Central Intelligence
Viggo Mortensen – Captain Fantastic
Ryan Reynolds – Deadpool *WINNER*
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Kate Beckinsale – Love & Friendship
Sally Field – Hello, My Name Is Doris
Kate McKinnon – Ghostbusters
Hailee Steinfeld – The Edge of Seventeen
Meryl Streep – Florence Foster Jenkins *WINNER*
TV
BEST COMEDY SERIES
Atlanta
Black-ish
Fleabag
Modern Family
Silicon Valley *WINNER*
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Veep
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Ellie Kemper, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live *WINNER*
Tracee Ellis Ross, black-ish
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag
Constance Wu, Fresh Off the Boat
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Anthony Anderson, black-ish
Will Forte, The Last Man on Earth
Donald Glover, Atlanta *WINNER*
Bill Hader, Documentary Now!
Patrick Stewart, Blunt Talk
Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Julie Bowen, Modern Family
Anna Chlumsky, Veep
Allison Janney, Mom
Jane Krakowski, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt *WINNER*
Judith Light, Transparent
Allison Williams, Girls
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Louie Anderson, Baskets *WINNER*
Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Tituss Burgess, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Ty Burrell, Modern Family
Tony Hale, Veep
T.J. Miller, Silicon Valley
BEST GUEST PERFORMER IN A COMEDY SERIES
Alec Baldwin, Saturday Night Live *WINNER*
Christine Baranski, The Big Bang Theory
Larry David, Saturday Night Live
Lisa Kudrow, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Liam Neeson, Inside Amy Schumer
BEST ANIMATED SERIES
Archer
Bob’s Burgers
BoJack Horseman *WINNER*
Son of Zorn
South Park
The Simpsons
BEST TALK SHOW
Full Frontal With Samantha Bee
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
The Daily Show With Trevor Noah
The Late Late Show with James Corden *WINNER*
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Host TJ Miller both co-starred Deadpool and is part of the ensemble cast of Silicon Valley, which both took home Critics Choice Awards last night. This might make TJ the biggest winner of the evening.
The Late Late Show with James Corden also continues its ascent in late night by winning over all the satirical news shows and Fallon, which is pretty astounding considering that Fallon is still a ratings leader and Sam Bee, John Oliver, and Trevor Noah got special focus because of the election.
The election also put special focus on SNL with highlighting both Kate McKinnon and Alec Baldwin in their respective impressions of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and resulted in their Critics Choice wins.
Meryl Streep continues her dominance with awards in general as she indeed play a historically bad singer perfectly in Florence Foster Jenkins.
Don’t forget that FX has a nice showing here as well with wins for Louie Anderson on Baskets and Donald Glover on Atlanta. It’s further proof that FX’s programming line-up can stand with the premium cable and streaming networks.
Also, we’re glad to see BoJack Horseman taking home Best Animated Series as the show continues to evolve and get more emotionally and satisfyingly complex.
See the full list of this year’s Critics Choice Awards winners here.
#OnTheHorizon
Art Sandwich Confidential is a comedy show at The Loft at Liz’s, an art gallery, where comedians will do their act then transition into stories inspired by the art on display. This time around, the art exhibition is entitled BLUE, so blue humor is the order for the evening.
With Ramon Rivas, Megan Gailey, Calise Hawkins, The Puterbaugh Sisters, Ryan Dalton, and Curtis Cook getting blue in the name of art, we think you shouldn’t miss out on this. In fact, admission is free (though there’s a $10 suggested donation to support the comics.
Art Sandwich Confidential Vol. 2-an evening of BLUE Humor is happening this Friday, Dec. 16th at 7PM at The Loft at Liz’s, 453 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, CA.
More details here.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, open mics, and maps can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com
Actually, it’s in a few hours at 5PM PST/8PM EST on A&E.
Also, TJ has tweeted, “I will address the elephant in the room at @CriticsChoice on A&E. Tune in and find out.”
He may be referring Trump or his very recent arrest or something else altogether. Like he said, tune and find out.
In any case, TJ will undoubtedly put on a show to remember.
Adam Lustick wrote a comedy pilot “The Mark Lembeck Technique” that dives into the mind of a therapist who suffered a mental breakdown and is convinced that he can still offer people help as a therapist despite his reality being fractured.
It’s right up Adult Swim’s otherworldly, mischievous, weird alley.
Jason Alexander stars as Mark Lembeck and really hits the mark with being the bizarre, but sweet old man.
Comedy Crawl and Open Mic Run All Updated for Next Week 12/12/16
Whether you want to see or do comedy in the Greater LA Area, we’ve got you covered.
Radio Picture Show, one of the best storytelling shows in LA, is back for its final round of the 2016 and they’ll be doing it to benefit Planned Parenthood.
Max Silvestri, Laura House, Kristen Studard, and Kurt Braunohler will be joining hosts Lauren Cook and Shauna McGarry this Wednesday at The Virgil.
Get your tickets here.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, open mics, and maps can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
Comedy Crawl All Updated for Next Week 12/10/16
All across the Greater LA Area, we’ve got listings that cover anything and everything that’s worth seeing in comedy for next week and beyond. Stand-up, sketch, improv, screenings, experimental comedy, podcast tapings, holiday shows, and more.
Queen of Sh*tty Robots Simone Giertz continues her reign with her latest project: an automated machine that can wipe you clean after going #2.
Don’t worry, no real people relieving themselves are used in developing this robot. It’s still pretty damn fun to imagine how much chaos would ensue if someone actually used Giertz’s creation.
Sam Morril utilizes his cleverness to weave in and out of dark subject matter with such ease that it almost doesn’t seem like dark comedy.
He put that skill on display in his third stand-up set on Conan from this week.
Joe Mande (The Good Place, Master of None, Parks and Recreation, Kroll Show, Delocated, Conan, his own comedy mixtape) is doing a full hour at Meltdown this upcoming Thursday with special guest Gabe Liedman.
Tickets are $10 and you can (and should) get them here.
On their own, Jackie Kashian and Laurie Kilmartin are fantastic comedians that you should absolutely keep an eye on with whatever they do (The Dork Forest, Conan, 45 Jokes About My Dead Dad, This Will Make an Excellent Horcrux).
Together, they make our new favorite podcast, The Jackie and Laurie Show on the Nerdist Podcast Network.
There are no guests and it’s as impromptu a conversation as they can make it, but the pairing of Kashian and Kilmartin brings a wonderfully, brash, open, unfiltered dynamic to the show. They give a great, unique window into talking shop in comedy and the lives of two successful, working, veteran comedians that hasn’t really gelled in the world of podcasting the way it has on The Jackie and Laurie Show.
There’s a bit of an ‘inside baseball’ vibe to the way they break down their own comedy, where they’re performing, what’s going on in their lives, but their chemistry, the razor sharp riffing and roasting, and the perspective of two older female comedians can make it engaging for plenty of those not in the world of comedy.
So, if you haven’t done so already, please subscribe and listen to The Jackie and Laurie Show.
Per usual, Moontower Comedy & Oddity Festival in Austin, TX is stacked.
Patton Oswalt, Ali Wong, Colin Quinn, Aparna Nancherla, Barry Crimmins, Dana Gould, Goddamn Comedy Jam, Wendy Liebman, Guy Branum, and Drew Michael are just scratching the surface of this first line-up announcement.
Moontower is set for Wednesday, April 19th-Saturday, April 22nd and you get passes, ranging from ‘Front Row’ to ‘Club/Podcast’, here.
TJ Miller has found a new way to get through the serious moments in a late night talk show interview.
Taking a cue from being on set at Office Christmas Party, he really does have a dance party go on behind himself and Conan while talking about the times we’re living in right now.
One of the more intriguing layers of Stephen Colbert is him maintaining his Catholicism while being the clever, subversive comedian that he is.
Naturally, John Mulaney growing up Catholic, a thing that Mulaney has plenty of material on, is ripe common ground for a late night chat between John and Stephen.
Watch the conversation here. Also, enjoy how Mulaney sneaks in one last little morsel for an applause break at the end of the interview.
It’s like he has a fun freewheeling show currently on Broadway or something like that.
An a capella trio of (and band of mischievous comedians) Randy Liedtke, Davey Johnson, and Curt Neill AKA The John 3 Reillys are putting on a holiday show that will probably be unlike any other. Seeing whether this has anything to do with John C. Reilly should peak your curiosity at the very least
The John 3 Reillys Christmas Special, presented by Trepany House, is set for next Friday at the Steve Allen Theater and will also feature such wonderful guests as Kate Micucci, Derek Hughes, Karen Kilgariff, and Katie Crown.
Tickets are $10 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.
President Barack Obama Will Be on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Next Monday
Given that these are the final weeks of Obama’s presidency that will transition into a Trump presidency (barring something crazy happening by way of faithless electors), this interview on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah will be more historic than it should be. If any other presidential candidate on either side had won the election, it would have the potential to be more of a footnote. Since a reality TV star is now set to be POTUS, appearances on satirical comedy programs and late night are given as more weight than they ever have.
Honestly, we’d be surprised if the conversation was very funny as there are more important matters than getting to bits. Still, Obama will go down as one of the funniest President and it would be hard to imagine him not taking to opportunity to deliver another zinger on The Daily Show.
We don’t know exactly what will happen during this appearance, but it should be a good reminder that Obama will be sticking around fighting to maintain his legacy and prevent the unraveling of democracy.
Tune in Monday, December 12th at 11PM for this inevitably historic moment.
Please Watch Tina Fey’s Full Acceptance Speech for the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award
A great hilarious intro from Jon Hamm is followed by a flat out hilarious, honest, empowering 20 minute speech from Tina Fey that covers her career in the greater context of being a powerful woman in Hollywood and what to do going forward in the coming years. It’s so funny that it borders on being another awards show monologue that Fey has killed for so many years with Amy Poehler.
It is definitely in the category of speeches you need to hear right now and you can watch it here.
Conan Without Borders: Berlin Is Now Streaming
Conan O’Brien really went for broke in all his tomfoolery throughout Berlin, making this trip one of his best yet.
Specifically, his segments in learning traditional German dance and visiting a professional dominatrix are the sort of segments that set him apart from the rest of late night with his freewheeling, carefree, unfettered silliness. Conan also made sure to highlight the refugee population in the city in an enlightening, life affirming way.
No one visits cities quite like Conan O’Brien, which is why we hope that plenty more of these travel specials will get ordered up.
Watch all of Conan Without Borders: Berlin here.
