Ben Roy tells a story for the latest season of Comedy Central’s storytelling series This Is Not Happening that might make you think twice about touching yourself, especially when you’re all alone in a hotel room.
It also happens to be one of the best damn stories of this season of TINH.
This is a fantastic, ‘uge move, in addition to The Chris Gethard Show and No, You Shut Up!, for Fusion’s comedy line-up.
Anthony Atamanuik and James Adomian have seemingly dazzled the country, certainly the Internet, with their impressions of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Now, they’re getting an entire cross-platform digital series and a one hour TV special featuring sketches and their current tour on Fusion.
In fact, Trump and Bernie are sharing a hotel room tonight and you’ll be able to get “their” reactions to these Super Tuesday results at 8PM PST on Facebook.
Whatever the results from today’s primaries and however you feel about them, a Trump vs. Bernie series and special should make you feel better.
Steve Martin may have thought otherwise in the past, but his appearance on The Tonight Show from last night shows he’s got plenty of comedic reserves to tap from and is still one of the most clever minds in comedy that’s around.
Just watch how he made his hesitant entrance into a whole musical number and his review of his own recent stand-up performance for the proof.
It’s no secret that depression is an extremely common thread in the life of many comedians. However, few describe it so succinctly and perfectly and hilariously as NYC based comedian Jacqueline Novak and those notions of hers are now captured in a bound book called Weep In Public.
Actually, the whole title aptly reads “How To Weep in Public: Feeble Offerings on Depression from One Who Knows”.
It’s now available wherever books are sold, both online and in real life from Three Rivers Press.
Oh, the fun that Paul F. Tompkins and the gang at NYSU have is sublime.
No further explanation will be provided. Just watch it and better your life.
Kristen Schaal, after her interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers, made sure that her appearance was extra special by making the audience in attendance at Studio 8G, the happiest audience in the whole entire world.
So, one by one, she went through the crowd with a bunch of marriage proposals. Yes, it’s proposals and not just one proposal.
If this doesn’t brighten your day, then, well, we’re not sure what we can do for you.
Stand-up comedians Hampton Yount, Josh Sharp, Nick Rutherford, Greg Barris, Andrés Du Bouchet, Kiran Deol, Clare O’Kane, and more join host Ryan Singer and guest co-host Dave Waite in not only doing anything that isn’t stand-up, but getting delightfully weird about the whole affair.
As guest of Stephen Colbert on The Late Show, venerable director Spike Jonze wanted to do more than just a simple bit on the show.
He, instead, opted for the make-a-whole-new-opening-for-the-show route.
The result, while only a one-time deal marked by Leap Day, really captures Colbert’s mixture of absurdity and heart that he goes for with abandon at the helm of The Late Show.
Watch Spike Jonze’s Late Show opening/A Short Film by Spike Jonze.
The world of Baskets is full of people that are unsure of a failed student of a clown trying to be a rodeo clown.
Unfortunately, for Chip Baskets (Zach Galifianakis), one of those people is in a testimonial that’s made to advertise Baskets’ clowning talents.
In case you were wondering, Airplane! does still hold up.
Part of TruTV’s ever expanding brand of comedy is the new truInside series that delves into the “untold tales behind the iconic comedy that has kept audiences laughing for decades”.
Kicking it off with going behind-the-scenes of iconic comedy classic Airplane! is a pretty good start.
Catch the premiere of truInside at 10PM on TruTV.
Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie are once again taking up the mantle as Flight of the Conchords, after three years of virtual radio silence, and going on a big ol’ tour across all of North America this June and July.
Specifically, the tour dates are as follows:
Jun. 11 – Cleveland, OH – State Theatre
Jun. 12 – Philadelphia, PA – Mann Center for Performing Arts
Jun. 13 – Washington, DC – Wolf Trap Filene Center
Jun. 14 – Columbus, OH – Palace Theatre
Jun. 16 – Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre
Jun. 17 – Minneapolis, MN – Orpheum
Jun. 18 – Milwaukee, WI – Riverside Theatre
Jun. 19 – Chicago, IL – Pritzker Pavilion
Jun. 22 – Redmond, WA – Marymoor Park
Jun. 23 – Vancouver, BC – Orpheum
Jun. 24 – Portland, OR – Keller Auditorium
Jun. 27 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
Jul. 01 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl
Jul. 02 – San Diego, CA – Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre at SDSU
Jul. 03 – Phoenix, AZ Comerica Theatre
Jul. 05 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Jul. 07 – Kansas City, MO – Starlight Theatre
Jul. 09 – Austin, TX – Bass Hall
Jul. 11 – New Orleans, LA – Saenger Theatre
Jul. 12 – Atlanta, GA – Chastain Park Amphitheatre
Jul. 14 – Nashville, TN – Ascend Amphitheater
Jul. 16 – Boca Raton, FL – Mizner Park Amphitheatre
Jul. 17 – St. Augustine, FL – St. Augustine Amphitheatre
Jul. 18 – Cary, NC – Koka Booth Amphitheatre
Jul. 22 – Newport, RI – Newport Folk Festival 2016 (Fort Adams State Park)
Jul. 23 – Boston, MA – Blue Hills Bank Pavilion
Jul. 24 – New York, NY – Central Park SummerStage
Jul. 27 – Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theatre
You can and should buy tickets here starting this Fri. at 10AM EST/7AM PST.
Nothing quite summons the performer out of Jimmy Kimmel quite like his on-going bit of continuing to postpone Matt Damon from being a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Their latest quarrel came after The Oscars when Damon got the closest he’s ever gotten to being on the show without kidnapping Jimmy.
Even as an Oscar nominee, Matt Damon had to sneak into the background of another interview and ask a huge favor from Ben Affleck to make it on to Kimmel’s post-Oscars show.
May the “war” between Damon and Kimmel continue forever so Damon cameos at Kimmel like this one will keep happening.
This past Sunday saw much of comedy rise to the occasion and throttle social injustice when called upon (even if it’s an implicit sort of call-to-action).
Chris Rock met expectations and talked about the diversity problem while hosting The Oscars relentlessly.
Then, just hours after that, John Oliver ripped Donald Trump hard on Last Week Tonight and did so in a such a great, brutal way that only Oliver can on his HBO show. It’s an early, secret Christmas present from John Oliver to the future of America
It could just be preaching to the choir, but it’s damn fine preaching. Please watch it here and share so maybe it reaches beyond the people that are already on board.
P.S. If elected, Trump wants to strengthen libel laws to make it cost dearly for people like Oliver to point out facts about Donald and make jokes about them.
5:30PM PST/8:30PM EST on ABC.
While there was a bit of buzz drummed up when Chris Rock was announced as the host of this year’s Oscars, the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, born out of all the nominees for this year being white, put Rock in a critical position to potentially deliver one of the most hotly anticipated awards hosting performances ever.
In fact, his monologue and bits throughout may showcase the value of these awards telecasts over it being Hollywood patting itself on the back as well as how powerful some jokes can be.
Again, tune in at 5:30PM PST/8:30PM EST on ABC.
As hosts of yesterday’s Film Independent Spirit Awards, Kate McKinnon and Kumail Nanjiani engaged in the classic movie awards tradition of ribbing and parodying the movies that were nominated.
Their pedigree of SNL, Portlandia, and Silicon Valley served them well, especially with their great send-up of Carol. Watch it here.
The Montreal Just For Laughs Festival is holding its first round of showcases around LA looking for the next stand-up and character comedians to highlight as a “New Face” of comedy.
Here’s a list of when and where all of this first round is happening (*denotes character showcase instead of stand-up):
Mon. Feb. 29th
Westside Comedy Theater 6PM*, 8PM, 10PM $5
Tues. Mar. 1st
Westside Comedy Theater 6PM*, 8PM, 10PM $5
Wed. Mar. 2nd
UCB Franklin 5PM* $5
Hollywood Laugh Factory 8PM $17-$27/2 drink min.
The Comedy Store Belly Room 10:30PM $5/2 item min.
Thurs. Mar. 3rd
The Ice House 8PM $10-$17/2 drink min.
Fri. Mar. 4th
iO West 5:30PM FREE
Hollywood Improv Comedy Lab 8PM $5
The rest of our listings are embedded at www.thecomedybureau.com
Here’s a quick round-up montage of what’s been going on with Those Who Can’t (without spoilers) and subsequently a pretty good showcase of why you should be watching it every week.
Oh, Those Who Can’t is on at 10:30PM on Thursdays on TruTV.
Before you knew her as Chloe O’Brian from 24, Mary Lynn Rajskub was on stage as a stand-up comedian. In fact, any time she has had away from the show over the years, she has stepped back up to the mic.
So, we’re not surprised to see her on The Tonight Show do a stand-up set last night rather than not sitting on the couch and chatting with Jimmy or winning puppies from a quiz.
As cute as puppies can be, we prefer this much more.
Broadcast will be live at 2PM PST/5PM EST on IFC.
Before The Oscars tomorrow night, don’t sleep on The Film Independent Spirit Awards, which will be hosted by the fascinating pairing of Kumail Nanjiani and SNL’s Kate McKinnon.
Again, it’s live and with Kumail and Kate, the show could get very interesting.
Rather than worry about throwing your own Oscars viewing party, go watch Doug Benson and friends riff on The Oscars telecast at Cinefamily for Doug Benson Watches The Oscars. It’s free to attend, but Cinefamily Black Card members do get priority entry.
The show starts at 5PM this Sunday, Feb. 28th, but there’s a whole potluck and a podcast taping of Dining with Doug & Karen right before starting at 3PM.
All of our other comedy listings are embedded at www.thecomedybureau.com.
Wyatt Cenac has a follow-up to his Grammy nominated album Brooklyn out today. Off of A Special Thing Records, Furry Dumb Fighter is available right now on iTunes.
In this latest hour, which is just an album as opposed to an accompanying album to a special, Cenac gets looser while still maintaining his laid back persona juxtaposed with smart, cutting social commentary. In fact, Wyatt goes for an album-length running gag that nicely bookends great sections on race, class, gender inequality, etc. Cenac definitely has stepped up from Brooklyn and that got him nominated for a Grammy.
Here’s a preview of it if you’re not already enticed.
The History channel’s Night Class looks like it’s off to a pretty great start.
One of the series within the show is Great Minds with Dan Harmon and the first episode takes wondrous comedic license with an actualized Ludwig van Beethoven as played by Jack Black being brought to the present day. Though probably not the way that many imagine Beethoven might be in real life, it’s still a pretty sweet version the classical legend.
Watch the first Great Minds with Dan Harmon here.
UPDATE: Brett Davis wrote a recent blog post in regards to this article in order to clear up any confusion:
As much as I would like to claim this situation as a stunt, unfortunately it is not. To be clear, the contract Jesse and I signed would NEVER be legally binding, but they knew that. I was screwed by Joe and Edmond, two producers of The Special who, unfortunately are the legal owners of the show/timeslot. MNN requires Manhattan residents to be the in-name producers. thus, even though The Special has my namesake, I was never the producer on file. EPs Chris Gethard and JD Amato were given an honorary Executive Producer title, but more to honor their work at MNN, but they have very little to do with the show itself.
I’m not too worried. The new Special already had a rough start. They passed the show on to Steve Whalen this week and the feed cut out. Next week and moving forward, the show will be in the hands of a noted drug user.
Thanks again for your sympathy in this situation, but I’m a Comedy Central “Comic To Watch” and i have an upcoming project with a big name attached, so I will be fine. I will be making a big announcement at The Macaulay Culkin Showthis Sunday night at Shea Stadium regarding my future in NYC, and I hope you can come see it live.
Whether it’s real or fake, this is probably one of the crazier things that has happened on a comedy series in the last several years.
Following the footsteps of The Chris Gethard Show at public access channel MNN is a tall order, but The Special without Brett Davis was doing pretty well in stepping up to the challenge over the last several months. Brett Davis (who, to be clear, did host the show as various characters who aren’t Brett Davis) tapped into the same experimental comedy vibe as Gethard, but did something entirely different.
However, this past week of The Special saw a bit within the universe of The Special break the fourth wall and take the show away from Davis. This particular episode put up a faux contest for a new host of another show, Cosmos, with one of the contestants being Jesse Camp, formerly of MTV fame. Camp won the contest and the contract he signed on camera was said to be legally binding and notarized and signed by Davis as well. Yet, the contract was not for the faux contest, but actually for the ownership of the whole Special show itself, which then transferred to Jesse Camp.
Though it makes the reality of all of this questionable, the contract had 100% REAL CONTRACT JESSE IS THE NEW HOST! printed in bold on it as well.
According to Brett in a blog post, this all happened without his prior knowledge and was probably a result of him traveling to Los Angeles and having very good meetings that would move his comedy career forward. Rather than take legal action, he has opted to just sever ties from the show. Already, Brett has changed his Twitter handle to @BrettDavisRip and has tweeted unfavorably about the show happening without him.
Somehow, this very much looks like some sort of storyline that would exist in the crazed fictitious world of professional wrestling. In fact, there are a few episodes of The Special that riff on pro wrestling tropes and take them to a much more darkly comedic place.
Unfortunately, as amended above, Brett has parted ways with the show.
Taking into account that Brett started the conceit of The Special by being “murdered” in the first episode, then consistently playing different characters every week that fill in for Brett, it’s easy to imagine how this could be all an elaborate way for Brett to possibly depart from the show or a complex “meta-hoax” that allows Brett and The Special to push the boundaries of their own boundary pushing show. It’s also worth noting that Brett is the latest winner of The Andy Kaufman Award and describing this all as Andy Kaufman-esque wouldn’t be off base at all.
We want to believe this is all an elaborate long-con sort of a bit, but, for now, it’s proceeding forward in a real way as there are already promos for The Special with Jesse Camp online. Don’t be surprised if Brett steals his show back in an equally crazy manner.
In any case, you can clearly see from all this madness that you should be following what Brett does very closely.
Futurama will now live on not only in the many runs that it had over the years, but will also continue as a mobile game called Game of Drones available now at the App Store and Google Play.
Watch a trailer for the game here and before you quote Fry about handing over money, take note that it’s free to download.
