Jimmy Pardo’s annual telethon style Pardcast-a-Thon that benefits Smile Train is happening in about 10 min. as of this post.
Don’t miss out on good times from Pardo and company as well as supporting an important cause that helps kids be able to smile.
The YouTube star Miranda Sings (created by Colleen Ballinger) was Jerry Seinfeld’s guest on the latest episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and, besides the Super Bowl edition, is the closest thing to an episode of Seinfeld we’ve seen on the show (i.e. it gets pretty awkward over nothing but minutia).
After watching it, this episode could be entitled “The Eye Roll” in the universe of Seinfeld.
For Black Friday today, South Park’s “James Cameron” & “My Bitch Ain’t No Hobbit” will be on a special 7" picture disc that you can only get a record stores that participate in Record Store Day.
If you’re not busy clawing your way through a Best Buy or Target, this might be a nice thing to add to your agenda.
ON THE HORIZON
The Shit Show @ The Lexington Thurs. Dec. 4th 8:30PM FREE
The Goddamn Comedy Jam @ The Lyric Theatre 8PM $12
COMEDY CRAWL
Pardcastathon @ ACME Comedy Hollywood 12PM $10 (sold out)
Brand New Ball @ UCB Franklin 7PM $5
Unnecessary Evil @ Westside Comedy Theater 8PM $10
Beth Stelling @ Hollywood Improv 8PM $15/2 item min.
Jackie Kashian @ Flapper Burbank 8PM/10PM $20/2 item min.
Sauce @ Desano’s Pizza 8PM $5 suggested donation
Peachy Keen @ Bar Lubitsch 8:30PM FREE
The Indigo Children Comedy Hour @ Echoes Under Sunset 9PM FREE
Infected! @ UCB Sunset 10:30PM $5
Previously Recorded… Live! @ The Comedy Store 10:30PM $10/2 item min.
OPEN MIC RUN
SET LIST @ FLAPPERS BAR 102 E. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, CA/Sign-up 5PM/First come, first served/must improvise set of never before seen provided set list/No purchase necessary
HOLLYWOOD IMPROV 8162 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 5:30PM/Starts 5:45PM/Lottery/20 spots only/3 min./No purchase necessary
ROCKPAPER COFFEE CO 7509 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 5PM/Starts 6PM/5 min./One item min.
SAL’S COMEDY HOLE 7356 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 5PM/Starts 6PM/Ends 8PM/5 min./First come, first served
SILVERLAKE LOUNGE 2906 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 5;30PM/Starts 6PM/Lottery/Hosted by Megan Koester & Alison Stevenson
ECHOES UNDER SUNSET 1310 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA/Starts 7PM/Lottery/One item min./4 min.
MAX BLOOM’S 200 N. Malden Ave., Fullerton, CA/Sign-up 6PM/Starts 6:30PM/booked show after/no purchase necessary
HOLLYWOOD HOTEL 1160 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 6PM/Starts 7PM/First come, first served/5 min./1 drink min.
SABOR Y CULTURA 5625 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA/Starts 8PM/Sign-up is a lottery/3 min./No purchase necessary
TAO COMEDY STUDIO 7466 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA #201/Starts 8PM/First come, first served/5 min./$5 cover/includes drink/Hosted by Bobbie Oliver
FLAPPERS BAR 102 E. Magnolia Ave., Burbank, CA/Sign-up 11PM/Starts 11:30PM/lottery/3-5 min./1 item min.
Don’t want any specific religion in your Christmas, one of the most religion based holidays out there, special?
Comedy Central has got you covered with their All-Star Non Denominational Christmas Special featuring the likes of Key & Peele, Kroll Show, Andy Daly, Broad City, Larry Wilmore, Stephen Colbert, and way more.
It premieres tonight at 10PM and repeats at the same time on Fri., Sat., and Sun. this Thanksgiving weekend.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is livestreaming an entire marathon on YouTube right now. Whether you’re waiting for family, friends, or the food, or to just get through the day, this should be perfect thing to watch.
Get in on the livestream here.
ON THE HORIZON
Pardcastathon @ ACME Comedy Hollywood Fri. Nov. 28th 12PM $10 (sold out)
Ithamar Has Nothing to Say @ Second City Hollywood Sat. Nov. 29th 8PM $10/$5/w Goldstar
Brent Weinbach @ Hollywood Improv 10PM $15/2 item min.
Stonecutters LA @ Nerdmelt Showroom Sat. Dec. 6th 4PM FREE w/RSVP
The Dollop LIVE w/Special Guest Patton Oswalt @ Nerdmelt Showroom Mon. Dec. 8th 9PM $10
An Evening with Sean Patton @ Nerdmelt Showroom Tues. Dec. 9th 9PM $5
Cameron Esposito @ Hollywood Improv Fri. Dec. 19th 8PM $15/2 item min.
COMEDY CRAWL
35th Annual Free Thanksgiving Feast @ Hollywood Laugh Factory 1PM/3PM/5PM/7PM FREE
OPEN MIC RUN
No open mics today. Enjoy yourself for once, maybe?
(via Deadline)
Hey, Internet commenters, you did it. Your snarky, nasty, vile, unfiltered comments are now going to be the subject of a pilot that Joel McHale is developing for E!
Comedian Michael Kosta is set to host the show and guide the dissection of what exactly goes into Internet comments. If this goes to series, we can only hope that it will encourage people to start spelling correctly.
When roommates go out of town for a few days, it’s hard to simply say goodbye, or shake hands, or even hug. You live with them and there’s some sort of weird bond, usually, unless you happen to hate each other to each other’s core.
So, Dead Kevin shows how they say goodbye to a roommate leaving for only a few days and maybe you can follow their model, that is if you’re agile enough.
Bob Odenkirk has had stacks of old stand-up jokes for years and years and before he goes on forward with Better Call Saul and other non-stand-up pursuits, he wanted to get them recorded live.
The result is the comedy album “Amateur Hour”, a really fun meta ride through Bob reading his old jokes, often crumpling ones that he doesn’t want to do along with the enthusiastic, very young Brandon Wardell to contrast. There’s, very much in the spirit of Mr. Show, also an “old instructional” track on how to do stand-up from decades past.
It should be a fun thing to listen to while you’re enduing the marathon of food and family that is Thanksgiving. Get it from AST Records now.
Want to see a shady looking Cuba Gooding Jr. yell at two “upcoming” filmmakers on a boat in Florida? Of course you do. That’s only one of the crazy things you’ll see in the teaser for Comedy Central’s latest series “Big Time in Hollywood, FL”.
From the minds of Dan Schimpf and Alex Anfanger, Big Time in Hollywood, FL follows two fledgling moviemakers that get in way too deep to something that did not expect that seems to involve getting caught up in a crime ring, Michael Madsen, a monkey, and more.
Watch the teaser and see it all here.
(via Deadline)
While Craig Ferguson is set to end his run of The Late Late Show on Dec. 19th and James Corden isn’t taking over the role of host until Mar. 9th, CBS will still continue The Late Late Show with a grouping of guests hosts.
Announced today, Jim Gaffigan, Judd Apatow, Will Arnett, Thomas Lennon, and more will fill in during the winter at The Late Late Show.
As John Oliver’s run as host at The Daily Show ended up being a test run for his own show, perhaps the very same thing could happen during any of the weeks that any of the aforementioned interim hosts.
However, there is no word on whether there will be interim Geoff Petersons.
This Thanksgiving is a time of, if anything, compulsory familial interaction and conversation. All in attendance probably mean well and just aren’t sure how to communicate especially in such a forced situation.
Perhaps, you’d get a better idea of what you’re dad is trying to telling you through “his version” of a police procedural thanks to UCB’s digital team here in LA.
(via Deadline)
Very few sitcoms made it out of this TV season’s primordial ooze and one of them, announced today, is Cristela.
Cristela gets a full season order putting the show at 22 episodes, which sounds incredibly rare these days for a new comedy series.
So, there are still some network top dogs that still like comedy apparently.
ON THE HORIZON
Fitnesscise: A Standup Comedy Show @ Siesta Yoga Fri. Dec. 5th 8:30PM $7 suggested donation
Santa-thon 2014 Hosted by Fred Willard @ Largo at the Coronet Theatre Mon. Dec. 8th 8PM $30
COMEDY CRAWL
Bird Turds: Dear Diary, It’s Thanksgiving… @ UCB Sunset 7PM $5
The Raw Show @ Comedy Union 7PM $5/2 item min.
Richard Pryor: Live in Concert/Live on the Sunset Strip @ New Beverly Cinema 7:30PM $8
Thanksgiving Feast Show @ UCB Franklin 8PM $5
Meltdown @ Nerdmelt Showroom 8:30PM FREE w/RSVP (stand by only)
Fresh Out: Stand-Up Comedy @ UCB Sunset 8:30PM $5
Facebook @ UCB Franklin 9:30PM $5 (stand by only)
Extra Credit @ The Clubhouse 10PM FREE
OPEN MIC RUN
THE COMEDY STORE PATIO 8433 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA/Starts 4PM/Ends 6PM/Lottery/4 min./No purchase necessary/Hosted by Josh Martin
FLAPPERS BURBANK 102 E. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, CA/Sign-up 5PM/Starts 6PM/3 min./No purchase necessary/1 item min.
ICE HOUSE STAGE 2 24 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena, CA/Sign-up 5:30PM/Starts 6PM/4 min./Lottery/No purchase necessary
ROCKPAPER COFFEE CO. 7509 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 5PM/Starts 6PM/Ends 8PM/First come, first served/One item min.
SAL COMEDY HOLE 7356 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 5PM/Starts 6PM/5 min./First come, first served
CORK’S LOUNGE 5043 Van Nuys Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA/Starts 7PM/First come, first served/No purchase necessary/Hosted by Danielle Arce
ECHOES UNDER SUNSET 1310 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 7:30PM/Starts 8PM/First come, first served./1 item min.
PALADINO’S 6101 Reseda Blvd., Tarzana, CA/Starts 7PM/Ends 9PM/First come, first served/7 min./No purchase necessary/Hosted by Thomas Fraser
PHO KING DELICIOUS 9350 Corbin Ave., Northridge, CA/Starts 7PM/Ends 9PM/First come, first served/Mixed mic/No purchase necessary/Hosted by David Relyea
ZOEY’S CAFE 185 E. Santa Clara, Ventura, CA/Sign-up 7PM/Starts 7:30PM/First come, first served/10 min./No purchase necessary/Hosted by Samantha Ross
TRIBAL CAFE 1651 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 6:30PM/Starts 7PM/mixed mic
LIQUID ZOO 7214 Sepulveda Blvd., Van Nuys, CA/Sign-up 8:30PM w/one drink min./Starts 9PM/first come, first served/7 min.
THE OYSTER HOUSE 12446 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA/Starts 10PM/Ends 1AM/First come, first served/5 min./Hosted by Gary Carver
THE WINCHESTER ROOM 6522 San Fernando Rd., Glendale, CA/Starts 10PM/First come, first served/7 min./Hosted by Anthony Mojica and Nikki Wantz
HOUSE OF TACOS 5616 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA/Starts 9PM/First come, first served/No purchase necessary
FLAPPERS BAR 102 E. Magnolia Ave., Burbank, CA/Sign-up 10PM/Starts 10:30PM/Lottery/3-5 min./1 item min.
(via Variety)
Awards season might be bare for comedies as we saw with The Spirit Awards today, but that’s why, we guess, comedy has started proliferating more of its own awards.
Variety is now in its fifth year of honoring a comedian with their Power of Comedy Award and, this year, they have selected Aziz Ansari as the recipient.
There will be a big ceremony that will double as a benefit for the Noreen Fraser Foundation next month in the Belasco Theater featuring stand-up from the likes of Jerrod Carmichael, Tig Notaro, and Nick Kroll though attendance is probably not open to the general public.
Hopefully, Variety will put clips online afterwards.
Matt Porter and Charlie Hankin have done many things that we’ve enjoyed here at The Comedy Bureau over the years. They both comprise the amazing Good Cop Great Cop and have made the grounded post-apocalyptic CC:Studios series New Timers.
Now, Matt and Charlie have cooked something new for MTV Other called Door Boys. Technically, they play door men, but, given how their disposition towards the gig, they more accurately are door boys.
Erin Foley notched in her latest late night set on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
For obvious reasons, our headline here couldn’t simply read “Watch Erin Foley on Ferguson”, but it’s still worth watching if you need a laugh today.
Start at 33:40 at here or at CBS.com when the YouTube clip gets inevitably taken down at some point.
Andres du Bouchet is absolutely one of our favorite comedians to watch. Every performance is nuanced, absurd, richly textured piece and it’s simultaneously amazing and hilarious to watch.
So, we’ve been excited for his brand new album 20-Sided Guy, for some time now, as it features so many of those performances, some of which we were lucky to be at, all throughout Los Angeles and the various bizarre and/or wonderful places you can see comedy in this town.
The good folks at AST Records has released a vinyl version featuring 45 min. of du Bouchet with a link to download the full deluxe 2-hr version of 20-Sided Guy.
If you need a laugh today, we suggest that you get in on getting 20-Sided Guy now. Also, if you’re interested, du Bouchet’s release party in LA is also tonight at The Federal Bar in North Hollywood.
The awards season for movies are coming closer with plenty of speculation as to who the front runners are. Well, some suspicions and pull quotes have been confirmed with Film Independent’s Spirit Awards announced the nominees for 2015.
If you’ve been to the theaters lately, you’ll probably guess that the tone of the awards fare is pretty bleak, but Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) garnered six Spirit Award nominations including Best Feature, Best Director, Best Actor (Michael Keaton), Best Supporting Actor (Edward Norton), Best Supporting Actress (Emma Stone), and Best Cinematographer (Emmanuel Lubezki).
The wonderful Jenny Slate also got a Best Actress nomination for her great performance in Obvious Child.
Everything else nominated was dramatic, gritty, heart wrenching, etc.
Despite the declarations by North Korea against The Interview starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, there is a brand new trailer today that the North Korean government will not likely be happy with either since more of their current leader Kim Jong-Un is featured.
We couldn’t care less what North Korea thinks about it. as we get to see more of Randall Park, who we hope you’ve seen in Channel 101, Newsreaders, Veep, and so much more, plays the role Kim Jong-Un.
New re-edited episodes of #ArrestedDevelopment are a blast to watch and narrate- fun way to start my work day pic.twitter.com/w4h4XoEAwc
— Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) November 25, 2014
Last month, Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz mentioned, sort of in passing, that he’s working on re-editing season 4 of the show in chronological order. No other details were brought up as to when we all could possibly see the new version of season 4.
However, today, Ron Howard, Arrested Development’s narrator, tweeted out that he’s doing new narration for these re-edited episodes.
With that in mind, it would be very surprising if we all didn’t get to see the new and improved episodes in the not so distant future.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)
If you’re a fan of the short lived Selfie with Karen Gillan and John Cho, you’ll be able to get some closure by watching the rest of the first and only season on Hulu.
If you read everything we post here at The Comedy Bureau, this move should come as no surprise to you, especially given our thoughts that we posted yesterday on comedy at broadcast networks being assuredly diminished week by week.
It would almost seem as if the Internet has been made into the “land of misfit toys” for comedy programming that networks like NBC and ABC don’t want.
ON THE HORIZON
Best Bars & Friends with Sean Patton and Jay Larson @ Hollywood Improv Sat. Dec. 6th 10PM $15/2 item min.
Toledo Rep Presents @ UCB Sunset Tues. Dec. 9th 10:30PM $5
COMEDY CRAWL
Doug Loves Movies @ UCB Franklin 7PM FREE
Bacchanalia @ Black Rose Tavern 8PM FREE
Good Looks in Arts District 8PM FREE
Put Your Hands Together @ UCB Franklin 8PM $5
Glory Hole @ Westside Comedy Theater 8PM $10
Andres du Bouchet Record Release Party @ The Federal Bar 8:30PM $10
Sleepaway Camp @ Downtown Independent Theater 9PM FREE
An Evening with Andrew Santino @ Nerdmelt Showroom 9PM $5
Warp Zone Comedy 2 Year Anniversary @ The Virgil 9:30PM FREE
The National Midnight Society @ Voila! Gallery 10PM FREE
Roast Battle @ The Comedy Store Belly Room 10:30PM FREE
Wild Horses present The Perspective @ UCB Sunset 10:30PM $5
You’re Welcome: A Thanksgiving Improv Show @ UCB Franklin 11PM $5
OPEN MIC RUN
FLAPPERS BURBANK 102 E. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, CA/Sign-up 5PM/Starts 5:30PM/Stand-up, sketch, improv all welcome/5 min.
GRINDHOUSE CAFE 1051 N. Havenhurst Dr., West Hollywood, CA/Starts 6PM/First come, first served/5 min./Hosted by Steve Hernandez and Paul Laier
HOLLYWOOD IMPROV 8162 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 5:30PM/Starts 5:45PM/Lottery/20 spots available
AMSTERDAM CAFE 10905 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood, CA/Sign-up 6PM/Starts 6:30PM
BERLIN CURRYWURST 1620 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 6:30PM/Starts 7PM/3 min. w/o drink/7 min. w/drink/Hosted by Sally Courtois
THE OTHER DOOR 10437 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, CA/To get a booked spot, email mouthypants@gmail.com by Monday at 5 PM/20 names will be chosen at random/Sign-up for 20 lottery spots starts at 7:30 at the show/Go to facebook.com/mouthypantscomedy for more details
ROCKPAPER COFFEE CO. 7509 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 5PM/Starts 6PM/Ends 8PM/First come, first served/One item min.
SAL’S COMEDY HOLE 7356 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 5PM/Starts 6PM/5 min./First come, first served
KIBITZ ROOM @ CANTER’S 419 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 5:30PM/Starts 6PM/Ends 7:30PM/Lottery/No over the top vulgarity/6 min. w/$5 purchase, 3 min./without/Hosted by Burt Teplitzky and Danny McDermott
COFFEE GALLERY 2029 Lake Ave., Altadena, CA/Sign-up 7:30PM/Starts 8PM/lottery/5 min.
PEDONE’S PIZZA 1332 Hermosa Ave., Hermosa Beach, CA/Sign-up 7:30PM/Starts 7:45PM/Ends 9:30PM/5-7min.
TRIBAL CAFE 1651 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, CA (Echo Park)/Starts 8PM/mixed mic
THE COMEDY STORE BELLY ROOM 8433 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA/Starts 8PM/Lottery/3 min./No purchase necessary/Hosted by Brian Moses and Rell Battle
CAFE UNURBAN 3301 W. Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA/Starts 9PM/Sign-up is lottery/No purchase necessary
88 CHINESE & SUSHI 418 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 8:30PM/Starts 9PM/First come, first served/7 min./$5 min. purchase/Hosted by Cindy Liebman
THE PALACE RESTAURANT 2112 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, CA/Starts 9:45PM/Lottery/4.5 min./after booked show
THE LEXINGTON 129 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up 9PM/Starts 10:30PM after booked show/Ends 12AM/No purchase necessary
PALACE RESTAURANT 2112 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, CA/Starts 9:45PM after booked show/Lottery
ECHOES UNDER SUNSET 1310 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA/Starts 10PM/First come, first served/4 min./1 item min.
FLAPPERS BAR 102 E. Magnolia Ave., Burbank, CA/Sign-up 11PM/Starts 11:30PM/First come, first served
It would be a little premature to say that there’s writing on the wall, but comedy definitely seems like it is playing second fiddle (or almost no fiddle at all) to hour long dramas at NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox. Comedy is currently flourishing on cable and online and, perhaps, that is where episodic comedy, wholly, is headed.
This TV season alone, freshman comedies Selfie, A to Z, Manhattan Love Story, and Bad Judge have been canceled along with relative new comers The Millers.
Community, Arrested Development, and now The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which had a series order from NBC but didn’t even make it to air, have moved from TV networks to online streaming services.
Just yesterday, it was announced ABC also scrapped a sitcom they had already ordered to series, Members Only starring John Stamos.
Bloggers and John Mulaney alike keep talking about whether Mulaney will last on Fox. On top of all of that, there are rumors that NBC has halted production on Last Comic Standing after it already had brought it back from the dead.
We’re not saying broadcast networks have drawn a hard line on in the sand (yet) prohibiting comedy from their airwaves. Cristela, black-ish, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine have found success just starting out and the networks have a few comedy mainstays like Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory, and Two and Half Men. New Girl and The Mindy Project have also seemed to fared well in their tenure at Fox. Also, cable networks TBS and TNT have recently canceled Sullivan & Son and Franklin & Bash, respectively.
Still, this last couple of years have seen an unprecedented shift of the comedy genre as an aggregate on TV from going live on air to every household with a TV on a weeknight to niche cable networks and various online entities ranging anywhere from Netflix to YouTube to Amazon. Key & Peele, Louie, Portlandia, Veep, Transparent, and Children’s Hospital are all just a few perfect examples of this new paradigm.
The future for comedy on TV and the behemoths of television does have yet to be decided. The highly anticipated Last Man on Earth from Chris Miller and Phil Lord starring Will Forte is premiering next year. Networks, like CBS, are starting to get on board with their own streaming service.
What is clear in the current TV landscape, above all, is that the Internet isn’t going away and, because of that, viewers can watch whatever they want whenever they want to watch it. Thus, people will watch their favorite Key & Peele sketch as many as times as they can stand, binge watch The Simpsons via The Simpsons World app/site, consume as much media that exists online of their favorite comedians (i.e. web series, podcasts, stand-up clips, etc.), and do so at any time of any day in any place versus Thursdays at 8 at home,
In such an environment, it’s much harder than it used to be to launch a broad franchise sitcom that lasts 10 seasons and lives on in syndication, which has been the network TV model for comedy for decades. So, for now, as NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt poignantly remarked during Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s move to Netflix, “…we have a very drama-heavy midseason schedule.”