Andy Haynes served up quite the set last night on The Late Late Show with James Corden. Haynes powers of observation and subsequent skill of distilling them into wondrous, colorful comedic portraits are fully on display here, especially when it comes to the pro-anti-depressant bit that he closes with.
So, watch and enjoy Andy Haynes on Corden here.
While so many reality cooking shows skirt the edges of the human condition via near impossible cooking and baking challenges given to people desperate for a win of some kind, Bake Stuff with Lindsay Adams takes it to the next level by confronting the past directly with a very specific recipe.
Last time, Lindsay made a revenge themed cupcake that was step-by-step designed to shade her HS bully, which Adams hilariously filled us on the whole way through. Also, it should be noted that you get to snack on truly delicious baked goods the whole show.
Bake Stuff with Lindsay Adams is happening once again, this time in the beautiful Rita House near the Grove on Fri. Nov. 22nd at 7:30PM. Tickets are $15 and space is very, very limited. Go purchase some tix here while you still can.
While it’s Native American Heritage Month right now and it’s pretty opportune timing to post something like this, Joey Clift’s animated short film “Telling People You’re Native American When You’re Not Native Is A Lot Like Telling A Bear You’re A Bear When You’re Not A Bear” is pretty damn great during any time of year.
In fact, it just wrapped up a great festival run and even got to screen at the Smithsonian.
So, enjoy, listen to, learn from, and enjoy some more of “Telling People You’re Native American When You’re Not Native Is A Lot Like Telling A Bear You’re A Bear When You’re Not A Bear” here.
The Soup with Jade Catta Preta Set for 2020
Yes, the former pop culture digest juggernaut The Soup will be returning once again on E!, this time with an exciting new host in stand-up comedian Jade Catta-Preta.
This move intrigues us a whole bunch as E! has continued to try to find their next franchise series where a comedian takes on the pop culture news of the day. They didn’t give Busy Tonight! enough of a chance to be such a show and are looking towards reviving one of their longest running series in The Soup to achieve that goal and are betting on Jade, a rare comedian that has risen through the comedy ranks performing both in English and Portugese.
Arguably, The Soup was the pretty much the predecessor to Tosh.0, and a veritable genre of clip shows. Now that there has been oversatuation of such shows, our curiosity is peaked in regards to how E! is going to tweak the original format of the show. Supposedly, there’s an updated take on the series (E! wouldn’t have Jade just watch clips from the Internet and make fun of them only, would they?), but it’s not quite clear what that might be or what exact format they’ll go for.
We’ll be very eager to see what E!’s cooking up this time around, hopefully something that can last as long as The Soup with Joel McHale did.
A true, curious treasure from Norway, Daniel Simonsen has honed and imbued his marvelously offbeat sense of humor and rhythm in NYC, even recently getting a set on Colbert.
Simonsen has popped up in LA every now and again, but later this month, he’ll be doing headlining in a special limited engagement at the Lyric Hyperion that you absolutely should catch.
As of now, Daniel is slated for Fri., Nov. 22nd and Wed., Nov. 27th, both at 10PM. Tickets are $7 right now and you really ought to go get them here.
In this era of truly stupid American diplomacy, there are a few bright shining lights that remind the everyone that America isn’t all bad.
Sure, it may require one Conan O’Brien making a fantasy coffin in the shape of himself or commissioning a movie poster from an artist who has never seen any of Conan’s late night tenure or even know who he is. If that’s what it takes to spread goodwill around the world from the U.S. of A., so be it.
Oh yeah, Conan Ghana, the latest installment of Conan Without Borders, is yet another great rollicking adventure of O’Brien venturing far outside the studio where Conan works his magic and builds bridges between cultures in a time where burning bridges seems to be the order of the day. How none of this is winning Emmys in the late night categories is beyond us.
Enjoy Conan Ghana in full here.
One of our all time favorite sketch duos is Good Cop Great Cop, comprised of the quiet brilliance of Matt Porter and Charlie Hankin. For years, they made so many damn great sketches, then made a great CC digital series with New Timers, then seemed to be on a sort of hiatus.
Thankfully, they’re back on releasing new videos pretty regularly. This latest one “Cube” is particularly great. Watch and enjoy it here.
Andy Wood and Bryan Cook’s night of celebrating the best of the worst songs as chosen by very esteemed guests and has been one of our favorite shows to catch since its creation.
So, please join them to mark their Two Year Anniversary over at The Virgil later this month Thurs., Nov. 21st at 8PM with very special guests Janet Varney, Randy Sklar, and James Urbaniak.
Tickets are only $10 right now and you can (and should) get them here.
There is a certain finesse that comes with working in the realm of dry humor. It’s akin to the artful arranging of negative space in a photograph or painting. When comedians can pull it off, it really is amazing to see how they cleverly play with that energy just like Emily Catalano did in her late night debut on Conan.
Watch and see Catalano work her wry/dry magic here.
Eric Andre Gets to Fully Realize an Eric Andre Show Sketch with ‘Rapper Warrior Ninja’ at Quibi
One of the bits that sticks from The Eric Andre Show that sticks with us the most is when Andre had rappers Killer Mike and Action Bronson rap battle each other while on treadmills.
So, It was announced today that Quibi’s latest series will be a reimagining of that bit as rappers will get to battle with both bars and take on an American Ninja Warrior style obstacle course at the behest of Eric Andre.
We have no doubt that this controlled chaos at what will be called Rapper Warrior Ninja will either have literally epic freestyle raps and/or epic fails of rappers trying to make it through an Eric Andre Show influenced obstacle course.
Score another very enticing show for the still yet to be officially launched streaming service, Quibi.
The tapestry of David Gborie’s life is full of many a colorful, colorful threads (some of which are a little darker than the others) that each have their own very enticing story.
Even the time that David spent gathering shopping carts for a grocery store has a great tale to it. Hence, the short film “The Lot” from Gborie (whose is the voice of Comedy Central and has a half hour special this year) and co-writer/director Steven Feinartz (The Bitter Buddha, director of many a great comedy special) hilariously draws from that particular vignette in the life of David Gborie (and just scored itself a Vimeo Staff Pick).
So, without further adieu, please enjoy this short film The Lot here.
It’s so rare to seem someone great actual headline in LA, much less at The Comedy Store.
So, you really ought to not miss your chance to see the one and only Eric Andre, harbinger of (comedic) chaos, do his latest hour up in The Comedy Store’s Belly Room next Fri., Nov. 15th at 8PM. We’re not sure exactly what’s going to happen, but that is part of the thrill of seeing Eric Andre live these days, especially on this Legalize Everything Tour.
Tickets are only $15 (+ 2 item min.). Go get them before they sell out here.
Joe Pera Talks With You easily one was of the best shows last year for its warmth, originality, and genuine unique humor that came from such an undeniably sweet place. It’s somehow so damn funny and soothing at the same time.
This little teaser means that season 2 of Joe Pera Talks With You is just around the corner, Fri., Dec. 6th at midnight specifically, and we can’t wait.
Megan Gailey just released a great album this week, My Dad Paid For This and offered a more fine comedy wares with her set on The Tonight Show from last night.
This set is a pretty great bookend to the album as Megan demands that she be engaged on her album by the time of its release and is now, in fact, engaged. Gailey’s just a few steps ahead always.
Please enjoy the set here.
So many of LA’s best queer comedians will be assembling for a mad dash of a stand-up show, A Night of a Thousand Queers, next week. They’ll all be doing two minutes or less, so you can see as much amazing LGBTQ comedians (many of our favorites are on there FYI) as possible.
The show is free to attend leaving you very little reason to not make your way downtown to In Heroes We Trust Gallery next Saturday. Get more details here.
Rather than churn out another topical late night show or a fish-out-of-water multi-cam sitcom that will get cancelled before reaching the end of its first season, WarnerMedia Entertainment is letting the likes of David Wain and A.D. Miles, two very beloved comedic minds, do something truly ambitious (maybe even more ambitious than the two-hour live late night variety show Vice Live).
So, Today’s Special is set to be a sitcom with a new episode released daily (probably four or five a week) that takes place entirely at a diner with its staff and patrons talking about the day’s events, but in a sitcom form. It’ll have a single camera feel, which essentially means that every episode will likely have to be a “bottle episode”, which could make for something revolutionary as a sitcom, especially with Wain and Miles at the helm. If anything, they could be more on the ball about making topical jokes in a sitcom format than South Park does.
Technically, it’s at the pilot stage, but 4 episodes have been ordered as the show’s ambitious format kind of demands it.
Off the concept alone, we’d love to see this go to series just so we all can see what Today’s Special would actually be like.
So, Armando Iannucci Won’t Be Making That Trump Satire… For Now
Via a Tweet from a year ago, comedy genius Armando Iannucci (Veep, In The Loop, Death of Stalin) not only teased the Internet with a possible satire he could do of the Trump Administration, but also made real life executives sprint to make him offers for such a movie.
Iannucci, in a recent interview at a TV conference in London, told the crowd that he turned them down. Yet, he didn’t completely kill the idea of doing a movie where Trump is taken from the actual White House to a fake one to make his presidency a staged one. Perhaps, it’s too soon for all of us to properly take on a such movie, which is why Iannucci said he would have to hold off for a few decades before approaching this project.
With late night covering the bulk of making fun of Trump (in addition to whatever the Internet as a collective consciousness says in being obsessed with him), it might indeed be best if some time passed before Armando actually moved forward with this idea. Undoubtedly, Armando Iannucci will have plenty of stuff in store (like his new movie The Personal History of David Copperfield) to keep us occupied until then.
‘Del & Charna’ Biopic, Directed by Kay Cannon, Will Follow Founding of Long Form Improv in Chicago
When it comes to the world of long form improvisational comedy, the names Del Close (whose name you might often heard coupled with the title of ‘the father of modern improv’) and Charna Halpern are crucial to telling that story. As that sort of improv has undeniably shaped modern comedy, their influences even felt at this moment in so many movies and TV shows that we all watch, they deserve to have their story told in how they broke new ground for comedy in Chicago, ImprovOlympic, and more (as well as created an entire new discipline within the art form of comedy).
So, it’s nice to hear that this biopic of said story Del & Charna will be handled by the very talented and capable hands of Kay Cannon with a script from Rich Talarico and Alex Fendrich. Cannon’s last feature was the very satisfying Blockers and we’re very intrigued to see what she’ll do here.
At this point, it’s kind of crazy that Chris Garcia hasn’t done late night until just last night. Chris has a half hour special on Comedy Central, a handful of great TV appearances, and been even featured on This American Life. All throughout those times, he has been so damn funny with his distillation of his identity as a Cuban immigrant with immigrant parents.
Still, a chance for Garcia to take the stage is one to be relished and we hope you enjoy Chris’ first (of hopefully many more) late night sets here, taped on The Late Late Show with James Corden.
It has been quite some time since the comedy variety extravaganza presented as a portion of an Indian Wedding got to take place, but the hosts played by Amritha Kaur & Neal Dandade are finally both back as Pinky and Neel to present a truly special evening of comedy, dance, storytelling, music, and more (as well as a chance to get a bit of an experience of what you might be missing at an Indian wedding).
Tickets are $12 right now and you really ought to get them here.
Well, no matter the format, Stephen Colbert and Conan O’Brien in a room together is magic.
It was magical on Colbert’s episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend and it was magical once more this past week when O’Brien took over Colbert’s desk to interview him.
Please enjoy it here.
So, an actual Reefer-Madness-esque 1938 flick called Sex Madness gets a wonderful dollop of meta humor in Sex Madness Revealed! via Patton Oswalt and magician Rob Zabrecky playing a snarky film podcast host and grandson of the Sex Madness director respectively. Throughout this “tell-all” version of the film, the two have suspenseful conversation about Sex Madness.
Dreamt up, written, and directed by Tim Kirk, this film Sex Madness Revealed! will its LA premiere at the Bootleg Theater and have Kirk as well as Oswalt and Zabrecky on hand for a Q&A. Also, this evening will serve as a benefit for the brand new Vidiots coming to Eagle Rock in 2020.
There are so many great reasons to go to this and tickets are only $15. Go get them here now.
This very first comedy album release from Megan Gailey not only is very good, but also presents an insightful, complex, layered, and, of course, very, very funny perspective on being a woman in these times on this debut album My Dad Paid For This.
Gailey very deftly shows all her facets as a woman who loves football, a woman who is critical of football’s problematic practices, a staunch feminist, a former sorority girl, and so much more all within the hour. It’s quite the delightful, very colorful portrait of Megan and this world she’s trying to deal with. Gailey self-deprecatingly comments on her persona throughout, but she comes off as someone with her own warmth (though she’s totally willing to put folks in their place).
So, get into My Dad Paid For This fresh off the presses from AST Records or at Apple Music or wherever you listen to comedy albums.
As there was no traditional short film in front of Toy Story 4, the promotion of 10 short films for Forky Asks a Question suggests, perhaps, that maybe we’ll be getting those beloved Pixar shorts via Disney+?
Certainly, they would be quite the card for Disney+ to play in the escalation of these streaming wars.
In regards to Forky Asks a Question, we’ll be curious how existential (and secretly for adults) this will get as Toy Story 4 was absolutely filled with philosophical quandaries via the introduction of Forky.
Get a taste of what’s to come via this trailer, then look for Forky Asks a Question on Disney+ on Nov. 12th.
Climate change and the opinions of stodgy, purist auteurs be damned, a brand new Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is coming out on Apr. 8th, 2022 according to Chris Miller’s Twitter.
Of course, Into the Spider-Verse is one of the best, most imaginative iterations of a comic-book franchise in recent memory and definitely one of the funniest of all time thanks to the golden touch of Phil Lord and Chris Miller (it also made our 100 Best list from last year).
So, we can’t wait and we hope that Miller’s Twitter bio keeps the same tone in the interim.