Recent News

Watch PBS’ Johnny Carson Documentary Online Now

It’s free and online at PBS.org, so all of you will watch the Johnny Carson documentary that aired last night now.

Required Online Comedy Reading List 5/15

Need a collection of essays, interviews, articles, etc. about comedy or is actually comedy that is good reading? Look no further than here for everything from an expansive piece on Patrice O’Neal to an absurd take on gay marriage by Jake Weisman.

–Why Comedians Were Afraid of Patrice O’Neal by Adrian Nicole Leblanc in NY Magazine
–And Now, a Message From Future Dan Harmon by Dan Harmon in Vulture
–Funny or Die’s new issue of The Occassional (available for download for iPad)
–The Laughspin Interview with Lizz Winstead by Emma Kat Richardson
–My Personal Testimony of the Slippery Slope of Gay Marriage (NSFW) by Jake Weisman
–Giving Chase to Young Love on the Run: Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom with Bill Murray by Dennis Lim in NY Times
–Better Off Dead by Bobcat Goldthwait in Vice
–6 Creative Career Lessons From Julie Klausner and “How Was Your Week?” by Joe Berkowitz in Fast Company
–The Comedy Internet by Kristy Mangel (available for download)
–How Best Fish Taco in Ensenada Became One of the Hottest Comedy Clubs in LA by Paul T. Bradley in LA Weekly

David Sedaris Talks Amputees in Scotland and Tenacious D on Letterman

Craig Ferguson’s week in Scotland started off in the classiest way possible with Rashida Jones, David Sedaris, and Ariel Tweto having tea and discussing colostomy bags and amputees.

If anything is gained besides the awesomeness of Tenacious D performing live last night on The Late Show, it’s that they got David Letterman to say, “Boy, that is some big cock.”

Tonight on late night:
Tenacious D on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC 12:35AM)
Bill Maher and Hannibal Buress on Conan (TBS 11PM)

Break Your Piggy Bank for Reggie Watts, Tenacious D, and Jonah Ray

All three albums, Reggie Watts’ A Live at Central Park, Tenacious D’ Rize of the Fenix, and Jonah Ray’s Hello, Mr. Magic Plane Person, Hello (now available digitally) are out today. If you still have gift cards left over from Christmas for some reason, these few hours of great comedy is absolutely the reason to spend them this instant.

Ellen DeGeneres Gets/Dory Finds 15th Mark Twain Prize for Humor

Just announced today, Ellen Degeneres will be awarded the next prestigious Mark Twain Prize for Humor with an official ceremony to take place at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Oct. 22nd. Though quite the dancer, she’ll have to do more than move her body rhythmically to top Will Ferrell dropping the award during the show.

Reggie Watts Plays Funny or Die Offices

Reggie Watts is on tour to several cities and has, as evidenced by this video, even played the Funny or Die offices. By the way, by the looks of their office space, does anyone know what sci-fi hijinks FoD is up to?

Also, pick up Reggie Watts’ latest special A Live at Central Park.

Comedy Abroad-ish 5/16

           

Harland Williams @ Wiseguys Comedy Club (Ogden, UT) Fri. May 18th & Sat. May 19th $20
Taylor Williamson @ Aces Comedy Club (Riverside, CA) Fri. May 18th-Sun. May 20th $15-$25
Adam Cayton Holland @ Comedy Works Larimer Square (Denver, CO) Wed. May 30th 8PM $12
Death Defying Adventures in Comedy with Dana Gould @ The Triple Door (Seattle, WA) Sat. Jun. 2nd 7:30PM $29 in adv., $34 at door
Reggie Watts across the U.S. through June
Todd Barry in the U.S., U.K., and Canada through June

Check Out the Trailer for The Duplass Brothers’ Do Deca Pentathlon

Though it’s been a long time coming, Mark and Jay Duplass’ Do Deca Pentathlon is coming out in theaters. Following two brothers settling(?) their sibling rivalry, there are 25 gruesome events of physical, mental, and emotional strength that make up their made-up sport.

Also, a refreshing bit of comedic vomiting is in here, if you were looking for something like that.

Jesse Case and Elephant & Lazers Are a Laugh Riot

In case you don’t know, Jesse Case is a hilarious comedian who know has a hilarious web series, Normal, exploring the relationship between two people that may or not may be right for each other. With this episode, it’s a NSFW exploration.

You could say it appeals to the lizard side of our brain if you believe in that sort of thing, but Elephants and Lazers digitally inserted over promos for upcoming network shows that we’re not excited for makes us laugh pretty hard.

If Only More Behind The Scenes Extras Were Like Moonrise Kingdom

For Wes Anderson’s upcoming Moonrise Kingdom, actor Bob Balaban narrates and keeps the style and tone of Wes Anderson consistent in behind the scenes coverage of each actor like this one of Bill Murray. If more DVD extras were like this, we’d consider buying DVDs.

Check out more clips with Edward Norton and Bruce Willis at IFC.com.

Bill Maher, Hannibal Buress, and Tenacious D on Late Night

Bill Maher showed, yet again, he’s always up for a killer Mormon joke followed by Hannibal Buress doing a tight 5 on Conan. Then Tenacious D killed it with their song “Beelzeboss” on Fallon with plenty of accompaniment from the NBC bleep button.

Tonight on late night:
Marc Maron, Brody Stevens, and Liam Neeson on Conan (TBS 11PM)
Joel McHale on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC 11:35PM)
Tony Hale on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC 12:35AM) 
Judah Friedlander on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC 1:35AM) 

Adult Swim Gets New Pilots and TBS Working with Norm MacDonald

Adult Swim Orders Eight Pilots, Including a Project From ‘Community’s’ Dan Harmon. One of the pilots is an animated Harold and Kumar project, which we’re guessing is being animated in order to further jump the shark from the first movie.

and other comedy ‘trades’ news:

TNT and TBS announce development slates. Both Conan O’Brien and Norm MacDonald have projects with the networks, which hopefully translates to Norm telling bad jokes to Conan over coffee.

Adult Swim greenlit a Children’s Hospital spin-off, Newsreaders. Score yet another for fake news.

Alexander Payne wants Bruce Dern and Will Forte to accompany him to ‘Nebraska’. It’s a black and white road comedy which will undoubtedly inspire countless short films that will go nowhere trying to imitate it.

Jimmy Kimmel Live is coming to Brooklyn for a week. Maybe there could be a Warriors-inspired cross town rivalry between Kimmel and Fallon?

Feral Audio podcast guests to be paid based on donations. This is actually historic comedy podcast news everyone.

The Midnight Show Tackles the Issue of Cat Drug Addiction

If you have a cat, it most likely has drug problems*. Luckily, one of LA’s favorite sketch groups The Midnight Show (currently on tour) is here to get your cat clean**.

*This may not be true.
**The people of The Midnight Show aren’t licensed veterinarians, but they are hysterical, so maybe just watch, laugh, and repeat.

Unlike Coachella, Silverlake Jubilee Has Comedy

It’s (the live stand-up show) between two music stages, outside, and without much prior warning, but in our experience of going last year, it’s actually amazing to see people stop and NOT think to themselves “Comedy? GROSS!” and walk away.

That’s mostly because the line-up could handle it, those aren’t great conditions for comedy in case you were wondering, and this year’s comedy show at Silverlake Jubilee is no different:

w/
Iliza Shlesinger
TJ Miller
Moshe Kasher
Matt Braunger
Jodi Miller
Ben Gleib
Jonah Ray
Kumail Nanjiani
Bryan Callen
Brody Stevens
Ian Edwards
Joe Sib

Get your tickets now.

Required Online Comedy Reading List 5/17

            

Another round of written pieces by, about, or with comedians ranging from Megan Amram’s solution for our country’s financial problems to an interview with exquisite comedy photographer Mandee Johnson.

Kickstarter: National Debt by Megan Amram
Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani: Nerds of a Feather by Julie Seabaugh for LA Weekly
Exclusive Moshe Kasher Intervew Part 1 by Courting Comedy
Mandee Johnson Shoots Super Serious Laughs by David Dean for Serial Optimist 
Lady Comics: Who Needs Late Night? We’ve Got Tumblr by Alex Leo for Storyboard
Here, Mindy Kaling, I Will Help Name Your New Show by Lauren Ashley Bishop for HAHAJK.com

Tony Hale Reassures Us That Arrested Development’s Return Is Still Happening

Tony Hale reconfirmed last night on Fallon that Arrested Development indeed is returning for 10 episodes. Maybe all the speculation can stop then and we can just think about the chicken dancing of the Bluths?

Tonight on late night:
Conan O’Brien on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS 11:35PM)
Arsenio Hall on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC 12:35AM)

The Tommy-Wi Show Is Now On DVD

One of our favorite web series in recent memory, The Tommy Wi-Show, is now on DVD. For those not familiar, the famed Tommy Wiseau of cult film The Room attempts to play video games after being taken hostage by aliens. You can try processing that or watching a clip of Tommy struggle to cross a virtual bridge in Driver: San Francisco.

Marc Maron & Brody Stevens Kill It on Conan

With how many truly hilarious people were on last night’s episode of Conan, it reminded us of the time we got to see The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and both Jim Gaffigan and Norm MacDonald were on the same taping.

Marc Maron continued to draw great material from his not age-appropriate girlfriend.

Brody Stevens spread positive energy and made us lose count of the number of times he said “YES!!!”.

Texas Outlaw Comic Ron Shock Passes Away

As one of the Texas Outlaw Comics of which Bill Hicks was a part of, Ron Shock has sadly passed away as of yesterday. He was battling cancer since last year and was quite open about it on YouTube. It’s a sad loss to comedy, but hopefully comics will remember him and his stories (breaking sobriety to warm-up for Hicks) or even learn who Ron Shock was.

Conan O’Brien and David Letterman Commiserate Over Leno

Conan O’Brien and David Letterman did manage to discuss other things, but it was mostly what everyone wanted to hear about: Conan leaving NBC for TBS because of Jay Leno. Click the picture to play this great interview because CBS doesn’t like making easily shared videos.

Tonight on late night:
Sacha Baron Cohen on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS 11:35PM)
Tenacious D on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC 12:35AM)
Jason Mantzoukas on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC 12AM)

If You’re Not Re-watching Avengers, Maybe Go See a Comedy

If you’re in LA or a city big enough to get limited releases (or not for some of the bigger releases), here are some comedies you might want to spend that first bit of your paycheck on.

The Dictator-Maybe you’ll find Sacha Baron Cohen’s new film to be a “minstrel show” or you can agree with Time Magazine’s assessment of “infernally funny”, but why wouldn’t you see the follow-up to pissing Ryan Seacrest off.

Mansome-A new documentary from acclaimed documentarian Morgan Spurlock that explores the changing mystique behind being a man prominently featuring Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Zach Galifianakis.

Natural Selection (at the Nuart Theatre)-A favorite at SXSW, Rachael Harris stars in one of her first leading roles in trying to connect with a son she didn’t know she had that is an ex-con with a mullet.

Lola Versus (Upcoming screening on May 23rd)–Greta Gerwig of the indie hit Greenberg stars in an indie romantic comedy that doesn’t completely say “then hilarity ensues”.