Recent News

Jon Snow and Theon Greyjoy from Game of Thrones Do Stand-Up

It was only a matter of time before characters from Game of Thrones took to stand-up in the present day in the real world, right? The very funny Joe Starr and Ron Babcock do their take on what Jon Snow and Theon Greyjoy at a Game of Thrones comedy show at the Little Modern, respectively, would do in regards to telling jokes. Personally, we’ve never seen Game of Thrones (Yeah, we know. Just shoot us dead with internet comments) and this is still really funny.

Jesse Popp’s “You Stink” Coming Out on Comedy Central Records

Jesse Popp’s (Conan staff writer, hilarious stand-up) debut stand-up album is coming out digitally on Comedy Central Records next Tues. Jun. 12th. This will be followed by the premiere of his episode of  The Half Hour also on Comedy Central on Fri. Jun. 15th at 11:30PM. Translation: next week is JESSE POPP WEEK.

Van Halen’s “Panama” by Reggie Watts

For the AV Club’s Undercover series where bands they invite cover an increasingly short list of songs suggested by readers, they invited Reggie Watts to cover Van Halen’s Panama which he insisted that he played faithfully. Well, certainly we did hear more about Panama the country and its canal than we have in awhile and we get to hear Reggie Watts do his thing, which usually trumps most things, sans-faith or not.

Watch Another Completely Made-Up Game on IFC’s Bunk

Host Kurt Braunohler, still barefoot, has contestants Ethan T. Berlin, Kumail Nanjiani, and Ben Garant interpret signs that would never exist on IFC’s Bunk. Watch more anti-game show madness with its premiere on Jun. 8th 10:30PM following Comedy Bang Bang.

Every Comedy Tour, Including One Called Feelings, Has a Breakdown

Every live comedy tour inevitably goes through a mental/emotional breakdown. Even the successful The Feelings Comedy Tour with Jake Weisman, Dave Ross, and Matt Ingebretson had to go through it. When you have multiple people stuck in a car for several hours at a time, it undoubtedly devolves into a criticism of each other’s take on Arcade Fire, right? 

If it indeed is, maybe there should be a live comedy show broadcast from a car on I-40.

Critics’ Choice TV Awards Nods To Parks and Rec, Girls, Veep, Community and more.

This is only the second round of the annual Critics’ Choice TV Awards, but, already, we like their taste.

Nominations in comedy included:
6 for Community
5 for Parks and Recreation
4 for Girls
Conan, Fallon, Kimmel, and The Daily Show for Best Talk Show
Archer, Adventure Time, and Bob’s Burgers for Best Animated Series 

Chris Gethard Doesn’t Disappoint in Adventure to Bonnaroo

So, this is video evidence that Chris Gethard of the currently most famous public access show in recent memory The Chris Gethard Show has made it to Albuquerque, NM. Albuquerque doesn’t disappoint in terms of Breaking Bad shooting there and it’s ridiculousness rubbing off on the townspeople (i.e. having a “license” to throw ninja stars). 

That’s only the latest, which was preceded by Chris being forced to confront his fear of heights at the Hoover Dam…

…Chris rocking out with garage band Stainless Steel…

…Chris being driven to Vegas with someone who isn’t that big of a fan… 

…and even Chris eating food intended for Montessori students in AZ.

His latest tweet is from Wichita, KS, which is, at its shortest suggested route by Google Map, 742 miles away from Bonnaroo, yet there’s no telling how long that will take via planned hitchhiking. 

Steve Carell/Michael Scott Gave Speech at Princeton

This past weekend, Steve Carell gave a speech to the 2012 graduating class of Princeton University on their University Day that sounded very close to something to Michael Scott would say. In fact, for how much Carell recalled he didn’t have technology back in college, it sounded a lot like when he told Ryan that technology wasn’t so great in Season 4.

Sign Holder Showdown & How Every Comedian Interview Should Go

Have you ever seen a battle between sign-holders? Apparently, it can actually get violent as shown by the hilarious Ron Babcock and Andre Hyland, especially when the signs are in the shapes of arrow.

ALSO, every interview of a comedian should be conducted like this recent one with Jesse Case that blurs the line of personal profile/criminal interrogation because, as we all know, comedians have incredibly sketch pasts, right?

Enter Free Laugh Factory Comedy Contest Without Leaving the Comfort of Your Floor

The monthly Fresh Faces contest at the Hollywood Laugh Factory is now accepting submissions via GotCast.com. All you have to do is make a GotCast profile, which is free, and upload a clip of your stand-up, which you should have thus making it free. More details here.

Also, we’re assuming that most comedians entering this contest are probably currently sleeping on some type of floor because we’re pretty much all that poor in comedy.

If You Can’t Make It to Bonnaroo to Catch the Comedy, Don’t Worry

Photo by Lifeabsorbed

Besides Chris Gethard arriving to Manchester, TN alive, there’s going to be a whole lot of amazing comedy things happening at The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival this weekend. Slated to perform Steven Wright, Marc Maron, Brian Posehn, Garfunkel & Oates, Rory Scovel, Pete Holmes, Andy Daly, Kyle Kinane, and much more. Comedy Central is planning to air portions of this on Sat. Jun. 23rd, then streaming it online afterwards.

So, don’t worry that you couldn’t use your web presence to hitchhike across the country to see all this hilarity live.

5 Sentence Review: Safety Not Guaranteed

In writing and reading reviews for several things, comedy or otherwise, we have found that several of them are incredibly verbose for no real intrinsic value and it’s unclear whether the critic actually liked it or not. This 5 Sentence Review is our attempt to get rid of that confusion by keeping our opinions only on comedy, not the “otherwise”, short and clear, so you know whether you should go see/buy/experience it. Also, sorry for taking up more of your time with these 3 introductory sentences.

1. As the trailer promises, Safety Not Guaranteed is a delightful, nostalgic feeling romp of discovery and youth in the way a Sundance comedy darling should be.

2. For you subdued indie romantic comedy with a touch of weirdness, in this case sci-fi, fans out there, this is definitely your movie.

3. Safety Not Guaranteed is a rather fresh take on the sub-genre of time travel movies that works so well that it will undoubtedly be the start of a trend of time travel movies to come out that will likely not have such a fresh take.

4. Mark Duplass pulls off a being an endearing, obsessive, so-called time traveler that works at a grocery store and Jake Johnson’s sleazy magazine writer character is really funny, nearly, if not actually, quotable.

5. Go see it when it opens this Fri. in LA as you’ll fall in love with Aubrey Plaza you’ve come to know and love all over again.

Where Are They Now?: The Comedians at Big Fish Three Years Ago

Often referred to as a “skin thickener” or, by people who don’t have as a fond of opinion of it, one of the worst rooms in the vast LA comedy scene, The Big Fish Bar & Grill in Glendale, CA was profiled on This American Life on Showtime in May 2009. In this segment, it’s almost haunting to see the likes of Kyle Kinane, who is about to do an hour special for Comedy Central at The Fillmore in San Francisco, argue with a bar regular/angry heckler about Jimmy Buffett. 

Also in the clip, Brody Stevens who just had a killer set on Conan and Erik Charles Nielsen who was in several episodes of NBC’s Community as well as DJ Douggpound who has performed around the country and they all still continue to do stand-up quite well around LA.

Some of you might think it’s a necessity to do shitty rooms like to become a great stand-up comedian and that’s true. However, it isn’t because all the hilarious and talented folks we just named did that room and, as a direct result, got to where they are now. This is one of only hundreds of rooms they’ve all played, some great, some worst than Big Fish, and through all of that, they persevered, dedicated to their craft wholly.

Big Fish is still at 5230 San Fernando Rd. in Glendale, a place more akin to a small rest stop of a town along an interstate highway, and still has a comedy show that is pretty much the same as the clip above. You can still get violently yelled at, potentially get into fights, told you suck, and hear the contrast of silence between you finishing a joke and the sound of pool being played if you so wish. It’s a useful skill to be able to deal with terrible conditions when performing comedy as it’s art form heavily reliant on connecting with an audience. 

However, playing a shitty room and being able to tough it out doesn’t make someone a great comedian. There are plenty of terrible comedians that think that shouting bigoted opinions in a cadence is great comedy and in a dive bar with plenty of booze flowing, that might just work. Yet, the rest of America, and the world for that matter, is not a dive bar in Glendale. In fact, most of it isn’t. 

What makes a great comedian, as opposed to just building a thick skin or “crushing it” at at their favorite open mic only with their friends, is that they have found a way to make both audiences and themselves laugh wherever that may happen to be. 

Robin Williams on Another Puddin’ Doing Charity Ads

Robin Williams returns for another episode of the daily live action comic strip Puddin’ with Eddie Pepitone along with guest Patton Oswalt as well as writer and silent pudding eater Matt Oswalt. This time it’s more SFW as long as you’re cool with charity ads going wrong.

Poster for W. Kamau Bell’s Totally Biased

IFC is the only cable network with a bunch of great comedy coming this summer.

Jim Jefferies Got Greenlight at FX

Remember in the post below how we said there’s more great comedy coming up at FX? Well, here’s another with Jim Jefferies getting the greenlight from his pilot deal to make his own series “Legit”. Rightfully one of the world’s biggest touring comedians for hilariously blunt and honest he is, “Legit” no doubt make a great companion to Louie.

If you can’t wait for that coming up, you should check out his podcast with Eddie Ifft, Talkin’ Shit. It’s completely underrated, especially considering how big of a following it has.

Catch Bill Murray, Chris Rock, Jonah Ray on Late Night

Bill Murray on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS 11:35PM)
Chris Rock on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC 12:35AM)
Jonah Ray on Conan (TBS 11PM) 

There Will Be a Toy Story TV Special

In both 2013 and 2014, there will be a Toy Story TV special. Might as well as print the ‘13 and ’14 nomination ballots already.

…in other comedy ‘trade’ news:

–Televisions Critics Awards nominated Parks and Recreation, Louie, Community, and more. If only we could translate this years nominations into ratings…
–Jason Alexander sent out sincere apology for making “cricket is gay sport” joke on Ferguson. Yet, he has not inspired as much rage as Andy Samberg’s cannibalism PSA sketch.
–Owner of DC and Tempe Improv found dead. 
–Jon Hamm will be on Bob’s Burgers. Just do comedy full time already, Jon Hamm.
–The 8 bit video game on the Community finale becomes a real thing. Maybe this will inspire Dan Harmon to make a video game in which he fights, still 8 bit style, for creative control.
-There are new comedy podcasts at Feral Audio as well a brand new one from the very funny Mike Henry and Wade Randolph. 

Why Get David the Android from Prometheus When You Can Get Joel McHale?

The Soup does a great send-up of the ad for David the Android in Prometheus mostly from making Joel McHale an android with a drinking problem.

Comedy Bang Bang & Bunk Premiere Tonight on IFC

Tonight, maybe you should pass on DVR’ing and watch the live premieres of Comedy Bang Bang at 10PM and Bunk at 10:30PM on IFC. It’s really a historic night for comedy as Comedy Bang Bang follows the precedent of The Nerdist of being a podcast made eventually into a TV show. Also, there hasn’t been a game show like Bunk, at least done in America in English, ever. So, 10PM-11PM would probably be a great time to crash your friend’s place that has cable.

Rifftrax Live “Manos The Hands of Fate” on Sale Now

Remember the first time you got to witness the wonderful mockery of Manos The Hands of Fate on Mystery Science Theater 3000? Well, if you don’t, shame on you because that’s a generation defining moment. Not to worry though, the stars of MST3K come back to rip on the movie yet again live streamed in movie theaters nationwide on Aug. 16th. Tickets just went on sale. If this was a trailer, we guess we’d say, “delve into the snarky nostalgia like you never have before.”