2) The Scoomie Awards-an award show recognizing distinction in open mic comedians in LA is coming up soon and is taking suggestions for categories. Here are some of the best suggested categories so far–take note Comedy Awards. (Listed in alphabetical order by first name)
-The “I’m an F-18, Bro” Award for Overconfidence Andrew N. Solmssen
-Best Post Show Karaoke Performance Andy Peters
-Most Likely to Die Before the Scoomies Dave Ross
-The Award for Slightly More Honest Than I’d Care For, Conversely Best Fictional Stage Life -Best Reworking of Mitch Hedberg’s Persona James Bruce
-The Robert Yasumura Up-and-Comer Award and Scholarship Jeff Wattenhofer
-The “Getting the Light Means 5 More Minutes, Right?” Award Jim Hegarty
-Most Likely to Have Killed at Flappers Prior to Attending Open Mic/Show Currently Bombing At Joseph Larkin
-Kutest Komedy Kouple Josh Androsky
-Best Potential Mug Shot Julia Bensfield
-Most Likely to Sign Up But Leave Before It’s Their Turn….Award…..Good luck trying to get an acceptance speech Marianne Sierk
-The Heavy Meta Award -Obscure Referenciest -The TMI Award Matt Manser
-“Female Comic Under the Sway of Domineering, Abusive Ike Turner-like Impresario" Moses Robinson
-Most-sogynist -The "When the hell did YOU get funny??” Award Paul Jay
-The “Wait–This Person Doesn’t Look Damaged at ALL, So Why is He/She Up There? Oh, Oh Wait. Oof. Nooow It Becomes Plain. This Person Makes Me Look Like the Picture of Mental Health. This is PAINful to Watch.” Award -The “PLEASE Shut Up About How Much Porn You Watch And Pot You Smoke You Horny Perverted Runt Troll; We Guessed Already By Looking At You” Award Robert Buscemi
-The Saddest Bear in The Forest of Depression Award -The Goes to More Open Mics in a Week than You Do in a Month Award -The Most Likely To Stop Doing Standup and Start Doing Improv Award -The Dryhumps you when Drunk Award -Lifetime Achivement Ron Babcock
-The “My Cat Is My Stage Time at Home” Award Shawn Carlow
-Most Likely to Thrive at Homelessness Vanessa Ramos
3) Jen Kirkman’s new album “Hail to the Freaks” is coming soon. More details to come as soon as the Comedy Bureau receives them. Stay tuned.
7) OPEN MIC RUN HOLLYWOOD HOTEL 1160 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA/Starts 7PM THE SANDWICH SPOT 3101 Ocean Park Ave., Santa Monica, CA/Starts 7PM CAFE ON 2ND 7 S. 2nd St., Alhambra, CA/Sign-up 7PM/Starts 7:30PM/$3 cover/10 min. guaranteed TKO SHOW @ 212 CAFE 212 Pier Ave., Santa Monica, CA/Starts 9PM
8) Anyone know how to put actual code for ads on Tumblr? It would be pretty great if this was my job and I’d keep everyone even MORE updated on everything LA comedy, wouldn’t it? Please e-mail thecomedybureau@gmail.com if you have tips/suggestions/help/etc.
Recently: Kenya MP Gidion Mbuvi to fight for right to wear bling. Also, it turns out Mbuvi might have been a culprit to write this letter by Osama Bin Laden read by Comedian Tony Sam that might very well be incredibly lost in translation.
James talks to Gene and Brodie about his stand-up, sketch, acting, and writing career and his impersonations of Jesse Ventura, Alex Jones, Brody Stevens, Paul F. Tompkins, Eddie Pepitone, and many more. The conversation also turns to “Saturday Night Live” and their monopoly on network television sketch comedy, archaic recording formats, the hotness of Mario Van Peebles, tense phone calls from Huell Howser, and the impending apocalypse and takeover of Earth by octopus people.
1) Remember when I said there will be something posted HERE in March? Well, it’s March and later today you’ll find out what I was legally obligated to keep under wraps until now. HINT: Pretty much all comedy competitions are a waste of time.
2) Comedy Central Specials that you NEED TO LOOK OUT FOR: Jay Larson on Mar. 11th and Norm MacDonald on Mar. 12th. More details to come…
6) OPEN MIC RUN THE SPOT CAFE 4455 Overland Ave., Culver City, CA/Sign-up (lottery) 7PM CAFE ON 2ND 7 S. 2nd St., Alhambra, CA/Sign-up 7PM/Starts 7:30PM CAFE MUSE 6547 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, CA/Sign-up (lottery) 8PM LIBRARY A COFFEEHOUSE 3418 E. Broadway, Long Beach, CA/Sign-up 8PM/Starts 8:30PM
7) It’s a rare occurrence as I’m actually feeling pretty good. Such is the life of a comedian/comedy journalist/blogger/insomniac…
5) The Scoomie’s are coming soon. That’s right the awards for comedians by comedians and not really anyone else just like it should be. Have category suggestions? Go here.
6) Last night Chris Fairbanks’ Comedy Special aired late on Fuel TV. It’s the first comedy special they’ve aired and hopefully they’ll air it again. Check back here for details.
8) OPEN MIC RUN BACK HOME IN LAHAINA 519 E. Carson St., Carson, CA/Sign-up 6:30PM BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE TOKYO @ SEÑOR FISH 422 E. 1st, Los Angeles, CA (downtown)/Sign-up 6:30PM/Starts 7PM COFFEE GALLERY 2029 Lake Ave., Altadena, CA/Starts 8PM WESTWOOD BREWCO 1097 Glendon Ave., Westwood, CA/Sign-up (lottery) 7:30PM/Starts 8PM
9) Did you know you could reach the end of your Twitter feed? Of course you don’t because you’re still part of society.
Hey, guy! Look at you! Look who’s all grown up with his own Internet connection! I’m assuming it’s your own Internet connection. I mean, it is your own, right? I suppose it could be your mom’s. Is it your mom’s? Is she right there with you now? Hi, guy’s mom!
Join us for the second in a new series of late-night talk show-like events occurring after-hours at the historic Central Library downtown, featuring well-known and not so well-known Angelenos talking about what they do, how they do it and what it means to be doing it in Los Angeles, with dj’s, live music, Pink’s Hotdogs and full bar. Hosted by Justin Veach.
With internationally acclaimed artist Catherine Opie, comedian Patton Oswalt, novelist Wesley Stace (aka singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding) and more.
I’ll be there! But if you can’t be there in person, you can also watch it online. Internet!
1) THIS IS THE LAST DAY TO SUBMIT FOR BRIDGETOWN COMEDY FESTIVAL!!!! Details here.
2) Love’em or hate’em, the Oscars took place last night and several of us watched it, and plenty tweeted about it. Handpicked, hometown (LA/Hollywood) favorites were retweeted last night and are now featured here:
“@shanenickerson "Who are you wearing?” ‘Some guy named Ken I murdered.’-serial killer up for an Academy Award, being interviewed by Tim Gunn. #oscars"-Shane Nickerson
“@Puddinstrip I’ve seen Jake LaMotta do a better monologue. #oscars”-Puddin’ Comic Strip
“@kirkfox Strange. Not one nominee was wearing jc penny.”-Kirk Fox
“@NickYoussef "Anne Hathaway thinks Anne Hathaway is hilarious” – Anne Hathaway #Oscars"-Nick Youssef
“@FojasBradley Are the refs watching the #oscars? They don’t seem to be watching this game. #heatvsknicks”-Bradley Fojas
“@sbellelauren "hey everybody, go fuck yourselves” – james franco being interpreted to foreigners"-Lauren Ashley Bishop
“@thatRamosgirl Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi do NOT make me want to pledge money to this telethon. #Oscars”-Vanessa Ramos
“@FrankConniff Billy Crystal at the #Oscars got a standing ovation for everything except his work in movies.”-Frank Conniff
“@pattonoswalt Daniel Day Lewis has the depth of commitment to the craft of acting to die just to liven up next year’s death montage. #Oscars”-Patton Oswalt
“@MrsRupertPupkin I’ve already cried 3 times during the Oscars – Once because I’m out of wine and twice because I’m single. #Oscars”-Lauren Caltagirone
“@moshekasher Who is this jew? #OSCARS”-Moshe Kasher
“@normmacdonald you guys were the 83rd best hosts ever.”-Norm MacDonald
“@paulcibis If the hosts are operating at the level of a high school talent show, why not end with a grade school choir recital? #Oscars”
3) March 12th will probably be the first time in over a decade that I might actually watch SNL in a decade. Zach Galifianakis is hosting. How about that? Someone that has been paid to be funny on a consistent basis to host a program that’s supposed to be funny… what a novel concept… It just might work. Mar. 12th.
6) OPEN MIC RUN CLUB 705 705 Pier Ave., Hermosa Beach, CA/Starts 7PM-ish JAKE’S 38 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA/Sign-up (lottery) 7:30PM HARLEM PLACE CAFE 124 W. 4th St. (in alley between Main and Spring St.)/Starts 8PM/e-mail speakeasyopenmic@gmail.com for spots D’AMORE’S 8369 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA/Sign-up (lottery) 8PM/Purchase required GROUND ZERO CAFE 615 Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA (USC on campus nestled in between dorms near intersection of Figueroa and Exposition)/USC student Sign-up 9PM/Non Student Sign-up 9:15PM/Starts 9:30PM MARTY’S/THE OPEN MIC 7351 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA (walk up Martel past Big Mama’s and Papa’s)/5PM to 11PM/$5 Cover/Free coffee & water.
7) Couldn’t have said it better myself: “@kylekinane The idea that art has to have a "best of” category destroys the whole concept.“-Kyle Kinane
Recently: The Oscars happened much to a bore with mostly dull speeches and several failed attempts at humor/entertainment, proving once again, that it should be a private party and not televised for the confused, out-of-context viewing public. That is, unless someone’s acceptance speech was more unhinged and freewheeling like the brilliant James Adomian as Orson Welles merely trying to plug a wine. It’s kind of like Mickey Rourke any time that he wins an award anywhere. That’s how acceptance speeches should be.
There are so many reasons I could have given Eddie Pepitone a “Tip of the Hat”. There’s Eddie’s hilarious Twitter feed where he posts his “to do lists” and/or “signs things aren’t going well” or his performance nearly a month ago as Sven the Clown at the Tomorrow Show where he played a clown running laps around stage just so he could plug his interior painting services at the end, but “Puddin” that premiered just over a week ago puts Eddie and his uproarious character in the person in the perfectly unassuming situation leaving nothing but laughs the whole way through.
No matter how many times I see Eddie take the stage or watch an online clip over and over, he is one of those comedic voices that are so unique and so brilliant and just so damn funny, I keep laughing every time almost to the point of my vision going blurry. As a character comic, Pepitone has perfected his onstage persona of an “unrelenting manic prophet of an apocalypse that he believes is coming in the next second” so well that he can tell jokes, do bits, riffs, engage with audience members, and it will seem flawless and you’ll have no idea whether this was prepared or not.
Literally, it’s magic. Well, it’s magic that yells at an empty stage in at attempt to heckle yourself.
As you’ve might extrapolated from everything written above, Eddie Pepitone is involved in quite a lot of projects AND is one of the funniest people on Twitter meaning you should follow him @eddiepepitone right now, then finish reading this article. He performs frequently in and around Los Angeles, a member of the lovely Long Shot Podcast, and the Comedy Bureau will keep you updated as anything else he’s up to because you should drop whatever you’re doing to see him perform.
2) New Open Mic Tomorrow: D’amore’s-Monday, February 28th. D’Amore’s Pizza. 8369 W. 3rd St. Between Sweetzer and Orlando. Sign-up is 8:00pm – 8:15pm, lottery shortly thereafter. Purchase required. They’re gonna do a special. 2 slices for $3 dollars! See you there! Hosted by Jason Helfgott.
8) OPEN MIC RUN PALMS 8572 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA/Starts 6PM SUNSET GRILL 7439 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA/Starts 7PM/one item min. SAL’S COMEDY HOLE 7356 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA/Starts 6PM/one item min. MARTY’S/THE OPEN MIC 7351 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA (walk up Martel past Big Mama’s and Papa’s)/5PM to 11PM/$5/multiple sets allowed
9) Much thanks to Matt Knudsen for his donation to the Comedy Bureau. I’ll be able to eat today.
(photo by Robyn Von Swank)
