From March 8th (i.e. tomorrow)-Mar. 11th in Downtown Salt Lake City, The Golden Spike Comedy Festival will serve up a pretty a great offering of stand-up, podcasts, and more.
Just look at the flyer above.
There are individual tickets available as well as a pass for 20 shows for the nice price of $20.
Get more details on The Golden Spike Comedy Festival here.
For years, Jimmy Pardo, Matt Belknap, and so many guests have done a 12 hour marathon of their legendary podcast, Never Not Funny, in order to raise money for Smile Train.
In 2016, they’ve decided that they will now double the marathon.
Of the annual traditions that exist in podcasting, the Pardcast-a-Thon might be most noted one and it’s going to get more noted by going for a full 24 hours as opposed to the usual 12 hours. That means double the guests, double the “good pieces of business”, and, hopefully, double the money for Smile Train.
This full day Pardcast-a-Thon is set to go down on Saturday, March 4th, 2017 at Never Not Funny Studios. Mark your calendars/set reminders now.
Passes (and live streaming access) are still available for one of the world’s premiere podcast festivals this weekend.
Don’t miss TOFOP, The Todd Glass Show, Welcome to Night Vale, Sklarbro Country, Never Not Funny, Girl on Guy, The Crabfeast, My Favorite Murder, The Dollop, and more all at The Sofitel this weekend.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows/events as well as open mics and maps are embedded at www.thecomedybureau.com.
For years now, The LA Podcast Festival has been growing exponentially right along with the medium of podcasting itself.
As you can clearly see with the line-up on the flyer above, not only are there dozens of the biggest podcasts around, but they’re doing pay-per-view this year.
You can and should get your passes, tickets, and accommodations for this year’s LA Podcast Festival, still at The Sofitel in Beverly Hills, ASAP right here.
There is a YouTube livestream here and an audio only livestream here.
Jimmy Pardo and Matt Belknap are doing their annual 12 hour Never Not Funny podcast marathon affectionally called Pardcast-a-Thon right at this very moment until midnight tonight.
This time around, you have the benefit of not having to worry about sales on Black Friday, their usual date for the Pardcast-a-Thon.
As always, they’re raising money for SmileTrain and are even auctioning a plethora of prizes including a guest spot on Doug Loves Movies, a round of golf with Jimmy Pardo, Paul Gilmartin, and Mike Siegel, AST Records vinyl record collection, and much more at eBay.
Again, don’t waste any further time and get to watching here.
In case you were wondering what was missing today, it was Never Not Funny’s annual Pardcastathon.
For those not into indulging into unbridled consumerism on Black Friday, the amazing Jimmy Pardo usually had the perfect alternative by doing a 12 hour Never Not Funny marathon with a plethora of the funniest people around and celebrities doing various goofs and funny business to raise money for Smile Train.
Well, according to this tweet, they’re postponing it from its usually scheduled date to Sat. March 5th, 2016, perhaps with something a little bigger up their sleeve. Let your imagination run wild with Pardo and company (Matt Belknap, Pat Francis, and more) could be brewing up.
In the meantime, you can still support the great charity that is Smiletrain by donating here.
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.
This is both the third year of The LA Podcast Festival as well as our third time attending and, as that’s the case, we can most certainly assure you a good thing has only gotten better and better.
Here’s our recap of what went down when a bunch podcasts and their fans take over ritzy Beverly Hills.
All photos courtesy of Los Angeles Podcast Festival
-This was the first year that the LA Podcast Festival took place at Sofitel LA in Beverly Hills and it solved pretty much every drawback from their original location in Santa Monica (i.e. parking, navigating through the festival, it looks nicer).
-Many in the crowd for Talkin’ Shit with Eddie Ifft were thoroughly surprised when they got to see all of transgendered porn star Vaniity.
–Marc Maron and Aisha Tyler hashed out some personal history, specifically when they first met each other, on Girl on Guy. Aisha hilariously made sure to note to Marc that this is her show and not WTF.
-Like every year, one will note that many of the attendees aren’t from LA or even California. Many come from the other side of the country just to make sure they catch their favorite podcast live like The Crabfeast with Jay Larson and Ryan Sickler.
–Superego continued to be one of the funniest podcasts around kicking off Day 2 with a special guest in Conan player Brian Stack and a whirlwind of fun, dark absurdity. We also applaud their matching Superego blazers.
-The crowd at Jonah Raydio had a ball as Jonah Ray made sure that his entire audience had a beer in their hand, treated to a live performance from Upset, fun music news monologue style jokes, and discovered he had to do more time than he expected. This lead to some of the best awful concert stories we’ve heard in awhile.
–Dave Anthony, Gareth Reynolds, and Wil Anderson assembled for a laugh riot of an episode of The Dollop, which we’d describe as a sort of sober version of Drunk History that replaces the reenactments with top shelf riffing from Anthony, Reynolds, and a guest. Edutainment about history’s biggest a-holes has never been as much fun as this.
-An all female guest line-up for WTF with Marc Maron was fascinating especially the likes of Pamela Adlon and Whitney Cummings admired Shelby Fero’s wisdom beyond her years when it comes to dating.
-Podcasts fans at the festival didn’t care how long they would have to wait to get commemorative posters signed to the point where we questioned how much we’re fans of podcasts compared to them.
–Wil Anderson killed it wherever he went at the festival and his own podcast TOFOP was no different. Anderson’s brand of somewhat controlled chaos made for almost non-stop laughs and an unforgettable pop quiz on Russell Crowe facts.
-As far as we’ve seen education hasn’t ever been as funny as it has been on podcasts. See Probably Science’s Matt Kirshen, Jesse Case, and Andy Wood riff on the primates known as Bonobos with Tim Minchin and Dr. Amy Parish. They found their way to tie in feminism while discussing animal behavior and on to applause breaks.
–Matt Besser, Lauren Lapkus, Ian Roberts, and Horatio Sanz ensured that impov4humans was a perennial favorite of the festival just off a scene of visiting the world’s tallest hill.
-Podcast pioneer Jimmy Pardo and his podcast Never Not Funny have been at The LA Podcast Festival most deservedly every single year. Seeing Jimmy having to deal with Pat Francis’ Bruce Springsteen puppet made for a pretty magical evening on its own.
–Go Bayside! and James Bonding are perfect examples of podcasts that celebrate the “nerding out” of a very specific topic, in these cases Saved By The Bell and Agent 007 James Bond, but also very inviting to the uninitiated. April Richardson and Matt Mira/Matt Gourley make a case for enjoying both cultural institutions even if you don’t know who Mr. Belding or the worst Bond villain henchmen are.
–Todd Glass and James Adomian were electric during The Todd Glass Show. Dueling Todd Glass impressions (yes, Todd did an impression of James doing an impression of Todd) were a highlight, but only the tip of the iceberg. We’re convinced that Glass has mastered only letting the audience kind of know what’s happening, but ultimately not caring because they’re having so much damn fun.
–The Kira Soltanovich Show made for an insightful, funny look into parenting not unlike a bunch of parents having drinks and pondering if they’re raising their kid right or not except all the parents are really funny.
If you happened to miss all this glorious podcast goodness, then there’s a livestream video archive of the festival available up until Oct. 19th.
Keep in mind we can only send one guy out to cover all of this so there are only so many things we could make it to and obviously we missed some stuff. Maybe next time, you can go to the LA Podcast Festival yourself and not miss anything.
WTF with Marc Maron, Never Not Funny with Jimmy Pardo, The Dana Gould Hour, Kumail Nanjiani’s The X Files Files, Girl on Guy with Aisha Tyler The Todd Glass Show, Superego, Walking the Room, TOFOP, The Crabfeast, and way more are coming in for the 3rd Los Angeles Podcast Festival. They’ve moved from Santa Monica to Beverly Hills at the Sofitel Hotel, which is slightly more central to the rest of LA.
So, clear out your weekend from Sept. 26th-28th and get your tickets/passes now.
Never Not Funny with Jimmy Pardo Moving to Earwolf
That’s right, the trailblazing podcast known as Never Not Funny with Jimmy Pardo, which you had to pay to listen to, is now moving to Earwolf and will be free to all to listen to.
Only a select few (Conan O’Brien, Patton Oswalt, SF Sketchfest, Scott Aukerman) are up from the hundreds upon hundreds of episodes Pardo’s recorded, but we’re sure you’re like us in being excited for Pardo goodness for all.
Jimmy Pardo’s Pardcast-a-Thon Now Available to Buy/Download
You still have a chance to support Smile Train via Jimmy Pardo’s fantastic annual Pardcast-a-Thon as this year’s edition is now available for purchase and your enjoyment.
All 13 hours caught on both audio and video means that you can enjoy all the hijinks including Paul F. Tompkins throwing up money up in the air and trying to swim through it like a cartoon.
1) Last night, I went to the “scene” open mic in Portland at Suki’s and immediately thought, “Man, I wish I started comedy in Portland.” Ironically enough, as I’m dropping in from LA, the entire Portland comedy scene, which apparently was in attendance, was saying good bye to one of their heroes Richard Bain, who is coming down to LA. From the greenest-of-the-green-newbies to mainstays and respected figures in Portland comedy, everyone was there in support of Bain.
LA is so huge, just physically, and many comedians are so incredibly busy with their own act, sketch group that has to put a video out weekly, podcast that records whenever it gets a chance, show or two that they have to produce and promote, that the whole comedy scene in LA could never be in full attendance of anything. Yet, seeing even more camaraderie in comedy than the pockets of it that exist in LA would not only intrinsically make for better comedy, but would further dispel that image that LA’s a soul sucking town.
So, yes, I’m saying that if you’re a comedian in LA, go see a show that you’re not on or go support another comedian without trying to get booked.
2) Congratulations to Nick Kroll on getting the Nick Show Kroll picked up and Peter Atencio being attached to the Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele Project all for Comedy Central. Also, congrats to Comedy Central for making some solid picks for this season. [via Deadline]
3) Louis CK on The Daily Show getting Jon Stewart to beg him to stop. Fox News, are you taking notes?
The Daily Show – Louis C.K.
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook
4) Hannibal Buress on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
5) Continuing a great run of comedy on late night TV this week, Jon Dore’s on Conan TBS 11PM. Watch, record, or do whatever you got to do to see it.
6) Speaking of Conan, James Adomian on one of his last days before going to NY was John Wayne in this sketch last night. Speaking of Adomian leaving, you better be at Meltdown tonight to catch him before he leaves.
7) Neil Hamburger Helper Cards? Yes, please. [via EightyFourFilms]
9) ON THE HORIZON
Paul Danke & Cornell Reid Live Tweet a Movie @Corneezy/@PaulDanke 10PM FREE
10) COMEDY CRAWL
Greg Proops: Smartest Man in the World LIVE @ Bar Lubitsch 7PM FREE
Big Time Comedy Show-A Giraldo Benefit @ The Wiltern 7PM $34-$80+
Andrés Du Bouchet Center for the Performing Arts @ The Bootleg Theater 8PM $8
Meltdown @ Nerdist Theater (back room of Meltdown Comics) 8:30PM $8
The Ed Galvez Punk House @ Westside Comedy Theater 9PM $8
Respect the Danger of Knives Presents @ Jake’s 9PM FREE
Facebook @ UCB Theatre 9:30PM $5 (stand by only)
Beer in the Shower @ Dreams Cafe & Bar 9:30PM FREE
11) OPEN MIC RUN
SAL’S COMEDY HOLE 7356 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, CA/Starts 6PM/$4 min./first come, first served
THE SPOT CAFE 4455 Overland Ave., Culver City, CA/Sign-up (lottery) 7PM
HOLLYWOOD HOTEL 1160 N. Vermont Ave., Hollywood, CA/Starts 7PM/first come, first served
GRINDHOUSE CAFE 1051 N. Havenhurst, West Hollywood, CA/Starts 7PM
CAFE ON 2ND 7 S. 2nd St., Alhambra, CA/Sign-up 7PM/Starts 7:30PM/$3 cover/10 min. guarantee
CAFE MUSE 6547 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, CA/Sign-up (lottery) 8PM
LIBRARY A COFFEE HOUSE 3418 Broadway, Long Beach, CA/Sign-up 8PM/Starts 8:30PM
12) According to this article on Megan Amram on Boston.com, we are a “Los Angeles based resource for professional comedians.” Anyone disagree? Are we more? Did you even read this far down? If you did, thank you. Also, follow @meganamram if you’re not already. She’s amazing.
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1) Louis CK dropping in at the Frolic Show. You’ve got to wonder if he’ll come up with a bit about trendy Asian Restaurants after this.
2) The LA Improv Comedy Festival @ iO West starts today! (Yes, we reported yesterday that said festival would start today, but many people, when not reminded, think, “I remember that was supposed to start some time this month.” We’d like to try to avoid this for such events)
3) Jimmy Pardo’s Never Not Funny Podcast Season 9 is here!!!
4) Jon Stewart’s Ratings are Higher Than Fox News [via ManintheMittle (via PoliticusUSA)]
5) Why you never miss the monthly sketch barrage known as the Midnight Show at UCB Theatre [via LiezlWasHere].
Pre-movie Trivia
What Happens When You Lose at “Shoot Now, Ask Questions Later”
7) ON THE HORIZON: At the Nerdist Theater
Pop & Politics w/Jimmy Dore Sat. June 11th 8PM $10
A Night with Jeff Garlin Mon. June 13th 8PM $10
Carnyville w/Dana Gould & David Koechner Thurs. June 23rd 8PM $10
8) COMEDY CRAWL
The 4 & 20 @ All Star Lanes 8PM FREE
Celebrity w/Joel McHale @ iO West 8PM $25
What’s Up Tiger Lily @ Hollywood Studio Bar & Grill 8PM FREE
Keep It Clean @ 1739 Public House 10PM FREE
Crash Test @ UCB Theatre 11PM $5
9) OPEN MIC RUN
SAL’S COMEDY HOLE 7356 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, CA/Starts 6PM/$4 min./first come, first served
CLUB 705 705 Pier Ave., Hermosa Beach, CA/Starts 7PM-ish/no purchase necessary/first come, first served
RED ROCK 8782 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA/Starts 7PM/$5 min./multiple sets allowed/first come, first served
TRIBAL CAFE 1651 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, CA/Starts 8PM/no purchase necessary/first come, first served
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 min./multiple sets allowed/bottled water and coffee provided
10) A kid asked me yesterday, “Does being a comedian pay well?” Oh, the things that little one will have to learn…
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1) “Finally! It’s Saturday Night and I Need a Laugh”-the resolution to the Comedy Bureau investigative report started over a week ago will be later posted today (The Comedy Bureau coffee machine has been missing for the last week, which has severely cut down on productivity around here).
2) Now that it’s just the clip of him and that’s it, here’s Baron Vaughn on Lopez Tonight.
3) EAGLEHEART is on Tonight at MIDNIGHT on ADULT SWIM. Here’s the promo aaaaaaaand it should be as simple as that.
4) Free Episode of the Never Not Funny Podcast w/Jimmy Pardo AND Conan O’Brien? Yes.
5) Tonight’s COMEDY CRAWL-OK, I’ll admit, this is kind of ridiculous…
Comedy in the Raw @ The Canyon Club 7PM $10
Good Neighbor @ UCB Theatre 8PM $5 (stand by only)
Comedy Speakeasy @ TSR Lounge 8PM FREE
Subversive Comedy w/Jimmy Dore @ Flappers Burbank 8PM $12/2 item min.
The Sklar Brothers @ Irvine Improv 8PM $17/2 item min.
The Josh & Josh Show @ Bar Lubitsch 8:30PM FREE
Sausage and Smiles @ DiPiazza’s 8:30PM $5
Garfunkel & Oates @ Largo 8:30PM $20 (sold out-though if you show up there might be extra tickets)
Running Your Trap w/Jimmy Pardo @ UCB Theatre 9:30PM $5
Sean Patton & Friends @ Hollywood Improv 10PM $14/2 drink min.
6) OPEN MIC RUN 2/10/11
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
7) Recently: Activision is retiring the wildly popular video game series Guitar Hero (thankfully), so maybe they can make a smart, innovative, thought provoking, and still vastly entertaining new style of video game in “Kyle Kinane’s Midnight Scientist”.
8) I’m so funny that a woman called me a battered woman last night at a party while laughing maniacally. As far as having “game”, well…..
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1) I know you guys need to get to your friends, families, and some damn fine turkey, so I’ll keep this short… well, all of that depends on whether you enjoy reading this blog or not, which, in the case of the “Comedy Blog Reader Masochist”, prompts me to ask, “Why do you exist?”. HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!!!
2) I almost don’t want to call it a COMEDY CRAWL for tonight, but for the sake of branding, I’ll stick with it. Tonight’s Comedy Crawl consists of, meaning this is the only shows going on that I know about, 16 Headlining Comics @ The Original Room of the Comedy Store 9PM $15/2 drink min. AND Free Thanksgiving Dinner @ The Hollywood Laugh Factory 1PM/3PM/5PM/7PM FREE (though I think the actual show might have $20 cover according to site). That’s it.
3) NO OPEN MIC RUN FOR TODAY: I don’t even hate myself that much to do an open mic on Thanksgiving and a third of my material is on suicide.
4) The mutli-talented Charlyne Yi finally has The Old Lumps’ (her fantastic band) album “Getting Intimate with the Old Lumps” online. Yeah, you’ve seen her in Paper Heart or at her own one-of-a-kind show at the UCB Theatre, but check out her musical side, which is like all her artistic “sides”: a nostalgically rollicking good time that reminds you of the childhood that you might never had, but wish you did. Check “Getting Intimate with the Old Lumps" here.
5) Jimmy Pardo is definitely kicking off the Holiday Season right with his ”Pardcast-a-Thon“ going from 6PM tomorrow for 12 hours straight having all proceeds go to Smile Train benefiting extremely underprivileged children who need cleft palate surgery regain their smile as well as the ability to speak properly, eat, and lead a normal life (not that comedians really know what that’s like). There will be tons of big guests as well as Jimmy Pardo himself, so tune in for some laughs/charity here.
6) As it premiered yesterday, the ”Bureau Approved“ section of this blog serves as a convenient resource for the best of the best podcasts, webseries, sketches, blog posts, clips, performances, etc. of LA Comedy so you don’t have to search through any of these reports to do so. With that in mind, I’ll start tomorrow to feature items from the ”Bureau Approved“ that I did not have the privilege to witness the inception of in a new feature I’m going to call ”From the Depths of ‘You Should Have Been There’ Lagoon“ or for you initialism-inclined FDYSHBTL. Hopefully, with this, we’ll never forget… (what’s funny that is)
7) The Comedy Bureau "Tips Its Hat” today to KYLE KINANE-“@kylekinane Where can I get some giant bows for all these Lexuses I’m giving out for Christmas? I’ll look like a real asshole if I don’t wrap them.” Having already been to the Just For Laughs Comedy Fest in Montreal this year and opening for Patton Oswalt, Kyle’s been hitting the road taking his ingenious and hilarious musings on life as a “simple creature” from here in LA all the way to Winnipeg as everyone is finally starting to appreciate how damn funny he is. You can see Kyle next week at Comedy Death Ray @ The UCB Theatre Tues. Nov. 30th 8:30PM $5 or at Battleship Pretension @ Meltdown Comics Sat. Dec. 4th $5 or on Comedy Central because, yeah, he has a ‘Comedy Central Presents’ special too. Here’s his blog, “Shooting for Third”, and a link to his Twitter here.
8) For “Tip of the Hat”, I literally comb through everyone I follow on twitter, facebook, and tumblr, making it quite a tedious process. However, if you’d like to make it a little easier on me/draw my attention for “Tip of the Hat” consideration, e-mail thecomedybureau@gmail.com with ’for your consideration tip of the hat’ in the subject line.
9) OK, I know this is running a little long, so I’ll cut it short here. I/The Comedy Bureau LIVE TWEETS here, so, for that reason and many others, you should donate to The Comedy Bureau/me here.
10) THIS IS OFFICIALLY A MONTH THAT I’VE BEEN BLOGGING EVERY SINGLE DAY and I haven’t been to therapy yet (on top of doing stand up every night/trying to make money freelancing during the increasingly small time I have day). There should be an award for this.
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