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reality tv

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Nikki Glaser Is Going to Become One of the First Comedians to Have a Reality Series About Her Life with “Welcome Home Nikki Glaser?”

February 18, 2022
News
e!, nikki glaser, reality tv, welcome home nikki glaser

(via Deadline)

For all the bits about reality television that comedians have done over the years, rare is the chance that comedians themselves have actually gotten the experience of being in on anything like the Real Housewives or Vanderpump Rules. Yes, there has been Last Comic Standing, which, in its first few seasons, had all the finalist comedians living in a house together and deal with one another Big Brother style and Nikki herself was the spicy host of HBO Max’s FBoy Island. Nothing else categorized as a reality series for the lives of comedians has been done as of yet.

That’s all going to change with Nikki Glaser.

Nikki Glaser, someone who has risen from the ranks of Last Comic Standing to a pre-eminent roaster and a very funny national touring headliner, is going to get a reality show solely focused on her life. Specifically, Welcome Home Nikki Glaser will follow Nikki moving back, a move that happened during the pandemic, to St. Louis, where she grew up. Glaser’s leaving Hollywood for her hometown is almost like a sitcom unto itself, but Glaser is breaking new ground by having it be a full on reality TV show rather than a run of the mill multi-cam sitcom.

What that will look like, how much will Glaser be doing bits as a part of the reality TV artifice, and how much of this will be a comedy versus a reality TV show like Keeping Up with the Kardashians has yet to be revealed for the upcoming E! series. Still, Glaser is going where, pretty much, only Kevin Hart has gone (with his “tell-all” docu-series Don’t F*ck This Up) at this point in comedy history.

Look for Welcome Home Nikki Glaser on May 1st on E! In the meantime, watch Nikki tell you all about the show herself here while roasting E./E!.

Leslie Knope and Ron Swans–, Er, Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman Will Be Hosting a Competitive Crafts Show on NBC

March 28, 2017
Uncategorized
amy poehler, handmade project, nbc, paper kite productions, reality tv, ron swanson

Leslie Knope and Ron Swans–, Er, Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman Will Be Hosting a Competitive Crafts Show on NBC

Sure, they’ll be hosting as themselves and not their respective roles on Parks and Recreation.

That being said, The Handmade Project, just sounds like a sequel to the season 4 episode where Leslie and Ron had competing youth programs.

Also, Amy’s Paper Kite Productions will be handling this series, which, in addition to  makes us believe that it’ll be much different from other competitive reality shows.

Watch The Next Great Reality Parody “The Hotwives of Orlando” on Hulu

July 15, 2014
Uncategorized
casey wilson, hotwives of orlando, housewives, hulu, hulu plus, kristen schaal, parody, paul scheer, reality tv

Following in the steps of Burning Love, the “Housewives” reality TV franchise is getting its own send-up with The Hotwives of Orlando.

Casey Wilson, Kristen Schaal, Angela Kinsey, Andrea Savage, Paul Scheer, Matt Besser, Tymberlee Hill, Danielle Schneider, and so many more of your favorite comedy folks have, according to Paul Scheer, “More Drama than Game Of Thrones, More Fights than the UFC & More Weaves than a Tyler Perry Show”.

You can watch two episodes of it right now on Hulu or the entire first season with a free trial of Hulu Plus.

Replace All Reality Shows in a House with Kroll Show’s Making Friends

January 31, 2014
Uncategorized
big brother, comedy central, kroll show, nick kroll, parody, pete holmes, reality tv

The fake reality show (isn’t that redundant?) Making Friends from Kroll Show seems more true to life and more entertaining than any other competitive reality show that forces people to live together.

Also, Pete Holmes hosts/pleads contestants to make friends. Watch and enjoy here.

To Contrast MTV’s Teen Mom, Kroll Show Brings Us Dad Academy

January 5, 2014
Uncategorized
kroll show, mtv, nick kroll, parody, reality tv, teen mom

Well, it’s least a real look into the life of someone who is struggling to prepare for parenthood and more a reality show, but still, Kroll Show’s Dad Academy is pretty funny so long as it just stays a sketch and doesn’t become a real show on TLC.

Watch ‘Welcome to Dad Academy’ here.

PBS Should Get an Award For Best Parody of Reality TV

July 22, 2013
Uncategorized
parody, pbs, reality tv

Recently, PBS put out a series of promos for their channel that perfectly satirized reality TV as a whole. In fact, they’re so good that, as they suggest, you think they’re real shows. Even after we’ve told you they’re real, you’ll still think while watching them, “That’s not a real show?”

Watch promos for “Landscapers”, “Clam Kings”, and “Tanners”/good television now.

Thank Goodness Jess Lane and Lee Rubenstein’s ‘Queer Bones’ Beat Reality TV to a Show About Otherworldly Novelty Shops

March 18, 2013
Uncategorized
jess lane, lee rubenstein, margot leitman, paranormal, reality tv, web series

Comedians Jess Lane and Lee Rubenstein have made a great spot on reality TV parody in her new web series, “Queer Bones”. Following a store of the same name selling novelty items from other dimensions with the very funny Margot Leitman , we’re all in luck this is just a made up satire of a thing that we can laugh at instead of an alternative programming executive giving an oddities store their own show.

Watch now.

Morning Debriefing 3/5/11

March 5, 2011
Uncategorized
american idol, britney spears, burbank, cartoon, comedy, comedy contests, comedy crawl, comedy shows, culver city, funniest, hollywood, jim hamilton, largo, los angeles, morning debriefing, neil hamburger, paul f tompkins, reality tv, rubber toys, smodcastle, super serious show, twitter war, ucb, west hollywood

1) One of my absolute favorite shows in town, The Super Serious Show, now has a youtube account so now ALL OF YOU can see just how damn fantastic it is.  Check it here.

2) Comedian Neil Hamburger now has a rubber cartoon face available for purchase for all those times that you need a reminder of war can successfully be waged via Twitter against celebrities.

3) I’m not a big fan of reality TV and even a less of a fan of the monstrous “American Idol”, but when comedian Paul F. Tompkins recaps an episode of it, it’s actually entertaining to the point where I don’t feel that I’m dumbing myself down to enjoy myself.  

4) One liner extraordinaire Jim Hamilton, according to him, will be on TV very soon.  Details to follow as the Comedy Bureau gets them… from Jim himself (just follow @jim_hamilton like we do) 

5) Three Minutes to Nothing-Why Comedy Contests are Largely a Waste of Everyone’s Time by the Comedy Bureau

6) Tonight’s COMEDY CRAWL
Two Milk Minimum @ Flappers Burbank 11:30AM $10/2 item min.
North Star Comedy Hour @ Michael Woolson Studio
8PM 
The Anytime Show w/Dominic Dierkes @ Smodcastle 8PM $8
Magic Bag @ Smodcastle 8PM $8
Battleship Pretension @ Meltdown Comics 8PM $5
The Thrilling Adventure Hour @ Largo 8:30PM $25/sold-out, but tickets probably available at door
Midnight Show @ UCB Theatre MIDNIGHT $5 (stand by only) 
The Tomorrow Show @ The Steve Allen Theater MIDNIGHT $8

7) OPEN MIC RUN
SPOT CAFE 4455 Overland Ave., Culver City, CA/Starts 2PM/people usually give feedback at end of set
SAL’S COMEDY HOLE 7356 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA/Starts 6PM/one item min.
WESTSIDE COMEDY THEATRE 1323-A 3rd St., Santa Monica, CA (in alley between 3rd and 4th St.)/Sign-Up 6PM/Starts 6:30PM
SUNSET GRILL 7439 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA/Starts 7PM/one item min.
MARTY’S/THE OPEN MIC 7351 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA/5PM to 11PM/$5/multiple sets allowed  

8) Getting a business card from a girl because you’re “just that sad” still counts as getting a number, right?

Report 00134

THE COMEDY BUREAU/@thecomedybureau

Three Minutes to Nothing

March 5, 2011
Uncategorized
academy awards, bill hicks, comedy competitions, comedy shows, comedy store, funniest person, hollywood, kyle kinane, larry the cable guy, long beach, los angeles, louis ck, pit boss, reality tv, richard pryor

“The idea that art has to have a “best of” category destroys the entire concept.”
–Kyle Kinane

Stand up comedy, though it may appear as a toy marketed towards 18-49 year old males, is an art form.  Though referencing the most recent Academy Awards Ceremony, brilliant comedian Kyle Kinane points out above that art cannot and should not be compartmentalized into a contest.  

Art relies on subjectivity and perspective and as such, there is no 100% universal answer as to what is funny or even more specifically who is the Funniest Person that Bothered to Come to Long Beach on a Random Wednesday Night.  Thus, comedy contests, on principle, do not really decide who is legitimately the funniest comedian.  On any given night, pros can get heckled into a verbal clash of barbs and insults and open mic’ers can kill because every room is different every night with an ever changing audience.  Part of the art form of stand up comedy comes into play in this respect as the artist in the stand up comedian can and will not be funny to everyone.  There are plenty of people that don’t get Richard Pryor, think Bill Hicks is just a sad angry lonely man, and think Larry the Cable Guy is just the funniest damn thing that they ever done saw.  With the vast range of taste especially when it comes to what makes people laugh, most comedy contests deciding who is the funniest is inherently faulty.

This is only the first problem.

If there was a random audience that didn’t come for any specific comedian, a contest might start to be a somewhat fair gauge, but that is an unfortunate possibility in the way comedy shows are produced and promoted.  All comedy contests are put together mostly as a money making venture and along those lines are set-up to award those that bring the most people to the show without too much regard of how funny they really are.

Now, before I continue, this isn’t an espousal of “sour grapes” at losing at every comedy competition that I’ve entered, but this is rather a breakdown of why a swarm of comedians try to do their punchiest 3-7 minutes amidst a two hour show is an utter waste of time.

In mid November of 2010, I was in a comedy contest where I was competing for $75 and a spot at the Main Room of the Comedy Store by performing the best 3 minutes I could put together.  About a week before the show, I was notified that one of the stars of the reality show “Pit Boss” was partaking in the competition and subsequently was going to be filmed so her participation could be cut into an episode.  Because she was being filmed for the reality show, she brought her friends, family, crew members, producers, and so on and so forth.  Basically, SHE BROUGHT MORE HALF THAN THE ROOM.  At this point, the competition is absolutely rigged as there is no way that anyone else could possibly “be funnier” than the person that more than half the audience came for.  On top of that, this reality star is a “little person”.  That’s right, the show “Pit Boss” is about “little people” standing well below 5 feet tall who rescue pit bulls.  If there is a way to get more sympathy on your side as a performer, I’d like to know because it doesn’t exist.

Admittedly, I had a so-so set, especially being more of a long form comedian that is trying to jam punchy jokes into 3 minutes, but in sitting and listening to her set, it was very apparent that she had gone on stage perhaps only a few times before this occasion as she seemed over-rehearsed to the point of sounding like she was reciting jokes.  Still, that didn’t matter that she just had material about being incredibly short and a stoner that I’ll politely call “very green” because all of her friends, family, crew, etc. gave her applause breaks on nearly every joke like it was a special drop-in appearance by Louis CK.  At the end of it, it was no surprise that the $75 and the spot at the Comedy Store went to the “Pit Boss” star.  She technically did have the “best set” of the night, but try bringing all of your friends, family, and crew out every time you perform and have them clap for all of the same jokes told the same way.  I’ll save you the pondering as this will never happen and you will, as a true comedian, have to perform in front of strangers and how raw you are a performer will truly show through. (Note: 2nd and 3rd place also had brought several audience members, but had much more uneven sets).

Though I don’t believe I should have won the contest, there were other performers who, like myself, go night in and night out working on their act wherever they’re allowed to tell jokes and have become quite capable in performing stand up comedy in several different situations.  As that is what a majority of their time is spent on, very little time can be dedicated to promoting a contest where you have to wrangle your friends to watch you only do 3 minutes.  Given the circumstances, them being a group of people that has collectively decided, “I’m only going to laugh for my friend and no one else is even remotely as funny as them.”, a few of the true comics I knew had a decent set.  Still, like myself, they could have used that $75 to get gas to get home as we’re constantly driving all of the time or perhaps eat as several comics in LA are close to broke and/or starving.

We, the comics (referring to people that actually go up several times a week) didn’t bring anybody and consequently we didn’t have a chance of winning or even placing.  A cast member of a reality TV show does not need $75 or a spot at the Comedy Store.  Absolutely, there are ways that they could get both with just the TV credit alone and not have to perform in a contest unconsciously rigging the whole thing much to the disappointment and frustration of everyone else on the line-up.

As this is the trend of most comedy competitions, especially here in LA, in addition to being conceptually faulty in deciding who is the funniest, I submit to comedians that your time is better spent going to an open mic to work on your act and becoming a better comedian rather than trying to perform for your friends and gain the distinction of “funniest person for a few months in some contest that most people have no idea exists” because that will only take you as far as being really funny for your friends.

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