roku – The Comedy Bureau

TCB Debriefing 8/1/23: This Fool, Two Dykes and a Mic, Toast of Tinseltown, Disenchantment, Seth MacFarlane

August 1, 2023

disenchantment, hulu, matt berry, mckenzie goodwin, rachel scanlon, roku, seth macfarlane, this fool, toast of tinseltown, two dykes and a mic

1. The second season of one of our favorite comedies right now, This Fool, not only premiered last week, but dropped all episodes on Hulu for your binging pleasure. Get into it and you might just find a great poke at The Bear and Burning Man.

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2. Rachel Scanlon and McKenzie Goodwin, hosts of one of the best queer podcasts around, just kicked off a gigantic Two Dykes and a Mic tour across North America that will last you almost the way to Thanksgiving. Go get tickets right now right here.

3. If you can’t get your Matt Berry fix quick enough when waiting for the next episode of What We Do in the Shadows, be thrilled to know that Toast of Tinseltown is now streaming free, at your convenience, on Roku.

4. Matt Groening’s Disenchantment is going to come to a close with season five on Netflix come Sept. 1st on Netflix. Five seasons is more than most shows last these days, but it’s unfortunately far from Groening’s other show, The Simpsons, which is currently at 34.

5. Kudos and cheers and applause to Seth MacFarlane as he just made a $1 million donation the Entertainment Community Fund to support those entertainment industry workers directly affected by the historic WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strike (Deadline). You don’t need to give a million, but you can donate to the ECF here.

6. In LA, let’s have a moratorium on calling any new comedy shows, Mixtape. There are too many already.

Get Ready for a Multiverse Rom Com Series with “SLIP”

March 9, 2023

News

roku, the slip, whitmer thomas, zoe lister jones

No matter where you look, the multiverse is in the air. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once is poised to be the most winningest movie of the year and while the world is still rife with utter chaos and devastation at the moment, the escape of a multiversal story will be appealing to us all for quite some time.

Cue in Zoe Lister-Jones’ latest, SLIP, where Jones finds herself transported to other alternate realities/universes upon reaching sexual completion. The premise is already pretty cheeky and enticing, but Lister-Jones never shies away from exploring the emotional depths of what is an abjectly absurd situation. Finding herself and love through the multiverse seems, as you can see in the first trailer for SLIP here, ought to spectacularly go through a whole universe of emotions during the entire run of the series (complete with TCB favorite Whitmer Thomas).

Thankfully, you’ll be able to stream this free of charge at your convenience at The Roku Channel on Fri. Apr. 21st.

See Daniel Radcliffe Don an Afro and Becomes Weird Al Yankovic for “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”

May 3, 2022

News

biopic, daniel radcliffe, roku, trailer, weird al yankovic

When it comes to the prospect of making a biopic about the rise of musical comedy parody extraordinaire Weird Al Yankovic, Daniel Radcliffe doesn’t immediately come to mind as to who to play him. That said, the Internet should have learned by now to hold off from initial judgment of who might be right or not to play a real life person until you actually see it for yourself. Admittedly, Radcliffe as Al Yankovic, thus far, does emphasize the title “Weird” quite nicely.

Roku just released the teaser for their original production Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which has Radcliffe in a big ol’ afro and accordions at the ready and, above all else, it seems like this is going to be a pretty wild movie showing off a side of Weird Al that a lot of folks aren’t really acquainted with (especially since he’s more of an elder statesman of comedy these days).

Take a gander for yourself here, then look for it to stream exclusively on Roku for free this Fall.

Will Smith’s Stand-Up Series “This Joka” Will Actually Get to See the Light of Day

Well before COVID-19, there was a weekend where many of LA and NYC’s very best comedians that you needed to know were swept up to Vegas to tape a special stand-up comedy series that was entirely put up by the one and only Will Smith. Called This Joka, it was going to be a new introduction to many of our absolute favorite comedians that we personally try to highlight whenever we can here at TCB.

So, not only did COVID-19 put a pause, interrupt the scheduling of, or even outright shut down so much comedy, but This Joka temporarily fell victim to originally be at the ill-fated short form streaming service, Quibi. When the news broke that Quibi was closing up shop, This Joka was still on the docket to premiere and we were worried that this whole series would never get to be seen by you, us, and everyone else that needs to see the future of stand-up comedy.

Thankfully, Roku bought up Quibi’s library including This Joka and we will all get treated to see Will Smith’s curated stand-up series that features Baron Vaughn, Sam Tallent, Punkie Johnson, Rosebud Baker, Clayton English, Chris Estrada, David Gborie, Sean Patton, Megan Gailey, Rell Battle, Shane Torres, Vanessa Gonzalez, Daphinque Springs, Martin Urbano, Jackie Fabulous, and Christi Chiello.

Many have since gone to new heights in their career by the way. Estrada has his own Hulu series in the works, Rosebud got her own special, and Sam became an acclaimed author.

Come Fri. Mar. 4th, you’ll be able to stream This Joka for free on Roku. You can get a taste of what’s to come (and get nostalgic about comedy right before COVID) with the trailer here.

Bill Burr Has Just Launched a Dark Comedy Anthology Series “Immoral Compass” on Roku

November 8, 2021

News

al madrigal, bill burr, bobby lee, nick swardson, roku, tyler fabo, vince vaughn

Roku, the home to Quibi originals, is now putting out there very own original content exclusive to their platform. For our money, they swung pretty well for their first series as they’ve got Bill Burr starring and presenting an anthology series (as if Burr is the Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt, but just a jaded guy in a garage instead) that lives up to the title of the show, Immoral Compass.

Created by Tyler Falbo, Burr guides as a probably reliable narrator through what seems to be like a darker (and more cohesive) version of The Premise. Al Madrigal, Nick Swardson, Vince Vaughn, and Bobby Lee all make guest appearances and be terrified to varying degrees in their respective episodes.

Get a gander of what’s in store with Immoral Compass here with the official trailer, then, if you’re digging it, you can go watch it on The Roku Channel right now.

Roku Buys Up Quibi Library That Includes Flipped and Reno 911!

January 8, 2021

News

quibi, roku

Among the multitudes of things that came to an end in 2020, last year saw the launch and shuddering of the mobile only streaming platform Quibi. Plenty of money was invested to produce tons of “quick bite” (i.e. that’s the etymology of Quibi, FYI) content featuring some high profile projects like making new episodes of Reno 911! or taking a chance on trailblazing shows like Matt Rogers and Dave Mizzoni’s Gayme Show!

Despite how Quibi’s expectations were very far from being met, there were a lot of interesting things brewing over at Quibi and were set for release following Quibi’s launch in the Summer. Flipped starring Will Forte and Kaitlin Olson, a show following how a home makeover couple got caught up in doing what they do best for organized crime, received critical acclaim and even garnered an Emmy nomination.

The closing up of shop at Quibi near the end of 2020 meant the fate of all those shows, ostensibly watched by very few, was up in the air until this week when non-mobile exclusive streaming platform Roku announced they’d be taking on Quibi’s library of content. As to exactly what will be included in the sale has yet to be revealed in full, but it would seem that Roku will be absorbing most Quibi originals including the aforementioned Reno 911 and Flipped. It’ll be a bigger screen, but odds are you won’t be able to turn the screen from landscape to portrait as you pleased, as was one of the “perks” of Quibi.

Hopefully, some of the more high concept comedy series that were on Quibi get a legitimate second chance to gain some notoriety (so long as you have Roku).

Quibi's big stories are coming soon to a bigger screen for free on The #Roku Channel ➡️ https://t.co/f44RUQHV0i pic.twitter.com/48YSYE2Jd3

— Roku (@Roku) January 8, 2021