Just when we needed to watch something abjectly silly and absurd and brilliantly dumb today, long time sketch comedy collaborators David Brown and Mike Lane delivered this short film, Ants.
If you need a pick me up today for some reason, this might do the trick.
Enjoy Ants here.
Not only is one of the cornerstone’s of the original National Lampoon’s brand, The National Lampoon Radio Hour has officially relaunched today, there’s another bonkers fast paced, absurdist sketch comedy podcast, a truly hard thing to pull off in a space that so much relies on being not scripted.
The new National Lampoon Radio Hour gets to be steered by the likes of:
Cole Escola (Emmy-nominated At Home with Amy Sedaris, Difficult People)
Jo Firestone (Adult Swim, The Tonight Show)
Brett Davis (Andy Kaufman Comedy winner, Podcast For Laundry)
Alex English (The Rundown, Night Train)
Maeve Higgins (Maeve in America: Immigration IRL, 2 Dope Queens)
Aaron Jackson (UCB, The Opposition)
Rachel Pegram (The Week Of, Don’t Think Twice)
Lorelei Ramirez (Comedy Central: Up Next, Pervert Everything)
Meg Stalter (Vulture: Up-and-coming Comedian of the Week, The Meg Stalter Show)
Martin Urbano (Jimmy Kimmel, Comedy Central).
There are two episodes up now, exclusively on Spotify and they have every bit of that National Lampoon irreverence, but rebooted from a 2019/2020 perspective. Definitely, they go for territory SNL could never touch and it’s pretty damn fun for that reason.
So, go get into the National Lampoon Radio Hour on Spotify now.
An entire decade has passed since the gathering of Lost Moon Radio has dazzled audiences in LA and abroad.
Part theater company, part sketch comedy troupe, part musical comedy extravaganza, the players, writers, and good folks behind the scenes delivered a theatrical musical comedy unlike nearly anything we’ve seen and have been doing so for this whole ten year run.
So, we really think you ought to join them for the Lost Moon Radio 10 Year Anniversary Spectacular at Club Fais Do-Do next weekend. Tickets are $20 for what we’re sure will be a barnburner of a show. Go get them here.
P.S. Our loyal followers can snag $15 tickets for Sat. Dec. 14th with promo code “COMEDYBUREAU”.
Thanksgiving crafts will never be the same for us because of this sketch and we wouldn’t want it any other way.
Please enjoy the continued comedic genius of Conan sketches with this latest one here.
With the proliferation of streaming services that never seem to end, Nick Ciarelli and Brad Evans offer up what it might be like (and what might actually happen) with what Google’s streaming service would be like.
Nick and Brad show off what would be a great episode of Black Mirror as well as their mastery of making satirical lists. Enjoy Google Drive Deluxe here.
One of our all time favorite sketch duos is Good Cop Great Cop, comprised of the quiet brilliance of Matt Porter and Charlie Hankin. For years, they made so many damn great sketches, then made a great CC digital series with New Timers, then seemed to be on a sort of hiatus.
Thankfully, they’re back on releasing new videos pretty regularly. This latest one “Cube” is particularly great. Watch and enjoy it here.
So many of LA’s best queer comedians will be assembling for a mad dash of a stand-up show, A Night of a Thousand Queers, next week. They’ll all be doing two minutes or less, so you can see as much amazing LGBTQ comedians (many of our favorites are on there FYI) as possible.
The show is free to attend leaving you very little reason to not make your way downtown to In Heroes We Trust Gallery next Saturday. Get more details here.
Ireland’s beloved sketch comedy troupe Foil Arms and Hog (Sean Finegan, Sean Flanagan and Conor McKenna) are coming stateside once more.
Their pure absurdity is a true joy to watch and has gained them critical acclaim at such festivals as the Edinburgh Fringe and quite a following online. For their one night only appearance at Dynasty Typewriter next week, the early show is already sold out. Make sure you grab a ticket to their late show, 9PM on Thurs., Oct. 10th before they could sell out.
They’re going for $35 and you grab them now right here.
Please Enjoy “Sports Without Equipment with Coach Keith Alejo”
OK, we’ll just say that this is the latest and greatest character from the immensely talented Frankie Quinones and, if you don’t already know, you best get into everything Frankie as he is in the process of breaking big (he’s playing the Wiltern at the end of this month FYI).
Now, we’ll let this sublime silliness speak for itself. Please watch and enjoy (over and over and over).
The brilliant high concept sketch/musical/theater company Lost Moon Radio is back with another run of their latest show, Lost Moon Radio Summer Block Party over at the Lyric Hyperion. If you’re one of the uninitiated from not having see them all around LA over the last several years or hosting the LA Weekly Theater Awards or on TruTV or, most recently, on NBC’s Bring The Funny, then this is a great chance for you to get in one of our favorite groups in town.
They’ve got four dates:
Aug. 15th 9PM
Aug. 16th 9PM
Aug. 17th 7PM & 9PM
Tickets are $20 and you really ought to get them here.
Netflix Orders Astronomy Club Variety Sketch Series
The long running NYC based comedy group Astronomy Club will now be the latest sketch series on TV via Netflix, thanks to Kenya Barris. Barris struck a deal with Netflix to bring their sharp, yet silly sensibilities into a full-fledged series.
See Astronomy Club in action with one of the best sketches: A Meeting of Great Black Inventors.
Also, with this announcement that the world of sketch comedy on TV will be as diverse as it has ever been with Arturo Castro’s Alternatino, Robin Thede and Issa Rae’s A Black Lady Sketch Show, and now, Astronomy Club.
If you’re not familiar with or been to or, more importantly, come to really dig what’s going at The Pack Theater over the last 4 years, you really ought to fix that.
A great way to do so is by going to PackCon, the annual celebration of the best of the best at The Pack Theater. Their favorite improv, sketch, stand-up, experimental comedy, and more will be on display for one giant day/night of comedy. That line-up will include Adam McKay, Kevin Dorff, Christina Gausas, Sean Conroy, Ryan Ridley, Stephnie Weir, Bob Dassie, James Adomian, Jackie Zebrowski, Henry Zebrowski, Tommy Blacha, Rob Haze, Annie Mebane, Nick Turner, Andres du Bouchet, Murderfist, Chopping Block, BioDome, Miles Stroth Celebrity All-Star Improv Set, Speedface, and more!
PackCon 4 will be taking place on Sat. Jul. 27th at The Pack Theater from 12PM-12AM???
There’s a good part of this PackCon4 that’s the nice price of Pay What You can, but there are specific shows that are $10. Get all the details for everything PackCon4 here.
Watch Brad Evans and Nick Ciarelli’s Dark Take on Corporations Trying to Tweet
Though they may try, corporations/brands/etc. attempting to engage on a “real level” with the consumers they so desperately want often goes awry (especially when it comes to tragedy).
So, the great sketch duo of Nick Ciarelli and Brad Evans have done their own super dark, satirical breakdown of what corporations might be thinking when pretending to have feelings on social media. Please enjoy their latest sketch here.
One of our absolute favorite sketch duos in LA is BUTT (Joe McAdam and Chris Stephens) and they’ll be thankfully sharing their wares with a big chunk of the rest of America this Summer on the appropriately titled Butt Across America Summer Tour.
Starting in the end of July through the beginning of August, McAdam and Stephens will bring their top notch absurdity to NYC, Chicago, Lincoln, NE, and more.
Get more details and tickets here.
Oh, also, you can also see them in LA this Sunday 6/30 at our Most Wanted List show at The Satellite.
Please Enjoy’s Nick Ciarelli and Bradford Evans Take on Every Cameo Video Ever
In this age of apps, there is, of course, an app that allows you to pay for “celebrity” (heavy emphasis on the quotation marks there) shout outs and endorsements via a video shot on a phone.
It’s called Cameo and, as you can imagine, the videos have gotten a bit weird, and it is definitely ripe for the sort of send-up that the uber-clever Nick Ciarelli and Brad Evans just did.
Please enjoy it here.
The Arturo Castro fronted Alternatino will be Comedy Central’s latest foray into sketch comedy and hopefully pick up the torch from where Inside Amy Schumer left off.
You can see a bit of whether that rings true for you with this full ep. that Comedy Central so nicely put on their YouTube channel. As far as we can see, there’s a lot of promise here with a sharp sense of humor that weaves in and around the modern idea of latinx identity and an explicit narrative arc, a rarity in sketch series.
Alternatino premieres on Comedy Central this Tues. Jun. 18th at 10:30PM.
When it comes to hyper specific angles in sketch comedy, IFC really wants to dominate that segment of comedy. Portlandia and Documentary Now! already did a comedic interpretation of Portland and famous documentary films respectively.
Now, IFC has their latest offering along these lines with Sherman’s Showcase from Diallo Riddle and Bashir Salahuddin, a satirical take on a fictional music variety show that bares a striking resemblance to legendary music-dance show, Soul Train. It’s being billed as a sketch comedy, which leads us to believe they’ll step outside of being solely a Soul Train parody.
In a weird way, this seems almost seems akin to all those Charlie Murphy stories on Chappelle’s Show and, as a matter of fact, there is someone playing Prince or a Prince-like character here. We’ll have to wait until Jul. 31st to see how that all plays out.
For now, just enjoy all of this in the Sherman’s Showcase trailer.
One of the most infamous works in comedy is Jerry Lewis’ The Day the Clown Cried, a film about a, if you didn’t know already, a clown-Holocaust-dramedy that Lewis tried to keep hidden for decades.
Gritty Reboot, the amazing monthly Pack Theater show that does gritty takes on IPs that are usually family friendly (Yogi Bear, Full House, etc.) will take this month to do a special live table read of an abridged version The Day the Clown Cried’s screenplay. Since the full film has yet to be released, this is your next best shot at seeing what unholy mess the movie really is.
So, make this your Friday night (especially as, like all Pack shows, admission is Pay What You Can). Get more details here.
It’s about time we put on another show.
So, we’re doing another gathering of our favorite comedy folks from every corner of comedy for another edition of our Most Wanted List on June 30th at Silverlake landmark, The Satellite.
As mentioned above, you’re cordially invited.
Scheduled to appear:
Frankie Quinones
Billy Wayne Davis
Wild Improv
Carl Tart
James Austin Johnson (host)
TCB’s own Jake Kroeger
Tickets are only $8 and you really ought to snag up quick here.
Tapping into the ridiculous and absurd is often risky proposition in comedy as it very likely that you might just make something that is so esoteric and weird that it’s more off-putting than comedic.
However, cleverly pulling off being “stupid” (and we mean that in the best way possible) in sketch comedy is a thing of beauty. We believe that is what Butt (Chris Stephens and Joe McAdam) have done with this sketch, Shrinker’s Pizza.
We don’t want to ruin it, so just watch it and if you dug it like us, you should go check out Chris and Joe as Butt at Dynasty Typewriter on May 31st.
You’ve one version of Arturo Castro on Broad City for years.
Now, with his own Comedy Central sketch show, you’ll get to enjoy the multitudes that he contains in the form of many, many different, wonderfully weird characters (and cleverly subverting all latinx stereotypes).
Get a taste of it here, then look for Alternatino to premiere on Comedy Central on Jun. 18th.
Sketch comedy on TV has become a little scarce these days (too scarce if you ask us). IFC and SNL can’t remain being the only places that have it in 2019.
Thankfully, Tim Robinson (from the aforementioned SNL and the beloved, but far-too-short-lived Detroiters and many great, wild sketches over many years) is getting his own sketch show at Netflix, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.
This trailer shows that it intends to make a hell of a first impression and we can’t wait for I Think You Should Leave to premiere later this month on Tues., Apr. 23rd on Netflix to see what insanity Tim has up his sleeve.
At this point, it takes quite a bit to raise our eyebrows when it comes to comedy.
That being said, this show Cheers The Show: The Show, a sketch showcase of several different versions of the opening to Cheers by very talented sketch writers and performers (including Genetra Tull, Elizabeth Schantz, John O’Toole Katy Fullan, Jackie Durruthy, Lee Barats, Dan Torson, Lauren Knutti, Ryan Kelly, Coil Danielle, Lorae Byas, Caitlin Linden, and producer/director/co-writer Brian Rodriguez-McGovern) is one of those shows. Some of the cold-opens nail the tone and vibe of Cheers and some are hilariously off the deep end.
In any case, you should catch the latest edition of this show next week at UCB Sunset (it’s a test show that could go on to be a recurring thing at UCB FYI). Get tickets here.
The mind of Mike O’Brien (A.P. Bio, SNL) is one of the funnest things to dive into. His absurdity is such a joy to bounce around in as evidenced by his sketch album Tasty Radio.
So, Mike is doing 45 min. of solo sketches at UCB Franklin next week, Sat. Mar. 30th at 10PM and based off what we just said, you shouldn’t miss it. Get tickets for $12 here.
Sure, you’ve been to a festival before. If you’re reading this, you’ve likely been to a comedy festival. However, have you been to a comedy show that gathers a bunch of festivals that parody the idea of the biggest festivals around like SXSW, Coachella, etc. (and probably FYRE too) in one night?
The folks behind The Best Friends Show and Atlantic City along with wonderful musical comedy group The Cooties and so many other great LA comedy performers are gathering to do just that and you’ll get to see something that you have (probably) not seen before and will very likely get a huge kick out of.
Best of all, it’s just a single comedy show as opposed to an entire festival where you have to rearrange your entire life and finances to go to.
It’s called Festival Fest and it’s happening next Saturday. Go get your tickets here now.