This will sell out pretty quick, so we’ll keep this short. The one and only Ali Wong has added dates to her Milk & Money Tour for the Long Beach Convention Center on Feb. 1st at 7PM & 10PM.
If you didn’t get a chance to catch her for the row of weekends she played at the Wiltern, then you have another shot to catch her in 2020. Pre-sale tickets are now available with the code “COBRA” and you better snag them quick here.
Sure, you know Dan Soder as Mafee on Billions, but we hope you also know that Dan contains multitudes in characters, voices, and life experience.
You’ll get a chance to see a more whole Dan Soder with his wonderfully titled, upcoming HBO special, Son of a Gary. In fact, Soder’s special might just stand out on HBO as it seems like it’ll be mostly just a straightforward comedy special in contrast to HBO’s exciting row of comedy special experiments (most of which we really enjoyed) over the last year and a half or so.
Get a taste of what’s to come with Dan Soder: Son of a Gary with this trailer, then look for its premiere on Sat. Dec. 7th at 10PM on HBO.
So, Matt O’Brien has devised a way to have comedians act out a scene with a green screen, then finish a video with a background suggested by the audience before that comedian finishes a normal stand-up set.
For us, it sounds like some beautiful chaos and something you should definitely check out (especially with a great line-up of Julia Hladkowicz, Johnny Pemberton, JB Ball, Andrew Johnston, Steph Tolev).
This madness will be called Green with Matt O’Brien and happening on Fri., Nov. 22nd at 10:30PM at UCB Sunset. Tickets are $7 and you ought to go get them here.
A true, curious treasure from Norway, Daniel Simonsen has honed and imbued his marvelously offbeat sense of humor and rhythm in NYC, even recently getting a set on Colbert.
Simonsen has popped up in LA every now and again, but later this month, he’ll be doing headlining in a special limited engagement at the Lyric Hyperion that you absolutely should catch.
As of now, Daniel is slated for Fri., Nov. 22nd and Wed., Nov. 27th, both at 10PM. Tickets are $7 right now and you really ought to go get them here.
There is a certain finesse that comes with working in the realm of dry humor. It’s akin to the artful arranging of negative space in a photograph or painting. When comedians can pull it off, it really is amazing to see how they cleverly play with that energy just like Emily Catalano did in her late night debut on Conan.
Watch and see Catalano work her wry/dry magic here.
It’s so rare to seem someone great actual headline in LA, much less at The Comedy Store.
So, you really ought to not miss your chance to see the one and only Eric Andre, harbinger of (comedic) chaos, do his latest hour up in The Comedy Store’s Belly Room next Fri., Nov. 15th at 8PM. We’re not sure exactly what’s going to happen, but that is part of the thrill of seeing Eric Andre live these days, especially on this Legalize Everything Tour.
Tickets are only $15 (+ 2 item min.). Go get them before they sell out here.
Megan Gailey just released a great album this week, My Dad Paid For This and offered a more fine comedy wares with her set on The Tonight Show from last night.
This set is a pretty great bookend to the album as Megan demands that she be engaged on her album by the time of its release and is now, in fact, engaged. Gailey’s just a few steps ahead always.
Please enjoy the set 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.
At this point, it’s kind of crazy that Chris Garcia hasn’t done late night until just last night. Chris has a half hour special on Comedy Central, a handful of great TV appearances, and been even featured on This American Life. All throughout those times, he has been so damn funny with his distillation of his identity as a Cuban immigrant with immigrant parents.
Still, a chance for Garcia to take the stage is one to be relished and we hope you enjoy Chris’ first (of hopefully many more) late night sets here, taped on The Late Late Show with James Corden.
This very first comedy album release from Megan Gailey not only is very good, but also presents an insightful, complex, layered, and, of course, very, very funny perspective on being a woman in these times on this debut album My Dad Paid For This.
Gailey very deftly shows all her facets as a woman who loves football, a woman who is critical of football’s problematic practices, a staunch feminist, a former sorority girl, and so much more all within the hour. It’s quite the delightful, very colorful portrait of Megan and this world she’s trying to deal with. Gailey self-deprecatingly comments on her persona throughout, but she comes off as someone with her own warmth (though she’s totally willing to put folks in their place).
So, get into My Dad Paid For This fresh off the presses from AST Records or at Apple Music or wherever you listen to comedy albums.
When it comes to the craft of making and telling jokes, The Sklar Brothers have a love of tinkering with bits that’s almost unparalleled. Thus, having a show like Tag It! where they get to tag, punch up, pitch alts, etc. with their favorite comedians is kind of perfect.
Next Thursday, on Nov. 7th 8PM, at Dynasty Typewriter, Jason and Randy Sklar will feature the comedy stylings of Jak Knight, Jessimae Peluso, Matt Braunger, Kyle Ayers, Jay Chandrasekhar, Rhea Butcher, and Ryan Sickler and then try to “tag up” their jokes, which their so damn good at.
Tickets are $15 right now ($20 on day of). Go get ‘em right now!
Alex Edelman just served us all another great stand-up set on Conan that showcases Edelman’s knack for weaving sharp writing and imagination together.
Indeed, Alex talks about two heroes, though, it’s almost up to you to decide if it’s any pairing of Coco the Gorilla, Robin Williams, Michael Collins, or Neil Armstrong.
Watch, enjoy, and decide the two heroes for yourself here.
Kyle Ayers is a funny, funny man. Between his own stand-up, Boast Rattle, the podcast Never Seen It, and all the other crazy ideas that Ayers dreams up and makes a comedic golden reality, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed his comedic pursuits immensely over the years.
He’ll be recording an album over at one of our favorite places in LA (both for watching comedy and just to be at in general), Stories on Sat. Dec. 7th at 8PM. This does mean that Ayers will be recording this album outside and include all the ambient noise of a vibrant Echo Park on a Saturday night, which we’re confident he’ll make something truly special out of.
Get more details here.
The way that Jay Larson distills life into his bits and stories is a great reminder that, perhaps, we should all re-examine the way we live our lives. Whether Larson is living his life for the joke or he just is hyperaware of the comedy in every moment of life, Larson knows how to spin quite the tale.
Give his latest performance on The Late Late Show with James Corden a watch here.
We’ve recently noticed a trend in late night stand-up sets that we’re really digging. It’s subtle and just beginning, but more and more comics seem to be free to have ad libs/asides, here and there, making their very rehearsed performance seem more alive and closer to the experience you’d get if you were to see them at a live comedy show. It’s part of what makes live comedy magical.
Part of the fun of watching Brooks Wheelan do stand-up is seeing the sheer fun he has telling jokes and stories, a lot of which has to do with the him playing with his set from moment-to-moment. That’s clearly on display in this very delightful set he just did on last night’s Late Night with Seth Meyers.
So, with all of that said, go give Brooks Wheelan’s set on Seth Meyers a watch here.
The comedy baseball mash-up phenomenon known as On Deck is having its “World Series”, just in time for a certain MLB World Series, with Megan Gailey’s Lucy Lucy Apple Juicys vs. Caitlin Weierhauser’s The Uncles. Both teams will be taking the stage together, trying to “smack” their punchlines/bits out of the park, one by one, making for a stand-up comedy experience like no other.
Join hosts/umpires Jamel Johnson, Courtney Karwal and Mike Mulloy to see who will the On Deck Commissioner’s Trophy. Tickets available here.
Dubbed as “The Jokey Show”, Whitmer Thomas is indeed taking his monthly slot at The Satellite and having all the comics dress up as the fictional character from DC Comics, The Joker (which will even be more intriguing considering nearly all of the line-up is comprised of women). Apart from that, we’re guessing some of them will be doing a normal stand-up set, but, then again, maybe they’ll try doing stand-up as some iteration of The Joker, anywhere from Cesar Romero to Joaquin Phoenix.
In any case, we’re fully on board for this stunt and whatever it ends up being and definitely think you should be in attendance to see what happens. Also, the line-up is fantastic with-or-without a Joker costume. Get tickets here.
Perhaps taking a cue from HBO’s latest row of comedy specials, the latest comedy special offering from Netflix, Jenny Slate: Stage Fright, will intercut between documentary footage and stand-up that paints a more complete, deeper picture of Jenny.
Slate, who jumps between starring in such movies as Obvious Child, performing live as a stand-up, and voicing wonderful characters like Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, has such a dynamic, undeniable charm, making you hang on to everything she says.
From the looks of Stage Fright in this trailer, we’ll get a bit of a better glimpse of what drives Jenny (the name of the special perhaps?).
Look for Jenny Slate: Stage Fright to drop on Netflix later this month on Tues. Oct. 22nd.
As with all things done by Gary Gulman, great time and care has been put into this latest special, The Great Depresh, and, consequently, it was absolutely worth the wait (many years have passed since his last special).
The Great Depresh is the latest hour from Gulman that actually cuts between stand-up and documentary footage of Gary visiting his childhood home, apartment, therapist’s office, sometimes with his wife and his mother. It’s touching, sweet, and still brilliant and boundary pushing, all within a neatly packed comedy special.
The beauty of this latest work is three fold. The Great Depresh simultaneously shows how Gulman remains one of comedy’s best artisans when it comes to crafting and telling jokes (Gulman’s diction is unrivaled as far as we’re concerned), aims to lift up (as opposed to punch up or down), and sheds light on the importance of mental health (a topic that continually needs to talk about no matter how many comedians are talking about it).
We were left with a sweet, satisfying smile as the credits rolled on Gulman’s latest and we hope that it does the same for you.
Gary Gulman: The Great Depresh premiered this past weekend on HBO and is now streaming on HBO NOW and HBO GO.
Adam Cayton-Holland wrote such a powerful book in Happy Place recounting the loss of his sister to suicide. There was such a vast response to Adam’s story within the pages that Cayton-Holland took to the stage and adapted Happy Place into a solo show. Given that Adam is one of the most respected stand-up comedians today, it’s no surprise that there is already buzz around this live show version of Happy Place.
Get your tickets for this exclusive LA performance on Tues. Oct. 29th at 8PM of Happy Place by Adam Cayton-Holland at UCB Franklin here.
To call a comedy special “X” should denote that one will be going into some sort of dark territory, a place that Daniel Sloss is more than familiar with.
We actually got to catch X while Sloss was running it at Largo and it might be his best hour yet. Sloss dives head on into toxic masculinity and picks it apart in his signature bouncy, yet subversive style.
Get a taste of what’s to come with Daniel Sloss: X with this trailer, then look for its premiere on HBO on Nov. 2nd.
Already, Nikki Glaser has one of the best comedy specials of the year, Bangin’, that just dropped on Netflix this week.
With that out of the way, Nikki is kicking off a big, long running, nationwide theater tour starting in Jan. 2020 with dates lined-up through May stretching from Seattle to Tampa and all over the place in between. As mentioned in the poster above, it’ll be all new material, which is just a testament to how prolific Nikki is (Alec Baldwin Roast, a Netflix special, You Up with Nikki Glaser, etc.).
Find cities, dates, tickets, and more for Nikki Glaser’s Bang It Out Tour here.
The latest stand-up special that Showtime has lined-up has us pretty damn excited as it will be for Jesus Trejo.
Trejo has perfected his craft, climbing his way carefully up through the LA comedy scene for years, to become a paid regular at The Comedy Store and having a great set on Corden. Personally, we enjoy his mix of grounded, personal observations, penchant for a bit of silliness, and his cool, gnarly voice.
So, please make yourself present at the taping for Jesus Trejo’s first special Stay at Home Son for Showtime. There are two tapings (7PM and 9:30PM) at NoHo’s El Portal Theatre and you can RSVP here.
In the interests of making you watch Nikki Glaser’s awesome (and we use that superlative very sparingly around here) comedy special Bangin’ rather than another screed that dissects the art form of comedy in these times, we’ll try and keep this brief.
1) In case you didn’t notice, Nikki Glaser is as sharp (with a wonderful dash of silliness) as ever and this hour is a wonderful exhibition of that notion.
2) Bangin’ is undeniable proof you can be edgy with the current “woke culture” and still be so damn funny. Glaser starts off so blue as she opens up on an in-depth, explicit bit on blowjobs and then, talks candidly about sex for the whole hour. Speaking your truth (with a bit of brilliant comedic finesse) rather than going for shock seems to be the magic ingredient with Nikki on Bangin.
3) Nikki Glaser: Bangin’ is, in our opinion, the best stand-up special, out of literal dozens (including all the ones with the biggest names in comedy), from Netflix this year.
So, go watch Nikki Glaser’s Bangin’ on Netflix, streaming now.
This Friday marks the last Faded to happen at Blue Rooster Art Supplies. That also means that the likes of stand-up baseball show On Deck and live tapings of hit podcast All Fantasy Everything are saying farewell to Blue Rooster too.
However, Faded Comedy has a brand new venue in Mid City Arts Center already lined-up along with a month’s worth of shows starting next week. That includes the aforementioned Faded, On Deck, All Fantasy Everything, and lovely backyard show High Priestess.
Tickets for all of ‘em are on sale now for just $10. Go get your tickets now right here!