The title isn’t lying here. Beth Stelling is enchanting and you should go watch her whenever you get a chance, especially if you can catch her do an hour.
You’ll have that aforementioned chance next weekend and we implore you to make your life better by attending. Go get tickets here please.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, maps, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
Well, with the holiday season upon us, the gifts are coming early. Specifically, another edition of the crazy variety/stunt stand-up show known as Late Late Breakfast is coming before 2018 closes.
This Saturday, November 3rd, Tyler Jackson & Danny Maupin host a cornucopia of comics attempting to do stand-up while facing some of the most absurd challenges they can come up with.
The line-up for this time around includes:
Amy Miller
Steve Hernandez
Logan Guntzleman
Jamel Johnson
Katrina Davis
Amy Silverberg
Turner Barrowman
Joann Schinderle
Lindsay Adams
Neel Nanda
So, once you’re rested from Halloween tonight, get yourself to Silverlake Lounge (2906 W Sunset Blvd.) on Saturday. Doors open 4PM and the show begins at 5PM. Donations will be accepted.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, maps, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
Besides it being Neil Hamburger and the fact that it’s a very, very, very, very stacked line-up (perhaps almost worthy of a gala?), next Sunday will mark 11 years of Neil’s residency (the longest solo residency in the comedy scene that we can think of) at The Satellite in Silverlake.
If you need more reason to go, then just trust that we’re telling you to go because it’s worth it.
Get your tickets here quick as we have a feeling that it might sell out.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, maps, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
The opening to, Preferred Customer, this new album from Nate Craig, should set a new standard for opening an hour of comedy. It’s, at the same time, warm, inviting, just the right, measured amount of sass, and an actual extended greeting beyond the routine “great to be here” or story about what part of town the venue in which the album/special was recorded at.
Such care and consideration are the bedrocks of what makes up Craig’s latest and greatest album. The observations within Nate’s bits, ranging from inventions to abortion to Adobe Flash, are so clever and original, yet never too farfetched. Similarly, the hour progresses smoothly and nothing seems shoe-horned in, though the material is incredibly varied, topic-wise. Craig just seems to stick the landing here, whether it be in delivery, pacing, diction, etc.
Simply put, we were laughing out loud, wire-to-wire, in our car while listening to Preferred Customer. Thus, we’ve found one of our favorite stand-up albums of 2018.
Preferred Customer comes out this Thursday (in just a few hours of this post) wherever you stream your albums, but you can (and should) pre-order it on iTunes right now.
It would seem that both Joe Zimmerman’s phone and comedy are kind of blessed.
Witness it for yourself from his set on last night’s Late Late Show with James Corden.
Next week, the wonderful Jen Kirkman back in town doing her new material show Lab Test and there are still tickets on sale! It’s a rare chance to see Jen in a very intimate setting do a long set and you really ought to not miss it.
Tickets are only $12 a pop (w/1 item min. Go get them here before the inevitably sell out.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, maps, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
Due to the nature of showbiz and the instantaneous demand of something new, crafting an hour of comedy often is rushed and, consequently, ends up looking rushed. You’ll find that there’s no connective tissue between the material and the arc of tone and energy seem random at best.
Ted Alexandro’s Senior Class of Earth is a welcome break from all of that.
Ted Alexandro is a great comedian and an exemplary artisan of the form. He has done it before, but Ted shows again what a well crafted hour of stand-up can be (and can be for the world weary audiences of 2018) with Senior Class of Earth. As always, Ted is so perfectly laid back in this special/album with his performance that he can sail through choppy waters and keep the audience on board the whole time. That’s not so easy these days with the mere mention of a certain political figure or divisive topic freezing up comedy audiences immediately.
Here’s a trailer to get a taste of what we’re talking about.
So, we urge you to get and enjoy Senior Class of Earth, available now as a special from All Things Comedy and as an album from 800 Pound Gorilla.
It’s not part of the special, but Ted showed how very good he is at making the medicine go down with a spoonful of sugar in this recent set about Louis CK and Cosby.
It would seem as through comedian Ryan Singer has been and will forever be on a quest to simultaneously understand the connective tissue of the human experience and how we reconcile it with the infinite universe around us and make comedy about said quest for any and all.
His latest album, Free Love, is a notable milestone in said quest as Singer beautifully weaves through nuanced and spirited jokes about esoteric knowledge, singularity, and milkshakes. Ryan also keeps a good sense of self-awareness so it doesn’t seem like you’re going for the trippy ride that you’re going to go on (and will delight in) within this hour.
Perhaps, nicest of all, Ryan is living true to the title and offering up this album for FREE download. We say that you should take up Singer on his Free Love. Do so here.
Behind the sweet face of Jaboukie Young-White is a clever, mischievous (yet, also still sweet) sense of humor. It’s the thing that has carried him to a big following online, TV writing gigs, and this second set on the Tonight Show from last week.
For us, the closer on this set is stellar.
Watch and enjoy it here.
For years now, people have gathered a various backyards around LA to enjoy the live comedy show drinking game that has come to be known and loved as Brew Haha, dreamt up and created by Jimmy Ambrose, Aaron Black, Marissa Gallant, and Brad Silnutzer.
Both comics and audience get to engage in their own sides of a drinking game while they do/watch stand-up, making for a, put quite simply, a damn good time. Thanks to Thrillist you can enjoy the same sort of merriment that crowds that make it feel like your at a movie level house party as they’ve produced a digital series of Brew Haha.
For once, you actually won’t have to worry about getting there early to get a seat. So, please watch and enjoy the first episode (and maybe even play along with the drinking game) here.
Gary Gulman is hands down one of the best artisans within the craft of jokes (and has been for quite some time-just watch any of his late night sets) and will be stopping by LA as part of his 2018 Must Be Nice! tour.
Specifically, he’ll be playing two shows at Largo at the Coronet Theatre on Thursday, October 18th at 8PM and 9:45PM. Tickets for the early show are already sold out, but you can still get tickets for the late show for $35 here. Do so quickly!
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, maps, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
A new weekly stand-up show, Faded, is coming by way of Los Feliz thanks to David Gborie, Sean Jordan, Mike Mulloy, and Zak Toscani.
Some of you may know them as LA favorites, but others of you, specifically All Fantasy Everything fans might enjoy The Good Vibes Gang + “Enemy of the Podcast” putting up a stand-up show on Fridays at Blue Rooster Art Supplies. They’ll be starting off Faded this Friday.
Tickets are $10 and you can (and should) go get them here.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, maps, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
‘Tis the spooky season and that means that the annual comedians-donning-a-costume-of-another-comedian-for-a-giant-show is coming soon!
Schtick or Treat (presented by Mark Normand and Matt Ruby), now in its 11th year, is back at the Virgil on Sunday, Oct. 28th at 7PM with wonderful hosts Jason Saenz and Nick Turner. As we said, your favorite comedians around town (and around the country) will dress up and perform as famous comedians, dead or alive. It’s always a blast (even that one year where an entire back table dressed up as ghosts and kept saying “boo” the whole time).
Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 cash at door. Get them in advance here!
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, maps, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
Cameron Esposito’s Rape Jokes Now Available on Vinyl
This was a great special that we hoped you watched and bought already.
Whether you did or not, this seems to be an especially good weekend to get into Cameron Esposito’s latest hour, again or for the first time, that just released a special blue vinyl edition (available at your local record store).
Also, you can get the streaming version of pretty much every streaming platform as well.
One of our favorite house comedy shows Wolf Den is celebrating two years of having one of the most picturesque comedy shows on a patio.
Per usual, they have a great line-up (just take a gander above) and hosts Amy Silverberg and Lynn Maleh will kick off what’s sure to be another killer show.
You can (and perhaps should) reserve a spot in advance here.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, maps, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
The one and only Dana Gould will indeed be doing an hour this Sunday at the lovely hole-in-the-wall comedy venue known as The Clubhouse with Valerie Tosi and Kandice Martellaro opening.
By the way, there is no cover, but donations will be accepted.
So, you might want to get there a little, if not very, early.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, maps, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
Tasteful, the best comedy show at Milk Tavern (528 S. Western Ave.) Koreatown’s best ice cream parlor is back!
This Wednesday, September 19th at 8PM, you’ll get to enjoy ice cream and/or cereal (with some booze if you’d like and you’re of age) along with the comedy stylings of host Langston Kerman, The Puterbaugh Sisters, Ramon Rivas, Jared Logan, The Lucas Brothers, Gavin Matts, and Kara Klenk!
Admission is free!
Get the rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
Todd Glass and Rory Scovel are at “it” again!
What exactly “it” is that they’re at again is a mystery, hence the name of the show. That being said, “it”/the story is pretty damn fun (we’ve seen “it” for ourselves).
So, don’t miss out on Todd and Rory doing whatever the hell they want from scratch for $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Get tickets here.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, maps, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
Big Terrific, an evening comprised lovingly of Jenny Slate, Gabe Liedman, and Max Silvestri, is returning again to Largo once more on Fri. Sept. 21st at 8PM.
Don’t miss out on getting tickets as this usual sells out. They’re going for $35 online and you can (and should) get them here.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, maps, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
Did you happen to read John Roy’s thorough exegesis of one Roy Wood Jr. joke yesterday and be reminded of how funny Roy is?
Even if you just read it now, you’ll be happy to know that Roy is stopping into the Irvine Improv later this month for four shows. Tickets are going for $22 with a 2 item minimum. Go get them quick here.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, maps, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
We’ll start off by saying this: we found the Drew Michael HBO stand-up special to be very funny.
There was already so much discussion of what this stand-up special without a live audience would or could be even before it premiered over this weekend that we wanted to make sure at least stating whether it was funny or not was clear before we dive deep into the details.
Now, let’s unpack this experiment from Drew Michael and director Jerrod Carmichael.
This special is similar to Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette in that it shows how comedy is an art form, which still is a foreign concept to a lot of people. Comedy is indeed an art form and, as an art form, evolution is inevitable and often startling. Michael and Carmichael wanted to offer up a different way for stand-up comedy to be seen and they accomplished that in kind of an exquisite way on the back of Drew’s brilliant writing (this special has one of the all time, best jokes about suicide) and confessional performance.
Easily, this is the most cinematic comedy special there has ever been. The look suggests that we’re in Drew’s psyche and going deeper as the special progresses. You might notice that colors get deeper, moodier, and ambient sounds and sound effects denote how “far” we’re going into Drew’s thoughts. Also, there’s a clear narrative arc, a rarity in stand-up, established by interstitial conversations with a girlfriend that sort of act as chapters in the special.
That being said, it should be noted that this special is probably best enjoyed with headphones and streaming off a laptop in order to catch all this detail.
The sign of a joke working is a subsequent laugh after the joke is told. Unlike 99% of recorded stand-up, there is no laughter that you hear after Drew’s jokes are delivered. Still, we laughed heartily at them, sometimes even applauding by ourselves while watching. In fact, for those of you that deeply loathe how laugh tracks accompany multi cam sitcoms, you might really love this special for the absence of recorded laughs that you weren’t there for. Because of Drew’s material being so dark and personal, the beats and silences actually punctuate a lot of the punchlines for us.
We’re not exactly sure what this means for the future of stand-up comedy. The odds probably are in favor of the majority of comedians still recording an hour or half hour (or in Netflix’s case, 15 mins.) in front of a live crowd. That being said, we hope this Drew Michael special, which highly worth watching and enjoying, encourages comedy, as a whole, to try something different.
Nate Craig is a great, rare bird in having recorded and released, independent of a label, two comedy albums that we’ve really dug. Forging his own path to success, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed Nate’s incisive observations in his stand-up for many years now.
So, Nate will be recording his third album next month at Dynasty Typewriter and we highly urge you to be in attendance. Tickets are only $5. By the way, for $10, you’ll get a ticket and Nate’s previous albums, Eggshell and Infinity.
Go get your tickets here.
The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, maps, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.
This time around for The Comedy Lineup, you’ll get to see a tight 15 from JR De Guzman, Emma Willmann, Matteo Lane, Janelle James, Max Silvestri, Kate Willett, Josh Johnson and Aisling Bea.
It’s a very, very solid bunch. Get a taste of it here, then get ready to binge watch it on Aug. 31st.
Tiffany Haddish’s Next Hour Special Will Be Coming to Netflix in 2019
Just in case where you’ll be able to see Tiffany Haddish next after the bevy of movies, TV, and Groupon commercials this year, know that a new hour stand-up special is on its way to, where else, Netflix next year.
Since her last special was called “She Ready! From the Hood to Hollywood!”, we’re curious as to what this next special will be called. She Ready! 2 The World Ready for Her? 2 She 2 Ready? The Last Black Unicorn Rides Again?
No matter what she calls it, this will be one of the bigger releases for Netflix next year.
Emmy Blotnick’s latest late night set shows, yet again, just how damn charming she is and a great idea for The Rock to save the world in a different way than he does in all his movies.
Watch and enjoy Emmy on last night’s Conan here.