will smith – The Comedy Bureau

The Comedy Bureau Field Report Ep. 105: Gianmarco Soresi & Doing the Soderbergh

March 30, 2022

chris rock, gianmarco soresi, the slap, ucb, will smith

Love it or hate it (and so many people hate it while being obsessed with it), social media has become throughly woven into the fabric of comedy. Gianmarco Soresi has not only honed his skills as a stand-up and sketch comedian as well as storyteller and podcaster, but meticulously and tirelessly built up a very enviable social media following (across all the platforms to boot) on top of that. Gianmarco joins TCB’s Jake Kroeger to dissect how to balance purely doing the craft of stand-up versus feeding the beast of social media, somewhat like Steven Soderbergh’s noted strategy of doing one film for the studios and doing one for him.

Also, of course, we talk about Will Smith’s slap of Chris Rock as well as the return of UCB (under new ownership)

Follow Gianmarco on all things @gianmarcosoresi

The Comedy Bureau @thecomedybureau across platforms and please, please support TCB via GoFundMe, Patreon, or on Venmo (@jakekroeger).

Produced by Jake Kroeger
Music by Brian Granillo
Artwork by Andrew Delman and KT

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.

Will Smith Hosted Stand-Up Series “This Joka” Coming to Quibi

April 2, 2020

News, Uncategorized

baron vaughn, clayton english, david gborie, demi adejuyigbe, george wallace, rosebud baker, sean patton, this joka, vanessa gonzalez, will smith

(via Deadline)

Quibi was about to tape its own stand-up series at the Hollywood Improv right when this current pandemic shut all live entertainment down for the time being.

Fortunately, there was a stand-up series that had already been shot by Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios several months ago in Las Vegas and that series, called “This Joka”, has found its way to the just-about-to-launch mobile streaming platform Quibi (set to launch next week on Apr. 6th).

Many of our favorite comics that we’ve gotten to see up close in the before times will be featured on this series including:

Baron Vaughn
Chris Estrada
Christi Chiello
Clayton English
Daphnique Springs
David Gborie
Demi Adejuyigbe
George Wallace
Jackie Fabulous
Martin Urbano
Punkie Johnson
Rosebud Baker
Sam Tallent
Shane Torres
Shawn Wasabi
Vanessa Gonzalez

Per Quibi’s platform, episodes won’t be longer than 10 minutes and there are 16 of them ordered, which probably means that each episode will be a showcase set and conversation with the comics line-up. Also, Will Smith hosted all of This Joka and the one and only Lance Bangs directed the whole thing, making this stand-up series just all the more intriguing.

The Guests For The First Week of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

February 10, 2014

Uncategorized

arcade fire, bradley cooper, jerry seinfeld, jimmy fallon, justin timberlake, kristen wiig, michelle obama, tonight show, u2, will smith

Being the first week of the new era of The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon and company of course want to go big and reading this line-up, they certainly did.

Jerry Seinfeld, the First Lady, Will Ferrell, Arcade Fire, his old friend Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, and more will probably make for a pretty good first week for Fallon at 11:30PM starting Mon. Feb. 17th on NBC.

Monday, Feb. 17: Guest Will Smith and musical guest U2
Tuesday, Feb. 18: Guests Jerry Seinfeld, Kristen Wiig and musical guest Lady Gaga
Wednesday, Feb. 19: Guest Bradley Cooper and musical guest Tim McGraw
Thursday, Feb. 20: Guests First Lady Michelle Obama, Will Ferrell and musical guest Arcade Fire
Friday, Feb. 21: Guest Justin Timberlake

Morning Debriefing 6/19/11

1) Jon Stewart literally on Fox News.

2) The Pod F. Tompkast Comedy Lightbox-This is what SkyMall should be pushing.

3) In honor’s of Father’s Day and Jackie Kashian’s Dad…

4) Concert film seeks Christian comic (or even a comic who happens to be Christian).

5) Jesse Miller Day Dream-It’s weird that I have to qualify this video like this, but, really, it’s worth the 47 seconds.

6) What Dan Harmon and Co. think of the universe of Will Smith

7) The Americans for Fairness in Awarding Journalism Prizes believes the Onion deserves a Pulitzer. SUPPORT THEIR CAUSE!!! [via Huffington Post]

8) Father’s Day Cards that should be on Hallmark Shelves

“Think of how great you’d feel if you weren’t paying child support. Happy Father’s Day.” –Jeremy Paul

“Happy Father’s Day, thanks for leaving when I was four years old.”
–Johnny Gold

“When I was a kid, I had one of those nets you throw a baseball against and it bounces it back to you. Happy Father’s Day to that net.”
–Morgan Murphy

9) COMEDY CRAWL
The Long Shot Podcast @ UCB Theatre 6PM $5
ASSSSCAT @ UCB Theatre 7:30PM FREE
Rob Christensen Album Taping @ Fanatic Salon 7:30PM FREE
Re-Animator @ Steve Allen Theater 8PM $30
French Toast @ Taix 8:30PM FREE
Top Story Weekly! w/Andrés Du Bouchet and the Walsh Brothers @ iO West 9PM $5
Powerviolence @ The Complex 9PM FREE
Celebrity @ UCB Theatre 9:30PM $5 (stand by only)
Shitty Jobs @ UCB Theatre 11PM $5 (stand by only)

10) OPEN MIC RUN
PALMS 8572 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA/Starts 6PM/lottery
SAL’S COMEDY HOLE 7356 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, CA/Starts 6PM/$4 min./first come, first served
NERDIST THEATRE 7522 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA (back room of Meltdown Comics)/Sign-up 7:15PM/Starts 7:30PM/lottery/30 spots available/no purchase necessary
TSUNAMEDY @ TRIBAL CAFE 1651 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, CA (Echo Park)/Sign-up 8PM/Starts 9PM/first come, first served/mixed mic
MARTY’S/THE OPEN MIC 7351 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA (walk up Martel past Big Mama’s and Papa’s)/5PM to 11PM/$5/multiple sets allowed/bottled water and coffee available

11) If we had a podcast, would anyone listen? (Also, this is a test to see who reads this far down the post)

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THE COMEDY BUREAU/@thecomedybureau