zach kanin – The Comedy Bureau

TCB Debriefing 3/31-4/3/24: Chair Company, George Carlin, 5th of July, Amy Silverberg, Smartypants, Las Culturistas, Martin Short, Worldwide Comedy Month

April 3, 2024

amy silverberg, chris estrada, dropout, george carlin, las culturistas, martin short, smartypants, steve feinartz, tim robinson, Worldwide comedy month, zach kanin

1. HBO smartly has ordered a pilot from the golden minds of Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin, the duo responsible for the best sketch show of this decade, I Think You Should Leave. You’ll be happy to know that this pilot, The Chair Company,, is perfectly set up for Robinson to play some sort of everyman that loses it in an office and has plenty of opportunity to yell, one of the things Robinson is better at than almost anyone (Variety).

2. In settlement with George Carlin Estate, the AI created special impersonating George Carlin from Dudesy will be taken down (Variety). Please remember this as this will be both an important milestone for dealing with AI both in art and comedy going forward.

3. Though Hulu stupidly (with a capital “S”) canceled This Fool, Chris Estrada is far from done with putting out his splendid brand of LA born-and-bred alt comedy. This just released short film, 5th of July, co-written and directed by the amazing Steve Feinartz, almost plays like part of what would have been the next season of This Fool. Please enjoy here.

4. Amy Silverberg has not only been a long time favorite of ours that we have the expressed privilege of seeing coming up in the LA comedy scene, but she beautifully contrasts her poetic turns-of-phrase sourced from her background as a writing professor and the grit of a very honest, truthful, vulnerable stand-up comedian. Please enjoy her CC Stand-Up Featuring set here.

5. Dropout has you hooked with Game Changer and is getting into more chaos (though slightly edutainment focused) with their latest upcoming series, Smartypants. Take a gander here.

6.. Matt and Bowen are getting Las Culturistas closer to where it should be in the pantheon of culture with takint their very own Culture Awards to the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn come this Summer.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lauren Mandel (@laurenmandel)

7. We’re pretty sure that Martin Short was probably some sort of “Mayor of Fun” already, but he now officially bestowed the title of Mayor of Funner, CA (THR)

8. As 800 Pound Gorilla has christened it, Worldwide Comedy Month has arrived. THERE SHOULDN”T BE A SINGLE DAY YOU DON’T SEE COMEDY.

9. We’ll leave you with this: A Real April Fools’ Day should be on April 2nd since corporations, like so many other things, kind of ruined the April 1st version.

I Think You Should Leave Season 3 Is Another Splendid Absurdist Escape That’s Shorter Than Every Marvel Movie

May 30, 2023

News

i think you should leave, tim robinson, zach kanin

Between all six episodes of the brand new season of I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, the total run time is around 95 minutes. This means that the celebrated, revered, beloved sketch series is shorter than any studio tentpole movie in theaters, especially ones with the Marvel stamp on them, and probably most other movies that are at your local cineplex. For that price of time, Robinson and his co-creator Zach Kanin deliver another highly addictive, comically riotous revue of modern American life getting run a wood chipper then glued back to together by someone flirting with the darker side of a drug trip.

At this point, ITYSL has their formula down by extending narratives within commercials to a darkly personal place, people screaming in cars at each other, people’s need for validation taking them absurdly down toxic paths, American corporate culture going haywire, and, of course, Tim Robinson screaming as almost a manifestation of the current collective unconscious. It’s a testament to the writing and execution of Robinson, Kanin, and co. that ITYSL is such a dark mirror to the U.S. of A and yet, still such a joyous escape from the reality of it all (as best captured in this season’s doggy door sketch).

Season 3 of I Think You Should Leave is now streaming on Netflix and you can probably watch it through several times over in the same time it would take you to binge most other Netflix original series. So, you should probably watch it on repeat to cope with times like these like we are.

I Think You Should Leave Finally Renewed for Season 3

May 6, 2022

News

i think you should leave, netflix, season 3, tim robinson, zach kanin

(via Variety)

For much as Netflix’s stock has suffered in the recent weeks, it sure has taken them quite some time to renew one of their most beloved and acclaimed comedy series (and the absolute funniest sketch show on television right now, without a doubt). It had us worried, pondering why they would wait so long to give Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin a third season for what has become one of the most meme-able shows ever made.

The first two seasons of I Think You Should Leave were so brilliantly daft and hysterical that it made us wonder what Lorne Michaels kept shooting down while Robinson was at SNL for all those years. There is no release date or any other details for that matter (maybe they’ll get more than just a handful of episodes that you can binge in less than three hours?).

In any case, this announcement is as good a reason as any to go watch all of I Think You Should Leave again in case you haven’t already done that in the last week or two.

Tim Robinson & Zach Kanin Might Have a New HBO Max Show with “Computer School”

March 1, 2022

News

computer school, hbo max, tim robinson, zach kanin

(via Variety)

As far as we’re concerned, Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin set a new bar for sketch comedy with only two seasons of I Think You Should Leave proving that they should be further allowed to, perhaps, do as they please. We would sincerely hope that a third season of I Think You Should Leave would be part of that, but, for now, we’ll be ecstatic over the announcement that HBO Max has ordered a pilot from Robinson and Kanin called Computer School.

The premise is very simple, but leaves plenty of room to go the millions of absurd directions that I Think You Should Leave or Detroiters went to. Computer School will follow a newly minted high school graduate and his uncle ending up in the same computer class in the Michigan ‘burbs. That alone should get the wheels turning at all the joyously chaotic possibilities that could arise from that (and probably a lot of Tim Robinson yelling).

With all of that in mind, we hope that a series order gets announced ASAP (especially we don’t know if and when that next season of ITYSL is going to come out on Netflix).