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Morning Debriefing 12/5/10

Post Brunch Update 11/14/10

Morning Debriefing 11/7/10

Morning Debriefing 12/5/10

Post Brunch Update 11/14/10

Morning Debriefing 11/7/10

1) The Midnight Show @ UCB Theatre is actually the first pure sketch show to be reviewed here at the Comedy Bureau and I’d be hard pressed to find a better one to start off with. Interestingly enough, as the consistently hilarious host Brody Stevens left the stage after warming up the packed-to-standing-room-only UCB Theatre, I realized that I had not seen a sketch-only comedy show in quite some time, which, after last night’s Midnight Show, is something I am hoping to correct if it all possible. The collection of furiously swift sketches had this great absurdity about them that, as the show progressed, made me drawn in even further as an audience member to where exactly they were headed. One of my favorite sketches of the night that illustrates this perfectly was a fake TV spot for a futon store where sensational Hal Rudnick started off yelling why you would need to buy futon with a voiceover saying, “Futon!” at the end of each sentence, but quickly devolved into Hal making increasingly disturbing suggestions of not going “missionary” on a “Futon!” as that will break her pelvic bone “Futon!” With a fantastic cast of Nic Wegener, Hal Rudnick, James Pumphrey, Stephanie Allynne, Jeff Sloniker, Curtis Rainsberry, and Cale Hartmann, the Midnight Show startles and jolts in the best way possible on a very late Saturday night/early Sunday morning with sketches and video clips with the deft producing of Michael Busch and Megan Reeves and the superb, discerning direction of Joe Wagner. The Midnight Show is on the first Saturday of every month at the UCB Theatre (5919 Franklin Ave., Hollywood, CA) at Midnight and only costs $5.

2) If you’re not watching Tangled this weekend, you should go on tonight’s COMEDY CRAWL. However, if you are watching Tangled this weekend, you DEFINITELY need to go on tonight’s COMEDY CRAWL. Start off with Eban Schletter’s Cosmic Christmas @ Glendale Planetarium 5PM/7PM $10/$5 for under 12, then Jeff Garlin’s Combo Platter @ UCB Theatre 6PM $2, then ASSSSCAT @ UCB Theatre 7:30PM FREE, then French Toast: MC Mr. Napkins CD Release Party @ Taix 8:30PM FREE, then The Thrilling Adventure Hour @ Largo 8:30PM $25, then Top Story Weekly @ iO West 9PM $5, and be glad that you didn’t support 3D.

3) OPEN MIC RUN: HAHA CAFE 5010 N. Lankershim Blvd., N. Hollywood, CA/Sign-up 5PM/Starts 6PM, PALMS 8572 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA/Starts 6PM, SUNSET GRILL 7439 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA/Starts 7PM, 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

4) STOP BEING A F’N SHUT IN AND GO SEE AMAZING WORLD OF ITS OWN THAT LA IS!!!! OK, if that didn’t work, you can watch Comedy Central’s Hot List at 10PM on Comedy Central featuring their top breakout comedians of this year which includes plenty of good folks featured regularly at the Comedy Bureau including Kyle Kinane, Reggie Watts, and Chelsea Peretti, that is, if you still insist on being a shut-in.

5) How about that? Merrill Davis in LA Weekly. That’s MERRILL DAVIS in LA WEEKLY! (Look, I typed it out twice so click the link and read it, OK?)

6) The Comedy Bureau “Tips Its Hat” today to RYAN STOUT-“@stoutryan I’ve been sexually harassing this woman and I’m worried because I don’t think she knows about it. #LayingItOnThin #TooSubtle” Forget about his Comedy Central Presents special, his frequent appearances on Chelsea Lately, and other spots on TV, Ryan is one of the sharpest writers I know throughout all of LA and just “crushes” audiences wherever he goes (got an applause break at my open mic) all in a very dapper suit. Here’s his website and please follow him on Twitter here.

7) From the “You Should Have Been There” Lagoon: Henny Youngman heckles Milton Berle 1966

8) “Reason #3,212 to DONATE the Comedy Bureau: (imagine you being hypnotized) Because you wanted to.” Just tweeted this right here.

9) People wonder why I’m so positive and upbeat in this blog for the majority of it. To those people, I say, “You should see my act sometime.”

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1) “Hook-Up w/Ron Lynch” @ The Steve Allen Theater in all its chaotic hilarity actually spreads an air of actually wanting to “hook-up” as I saw several people, not on the show, exchanging numbers after the show. Host Ron Lynch takes the format of the classic “Dating Game” and nostalgically puts it through a blender to come out with an uproarious live comedy show. There’s an on-call bartender, Davey Johnson as a stressed out stage manager, Brady Novak as a warm-up guy who doesn’t think his career is going to work out, Cornell Reid as the warm-up to the warm-up guy, Randy Liedtke as a psychic/stage hand, “speed rounds” of questioning that no one has ever gotten right, and then the actual questioning of bachelors and bachelorettes for a REAL date. The packed Steve Allen Theater was rolling in laughter the entire time and definitely felt the love. "Hook-Up w/Ron Lynch“ takes the place of the Tomorrow Show at the Steve Allen Theater (4773 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA [Los Feliz]) once a month. Midnight $8. Check back at the Comedy Bureau for the next one.

2) I should really go with Comedy Triathlon, but COMEDY CRAWL is catchier and less intimidating. See how much laughter you can handle starting off with LIAR @ Flappers YooHoo Room 7PM $10/2 drink min., then Chatterbox Comedy Night @ Chatterbox 8PM FREE, then French Toast @ Taix 8:30PM FREE, then Comedy Revival @ Comedy Store Belly Room 8:30PM $5/2 drink min., then Top Story Weekly @ iO West 9PM $5/21 and over only, and cross the finish line at Sunday Sunday Sunday @ The Improv Space 9:30PM FREE.

3) OPEN MIC RUN: LIBRARY CAFE 800 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 5PM (going to check this one out today), SUNSET GRILL 7439 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA 7PM/one item min., MARTY’S/THE OPEN MIC 7351 W. Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, CA 5PM-11PM/$5 cover.

4) The Comedy Bureau is calling an audible by switching it’s Twitter Tip of the Hat to a Tip of the Hat of anything twitter/facebook/video/etc./etc. that’s worthy of mention. Today’s tip of the hat goes to the hilarious and incredibly bold Asterios Kokkinos. Perhaps "bold” isn’t the right word, but judge for yourself by watching him pitch horrible script ideas at a pitch convention here.

6) REVIEWS relinked. Just like I promised, though I broke probably 10 other promises in the promise, but when they’re promises to yourself that you would finish this post by 11PM, it’s OK, right? Again, updated reviews here.

7) Big Trouble in Little Tokyo 2nd Edition, this Tues. Nov. 16th @ Señor Fish. Shameless promotion tactic #13: Raffling off random Japanese Food Item. Sign Up 6:30PM, Starts 7PM. 422 E. 1st St. Do not miss.

8) The Comedy Bureau has “mission objectives”. See if it completes them via his twitter account right here.

9) Be the 2nd Person ever to donate to the Comedy Bureau and go down in history. Seriously. Doubt it? Only one way to find out… DONATE.

10) I’m just going to say being a nice guy both won and was funny last night. Usually, it’s just funny and then nobody wants to hear how sad it is several months later.

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1) Last night at “The Tomorrow Show w/Ron Lynch” @ The Steve Allen Theater, I felt so honored to perform on Ron’s “5 Minutes or Less” version of the show where a simply delightful line-up does 5 minutes before all the power to the stage is cut off. For those not in the “know”, “The Tomorrow Show w/Ron Lynch” has been a stand out even amongst an extremely rare breed of comedy shows in LA that start at midnight and take place outside of a comedy club AND are so funny that those hesistant about going to a comedy show in general WILL have a good time. With one of the best hosts “in the biz” Ron Lynch and his “magic without magic act”, last night lucky crowd witnessed daylight savings time as it happened and nicely packaged 5 minutes from Alex Mesrobian, Sean Green, Jake Kroeger (Comedy Bureau Director/the person writing this blog/me), Rob O’Reilly, Matt Champagne, John Vargas, SAX Carr, Shawn Carlow, Brandie Posey, Carlos Ramos, and Will Weldon, not to mention a fantastic musical performance from spy music extraordinaires Double Naught Spy Car. The Tomorrow Show!!! w/Ron Lynch @ The Steve Allen Theater, 4773 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA (Los Feliz). Every Saturday/Midnight. $8/Free Parking.

2) The extra hour in the day means, you guessed it, a superb comedy show on tonight’s COMEDY CRAWL (football’s not worth that hour). Start off with The Breakfast Show w/Adam Shenkman @ The Strange 4PM & 8PM/e-mail AdamOCerealClub@gmail.com for details, then go to Jeff Garlin’s Combo Platter @ UCB Theatre 6PM $2, then go to Christopher Titus @ Brea Improv 7PM $25/2 drink min., then go to French Toast @ Taix 8:30PM FREE, then Top Story Weekly @ iO West 9PM $5, “Tales of the Black Freighter” @ R-Bar 9PM FREE. OK, that’s more than an hour, but you want to go to more than one comedy show tonight. You know that you do…

3) Tonight, the Comedy Bureau will be delving into another edition of OPEN MIC LIVE TWEETING at the Sushi King, which seems like an urban legend among LA open mic as it starts at midnight on Sundays. Stay tuned for what it sure to be either a great time or one of the harder mental endurance/patience tests I’ve ever subjected myself to right HERE.

4) In addition to the Greater LA Open Mic Map, there already exists a Greater LA Comedy Landscape for all the “booked” rooms. The Comedy Bureau brings you yet another amazing innovation by putting conveniently located links at the top of the page that to both maps. When we can afford an R&D department, we’ll look into the next step of intaking your inner thoughts and desires and letting that navigate through the site, but, for now, primitive as it may be, you’ll have to scroll up and click.

5) Newly minted LA Comedy Competition “The Rickie’s” is now taking submissions. Available categories for submission include Impressions/Characters, One-liners, and Musical Comedy. E-mail therickiesINFO@gmail.com with the category you’re submitting for, a 3 min. online clip, and any other questions. Find more details here.

6) News for the Big Trouble in Little Tokyo Open Mic: Regular tacos cost $1.50, Señor Fish closes at 1AM, and I might punch co-host Russell Corona in the face, just maybe. Go to Señor Fish, 422 E. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA on Nov. 9th/6:30PM to find out.

7) The Comedy Bureau actually received its first donation from fantastic human being/great comic Jerry Brandt and extends an extra special thank you from all of us (meaning me, the one person who writes and is responsible for everything that goes into this entire agency/blog). Please be the next exemplary citizen by donating to The Comedy Bureau and all my efforts here.

8) “Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…” I wonder if there is any language where that actually translates to laughter. Wherever that is, that’s where my comedy will obliterate.

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