Full Frontal with Samantha Bee Returns for 2017 This Wednesday
Just a friendly reminder to that one of the most important late night shows of 2016 will be moving from Mondays to Wednesdays at 10:30PM on TBS for 2017 starting this Wednesday, January 11th.
We’re sure Samantha Bee and company will continue to be one of the most important late night shows on 2017 no matter what night they’re on.
Comedy Crawl and Open Mic Run All Updated for Next Week
Whether you need to laugh or are trying to keep to your New Year’s resolution to do/try/start comedy in LA, we’ve got you covered.
The CW Renews Crazy-Ex Girlfriend for 3rd Season and Jane The Virgin for 4th
CW is staying the course with their two comedy series that have garnered them critical acclaim and kept them from just being a network of DC Comics adaptations. That makes sense to us.
These renewals have thankfully come early and have prompted this Rachel Bloom tweet that we love, “BEHOLD ME, FOR I AM IMMORTAL AND WILL NEVER DIE #CrazyExGirlfriend”.
Comedy Crawl All Updated for Next Week 1/8/16
Comedy in LA in 2017 is in full swing. Just see for yourself in our listings.
‘Archer’ Moving to FXx for Season 8 and Beyond, Sets New Direction for FXx
Archer will be moving to FXx where it will hopefully live on successfully like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has. With it being the 8th season, that’ll probably happen. More interestingly, FX head John Landgraf wants this move to signal a move towards animation for the FXx network.
Well, after all these years, it would seem that the divide between FX and FXx will come in at being live action (and series that get heavy awards consideration) on FX and animation and more pure comedy on FXx.
We’ll be curious to see where FX will take this move, especially since adult-skewing animated comedy is more crowded than it has ever been.
AMC’s Latest Comedy Might Be About a 90’s Pyramid Scheme Starring Kirsten Dunst
AMC has always bumped up against the edge of dark comedy with all of their critically acclaimed series, but have yet to launch a property that is a comedy before it’s a drama.
Having Yorgos Lanthimos, the man behind the brilliant “The Lobster” from last year, attached as a director and EP with backing from George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures might be that very comedy that AMC is looking for.
A 90’s pyramid scheme set in Florida called “On Becoming a God in Central Florida” certainly fits AMC’s brand.
Portlandia Season 7 Is Here, Watch First Episode on IFC.com
Season 7 of Portlandia premiered last night and IFC was nice enough to make the whole first episode available for streaming.
Watch Fred and Carrie’s much needed return to television at the link above.
Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Season 9 Kicks Off with Kristen Wiig
Jerry Seinfeld returns with his award winning comedian hang out series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, now in its ninth season.
The first round is with Kristen Wiig and they do get into what drives Kristen comedically. Also, Jerry wanders around Silverlake and Los Feliz pondering the hipster-ness of it all.
Key & Peele’s Obama and Anger Translator Luther Appearing on Daily Show Tonight
11PM on Comedy Central, one of the most memorable parts of both Key & Peele and the Obama Administration will go for one last ride.
Those Who Can’t Renewed for Season 3 at TruTV
Congratulations to all the students and faculty of Smoot High as well as TruTV taking advantage of what Amazon missed out on.
Deadpool Nominated for a WGA Award
Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick’s adapted screenplay for Deadpool has gotten a WGA nomination next to the likes of the normal, critically acclaimed dramatic fare such as Arrival, Fences, and Moonlight.
For an R-rated, big budget action comedy to get recognized here is kind of a big deal as action, comedy, and a R-rating on top of either of those usually don’t garner attention from the various academies and guilds of the entertainment industry.
Try thinking of the last time an R-rated comedy got a nomination for this kind of award. Keep in mind that Armando Iannucci’s In The Loop, which made waves during its awards season, was ‘Not Rated’. Perhaps, this will pave the way for more comedy, if it is award worthy, to get nominated in the years to come.
There are few specifics on this reveal from Turner CEO John Martin other than Turner is retooling Conan based off of the successes of Conan O’Brien going to different places like South Korea, Cuba, Berlin, Armenia and doing special episodes of the show from there. There’s no word as to when this will happen or what exactly a newly formatted Conan show will be like
So, this could very well mean getting one night of Conan a week, but him going out of the studio much more often, perhaps like an Anthony Bourdain style show.
We love the idea of him being out in “the elements” as that’s where he has every other late night talk show host beat, but we’d be curious to see if and how other parts of his show like the amazing absurdist sketches will figure into whatever this new format ends up being.
UPDATE: Kevin Reilly, Turner’s Entertainment Chief, in speaking to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety cleared up the notion that TBS would be making Conan go weekly. The format switch has been discussed, but Reilly says nothing is changing right now.
That being said, they’re developing Conan’s very popular segment, Clueless Gamer, as a spin-off show. Given the existence of Lip Sync Battle and various spin-offs of segments on Corden, this move could TBS’ show born out of a viral late night segment.
All Time UCB Cagematch Champs Hebecky Drysbell Will End Their 78-0 Run Undefeated
Before you get worried about catching Hebecky Drysbell once more, know that they’re getting their own recurring show at UCB here in LA.
For 78 weeks, Heather Anne Campbell and Rebecca Drysdale, otherwise known as Hebecky Drysbell, put on a clinic of long form improv that was consistently brilliant and innovative with a dash of the right bit of mischief. It’s why they made our year end lists.
In that time, beat all of their opponents including the previous Cagematch champion record holding team Heather & Miles that Heather was also a part of.
The UCB Cagematch tonight will feature two new challengers that will face off against each other and a special Cagematch farewell performance from Hebecky Drysbell. It should come as no surprise that tickets to the show are sold out.
Like we said earlier though, you’ll have another chance to see Heather and Rebecca together again as they’ll have a regularly scheduled show at UCB. We’ll be sure to let you know when that gets going.
ICYMI: The 100 Best Things in Comedy We Were Witness to in No Particular Order of 2016
Our 2016 best of comedy list includes stand-up, sketch, improv, short film, podcasts, poetry, art installations, books, feature films, web series, musical comedy, individual performances, late night, and anything else that falls under the umbrella of comedy that we loved.
Some things you may know like Reggie Watts or Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and others, like Chris Estrada or Killer, you may not. In any case, we hope you enjoy it all as we did.
Fun fact: the list has items that happened on January 1st, 2016 and also December 30th, 2016.
Nick Kroll and John Mulaney To Co-Host 2017 Film Independent Spirit Awards
Kroll and Mulaney have made their mark on Brud-waye. Now, they’re going to take over the awards season circuit.
Catch them preside over the Spirit Awards on Saturday, February 25th at 2PM PST.
2017’s Limestone Comedy Festival Is Now Accepting Submissions
Bloomington, IN’s annual Limestone Comedy Festival has just opened up their submissions for this year to find new stand-up comedians to highlight.
If you’re looking to make your way into the circuit of comedy festivals as a stand-up, you might want to start with Limestone, especially if you live in or around Indiana.
The earlybird fee is $25 until Sunday, February 19th, the regular submission fee is $40 until the final deadline of Sunday, March 12th.
Get more details and submit here.
Open Mic Run All Updated for First Week of 2017
Whether your New Year’s resolution is to start stand-up or to not quit, we got the most up-to-date listings of where to try your hand at/hone your comedy.
Comedy Crawl All Updated for First Week of 2017
Whether you do New Year’s resolutions or not, there is plenty of comedy, all types, shapes, and sizes, to go see, start seeing, or continuing seeing in 2017.
We’ve got it all conveniently listed for you in and around the Greater LA Area.
HBO To Air Carrie Fisher’s Special ‘Wishful Drinking’ This Week in Tribute
A few years ago, HBO made a special out of Carrie Fisher’s stage show Wishful Drinking, which features Fisher’s wild stories told unapologetically and hilariously by her.
On, Sunday, January 1st at 9PM, will air the special once more in tribute to the late, legendary actress.
As you can see from Fisher roasting George Lucas at an AFI Award event, you might want to watch.
Laurie Kilmartin’s Special “45 Jokes About My Dead Dad” Now Streaming at Seeso
Already, Laurie Kilmartin and her new comedy special, 45 Jokes About My Dead Dad, now available on Seeso, has made plenty of year end ‘best of comedy’ lists.
We concur with those lists and think you should watch Laurie’s comedy special tribute to her late father, which combines joke craftsmanship, veteran comedy chops, and a wonderful vulnerability (lovingly accented with interviews with Laurie’s family, Patton Oswalt, Andy Kindler, and Conan O’Brien) usually reserved for solo shows.
You can get two months of Seeso free to watch this special w/promo code: kimartin
Open Mic Run All Updated for Next Week
We’ve got you covered for all your comedy open mic needs for New Year’s Eve and everything leading up to it. Check back frequently as listings might change because of the holidays.
Comedy Crawl All Updated for Next Week
We’ve even got listings for live comedy around LA for a bit of 2017 too.
“Joe Pera Helps You Find The Perfect Christmas Tree” Now Streaming at Adult Swim
Odds are that you probably already have a Christmas tree at this point, but we’d bet that it’s something that you settled on.
Fortunately, for all of us, the sweet, kind, eccentric Joe Pera had a whole holiday special dedicated to finding what the perfect tree for you might be, perhaps for next Christmas and it’s streaming for your convenience at AdultSwim.com.
Click the link above to watch Joe Pera Helps You Find The Perfect Christmas Tree.
Jena Friedman’s American C*nt Comes Out as an Album on Inauguration Day
Previously only available as a special on Seeso, Jena Friedman’s great hour “American C*nt” will be available as an album on the day Trump gets inaugurated.
After the many important things that you should be doing on that day, please do get this album so you can enjoy Jena Friedman’s whip smart comedy as well as revisit a more hopeful time.
In case you forgot when Inauguration Day is, look for the album version of American C*nt on January 20th.
Watching Ben Schwartz go through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance in the setting of a blissfully aloof morning show with the uber-cheerful Lauren Lapkus is a performance worthy of some awards attention.
Branded content (Cap’n Crunch is prominently featured) doesn’t get much more out there and, at the same time, better than this.