by If you have had your television tuned to any station owned or operated by NBC Universal, then I do not need to remind you that The Jay Leno Show debuts tonight. They're clobbering that news into our heads so we cannot escape it. But what they haven't really let you in on just yet is much about all of the new comedy correspondents that Leno will be employing and deploying across America. Despite debuting a cleaner design for the show's online home, you can see in the credits who'll be writing and producing the show, but so far, no page for the correspondents? Hmmm. I guess you'll have to settle for my recap of everyone known to be a comedy correspondent for The Jay Leno Show.
But the show does have a new section online called Laugh Squad. What is that, you ask? The first entry reveals it'll be a place where the show's bookers, Bob Read and Ross Mark, share comedy and comedians they enjoy with us. They also remind everyone that in addition to booking stand-ups for Leno when he was at the Tonight Show, they were the original audition judges for NBC's Last Comic Standing. Is this also a ploy to get aspiring comedians to submit their tapes for Leno? While we ponder that, let's hear them talk about wanting to introduce us to comedians, with this first installment, featuring footage of Tig Notaro. Notaro has a recurring role on The Sarah Silverman Program, appeared this summer on Showtime's Live Nude Comedy series (explained previously), and had her own Comedy Central Presents half-hour. So it's not as if she's not known, though many more people could stand to know her. Which is where the Laugh Squad comes in? And if Read and Mark show a comedian online, is that as good as booking him/her on TV? Some of these questions are rhetorical. Roll the clip!
