Day: March 20, 2009

Debuts: “Party Down” and “Head Case” on Starz

Posted by | Mar 20, 2009 | |

Oh, Starz, the forgotten child of the pay-cable premium movie networks. Everyone knows and many people enjoy watching HBO (and in doing so, also get the guilty pleasures of Cinemax), and in recent years, Showtime has upped its game and made it worth subscribing to for its original programming (which also gives you access to The Movie Channel). So where does that leave Starz? Looking for attention, that's where. Thankfully, their new comedy Party Down, which debuts tonight at 10:30 p.m., is funny and available for viewing online. Although you'll have to subscribe to Starz to hear the profanities and see the brief nudity. It stars Ken Marino, Adam Scott, Jane Lynch and Lizzy Caplan as aspiring performers in Los Angeles stuck in a catering gig. This seems exactly how I imagine these people would act at these parties. Enjoy! And Alexandra Wentworth isn't just about Oprah Fridays. Wentworth also stars as a therapist to the stars in Head Case, which returns for a second season with new episodes tonight at 10...

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Ricky Gervais talks comedy with Larry David

Posted by | Mar 20, 2009 | |

This is great. You may have seen it already. I had not. The bad news: We don't get to see TV this great in the States. The good news: YouTube brings the whole thing to us from the U.K., and you should watch all six parts of this comedy chat between Ricky Gervais and Larry David. (Thanks to Matt Ruby for pointing this out) In part two, we see how Sgt. Bilko and Laurel and Hardy influenced The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and also how comedians know a lot more about honesty than other people. In part three, they expand upon the importance of honesty, speaking the bad thought, and David's writing process, and "Jewish" humor. In part four, Gervais wonders what he really has to complain about, and how that changed before and after he became famous. And how fame impacted David. Part five has Gervais acknowledging how well David was able to get real-life situations into his comedies without having to wedge them in, unlike other comedies starring stand-ups. Real is better. Example: Having a character laugh at another character instead of trying to respond with another joke. Things wrap up and Gervais and David wonder what they'd do without...

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Get Psyched! A psych-off brews

Posted by | Mar 20, 2009 | |

An email arrived yesterday telling me about Howcast.com's ongoing "how-to" series of instructional videos, which blend humor with useful information. This latest one caught my eye for a different reason, as you shall soon see. The video is called, "How to Get Psyched!" and features New York comedian Craig Baldo. How to Get PsychedUploaded by Howcast What's so weird about that? The folks at Howcast must not know about New York comedian Rob Lathan, who has his own "Get Psyched!" character, Dr. Lanny Latham, and a show that has run in the city (at UCB mostly) for at least the past couple of years that I've lived here. What to do, what to do…GET...

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Godfrey does Cosby on “30 Rock”

Posted by | Mar 20, 2009 | |

I congratulated Godfrey last night on his appearance on NBC's 30 Rock with a zinger. He said a lot of his friends and family members had been texting him about it (NBC played up his guest-starring role in ads this past week), but that he didn't like watching himself onscreen. Zing or no zing, it's good to see Godfrey on the TV. When he performs in NYC or L.A., clubs such as the Comedy Cellar almost always have him close the show, because he destroys. Here he is on 30 Rock playing a guy from accounting trying to convince Tracy to come back, using his Bill Cosby impersonation. This clip is available on Hulu for a limited...

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