Day: August 11, 2010

I have been to Austin, Texas, before, but never during the great big fun-lovin' festival known as SXSW. Almost made it this year, but costs and logistics foiled my plans. Alf LaMont at The Comedy Store in West Hollywood asked me if I'd like to help him organize a funny panel for SXSW 2011. I said sure. We have some truly funny people on board to join us in Austin next March for what LaMont has dubbed: "Social Media and Comedy: F**k Yeah!" But we need your support. SXSW has upward of 2,350 ideas for panels in 2011, and as they've done in years past, they've opened up part of the process to the people to get your feedback. It's called PanelPicker, and it just went up today at noon CDT. They'll be taking your votes and comments (log in to comment) until Aug. 27. Here is the description LaMont wrote up for our panel: In an industry where the only way to be seen was to get a spot on the Tonight Show or a time slot in one of the legendary clubs, the Internet has been a game-changer. This panel of Comedians, Venues, Networks, and Bloggers will study the state of Stand-Up Comedy, how social media can benefit aspiring and established comics and how the saturation of original comedic content online has affected mainstream media and the...

Conventional wisdom says it's tougher out there for a woman in stand-up comedy, and Abbi Crutchfield and Jen Dziura want to make it less tough — or at least as tough for a woman as it is for a man. You know how Secret deodorant is strong enough for a man but made for a woman? That's what Ladybits comedy is. They're having their preview show tonight (see the flyer), and launching a weekly series in October. I do know that NYC had a regular show for a few years called Chicks and Giggles. Ladybits picks up where that left off, but hopes to do more. Since I'm a man with man parts, let me let the women explain what their vision is for Ladybits. They have a vision statement, an apprentice program for women thinking about starting a career in comedy, and a "token male" program to book one guy on each show. Here is their vision statement: To entertain women who don‚Äôt like traditional comedy clubs. To hold our show someplace where the food is tasty, the ladies‚Äô bathrooms are clean, and you don‚Äôt feel like you‚Äôre in a frat basement. (Done!)  To create a community. To warmly welcome male audience members, without unduly catering our show to them. To generate more work for female comedians, rather than simply promoting competition for the limited amount of work...

If you go to JohnnyCarson.com today, you'll find a number of clips from the glory years of The Tonight Show, including classic comedy clips featuring the debuts of Jerry Seinfeld and Steven Wright, performances by Rodney Dangerfield and a 1977 performance by Jay Leno. Nothing is available to embed here, so you'll have to go there to see it. And it's all part of the efforts of Carson Entertainment Group to put whatever footage still exists from the Carson years (some years got erased from film due to human error) online for people of this century to access whenever they like. Friend of the site Dave Itzkoff at some publication that prints on paper called The New York Times talked to the Carson Entertainment Group about their project. The head of the group, Itzkoff notes, is Johnny's nephew. According to that story, expect to see a DVD collection for sale later this...