Month: April 2011

Splashlife and Funny or Die teamed up to come up with this list of young comedians to watch, and I was surprised to see one name on this list. Can you guess which one? I bet you can. Especially when I tell you that I started my professional comedy career in Seattle. Oh, to be young again. Or maybe I am! These are the 30 comedians under 30 who earned mini-profiles on that list: Nick Youssef, 28, Los Angeles Ali Wong, 28, Los Angeles Chris Thayer, 24, San Francisco Ryan Stout, 28, Los Angeles Betsy Sodaro, 26, Los Angeles Amy Schumer, 29, New York City Tim Robinson, 29, Chicago Andy Peters, 28, Los Angeles Johnny Pemberton, Los Angeles Jimmy Ouyang, 23, Los Angeles Kevin O'Shea, 27, San Francisco Rob O'Reilly, 26, Los Angeles John F. O'Donnell, 30, New York City T.J. Miller, 29, Los Angeles Sean McCarthy, 22, Seattle Joe Mande, 28, New York City Adam Mamawala, 23, New Jersey Sean Jordan, 29, Portland, Ore. Joselyn Hughes, 29, Los Angeles Nikki Glaser, 26, New York City Alex Gavlick, 17, Portland, Ore. Scott Gairdner, 25, Los Angeles Jena Friedman, 28, New York City Sarah Fineout, 27, Chicago Shelby Fero, 17, Palo Alto, Calif. Paul W. Downs, 27, Los Angeles Michael Cassady, 30, Los Angeles Hannibal Buress, 28, New York City Eric Andre, 28, Los Angeles Kellen Alexander, 26,...

On this day when so many people were watching a British woman become royalty, three American ladies have turned entrepreneurial, opening up Internet shop on their own entertainment destination, HelloGiggles.com. They had me at Hello Giggles. As founders Zooey Deschanel, Sophia Rossi and Molly McAleer announce on their "about" page: "HelloGiggles.com is the ultimate entertainment destination for smart, independent and creative females. Everything hosted on the site will be lady-friendly, so visitors need not worry about finding the standard Boys Club content that makes many entertainment sites unappealing to so many of us." And they've kicked things off with a humorous branded video for Teleflora. Roll the clip!...

When Comix comedy club in Manhattan abruptly closed its doors and auctioned off its inventory in February, it caught many people by surprise and left more than a few headlining comedians and former employees in the financial lurch. In this updated report from FOX 5 New York, it turns out that former Comix manager Michael Palitz also allegedly stiffed a charity out of $7,400 from a fund-raising show at the club last fall. Roll the clip. Shame, shame, shame....

Several comedians have done Broadway and off-Broadway this season, and the Drama Desk Awards took notice, with three earning nominations today for "Outstanding Solo Performance" for their one-man shows. Mike Birbiglia, for Mike Birbiglia's My Girlfriend's Boyfriend; John Leguizamo, for Ghetto Klown; and Colin Quinn, for Colin Quinn Long Story Short, all are up for the prize, competing with Daniel Beaty, Juliette Jeffers and Joanna Tope. The Book of Mormon received the most Drama Desk Award nominations, 12, for team South Park (Trey Parker and Matt Stone), while Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, starring Robin Williams, received 7 nods, and The Motherfucker in the Hat, featuring Chris Rock in his Broadway debut, earned three nods. The 56th annual Drama Desk Awards will be held May 23, 2011, hosted by Harvey Fierstein, and broadcasted on cable via Ovation in June. Annual Tony Awards nominations, meanwhile, will be announced May...