The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Producers/directors Paul Toogood and Lloyd Stanton enjoyed so much access to so many comedians over the last several years to make their documentary, This Is Stand-Up, which premiered Easter Sunday on Comedy Central. So much as, that to only have 82 minutes of footage to share, even in the longer uncensored …
Tim Brooke-Taylor, beloved British comedian of stage and screen for more than 50 years, died today from the coronavirus. He was 79. Born in Buxton, he found his calling as well as his comedy community as part of the Cambridge University Footlights Club. Brooke-Taylor not only served as Footlights president in …
What’s Saturday Night Live if it’s not broadcasting from inside 30 Rock, and not even live TV? We found out this Saturday of Passover/Easter weekend. The resulting product of having SNL’s cast and crew working remotely revealed that stars are just like us when left to their own electronic devices. …
Other MAD magazine illustrators may have been flashy or more memorable for their eccentricities (see Sergio Aragonés and his “Spy vs. Spy” or Al Jaffee for his Fold-In features), but Mort Drucker may have been the most accessible of them all. A New Yorker through and through, Drucker was born …
Michael Clayton McCarthy achieved the comedy dream and proved you could do it going in the opposite direction. McCarthy (no relation) became a staff writer for Saturday Night Live at age 24 in 1983, followed that up with two years writing for Sesame Street, and then went to Chicago, where …
Hal Willner, the longtime musical guru behind Saturday Night Live who also brought musicians together for cross-genre tributes and movie soundtracks, and who won a Grammy for his efforts, died on April 7. Although he was never formally diagnosed with COVID-19, a spokesperson confirmed that Willner died at home suffering …
Eddie Large, the bigger, brasher half of the British comedy duo Little and Large, died on April 2 from coronavirus. He had been in the hospital in Bristol, England, receiving treatment due to heart failure. He was 78. Born Edward Hugh McGinnis in Glasgow on June 25, 1941, his family moved …
Ken Shimura, Japan’s most famous comedian, died on March 29 from a pneumonia brought upon by coronavirus. He had tested positive for COVID-19 on March 24. Shimura was 70. Born Feb. 20, 1950, Shimura was a fixture on Japanese television for decades, known for his mugging and facial expressions. He …
Clint Nohr’s website bio describes stand-up comedy as coming from a “warped and twisted, yet somehow always relatable point of view.” Nohr proved that once more last month. He worked a two-week gig at Jokers Wild, the comedy club inside the Atlantis Bahamas resort, from March 3-15, just as the …
Brian Baron might not have started his comedy career until middle age, but he managed to touch the hearts of many stand-up comedians in New York City over the past decade. The city’s young and up-and-coming comics all knew of Baron, as he hosted open mics, and he also made …
