The Definitive Guide to Comedy
In his new special, "The Byrne Identity" (debuting July 25 on Comedy Central, out July 27 on DVD), comedian Steve Byrne says that his own identity is a blend of Korean and Irish, but when he went to China: "They thought I was Chinese. Even they couldn't tell the difference." …
When FX and Louis CK announced that they'd be collaborating on a sitcom that consisted of stand-up routines followed by vignettes based on his stand-up routines, it'd be fair of you to think that Louis CK was doing his version of Seinfeld. But this is not a show about nothing. …
When is JB Smoove himself and when is he Leon Black? I guess that depends upon whether you can tell when "The Ruckus" is upon us. As I learned the other day in Chicago, in the rock garden outside the Westin River North Hotel, it doesn't take much to get …
Christian Finnegan just got back from his second trip to Australia this spring, and to make him feel more at home, he's headlining this weekend at Comix in NYC. You can also see him on your TV set tonight and other Wednesday nights on TBS as Martin in the new …
If you think you've been doing comedy for a long time, then what does that make Robert Klein, who filmed HBO's first comedy special 35 years ago and returns to the Home Box Office this Saturday with his ninth, dubbed "Unfair and Unbalanced." Care to guess his politics? Well, you …
According to most cable TV guides, Paul F. Tompkins will be talking about the pros and cons of neighbors tonight when his new special, "You Should Have Told Me," debuts on Comedy Central. In reality, his new hourlong set, recorded last year at the Laughing Skull in Atlanta, is much …
Tom Davis may be a scholar and a gentleman, or he may be neither of those things, but he was one of the original writers for Saturday Night Live, and he did live a full life, which he shared parts of which with all of us in his memoirs, "39 …
Just For Laughs Chicago announced late yesterday that Jerry Seinfeld, Russell Peters, Sommore and JB Smoove had joined the lineup for Cedric The Entertainer's upcoming TBS special, Cedric The Entertainer's Urban Circus, which tapes June 18 at the Chicago Theatre and airs June 23 on TBS. Wait. Seinfeld? Jerry Seinfeld?! That …
Dan Cummins isn't really "Crazy with a Capital F," because that's not even gramatically correct. But he does have a new stand-up comedy CD with that title in stores now, with the Comedy Central special of same name debuting Saturday and full-length DVD to come in June. Earlier this month, …
After the unexpected ending of his musical performance on last night's finale of American Idol, Dane Cook told me this morning via email a little bit more about the "before" part of the process, and credited comedian J. Chris Newberg not just for working with him on the song, "Simon …