The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Lavell Crawford and I had a great time catching up this summer when he was visiting New York City, telling me about losing weight so he could stay healthy for his kids. You probably best know Crawford from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul as Saul’s bodyguard. Maybe you remember …
If you remember Judah Friedlander from 30 Rock, you likely remember his customized joke hats. For his onstage character in stand-up comedy, Friedlander’s always dressed in the same uniform: Yellow T-shirt, black windbreaker jacket over it, with a red-white-and-blue hat, all of which emblazoned with the words WORLD CHAMPION. Recently, …
You haven’t been seeing double on your Netflix menus this autumn. Jack Whitehall does have two different, yet related projects on the streaming platform. One is a semi-scripted travelogue spoof, Travels With My Father, and if you watch that first, it might help you laugh at Whitehall’s stand-up jokes about …
Patton Oswalt personal and professional lives have seen their highest highs and lowest lows over the past year and a half. Oswalt lost his wife suddenly and unexpectedly, and received a Grammy nomination the next day (which he’d later win, as well as an Emmy for the same special). He …
There’s something more assured and charming about the Christina Pazsitzky that we see in her first Netflix comedy special, Mother Inferior, than we first saw from her three years ago on the TBS comedy competition, Funniest Wins. She has shortened her last name to P to make things easier for …
When you think of blue-collar comedians, well, first off, you think of cowboys and not actual blue-collar workers. Thanks, Larry the Cable Guy and Jeff Foxworthy. But when you think of cowboy comedians, you might not think of Rodney Carrington — despite the fact that he’s sold enough albums to …
What does it mean to be black in America? I cannot pretend to truly know myself, but I can turn to my friends with empathy and listen to them, put myself in their shoes. A full generation before Black Lives Matter, Russell Simmons and Stan Lathan were making sure black …
The sun falls into the Pacific as a small commuter train whisks by, momentarily interrupting the rocking sounds of Garbage. And that was just the second stage at KAABOO Del Mar. At this third annual music and comedy festival held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, just off the northern outskirts …
Some comedians don’t want to watch other comedians perform, for fear that it might influence what they say onstage themselves or even how they say it. I can be the same way with reading other reviews of a comedian, TV show or movie that I’m reviewing. Which is how I …
How you feel about Dave Smith the comedian depends upon how you feel about two other things, primarily. 1) Are you a fan and/or listener to the Legion of Skanks podcast? 2) How tolerant are you of Libertarians? You can hear Dave Smith tell me all about his comedy and …
