The Definitive Guide to Comedy
At first glance, something seems amiss in Gary Owen: I Got My Associates. It’s Owen’s third Showtime stand-up comedy special, but for some reason, whether it be the venue (The Stardome in Hoover, Ala.,) or the lighting and production values, this hour feels as much of an underground production and introduction …
No, you’re the puppet! Jeff Dunham is undoubtedly the biggest ventriloquist in the world. By fans. By tickets sold. Dunham set ratings records for Comedy Central, and landed his previous special in primetime for NBC in 2015. Now he’s on Netflix. Because everyone in the comedy game is on Netflix …
Can Marc Maron be happy and funny at the same time? A fair enough question, considering his personal and professional circumstances by 2017, when he has just now released his first Netflix stand-up comedy special. The short answer: Yes. Longer answers, in my review of Marc Maron: Too Real, via …
I wrote a glowing review of Ryan Hamilton‘s first Netflix stand-up special over at Decider, because he earned it! Watching Ryan Hamilton: Happy Face will make your face happy, too. A decade of living and doing comedy in New York City has done this Idaho boy good. And given him the …
Joan Rivers served as Lynne Koplitz’s comedy godmother over the icon’s final decade. Now Koplitz is ready to become comedy godmother to the rest of us, with the release of her first solo hour of stand-up comedy on Netflix, Hormonal Beast. I spoke to Koplitz just last week to talk …
Tiffany Haddish has become a comedy star in 2017, bursting forth from supporting player on NBC’s The Carmichael Show to scene-stealer on the big screen in Girls Trip, and this fall will co-star with Tracy Morgan in the new TBS comedy, The Last O.G. This past weekend, Haddish got to …
Comedians and comedy fans were left speechless when Netflix announced a comedy special this summer from Brad Paisley. But as I wrote in my review for Brad Paisley’s Comedy Rodeo, via Decider: It’s not that far-fetched to see a country music act hosting a comedy special. Brad Paisley has co-hosted …
Three days before Trump threatened to unleash “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” comedian George Lopez was lobbing all sorts of F-bombs at the president from inside Washington, D.C., during his live HBO performance Saturday night, The Wall: Live! From Washington, D.C. As I wrote in my …
You can see Maz Jobrani on the new CBS sitcom, Superior Donuts, and hear about his life in Episode #91 of my podcast, Last Things First. Now he has just released his fourth solo stand-up special, and first for Netflix, called Immigrant. Jobrani recorded it in D.C. to help put …
This is my 11th consecutive year covering Montreal’s Just For Laughs, but the first in which I’ve experienced serious blowback while still at the festival. What’s going on here? A few different things, and I’ll try to clear the air on as many of them as I can. Usually, comedians, …
