The Definitive Guide to Comedy
After reviewing so many hourlong comedy “specials” over the past couple of years, it’s so refreshing to see some of my favorite stand-up comedians putting out half-hours for Netflix. All killer, no filler. You can read my review of Netflix’s The Standups on Decider. Here are quotes from each of …
The Internet’s relentless, rigorous demand for content, combined with show business’s relentless, rigorous desire for cash money, has combined in 2017 to bestow us with a bounty of stand-up comedy hours and variety specials, as well as a rash of rankings by amateur and professional armchair critics alike. My two …
Chris D’Elia’s third hour of stand-up comedy, and second for Netflix, just came out. It’s called Man On Fire, as D’Elia references the Denzel Washington movie to remind us that we may all want to pretend we’re Denzel, but none of us are actually the stars of our own movie. …
Who are we kidding? You know and I know and Rory Scovel knows this is not his first attempt at stand-up comedy, but the title offers up a fun misleading click for new fans on Netflix, as well as an opportunity for Scovel and director Scott Moran to have fun …
T.J. Miller‘s first HBO stand-up comedy special is very aptly-titled: Meticulously Ridiculous. It premiered Saturday night, just ahead of his penultimate episode as Erlich on HBO’s critically-acclaimed comedy, Silicon Valley. Yes, we won’t have Erlich to laugh at much longer. But the Home Box Office knew well enough to give …
Not everything needs to be a period piece. On the small screen, both Marc Maron and Pete Holmes brought their recent pasts into present-day so they could have the best of both worlds for their comedic purposes in IFC’s Maron and HBO’s Crashing. Similarly, when Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. …
San Francisco already has a monthlong comedy festival in January (SF Sketchfest), and a giant outdoor music festival each August (Outside Lands), but how about something that combines elements of both, right at the beginning of the summer? Comedy Central had partnered with the New York Comedy Festival for the …
I might not be the biggest fan of Andrew Santino or his character on Showtime’s new series I’m Dying Up Here, but at least his beard is real now and now, compared to whatever he sported a few years ago on ABC’s short-lived Mixology. And as he explains in his first hour …
Like most stand-up comedians, Al Madrigal had not expected we’d ever live to see a President Trump. “I didn’t think it would happen. It happened!” Madrigal, who plays Edgar in the new Showtime series, I’m Dying Up Here, jokes in his first hour special for the network, Shrimpin’ Ain’t Easy, …
Mark Normand has toured with Amy Schumer as her opening act for the past few years, and she didn’t let him forget whose boss, as she not only produced Normand’s first hour stand-up comedy special for Comedy Central, but also appears in the title and in the opening scene. Amy …
