The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Michael Ian Black opens his new stand-up special, Noted Expert (his third hour, and first for EPIX), by noting that you can tell it’s going to actually be special, then suggests kicking things off right with a montage of puppies licking his face. Almost on cue, things don’t go well. …
Perhaps nobody wears righteous incredulity as well or as humorously as Gary Gulman. Not indignation, mind you. Although as he says during a 24-minute story that forms the climax of his new hour on Netflix, It’s About Time, he can do righteous indignation like nobody’s business. The way Gulman stakes …
Despite the opening title sequence, and the comedian’s ubiquitous presence on Talking Dead, Chris Hardwick’s Funcomfortable is no horror movie. In his latest hour for Comedy Central — the network that also beams him into your eyeballs @midnight — Hardwick may have shed his nerdist handle on Twitter as his …
W. Kamau Bell‘s second chance to make a big first impression on American audiences is off to a hot start. Literally, figuratively, metaphorically. His CNN series, United Shades of America, debuted Sunday night and closed the hour with the stand-up comedian standing face-to-hooded-face with a group of Ku Klux Klansmen …
On TV last night, NBC broadcast a special tribute episode of Saturday Night Live for Prince — who died unexpectedly Thursday at 57 — including sketches of Fred Armisen impersonating Prince alongside Maya Rudolph as Beyonce. Over on HBO, Beyonce was dropping a surprise album of music videos. As for Rudolph, she was …
When Amy Schumer presents Rachel Feinstein tonight to Comedy Central, she really presents. Schumer not only gives Feinstein advice backstage in a pre-taped green room bit, but also walks onstage first, introducing her to the New York City crowd last November (I was at the taping) by saying of Feinstein: “This …
My latest review for Decider is up, covering the new Patton Oswalt special, Talking For Clapping — his fifth hour of stand-up recorded on video and first exclusively for Netflix. Here’s an excerpt of my review: “If I want three Vicodin, I have to do the ‘Coffee is for closers’ …
It’s one thing to say you’re going to “keep Austin weird.” It’s another to call your festival the Moontower Comedy & Oddity Festival, and five years in, be able to not only look back on all of the big names you’ve attracted and celebrate it via sizzle reel, but also …
Nikki Glaser opens her first Comedy Central hour striding backstage with complete poise, confidence, ready for what’s at hand, only to slip into the title credit. Perfect. Recorded before her breakthrough series Not Safe premiered on the network in February (“Perfect” also is what Glaser says over her series and …
Katt Williams posted bail again Thursday. Once more, the comedian found himself in jail. Once more, a judge looked at the comedian in his handcuffs and his jail jumpsuit and wondered whether to let him out of her custody. “This was not a popular decision to have you released on bond,” …
