The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Can we talk? There already just was and still is a great documentary, made just six years ago, that reminds us what it meant to be Joan Rivers. A Piece of Work. What Rivers meant to comedians and all of us, though, that’s the point of Exit Laughing, the first …
The story of the Del Close Marathon is the story of Del Close. And the story of Close is ultimately the story of how improvisation grew from an art form used for acting rehearsals into an actual entertainment event in itself, and how Close spurred its expansion through his disciples …
Here’s your Big Fat Quiz for 2016: How will America receive Noel Fielding without all the trappings of Hollywood that preceded Russell Brand’s arrival upon our shores and our comedy venues? Before you answer. Consider this. Fielding and Brand teamed up multiple times on British television for The Big Fat …
The cast and crew of Pee-wee’s Big Holiday held a big-screen premiere party at one of the biggest parties in America — Austin’s SXSW festival — on Thursday night, even though everyone everywhere could watch the first Pee-wee Herman movie in a quarter-century from the comfort of wherever thanks to …
Jimmy Carr is the first British comedian to produce an original stand-up comedy special for Netflix, and Carr celebrated the occasion with a five-minute performance Thursday night on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. So here’s a sampler platter of one-liners from Carr’s new special, Jimmy Carr: Funny Business. Roll …
Neal Brennan knows it’s odd to give John Legend top billing as the presenting executive producer of his new show, 3 Mics, which officially opened its Off-Broadway run Thursday night at the Lynn Redgrave Theater (45 Bleecker). Brennan could poke fun at Legend with a zinger. He could tell a funny anecdote …
Watching Mike Birbiglia‘s new off-Broadway show in the afternoon of the Academy Awards proved even more fitting than I could have anticipated. Thematically, the narrative thru-line connects most of his jokes in Thank God For Jokes to the night he hosted the Gotham Awards for independent film in New York City in 2012. …
By most outward measurements, Chris Gethard‘s comedy career is great. A longtime favorite of both performers and audiences alike at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City, Gethard has taken his everything-and-everyone-is-welcome notion of a talk show from the UCB’s basement theater to Manhattan public-access TV to Fusion, where …
Theo Von is a “reality TV” star who decided he wanted to be a stand-up comedian, and still, all these years later, he seems he’s still playing by the old cliche rule of “not here to make friends.” His first full stand-up special, No Offense, debuted today on Netflix. I …
Daniel Sloss opened the New York City run of his most recent one-man show, “Dark,” striding onstage with two full pints. Sloss sipped from both throughout his 98-minute performance; first from the pint of beer, and then, that finished, onto the pint of water. It could be a symbolic choice. …
