The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Trainwreck — presented Sunday night at SXSW in Austin as a “work-in-progress” — is a triumphant two-hour big-screen comedy that’s the best thing that could have happened right now for its star and writer, Amy Schumer, as well as its director, Judd Apatow. If timing remains the secret to successful comedy, …
Reaching the rarefied air of performing stand-up comedy to arena audiences, and particularly New York City’s Midtown Manhattan palace — Madison Square Garden — lends itself to moments of celebration for the comedians who find themselves at that summit. Kevin Hart shot fiery flames in the air behind him. Dane …
When their IFC sketch series ended after five seasons, The Whitest Kids U’Know mostly went their separate ways, although they reunited for a tour in 2013 and tried filming a pilot last year. Timmy Williams got married and moved back to South Dakota. Zach Cregger went the primetime sitcom route …
Matt Braunger was 39, single, no kids, renting an apartment when I saw him record this hour-plus set last summer at The Bell House in Brooklyn. “I think I’m fucking killing it, you guys,” Braunger told the audience then, and now as his stand-up special, Big Dumb Animal, debuts tonight …
You’re not mistaken for forgetting that you may have seen Dave Gorman in the United States before. Gorman has brought two of his one-man shows here before, both off-Broadway and to the old HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen in 2001 and 2004. A couple of years later, he …
Sharing your honest self onstage as a comedian gets a lot more honest once you’ve not only shed any persona, alter ego, reputation or gimmick you use, but also every ounce of clothing you normally cover yourself with to further enhance whatever brand you want the audience to perceive. So …
His latest stand-up comedy special eschews color, either literally onscreen or indirectly via color commentary cutaway shots of the audience. Bill Burr’s “I’m Sorry You Feel That Way,” new this month to Netflix, is a stark black-and-white production. Look at Burr. Hear what he’s telling you. Watch as he acts …
Not even Pauly Shore‘s fans were prepared for how good this new film is. A quarter-century after “The Weasel” popped on MTV and more than a decade after he stopped becoming a reliable box-office star, Shore spent much of his personal and professional capital making light of his status through …
Chris Rock said he came up with the idea and started writing the screenplay for Top Five during idle time on the set of Grown Ups 2. If only all or even any of his other cast members could reach a similar epiphany! All comparisons to Annie Hall aside, Rock …
Imagine you’re Bill Cosby. You broke color lines, through racism to the most mainstream of success, consecutive Emmys and Grammys in the 1960s, starring in I-Spy and releasing hit stand-up album after hit stand-up album. You built a reputation of being the ultimate father figure, first with an animated classic …
