In other news…

While you, me and everyone else was watching the public memorial to Michael Jackson at Staples Center in Los Angeles, the world kept going. Or did it? Either way, time to get back to the rest of the world. And some comedy news. What have we missed? If you want …

Scott Bateman animates Sarah Palin’s resignation

Talk about a fast turnaround. Within a few hours of Sarah Palin's abrupt announcement resigning as Alaska's governor on Friday afternoon, animator Scott Bateman had a new clip online for True/Slant. Bateman also reproduces and reanimates crazy moments in actual politics for Salon.com. If only this had happened a day …

Aziz Ansari is RAAAAAAAANDY!

We're only halfway through 2009, but already, methinks we can award the Oscar for Best Misdirection Campaign by a Movie to Funny People, because while everything we've seen about the actual movie suggests that it is a melodrama about what happens when a famous stand-up comedian faces the prospect of …

Comedian in the U.S. Senate: Al Franken!

Two of the more awkward phone interviews I have conducted over the years have been with Al Franken. Just lucky, I guess? But maybe, just maybe, Franken may have been tentative with me all of those years ago because he knew that someday, he'd become a U.S. Senator. That day, …

In other news…

What's new and making news in the comedy world? Let's take a look-see and find out. Jerry Lewis is going to be making his Broadway directorial debut, a musical version of The Nutty Professor, with Marvin Hamlisch composing. (Variety) Just For Laughs Montreal will hold a "Comedy Conference" for the second …

RIP: Fred Travalena

All of the recent crazy celebrity deaths certainly got everyone talking over the weekend, but the timing of it all overshadowed the death Sunday of comedian and impersonator Fred Travalena. If Rich Little was The Guy in the 1970s and 1980s to get your celebrity impersonations, then Fred Travalena was …