The Definitive Guide to Comedy
No question that Saturday Night Live has been on a roll this fall, with increased ratings, buzz and nationwide attention, mostly thanks to the presidential campaign but also a little bit to how SNL bounced back from the writers strike. Last weekend’s show, which featured Republican VP candidate Alaska Gov. …
You think the cell-phone reception is bad where you are. Try getting coverage in the desert landscape of northern Arizona. That’s where Marc Maron was when we talked last Thursday, en route from Sedona, Ariz., where Maron had watched the final presidential debate hoping to engage with folks in the …
The proverbial "they" always tell new comedians to embrace the things that make them unique but also relate to the audience. If you’re overweight, joke about that right away. If you have a different ethnic background, address it! That’s what they say, anyhow. I don’t even know who they are. …
For the second consecutive year, Carolines and the New York Comedy Festival will stage a contest to determine the city’s funniest stand-up comedian. What you need to know? The open call for New York’s Funniest Stand-Up runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and Wednesday (Oct. 21-22) at Carolines, …
A few folks have pointed my way toward this weekend’s Executive Pursuits column in the New York Times, in which Harry Hurt III writes about attempting stand-up comedy for the first time at the Comic Strip Live. What should I say about this? It seems as though the NYT inevitably …
Want to see Russell Brand perform live in New York City as he tapes his first Comedy Central special? Here are the details: He performs Thursday, Nov. 13, and Friday, Nov. 14, at the Teatro Heckscher of El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Ave. (at 104th Street). Doors at 7 …
With all of the hullabaloo about Tina Fey hobnobbing with the object of her mockery, Sarah Palin, on Saturday Night Live, I wonder if the meeting of the mind and the mindless marked the peak of Fey’s impersonation, a peak we can never meet again. It’s one thing for President …
Bob Odenkirk talks about a newly released clip from the HBO sitcom David’s Situation, which he and comedy collaborator David Cross self-aborted before it could ever debut. The clip features Zach Galifianakis visiting Cross, only to find he’s the subject of a TV experiment called "Good Morning, Predator." That’s OK …
Here’s an extra couple of minutes of footage shot backstage last night before and during Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s visit to Saturday Night Live. I’m pretty sure that was a llama. Anyhoosiers. We also see Will Arnett was in the house, ostensibly to be with his soon-to-be baby mama Amy …
Sometimes a TV show becomes too tapped into the popular culture zeitgeist and gets caught up in it, and loses the sense of wonder that got everyone talking about it in the first place. Remember that sitcom about the woman who shared a NYC apartment with a gay guy, and …