The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Budd Friedman has let go of owning The Improv. Levity Entertainment Group, which already runs six of the Improv comedy clubs in addition to producing stand-up specials and comedy series, as well as managing comedy clients, has bought the legendary Improv franchise brand from Friedman and Improv co-owner Mark Lonow. …
Ali Siddiq served six years of a 15 year sentence for drug trafficking in the Texas state penitentiary system. He also started performing comedy. Now for his first one-hour special, Ali Siddiq: It’s Bigger Than These Bars, he’s back behind bars at Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas. Ali Siddiq: It’s Bigger Than These …
First Ball. Then Carlin. Now Berman. The National Comedy Center has acquired the archives of legendary comedian Shelley Berman, who died last September at 92. Sarah Berman, who had been married to Shelley for more than 70 years, announced the donation at a tribute to him hosted on Tuesday night …
Jordan Temple made his debut on Tuesday night’s Conan, and expressed hope in seeing more black people in more inspiring occupations. And not just in porn. Temple also joked about the upcoming Harriet Tubman money, Tim Burton movies, and going to a white boarding school in a black neighborhood. Roll …
Comedian Aaron Hertzog has delivered my favorite take on the NBA’s trade of Blake Griffin from the Los Angeles Clippers to the Detroit Pistons, with this article in Fansided: How does the trade to Detroit affect Blake Griffin’s comedy career? After all, Griffin has performed at Montreal’s Just For Laughs festival, …
A brand-new extensive interview with Kathy Griffin appeared today in The Hollywood Reporter, putting her on its cover as A Comic In Exile. The profile headline? “Can a Comic in Exile Come Back?” For starters, she’s not exiled. THR met her for lunch in Santa Monica and visited with her …
Kevin Hart has added more than 100 dates in arenas around the world to this year’s Irresponsible Tour. Which makes you think Hart probably needs to clone himself to keep up. He’s already thought of that. Roll the promo clip. Tickets went on sale today for the North American tour …
After two seasons, Showtime has decided to stop rolling the Dice with Andrew Dice Clay’s semi-autobiographical sitcom. The formal announcement came Tuesday, but the writing had been on the wall, ever since its notable absence at the winter TCA sessions. Ratings also were never great for the sitcom that pondered …
Kellen Erskine is in favor of self-driving cars, because his own response time is dwindling, as he revealed on Monday’s Conan. Erskine also jokingly made arguments for new policies toward shopping carts and bike locks. Maybe he should also have one on baby monitors? Roll the clip.
As the annual SF Sketchfest closes the books on another successful January celebrating comedy by the Bay, Comedy Central has announced it, too, will continue its own comedy festival as an annual tradition this June. Clusterfest will return June 1-3, 2018. Pre-sale tickets available this Feb. 1. I was there …
