The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Stand-up comedian Rich Ceisler died this morning, two weeks after contracting a rare illness while performing on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. Ceisler was 58. The love of his life, Catherine, was with him when he died, and she’d been posting updates to his Facebook page regularly since Ceisler’s health …
Mike Flinn (@realmikeflinn) isn’t just a podcast producer and engineer; he’s also an avid fan of the form. “My Pod Week” recaps and reviews the many varied comedy podcasts Flinn listened to or attended live tapings of during the previous week. Enjoy! THE CHURCH OF WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW: WITH JOEY …
For all of the artificial and natural word-of-mouth buzz that happens each July in Montreal, perhaps the most likely to produce buzz event of Just For Laughs is the New Faces Unrepped showcase. All of these stand-up comedians arrived in Montreal a week and a half ago without agents or …
I’ve been writing so much about members of The Reckoning, that I should have reckoned that another of the iO West’s improv collective would be the breakout star of the New Faces Characters showcases this summer in Montreal. This year’s showcase had a high standard to meet, with UCB co-founder …
NBC’s Last Comic Standing made the penultimate cruelest cut last night, winnowing the field from five to four. The show also introduced Jay Leno as a guest mentor, although I’m not sure what advice he gave them to help in this particular challenge, nor why our finalists had to fly …
Jay Leno appeared briefly on NBC’s Last Comic Standing as the guest mentor for season eight’s top five finalists, before they faced a studio audience and the judges in the first full head-to-head-to-head-to-head-to-head stand-up challenge. We didn’t get to hear or see much of Leno on the TV broadcast Thursday …
One of the plum rewards of winning Last Comic Standing is a development deal with NBC to see if the network can make a sitcom star out of the stand-up comedian champion. Rocky LaPorte, who made the final five on Last Comic this summer, may not have won that deal …
IFC’s adaptation of musical-comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates into TV series format premieres next Thursday (Aug. 7, 2014), but you can sneak a peek of a full episode right here and now, or whenever, online. In the “Speechless” episode, Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci go on a double-date to test out their …
Hot off the heels of performing individually and collectively in Montreal’s Just For Laughs, the cast of Undateable received news late Thursday that NBC had picked up their summer series for 10 more episodes, with season two coming in 2015. The sitcom seemingly burned through all its 13-epiosde debut season …
Ron Funches is in NYC headlining Caroline’s on Broadway, and before his show on Thursday night, he stopped in to perform on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Just to prove he’s not Questlove. He’s also happy to be in New York City in the summer to do his summer …
