The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Andy Samberg and his fellow comedians from The Lonely Island made their mark as new Saturday Night Live cast members by reinvigorating the SNL Digital Short for the digital video-sharing age (that's the brand-nonspecific alternative to saying YouTube age, right?). Their "Lazy Sunday" rap earned SNL a new generation of …
Ustream has hosted millions of live streaming Web shows and series. A quick look at Ustream's entertainment section pulled up 251,628 separate listings, with plenty of comedians among them. They've all been free, but that will change Feb. 6 with the first pay-per-view offering, which takes fans behind-the-scenes of Dane …
I hadn't written much about Alonzo Bodden in a long while, but I hadn't forgotten about him. Neither had Bob Read and Ross Mark, the comedy bookers for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the show that it's called currently, who also put Bodden on the national scene as …
Earlier this month, Eddie Brill performed stand-up on The Late Show with David Letterman. If you're an aspiring comedian who wants to get your own spot on Letterman, you might want to take extra notice of this because Brill also books the comedians for the show. Which is one of …
The eighth annual New York Nightlife Awards held their celebration Monday night with Bruce Vilanch hosting performances from the previously announced winners in cabaret, jazz and comedy at Town Hall. The New York Times sent a reporter who filed this piece for today's paper. At first, I confused the New …
While word slowly spreads about the return of NBC's Last Comic Standing, Improv owner Budd Friedman is helping preside over a lesser-known contest for aspiring talent that's tied to the video release of Funny People. The search for "The Next Funniest Person in America" accepted submissions online at Friedman's iJoke.com, …
You don't have to be on Team Coco to realize that Leno-bashing has reached a hyperbolic pitch. Just pick up the current issue of Entertainment Weekly, which put a photo illustration of Jay Leno on its cover and named him TV's biggest bomb ever. Ever? Forever ever? Clearly the mag …
Over on Television Without Pity, comedian Sean Crespo has been filing regular video blogs — or as the old people call them, vlogs — about television from the perspective of a complete outsider. His series, "No Prior Knowledge," celebrated its 100th episode with a look back at some other statistics, …
When this thing looks like that thing looks suspiciously like the other thing, that's what the mainstream media calls a trend. So what should we make of Showtime's original programming for comedy series? It appears that whomever is greenlighting new series responds quite well to any pitch in which the …
I'm surprised that nobody in the mainstream media decided to pick up on my report from Jan. 20 that NBC's Last Comic Standing is returning after a year hiatus for season seven this summer. Maybe they were all too focused on Leno and Conan to notice? So let me repeat …