The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Fred Armisen just wrapped production on the eighth and final season of IFC’s Portlandia (which will air in January), and the Saturday Night Live alum already has his next sitcom lined up — an Amazon Prime series reuniting him with SNL’s Maya Rudolph! Amazon announced the straight-to-series pickup over the weekend. …
Ian Harvie came out to his family three times in Maine, as gay at 19, as transgender at 22, and as a stand-up comedian at 33. Now a trans man in his 40s, Harvie produced one of the best stand-up specials of 2016, Seeso’s May the Best Cock Win. In …
If you’re wondering why I haven’t gotten back to you about your stand-up comedy album, then please allow me to remind you just what kind of comedy boom you’re a part of these days. In 2015, TV networks and streaming services produced 44 stand-up hours (or specials). That seemed like …
Perhaps your friends already have shown you this video from the past month of someone activating both an Amazon Echo and a Google Home device, and then standing back as the two products of artificial intelligence, Alexa and Google, talk to each other in an almost infinite loop. But someone …
Amazon has picked up all three of its primetime comedy pilots that went up for public review in August: The Tick, I Love Dick and Jean-Claude Van Johnson. That despite Amazon’s own programming chief describing his new half-hour pick-ups as only “sometimes even funny.” Such is the state of “comedy” …
The 2016 Primetime Emmy Awards, handed out Sunday night live on ABC, saved its biggest prizes for repeat winners but had plenty of opportunities to reward first-timers in the first half-hour of the telecast. In just the first few categories: Louie Anderson won his first Emmy Award, in the supporting …
We’ve all seen pregnant woman perform comedy before, even if the memory isn’t on instant recall for you. Saturday Night Live reminded us this past Mother’s Day with a primetime run from Mother’s Day past — circa 2011, hosted by a then-pregnant Tina Fey and featuring also flush-with-baby SNL alum Maya …
Congratulations to black-ish, Master of None, Transparent and UnReal, among the TV programs honored this year in the 75th annual edition of The Peabody Awards. The Peabody Awards, from University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, honor excellence in broadcasting. Other honorees for 2016 include the film Beasts of No Nation, and …
Woody Allen shared the Broadway stage with Elaine May — although not onstage together, technically — as writers in 2011 for “Relatively Speaking,” a collection of one-act plays. Allen did cast the legendary May back in 2000 for his movie, Small Time Crooks. And he’s turning back the clock once …
Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer host the popular weekly comedy showcase Crash Test at the UCB Theatre in Los Angeles, and for one epic night, they took Crash Test on the road – hosting the show from a tour bus along the streets of Hollywood. Their Crash Test: With Rob …
