The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Roast Battle II begins a four-night run tonight, with new episodes at 10 p.m. Eastern/Pacific Thursday-Sunday, following the action as 16 stand-up comedians roast each other in front of celebrity judges until only one reigns supreme live on Sunday night on Comedy Central. I could’ve sworn that I heard Jeffrey …
While you’ve been enjoying the “Regionals” coverage of Roast Battles Sunday nights on Comedy Central, the series has announced the 16 stand-up comedians still in the running for the Roast Battle II title. Jeff Ross Presents Roast Battle II will tape the head-to-head competitions with celebrity judges across the street …
The open mic holds everything for the new, aspiring comedian. The alpha and the omega, the dream and the nightmare, but the above all else, the primary entry point for stand-up comedy. An open mic often promises no regular audience members; instead, empty chairs up front and a gaggle of …
Inside Amy Schumer, winner of two Emmys in 2015 and nominated for four more Emmy Awards this year, might not return for its fifth season on Comedy Central in time for the 2017 award season. If it returns at all. That point underscored and hinted at last night by Schumer …
Jay Oakerson’s first TV credit was on BET. Big Jay started stand-up comedy in all-black rooms in Philadelphia, and now he’s playing to everyone while often relying on his sharp wit to riff with the crowds in the moment. He hosts an all-crowd-work series Big Jay Oakerson’s What’s Your F@#king …
The Writers Guild of America held simultaneous award ceremonies in New York City and Los Angeles on Saturday night, with Patton Oswalt hosting the Hollywood crowd, and Michael Ian Black presiding over the Gotham nods. If you want to know how L.A. and NYC are different in show business, just …
Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer won the inaugural prize at the Emmy Awards in 2015 for the newly created category, Variety Sketch Series, where it was nominated alongside Drunk History, Portlandia, Key & Peele and Saturday Night Live. The series already had won one Emmy Award at last week’s Creative …
What do they say about New York City: There are eight million stories, and sometimes it seems as though eight million of the people telling them think they’re comedians? No, that’s not it. It is a fact, though, that America’s biggest city is also its biggest comedy mecca. Hollywood may …
Every year, I think I know what to expect heading into Montreal’s grand poobah of comedy festivals — Just For Laughs — only to realize I still have much to learn. Here are some of the things I learned from the 2014 edition of JFL Montreal: Tuesday is the new …
Kurt Metzger may be the nicest and most reasonable person onstage and off, who simultaneously is joking about things and using language to which many strangers might take offense. Perhaps he truly is “White Precious.” That’s the title of his first hourlong stand-up special, which debuts tonight on Comedy Central …
