The Definitive Guide to Comedy
This week’s issue of New York is its best-of issue, and this time around, they actually included a category for comedy. One category. Best Indie-Comedy Night. And the award goes to…oh, you read the subject title already, didn’t you…Tearing the Veil of Maya, the Sunday night showcase hosted by Eugene …
If you’re looking for something to do tonight in New York City, and think it might be a wee bit crowded at Rififi for night two of the Invite Them Up finale, then here are three shows to consider… 1) Sweet. Seth Herzog‘s weekly comedy showcase at The Slipper Room …
Michael Showalter hosts tonight’s special Comedy Central Presents: My First Time, which explores the early jokey jokes and stand-up starts of Showalter, Michael Ian Black, Mike Birbiglia and Bonnie McFarlane. Here, let Showalter explain it. During the taping back in August, Showalter explained to the audience that this show wouldn’t …
Sara Benincasa got a gig this year contributing to MTV’s 2008 Choose or Lose campaign coverage, which means we’re sure to see plenty of comedians weigh in with opinions on the election. Here, she sits down with Stella (yes, Michael Showalter, David Wain and Michael Ian Black, together again) to …
Over the years, I’ve witnessed some of the uglier facets of comedy contests as both a participant and as a judge. Last night, however, I saw the sunnier side at the ECNY Awards (please don’t call them the Emerging Comics of New York anymore) ceremony at Comix in New York …
Today is the final day for open voting for the ECNY Awards, which used to stand for Emerging Comics of New York, but now just is ECNY to honor other kinds of comedians, sort of how KFC decided it was much more than merely Kentucky Fried. The awards ceremony is …
Comedy Central is promoting its new season of half-hour Comedy Central Presents specials by asking its participating comedians with whom they are feuding. Here, Michael Showalter playfully takes on Human Giant for not recognizing The State as their greatest comedic influence. In jest, perhaps. But Showalter sure doesn’t take all …
I spoke with Michael Ian Black while writing for the New York Daily News, and Black wasn’t quite sure he’d be able to sell those readers on why they should see him perform. He’d just released his first stand-up CD, "I am a Wonderful Man," on Comedy Central Records and …
In which the author attempts, despite repeated crashes of his laptop computer, to briefly describe the shows he saw Thursday at the 2007 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. Summer of Tears Southern California sketch troupe mixed it up with videos. One took political TV ads and made the candidates potential boyfriends. …