The Definitive Guide to Comedy
A new Discovery channel special, Small Town Throwdown, premieres tonight, sending stand-up comedian Mo Mandel to Appleton, Wisc., and Lubbock, Texas, to see if they really live up to their self-described titles. Is Coalinga, Calif., the smelliest town in America? Is Lubbock the “Most Boring” American town? Appleton the drunkest? …
Mo Mandel is a stand-up comedian who created and executive produces Comedy Knockout for truTV, where comics zing each other and try to win over the studio audience. Before that, he hosted truTV’s BARmageddon and appeared more than 40 times on the panel of Chelsea Lately. You’ve seen him as …
Roast battle, toast battle. Who’s going to be the first Comedy KO Champ tonight? Hosted by Damien Lemon and created by Mo Mandel, Comedy Knockout debuts on truTV, pitting three comedians against one another, with audience approval swaying Lemon into picking the winners. “You cheer, and I will dole out points …
truTV showed up for its part of the Turner Networks 2015 Upfront presentations today with two new series ordered up, an extended trailer for another new comedy series and plenty of pilots in the offing. “In just over six months, we have turned over a whole new network, building momentum …
Mo Mandel returned for another stand-up performance Wednesday night on Conan, and if you think Mandel has gotten older since then, so have you and everyone else. Mandel wants you to know about his dad, though, who’s now 70 years old. If you think that’s something, though, just listen to …
Mo Mandel returned to Conan last night. This time around, Mandel is 30 now, so his birthday presents, life goals and even his drinking behavior have all changed. At least he understands his mom now. LOL. “Did Conan already do that bit?” That depends. Are kids these days having sex …
The folks at Montreal’s Just For Laughs uploaded videos last week from its 2008 collection of comedians participating in the New Faces and Masters showcases, so you can finally see what I saw this summer. Rather than bombard you with two dozen embedded video clips, I’m going to embed one …
It’s time for one last look around the 2008 Montreal Just For Laughs festival, which Variety reports raked in $10 million (which is about the same in Canadian as it is in U.S. dollars these days!) this July. Which means this final recap must begin with the guy who buzzed …
Is it possible for the host of New Faces to bomb? If your name is Dana Gould and the show in question happened Saturday night, then yes, very much so. Word on the street had it that both groups of New Faces felt more at ease in their second go-arounds …
It’s the second week of the 2008 Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, which means we finally learn the identities of this year’s crop of New Faces and Masters to perform later this week. Much more to come, as I’ll be reporting from Montreal starting on Wednesday. For now, though, …
