The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Ellen DeGeneres has received a Presidential Medal of Freedom and hosted the Oscars, all while reigning over daytime TV as host of Ellen, but the one thing she hasn’t done since launching Ellen in 2003 was record and release a new stand-up special. That’s changing now. Netflix announced they’d lured …
We’re one week away from Sarah Silverman’s new Netflix special, so here’s a sneak peek behind her curtains to see how Silverman prepares for a show. Her pre-show rituals are not normal. But they do include a cameo from Steve Agee and a breath mint. So there’s that! Roll the …
I saw Tracy Morgan headline twice in 2016 near the beginning and the end of his “Picking Up the Pieces” tour: March at SXSW in Austin, Texas; then November at Carnegie Hall in NYC for the New York Comedy Festival. As I write in my official review of Tracy Morgan: …
Almost four years after an experimental fourth-season reunion of Arrested Development launched on Netflix, the streaming platform has announced it’ll get the gang back together for a fifth season to come in 2018. “In talks with Netflix we all felt that that stories about a narcissistic, erratically behaving family in …
I had the opportunity to speak to Norm Macdonald right after I had previewed his new Netflix hour, Hitler’s Dog: Gossip & Trickery. We had a great chat and I’ll post that shortly. But first, my thoughts on Macdonald’s Netflix special. He agreed with me on this part: Toward the …
I called Maria Bamford a superhero and busted some rhymes to explain how efficiently she adapted her newest hour of stand-up material to audiences of varying sizes and locations in her new Netflix special, Old Baby. The special gradually increases her audience from just herself, to her husband and their …
Everything old can be new again in this era of Too Much TV. Re-enter Roseanne. The hit ABC sitcom, which aired 222 episodes from 1988 to 1997 and peaked at the top of the ratings in its second of nine seasons, is calling for a full reunion (no word on …
Amazon cut a deal with 14 stand-up comedians from India for new specials to expand its global reach with Prime Video. But Netflix has perhaps the biggest comedy star from India already in Vir Das, who just released his first special for the streaming platform, Abroad Understanding. He shot the …
Americans may know Aziz Ansari, Hari Kondabolu or Russell Peters, but Vir Das is the biggest Indian-born comedian and Bollywood actor back home, where he hosted up to four shows at once on Indian television. Das first came to America for college, and he’s back now on an American tour …
I’ll confess. I’ve seen Kenny and Keith Lucas individually and together sporadically over the years, but I never could tell you which was which. And watching their first Netflix special, Lucas Brothers: On Drugs, even off drugs, didn’t fix that for me. As I wrote in my review for Decider.com: Identical …
