The Definitive Guide to Comedy
To most Americans, Poppi Kramer was the first person to win big by losing weight big-time on NBC’s The Biggest Loser. To New York City comedians, Kramer was a godsend. Particularly for everyone from open mic’ers to the LGBTQ community, and everyone in between. Kramer died Friday. She was 46. …
Sean Rouse, a darkly funny comedian favored by the likes of Doug Stanhope, Jim Norton and Dave Attell, has died. Rouse suffered a stroke followed by a heart attack, and did not recover. Rouse was only 43. https://twitter.com/DougStanhope/status/1013151198147301376 Rouse grew up in Katy, Texas, just west of Houston, and was one …
Eurydice Dixon was just another young aspiring comedian walking home from a gig last week when she was tragically murdered. A 19-year-old man was arrested the following day with her rape and murder on a Melbourne soccer pitch last Tuesday night. Her last text to a friend, heartbreakingly ironic: “I’m …
Sadiki Fuller, a stand-up comedian from Houston who got his start in comedy in San Francisco, has died unexpectedly. He was found in his bed Saturday morning. Fuller started doing comedy in 1999. In his even younger days, Sadiki worked as a professional mascot for the Golden State Warriors. Off …
Memphis comedian and morning radio show host Spanky Brown has died, apparently from a heart attack. Born Byron Yeldell on March 13 (his Facebook bios alternately joke the year was 1908 or 1937), “Spanky” graduated high school in Memphis in 1980, and in his last two years, could be heard …
Harry Anderson, best known for starring in the NBC Must-See TV sitcom Night Court from 1984-1992, has died at his home in North Carolina. He was 65. Born Oct. 14, 1952, in Newport, R.I., Anderson and his family moved to Chicago, where he discovered card games, magic tricks and hustling. …
Floyd J. Phillips grew up in Michigan and died there, but his comedy influence also spread to the Pacific Northwest. Phillips died April 6, after more than 35 years on and off of dialysis. He’d posted a GoFundMe just last month to try to defray his medical expenses and help …
Mitzi Shore, the legendary owner of The Comedy Store who took over the comedy club when she divorced Sammy Shore in 1974, mother of Pauly Shore and three other children, a lightning rod for the comedy strike of 1979, godmother to so many other comedians in the 1970s through the …
Charles John Thomas “Chuck” McCann delighted children for decades, first on local New York City television, then nationally, and finally in animation. McCann died on April 8 from congenital heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 83. Born Sept. 2, 1934, in Brooklyn, McCann made his name on …
Peggy Platt, the first and so far still the only woman to have won the Seattle International Comedy Competition, died in her sleep earlier this week. Platt was 58. She won the Seattle competition back in 1985, and in the following three decades, served as a den mother for the …
