The Definitive Guide to Comedy
People really do win in NBC’s “Stand-Up for Diversity” showcase showdown! Tone Bell, who as part of his victory in last year’s diversity contest secured a one-year talent holding deal with NBC Universal, has been cast as a regular character in the second season of Whitney, which airs on the …
One of Montreal’s New Faces of comedy from the 2012 Just For Laughs festival found success even before leaving the festival last weekend. Josh Rabinowitz has been tapped by Apple as its newest TV spokesman, and ads featuring Rabinowitz as an “Apple Genius” began airing over the weekend, during broadcasts …
David Letterman long has held a soft spot for comedians of his own generation, particularly if he was part of their circle in the Los Angeles comedy scene of the 1970s. After hearing about Gallagher’s recent health and financial problems, Letterman invited the famous watermelon-smashing prop comedian from the 1980s …
Rory Scovel returned to Conan on Monday night for some more stand-up. Though he didn’t have Jon Dore by his side to confuse and amuse the audience with their two-man overlapping routines, Scovel did have a beer bottle and a character that the viewers didn’t even know wasn’t him. Got …
A new Hyundai ad debuted over the weekend, with a neighbor’s son asking him many questions. One answer merely inspires a new “Why?” Of course, this easily could have been inspired by comedian Louis CK’s old bit, which imagined this scenario playing out many times with parents and their own …
You know what I said about female comedians being portrayed doing stand-up in TV commercials? Well, here’s a recent ad for The General, an insurance company, featuring stand-up comedian Erik Rivera doing stand-up about insurance. Roll it.
Of all of the arguments about women in stand-up comedy, the one I never ever hear is the portrayal of female stand-up comedy in TV ad campaigns. Because it’s almost always for feminine hygiene products, showing us a woman onstage with a microphone making jokes about whatever problem the product …
Will Ferrell has put out two new beer commercials, but only one of them is real, and that one only played during the Super Bowl in the second-smallest TV market in America. Go figure. The real commercial for Old Milwaukee played on Super Bowl Sunday in one market only, North …
Pete Holmes debuted as the talking E*Trade baby in a Super Bowl ad a couple of years ago, and his spokesbaby campaign is still going strong, and during Super Bowl XLVI, he returned with comedian Nick Cobb standing by the baby in a hospital maternity ward. Cobb appeared in his …
Last night whilst watching NBC’s Thursday-night comedy lineup, this holiday commercial for Target appeared and brought Chris Gethard into my home (and probably yours). Roll it! In related news, Gethard has a new memoir/autobiographical book of essays coming out in January 2012, titled A Bad Idea I’m About to Do: …
