For the third year in a row, alt comedy god Eugene Mirman is bringing his anti-comedy-festival comedy festival to the borough he calls home. This year’s festivities, which will run September 16-19, will once again be held at Union Hall in Park Slope and Bell House in Gowanus, with The Rock Shop in Park Slope added into the mix.

Perks of Mirman’s off-beat comedy extravaganza have included free barbecue upon entry into a show, a limo to haul audience members to the subway stop from out-of-the-way Bell House, and shows with entertaining themes and high profile guests. This year’s offerings include shows like An Evening of Comedy From 1986, A Night of Gay or Foreign Comedy and Toddless Tinkle. Guests throughout the festival will include David Cross, John Mulaney, John Oliver, Marc Maron, Kristen Schaal, Reggie Watts, Emo Phillips, Mike Birbiglia, Kumail Nanjiani and many, many more.

This is always a great way to see some of the best comics in the world be funny and have a blast in a laid back atmosphere (something decidedly lacking in your average festival). Check out the festival website for schedules, tickets and specific lineups.

Another booking coup for our favorite podcast: this week on WTF with Marc Maron, the comedian turned podcast king interviews writer/director Judd Apatow. In this special two-part interview, the second of which just went live online, Marc and Judd cover a range of topics, including the deep-seated love of stand-up that took hold of each of them at a young age.

Part 1 includes a major bonus: audio of interviews that Apatow conducted with comedians in 1983 for his high school radio station. This Inception-esque interview within an interview portion features a teen-aged Apatow talking to Jay Leno, Gary Shandling and Jerry Seinfeld, all of whom were working comedians who had yet to become huge stars.

Part 2 is more standard WTF fare, with Marc and Judd talking movies and whether Judd was happy with how Funny People turned out. All in all, it’s just fun to hear two guys who know a lot about comedy talk about comedy. Get the episode of wtfpod.com or download it directly from iTunes.

In a brand new installment of Funny Or Die’s Between Two Ferns, host Zach Galifianakis is oddly missing. However, Zach’s twin brother — you may know him well if you own Zach’s 2007 DVD Live at the Purple Onion — turns up and saves the day.

Check out how he employs his masterful interview skills with screen giant Sean Penn. Enjoy!

Holy crap, it’s September already! That means that November is just around the corner which, more specifically, means that Team Coco is gearing up for the big man’s triumphant return to television. So far, details on the new venture, aside from its place on TBS at 11 pm EST, have been scarce – until now! Watch the video below, in which a still-bearded Conan reveals the title of his new show in a barren office!

Since 2005, The Philly Improv Theater has served not only as the only longform improv training center in Philadelphia, but as the area’s strongest source of off-beat comedy shows. It’s grown into a full-blown comedy hub, fostering a comedy community comprised of its a huge network of students, past and present, as well as local stand-ups, sketch comics and established names from out of town (PHIT has produced shows and/or workshops with Paul F. Tompkins, Matt Besser, Adsit and Gausas, and more). However, one thing the theater still doesn’t have is a permanent theater space of its own. Thanks to Kickstarter.com and a lot of support from the community, that’s bout to change. Punchline recently caught up with PHIT’s executive director, Greg Maughan.

Can you give us a little background on the Philly Improv Theater? When did it start? What’s your comedy background?

Philly Improv Theater started in 2005, although we were initially just a school for longform improv classes. At the time the theater started I had been living in Philly for four years, and the entire time I had wanted to see comedy shows at a place like The Second City or Upright Citizens Brigade. For the first couple of years I was convinced someone else was probably working on opening a venue like that – because it just seemed like such an obvious need in the city – but eventually I got tired of waiting.

What kind of training programs do you have? What kind of shows do you produce, improv and otherwise?

We’ve got three main types of training programs as of this fall: improv, sketch, and standup. The standup classes are starting for the first time, and the improv and sketch classes have just been revamped and revised which we are pretty excited about.

As for shows, we produce a pretty wide spectrum of stuff that the theater has come to refer to under one umbrella as “alternative comedy” – which is a fun niche to occupy. Basically we have sketch groups do two-week runs with performances on Saturday and Sunday nights at 8pm and then the rest of our Friday and Saturday is built around improv groups. Earlier in the week we do a lot of shows created by stand-up and sketch comedians around town.

You launched a Kickstarter Campaign to fund a permanent space for the theater. What had the theater been using up until now? How did the campaign turn out?

We did use Kickstarter to begin our big capital campaign back in May and that’s the first real fundraising we’ve done. For a long time we simply weren’t raising funds because we were focused on our continued existence in the moment and everyone felt like there wasn’t enough talent ready to fill a stage full-time. It wasn’t really until the end of last year – after we’d successfully gone from doing one week a month of performances to two – that thoughts of a space got serious. It’s always been the goal, but it didn’t feel like it was really going to happen until we got approached with a potential space last November. That’s when the business plans got re-written and the realistic budget got put together.

Then a super-generous donor stepped in and offered that if we could put $50,000 in our capital account by the end of the year they would match. The Kickstarter campaign was the start of all this effort, and the plan is go back there as the end of the year approaches to finish that way as well. Our initial goal was $10,000 and we ended up raising $15,000 in just 44 days – which was nothing short of incredible.

You’ve described the proposed new theater as, “a home for alternative comedy in Philadelphia.” What does that title mean to you?

I guess we have described the new space in that way, haven’t we? When the Advisory Board for the theater got put together one of things we talked about was the vision for what would be in the space – and it isn’t just meant to be a stage to perform on. The goal really is for the space to serve as a hub for comedy in the city – not just a place to see shows, but also a place to learn, to practice, and to get together and collaborate.

As a comedy dude, what’s kept you in Philadelphia? What’s your take on the comedy scene here?

It honestly wasn’t anything specifically comedy related that kept me in Philly – I moved here almost a decade ago and just fell in love with the place, and then my family lives nearby as well. But the thing that makes all of this fun is what a great comedy scene there is in the city. By and large it’s very supportive, very collaborative. We’re still putting up great shows and recruiting amazing instructors… and we’re not having to make compromises. I think with the way things are going the city will have a pretty solid reputation around the country within a few years as a place to come and find people… All this stuff makes everyone at PHIT very optimistic about the future.

Be sure to check out PHIT next time you’re in the city of brotherly love and looking for copious laughter!

This kind of doesn’t surprise us at all. Margaret Cho who has just released her first musical comedy album and who is continuously pushing herself deeper and deeper into the arts will be one of the celebrity contestants on this season’s Dancing with the Stars on ABC.

She’s one of the stars of Lifetime’s original series Drop Dead Diva and is in midst of a national tour in support of her aforementioned album Cho Dependent. When is this powerful woman going to find time to learn, rehearse and execute the demanding dances seen each year on this mega popular show?

In any event, let’s hope she fairs better than fellow comedian Jeffrey Ross who competed on the show during its seventh season in 2008. He and his pro dance partner Edyta Sliwinska were the first couple to be eliminated.

Say what you what about Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s undisputed capitol of hipsterdom, but one thing it’s got going is smart, attentive people who are supportive of the arts. It’s known to New York comics as a fun place to put on a show, which is what makes the heckler in this Hannibal Buress video stick out like a horribly unwanted sore thumb.

Hecklers come in all shapes and sizes. Most of the time, their disruption is short and easily dealt with. Every so often though, there’s some idiot who wants attention and just won’t shut the fuck up. In the video below, we see how Buress deals with a persistently disruptive nuisance at the show he hosts every Sunday at the Knitting Factory. Keep in mind that Buress only gets nasty after the guy proves he’s a piece of shit who can’t take a hint.

Hannibal and Lamp Dude. from Lane Savage on Vimeo.

Hannibal will be performing at Punchline Magazine’s five year anniversary show at Comix in New York on Oct. 5. Get your tickets here!

This past weekend, I had the chance to catch Chris Hardwick — maybe you know him as @Nerdist on Twitter — at Helium Comedy Club in Philadelphia. It was the first time I saw him live doing a proper headlining set and have to say, was impressed. He has a masterful command of an audience, talking directly to single members throughout his set but never letting go of the rope and never at the expense of his material.

I should also mention that there were two huge bachelorette parties at the show I attended; they were sitting center stage a few rows back. I thought it would be certain disaster. But Hardwick made a few references during his set (they were hard to ignore) and went on his way, making the rest of us laugh.

After the show, Hardwick was nice enough to let me shove a Flip cam in his face backstage and have an informal chat. So, below these words there’s a video that shows how that went down. Enjoy!

That’s right, comedy lovers. You read that right. For today only, you can download Doug Benson’s brand, spanking new album — his third — for $3.99. We’ve listened to the disc a few times already. If you’re a fan of Doug’s, you won’t be disappointed. New ground really isn’t the order of the day for Doug, but the man will make you laugh your ass off.

To check out the full thing, you need only click this link and start consuming. And tomorrow, on Punchline Magazine, we’ll be rolling out a new video interview with the man himself.

Iconic stand-up comedian Robert Schimmel is in very serious condition after he, his daughter and son veered off a road in Arizona on Thursday.

TMZ is reporting that Schimmel’s daughter, 19 was driving the car, with the comedian in the passenger seat and his 11-year-old son in the back. “Sources tell us the daughter swerved to avoid an accident in her lane and the car rolled over on to the side of the freeway,” the website reports.

Schimmel’s son was released without injuries on Thursday; his daughter was admitted and is in stable condition. Schimmel, himself, is still in an unnamed hospital.

The well-respected comic is now almost as known for beating cancer as he is for his blue humor. He published his memoir Cancer on Five Dollars a Day (chemo not included): How Humor Got Me Through the Toughest Journey of My Life in 2009.

Check out this video interview below Punchline Magazine did around the time of his book’s release.