Comedy Central will travel with some of its comedian stars to San Diego’s ultra popular comic book convention and general nerdfest Comic-Con on July 23 and 24th. In addition to panels with the producers, writers, and cast of both Ugly Americans and Futurama, Comedy Central is producing a free comedy show on July 24.
Hoted by Pete Holmes of Ugly Americans, Comedy Central Live will take place at the House of Blues from 7 to 9 p.m. The stand-up showcase will feature comics from Ugly Americans and also upcoming Comedy Central series.
Here’s who you can expect: Maria Bamford; Kurt Metzger (a Punchline Magazinebreakout artist), Matt Oberg, and Randy Pearlstein of Ugly Americans; Chris Gethard and Horatio Sanz of Big Lake (we were at the screening of this last month), which is coming out in August; Nick Swardson, who will be in Pretend Time with Nick Swardson, coming out in October. Lastly, Adam Devine of Workaholics, a series expected to air in early 2011, will perform.
FYI: House of Blues is 18 to enter and 21 to drink, so leave your little brother back with the Spiderman comics.
Actor John C. Reilly has developed a real solid cult following for his role as the affable oaf, Dr. Steve Brule. Originally airing as only a quick bit on adult swim’s Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, Reilly’s character has become such a favorite among viewers that the Doctor has received his very own spin off: Check it Out! With Dr. Steve Brule.
In his most recent episode, Dr. Brule checks out “health” and sits down with Maria Bamford, as Dr. Cynthia Driscoll, to determine if he is handsome. Watch as Maria fends off Dr. Brule’s advances while scientifically proving that he is, in fact, pretty ugly.
It’s amazing what a good venue can do. In the 1970’s, venues like the Comedy Store and the Improv inspired a comedy boom, brought public attention to the now legendary Andy Kaufman, David Letterman and Richard Lewis, and helped change what it meant to be a comedian. Chicago’s Lakeshore Theater was one such venue –committed to embracing new comedy and furthering the exploration of what it firmly believed to be an art, it held great promise in changing the comedy landscape. This is why the following news is so heartbreaking: announced late yesterday, the Lakeshore Theater will be ceasing all operations on April 10.
The Lakeshore was a forerunner in a new wave of comedy clubs– not limited to just stand-up, it opened its doors to all kinds of acts: improv, sketch, theater, music, and whatever else was good enough to earn a spot. It forwent the two-drink minimum, didn’t care about being TV clean, and made an honest effort to book the best and most original comedy out there, including acts like Maria Bamford, Todd Barry, Reggie Watts and Kristen Schaal. But despite consistently sold-out shows and praise from the Chicago community, the Lakeshore has come into financial trouble.
Lakeshore co-owner and Executive Producer Chris Ritter explained: “It saddens me deeply to announce the closing of the Lakeshore. While revenues have continued to grow over the last three years and the Lakeshore brand of comedy, music and good times has successfully taken hold, current revenues are simply insufficient to fund ongoing operations as well as much needed plant repairs and improvements needed to take the company to the next level of success.”
Australian comedian Jim Jefferies will be performing the club’s final shows Friday, April 9th at 7:30 and 10:30 and Saturday, April 10th at 10:30. Ritter commented on the appropriateness of Jefferies for closing it all out: “We’ve been presenting Jim since we first started presenting comedy and have had the privilege of watching his career explode with the success of his HBO special. It will be a terrific going-away party.” As for ticket holders for future events, they will be fully refunded.
Last weekend the Women in Comedy Festival went down in Boston. Comedian Aparna Nancherla was invited to perform. We invited her to report back to Punchline Magazine for a bit of a recap. The results are below. Enjoy!
This past weekend, I went up to Boston, Massachusetts for the second annual Women in Comedy Festival produced by Maria Ciampa Michelle Barbera and Elyse Schuerman. Based on my experience there, I can positively say they put together a well-rounded, all-inclusive few days of reveling in the goodness that is ladies of laughter. Interestingly enough, I didn’t hear the word “tampon” once, though I have mixed feelings about that. They are such valuable slice-of-life items!
I stopped by the 8 p.m. Mottley’s Comedy Club show on Friday night, and was lucky enough to get a guest set since one of the original performers had to back out at the last minute due to a family emergency. It was a solid line-up hosted by Ciampa herself in front of a full and fully enthused house. Some of the audience members struck me as atypical of what I would expect for an all-lady show. My inner biases about frat boys were shot to hell!
Coming up March 24 – 28, ImprovBoston will be hosting the second annual Women in Comedy Festival, a festival dedicated to showcasing female comedy in stand-up, sketch and storytelling.
Headlined by Maria Bamford and featuring Jackie Kashian and Bonnie McFarlane, the festival is proudly and intentionally a predominantly lady-centric event, but this is not to say it will be purely a woman’s affair.
As explained by festival co-director Maria Ciampa: “Most comedy festivals feature about 80 percent men and 20 percent women. Our festival flips this tradition on its head. The ‘women’ in Women in Comedy Festival refers to the fact that WICF is directed by, produced by, and features comedy by the ladies. However, men do comedy too, and we don’t want to exclude anyone.”
In addition to an impressive roster of live performances, comedy workshops will be hosted throughout length of the festival by Kashian, Zabeth Russell, and Cameron Esposito, each focusing on different comedy styles and topics. Bamford will also be hosting an open mic!
The incredibly talented and underused Maria Bamford will guest star on Comedy Central’s TheSarah Silverman Program tomorrow at 10:30 pm. She’ll play Mayor Kadoody, a politician Sarah gets behind and somehow convinces her friends and family to do the same. Affable on the surface, Kadoody has a sinister streak. Check out a preview below.
We love this character already, especially since the Bammer is bringing to the small screen a variation of a bit she recorded live for her latest album Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome. We dropped that album clip below. Check it out and compare it to her Kadoody character. Fun!
Sarah Silverman, Steve Agee, Laura Silverman last night at Largo in Los Angeles.
After over a full year off the air, the Sarah Silverman Program returns to Comedy Central next month, and the lucky few (and those of us who can blend in with the lucky few) were at a screening of the first two episodes at the Largo in LA last night.
No spoilers from me about the plots, except to say that the season opener is as funny and surreal and filthy as anything they’ve yet to do on the show. (Okay, small spoiler: it involves Sarah’s character’s ambiguous genitalia and contains a song called “The Baby Penis in My Mind” that’s dangerously catchy.)
Silverman introduced the episodes and stuck around for a brief, hilarious Tig Notaro-moderated Q&A afterward, along with her sister Laura and other cast members Steve Agee, Jay Johnston co-creator/writer Rob Schrab and writer Dan Sterling.
(Okay, one more spoiler: Maria Bamford is in the second episode as a character named May Kadoody. She owns it.)
The Q&A covered everything from “Is there anything Comedy Central won’t let you do?” to how they develop a one-sentence premise – “What if Sarah had a dick?” – into a full episode.
The show returns Feb. 4th at 10:30 pm. Imagine that: genuinely funny comedy in the 10 o’clock hour. See, it can be done…
This just might be the greatest holiday gift a comedy fan can get this season. The talented and super awesome Maria Bamford has released — for free! — her own Christmas stand-up special. Chock full of the absurd hilarity that you’d expect from The Bammer, this is truly the gift that keeps on giving laughs the whole year ’round. Enjoy and leave your comments below!
“March Madness” is on Prozac compared to the insanity of Black Friday, the starting line of the hysterical holiday- shopping season. In a series of pre-Christmas commercials for Target, our fave manic comic, Maria Bamford, gets us thinking in, well, present tense. Check out the five spots below! And tell us what you think in the comments section.
It’s Friday, folks, which means it’s time for us to let you in on who will be guesting on Marc Maron’s podcast WTF next week.
As a sponsor of the show and dedicated fans of the WTF cause, we’re proud to do it. So here it is. Janeane Garofalo makes her second appearance on WTF and the huge live WTF show recorded at the UCB theater in Los Angeles goes down with Maria Bamford, Doug Benson, Whitney Cummings, Jim Earl, Chris Hardwick and the mighty Eddie Pepitone.
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Comedy Central will travel with some of its comedian stars to San Diego’s ultra popular comic book convention and general nerdfest Comic-Con on July 23 and 24th. In addition to panels with the producers, writers, and cast of both Ugly Americans and Futurama, Comedy Central is producing a free comedy show on July 24.
It’s Friday, folks, which means it’s time for us to let you in on who will be guesting on Marc Maron’s podcast 
