Top News
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| Playwright Theresa Rebeck |
Theater: Magic Theatre seeks emotional truth amidst laughter
February 14, 2011
By Emily Wilson, ComedyBeat
SAN FRANCISCO - While watching a reading of an eight-page play by Theresa Rebeck last year at a celebration of Rebeck’s work, Loretta Greco, artistic director of the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, said she had rarely laughed so hard.
“Theresa and I were in the front row, holding on to each other,” Greco said. “I was almost falling out of my seat, and I’m no pushover.”
The piece was about how men at an architecture firm react to an ambitious new female hire. Rebeck, a playwright and novelist who also writes for TV and the movies, said she had always meant to do something with the piece, written about 18 years ago. Greco encouraged her to turn it into a full-length play.
“It’s 18 years old, only nothing has changed,” Greco said. “When I saw it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, is this ever alive.’”
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| Carrie Paff hands a cell phone to Gabriel Marin as they cling from a bridge in the World Premiere of Collapse. (Photo by David Allen) |
Theater: bridging the divide between tragedy and comedy
January 22, 2011
By Emily Wilson, ComedyBeat
In 2007, the Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis collapsed, killing 13 people and injuring another 145.
Many people wouldn’t find this a likely inspiration for a comedy, but Allison Moore, author of the play Collapse, saw a way to write about four people dealing with the aftermath, as well as their financial problems and struggles with infertility, in a humorous way.
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| Eric Michael Gillet |
Cast of Thousands: Gillet Sings Carnella
January 18, 2011
By Peter Haas, ComedyBeat
NEW YORK - Eric Michael Gillett brings grand gifts to his cabaret evening, “Cast of Thousands − Gillet Sings Carnelia.” One is his rich, trained baritone, offered with consistent power and unflagging energy throughout his 90-minute solo stint on stage. Another is the respect he shows his audience in letting the songs speak for themselves: no introductions, no scene-setting, no patter, but, instead, the simplest, most honest of characterizations as he sits on a stool and draw us in to the experiences the songs project.
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| Charlie Prince of the Friars Club (Photo by Carl Unegbu/ComedyBeat) |
Friars Club launches its own film festival to correct neglect of comedy
December 21, 2010
By Carl Unegbu, ComedyBeat
The Friars Club is the new kid on the block of film festivals. And it is taking film festivals to a place that neither the Cannes, Tribeca, nor Toronto festival had gone before. That place is the land of comedy. In the fall of 2009, the first Friars Club Comedy Film Festival (FCCFF) was launched with the goal of championing comedy and correcting what seemed like a neglect of comedy among the existing festivals. “It seemed like there was a festival for everything, Sci fi, documentaries, you name it, and it just seemed appropriate to have a festival for comedy,” said Charlie Prince, executive director of the Friars Club Comedy Film Festival.
ComedyBeat’s Peter Haas named to cabaret judging panel
December 20, 2010
Peter Haas, who runs Comedy Beat’s Cabaret Corner, has been named to the panel of judges for the Ninth Annual Nightlife Awards. The Nightlife Awards honor the best of New York's cabaret, comedy and jazz; winners are decided upon by more than two-dozen critics and experts on four different panels.
The Nightlife Awards, to be presented in Town Hall on January 31, 2011, stand out from other award presentations in that the winners perform rather than deliver acceptance speeches. The Awards are produced by Scott Siegel, who also produces Town Hall's ten-years-running "Broadway By the Year" series as well as “Broadway Unplugged,” in which performers sing un-miked.
For tickets and information click here…
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| Julie Kottakis, 33, winner of the 2010 Funniest Lawyer in New York City contest (Photo by Eddie Vega/ComedyBeat) |
Lawyers turn their economic upheaval into heaving laughter
December 13, 2010
By Eddie Vega, ComedyBeat
NEW YORK - As many Americans continue to reel from the worst economic downturn since the Dust Bowl, it may ease their sense of desperation to know that they do not suffer alone. The dour economy—marked by high unemployment and even higher underemployment—is hurting even professions that in past cycles were deemed recession proof, even the practice of law.
For the first time since its founding over 135 years ago, the New York City Bar Association is offering job counseling to struggling lawyers, according to the New Jersey Law Journal. And for good reason: the National Association for La Placement reported the lowest employment rate for new lawyers since the mid-1990s.
Still, there may not be much sympathy for New York lawyers, who earned annual mean wages of $152,710 in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. A figure like that may be misleading, however, since it is not adjusted for the $150,000 debt some of those lawyers assumed to pay for college and law school. Lawyers, like the rest of the country, are hurting.
So how are some of these struggling lawyers coping? In the same way many Americans, who turned to movies and radio, survived the emotional strains of the Great Depression—through laughter.
Read more...Mass. Attorney General orders comedian's brother to pay $12M
December 8, 2010
From Legal Newswire
BOSTON - The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office has ordered comedian Dane Cook's half-brother and sister-in-law to pay him back $12 million, according to the Portsmouth Herald.
The couple, Darryl and Erika McCauley, were accused of embezzling millions from the popular stand-up comedian and film actor. Darryl had worked as Cook's business manager.
According to US Weekly, in addition to being paid $12,500 a month from Cook, Darryl took more of the comedian's funds and wired it into his own account.
In October, Darryl was sentenced to five to six years in prison on the charges, which included 27 counts of larceny. His wife, meanwhile, was sentenced to 2 1/2 to three years in prison.
After winning reelection, U.S. congressman returns to comedy writing
December 7, 2010
From The Hill
Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) writes jokes as a hobby, but he took a break from it as he sweated out his reelection bid.
Larsen ended up winning on Nov. 2, and perhaps more surprisingly, nearly won the Funniest Celebrity in Washington contest, which took place Thursday at the D.C. Improv.
Larsen came in second place behind Obama administration speechwriter Jon Lovett — even though he was out of practice. The stress of the race made it impossible for Larsen to write jokes, he explained. Larsen attracted 51 percent of the vote to win a sixth term.
Oscar may laugh off comedies again
December 3, 2010
From the Los Angeles Times
The Golden Globes recognizes comedies more often, but the academy doesn't seem to have much of a funny bone, even with 10 slots now in the best picture category.
Oscar's best picture category doubled in size last year from five to 10 nominees. Yet, the number of pure comedies it nominated remained constant: zero.
All five movies receiving Golden Globe nominations in the comedy/musical category last year — "The Hangover," "(500) Days of Summer," "It's Complicated," "Julie & Julia" and "Nine" — were ignored by academy voters. In fact, in the last five years, only "Juno" and "Little Miss Sunshine" have crossed over from the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.'s comedy category into the Academy Awards.
And, even with the academy maintaining its 10 best picture nominee slots, this year's rather thin crop of comedies doesn't look like it will be tickling Oscar's funny bone when the nominations are announced in January.
Mayor of Canadian city seeks funding for comedy festival
December 1, 2010
From the Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON - It’s nothing to laugh about, but Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel wants the city to look at putting $50,000 into a new comedy festival.
Local comedians hope to raise $100,000 to stage the event, which would be held next September or October, Mandel said Wednesday.
“We will see what happens. A comedy festival here would be a great addition,” he said.
“I like to laugh.”
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November 30, 2010
Hey, Some Friars Members Are Younger Than the Jokes
From the New York Times
For years, one of the funniest lines associated with the Friars Club, the legendary fraternal organization in New York that has catered to people in the entertainment industry for 106 years, was about itself.
“There’s a joke that the secret handshake of the club is just a trembling hand,” said Adam Stone, 27, who with his twin brother, Todd, make up the comedy duo of Stone and Stone.
These days, said Adam Stone, who joined the club three years ago with his brother, the trembling handshake joke might not be “fair to say anymore.”
In a concerted campaign that began in the 1990s and picked up steam in recent years, the Friars Club has begun to attract what many older private clubs and organizations seek to resuscitate their popularity and their rolls: younger and cooler members.
Steve Martin’s Sketch of the Art World
November 30, 2010
From The New York Times
Walking down Madison Avenue on a sunny afternoon last week Steve Martin had the look of a movie star in thin disguise, wearing tinted glasses and a charcoal fedora that covered his familiar white head of hair.
But once inside the Gagosian Gallery, one of the most high-powered galleries in New York, he peeled off his coat, revealing a dark suit, burgundy tie and perfectly polished black shoes that made him look more like one of the art dealers he describes in his new novel.
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School principal had rule against laughter, parent says
from the NY Daily News
A Brooklyn principal is being yanked out of his school after he was found guilty of manhandling a student for the third time, Education Department officials said Thursday.
Jonathan Straughn, of Public School 276 in Canarsie, grabbed a boy and pulled his arm for laughing outside his office, according to a report.
When the boy's uncle objected and asked Straughn if there was a rule against laughing, the principal answered, "As a matter of fact, there is. Now I know why this kid is the way he is," according to the boy's grandmother, who was sitting nearby.
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(Photo by ComedyBeat/Eddie Vega) November 21, 2010 NEW YORK - Paul Costabile, 23, and his television production crew tape an episode of "Gorilla Late Night Comedy" in Times Square, where they have been shooting shows since August 2009. He told ComedyBeat about his experiences with New York City's permitting process: Each shoot on the streets of Times Square requires a permit from the Mayor's office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting in New York. "Luckily for us, we were able to figure out a way to get a certain permit that is free. I've gotten very familiar with the people at the permit office and they are usually nothing but nice and very easy to work with. Yet sometimes, if I'm dealing with someone who I haven't before, it can be a pain to even get the normal permit we usually do. People seemed confused at what we're actually trying to do, and often times tell us we can't do it. I've had to fight my way for a permit a few times explaining that this is something regular we've done for over a year now. Lucky for us, it's always worked out. [The Gorilla Late Night crew included director of photography Dan Erbeck, 24; cameramen Mark Fagnano, 23, Dom Chierico, 25, and Dean Urcioli, 19. Live music was provided by Matt Caminiti, 23, who played multiple instruments.] |
Cabaret Guideposts: news and notes from Peter Haas on what shows to see.
November 18, 2010
By Peter Haas, ComedyBeat
With club locations and reservation information for Janice Hall, Baby Jane Dexter, Marilyn Maye and others. Read more…
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Legal analysis: could critics of Ron Howard’s The Dilemma have gotten more by going to court?
November 15, 2010
By Carl Unegbu, ComedyBeat
NEW YORK - Talk about rough landing for a movie and the upcoming comedy The Dilemma easily moves to center court. The movie starring Hollywood actor Vince Vaughn is not set to hit theaters until January 14, 2011, but it has already run some red lights in the court of public opinion, thanks to the movie’s trailer. In the movie, Vaughn’s coarse character kicks the hornet’s nest by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, electric cars…are gay.” Then the widely reported events around the time of the trailer’s release only added fuel to the fire, from the New York college kid who jumped to his death after his friends posted a video of him having gay sex to the rash of anti-gays attacks in New York City.
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NEW YORK - Nov. 14, 2010. Comedian Robert Weiner, 42, who performs as "Cracka Don," recruits an audience for the Ha Comedy Club, located at 163 West 46th Street. “Each club compensates differently,” he explained about his marketing efforts. “Some clubs for comics to get stage time you have to promote their club by going into the street and barking, which means you have to go into the street in all types of weather yelling and screaming to bring traffic to the club, in order for you to get on stage for a few minutes, then you've got to go back into the street again to bark to bring in more people so you can get back on stage again.” (Photo by ComedyBeat/Eddie Vega)
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| Marilyn Pittman |
Turning to comedy, actor Marilyn Pittman overcame tragedy
November 11, 2010
By Emily Wilson, ComedyBeat
SAN FRANCISCO - “Comedy and laughter are a way through the pain,” said comedian Marilyn Pittman. “I feel like I have the authority to say that given what happened to me.”
Pittman is referring to her parents’ 1997 murder-suicide, which would certainly make you something of an expert on dealing with pain. After being married for 49 years, her parents divorced. Soon after, her father, a World War II veteran, got a gun and shot her mother and then himself.
More...Jon Stewart producer arrested for punching heckler in the face
November 10, 2010
From Gawker
In late September, Jon Stewart appeared at a Manhattan Barnes & Noble to promote his new book. A 9/11 Truther shouted some "9/11 truth" questions at him. Afterwards, a Daily Show executive producer punched that Truther in the face.
An interview with Ray Romano
November 9, 2010
From Reuters
Ray Romano has a stack of acting awards and a decent golf handicap. But for his TV show "Men of a Certain Age," playing a character who is worse at golf than Romano is, is where the real pressure lies, he says.
Adam Carolla: I'm Republican, But I'd Like Pot Legalized
November 5, 2010
From Popeater.com
Adam Carolla's new book, In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks, is -- we mean this -- laugh-out-loud funny. The former 'Loveline' and 'The Man Show' co-host writes about plenty of hot button topics, including immigration and gay marriage, and many other less serious topics like the size of ketchup packets. His invective-filled screed is often completely politically incorrect, and always completely hilarious.
Mike Weatherford: Comedy career tricky business
November 5, 2010
From Las Vegas Review Journal
Things have changed big time for some comedians since the Riviera Comedy Club opened in 1986. For others, not so much.
Jeff Dunham still has a check from the club's early days. "I did 21 shows for $738," says the ventriloquist who is playing the Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Dec. 4.
The Riviera was still a front-line property then, so the comedians had to stay at a rundown motel next door. "It was as trashy as trash could be. I was robbed there one time," Dunham recalls with a chuckle.
Unintentional Comedy from the Supreme Court Hearing on Video Games
November 3, 2010
From The Hollywood Reporter
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday heard Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Assn, which tests the limits of free speech insofar as its application to the regulation of violent video games.
The justices on the high court expanded the debate by considering the government's role in protecting minors from all sorts of "deviant" entertainment content, including movies, rap music, comic books and fairy tales.
By the tenor of the questioning, it appears that the court will not fall on traditional liberal-conservative voting blocs here. Some justices (Scalia, Sotomayor, Kagan) seemed skeptical of broad free speech intrusion. Other justices (Alito, Roberts, Breyer) appeared to lean towards trying to find a way to uphold the law.
Here's the full transcript.
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| New York Comedy Festival |
Comedy Festival brings its annual load of laughter to New York
November 1, 2010
By Carl Unegbu, ComedyBeat
NEW YORK - Festival season is here again and the Big Apple is ready for another full dose of comic fun as this year’s New York Comedy Festival gets underway on Wednesday, Nov. 3. The five-day fiesta which ends on Sunday November 7 is the seventh in the series which began in 2003, and will take place in different venues across the City, including Carolines on Broadway; Town Hall Theatre; Carnegie Hall; Beacon Theater; Lincoln Center; and the Hammerstein Ballroom.
Among the main highlights of the festival are the New York’s Funniest Standup Competition; Short Film showcases and the Andy Kaufman Awards for Alternative Comedy, a growing phenomenon in stand-up comedy. On the stand up circuit, the festival boasts an impressive line up that includes some of the huge stars in comedy today, including Joel Mchale, Rosie O’Donnell, Louis CK, Margaret Cho, Jeff Winger, and rising star Aziz Ansari.
But the festival is about more than just the known stars. Since it festival is well attended by agents, managers and producers who call the shots in the industry and hold the keys to the gate of success, the festival could also be a breakout moment for talented rookies as well as some really good comics who are not yet known.
Read more...Daily Show host Jon Stewart voted most influential man of 2010
October 28, 2010
from The Wall Street JournalJon Stewart Tops Influential Man List: Is Jon Stewart the most influential man in the world? In a poll conducted by AskMen.com, “The Daily Show” host took the number one spot, 20 slots ahead of President Barack Obama.
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| Cover of Bill O'Reilly comic book bio |
Fox News Host Bill O’Reilly given comic-book treatment
October 26, 2010
From the L.A. Times Blogroll
His enemies may say that Bill O'Reilly is already a cartoon character. But now the Fox News host is really heading to the comics.
Writer Jerome Maida and artist Aleksandar Bozic have collaborated on "Political Power: Bill O'Reilly," a $3.99 comic book that goes on sale in November.
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| Judge Vincenzo Sicari performed stand-up as Vince August |
Judge who moonlights as comedian is barred from stage, appeals outcome
October 23, 2010
From the New Jersey Law Journal
A judge walks into a bar and launches into a stand-up routine. The bartender asks, "Is this a joke?" The judge says, "Let me check with the Advisory Committee on Extrajudicial Activities."
That's not exactly how South Hackensack, N.J., Judge Vincenzo Sicari -- alias comic "Vince August" -- got into an ethics pickle. But he did make the inquiry, and the outcome wasn't so funny: The panel that regulates New Jersey municipal judges' moonlighting said he can't decide cases by day and do shtick by night.
Read more...
NBC's Outsourced: separating fact from comedy
October 22, 2010
From Computerworld
NBC's new sitcom Outsourced, which takes place at a call center in India, has riled audiences on both sides of the offshoring debate, from those who say the show stereotypes Indians to anti-offshoring activists who say it makes light of a serious issue. CIO.com got a sneak peek of the pilot episode and provides a "fact check" on what the show gets right and wrong about offshore call center work.
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| Marilyn Maye |
With song and banter Marilyn Maye energizes Chelsea’s Metropolitan Room
October 21, 2010
By Peter Haas, ComedyBeat
NEW YORK – The Metropolitan Room, in Chelsea, was surging with energy the other evening. It started, pre-show, from the air of expectancy as members of the audience, squeezed together at their tables and in the booths that ringed the room, scrunched together to make room for their friends. It built as the band entered and took their places on stage. And it peaked as the house lights went down, the entrance curtain parted, and Marilyn Maye made her way to the stage, to cheers. That was just the start of 100 minutes of joy,
It hurts only when I laugh: British comedy chain experiences growing pains
October 18, 2010From the Telegraph (United Kingdom)
Sometimes, comedy's no laughing matter: former merchant banker Mark Tughan is having sleepless nights about where he takes Glee Club, his growing chain of stand-up and music venues, next.
When Regent Inns made its ill-starred acquisition of the Jongleurs chain of stand-up comedy clubs a decade ago, Mark Tughan, founder of the rival Glee Club brand, looked on with a combination of fascination and horror.
The Birmingham club he had established in 1994 was going strong, and he had just opened a second site in Cardiff, but Regent's plans made the former merchant banker put any further expansion on ice.
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NPR bans employees from John Stewart comedy rally
October 15, 2010
by Eddie Vega, ComedyBeat
In an e-mail to staffers, the CEO of National Public Radio warned all employees, not just journalists, to avoid Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" and Stephen Colbert's "March to Keep Fear Alive." Both events, billed as opposing rallies, are scheduled for Oct. 30 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
More information available at Salon
Retired comedy writer turns to churning out funeral urns after savings wiped out
October 13, 20110
From The New York Times
Sybil Sage, a veteran television comedy writer (for “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Maude,” “Alice” and other gems from the written age), had been making objects with pique assiette — a French mosaic technique using broken plates — for years as a hobby, whacking china into shards to put on frames, vases and furniture for friends like Gene Wilder, Teri Garr, Lily Tomlin and Larry Merchant. She and her husband, Martin, who is also a comedy writer, had retired from television some years ago, and Ms. Sage said life was chugging along happily until 2008, when their savings were wiped out.
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| Lee Hurst |
“Stage Rage” Lee Hurst: Sticking Up for His Brethren
October 12, 2010
by Carl Unegbu, ComedyBeat
About two years ago, famed British comedian Lee Hurst had a huge meltdown on stage for a reason any comedian would understand: he was trying to protect his “material” from being stolen by others. Except that Hurst just didn’t care how far he had to go to do so, including facing criminal charges. As it happened, Hurst was performing at a pub in Guildford, England, when he spotted someone in the audience who he believed was filming his gig with a cell phone in order to “steal” his material. Hurst angrily stormed off the stage and plunged into the crowd where he grabbed the guy’s cell phone and smashed it up.