Law & Business
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.
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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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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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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| 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.
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.
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.