the comic's comic

Kumail Nanjiani reflects on a busy year that made him an obvious choice for Comedy Central's Hot List

When Comedy Central announced its special "Hot List" showcase of new talented comedians, I could not say the list surprised me. Many of these people got multiple mentions here at The Comic's Comic in the past year, and when I thought about Kumail Nanjiani's achievements in the past year, even I was duly impressed with what he's been able to accomplish since moving to New York City from Chicago. So I talked to him briefly outside of Comix during the club's holiday party this week (holiday parties already!) and asked him to put it into some perspective -- Letterman, Kimmel, Live at Gotham, Michael and Michael Have Issues, The Colbert Report, and a development deal with NBC. Where does he go from here? Roll the clip! (Warning: Includes improvised absurdity from Eugene Mirman, who actually fits into Kumail's NYC story, as well as a joke at John Mayer's expense, and a cameo by Nanjiani's newlywed wife, Emily) Roll it!

Of course, Nanjiani isn't the only one on Comedy Central's Hot List special, which airs on Sunday, Dec. 6. Here's a clip featuring all nine -- Anthony Jeselnik, Aziz Ansari, Nick Kroll, Matt Braunger, Jon Lajoie, Whitney Cummings, TJ Miller, Donald Glover and Nanjiani -- describing why they made the cut. Roll it!

Did Judd Apatow answer your question on the Internets?

Funny or Die hosted a live chatty session with one of its masterminds, Judd Apatow, last week. Did you take part in it? Did you get Apatow to read your question out loud? Hooray. Even if you didn't, or if you just want to relive it all again, but this time in under five minutes, then you, my friend, are in luck. Because FoD just produced an edited version of Apatow's chat session. Among the highlights, yes, of course you'll get the soft sell on the Funny People DVD release, but also you'll learn: Is Bill Hader working on a horror movie with Apatow? Will Aziz Ansari star in a Funny People spin-off focusing on his alter-ego stand-up character, Raaaaaaaandy? SPOILER ALERT! Click and find out.

Judd Apatow Funny People Live Chat from Judd Apatow

Inside NBC's "Parks and Recreation" with the cast & crew at The Paley Center

One of my first stops on my Hollywood misadventure was to The Paley Center for Media's Beverly Hills branch for a behind-the-scenes discussion with the cast and crew of NBC's Parks and Recreation -- a sitcom that I feel has found a funnier level in its second season following its unusual debut launch in the spring. But we can let the people involved with the show explain that.

Seemed as though many of the audience members in attendance worked for nearby local governments and wanted to let the cast and crew know how "spot-on" they were in nailing life inside Town Hall. Here is a guy who looks like Nick Offerman posing with the actor. I could have told them this as well, having covered various local governments in Idaho and Washington state as a newspaper reporter -- and sakes alive, bubba jive, you have not lived until you've discovered the soap opera mini-dramas of a water and sewer district. Let me tell you. Or not. Let's focus, people! Pawnee, Indiana, you're on the air, fictional city.

Greg Daniels said they had to pick a fictional town. His other NBC sitcom, The Office, may be set in a real place (Scranton, Penn.), but the town is not the driving force of the plot; it's the people in the office. In Parks and Rec, however, the town is the focus. And if they make fun of the mayor being caught up in a scandal, that would be a real person they'd be joking about. So when you go to pawneeindiana.com, you'll be living a second life in another world. But you know that in Internets speak, governments are .gov.

What else did we learn? Well, we saw that this week's episode, "Hunting Trip," takes a dramatic turn when SPOILER ALERTS.

Also...

Parks and Recreation's special Halloween PSA, for the kids

Did you catch last night's episode of Parks and Recreation on NBC? Twas their Halloween-themed show, although, really, it seemed to be just as much about "Cabbage Night" (at least that's what we called the night before Halloween in our sleepy little town in Connecticut), in which kids go out and prank their neighbors with toilet paper and eggs and such. Another nicely understated job by Louis CK as the Pawnee, Ind., policeman who's dating Amy Poehler's parks department character. But what you didn't see on TV was this very special PSA, featuring Poehler, Aziz Ansari and Aubrey Plaza, telling kids to watch out for metaphorical bad apples when they're trick-or-treating! In our town, we had a guy who actually did hand out apples, and not only did he not decorate his house, but he also did, in fact, answer the door in a bathrobe. No. I did not eat the apple. I'm not that crazy! Roll the clip!

Too soon, prescient or both? Human Giant called in the balloon cops for their MTV sketch show!

The story of the day was the Heene family in Colorado that launched a weather balloon, with 6-year-old Falcon possibly inside (but definitely not by the time the balloon landed about 90 miles later). They posed in front of a contraption and appeared on ABC's Wife Swap, with the TV program saying they were building a "flying saucer to send into the eye of the storm," and that the episode was "destined to become a classic!" The kid's name was Falcon? And Falcon and his brothers were in a music video?! Called "Pussified"?!?! Well. Yeah. Um. Clearly a wild, odd story, no matter how it turns out. Comedians were showing all sorts of emotions and takes on the saga as it was unfolding. Shock. Awe. Snark. Cynicism. Disbelief.

Amid all of this, Aziz Ansari reminded us all that Human Giant taped a sketch for their MTV series that nailed it. Sort of. Witness the balloon cops of "Hot Air Balloon Patrol." Too soon? Prescient? Both? You tell me. Roll it:

Aziz Ansari on Kanye West and a post-Raaaaaaaandy world

Aziz Ansari returned to New York City this week to promote the second season of NBC's Parks and Recreation, and also dropped back into the comedy scene for a few shows. One of his stops was "Whiplash," the Monday late-night stand-up showcase that replaced Ansari's "Crash Test" at the UCB Theatre when he moved out to Los Angeles.

This is a funny moment that photographer Mindy Tucker captured when Ansari invited four guys from the front row onstage to try to recreate their synchronized fist/clap reaction to one of his punchlines. See more of Tucker's work at With Reservation. Ansari was working on new material, but he also asked the UCB audience (and did this elsewhere) for requests. Turns out they wanted to hear a bit from his Funny People alter-ego, Randy. He skipped over that, but did indulge fans at multiple shows with stories about Kanye West. Ansari already has told one story in his headlining act about going to West's home for an afterparty, catching West rock out to his own music and perform an impromptu stand-up set for West and his friends. More timely, however, was Ansari's revelation that he tried to reach out to West twice after his talked-about MTV Video Music Awards incident. Ansari said he emailed West and "didn't hear anything back." Then, when Ansari watched the mash-up video of West with Congressman Joe Wilson's "You Lie" on YouTube, he said he texted West to say "this is the greatest video ever!" Only later did he find out that his text probably reached West about the time that Jay Leno was reducing him to tears on TV. Oops. "I didn't hear anything back," Ansari said. After Monday's show, Ansari told me that he hasn't had to deal with too many people wanting to hear from Raaaaaaaandy. If he does make that movie with Judd Apatow, though, look out. In more important news (to me, because I missed it), Padma Lakshmi was at Ansari's comedy show on Tuesday (Punch Up Your Life?).

Related: NPR interviewed Aziz Ansari this week. Nice headline?!

And here is his brief appearance on Today:

Recently on The Laugh Track and in comedy news

We've got ourselves a big Monday here, which means it's time to catch up on what's been happening in comedy and see if we missed anything. First up, what funny things from comedians have I posted recently over on The Laugh Track?

• Matt McCarthy and Pete Holmes star in an infomercial to end all infomercials.
• Did you know that The Comedy Store in Hollywood fielded its own basketball team in 1978, and that David Letterman, JJ Walker, John Witherspoon, Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen played on it. Want to see what that looked like? Is that why they went on strike, again?
• Frank Caliendo is about to start a 10-year contract performing four nights a week at the Monte Carlo resort and casino in Las Vegas (hey, that's where I stayed last November during the comedy festival!), but first, he swung by ESPN's Mike and Mike in the morning and breezed through a bunch of his voices.
• Lisa Lampanelli got engaged (to a white guy!), while Chelsea Handler reportedly broke up with her boyfriend (who's also her boss). Yikes and double yikes!
• Sunda Croonquist got a lot of "free" publicity by having her mother-in-law sue her over her jokes, while Eddie Izzard is earning his media attention by running more than a marathon a day around the United Kingdom. Watch clips from both!

But that's not all. There was also some comedy in the news. Such as, for instance, this, that and the other thing:

• Lewis Black is filming a new stand-up comedy special for a network that's not on the air yet. The network, Epix, is debuting this fall, but you'll have to check with your cable or satellite provider to see if you'll get it.
• The toughest comedy ticket in L.A. is going to be the UCB, seeing as the Los Angeles Times just wrote a big profile of the UCB Theatre and how it's helping comedians such as Harris Wittels. Also featured: Aziz Ansari, Paul Rust, Ben Schwartz, Wyatt Cenac and Aubrey Plaza.
• Today is the deadline to apply for The PIT's second annual NBC Diversity Workshop, as well as The PIT's SketchProv 2009.
• TIME magazine interviewed David Cross about his new book, but really seemed more interested in trying to get a scoop about an Arrested Development movie. In related news, they had an article last week about comedians trying to make Obama jokes. The weird thing about that story is that the author, Richard Zoglin (who just wrote a book about stand-up in the 1970s), wants us to believe that political comedy disappeared in the 1980s and only came back on the scene thanks to George W. Bush. Did he forget about Bill Clinton? Or Dan Quayle? Really?!?

Aziz Ansari's "Raaaaaaaandy" documentary (part 3)

Ready to see what happens when Raaaaaaaandy, Aziz Ansari's caricature of a stand-up comedian for Judd Apatow's Funny People, gets serious? Here's the third part of the behind-the-scenes documentary, in which Ansari's movie comedian films a TV pilot, learns about tragedies and also goes on some sexual discoveries with porn star Jenna Haze.

Raaaaaaaandy - Part 3 (Funny People) from Aziz Ansari

Judd Apatow, Comedy Central team up for great behind-the-scenes looks inside "Funny People"

If the initial trailers for Funny People, the third film written and directed by Judd Apatow, looked a little bit too melodramatic to be a comedy, then, well, that's because it is just that. As Apatow explains in the hourlong documentary, Inside Funny People (which debuted at midnight on Comedy Central, with repeats planned for noon Tuesday and 3 a.m. Thursday): “It's hard to make a comedy that’s really more a drama than a comedy. I don’t know if I can do it.” But do it he did.

The wealth of background material on the "funny people" who inhabit the film already has proven to be quite remarkable in promoting the movie and showing that it is about comedians. Apatow's documentary featurettes also reveal just how much of himself he poured into the film, as well as how much of a comedy nerd he was and still is. Case in point: Apatow says the following early in his Comedy Central documentary about the need to get all of his actors back onstage in comedy clubs...

“There’s a feeling you get when you do stand-up, that you just need to experience to know what it’s about. It’s the terror of revealing yourself, and the feeling that if I don’t get a laugh this time, I must get it next time or I will not be able to sleep at night.”

In the special (sure to be on the DVD, which at this point may have to be a box set!), Apatow shows us how he incorporated video he shot of Sandler back when the two shared an apartment in Los Angeles right after both had left college, and used it as a plot device in the film (with Sandler's character making actual prank phone calls, just as he had as a 21-year-old). It's a meta move, but seeing it documented on film is also very endearing. Apatow also shows clips of Sandler performing at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, Calif., 18 years ago, and then again last year as Sandler shook off the stand-up rust to get into character. You see clips of both Sandler and Apatow on A&E's at the Improv with Budd Friedman, then also Sandler at a lunch roundtable in the Improv last year with Friedman, Paul Reiser, George Wallace, Carol Leifer, Monty Hoffman and Mark Schiff (comics Apatow said he and Sandler looked up to when they were trying to get stage time). There's footage of Seth Rogen performing stand-up at the tender age of 13 (different from the clip of 13-year-old Seth Rogen I posted back in April), as well as joke-writing sessions that included help from Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn and Allen Covert, and footage from several of the stand-up performances -- much of which I'm sure will also pop up in a separate Comedy Central special this Friday, Funny People: Live.

Part two of "Raaaaaaaandy" illuminates the stand-up comedy scene

The Aziz Ansari documentary/promotional run continues for Funny People, and in this second installment, we see how Raaaaaaaandy watches himself for clues and takes ample notes. This is how both Dat Phan and Orny Adams became huge, right? There's also a chance to see how he takes advantage of the comedians touring with him, which conjures up a few other legendary stand-ups. As I mentioned before, the sad/funny thing will be to see whether "Raaaaaaaandy" becomes as popular or more so than Aziz.

Raaaaaaaandy - Part 2 (Funny People) from Aziz Ansari

Aziz Ansari's "Raaaaaaaandy" documentary

This is the first part of a documentary Aziz Ansari and Jason Woliner have prepared for Ansari's character in Judd Apatow's movie, Funny People. So, Aziz, what happens when Raaaaaaaandy becomes more popular than you? (Note: Video is NSFW)

Raaaaaaaandy - Part 1 (Funny People) from Aziz Ansari

Aziz Ansari is RAAAAAAAANDY!

We're only halfway through 2009, but already, methinks we can award the Oscar for Best Misdirection Campaign by a Movie to Funny People, because while everything we've seen about the actual movie suggests that it is a melodrama about what happens when a famous stand-up comedian faces the prospect of dying (both literally and figuratively), all of the accompanying publicity for the movie is outlandishly slapstick and in-your-face funny. Such is the case, again, with the site Laugh Your Dick Off, which is the home for one of the movie's characters, played by Aziz Ansari. In the movie, his "Raaaaaaaandy" persona has an onstage DJ sidekick and an aggressive attitude. Note to Internet programmers: Videos that automatically start when you put them on any page? Not cool. That's one of the ways you brought down MySpace. Way to go. (If you want to see Raaaaaaaandy in action, video after the jump)

Coincidentally, Ansari is recording his own hourlong DVD special tonight in Los Angeles, and will include a Raaaaaaaandy set for the extras.

Can you guess how many brands and pop-culture references Aziz Ansari name-dropped in eight minutes on Jimmy Kimmel Live?

No, really. How many pop-culture names and brands did Aziz Ansari name-drop during his eight-minute chat on Jimmy Kimmel Live? Make your guess, then watch and see how close you came:

Crank sequel gets the Twitflix treatment

While you were sleeping, partying or doing whatever it is that you did last night (you know what you did), the guys from Human Giant, plus Scott Agee and Comedy Death-Ray's Scott Aukerman, went to a midnight screening of the Crank sequel, sat in the back row and did a liveTweet of it on their Twitter feeds, combined for posterity via Twitflix hashtag. See the Twitflix Crank discussion here if you're OK with spoiler alerts. Weirdly, the gang at Ain't It Cool News got miffed about the whole thing, as Aziz Ansari recounts in this post. I agree with Ansari's position on this one, because while it might not be cool to text and Twitter about during any performance, there are some things so silly that warrant special treatment. This also reminds me how far our tech-sharing skills have come in just the few years since Snakes on a Plane (see: my minute-by-minute blog rundown of Snakes on a Plane). So, to recap, you should not text, Tweet, surreptitiously photograph or record a movie or a live comedy performance, unless you have the permission of the performers or if the entire thing is so silly that everyone agrees it should be documented for posterity.

Porn stars in mainstream comedies

That saying about things happening in threes has gotten a bit of an X-rated revamp over the weekend, as a threesome of images popped up on my Internets involving porn star actresses in mainstream comedies. To be sure, a few of the men and women who have had sex in pornographic films (or even simulated intercourse in softcore Skinemax flicks) already have managed to graduate and upgrade their careers to network, basic cable and Hollywood big studio movies. Traci Lords and Ron Jeremy come to mind first, so to speak. HBO's Entourage has cast a bevy of porn beauties in previous seasons. Boogie Nights was about the porn world of the late 1970s, and as such, included some adult stars, but that played it heavy (despite some comical scenes).

This is different. Starting with 2007's Superbad, and continuing with last year's Zack and Miri Make a Porno, we're seeing more broad comedies with roles for porn actresses. And now there's news of another new big-budget comedy movie about porn, this time starring Christina Ricci. It's called "Born to be a Star," with Adam Sandler as a co-writer, and Nick Swardson as a co-producer, about a small-town nerd from the Midwest who discovers his parents were 1970s porn stars and decides to go to Hollywood to get into the family business. But who will play the nerd? Swardson? Perhaps Ricci's fiance, and Swardson's buddy, Owen Benjamin?!?

I guess I should not be too surprised, considering how the pornography world often has turned to stand-up comedians to host their annual awards show in Vegas, and how often I saw the porn stars of Scottsdale (Jenna Jameson and her girls) enjoying live stand-up comedy at the Tempe Improv when I lived in Arizona.

But back to my trilogy of porn comedy news items. Jenna Haze, who had a cameo in Superbad, filmed a documentary DVD featurette with Aziz Ansari about his "Randy" character for the upcoming Judd Apatow film, Funny People. So there's that to look forward to.

The HBO/Funny or Die miniseries with Rob Riggle and Paul Scheer, Designated Driver, apparently includes a role for Angelina Armani.

And here is the first official movie trailer for How to Make Love to a Woman, which stars Krysten Ritter, Josh Meyers (MADtv, brother of SNL's Seth) and Ian Somerhalder, but also features comedians Kirk Fox, MADtv's Ike Barinholtz and Apatowite Ken Jeong, as well as porn queen Jenna Jameson.

Premium Blend on Hulu: When they were younger

This is pretty much for my American readers (and those of you outside the States who have figured out how to watch clips on Hulu.com). My Hulu visits tend to be more targeted -- I know what's on there and what I want to catch up on -- rather than exploratory missions of curious wonder. That said, one of my friends tipped me off to this new addition to Hulu's online archives: Full seasons of Comedy Central's Premium Blend. Premium Blend was the bigger, louder, hyperactive precursor to Live At Gotham. Look at how the audience and claps as if they're in a Benny Hill sketch. So far, just seasons five, seven and nine are up, for 36 episodes spotlighting 144 up-and-coming stand-up comedians, some of whom have since made leaps and strides, while others have yet to become household names. It's fun to see some of the pairings here, find glimpses of people I know now but didn't back then, as well as comics I was friends with years ago.

Season 5 also is intriguing because it filmed pre-Sept. 11 but began airing Oct. 5, 2001. Remember that weird time for comedy, when society and the mainstream media asked if it was OK to be ironic and sarcastic? It's also a time that gave us early looks at Judah Friedlander, Laurie Kilmartin, Eugene Mirman and Patrice Oneal, all in one half-hour!

From Season 9, here is another lineup that's notable for putting Aziz Ansari (NBC's new Parks and Recreation) together with Boston stand-up vet Frank Santorelli, Austin's Brendon Walsh (who now sports wilder hair and stand-up), and Jo Koy. This aired in February 2006.

Who's that girl? Kate Micucci on "Scrubs"

Comedian/musician Kate Micucci sang her way onto Scrubs last night as a ukulele girl who stole the heart of Ted, the hospital's lawyer and resident a cappella group leader. The former finalist for the Andy Kaufman Award recently talked to her hometown paper in Pennsylvania about her career. You can also watch the episode "My Lawyer's in Love," here. Oh, and here is the original NSFW version of the duet Micucci's "Gooch" sang with Sam Lloyd's "Ted" (on the show, Gooch says "screw you," but singing it with actress Riki Lindhome, the song was originally titled "F**k you," hence the NSFW warning).

But you want to see and hear more from Micucci, don't you? Alrighty then. Watch and listen as Kate Micucci performs "Dear Deer." Enjoy:

In related news, comedian Aziz Ansari's intern character got "fired" during that same episode, "My Lawyer's in Love." But don't worry about Ansari. As he noted on his own blog, he's already busy working on episodes of the upcoming Parks & Recreation sitcom that debuts in April on NBC.

First clip of Amy Poehler in NBC's Parks and Recreation

Last night during the hourlong post-Super Bowl episode of The Office, NBC finally unveiled a name and a 30-second clip for its Office-spinoff that stars Amy Poehler, Aziz Ansari and Rashida Jones. It's called Parks and Recreation, and it's coming to NBC on Thursdays this spring, debuting at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on April 9. Watch:

Attend live filming of "Funny People" stand-up comedy

Would you like to see part of Judd Apatow's upcoming film, Funny People, as it's being filmed, and also enjoy some stand-up comedy and support a good cause in doing so? If you said yes to this, and you also happen to be in Los Angeles on Jan. 13, 2009, then you are in luck. Apatow will host a special stand-up concert that night at The Orpheum Theatre in L.A., with some of the actors (Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Aziz Ansari) performing stand-up as their film characters, other comedians such as Patton Oswalt appearing as themselves, plus other surprise special guests.

The Universal Pictures film, coming to cinemas on July 31, 2009, also features Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jason Schwartzman, RZA and Aubrey Plaza.

Tickets for "A Night of Funny People" go on sale at noon Pacific today (3 p.m. Eastern) through Ticketmaster. Proceeds will benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and 826LA, a non-profit supporting students 6-18 with their writing skills.

New sitcom reviews, Fall TV 2008: Worst Week

So, it's mid-October, and you're wondering, is it not a little late to begin reviewing the new fall crop of TV sitcoms? No. It is not. In fact, most TV critics weigh in too early, often with just a pilot episode to go on, sometimes with a second episode, but usually hardly without time to see if the producers, writers and cast have been able to expand upon a premise or build a storyline worth laughing at and following from week to week. Most people wouldn't have given Seinfeld much of a chance with its pilot, and conventional wisdom now hails that sitcom as one of the best ever. Cheers took a while to find its audience, but NBC stuck with it and it paid dividends for all involved. Of course, the mainstream thinking now holds that the sitcom is dead and/or dying, that networks cannot take chances on sitcoms, and that your best laughs are coming in hourlong "dramedies" or dramas that are really comedies in disguise (see: House, Bones, Chuck, Life, Pushing Daisies, Ugly Betty, and so on and so forth). But that's not stopping folks from trying to launch new sitcoms, so let's see how they're doing after four weeks. First up: Worst Week.

Sitcom: Worst Week (CBS) 9:30 p.m. ET/PT Mondays
Premise: Sam Briggs (Kyle Bornheimer), an entertainment magazine editor, has gotten his girlfriend Melanie Clayton (Erinn Hayes) pregnant and they're getting married, but first they have to get her parents to like him. Which is tough when they decide to break the news when her family gets together for her father's (Kurtwood Smith) 65th birthday. And everything that can go wrong does. Does this sound like Meet the Parents? Of course. But the show is based upon a British TV comedy.

Early impression: Whereas a drama such as 24 can revolve an entire season around one limited timeframe plotline (and even that has proven difficult some seasons), comedies haven't had such luck borrowing that structure (don't see: ABC's Big Day in 2006, NBC's Watching Ellie in 2002). But this show could get past the initial "worst week" in question because it's really tackling an age-old sitcom idea of having problems with your in-laws.

Can you judge a show by its pilot: Let's hope not. Who would be that stupid to shower in a drunk girl's apartment without making sure there are towels, then get kicked out of said apartment without your clothes or belongings, then decide rather than get your stuff back, hail a taxi to your potential in-laws, have them pay, then pee on the family dinner. Oh, right. It's a network sitcom pilot. No wonder this family doesn't like this guy. There's no redeeming aspects to the guy. You sigh at his antics instead of laughing with/at him. Why does Mel even love Sam?

Comedy pedigree: Hayes co-starred in Rob Corddry's 2007 short-lived FOX sitcom The Winner (and in Corddry's new WB online project Childrens' Hospital), and Smith already has comedic dad foil down pat from 200 episodes of it on FOX's That 70s Show. Fortunately, the show also has populated its first four episodes with a great cast of supporting characters and bit players. Aziz Ansari appears in the pilot as a funeral home worker. Jessica St. Clair shows up in episode two as the girlfriend's married-with-children sister. Dr. Ken Jeong owns a bird shop. In episode three, we see Nick Kroll appear as Sam's friend, Adam, while UCB original member Matt Walsh plays a kid's character called "Peace Mon." And in episode four, Chicago stand-up comedian Hayes MacArthur arrives as St. Clair's husband (aka the good son-in-law), Loni Love is a nurse, and Brian Huskey plays the main couple's ob-gyn. It's a bit of curiously coincidental casting (or is it intentional?!) to have a few regulars from VH1's Best Week Ever lighten up this Worst Week.

The verdict?