the comic's comic

Video: Melgicians Magician Tricks for Magicians

A tip of the cap to friendly funny blogger Max Silvestri for picking up on this new video offering from fellow friend in funny Kyle Cease (and as always, a co-starring mustachioed role for his comedy roommate, Bob Bledsoe). Here are some secret card trick tips! Also, very much NSFW. Enjoy!

Melgicians magician tricks for magicians

MTV Movie Awards likes Jewno so much it enters spoof in own contest

The folks at MTV liked the "Jewno" parody so much (starring Anya Garrett, with a stunning casting coup for her dad) that they invited it to compete for an actual MTV Movie Award. You can compete, too, if you have a three-minute PG-rated movie spoof up your online sleeves and can enter it at Funny or Die by May 11. The required reading info is here. Promo alert! (voting die doesn't change that)

Contest entries here!

Related: See and learn more about the original Jewno here.

Taxes not funny for Al Franken's campaign

Al Franken's senatorial campaign in Minnesota hit a setback yesterday when Franken announced he'd pay $70,000 in back taxes and penalties for reporting errors across 17 states. And that's just his best guess for the past few years. It's the latest in a string of business-related troubles for the satirist in his first major political foray.

Montreal rolls out initial fest schedule; final auditions for New Faces this weekend

The folks at Just For Laughs announced part of its 2008 slate for Montreal yesterday (proving once again, that a blogger cannot take a day off!)...

This year, Montreal introduces its first "industry conference" -- Just Comedy -- with Ivan and Jason Reitman talking father-son comedy shop on July 17, and Judd Apatow getting honored as "comedy person of the year" (year unspecified) on July 18.

The Galas (the biggest shows in size and scope) include hosts Craig Ferguson (July 18), Jimmy Fallon (July 19) and an "all-star" gala with Ron White, Paula Poundstone and Larry Miller (July 20).

Special events listed include: Stiles & Proops: Unplanned (July 15) featuring, well, whatever Ryan Stiles and Greg Proops feel like doing that night; South Park Live (July 16) with Matt Stone and Trey Parker; Omid Djalili (July 17); and Apatow For Destruction (July 18) featuring the aforementioned Apatow with cohorts Seth Rogen, Craig Robinson, Russell Brand and others.

Club shows, which often get grouped into themes, include The Nasty Show with hosts Nick DiPaolo and Patrice Oneal; The Ethnic Heroes of Comedy hosted by Frank Spadone with Steve Byrne, Gabriel Iglesias, Maz Jobrani and others; AMP'd, the Music Comedy Show with host Craig Robinson; Laugh-rodisiacs, the Relationship Show hosted by Greg Behrendt; the midnight Alternative Comedy Show hosted once again by Andy Kindler; the Best of the Uptown Comics which in Canadian means "urban" which means "black," hosted by Bruce Bruce with JB Smoove, Craig Robinson and others.

Tom Papa gets promoted from New Faces host in 2007 to the "Richard Jeni One-Person Show Series" with his show, "Only Human" (July 14-20).

Of course, the real treats for fans and the industry come in the New Faces showcases (to be hosted by Greg Giraldo and Dana Gould), and we won't know who makes it to Montreal until this weekend's final New York City auditions: May 1 at Comic Strip Live, May 2 at Stand-Up NY and May 3 at Broadway Comedy Club.

Snapshot: Seinfeld lends helping hand to City Green

Guests at last week's fund-raising benefit for City Green at Gotham Comedy Club didn't know that Jerry Seinfeld would be a last-minute addition to the bill. Laughter ensued. The connection? Tom Papa, Seinfeld's friend and often his opening act on the road, hosted the benefit for his sister's non-profit.
Photo by Ilana Darsky

Video: Barack Obama's secret weapon

The presidential hopes of Barack Obama seem to have slipped recently, at least if you believe the media. But Obama's campaign has a secret weapon: Campaign operative Daniel Phelps. Two of several things I love about this video, after the jump! And it's not a song parody from the 1980s. Take that, dirty tricksters.

236.com: Go Hillary!  We're Gonna Make It Happen!
Uploaded by twentythreesix

Video: Tim and Eric Not Live, tour prep

Tuesdays typically are Tim and Eric Nite Live days and nights on Super Deluxe, but the boys are on tour, so here they give us their first behind-the-scenes installment of Tim and Eric Not Live. It's exactly as groundbreaking as you might expect. And not suitable for work.

Set your TV: Rodney Dangerfield, "Nothin' Goes Right"

HBO Comedy features an early-morning treat at 5:25 a.m. Tuesday with the rebroadcast of Rodney Dangerfield's 1987 young comedians' special, "Nothin' Goes Right." What makes this special special? How about an early look at what would become Andrew "Dice" Clay, on the same lineup with Bill Hicks, Carol Leifer, Dom Irrera, Robert Schimmel and Lenny Clarke. Haven't seen this show in a year or so, but I can tell you already that Clarke's bit about terrorist hijackers might not wear its age so well. Let's give the whole episode a new look-see and reconvene here tomorrow.

Buzz positive for Mike Birbiglia's CBS sitcom pilot

The early words are all good surrounding Mike Birbiglia's sitcom for CBS. L.A. Weekly's Nikki Finke reported last week that the network suits were "very happy with how reading went" and thought the pilot looked strong, though that they'd like change the name of the show from its initial title, Mike Birbiglia's Secret Public Journal. Audience members at the pilot taping also weighed in with positive reviews, saying that Birbiglia filmed intro to the scenes, which include funny turns from Bob Odenkirk playing his brother (renamed Don), as well as parts for Nick Kroll and Rob Corddry. Hooray on all fronts. Network upfront presentations are only a couple of weeks away, so stay tuned.

Sneak peek video: Live at Gotham 3

The third season of Comedy Central's Live at Gotham doesn't kick off until June 6, but the network already has leaked a few clips online. Here is a minute with Anjelah Johnson in which she schools the boys who want to check out her bum.

Vanity Fair interviews Bob and David

While most people today probably will visit Vanity Fair online to get all pervy over Miley Cyrus, please allow me to redirect you to this VF online interview with Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, in which Bob and David rehash Mr. Show and then some, talking about dealing with obsessive fans, the networks, and how their new show, David's Situation (pilot taping May 9, with a cast including Matt Besser, Eric Hoffman and Mo Collins), will be unlike both Mr. Show and The Ben Stiller Show.

Reviews for Craig Ferguson at the White House Correspondents Dinner

Craig Ferguson delivered an affable monologue Saturday night at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Not quite the tour de farce of Stephen Colbert from two years ago, but affable enough, as anyone who watches Ferguson on his late-night CBS program will attest. He got a couple of zingers in, more at the expense of the media than of President Bush or Vice President Cheney, and included a couple of video clips that echoed previous TV bits (and could've been left out). The whole hourlong program is available online via CSPAN (on Real Media, no less...how old-school!), which if you watch it, you'll get to see ABC's Ann Compton admonish the dinner crowd for talking too loudly during the scholarship honors, and see if Bush conducts the Marine Band as well as he conducts a war (spoiler alert!).

Time said the whole night was lame. Mediabistro said Ferguson stole the show. The Baltimore Sun also liked Ferguson almost as much as the party photos. The Daily News paid more attention to the president. No NYT review, yet. Sorry, Craig!

Actually, CSPAN also has a YouTube channel, and here is the Ferguson portion of the program:

Internet videos about Internet already hack? Nostalgia humor trap ahead.

Oh, Super Deluxe. I love how you pay comedians for content. But sometimes, you keep their videos locked away for months and I forget to look for them. Other times, you end up with the most awkwardly appropriate video descriptions, such as Jonah Ray's "Master The Internet," which says: "Everybody's doing it! Why not you, also?" Yes. Everybody is doing this. Jonah Ray does it here, with points for achieving the throwback video look, negative bonus points for unnecessary World Trade Center joke.

This video sure reminds me of something. What could it possibly be? Oh. Right. Gabe & Max's Internet Thing plowed this territory last year, with more than 542,000 viewers on the YouTube since October. A few months later, Tim & Eric did pretty much the same thing with their "The Innernette" sketch on the TV.

Taken individually, each of these videos has its own charms. But three makes a trend, as the mainstream media loves to observe, and this trend reminds me of your basic nostalgia humor trap that stand-up comedians have used over the years for easy laughs. Nostalgia humor traps often include cartoons, commercials and games you remember from childhood. Remember that show? (This is the part where audiences instinctively laugh, even before there is a punchline.) Technology also has fallen prey to nostalgia humor traps as our gadgets get better and make older tech outdated, and therefore inherently funny. The most common one I hear refers to anyone still carrying a pager or beeper. So I'm onto you, Internet videos about the Internet that look like they're from the 1990s. But if I want to really laugh about how far the Internet has come since then, I'll just watch a real-life video about the Internet in 1995. Like this one.

Richard Lewis and Keith Olbermann, tonight at the 92Y

Passover ends tonight, and the 92Y's spring comedy series kicks off tonight with Richard Lewis in a conversation with Keith Olbermann. Coincidence? Probably. Here is a clip of Lewis and Olbermann talking on MSNBC on Valentine's Day. Coincidence? Less likely. Lewis also has a new memoir out called The Other Great Depression. Coincidence? Nope.

Get tickets to see Lewis and Olbermann tonight.
Buy his new book:

Laugh Factory now Times Square Comedy Club

An update from a previous report: The NYC branch of the Laugh Factory, under new management, now officially goes by the moniker Times Square Comedy Club. The new site boasts that it's "the world's largest comedy club" with four rooms, a 300-seat mainstage, 140- and 120-seat cabaret side stages and a 99-seat screening room. The site pops up as a sponsored link in most Google searches for "comedy," which might explain the location-based name change. Yet another evolutionary step for a Times Square venue, from strip club to Jamie Masada's Laugh Factory, to now a full-service family-oriented comedy business offering "clean" improv and magic shows in addition to nightly stand-up.

Video: Pope Fans

Sure, the Pope Benedict XVI got plenty of live TV coverage during his visit last week to New York City and Washington, D.C., but did they really talk to the true fans of the Pope? Don't think so. Oren Brimer tackles the case.

Pope Fans
Uploaded by orenbrimer

Oh, did I mention this is NSFW and also NSFanywhere Catholics live, breathe and believe?

Video: Hysterical Festival fundraiser footage

This video contains NSFW material, but you're not working on Friday, or over the weekend for that matter, are you? So sit back and enjoy footage from the recent Hysterical Festival fund-raiser, featuring Carolyn Castiglia, Rachel Feinstein, Mel and El, Ophira Eisenberg, Bridget Everett, Heather Lawless and Adira Amram. There's another show going on tonight if you hurry you can make it, if you don't, you won't.

Dude! Bud ad sounds like old Rob Schneider bit

While my computer decided to take most of Friday off, the folks at Gawker pieced together footage showing how Rob Schneider's bit explaining the multiple uses of the word "dude" during his Young Comedians special in 1989 has resurfaced almost two decades later and repurposed as a nationwide ad for Budweiser. Hence becoming the best publicity for Rob Schneider in years. Here's the link to the video.

Related: It seems like only a year ago that a Bud TV ad was being compared to a sketch from the Whitest Kids U' Know, because it was only a year ago.

Updated (4/27/2008)! The New York Times writes about the guys who wrote and sold the Bud ad.

Preview: Drew Hastings, Irked and Miffed

The description of this comedian as known for "his trademark black suit and horn-rimmed glasses" might make you think of another Midwestern stand-up named Drew, but Drew Hastings should not be confused for Drew Carey. Perhaps his hourlong special, Irked and Miffed, will help you understand the differences. It debuts at 11 p.m. Saturday on Comedy Central. Here's a sneak peek:

Comedy Central Insider also tracked Hastings down for a quick interview. In it, we learn that Dave Chappelle isn't the only stand-up living on a farm in rural Ohio. After the jump, another clip!

Added: Festivals and contests page

If you didn't already notice this, I've added a new page to the site today to give you an overview on comedy festivals, music festivals that feature comedy, and comedy competitions across North America (and Scotland, too!). The festivals (and contests) page is located along the right-hand column, and will be updated as needed. Of course, if I've missed something or if you have information to share on an upcoming comedy festival or contest, please let me know. Thanks!