the comic's comic

When they were young: Sarah Silverman on Community Auditions

If you saw Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, then you already know that Sarah Silverman appeared as one of Kimmel's guests, and it was their first time together on the TV since they had broken up and gotten back together. So they made some awkward panel chat to let us all in on the joke. Which led to a lot of discussion of Silverman's childhood interest in musical theater, playing Annie at 11 in New Hampshire, and her early TV performance on the Boston show, Community Auditions, in 1985. Yet another twist in this comedy duo's ongoing surprise video sessions. Relive that all here (you can also watch full episodes on ABC's video player):

Harry Shearer brings the merry band of pranksters to Tribeca

Harry Shearer and his band, The High Value Detainees, will perform their first New York City concert Saturday, Nov. 1, at the new 92YTribeca. Shearer gave new interviews to Gothamist and New York magazine. They both focus on the music and Shearer's politics.

But for my money, as a journalist in the comedy business, Shearer has provided some fascinatingly funny stuff with his access to raw footage from TV news feeds on My Damn Channel. Shearer's "Found Objects" series shows you how TV news anchors such as Katie Couric and Dan Rather have acted when they thought the cameras weren't rolling, as well as some titters courtesy of Mike Huckabee and Ann Coulter. His most recent effort, The Final Silent Debate, culling together the many moments in which Barack Obama and John McCain had to wait for their on-camera cues. Enjoy:

Looking for funny Halloween videos?

Yes, dear readers and lovers of laughter, tis the season to be Halloweening...so, what. You want to see something funny that's in costume or something?

Comedy.com has determined these are the 13 funniest Halloween videos on the Web. And three of them feature stand-up comedians: Patton Oswalt, Greg Behrendt and Larry David.

Or why don't you just visit Funny or Die today and check out the home page's "editorial picks." If you're visiting after Halloween, you'll have to take that extra step of typing "Halloween" into the search field. I know, I know. So much work for your typing fingers.

But if you're looking for a comedian talking about what it's like to be an adult on Halloween, well, the first bit that sprung to my mind was Lewis Black. Candy corn? This YouTube clip, which is all audio, btw, will refresh your memories...(and since it's Lewis Black, I must remind you that his language probably is not safe for work)

David Alan Grier begs: "Be cool, black people!"

With less than a week to go before Election Day, David Alan Grier used his platform as host of the new Comedy Central program, Chocolate News, to beg black people to be cool and not blow it for Barack Obama. It's a tricky thing, playing off ugly stereotypes whilst also mocking them. Does Grier pull it off here? Watch and weigh in:

Results, second semi: 2008 New York's Funniest Stand-Up

There was a tie! We don't know what that means, other than the fact that six more stand-up comedians made it into the finals of the 2008 New York's Funniest Stand-Up contest, instead of five, and they are:

D.C. Benny, Geno Bisconte, Hailey Boyle, Jordan Carlos, Myq Kaplan and Mike Vecchione

They join the other semi's "winners," Nate Bargatze, Esther Ku, Julian McCullough, Reese Waters, and Stone & Stone in the finals, to be contested Nov. 5 at Carolines as part of the New York Comedy Festival.

Video interview: Backstage with Jim Gaffigan, talking Town Hall, prepping his new hour special

Jim Gaffigan performed an hour unannounced Tuesday night in New York City, as he works out the final bits of what will be his new hourlong Comedy Central special when he tapes it in Austin during the first week of December. Oh, yes, there will be bacon. And other "edgy" topics, too, for Gaffigan to consider and mine for punchlines. I caught up with him afterward backstage in the Comix "green room" to talk about how he's using the weeknights to try out new jokes while touring theaters across the country on the weekends, about what it's like to play multiple nights in a city at a theater instead of a club (including six shows at Town Hall here in NYC over Thanksgiving weekend), and much more. Gaffigan told me he hadn't performed in the past four nights, as he'd just gotten back from a family trip to Disney World. You can watch some of our conversation right here, in intimate but spooky mirror vision, where my little Flip camera suddenly transforms into some odd-like little Big Brother, keeping an eye and red light on us.

More quotes, plus ticket info, after the jump...

How Russell Brand found himself leaving BBC radio

Perhaps you have heard something or other about British comedian Russell Brand leaving obscene prank voice mail messages for actor Andrew Sachs, who played the Spanish waiter Manuel in the classic Britcom Fawlty Towers? The incident (which also involved British TV host Jonathan Ross as a co-conspirator) has led to Brand having to quit his BBC Radio show. Brand still is set to perform and record an hourlong Comedy Central special in New York City next month. Almost seems like the guy likes to court trouble -- remember, Brand showed up to work at MTV in the U.K. dressed as Osama bin Laden on Sept. 12, 2001. If you want to know everything about Brand's latest kerfuffle, the BBC has compiled an impressively obsessively detailed timeline.

Related: Brand arrives in the U.S. this weekend, performing Nov. 2-3 at Largo in Los Angeles, Nov. 5-6 at Cobbs Comedy Club in San Francisco, and taping Nov. 13-14 at El Museo Del Barrio.

Russell resigns from Radio 2

In other news...

A roundup of comedy-related headlines and news in the news:

As Hulu.com approaches its first anniversary, the New York Times points out just how many people are watching some SNL bits. 14.3 million watched Tina Fey's first take on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin online vs. 10.2 million on TV. Wow. (NYT)

Sony has taken another stab at putting some new snap and pop into Crackle. Will that be enough to remind folks to watch it? (THR)

Caroline Hirsch, the Caroline in Carolines, talks about how the global recession impacts the night-to-night operations of the comedy club business. (Forbes) Hirsch also got honored last week by the National Coalition Against Censorship during its annual celebration of free speech.

Results, first semi: 2008 New York's Funniest Stand-Up

A reliable source informed me that these are your first five comedians advancing to the finals of the 2008 New York's Funniest Stand-Up contest:

Nate Bargatze, Esther Ku, Julian McCullough, Stone & Stone, Reese Waters

They'll join five others who advance from tonight's semifinal competition at Stand-Up NY. Finals Nov. 5 at Carolines. My notes from last night...

Did You Know: Rita Rocks on Lifetime

Perhaps it's because the last time my TV landed on the Lifetime channel was a decade ago, but I had forgotten that the network might get around to launching a new sitcom. That happened last week, as it turns out, with the debut of Rita Rocks, starring MADtv alum Nicole Sullivan. It is the net's first original sitcom in a decade. So I'll have to catch up with the new episodes and report back on that one...on that note, it airs at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT Tuesdays, and full episodes from last week's sneak peak barrage are online via the link. Here's Sullivan describing her new role:

Interview: Richard Belzer

It'd been a long day for both of us. Richard Belzer had spent his Thursday promoting his new book, a novel based on his own personal and professional lives, while I had been running around putting out figurative fires, so we only had a few minutes to speak. I wanted to know more about his rare stage act, Richard Belzer and the Belzonics, who come together again Saturday at Comix in New York City. Last time they played, Late Show with David Letterman band leader Paul Shaffer made a cameo to provide the introductions. So. What makes the Belzonics show different from your straight stand-up act?

"I do music. I do song parodies. And impressions. So the music's very much a part of my act. It's woven throughout," Belzer tells me.

Right now, Belzer and the Belzonics is a rare treat, as he and the guys only get together "a few times a year." But Belzer himself is itching to perform more often.

"I'm anxious to get back onstage more and more," Belzer says. "I miss the people. I miss the laughs, I miss the sweat. I miss the booze. I miss the broads."

Did your experience as a judge on this season of NBC's Last Comic Standing have anything to do with that desire to get back onstage? "It just happened to be coincidentally around the time I was doing that. I think I'd want to get back onstage regardless," he says.

Did you like being a judge? "I thought it was fun," he says. "It's nice to see some people out there doing good stuff. It reintroduced me to the stand-up world and what people find funny these days."

Butterfinger Comedy Showdown

Speaking of contests, today is the final day for online voting in the Butterfinger Comedy Showdown. Judges already picked five semifinalists (Andy Woodhull, Andrea Henry, Danny Browning, Ronnie K, and Elham Jazab) from among the entries performing stand-up comedy, the two semifinalists with the most online votes through Oct. 28 will get to face off live before the judges and an audience at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood. The winner receives an appearance at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, comedy career coaching and a year's worth of free Butterfinger bars.

The guy who wins online video ad contests

Earlier this year, a group of New York City comedians thought they had a chance to win $100,000 from Klondike for their ad spoof that put Ray Romano and Al Pacino in a thriller over Klondike bars. But they didn't know they were up against this guy: Joel Moss Levinson. Levinson has made a career for himself winning online video advertising contests. One of my college roommates freshman year boasted of his abilities to win prizes from the local radio station, but this guy Levinson has turned public-generated ad contests into a mockery of a sham of a mockery by how often he wins with his jingle jangles. The New York Times profiles Levinson today. (Which got him the Gawker treatment, too) He filmed part of his Klondike song in the Arctic from a trip he had won from another such contest, and has taken advantage of won trips to Australia, four months free in Best Western hotels, an iPod and cash to win even more. Levinson explains his contest winnings and videos here. It's fairly simple. He writes up a little ditty expressing his ode for the product and bugs everyone he knows to vote for him. No. It's really that simple. But he's made it his business. And he notes that he doesn't always win:

But what I’ve found is that I don’t just represent myself. I represent the strange, dormant, competitive dreams of all my friends and family. By not having a day job and pursuing these contests, I have become the embodiment of some strange, fantastic dream for the people I know. Or, more accurately, I’ve become their horse. I’m their hometown team. I’m their reason to tune in and watch the race.

Video! Jon Hamm's John Ham on SNL

In case you read my recap of last weekend's Saturday Night Live but hadn't yet seen the video, here is the absurd but truly hilarious sketch featuring host Jon Hamm from Mad Men, in a fake ad for Jon Hamm's John Ham: The ham you can eat in the bathroom. NBC has granted me this wish to share it with you. Enjoy!

Where are they now: Jeff Dye, Iliza Shlesinger

You saw that title and perhaps said to yourself, "Where are they now? More like, who are they again?" That's because it was only a few months ago that Iliza Shlesinger was winning NBC's Last Comic Standing and Jeff Dye was finishing in third place. Maybe you watched, maybe you didn't. Well, Dye sent out this video message to his fans over the weekend to let them know how he's dealing with it all.

Tickets for the LCS tour? Check availability after the jump...

Improviser Matt Donnelly leaving NYC for Vegas

If there's one part of the comedy scene that has not gotten enough due on this site, it has to be improv, which is extra-weird for anyone who really knows me, since I started my professional comedy career in improv in Seattle. Fortunately for New York City, Keith Huang covers the improv scene here quite well and photomographs it, too, at his site, improv is good for you*. Huang reports today in The Apiary that improv star and teacher Matt Donnelly will be heading out for Las Vegas, and gets many of Donnelly's NYC comrades to weigh in on what Donnelly has meant to the community. If you want to see him off with a bang and a laugh, Donnelly will perform at 11 p.m. tonight at The PIT with his teams Threat and Neutrino, and also Wednesday as part of the entire schedule.

Schtick or Treat: An NYC comedy Halloween tribute

Dozens of New York City stand-up comedians got together Saturday night in Long Island City to have a little fun, Halloween-style, by performing tribute sets of other, more famous comedians. A few comics didn't get the memo, apparently, but after a false start, Gilad Foss really set the bar high with his spot-on impersonation of a young Woody Allen (see it on DailyMotion, too).

It was the most fun I've seen out of this community since the last time so many of them had gathered at The Creek in early January for "50 First Jokes." And by this community, I mean I'm not sure how to classify this sub-group of the New York comedy scene. They're not the alt-alt comics. They're not underground comics. They're not the AA ball or junior circuit. So who are they? Do I even need to find a word to categorize them? How about this for an example, then: Tom McCaffrey did a take on Louis CK, while there was another comic Saturday night who impersonated McCaffrey. Co-hosts Matt Ruby (Rodney Dangerfield) and Mark Normand (Groucho Marx) led the proceedings, and Ruby posted his own recap. Other highlights: Jared Logan as Kevin Meaney, Mara Herron as Janeane Garofalo, Chelsea White as a female version of Mitch Hedberg, Mo Diggs as Carlos Mencia telling the bit he stole from Cosby, Becky Ciletti as Sarah Silverman, Jamie Lee doing Maria Bamford's voices in a bit we'd both seen Bamford do live just a week earlier, and there were inspired takes on Steven Wright, Gallagher (with mini sledge-o-matic and slice of watermelon), Larry the Cable Guy, Yakoff Smirnoff. The only thing I didn't much care for: The white comedians who chose to do racial and/or homophobic material from black comics, as if the setting suddenly made that OK. But back to highlights.

After the jump, you can see Adam Newman in a white suit doing part of Steve Martin's routine, followed by a video of Martin doing the original routine live for comparison's sake. Enjoy!

Ain't technology great?

At one of my first newspaper jobs, my editor liked to joke whenever something went awry: "Ain't technology great?" Of course, this was before our office had the Internet. Or email. Or even cell phones. I couldn't have launched The Comic's Comic without any of these advances. Online social networks keep me in the loop on upcoming shows, and also keep me connected to comedians around the world. A video camera that fits in my pocket lets me capture exclusive interviews and in a couple of clicks, share them with you. I can bring you comedy news as it happens, no matter where it happens, thanks to technology. So yeah, it is great. Now if only I could find a gizmo that paid all my bills...

Review: D.L. Hughley Breaks the News on CNN

Judging from my own Web stats, more people took the time Sunday night than Saturday to check out the debut of D.L. Hughley's new hourlong CNN talk show, D.L. Hughley Breaks the News. In fact, that's when I sat down to watch the full hour myself. And my initial ruling fits with my expectations expressed earlier. The monologue and the first scripted bits felt stilted, as if they were trying too hard (sorry, Donnell Rawlings, but nice try as Freddie Mack the pimp, and the CNN "truth squad" interruption was simply lame) and having Hughley deliver his monologue directly into the camera instead of to the audience lacked the same punch as his stand-up. That said, it was refreshing to hear a comedian acknowledge how the industry can be financially rewarding, as Hughley joked that Obama's plan to tax those who make more than $250,000 a year would hurt him, too! And after the first few segments, Hughley hit his stride in a series of one-on-one interviews with CNN's Ali Velshi, scientist Neil Tyson, the woman who beat Sarah Palin for Miss Alaska, and CNN correspondents from India, Russia and China. Also, that taped field piece to a Palin rally in North Carolina must be watched to be believed. So, CNN, stop trying so hard to force the funny, and just, as the sports reporters say, let Hughley be Hughley. Want to see some footage from the debut? Here you go...

UPDATED: Also reviewed the second week's episode here.

SNL #34.6 with Jon Hamm, Mad Men, Maya Rudolph, Coldplay and Amy Poehler's baby!

How important was Amy Poehler to the current success of Saturday Night Live? Poehler said she wouldn't leave the show until she gave birth, and even though she clearly was ready to have her baby already, the show continued this past week to operate under the assumption she'd be there -- so when Poehler gave birth to Archie Arnett on Saturday night (though not on the show!), SNL had to make last-minute changes, which shortchanged returning cast member Maya Rudolph and gave Coldplay four songs. Four songs?! Rudolph to get to sing about Poehler's baby during Weekend Update, though. That was a nice touch. I also got home last night just in time to see Jon Hamm's John Ham sketch, which was simple yet absurd enough to work. But I've gotten ahead of myself. Let's begin at the beginning, shall we? Recap! (For readers outside the U.S. who cannot watch videos on Hulu, you can see them on NBC's SNL site.)

The cold open found potential VP Joe Biden (Jason Sudeikis) and Pennsylvania Congressman Jack Murtha (Darrell Hammond) putting their feet in their mouths together at a campaign rally. I suppose this is SNL's attempt at being fair and balanced in their political parodies. Although I'm not sure how many people really followed Murtha's news about trying to honestly categorize Southwest Pennsylvanians (full disclosure: my cousins live there, so I paid close attention to it), nor even know what Murtha looks or sounds like, so Hammond's impersonation comes off more like Chris Matthews, who, coincidentally, is from the other side of the state. Anyhow. Sudeikis with fake Biden teeth says even crazier things. It's ok, but not gangbusters.

Jon Hamm's monologue marks another solidly sincere effort! Hamm notes how really, not that many people know about Mad Men even though it's critically acclaimed, so he tries to sell it to the masses. The second season finale is at 10 p.m. Sunday on AMC and you should watch it! Actually you should watch the other episodes first. But you know what I mean?

This was odd. The ad following Hamm's monologue looked so much like an SNL ad spoof, filmed on the Lower East Side, with a weird white guy getting into a rap battle, that seeing it was a Holiday Inn Express ad made me go, wow. Nice job, Holiday Inn Express. Ad hits target. Shazam! (The Burger King shroom and swiss ad, though, just reminded me that those guys sing like Tenacious D, but less rock; Role Models, meanwhile, looks like it could be funny) Hold on. Off tangent. Back on track...