the comic's comic

Ryan Stiles weighs in on Charlie Sheen's performance on Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza, airing soon on GSN

We knew back in January that Charlie Sheen had joined in the fun during a taping of Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza for GSN in Las Vegas.

Right after it happened, Carey himself mentioned it on Twitter, letting everybody know about it: "Charlie Sheen just got on stage with us during our improv show at MGM in Vegas. Hilarious!"

Carey then followed that up hours later with another comment:

This was barely 10 days before Sheen's partying landed him in the hospital, thereby setting this highly over-publicized trainwreck into motion that put a temporary and perhaps permanent halt to the top-ranked CBS sitcom (and top-ranked show in syndicated reruns, too), Two and a Half Men.

And now Sheen is billing himself as a live comedy act, going on a limited tour and even selling out venues as large as New York City's Radio City Music Hall.

But back to that night in January.

One of the other comedians improvising onstage with Sheen was his castmate on Two and a Half Men, Ryan Stiles. Stiles plays the "half man's" stepfather, Dr. Herb Melnick, and has been a recurring character since the sitcom's second season. During a conference call this afternoon, Stiles weighed in on Sheen's improv performance, which will air April 12, 2011, in the premiere week of Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza on GSN.

Stiles said: "It was great. We weren't even sure if he was going to come up. He was sitting in the audience. But we asked him to do a scene. Usually when we ask actors like that, they're like, 'Oh, I don't think so." Sheen was game, though. And Stiles said he enjoyed the whole taping.

"You could hear him in the crowd. He laughed at everything. Even the stuff that wasn't funny."

As for Sheen as a comedic improviser? Stiles quipped:

"I think he carried himself well. And I'm not saying that because I have to go back to Two and a Half Men, because I don't."

The cast of Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza includes: Carey, Heather Anne Campbell, Jeff Davis, Chip Esten, Kathy Kinney, Jonathan Mangum, Sean Masterson, Mochrie, Proops, Brad Sherwood and Stiles, with special guest appearances by Wayne Brady.

 

Brent Weinbach wins over "Lopez Tonight" audience with self-deprecation, slang and song

If you were to tell me that Brent Weinbach was performing last night on Lopez Tonight, I might have worried about the young man.

After all, Weinbach, a past winner of the Andy Kaufman Award, is quite an eclectic performer. The whooping loud crowd in George Lopez's audience might not get him. But Weinbach also is a talented enough stand-up to know that, and he served up a set that hit right from the start by tapping into his past as a substitute teacher in Oakland, Calif., another bit about gangstas, used the word "shnip" to replace a profanity, and even sang Doritos ingredients as Catholic Mass. Well done, sir. Well done.

Roll the clip!

 

Mo Mandel performs on Conan

In his first appearance on Conan, comedian Mo Mandel lets us know he's a Jewish American with an Indian name, and that his way of going Hollywood is different from most, as is his way of touring through Europe. Spoiler alert: At the end Conan leans into Mo's ear and says, "Great job! That's hilarious!"

Roll the clip!

 

Interview: Glennis McMurray talks about founding G.L.O.C. and celebrating women in comedy

Women in comedy. Let's talk about it. Better yet, let's celebrate it. That's what Glennis McMurray has been doing for the past few months since founding a website called G.L.O.C., as in Gorgeous Ladies Of Comedy, which just moved to a new online address today at TheGLOC.net and celebrates its launch officially tonight with a live show at the 92Y Tribeca in New York City.

I spoke with McMurray about her new project.

Congrats on the site. So, besides GLOC, what else have you been up to since I Eat Pandas? "I did my solo show, I wrote a solo show that I did at the festival in Charleston. and then I've been working on GLOC since last novemeber, and working on the launch party for the past month. I'm still doing Baby Wants Candy on Saturdays, but this is my biggest time suck."

Is there an intentional reference with GLOC to GLOW, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, or is that subtle, or completely unintentional? "It was kind of the inspiration. Just because I liked the acronym, and GLOC was a fun word to say and I liked it. I have a lot of respect for those ladies, and I'm sure a lot of them are hilarious as well, but there's no wrrestling in our future."

I've read your About page for GLOC, but was there a specific moment, show or incident that made you say, oh I definitely need to launch a website for this? "You know, I talk about like Matt (McCarthy), you know my fiancee, seing some guy, he'd had had a shitty performance, which was out of character for him, and this guy came up after him and blew the roof off...but Matt was really supportive of him afterward. That just kept sitting in the back of my mind. It wasn't anything necessarily mean, but the sentiment in the comedy scene around women is often negative. Like, they got this, well fuck them. I've often been inspired by the women around me...and I like hearing how women get their comedic sensibilities and impulses. I started my first intreview with Broad City, and I felt that was a great example of where women should be heading."

Were you familiar with what Chicks and Giggles had done previously? "Yeah, absolutely. It was a shame that that ended. I hope to pick up where they left off."

Were there specific women you felt needed to be recognized and celebrated, or by starting GLOC, are you making the argument that all women in comedy need to be recognized and celebrated? "I think it is an arguemnt that all women need to be recognized more. I feel like a lot of times women feel thery competing in this boys club, and they're also competing against other women for roles within it. One of these women I saw was Mamrie Hart, and she's amazing, and I thought, how is she not on my radar? I just wanted to showcase women who were not on the level of being featured in New York magazine, because I feel like everybody has something to say, it's just you don't have a place to say it until you get to a certain level."

How many contributors do you have? "I have 16 women, most of them are already blogging, and a few of them are just in the process of building their column. One of them is doing video content. I hope to add more one-time contributors and reviewers. It's a lot already. But I feel that the more voices we have on there, the better it's going to be and the more inspired women will be, I hope."

Are you trying to make money off of this, or is this your passion project? "I'm in the process of turning it into an LLC, and then we're going to  look to get backers for video content. My real goal is to turn it into a Funny or Die for women, or College Humor. The money isn't a huge priority right now, but that is kind of the way I see it going in the future."

Norm Macdonald wasn't joking when he said he was on Letterman talking about Steve Martin's Tweets.

Norm Macdonald got into a weird, public discussion with Steve Martin today on Twitter, and Macdonald even told Martin via Twitter that he mentioned it to David Letterman.

Norm wasn't kidding. So to speak. He kids a lot. You know that. Here's the evidence, from tonight's Late Show with David Letterman.

 

Background: This is the first Tweet of Steve Martin's that Norm was reading. And this was the second one that confused him and Dave.

Pete Holmes on Conan: Smartphones make us dumb

The Internet reminded me that today is Pete Holmes' birthday. Happy birthday, Pete! You know what else the Internet, and specifically Google and iPhones, can tell us? Everything.

There is a beauty in having any information at your fingertips at any time, but there also was a beautiful thing about the old-fashioned process of learning. In this recent clip from Conan, Holmes spells it out for us. Roll it!

 

Jake Johannsen on the curious case of the touring performer who has to file taxes

Seeing that Jake Johannsen was returning to New York City this weekend to perform at Gotham Comedy Club, and seeing that his most recent special from last year, I Love You, was playing on Showtime, I decided to catch it on the repeat overnight.

Johannsen's bit about taxes, of course, is very timely right about now. And he makes some good, funny points. Here's a video one of his fans captured off of TV (which explains the video's quality). Roll the clip!

 

This is the part that any touring comedian (or musician) may feel most relevant:

"So the accountant, he has my taxes, he has my information, for like two weeks or so. And then he mails me the packet of all the forms filled out, which is like that thick (fingers held apart) -- no exaggeration -- because every state I work in, I have to file a tax return, which is (audience groans) I know! It's ridiculous! I'm not, thank you for the sympathy, I'm just saying, I feel like I should be able to pay California, where I live, and then they should square up with the other states. When you get mugged by a gang of guys, you don't have to pay each individual guy. That's a service that they provide."

I've never had to worry about this myself, but hearing Johannsen talk about the difficulties of filing taxes as a road comic certainly made me wonder why taxes have to be so difficult to figure out.

What tips and tricks do other touring stand-up comedians, musicians and other performers use? Or do they all rely on a favorite accountant? Do you have tips to share with other comedians?

Looking back at Sam Seder's movie about pilot season, "Who's the Caboose?" (Now out on DVD)

In the mid-1990s, Sam Seder starred, directed and co-wrote the mocumentary Who's The Caboose?, which had a group of New York film students follow comedian/actors Max (Seder) and Susan (Sarah Silverman) out to Los Angeles, where they both get caught up in the madness that is Hollywood's TV pilot season.

The cast is full of comedians you may know a bit better in 2011 than you did in 1997: Andy Dick plays Silverman's manager, while H. Jon Benjamin is an entertainment lawyer who becomes fond of Seder. Kathy Griffin looks like a completely different person, because she was back then. David Cross, Andy Kindler, Laura Kightlinger, Laura Silverman, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Marc Maron, Todd Barry, Slovin and Allen, Mark Cohen, the late Lauren Dombrowski all had roles in the film, which is only out on DVD today.

Here's a brand-new trailer for it, with new footage of Seder spliced with clips from the movie. Roll it.

 

It's funny. It's satirical. It's cutting. And yes, it's dated. You can tell it's the mid-1990s, because people smoked in restaurants, and nobody was ever looking at a cell phone, nevermind talking on one -- well, Benjamin's character does use a car phone in one scene. Oh, memories.

The film spawned a TV mini-series sequel in 2004 called Pilot Season, which reunited the cast, and added Isla Fisher. You can watch the episodes of Pilot Season online via My Damn Channel.

Seder, who himself acted in 10 different network TV sitcom pilots, told The Comic's Comic that he's not that involved in the sitcom game in 2011. His focus, if you follow The Sam Seder Show or The Majority Report, is squarely on politics these days -- although you can hear his voice in a few episodes of the new FOX animated series, Bob's Burgers.

I asked Seder how he feels Who's The Caboose? holds up when compared to the current TV climate, as Hollywood's studios are just now finishing up casting for the 2011 pilots. Seder's reply:

I haven’t watched the film in a while and haven’t engaged in Pilot Season in quite a while. With that said... I think the mechanics of the business, development season, pilot season have changed quite a bit -- the rise of cable which develops on a different schedule and the rise of reality shows has contributed to making pilot season more diffuse. The essence of the business and the people who populate it I imagine is the same. There’s the same delusion, the same fictions, the same mental problems which drive people to seek fame... I used to describe the exchanges in the film and the ones I experienced in L.A. as ones where two people’s lies and false projections meet somewhere in between them -- they tell each other lies which satisfy each other’s delusions and then they go on their way.  I suspect that dynamic is the same. I’m also quite sure the notion of “who’s hot” in the industry remains the same.  I actually think that the numbers game which agents and managers play as we depict in the movie has gotten worse for actors/comedians... I’d wager that if an agent repped 25 actors 15 years ago they rep 50 today -- same with managers.

Would you like to relive Who's The Caboose? on DVD? Buy it via Amazon.com or iTunes:

TBS Just For Laughs Chicago lines up headliners for third annual fest in the Windy City: June 14-18, 2011

For a third straight year, Just For Laughs has partnered with TBS to venture into Chicago in June for a multi-day comedy festival featuring top-name comedy talent.

While we wait to see which locals make the cut, here's the initial slate of headliners. George Lopez and Russell Peters make return trips to the Windy City to join up for one show at the Rosemont, Jim Jefferies will be back (this time with his green card). Other big names include Louis CK, Demetri Martin, Joel McHale, a quadruple bill featuring Dave Attell, Jim Breuer, Bill Burr and Jim Norton, solo shows by Whitney Cummings and Tim Minchin, and a special roast of Chicago by Jeffrey Ross. Here's how the initial schedule looks. Twix returns as the corporate sponsor for TBS Just For Laughs Chicago from June 14-18, 2011.

THE CHICAGO THEATRE

The Anti-Social Network (Dave Attell, Jim Breuer, Bill Burr and Jim Norton) – Wednesday, June 15, at 7:30 p.m.

Demetri Martin & Special Guests, Who are Also Comedians and are Friends of His – Thursday, June 16, at 7:30 p.m.

Joel McHale & Friends and Acquaintances– Friday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m.

Louis C.K. and Three Very Special Guests – Saturday, June 18, at 7:30 p.m. 

THE ROSEMONT THEATRE

George Lopez & Russell Peters – Saturday, June 18, at 8 p.m.

PARK WEST

Jim Jefferies – Thursday, June 16, at 7:30 p.m.

THE VIC THEATRE

Whitney Cummings – Thursday, June 16, at 7:30 p.m.

Jeffrey Ross Roasts Chicago – Friday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m.

LINCOLN HALL

Tim Minchin – Tuesday, June 14 to Saturday, June 18 – 10:00 p.m.

Tickets go on sale Saturday, April 2.

Quotes!

“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Just For Laughs in bringing the hottest names in comedy to Chicago for a third year,” said Dennis Adamovich, senior vice president of brand and digital activation/general manager of festivals for TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). “Chicago is a terrific town full of people who really know and love great comedy. We’re pulling out all the stops to make this year’s festival the best yet.”

“At the beginning stages of every festival booking season, we start with our dream list,” says Bruce Hills, chief operating officer of Just For Laughs. “This year we have not only met our dream list, we have exceeded it. Chicago audiences are in for quite a treat.”

Why did the mosquito cross the road? Bobby Bottleservice's joke contest

This is an actual joke contest hosted by Bobby Bottleservice (aka Nick Kroll) on behalf of Malaria No More.

Roll the clip!

 

Details? Enter the Bobby Bottleservice Joke Contest for the chance to win a trip for two to Los Angeles to see Hollywood Bites Back! at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on April 16, a live comedy show featuring Conan O’Brien, Sarah Silverman and more to benefit the nonprofit Malaria No More. All you have to do is create a short YouTube video finishing the joke “Why did the mosquito cross the road?” Then, submit your YouTube URL to www.MalariaNoMore.org/Joke. See your video posted with other submissions at www.YouTube.com/MosquitoJoke. Winner will be announced by April 8, and if the joke is good enough, you might be invited to tell it on stage at the show! For official contest rules, go to:www.MalariaNoMore.org/official-contest-rules

Official movie poster, trailer for The Hangover: Part II

You may have seen spoilers and whatnot about the upcoming movie sequel, The Hangover: Part II.

Well, here's the official poster, out today, showing how Bangkok and a monkey in a jean jacket seem to have gotten the best of them.

Bradley Cooper is laid out on the floor. Ed Helms has a face tattoo (clearly a link back to Mike Tyson from the first film!), while Zach Galifianakis has the top of his head shaved. Hmmm.

Perhaps this official movie trailer puts it all into perspective? Roll it.

 

No? Well, you'll have to wait until Memorial Day weekend to find out what's what in a cinema near you.

This week on late-night TV

Each week, I update a separate page on the site called "This week on late-night TV." You can find it on the sidebar of my home page. This is what that looks like.

The following listings include comedians and comedic actors scheduled to appear/perform on the late-night TV talk show circuit this week. Check with the TV shows and local listings for last-minute changes.

For the week of March 28 to April 1, 2011

Conan (TBS) -- Wednesday: Mo Mandel; Thursday: Johnny Knoxville 

Lopez Tonight (TBS) -- Monday: D.L. Hughley; Wednesday: Brent Weinbach

The Mo'Nique Show (BET) -- n/a

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (COMEDY CENTRAL) -- Thursday: Norm MacDonald 

The Colbert Report (COMEDY CENTRAL) -- n/a

Late Show with David Letterman (CBS) -- Monday: Danny McBride; Wednesday: Norm MacDonald; Thursday: Chris Rock; Friday: Tommy Johnagin

Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS) -- Friday: Casey Wilson

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC) -- Monday: Russell Brand; Tuesday: Howie Mandel

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC) -- Wednesday: Russell Brand; Friday: Joey Kola

Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC) -- Tuesday: Johnny Knoxville; Wednesday: Danny McBride

Chelsea Lately (E!) Panelists -- Monday: Ben Gleib, Fortune Feimster, Josh Wolf; Tuesday: Heather McDonald, Jo Koy, Michael Yo; Wednesday: Arden Myrin, Joe Matarese, John Caparulo; Thursday: Ross Mathews, Dan Levy, Dov Davidoff; Friday: Jim Norton, Ross Mathews, Jen Kirkman

 

Sunday before April Fool's, both NYC tabloids dip their toes into the local comedy waters once more

If you caught a gander at the Sunday papers in New York City, then you noticed that both the Post and the Daily News have made their annual stabs at pretending to care about comedy.

For the past few years, the Post has cast out its nets to round up the "best" jokes of the year, which as it has been previously, really just means the jokes that its reporters can get from comedians who reply in time to meet deadline. Not to disparage the comedians who got ink out of this, mind you. Plenty of my friends are included in the annual roundup. And I know how much the media coverage means to them. Just saying that this list of "150 best jests" is misleading.

The Daily News, meanwhile, managed to be even more misleading with this cover tease for its features section. "Are these the funniest people in NYC?"

No offense to Sam Morril, Adam Newman, Nick Cobb and Dan Soder, because they had nothing to do with this headline and posturing, but that's not why they had received the mainstream media attention. Nope. It's because they're the "Final Four" in this year's "March Madness" competition at Carolines. They're the funniest people out of the 64 comedians who entered this specific contest and earned enough audience approval to advance this far. I know all four of these guys, and yes, they're funny. The funniest in the city? Right now? Hmmm.

You can get to know a little bit more about each of them (and quips from four other contestants from this year's Carolines contest) in the Daily News.

And that's this year's look at New York comedy! If you didn't get covered by the Post or the Daily News, there's always 2012!*

 

* Or come up with a gimmick. The press loves gimmicks.

Too soon? Gilbert Gottfried has an answer for Aflac, and then some, in this new Funny or Die vieo

The tragic events in Japan, and Gilbert Gottfried's jokes about them on Twitter, prompted Aflac to fire him as the insurance company's talking spokesduck.

Fair? Unfair?

Well, Gottfried has apologized publicly about his jokes, but now he's responded as a comedian with this Funny or Die video, in which he reminds everyone that he has made cruel and unusually too soon jokes about every tragic event through history. Roll the clip!

 

SNL #36.17 RECAP: Host Zach Galifianakis, musical guest Jessie J.

Wasn't anywhere near a TV when Saturday Night Live brought Zach Galifianakis back to host for his second time on the March 12, 2011, episode, so I'm just catching up with it now in full. Well, then, let's get started!

 

The cold open is not overtly political, playing off of that week's "Selection Sunday" for the NCAA men's basketball tournament on CBS, with Kenan Thompson as Greg Gumbel and Jason Sudeikis playing Jim Nantz. But wait. They've taken basketball's March Madness and combined it with the world's "Actual Madness." Good call. Interestingly, when they reveal the brackets, they substitute Fred Armisen's face for Libya's Gaddafi, but keep the real faces for Egypt's Mubarak and the others in North Africa. I guess it's so as not to confuse the dummies watching on TV when they cut to Armisen as Gaddafi on set, being interviewed by Nasim Pedrad as CBS sports correspondent Tracy Wolfson. The D.C. bracket gets in both politicians and TV anchors, then cuts to Andy Samberg as Dick Vitale. Um, OK. You know that everybody who has ever watched college hoops has a Dick Vitale impersonation (and in the past few years, developed a Gus Johnson voice, TOO!!!!). The Hollywood bracket fits in all of the wacked-out celebs. Kristen Wiig keeps delivering Melissa Leo's Oscar speech. And Bill Hader is back as Charlie Sheen broadcasting live online. They fit a lot in the first five minutes, didn't they? Hoping these leaves room for plenty of absurdist stuff with Galifianakis.

 

For his second stint as host, Galifianakis already seems a little bit more comfortable at the top of his monologue as he took in the audience cheers and applause. What's so great about Zach, among many things, is knowing that he writes his own monologues. And that he's willing to take risks with it on live network television. He took at least three here. Can you spot them? Yes. Yes you can. And that was before he broke out into lip-sync song.

In great moments in odd timing, the first TV ad break during SNL on this night begins with AFLAC, otherwise known as the company that fired Gilbert Gottfried as its talking-duck spokesduck because he made jokes at the expense of Japan's ongoing catastrophe in the wake of earthquakes, a tsunami and nuclear meltdowns. Was this his last ad for them?

Watch and listen to highlights of Paul Reubens talking about the career arc of Pee-wee Herman

Kids of all ages! Pee-wee Herman was great and still is great, all of these years later.

If you haven't seen the revival of The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway live in person (or on HBO this month), you really should. I was lucky enough to see the HBO taping (and you can spot me briefly in audience shots at the beginning and end of it), and watching it back on TV was a bit surreal. I think the stage show plays a little better live than on tape. Probably the same held true for those who watched the original 1981 edition.

But what was even greater was seeing Paul Reubens as himself talking about being Pee-wee during the SXSW festival in Austin earlier this month.

Here are highlights from his conversation there, in which he reveals that a failed SNL audition prompted him to go full speed ahead with Pee-wee (and that his SNL slot went to Gilbert Gottfried), and though you don't learn much about the new Pee-wee movie that he's writing with Paul Rust for Judd Apatow, you do hear Reubens discuss how basic his first Pee-wee movie was, and how his 1981 HBO show served as his de-facto "pilot" episode of his Saturday morning kids show, and how Reubens used his infamous mugshot to comedic effect for other roles.

 

You can also listen to Reubens talk with Scott Aukerman from the live Comedy Death-Ray Radio podcast at SXSW.

Video: This is how Natasha Leggero and Duncan Trussell get romantic

When you're watching Natasha Leggero's half-hour Comedy Central Presents tonight (or later), and thinking what a classy stand-up comedian she is, just remember that this is how she and her comedy boyfriend Duncan Trussell get romantic.

Definitely not safe for work. Roll it.

 

 

How do you get booked on John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show for Comedy Central? I asked him.

The second season of John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show debuts tonight at midnight after The Colbert Report on Comedy Central.

Chances are you'll enjoy the comedy from Oliver and all of his friends over several weeks, who include Maria Bamford, Greg Behrendt, David Koechner, Kirk Fox, Al Madrigal, Pete Holmes, Anthony Jeselnik, Brendon Walsh, Deon Cole, Glenn Wool, Jen Kirkman, Kumail Nanjiani, Kyle Kinane, Marina Franklin, Mike Lawrence, Moshe Kasher, Rory Albanese, Rory Scovel and Tommy Johnigan. But, pray tell, how did these comedians make the cut? Or even if you don't pray, how about getting John Oliver to tell me? So I asked him. In Austin. During SXSW.

Roll the clip!

 

Audio: Listen to @marcmaron, @michaelianblack talk to me about Social Media and Comedy at SXSW

My very first live podcast, everybody, and it happened at SXSW's 2011 Interactive Festival!

For those of you who missed the panel I moderated in Austin, "Social Media and Comedy: F**k Yeah!" or who just want to listen to it all over again, it was recorded for posterity. I asked Marc Maron, Michael Ian Black, Comedy Central's digital director Jordy Fox Ellner, The Comedy Store's Alf LaMont and Kambri Crews all about how the Internet has completely changed the game for comedians in the past few years. We talked about Twitter (obviously) but also MySpace (because it mattered) and more.

The hour starts out rough, but only because I moderated the panel and opened in a manner that suggested I needed to watch The King's Speech first, and also because I want to do what I've already just done in this paragraph, which is to lower your expectations. Don't worry, though.

Since we had a large screen hooked up to my laptop in the Hyatt's ballroom, I'll give you a few link cues to click on things during the discussion.

Enjoy listening to "Social Media and Comedy: F**k Yeah!" live from SXSWi 2011.

(12:55) Michael Ian Black replied to Bing.com on Twitter

(15:00) Marc Maron took a picture of himself on an airplane

(17:20) Marc Maron's airplane photo and riffing became a story on Gawker.com

(26:00) WitStream.com

(52:50) Shout-outs to Rob Delaney (55:40) Joe Mande (58:20) Dave Hill, Jenny Johnson and Olivia.

Follow my panelists on Twitter and elsewhere:

Marc Maron @marcmaron (WTF with Marc Maron podcasts on Mondays and Thursdays)

Alf LaMont @alflamont and at work at @TheComedyStore (TheComedyStore.com)

Kambri Crews @kambri

Jordy Fox @jordyfox and at work at @jokesdotcom (Jokes.com) and @atomcomedy (Atom.com)

Michael Ian Black @michaelianblack (WitStream.com)

and me, Sean L. McCarthy @thecomicscomic

Twitter won't let me go back to find the questions that went unanswered via our official hashtag at #smcomedyfyeah, so if you did have a question during the panel, please remind me again and I'll try to provide you with an informative and slightly amusing answer.

Also, if the guy who held up his new iPad 2 throughout the hour to videotape us (and also thereby block the view of the people behind him, if he decides to share his video with the rest of us, I'll be sure to post that, too.

Furthermore: Give feedback on my panel back to SXSW via the mobile APP, or email them at inter AT sxsw DOT com

George Lopez branches out into comedy tour producing with Viva la Risa, tells me about it

After taping today's episode of Lopez Tonight, George Lopez will leave his TBS studio in Burbank and head down to the El Rey Theatre to host a live stand-up comedy showcase called Viva la Risa.

Neal Brennan, Chris D'Elia, Dov Davidoff, Felipe Esparza, and Sebastian Maniscalco are all on the bill for what's called George Lopez's Viva la Risa Comedy Tour. Although it's not yet a tour. And the lineups will change. Why don't I let Lopez himself explain it? He spoke with me today on the phone.

"It's one thing I wanted to do for a long time, then when I was doing my own shows. And I was working with AEG. AEG is my sole promoter. They've been with me throughout, during my touring and selling out arenas, and then as I was selling out theaters...I thought, I need to branch out, divide it. Viva la Risa is just one. Hopefully I'll have a couple of different tours that will split up and tour across America, and globally."

"All of these guys are amazing, and they've all been on the show."

How did you pick the lineup?

"Listen, man. I'm from a different era. Doing the shows (Lopez Tonight), I don't get out to the clubs and see who's out there. Leanne (Leanne Elias, the show's talent booker) says 'Trust me.' And all of these guys are freaking hilarious. Let me use my name and my influence and make this tour happen. Viva la Risa is bringing back the laughter, but I like Viva la Risa, it sounds better."

And while it's called a tour, it's just one show tonight in Los Angeles. But I gather there will be a tour? "It's only in L.A. tonight, but it will expand. It will go to San Francisco, it will go to Boston, it will go Texas, it will go everywhere."

"You look at Neal, and Dov, and Chris just sold a pilot, Felipe and Sebastian. You won't see these dudes together. Back in the day, like 20 years ago, there'd be guys who would tour together. That doesn't happen anymore. That should happen. Comedians should help comedians. Not just when they're sick.

"Hopefully my involvement will be minimal. Tonight, I'll host the show. But these guys, they don't need me. Eventually what they'll be able to do is go out on their own."

How do you and Leanne end up working together to bring comedians both on the show and on this tour? "Through the fact, that she was in the clubs, she was following comedy. She was looking at tapes, doing all those things. She would book somebody and I'd say, 'I don't know who that is.' If I were booking it'd be all dudes from the 1980s...Sebastian Maniscalco, he came on and did a thing about the Internet with his dad. It reminded me of Johnny Carson, when he'd be sitting there in the dark and you could hear him laughing. (Sebastian) said his dad called it the Internets, and he was trying to tell him to use the mouse but he had it on the floor as a pedal...it was killing me. They all kill me. They're all creative and they're all different."

"Nobody's putting on the comedians on a talk show who are on my show consistently, and then to spin that off and put on a tour, it's even better."

What about these other tours you'd mentioned? "The rotation will change. I'd like to keep these guys and put them on in another town. It'll be these guys one night, another night all girls. But always integrated. Always diverse. When I was coming up, people always wanted to put me on Latino night, but I didn't want to do those shows. I'm Latino every night. I was never a fan of black night or that type of segregated thing in comedy. When I was coming up, every night in the clubs was white night."