the comic's comic

30 Rock, Modern Family among 2010 WGA winners

The Writers Guild of America held their annual awards in simultaneous ceremonies last night in New York City and Los Angeles, with 30 Rock and Modern Family both bringing home two awards each among comedies.

The ceremonies also included special awards, previously announced, for Larry David as well as Alan Zweibel and Gary David Goldberg.

Here is the list of comedy writing winners from the 2010 WGA Awards. Full list here.

COMEDY SERIES: 30 Rock, Written by Jack Burditt, Kay Cannon, Robert Carlock, Tom Ceraulo, Vali Chandrasekaran, Tina Fey, Donald Glover, Steve Hely, Matt Hubbard, Dylan Morgan, Paula Pell, Jon Pollack, John Riggi, Tami Sagher, Josh Siegal, Ron Weiner, Tracey Wigfield; NBC

NEW SERIES: Modern Family, Written by Paul Corrigan, Sameer Gardezi, Joe Lawson, Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Dan O ' Shannon, Brad Walsh, Caroline Williams, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker; ABC

EPISODIC COMEDY: **TIE** 
Apollo, Apollo” (30 Rock), Written by Robert Carlock; NBC
“Pilot” (Modern Family), Written by Steven Levitan & Christopher Lloyd; ABC

COMEDY / VARIETY – (INCLUDING TALK) SERIES (**TIE**)
Saturday Night Live, Head Writer: Seth Meyers, Writers Doug Abeles, James Anderson, Alex Baze, Jessica Conrad, James Downey, Steve Higgins, Colin Jost, Erik Kenward, Rob Klein, John Lutz, Lorne Michaels, John Mulaney, Paula Pell, Simon Rich, Marika Sawyer, Akiva Schaffer, John Solomon, Emily Spivey, Kent Sublette, Jorma Taccone, Bryan Tucker, Additional Sketch by Adam McKay, Andrew Steele; NBC
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Head Writer: Steve Bodow, Writers Rory Albanese, Kevin Bleyer, Rich Blomquist, Tim Carvell, Wyatt Cenac, Hallie Haglund, JR Havlan, David Javerbaum, Elliott Kalan, Josh Lieb, Sam Means, Jo Miller, John Oliver, Daniel Radosh, Jason Ross, Jon Stewart; Comedy Central

92Y's Fall 2008 comedy programming

The 92nd Street Y once again brings comedy to the Upper East Side as only the 92Y does it, announcing a slate of upcoming programming for the fall, including:

Sept. 9: Warren Adler and Stewie Stone on the influence of the Borscht Belt comedians on mainstream American humor
Sept. 15: Alan Zweibel talks with Susie Essman
Sept. 24: Alec Baldwin talks with Janet Maslin
Sept. 28: Lisa Lampanelli talks with Eddy Friedfeld
Oct. 5: A tribute to George Carlin, featuring Whoopi Goldberg, special guests
Oct. 22: Countdown to Election 2008, with Andy Borowitz, Joy Behar, Jeffrey Toobin
Nov. 5: We Have a Winner, with Lizz Winstead and others (New York Comedy Festival)
Nov. 12: Zach Galifianakis (92Y Tribeca)
Dec. 7: Make Em Laugh, the funny business of America, with Michael Kantor, Laurence Maslon

Inside Joke...with Alan Zweibel

Despite the bitter cold last night, I and several other humor-loving people ventured out to catch Inside Joke, Carl Arnheiter's clever and insightful live talk show. The UCB postcards describe Inside Joke as "a cross between Charlie Rose and This Old House, minus the interruptions and power tools," which means, of course, it's not really like either of those PBS programs. Arnheiter knows his subjects and, perhaps more importantly, knows when to let them chat and chat and chat some more and reveal what's made them so funny and worth talking to in the first place.

It's a modest set-up. A table with two chairs, two mics, a plate of Rice Krispie Treats (real, as I could attest afterward). Arnheiter comes out to address the audience with a few opening remarks, shows a video and then, it's our guest for the evening (or the next hour-plus), Alan Zweibel.

Things we learned last night...The opening video, an ad parody for "Spud Beer ('The beer that made Boise famous')," was the first thing shot on tape for Saturday Night Live, written by Al Franken and Tom Davis and featuring then-24-year-old Zweibel as the dim-witted test subject. Zweibel said his claim to fame on the 106 SNL shows he wrote for was the few times he made it onscreen, he always played the big dumb Jew. His words. On Feb. 20 of this year, he'll be the dead guy in the opening of a Law and Order. "They just needed a big Jew to bleed out on the rug!" he said. He went from selling $7 jokes to old-time comics in the Catskills in 1973 to delivering a stack of 1,100 jokes in the hands of a young Lorne Michaels barely two years later. He became an early friend and carpooling partner of Billy Crystal, and three decades later, helped Crystal form his Broadway hit 700 Sundays, much of it over the course of 12 nights in front of live audiences. He also wrote and worked with Gilda Radner and Garry Shandling. He told funny stories about finding a Mrs. Ed one Saturday night, and about the unexpected impacts of writing for John Belushi's Samurai deli character. Zweibel also won the 2006 Thurber Prize for American Humor, for this book, The Other Shulman.