the comic's comic

Eugene Mirman on Conan O'Brien

Did you miss Eugene Mirman's recent performance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien? Did you see it, but would like to relive it again? Either way, hooray! Mirman has uploaded his performance for all of us to enjoy...some classic bits he has done around the New York City club and alt circuit, as well as on the road, but here on the TV, he manages to hold his spot and stay focused on the camera. Lots of greatness. All in under five minutes.

Eugene Mirman on Late Night With Conan O'Brien

NBC's 2009 late-night TV shuffle

NBC officially unveiled the timeline it plans for shuffling Jimmy Fallon into late-late night and Conan O'Brien into Jay Leno's Tonight Show slot, which left Leno playing a cartoon version of a TV critic in disguise (pictured!) at the TV Critics Association tour yesterday.

That timeline?
Jimmy Fallon begins not on TV, but online with nightly mini episodes this fall.
Conan O'Brien will leave his Late Night slot in spring 2009, for Fallon to take over in March or April 2009.
Jay Leno's final Tonight Show will be Friday, May 29, 2009.
Conan O'Brien's first Tonight Show will be the following Monday, June 1, 2009.
(Trade coverage via Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, plus the New York Times take here)

Lorne Michaels, who shepherded Fallon on Saturday Night Live and will serve as his executive producer, wants to ease Fallon into the game slowly. Perhaps he thinks letting Fallon experiment online on a nightly basis not only will let him get his hosting feet under him, but also tamper any early criticism of his TV debut. The media and fans alike bashed Conan in his early years, but he grew into the role and then some, becoming NBC's favorite late-night guy. The network already began construction on Conan's new West Coast set, and it's still unclear how many of his writing crew will move west with him. Which means it's still unclear what kind of show we'll get with Conan at 11:30/11:35 p.m. And what of Carson Daly? No, really, what of Carson Daly? I'm also not sure this timeline really serves as a vote of confidence for Fallon, either.

Dave Attell on Conan tonight!

It's not on your DVRs or TiVos, so here's your official bulletin: Dave Attell will perform tonight on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Attell got the call yesterday. If you do miss it on TV, you can find it online tomorrow on Hulu!

Jimmy Fallon to take over Late Night in 2009

You heard it here first-thousandth! Everyone is reporting that Jimmy Fallon has inked a deal with NBC to take over Late Night in 2009 when Conan O'Brien takes over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno. (THR, Variety)

John Oliver: From Conan to the basement

One thing comedians always love to mention about the New York City scene is the ability to book multiple gigs any night of the week. They don't often mention that all of these gigs are not equal. Take Tuesday night, for example, when Daily Show correspondent John Oliver taped a performance in the late afternoon for Late Night with Conan O'Brien and a nationwide TV audience, then ventured over to the basement of Comix to perform mostly new material for a few dozen people at the free Drink at Work showcase. Two wildly different experiences, with two wildly different results.

The Conan appearance itself even provided a mixed bag, as his set didn't hit with the studio audience with quite the same punch and reaction that he normally gets live or on Comedy Central (perhaps he was too clever for the room?), but then, during his "panel" set with Conan, Oliver easily knocked all of Conan's set-up pitches out of the ballpark (so to speak). You can watch it all here, via Hulu. It begins at the 33-minute mark, which I've hopefully just led you to here:

Meanwhile, Oliver told the Drink at Work crowd upfront that he was testing out new bits. And, as I've seen him do this before, the unpredictability works in his favor. He's so witty and self-aware, in the moment able to react to the audience's reactions and create jokes about his jokes. "Good," he noted after one joke, then instantly poked fun at himself for commenting aloud on his performance. "Telling jokes is so arrogant," he said after another bit. "Sometimes a moment of silence is nice." Another bit that I've seen him perform earlier this spring continues to impress, as he workshops a routine that begins simply with nostalgia about an odd family dinner ritual, then spirals into something else completely that allows Oliver to go anywhere and everywhere, for as long as he and the audience are willing to enjoy the ride. The bit appears in a completely different form on his new Comedy Central special that airs April 20. For my insider report on that special, take a trip back with me to the taping.

This week's comedic late-night guests

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody. How are you celebrating? Are you going to be appearing on a late-night TV talk show? No? Well, then, who will? (Note: Listings subject to change)

David Letterman...Monday: Rainn Wilson; Tuesday: Al Franken; Wednesday: Seth Meyers; Thursday: Vince Vaughn; Friday: Al Lubel

Conan O'Brien...Monday: Lance Krall; Tuesday: Brian Posehn; Wednesday: Tracy Morgan

Jay Leno...Monday: Carlos Mencia; Wednesday: Lisa Lampanelli; Friday: Adam Carolla

Jimmy Kimmel...Monday: Martin Lawrence; Tuesday: Joel McHale; Wednesday: Adam Carolla; Thursday: Jackie Mason

Craig Ferguson...Monday: Ray Romano, Jeff Caldwell; Tuesday: Joe DeVito (Thursday and Friday TBA)

This week's comedic late-night guests

The late-night TV talkers are back in action this week, so let's take a look at which comedians and comedic actors will be making the rounds, shall we?

David Letterman...Monday: Jim Carrey; Wednesday: Lewis Black; Friday: Brian Regan

Conan O'Brien...Thursday: Harland Williams

Jay Leno...Tuesday: Bob Saget; Wednesday: Bill Cosby; Thursday: Howie Mandel

Craig Ferguson...Monday: Don Rickles; Wednesday: Denis Leary; Friday: Sebastian Maniscalco

Jimmy Kimmel...Monday: Anthony Jeselnik (didn't air as scheduled)

This week's comedic late-night guests

Time again to check in with comedians and comedic actors making the late-night TV rounds...

David Letterman (in repeats) --  Thursday: Don Rickles

Conan O'Brien (in repeats) -- Monday: Howie Mandel

Jay Leno (in repeats) -- Wednesday: Larry the Cable Guy; Friday: Will Ferrell

Jimmy Kimmel -- Tuesday: Jackie Mason; Friday: Will Arnett

Craig Ferguson -- Monday: Michelle Billoon; Thursday: Wanda Sykes; Friday: Amy Sedaris

Todd Barry on Conan tonight

Todd Barry, last seen filling in on drums for Yo La Tengo on night two of the three-night Invite Them Up finale at Rififi, will perform on Conan tonight. Thanks for uploading your photo on Flickr, Marianne Ways, even though you told me last night you'd wait! (insert :) here) In slightly related news, Barry has a new CD coming out next week, From Heaven. I've got a review of it here. And in even more slightly related news, Barry will headline Comix next weekend.

And if you like that news, then you'll probably want to pre-order his new CD, which you can do via this handy Amazon.com link!

This week's comedic late-night TV guests

Time once again to check the late-night TV talk show listings to see which comedians and comedic actors will be making the rounds. Note: Some show listings still TBA.

David Letterman...Monday: Will Ferrell; Friday: Tommy Tiernan

Jay Leno...Monday: Catherine O'Hara; Tuesday: David Koechner; Thursday: Wanda Sykes

Conan O'Brien...Monday: Will Arnett; Tuesday: Will Ferrell; Thursday: Robert Schimmel

Jimmy Kimmel...Thursday: Martin Lawrence

This week's late-night TV comedy guests

Hooray! The WGA strike is over. Let's declare a holiday! Wait. We've done that already? Great. Let's schedule some comedic talents for all the late-night TV shows, then, and get on with it...

David Letterman: Thursday, Steve Martin; Friday, Al Lubel.

Conan O'Brien: Monday, Larry the Cable Guy; Tuesday, Bill Hader; Friday, Nathan Lane.

Craig Ferguson: Tuesday, Melinda Hill; Thursday, Don Rickles; Friday, Fred Willard, Steve Mazan.

Late Night with Conan, back with writers

Conan O'Brien showed the most tact during the WGA strike, and unsurprisingly, he returned to the airwaves early Thursday morning "striking" just the right notes. As he did during the strike, he mentioned the return of his writers early in his monologue. "I just want to say personally, it's great to have them back," he said. "In fact, they wrote that. That was the first thing they wrote. 'Say it! Say it!'" After the monologue, O'Brien at the desk again gave a shout-out to the writers, praising the return of "scripted dialogue" to the show. "For that long period of time, of course, doing those shows, we didn't do any scripted material. And it was fun. We had some good times. But we didn't do any stuff with dialogue," he said, adding: "We get to put 'LaBamba' in skits again!" Which they then immediately did, followed by a written sketch on strike small talk. Then, to catch everyone up, they played an eight-minute clip package of the sillier stuff they did to fill time during the strike. After a commercial break, twas onto the guests: Matt Lauer, Ryan Reynolds and Simple Plan.

Full video, of course, available in the morning.

Writers back on Leno, Conan, Stewart, Colbert

The WGA strike officially over, writers expected to report back to work today. So tune in tonight to see how Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert all address their respective returns. Will the writers have anything to say on-air about their hosts trying to go on without them? Hmmm.

Wasting time with Conan, Colbert and Stewart

Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert wasted everyone's viewing time last night with a pre-arranged sketch of sorts that didn't really go anywhere but did manage to 1) get yelps of approval from the audiences at all three shows, and more importantly, 2) sucked a lot of time out of all three late-night shows Monday night and into Tuesday morning. And no, I'm not linking to any of the clips.

Late-night strikewatch

If you haven't already forgotten, the WGA strike continues without a resolution. So count this as a reminder that the late-night chat shows are all on the air.

David Letterman and Craig Ferguson remain the only WGA-approved shows. Comedians on the lineup for Letterman this week? Bill Cosby on Tuesday, Artie Lange on Friday. On Ferguson's show? Denis Leary on Monday, Ryan Sickler on Wednesday, Sebastian Maniscalco on Thursday, Al Madrigal on Friday.

Conan clearly needed last week off (they replayed his visit to Chicago) as he's really tried harder than the others to do a show without writers.

Leno? Ack. Jon Stewart seems to have all of his correspondents back on the air, sometimes with pre-taped segments that may or may not have been in the can pre-strike, but also in the studio and not always improvising. Er. Um. Stephen Colbert has been doubling up on guests to fill time.

The fact that you can watch full episodes of Leno, Conan, "A" Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report online only heighten the tension, because online plays and revenues are part of the heart of the matter in the WGA writers' negotiations with the producers at the AMPTP.

Late Night 2008, second night

So let me get this straight. Jay Leno writes his own jokes the first night, claiming it's OK, when he probably knew that it wasn't, gets a talking-to from the striking Writers Guild to remind him that he's a Writers Guild member, too, and cannot perform writing functions such as, oh, pre-writing a monologue and putting it on cue cards, so what does Mr. Leno do on Thursday night? To me, it looked like he thumbed his nose at the union and the writers and everyone else, and concerned only for himself, and perhaps the fact that he figures NBC wants to retire him NEXT YEAR (2009 is that close, people) and he'll need a new job soon enough, that he might as well continue to write a monologue in advance and perform it on a nightly basis, strike or no strike.

As a writer (though not a striking one, because I'm not in the WGA), I watched Leno in horror last night. He really doesn't seem to care about the strike. When he could be bothered to even mention it, it was literally under his breath in nanosecond asides.

Conan O'Brien, by comparison, continued to make the most of his predicament in night two of Strike-Break 2008. He used the early monologue time to make more jokes about his beard, explore the studio's catwalk -- which killed quite a bit of time just in the logistics and resulted in seemingly improvised jokes by Conan -- followed by a pre-taped segment about Conan interrupting NBC tours of his studios earlier in the day. His guests all were in town with things to plug. Megan Mullally had her fellow Young Frankenstein Broadway castmates on Letterman (which only furthers any sort of conspiracy theorists who think that, deep down, Letterman is cool with Conan). Fonzworth Bentley had a book to sell. And musical guest Kid Rock has been around the city since New Year's Eve, at least.

On night two, David Letterman, with writers at the ready, poked fun at his first night back, his beard and his writers during his monologue. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- who really does want to be president and has said so, but it looks like he'll need more help than Iowa gave him to launch an independent campaign, by the way -- made a cameo walk-on to deliver the key to the city...to Letterman's beard. A "News Stories We Missed" segment was short but funnier because of it. "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches" returned, so hooray for that. Other writer-driven segments included an Iowa Caucus Timeline, a Top 10 list on questions you might have if you're having sex with robots (?), and a second installment of Hal Gurnee's Network Time Wasters (which, if I'm not mistaken, included the young guy who appeared the night before as Letterman's attorney?). The guests -- Bill Maher, Ellen Page, and the cast of Young Frankenstein -- made it seem otherwise like a regular show. Which, I suppose, was the point. Or was it?

Early ratings tip toward Leno, Conan

Early major market ratings reports from Nielsen, as reported by the Hollywood Reporter, show more people still turned to Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien -- without striking writers -- than to David Letterman and Craig Ferguson, who returned with a new contract with the WGA. Story here.

As I wrote yesterday, I firmly believe that some viewers wanted to see whether Leno and Conan's shows would be train wrecks without the writers. I also suspect that many viewers don't have any stake in the Writers Guild and its negotiations. They don't know any writers. They don't think about the power and profits from the studios and producers. It's like a sports strike. They just want their sport back. And if the ticket prices go up, the parking costs spiral, the ballpark soda and beer costs double-digits, the fans continue to pay up and feed the beast. Sure, a few may boycott. But the protesting few don't add up to a tangible amount that forces the powers-that-be to end their madness, or their greed. People who watch Leno, for the most part, would continue to watch Leno the minute he's back on the air. That he returned to TV and wrote a monologue clearly does so much more harm to the writers and to the efforts of the WGA than any amount of savory treats Leno handed out on the picket lines in November or December. Conan, in a similarly tricky spot, at least kept his beard as a show of support and also made the striking writers an issue throughout his broadcast last night. For Leno, it was all about him. Look at poor Leno, "one man against a monologue" against CBS. Look at happy Leno, re-energized by writing fresh jokes for that monologue. Argh.

I can understand why people watched the writerless NBC late-night shows. Heck, I DVR'd them myself to see what happened. But that doesn't make it right. It's all such bitter madness. All for the same reason that shows up on an elementary student's report card checklist: Can you play well with others? In show business as in sports, the answer once again seems to be: It doesn't matter. People will come. People will tune in. People will pay. At what cost? And to whom?

The returns of Letterman, Conan, Leno

Hillary Clinton presented the cold open for David Letterman. Mike Huckabee provided plenty of time-killing filler for Jay Leno. Does that mean that the difference between Letterman and Leno really boils down to Democrat vs. Republican? It's not that simple, although watching last night's shows, you couldn't help but think that Letterman's show, backed by the unionized Writer's Guild and featuring striking writers throughout, had the Democrats corner, while Leno's picket-crossing staff -- and his incomprehensible decision to write his own monologue and read it off of cue cards in direct violation of the strike -- plus Huckabee's decision to turn his back on his own union endorsements for free airtime (updated: and plus plus! what about Leno's softball fluffing of Huckabee throughout the interview? as if he was so thankful someone showed up Leno didn't want to screw it up by making the Baptist minister uncomfortable), certainly gave the traditional Letterman-Leno competition a new perspective, didn't it?

As for the shows themselves...

Plenty of sites uploaded YouTube videos from the late-night talkers, which I'm not going to do, primarily because online media and revenues are at the heart of the strike negotiations!

Letterman: Hillary joked that after eight weeks off the air, "Oh, well, all good things come to an end." Dave's strike beard: Color Code Silver! The Eugene V. Debs striking dancers. A monologue almost entirely devoted to the eight weeks off the air and the striking writers. A written audience strike Q&A segment. A Top 10 list of striking writers' demands, presented by striking writers from The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Law & Orders regular and Criminal Intent, Conan, and writers Nora Ephron and Alan Zweibel. A joke from the desk interrupted by the show's strike captain. A segment on life without the writers brought back Hal Gurnee and his Network Time Killers. Another segment, Know Your Staff, profiled an associate producer (and new mother) who's one of the thousands of other victims from the strike. First guest Robin Williams riffed on Dave's beard and talked about his USO tours. Musical guest Lupe Fiasco welcomed Dave back. All in all, you had the sense that Dave and the writers wanted to remind viewers most of all about the rest of the WGA and the strike first, jokes later.

Leno: When I saw him reading off of cue cards, I knew something was fishy. He mentioned running tonight's jokes past his wife for confirmation, referenced Dave in passing, then somehow said that because he was writing his own monologue, that was OK? Didn't he learn anything from Ellen DeGeneres???? Apparently not. He's a writer. Not allowed to write. End. Of. Story. But no. My friend had a blink-and-you-miss-it non-speaking role. He also had an audience Q&A that appeared to be an actual Q&A which just made it all weird. He showed a JibJab cartoon putting 2007 in review. Yeah, yeah, I'm already done with 2007 and its topical jokes. Mike Huckabee acted like he was Bill Clinton, playing his bass guitar, they replayed an old satellite interview with him and Leno, and Huckabee sorta kinda endorsed Barack Obama (the only smart thing he said). Chef Emeril filled even more time with a cooking segment, but all I could think about were the reports I heard about Emeril dissing his New Orleans restaurant employees after Hurricane Katrina and so seeing him cross the picket line made sense and made me angrier. BAM! Chingy? Eh.

Conan: Strike Beard Color Code Orange! He expressed support for the writers in his monologue, joked about his beard. From the desk, he tried to break his own record for spinning his wedding ring on the table (with a producer timing it). No record broken, but time killed. A funny pre-taped segment on what he'd been doing during the strike, mostly bumbling around the offices. First guest Bob Saget, plugging his NBC game show 1 vs. 100, expressed sympathy for the writers. Comedian Dwayne Perkins did a set, and it turns out he's at Gotham Comedy Club this weekend, which explains how he got booked for the first night. I know of two other comedians doing Conan in the coming days, so in the short term, the strike will get more stand-up on his show, which is good, right?

Letterman won the night because his company has ended the strike for its workers! Leno was a multiple loser for just about everything he did. Conan made the best of his tough situation.

Letterman or Leno: Who will you watch tonight?

Late-night TV will definitely be worth watching tonight as David Letterman and Craig Ferguson return with their writers, while Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien return without theirs.

Letterman has Robin Williams and Lupe Fiasco on tonight's scheduled program. Jay Leno's schedule includes Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, but his (Leno's) site remains vague -- mostly because the Writers Guild strike has the show worried about booking guests. I know an old comedy friend of mine plans to be in a not-written sketch (that'd be improv, then, right?). And something about the fact that it'll all be somewhat improvised almost makes watching Leno and Conan (and Kimmel, too) a little more of an oddity. I'm friends with striking writers, so I don't want to support those shows. But the possibility of seeing some televised train-wreckage, at least for a night, does sound tempting. Doesn't it? As I've noted before, Ferguson already operates with a different self-scripted riff of a monologue, but now that he has writers on his side, he'll also get West Coast guests, too.

By the way, my friend who'll be on Leno informed me he didn't encounter any picket problems upon entering the lot this afternoon -- in part because he's appearing as an actor and not as a writer.

I'll have much more to say on this later.

Jim Gaffigan explains Pale Force

Jim Gaffigan debuted the second season of his cartoon superhero farce, Pale Force, on Monday night's Late Night with Conan O'Brien. For those of you who haven't caught on, Gaffigan helps out, introducing the concept each time he's on the show, saying how he and Conan "play superheroes who fight crime with our paleness and shoot lasers out of our nipples." And Conan always points out, as he did Monday, "I think I came across as weak and sniveling in some episodes -- wait, all episodes!" And each time, they show the first part of an episode, end with a cliffhanger and send viewers online to see what happens next.

Here is a sample clip from the first season:

Gaffigan and I talked earlier today about how this bizarre Emmy-nominated cartoon came to be.

"It's the idea of Paul Noth. He's a cartoonist for The New Yorker. It was his idea. He had come to a couple of tapings when I was on Conan and it just kind of, he came up with the idea and we pitched it to the Conan people and did a sample one."

Was it a hard sell?
"it's kind of rare for them to take an idea, let alone one that costs a bunch of money to produce, but they liked it, and it kind of snowballed. We got 20 episodes for the first season and 20 episodes for the second season."

So how much does it cost?
"Well, I don't know if I'm supposed to reveal that. We do it in a very cost-efficient way, compared to how they're doing King of the Hill, it's a lot cheaper. Paul does a boatload of the animation work. He directs the animation, he draws all the characerts, I do all the voices. Paul's brother, Patrick Noth does all the music. Jeannie, my wife, is in on every writers' meeting. It's a tiny self-contained group."

"Paul had done a small piece of animation that I have on my dvd, which was essentially me talking to the camera when I'm in my underwear. He had been fishing around looking for other things to do."

I know Conan claims to have nothing to do with it, but does he give you guys any input?
"We discuss what the panel is going to be, but it's self-contained. They approved the first script or two, but they're busy doing a daily show, and they know that we kind of know what we’re doing and we’re not going to cross the line and not come in with some horrible racist thing and we’re not going to go after one of their sponsors or anything...The formula is pretty much: Make fun of pale people, glorify me, and most importantly, humiliate Conan. That's kind of the nub of what it all is."

Was that supposed to be Carson Daly pushing NBC honcho Jeff Zucker around in a wheelchair in this week's episode?
"It is Carson, but it's not like a slam on Carson. Theres also the whole NBC element with Zucker being Old Man Potter in the wheelchair. We were trying to think of who would be the guy who'd be pushing the wheelchair. I'd done Carson's show tons of times, I thought it would be interesting choice."

Agreed. A very interesting selection. So how does Pale Force fit in with your stand-up and other comedy projects?
"What I love about doing Pale Force and doing animation. I never grew up thinking (raising to his comedic higher-pitched subconscious voice) 'I want to do my own animation show!' I love acting. But I love how in animation you can layer in so many jokes and commentary. It is something that you can go back and fix...You can change what somebody's holding. We try to be mindful of the fact, that we don't have the luxury of South Park where they can just redo something over and over if they like, because it is this skeleton crew."

New episodes debut once a week, but Gaffigan said he shows up on Conan about once a month to promote Pale Force.

As for how it fits in with his comedic style...
"My stand-up is very much an observational kind of silliness. Pale Force is great because it allows me to explore social commentary and snarkiness that I have in my everyday life. Some of the things that we in the country are embracing or getting obessesed by, I find hysterical."

This week's episode has a "Dancing With The Stars" scene, for example.
"We have an episode coming up that's about reality shows and these game show phemonena are out of control. It's a reality game of 'So You Think You’re Pale'...You can be a social satirist in some of this stuff. My stand-up persona is a guy who's obsessed with cake and bacon. I don't really aspire to do mean stuff, but if we can suddently have a commentary of -- things will come up -- whether it'll be Charlie Rose, or just the superficiality of society, it's kind of fun."

Do you put Pale Force out on your MySpace or multiple Facebook profiles to make sure people know what's going on?
"They were going to put all last season on iTunes, but NBC had some falling out with itunes, the monopoly there, I think they pushed back too hard. The awareness thing...there's probably some of them that occasionally sneak onto YouTube. The reason NBC wanted to do two seasons was to drive people to go to nbc.com, which kind of hampers the viral aspect of it. There's still a lot of people who don't know what Pale Force is. I'll do meet-and-greets after the show and if I see someone who's pale I'll bring it up, and I’ll be suprrised if they don't know about it."

If you think Jim Gaffigan is on MySpace and Facebook as much or maybe more often than you, you're probably right.

How often are you online during the day updating your profiles?
"During the day? It depends. If I'm putting some shows on sale, I might go on there and you know, do a bulletin blog thing. Or a note on Facebook. And then some of it is a distraction from writing, you know what I mean? I've got to write. But I have to see if anyone hit my honesty box. There's no sensible reason for me to spend as much time on there as I do, but it's all good."

Do you feel like you need to choose between MySpace and Facebook?
"I'm sure I should get rid of one of them. But I like to think I take care of both of them. It seems like Facebook is a little easier, and you feel less inclined to respond to someone sending you a pina colada...obviously you can reach a lot more people on MySpace...The thing that's so incredible about them both, if you're an indie band or a comedian, letting people know you're going to be in Philly (where he'll be on Saturday) is half the task...How do you let them know you’re coming? So MySpace and Facebook are perfect for that."