the comic's comic

Watch the trailer for Nick Swardson's movie, "Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star"

Feels like forever since Nick Swardson said he was going to star in a movie for Adam Sandler's production company as a guy whose life changes when he finds out that his parents once were porn stars. Well, now we have an official movie trailer. This is Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star.

Roll it.

 

Nick Swardson's Pretend Time, season two, is in production for Comedy Central

In case you still were wondering, Nick Swardson's Pretend Time will return for a second season on Comedy Central.

Production is ongoing already. Shooting for a fall 2011 broadcast, but no times and dates have been announced officially.

On the show's Facebook page, Swardson and company recently wrote that they'll include live tapings for fans in the Los Angeles area this summer. "This season is going to be dope," they reported. "Already have a Gay Robot four part mystery called 'Gay Robot and the Curse of the Haunted Jock Strap.'"

Watch the red band trailer for "30 Minutes or Less"

Here is the official "red band" (adults only, or mature immature audiences, please) for 30 Minutes or Less, arriving in a cinema near you in August 2011. Starring Aziz Ansari, Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride and Nick Swardson. Directed by Ruben Fleischer.

Roll the clip!

 

Things I learned in real time about "Nick Swardson's Pretend Time" on Comedy Central

Nick Swardson debuts the first of his seven-episode sketch series, Nick Swardson's Pretend Time, tonight on Comedy Central. Well, actually, Swardson also showed off the premiere episode over the weekend to a few hundred eager fans at New York Comic-Con. On his birthday.

Among the other things learned about Swardson, his show and his life:

1) Swardson had to pay upward of $4,000 in damages, including forfeiting his security deposit, when he recently moved. All because he had thrown his video-game controllers through windows and into walls.

2) Swardson also confessed to once having all three of his gamer account names banned at one time due to his online video-game trash talking.

3) A fan asked Swardson to come out drinking with him afterward, and said that Swardson was one of his two all-time sought-after drinking buddies. The other? George W. Bush.

4) Swardson joked about getting into a fight in a bar one time because he took out his penis and placed it over his wrist, pretending it was his watch, and asking a guy what time it was. (Note: I think a few of us already heard this one!)

5) Jon Glaser, who spoke with Swardson at New York Comic-Con, told the crowd that his first memory of knowing Swardson happened one year at Seattle's Bumbershoot festival, wherein Swardson opened the refrigerator, turned to reveal his penis and balls atop a leaf of lettuce, and asked everyone whose sandwich it was.

6) Taking that theme into the show, Swardson told Glaser that the process of finding a suitable dildo for a gag in the premiere -- in which piranhas chomp on a man's penis -- was perhaps as ridiculous as the gag itself. As was the process of dealing with standards and practices on each episode. "To think that we got away with that," Swardson said.

7) Yes, the series is a more than a bit gross, and at times, you could rename it Nick Swardson's Pervert Time.

8) The debut kicks off with blood, urine, donkey shows and a bucket list for kids!

9) Oh, and also the Wheelchair Cat and Garry Gaga sketches you got sneak peeks of earlier. And of course, Gay Robot.

10) Swardson doesn't have a set sketch troupe cast, but rather is rotating people in for the parts as they're written. The debut features Natasha Leggero, Melinda Hill, Al Madrigal, Brian Huskey, Rob Heubel and Ryan Philippe.

11) Perhaps because the show is so dirty, in episode two's intro, Swardson tells viewers: "This show is a lot filthier than I thought it was going to be. It's really, really dirty, some of the sketches. So, don't tell my mom I have a show. If you could, do me that favor. If you see her on the street, just be like, 'I saw Nicholas. He's, he's a doctor. He saved my life. He gave me a new head.' Just something incredible that I did."

12) Episode two is perhaps even darker and more absurd than the premiere, with appearances by Finesse Mitchell, Bob Odenkirk, Huskey again, and also more Gay Robot.

13) Swardson still likes to party, but wishes his fans could let him make the rules, as he explains in this short interview with me following his appearance at New York Comic-Con.

14) I said there's a clip. This is that clip. Swardson came up with Nick Swardson's Pretend Time along with Tom Gianis, and says in this clip how he came up with the actors and writers who worked on the first season with him. Roll it!

 

 

Nick Swardson's classy promo, and a slice of life from Garry Gaga, brother of Lady, in "Pretend Time"

If MTV didn't give Nick Swardson a chance to say much yesterday, then Comedy Central is making up the difference and then some in a new promo for his upcoming sketch comedy series, Nick Swardson's Pretend Time. It debuts Oct. 12, 2010. The series. Not this clip. It debuts now!

Classy!

Here is a peek at a sketch called "Famous Siblings," with this installment profiling Lady Gaga's older brother, a cop named Garry who has the mustache of a cop, if not the uniform of one. Roll it.

Nick Swardson's mustache has nothing to say about Danny McBride's other new movie with Aziz Ansari

The folks at MTV caught up with Danny McBride and Nick Swardson on the set of their upcoming movie, 30 Minutes or Less, which Ruben Fleischer is directing with a cast that also includes Aziz Ansari, Jessie Eisenberg and Fred Willard. But that's not what MTV wanted to talk about. Not in this clip, anyhow. In this clip, McBride talks about another upcoming movie project he's working on with Ansari, which McBride says is called "Olympic-Size Asshole."

That film is from a pitch by Ansari and 30 Rock's Matt Hubbard, with Parks and Rec scribe Harris Wittels attached to write the screenplay for McBride's production company. Nick Swardson and his mustache have no comment. Roll the clip!

Nick Swardson's Pretend Time will include more Gay Robot, but here's a peek at "Wheelchair Cat"

Nick Swardson appeared at San Diego's Comic-Con to help stoke fan interest in his new sketch show, Nick Swardson's Pretend Time, which debuts on Comedy Central in October. Fans at Comic-Con got to see some new Gay Robot material, as well as this sketch starring Mr. Stitches as "Wheelchair Cat: Trust Fund Kitty." Roll the clip!

March Madness pick 'em: 12 Angry Mascots vs. (5) Nick Swardson

Another three weekends of March Madness have begun anew, as the NCAA men's and women's basketball tourneys are underway (alongside the NIT and the CBI, which I'm still adjusting to acknowledge as an actual thing). Comedians have gotten into the act again, too.

Nick Swardson, who has a sketch show in the works for Comedy Central, starred in a series of short videos for VitaminWater, offering tips on surviving March Madness, with co-stars such as Katrina Bowden (hot young actress you still don't really know anything about from 30 Rock) and Kevin Farley (who, well, brother of late Chris Farley). Let's roll two of these.

Meanwhile, NYC-based sports-based comedy-based troupe 12 Angry Mascots produced their own version of the mind games that take over offices when co-workers fill out their brackets. Their next live show is March 28 at Comix. Roll it.

Are iTunes top comedy albums of 2009 on your list?

The only thing people love making more than year-end list are decade-end lists, and some of them seem as much about generating page-views as they are about subjectively ranking things that should not be ranked. That's rank! So where are my lists? I've got something else up my sleeves for this December, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share with you the iTunes list of their choices of the 20 best comedy discs from 2009, along with my thoughts on said list.

For one thing, it's really across the board. Any list that puts Brent Weinbach side-by-side with Katt Williams is looking to appeal to all sorts. I'm not exactly sure I agree with everything on here, but then again, I haven't quite listened to all of them just yet -- there are stacks of CDs and DVDs in my apartment, and I hope to get through them all by year's end and share my own thoughts on them with you. I have listened to and reviewed eight of the iTunes 20; most of the rest are waiting in my queue, and a few I don't even have my hands on just yet? My loss or yours? Also, iTunes missed some great ones from the past year. No John Mulaney? I haven't heard Paul F. Tompkins new disc yet, but would presume it's worthy. And no ladies on the list? Not even Maria Bamford? Harumph. Here, then, are the iTunes choices from the year in comedy -- I'm not sure if they have a ranking order from iTunes, so I'll list them alphabetically:

Doug Benson, Unbalanced Load

Matt Braunger, Soak Up The Night

Bo Burnham, Bo Burnham

John Caparulo, Meet Cap

Christian Finnegan, Au Contraire!

Flight of the Conchords, I Told You I Was Freaky

Jim Gaffigan, King Baby

Greg Giraldo, Midlife Vices

Kyle Grooms, The Legend of the Jersey Devil

Moshe Kasher, Everyone You Know Is Going To Die, and Then You Are!

Jon Lajoie, You Want Some of This?

Artie Lange, Jack and Coke

The Lonely Island, Incredibad

Eugene Mirman, God Is A 12-Year-Old Boy with Asperger's

Patton Oswalt, My Weakness Is Strong

Jon Reep, Metro Jethro

Nick Swardson, Seriously, Who Farted?

Brent Weinbach, The Night Shift

Katt Williams, It's Pimpin' Pimpin'

Weird Al Yankovic, Internet Leaks

Comedy Central confirms Nick Swardson's sketch show is coming in 2010

Comedy Central announced today that Nick Swardson would debut a new weekly sketch show on the network in 2010. I felt like we already knew this, though, right? Oh, yes. Right. Swardson himself said as much back in May on his MySpace page, telling fans he was doing six half-hour sketch episodes that would include animated bits of Gay Robot (maybe Comedy Central already has forgotten that MySpace continues to exist?), and he also mentioned the new show during his recent Comedy Central stand-up special, Seriously, Who Farted? Production on the show will begin in November, with Swardson, Tom Gianis, Happy Madison and Sony Pictures Television as executive producers. The series will include the aforementioned Gay Robot animation, digital shorts, man-on-the-street segments and more.

As Swardson said back in May: "It's more in the vain (sic) of Mr. Show and Human Giant. I'm so psyched. Gonna be DOPE." Word.

Nick Swardson keeps the party going with "Seriously, Who Farted?" (DVD/CD review)

Comedians like to party just as much as you do, if not more so. Trust me. And yet, you don't see too many comedians who bring their party persona onstage. If you want a party comedian, Nick Swardson continues to be your guy.

For Seriously, Who Farted?, Swardson's new hourlong special (available in different versions on CD or DVD via Comedy Central), he had opening act Beardo and Dirt Nasty (aka Nicholaus Goossen and Simon Rex) riling up the theater crowd in Austin earlier this year with seven minutes of "singing" about getting drunk, doing drugs and having sex. You can see on the DVD as a bonus feature. By the time Swardson took the stage, the Austin fans were hooting and hollering for anything to do with drinking and drugs -- to the point where they "woo-wooed" when Swardson started a story about alcohol poisoning ("That's not applause-worthy," he chided them briefly) and booing him when he mentioned that to obey the law, they had to have fake pot on the set of Grandma's Boy.

"I never thought about being a stand-up as a kid," Swardson said, introducing a funny bit about boys who want to be ninjas, and wondering what would happen if we ended up becoming the first thing we wanted to be. Roll the clip!

Comedy Central signs on for Nick Swardson DVD

Nick Swardson is recording his performance tonight in Austin at the Paramount, and Comedy Central has agreed to air the hour special in the fall and also release it as a DVD. Congrats, Nick!

Artist on Artist: Nick Swardson and Adam Sandler

A MySpace interview that not only promotes Adam Sandler's new film, You Don't Mess With The Zohan, but also allows Sandler and Nick Swardson to chat about whatevers. Enjoy.

Artist on Artist Adam Sandler - Nick Swardson

Comic Strip Marathon: Post #7 Nick Swardson

I spy Nick Swardson through one of the windows that peers backstage. He best start messing with some Zohan. If you know what I mean.

For your consideration: Gay Robot

Comedy Central released this image today of Gay Robot, the star of Nick Swardson's new animated series. From my interview with Swardson last May...
Most reports say Gay Robot is going to get a second chance as a cartoon. True?
“Yeah, Gay Robot is still alive. Comedy Central had always wanted it animated. So I think this time will be more successful. But I really love that pilot. I really do.”

And here is that original live-action TV pilot:

Gay Robot

Comedy Central's 2008/2009 project list

Comedy Central has revealed its list of upcoming works and pilots under the modest heading: "The Future of Comedy."

Next year, prepare for a fantasy-comedy set in medieval times, "Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire," written by Peter Knight.

The pilots include projects by or featuring Snoop Dogg, Andy Richter, Daniel Tosh, David Alan Grier, Nick Swardson, Paul F. Tompkins, Opie & Anthony, Zach Galifianakis and A.D. Miles. Scripted development deals go out to Bobby Lee, Jordan Rubin, Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter.

And there will be specials. John Oliver's "Terrifying Times" debuts April 20. Carlos Mencia's hourlong "Performance Enhanced" debuts May 18. Brian Regan's yet-untitled special will air in the third quarter of 2008.

A new video roundup

Just checking my feeds from some of my other favorite comedy sites (look on the left column here, and you'll see the most recent postings from Comedy Central Insider, Dead-Frog, The Apiary, The Baston and Shecky Magazine, as they're updated) and saw a couple of new and funny videos posted on CCInsider, thought I'd take a look-see at what else is new and online.

First up, Olde English proves that sometimes it's better not to overthink a situation:

After the jump, we've got videos from Pete & Brian, Funny or Die featuring Nick Swardson and David Spade, and Harry Shearer revealing the Katie Couric you don't see. Click and enjoy!

My year in interviews

Before I get to recapping the year in comedy, circa 2007, let's look back at some of my more illuminating, insightful and interesting comedy interviews from the year.

My sit-down with Ricky Gervais has to take the top spot in my mind, because his strongly held opinions on sticking to your creative guns and not sacrificing your beliefs in your own sense of humor (and humour) are words that any creative artists -- whether they're comedians, musicians, writers or actors -- can live by.

A close second, then, has to have been my September face-to-face with Dane Cook. Arguably the biggest headliner in the country this year and last, in terms of tickets and CDs sold, Cook met me in a Manhattan hotel lounge as part of his promotional tour for Good Luck Chuck. But we barely talked about the movie, instead tackling every question you've probably wanted to hear Cook answer, and then some. He even brought up Louis CK!

Speaking of whom, Louis CK was just one of the many other bright lights of comedy I got to talk to at length in 2007 -- the others included Nick Swardson, Christian Finnegan, Jim Gaffigan, Michael Ian Black, Eddie Brill, Bob Saget, Artie Lange, Doug Benson, Damon Wayans, Charlie Murphy, Frank Caliendo and Tim Minchin. Of course, there were hundreds of other comedians I got to witness and talk to this past year, and hopefully, I'll get to tell you more about all of them in 2008.

Nick Swardson loses his shirt, but not his sense of humor

I first met Nick Swardson earlier this year at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo. We were hanging out in the “Sierra Mist Lounge,” a popular free food-and-grub afterparty area in the hotel, and Swardson and I quickly got into a prolonged chat about comedy and the backlash within the stand-up community against its biggest stars of today (that’d be Dane Cook, Carlos Mencia, and Larry the Cable Guy, all provoking scorn and jealousy for different reasons). And then we got down to fun.

See. Here is a photo of him with a Sierra Mist girl at the foosball table.

Later that night, things got sloppy at the after-after-afterparty – the grand finale bash at the Goldberg mansion up high on the opposite mountain. People hunted and fought over cars to make the trek, and at one point, a woman yelled at Swardson: “I’m not f---ing driving him anywhere!” Owen Benjamin and others tried to defend Swardson, to no avail. Eventually, though, everyone made it to the mansion. And back again. And before we parted ways, Swardson said I needed to remember to talk to him before his tour showed up in Boston (May 5, Berklee Performance Center, $27.50 via Ticketmaster).

Fast-forward to this week.

Swardson already could laugh at himself about Aspen. He said his manager, Bernie Brillstein, worriedly chewed him out about his post-show partying. “The guy who managed Chris Farley and John Belushi is telling me I’m a train wreck!” Swardson said.

It’s not going to stop him from looking for a party in Boston on Cinco de Mayo.

Any chance of you doing anything worthy of being called a train wreck?
“Ah, possibly. But I really only drink. I don’t do any drugs anymore.”

Swardson, 30, won’t have to look far to find someone to party with – his friend and sometime collaborator, Jamie Kennedy, rescheduled his own comedy show at the Paradise to the same time as Swardson’s gig. Swardson appeared in many episodes of TV’s The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, and together, they co-wrote the 2003 film, Malibu’s Most Wanted. I jokingly informed him of this booking situation.

Really, though, doesn’t this just mean there are two Nick Swardson shows on Saturday, since you’ve written most of Jamie Kennedy’s funnier stand-up bits?
(laughing and catching his breath) “No f---ing way! Oh, that’s wild. Holy s---! I don’t even think he knows I’m there. If he did, he didn’t tell me. That’s really wild. What an idiot.”

“That’s funny. When I first moved to Hollywood …they said, ‘Yeah, we want you to be our next Jamie Kennedy.’ I said, ‘F--- that, I’m going to be better than Jamie Kennedy. I told him that and now we laugh about it. He’s always been one of my best friends.”

Swardson explained that Kennedy tried stand-up first at open mikes before getting his big break as an actor in the films, first Romeo + Juliet, then memorably in the Scream franchise. By the time their careers crossed paths, Swardson had the comedy credentials as a national headliner with a half-hour Comedy Central special, but Kennedy had the name draw. So when the pair traveled to the Tempe Improv a few years ago, Swardson found himself opening for Kennedy.

“When he did that club, he was already famous. I wasn’t a normal MC. I was just doing the Improv a favor. It was one of those situations where he could’ve been threatened by me, but he was really nice and cool to me.”

No one can question who the star of this comedy tour is, with MySpace as its sponsor. Swardson said he has put “a lot of original content, like videos” on the site. A lot of the photos and videos feature the comedian without his shirt.

So if you and Matthew McConaughey ended up at the same party, who’d go topless first?
“Wow. Tough question. I would say I would be topless first. But my being topless would probably bum more people out. Whereas his would start the party. Matthew took his shirt off. Hooray!”

Your tour alternates between theaters and clubs. Was that a conscious decision? Or logistics?
“I wanted to do theaters and my agent was like, I don’t know why, but he’s married to comedy clubs. The only clubs I’m doing are Chicago and New York. Whatever. I shouldn’t say anything. I prefer doing theaters just because it’s less draining for me, to do 1,500 people in one night than to perform to 400 people in a club several times in a weekend. Especially since I still go out and party after the shows.”

You began in improv, right? How’d you make the transition to stand-up?
“This is kind of funny, too. I did theater in high school but I joined an improv group. We did a ton of improv, long-from improv. I always looked down on stand-up. Thought it was kind of corny. Remember this was the mid-90s and the end of the boom. I thought stand-up was Seinfeld and Paul Reiser, guys talking about their wives. There was nothing really hip about it. There was a small alternative scene starting up with people like Janeane Garofalo and David Cross…But in 1996, when I graduated from high school, I wanted to take a year off…My improv group folded, though, so I was stuck without a format to perform. I was in Minneapolis. So I went down to an open mike and was going to perform with a bunch of my friends, but my buddies never showed up. So I just went up and performed.”

With two Comedy Centrals under his belt and writing credits on three films (Grandma’s Boy and The Benchwarmers are the others), Swardson’s fan base knows him just as well from his stand-up as they do from his memorable characters – most of them outrageous, like gay roller-skating prostitute Terry in Reno: 911 and the figure-skating stalker in Blades of Glory. He also created a show called Gay Robot.

Most reports say Gay Robot is going to get a second chance as a cartoon. True?
“Yeah, Gay Robot is still alive. Comedy Central had always wanted it animated. So I think this time will be more successful. But I really love that pilot. I really do.”

Have you ever caught any flack from the gay community over all of your flamboyantly funny characters?
“No. It’s usually the opposite. I don’t think you can be more outlandish than Terry in Reno: 911. That would be ridiculous. I was talking to a friend to think if it was the gayest character ever on TV. There’s no gray area to the character. We just did season five and the character has a girlfriend. It’s great. There’s some really funny s--- that we did.”

Anything special about your Boston show people should know about?
“This show I’m really really excited for. I grew up a big Celtics fan. I love the Red Sox. I’ve always had a blast there. The last time I did stand-up in Boston was like, seven years ago. I opened up for Anthony Clark on New Year’s Eve. It was freezing! All I remember is being black-out drunk, eating a sausage I had bought from a cart, watching three or four guys beat each other up. I can’t wait for the same situation to play itself out. Just warmer.”

NOTE: An abridged version of this interview appears in today's edition of BostonNOW.