Comedian // Current

Why Is “Nerd Love” Successful?

http://infoconfessions.blogspot.com/

eclectic1
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15 hours ago
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Katt Williams Arrested For Burglary «

http://forbezdvd.com/blog/2009/11/09/katt-williams-arrested-for-burglary/

doggeman
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1 day ago
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HLN's Joy Behar Interviews Comedian Wanda Sykes

'The Wanda Sykes Show'' is scheduled to run on November 7, 2009.... more

copperdragon
added this
9 days ago
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Randy Russell Brand - Lofty Comedian Leafing Through Kinky Accessories at Sex Shop

Randy Russell Brand the lofty comedian is already well known for his comic character,... more

ashley_spencers
added this
13 days ago
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Larry David Blasted for 'Curb' Episode Where He Urinates on Jesus Painting

"Comedian Larry David is under attack from critics who say he pushed the mocking of... more

clish1
added this
14 days ago
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69 comments

Soupy Sales, Zany Slapstick Television Comedian, Dies at 83

Soupy Sales, whose wacky television routines turned the smashing of pies in people's... more

disembedded
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19 days ago
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5 comments

Gamedians.com - Ep. 102 - "Full Disclosure"

Dan and Andrew come clean about where they've been getting the video games for their... more

gamedians
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20 days ago
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Blame the comedian

Why Daniele Luttazzi is not on italian TV? a lot of people obviously don't have a show... more

hyperion74
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1 month ago
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Another Voice Of Reason - Janeane Garofalo

I've included Janeane Garofalo in my Voices Of Reason videos because besides being a humorous comedian she can also see the nutty side of life through objectivity. In other words... She questions. She's a delight and she makes you THINK! thinkingblue
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Janeane Garofalo (born September 28, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist, writer, and former co-host on Air America Radio's The Majority Report. Despite her celebrity status, Garofalo continues to circulate regularly within New York City's local comedy and performance art scene.

Early life
Garofalo was born in Newton, New Jersey, the daughter of Joan, a secretary in the petrochemical industry who died of cancer when Janeane was 24, and Carmine Garofalo, a former executive at Exxon. Garofalo is of Italian and Irish descent. She grew up in various places, including Ontario, California; Madison, New Jersey; and Katy, Texas (near Houston) where she graduated from James E. Taylor High School. Garofalo is quoted as having disliked life in Houston due to the humidity, heat, and emphasis on prettiness and sports in high school. While studying history at Providence College, Garofalo entered a comedy talent search sponsored by the Showtime cable network, winning the title of "Funniest Person in Rhode Island." Her original gimmick was to read off her hand, which was not successful in subsequent performances. Dreaming of earning a slot on the writing staff of the TV show Late Night With David Letterman, she became a professional standup upon graduating from college with degrees in history and American studies. She struggled for a number of years, working briefly as a bike messenger in Boston.

Garofalo has described herself thus: "I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth."

Stand-up Comedy
Garofalo officially began her career in stand-up comedy in the late 1980s during the pre-grunge era. Her appearance was often in line with late 1980s style: disheveled with thick black glasses and unkempt hair. Her comedy is often self-deprecating; she has made fun of popular culture and the pressures on women to conform to body image ideals promoted by the media.

Garofalo's comedy shows involve her and her notebook, which is filled with years' worth of article clippings and random observations she references for direct quotes during her act. Garofalo has said that she does not tell jokes as much as make observations designed to get laughs. She was part of the alternative comedy scene in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, appearing at Un-Cabaret and other venues.I've included Janeane Garofalo in my Voices Of Reason videos because besides being a... more

thinkingblue
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1 month ago
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1 comment

Kathy Griffin, Front Row @ Isaac Mizrahi

We love it! D-List star, Kathy Griffin rocked the front row at Issac Mizrahi today... more

acohen8171
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1 month ago
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The Keep it Green Girls Ride the Bus

Shelley Pack and Sarah Norton break up with Carbon Dioxide, and ride public... more

shelleypack
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1 month ago
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Dying to do Letterman

Several years ago, Steve Mazan, a stand-up comedian, was diagnosed with inoperable... more

pandaman2105
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2 months ago
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Louis CK's new TV series

Louis CK is getting his own TV comedy series on FX. The series begins production after... more

torres_tn
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2 months ago
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Alt-comedy as the New Mainstream

"First in a series of occasional articles about how alternative comedy is fueling Hollywood.

Four years ago, Harris Wittels was just another alternative-comedy nerd with big dreams, the kind of guy who started doing stand-up in junior high, revered the sketches on HBO's "Mr. Show" and could recite the late comic Mitch Hedberg's bits from memory. Now the 25-year-old tours with Louis C.K., hangs out with alt-comedy princess Sarah Silverman and writes for NBC's Amy Poehler comedy "Parks and Recreation."

This is what success looks like inside today's comedy pipeline. It starts in the small theaters of L.A., places like the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, Largo at the Coronet and ImprovOlympic -- today's version of the Catskills of the '40s -- where a comic like Wittels can be playing to small crowds and quickly end up reaching millions of fans on prime-time TV and the cineplex in one exhilarating ride.

Wittels' leap up the comedy food chain says as much about his talent as it does about the changing appetites of the American audience. What once was primarily the domain of self-proclaimed intellectuals and artists is becoming the new mainstream. When an oddball like "The Hangover's" Zach Galifianakis is a bankable movie star, College Humor.com is owned by Barry Diller and the Internet absurdity of Funnyor Die.com is soon to be an HBO show, something has clearly shifted in the collective idea of what's funny.

"In comedy alternative is the path to the mainstream," noted B.J. Novak, a Harvard grad whose offbeat stand-up bits landed him on TV.

Or, as Silverman said: "It used to be that alternative comedy was alternative to something. It really isn't anymore," added Silverman, whose shock comedy launched her from stand-up at Largo to a hit Comedy Central show to a $2.5-million book deal with HarperCollins last year. Years ago, someone with Wittels' dark, twisted sense of humor --with jokes about date rape and Megan's Law -- was likely to be the product of a poor, lonely childhood who spent years bombing at open mikes from Tampa to Barstow. Instead, Wittels is a doctor's son who grew up in Houston, watching MTV's sketch comedy show "The State" -- "That was my Monty Python," he said -- and whose parents booked 200-seat performance halls so Wittels and his friends could put up their sketches. Not exactly the school of hard knocks.

Indeed, this darkly ironic, scathing, scatological and subversive humor actually disguises a more pragmatic point of view: Comedy is a savvy career move. And though serious comics have always been creatures of New York and Los Angeles, more and more of them end up here for the work. Yes, success is still a longshot and demands slavish devotion, but the opportunities -- and the ethnicities of the comics themselves -- are far more diverse than they've ever been.""First in a series of occasional articles about how alternative comedy is fueling... more