2017 has been a bumper crop year for Maria Bamford. First she released Old Baby, her hilariously heartfelt hourlong Netflix special that not only packed an emotional punch but also pushed the envelope by toying with the structure of standup specials (the venues in which she performs change and grow, allowing her to deconstruct the […]
Continue ReadingIn their new film, Snowy Bing Bongs Across the North Star Combat Zone, the ladies of Cocoon Central Dance Team execute the daintiest fart joke I’ve ever seen. Sunita Mani, Tallie Medel, and Eleanore Pienta stretch out luxuriously on a soundstage beach, their graceful movements undercut by exaggerated sound effects like head scratching, the squelching […]
Continue ReadingSeth Rogen said what we were all thinking: SZA was the thing to get stoked for last week on SNL. “This is my fourth time hosting,” admitted James Franco, “which is the most you can do without it being special.” And this was not a special night of television. It was a very quotidian affair. But […]
Continue ReadingAdam Rotstein is a comedy writer who lives in Los Angeles. He spent two years living in Brooklyn and was legally obligated to move to Los Angeles after that lease was up. He’s written a couple of pilots that he “accidentally” leaves behind at high-end coffee shops in Silver Lake. He also regularly contributes to […]
Continue ReadingThe comedy podcast universe is ever expanding, not unlike the universe universe. We’re here to make it a bit smaller, a bit more manageable. There are a lot of great shows and each has a lot of great episodes, so we want to highlight the exceptional, the noteworthy. Each week our crack team of podcast […]
Continue ReadingThe Stella shorts, which were filmed as companion pieces to their NYC live show and later collected on the rare Stella Shorts 1998-2002 DVD, are legendarily funny. They’re constant bit factories, firing jokes like a minigun. The shorts will upend their own narratives at a moment’s notice for the sake of a single throwaway riff. […]
Continue ReadingCafe’s new series Lil’ Alex Jones features a very young man doing his best Alex Jones impersonation. That’s essentially it. No, sorry, that’s precisely it. Sure, the injustices he’s wailing over are kid-ified but otherwise, everything is the same. Like, exactly, and man, some of it is pretty damn good. The strongest episode in the 7-installment mix seems to be “Censorship at the […]
Continue ReadingAfter the success of last year’s All Def Comedy one-hour special, HBO ordered up a six-episode run of the All Def model, which premieres last Friday. The original Def Comedy Jam of the ‘90s shaped an entire generation of comics, including most of the roughly two dozen comedians chosen for the new series. I talked […]
Continue ReadingThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is an incredibly joyful show. Given, of course, that it takes place in 1958 and the protagonist’s husband leaves her and their two children on erev Yom Kippur. And given, of course, that when she starts to channel her rage and hurt into standup comedy, she’s repeatedly arrested for violating obscenity […]
Continue ReadingEden Sher has spent her entire adult life playing Sue Heck on The Middle. After stints on Weeds and the short-lived Sons & Daughters, Sher was cast in The Middle in 2009 when she was 17, and eight years later the show is nearing it’s series finale. What will she do next? It’s fair to […]
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