Going ‘Corporate’ with Matt Ingebretson, Jake Weisman, and Pat Bishop

“Comedy Central Is Corporate.” That’s what was on some mysterious billboards in Los Angeles and New York recently, without much else to go off other than a date. For most people they didn’t know what the billboards were advertising, but there were three guys who had the inside scoop: Matt Ingebretson, Jake Weisman, and Pat […]

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Going Inside the TV Comedy Machine with Andy Richter

Andy Richter is professionally nice. He got his start playing sweetest dad in the game Mike Brady in The Real Live Brady Bunch and just got more convivial from there. From 1993-2007, and then from 2009 to today, Richter has been softening the edges of Conan O’Brien—first on Late Night, then the ill-fated Tonight Show […]

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Talking Faith, Standup, and Season 2 of ‘Crashing’ with Pete Holmes

As a verb, Crashing — the title of comedian Pete Holmes’s semi-autobiographical HBO series — took on multiple conceptual connotations throughout season 1. Our protagonist Pete, a naïve and sheltered evangelical Christian, watched his life come crashing down after discovering his wife having an affair with a bohemian bro named Leif. As an aspiring amateur comedian […]

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Catching Up with Anjelah Johnson

When I caught up with Anjelah Johnson she was at her home in LA, getting ready to head to the Bay Area to spend Christmas with her family before doing a stretch of eight New Year’s weekend shows at Tommy T’s Comedy Club in Pleasanton, just 25 minutes from where she grew up. For Johnson, […]

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Inside ‘Alone Together’ with Esther Povitsky and Benji Aflalo

In the opening scene of the pilot episode of Alone Together, a new comedy produced by The Lonely Island, a guy picks up a girl from her one-night stand and they talk about getting “smashed,” the walk of shame, and Boko Haram. There’s nothing entirely unusual about that for a cable sitcom, but it is […]

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Marianne Ways: Comedy Booker, Producer, and Consultant Extraordinaire

Over the years, Littlefield in Brooklyn has become a go-to spot for Monday night comedy in New York. It was once the home of Kurt Braunohler and Kristen Schaal’s Hot Tub before the duo moved the show to LA. Night Train with Wyatt Cenac then filled the spot with a show that The New York […]

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Behind the Camera with Lawrence Sher

Comedy movie directors may not get as much credit as they deserve. Yes, there is Judd Apatow and Todd Phillips, but how many people could name the director of Tommy Boy (Peter Segal) or Wedding Crashers (David Dobkin) or Superbad (Greg Mottola)? And how does one even become a comedy film director to begin with? […]

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Talking Storytelling and Standup with Selena Coppock

It’s a great time to be a standup with both a killer persona and writing chops, and Selena Coppock knows a lot about both. The Massachusetts native currently lives in New York City and has spent years performing at standup and storytelling events like The Moth and Yum’s the Word as well as co-hosting the […]

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Romesh Ranganathan Arrives in the States

Best known for his standup in the United Kingdom, Romesh Ranganathan was working as a high school math teacher before deciding to pursue his lifelong passion for comedy. Over the course of five years, Romesh went from performing pub gigs to becoming one of the UK’s most popular performers. After selling out theaters all over England and touring Australia, […]

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Russell Peters on Traveling, Standup, and ‘Indian Detective’

Russell Peters started doing standup in 1989 and he has built himself an incredible career in the three decades since, including sold-out international tours, several major televised specials, and regular mentions on Forbes for his annual income — something Peters says is a natural “curiosity” for people. But perhaps none of it would have come […]

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