Voice-over actor and improviser Tino Insana, who got his start in Chicago with a comedy trio with John Belushi, has died. Here is The Second City’s obituary for Insana: Tino Insana, improviser, actor, writer, award-winning voice-over artist, best remembered as Mr. Grouper in “Bubble Guppies,” for which he was nominated for a Kids’ Choice Award, […]
Continue ReadingSinger. Songwriter. Comedian. Rabbi. Cantor. Gary Shapiro touched many lives in and around Los Angeles in ways a typical comedian never did. Shapiro died unexpectedly on Thursday. More details on that as they become available. Shapiro (@ElSmoocho on Twitter) had just performed at the beginning of the week at the monthly Top Tune showcase for […]
Continue ReadingCharlie Murphy, a Navy vet and comedian who broke out from his younger brother’s shadow by telling outrageously true stories on Comedy Central’s Chappelle’s Show, died today from leukemia. He was 57. The last time I saw Charlie Murphy performing live was in October 2015, while he toured with The Black & Brown Comedy Get […]
Continue ReadingComedian Charlie Murphy has died after a bought with Lukemia, he was 57 years old. According to his manager, Murphy… MORE
Charlie Murphy dead at 57 appeared first on The Laugh Button.
The world might’ve just got a bit more darker today as comedy legend Don Rickles has passed at the age… MORE
Comedy legend Don Rickles dead at 90 appeared first on The Laugh Button.
Don Rickles, the legendary comedian and actor who could roast President Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra and just about everyone else, has died. Rickles was 90. Rickles died Thursday at his home in Los Angeles from kidney failure, his publicist confirmed. He hadn’t stopped performing even in old age. Just a couple of weeks ago, AARP […]
Continue ReadingJust a few weeks ago at SXSW we met the 2016 Funniest Person in Austin. Her name was Lashonda Lester.… MORE
R.I.P. Lashonda Lester, Austin’s funniest person appeared first on The Laugh Button.
Lashonda Lester, a Detroit native named 2016’s Funniest Person in Austin, was supposed to record her first half-hour comedy special for Comedy Central two weeks from tonight in New Orleans. Instead, Lester has died. From Martha Kelly, Austin resident and co-star on FX’s Baskets: “Lashonda was one of the most naturally talented comics I’ve ever […]
Continue ReadingGrowing up in the 1970s and 1980s, there were two places to go to find the best sketch comedians and improvising funny people in America: The Second City in Chicago and The Groundlings in Los Angeles. Gary Austin put The Groundlings on the map, founding the sketch and improv troupe and nonprofit school in Los […]
Continue ReadingLast year feels so much farther away than two months ago, doesn’t it? At the end of 2016, so many of us felt melancholy, lamenting the losses of so many icons. Not only in comedy but everywhere else in the world, role models seemed to be swept up almost as if the heavens were calling […]
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