Almost an hour into her performance of Nanette at the SoHo Playhouse in New York City, Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby pauses before she pivots. “You’re culturally unprepared for someone to be angry….and funny…in the same breath,” Gadsby informs us. Truth is, though, she can no longer tell her story without anger. And she’s uncertain whether […]
Continue ReadingMost comedians who portray themselves as being above it all or better than everyone else also undercut that persona with buffoonish behavior or ideas that let us all in on the joke. Ricky Gervais is not most comedians. And he’s slightly self-aware of that, at least in naming his first Netflix special Humanity. Truth is, […]
Continue ReadingWhat a night for Melissa Villaseñor! After a season and a half of 1-2 lines every episode, she was featured in five sketches this weekend and closed out the show with a banger Nickelback rendition. I think the episode needed her more reserved stage presence to counterbalance Sterling K. (Kathleen) Brown’s theatricality. Brown brought a […]
Continue ReadingWhat a night for Melissa Villaseñor! After a season and a half of 1-2 lines every episode, she was featured in five sketches this weekend and closed out the show with a banger Nickelback rendition. I think the episode needed her more reserved stage presence to counterbalance Sterling K. (Kathleen) Brown’s theatricality. Brown brought a […]
Continue ReadingIt was perhaps overambitious to call a TV show Love. Like a show co-creator Lesley Arfin’s prior gig, Girls, the title suggests a universality that the content can’t satisfy. Love, which concludes its run with its third season (now streaming on Netflix), concerns a man and a woman (Gus and Mickey) who meet and fall […]
Continue ReadingIf you’re a bilingual of the French/English variety, it might be more than worth your while to watch Gad Elmaleh’s Gad Gone Wild before watching Gad Elmaleh: American Dream. They’re both on Netflix. But you can see just what kind of reach Elmaleh has by watching them in this order. Gad Gone Wild was filmed […]
Continue ReadingHey, we’re adults. We can talk about big issues directly and frankly. I need to know why Charles Barkley hosted SNL this week. He was promoting nothing, he didn’t have a hit indie movie last summer. What gives? Was it because all the movie actors are in Hollywood for the Oscars? Does Charles Barkley live […]
Continue ReadingLiving Biblically, which premiered Monday night, is the newest multi-cam CBS sitcom that reinforces all of the worst stereotypes about CBS sitcoms. It centers around a white guy (Chip, played by Jay R. Ferguson) with a cushy media job (where he hangs out with his Black best friend Vince, played by Tony Rock) married to […]
Continue ReadingMarlon may not be the first to notice that President Trump treats the White House like a reality TV competition, or even that “Donald Trump is the Flavor Flav of white people.” He probably does win a “too soon” award, however, for his impression of Wendy Williams fainting, though, now that we know more about what’s […]
Continue ReadingTurning a podcast into a TV special, let alone a four-part series, doesn’t make sense for most podcasts. But 2 Dope Queens isn’t any podcast. The hit WNYC podcast from Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams is part two-woman comedy duo, part improv, part chat show, part stand-up storytelling showcase. It already is a variety series, […]
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