Catherine Cohen on Late Night with Seth Meyers

Whether or not you’ve already listened to my podcast chat with Catherine Cohen, this young cabaret star has just made her late-night TV debut, performing on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Cohen sang “Look at Me,” accompanied by Henry Ko…

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Atsuko Okatsuka performs onstage at The Ice House during an earthquake

Stand-up comedians love starting or ending their sets with thunderous applause. But what about an honest-to-goodness earthquake? That’s what happened to Atsuko Okatsuka on July 5, 2019, when a 7.1-magnitude quake began rumbling just after she too…

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Just For Laughs fetes Kevin Hart, Jim Jefferies, Hasan Minhaj, Amanda Seales, “Big Mouth” with 2019 awards

We’re only a week away from the comedy industry’s annual confab in Montreal for Just For Laughs, and JFL has announced which big stars the fest will fete the most with Comedy Awards. This year’s recipients: Kevin Hart (Generation Award), Ji…

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Episode #268: Catherine Cohen

With degrees in English and Theater, Catherine Cohen not only graduated from Princeton University but also delivered a humorous speech at her own graduation. Five years later, Cohen became one of New York City’s newest It Girls, bringing the cabaret co…

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Review: “Bill Burr Presents IanTalk: Ideas Not Worth Spreading” on Comedy Central

In this age when comedians like to tease other comedians for delivering “TED talks” instead of stand-up comedy, it’s fascinating that nobody has actually used the TED talk format yet to both embrace and mock the trend. Until now. Than…

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Reviewing the reviews of Aziz Ansari’s “Right Now” on Netflix

If you’re looking for my review of Aziz Ansari’s new Netflix special, Right Now, right now it’s on Decider. Media outlets generally avoid running critiques of stand-up specials. For whatever reason, some 12 years after I started The C…

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Amazon launching four new comedy specials the week after its first Amazon Originals special in August

A year after Amazon Prime Video announced its intentions to compete for stand-up comedy by filming New Faces at Montreal’s Just For Laughs, the plan is starting to become clearer. The first Amazon Originals stand-up special, Jim Gaffigan; Quality…

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Fortune Feimster and Tom Papa to anchor weekday morning show for Netflix’s new SiriusXM radio channel

Netflix’s new SiriusXM radio channel, Netflix Is A Joke Radio (ch. 93), will get its own live weekday morning show next Monday (July 15, 2019), hosted by stand-up comedians Tom Papa and Fortune Feimster live from Los Angeles. What A Joke with Pap…

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Who advanced out of the premiere episode of NBC’s “Bring The Funny,” and what does it all mean

Bring The Funny is no Last Comic Standing. Nor is it America’s Got Talent. So what is Bring The Funny? The newest NBC talent competition is open to all sorts of funny people, from solo acts to groups, from stand-ups to characters to musical duos …

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Beth Stelling on Jimmy Kimmel Live

This is an interesting development. Beth Stelling performed on Tuesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, but the footage came from Jimmy Kimmel’s new comedy club in Las Vegas, where Stelling had headlined last month. Could this mean more stan…

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