Comedy films premiering at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival

At the end of the year, as we celebrate the best of the past 12 months, it’s good to remember just how much we loved in cinema came out of the first month’s granddaddy of independent film fests, Sundance. This January, we saw the premieres …

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This month in TV development

“Pilot Season” begins in earnest in January, so we’re in the home stretch for ordering scripts and sealing deals from the broadcast networks for potential new series in 2019-2020. We do know one sure thing for summer 2019, a sitcom st…

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Celebrate the 12 Days of “The Ed Sullivan Show” with new Christmastime tribute on SiriusXM

The Ed Sullivan Show, the longest running primetime variety show in television history, gets a new life this Christmas Day on SiriusXM. “The 12 Days of Ed Sullivan,” featuring rare performances from dozens of the best stand-up comedians of the time, wi…

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Episode #239: Brian Regan

Brian Regan is most comedians’ favorite comedian. Even if you might not recognize him or place his name, Regan has stood out among stand-ups for the past two decades, with multiple comedy specials to his credit – including Comedy Central’s first and st…

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Meet Me In New York: Kendra Cunningham

What do they say about New York City: There are eight million stories, and sometimes it seems as though eight million of the people telling them think they’re comedians? No, that’s not it. It is a fact, though, that America’s biggest city is also its b…

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2018’s highest-earning comedians, according to Forbes

As long as nobody else actually digs into the numbers or knows the tax returns for comedians, Forbes will continue to garner the shares and notoriety for ranking comedians each year based on how much income they earned. What’s the news for 2018? …

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The Museum of the Jewish People lists its top 15 moments in Jewish comedy history

You’ve perhaps seen plenty of lists ranking the top things, events and people of 2018, but what about the best stuff ever? The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot in Tel Aviv, Israel, not only opened an exhibition this year devoted to J…

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Colin Quinn’s “Red State Blue State” to debut off-Broadway at Minetta Lane in January 2019

After months of tinkering and working on his new one-man show at the Comedy Cellar’s Fat Black Pussycat lounge, Colin Quinn is ready to take “Red State Blue State” on an off-Broadway run. The strictly limited engagement kicks off Jan….

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R.I.P. Penny Marshall

Comedic actress and director Penny Marshall has died. Marshall was 75. She died peacefully Monday night in her Hollywood Hills home, from complications due to diabetes. You might not have guessed the kid sister of Garry Marshall would grow up to be an …

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R.I.P. David Shepherd, improv legend who co-founded The Compass Players

David Shepherd, who co-founded the Compass Players in Chicago with Paul Sills in 1955, thereby giving birth to a revolution in improvisation and comedy which led to The Second City and much of everything we know and love today about sketch comedy in Am…

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