As if comedy isn’t always a huge part of New York City’s entertainment draw, this week it’s doubly huge—you see, the eighth annual New York Comedy Festival hits town this Wednesday and runs through Nov. 13, boasting the absolute biggest names in stand-up and expanding...
I think it was Chris Rock who told me during an interview I did with him for the book on the history of The Comic Strip -- and I'm paraphrasing here -- that a comedy club to a comic is like a gym to an athlete. You go to a comedy club to work out. That's where you try out new...
Last night's Conan, the show's final New York City taping, was so epic that we couldn't just pick one highlight to share with you guys. If I had to choose, the return of Triumph was the best part of the show. But, really, Louis C.K.'s appearance, the surprise drop-ins from Jon...
Louis C.K. is recording his next hour-long special on Nov. 10 at the Beacon Theater in New York City. But like most other things he does in the comedy industry, he's doing it on his own terms. Check it out. During his appearance on Conan tonight, he announced that the special...
It's largely believed that awards and the bestowing of formal distinctions in arts and entertainment are largely biased, heavily political and unfair. For comedy, the high level of subjectivity in what one finds funny makes it even more difficult to establish who deserves to be...
In March of last year, I was lucky enough to be sitting in the second row of a George Carlin tribute produced by the New York Public Library. I was surrounded by the likes of Steve Martin, Ben Stiller (and his parents) as well as Richard Pryor's daughter Rain and Lenny Bruce's...
It's no secret that there is a great deal of personal mental strain that comedians go through-- often self-inflicted, despite having "making people laugh" in their job description. While self-help books are often a popular topic for jokes and I've surprised other comedians by...
Story telling is an integral part of stand-up comedy. Most comedians, in some form, tell stories. Maybe a story comes as a quick aside to further explain the premise of a joke; sometimes it takes the form of an extended tag at the end of a minute-long bit. At times, a comedian...
Last night, Louis C.K. stopped by Conan for a (thankfully) lengthy desk-side chat. The two funny gingers covered a lot of ground-- how awesome C.K.'s show Louie is, why Louis is shocked there isn't more murder in the world (especially at Disneyland); and perhaps most noteworthy,...
