Ari Shaffir’s Storytelling Series Gets Picked Up for Season Four
Comedy Central announced today that Ari Shaffir’s “This is Not Happening” series is getting picked up for a fourth season. The series invites an amazing array of stand up comics to get on stage in front of a live audience, drop their regular material, and just tell a story. “This Is Not Happening is a great platform for comedians to tell true, personal stories of humiliation, degradation and supreme embarrassment,” said Kent Alterman, President of Comedy Central. “Or put another way…of being human.” The show is filmed at Cheetahs, in Hollywood. The stories cover a wide range of ground, but themes of death, run-ins with the law, bad relationships, sex and drugs definitely make frequent appearances.
Season Three premieres tonight on Comedy Central at midnight ET and includes stories from Louie Anderson, Maria Bamford, Joey Diaz, Greg Fitzsimmons, Bert Kreischer, Bobby Lee, Bonnie McFarlane, Big Jay Oakerson, Tom Papa, Russell Peters, Brian Regan, Rory Scovel, Doug Stanhope, Liza Treyger, Sal Vulcano and more.
“This season was awesome,” said Shaffir. “We got this amazing mix of legends like Stanhope and Regan, new comics that I love being able to introduce to the public, and returning favorites like Diaz, Siddiq, and Kreischer. Nothing I ever do will be as great as Season 19 of ‘South Park,’ but this is something I’m really proud of. And I can’t wait to start finding new comics with crazy stories for Season Four.”
Last February, we talked with Shaffir, and he shared his 5 favorite season one stories. Like Ali Siddiq’s story about being stabbed in prison, Ms Pat getting her nipple shot off, Big Jay Oakerson talking about watching his friend have sex through a window, Sean Patton’s gay bashing story and Joey Diaz talking about doing heroin.
The Season Three premiere episode, titled “Scumbag,” features stories about encounters with the worst people imaginable from Shaffir himself and Sal Vulcano.
Executive produced by Ari Shaffir, Avalon’s Sam Saifer, Jeff Tomsic, who directs, and Eric Abrams also acting as showrunner, the third season premieres ten episodes beginning tonight at midnight ET/PT.
