Kevin Smith Coming to NYC, CYSK Starts in BK, and News From Rell Battle, Shang and Brendan Sagalow
Collage created using TurboCollage software from www.TurboCollage.com
Jeffrey Gurian is a writer and comedian in New York who loves to Jump Around. Follow his regular column right here, to find out what’s happening in comedy, and who Jeffrey Gurian ran into this week in and around New York. This week Jeffrey covered the scene at New York Comedy Club.
Mike Lebovitz Bringing CYSK to New York City
Mike Lebovitz was one of the New Faces at JFL 2013, and in 2015 was on the 9th season of Last Comic Standing. Now he’s bringing the hit Chicago show called Comedians You Should Know to New York, and it will run in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at a place called The Gutter. The first show, which will be this week, on Thursday, July 7th, and will feature Roy Wood Jr., Liza Treyger, and Dan Soder. Go Mike!
Sasheer Zamata’s Mom Gets Into the Biz
Sasheer Zamata was at Comedy Juice this week and claimed that since her mom was on SNL for last year’s Mother’s Day show she started taking acting lessons. Sasheer says she’s happy about it, but she doesn’t want to find herself in competition for parts with her mom. Her mom must be very young looking!
Brendan Sagalow Gets a Writing Gig, Rell Battle Filming CBS Pilot
It seems like no matter how late I stop by New York Comedy Club, there’s always something going on. It’s a popular late night hang with lots of comics so I wasn’t surprised to see Judah Friedlander, and Ricky Velez and a whole gang hanging outside around 1 A.M. on a weekday. I had an existential conversation with Ricky, then Sam Morril rolled in and told me he’s doing a Roast Battle up in Montreal at Just For Laughs, his second time performing up there. Sam told me he’s got a lot going on this month including the Comedy Attic in Bloomington, IN., the Green Mountain Comedy Fest in Vermont, and the DC Drafthouse in Washington, D.C. And then he added, “ And make sure to write that Joe Machi is not a good person.” And that’s when Jon Fisch joined us for a group hug.
About a moment later, Joe Machi arrived at the club, and he’s been on the road a lot. His Half Hour Special on Comedy Central will be coming out in late August or September and he’s really excited about that. He said he was in Cleveland recently during the NBA Finals which he was kind enough to explain to me, so I could get the story that followed. He said he had been hoping they would have been eliminated from the playoffs so the fans would come out to the show, but alas it was not to be. He’s in town for the summer and just before he went up to do his set, he leaned in and asked me to write that Sam Morril has an evil heart! Those two guys are like brothers, … Cain and Abel!
Brendan Sagalow was hanging out and told me he had just finished writing his first TV gig for MTV’s Joking Off. He did it in New York and wrote with Matt Pavich and Matt Richards, in the same studio where they filmed Horace and Pete. I asked him how they found him and he said he had hosted when both Matts were preparing tapes to submit to Comedy Central and there were Comedy Central executives in the audience who liked him, so Matt Richards gave them his e-mail and a few days later he got a message to come on in. He at first auditioned to become a cast member, but they decided to make him a writer. It pays to have friends!
I got to re-connect with my boy Rell Battle, who was in from LA for the first anniversary of Roast Battle. I can’t believe it’s a year already since I was a judge at the very first Roast Battle along with Dante Nero and Monroe Martin. Rell’s got a deal with Comedy Central and is executive producing the new Roast Battle TV show that we announced earlier this summer along with Jeffrey Ross, and Comedy Central executives. Rell said after the specials air, the show may hopefully become a weekly thing. People love to roast these days. Rell’s kicking butt and is also here to film a pilot for CBS called Superior Donuts which he’s in with Jermaine Fowler. He plays Jermaine’s best friend and originally went out to LA to audition for the part they gave Jermaine, but it’s a good thing he didn’t get it or he’d have to play his own best friend, and that would not only be confusing, but probably very lonely as well! I still can’t get over the fact that his real last name is Battle and he comes up with the idea for Roast Battle, and it changed his life! Now that is a sitcom in itself!
Dan LaMorte Tapes His First Hour Special
I got to watch Dan LaMorte tape his first hour special at New York Comedy Club. Actually he taped two of them, 7 and 9 pm. Dan’s only 21 years old which means this HAD to be his first special, cause it would be even crazier if this was like his fifth special! I first met Dan when he opened for me at a headlining gig I did in Altoona, PA. Since then he seems to have developed into an Amish man, (see photo) but a very funny Amish man, who wore a suit and nice dress shirt and looked like he was on his way to a church meeting. Both shows were packed and Dan did a great job. His proud parents were there and all three of them looked the same age, especially his mom, who looks like she’s in her 20’s. I predict big things for Dan, who started out to be a baseball player, but due to an injury on his very first day in the field, gave it up and decided to go into comedy! Baseball’s loss, comedy’s gain! And the special was produced by Ron Herron!
Kevin Smith is Coming to NY in August
I got word that Kevin Smith will be coming to New York in August. He was supposed to be at the 92Y in mid-July, but had to change the date due to his busy schedule. He’ll be talking about his new late-night talk show on AMC which he will be co-hosting with Greg Grunberg called Geeking Out and will take a look at pop culture through what is described as “a fanboy lens”, and will feature talk, clips, celeb interviews and out of the studio segments. The premiere episode should be airing later this month and I hope to be interviewing him when he comes to town in August.
Lance Rizzo’s Indie Pilot, Shang Gets Political
I tend to stay away from anything to do with religion or politics, but I will say that Shang will be performing for the upcoming Democratic National Convention later this month. He’ll be doing a show from the New Freedom Theatre in Philly and it’s billed as Red, White and especially Blue humor!
And in honor of July 4th, Jason Salmon, whose mustache is his calling card, just came out with a brand new video on Funny or Die called The Birth of America. It’s a cowboy monologue about the beginnings of our country. I watched it and was wondering where he shot it since it looked so “country.” I got him to admit he shot it in Central Park, where ALL the cowboys hang out! He wrote it himself and he’s currently doing the voice of a pink flamingo on a new Lowe’s Home Improvement commercial. You know Jason from his many national commercials, like the Toyota “snake bite” commercial, the Geico “witch on a broom” commercial, and the NY Lottery commercial to name just a few. That mustache is really working for him overtime!
Always creating new stuff, Lance Rizzo of Cult Comedy Pictures just finished a 22 minute independent pilot called Successful Failures (which you can watch on Vimeo) about a guy named Sal Carbone, played by comic Eric Lyden, who’s determined to make it in show biz, but hasn’t been having much success. Harris Stanton plays another hard luck guy who meets up with Sal and create a viral hit. But before they do, Sal winds up in the office of a very strange psychiatrist named Dr. Kaizen, who has spoon plants, wears a kimono, and takes on a Japanese accent, and is played by yours truly! I even used my own spoon plants! It’s available on Vimeo.
I went down to check out Paul Spratt’s podcast and wound up being a guest along with Phil Stamato from Splitsider talking about comedy writing and comedy in general. Paul’s podcast is called PRO-TIPS. I saw Angry Bob at Greenwich Village Comedy Club one night, and he told me his co-producer Joe Pontillo, also accomplished something incredible. He wrote and produced a full length feature film called Hank is Evil which he says is up on YouTube.
And on that note I’m OUT!!! Hope everyone had a great Fourth!
Jeffrey Gurian is a comedian, writer and all around bon vivant in New York City. Subscribe to his YouTube channel, Comedy Matters TV. Photos below Jeffrey Gurian with Dan LaMorte and Rell Battle.
Read more comedy news.
Latest posts by Jeffrey Gurian (see all)
- Richard Lewis is Amazing - May 2, 2023
- Jeffrey Gurian Remembers Richard Belzer and Rick Newman - February 23, 2023
- Just for Laughs 40th Anniversary Festival 2022 as Seen By Jeffrey Gurian - August 6, 2022
