May 27, 2016

Comedy Insiders: Is Barney Ruining Comedy?

Brian Volk-Weiss is the President of Comedy Dynamics, the largest independent producer and distributor of recorded comedy in North America. In our monthly series with Volk Weiss, we discuss issues that impact the comedy industry. This month, Brian wanted to talk about the issue of political correctness on college campuses.
May 9, 2016

Joe Machi, Mike Recine, Emily Heller, Ramon Rivas and More Will Tape Half Hours For Comedy Central

This summer, some of our favorite young comics will be recording half hour specials with Comedy Central. We're very excited to see these 17 tremendous young talents getting the recognition and the opportunity to record their first specials.
April 12, 2016

Moontower Comedy Festival Must See Shows of 2016

MOONTOWER COMEDY & ODDITY FESTIVAL is back up this month, running from April 20th through the 23. Since its inception in 2012, Moontower has been one of the highlights of the festival year, bringing together an incredible lineup of comedy stars, comics just about to break, and international stars who you might not be familiar with yet. More focused on fans than industry, Moontower also has a reputation for being a comedy summer camp- three days where comics and fans can chill out, enjoy great bbq, drink, and enjoy one the city and the comedy. The venues are all close enough together that you don't need a car if you're staying nearby, adding to the community vibe, the parties are excellent, the ping pong tournament has become legendary but none of that matters without great comedy, and the comedy is always great.
April 2, 2016

An Oral History of a Buffalo Comedy Institution: Nietzsche’s

In 2006, when Kristen Becker started the Doin' Time Comedy Showcase at Nietzsche's on Allen St. in Buffalo, there were about 8 comics in town and no comedy scene to speak of. Now, 10 years later, Nietzsche's is one room among many. Buffalo has its own club, a Helium. There are open mics and showcases and themed comedy nights and other assorted gigs almost every night of the week, and there are 30, 40, 50, maybe even more comics filling those slots and slinging jokes for love and (sometimes) money. (Sometimes.) But none of it would have been possible if Kristen Becker hadn't started that first open mic in a divey music venue in Allentown.
February 3, 2016

RIOT LA Festival Hits the Mark as a Formidable National Festival

Only four years in and RIOT has grown into a mature and formidable national festival! The two and a half day event was crammed with eye-catching headliners like David Cross, Gilbert Gottfried, TJ Miller and Ron Funches and had more talent scuttled onto the generic Comics To Watch showcases than many festivals have as their top names.
December 29, 2015

The Best and Biggest Comedy Tours of 2015

Gigantic was the word in comedy tours in 2015. Some tours broke records for the size of the venue, others for the incredible number of celebrated performers, and still others were gigantic because of how many cities of the world they hit, or because the tour has been going on forever! All ten tours gave people all over America the chance to see some of our greatest touring comics live in theaters, arenas, and other venues across the country. Here are our top comedy tours of 2015. Let us know who you are picking for #1.
December 28, 2015

Jeffrey Gurian’s Favorite Comedy Things! A 2015 Year in Review

It’s almost impossible to try and list my top comedy moments from 2015, because there were just so many. Trying to only choose 15 was a monumental task. Last year I did more of a review than a “Top 15” list, but this year I decided to try and list the 15 events that meant the most to me. Some of them I was involved in personally, others not, ... but all of them were events I attended to cover for my column in The Interrobang. It’s important to emphasize that they are NOT in order. Every one of them could theoretically be #1.
December 28, 2015

We Picked the Top 11 Innovators in Comedy This Year

Comedians are artists and each year there are innovators who try something that has never been done before, or change the way the comedy is created. Pushing boundaries has been an important part of comedy throughout the history of making people laugh. This year we recognize 12 game changers who took comedy to a new level, going more absurd, more fun, more original or just under more challenging circumstances. Watch in 2016 for others to follow their leads.
December 25, 2015

The Comedians Call It! 25 Great Comics Tell Us Who Will Be the Next Big Thing in 2016

All week we’ve written about the very best in comedy in 2015, and from now until the 31st, we'll continue to congratulate the best comedy created this year. But let's be honest, it's all ancient history. What really matters is, who is going to kill on stage in 2016. We've got some ideas of our own but we like to go directly to the source on this one, so we asked some of our favorite comedian and asked them who is going to crush, kill and break out in 2016.