This Week Around the Industry in Comedy: News From Brian Regan, Ted Alexandro, Bennington, Nate Craig, The City of Seattle, and More!
The stories people inside comedy are talking about around the country…
. . . . . The Interrobang has teamed up with SiriusXM’s Bennington show to raise awareness and support for the United States version of Red Nose Day! Red Nose Day raises money to assist children in poverty. Giant names have already participated including Artie Lange, Doug Benson, Kevin Pollak, Gary Gulman, Jennie McCarthy, and The Kids in the Hall, with many more to come. It will only cost you a buck to help out by buying your red nose at Walgreens stores around the country, and you get a genuine red clown nose for your dollar, so you’re helping a great cause and making people smile. All month we’ll be posting photos of comedians and other celebrities in their red noses. All celebrity noses have been signed and we’ll be giving them away, so stay tuned for details. All of this leads up to a giant three hour NBC event on May 21st, lots of details here.
. . . . .Gigantic Brian Regan news just in. A huge event just got even huge-r! Comedy Central and Brian Regan are announcing the network’s first live broadcast of a stand-up special with Brian Regan: Live broadcasting live from Radio City Music Hall on Sept 26, 2015. More details to come on this, but it’s pretty exciting. Regan will also be on Letterman tonight. It’s the culmination of twenty years of performing on the Late Show With David Letterman. Brian will make his 28th and final stand-up appearance– the most of any comedian since the show started on CBS. Brian made his first appearance on the show in October 1995, which you can see here on YouTube.
. . . . . Seattle is getting its first comedy festival which is a big big deal because Seattle is a great comedy town. Comedian and producer Patrick Higgins is looking to help put Seattle stand up comedy even more on the map, so he is putting together a grass roots campaign to get the city’s first festival on the map. Higgins hails from the Buffalo comedy scene, and draws his inspiration from super producer Kristen Becker who has done so much to create a comedy community in upstate New York. The Highlarious Comedy Festival will be coordinated with Hemp Fest, the world’s largest gathering of people to decriminalize marijuana. Over 300,000 people attend each year, with no activities planned at night during the festival, so a cannabis inspired comedy festival seemed to be a perfect fit. It’s a grass roots festival (no pun intended) and they could use some help, so hit up their indiegogo if you can. Tickets are going to be $10 bucks for shows. More info about the schedule here.
. . . . . Ted Alexandro week is coming to the Creek and the Cave! Alexandro is very busy these days, between producing and shopping around his outstanding web series Teachers Lounge, a seemingly full time career as an activist, and performing a full time dose of stand up, it’s hard to believe he has the time, but he’ll be doing a full week of FREE hour long shows at The Creek and the Cave at 7pm every night from May 25th through May 30th. Watch Ted tackle the challenge of starting with nothing at the beginning of the week, and hopefully– working his way to a brand new hour by the end of the week. Ted has done a Creek Week before, about two years ago, and turned it into a comedy special that was recorded on the last few nights. He explained the basic concept of the week to us. Outside of Creek Week, Ted’s busy finding a home for the webseries, but we were excited to find out that even if he doesn’t find a television home for Teacher’s Lounge, they are ready to shoot more episodes for the web, so either way, we’re getting more of our favorite web series. As for managing his comedy career with his very active support of so many important political causes, Ted told us it’s been invigorating and harrowing, and usually leading up to game time decisions of whether he’ll tell jokes when he goes up on stage or talk about what’s going on and hope, as he put it, he can land on something funny.
. . . . . We talked with with the owner of the Cave and Creek, Rebecca Trent, about Ted’s week at the club, and she told us that the idea for Creek Week came from working with Colin Quinn. Trent is always thinking about ways to help artists and the community, and she and Colin had been talking about artist needs, and one of the things Colin brought up was having space to do ‘long time’. Since the idea first came up, dozens of artists have done Creek Weeks. Right now, John Leguizamo is working out material on with a week long series at the Cave. Other artists who have taken up Trent’s offer include Ted, Colin, Paul Hooper, Callie, Aparna Nancharla, and others. Bonnie McFarlane has one coming up, and a lot of cool names are in discussion. Trent told us that it’s tough for artists to start thinking about putting together an album or a special in New York, where getting more than 8 minutes of stage time at a pop is rare, so the Creek Week gives performers the chance to do an hour a night, every night for a week. Creatively it’s a unique experience with pretty small crowds coming out early in the week (sometimes just 3 or 4 people), with a build to some pretty packed houses by the end of the week. Comedian Jacqueline Novak even had one night where she performed for just a tech person and called it the single most valuable experience of her career. With so much thought being given to the needs of comedians, it’s no wonder The Creek and the Cave keeps drawing such giant names. It’s not only useful for the artist, but it’s also an opportunity for fans to be a part of the process. Also coming up at The Creek and the Cave– the 8th anniversary of Cabin is coming up June 11th, and on the 20th, is their annual Crawfish Boil. May 16th a new show called Dark Spots is premiering which will showcase two hours of nothing but dark comedy. Aaron Berg is also going to be hosting a Blue Show this summer, and the Creek Awards are coming up August 23rd. And there’s another edition of favorite, the Naked Show coming up, so check the Creek’s website for details.
. . . . . Keep your eye on comedian and actor Moses Storm. It’s one year since he released his short film Terminally Chill about trying to celebrate his birthday at a Chili’s in LAX that went viral, and this week, Storm had another big debut in Los Angeles. His new short film, Modern Millenial, had a big premiere, complete with marching band and plenty of pomp and circumstance. Modern Millenial is a film documenting a full month Storm spent living in an artists loft that was open to the public 24/7 in September. As with most projects like this, it turned out to be nothing like what he expected. Storm has a lot of buzz around him right now. He just appeared in the hit Teen Horror film, Unfriended, and you might get to see him in Last Comic Standing this summer. If all of that isn’t enough, Storm also runs the second longest running stand up show at Nerdmelt, called This Show is Your Show. If you missed the premiere of Modern Millenial, no word yet on when you’ll get your chance, as the film hasn’t chosen a distributor yet…but be patient. From what we hear, its worth the wait.
. . . . . National headliner Nate Craig is part of the very exciting brand new Pandora Comedy Spotlight. Pandora is doing something very cool here, looking to help grow awareness for great, and rising comedians. As part of the Spotlight, Pandora is releasing Nate’s new album simultaneously with video shot in San Francsico off his album, along with a mixtape of Nate’s very comedians and albums that are out right now, to help fans connect with other great comedy. Another great thing about working with Pandora– Craig is doing three album release shows to help kick off the campaign including one in his native Madison Wisconsin. The album is titled Eggshells, and was recorded at the world famous Zanies of Chicago this past January. Nate hails from Madison, Wisconsin but came up in comedy in Chicago with the likes of Kyle Kinane and Nick Vatterott. We asked him why so many great comedians continue to come from Chicago. He says Chicago gives you the opportunity to work sketch, theater and stand up at the same time, as well as head out on the road, which forces you to look at what you’re doing from different angles, and being surrounded by some of the most talented people in the world doing the best comedy being done, doesn’t hurt either. The improv scene taking place all around you is unparalleled, he said. Another great thing about working with Pandora– Nate is doing three album release shows to help kick off the campaign including one in his native Madison Wisconsin. In case you were wondering whose on Nate’s mixtape, it’s Nick Vatterott’s last album For Amusement Only (which Nate calls a masterpiece), James Adomian’s last album, as well as comedy from Baron Vaughn, and Rachel Feinstein. If you’re a comedy fan, you need to hear them all. You’ll also be seeing Nate this summer on NBC’s Last Comic Standing.
. . . . .Not many people can be in two places at once but if anyone can figure it out it will be comedy producer Sam Varela. Her company, Naked Comedy, has been all over the country building their comedy brand, and this month, they’re producing their hit show Picture This on two coasts at the same time. Los Angeles at starts at 7pm, New York at 10pm for the bi-coastal event. The Los Angeles show is well established and hugely popular, and the New York show is new and exciting and fresh so everyone wins. Bento is sponsoring the LA Show and if you’re wondering why you should care if the show is sponsored, here’s two reasons: free show and free beer. The New York will only be their second New York show and its taking place at Union Hall. Sorry guys no freebies on this one, but the first Picture This show in New York was so successful they had to turn away people at the door and were packed up like sardines inside, so if you can get in, you’re in for a great night. For people keeping tabs on the industry, Picture This is more than just a show, it’s a real brand and a trailblazer in the business of franchising comedy shows across the country. Varela is a pioneer in comedy in this respect, and you’ll want to keep an eye on what she’s doing because it may very well be the future of comedy. Varela is also going to be booking comedy at Los Angeles’ The Satellite starting this summer, which is another big move.
. . . . . . Another Chicago comedian Sean White who will release his debut comedy album Dead & Gone this Tuesday, May 12 on aspecialthing Records. That night, Sean performs at Chicago’s Beat Kitchen to celebrate the release. White is being talked about all over Chicago and is being called fearless for his ability to find humor in dark times. All of the members of Sean’s immediate family died one by one, in a very short time period, right about the time he went through a difficult divorce. White’s ability to handle darkness through his comedy is showcased on this remarkable debut album.
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