Comedy Central Announces New Half Hour Specials

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David Gborie, Vanessa Gonzalez, Charles Gould, Joe Kwaczala, Will Miles, Sara Schaefer, Dulcé Sloan, Allen Strickland Williams, Tom Thakkar, and Jaboukie Young-White have been selected by Comedy Central to receive half hour specials.

Comedy Central today announced talent and taping information for Season 3 of its Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents…
half-hour series.  The half hour special series that showcases young up and comedy comedy talents. The series has bounced around to different taping locations but this year they’re heading back to New Orleans again. The half hours will tape on January 31st through February 2nd at New Orleans’ Civic Theater.  After bouncing around for a few years, the network finally found a formula that works, and the formula is New Orleans. Free tickets will be available soon via TheBlackListNYC.com .

All ten comedians have impressive careers- we’ve been following David Gborie and Charles Gould since they were chosen as part of Carolines Comedy Club’s New York’s Funniest showcase two years back.  Gborie was a JFL New Faces performer in 2016, and a Comedy Central Comics to Watch in 2015 too.  Gould is a 2017 New Faces pick, and you’ve seen him on TBS’s Search Party and the hit comedy movie The Big Sick. Sara Schaefer is a phenomenal writer and performer who you might remember from her podcast with Nikki Glaser You Had to Be There which became a hit MTV late night series, Nikki & Sara Live.  And her stand-up show Little White Box debuted to a sold-out run at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Tom Thakkar is the co-host of SiriusXM’s You Up on Comedy Central Radio with Nikki Glaser.  Dulce Sloan and has burst onto the scene as a powerful voice on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and comedy stages everywhere, and was picked as one of Rolling Stone’s 10 Comedians You Need to Know and one of TimeOut LA’s Comedians to WatchJabookie Young White is the newest correspondent to join The Daily Show team, and he has a string of credits including being named one of Variety’s 2018 10 Comics to Watch, and being selected for Comedy Central’s Up Next showcase at Clusterfest.  LA comedian Allen Strickland Williams was recently listed as one of the 10 Best Rising Stars in LA Comedy by The Culture Trip and appeared at the 2016 New York Comedy Festival as one of Comedy Central’s Comics to Watch.  Vanessa Gonzalez was voted “Best Stand-up Comic” in the Austin Chronicle and was one of the JFL New Faces in 2017.  Joe Kwaczala is an LA comic who has written for The Onion News Network, ClickHole, and MAD Magazine, and in 2017, he was chosen to be one of Comedy Central’s “Up Next” Comics to Watch.

For over 22 seasons, the Comedy Central half-hour specials have been both an important career milestone for stand-up comedians and the fundamental series in which Comedy Central identifies and amplifies its future network stars.

 

This year there’s two additional half hour tapings taking place under the Amy Schumer Presents Banner. Nore Davis (who has a terrific new album out) and Mia Jackson (who has been touring as part of the Amy Schumer and friends tour) will also tape half hours in New Orleans; they’ll be under the Amy Schumer Presents banner. Amy Schumer has produced three one-hour specials to date under the Amy Schumer Presents banner — Amy Schumer Presents Rachel Feinstein: Only Whores Wear Purple (2016), Amy Schumer Presents Mark Normand: Don’t Be Yourself (2017) and Amy Schumer Presents: Sam Morril: Positive Influence (2018) — starring talent hand-selected by Schumer.  Davis and Jackson will be the first half hour specials selected by Schumer.

Here’s the official Comedy Central bio for the series picks:

  • Vanessa Gonzalez is originally from Texas and was voted “Best Stand-up Comic” in the Austin Chronicle before her recent move to Los Angeles. She was a breakout as one of the New Faces of the 2017 Just For Laughs festival in Montreal and subsequently created and starred in a web series called Ms. Vanessa for Mas Mejor, a digital platform which is part of Lorne Michael’s company Broadway Video. She was recently featured on TruTV’s Laff Mobb’s Laff Tracks and has a short special airing on HBO Latino next year. She has performed at a variety of comedy festivals including SXSW, High Plains, Moontower, and Big Sky Comedy Festival and has toured the country with her critically acclaimed one-woman sketch shows.

 

  • Charles Gould can be seen in the first season Search Party for TBS as well as the indie feature The Big Sick. After appearing as a New Face at the prestigious Montreal Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in 2017, he made his network stand-up debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Gould was also named as one of Comedy Central’s Comics to Watch in 2015. Gould is the creator of the critically acclaimed digital series Charles, By The Way as well as Tips For A Happier, Healthier You for Comedy Central Digital. He’s currently a Creative Consultant for Will Smith’s Westbrook.

 

  • Joe Kwaczala is a comedian, writer, and actor based in Los Angeles. He has written for The Onion News Network, ClickHole, and MAD Magazine, and in 2017, he was chosen to be one of Comedy Central’s “Up Next” Comics to Watch. Recently, Joe released 31 original comedy videos in one day, a feat that received praise from publications like Vulture and The AV Club.

 

  • Will Miles is a LA-based comedian originally from Chicago. He is currently writing for the upcoming IFC variety series Sherman’s Showcase. He was most recently an executive story editor on Comedy Central’s upcoming series South Side and will be playing a recurring role on the show. Previously, Miles was a writer on truTV’s The Chris Gethard Show. He can be seen in Hulu’s Difficult People, Go90’s Thanksgiving, HBO’s Crashing and Viceland and the upcoming Comedy Central stand-up series, The New Negroes. He was recently named one of Brooklyn Magazine’s 50 Funniest Comedians and Comedy Central’s 10 Comics To Watch. Miles also cohosts the podcast, Hopefully We Don’t Break Up. His debut comedy album Good Year is currently out.

 

  • Sara Schaefer is a critically acclaimed stand-up comedian, writer, and producer currently based in Los Angeles. She was the co-host of MTV’s late night show Nikki & Sara Live. Schaefer has appeared on @Midnight, John Oliver’s New York Stand Up Show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Inside Amy Schumer. She won two Emmy awards for her work at Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and has written for Ed Helms’ Comedy Central special The Fake News with Ted Nelms, Problematic with Moshe Kasher, Not Safe with Nikki Glaser and Who Wants to Be A Millionaire. Her digital series Woman Online launched on Seriously.TV in February 2017. Recently, Schaefer stand-up show Little White Box debuted to a sold-out run at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

 

  • Dulcé Sloan is currently a Correspondent on Comedy Central’s late-night franchise, The Daily Show with Trevor. In 2017, Sloan was named one of Rolling Stone’s 10 Comedians You Need to Know and one of TimeOut LA’s Comedians to Watch. She was also the 2016 NBC Stand-Up Showcase Winner, a Montreal Just For Laughs New Face and a Comedian to Watch on The Steve Harvey Show. In addition to being cast in Fox’s Type A and NBC’s Dumb Prince, she has been on MTV’s Acting Out, Comedy Central’s @midnight, TBS’ Conan, and truTV’s Comedy Knockout. She’s also made multiple appearances as a correspondent on E! News Daily.

 

  • Tom Thakkar is a New York-based stand-up comic, actor and co-host of Nikki Glaser’s daytime Comedy Central Radio show You Up with Nikki Glaser on Sirius Radio. In the past year, Thakkar made his late night debut on CONAN, reached the finals of the 2017 NBC Stand-Up for Diversity Competition, performed as 1 of 8 comics at the 2018 Fox Night of Comedy showcase in Los Angeles, headlined JFL 42 in Toronto, co-headlined a show at the 2018 New York Comedy Festival and recently started performing at the venerable Comedy Cellar in NYC. Thakkar has a hilarious comedy podcast called Stand By Your Band with fellow comic Tommy McNamara and they have also been doing a live version at Carolines on Broadway, and most recently, as part of the 2018 New York Comedy Festival. In 2015, he was named a “New Face” by the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal. Thakkar has been featured on Doug Loves Movies, VICE, NPR and The Todd Glass Show.

 

  • Allen Strickland Williams is a stand-up comedian and writer in Los Angeles. He has performed stand up on Conan twice and can be seen in Cooking On High on Netflix and Corporate on Comedy Central. Other TV credits include Comedy Dynamics: Coming to the Stage on Hulu and Flophouse on Viceland. He was a writer on the Trump vs. Bernie special on Fusion and was recently listed as one of the 10 Best Rising Stars in LA Comedy by The Culture Trip. Williams appeared at the 2016 New York Comedy Festival as one of Comedy Central’s Comics to Watch, a showcase for the hottest up-and-coming comedians in the nation.

 

  • Jaboukie Young-White is currently a Correspondent on Comedy Central’s late-night franchise, The Daily Show with Trevor. Young-White (@jaboukie) is a comedian and filmmaker from Chicago. He appeared in the Sony feature film Rough Night directed by Lucia Aniello and the Netflix feature film Set It Up directed by Claire Scanlon. Most recently, Young-White was named one of Variety’s 2018 10 Comics to Watch, performed at the Comics to Watch showcase at the 2018 Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, as well as performed at Comedy Central’s Up Next showcase at Clusterfest. He has performed stand-up on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on two occasions and can be seen on the upcoming season of HBO’s series Crashing. Previously, Young-White was a staff writer on Netflix’s American Vandal and just finished as a story editor on season three of Netflix’s hit animated series Big Mouth.

 

  • Nore Davis is a New York-based comedian who delivers an energetic performance filled with witty quips and sharp punch lines, combined with an amazing stage presence. He has appeared on Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer, HBO’s Last Week Tonight, MTV’s Nikki & Sara Live, Sasheer Zamata’s Play Time, The Artie Lange Show, HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and will appear in the upcoming feature Go/Don’t Go in 2019. His stand-up can be seen on Conan, and he has appeared in many videos on College Humor and was featured on WNYC’s 2 Dope Queens podcast. Davis also wrote on Seriously.tv. His self-produced Amazon special You Guys are Dope is out now as well as his new album, Too Woke on Blonde Medicine.

 

  • Mia Jackson is a comedian originally from Georgia. In 2017, Jackson was selected as a New Face by the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal and Atlanta’s Creative Loafing named her the city’s Best Stand-Up. She currently tours nationally with Amy Schumer and is a featured comic at festivals and clubs across the country. Her first stand up special aired in October 2018 as part of Unprotected Sets on EPIX. Jackson has appeared on NickMom’s Night Out, Viceland and was a semi-finalist on Season 9 of NBC’s Last Comic Standing. She has appeared on Inside Amy Schumer and the movie Mother’s Day.

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