Results tagged “comedy”

This week there's some really great free shows going down at 8p at the Comedy Central stage, so you've really got no excuse to not get out there. Around town, you can also shake off the candy withdrawals and expensive bar tab by keeping it cheap at the usual haunts: UCB, iO West, Westside Comedy. If you've got a little more coin in your pocket, there's a couple of great shows going down at Largo - particularly The League fellas on Wednesday. If you think I missed something or want to let me know about something you're going to see, email Farley here. Happy November everyone.

So, Cinematic Titanic comes to Largo, and I can't believe you're reading this. You should be standing in line, peeing your pants because the ORIGINAL CAST of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (MST3K) is making fun of some of the worst movies of all time. Pencil me in for Tuesday's show. In other news, some big names with recent Comedy Central stand up specials under their belts (Jo Koy, Greg Giraldo) are offering their comedic services in the greater Los Angeles area, while right here in town Rooftop Standup offers the best backdrop in all of comedy and Lenny Bruce lovers have a chance to give to a good cause AND walk away with some of his stuff. Amazing.

Nick Swardson, for those of you not familiar, is funnier than you. That’s pretty much all you need to know to enjoy his latest Comedy Central Special, Seriously, Who Farted?, as LAist was invited to do. Believe me when I say, if you have an even vague notion of who Swardson is before watching this special, you will be quite familiar with him once the hour is over. And if you are completely blanking on one of the best young funny men of this decade, don’t worry, he’s more than happy filling in those blanks for you.

Monday nights have long been mentioned on LAist as, surprisingly, a great night for comedy. There’s Harold Night at UCB, the Armando Show at iO West, and plenty of other random shows around town to assuage your already work-weary brain. But there’s one show, in the heart of Los Angeles, that doesn’t really fit the Monday bill. It’s as established as the improv shows mentioned above, and has bigger names attached to it than any random show you’re likely to find. And yet, it still flies under the radar. Or, rather, it’s tucked away, both figuratively and inside the Hollywood Studio Bar & Grill at the Gower Gulch on Sunset / Gower. Hell, even the stage is tucked not-so-neatly into a corner, right by the entrance. But you’re not coming for the ambiance or even the food; you’re coming for the world class stand up. This is Tiger Lily.

Stand up abounds this week in the comedy world, but there's also some great opportunities to check back in with the improv roots you know you have. Beer Shark Mice are only around for one more show (that we know of), TNT and Crashbar are doing their usual great stuff.

As usual, things at the Ivy Substation in Culver City are not status quo. Then again, when you’re trying to keep theatre alive in an economy more suited for food stamps than Shakespeare, nothing is going to be easy. Enter The Actors’ Gang, who for years have been at the Los Angeles forefront of doing things the hard way, and with amazing results. Their productions, workshops, and community outreach programs are second to none, and the current WTF?! Festival is right in line with such forward thinking.

Yes, technically the above title is grammatically incorrect. And, depending on your level of education and OCD, you might have a hard time getting past it and on to the rest of this piece. But that’s OK, we’re all a little different, and LA’s The Moth seeks to embrace that fact, while finding the linking commonalities in us all.

Celebrated novelist and poet Margaret Atwood reads from her new novel, Year of the Flood tonight at 8 pm at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Local actors and the L.A.-based vocal ensemble Sonos will join Atwood in recreating select scenes. The author is known for her best-selling novels The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin. Tickets: $24-$48.

Oh, this hipsterville to hipsterville concept has potential be wicked awesome, or an ultimate fail. Ellen Page and two others are writing and executive producing a comedy that "follows two painfully cool hipster girls as they relocate from Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood to Los Angeles' Silver Lake enclave in hopes of becoming artists -- of any kind," reports the Hollywood Reporter.

Doug Benson is one stoner/comic who happens to get a lot done. Crowned High Times Magazine's Stoner Of The Year in 2006, you'll know Benson from his popular podcast "I Love Movies" (which he records on the regular before Comedy Death Ray at the Upright Citizen's Brigade theater in Hollywood,) Last Comic Standing (sixth place) and VH1's Best Week Ever.

I'll say this, there was probably nothing funnier than last weekend's Red Bull Soapbox Derby. An afternoon spent watching people eat shit? It's like America's Funniest Home Videos on Ice. Or in this case, pavement. At any rate, this week has some pretty big standards to live up to, but I don't think you'll be hurting for great shows. DERRCK is at UCB on Saturday AND Sunday, Nealon / Leno / Davidson / Rajskub / Jeffries are all doing stand up, and the essay shows live on. Email THIS GUY if you're interested in getting some hype love for a show you know.

Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theater presents The Revolution Will Not Be Televised tonight at 8 pm. The documentary looks at the charismatic and controversial reign of Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, focusing on the run-up to the dramatic attempt to overthrow him in April of 2002, and the coup d'etat and the extraordinary return to power of Chávez some 48 hours later. The screening will be introduced by the film's co-executive producer, Rod Stoneman who’ll discuss the production and reception of this controversial work, in the context of the contemporary global economy of the media.

Nationally headlining comedian and best-selling author Aaron Karo is 30, single and loving it. The New York native who walked away from a Wall Street job to jump into a career in comedy isn't going to abandon the bachelor life to leap into marriage anytime soon, even if all of his friends are. In his new book, I'm Having More Fun Than You the LA-based comic shares with readers exactly why he's perfectly happy to live a life free of commitment and full of nights spent chasing chicks at the bar. Karo's book, which was the top selling comedy book on Amazon.com last week, is a celebration of singlehood through anecdotes, observations and a few tips along the way.

This week is a stand up bonanza, with great shows all over town and even down in Irvine. There's also too much good improv to mention, with Boomtown doing stuff Tuesday and Thursday at TNT and Crashbar, respectively. Ladies & Gentlemen are at Let's Do This! on Friday at UCB. It's practically raining jokes out there folks, so grab your chuckle buckets.

Food and drink can definitely make football more fun (or for those who prefer their pig skin on the plate and not in a pass, palatable). Henry's Hat (Twitter), the recently opened eatery that sits conveniently in the Cahuenga Pass (you know--between "here" and "there" for those who travel either way over the proverbial hill) has some great Happy Hour offerings, with some extra fun in place for Monday Night Football.

David Cross has made audiences laugh their asses of on stage with his brilliant and vicious style of stand-up, on television in his incredibly funny work on "Arrested Development" as never nude analrapist Tobias Funke and as one-half of the team that gave us the hilarious HBO sketch comedy show "Mr. Show with Bob and David," on CD with is Grammy nominated Shut Up You Fucking Baby! and on the big screen. Now, David brings his brand of humor to the written form with his first book, I Drink for a Reason.

When you hear the phrase “the Japanese Step Brothers” used to describe a movie, you’re probably a least a little interested. That is, if you’re anything like me, but you probably aren’t because my parents say I’m one in a million, so eat it. Not that the American version of Step Brothers is all that spectacular, it’s just that imagining the role of an inept, aging, homebody loser being played by a Japanese man is - intriguing. And Jimmy, the comic lead in White On Rice, certainly is all of the things described above - but this movie is no Step Brothers.

After a week-long Labor Day hangover, LAst Laugh is back and funnier than ever. There's so much effing good stuff this week to share with you laugh-starved children, so suck in those bloated bellies and get ready to chuckle your way back to health.

Whether or not you really ever believed Hip Hop was Dead, there’s no denying the changes it’s undergone in the past decade. Bass-y beats and mean muggin’ thug rhyme runners are so cliche they’ve become a caricature of themselves; how else can you explain 50 Cent having his own video game? So where does a real hip hop head turn? Like an ostrich: underground.

Quiet week on the comedy front, with a few notable exceptions like Cagematch, Dragon Boy Suede, and Barats & Bereta. Get AT ME if you wanna.

Well, comedy never sleeps so why should you? After last week's stand up show at Hollywood Forever, brace yourselves for another rousing week of rambunctious laughter at the ends of some of LAs best and brightest. There's Mark Curry, Patton Oswalt, Tig Notaro. There's cagematches and sketch shows and everything under the sun, particularly at Largo and the Improv. You know the drill: hit me up if you want your show listed.

“Comedy is Dead 7” with Mary Lynn Rajskub, Aziz Ansari, Brent Weinbach, Matt Braunger, Natasha Leggero and Duncan Trussell takes place tonight at the Masonic Lodge at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. There’s also a screening of shorts by: Eric Wareheim, DJ Douggpound and Derek Waters. Cocktails are at 8 pm and the show starts at 9. Tickets are $10. Reservations recommended.

Guys, this Wednesday is insane for comedy. From Mortified to Old Town to the Chelsea Lately show... and we're not even including the great sketch shows going on over at UCB, include the Apple Sisters. Well, no matter what day of the week you get out to peep some comedy, let this calendar be your guide to the funniest that LA has to offer this week.

The sixth annual three week New Original Works Festival ran its course this past weekend downtown at REDCAT. True to its mission, the series showcased new and emerging artists working in new genres as well as mid-career creators further exploring their art or collaborating with other experimenters in other media. Each of the three separate programs was a shared event and this final triptych went down as promised. To begin the evening, comic performer, writer and alumna of cable TV’s The Daily Show, Lauren Weedman presented Off.

Well, LAst Laugh is back with the weekly dish on comedy in and around LA. Pretty straightforward stuff this week, with a ton of sketch and stand up covering the land, with a slight chance of great improv too. Probably most notable is all of the great female stand ups out and about this week, from Mary Lynn to Sarah Silverman on down. Don't for get to holler at cha boy if you're interested in getting listed, comedy snobs.

Lately, at iO West on Tuesday nights, a strange thing has been happening: they’ve been stacking the deck. With Monday nights as their cream-of-the-crop Armando shows and Saturdays reserved for Beer Shark Mice or some other formidable team, it would be entirely possible for iO to experience a bit of the mid-week improv doldrums. But instead, with the last three Harold Competition champion teams running back-to-back-to-back, Tuesdays at iO are becoming a great go-to for improv in Los Angeles.

For over twenty years, when Culver City-based theatre collective The Actors’ Gang has spoken, Los Angeles theatergoers have listened, and with good reason. The shows that are produced in the tiny Ivy Substation are often on par or well above the other high-gloss production shows you can pay twice as much money for around town. Not that their works are expansive (or expensive) shows with all sorts of modern theatrical trickery; in fact, the Gang just lets their acting do all the talking for them. And, again, we listen.

Reform School, an art, craft and design shop, is holding an an opening reception for Savanna Snow’s new show “Charming Cobras.” It’s an Indian-inspired theme with Indian snacks from Jaredfood and live sitar music. The reception starts at 7 pm. Preview the show here.

Stand up is the biggest draw this week, but as always improv is making a strong stand out at Westside and of course at UCB and iO West. In fact, Sentimental Lady and Flap Jackson are going to be breaking out of the Harold and into some new forms on Sunday evening at UCB, so that's worth a look too. Either way, there's always plenty of comedy, and if you know of more, let a guy know.

You know Jim Breuer, if not by name then at least by his perpetually stoned-looking mug or his outlandish Saturday Night Live characters, most notably Goat Boy. This is the Jim Breuer you recognize, from Half-Baked and Chappelle’s Show and even Clerks. But a lot of people don’t know that Breuer also has a long love affair with stand up, dating back many years and several TV specials. And those specials, while rarely game-changing, have been good, sometimes great; the AC/DC hokey pokey bit is pretty magical. Unfortunately, Breuer’s new special Let’s Clear the Air lacks all of the magic and most of the funny that you could previously expect from the man you thought you knew.