Standup Comedy
Surprise Norm Macdonald Stand-Up Special, Filmed Prior to His Death, Coming to Netflix
Norm Macdonald was working on new stand-up material for a Netflix special before his death, but he never got to try out the routine in front of a live audience. Fortunately for fans, the comedian committed his jokes to tape in a home-recorded video that the streaming platform will soon unearth for the first time. Macdonald was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, but kept his illness private from the public. According to Lori Jo Hoekstra, the comedian’s longtime friend and producing partner, he recorded his final special before heading into the hospital in 2020 as a precautionary measure. “His test results were not good, so during the heart of COVID-19 pandemic and literally the night before going in for a procedure, he wanted to get this on tape just in case — as he put it — things went south,”...
Why Des Moines Is the Funniest City in America
I don’t want to hear about your local comedy scene. Honestly, it just doesn’t compare. You don’t have people who scrape ice off of their cars and slide out in brown slush just to try out five minutes of new material. If you’re talking about Chicago, it’s expected. When you’re talking about Des Moines, Iowa, it’s insane. For the last 14 years, there has been an enclave of huggable freaks, pukers of truth and go-getters who have made the Des Moines comedy scene the greatest in the country. Around 2007, you would have been lucky to find an open mic, any open mic, happening around there. Des Moines was kind of a dead town. If you did happen to find one, it was usually littered with acoustic guitar music, rancid, amateur beat poetry, and the occasional bit of comedy. When you did find that come...
Not Your Average Joe
The comedian Joe List is set to premiere his newest special, entitled This Year’s Material, on his popular YouTube channel, continuing a trend of DIY releases, such as Mark Normand’s Out to Lunch, Shane Gillis’s Live in Austin, as well as List’s own excellent 2020 set I Hate Myself. Each of those specials have garnered millions of views, not due to any sort of controversial material that would attract otherwise disinterested lookie-loos, but from hundreds of hours of road-tested material that has captured the attention of those of us only interested in punchlines. It is the opinion of this writer that Joe List is, pound-for-pound, the best working stand-up comic in America. His self-deprecating nature (“I Hate Myself” is both a title and common phrase for List) belies a novelistic detail f...
How to Buy Tickets to Kevin Hart’s 2022 Standup Tour
Kevin Hart has just announced his first standup tour in over four years, and it’s safe to say these comedy shows will be unforgettable. The “Reality Check Tour” spans over 30 dates and will see the comedian trekking across America from July to October, 2022. Get tickets here, and read on for more info about pre-sale codes, tour dates, and more. What is Kevin Hart’s 2022 Tour? The “Reality Check Tour” will begin in July, 2022 with standup shows in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hart will then tour throughout the country, ending the run in San Francisco, California in October, 2022. Advertisement Related Video About the tour, Hart says “I am hype as shit to go back out on tour. There is nothing better than making people laugh, I can feel the energy in the venues like caffeine pumping through my veins. I...
Comedian of the Year Bo Burnham Captured Our Collective Anxiety in 2021
Our 2021 Annual Report continues with the announcement of Bo Burnham as our Comedian of the Year. As the year winds down, stay tuned for more awards, lists, and articles about the best music, film, and TV of 2021. You can find it all in one place here. There’s a moment of context in Bo Burnham’s Inside where things start to click in a different way, and the whole special gets cast in a new light. At the end of the first verse and chorus of “All Eyes on Me,” Burnham describes making the decision to return to stand up comedy after a four-year hiatus from the form. In a supremely ironic fashion, he made this decision in January 2020, finally deciding that he was ready to be vulnerable in front of an audience again — all before a global shutdown. Hindsight is (clears throat) 20/20, but regardl...
John Mulaney Announces 2022 “From Scratch” Tour
As John Mulaney prepares for the final performance of his 2021 “From Scratch” tour, the comedian has announced a fresh slate of dates for 2022. Our former Comedian of the Year will return to the road beginning March 11th in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The 33-date trek seems designed to rack up the frequent flyer miles, with a performance in Ohio being followed by a stop in Maine, a two-night stand at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut giving way to a run through Texas, and what could have been one extended California leg interrupted by layovers in Denver, CO, Omaha, NE, and Saint Paul, MN. Ticket presale begins Tuesday, December 7th via Ticketmaster. Use code ‘BELLS’ to buy your tickets early, or wait until Friday, December 10th for the general sale. Check out the full itinerary below, and...
Lewis Black Announces 2022 US Tour
Lewis Black is hitting the road for a tour in 2022. The comedian has today announced the “Off the Rails Tour,” a US trek that will hit 35 cities from January to May. Black’s upcoming jaunt begins with two nights at Denver, Colorado’s Paramount Theatre on January 21st and 22nd and wraps up at Greensburg, Pennsylvania’s Palace Theatre on May 8th. Some dates are already on sale, and tickets for Minneapolis and Mt. Pleasant will be available in December. Everything else becomes available this Friday, November 19th. See the full list of dates ahead. Specializing in observational black comedy, Black’s standup tends to devolve into rants about American history and politics — meaning he should have plenty of new material in this climate. What’s more, The Daily Show contributor ends each of his com...
Lewis Black Announces 2022 US Tour
Lewis Black is hitting the road for a tour in 2022. The comedian has today announced the “Off the Rails Tour,” a US trek that will hit 35 cities from January to May. Black’s upcoming jaunt begins with two nights at Denver, Colorado’s Paramount Theatre on January 21st and 22nd and wraps up at Greensburg, Pennsylvania’s Palace Theatre on May 8th. Some dates are already on sale, and tickets for Minneapolis and Mt. Pleasant will be available in December. Everything else becomes available this Friday, November 19th. See the full list of dates ahead. Specializing in observational black comedy, Black’s standup tends to devolve into rants about American history and politics — meaning he should have plenty of new material in this climate. What’s more, The Daily Show contributor ends each of his com...
Bo Burnham’s Inside (The Songs) Declared Ineligible for Comedy Album Grammy
For the 64th year running, the trophy for least intelligible award show goes to the Grammys. As Billboard reports, the Recording Academy has declared Bo Burnham‘s Inside (The Songs) ineligible to compete for Best Comedy Album at the 2022 Grammy Awards. Burnham shared his quarantine opus Inside in March, and it quickly became a pandemic sensation. Less a traditional comedy special than a musical exploration of an unravelling mind, it captured the zeitgeist a second time when Inside (The Songs) dropped in June. The special has already taken home trophies at other, more reputable award shows, including Outstanding Music Direction, Outstanding Writing, and Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special at the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards. A Best Comedy Album Grammy for ...
Bill Burr Announces 2022 Tour
Standup comedian Bill Burr hasn’t even wrapped up his 2021 tour, and he’s already announced stops for the 2022 “Slight Return” arena and amphitheater tour. The 24-date trek kicks off on April Fool’s Day in Reading, PA, and includes appearances along the east coast, south, and brief runs through the west coast and Canada. He wraps up August 27th in Saratoga Springs, New York. Tickets go on sale Friday, October 15th at 10:00 a.m. local time. Check out the full 2021-2022 itinerary below, and if you so choose, you can book your seat through Ticketmaster. Advertisement Related Video The leisurely pace of his 2022 tour may be designed to accommodate an increasingly busy schedule. Burr’s animated Netflix series, F Is for Family, returns for its fifth season later this year. He recently ...
Bill Burr Announces 2022 Tour
Standup comedian Bill Burr hasn’t even wrapped up his 2021 tour, and he’s already announced stops for the 2022 “Slight Return” arena and amphitheater tour. The 24-date trek kicks off on April Fool’s Day in Reading, PA, and includes appearances along the east coast, south, and brief runs through the west coast and Canada. He wraps up August 27th in Saratoga Springs, New York. Tickets go on sale Friday, October 15th at 10:00 a.m. local time. Check out the full 2021-2022 itinerary below, and if you so choose, you can book your seat through Ticketmaster. Advertisement Related Video The leisurely pace of his 2022 tour may be designed to accommodate an increasingly busy schedule. Burr’s animated Netflix series, F Is for Family, returns for its fifth season later this year. He recently ...
Netflix CEO Says Dave Chappelle’s Special Doesn’t Cross “The Line on Hate” in Internal Memo
Last week, Dave Chappelle drew backlash for continuing his pattern of making derogatory jokes about transgender people in his Netflix special The Closer, but for now the streamer’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos is standing by his cash cow. In an internal memo obtained by Variety, Sarandos vowed not to pull the special from Netflix, citing creative freedom. He also stated that the stand-up special doesn’t cross the company’s “line on hate” and delineated the “different standard of speech” that applies to stand-up compared to what is allowed internally. “Chapelle is one of the most popular stand-up comedians today, and we have a long standing deal with him,” wrote Sarandos. “His last special Sticks & Stones, also controversial, is our most watched, stickiest, and most award winning stand-up s...
