ShowbizMonkeys.com: Comedy

Interview: Matt Walsh of Spike TV's Players and the Upright Citizen's Brigade

Posted by Paul Little | Tuesday, June 29, 2010 @ 6:44pm

Matt Walsh has been a staple of the comedy scene for over a decade, appearing in countless television shows and movies such as The Daily Show, Dog Bites Man, Old School, Role Models, and The Hangover. And like many of today's top comedy names, he didn't get his start in stand-up, but rather in improv.

But Matt Walsh isn't just any improv comedian. In the early 90s, he joined fellow improvisers Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Besser in the Chicago comedy troupe The Upright Citizens Brigade, and the foursome later relocated to New York City, landing on Comedy Central with an eponymous sketch show. Around the same time, they opened up their own theatre in New York, and after establishing it as the premiere venue for improv and sketch instruction and performance in New York, opened up a second theatre in Los Angeles in 2005.

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Derek Seguin, Steve Patterson, Hot Thespian Action, and other highlights from the 2010 Winnipeg Comedy Festival

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, April 12, 2010 @ 6:08am

Last April, I was gearing up for the Winnipeg Comedy Festival. As a giant comedy nerd, any chance to see some of my favourites perform without me having to leave my hometown is a great thing. I received a Media Pass in order to cover the fest for ShowbizMonkeys.com, and was elated to find out one of my all-time favourite stand-ups, Mark Maron, was one of the comedians coming to town. On the Wednesday night to start the festival, I attended the Winnipeg Show, a collection of comics with local ties, and it was great. I thought nothing of the little cough I had that night. By the middle of the night, though, the cough had turned to a full-on flu of some kind, and I ended up spending the rest of the weekend lying in bed, wishing my face would stop emitting such strange-coloured fluids.

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2009 North American* Genius Monkey Comedy Award

Posted by Paul Little | Tuesday, February 16, 2010 @ 11:07am

The North American* Genius Monkey Comedy Award is given to a comedy writer/performer who is on his or her way up. Because comedy is not at all objective (despite how much we wish it was), ShowbizMonkeys.com figured that coming up with the absolute funniest comedian each year would be an impossible task. However, by selecting a rising writer/performer who already manages to make us laugh despite lacking years of experience in the business and the spotlight, we hope to bring to light someone who we feel will soon be at the top of the comedy game -- plus, we can kind of embrace the subjectivity of it all.

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The 2009 Late Night Television Awards

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, January 4, 2010 @ 8:00pm

Aren't you excited? A totally trivial list of the top 3 shows/hosts in 5 different categories, picking from a genre of no more than a dozen total shows. So while 2009 was the year that talk shows seemed to dominate the airwaves (Really? 3.5 hours of talk every night on NBC? Really!?), it's still a pretty limited game, especially in late night.

Since I do watch almost every night of almost every show on late night television, it seems, I like to think I'm a bit of an authority on the work of comedic talk shows. So who better to come up with a list (that holds little clout) of what was the best of the decade's final year?

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Interview: Actor/comedian Kevin Pollak on his career and his new web talk show

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, November 9, 2009 @ 8:47pm

Kevin Pollak has carved himself a very successful career as a top-notch character actor in comedies and dramas. Nearly every filmgoer on earth has seen one of his dozens of films -- The Usual Suspects, A Few Good Men, The Whole Nine Yards, Hostage, Grumpy Old Men, Casino, L.A. Story, and Willow are just a few of the great (and occassionally not-so-great) films Mr. Pollak has lent his skills to. Personally, I know him more as a stand-up comic who happens to be one of the best impressionists around (his Christopher Walken is the benchmark by which all other Walken impressions are measured).

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The Tonight Show and The Late Late Show: How late night television is made

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, November 9, 2009 @ 4:47pm

A little over a week ago, myself and 30 Rock recapper Jeff Anseeuw got the opportunity to see live tapings of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (on Monday, October 26th) and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (on Tuesday, October 27th). While I was a veteran of late night comedy tapings (having seen Jay Leno's Tonight Show, The Late Late Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report live over the past few years), Mr. Anseeuw was new to the whole thing.

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Interview: Stand-up comedian Jon Reep

Posted by Paul Little | Thursday, October 22, 2009 @ 2:40am

Stand-up comedian Jon Reep may have become most known after winning 2007's Last Comic Standing competition, but that show was just another stop for a comic who began touring as a working stand-up back in 1998.

And now, with that title on his resumé -- along with countless TV specials, festival appearances, and a few acting roles -- comes a major CD/DVD release fresh of the heels of his Comedy Central special (which aired last Saturday, October 17th). Metro Jethro hit stores this week, and he took the time out of his busy touring and promotion schedule to answer our questions about his career, his inspiration, and what you can expect from the new release.

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Interview: Tonight Show blogger Aaron Bleyaert answers your questions on the eve of Conan taking over the late night institution

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, June 1, 2009 @ 7:57am

Later tonight, this June 1st of 2009, The Tonight Show -- a late night institution that has been around for more than 50 years -- will welcome its 5th host. Conan O'Brien officially takes over for the departed Jay Leno (who's getting a new 5-nights-a-week primetime show in the fall) at 11:35pm. Luckily, for fans of Conan's 16 years hosting Late Night, most of the staff made the move to the West Coast to work on the new Tonight Show, including Max Weinberg and the rest of the band; executive producer Jeffrey Ross; head writer Mike Sweeney; writers Kevin Dorff, Brian Stack, Brian McCann, and Brian Kiley (and more); graphic designer and sometimes performer Pierre Bernard; and blogger Aaron Bleyaert.

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Interview: Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer of The Lonely Island

Posted by Paul Little | Tuesday, March 17, 2009 @ 5:39am

The Lonely Island -- the comedy collective featuring Saturday Night Live star Andy Samberg and SNL writers Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer -- recently released an album featuring a mix of songs that were at one point SNL Digital Shorts and a host of new tracks (many with guest vocals from stars like Jack Black and Norah Jones). That album, Incredibad, surprised many by debuting at #13 on the Billboard charts a few weeks back, but for the many who watch SNL every week hoping to check out their latest work and helped make their videos the most-watched on YouTube, it wasn't much of a surprise at all.

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Interview: Comedian Aziz Ansari (winner of our 2008 Genius Monkey Comedy Award)

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, March 2, 2009 @ 9:00am

At only 26 years of age, Aziz Ansari has already accomplished quite a lot in the world of comedy. He's won accolades for his stand-up comedy, including the Jury Award for "Best Standup" at the 2006 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. He's received rave reviews for his early collaborations with fellow comedians Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer, and director Jason Woliner at the UCB Theatre in NYC under the name Human Giant, which led to the critically acclaimed sketch comedy show of the same name on MTV. He's appeared in small but hilarious roles in television (Flight of the Conchords) and film (The Rocker), and recently had a larger role earlier this season on Scrubs. He's about to star, alongside Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, and Aubrey Plaza, in a new NBC sitcom from the producers of The Office.

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