From The Comic's Comic

What comedy news was hiding behind the Christmas tree?

Our top stories from the world of comedy this past week…

Chris Rock Sets Netflix’s First Live Special

On Christmas, Netflix and Chris Rock jointly announced the date for the streaming giant’s first-ever livestreaming event. Rock will tell jokes at 10 p.m. Eastern on March 4, 2023, in Baltimore for his second Netflix special, Chris Rock: Selective Outrage.

They’re not counter-programming against the Academy Awards, as I had suggested would be the cheeky move, but they’re close (the Oscars are March 12, 2023). Nevertheless, this’ll be a huge test for Netflix. “Chris Rock is one of the most iconic and important comedic voices of our generation,” said Robbie Praw, Netflix Vice President of Stand-up and Comedy Formats. “We’re thrilled the entire world will be able to experience a live Chris Rock comedy event and be a part of Netflix history. This will be an unforgettable moment and we’re so honored that Chris is carrying this torch.”

Last week, Rock announced an extension of his “Ego Death” tour, which will serve as his warm-up dates for the Netflix broadcast.

EGO DEATH WORLD TOUR 2023 DATES:

• Sat Feb 04 – Norfolk, VA – Chrysler Hall

• Wed Feb 22 – Charlotte, NC – Ovens Auditorium

• Sat Feb 25 – Knoxville, TN – Tennessee Theatre

Tickets onsale for those dates via Ticketmaster.

The Chris D’Elia Problem

In mas Chris news…perhaps the bigger more surprising thing to drop last week was an hourlong documentary by comedian Kyle Anderson about comedian/actor Chris D’Elia, called The Chris D’Elia Problem. Anderson said he never imagined he’d put out a video like this, but that someone needed to do it, and nobody else had. As Anderson typed when he released the trailer on Twitter on Dec. 20, D’Elia: “ hasn’t been “doing better”. And I got proof. Plus, we talk about s*x cults, branding and much more. Exclusive interviews with 4 victims and his ex tour manager.” That includes one woman who was in a relationship with D’Elia while and after he posted his “apology” video last year for seeking out underage fans for sex in his DMs. The trailer has more than 625,000 views on Twitter; the full doc on YouTube, almost 300,000 views as I type this.

If you go to Ticketmaster, you’ll see D’Elia has a bunch of shows for sale in 2023, including two at the Beacon Theatre in NYC?!

Egads, show business always is just a show as long as they can make a business out of it, isn’t it.

Jay Mohr Engaged To Lakers Owner Jeanie Buss

TMZ broke the news last week that comedian Jay Mohr has gotten engaged to Jeanie Buss, the president and controlling owner of the Los Angeles Lakers. Congrats kids! This will be Mohr’s third marriage (he previously wedded actress Nikki Cox from 2006-2018).

R.I.P. Boogie B.

Sad tragic news out of New Orleans. Brandon Montrell, aka comedian Boogie B., was shot and killed as an innocent bystander in a shooting outside a supermarket on Friday afternoon. He was 43. #RIPBoogieB

Industry News

• Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the duo behind South Park, have received $20 million in investments for Deep Voodoo, their AI entertainment startup. “We stumbled upon this amazing technology and ended up recruiting the best deepfake artists in the world,” Stone said in a statement. “We are psyched to share their brilliance with the Hollywood creative community.” You can see what Deep Voodoo already can do do, as they transformed the face of Kendrick Lamar into other celebrities for his “The Heart Part 5” music video.

• Stavvy Baby! Comedian Stavros Halkias will star in a road-movie comedy, Exit Statement, alongside Wes Haney, that’s in development from Queensbury Pictures. Ben Kitnick will direct the adaptation of his short film into a feature, which he’s co-writing with Halkias and Haney.

Late-Night TV News

The Television Academy plans to change their Emmy categories for talk and sketch/variety shows for 2023. What now?

• Outstanding Talk Series: “unscripted interviews or panel discussions between a host/hosts and guest celebrities or personalities”

• Outstanding Scripted Variety Series:“programs that are primarily scripted or feature loosely scripted improv and consist of discrete scenes, musical numbers, monologues, comedy stand-ups, sketches, etc.”

The changes would, for example, move John Oliver’s show out of talk and into scripted variety to compete with SNL. This sounds…bad. Most talk shows aren’t really talk shows, anyhow. Some year the Emmys will learn. Not this year, apparently.

In related news, more than 250 writers have signed the LATE-NIGHT/COMEDY-VARIETY DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION PLEDGE on the WGA-East site.

“These commitments are just a start to a long process. We must create an industry in which diversity is not an aspirational goal but is a fundamental trait. Our industry will not be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive industry until it is that by default – until the pipelines into the industry and the hiring processes, room cultures, and supervisory structures at shows together create an environment in which we do not hire diverse writers onto writing staffs, but rather hire writers onto diverse writing staffs.”

You can read the full pledge and see who signed here.

Fun Things To Do In NYC

This week’s show(s) I plugged in The New York Times: Kate Berlant’s KATE is back in session! Tickets going fast, though.

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