Hear, here! to my friends who really have walked the walk.
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OK, now to the comedy news you’re looking for…
Content warning? This installment is gonna be full of links. The comedy world has plenty worth talking about, and I’ll be devoting separate posts to those topics in the very near future. But last things first, here’s a guide to comedy news you may have missed in the past month or so.
Let’s start with the newest news. The Daily Show returns to Comedy Central on Monday, and they’ve unveiled the latest slate of guest hosts, starting with correspondent Michael Kosta (Oct. 16-19) and including return visits from Sarah Silverman (Nov. 6-9) and Leslie Jones (Nov. 13-16). That’d seem to indicate Silverman and Jones are frontrunners for the full-time gig to replace Trevor Noah. Of course, the five-month Writers Guild strike not only impacted everyone’s livelihoods on TDS, Comedy Central and throughout show business, but also Comedy Central’s plans to have a new host ready to steer The Daily Show this fall. Rumors they’d already narrowed their search to Hasan Minhaj prompted that New Yorker piece poking at Minhaj’s propensity for pushing the envelope on truthiness (my take on this appeared Sept. 22 in The Daily Beast), and also convinced Roy Wood Jr., whom everyone including myself thought was a slam-dunk easy choice for Comedy Central, to walk away from the show entirely.
I’ve enjoyed watching Minhaj’s rise for more than a decade, so I’m torn about this development while also feeling like he can just as easily overcome what certainly looks like a self-imposed obstacle to his future success. As for Wood, I go back even farther with him to his Last Comic Standing run in 2010. While Comedy Central might not eventually do right by him, Wood will come out the better for all of this. He’s touring now, and has a January 2024 planned with Jordan Klepper.
The strike also resulted in Drew Barrymore’s writers deciding not to return to work on her daytime talker, after Barrymore unsuccessfully attempted to produce new episodes during the strike, then haphazardly tried and failed to explain her motives. I go way back with two of her now-former writers: Cristina Kinon worked at the New York Daily News during my brief time there in 2007, and I met Chelsea White shortly thereafter in the comedy clubs and spaces around NYC. Hoping they land better gigs.
The new WGA contract represents a watershed moment for the Guild (you can see what they “won” from their five-month strike here), in a remarkable year for rejuvenated unions across America, as the Teamsters won great improvements for UPS workers, the United Auto Workers have put the screws to Ford, GM, and Stellantis, health workers across the country have threatened strikes or are striking now, SAG-AFTRA remains at an impasse with the studios who make up the AMPTP, and the crews of IATSE are waiting for their turn at the negotiating table.
It’s still unclear how this all will fall out for folks in show business, but I started The Comic’s Comic during the 2007 WGA strike, and there are sometimes longer-term repercussions. Right now, the late-night landscape is in great flux, and the strike had CBS thinking they’d replace James Corden with a reboot of @Midnight this fall, and yet, the net has booked back-to-back ancient reruns of Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen instead for the forseeable future.
But that’s another story. Stay tuned.
In Memoriam
We’ve lost a number of comedians recently.
Also RIP:
- Michael Paul Cathers (May 12, 1964 – Sept. 7, 2023), better known as Geechy Guy. Geechy Guy defeated Ray Romano on Star Search in 1990-91, and competed two decades later on America’s Got Talent. In between, he appeared on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show and Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show, and was often introduced as the world record holder for jokes told in an hour.
- Franne Lee, who won multiple Tony Awards for costuming before Lorne Michaels lured her to Saturday Night Live, where she helped create the looks for the Coneheads, the Nerds, the Killer Bees and the Blues Brothers, died Aug. 27. She was 81.
- Robert Klane, who wrote the screenplay for Weekend at Bernie’s and co-wrote National Lampoon’s European Vacation, died Aug. 29 of kidney failure. He was 81.
- Dick Curtis died Sept. 16 at age 95. Curtis appeared in many TV shows during the 1960s and 70s, and served as the straight man for Jonathan Winters to play off of on Winters’ own CBS show.
- Donnie Coy, the former Yuk Yuk’s owner and performer in Hamilton, Ontario, died Sept. 30 at 74. Levity Comedy Club in Hamilton will host a Celebration of Life for Coy on Oct. 22.
- Mike Dugan died Oct. 10 after a brief hospice for both prostate cancer and lung cancer. Dugan, the 1988 winner of the San Francisco Comedy Competition, won an Emmy for writing for The Dennis Miller Show, co-created Rich Hall’s Badly Funded Think Tank for the BBC, and had his own one-man show, “Men Fake Foreplay.”
Industry News and Notes
How about some congrats to pivot real hard out of condolences…
San Francisco’s own Gary Michael Anderson won the 47th annual San Francisco Comedy Competition this September. Anderson also has written for The Ms. Pat Show and is writing for BFFs.
Dylin Carlino won 2023’s Funniest Person in Austin after moving to the Texas capital last year from Portland. Here’s the Austin Chronicle‘s take on this year’s FPIA contest and how it reflects changes in the city’s comedy scene.
Speaking of Portland, Cameron Peloso won the 2023 Funniest Person in Portland contest.
Ryan Fay won 2023 Funniest Person in Buffalo.
Connor Lutz won Philly’s Phunniest for 2023.
Aisha The Comedian won Indiana’s Funniest 2023.
Kellen Blair won North Carolina’s Funniest 2023.
TonerioThaComedian won St. Louis Funniest 2023.
Time traveling back to 1969: Turn-On, a short-lived ahead-of-its-time but clearly of its time in 1969, starred a then-unknown Tim Conway, yet got cancelled as it debuted on ABC, and can now be seen by all thanks to producer George Schlatter.
Back in 2023, meanwhile…
World of Wonder has announced, House of Laughs, a new streaming showcase featuring half-hour stand-up specials hosted by Lawrence Chaney, and starring Joel Kim Booster, Jimbo, Cameron Esposito, Jaymes Mansfield, Daniel Franzese, Paris Sashay, Jared Goldstein, Silky Nutmeg Ganache, Abe Farrelly, Darienne Lake, Akeem Woods and many more. The series will debut in 2024.
CollegeHumor has graduated to Dropout, so to speak. Founded in 1999, later acquired by IAC, it’s now owned by CollegeHumor’s former creative chief creative officer, Sam Reich, Dropout CEO, who first developed Dropout as an ad-free SVOD in 2018.
Ms. Pat will preside as a TV judge in Ms. Pat Settles It, premiering Oct. 18 at 10 p.m. ET/PT to air on BET. It’s part of Patricia Willliams’ overall deal with BET to expand upon the success of The Ms. Pat Show.
Julio Torres is working with Ars Nova in NYC to develop new talent. He’s hosting Showgasm on Oct. 26 to celebrate.
Similarly, Nate Bargatze has formed The Nateland Company as production outfit not only for his own podcast and specials, but also, this: “Nateland Presents will be your source for good clean funny that everyone can enjoy. Envisioned by Nate Bargatze and brought to life by the talented people he trusts to make it a reality, Nateland Presents will deliver comedy, music, online content, live shows, and even an eventual Nateland theme park.”
And Will Ferrell wants to work with up-and-coming comedians on social media, too — Ferrell and iHeartMedia’s Big Money Players Podcast Network (BMP) announced the “Big Money Players Circle,” wherein Ferrell has hand-picked “the coolest and funniest social sensations to join the BMP network and be showcased across iHeartMedia’s multiplatform ecosystem.”
Which leads us to The Groundlings, and One Night Only, a musical improv show on Oct. 26 to benefit the Motion Picture & Television fund. Ana Gasteyer, Kristen Bell, Kristen Wiig, and Will Forte are among the stars expected to take part.
OK, back to bad and/or sad news…
Bill Cosby is facing a new civil lawsuit in California from a woman who claims he raped her in 1972 when she worked as a waitress in the San Francisco Bay Area.
FOX cancelled Welcome To Flatch after two seasons; ABC cancelled Home Economics after three seasons; and Freeform decided not to move forward on Kristin Newman’s While You Were Breeding.
Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat exclusively released the late great Bernie Mac’s first-ever solo full-length stand-up album. Bernie Mac: Tapes From A King on SiriusXM last week. The never-before-heard stand-up from Mac’s early days (originally recorded on VHS for him to review his performances after shows, and remastered now) will only be on Hart’s LOL Radio station for a month, then go wider on all streaming platforms.
What else?
If you’re looking for Last Week’s Specials, I’ve broken those out into their own posts, now monthly (here’s Last Month’s Specials covering September).
What else have I missed?
Please let me know and I’ll cover it, or I’ll let you know why I’m not covering it just yet.
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