Ever turn on a late-night TV comedy show expecting the comedy, but first watching the host awkwardly address the latest collective tragedy? That’s how I’ve felt trying to start this column every time over the past couple of weeks.
Befitting my branding, last things first: Matthew Perry’s death Saturday at age 54 hit home for generations of comedy fans because of his whipsmart line readings as Chandler Bing on Friends, and hit home for me not just because Perry was of my generation, but especially because of his service in the trenches of recovery from addiction. If you hadn’t read his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” then perhaps you might not have known how much Perry struggled, nor how much he helped others like him. Like me. As my fellow A.J. Daulerio wrote yesterday for his newsletter, The Small Bow:
“In Hollywood, Perry’s recovery largesse was legendary—the dude would routinely let desperate people (sometimes relative strangers) stay at his house(s) and help pay for their treatment or do whatever he could to help someone else get sober. He had a code. I hope in the coming days, more of those stories begin to surface because he was an angel to many in our community.”
Or take it from someone who knew Perry well: Hank Azaria.
I type all of this in case you may be reading this while currently struggling with addiction, or knowing someone who struggles. I want you to know that I have been there, done that, and am here to show you that you’re not alone and you don’t have to get through anything on your own. We’re all in this together.
Which leads to another uniquely American tragedy, the relentless recurrence of mass shootings. People, mostly men, mostly mentally ill, all somehow allowed by legislators and condoned by capitalism to buy and own assault rifles and automatic firearms. I wouldn’t have tried to offer my opinions on it here right now, but it turns out John Mulaney and Pete Davidson had tour dates this weekend in both Bangor and Portland, Maine, on either side of the Lewiston massacre. Mulaney and Davidson could postpone their dates, but the gunman’s damages cannot be undone.
And then, of course, globally widespread tragedies continue to unfold. Look closely enough and you won’t like what you see happening to the Armenians in Azerbaijan, the Uyghurs in China, or local populations in Pakistan, Sudan, and that’s just scratching the surface and don’t get anyone started on the current or even 106-year state of affairs in the land occupied by Israelis and Palestinians. And yet, everyone has an opinion, including comedians and even those who don’t seemingly have a stake in the future of the region. Instagram Stories are as much of a virtual media minefield and battleground as the real thing. My NYT friend and colleague Jason Zinoman trekked to North Carolina last week to see and hear for himself what Dave Chappelle has to say on the Middle East these days (free link).
But I don’t care what Chappelle has to say about it, and shudder just seeing what some of the other comedians have posted on their social media accounts. When Tim Minchin offered his Peace Anthem For Palestine in early 2007, it felt cute and clever. But that was before Hamas took over Gaza. So much blood has been shed since then. In 2023, we need real, realistic lasting remedies. I’d rather hear more from Jess Salomon and Eman El-Husseini, married comedians who may have brought Jewish and Palestinian love and peace into their home, but have yet to see the rest of their relatives and their communities find similar peace. See and hear Eman’s parents share their plight to a Canadian TV station:
My heart goes out to the innocent people living in Israel and Palestine, as well as to the comedians with roots and relatives there right now.
As John Oliver would say, and now this…
Back to my previously scheduled comedy news dispatch
Remember back in 2016 when for a brief moment, we were all worried about even more existential things, such as the idea that the “ghost” of the late, great George Carlin would be resurrected as a hologram for the National Comedy Center? That never materialized, so to speak. In truth, the hall of fame / museum for American comedy in Jamestown, N.Y., has chosen still-very-much-alive comedians for their in-house hologram MCs — a virtual recording of Jim Gaffigan welcomed visitors in 2019 with an orientation address. Now they’ve got a Jimmy Fallon hologram hosting Johnny Carson: The Immersive Experience.
The larger looming existential threat for the comedians and their families now? Corporate abuse of AI.
Earlier this month, Tom Hanks called out a dental plan advertisement for using his voice and likeness via AI. Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin, posted her support of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike on her Instagram Stories with particular concern over how studios already abuse AI, calling it “a horrendous Frankensteinian monster cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for.” Thankfully, then, when Disney/Pixar released a video celebrating 100 years of Disney by putting characters from across generations in scenes together, they had enough recorded outtakes from Williams as Genie from 1992’s Aladdin that they didn’t need to resort to AI. Once Upon a Time filmmaker Dan Abraham told Entertainment Weekly that he sifted through 16 hours of archived recordings to pick the perfect soundbite. “We got the approval of the Robin Williams estate very, very early on,” he says. “We told them what we wanted to do and they were like, ‘Yep, this is great.’ Using original dialogue of his was very important to us.”
So for now, it’s all about the hologram. And for comedy holograms, all roads lead back to Proto. As I’ve reported here before, Andy Kindler delivered the first comedy set via Proto hologram technology in July 2022, beaming into Montreal’s Just For Laughs festival from Proto’s studio in California so he could virtually show up at JFL for his annual State of the Industry. Singer Kane Brown used Proto in September 2020 to appear and perform at the iHeart Music Festival, and Proto’s hologram box also has shown up at the New York Comedy Festival’s Stand Up For Heroes event last November. Proto investor Howie Mandel has brought the holograms to America’s Got Talent, too.
Jimmy Kimmel has installed the first permanent Proto box at his namesake comedy club in Las Vegas. Kimmel previously had pranked park-goers at Disney California Adventure in April by beaming Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt into the park.
At Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club, the Proto box normally appears in the bar area with a recorded hologram of Kimmel and security guard sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez greeting guests upon arrival. But don’t be surprised if every once in a while, a very live very famous human hologram appears in the box instead to interact with the Vegas customers.
SEEN & HEARD
Speaking of Kimmel, his comedian chat guests over the past two weeks on Jimmy Kimmel Live included Jim Jefferies, Mike Epps, Ms. Pat, Ronny Chieng, Eric Andre, Tiffany Haddish, and Jeff Ross.
On Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Ricky Velez and Pete Davidson tried to help Colbert when he got COVID; when Colbert returned last week, he sat down with Jim Gaffigan, Mae Martin, and the Keys.
On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Lil Rel Howery, Issa Rae, Tracy Morgan. Fallon also booked more stand-ups to do stand-up than anyone else combined.
Here’s Jared Freid:
And here’s Leslie Liao:
On Late Night with Seth Meyers: Joe Pera, John Oliver, and Nate Bargatze.
Because Bargatze was HOSTING SNL! Here’s his monologue, which lets anyone who didn’t already know that being the son of a magician might not make him a nepo baby, but it does have its side effects.
And in podcasts…
Keegan-Michael Key and his wife, Elle, joined Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Fly On The Wall podcast, not just to talk about their book on “The History of Sketch Comedy,” but also to dish about Key & Peele (which Key said might not have ever aired if Obama hadn’t won the 2008 Election), compare MADtv to SNL, and more.
Tom Segura had Matt Rife on 2 Bears, 1 Cave, where the two stand-up stars compared notes on what it’s like to go from nothing to very big thing in comedy. Highly enlightening!
Marc Maron welcomed Louis Katz (to promote his new special on YouTube) and Doug Stanhope on WTF, where the two old dogs talked about being old dogs in comedy. Fun times.
IN OTHER NEWS
Hasan Minhaj clapped back at The New Yorker, complete with receipts and graphics acknowledging he needed time to process the criticism as well as “do the most Hasan Minhaj thing ever and do a deep dive on my own scandal” to provide his side of the story.
“With everything that’s happening in the world, I’m aware even talking about this now feels so trivial,” Minhaj says in the video. “But being accused of ‘faking racism’ is not trivial. It is very serious, and it demands an explanation.” He also offered an apology: “I just want to say to anyone who felt betrayed or hurt by my stand-up, I am sorry. I made artistic choices to express myself and drive home larger issues affecting me and my community, and I feel horrible that I let people down. And the reason I feel horrible is because I’m not a psycho. But this New Yorker article definitely makes me look like one. It was so needlessly misleading, not just about my stand-up, but also about me as a person. The truth is, racism, FBI surveillance and the threats to my family happened. And I said this on the record.”
Minhaj most likely also waited to respond because he was still in the running to take over as the new host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. Now that that’s not happening, Minhaj is having his say. And his recordings of his conversations with Clare Malone do indeed implicate The New Yorker in twisting what Minhaj said. Was it a hit job? Perhaps. Did the magazine try to stick too close to its own premise, or ahem, emotional truths to let his answers steer them elsewhere?
For Malone and the magazine’s part, they’re sticking to their story.
I didn’t take issue with the whole prom/Bethany arc in my column, anyhow, and I did do what Minhaj suggested by focusing on other comedians who’ve made up deliberate falsehoods to make dubious points. My issue with Minhaj’s special was how and why he chose to center himself in stories that didn’t happen to him. He may only enjoy a hollow victory with his rebuttal. His philosophy about “emotional truths” in storytelling vs. fact-based political comedy may be worth further discussion. And yet none of it might put him back into consideration for that Comedy Central gig, whether or not a gig at Comedy Central will be worth quite so much come 2024.
What else is new?
This coming weekend marks the start of the New York Comedy Festival, now extended to 10 days and nights!
- It’s time to start enrolling in health insurance plans for 2024, and now there’s a portal for comedians to consider via Comedy Gives Back!
- There’s going to be a new Golden Globe category for Stand-Up Comedy Performance!?!? I’ve offered my early thoughts on what that means and who might win that first Stand-Up Comedy Golden Globe.
- New tours with dates and tickets announced last week include Ronny Chieng, Chelsea Handler, Tim Dillon (all already on sale), plus Wanda Sykes and Matt Mathews, and sales starting Nov. 3 for Brian Regan.
- The ITV archives crew rediscovered The Complete and Utter History of Britain, a six-part series written by and starring Monty Python’s Michael Palin and Terry Jones, which aired in 1969 and had been miscategorized for decades. ITV Premium members can now view this pre-Python project in full.
- Apple TV+ has cancelled The Problem With Jon Stewart after two seasons, as well as The Afterparty.
- A.D. Miles, Jimmy Fallon’s original head writer for Fallon’s Late Night, has returned to once again lead Fallon’s Tonight Show writing staff, after having left in 2017.
- Kitty Laing, meanwhile, suffered a demotion by losing her Head of Comedy title at United Agents for social media posts about the ongoing war in Israel and Palestine. “Following the statements made earlier this week, it has been agreed that Kitty Laing will step away from her leadership roles as head of comedy and as a member of the executive committee of United Agents, effective immediately. Kitty will continue to work with her clients and the team at United Agents.”
- Netflix has a new adult animation series from Dan Guterman, Carol & The End Of The World debuting Dec. 15, starring Martha Kelly as Carol. Martha Kelly (Euphoria, Baskets) will star as the titular character Carol.
- Adult Swim announced its first-ever Spanish language series, stop-motion animated Women Wearing Shoulder Pads, which follows a wealthy Spaniard living in Ecuador as she journeys through the complicated world of love, family, commercials, and cuyes, a.k.a. South American guinea pigs. It’s created by Gonzalo Cordova in partnership with Mexico City-based studio Cinema Fantasma.
- FOX set a Jan. 7, 2024, premiere date for Grimsburg, the new animated detective comedy starring Jon Hamm, with Errin Hayes, Rachel Dratch, Alan Tudyk, Kevin Michael Richardson and Greg Chun.
- Archer, meanwhile, will end its 14-season run Dec. 17 on FX and FXX and later streaming on Hulu.
- NBC has renewed Jimmy Fallon’s game show That’s My Jam for a third season in 2024. will return to NBC for a third season.
- Netflix announced it has a documentary following Kevin Hart and Chris Rock, called Headliners Only, premiering globally Dec. 12.
- Upcoming HGTV series announced include Trixie Motel: Drag Me Home, a home-renovation project starring Trixie Mattel and David Silver; and Mike Epps in Buying Back the Block, coming this November.
- Neon bought rights to distribute Babes, Pamela Adlon’s directorial debut, written by Ilana Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz, and starring Glazer, Michelle Buteau, Hasan Minhaj and John Carroll Lynch.
- Ken Jeong is developing his own daytime talker through Debmar-Mercury.
- Chris Rock may get to direct a Martin Luther King Jr. biopic for Universal?
- Sam Rockwell and Kumail Nanjiani will star in A Guy Walks Into a Bar, from director Gary Fleder and writer Scott Rosenberg.
- The Scleroderma Research Foundation (SRF) will present Cool Comedy • Hot Cuisine, a tribute to Bob Saget, next Wednesday (Nov. 8) as part of The New York Comedy Festival at the Edison Ballroom with an all-star lineup, and will debut the Bob Saget Legacy Award, honoring individuals who have followed in his footsteps by going above and beyond to help raise awareness about scleroderma and funds to find a cure. The inaugural award will go to Caroline Hirsch, founder/owner of Carolines and the festival, who helped Saget put the event on for many years while he was alive.
- Gabe Mollica’s off-Broadway show, Solo: A Show About Friendship, received a three-week extension at the Connolly Theater in NYC’s East Village. Mollica’s show now runs through Nov. 18. Go see it!
- Rick and Morty‘s new voices come from Alan Cardoni and Harry Belden, replacing ousted Justin Roiland.
- This year’s finalists for New York’s Funniest, the annual competition previously held at Carolines on Broadway during NYCF and previously won by, among others, Nate Bargatze (2010), Michael Che (2012), Ricky Velez (2014), and Tim Dillon (2016): Pat Burtscher, Peng Dang, Julio Diaz, Matt Koff, Gavin Matts, Paris Sashay, KC Shornima, Tre’ Stewart, Jake Velazquez, and Maddie Weiner. Ricky Velez hosts the finals on Saturday, Nov. 11 at 3:30 p.m. at The Venue at Hard Rock Hotel.
- Michael Blackson would rather duke it out in the ring? He signed up with Celebrity Boxing, which sounds like a joke since it used to be a stop-motion-animation spoof on the MTV.
- The Daily Show doesn’t have a new host yet, but does have a new face in the cast: Grace Kuhlenschmidt. Congrats, Grace!
Want to know more about SNL’s new cast member Chloe Troast?
I mentioned Tim Minchin earlier, so best to catch up on what he’s up to now, right??? After writing the music and lyrics for the Tony-winning Matilda The Musical as well as Tony-nominated Groundhog Day The Musical, Minchin announced a new solo tour for himself in 2023, An Unfunny Evening with Tim Minchin and His Piano. He also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Sydney Opera House (Oct. 20, 1973) a new song and music video.
OK. I’m sure I missed something, so I’ll have to catch up and then catch you up next time!
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