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The Winter of Dis Content and Discontent

This holiday season already feels rather somber because of, well, everything. I didn’t need to tell you that. Anyhow, you’re here for comedy news, and comedy news I shall provide. It has been a while since my last major dispatch, so we’ve got a lot of catching up to do. If you weren’t previously subscribed, then perhaps you missed Last Month’s Specials from November, an appreciation for the late great Norman Lear, and news on this year’s Critics Choice Awards and first-ever Golden Globes nominations for stand-up comedians. So what else is new?

Billboard tallied up the ticket sales for Nov. 1, 2022 through Sept. 30, 2023 and claims these were the top 10 comedy tours worldwide for that 11-month year?!?

  1. Kevin Hart: $67.5M / 631K tickets / 82 shows (27 gigs topped 10k tickets each)
  2. Dave Chappelle: $36.6M / 254K tickets / 19 shows (all arenas)
  3. Bert Kreischer: $32.9M / 460K tickets / 80 shows
  4. Bill Burr: $20.6M / 231K tickets / 37 shows
  5. Nate Bargatze: $20.6M / 330K tickets / 113 shows
  6. Peter Kay: $20.5M / 276K tickets / 21 shows
  7. Taylor Tomlinson: $17.5M / 296K tickets / 132 shows
  8. Sebastian Maniscalco: $16.8M / 130K tickets / 39 shows
  9. Adam Sandler: $14.2M / 141K tickets / 15 shows
  10. Jo Koy: $13.4M / 198K tickets / 20 shows

Pollstar, meanwhile, calculated touring dates from Oct. 16, 2022, through this Oct. 15, and reported rakes of $68.3 million for Hart over 77 dates, dialed down to the dollar for Kreischer at $33,366,442 for 87 shows, Nate Bargatze pulling in $22,122,286 on 352,182 tickets, and has Chris Rock and Chappelle selling 130,413 seats for eight dates co-headlining arenas for $20.8 million.

*****

Of course, you probably heard a lot more last week about the release of Netflix’s first-ever Netflix Engagment Report, providing scaled viewing metrics for almost everything they offered on the platform from January to June of this year. There’s a lot to digest here, and I’ll want to dig into these numbers in full and put them into proper context in a separate post. Perhaps this is something that’s worth extra for paying subscribers?! You tell me. In the meantime, here were the 10 most-viewed comedy specials on Netflix during the first six months of 2023.

  1. Chris Rock: Selective Outrage LIVE, March 4 — 36.2 million hours 
  2. John Mulaney: Baby J, April 25 — 11.9 million hours
  3. Bert Kreischer: Razzle Dazzle, March 14 — 8.3 million
  4. Leanne Morgan: I’m Every Woman, April 11 — 6.7 million
  5. Gabriel Iglesias: Stadium Fluffy, Oct. 18, 2022 — 6.4 millon
  6. Jim Jefferies: High & Dry, Feb. 14 — 5.8 million
  7. My Name Is Mo’Nique, April 4 — 4.1 million
  8. Wanda Sykes: I’m An Entertainer, May 23 — 3.9 million
  9. Andrew Santino: Cheeseburger, Jan. 10 — 3.8 million
  10. Amy Schumer: Emergency Contact, June 13 — 3.2 million

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R.I.P. Kenny DeForest

Kenny DeForest, a stand-up who grew up in Springfield, Mo., and began his career in Chicago before hitting his stride in Brooklyn, died Dec. 13, five days after a bike accident. He was 37. A GoFundMe set up Dec. 8 for his hospital bills raised more than $179,000. Along with Clark Jones and Will Miles, he’d co-hosted Sunday nights at the Knitting Factory in Willliamsburg, taking over the gig when Hannibal Buress left. DeForest performed on both Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Late Late Show with James Corden, and was a New Face at Montreal’s Just For Laughs in 2018. He released his second stand-up special this August on YouTube.

Don’t You Know Who I Am? is funny, thoughtful, engaging — just like him — and showcases a comedian and a man wanting to be better at both. So many comedians shared private text threads last week demonstrating how Kenny proved himself a clear and reliable ally, ready to uplift any of his peers. In his hour filmed at Gutter Bar (there’s also an extended album available via Blonde Medicine), we learn why he gave up on his basketball dreams for a life in comedy, learning about therapy and toxic masculinity and gentrification and sobriety and living with a woman and ultimately karma. His special counted 42,000 views by Dec. 15; two days later, that’s jumped to more than 71K.

And Kenny kept giving after death, because of course he would.

Rest in peace also to Marty Krofft, the co-producer of spaced-out 1970s kids TV programming (Land of the Lost, H.R. Pufnstuf), dead at 86 from kidney failure; and to Dex Carvey, son of Dana Carvey, who died last month at 32 from an accidental overdose. An autopsy for Matthew Perry also revealed the comedic actor had ketamine in his system, which may have contributed to his drowning. Please be careful out there, and don’t be left alone in a hot tub, whether or not you’re on medication.

It has been a crazy month for comedians with health scares, too.

Stephen Colbert revealed he almost died from a burst appendix.

Kate Micucci revealed she had lung cancer, but underwent surgery last week and is now happily cancer free.

Grace Helbig recently finished her sixth and hopefully final round of chemotherapy after revealing her breast cancer diagnosis almost six months ago.

Julia Johns, who’s touring a show about her breast cancer, A Tale of Two Titties, appeared on The Price Is Right and made Drew Carey laugh!

More than 500 people so far have chipped in to help Kyle Ayers with his ongoing struggles and medical treatments for trigeminal neuralgia.

And Jamie Foxx made a dramatic appearance to receive an award from the Critics Choice Association and spoke for the first time about his near-death crisis earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio co-directed a 20-minute documentary on the lifelong friendship between Bob Newhart and his wife, Ginnie, with Don Rickles and his wife, Barbara, which also gives us at least one more chance to check in on the 94-year-old Newhart and see how comedians with completely different styles and personalities can be BFFs for life.

Please, everyone, comedians and non-funny people who love them, please spread holiday cheer by looking after one another and letting your friends and loved ones know you love them.

Industry News and Notes

In things I didn’t think I’d see coming in 2023, somebody has took on the challenge of renting and renovating the space that previously housed Dangerfield‘s comedy club on the Upper East Side from 1969-2020. Would you believe they’re calling it Rodney’s, and that they’re hoping to be ready to reopen for New Year’s Eve?

Other headlines in comedy from the past month, ICYMI…

  • Improv Boston, meanwhile, is shutting down after 40 years in Boston, Somerville and for as long as I knew it in Cambridge, closing the doors Dec. 31.
  • Mark you calendar for Dec. 21, when CBS Presents Dick Van Dyke 98 Years of Magic.
  • The folks who now own the UCB also now own Abso Lutely Productions (Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, Nathan For You, The Eric Andre Show) with plans to develop new TV/film projects for UCB talent through Abso Lutely, while also leveraging the UCB theaters in NYC and LA for better video/livestream capabilities.
  • Amy Poehler is offering a MasterClass: Prepare to be Unprepared
  • FX ordered English Teacher to series from comedian Brian Jordan Alvarez.
  • Jessica Yu will direct a documentary about MAD magazine for Warner Bros. and DC through This Machine.
  • Trevor Noah is keeping busy. Aside from his newest Netflix special (out Tuesday), he’s also narrating and EPing The World According To Football for Showtime (Paramount+), and will once again host the Grammy Awards for CBS. Speaking of awards hosts, Jimmy Kimmel gets the Oscars gig at ABC for his fourth stint, Aidy Bryant will host the Independent Spirit Awards, Chelsea Handler will host the Critics Choice Awards, and Anthony Edwards will host the Emmy Awards.
  • Vir Das: Landing tied with Derry Girls for the International Emmy for best comedy.
  • The Blackening is getting a sequel maybe!
  • Rob Reiner and the Spinal Tap gang are getting back together for a sequel, too?!? With Sirs Paul McCartney and Elton John?!?
  • David Cross launched his first podcast, Senses Working Overtime With David Cross, on Dec. 7, via the usual places plus YouTube.
  • CBS is cutting the cord on Bob ❤ Abishola, with its fifth and final season airing from February to May. The network previously made major casting cutbacks.
  • Apple TV+ has cancelled animated Central Park after three seasons.
  • Amy Schumer will produce and star in Kinda Pregnant, a new Netflix film, directed by Tyler Spindel and produced by Happy Madison.
  • Jamie Lee and Nikki Glaser have a half-hour single-cam, Unsettling, in development at Amazon Prime Video, through Doozer Studios, Amazon/MGM and Warner Bros. TV.
  • Paula Pell and Janine Brito have written a movie for Kim Kardashian to star in, and Netflix won the bidding for it, is not a sentence I ever imagined typing but just typed it. The film is called The Fifth Wheel.
  • Kevin Hart will produce and star in Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, a drama series for Peacock about an armed robbery at Muhammad Ali’s 1970 fight.
  • Netflix has ordered more of The Upshaws.
  • Eddie Izzard will do all of Hamlet for an Off Broadway run at Greenwich House Theater starting Jan. 25. 
  • Just For Laughs announced a second season of their immersive VR stand-up comedy series, Surrounded, premiering Dec. 29 on Meta Horizon Worlds, hosted by Lil Rel Howery and featuring Marlon Wayans, Jack Whitehall, Mae Martin, Fortune Feimster, Mark Normand, Chris Redd, Dan Soder, Jay Pharoah, Meg Stalter, Felipe Esparza, Rosebud Baker, Sam Morril, Joel Kim Booster, Hannah Berner, Nate Jackson, Brad Williams, Preacher Lawson, Sasheer Zamata, Brian Simpson, Steph Tolev, Annie Lederman, and Che Durena.
  • Netflix’s animated reboot of Good Times will include JB Smoove, Jay Pharoah and Yvette Nicole Brown.
  • Cedric the Entertainer is putting on a weekly joke contest: Comedy Pays?
  • Sarah Silverman will host Stupid Pet Tricks (yes, as in the David Letterman segment, and Letterman and Worldwide Pants are on board as EP and producers), a new half-hour TBS series coming Mondays starting Feb. 12, with a preview across multiple Warner Bros. Discovery networks on Feb. 11.

There’s more news on upcoming tours and festivals for 2024, but we’ll get to that separately soon enough.

Late-Night Spots

I’m not going to try to cover a month’s worth of comedians doing panel on the various late-night shows, but I will get to the performances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, at least.

Most recently, Fumi Abe stopped by to joke about “learning Japanese through textbooks and people that grew up with rich parents.”

Three weeks ago, Derrick Stroup joked “about moving to Denver from Alabama and gaining weight during quarantine.”

And making her late-night TV debut a month ago, Tina Friml joked about “being from Vermont, living her best life as a disabled person and growing up with no representation in the media.”

On Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the host reconnected with Robert Smigel last week where they talked about just how far back they go, and how Smigel tried to get Colbert cast on Saturday Night Live when he was just a young Second City performer (he did get Colbert’s voice on SNL many times, however). And David Letterman made his first visit back to the Ed Sullivan Theater stage since he last left it?!? Letterman and Colbert in four segments (here’s a link to the first).

Jimmy Kimmel Live! invited a bunch of comedians to sit with him in the past month, but none boasted the stories that Eddie Murphy told to Kimmel, including the time he dated Lola Falana when he was young (and 20 years younger than Falana!), daring Dick Cavett into crazy stunts in the 1980s, and a so-crazy-it-might-be-true bet he made with Richard Pryor?

On Late Night with Seth Meyers, Leo Reich previewed a bit of his stand-up from his new special which premiered Saturday night.

Leo Reich: Literally Who Cares?! is out now on Max.

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