Modified On May 30, 2009
While hangin out with comedians in Vegas and Los Angeles last two weekends ago, we managed to glean some information about stuff in the biz.
We were hanging out with Tom Cotter in Vegas and he told us that, after he was done with his gig at the Riviera Comedy Club, he was flying to Los Angeles to tape an appearance on a new show produced by Byron Allen that would feature standup comics. How about that? A show featuring standup comics… doing standup!
When we got to Los Angeles (specifically to the Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach) we ran into another comic who was preparing for the show– Charles Viracola.
And a comic on the Comedy & Magic shows– Brian Kiley— is also a writer for Conan, so we learned that all but a handful of the Conan staff is making the trek west when the show takes over the 11:30 timeslot on NBC. (We were wondering if there would be some defections, some folks who just couldn’t bear to make the transition from NYC to LA, but it turns out that there weren’t many at all.)
And, although we already posted it in our original C&MC posting it bears repeating: Former HBO exec J.P Buck will take over as the talent coordinator for the new Tonight Show. We hung out with Buck briefly at the JFL fest a couple summers ago and found him to be personable, approachable and an all round swell guy. And we suspect that will not change when he occupies his new position.
And on our flight from Salt Lake to Los Angeles (on our way to Kona last week) was none other than John Henton, one of the last comics to be called over to the panel by Johnny Carson, just before he turned the show over to Jay Leno.