The District is having a comedy fest from April 12 through 14.

That’s the District of Columbia Comedy Festival. In addition to a lot of improv and sketch comedy, ther following standup comics are featured:

David Angelo
Vince Averill
Pat Brice
Mike Bridenstein
Eddie Brill
Mike Burns
Bill Bushart
Michelle Buteau
Rob Cantrell
Jordan Carlos
J.L. Cauvin
Nick Cobb
Claudia Cogan
Ryan Conner
Nate Craig
Becky Donohue
Jon Dore
Sean Flannery
Mark Forward
Sean Gabbert
Renee Gauthier
Jay Hastings
Andy Haynes
Mike Holmes
Brandon Ivey
Kyle Kinane
Hari Kondabolu
Ben Konstantin
Jeff Kreisler
Allison Leber
Jared Logan
Dartanion London
Kojo Mante
T.J. Miller
Jon Mumma
Kumail Nanjiani
Brady Novak
Rob Paravonian
Andy Peters
Larry Poon
Joe Robinson
Rory Scovell
Seaton Smith
C.J. Sullivan
Prescott Tolk
Baron Vaughn
Chris White
Elon James White
Drake Witham
Manolis Zontanos

Pack your down underwear, the Melbourne International Comedy Fest is happening through the 29th of this month.

An annual event, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival literally takes over Australia’s comedy capital, Melbourne, each autumn with an enormous program of stand-up comedy, cabaret, theatre, street performance, film, television, radio and visual arts.

The Festival was launched in 1987 by Barry Humphries and Peter Cook.

We had no idea that Dame Edna and Dudley Moore’s old comedy partner had a hand in starting this party.

They describe it as “one of the three largest comedy festivals in the world, alongside Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival,” which sound so much better than “the third largest.”

The ABC reality show Wife Swap is seeking a family with a mom or a dad who is a comedian. Click here to see if you qualify and fill out the application. Get ready– it’s a lengthy and intrusive list of questions which looks to take about a half-hour to fill in.

FOS Randy Masters filed the following report on Yuk Yuk’s Second Annual Great Canadian Laugh-Off:

The weather was unseasonably warm in Toronto last week, which was a nice surprise. Some great crowds came out for the semifinals, from March 26-31. I attended the first three shows, then appeared on the bill that Thursday night (along with fellow New Yorker, Andy Hendrickson). The winner that Thursday night was local comedienne Michelle Shaugnessy.

The competition, as to be expected, was tough. The first prize was $25,000. True, it’s $25,000 Canadian, but still. Apparently, Yuk Yuk’s is trying to get a more international bill of comedians, and they had a pool of 64 amateur and professional comedians from all over Canada, the U.S., South Africa, England, and Ireland. I was told by one of the organizers that there was also an Australian comedian scheduled to be on the bill, but he got turned away by customs in L.A. There were no details as to why he was turned away, so we are left with our imagination.

The finals were held on April Fool’s Day and it was quite an event. There were six large cameras placed strategically around the club, and the atmosphere behind the scenes was tense (the show will air on the Comedy Network in Canada later in 2007). I’m told that last year’s Laugh-Off went over four hours, so they were trying to reduce that down to under three (it ended up being a tight 2-1/2 hours).

It was a sold out house (they seat at least 300 at that club) and the cameras added an extra bit of electricity to the already pumped audience. Yuks owner, Mark Breslin, hosted the show and traded in his white tux (which he wore last year) for a black pinstripe suit. The celebrity judges were as follows: Michael Cox (talent executive for the Showbiz Show with David Spade), Bruce Hills (COO of the Just for Laughs Festival), Brent Haynes (Comedy Network), and Eddie Brill (comedian and booker for the Letterman show).

After a week of great comedy, the finalists on Sunday night were: Pio Modi (Hamilton, ON), Michelle Shaugnessy (Toronto, ON), Dylan Mandlsohn (Toronto, ON), Greg Cochrane (Toronto, ON), Paul Myrehaug (Toronto, ON), Matt Billon (Toronto, ON), Jennifer Grant (Vancouver, BC), and Al Prodgers (Capetown, SA).

Breslin announced early on that some people felt that last year’s second place winner should have won more than a set of steak knives. So he brought out a replacement second prize: a full set of cutlery.

Last year’s winner, Jeff McEnery, did a very funny set–bringing back a medley of his greatest hits from last year (you can check out part of his winning set on YouTube).

And the winner of the $25,000 prize and the title of Great Canadian Laugh Off Champion went to: Paul Myrehaug!

The second place winner of that wonderful cutlery went to: Dylan Mandlsohn!

There was a big bang as two canons went off and streamers filled the stage. Amid the hoopla, there appeared a very pretty blonde girl in a sparkly green outfit displaying the classic Big Check.

Nick has announced the 13 moms who will compete for the title of Funniest Mom:

Vicki Barbolak, Vista, CA
Brent Burgess, Burlington, NC
Pat Candaras, Brooklyn, NY
Jan Davidson, Santa Monica, CA
Kim DeShields, Amherst, MA
Janine Hayes (INTERNET PICK), Haverhill, MA
Andrea Henry, Norton, MA
Angela Hoover, Las Vegas, NV
Emily J, Roy, UT
Cathy Ladman, Santa Monica, CA
Ms. Pat (Patricia Lee), Riverdale, GA
Stephanie McHugh, Westminster, CO
Carol Montgomery, New York, NY

One contestant is described thusly:

…a relative rookie in the comedy world who decided just months ago that it was time for her to pursue her life-long dream of being a stand-up comedian.

Let’s see if we understand correctly: There are not enough women in America and Canada who have given birth and also done standup to the point where they can headline? Why would the producers put up rookies for Funniest Mom? How might that eventually benefit the show and the cable outlet? Wouldn’t they benefit the most from stocking the show with 13 accomplished comedians? That way, the winner could be pumped through the casinos and comedy clubs for a full year to promote the next season. Or at least that’s the theory. (Has anyone heard from the past winners?) To our knowledge, the only 20-year pros on the list are Ladman and Montgomery.

It’ll be hosted by Roseanne Barr with celebrity judges Hal Sparks and Kim Coles. It will debut on Tuesday, April 10 and wrap up on Mother’s Day which, this year, falls on May 13.

Perhaps it’s time that shows like this one (shows about standup comedy) hire comedians to produce the show and coordinate the talent, rather than just hire comedians as celebrity judges.

Folks who attend the various LCS functions are sending in anonymous updates– gonzo accounts of what went on.

We got the following over the cyber-transom:

The LCS auditions in San Antonio where a disaster. I flew from NYC to the auditions (plane ticket was only $99 each way so I thought what the hell). I arrived on Wednesday, and the auditions were set for Thursday at 9 AM. I checked out the club and the local area. The club was in the a small mall right next door to the Alamo.

I hung around the mall because there was nothing else to do. On Wednesday around 2 or 3, there appeared signs on some of the doors instructing LCS auditioners to go to a parking lot some distance from the actual comedy club on Wednesday, no earlier than 6:30 PM.

At 6:30 I drove by the lot looking for anything. There was no sign, nothing. I went past the lot another four times throughout the night before I went to see Alonzo Bodden’s show at 8:30 PM. There was no line, nothing in the lot except cars. I figured, since this is not NYC or LA, people will not be lining up two days in advance.

The entire LCS production staff was at Bodden’s show (I know this because Alonzo did at least five minutes of material just for them– jokes the rest of us did not get because they referenced specific people and things that happened behind the scenes of the show. I also know they were all there because Alonzo said so from the stage.)

I went back to my crappy hotel room, slept and woke up at 5 AM and headed over. When I got there, there were about 50 or so comics all waiting in the parking deck right outside the door to the mall where the comedy club started. This is what I wanted, not to go first, and not to go last. Around 8 AM two production people came into the parking lot and told us we could not audition. They said that last night they gave out tickets to 130 people to audition.

The crowd went wild. Many people screamed that the auditions were today at 9 AM not yesterday at 6:30 PM. These cries fell on deaf ears. The production people told us that they can not control when people line up and they were sorry. I informed them that there was no line in the parking lot like they said. A PA got really mad and said he was there all night (or until he gave out the last ticket and then went over to the comedy club to check out Alonzo’s show). This yelling match went on for about 30 minutes. During that time someone called the local news station.

A news camera showed up, the guy filmed for about 2 minutes before the LCS production team had mall security shut him down. One guy who was with us worked for a radio show and happened to have all his equipment there. He quickly hooked it up and taped everything. Then they noticed him taping and asked for him to stop. He refused. He asked for their names and they would not give them (what’s funny about him is he taped all this stuff, they realized what he had. and mysteriously, he was granted an audition). They continued to argue with the LCS guys but got nowhere.

Ant shows up. People are yelling. Ant asks a comic what happened. Instead of the comic telling him in a rational way he just yells, “They are trying to screw us over.” Ant turns to the blonde female production person (the same girl who hands out paperwork and takes your picture every year) and pulls her inside. Through the door we see Ant yelling at her, pointing to us. I was shocked, he was actually fighting to get comics auditions.

After this happened “comic” (name withheld) showed up. She informed us that she had two tickets, and would sell one for $2,000 (one ticket was for her the other for her bodyguard/manager). One comic went to punch her in the face but then stopped. She laughs and says it’s her first time on stage. More comics scream.

The production people come out again. Robert (one of the three who they sent out to calm us down) says there is nothing he can do. They can not add a show, and they are sorry but the tickets were a last-minute thing because the mall put restrictions on the number of people they could have line up. What Robert did not know is while he was inside, some comics with tickets showed up and explained to the rest of us what the ticket thing was.

The club employees would not give out any information on the phone, they just told us to show up at the club. Some comics from the area called their friends and told them to go to the parking lot. They all described the same thing: A young dude with black hair sitting in his car text messaging people. There was no sign, nothing. If you walked around and said “Last comic standing” the dude would look up from his phone and give you a ticket and say “good luck.” Everyone said the same thing: it was like a movie drug deal.

Robert told us to all go home. People yelled. I asked him about the Tempe auditions and if we put our names down could we get a scheduled spot for that. He said that was something he could do. He then said that they might be able to see some of us. He asked for the list that we kept of the people there and that, if they had time, they would see people in the order that they are on that list. Problem was, not everyone knew about the list. Funny thing about that too, is the guy who was keeping the list (he was not #1 on it) got an audition later on that day. Robert tells us that they will check people in at 9 AM and if the people with the tickets do not show up at 9 AM sharp, they will loose their spot and this would help them get through the people with tickets in order to get to us. He told us that at 4 PM, they would give us an update. Some people, like myself, decided to hang around.

At noon, security told us we could not hang out by the comedy club because we were disturbing mall customers. The comedy club is away from all other stores except the movie theater. We had to leave. LCS people told us to go to the parking lot on the other side of the mall and they would show up at 4 PM with instructions.

At 4 PM, three people from the show come by. They inform us that they are moving through the ticketed people faster than expected, they were extending the audition by a half hour and should be able to see half of the people on the list. Good news. Then remaining comics start taking attendance and going through the list crossing off all the people who left. The original list had 98 people on it, the new list had 48. Based on what the production person told us, we should all be able to be seen then. He said he would come back at 5 and start taking people.

Five o’clock came and went. 5:30 came and went. At 5 of 6, he shows up with the blonde girl and gives a speech. “Okay, guys we are going to start taking you now. We’re filming until 6:30 so, if you’re not seen by 6:30 you can go home. Thank you for coming out.” He then took the first TWO people on the list. They walked away and I knew we were not getting seen. They never came back.

At 6:25 a group of about 30 comics went back to the club. When we got there they had already taken all the comics inside. One comic was with us and someone on the production staff knew her. He said to her, “Have you been seen yet?” She replied, “No,” so he told her to go with him, and he got her the audition.

I did receive a call on Sunday night from the production people to do the audition in Tempe, but the plane tickets there, at the last minute, were about $600. More than I want to invest in such a long shot, I’ll just buy Mega Millions tickets instead.

Sounds like fun! Sounds exactly like what we all got into standup comedy for!

It’s a sweet gig for Ted Alexandro. He’s the point man on Comedy Central’s Crash Course in Comedy, an online, interactive comedy course, sponsored by Hyundai. He’ll star in “10 broadband video classes” that will form the nucleus of the curriculum.

In this school, laughter is required, humor is a prerequisite and the desire to be on the road is a must. Today, comedycentral.com is opening up registration to “Crash Course In Comedy”– the first-ever interactive online comedy school for wannabe stand-up comedians.

Get ready. In a few short months we’ll be treated to a Comedy Central Presents which stars one of the first graduates of Comedy Central’s Crash Course in Comedy! Stand back and watch the flood of graduates that clog the clubs in New York City, Los Angeles, St. Louis and all points in between. In a year or two, we’ll be hearing of agents and managers who advise their clients (some of them three- or five-year veterans) that they must take the CC’sCCinC, if they want to be considered for spots on that network’s programming or slots on CC writing staffs.

Are too cynical?

Are we cynical enough?

(Thanks to FOS Tommy James for shoveling so many press releases our way!)

A NYPost article claims that…

…Bravo has temporarily shelved two of Griffin’s four comedy specials that used to be in regular rotation because hefty portions refer to Smith. In her 2004 special, “Kathy Griffin: The D-List,” Griffin joked, “You don’t recover from your mother being Anna Nicole Smith,” referring to Smith’s son, the late Daniel Smith. “It’s over. See you at Promises (the Malibu rehab center).”

Live by the sword…

Mocking celebs carries with it the danger that the celeb might expire, taking the hilarity with her/him.

In 1947, the Martinsville Speedway was “carved… out of the red clay of Henry County” in the middle of nowhere, down near the bottom of Virginia.

Sixty years later, the Male and Female Halves of the Staff were seated in the dining room of the Holiday Inn Express in Clemmons, NC, one hour south of Martinsville, when a kindly stranger asked them if they’d like two tickets to the race that afternoon. For free. No charge. Row 39, Section H of the Blue Ridge Tower, just a couple feet to the left of the Finish Line. We initially declined his offer. About 45 seconds later, we came to our senses.

What were we thinking? Turn down NASCAR TICKETS? How often does one get to go to a NASCAR race? For free? And there were two passes to the Fan Zone Hospitality Chalet (“Appearance by Dale Earnhardt, JR., TBD!”) So, not only were we going to see a real, live stock car race, we were also going to have a chance to get up close and personal with Junior!

We don’t know all that much about NASCAR, but we do know that you don’t pass up free tickets and you don’t ever (ever!) pass on a chance to get near No. 8!

What we most definitely did not know about NASCAR is that there is traffic of gargantuan proportions for three miles approaching the track from the south. (We speculated that there must be an old joke about travelling three miles an hour in order to witness fifty men driving 85 miles an hour for three hours.) Route 220 north is the primary funnel into the area from North Carolina and it took us two hours to go the last 11,000 feet. So much for getting a photo op with Junior.

We parked the Cobalt in a muddy lot packed with tour buses. We walked the quarter mile to the track. We could hear the pre-race introductions (with the attendant booing and cheering from the crowd of 65,000), and we found our seats in plenty of time to see the Pledge of Allegiance, the convocation, the National Anthem, the flyover by the jets and Richard Petty say, “Gentlemen, start your engines!” (The Female Half spotted him first. She nudged the Male Half and said, pointing at the man clad in black, “Hey, look who it is!” The Male Half, dazzled by the spectacle and unable to think clearly guessed– Johnny Cash? Gary Muledeer? Fortunately the lame guesses were muttered, otherwise, we would have been pummelled.)

And start their engines they did!

The fans to our left, two gentlemen from New York, were full of information and interesting factoids. One thing, they told us, that folks who have never witnessed a race in person are not prepared for, is the smell. They were right. The acrid scent of fuel and burning rubber wafts up into the stands, even reaching our Row 39, almost as soon as the cars take their first few paced laps.

Then they asked us if we had brought our earplugs.

Earplugs?

There is the matter of the sound. As the pace quickened and the tension mounted and the crowd anticipated the waving of the green flag to start the race in earnest, it built and then it built some more. At first, it was equivalent to, say, the noisiest machine you’ve ever had the misfortune of walking past– a jack hammer, or a large generator, maybe. Then it ratchets up and up and up and, just when you think it can’t get any louder, it quadruples. And then… well, then it gets louder.

When all 48 vehicles rounded Turn 2, on the opposite side of the track from us, they all came out of the turn and headed for their first straightaway and the noise was so horrific that it struck fear in our hearts. The Male Half turned to the Female Half somewhere during Lap 4 and shouted, “IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD!”

Indeed it seemed so. The smell, the colors, the motion, the cigarette smoke, the roar of 48 Cars of the Future– it made the heart race, it caused the manufacture of adrenalin in unprecedented amounts, it triggered the flight response. In spite of the beauty and the wonder and the spectacle, it engendered a bizarre, simultaneous feeling of exhilaration and doom– a certain feeling that someone, quite possibly one or both of us, or all of us– was going to die! And in spectacular fashion! With lucrative corporate sponsorship! Brought to you by Fox!

Roundabout Lap 10, the Male Half was tearing apart a plastic bag and stuffing small clods of polypropylene into his ears. The Female Half managed to find a tissue in her purse, which was pressed into service immediately. After that, we were able to relax somewhat and enjoy the carnival that is NASCAR.

It is amazing that someone isn’t killed every five minutes or so. And, we’re told, Martinsville is the smallest track on the circuit. On such a small oval, it’s said, the speeds are relatively tame! It’s still ridiculous, though, that nearly 50 automobiles are doing 80 or 90 on the straightaways with not more than and inch or two between them.

The small track also means that we weren’t very far from the action. And from our vantage point, we were practically looking over the shoulders of the race crews as the racers came in to the pits under the yellow flag.

How anyone makes it out alive is a mystery. The Female Half is surprised that NASCAR doens’t have some sort of Zamboni-like machine that, instead of smoothing out the ice, scoops up all the dead drivers, pit crew members and spectators. A Zam-Body, perhaps.

Ah, the advantages of being a standup comic– free for an afternoon, tix to a major sporting event dropped into our laps, able to catch a life-altering event on the way home from a gig.

The Montreal Gazette has the latest JFL news.

Citing a program “overhaul,” Bruce Hills says there won’t be a Montreal Show this July at the Festival.

One of the most popular festival series and among the first to sell out every year, its cancellation is a hard hit for local comics, many of whom have sprung to fame following gigs on the show.

“First the Expos, now this,” cracks D.J. McCarthey, who credits his launch into the comedy bigs to the series. “The show did have a hell of a run, but I really feel bad for the young guys. It was a great place to showcase. It would have also been nice to keep the show around for the 25th anniversary this summer.”

And Bobby Slayton won’t be hosting The Nasty Show. No reason given, but we figure it’s because Slayton has inked a deal to headline a new room at Hooters Casino in Vegas, starting April 20 and continuing, as they say in Vegas, indefinitely.

To accommodate Slayton’s show, Hooters Casino Hotel transformed “13” Martini Bar into the Night Owl Showroom, a 300-seat cabaret-style entertainment venue with an expanded stage, state-of-the-art lighting and sound system, and box office. Seating is available on two levels to ensure optimal viewing of the performance. Throughout the show, guests can enjoy cocktails served by an attentive wait staff.

Attentive! That’s the word we would use!

Read the entire press release here.

While driving back from a weekend engagement in North Carolina, we fielded an inquiry from Sean O’Driscoll, working on a piece for the AP on the viral video that featured the questionable rapping talents of White House advisor Karl Rove.

The question, as O’Driscoll framed it, was: Had Roves antics effectively killed the phenomenon of geeky white guys attempting to rap for the amusement of others? Our answer:

Brian McKim, editor of the online magazine for stand ups, Sheckymagazine.com, remembers novelty white rap becoming a club cliché 20 years ago, used by everyone from Mel Brooks to Rodney Dangerfield.

“You had a lot of white comedians who seemed to end their set with a rap. They thought they were being original– you know the incongruity of this white square rapper – but it was unhip even back then.” McKim saw the genre somehow “limp on and on” and hoped that the beyond-parody awfulness of Britney Spears ex, Kevin Federline, had killed it off completely.

“Hopefully, Karl Rove has also put one of many nails in its coffin. I don’t understand how it keeps going,” he said.

In all fairness to Rove, it seems he was dragged onstage at the Radio & Television Correspondents annual dinner by members of the cast of Whose Line Is It Anyway– of course, it was probably all worked out ahead of time, but the WLIIA boys probably wrote it up for him.

Read the whole thing for quotes from Weird Al Yankovich and SHECKYmag columnist Doug Hecox.

Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn is the gaudy byline on an AP article about the demise of one of the most successful sitcoms in television history, King of Queens.

Is that bombast? Exaggeration? Certainly not– Nine seasons, solid ratings throughout, 200-plus episodes and, says Littlejohn, the series “delivers like gangbusters in syndication.” Is anyone quibbling with the show on aesthetic grounds? We would submit that James is vastly underrated, the sitcom is consistently well-written and the characters likeable and Jerry Stiller‘s performance has been criminally overlooked.

For all that, James and crew have been treated as invisible by CBS and the Emmy folks have all but ignored them. And the MSM isn’t exactly doing features on King of Queens parties or doing up-close-and-personal pieces on James or the rest of the cast.

While other networks have pushed out comedy after comedy about young, good-looking, upwardly mobile characters— including NBC which developed, then passed on King of Queens— CBS cashed in on its funny, overweight delivery guy.[…]

With sitcoms continuing to struggle on television– and studios, networks and producers looking at ways to reinvent the genre– the irony of the success of King of Queens is that it was rooted in a format that many would say is dead.

Is there any irony here, except in the minds of television executives and TV critics? Irony? Can someone explain to us how there is one bit of irony in this situation? The TV execs and the TV critics are constantly saying that the sitcom is dead… yet another sitcom comes along and draws 8 to 12 million people per episode in a time of declining overall ratings… it does so for nine seasons… with a format that is simple and traditional… all while the execs at the sitcom’s own network (!) promote it poorly and the Academy folks refuse to acknowledge its existence.

Well, this sitcom is dead… and guess who killed it? (Of course, it took these ghouls nine years to do it, but at least they proved their thesis!)

We love the quote from the Sony suit:

“If you look at the younger generation, they want to see something other than the traditional family with the couch in the living room and the staircase going upstairs,” says Steve Mosko, president of Sony Pictures Television.

Do they?

He continues, referring to K.O.Q.:

“But these types of comedies work,” he adds. “It really gets down to: Can they execute the format? Is the writing good? In the case of King of Queens it was, and it stood the test of time.”

Behold: A television executive arguing with himself in front of an Associated Press reporter. It is to laugh.

Oh, and one more thing– it starred a middle-aged standup comic. Don’t even get us started on that.

Today is April 1, 2007. Eight years ago to the day, we launched the first issue (back then, this publication was a monthly) of SHECKYmagazine.com, with the help of friends like Bob Zany (our first interview), Jim Myers (our first Question 21) and Brian Whalen (at the time, our only columnist).

It was 1999 and, relatively speaking, there weren’t all that many people (or comedians) hooked up to the internet. We uploaded that first edition and checked the stats incessantly, seeking reassurance that there was some kind of demand for what it was we were cranking out. We vowed that if the traffic were to flatten out or drop off, we would fold the whole thing and move on to other projects.

One other vow was that we would never charge for the content– it would be free to anyone who had a computer and a modem.

Well, eight years later, we had our first million-hit month. So we’re not about to fold the tent just yet. It is apparent from our stats that there’s a demand. We’ve been constantly engaged in efforts to increase the visibility of the mag, promoting it via hits in the mainstream media– in the last year, we’ve been quoted or cited in USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and on National Public Radio.

And we are determined to keep the content free. That’s the tricky part. Some of you have noticed that we have some advertisers. And, while that’s brought in some revenue, we’ve yet to turn a profit. And there are some costs involved in providing our readers with the coverage they’ve come to expect from the WWW’s most beloved magazine about standup– Hosting fees, equipment, other operating costs, etc. And we’ve taken gobs of time off over the past eight summers to make the trek– on our own dime– to cover the Festival Just For Laughs. (Last year alone, we covered JFL, the Boston Fest and the NY Underground Fest!)

This past weekend, we were in the car a lot and we found ourselves, on more than one occasion, listening to various local NPR affiliates begging for cash– it must be Pledge Week in Public Broadcasting Land. So we figured that we’d do the same and pass the cyber hat ourselves.

What do we ask? How about $12.00? A buck for each month in the coming year. If you want to give more, feel free! If you can’t give us anything, we totally understand and we thank you for reading and for supporting us in other ways!

Just click on the Make A Donation button on the lefthand column!

Either way, we look forward to another great year and, like we said, if it weren’t for our readers, we would have long ago packed it in! Thanks!

Read the New York Times article by Jane Wollman Rusoff on the “Condo Circuit”:

Here, at the height of the winter season in retiree complexes, it’s showtime for year-round residents and snowbirds alike nearly every night of the week. From December to April, there are singers, musical revues, and Elvis and Liberace impersonators. But by far the most popular entertainers are the stand-up comedians who have or would have once worked the Catskill Mountains resorts known as the borscht belt. When it comes to shows at the condos, South Florida might just as well be called the Catskills redux.

Pay no attention to the erroneous caption under the small photo to the left. That’s Shecky Greene on the left, not Lonnie Shorr— Either the pic was flopped for layout purposes, or someone at the NYT doesn’t know his/her legendary comedians.

We’ve heard stories of the Condo Circuit. The NYT piece is three pages long and gives one a good idea of what goes on in “Heaven’s Waiting Room.” It’s not all ancient Catskillians onstage.

Younger comedians whose material resonates with the aging residents are hard to find. But Century Village, a large complex with nearly 30,000 units in four communities– Red Buttons was its spokesman in commercials– has found one in Wendy Liebman, 46. The condo bills her as “A Nice Jewish Girl.”

There are many ways to make a living as a standup comic and multiple venues to do it in. Read the whole thing for quotes from Jack Carter and Freddie Roman.

Yet another WashPo article on women in comedy, this one authored by Michael Cavna. The premise is in the lede:

Back in the estrogenated ’90s, you couldn’t swing Gallagher’s sledgehammer over your head without hitting a slew of sitcoms starring female stand-up comics (Roseanne, Brett Butler, Margaret Cho, Ellen DeGeneres, et al.). With the first-season success of Sarah Silverman’s Comedy Central show, we ponder: Why aren’t there more women comics starring in their own prime-time comedies? If snarky blond David Spade can keep landing comedies, why not a snarky blonde like Amy Poehler or Maria Bamford

Bamford’s people went into overtime, scoring two giant pieces in the Post in one weekend. They’re earning their dough!

Our favorite part was the chunk about Bonnie McFarlane:

BONNIE McFARLANE

You know her from: Her HBO special and “Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn.”

Deserves her own gig because: Her edgy brand of sly subversiveness might well get past skittish network censors and the hair-trigger FCC. (And her “Women Aren’t Funny” essay is a minor masterwork.)

Sample riff: “Sometimes I wish I did have a drug addiction — that would explain why I have nothing.”

Of course, we would’ve appreciated it if the WashPo folks would’ve actually hyperlinked the masterwork to the publication in which it originally appeared– SHECKYmagazine.com!

An article in the Scranton (PA) paper about a coupla Times-Trib staffers who dabbled in standup and subsequently chased the LCS dream in NYC provides some insight into the process.

Over the next few hours, things started to pick up. The sun emerged. Restaurants and stores around us started to open. We started to see life forms besides comics.

At 9 a.m., after nearly eight hours of waiting, the doors to Gotham Comedy Club swung open and the line started to move — slowly. A few minutes later, we were a half-block from the club but the line in front of us had gotten thicker. Still, with red tickets in hand, we were confident we’d get to audition.

Their gonzo journo adventure has an unhappy ending.

We wonder why someone with fewer than three solid years of experience in at least a secondary market would subject himself to the vagaries of the L.C.S. grinder. If you get through, what do you hope will happen? It’s utterly pointless. In fact, it’s kind of odd, and wildly unimaginative, on the part of the producers to use the timeworn American Idol model to search for talent for this show.

All you need to read from the latest package of drivel from the Washington Post’s latest article on Why Women Can’t Make It In Comedy:

“In all of the programming we do, we’re always looking for something original and innovative,” says Lauren Corrao, who heads original programming and development for Comedy Central. “But at the same time, it has to be provocative and edgy. That doesn’t preclude a woman. It’s just more of a male style of comedy.”

And, yet, some women cling to the notion that the only way that “women are going to make it” is if “women are in power.” Behold the powerful woman at Comedy Central who clings to the notion that good comedy comes exclusively from men.

The entire article by Paul Farhi is packed with the usual cliched quotes on Women In Comedy.

Just got the following email from Billy Horrigan, the

Hi, i was just sent a link to your article from February 26th about the winner of the American Eagle comedy contest being sent to his/her doom. Spot on. The only way it could have gone worse is if one of the 500 meatheads present got on stage and put a corona in my ass. Granted that I wasn’t even funny, they didn’t make it much easier. I was praying for the Coors Light train to show up and fucking mow everyone down. I would have been content dying.

Readers will recall the post that Horrigan refers to, in which we said the following:

And they’re encouraging a boatload of college-aged faux comics (Shall we call them “Faux-Coms?”) to enter an online contest, the winner of which gets to “perform live at Spring Break with American Eagle!” Gulp! It’s not so much a prize as it is a punishment! There are seasoned comedians who want to slash their wrists (or, at the very least, throttle their agent and drop out of the business) after performing for a Spring Break audience!

(Horrigan assures one and all that he as no beef with the folks at American Eagle– who couldn’t have been nicer– but with the rowdy spring breakers who turned his triumph into a hellish nightmare.)

We note that, judging from his email, Horrigan displays the proper attitude, gallows sense of humor and perspective that may just enable him to stay in the standup game.

We’ve been coming close here and there since August. This month, however, we finally edged over the million-hit mark. Near as we can tell, we passed one million hits on Tuesday afternoon, and we’re going to settle somewhere in the 1.1 million range when the clock strikes April.

It’s especially nice, since we’re marking our eighth anniversary on Sunday– we uploaded the first “issue” of SHECKYmagazine.com on April 1, 1999– and hitting this milestone is just the kind of thing that provides us with incentive to keep going.

As we round the corner and head into year number nine, we would like to thank all of our readers– the relative handful who’ve been with us since day one, the folks who may have just scrambled on board this past month and everyone in between.

Enter the twisted vortex of Aspen via Sean L. McCarthy’s Boston Phoenix article on the reception accorded Shane Mauss at that sky-high resort’s recent festival:

Hanging out with him that week was like taking a class in the cultural anthropology of buzz. You could see it in the way Aspen’s well-to-do quoted his jokes about pussy and anal beads. He couldn’t sit down to eat a meal without customers, waiters, and executives approaching his table– respectfully, somewhat gingerly — to offer their congratulations.

A primer on hype and buzz surrounding a three-year veteran of standup comedy as he rides the roller coaster from Cambridge to Aspen to NYC/NBC.

The most revealing quote:

Soon, an HBO scout invited Mauss to audition for its annual US Comedy Arts Festival, held each February in Aspen, Colorado. “He was one of the last people booked,” HBO talent executive Kathi Khoury said. “I had to fight for Shane,” who didn’t have an agent.

If you don’t have an agent… someone has to fight for you. Jokes, material, delivery, killing– none of it matters. A “scout,” someone deputized by the Festival itself, must fight for you to be included in that very festival… because you don’t have an agent! That there is a system that is seriously flawed– some might say broken.

Checking the email out of the office, the following came over the cyber-transom from anonymous:

I don’t know if you’ve received an LCS Minneapolis update but what a show!!!! Holy moly, the talent that was left on the stage after the envelopes were handed out is just as impressive as those lucky folks that are moving on.

Moving on from Minneapolis were Doug Benson, Tracey Ashley, Dan Cummins, Tommy Johnagin (audience choice capital one winner) and Chad Daniels!

Personally I wish that the oh so great Jackie Kashian, Auggie Smith and John Evans would also have been sent through but what can ya do?

Ant thought he was entertaining. No one brought him chicken wings, no one cared. They took FOREVER to deliberate; Dave Mordal was onstage for about 40 minutes while they were deciding. It was a very long night, but a great show and the entire staff of ACME Comedy Company were great to those of us that auditioned.

On to Tempe, which is the last one, from what we hear.

From $1.5 million collectible to scrap metal in a fraction of a second. Eddie Griffin performed that magic in Irwindale, CA, when he drove his boss’s Enzo Ferrari into a concrete retaining wall at slow speed. He’s filming a movie, “Red Line.”

Watch the video here.

Watch a “making of” video here.

Variety says:

Westwood One is starting a national radio show with comic Dennis Miller.

Miller’s inaugural radio talker, “The Dennis Miller Show,” will air on more than 80 stations nationwide, including in seven of the top 10 markets, when it debuts Monday.

Top markets include Los Angeles (KRLA-AM), Chicago (WIND-AM), Detroit (WDTK-AM) and Houston (KTRH-AM).

We’ve been hearing the spots on WNTP here in the Philly market as well. It debuted last night.

His numbers will probably be higher than they were on CNBC. Radio works… it’s red hot.

From the Totally Baked website:

On April 20th the world will be watching Totally Baked: A Pot-u-mentary – A comedy film that explores the truth about marijuana. Written and produced by one of the funniest people in America; Craig Shoemaker […]

On April 20th, millions of people around the world will attend screenings in comedy clubs, theatres and privately hosted screenings on DVD. Be part of 420 on 4/20 at 4:20.

Nice marketing gimmick.

If you aren’t hip to the lingo, check out Snopes.com’s thorough explanation of the meaning(s) of 420.

From the Festival’s MySpace site:

Harlem comedy, has been an evolving tradition from Vaudeville to Def Jam. Some of the loudest and most articulate voices in comedy have come directly from the urban tradition. The Mecca for these voices has been, and always will be, Harlem.

Burt Smooth, George Sarris and Jim Mendrinos are producing it. (Sarris and Mendrinos also co-produce the New York Underground Comedy Festival.

Go to HarlemComedyFestival.com to learn more.

According to the Dark Horizons website, Jim Gaffigan will star in “Life of the Party,” a movie about scandalized silent film star Fatty Arbuckle.

It oughta be interesting to see how the story is told. Will it be loaded with salacious details? Will Arbuckle’s name be vindicated once and for all? Will the outcome be ambiguous?

If Gaffigan turns in any kind of a competent performance, this is the kind of role that could earn him an Oscar nomination. Stay tuned.

MySpace friend G. Hamilton Braithwaite writes that, with the shifting of the Festival Jus Pour Rire to the Hyatt Regency Montreal (from the dear, old Delta), the new equivalent of the old Royal Vic is now the Residences Universitaires UQAM, a new building in the University of Quebec at Montreal system that offers rooms for $64 CD per night! Says Montreal resident GHB:

It’s a brand new building situated two-and-a-half blocks away from the Hyatt. You can use an underground path via the Place des Arts subway station to cut through the underground. You’ll pop up in the mall attached to the Hyatt, pick up a coffee along the way, and you get to do it all in air conditioned comfort!

Sounds good! Click on the above link to be taken to the UQAM Residences pages.

We checked out a map and he speaks the truth.

I know I’m prejudiced here but honestly, there is nothing better than a room full of comedians. Especially when they’re paying tribute to one of their own. A fallen one.

So begins Suzy Soro‘s blog entry detailing the Richard Jeni memorial at the Factory.

Left to right: Richie Minervini, Gable “Dark” Most (1/2 of The Most Brothers) and Jim “Klaus” Myers, in the green room at the Borgata Comedy Club.

There was a pretty good house for the final show of the week at the Borgata. And the green room was pretty tightly packed as well– in addition to Minervini, Myers, BCC proprietor Ray Garvey and The Most Brothers, Michael Aronin and Kelly Terranova were in attendance.

The Male Half looks forward to his return engagement at the Borgata in a few weeks. He’ll be there May 21-27 with Joe Starr.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) tried to outdumb each other in senate hearings on the matter of the XM-Sirius merger. Brooks Boliek, writing in The Hollywood Reporter, detailed Brownback’s demand that the new entity subject itself to FCC regs if they hope to get approval for the marriage. Herb Kohl says he’s disturbed that the joining of the two satellite companies would create an “unrivalled and unchallenged monopoly.”

Both of you go to the stupid corner!

Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) threw in his two cents, expressing concern that Christian programming would be bounced when XM and Sirius meld.

Mel Karmazin (Sirius’ CEO) handled them with typical aplomb:

Karmazin told the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel that in its recent license renewal request to the Federal Communications Commission, the company promised to block programming that parents found offensive. In addition, subscribers could request a rebate for the channels they blocked.

(We’re pretty sure he meant to say that he promises to provide the means to block programming, and not merely block it!)

Brownback, who is running for president, is apparently hallucinating if he thinks he even has a chance in hell of actually getting satellite radio to come under the FCC’s purview.

(We suspect that Brownback and the others are ganging up on the satellite boys for no other reason than to force them to offer some form of a la carte programs, in much the same way that the’re leaning on cable TV companies to do the same, and that he doesn’t seriously think that anyone can force them to adhere to the FCC’s standards. More often than not, with regard to the public airwaves, we side with the FCC– and we also say that they should back away slowly from cable and leave it alone, as it is subscribers only! The same holds true for satellite radio– birds up in the sky, paid subscribers down here on earth, no public airwaves equals no FCC rules or regulations. Simple! And, if they can all work out a model whereby we can pick and choose our programming and pay for only that programming we desire, well who can argue with that?)

Karmazin calmed Hatch by telling him that Christian programming is among the more popular offerings of Sirius (and, we assume, of XM as well), so market forces would assure their continued presence. (Why ever would Hatch think they’d dump the gospel music in the first place?)

Kohl is equally nutty if he thinks that the current situation– where the two satrad companies are “competing” with each other, and slowly beating each other’s brains out– is preferable to one healthy company.

And, as Karmazin so calmly points out (probably with a roll of the eyes and a heavy sigh), there is no such thing as a monopoly any more in this day and age. Satellite, he says, already competes with iPods and terrestrial radio.

The man’s got a point. The content/tech genie is out of the bottle. Cavedudes like Brownback and Kohl (and to a lesser extent Hatch) got to get with the program.

From FOS Randy Masters comes the following dispatch:

It was a fun night last night at Gotham Comedy Club. There were 33 comedians, and they each had only 3 minutes. After exactly 3 minutes, the microphone was mercilessly cut off (this happened at least 4 or 5 times throughout the night).

The show was sold out, but a nice chunk of seats had been removed to make room for 4 or 5 large cameras and cameramen, including a huge rotating camera on a rolling, weighted “seesaw dolly” (this camera came within inches of audience members’ heads several times).

Kathleen Madigan, Alonzo Bodden, and a very slimmed down Ant were there moderating the proceedings (he later announced that he lost over 40 pounds on a celebrity fitness show). Before the show, Kathleen and Alonzo were milling about and were very approachable and friendly. They stopped, shook hands, and chatted with audience members who said hello (myself included). Ant popped out right before the show began and went directly to the judge’s table.

Bill Bellamy opened, and he was very relaxed and funny. It’s already clear that he will be 1000 times better than Count Shake-ula.

Also, during the show the producer would “halt” the judges periodically when they were about to introduce the next comedian. So at one point the exasperated Ant yelled, “Can we get some direction here??” The producer replied into the headset (he was right behind me), “We’re having a pause before the next comedian– just like we always do it.”

Twice Ant yelled out for someone to brings him a plate of wings. But nobody ever brought him anything.

During the judge’s deliberations Jessica Kirson came out and did a set. I have seen her several times and she never fails to get a great crowd reaction, but last night the audience members must have been tired, because a great number of people talked loudly and nonstop through her set. Jessica responded by saying: “I don’t give a shit. I’m getting my check anyway.”

She made the best of a bad situation, because people just wouldn’t shut the hell up. I can’t remember the last time I heard that much chatter (and loud chatter at that) during a professional comedian’s set. Kudos to her for plugging away. Another time she said: “I’ve got 4 great things happening in my career right now, so you really don’t realize how much I don’t give a shit if you talk!”

During her set, the production crew lugged large pieces of equipment around her, and set up a 4-tiered stage behind her back while she talked. But she was a trouper throughout.

Bill Bellamy came back on and did a short set (the audience quieted down by then). After the judge’s deliberations, Bellamy got “scolded” by Alonzo because he read off his list of “personal picks” as to who should win (after someone from the audience prompted him). Alonzo stopped him by saying: “Um, Bill, we really aren’t allowed to do that. Sorry.” Bill replied: “Well, this is just my personal opinion. We all have our American Idol picks, don’t we?”

The comics were then brought out in groups of two.

And so…..the winners of the New York auditions are: Joe Devito, Arj Barker, Bob Smith, Dwayne Kennedy, Lois Bromfield, Pete Dominic, Jane Condon, Lori Chase, Amy Schumer and Chuck Nice.

Condon won the Capital One audience choice award, which was great since she had my vote, too! She is from Connecticut and was very, very funny.

All in all, a very fun night of comedy!!

The bulletin that’s making the MySpace rounds is true, we are sad to say. Calvert DeForest, who gained fame as David Letterman’s clueless foil Larry “Bud” Melman died Monday night.

DeForest took that fame on the road as a standup comic of sorts. The Comedy Factory Outlet in Philadelphia (specifically Outlet owner Clay Heery) was the first venue in the country to see DeForest/Melman’s personal appearance potential, booking the diminutive actor on at least one occasion for a weekend at the comedy club in late 1983 or early 1984. The engagement was a wild success as savvy Late Night fans showed up with Toast On A Stick and hollered out catchphrases from the NBC talker while the seemingly befuddled DeForest hosted an evening of standup, reading his lines from cue cards prepared by Heery and C.F.O. regulars.

The above photo was taken at the wedding of the Female Half’s sister and C.F.O. proprietor Clay Heery. From left to right: Unidentified DeForest bodyguard, The Female Half (clad in Maid of Honor finery) and DeForest.

NewsFromMe.com has a detailed biography.

Click here for lovingly staged and shot pics of the Hyatt Regency Montreal’s lounge. We’re somewhat disturbed that the description says it’s “open daily from 3:30 PM to midnight.” Do they know how much schmoozing, wheeling, dealing and just plain drinking gets done before 3:30 PM and after midnight? Are they trying to kill the comedy business? There may have to be some changes made/forced, some palms greased.

In the course of telling a story about how Steve Patterson blew off the evening’s show (in order to fulfill a headline engagement at Ernie Butler’s Comedy Nest across town), the Montreal Gazette’s Bill Brownstein tells how four Torontonian comics made the cut and are heading to the big LCS Seminfinal.

For the record, of the 15 who did make it past the first round, four Toronto-based wits– Deb DiGiovanni, Gerry Dee, Brian Lazanik and Dan Licoppe— were selected for the semifinals in Los Angeles. Not to suggest that Patterson, who bolted Toronto for Montreal a few years ago, would have supplanted one of the others and would have made the cut, but the odds were good (25 per cent) and he did, apparently, slay with his first two-minute audition earlier in the day.

Read the whole thing.

Billy Horrigan has won the American Eagle Outfitters contest that we blogged about while we were waiting for our flight out of McCarran last month.

Horrigan is from Holliston, Massachusetts and majors in Philosophy at the University of Rhode Island. Horrigan was convinced by his 24 year-old sister to enter the contest and now plans to use this opportunity from American Eagle towards a career in comedy.

Congratulations, Mr. Horrigan.

From the same release:

American Eagle Outfitters will fly Billy Horrigan to Cancun, along with runner-up Ross Parsons, to perform in front of an audience of thousands of spring-breakers on March 21.

It’s kinda like the punchline from the old joke– “Oh… Thursdays… You’re not gonna like Thursdays.”

Dave had a stomach bug. Sandler was a guest. Sandler guest hosted.

Todd Barry is a guest tonight also.

Details here.

That’s their story and they’re sticking to it.

We don’t know what we’re going to do! Is it possible we won’t be attending the Just For Laughs Festival this year? We’re melting down… it’s the end of an era!

They changed the HQ hotel for the Festival JFL– It’s no longer the Delta! It’s been changed to the Hyatt Regency! Quelle horreur… or however you spell it! The Hyatt’s way over on Jeanne Mance… or however you spell it. Way past Bluery… on the other side of Ste. Catherine. It’s jolted the whole Comedy Festival World out of alignment.

We’ll no longer be staying within convenient staggering distance of the Delta… or, rather, the festival’s main venue will no longer be within convenient staggering distance of our beloved Royal Vic!

This changes things. Perhaps we’ll hafta make an actual effort to get in the festival!

As things stand now, it’s just wildly inconvenient… or too expensive… or an excruciating combination of both. Hmmm…

Carol Burnett is suing The Family Guy for $2 million.

The Smoking Gun has the offending clip.

Our verdict: The clip is hysterically funny. The lawsuit is totally without merit.

You decide.

From the State Deptartment’s website:

The Departments of State and Homeland Security announced today that the requirement for citizens of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda to present a passport to enter the United States when arriving by air from any part of the Western Hemisphere will begin on January 23, 2007.

If you leave the country and you want to re-enter by air, you’re going to need a passport. This is how long they say it takes to obtain one.

This is how long AP says it’s taking because of the surge in applications.

Planning on going to Montreal this summer, via air? Crunch the numbers.

Norm Clarke’s column from the 14th had this item:

Two sources confirmed on Tuesday that the Sahara had surveillance cameras installed about two years ago in the dressing room of headliner Amazing Johnathan.

The hidden cameras were put in shortly after a small fire broke out in the comedy magician’s dressing room in May 2005, said the sources, who worked on the Sahara’s surveillance staff.

Management “went on a witch hunt,” said one of the sources. The fire occurred about a week after Amazing Johnathan opened at the Sahara.

After four months, the cameras were removed from the dressing room and another room, when “they couldn’t find anything to use against him,” said a source.

Bookmark Norm! if you want to know what’s going on in Vegas.

The Sahara has been purchased by… does it matter by whom? One need not be an expert in these matters to project that it will join the Stardust in Casino Heaven sometime soon. The revolution continues.

Editors note: We received the following shortly after posting the above, from Christopher Ritter, Johnathan’s manager:

As manager of the Amazing Johnathan, I thought I would write in response to your recent story.

Although I can’t comment at all on legal issues, I thought I would pass along my speculation that the Sahara will not actually be joining the Stardust in casino heaven anytime soon.

If anything, the working theory some insiders have is that the new owners of the Sahara will build up a new hotel across the street on the empty 17.5 acre SW corner of Sahara and the Strip. The idea being that they would have that completed before either imploding or remodeling the original site–and all of this would seem to be at least a few years away.

My understanding is that the keys won’t even be changing hands to the new majority owner (31 year old Sam Nazarian) until January due to a provision in the late owner’s will that stated that his heirs could not sell for a period of five years, an increment of time that will conclude this coming December.

As for the Amazing Johnathan, his contract with the Sahara is set to expire in December and at that point he will be retiring.

We are however, currently considering an offer to have him in star in a television project and on a side note, his memoirs are now about 99 percent complete.

He currently works five nights per week (dark Wednesdays and Thursdays) performing his 10pm show upstairs in the Conga Room.

May will mark his two year anniversary there at the Sahara.

Like Rita Rudner, Penn Jillette and Teller, he has been a resident Vegas headliner since 2001.

(Johnathan’s tours of duty were at the Golden Nugget, the Flamingo, the Golden Nugget again, the Riviera and the Sahara)

Thank you for your blog. I’ve had it bookmarked for some time now and greatly appreciate your work.

Christopher Ritter