But wait! There’s more! Sharp-eyed reader Aaron Kiely reports that the jaymohr.com site is reporting that the finale will run on Comedy Central! So, we’ve reset the poll so that you can weigh in on who will be the winner!! Please take a moment and choose your winner over there —–>

P.S.: Pretty good performance by SHECKYmagazine.com readers: They nailed THREE of the FOUR finalists! AND a goodly number of them displayed the proper amount of grumpiness by choosing “Don’t care!” We always say our readers are the savviest on the WWW when it comes to standup comedy! Thanks!

This has been widely knows since September 8, but we just found out:

Dennis Miller will continue delivering his blazingly sharp comedic take on his entertaining topical talk show, Dennis Miller, it was announced today by Bob Meyers, Senior Vice President, CNBC Primetime Programming. Dubbed “the ant’s pants, the bee’s knees, the cat’s pajamas of politico-comedic talk show ringmasters,” by the National Review, Miller’s program debuted on CNBC on January 26, 2004.

From “NBC Tapping N.Y. Scene to Beef Up Comedy Rolls” by Nellie Andreeva, in the Hollywood Reporter:

NBC is strengthening its comedy talent roster, signing development deals with New York’s popular Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, Perrier-winning comedian Demetri Martin as well as little-known New Zealand folk parody duo Flight of the Conchords.

All three pacts were spearheaded by Lisa Leingang, who has re-upped her deal with NBC Universal TV to continue as New York-based producer in charge of developing programing and recruiting acting and writing talent on the East Coast and in Europe.

In her search for new faces and voices, Leingang works with NBC executive vp casting Marc Hirschfeld on the talent side and with NBC Uni TV co-presidents Angela Bromstad and David Kissinger on the writing side.

Ah, but first things first! Before he says anything about our new talent, Hirschfeld takes time to briefly slobber over his fellow TV exec:

“She is totally tapped into the New York comedy scene,” Hirschfeld said of Leingang. “She is an incredible resource, both on the writing and talent side, which a great combination.”

Glad we got that squared away! (And glad we have our priorities in order!) We know it’s Hollywood Reporter, but couldn’t they stash all that backpatting and logrolling at the end of the piece? After all, the execs aren’t the ones on camera if any of these projects bear fruit.

Since its launch in 1999, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, founded by the UCB troupe of Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh, Matt Besser and Ian Roberts, has grown into a major development playground for the hottest sketch, improv and standup comedians and comedic actors in New York — both up-and-coming and established — with more than 25 shows a week.

TALENT RESOURCE

It was Hirschfeld who first recognized UCB’s potential as a talent resource, and through Leingang’s relationship with the theater’s principals, NBC and UCB signed a one-year first-look deal. As part of the pact, UCB will pitch show ideas to all NBC Universal networks. (The company already has presented a concept to Bravo.) Additionally, UCB will hold a showcase for NBC executives this month, and some of the shows on its stage, which are considered TV-ready, would be filmed as presentations.

“They really curate the New York scene unbelievably well,” Leingang said of UCB. “It’s a constant flow of new fresh voices and performers, so it just seemed like the perfect opportunity.”

Martin, who last year became only the second American to win a Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, has performed at the UCB Theater. His performances there have included his Perrier-winning one-man show, “If I …”

Under his development deal, Martin will write and star in a single-camera half-hour project for the network inspired by his life in New York.

“He’s got a really unique voice,” Hirschfeld said. “He is very not your typical standup comic. He is very intellectual but at the same time, there is a real openness to him, too.” >

Ah! But NBC’s website doesn’t say anything about any cancellation. The artwork (see above) only says that the winner will be announced next Tuesday. And the NBC daily media dump has no mention of Last Comic Standing— cancelled or otherwise. There’s nothing on the wires, either.

Hmmm… Here’s what we surmise: Jay Mohr (and Peter Engel) say the show’s been cancelled. NBC probably maintains that they’re not really cancelling the show. They’ll probably slice and dice the show and blend it into Tuesday’s lineup, probably showing micro clips of the four finalists during wraparounds– We’ll see Mordal and the rest (probably without so much as the audio, just the video!) going to and from commercials on Father Of The Pride. An ignominous end to a once-proud (from a ratings standpoint) show! The winner will be announced as the credits roll and they promo whoever the guests are on that evening’s Tonight Show With Jay Leno!

JOE STARR, ALEX HOUSE, JOBY SAAD against the back wall at The Village Lantern, prior to the start of the SHECKYmagazine.com Showcase

NEW YORK, NY– We squeezed through the Lincoln Tunnel and parked the car at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in plenty of time to hike up to the new Improv (53rd between 8th & 9th) to pick up our laminates (and the laminates of all the comics who had committed to performing on the SHECKYmagazine.com Showcase. (Which, if you haven’t been paying attention, is part of this year’s New York Underground Comedy Festival, or, as it is sometimes identified, the New York City Underground Comedy Festival… which we only point out for the benefit of the search engines!) It was a beautiful spring day in Manhattan. Sure, it was fall, but it was a beautiful spring day nonetheless!

Laminates secured, we headed south on 9th and eventually caught a cab and headed to The Village Lantern, figuring we would arrive at the venue with way too much time! We no sooner crossed the threshhold of the Lantern when were consumed by the considerable shadow of D.J. Hazard. A pleasant surprise! Hazard was in town to perform on a handful of the week’s NYUCF shows.

We immediately descended into the basement to survey the venue’s quirks, note any physical eccentricities and absorb the room’s vibe and eliminate the possibility of any surprises. Dark, low-ceilinged, funkily charming and charmingly funky, the room was, we learned from the waitron on duty, a frequent (five nights a week, sometimes!) comedy spot. And it held only about 40 people. Fortunately, it required only a fraction of that many to seem reasonably packed with comedy fans– good thing, since there was virtually no indication topside that there was anything going on “down there”– no sign, no sandwich board on Bleecker St., nothing!

We three then set out to find food and we settled on Señor Swanky’s, a block or two down from the Lantern. It was fast and reasonably priced.

D.J. HAZARD, TRACI SKENE and BRIAN MCKIM dining at Señor Swanky’s, prior to the start of the SHECKYmagazine.com Showcase

We returned to the Lantern, plunged back down into the basement and greeted the slow trickle of guests, friends and comics. Gabrielle Gropman (Adam Gropman‘s Mom!), Ken Marx (our “radio nephew” from our 10-month radio writing gig at WYSP a decade ago) were among the first to arrive. Then a flurry of folks– Carole Mongtomery, Alex House, Joe Starr and Marty Fisher– arrived, and a party atmoshpere ensued.

It’s CAROLE MONTGOMERY and her manager Peter Spellos, at The Village Lantern, prior to the start of the SHECKYmagazine.com Showcase

We slowly reached critical mass, and at 8:17, we decided to kick off the show. A decent number of hearty and enthusiastic comics, fans, guests and friends were present. We were pleased to finally meet in the flesh SHECKYmagazine fan/newbie comic Shaun Eli and SHECKYmagazine contributor Larry Getlen. And we finally laid eyes on former SHECKYmagazine New York columnist Joe Dixon!

Another former New York correspondent/columnist Rusty Ward agreed to “take the bullet” and be the first comic to do a set. Traci Skene assumed emcee duties and brought on Ward. His set was wildly funny and helped to set the tone for the rest of the evening. (Ward skittered off quickly after his set– he had another commitment elsewhere in the Village!) Skene gamely pushed on as emcee in spite of the fact that her head was churning out copious amounts of mucous– a by-product of her body’s feeble attempt to fend off a nasty head cold.

Thereafter, the crowd was treated to the comedy of Montgomery, Brian McKim, Gropman, Dixon, Joby Saad and House. Closing out the show was Mr. Starr, who indulged in a bit of roast-type activity at the outset of his presentation, sparing no one.

We originally had planned on presenting a 90-minute show, restricting each comic to an 8- or 9-minute set, but we soon abandoned that plan– A looser atmosphere took over and some folks did their set of the moment, some did new stuff, some went short some went long. It was all very informal. After Starr, Skene brought up Hazard as a bonus… a special guest, if you will. And all had a swell time!

JOE DIXON abandons decorum, aided and abetted by ADAM GROPMAN, at sparkling new Laugh Factory, after the SHECKYmagazine.com Showcase

After end of the “official” portion of the program, Skene announced that, since the Lantern management didn’t seem to be very concerned about kicking us out onto the street above, it was fine with us if any of the comics present wanted to hop up onto the stage and do some time. Mr. Gropman took over the emceeing duties and, from what we hear, a handful of comics took us up on the offer!

McKim regrets that he couldn’t be present for the dining and drinking that a significant chunk of the evening’s participants opted for upstairs at the Lantern. He had to head north to the Improv to do a 10:15 spot, and, since it was an audition for the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, all were understanding! (McKim arrived way too early, but was at least able to chat at length in the hallway with fellow South Jersey resident and frequent Howard Stern guest Bob Levy! Levy had the dead last slot on the USCAF showcase, McKim went on just before him.) The Improv, so new that the scent of paint an adhesive was in the air, houses two spaces, one upstairs, one downstairs.

Skene hung for a time upstairs, but the plan was to rendezvous at the After Party at the brand new Laugh Factory at 11. She once again thanked all for their contribution and, escorted by Messrs. Gropman and Marx, headed north, via subway. (She was a bit nervous about the choice of transportation, as Gropman has been LATE for his SHECKYmagazine Showcase spot– seems he boarded the wrong train, an express that took him straight to Brooklyn!)

Skene and Gropman (and eventually Saad, Dixon and others) arrived at the Factory to find a smattering of Industry and Artists. The Who’s On First reunion show had busted up earlier, but a significant chunk of that contingent stayed on to party. It was a pleasure to run into one of the Who’s On Firsters, Jeanette Barber, whom we hadn’t run across probably since she quit doing standup eight years ago! She is currently writing and doing motivational speaking after her lengthy tenure as head writer for The Rosie O’Donnell Show. Also on the WOF bill were Montgomery and NYUCF co-produceer Jim Mendrinos. Their show had taken place in the smaller of the two spaces at the Factory. The monster, sparkling, state of the art room was host to a Def Jam (Urban??) comedy show. It’s a beauty of a room that holds at least 300!

This being only the second night of the Fest, the attendance at such After Party gatherings will understandably be thin, building steadily as Saturday approaches. And this being only the second year of the Fest, there will be a show cancelled here or there (as there were Tuesday night and Wednesday night, from what we heard). Rare is the festival that can guarantee packed houses at each and every venue. We were very fortunate that our show was stocked with nice comics who had nice friends and nice family members– all of whom made the difference between a cancellation and a fun time! Thanks to all who showed up!

We’re gigging in Massachusetts on Saturday night, but we plan on sucking it up, donning our laminates and heading south into Manhattan to partake in a bit of final evening After Party activity. Stay tuned!

From a reliable source: “It appears to be true… They are apparently going to announce the winner during a rerun of Father of The Pride.”

Wild! It’s gone! They’ve ruined the franchise! Who couldn’t have foreseen that? Um… telelvision execs, maybe?

John Curtin hipped us to the reasoning behind the Heffron quote from LCS III, Episode #307 (The one where Heffron says, “I respect all of you for laughing at me.” Curtin says, quite rightly, that Heffron’s statement was in response to a Ralphie May quote from an October 1 story that was splashed all over the wire services. The money quote:

May says comedy isn’t always about getting the laughs, it’s about pushing the boundaries and moving stand-up forward.

“That’s why I don’t have respect for audiences that laugh at ‘Remember when you were a kid?’ jokes. … Let’s move on, let’s try something new,” he said.

Hey, y’all! Ralphie got all up in Heffron’s shit… an’ shit! He had no choice but to get up in Ralphie’s shit… an’ shit. Fo shizzle… er something like that. Read the rest of May’s moaning here.

Sharp-eyed reader Thomas W. Bickle sent us the following which he got off of jaymohr.com:

FROM JAY…
Last Comic Standing is cancelled!!! This is shocking news to me too. I woke up on Wednesday morning and recieved the news. NBC was not happy with the rating of the show and decided to pull the plug. Keep in mind there is only one episode left and on that episode we were going to ANNOUNCE THE WINNER! Amazing. Why would a network cancel a show with only one episode left? There is some back history that makes this more ridiculous. As Last Comic Standing 2 was wrapping up this summer, the network told us that they wanted a “hybrid version” of Last Comic to put on the fall schedule. They said that they simply didn’t have enough shows for the fall slate and needed a quick fix. My partner Peter Engel as well as other producers like Barry Katz, Cori Fry, K.P. Anderson and my self thought that this was a bad idea. We argued that having a seperate version of Last Comic so soon after season 2 concluded would burn the audience out and damage the franchise. Well the network insisted we move forward and we came up with “LCS Battle of thge Best”. Season 1 versus season 2 for a prize of 250 thosand bucks. (It seems like Fox hands out a million dollar prizes on its reality shows like its lunch). Last Comic Standing The Battle Of The Best hit the airwaves in the fall and guess what? The ratings were down. The ratings stayed pretty consistent all season with around eight million viewers but that didn’t stop NBC from hitting the panic button. The biggest question I have is why would you wait until the final episode to pull the plug. I feel terrible for the comics. We had a great final four with Alonzo Bodden, Rich Vos, Dave Mordal (my favorite) and John Heffron. These four comics are not involved with network bussines or standards and practices but it is they who will suffer the most from this terrible decision by The Nation Broadcasting Company. I have to stop typing now because I have to go TiVo Father Of The Pride.

Jay

Whoa! Unless someone has hacked into Jay Mohr’s website, it seems to be true. We check AP and our MyYahoo, but there is no site of the cancellation yet. Thanks, Thomas W. Bickle… if this checks out, you’re a hot tipster!

Attention press seeking quotes regarding the passing of RODNEY DANGERFIELD:

Rodney Dangerfield’s career arc was, and remains to this day, an inspiration to anyone who is in the comedy business. He did comedy, achieved some success, dropped out, then came back and enjoyed the kind of success that few comedians, few entertainers ever dream of.

His success came at an age at which many comedians are beginning to wind things down. His enthusiasm, his persona, his world-weary demeanor all meshed nicely with his advanced years and his hang-dog appearance. And he wasn’t merely content to be successful on his own. His Young Comedians Specials, in cooperation with HBO, gave a boost to the careers of many comedians, Sam Kinison, Bill Hicks and Bob Saget among them.

Rodney’s success in movies, television and personal appearances were the envy of all the comedians who came up in the business in the 80s. His career was a template for many comics of the era. Few were able to duplicate his achievements.

All quotes attributable to BRIAN MCKIM, Editor, SHECKYmagazine.com, (856)310-0536, editors@sheckymagazine.com, thank you.

AP reported it nine minutes ago.

LOS ANGELES – Rodney Dangerfield (news), the bug-eyed comic whose self-deprecating one-liners brought him stardom in clubs, television and movies and made his lament “I don’t get no respect” a catchphrase, died Tuesday. He was 82.

Which leaves Mordal, Heffron, Vos and Bodden to slug it out in the finale next week… Of course, they kept calling this one the finale… mighty confusing!

“I respect all of you for laughing at me.”
–John Heffron, at the end of his set. (Traci: “It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever heard anyone end his set with!”)

Season II won another $50,000, giving them a perfect record.

Rolaids is putting up the jack for the competition, the quarter million. Strang that we haven’t heard that until this week… Unless we’ve missed it when they mentioned it.

Rowdy crowd this one! Who brought them along?

Will there be a Season IV? Let’s not speculate just yet. Let’s see how this one pans out. Let’s monitor the success of the contestants who make it all the way. And let’s see how they all fare out there in Standup America.

The official episode description: “Comics continue to battle for the $500,000 prize.” We haven’t forgotten. While Brian is away at a private party gig, Traci, under the weather though she may be, will be observing and taking notes. Tune in later for our impressions.

Friend of SHECKY Sharilyn Johnson sent along the URL for the page on the Just For Laughs website detailing the tape submission deadlines and procedures. Hop onto this page and check it all out. There’s also a list of all the cities they’ll be auditioning in over the next few weeks. (With stop in the U.S. cities of NY, LA and Dayton! And one, TBA, in Florida!) Thanks!

It looks like the District of Columbia has a comedy festival now. We got an email (they addressed us, “Dear Checky Magazine!?”) that announced a festival in D.C. in March, with a Dec. 1 deadline. It seems real heavy on the improv and the sketch comedy… and kinda light on the standup. One caveat: They charge $30 to look at a tape! Hmmm… Check out their submission requirements here.

A 20-year comedy club is dark, due to the suprise sale of the restaurant above. The Richmond Comedy Club, an institution in Richmond for two decades, is no more. Owner Anita Fletcher says she’s fielding offers for re-locating and she stresses that the closing is definitely not her decision. She said that the Matt’s owners gave no advance warning of their decision to sell and she’s not happy about cancelling all those bookings.

In business since 1984, the club’s location (six hours south of NYC) made it attractive to many New York-based comics. Many comics from Baltimore, D.C. and Philadelphia were regulars there. The low ceiling, funky atmosphere and often rabid crowds made it a raucous comedy room.

We had a special attachment to the gig. It was Traci’s first real road gig. And Brian’s late Aunt Mary (a Richmond resident for over 50 years) saw him perform there, and “I once persuaded a one-eyed man, in the middle of my set, to let me hold his glass eye in the palm of my hand!” Good times!

As far as we know, the closing of the Richmond Comedy Club will not affect the operation of the summer-only Nags Head, NC, Comedy Club location. We’ll keep you posted if/when Fletcher opens up a new Richmond location.

Keep in mind that the official charity for the New York Underground Comedy Festival is Operation Uplink, which seeks to raise money so that military personnel and hospitalized veterans can keep in touch with their families. Their official website is here. So, either way, if you wanna contribute by paying your cover charge at any of the NYUCF venues (or maybe slathering on a little extra!), or clicking on the Operation Uplink website and bumping them a little from your VISA or MasterCard, you can give to a good cause. We support the military here at SHECKYmagazine.com! Joseph D. McKim served in WW II, his son, Timothy, served in the U.S. Army as well. James Duncan Skene served in the U.S. Army as a Paratrooper in the ’50s!)

Left to right: Brian McKim, Traci Skene, Bert “Chili” Challis at the Funny Bone in Lancaster, PA. Challis is a former Tonight Show writer and frequent Bob & Tom guester who is currently criss-crossing America conducting comedy writing seminars with Friend of SHECKYmagazine Dobie Maxwell. Contact Challis at chili@chilimax.com.

Left to right: Brian McKim, Traci Skene, Bert “Chili” Challis at the Funny Bone in Lancaster, PA. Challis is a former Tonight Show writer and frequent Bob & Tom guester who is currently criss-crossing America conducting comedy writing seminars with Friend of SHECKYmagazine Dobie Maxwell. Contact Challis at chili@chilimax.com.

From Sheila Kay:

I’m sure the word has already reached some of you and I’m sure I’m missing some addresses, and I may be sending this to a few wrong people, but for us Detroiters, our good friend and fellow comic Bill Thomas passed away last night after a very long battle with cancer. Cheree will still be receiving mail at their post office box if anyone would like to send cards, letters, prayers, or donations. All of you who came to help at our “benefit” know that he loved us for it and was so happy that it brought out many friends who contacted him even tho the “benefit” itself was funky wunky, which he laughed at, as his sense of humor was with him till the end. Thank you all for supporting him, if he didn’t tell you himself; which I’m sure he did, he was extremely touched.

Love to all,
Sheila

The p.o. address is:
po box 721351
Berkley, Michigan 48072

Want more information about some of the folks who are peforming on Wednesday’s SHECKYmagazine.com Show at the New York Underground Comedy Festival? Click the names below:

Rusty Ward
Adam Gropman
Joe Starr
Alex House
Carole Montgomery
Joby Saad
Brian McKim
Traci Skene

We’re not sure if Joe Dixon doesn’t have his own website, or if we’re just not finding it (we’ve got an email into him), so, while we’re waiting for him to get back to us, enjoy his column from a year ago, when he was one of our featured columnists.

Above is a photo of the outside of the venue that’s hosting our SHECKYmagazine.com Show Wednesday night, as part of the New York Underground Comedy Festival (website). Below is a photo of the interior, specifically the spot where all the comedy happens.

So far, scheduled performers include Adam Gropman, Joe Starr, Alex House, Carole Montgomery, Joby Saad, Joe Dixon, Rusty Ward, Traci Skene and Brian McKim. Regrettably, Kid Dave Miller will not be performing, as was orignally announced, due to a conflicting commitment.

Details: Oct. 6, at 8PM, Village Lantern, 167 Bleecker (Corner of Sullivan), (212)260-7993, tickets are $5, the room holds 40, but there’s a bar upstairs for hanging. For folks who might need that kind of thing, there’s parking nearby at Chelnik Parking, 3 Washington Sq. Village, (212)674-6170. The Village Lantern claims, on their website, that Wednesday night is $3 for pint of beer all night long– for folks who might need that kind of thing. We’re told that there are a handful of other NYUCF venues within walking distance, so a fest-like atmosphere should prevail.

We asked: Who would you like to see do standup again? See the results below.

There’s a new poll, over there ——-> As always, we’d like you to take a moment or two and click on your choice!

This time, it’s a Last Comic Standing poll. We’ve even accomodated the folks whose response might be “Who cares?!”

Thanks! Now, the results of the latest poll:

There’s a fascinating (and lengthy) profile of Brad Stine in an issue of the New Yorker from last month. Fascinating because it provides an overview of a career and gives a snapshot of a pivotal moment in that career. We only found out about it today. It’s still available online.

In his set, Stine hit some familiar notes. “I’m a conservative, I’m a Christian, and I think the United States is the greatest country that has ever existed on the face of the earth!” he shouted, provoking one of four standing ovations. “And, because of those three belief systems, when I die, by law, I have to be stuffed and mounted and placed in the Smithsonian under the ‘Why He Didn’t Get a Sitcom’ display.”

As it turns out, Lou Weiss, the chairman emeritus of William Morris, watched Stine’s DVD not long ago and said that he’d “never seen anything as out-of-the-box as this young man.” Weiss, who started in the mailroom at William Morris in 1937, has handled Joey Bishop, Buddy Hackett, and Alan King, among others, and he helped launch Bill Cosby’s television career. Now he wants to build a sitcom around Stine, as a put-upon Everyman. The star’s Christianity, Weiss says, will not take center stage. “I respect everybody’s beliefs,” he told me recently. “But putting religion jokes on television is a good way not to be on television anymore.”

Read the whole thing here,

Inquire within!

We are seeking an advertiser/promotion partner who would like to snag a boatload of business from folks in the comedy business. And from folks who are standup comedy fans! And folks who are in the entertainment business! (That about covers most of our readers.)

We’re seeking someone who has the ability to fill medium to large orders quickly with a minimum of equivocation or excuses, preferably someone who knows what the phrase “drop ship” means, who can turn a client’s idea into a smartly embroidered (or silk screened) T-shirt or hat.

We plum run out of SHECKYmagazine.com T-shirts here and we need a few hundred of ’em to send to contributors, media types, interview subjects and anyone else who “does the SHECKY a solid.”

Potential candidates will like the idea of having their advertisement at the top of the front page of the WWW’s most beloved magazine about standup comedy and might also be persuaded to crank out the occasional smaller quantity of “special edition” T-shirts or hats for when the plucky editors trek to Montreal or Boston or Hollywood on one of their occasional special “field stunts”– the ones that have made SHECKYmagazine.com the “go-to” publication for folks who want information on standup comedy…seriously!

If you fit this description– and you can handle a bunch of new business– send us an email at editors@SHECKYmagazine.com and we’ll talk about hits, files, walks, runs, errors– all of the info you need to make an informed decision on partnering with the pluckiest publication ever to focus incessantly on standup comedy.

They were on last night, they’ll be re-run on OCT 12. There’s a complete wrap-up on bet.com if you’d like to get the whole rundown.

Some award winners of note:

Rickey Smiley won the Platinum Mic Viewers’ Choice Award

Bernie Mac won for Outstanding Comedy Series

Chappelle’s Show won for Outstanding Comedy Variety and for Outstanding Comedy Variety

Cedric The Entertainer won for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Box Office Movie

While we congratulate Mr. Smiley for his win, we were hoping that Franklyn Ajaye would take that particular award. Oh, well… there’s always next year!

Just got an email from someone close to the Chicago Comedy Festival:

I just spoke with Dan Carlson and it looks like the festival won’t be happening this year after all. Despite his best efforts sufficient sponsorship isn’t in place, Chicago isn’t providing the necessary support… He appreciates all the submissions and inquiries.

The official site of the Chicago Comedy Festival is static– just the logo, nothing else, just as it has been for months. Too bad. We attended all or part of three Chicago’s (We’ll try to jigger the HTML on all of our CHICAGO FEST coverage in the next 48 hours. So check back.) and it was a great fest. And, even though we’re speaking of it in the past tense, we do believe that it will rise again. It’s too good of an idea not to.

According to MediaWeek.com, Last Comic Standing, in the 8PM time slot, came in fifth behind Navy NCIS (CBS), My Wife and Kids (ABC), Gilmore Girls (WB)Trading Spouses (Fox). Early reports are that the show is attracting about 4 million viewers. Make of that what you will. (It’s still television exposure. And, as Todd Glass pointed out last night, it’ll probably still make life in the clubs a little better for any contestant, win or lose. Such is the power of Television!

Forgive us for being so self-centered, but we get all tingly when we hear a rumor that has a new, giant comedy club coming into the Philly area. Perhaps it’s not so self-centered after all– Philly is, after all, the 8th-largest Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in the USA. There are 4,539,926 just a short drive from here. With numbers like that, Philly could certainly be fertile ground for two… or three major comedy clubs! And if that happens, that means prosperity for more than just the handful of professional comics who still reside in the Delaware Valley… or within a short drive to the City of Brotherly Love. (Are you listening up there in NYC?) Where would it be erected or installed? Who might be behind it? Those Funny Bone people? They had a place on South St. for a few years back in the early 90s. The Improv? Wouldn’t that be nice. Maybe it’s Jamie Masada. He has a new place up on Times Square– maybe he’s making a bid at world domination! Speculation is nice, but we want hard information.

Now: If anyone has any credible information about this club, please send us an email here. Send it to editors@SHECKYmagazine.com and let us know if we can publish your little nugget of information…and if we can, may we attach your name to it. Thanks!

The press release goes like this: “The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa celebrates the first anniversary of the Borgata Comedy Club with all-star show featuring the best of Borgata’s comedians. The show, which take place on October 1st and 2nd, 2004, at 9 PM in The Music Box theater…” Ray Garvey will host. On the bill(s) will be:

Tony V
Rob Magnotti
Al Lubel
Richie Minervini
Paul Bond
Drew Hastings
Vic DiBetetto
Joey Kola

It just might be the nicest comedy room in the country. It has 900 seats… and often all 900 are filled. It’s gorgeous. Atlantic City has a first-class club on its hands.

Kathleen Madigan and Season I’s champion Dat Phan are gone! As are Jay London and Ralphie May!

This means, of course, that Heffron and Mordal will go through to the final four and that only two of this evening’s roasters (one from each team) will survive the voting and go up against them.

The roast format was pleasant and entertaining enough, the highlight of which was Jeffery Ross. (We assume that Ross is repped by Barry Katz… Which makes this whole appearance delicious revenge against Comedy Central for snaking the Friars’ Roast franchise out from under Ross. The Ross-hosted Friars’ Roast was the highest-rated show Comedy Central had ever had up until that point, then they went and took it away and gave some lame new-age celebrity roast show to Denis Leary with some sort of nonsense about attracting a younger demo. Sheesh! Have you heard anything about the Leary show since? We didn’t think so.)

We wouldn’t wanna follow Ross at a roast! We certainly wouldn’t wanna follow Ross followed by Triumph! That dog was hot! Our favorites: “If Rich Vos were any more rat-faced, Dat Phan would have eaten him by now!” (A twofer! Nice!) and “Jay Mohr’s career is like my poop– it was hot for five minutes!”

And, though she wasn’t even present, Bonnie McFarlane got slammed twice tonight! Hey, as long as they spell the name right.

Predictions: Vos and Gary Gulman will go on to compete in the final four. Further prediction: Traci says that Heffron will win Season III.

One more note: Was that Troy Conrad and his lovely wife in the audience?

At left: Troy Conrad and his lovely wife photographed last month at the Improv on Melrose (Note photo of Todd Glass in the background)

Season II won again.

If you seek the interview we did with Triumph The Insult Comic Dog, click here.

If you’d like to read the interview we did with here.

And, although we know that not all markets just saw that Sprint PCS commercial (the one where Marc Maron harasses the little soccer-playing kid for being over on his monthly soccer minutes), and you’d like to read the interview we did with Maron, click here.

That should be it… for an hour or so. We’ll be back after the conclusion of Last Comic Standing.

Tough Crowdregular Laurie Kilmartin sent us the following message:

Hey Brian,

Thanks for the Tough Crowd mention, however, there is one misconception I’d like to correct (CNN got it wrong too). Our GOAL from the start was to keep 1/2 the Daily Show audience. Anything else was considered bonus. Now it’s being spun as if TC only kept 1/2 of the Daily Show’s lead-in, when that was our directive from the start. The re-runs they throw in when we’re off the air consistently fare worse.

Thanks,

Laurie Kilmartin

Thanks for setting us straight. You saved us from thinking too much like a television executive. (God help us! We’re taking a cable exec’s word for it when he offers excuses for cancelling a show!) We hope that you (and our esteemed readers) will forgive us! (Traci said, just before Brian hit the SEND button, “Do you really think you oughta say that about hemorrhaging viewers?” I said… Well, I said something… can’t recall what. She said, “There’s no way that an 11:30 PM show should be expected to retain anything more than 50 per cent of an 11 PM show.” Traci knows best in this case!) In my defense, I had spent a lot of time looking up the correct spelling of the word, “hemorrhage.” I was damned if I wasn’t going to use it!

Got an alert this morning about an interview with Kitty Bruce in the Allentown (PA) Call Chronicle (or what is derisively called by the locals The Crawl Comical– Everybody’s got a nasty name for the local rag, no?)

Kitty has long been sought out to comment for articles, interviews and films about her father, who died of a drug overdose in 1966, when she was 10 and he was 40.

Lately, she’s been on the interview circuit to promote this month’s release of a six-compact disc overview of Bruce’s career called “Lenny Bruce: Let the Buyer Beware” (Shout Factory, $69.98). She co-produced the boxed set with Hal Willner, the musical director on Saturday Night Live, and Lenny Bruce’s former manager, Marvin Worth, who died in 1998.

Why Allentown, PA? Turns out that Bruce, who has lived in Europe and Hawaii, among other places, decided to settle in Pittston, just outside of Scranton. Read the rest of the interview here.

If you can’t wait, and you simply must purchase it, go here.

What is going on up there? In New York, I mean…at Comedy Central? They’ve been real nice and they’ve actually been picking up the phone when we call… but when we’ve tried to pin them down as to a definite statement regarding Tough Crowd, that’s when things get weird. After one of the phone calls, I felt like Bob Wodward when AG John Mitchell warned that Katherine Graham would “get her tit caught in a wringer” if Woodward didn’t lay off the story. (Well, okay, we exaggerate… but at least we were able to work that colorful and highly descriptive phrase into the copy!)

The last time I called and asked for something definite about the ultimate disposition of the show, the publicity folks told me that they couldn’t say anything definite (?!) and that they’d transfer me to the programming director! What the hell’s going on up there? Why would the Programming Director wanna waste his time with the goofball editor of the WWW’s Most Beloved Magazine About Standup? Isn’t that what the Publicity Department is for?

Is Quinn in negotiations? (Hardly likely, considering his show is hemorhaging half the lead-in from Daily. (Notice how fast we pick up on the lingo?)

Hmmm… Oh, well, we’re hopeful that it’s not the end… if for no other reason than there might still be a chance that they review the materials we sent to them a coupla weeks ago and they’re still booking new talent onto the New & Improved Tough Crowd! Stay tuned.

We finally got around to sending our press kit into Tough Crowd, along with some writing samples (to demonstrate that we knew the difference between a libertarian and a libertine), but when we followed up with a phone call, we got a message that stated that the show was “on hiatus.” Hmmm… “hiatus” is a word that’s overused and frequently misused, so we weren’t immediately disheartened. Then we started hearing rumors here and there. We called again this morning (this time in the capacity of editors of SHECKYmagazine.com) and somebody on the other end mentioned an item that appeared on CNN.com today. The item wasn’t definite in it’s tone. In fact, the subhead said that the show had “likely reached the end of its run.” Low ratings were cited as a possible cause, should the decision be final.

Sources indicate that network executives have been displeased with the ratings performance of Quinn, a spirited roundtable discussion of current issues with host Colin Quinn and guest comedians.

Quinn has been holding onto only about half of the audience tuning in to its 11 p.m. lead-in, “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” Daily, which is red-hot as of late, coming off a pair of Emmy wins and record ratings during the political conventions, has averaged 1.1 million total viewers this year through September 9, while Quinn has averaged 537,000 by the same measure.

Ouch. Things are looking bad for Quinn, as the Hollywood types insist on calling it. We were switched over to someone who was permitted to make statements to the press, but all we got was voicemail. Hmmm… Stay tuned.

Larry The Cable Guy is riding high on his recent fame resulting in his appearance in the successful film and television series. From a recent (Sept. 16) article in the Bowling Green (KY) Daily News:

Western Kentucky University is hoping the blue-collar comedian will “Git-R-Done” when he comes to E.A. Diddle Arena on Sept. 25.

As of Monday, about 3,100 advance tickets had sold.

“That’s very good for advance sales for us,” said Jeff Younglove, director of campus and community events.

There are about 5,500 seats available in the configuration needed for the show, he said.

“We’ve had several calls from other schools wondering how we landed him,” Younglove said. “We feel very fortunate.”

We assume the arena eventually sold out.

L.T.C.G., whose real name is Dan Whitney, said “he’s always been a fan of the one-liners like Henny Youngman, Milton Berle, Shecky Greene and Pat Butram. The first comedy album I bought was Steve Martin’s ‘Let’s Get Small,’” he said. “I have never been a real fan of storytellers … I like the set up and punch.”

Our favorite line from the story was this: “Western has contracted with a promoter to bring in events to Diddle.” Note to female comedians who may be brought in to Diddle– Make sure you have a contract that clearly spells out what’s expected of you.

A Reuters item, entitled “Fox Tuning Up Barenaked Ladies” caught our attention.

Barenaked Ladies blend of music and comedy is coming to television.

Fox Broadcasting Co. has ordered a pilot presentation for a comedy/variety show starring the members of the popular Canadian pop group, known for its playful music style of tongue-in-cheek humor, pop-culture lyrics and upbeat tempos.

The project, tentatively titled The Barenaked Ladies Variety Show, is set to expand upon the comedy sketches that have become a staple of Barenaked Ladies’ concerts, along with the quintet’s stage banter and improv bits with the audience.

We’re well aware that the boys (as we call them) aren’t standup comics. But after seeing them five times over the past decade, we proclaimed them the funniest band around. They’re not quite standup comics, but they’ve got timing an a tremendous sense of humor and their live shows are often a scream. Skene warns them not to become the Hudson Brothers. “They better not end each show by singing ‘The Razzle Dazzle Wrapup of Everything.’ Oh, sure, one of them might get to impregnate Goldie Hawn, but at what cost?”

It’s back again… We plan on watching, tonight at 8 EDT. And we’ll be at the keyboard just after 9, with the results. Tonight’s episode is the roast. (The official description is as follows: “Episode #306. Viewers continue to vote for the funniest comic/”) Stay tuned!

Here’s the description of tonight’s episoded of Rodney:

Rodney greatly exaggerates the amount of money he’ll earn at his standup comedy job

We’re pretty sure we can’t watch that. The Car Wreck Effect might kick in, however– we might not be able to avoid watching, no matter how horrible it is.

Above, left to right: SHECKYmagazine.com Editor BRIAN MCKIM, Mixed Nuts member REX MORGAN, PATTY WALL MORGAN (The person who, in 1981, persuaded McKim to try an open mike at the Comedy Works in Philadelphia)

We went to a party on Sunday, thrown by current Comedy Works (Bristol, PA) club owner Joy Little, in Bensalem, PA. It was to celebrate 25 years of comedy under the Comedy Works banner.

Left to right: JOE BUBLEWICZ, Donna Stankiewicz, PAUL LYONS, CHRIS RICH, MIKE STANKIEWICZ laugh uproariously because the pointy ass of the photographer (Brian McKim) obliterated the lid of the giant Styrofoam cooler upon which he sat to take picture

Among the nifty features of the party were a pig (a real pig, not just a woman with loose morals), a phone call from Todd Glass, and an emailed message to the assembled from Comedy Works founder Steve Young.

Philadelphia comedy Founding Father BARNEY WEISS (he ran Goin’ Bananas, the world’s only brown comedy club) and VINCE DANTONA (without his wooden buddy George)

The Comedy Works was one of the three major comedy clubs in Philadelphia in the early 1980s. On the third floor above the Middle East Restaurant, the club specialized in headliners, mainly from New York, with television credits, and gave Philadelphia comedy fans their first live look at such comedy giants as Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno. Their Wednesday night open mike show was the incubator for Todd Glass, Wayne Cotter, Ralph Harris and Brian McKim, among many others.

THE LEGENDARY WID (Left) with Mixed Nuts member SAM DOMSKY