I admit that I was a little bit late to the party ins discovering Broad City, mostly because I had no clue it existed for the first couple of seasons. But now I’m hooked on this crazy, insanely edgy Comedy Central show about the absurdist adventures of best friends Abbi and Ilana, who may or may not be lesbians! It’s like Girls but without the HBO budget, and with less gratuitous nudity! A new season of Broad City starts on Wednesday, September 13th, 2017, so set those DVRs! But first, check out this article about a new line of Broad CitySex Toys!
Photographed by Gail at the 96th Street 6 Train Station
The second season of Nathan Fielder’s critically-acclaimed Comedy Central show Nathan For You will debut on Tuesday, June 24th, July 1st, 2014. Nathan For You, which is completely hilarious, was renewed by the network last year for a 10-episode season — two more episodes than it was given during its initial season. The show will air Tuesdays at 10:30 PM, following Drunk History, which premieres on the same date. While I’m sure there’s a ton of amazing stuff in these 10 episodes of Nathan For You, the most eagerly-awaited one will document Dumb Starbucks, the fully-functioning Starbucks knockoff Fielder opened in Los Angeles in February of this year. Dumb Starbucks, a stunt by Fielder to test the limits of US parody laws, captured the media’s attention before it was known that he was behind it. The business was quickly shut down for operating without a permit. Dumb Starbucks is the only Nathan For You experiment from the new season that has been revealed so far. I am so excited!
Title Unknown by Greg “Craola” Simkins (All Photos By Geoffrey Dicker)
In celebration of South Park’s 15th anniversary celebration, Comedy Central and pop surrealist painter and street artist, Ron English have joined forces to curate 15 Artists Interpret South Park at New York’s Opera Gallery. The show kicked off on March 28th, but i just had time to get over to the gallery today. You have one more week to see the exhibit before it closes so get yourself over to 115 Spring Street in Soho ASAP!
Ron English (who has several paintings in the exhibit) hand-picked the other 14 artists, who were drawn from the street and the pop surrealism movement to join him in displaying their South Park interpretations. The artists are unified by their love of the hit series and the passion they bring to their work. Their interpretations feature the South Park characters and the iconic moments throughout the series history. The featured artists also include: Travis Louie, Colin Christian, Sas Christian, Beau Stanton, Kid Zoom, Dave White, KaNo, Kathie Olivas, Clark Fox, Greg Craola Simkins, Mark Dean Veca, Lindsey Way, Naoto Hattori and TrustoCorp. Also displaying his work is Mars English, Ron’s young son, who any fan of English‘s art would immediately recognize as the primary model for the majority of his father’s amazing paintings.
Kenny on Fire by Ron English
This summer the 15 Artists Interpret South Park exhibit will be traveling toComic-Conin San Diego for Comedy Central’s Ultimate South Park Fan Experience. In addition, South Parkfans can submit their own artistic interpretations at SouthParkStudios.com until May 15th. Ron English and the South Parkstaff will select the 15 best pieces and these will also be included in the Ultimate Fan Experience at Comic-Con.
2010 has been a great year for seeing some of my favorite stand up comedians: Ricky Gervais, Demitri Martin, and just last night I was lucky to catch Daniel Tosh – certainly one of the most wildly popular comedians on the circuit right now – at the first of two shows he played at New York City’s Beacon Theater. I’ve been an avid fan of Tosh’s Comedy Central show, Tosh.0, since I discovered it accidentally about a year ago. As soon as I heard tickets were going on sale for his Tosh 2010 tour, I made sure I grabbed a pair.
For fans of Tosh.0, Daniel’s stand up is slightly different, in that there are no screens, no videos and no props onstage with him at all. It’s all 100% pure Tosh, just riffing seamlessly and brilliantly spot-on about everything and everyone – from the citizens of New Orleans, to Brett Favre to rap artists, whom he sarcastically thanks for “keeping women in their place” – in his signature un-PC style. He is not afraid to say offensive things about every group of people – from religious zealots to political conservatives and liberals as well, not to mention poor and fat people. I love how he simplifies how ridiculous we all are with our “I’m a victim” mentality. No quarter is given, and that’s why Tosh just slays every time. But if you are humorless, overly PC, or offended by anything at all you should probably stay home.
It was a sold-out crowd for the Beacon’s 7:30 show (Tosh performed again at 10 PM) and obviously everyone in attendance was a huge fan of the Comedy Central show. One of my favorite bits was Daniel’s recollection of having been delayed on a flight that sat on the tarmac for three hours while the airline waited for another flight to arrive, so that they could get more seat belt extenders, which are needed when heavy passengers cannot fit within the confines of a standard safety belt. “Not only were they out of seat belt extenders on the plane, they were out of seat belt extenders in the entire airport,” he exclaimed hilariously. This, of course led to his riffs on fat Americans, which are always hilarious, because they are so true. I also enjoyed his bit about what Johnny Depp, at age 48, goes through in his nightly routine to get ready to leave the house, as he decides he needs to accessorize with eight bracelets instead of just seven (this is probably a lot funnier in person than it sounds written down).
One of the more complicated bits Tosh did tied together a horrifying incident at an Atlanta amusement park, where a young man was accidentally decapitated, and how annoying it is when you have a cast on your leg and all anybody wants to ask you is “how did you break your leg?” I didn’t really see where he was going with this one but, trust me, he pulled it off beautifully. The amusement park decapitation/broken leg bit was a perfect example of how you’ll think Tosh is going in one direction with the joke, and then he zigs and zags so much that he gets four or five different punch lines in before he then manages to bring it all back to where he started. I don’t know anyone else who is really able to do that live. It’s also worth noting that one hundred percent of his material was completely new to me, so even if you watch Tosh.0 faithfully, you will probably be surprised by most of what goes down in the live show.
While Daniel’s set was only slightly over one hour long, (not including two warm up acts, one very funny and the other not so much) every second was absolutely, ridiculously funny. I would definitely see him again on any future tour and recommend you check out the Tosh Tour 2010 when it comes to your city. Daniel Tosh!
Comedians are the new Rock Stars: amiright? Speaking of which, I’m a huge fan of comedian Demetri Martin and his Comedy Central show, Important Things with Demetri Martin. When I heard that Demetri would be playing NYC’sTown Hall theater I knew I could not miss his show! Can I just say, I was not disappointed! Even before Demetri came out on the stage, an awesome mix of Beatles songs played over the PA at Town Hall to entertain the crowd of rabid Demetri fans and set the mood to expect an excellent show. Because, The Beatles, come on: Greatest Band Ever. Not to mention, but you can see I am about to, I had a great seat: just to the right of the stage, front row, on the aisle. Yes!
As a comedian who strikes a chord with almost everyone who has a sense of humor, Demetri Martin has a whimsically goofy outlook on the weirdness of everyday life, a deadpan delivery and a fondness for playing various musical instruments while delivering his ingenious one-liners. Demetri is thoroughly engaging and has a great flow from one bit to another; say, from explaining the enigmatic drawings on his Large Pad into playing the piano (he is quite good) while singing a list of things he’d rather do than wait in line to get into a nightclub, so he is consistently laugh-out-loud funny. He does maybe a half dozen bits that fans of the Comedy Central show will be familiar with, but I guess every comedian does that kind of thing.
You can’t expect the entire show to be made up of bits you’ve never heard before – but those in the audience without cable probably laughed even harder at those bits than the rest of us. He did a solid 90-minute set, then came back out and took questions from the audience, including performing a few requested favorite skits. He also told a few poignant personal stories; my favorites of which were his recounting of riding his skateboard to the home of a friend, through the nearly empty streets of NYC, on the day of the September 11th attacks, as well as his story about the time he met the late comedian Mitch Hedberg while working as a writer on Conan O’Brien. Demetri became less of a comedian at that point and more of a funny guy with good stories that we, the audience, were having a conversation with. At any rate, the audience at Town Hall on Friday just went insane for him, and the enthusiastic vibe added to the fun. As a side note, he is also really, really cute!
Over all, Demetri Martin at Town Hall was a fun night and a great entertainment value for a rather reasonably priced ticket. The only bummer of the evening was when Demetri revealed that his beyond-hilarious Comedy Central show would not be returning for a third season. That sucks so hard. Hopefully, season one and two of Important Things will be available on DVD soon. In the meantime, go see him perform if he comes to a town near you. Demetri Martin!
