All posts tagged: StandUp

Stand-Up Comic, ‘Mork & Mindy’ Director Was 94

Stand-Up Comic, ‘Mork & Mindy’ Director Was 94

Published by Daniella Wilson

Howard Storm, who ditched a career as a stand-up comic to become a director who called the shots for such sitcoms as Rhoda, Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley and Valerie, died Tuesday. He was 94. Storm died of natural causes at his home in Beverly Hills, his son Anthony Storm told The Hollywood Reporter. A member of Lucille Ball‘s Desilu Workshop in the late 1950s, the native New Yorker and son of a vaudevillian learned a lot about filmmaking from Woody Allen — another stand-up turned director — when he worked alongside him on Bananas (1971) and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex but Were Afraid to Ask (1972). Allen also acted in those films, of course, and after a scene that included him was shot, “the cinematographer would say, ‘Good for me, Woody,’ and the sound man would say, ‘Good for me,’ but there was no director to say anything,” Storm recalled in a 2008 conversation for the Television Academy Foundation website The Interviews. “So [he and Allen] would make eye …

John Mulaney makes savage claim about RFK Jr’s relationship with Cheryl Hines during stand-up gig

John Mulaney makes savage claim about RFK Jr’s relationship with Cheryl Hines during stand-up gig

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter John Mulaney skewered U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his third marriage to actor Cheryl Hines during a recent stand-up set at the Hollywood Bowl. Performing last week as part of the Netflix Is a Joke Festival, the comedian, 43, switched from his typical self-deprecating humor to take aim at RFK Jr. and Hines, who have been married since 2012. Speaking to the sold-out crowd, Mulaney claimed he had met “Bobby” a decade ago, when they were both involved with Riverkeeper, an environmental organization dedicated to protecting New York’s Hudson River. “That’s how much he shouldn’t be in the government — I know him,” the comedian quipped, according to Entertainment Weekly. After mimicking the politician’s gravely voice, he delivered the brutal punch line: “He’s comedy adjacent, you know. He’s married to that woman from Curb Your Enthusiasm and cheats …

‘I bombed particularly badly’: Star of John Bishop-inspired film Is This Thing On? recalls ‘scary’ stand-up show | Ents & Arts News

‘I bombed particularly badly’: Star of John Bishop-inspired film Is This Thing On? recalls ‘scary’ stand-up show | Ents & Arts News

Published by Daniella Wilson

John Bishop was going through a divorce from his wife Melanie. It was October 2000 and he had moved out of his family home and would see his children on the weekend. After saying goodbye to his family for another week, the then 34-year-old salesman wandered into the Frog and Bucket comedy club in Manchester and, to avoid paying the £4 entry fee, signed up for the open mic night that was taking place. Only a handful of people were in the room, his name was called to go on stage and from there, John Bishop began his career in comedy. “I found this thing that I just loved, but I was never sure it would be a job ever,” he tells Sky News. “It took a number of years for me to build up to it and I was 40 when I left my job, so it was a completely different stage than what you see in the film. “What you see in the film is someone who all of a sudden finds something …

‘Is This Thing On?’: Stand-Up Comedy, All Joking Aside

‘Is This Thing On?’: Stand-Up Comedy, All Joking Aside

Published by José Betancourt

For someone best known as an actor, Bradley Cooper’s core interest as a filmmaker is perhaps unsurprising. Thus far, he has been entirely consumed by examinations of performance—first digging into a pop musician’s stratospheric career climb in A Star Is Born, then wrestling with Leonard Bernstein’s desire to reimagine classical music in Maestro. Both movies were hefty pieces of entertainment, filled with love, death, and grand human experiences. His newest, the fetching dramedy Is This Thing On?, has all that heady, arty stuff too. But Cooper has now dropped the wildly high stakes of his previous stories, to focus on someone audiences may find more recognizable: a regular guy telling jokes. Instead of concerts held in ancient cathedrals or sold-out stadiums, Is This Thing On? follows its protagonist to the Comedy Cellar, the famed New York City institution. There, a listless, middle-aged salaryman named Alex (played by Will Arnett) rediscovers himself as a stand-up comic. Based ever so loosely on the true story of a British performer who stumbled into a new life as a …

John Mulrooney Dead: Stand-Up Comedian Was 67

John Mulrooney Dead: Stand-Up Comedian Was 67

Published by Daniella Wilson

John Mulrooney, the stand-up comedian from Brooklyn who hosted Comic Strip Live on Fox and performed at venues including the Improv, the Laugh Factory and Dangerfield’s, has died. He was 67. Mulrooney died suddenly on Monday at his home in Coxsackie, New York, the Albany Times-Union newspaper reported. No cause of death was immediately available. Skillful at improvisation and working the crowd, Mulrooney told jokes on HBO, Showtime and on the PBS show Comedy Tonight and was among those who stepped in for Joan Rivers after she was fired as host of Fox’s The Late Show in 1997. He also was a guest host for The Pat Sajak Show on CBS. As an actor, he appeared on TV on Ryder P.I., 1st and Ten, Ellen, Midtown North, The Good Life and Hardball and in the 1989 film Great Balls of Fire. More recently, he hosted morning and afternoon radio programs in New York City, Cleveland and Albany, New York, and for iHeartRadio. One of five kids, Mulrooney was born in Brooklyn on Aug. 27, 1958, …

Ricky Gervais lashes out at ‘middle-class, elitist’ critics in new stand-up special

Ricky Gervais lashes out at ‘middle-class, elitist’ critics in new stand-up special

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Ricky Gervais has hit back at critics in his new Netflix special Mortality, released on Tuesday (30 December). The comedian and co-creator of The Office, 64, filmed the stand-up show at the London Palladium earlier this year, during which he took the opportunity to call out what he described as “middle-class” and “elitist” critics of his work. He told the live audience: “It’s great to hear this sort of laughter again, because you probably don’t notice it as much as comedians, but we’ve had a really weird 10 years where we’re really second-[guessing jokes]. “People find anything offensive, but we pushed back and we won. So f*** them. Until the next time. They haven’t gone away. They’re just licking their wounds. They’ll be back with something madder. But remember who it is next time? Right? “It’s always these sort of educated, …

The Best Stand-Up Comedy Movies, Definitively Ranked

The Best Stand-Up Comedy Movies, Definitively Ranked

Published by Jenni Sidey

Mike Birbiglia co-writes, co-directs and stars in what’s probably the most little-seen film on this list, an independent comedy well worth seeking out. Sleepwalk with Me is Birbiglia’s cinematic, semi-autobiographical translation of a story he’d previously told at an off-Broadway show and then in a book. In the film, he’s Matt, a stand-up struggling with his long-term relationship, his comedy, and rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, which causes Matt to sleepwalk. In one of his first acting roles, Birbiglia holds the film together, transferring his likable, regular guy persona from the stage to the screen. The cast also features solid work from Lauren Ambrose, James Rebhorn, Cristin Milioti, and Carol Kane, and fun appearances from Birbiglia’s comedy pals Kristen Schaal, Wyatt Cenac, David Wain, and Marc Maron. 9. Funny People Universal/Everett Collection Former roommates Adam Sandler and Judd Apatow started out together on the stand-up scene, so once Apatow broke out as the writer and director of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, it felt right that the duo reunited to explore the life …