November may be the month of the New York Comedy Festival, but there are tons of other shows, festivals, and casting calls to satisfy your humor needs. To help you find the best of the month, Backstage breaks down our top choices for events around the city in each category. Performances With a nerdy personality and an affinity for crowd work, Chris Hardwick brings his lovable standup to New York City. If you’re looking for a night of laughs and guaranteed references to “Star Wars,” Hardwick can be seen at Caroline’s on Broadway from Nov. 8–10. For fans of improv theater, the Upright Citizens’ Brigade Theater New York is putting on “The Best of Ucbtny” as part of the New York Comedy Festival. The production will be putting on two popular shows: “Let’s Make a Website” and “Improvised Seinfeld.” The performance can be seen on Nov. 10 at Ucbt Chelsea.
- 10/31/2017
- backstage.com
On Thursday night, Chris Gethard is going back home.
Sure, home is a set at a Midtown Manhattan studio, made of leftover material from the set of David Letterman’s old show. Some of it’s been repurposed into The Diddy Door, a walkway reserved for Sean Combs.
“It’s oddly emotional for me to walk in and take a deep breath, because I always think about how for four years on public access, I did not have access to the trunk of my own car because it was full of our set,” Gethard said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “We’d have to show up, set it up, every week, knock it down every week, put it back in the trunk. The idea that we have a set now that’s a semi-permanent thing is just so mind blowing. It feels like an odd little victory.”
That set...
Sure, home is a set at a Midtown Manhattan studio, made of leftover material from the set of David Letterman’s old show. Some of it’s been repurposed into The Diddy Door, a walkway reserved for Sean Combs.
“It’s oddly emotional for me to walk in and take a deep breath, because I always think about how for four years on public access, I did not have access to the trunk of my own car because it was full of our set,” Gethard said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “We’d have to show up, set it up, every week, knock it down every week, put it back in the trunk. The idea that we have a set now that’s a semi-permanent thing is just so mind blowing. It feels like an odd little victory.”
That set...
- 8/3/2017
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Summer TV has always been about more than just comedy or drama. Reality and big events rule during the warm months, when audiences often demand more light fare.
Read More: Summer TV Preview: 20 New and Returning Dramas That You Need to Watch
IndieWire’s Summer Preview lists tackled the best upcoming comedies and dramas this week, but there is still room left to recognize a bunch of other shows that didn’t fall neatly into either of those categories.
Here’s a finely curated list of live TV specials, unscripted series and documentaries that we haven’t singled out yet. Like our other Summer Preview roundups, they range from broadcast to cable to streaming.
Read More: Summer TV Preview: 20 New and Returning Comedies Worth Watching
To help plan your TV watching plans for the next three months, we’ve also included the network/service where these will premiere, in addition to their scheduled release dates.
Read More: Summer TV Preview: 20 New and Returning Dramas That You Need to Watch
IndieWire’s Summer Preview lists tackled the best upcoming comedies and dramas this week, but there is still room left to recognize a bunch of other shows that didn’t fall neatly into either of those categories.
Here’s a finely curated list of live TV specials, unscripted series and documentaries that we haven’t singled out yet. Like our other Summer Preview roundups, they range from broadcast to cable to streaming.
Read More: Summer TV Preview: 20 New and Returning Comedies Worth Watching
To help plan your TV watching plans for the next three months, we’ve also included the network/service where these will premiere, in addition to their scheduled release dates.
- 6/8/2017
- by Steve Greene, Hanh Nguyen, Michael Schneider and Liz Shannon Miller
- Indiewire
Over the course of his strange comedy career, Chris Gethard has hitchhiked to Bonnaroo for a Web series and dangled himself over a pellet-gun-toting audience while dressed as a duck. But no experience could have prepared him for Career Suicide, his new HBO comedy special. In it, the Jersey comic discusses his history with anxiety, alcoholism and depression. He details a suicide attempt at age 21, in which he tried to get hit by a truck but wound up crashing his car on someone's lawn. "I think I overestimated my ability to handle discussing it onstage,...
- 5/26/2017
- Rollingstone.com
Judd Apatow may be the busiest man in show business. The 49-year-old has directed and/or produced a generation's worth of comedy classics, from Freaks and Geeks to Superbad to Girls. His documentary on the Avett Brothers, May It Last, premiered at SXSW in March; the HBO vehicle for Pete Holmes that he oversaw, Crashing, just finished its first season; and the Apatow-produced Sundance sensation The Big Sick, Kumail Nanjiani's semi-autobiographical story about love, sickness and culture clashes, hits theaters on June 23rd. "At the time when we started...
- 5/18/2017
- Rollingstone.com
Friday, May 5
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” 8 p.m., VH1
Episode Title: “9021-ho”
Network Synopsis: The queens act in a ’90s high school drama, directed by Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth.
Why You Should Watch: “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is the smartest reality show on TV. So says IndieWire (more specifically, so says the one and only Jude Dry), and the latest season has been growing in ratings and expanding its audience in exciting new ways. The guest judges have been fantastic, and this week’s theme is a fun riff on a TV classic. Give it a try! We know you’ll be hooked.
Read More: ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race:’ 5 Reasons Why It’s The Smartest Reality Show On TV
Saturday, May 6
“Chris Gethard: Career Suicide” 10 p.m., HBO
Episode Title: (Comedy Special)
Network Synopsis: Comedian, talk-show and podcast host, and writer Chris Gethard brings his one-man off-Broadway show, “Chris Gethard: Career Suicide,...
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” 8 p.m., VH1
Episode Title: “9021-ho”
Network Synopsis: The queens act in a ’90s high school drama, directed by Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth.
Why You Should Watch: “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is the smartest reality show on TV. So says IndieWire (more specifically, so says the one and only Jude Dry), and the latest season has been growing in ratings and expanding its audience in exciting new ways. The guest judges have been fantastic, and this week’s theme is a fun riff on a TV classic. Give it a try! We know you’ll be hooked.
Read More: ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race:’ 5 Reasons Why It’s The Smartest Reality Show On TV
Saturday, May 6
“Chris Gethard: Career Suicide” 10 p.m., HBO
Episode Title: (Comedy Special)
Network Synopsis: Comedian, talk-show and podcast host, and writer Chris Gethard brings his one-man off-Broadway show, “Chris Gethard: Career Suicide,...
- 5/5/2017
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
Even though “Game of Thrones” is ending after Season 8, that doesn’t mean that’s the end of our TV adventures in Westeros.
HBO has hired four different writers to pen possible spin-offs of our favorite fantasy drama, the network announced Thursday. A spokesperson said, “We’ve closed deals for four very talented writers to each explore different time periods of George R. R. Martin’s vast and rich universe There is no set timetable for these projects. We’ll take as much or as little time as the writers need and, as with all our development, we will evaluate what we have when the scripts are in.
“Dan Weiss and David Benioff continue to work on finishing up the seventh season and are already in the midst of writing and preparing for the eighth and final season. We have kept them up to date on our plans and they will be attached,...
HBO has hired four different writers to pen possible spin-offs of our favorite fantasy drama, the network announced Thursday. A spokesperson said, “We’ve closed deals for four very talented writers to each explore different time periods of George R. R. Martin’s vast and rich universe There is no set timetable for these projects. We’ll take as much or as little time as the writers need and, as with all our development, we will evaluate what we have when the scripts are in.
“Dan Weiss and David Benioff continue to work on finishing up the seventh season and are already in the midst of writing and preparing for the eighth and final season. We have kept them up to date on our plans and they will be attached,...
- 5/4/2017
- by Hanh Nguyen
- Indiewire
Chris Gethard doesn’t want you to worry about him, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t nervous.
“Permanence is not my usual M.O. and it’s pretty terrifying,” Gethard said, sitting in the Hollywood offices of Funny or Die last month. He smiled, but even he’ll admit that behind that grin, there’s the reserved bit of trepidation that comes before releasing a bit of yourself out into the world.
On Saturday, his comedy special “Chris Gethard: Career Suicide” will debut on HBO. In it, over the course of an hour and a half, Gethard details his decades-long relationship with depression, recounting his first experiences with a sinking sensation he couldn’t quite identify, all the way through impulsive suicide attempts, pieced-together blackout spells and the process of finding healthier, constructive ways to deal with all of those conflicting feelings and ideas.
Read More: ‘Chris Gethard: Career Suicide...
“Permanence is not my usual M.O. and it’s pretty terrifying,” Gethard said, sitting in the Hollywood offices of Funny or Die last month. He smiled, but even he’ll admit that behind that grin, there’s the reserved bit of trepidation that comes before releasing a bit of yourself out into the world.
On Saturday, his comedy special “Chris Gethard: Career Suicide” will debut on HBO. In it, over the course of an hour and a half, Gethard details his decades-long relationship with depression, recounting his first experiences with a sinking sensation he couldn’t quite identify, all the way through impulsive suicide attempts, pieced-together blackout spells and the process of finding healthier, constructive ways to deal with all of those conflicting feelings and ideas.
Read More: ‘Chris Gethard: Career Suicide...
- 5/3/2017
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Veep and Silicon Valley are back, but with Girls done and Game Of Thrones not returning until July, HBO is keeping its HBO Go and HBO Now streaming services pretty low-key for the month of May. The biggest new releases will be The Wizard Of Lies, which stars Robert DeNiro as Bernie Madoff, and Chris Gethard’s one-man show Career Suicide. Other originals include Warning: This Drug May Kill You, a documentary about the opioid epidemic, and true crime story Mommy Dead And Dearest. Outside of HBO originals, subscribers will be able to stream the new-ish films Jason Bourne, Sully, Storks, and Legend, the last one being that Tom Hardy gangster movie with a clever poster. There are some older films as well, like Good Will Hunting, Tender Mercies, and some Clint Eastwood movies.
Sadly, May will also be HBO subscribers’ last chance to watch Deadpool, P.S. I Love...
Sadly, May will also be HBO subscribers’ last chance to watch Deadpool, P.S. I Love...
- 4/19/2017
- by Sam Barsanti
- avclub.com
Every festival offers up the possibility of discovering something new — new stars, new films, new shows, new platforms — and this year’s Tribeca Film Festival is no different. Now in its sixteenth year, the New York City-set festival continues to grow and change, while constantly embracing what’s new and what’s next. The 2017 edition of the festival includes plenty of rising names to get excited about, from writers and directors to actors and actual platforms for hot content delivery. Who’s going to change the industry in the coming years? We’ve got some ideas.
This year’s Tribeca Film Festival takes place April 19 – 30. Check out some of the hottest breakouts to watch out for at the fest.
Read More: Tribeca 2017: 14 Must-See Films From This Year’s Festival
Brian Shoaf, writer and director, “Aardvark”
Not much is known about Brian Shoaf, whose IMDb page is currently topped...
This year’s Tribeca Film Festival takes place April 19 – 30. Check out some of the hottest breakouts to watch out for at the fest.
Read More: Tribeca 2017: 14 Must-See Films From This Year’s Festival
Brian Shoaf, writer and director, “Aardvark”
Not much is known about Brian Shoaf, whose IMDb page is currently topped...
- 4/19/2017
- by Indiewire Staff
- Indiewire
Chris Gethard has achieved the kind of ubiquity that’s rare in the American comedy landscape. For years, he’s mined the humor in supporting roles in everything from Parks And Recreation to Broad City, as well as turning in affecting performances in films like Don’t Think Twice. And it’s all delivered with the offbeat appeal of a guy who’s been quietly building a loyal and devoted fan base of fellow outsiders, in large part through his cult series The Chris Gethard Show. And now, in honor of his new HBO comedy special Career Suicide, The A.V. Club is giving those same fans a chance to hit up the awkwardly endearing comedian with whatever question they’d like.
It’s a very simple process: You can email AVCGethard@gmail.com and ask away, or you can go into the comments below and pose the question there...
It’s a very simple process: You can email AVCGethard@gmail.com and ask away, or you can go into the comments below and pose the question there...
- 4/18/2017
- by Alex McLevy
- avclub.com
Are you a fan of late-career Robert De Niro and slow covers of The Police hits? You’re in luck: The latest trailer for HBO Films’ upcoming Bernie Madoff biopic, “The Wizard of Lies,” has plenty of both.
Over the melancholy strains of “King of Pain,” we get our first look at De Niro as Madoff, the architect of a investment-based Ponzi scheme that cratered in late 2008. Judging by the footage in this first extended look, the film focuses more on the collapse, media response, and highly publicized trial than the events that led to them. Luckily, that means more of Michelle Pfeiffer as Madoff’s wife Ruth, who looks to be the character most capable of delivering this film’s standout moments.
Read More: HBO 2017 Trailer: First Footage of ‘Leftovers’ Season 3, James Franco Porn Series, De Niro as Madoff and More
“King of Lies” is also a return of sorts for Barry Levinson,...
Over the melancholy strains of “King of Pain,” we get our first look at De Niro as Madoff, the architect of a investment-based Ponzi scheme that cratered in late 2008. Judging by the footage in this first extended look, the film focuses more on the collapse, media response, and highly publicized trial than the events that led to them. Luckily, that means more of Michelle Pfeiffer as Madoff’s wife Ruth, who looks to be the character most capable of delivering this film’s standout moments.
Read More: HBO 2017 Trailer: First Footage of ‘Leftovers’ Season 3, James Franco Porn Series, De Niro as Madoff and More
“King of Lies” is also a return of sorts for Barry Levinson,...
- 4/12/2017
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
“Hate to say it…but sometimes people just break. Welcome to a comedy show.”
Chris Gethard is baring all his inner demons (and sad uncle physique) onstage in his one-man off-Broadway show “Career Suicide,” which will be broadcast this May on HBO. Despite the heavy material that Gethard delves into, the comedian, talk show, and podcast host is sure to bring on the laughs, as shown in the trailer below.
Gethard, who audiences may recognize from the critically acclaimed “Don’t Think Twice,” explores his bout with depression, the stigma of seeking therapy in northern New Jersey, and finding out that most 11 year old kids do not, in fact, have “an internal monologue that sounds just like Travis Bickle from ‘Taxi Driver.'”
Read More: Judd Apatow TV: How ‘Girls,’ ‘Crashing’ and ‘Love’ Mix His Comedy DNA with Other People’s Stories
Taped at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in February,...
Chris Gethard is baring all his inner demons (and sad uncle physique) onstage in his one-man off-Broadway show “Career Suicide,” which will be broadcast this May on HBO. Despite the heavy material that Gethard delves into, the comedian, talk show, and podcast host is sure to bring on the laughs, as shown in the trailer below.
Gethard, who audiences may recognize from the critically acclaimed “Don’t Think Twice,” explores his bout with depression, the stigma of seeking therapy in northern New Jersey, and finding out that most 11 year old kids do not, in fact, have “an internal monologue that sounds just like Travis Bickle from ‘Taxi Driver.'”
Read More: Judd Apatow TV: How ‘Girls,’ ‘Crashing’ and ‘Love’ Mix His Comedy DNA with Other People’s Stories
Taped at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in February,...
- 4/11/2017
- by Juan Diaz
- Indiewire
“Girls” star and creator Lena Dunham was interviewed by The Awl in 2012 about her nascent new HBO series, including her attitude towards clothing – or the lack thereof. “I feel like now I’m going to have to give up my trick of ‘oh, let’s make this scene funnier by way of pants removal.’ It’s going to wear thin. I’m going to need to start using it more judiciously,” she said at the time.
Five years later, well, she didn’t quite follow through on that. But we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Read More: ‘Girls’: Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner on the Penultimate Episode, and Why They Don’t Judge Their Characters Anymore
If you binge your way through “Girls” from the beginning, perhaps in preparation for the imminent finale, you might find that Dunham’s body becomes a calming presence. At first, this...
Five years later, well, she didn’t quite follow through on that. But we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Read More: ‘Girls’: Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner on the Penultimate Episode, and Why They Don’t Judge Their Characters Anymore
If you binge your way through “Girls” from the beginning, perhaps in preparation for the imminent finale, you might find that Dunham’s body becomes a calming presence. At first, this...
- 4/11/2017
- by Liz Shannon Miller
- Indiewire
Rashida Jones is getting a new pops.
Ernie Hudson will guest-star during Season 3 of Angie Tribeca as the father of Jones’ titular character, our sister site Deadline reports.
RelatedLouis C.K.-Albert Brooks Animated Comedy The Cops Ordered at TBS
Three years ago, it was reported that Jones’ real-life mom and dad would play her TV parents on the TBS comedy. Peggy Lipton indeed showed up as Angie’s mother, but Quincy Jones’ casting apparently never came to be.
Hudson next stars in Fox’s upcoming drama series Apb. His past TV credits include a guest spot on Once...
Ernie Hudson will guest-star during Season 3 of Angie Tribeca as the father of Jones’ titular character, our sister site Deadline reports.
RelatedLouis C.K.-Albert Brooks Animated Comedy The Cops Ordered at TBS
Three years ago, it was reported that Jones’ real-life mom and dad would play her TV parents on the TBS comedy. Peggy Lipton indeed showed up as Angie’s mother, but Quincy Jones’ casting apparently never came to be.
Hudson next stars in Fox’s upcoming drama series Apb. His past TV credits include a guest spot on Once...
- 2/1/2017
- TVLine.com
HBO next week will tape a performance of Chris Gethard: Career Suicide and air it in May. Judd Apatow will executive produce. The comic and talk show/podcast host’s one-man show is a comedy about depression, alcoholism, suicide and the other funniest parts of life. He dives into his experiences with mental illness and psychiatry, finding hope in the strangest places. "Chris Gethard is a fearless storyteller, and Career Suicide is exactly the kind of raw, relevant and…...
- 2/1/2017
- Deadline TV
Update 9:25 Am: First preview has been moved to October 5 from October 4, per producers. Exclusive: Trainwreck and Girls triple-threat Judd Apatow is presenting the off-Broadway debut of Chris Gethard: Career Suicide, an edge-of-the-envelope pushing comedy written and performed by the stand-up comedian. The show initially was presented in New York at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and developed at other venues including, most recently, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe…...
- 9/6/2016
- Deadline TV
Blackened
Metallica is arguably the biggest metal band in the world, their popularity seldom wavering even as music trends come and go.
Every single Metallica album has achieved multi-platinum status (a feat only matched by Led Zeppelin and The Beatles), and they continue to sell-out arenas and stadiums throughout the world (even when they have no new album to promote).
Historically, they are every bit as important to the evolution of metal as Black Sabbath. Metallica brought true metal to the mainstream and lent a major hand in killing ‘hair bands’ to allow the genre to grow beyond its often-ridiculed image. They are arguably the first metal band virtually everyone took seriously. Because of this, Metallica has endured while their peers fell by the wayside.
Yet when we look back at the band’s eclectic 30 year career, it’s actually quite amazing they’re still around. One can’t help...
Metallica is arguably the biggest metal band in the world, their popularity seldom wavering even as music trends come and go.
Every single Metallica album has achieved multi-platinum status (a feat only matched by Led Zeppelin and The Beatles), and they continue to sell-out arenas and stadiums throughout the world (even when they have no new album to promote).
Historically, they are every bit as important to the evolution of metal as Black Sabbath. Metallica brought true metal to the mainstream and lent a major hand in killing ‘hair bands’ to allow the genre to grow beyond its often-ridiculed image. They are arguably the first metal band virtually everyone took seriously. Because of this, Metallica has endured while their peers fell by the wayside.
Yet when we look back at the band’s eclectic 30 year career, it’s actually quite amazing they’re still around. One can’t help...
- 10/4/2014
- by D.M. Anderson
- Obsessed with Film
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