Results tagged “comedy”

That’s right. Someone who worships Conan O’Brien believes Todd Barry to be “Icky”. So that puts him amongst the ranks of Gonzo journalism and oh who gives a shit what O’Brien’s viewers think. Todd will be visiting Austin for Fun Fun Fun Fest 2009! But not to protest Eugene Mirman!

Hipster death! How many of you already have a heated, passionate response to those two words? Maybe there's an involuntary, guttural groan prepped for release. For some odd reason, "hipster" has become an extremely loaded noun. To lighten things up (or possibly stir them up more and then stab them with a razor before laughing and sprinkling rat poison all over it), you should check out The Scenesters at Austin Film Festival; it's the first film from comedy troupe The Vacationeers and it follows a few desperate documentarians as they try to cash in on the story of a serial killer that's murdering beautiful lady hipsters in East LA.

Performing this Friday night at Art Outside 2009 is Reggie Watts with his unique blend of musical comedy. Reggie has produced numerous broadband original comedy series for ComedyCentral.com, Superdeluxe.com, IFC.com, and Vimeo. The "Supercomedian" has performed at arts festivals across the country as well as overseas for delighted comedy and music fans alike.

This Saturday night sees Red River institution Emo's put on a different suit than it's used to, as the outdoor stage is momentarily retiring the drum kit and throwing up a single mike for a four-deep display of both nationally-known and locally-bred comedy. Headlining the show is a formidable twosome, as stand-up staple Janeane Garofalo and former SNL and Daily Show man-on-the-rise Rob Riggle lend their unique talents to the stage. That alone should be enough of a draw for any audience; throw in the locals, edgy JT Habersaat and wild man Chris Trew and, you know, something funny is bound to happen.

Our city might be heralded as the “Live Music Capital of the World” but we’ve also been enjoying a reasonable amount of comedy in Austin thanks to Fun Fun Fun Fest, ColdTowne Theater, and choice shows here and there. This Friday, we get much, much more as The Onion presents the second annual Altercation Punk Comedy Festival at Red 7. The line-up features a plethora of local underground comedians and some out of town talent as well. We caught up with festival organizer JT Habersaat earlier this week to learn more about him as well as the event.

Neil Hamburger has been derided and applauded, for several years at this point, for being the world’s best worst comedian - his is a conceptual brand of deliberately antagonistic anti-humor that relies more on performance and delivery than the quality of his jokes. And while Hamburger does set an incredibly low standard for a good portion of his material, it’s the occasional line that unexpectedly earns an honest laugh that keeps things interesting, and the audience either scratching their heads or screaming for blood. He employs devices ranging from intentionally poor timing and awful puns to a maddening, near constant clearing of his throat, which makes a typical Hamburger gig excruciating to sit through if you’re not in on the joke (and some would argue, even if you are).

Laid-back, absurdist stoner comedy may appear to have reached its apex during Mitch Hedberg's all-to-brief tenure on this planet, but that doesn't mean that there aren't still trailblazers out there working in the medium. While Daily Show contributor Demetri Martin has recently scored a TV show where he showcases his approach, Chicago's Hannibal Buress is still out working the clubs, bringing weird-ass jokes constructed on premises that just shouldn't work to audiences every night, and twice on weekends.

Buress, who comes with endorsements from Comedy Central ("Great, original material") and Time Out Chicago (their "Funniest Person in Chicago" winner), offers audiences the chance to follow a train of thought well past its logical conclusion. A fully representative bit laments the obliviousness of pigeons at bus stops ("you're not waiting for the bus, because you can fly") spins into commentary on the probable reaction of the media were he to act on his impulses ("black dudes are kicking pigeons!") before trying to determine what would make a winner at the pigeon-kicking olympics ("'Squuaaaaaaaaaw-ohhhhh!' 'That's a gold medal.'"). Fans of the "What's the deal with shoelaces?"-brand of comedy may be left scratching their heads, but the rest of us are in for one hell of a good time.

Kathy Griffin, comedienne and Emmy Award-winning star of her eponymous reality series on Bravo TV, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, returns to Austin for a one-night-only show at The Long Center on July 9. Tickets for the show range from $59 to $89, and go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. [Tickets]

How many times have you considered how awesome a movie version of your life would be? You're hilarious, your friends are crazy, you have gut-wrenching problems, and then there was that great that thing you said that one time. Seriously—it’s not just us, is it? But would people who didn’t know you find it as great as you would? Adventureland might just answer that question.

Anyone expecting a barrage of face-plant videos and dirty jokes from Saturday's South by Southwest Interactive panel "Comedy on Television and the Web" didn't find what they were after.

Pooneh Ghana caught up with comedian Demetri Martin last night at UT. In between shots, he undoubtedly talked about some very important things.

This February 14 the Alamo South Lamar is showing Annie Hall, the Academy Award-winning masterpiece that blended comedy and romance into a big soft serve chocolate vanilla swirl cone of awesomeness, and throwing in a delicious meal into the deal. It's the perfect date and all you need to do is to spring for tix.

There are a lot of regular improvised comedy shows in Austin; here's a crash course in the Hideout Theatre's Saturday-night institution, Maestro.

Befitting a theater that's home to a troupe named The Midnight Society, every Friday this month will find Coldtowne Theater asking its patrons "Are you afraid of the dark?"

It was a long hard road that brought Henry Rollins from the frontman position for the greatest hardcore band of all time ever to his present gig as a middling standup comedian. But come on, the man lived in a tool shed for longer than some people go to college so he could gargle Evian wearing a tutu and we'd probably still pay good money for the privilege.

Starting this Saturday, Start Trekkin’ brings fully-improvised “Start Trek” episodes back to Congress Avenue for an eight-week run. Meanwhile, Coldtowne Theater speaks to an issue more contemporary than intergalactic exploration: our tanking economy. With free shows and free beer. Yes, you read that right.

Seven days, six mountain-climbing fingers, five eligible bachelors, four pairs of cop sunglasses, three sets of tucked-in male genitalia, two dead Parisian crimelords and one coveted rug later, the seventh annual Out of Bounds Comedy Festival has come to an end.

Photos from Friday's "Battle of the Sexes" and Saturday's PGraph and VAROOM performances at Salvage Vanguard Theatre during the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival.

Like a comedic Russian nesting doll, but diamond-encrusted and joyfully un-PC, the members of Pimprov are champions of persona-based improv, crafting shows where the interactions between the pimp characters are as crucial as the interaction between the characters played by the pimps.

It’s understandable if the names David Razowsky, Dan O'Connor and Floyd Van Buskirk don’t mean anything to you. But know this: these guys are improv. Their resumes are long, and include time spent in Chicago, Amsterdam, Seattle and Los Angeles, the latter of which is their current base of operations.

While Omaha, Neb.’s 88improv flies under the flag of “Smart. Clean. Comedy!,” the group proves that clean comedy doesn’t have to equal lame comedy.

Dave Attell's bringing his signature hilarious jerkitude to the Paramount Theatre. Miss it only if you hate laughing.

Maria Bamford is practically her own comedic brand: She headlined the Comedians of Comedy Tour (alongside Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifianakis, and Brian Posehn), she starred in her own sitcom on SuperDeluxe! called The Maria Bamford Show, and she’s part of the all-star ensemble assembled by Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz to star in the upcoming animated series Sit Down, Shut Up. So it’s no small miracle that Ms. Bamford will grace our fine city not once but twice in the next two months: at the Cap City Comedy Club next week (July 29-30), and again on August 26 to kick off the Out of Bounds improv festival.

Come to the Midnight Special variety show at Coldtowne Theatre for Austin comedy savant Fred Bothwell, but stay for the show. Over the course of the hour, there is much to enjoy, from a gong show (which you, too, can win!), to improv, to musical goodness.

Villainy is a showcase for stories revolving around despicable characters, and in its premier show (which marked Pgraph’s 150th performance), Pgraph found one hell of a heel in King Harold, a pauper who juggled and stabbed his way to the English throne.

It has been almost eight years since the last episode of the Upright Citizens Brigade aired on Comedy Central. But beginning well before the series took to television—from its roots as an improv and sketch comedy troupe in Chicago to the opening of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatres in New York City and Los Angeles—the Upright Citizens Brigade has been in the process of constructing a comedy empire.

Aziz Ansari gets SXSW. While you know him best for his role on MTV sketch comedy show Human Giant (which also features Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer), Ansari is also a music nerd. He has a blog, writes comedy bits about music, and can't help but mock the indie scene we all partake in. For those less familiar with Ansari, here's a quick primer: "Shittiest Mixtape Boombox Blast", "Clell Tickle: Marketing Guru", "Indie Ad Exec", "Other Music"

Saturday Saturday Saturday! It's a bounty of goodness unlike anything most people of privilege (or non-privilege) have seen, seeming that it is filled not only with SXSW's usual wealth of day-funs and joys and diversities, but that it is also privy to the wonderment that is Mess With Texas 2, a noon-to-ten cornucopia of music and comedy at Waterloo Park. It's sort of like a day of Fun Fun Fun Fest plus comedy minus the price plus the knowledge that there's great stuff going on everywhere else as well. So let's get to it, and all the other great stuff going on EVERYWHERE, shall we? Mess With Texas 2 @ Waterloo Park At this event, it's almost ridiculous what a wide range of musics you'll be able to see, from electro-folk to softcore-punk to anti-pop to alterna-world to whatever-other-hyphenated-genre-you-could-possibly-fabricate. Headlining are the Kim Deal-led Breeders and late-nineties punk-stars NOFX, but they are just icing on the cake of a day that features acts as intriguing as the inimitable Islands and the ever-so-subtle Atlas Sound. And, take a deep breath, because also lining up on one of the three stages is rise-from-the-ashes-via-Juno story Kimya Dawson, the mysteriously-spelled Wooden Shjips, hype-machine Simian Mobile Disco, quick risers Yeasayer, Monotonix, and No Age. And in case you haven't already caught them, this may be a convenient time to check out local respectables Shearwater and White Denim. Seriously, though, that's a ridiculous list already, and it's really just the beginning. And it's free, for God's sake! And there was some comedy at this Mess With Texas thing, too, right? Yeah, you can expect some laughs from the likes of Janeane Garofalo, Brian Posehn, Todd Barry, and Eugene Mirman, among a veritable slew of others. Make sure to get there before the sun goes down if you want to check that out, though, because we all know humor goes best with some sunshine.

Following tonight's performance of Troades, the Vortex is hosting a reception in honor of Sean T.C. O’Malley, composer of the show's original score. // Every Wednesday night in March, all seats for Speeding Motorcycle at Zach are $15! // The Heroes of Comedy's Improvised Shakespeare, Saturdays at 8pm at the Hideout, is so popular that they had to extend the run through the end of March. // Mortified is back!