Among the many time-saving ideas instituted last night by Gil Cates was, it seems, a horrific compression of the tribute to Johnny Carson. Normally those montages are exceptionally well-done, mixing slow-mo, black and white,color, stills, sound clips, silent clips, on a music bed, etc. The end result is usually enough to bring watchers to tears. Not so with the Carson tribute. It was way too short, the clips were rushed, it wasn't very artfully assembled. A damn shame, considering all that Carson meant to the Academy and all he meant to television viewers over the past 40 years.

The entire broadcast seemed rushed. The time-saving measures, designed to bring the show to an end at a decent hour, oddly had the overall effect of making the whole affair seem... emptier than in the past! How ever did they manage that?

It's the latest Observational Humor column from Adam Gropman! Live free or diet, says Gropman:

I don't hate everything about the Atkins Diet. I just need some balance. I enjoy snacking on a large bag of pork rinds, a wheel of gouda and a summer sausage. I just need to have my garlic bagel, stir fried rice and stack of pancakes mixed in there somewhere. I believe it's important to draw equally from all the unhealthy food groups.

Eat... er, read the entire column!

Special material written by:

Chris Rock
Lance Crouther (You'll remember him as one of the members of the Mary Wong Trio comedy troupe out of Boston)
Nick DiPaolo
Richard Jeni
Mario Joyner
Carol Leifer
Aoi LeRoi
Jon Mccks
Chuck Martin
Bill Scheft
Frnk Sebastiano
Chuck Sklar
Jrff Stilson
Richrad Vos

We missed the first segment or two, but Rock was neither an edgy adjunct to the procedure nor was he much of a presence during the broadcast. And all the nitwits who fretted (or who said that anyone else might be fretting) over whether Rock might say anything profane during the broadcast were dithering fools who were had by the Academy and by the publicists for ABC. Each and every one of the pre-Oscar articles which focused on Rock demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of how comics operate and just how precise they are when it comes to language, context and decorum. Rock would have no sooner said anything "off-color" during tonight's broadcast than any other host. His training as a standup comic and his savvy as a major electronic media celebrity means that he knew exactly where those line were and he knew exactly how to sneak up on them and no go over them.

If anything, Rock erred on the side of safety. If we were to bet on his eventual fate, we'd bet that he'll not be back again next year... or in any other year. The Academy got a ton of ink out of the hiring. Rock's performance will not be one of those that is talked about for years. A win for the Academy. No major gaffes. Nothing to write home about, either.

We were quoted in an article in the Long Beach Telegram (which we were led to believe would appear in the Los Angeles Daily News... anyone out there have access to a LADN news box?) as saying:

Similarly, McKim doesn't expect Rock to tread the razor's -- and censors' -- edge and suspects that the spark-generating comments in Entertainment Weekly were probably a publicity-generating plot hatched by Rock and the academy.

What kind of jokes would McKim steer Rock toward if he had the comedian's ear?

"I'd say, 'Go and hire yourself the best writers you can and write Oscars-specific material, particularly pertaining to the films that were nominated or the films that were in the news in 2004,'" says McKim. "And I believe that's what he has done. He's smart in that regard. You don't get as far as he's gotten as fast as he has without busting your hump."

We also said that Rock didn't get as far as he did as quickly as he did by being stupid. On the contrary, Rock knows exactly what's at stake.

And, while we have never really been enamored of David Bianculli's analysis of television (being familiar with his writing because he wrote for a Philadelphia daily for years before ascending to the Daily News in New York), we must applaud him for nailing the rest of the Chicken Little press for the hysterical coverage of the impending Rock inferno:

Since it was announced that Chris Rock would host the Oscars for the first time tonight at 8:30 on ABC, there has been a lot of concern the comedian will lace his jokes with the types of obscenities he uses in his standup act - and thus give the network's delayed-broadcast bleeper a workout, and the FCC plenty to fuss about afterward.

That's bleeping ridiculous.

Rock is not an idiot. He knows the difference between playing for a few million paying customers on HBO and appearing on a commercial broadcast network for one of the year's largest national and global TV audiences. He's eminently capable of self-censoring the dirty words you can't say on television. He has attitude, not Tourette's syndrome.

Actually, Rock is so far from an idiot that the people worried about his profanities should be more concerned about his profundities. If Rock is likely to outrage, it won't be because he pushes the envelope. It'll be because he pulls no punches.

Hmmm... sounds vaguely familiar. Who's your finest comedy analysts? SHECKYmagazine.com, that's who.

Note, in one of the smaller signs below, the 1st Taste restaurant. ("Meet me at the 1st Taste. It's in the Cum Park." That is one date that's over before it starts!) Would you want your kid's little league team to be sponsored by Cum Park Plaza? Sorta makes Chico's Bail Bonds seem tame by comparison. And, on the other side of the parking lot is the Cum Park Laundry, right next to Dubey's Pet World. Welcome to the zany world of Burlington, NC!

In a piece entitled "The William F-ing Buckley of stand-up," John Swansburg, writing for Slate, says:

"I can play the Apollo, and I could play the Senate," Rock bragged to Charlie Rose last year. "In the same day. And have great shows at both."

Sure, we've pointed out to anyone with ears that Rock's more right of center than everyone thinks. (Even getting quoted saying as much in a couple of articles on Rock in major dailies.) But no one will believe it (or hear it!) until it's in Slate! To bolster his point, Swansburg cites a chunk of a Rock screed from an old HBO special:

"If a kid calls his grandma 'mama' and his mama 'Pam,' he's going to jail," Rock explains. To all the women who leave their kids at home so they can pop some bubbly at the club, Rock has this advice: "Go take care of those kids before they rob me in 10 years.

Interesting article.

We'll be watching the Oscarcast... or at least time-shifting it. We expect that Rock will acquit himself nicely. He didn't get this far this fast by playing it safely... nor did he get this far without being very shrewd. We still don't think his hosting performance will come close to that of David Letterman's.

From a Christian Science Monitor article:

KHOST, AFGHANISTAN-- Mubariz Bidar would give Robin Williams a run for his money. He's an Afghan comic who has this city-- once ruled by severe Taliban-- howling at their former oppressors.

Shortly before 9/11, days before, probably on the first or second of September, we put up an item about how the Taliban were bulldozing discos in Afghanistan on our Like We Care page. (The title, as we recall, was something like, "Hey, Mr. Taliban, Tally me bananas...") After the attacks, we took it down immediately, lest anyone think that it was SHECKYmagazine that provoked the wrath of the al Quaeda. (Not really, but we still took it down.)

Even when in power, the Taliban were the butt of jokes - behind closed doors-- that targeted everything from their spot checks for shaved armpits (a rule in Islam) to the radio call-in show where people dedicated songs by mullahs (minus the music, of course). Like others, Afghans have used humor to channel dissent, avoid aggression, and let people separate themselves from the ruling group, experts say.

From youth using humor to cope with-- and eventually bring down-- Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, to comedian Jay Leno's post 9/11 monologues of Osama bin Laden jokes, comedy is gaining legitimacy as a post-conflict healer.

Fascinating story, worth the whole ten minutes or so it might take to go and read it. And it certainly puts things in perspective.

But after the Soviet invasion of 1979, actors slipped out of the country and comedy declined. During the factional fighting in the early 1990s, mujahideen literally blew the roof off the once-stately theater that used to show Molière and Chekhov adaptations. And when the Taliban arrived in 1996, comedy came to a standstill.

Now, with more than $8 billion worth of reconstruction aid estimated to flow into the country during the next 3 years, comedy is finding its footing once again.

Funny... comedy came to a standstill here in America at roughly the same time. Of course, it was for radically different reasons.

Tommy James hipped us to an an item in the Aspen Times saying that resort owners in the mountaintop Denver town are a little miffed that HBO descends, Baby Huey-like, upon the berg for their annual wingding, filling the hotels, buying plenty of pricey bottles of wine and ringing up giant meal tabs on studio accounts, but they don't do any skiing.

"As it is now, they displace people who want to come to ski," Perry said. "We want to talk to HBO and see if we can convince them to do that. I don't know how successful we'll be."

This year, the Feb. 9-13 festival overlapped with Mardi Gras - a popular travel time for guests from South America and Latin America, he said. It will bump up against Mardi Gras again next year if the festival takes place at the start of March, Perry noted.

Tommy says that, since the Fest is scheduled to coincide with pilot season, the powers that be are loath to change the date. James opines that they'd sooner change it to another resort. (We brought to your attention last week an item that said the folks at HBO are contemplating a second Fest, in Las Vegas, in November, maybe. Hmmm... could it be that the whole idea of a change got garbled and that HBO doesn't plan a second fest at all-- just a change of venue to... drumroll, please...LAS VEGAS, BABY!

Ooooh! Would that be spectacular, or what? Makes perfect sense, really. They could have asked us and we would have told them to do it.

While we're not a huge fan of TV critic Matt Roush's prose, the tribute that TV Guide ran in their Feb. 13-19 issue was spectacular just for the illustrations. Johnny (and his wives) graced the cover of the tiny weekly many times over the years and the Phillippe Halsman portrait of him on the front cover from 1966 is practically suitable for framing. One sad thing, perhaps the saddest thing we've heard out of all the sentiments we've heard since his death was in the sidebar to the tribute, "Don Rickles Remembers Johnny."

After he retired, you didn't see him around much. The sad part is I just moved near him and from my house, you can look over to his tennis court. I planned to put him on and say, "Do you want to come over and see a big mansion?" I never got that chance.

Is there anything sadder than a comic who had a gag all prepared for the next time he might see his friend... and he never gets to deliver it?

While gigging in Richmond a coupla weeks ago, we picked up the complimentary Richmond Guide, stacks of which grace all the area hotel rooms. In an article entitled "Tales of a Concierge" by Joan Tupponce, Marriott Hotel concierge Rudy White holds forth on the many odd requests he gets from guests. And, there on the third page of the article, in a pull quote is this:

When comedian/actor Jerry Lewis was in town, White had to find a full-size refrigerator for his room.

We refuse to even speculate as to why Mr. Lewis needs a full-size fridge.

Never too late for a delayed blow of one's own horn: SHECKYmagazine.com Editor Brian McKim appears on the Op-Ed page of the brand new Washington Examiner. The piece, a breezy, wiseacre screed all about how politicians should stay away from cracking jokes and how standup comics shouldn't take themselves too seriously, ran Tuesday. The Examiner is a new daily, launched a couple weeks ago by billionaire Phil Anschutz. Anschutz is in the news a lot these days as he bankrolled the recently-released "Because of Winn Dixie" and he also put the jack up for "Ray." He also owns a professional sports franchise or two as well as a chain of movie theaters. The plan is for the Examiner to go up against the stuffy old Washington Post and the Times with a free, ad-supported tab. (It's a trend, don't you know.) Stay tuned.

Courtesy of Tommy James:

WB is moving forward with a new project called Mobile Home Disasters with host Bill Engvall, per Variety. Think Extreme Makeover: Home Edition for mobile homes. Billed as a show with blue collar sensibilities, the design team and host arrive at a mobile home in need of fixing up, and in keeping with the homeowner's ideas of what is cool and what would make their home the best place on earth, the design team sets upon making those ideas come true.

They should have called it "Git 'er Done!"

We don't normally herald a personal appearance (except maybe our own!), but a mini-profile of Bob Saget in the Broward New Times, to promote his appearance at the Lauderdale Improv through Sunday, caught our attention.

Those of us with a clue already know that Saget's standup act is a bit of a shocker to the goody two-shoes crowd -- almost as staggering as his cameo in the 1998 stoner film Half Baked, which put to bed the myth of his nicey-nice image in just one sentence: quot;I used to suck dick for coke."

If you've never seen Saget live, he's fun to watch. The male half of the staff here recalls that, back in 1982, when he found out that the Comedy Works open mikers were allowed to catch the weekend shows for free (standing up in the balcony), the first headliner he was priveleged to see was Saget. Watched all four shows that weekend. Was chanelling Saget for two weeks after that. Saget lived for a time in the Philly area and graduated from Temple University, so his appearances at the Works were an event... even back then.

Although he wasn't a comedian, Mark Drucker was familiar to many of the comedians who lived in or passed through Philadelphia at the peak of that city's comedy scene. For much of the 80s, Drucker read the news on DeBella's Morning Zoo show. DeBella hosted Friday nights at the Comedy Factory Outlet and many of the comedians appearing there guested on the show, usually on Thursday or Friday morning. Drucker died Wednesday after a battle with cancer.

In the mid-'90s, he co-hosted and produced comedian David Brenner's syndicated radio talk show. They became friends and later played golf together.

He also filled in for Dick Cavett on a syndicated talk program.

Drucker graduated from City University of New York in 1978, and was immediately hired by Howard Stern. The future "shock jock" was then program director of a soft-rock station in Westchester County. He later worked for WLIR-FM on Long Island, N.Y., and after arriving in Philadelphia, at WDRE and WWDB before going on DeBella's show.

Read the entire article here.

We got an email in which a readers asks: "Can an amateur 'sell out'?" We always thought that the concept of selling out was an artificial construct. Something contrived by folks who can't sell out but dearly wish to. But it's far, far less than that. Anyway, our emailer was in a contest... let's let him tell it:

This weekend I participated in the first round of the All Comedy Radio
Comedy Competition in Kansas City held at a local cocktail lounge. I had my set all planned out. It was the perfect balance of dick and fart jokes that do well at our local comedy club. Five minutes before the competition was to start, we were informed that there was some guy's 50th birthday party going on in the lounge. There would be kids and grandparents in the crowd and the owners of the club wanted us to keep it clean. Spotless. Dickless. The contestants all got together to discuss our strategy and we decided to do the jokes we planned.

The batting order was handed out and I was to be the first on stage. As 'Roger' the 80 year-old magician (hired by the birthday boy) finished his act, I panicked. In my head I quicky erased questionable jokes from my set list. I went on a fumbled through a weak, 5-minute PG-13ish set.

The rest of the comics did the jokes they planned. F-Bombs, dicks, you name it. As I watched my friend go through his NC-17 set, a overheard a lady complaining to the owners, "How much longer will this go on?"

After the show, the audience applauded for who they thought should progress to the next round. I made through. But, did I 'sell out'? Should I have done my jokes as planned?

Congratulations! You achieved what you set out to achieve. Sure, you did it by accident, but you did it. As for this notion of "selling out," this is ridiculous. I am not sure that the phrase or the concept has any real meaning. We suspect that the only reason you are having any qualms about your choice is that you have been branded as some sort of weasel by your colleagues for making the choice you made. This, of course, would make them weasels and not you. Think back-- were they up there on the stage with you? Were they committed to going through the crowd during your filthy set for the purpose of minimizing any disharmony caused by your dick jokes? I didn't think so. It was you up there and you had to consider yourself first.

Sell out? We'll ask you this: Did you get into standup to make people laugh or to make money? Before you answer this, be advised that you don't have to make the choice. And know that making money at making people laugh doesn't make you less of a comic. And know also that doing comedy for free doesn't make you more of a comic.

We can argue whether or not the owner or the contest organizers were thoughtless or unprofessional in planning a contest so poorly that it coincided with a 50th birthday party, but that isn't the issue here. Someone made a not-too-unreasonable request that you all clean it up and you did it.

The contestants all had four choices: Clean it up, Keep it dirty, Back out, Surrender their autonomy and do whatever it is that the mob decides is best for them. You did Number 1. They all did Number 4. (At least, that's what it sounds like from the email. If that wasn't the case, please-- no angry emails. Trust us, though, we've seen that kind of pack mentality take over in other, similar situations.)

Keep this in mind: You were in a contest. Contests are notoriously unpredictable. Anyone who enters a contest expecting logic, order and justice is a fool. Yet we enter them anyway. We also buy lottery tickets, play the occasional hand of blackjack or go for the girl who is "way out of our league." Sometimes, things actually go your way.

You inadvertently found that you have a talent for switching gears. You sized up the situation, assessed the possible impact of any of four or five choices and you cleaned it up and advanced to the next round. Seems to me that you exhibited good judgement in a situation that, in abstract terms, may not be all that different from any one of a number of situations that you might encounter in the not-too-distant future, should you decide to do comedy for money (and, in so doing, choose to make that money, in part or in total, by doing one-nighters, private parties, corporate gigs, colleges or cruises).

We were told that the semi-finals would be at a later time and our material could be more adult oriented. Some of my best jokes have an adult theme. But, do I stick with 'clean' and appeal to everyone knowing the material may be average? How do I go for the win? Surely, you've been in this situation.

Congratulations, Grasshopper-- You have asked the unanswerable question. We believe it's what the ZB's call a "koan!"

Seriously, though, logic is handy here: Do what you do best. Unless, of course. there are restrictions (reasonable or unreasonable). Only appeal to everyone if "everyone" is determining your fate at the moment (Are they judging by applause?) If not, is the local DJ determining the winner? If it's the DJ, find out if he digs dirty stuff. If he's the DJ at the local Christian rock station, use caution. See how this works? The more knowledge you have, the more informed decision you can make. One thing you really shouldn't do is base your decision solely on a consensus arrived at by the other contestants. You can certainly solicit their opinions, but give them the proper weight.

Is any of this making sense? We hope so. We've been in a few contests. We've also turned down many. We've been pretty consistent with our stand on entering contests. Until now, though, we haven't talked much about what to do in the heat of one. Quite often, because of the high pressure of the situation, folks make bad decisions or decisions based on emotion. It's best to remain calm, empathize with everyone who has an effect on the outcome and take it from there.

Anyone else?

In our Nickelodeon Funniest Mom posting, we left out the URL for Regina Smith's website. How unlike us. Regina, you will recall, hosted the whole affair.


SHECKYmagazine.com editor BRIAN MCKIM (left) takes self-portrait alongside comic extraordinaire DAN WILSON at Wisecrackers in Allentown, PA, Saturday evening. Note: That is not a ceremonial Aztec headdress on Wilson's head, merely an optical illusion caused by the capture of some of the Ramada's 70s vintage decor in the photo.

Wilson reminded us that McKim was responsible for him getting his very first official road gig (back in 1984 or 1985, at Going Bananas in Philly).

After careful analysis of Wilson's act this past weekend, we concluded that he is one of the original alternative comics! Hard to categorize, always surprising, always wickedly funny! The Midget Wrestler bit, Rudy Vallee singing hip-hop, the whole spectacle is riotous.

We had a blast this past weekend-- in spite of the fact that one of us (the male half) lost most of his voice and had to resort to cheap whiskey to anesthetize the vocal chords long enough to croak his way through the two Saturday night sets, resulting in a Tim Wilson-meet-Slingblade delivery.

Pauly Shore has finally convinced someone (in this case, the folks at TBS) to buy his idea for a reality series. Hollywood Reporter says that TBS has ordered 10 episodes of Minding The Store.

In "Store," club owner Mitzi Shore allows her 37-year-old son to take control of the Comedy Store. As Shore gets to grips with running a family business his mother can't quite let go of, he also must deal with her disapproval of his dating habits-- long a subject of tabloid fodder. All the while, Shore tries to regain his footing as an actor-- even prodding his agent to get him dramatic roles.

TIVO alert! We'll keep you posted. Sure hope they resist the urge to make the comics who get on camera look like jackasses. Hmmm...

SHECKYmagazine.com editor Brian McKim:

Hunter Thompson and I shared a birthday (same day, different year, I might stress). When I got to journalism school, at Bowling Green State University in 1975, they couldn't shut up about New Journalism. Thompson was lumped in with all the rest of the New Journalists. I read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail and Hell's Angels-- if you were in journalism school in Ohio in 1975, they were practically required reading. I enjoyed them all immensely. I read Vegas at least two more times. I read Great Shark Hunt. Someone gave me a copy The Curse of Lono in 1983-- it was ghastly. I was in mourning. Thompson had lost it. I don't think anyone can argue that his writing was worth a damn after that. Occasionally, the writing had the same spark as his early work, but his stuff for ESPN.com was uniformly garbled, a self-parody. And his appearance on Letterman a few years back was difficult to watch. It dispelled any notion that his gonzo shtick was an act of some sort.

I picked up a couple of biographies of Thompson about three years ago, E. Jean Carroll's Hunter: The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson and Peter O Whitmer's When the Going Gets Weird: The Twisted Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson: A Very Unauthorized Biography. They both popped up, on two separate occasions, in thrift shops. Both books provided insight into the guy who was, briefly, a hero of mine. He was one jammed up individual. So, I wasn't surprised when I saw the headline this morning. I would have been sadder if I hadn't read those two biographies. Too bad they didn't make better movies of his life than that awful Bill Murray thing and that Johnny Depp monstrosity. Neither picture dealt with him seriously. Perhaps Thompson himself didn't deal with himself seriously enough.

The Delhi Newsline is carrying an article profiling one Vir Saran Das, a 24-year-old who, while studying investment banking at Harvard a few years ago, chucked it all for standup comedy stardom.

Training in acting helped Vir with voice modulation and ridding him of stage fright. He wrote his first stand-up comedy special in his senior year which was performed to sold-out crowds of over 600 a night. And it wasn’t long before he was giving solo performances at professional comedy clubs across the States...

He's big on Indian television right now and Bollywood is calling.

Has anyone ever worked with this guy? Solo performances at professional comedy clubs across the States? We would have heard about a guy from India in his late teens, early 20s headlining in America. Unless he was doing shows just for expat Indians and four-walling venues in cities with large Indian populations. (We hear commercials on WPRB out of Princeton, during the Indian music program, for all kinds of Indian-specific entertainment-- movies mostly. It's like a whole other world! Maybe that's where he headlined. Hmmm...)

As of 6 PM this evening, the Montgomery County prosecutor said that Cosby will not face charges in the sexual assault case:

"The District Attorney finds insufficient credible and admissible evidence ... upon which any charge against Mr. Cosby could be sustained beyond a reasonable doubt," Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said in a statement.

Read the whole AP story.

Last night's Nick At Nite Search for the Funniest Mom show at Rascals in Cherry Hill, New Jersey was headlined by SHECKYmagazine editor Traci Skene and hosted by local pro Regina Smith, featured a handful of first-timers as well as local vets Mary Frances Connelly and Dena Blizzard (website). Chuck Darrow, writing for the Courier-Post (South Jersey's largest daily!):

What could be called the "mother" of all comedy talent searches came to South Jersey on Tuesday evening as Nick@Nite, Nickelodeon channel's prime-time programming entity, brought its Search For the Funniest Mom in America contest to Rascals inside the Hilton Hotel.

We're basically looking for the next "domestic goddess of comedy," said
Sal Maniaci, vice president of development and production for Nickelodeon, referring to the "hook" Roseanne Barr used during her rise to stardom in the 1980s.

Those selected in the course of the contest will convene in Manhattan on April 7 to tape a one-hour special to air May 3. Read the whole thing.


We must say that the art direction and packaging of Mary Frances Connelly's CD is quite something. It's available on her website.

A reader, Stuart McAllister, writes:

The Grammies were just a few days ago and I saw Jon Stewart won the Comedy category. I haven't seen the Daily Show cd in stores so it made me wonder who else was nominated. Do you have any idea? I know I much prefer some standup comedy to the bits that Jon does. Thanks

Well, Stuart, here are the 2005 nominees in Category 77 (Best Comedy Album-- For comedy recordings, spoken or musical):

* Come Poop With Me
Triumph The Insult Comic Dog
[Warner Bros.]

* The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents...America: A Citizen's Guide To Democracy Inaction
Jon Stewart And The Cast Of The Daily Show
[Time Warner Audiobooks]

* The Funny Thing Is...
Ellen DeGeneres
[Simon & Schuster Audio]

* Live At Carnegie Hall
David Sedaris
[Time Warner Audiobooks]

* The O'Franken Factor Factor - The Very Best Of The O'Franken Factor
Al Franken
[Artemis Records]

We took this opportunity to research and dig up the names of the winners of past comedy album awards. It it interesting to note that Shelley Berman is owed our undying gratitude for rescuing us from mediocrity-- his win in 1959 followed the very first award for a comedy album by Ross Bagdasarian, better known as Dave Seville, the man who perpetrated that hellish phenomenon known as Alvin and the Chipmunks.

2004 Jon Stewart
2003 Weird Al Yankovic
2002 Robin Williams
2001 George Carlin
2000 Geroge Carlin
1999 Chris Rock
1998 Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks
1997 Chris Rock
1996 Al Franken
1995 Jonathan Winters
1994 Sam Kinison
1993 George Carlin
1992 Peter Schickele (PDQ Bach)
1991 Peter Schickele
1990 Peter Schickele
1989 Peter Schickele
1988 Robin Williams
1987 Robin Williams
1986 Bill Cosby
1985 Whoopi Goldberg
1984 Weird Al Yankovic
1983 Eddie Murphy
1982 Richard Pryor
1981 Richard Pryor
1980 Rodney Dangerfield
1979 Robin Williams
1978 Steve Martin
1977 Steve Martin
1976 Richard Pryor
1975 Richard Pror
1974 Richard Pryor
1973 Cheech & Chong
1972 George Carlin
1971 Lily Tomlin
1970 Flip Wilson
1969 Bill Cosby
1968 Bill Cosby
1967 Bill Cosby
1966 Bill Cosby
1965 Bill Cosby
1964 Bill Cosby
1963 Allan Sherman
1962 Vaughn Meader
1961 Elaine May & Mike Nichols
1960 Bob Newhart
1959 Shelly Berman
1958 Ross Bagdasarian (The Chipmunk Song)

Tommy James sends along the URL of a Rolling Stone interview with Johnny Carson from 1979.

But everyone has a sense of humor. A lot of things that some people find funny, other people just don't find funny, so that is the problem for comedians or people who do comedy -- just trying to find some kind of common denominator if there is such a thing, or just reach as many people as you can. But it's a very hairy problem. That's why you have somebody who will say, "Gee, I think Laurel and Hardy are wonderful," and somebody else will say, "They stink, I don't understand them."

Tommy James sends along word that Backstage has a wrapup of the goings on last week in Aspen. But the real story (as far as we're concerned, and Tommy as well) is this:

HBO is in early planning for a more consumer-focused comedy festival to take place in Las Vegas in late fall, likely November. According to sources, HBO has toyed for a while with the idea of a second annual comedy extravaganza. "We are talking about a festival that is a broader-based commercial venture that would be a great extension" to the Aspen gathering, HBO chairman and CEO Chris Albrecht said.

Read the rest here.

A deluxe opportunity to quote ourselves again! On Aspen's recent effort to seek out comics who lacked management or representation:

Might this be in response to a widespread perception among those of us in the comedy biz that USCAF is a "locked game" that merely serves as a ski holiday for Hollywood fatcats (and their clients)?

Oh, yeah. You can bet that we're taking full credit for this move!

If we're to believe today's item in Variety, Chris Rock is/was in danger of being bounced as host of the upcoming Oscarcast. Rock is quoted in various outlets as saying that only gay men watch the Oscars and that giving awards for art is "idiotic." And folks are pointing out how Rock says "fuck" a lot. Golly... I guess the folks at the Academy didn't know what they were getting when they signed ol' Chris for the hosting duties, huh?! What a load of horse manure.

Of course, the timing is suspicious. The Grammy broadcast was beaten by Desparate Housewives last night. (Could any broadcast have gotten any more publicity than last night's Grammy Awards broadcast?) And this is the first Oscars since the Red beat the Blue in the Presidential Bowl. Add all that up and you have a nervous Gil Cates and a jumpy AMPAAS and a network that will do almost anything for ratings and you have the current pitiful drama.

Then, at the end of the Variety (willing accomplices in this whole sordid affair) article:

Rock's comments appeared to be in keeping with efforts by the Academy and ABC to boost TV ratings for the Feb. 27 Oscarcast.

Bingo.

Stephan Rubin, of the Houston Comedy Festival, tells us there is still time to submit tapes to the Houston Comedy Festival-- up until March 4th, we're told. See earlier posting for the website... and see the website for address/details, etc!

Inspecting our stats, we noticed that a bunch of people hit us by using the keyword "Bill Sacra." Turns out that Sacra was a comic and impressionist who died on Feb. 9 of testicular cancer. We met Sacra briefly when we took in Bill Kirchenbauer's Legends show during the SHECKYmagazine.Comics Only Reunion, back in April of 2001. Sacra was on the show as Rodney Dangerfield. Read a remembrance of Sacra here.

Houston is having a comedy festival April 3-10, 2005. How come we didn't tell you about it sooner? Yeah! How come?! (Trust us, if we had known about it before now, we would have told you about it in time to send in videotapes-- and, we seem to recall running something about this fest last year or the year before, but, if we don't have something in front of us, it's awful hard to keep track of all these affairs! Well, you know about it now!) They haven't posted the comics who will be performing in this year's edition-- they say they'll do that om March 1. For details, click on over to their website.

Just got an email from Boston, publicizing an upcoming gathering at Ed Regal's Emerald Isle in Dorchester, just south of Boston:

Hello all! The first ever Comix Meet & Greet will take place on February 20th 5:30PM @ The Emerald Isle in Dorchester. This is simply a comics social event to exchange ideas, thoughts, contact info, eat, get a date...whatever. Think Comedy Studio or Comedy Connection XMas party without all the dancing and noise. We have bookers and room runners coming and will introduce them individually so newer comics can have a chance to meet them, get advice or just do a lil profiling (facetime). You should bring your biz cards, head shots, tapes and or contact info just in case you can't get up.

This is a stupendous idea. Were we not gigging, we'd be there. We applaud the organizers (the senders of the email, Chris and Corey. We know that Chris is Chris Tabb... we're not clear on who Corey is!)

Comics should be gathering like this more often. It reminds us of the SHECKYmagazine Comics-Only Reunion, which we organized (if what we did can be called "organizing") a meeting of comics in Las Vegas back in April of 2001!

At the tail end was this:

...we will also be taking up a small collection and saying a prayer for our brother Kevin Knox.

Apparently, Knox is seriously ill. Check out the details here.

For the past seven years, Karel Beer has been importing comics from all over the English-speaking world to entertain folks at Paris' Hotel du Nord (regular visitors to this site read all about it long ago). Starting early next month, he'll be moving the whole affair to a venue identified in his release only as la Java. One of the last Yanks to perform at the old venue will be Tom Rhodes on March 1. Read our interview with Rhodes why don't you?

It killed Reggie White, but Bill Russel's got it. It kills five per cent of those who have it, but it's treatable.

"I've had sarcoidosis since 1983, and it has not altered or limited my lifestyle," Mac says. "No one knows where sarcoidosis comes from or where it starts, and there's no known cause for this condition that effects primarily minorities."

It primarily attacks the immune system and the lungs. It's not a good thing to have, but it's not the worst thing one can have; click here for hard info on the disease. Mac plans to make curing the disease his cause, setting up a foundation and charitable events.

Editors' note: They musta fixed everything. The headlines for all of our wonderful postings over the last 72 hours or so are now showing up on our My Yahoo! While surfing around trying to put out this particular fire, we happened upon the FeedBurner page for SHECKYmagazine.com-- click here and you'll be taken to a page that'll allow you to add us to Newsgator, My MSN or Bloglines as well as to your My Yahoo! And if you're familiar with FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, SharpReader or Shrook, you can add our content to that, too! They've also got a do-jiggy for the ol' Universal Subscription Mechanism! Sounds painful!


We see that, on our "My Yahoo!," that the module that usually contains headlines from SHECKYmagazine.com is now showing "No new messages for the last five days." This is a stinking lie!

Not sure what's going on over there in Yahoo land or in the world of XML or Feed Burner, but we've been posting stuff! So, don't believe that message and stop on by for the content you've come to know and love. (USAToday called us "Charming, sincere and helpful!")

Keely Smith has a new CD out ("Vegas '58"), so Bruce Fessier of the Palm Springs Desert Sun interviewed her. (And, it seems, he also interviewed Shecky Greene, who only recently migrated to The Springs. In addition to lots of quotes from Greene, the article is a nice snapshot of Vegas in 1958 when things were swingin', baby.

But the lounge scene wasn't quiet. The singing and the joking around would go until dawn. Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. would come in after their shows, as would colleagues such as Bobby Darin, Donald O'Connor and comic Shecky Greene. Most would get on stage and do a little schtick.

The epicenter of all this nuttiness was the Sahara Lounge, particularly the shows of Smith and Louis Prima.Read the whole thing.

Carrying on the lounge tradition in the Sahara's Casbah Lounge these days is comedian Kathleen Dunbar, whose Divas of Comedy is packing them in on Monday nights. Stop on by and tell them SHECKYmagazine sent you. (SHECKYmagazine editor Traci Skene will be on that very stage on March 21!)

Aspen starts tonight. They've wacked up some of the comics into groups, cleverly labeled A, B and C. Hit here for all the official USCAF information. Meanwhile, just know the following:

STANDUP A

Ian Edwards
Simon King
Jason Gilleam
Jessi Klein
Mike Pace


STANDUP B

Kevin Brennan
Dave Nystrom
Simply Shanell
Rick Shapiro
Nathan Trenholm


STANDUP C

Pat Dixon
Tony T. Roberts
Simon Evans
Sheryl Underwood
Rich Williams


STANDUP D

Des Bishop
Dov Davidoff
Laurie Kilmartin
Eugene Mirman
Big Jay Oakerson

Cheech and Chong are together again for the first time in... a long time. That'll be Thursday. Nice quote from Chong: "What makes us so dangerous is that we're so harmless." Does that sum it up, or what?

We're especially proud of the fact that Rich Williams, who cranked out the first Big Move columns for this very publication, is on tonight in Aspen, in Group C! Way back in 2000, Williams moved to Los Angeles and thrilled SHECKYmagazine readers to his exploits in Hollywood! See that: Write for SHECKYmagazine and... four or five years later... great things happen!

The NYT article on the latest developments in the New York Comedians Coalition has quotes from Cary Hoffman, Coalition co-founder Ted Alexandro and Gotham owner Chris Mazzilli. And insipid characterizations of standup comics by the article's author Ben Sisario:

The union, which has more than 300 members-- ranging from television stars to the piano-tie guy who asked you with a grin last weekend where you're from - is to meet on Thursday to discuss all the clubs' proposals.

The piano-tie guy?! The fucking piano-tie guy?! What is wrong with the people at the NYT? How could a reporter be so out of touch? How could an editor allow his reporter to be so out of touch?

Anyway, the goings-on in New York have been chugging on for a few weeks now. We're curioius to see how it all shakes out. We recently had a long and spirited face-to-face with a comedian who was present at the most recent Coalition pow wow. A while back we commented on the earlier NYT piece on the coalition. The coalition was alluded to in a column by one of our very own columnists. Shortly after our comments ran, we went back and forth with a coaltion member via private email. And, just the other day, we had a lengthy phone conversation with one of the owners involved in the negotiations. We have yet to digest all of this and post further comments. Maybe later this week... or next week, we'll cough up a blog ball about the whole thing. Stay tuned.

The DA with jurisdiction in this case has been on the local newscasts a lot (he's Bruce Cutler and he gets a lot of face time on the Philly newscasts) and he had been making it sound as if the whole affair would be over in a matter of minutes. With today's developments, it looks as if we might be watching re-enactments on Court TV some time in the not too distant future.

The young lady who filed the complaint has gone public and she claims to have audiotapes of conversations between her and Cosby.

Cosby's people are floating a story that the alleged victim's mother phoned up Cosby early on in the proceedings and demanded money. (Cosby's people want us to believe that the alleged victim and her family are in it for the cash.)

Cosby is on the record as saying the contact was consensual.

Zooming out even further, other folks are debating whether the imbroglio discredits Cosby's recent speeches with regard to the problems of inner-city minorities. The contention being that Cosby (who, we're to believe, has been a faithful husband up until now) automatically forfeits his moral authority due to the salacious nature of the allegations. Did anyone believe that Cosby was faithful prior to this? Regardless, did it have anything to do with the content of his recent speeches? Good question. Are we capable of separating Cliff Huxtable from Bill Cosby? Does Cosby's moral authority derive from his identity as Bill Cosby or from his faux identity as Cliff Huxtable? Or a combination of both?

Looks like it's going to trial. This has got all the earmarks of a story that lasts for a good two years, at least 18 months.

What to make of this NYT article, sent to us by Tommy James?

...Harvey Kash, and the friend, Carl Lanzisera, were doing their routine last month while waiting in line outside Nassau County's First District Court in Hempstead when one bystander, who identified himself as a lawyer, complained. Court officers, who were also not amused, clapped handcuffs on the amateur comics and charged them with disorderly conduct.

Of course, it has a happy ending, with talk show host/sartorially challenged attorney Ron Kuby repping them for free and getting them off, but the NYT's account must be leaving something out. The folks in Nassau county went as far as to convene a grand jury before deciding charges should be dropped... very odd.

Rascals Cherry Hill comedy club was the site of the most recent "What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Standup Comedy School" Seminar, conducted by SHECKYmagazine.com editors Brian McKim and Traci Skene. Special guest seminarian Alex House was also present (and took the above picture and supplied the above pooch!) as ten area comics (or aspiring comics) participated in the four-hour workshop. Thanks to all who participated! And special thanks go to Rascals manager Kris Clayton. (Not pictured: Beth Ann Corto, Steve Golasa)

For details on how you can bring the WTDTYHCS Seminar, send us an email here at the magazine!

From Saturday's Macon Telegraph, sportswriter Michael A. Lough writes:

Chris Berman's shtick on ESPN may be the most tired and outdated act on TV these days. All we need now is a weekly Shecky Greene Marathon on TV Land, and it'll be No. 2.

While we agree about the fraying of Chris Berman's shtick, we shudder at the pop cultural tone-deafness of Mr. Lough. Shecky Greene from all reports, is neither tired nor outdated. Neither has he done enough television to fill a marathon (but that, we admit, is a minor point). Sportswriters have an unusually high proportion of wise guys in their ranks. The truly funny ones make it to television or radio. (Can I get an "Ouch?!")

Goerge Szalai, writing in Hollywood Reporter, says that Montel Williams is looking to get into the funny business:

Emmy-winning daytime talk show host Montel Williams has launched a talent management firm specializing in stand-up comedy and focused on developing clients for TV and film projects.[...]

"I felt there's a need for a full-blown management firm," Williams said in an interview Friday. "We need more laughter in this world, and I have met many talented people through my work and various activities."

Read the rest here.

SHECKYmagazine.com interviewed the editor of the film The Aristocrats, standup comic Emery Emery, asking technical questions, practical questions, philosophical questions:

It was shot on three-chip, consumer-end Sony, Mini-DV cameras with no special lighting or sound. It's a true guerilla project. The guys handling the cameras ranged from (Aristocrats director Paul) Provenza and me to some dudes who had a lot of experience, to some who had absolutely no experience handling a camera.

In a previous post, we expressed skepticism about this project, theorizing that maybe the film was a hoax, that the joke that is the centerpiece of the film was concocted and that the whole affair was a brilliant goof engineered by goofster par excellence Penn Jillette. (You gotta admit, it's a pretty good theory. And we're still not abandoning it entirely.)

The film was a hit at Sundance, where it found a distributor. You're not going to be able to get away from this movie. We predict that the media interest will be quite high. Prepare for the media blitz by reading the entire interview. You read it here first. It's an exclusive. Thank us later.

We noticed it a handful of times in our travels. And often while patrons were in line to enter clubs. Excited by the prospect of seeing a live comedy show, customers, usually young males, were moved to utter the phrase "Git 'er done!" in that Southern-inflected grunt/groan that has been popularized by Larry the Cable Guy (aka Dan Whitney), who has gained notoriety via his participation in the Blue Collar Tour/Movie/TV Show. And they're doing it during the shows once in a while, too.

We were poised to comment on it on this very website when we were alerted to an open letter from Doug Stanhope to Larry on Stanhope's website. In which Stanhope implores Larry to get his legions of fans to quit yelling out the phrase during our sets.

...me and some of the other guys out there on the road have been having problems with this... ""Git Er Done" thing...

It used to be that you could use pause as a tool to enhance the timing and effectiveness of a bit. Now it's the moment Gavin has been waiting for all week - to bellow out all the knowledge that you've impregnated him with-- "Git Er Done!"

While we admit that it's annoying, we hardly think it's up to Larry the Cable Guy to stop his fans... or to move one muscle so that we might be free from the tyranny of "Git 'er done!" This catchphrase, too, will run its course. As have all the others.

We were inspired to recall the other catchphrases that have plagued us throughout the past decade or two and we could only remember two: "...Not!" and "Yeah...that's the ticket." Both inspired by bad SNL sketches. The former being the most pervasive and the most destructive to building a comedy mood. Nothing will stop a comic's momentum faster than some little douchebag in the front row inserting a "...Not!" into that split-second of silence between the last breath of a punchline and the audience's crescendo of laughter/applause. It was truly a dark era for comedy.

Some of the other lesser-known crowd killers: "Yeah, baby!" (delivered in Mike Meyers' Austin Powers voice), and, although not a verbal interruption, the laser pointer scourge of the late-90s was disruptive. And if you don't think it was pervasive, recall that no less a superstar than Jerry Seinfeld had one trained on his chest during the taping of his "I'm Telling You For The Last Time" television special... and they left it in! (Note: The laser pointer thing has surfaced again. We've seen at least two incidents in the last six months in clubs.)

We will say that with "Git 'er done," the offenders at least seem to be having a good time and mean little or no harm. Unlike the weasels who shouted out "...Not!" (And we don't particularly like Stanhope's characterization of Larry's fans as "water-brained Velveeta cheese flag-monkeys." We say that Larry is bringing people into the clubs like nobody's business. If a few of them are, how shall we say, "irrationally exuberant," well, we have faith that, with time (and after they've been thrown out of a comedy club or two), they'll be back and they'll be shushing the loudmouths yakking on a cellphone at the next table.

According to the Just For Laughs website. The deadline for submissions for anyone who wishes to participate in the 2005 version of the Fest is the 15th of this month. Click the above link for addresses.

We got an email from a faithful reader today that was very distressing. He said that he had written us several emails and that we hadn't responded at all. This is terrible! It is also easily explained.

Because we run the WWW's most beloved magazine about standup comedy, we are rather... high profile. Which means that there are a lot of people out there who are familiar with us and the magazine... but we're not equally as familiar with them. And, as the editors and publishers of the WWW's most beloved magazine about standup, we receive a ton of mail that is spam. More spam than the average person who does not run a magazine on the internet, we would wager. Each day we'll get hundreds of emails. Hundreds! (Sometimes we'll get a couple hundred in an HOUR!)

We have tried a few different methods to plow through this emailage and still maintain our sanity, our lives and the health and well-being of our computers. One method we use downloads only the From, the Subject and the File Size of each email and leaves the actual email on the server. After reviewing each (and, by necessity, only devoting a 1/2-second or so to each piece), we then turf them right off the server, and download only the ones that we are certain are legitimate, that we recognize as coming from someone who means us no harm, which we're sure doesn't contain a virus of some sort.

Using this method saves necessary time, but the inevitable by-product is that once in a while, a legitmate email is turfed. Was the subject line was too vague? ("Hello there!" is automatically turfed. As is "Why don't you responde?" As is "SHECKYmagazine--you have been chosen!") A lot of these insidious programs that create viruses or distribute junk email can comb your website, pick out key phrases, incorporate your name or URL and fashion a legit-sounding subject line. And now they've taken to attaching legit-sounding names in the From line. (Although some are rather comical-- "Benicio O'Boyle, Mary Alice Tranh, Rolf Alvarez," like that.) So our job has become harder than ever.

Our point is this: If you are emailing us and you hope to get a response (or if you've already written us and haven't gotten a response), puh-LEEZE write back. And be very specific in the subject line... and detailed, too. We have always prided ourselves on answering ALL email. Even the nasty ones, rare though they may be. And we respond quickly, too! Ask almost anyone. We can't afford to have anyone out there grumbling to any and all that we're arrogant goons who ignore emails. It just ain't true. USA Today didn't call us "Sincere, charming and helpful" for nothing!

We stopped off at the local Burger King and saw several, beautiful, four-color posters trumpeting their Angus Steak Burger. And, at the top of the poster, next to a stylized representation of The Donald, were the words, "As seen on The Apprentice"

Great. A fast food sandwich has a more recent television credit than we do.

Hollywood Reporter reports:

David Letterman's Monday night tribute to his mentor Johnny Carson was his highest-rated show in almost two years, according to preliminary data released by Nielsen Media Research.

CBS' Late Show With David Letterman delivered a 6.0 household rating/15 share Monday night. The show featured Letterman's remarks -- and jokes secretly written for him by Carson before his Jan. 23 death -- and guests Peter Lassally, a longtime producer of NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Doc Severinsen, Carson's bandleader.

Letterman's tribute came a week later than The Tonight Show With Jay Leno because Letterman's show wasn't in production last week. Usual late-night leader Tonight Show delivered a 4.9/12 on Monday. Last week, Leno chalked up near-record ratings with his Jan. 24 Carson tribute episode, which pulled in an 11.2/26 share.

That's right, we're paraphrasing Rodney King to make a point. We found a press release for "The Clean Standup Comedy Tour: The Movie," that contains the following quotes:

" This new movie has no profanity or otherwise dirty humor, proving that comedy doesn’t have to have four-letter words to be funny."

"...no profanity, vulgarity, sexual references or innuendos, swearing or toilet humor, proving that comedy can be funny without any four-letter words."

Why so defensive, people? Why do these fellows find it necessary to tear down others in their quest to build up their product? As we're fond of saying (as we never grow tired of repeating); It's hard to do clean comedy, it's hard to do dirty comedy... It's hard to be funny.

The release continues with such ungainly phrases as, "...this unprecedented clean comedy film reestablishes the bar for comedy." and then takes a defensive tone with "There’s nothing corny or silly about it... it’s just packed with hip, fresh, relevant humor."

The release reaches it's low point with this:

"If our own children can’t watch one of our movies, then we can’t be proud of our efforts."

Twisted or what? We wouldn't let a ten-year-old watch our club sets. Nonetheless, we're extremely proud of our work. We merely acknowledge that it's just not for consumption by the little ones.

We have no problem with anyone putting product out there that goes for a G-rating. People do it all the time without all the qualifiers and the cattiness. (In fact, G-rated movies gross, on average, better than all other ratings. (Or is PG? Or G and PG combined?) Family-friendly fare does well and it is marketed unapologetically for the most part.

Has their been a precipitous slide in interest in standup because of vulgarity? Not that we're aware of. Standup is doing better than it has in a decade. Have standup concert films had trouble selling tickets? Recent movies focusing on the Kings of Comedy and the Blue Collar Comedy Tour have broken box office records.

Is this a Christian movie, made mainly for the consumption of religious people? If it is, then say so. Nobody will care if it is.

Further down in the release is this:

"The success of Mel Gibson’s "The Passion of the Christ" and television shows like CBS's "Joan of Arcadia" has caused Hollywood to sit up and take notice"

and

"Hollywood is finally embracing films like "The Clean Standup Comedy Tour" because they’re clearly so financially viable."

Of course, this is belied by the fact that, at the time of the press release, no distributor had been nailed down, nor have any deals been struck with any retailers.

(And, not to pile on, but a sensible measure of "financial viability" usually means that it's coming to a theater near you or it's available in bricks and mortar stores and not just the film's website. And, while we're not piling on, we seem to recall that the MPAA gave Mel and his pic an R-rating for graphic violence!)

Wethinks they are too defensive for their own good. Our favorite bit of snottiness is this gem:"Laugh Out Loud Productions believes that comedy doesn’t have to be dirty to be funny, and only chooses to work with comedians who share this philosophy." So there! We theorize that there HQ in a treehouse-- With a crudely drawn sign that says, "No durty comics allloud!" We bear no ill will toward the comics involved (Michael Joiner, Thor Ramsey, Carlos Oscarand Michael Jr.), we wish them luck. But why do the producers find it necessary to be so negative?

And as for their claim that theirs is "the first full-length clean standup comedy movie ever created," we might remind them that "Bill Cosby Himself (1983)" was rated PG at the time, but standards were much tighter back then. We have no doubt that Mr. Cosby's concert film would merit a G these days. And it would be financially viable and suitable for all audiences!

We received the following letter... not quite sure what to make of it.

Don't know if this qualifies as "comedy news," but thought we'd give it a shot.

We we were in the process of leaving for the airport to go to the SF Sketchfest when our historic 1964 AMC Rambler was ticketed and subsequently impounded by the Austin Police.

The Rambler was one of the "stars" of the short lived MTV Sitcom, Austin Stories. If anyone remembers the show, it also starred Austin-based (now LA Based) comedians Howard Kremer, Laura House and Brad "Chip" Pope.

Anyway, we're trying to take up a little collection to get her out of the city impound lot and relocate her to somewhere where she won't be towed.

Every little bit helps.

More details here.

Thanks!

scott & stacey
austin, tx

BTW: If you'd like to purchase the Rambler ad, it's for sale online.

From FunnyFest Big Cheese Stu Hughes:

FunnyFest Calgary Comedy Festival submission deadline is Feb 28 and a 10-minute tape is all that is needed to be considered. Visit funnyfest.com for more info.

Two more comics will have shows built around them.

Eddie Izzard is set to star in a new yet-to-be-titled comedy on FX about an Irish family living in the south. The show is from Maverick TV with the pilot written by Dmitry Lipkin.

and, in other news,

Sony Pictures Television has signed comedian Lewis Black to a development deal for a show based on his on-stage personality.

Coincidentally, Black appears on a re-run episode of Law and Order SVU tonight at 10 PM ET.

A YOUNG TV STAR IS ATTACKED AND THE EVIDENCE SUGGESTS A RADIO SHOCK JOCK WHO MAY HAVE GONE TOO FAR -- DANA DELANY AND LEWIS BLACK GUEST STAR

Blame the NBC website for the all-capped screaming. Black plays the "shock jock." Check out Black's acting chops (at least in an hourlong drama).