Search Results for: comedy

And I Should Know

Longreads Pick

During the recent and overly publicized breakdown of ­Charlie Sheen, I was repeatedly contacted by the media and asked to comment, as it was assumed that I know a thing or two about starring on a sitcom, fighting with producers, nasty divorces, public meltdowns, and bombing through a live comedytour. I have, however, never smoked crack or taken too many drugs, unless you count alcohol as a drug (I don’t). But I do know what it’s like to be seized by bipolar thoughts that make one spout wise about Tiger Blood and brag about winning when one is actually losing.

Published: May 16, 2011
Length: 14 minutes (3,532 words)

Goat Boy Rises (#HappyBirthdayBill)

Goat Boy Rises (#HappyBirthdayBill)

The Goat Boy Rises

Longreads Pick

On October 1st, 1993, the comedian Bill Hicks, after doing his twelfth gig on the David Letterman show, became the first comedy act to be censored at CBS’s Ed Sullivan Theatre, where Letterman is now in residence, and where Elvis Presley was famously censored in 1956. Presley was not allowed to be shown from the waist down. Hicks was not allowed to be shown at all. It’s not what’s in Hicks’ pants but what’s in his head that scared the CBS panjandrums.

Author: John Lahr
Source: The New Yorker
Published: Nov 1, 1993
Length: 20 minutes (5,233 words)

The Comedian’s Comedian’s Comedian

Longreads Pick

He’s a boxer, a Buddhist, a hoops junkie, and a kind of Yoda to every funny person born since 1965 (Sandler, Silverman, Apatow, Gervais, Baron Cohen…). A rare sparring session with Garry Shandling, the reclusive master of American comedy

Source: GQ
Published: Aug 1, 2010
Length: 25 minutes (6,469 words)

Something About Meryl

Longreads Pick

Since she turned 38, Meryl Streep has been waiting for her career to crater. Instead, at 60, she is more of a box-office powerhouse than ever—and coming off her indelible performance in Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia, she’s being pursued by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin this month in the romantic comedy It’s Complicated.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Jan 1, 2010
Length: 22 minutes (5,700 words)

Back in the Hall

Longreads Pick

No one made sketch comedy, that most Canadian of comic forms, like the Kids in the Hall — which makes their return to television a big deal

Source: Walrus Magazine
Published: Jan 1, 2010
Length: 34 minutes (8,713 words)