How Much Comedy Is Too Much Comedy?
The Internet's Lack Of Gatekeepers Is Showing: At A Certain Point, What's Free For All Becomes A Free-For-All
I’m sending out my normal Monday dispatch on Wednesday night, in part, because I sent out a special edition on Sunday night, and I don’t want to overload your inbox with too many emails in succession. But also, there’s just a lot going on. A lot. It’s kind of a microcosm for the Too Much Comedy era we’re in right now. Let’s get to it!
Comedy Dynamics emerged out of New Wave Entertainment in 2007, and over the course of its first decade, became the dominant producer and distributor of stand-up comedy specials for the likes of Comedy Central, EPIX, Showtime, Netflix and Amazon. More than 200 in all and counting.
Auspiciously enough, Comedy Dynamics began filming stand-up specials in annual bunches in partnership with the Tribeca Film Festival in 2020 — that inaugural batch had to relocate from the actual TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan all the way across America to the parking lot outside the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. In 2021, they filmed 10 specials during the Tribeca fest. Last year, they filmed six specials, all headlined by RuPaul’s Drag Race stars — and on Tuesday they announced the release dates for those, all on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Vimeo, and various cable providers — Darienne Lake: Altered Boy (April 4), Peppermint: So-SIGH-ety Effects (April 18), Bebe Zahara Benet: Africa Is Not a Country (May 2), Jinkx Monsoon: Red Head Redemption (May 16), Ginger Minj: Bless Your Heart (May 30), and Monét X Change: Fist of Glory (June 13).
For 2023, Comedy Dynamics has cut out the Tribeca middlemen, putting on their own “comedy festival” with 18 new specials filming over five days and nights starting Wednesday in North Hollywood at The El Portal Theatre. Billed as “Stars of Tomorrow,” be on the lookout for new specials from Samantha Ruddy, Billy Sorrells, Kevin James Thornton, Cara Connors, Subhah Agarwal, Hank Chen, Jose Velasquez, Malik Bazille, Rachel Scanlon, Kim McVicar, Sarah Hester Ross, Nicole Burch, Mary Basmadjian, Leah Rudick, Laurie Kilmartin, Sierra Katow, Big Mickey Tha Comedian and Kylie Brakeman. All before the end of 2023.
On Monday, Just For Laughs and Netflix announced a deal to film and distribute three French-speaking Canadian comedy specials, the first of which will film in 2023. From Tara Woodbury, Director, Content - Canada, Netflix: “Quebec has incredible stand-up voices for the world to discover. We're looking forward to deepening our relationship with Just For Laughs after partnering on Math Duff's hilarious special last year.”
That’s in addition to the 18 new 10-minute specials that Iliza Shlesinger has shepherded into the world this week through 800 Pound Gorilla Media — they’re available for sale in three individual six-pack episodes or as one full bundle now, with an eventual YouTube release at the end of April.
And all of that is on top of at least 150 — yes, you read that statistic correctly — at least 150 new comedy specials that came out in just the first three months of 2023.
UPDATE: But wait, there’s more! Dry Bar has released AT LEAST another 20 new half-hours that are so far exclusive to their platform/app. Do we count those, too???
You can check out the full list here in my special bulletin I posted on Sunday.
Of those 150 (I might be missing even more, of course), they break down by where they premiered as follows:
Netflix: 9
Moment: 5
HBO/HBO Max: 3
Amazon Originals: 3
Peacock: 1
Showtime: 1
FOX Nation: 1
Locals Only: 1
Amazon distribution (rent/purchase): 21 (three of those via Comedy Dynamics)
YouTube through a partner channel: 36
YouTube self-released: 68
Self-released via personal website: 1
April Fool’s Day brought us a new Louis C.K. special for sale on his website, as well as a Roast of Bert Kreischer courtesy of Whitney Cummings, only on OnlyFans.
Are we really looking at a 2023 calendar year with SIX HUNDRED COMEDY SPECIALS?!? At this pace, maybe, but maybe even more? Who knows when this will end, because the cost of filming and releasing video footage has lost all sense of prohibitiveness, allowing anyone and everyone to call their material a “comedy special” and share it with the entire world. Whether or not anyone’s watching is another story. If you’re not a household name, and you don’t have any TV credits to show for yourself, yet you’re self-releasing your special, then your odds of going viral on YouTube, even with a hit TikTok or Reels clip, are only getting longer as the choices and the algorithms become more overwhelming.
As John Oliver would say, “And now, this…”
R.I.P. Brian Bradley
Comedian and actor Brian Bradley died Friday. He was 68. Bradley enjoyed his moment of Seinfeld fame portraying Jerry’s “butler” in the fictional pilot of the show about nothing within the “show about nothing” that Jerry and George sold to NBC.
Born Oct. 19, 1954 outside Philly, Bradley’s family moved to Florida when he was 3. After graduating from the University of Florida, he moved to Los Angeles just in time the comedy boom, where he fell in with The Comedy Store Players, improvising with the likes of Robin Williams and a young Jim Carrey. Bradley’s early TV credits included A&E’s Comedy On The Road and Showtime’s Comedy Club Network. In an interview with Les McCurdy onstage at McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre in Sarasota in 2012, Bradley said he almost got cast twice on SNL, got beat out by Bruce Willis for Moonlighting, got Whose Line Is It Anyway? only to get fired. Bradley also featured in the infamous Lookwell pilot, the would-be sitcom from Robert Smigel and Conan O’Brien starring Adam West. Bradley did make it on Broadway, for four years playing Vince Fontaine in the 1994 Broadway revival of Grease. After that, he was back in Orlando, spending eight years with the improv troupe at Disney World’s Comedy Warehouse before the Pleasure Island venue closed in 2008. After that, he spent years performing on the open seas with Holland America.
Bradley’s bio on Facebook when he died? “I'm a standup comic....working clubs, cruise ships, and corporate gig. It's a fun life. Best job: the four years I spent on Broadway in Grease. Favorite thing to do: work in my yard, and hang with my dogs.”
R.I.P. Mark Russell
Mark Russell, the piano-playing political satirist popular with PBS for three decades, died March 30 at his home in Washington, D.C. Russell was 90.
Often standing behind his star-spangled piano and almost always in a bow tie in his later years, Russell performed on PBS from 1975 to 2004. In those early years, he also reached millions more viewers via the CBS series The Starland Vocal Band Show in 1977, and from 1979-1984 on NBC’s Real People. Russell retired in 2016. He had filmed 100 specials?! Enjoy this tribute to his prolific output from Buffalo Toronto Public Media.
R.I.P. Paul O’Grady
Paul O’Grady, who broke out in British comedy with his drag character Lady Savage, and later hosted several chat shows and game shows in the UK under his own name, died unexpectedly on March 28. He was 67.
O’Grady had only just resumed playing Miss Hannigan in a touring production of “Annie,” which played Edinburgh the week before his death.
Nominated for the Edinburgh Fringe’s top prize in 1992, O’Grady as Savage hosted The Big Breakfast (1995–1996), Blankety Blank (1997–2002), and Lily Live! (2000–2001); then as O’Grady, presented The Paul O'Grady Show and The New Paul O’Grady Show (2004-2009), late-night’s Paul O'Grady Live (2010–2011), BBC Radio 2's Paul O'Grady on the Wireless (2009–2022). His most recent and long-running passion project, Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs (2012–2023) will begin airing its final season in tribute to O’Grady later this month.
Industry News and Notes
Perhaps the biggest comedy news headline of the past week involved Netflix’s sacking of Lisa Nishimura, who had worked at Netflix since its DVD-by-mail days in 2007, and built the foundation for the streaming giant’s eventual domination of stand-up comedy (and buzzy bingeworthy documentaries). She had left her comedy duties behind in 2019 to take the title of vice president of independent film and documentary features, until now.
What else is new?
Amazon Prime keeps expanding its LOL: Last One Laughing franchise, with Trevor Noah set to host the South African edition of the all-star comedian competition, and Graham Norton hosting the Irish edition. Both series to premiere in 2024.
The Great American Joke Off with Dulcé Sloan premiered Friday night on The CW. “Each episode pitches six stand-up comedians into a celebration of wisecracks and one liners where the rounds go quickly, but the laughter never lets up.” It’s produced by folks from the show it’s paired with on Fridays, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, but it’s more like at Midnight mixed with a British weekly panel show.
Ali Wong is getting another chance to star in her own animated Netflix series, as the streaming giant ordered Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld. Wong is EP’ing with Aron Eli Coleite and showrunner Echo Wu, with a voice cast including Bowen Yang, Lori Tan Chinn, Lucy Liu, Jimmy O. Yang, Sheng Wang, and Woosung Kim. Wong’s title character is “a Chinese-American teen living in a small Texas town, who finds out a demon king is hunting her for the supernatural powers she’s been working her whole life to repress.”
David Alan Grier will star alongside Wendy McLendon-Covey in NBC pilot St. Denis Medical.
Last Week’s Specials
New on Netflix
Mae Martin: SAP (my review)
New on LouisCK.com
New on OnlyFans
Whitney Cummings Presents: The Roast of Bert Kreischer
New on YouTube
Mort Burke: Spiritually Filthy (via 800 Pound Gorilla Media)
Gareth Waugh: Doozy SCOTLAND
Zack Hammond: Welfare In Disguise (via Four by Three)
Kyle Kinane: Shocks & Struts (via 800 Pound Gorilla Media)
Also Randy Feltface re-releasing Smug Druggles on his channel, initially released via Helium Comedy Studios in 2022; and Matt Rife re-releasing Matthew Steven Rife on his channel, initially released on Moment.
New on Amazon (for rent/purchase)
THIS WEEK: 16
THIS MONTH (APRIL): 3
Running total for 2023: 153 comedy specials!
Late-Night Roundup
Fun Things To Do In NYC
This past weekend’s show(s) I plugged in The New York Times: Chris Gethard recorded his newest one-man show, “A Father & The Sun” (which I reviewed at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe), last weekend at the Minetta Lane Theater for Audible. Keep your ears perked for that! You might still have time to get in on Gethard’s next big thing in May when he hosts Beautiful/CONonymous at The Bell House in Brooklyn.
Would you like to promote your comedy show or album or special or whatnot on this newsletter???
You can plug your projects in the comments if you’re a PAID SUBSCRIBER of Piffany! Or, if you’d rather have me include your project in the body of the weekly From The Comic’s Comic roundup, please let me know and we can work out the details.
Thanks for reading!