Bleav in The Comedy Bureau Field Report

Fresh off their win of Top of the Fringe at this most recent Hollywood Fringe Festival , the amazing Edib Farhan is already busy with a sequel to their award winning show, Syrian Soap , eager to create a trilogy of profound clown/solo shows. This week's TCB Field Report follows Edib's long sojourn from activist to performance artist to stand-up to clown to festival winner and beyond. Follow Edib @...

Hot off the tail from Hollywood Fringe, Elysian's annual cavalcade of daring new work in Spaghetti Festival is just around the corner and we get a preview of a delicious bit of what's on the menu come July 15th when the fest starts. Elysian AD Jacquelyn Landgraf as well as Spaghetti Festers Brooke Sciacca , Lina Green , Hunter Sailing , Isabella Escalante , Kate Frydman , Adam Smith , Skarlett Red...

With all the things that The John F. Kennedy for the Performing Arts has had to endure this year under the 2nd Trump Administration, one might be surprised to find that there's a satirical, topical late night variety show that was built and blossomed from within. This week's TCB Field Report follows Amelia Cameron, the executive producer of Unofficial Late Night , the very grassroots comedy variet...

While there is a spotlight on clown, especially in LA, these days, one ought to know that this daring comedic work isn't a new phenomenon. With that in mind, we wax all things clown and beyond, from the past to the future, in front or behind it, with legend John Gilkey , founder of The Idiot Workshop , a cornerstone in LA's effervescent clown scene on this week's TCB Field Report. Follow The Idiot...

While the many functions and purposes of comedy will be up for debate, its ability and capacity for healing is pretty undisputed. Squarely in that healing corner is multi-disciplinary comedian and artist Greg Barris who has gone so far as to make a very enjoyable and accessible-in-almost-every-way, pocket book for "deep healing" called DEEP HEALING // A BOOK OF HEALINGS . We talk all abo...

Geri Courtney-Austein has done so many things in so many different lanes in LA comedy between sketch, improv, and clown (oh, and podcasting and filmmaking) and even combining those all into a live variety show for charity that being at the Cannes Film Festival for a short she made seems to be timing in Hollywood working out for once. We chit chat Geri up about this wild journey and what it took to...

Coming fresh off of a sold out Netflix Is a Joke. Fest performance of How Being Black & Gay Made Me Better Than You! , the amazing (the name of the show is on point, FYI) Dewayne Perkins gives us the ins and outs of developing his show as well as the greater hopes and dreams for it (including it being seen by the whole world) on this week's TCB Field Report. Follow Dewayne @ dewayneperkins on...

When doing the alchemy of taking heartbreak and turning it into comedy, it often manifests as stand-up or a short film. Doing an entire solo musical is a whole other incredibly ambitious endeavor and one Sydney Kane has found her way to doing just that with Wife Material, set to take stage at The Roxy later this month. Sydney traces her steps for us going from embarking on the biggest and most per...

As the volume of comedy specials released increases at an exponential rate, one really must go against the grain to stand out. Chicago's own Maggie Winters took that to heart with her very comedy special, which is a recorded edition of her solo show, Marguerite , handpicked by UCB and Abso Lutely. Winters shares her process behind wanting to something truly different from the crowd on her very fir...

Taking a cue from San Diego's biggest annual happening, Comic-Con, Chris Colthurst is paving a way in similar fashion for all things celebrating and enlightening in the art form of theatrical improvisation by founding ImprovCon . We talk to Chris all about how much and how in-depth the improv will be in this convention (which even includes dramatic improv). Follow all things ImprovCon @improvcon o...

Believe it or not, NYC is about to add to its leading comedy club per capita stats with its newest spot, The Greenpoint Comedy Club . We get into the nitty gritty and the joy and everything in between with opening a new comedy club in one comedy's undisputed cultural centers with founder and owner, Jeremy Pinsly on this week's TCB Field Report. Follow The Greenpoint Comedy Club @ greenpointcomedyc...

Many of you are constantly pondering what's mutating in the Austin comedy scene, but not only are there plenty of other ever evolving comedy scenes around the country including an English language one in Barcelona, Spain. We chat with Nikolai Phalen who transplanted himself to Barcelona to thrive on his own terms and create the most daring show he could possibly imagine, Fever Dream TV , all on th...

Jackie Kashian has long been and continues to be one of our absolute favorite comedians working today. Even in such dire, seemingly hopeless times, her brand new hour special, Alter-Kashian , much of which has to do with a very timely rage, is a much needed and very effective salve. We catch up with Jackie and the arrival of her latest and greatest on this week's TCB Field Report. Follow Jackie @j...

Oft these days, the question, "How do you do comedy in times like these?", gets asked into the wind only to go nowhere. Yet, comedy persists and we'd highlight Chandler Dean and his beautifully subversive comedy game show, Abolish Everything! , arrives as the perfect satirical humor for this current moment. We chat with Dean all about the inception, development, and ethos of his ruthless...

Taking even part of the reins to a long-standing comedy institution such as The Upright Citizens Brigade can be a tall order and then some. Thankfully, comedy industry veteran, one Rachel Olson has stepped in as Executive Director of UCB LA and is a crucial part of UCB expanding its reach and scope. We have a nice, long chat about how she has hit the ground running, what she is looking for in come...

Natasha Mercado started off 2026 with a bang by putting on very first festival, Soft Clown Fest, a one-day, full throttle celebration of "soft clown", Mercado's own particular movement within the clowning discipline of comedy. Natasha takes us on a wondrous long walk through the winding roads of clown, both past and present as well as LA and beyond and how soft clown fits into it on this...

When you're someone like the brilliant Mark Vigeant , the road in comedy can be very winding and circuitous, especially for the fact that he's setting to break new ground and push boundaries in the art form of comedy. This week's TCB Field Report has an in-depth conversation with Mark in the middle of him about to release his debut special on Dropout, then, simultaneously, touring and developing t...

We kick off 2026 at The Comedy Bureau Field Report by giving a big ol' peel back of the curtain to show you what goes into making our 100 Best Things in Comedy We Were Witness To in No Particular Order list (and year end comedy lists in general). Our very own Jake Kroeger breaks down the methods to his madness and why he puts what is some form of 10,000 hours into making the list itself. Follow Ja...

When divisiveness is the order of the day, some of the best bridges are the most personal stories that highlight the things all humanity has in common (which is almost always more than we think) no matter who is telling said story or what its original intentions were for. With that in mind, we have a frank, in-depth discussion about Ethan Stanislawski 's acclaimed solo show about his Jewish identi...

Andy Sandford 's philosophy of trimming all the fat from all his comedy has served him well in all his years in the art form and did him especially proud with his latest special, &y S&ford, freshly released. We chat with him all about the craft as well as relocating and building his latest special in and around Atlanta. Follow Andy @ andy.sandford & watch &y S&ford right here ....

There was so much innocence and purity to those 2005 days of YouTube, but, then again, none of it was monetized. With that in mind, this week's TCB Field Report has the star of the brand span new indie comedy Skit , Jamie Linn Watson , join in on a chat about how the DNA of making Internet comedy has forever changed and done so greatly from the early aughts (incidentally, Skit is a satirical celeb...

The Spaghetti Festival @ The Elysian represents a wholly rejuvenating spark of imagination and creativity as it puts up never-before-seen, never-before-produced works from some of the most original voices in and around comedy in LA. For this week's TCB Field Report, we get into the all the many works and workings of the festival with Elysian Artistic Director Jacquelyn Landgraf as well as Spaghett...

The popularity of the corner of comedy that is clown continues to burgeon, especially in LA. In that growth, there is a push for bringing clown to more than just niche audiences, namely children. One, R.M. Aranda is one such clown that aims to making a clown show that bucks the trend of the very adult ensemble and solo performances that have gotten so much notoriety and offer up something to be tr...

The coming-of-age of comedy will forever be a staple of comedy film and television as it both continues to resonate with audiences across the generations and also, well, time only goes one direction as far as we experience it. With that in mind, American High has carefully built an empire around feature length comedies that focus in on this very popular niche and have done so well that they've ass...

With so many specials and hours of comedy already in existence and dozens of them getting put out every month, how could you possibly turn the form on its head? Well, we found out exactly how when we talked to the amazing, description-defying Joey Greer and he's wholly unique and unprecedented special, Teeny Tiny, freshly served on YouTube, and how it turns every trope of a comedy special inside o...