Bleav in The Comedy Bureau Field Report

Truly, one of our favorite specials of the year is Joe Zimmerman's Cult Classic , which is saying a lot considering the wide spectrum of truly enjoyable hours of stand up comedy that were released in 2023. So, we have Zimmerman on this week's TCB Field Report to get into what went into such a fantastic hour of stand-up, specifically achieving a great baby Hitler bit (when there have been so many b...

As instrumental as the hubs of LA and NYC are to comedy, smaller scenes are crucial to the art form too. Johnny Gold returns to the TCB Field Report to extoll the virtues and dissect the experience of small, upcoming comedy scenes. He ought to know since Johnny was one of the first comics we ever met in the LBC in in the 2010s, when we started, and is now getting up in small rooms and mics in the...

Kristian Mercado has very quickly made a name for himself not only as a director of comedy specials ( Hannibal Buress, Aida Rodriguez, Michael Che, Taylor Tomlinson to name a few), but an up and coming auteur in comedy with his first feature, If You Were the Last , a very charming take on an outer space rom com. This week's TCB Field Report talks to Mercado in depth about the in's and out's of dir...

Frank Chindamo went from comedy nerd to SNL to mobile video innovator to professor to CEO and founder of Laugh MD , an app tailor made to bring comedy for wellness to hospital patients. This week's TCB Field Report follows Chindamo's unbelievable journey that has actually been bookended by two different WGA strikes, at this point, and found himself leading the way to putting a spotlight on laughte...

Cam Gavinski utilizes cardboard and duct tape in a way that would befuddle most comedians and, in doing so, comes up with some of the most outlandish, ridiculous, meta, and thoroughly hilarious bits at almost every LA stage we can think of. This week's TCB Field Report dives into Cam's psyche and process and how he gets inspired and goes meta with his comedy (and pulls it off). Follow Cam @camgavi...

It's one of the ever enduring questions in the entertainment biz: how does one get repped? When trying to get seen by an agent or manager, it would often seem as though you have to be on projects in places that you could only get to with an agent manager. Up and coming comedy manager and live show producer and (good peoples) Derek Del Core joins us on this week's TCB Field Report to demystify thes...

Like the hard working performers that he puts on all of shows, comedy producer Adam Gold has done the behind-the-scenes version of working your way from open mics up the comedy ladder in a scene. Cutting his teeth by waiting tables at Caroline's several years ago, Gold climbed his way up in independent comedy producing with indie shows in LA & NYC all the way to the point where he has been a p...

After 13 years of covering comedy pretty much every single day, it's incredibly hard to take us by surprise or show us something that isn't, at the very least, reminiscent of something else we had seen before. Thanks to Sunny Zimmerman and Caitlan Moore , LBJ The Play , a meta play within a play (that's almost in another play) about an LBJ impersonator having an identity crisis was one of the most...

Between being a pillar of the stellar Spanish Aquí Presents , being one of the four artistic directors at the revived UCB, doing her own comedy (mostly improv, but dipping her toe into stand-up now), and going hard in the paint in a beloved comedy rec basketball league, Raiza Licea still envisions much more ahead of her. For many, juggling those three endeavors would be more than a full plate, but...

From Philly to LA back to Philly (and probably some other stops along the way), Blake Wexler has gotten more than enough stage time under his belt to handily craft and serve up a refreshingly strong debut hour special.  Daddy Long Legs is a not only a testament to the handiwork and care that goes into the artistry of comedy, but a great example of how much blood, sweat, and tears goes into making...

Little did NYC comedy staple Eitan Levine know that essentially starting a comedy festival as a bit in getting rejected from an actual comedy festival would manifest into running a successful comedy festival out of his apartment. Returning post-panedmic, Apartment Fest is a weekend long comedy festival complete with beloved NYC headliners and sponsors with the main difference from every other fest...

Zach Zucker has taken his creation Stamptown and its ringleader Jack Tucker to the height of international comedy stardom with having it being a rollicking circus of all types of comedy and wild performance in LA, NYC, and London (and elsewhere too). For our money, Zucker is one of the only folks in all of comedy to pull this off on a regular basis and his award winning antics are the proof to bac...

1000 shows over 100 cities in a year sounds like something that the likes of Live Nation could only pull off for some sort of huge touring act. Well, Don't Tell Comedy will have notched in 3000 shows over 140 cities by the end of 2023. They've accomplished that feat with only doing stand-up comedy shows in secret locations, often backyards, all around the country and, just recently, the world, wit...

For those who that pine catching someone's ascension in comedy as it's happening, one might not need to look further than NYC comedy staple Nataly Aukar . From Lebanon to NYC to all around the world, Nataly has worked her way through the comedy ranks, refined her skills, found her voice, and crafted her story with plenty of punchlines to tell on stages all around the U.S. and around the world (she...

For an independent comedy show of any kind to last a year is a feat in such a city as Los Angeles. UnCabaret , created by Beth Lapides , has lasted for around 30 years and is very much continuing to foster a special community with its sort-of-light-bulb-moment-focused storytelling/stand-up show. It's an undeniable institution in comedy and foundational to alternative comedy as we know and love it....

It's undeniable that memes are a touchstone of culture in the 21st century. With that in mind, renaissance man  Jesse Friedman (brewery owner, app developer, avid Epicurean) has gone and developed a whole app centered on coming up with your own memes as quickly and as simply as possible (and even doing so competitively). The product of that idea is Meme Fighter , which will do all of the above and...

Often, the comedy version of  Field of Dreams involves places and spaces that are much more humble than a field. Perhaps, an apartment courtyard to many is just something to merely pass by even though there might be seating of some kind. To others, like comedy producing team Maddy Martin and Ben Berke , creators of  Aggressively Alive , it's clearly the home of their very slick, DIY house show tha...

Rare is the blend of poetry and comedy, despite, when either is performed, go to evoke emotion and visceral response. One Derrick Brown , for many years, has toed the line of being simultaneously a poet and a comedian, often the twain at the same time, bridging the subtle majesty of poesy and the irresistible joy of comedy. Derrick has balanced both for so long that he actually will have released...

Few take on politics in their comedy like James Fritz , mostly because Fritz sees how everything in the world is politicized and accordingly satirizes it. For our money, he's one of the best at it right now. James joins for this week's TCB Field Report to talk how politics in and out of comedy and vice versa in 2023 and just how important basketball is. Follow James @fritzisdead across socials Pro...

Despite their being several more months of the year left to go, right around now is the time of each year when a big share of the "comedians to watch" lists come out. Namely, the Just For Laughs Montreal New Faces of Comedy and Variety's Top 10 Comics to Watch came out recently, highlighting what are supposed to be 2023's class of comedians you should be paying attention to if you haven'...

A spirited, hysterical performer, Mark Vigeant , has been making his mark on the LA comedy scene in the short time that he's lived in Los Angeles. In fact, Vigeant is about to go international as he is taking his lauded solo show, Mark Pleases You , for his debut run at the renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This week's TCB Field Report gets into Mark's long journey in taking his darkest moments...

Allison Goldberg , creator of things to be enjoyed comedically, not only has a knack for showing a crowd a cracking good time through her own comedy driven game shows, but making a point with them at the same time. Goldberg pointedly made a feminist twist on the classic Dating Game format with her show,  Love Isn't Blind , where the bachelors aren't allowed to speak and is exploring the extent (or...

It's kind of a sweet spot if you, as a comedian, can have your day job also be in comedy. JoAnn Schinderle has managed to land there with being the Venue Manager at UCB Franklin in addition to being a wonderful stand-up in the LA scene (and even making some dough from commissioned erotic fiction). Switching gears between all three and whatever falls in between can be a challenge, which is why we t...

Vidiots is one of those local institutions in LA that help weave the fabric that makes the city into a beautiful tapestry of cultures and passions and dreams. Originally born as a video rental store in the 80s, Vidiots was a landmark not only to its old neighborhood of Santa Monica to movie and art lovers all across LA. Having to close its doors as a video store, Vidiots has now been reborn as a n...

From Bangkok to NYC to LA to Melbourne, Sunanda has an astounding comedy CV (resume for Americans) that ranges from directing a webisode of Broad City before it hit the big time to being awarded Best Newcomer at the renowned Melbourne International Comedy Festival . Sundanda's journey took them all over the world, but it was doing a solo show about their deep love of inspiration drawn from the one...