Bleav in The Comedy Bureau Field Report

To be a clown fronting acrobats, contortionists, and all sorts of other performers capable of astounding physical feats in a gambling town is something that seems, at first glance, to be at the core of clowning itself, an impossible task. Yet, amazing comedy multi-hyphenate/dancer Scout Durwood has uprooted herself from LA to do just that in Atlantic City. That's in addition to constantly writing,...

Matt Catanzano, not unlike us, does a lot of wonderful stuff in comedy. Perhaps, too much? Both Matt and TCB's Jake Kroeger are too busy to really ruminate on that, but they do have time to talk how Matt amazingly balances doing and running stand-up and sketch shows on top of making his own short films and writing anything else in order to have every other comedy base covered (and the essentially...

This week's TCB Field Report invites The YARD Theater's GM and overall "guy at the YARD", Isaac Landfert, to talk shop with TCB's Jake Kroeger. Landfert explains the ins and outs of being a small, but very crucial theater in the LA comedy scene, specifically one that caters to folks trying to do something different/experimental/wild, especially when Fringe season comes around. It's this...

When it comes to be an untethered "silly goose" on stage, few comedians do it quite as well (and as satisfyingly for folks of all kinds) like Chris Fleming . With as much flexibility as those wavy arm inflatable tube men and the panache and comedic verve to match, Fleming orchestrates his comedic performances in such a thrilling way that he deserves to play such renowned places like Larg...

In the time since Babs' last appearance on TCB Field Report, she has helped erect a venue in the backyard of the one and only Paul Provenza dubbed "The Green House" (via Paul's brilliant Showtime series  The Green Room with Paul Provenza ). Unlike the majority of shows that happen at a person's home or "house venues", there's such a plethora of wondrous comedy gatherings that h...

We're in the fourth week of this Writers' Strike and it doesn't seem like the spirits or solidarity has wavered one bit. WGA East Board Member and beloved comedian and one of the all around nicest human beings Josh Gondelman joins TCB's Jake Kroeger for this week's TCB Field Report to break down exactly what's at stake here. So many unions are joining in on the picket lines of this strike every da...

The collectors and curators of comedy history are rare, but they are usually delightful beings to not only shoot the breeze with, but learn the tenor of a comedy scene in decades past. One of our favorite comedy folks, Mike Bridenstine, transplanted from a time period of Chicago comedy that has vastly influenced comedy at this very moment, has captured an exhaustive history of those years in his b...

As we're getting into the thick of this latest Writers' Strike, we got the perfect guest in one of the world's only comedian/union negotiators with the one and only, amazing Nato Green . Green has simultaneously been a long-standing and highly effective union organizer/negotiator and an equally shrewd and clever comedian based out of SF/Bay Area. This week's TCB Field Report goes into Green's nota...

Noah Eberhart, better known as @enemypixels in comedy circles had established himself as a go-to photographer in the LA comedy scene, but made the move to NYC in 2022 and has very quickly gotten roots planted in snapping some of the best shots of NYC comedy. This week's TCB Field Report dives into how Noah sees LA and NYC comedy though his wildly colorful and imaginative lens. Follow Noah @enemypi...

Alan Kliffer , the esteemed Artistic Director of Asylum NYC (as well as a million other things including pioneering a national high school improv program), joins us for this week's TCB Field Report to give us the lowdown on NYC comedy. Specifically, we dive into NYC being on the precipice of a wave of comedy theaters opening/reopening focused on improv and sketch, which has been kind of wandering...

The famous line from  Field of Dreams , "If you build it, they will come," has inspired many wondrous places to open and has certainly been an ethos for comedy venues for decades. That said, there are instances where someone is building a space with the hopes of just having a space to do exactly what they want without having to stress too much about turn out. Through such a spirit, Publi...

When all is said and done, the exploits of comedy pioneers Joe Pickett & Nick Prueher , founders of The Found Footage Festival , should be well documented and celebrated. Thankfully, not only are the life long friends and comedy partners back out on the road for the fest's latest edition, but they've got an astounding and nearly unbelievable documentary, Chop & Steele , following a giant m...

We here at TCB love comedy that takes big swings and there are few comedians that take the sort of big swings quite like one Addie Weyrich . Doing an entire solo show that involves very specific participation from every single person in the audience or playing a version of Ted Cruz with severe amnesia is only a couple wondrous bits that the ambitious Weyrich loves diving into. This week's TCB Fiel...

To our knowledge, there is no single joke ever written that can transcend all language barriers and bring people joy and make them laugh. However, internationally renowned and celebrated balloon twister/artist, Addi Somekh , has made folks all over the planet from virtually every background and identity smile/laugh/cry with joy through his craft of fashioning improvised balloon hats based off the...

Well, it has been officially three years that The Comedy Bureau Field Report has been bringing you all the going-ons in comedy from every possible corner that we know about or discover. With that in mind, it's magically apropos that the great Myq Kaplan returns to not only talk about his new-old album release  Live In Between Albums and his upcoming Edinburgh Fringe run, but to dive deep into the...

Though it might be strange to read, comedy can really exude its healing/relieving powers when done in a funeral home. NYC based Ben Wasserman has been proving that while touring with his most personal work to date, Live After Death , a wild solo show about grief and loss created in the aftermath of several deaths of family members and friends in the span of a few years. It's a rambunctious show th...

Often, the idea of being raw on stage gets misconstrued with spouting off and saying shocking things for unfettered schadenfreude. The rawness of Byron Bowers and his comedy comes from such a genuine place as he is in between so many worlds and wants to speak his comedic truth in the purest way possible. The result often takes him and his audience into darker territory, but always subverted with h...

Only Fans isn't only for individually empowered adult content anymore and, to prove that, Only Fans put on their very own stand-up comedy competition on their safe-for-work side of the platform of.tv . Up and coming UK comedian Mary O'Connell emerged victorious for the Only Fans Creative Fund: Comedy Edition winning £100K and talks us through that entire wild ride as well as how UK comedy is getti...

For years and years and years, Shaun Landry has made her mission to really "do the work" and really, truly, and deeply commit shows and venues and festival (that she has all founded by the way) to include as many voices of all backgrounds as possible. That's why she has seen her dream, The Ledge Theatre through several venue changes to its current home, a space shared by The Impro , on t...

One of our favorite guests/people/minds in comedy, Joel Mandelkorn, returns as has one of LA's biggest comedy shows, Hot Tub with Kurt Kristen , the show he has co-produced for almost a decade here in LA. Joel fills us in, as part of the "new normal" we live in, on moving the show from its historic time of 8PM on Mondays (it had that time in NYC for all the years that it ran there as wel...

Renowned comedic mind and self-made food celebrity Bill Oakley ( Simpsons, Futurama, Portlandia, Steamed Ham Society ) joins TCB's Jake Kroeger for this week's TCB Field Report to talk through the changing decades of satire, especially when it comes to adult animation. More importantly, Bill is revisiting Mission Hill , his unfortunately short lived series co-created with Josh Weinstein after thei...

There are endless hours of content and pages of books dedicated to the process of stand up, sketch, improv. Such is not the quote the case, yet, with clowning. We talk with rising LA clowning star Reshma Meister, one of 100 Best in Comedy for 2022, about all her motivations and intuitions when it comes to things like blending her own inner monologue while playing a Na’vi on stage. Follow Reshma @c...

Even before the pandemic, Bobcat Goldthwait had one of the most fascinating careers in comedy history with, as he says, "selling out" first as a stand-up, then finding his way to be a beloved indie director with work ranging from World's Greatest Dad to God Bless America to Call Me Lucky to Jimmy Kimmel Live. Goldthwait continued along his own path as he moved from LA to the woods in Ill...

Despite the pandemic's best efforts, an inseparable part of live comedy is the live audience. Part of the thrill of performing stand-up/improv/sketch/clown/etc. is having a crowd of (hopefully) friendly strangers communing in order to laugh. We talk to performers all the time on this podcast, but what about hearing from those who revere comedy just as much as those that take the stage, but choose...

When it comes to doing all the things in comedy, few have done it quite like Sara Schaefer . Her career spans being an acclaimed stand-up comedian, an Emmy award winning writer, having her own late night talk show with Nikki Glaser, and, amongst everything else, a celebrated miniaturist. Her latest project, a solo show that's a loving satire of the art and business of comedy, Going Up with Sara Sc...