The Comic's Comic Presents Last Things First

Bill O'Neill is an actor and clown from Los Angeles whom you may recognize most readily from his frequent appearances in commercials as a Wendy's employee. But O'Neill's career goes back to his early teen years, when he scored a major speaking role in the 2008 film, Drillbit Taylor . A member of L.A.'s burgeoning clown community, he co-starred with his fellow clowns in the 2019 late-night FX serie...

Zach Zucker is a clown-based comedian and actor who splits his time between Los Angeles and London, where he has become known as the ringmaster for Stamptown, a variety show and production company he created that has helped develop and bring other shows from the United States, the U.K. and Europe to the Edinburgh Fringe and beyond. He also teaches clown workshops around Los Angeles. Born in New Yo...

Jason Sáenz is a comedian who grew up in Virginia, began performing improv in D.C., and became a fixture in New York City's comedy scene — where he wrote for a house sketch team at the Upright Citizens Brigade, performed stand-up, and went viral for his "Saenz Signs" —   which eventually got him New Faces at Montreal's Just For Laughs Festival, and a ticket to Los Angeles to work on the MTV show,...

Chris Grace is an actor who grew up in Texas, went to school in North Carolina and started his comedy career in earnest in New York City through The People's Improv Theater. Grace has appeared on TV in many shows, including This Is Us , Broad City , and he enjoyed a recurring role as Jerry on NBC's  Superstore . He starred as Christian Gray in the off-Broadway touring production of 5 0 Shades! The...

Renee Gauthier is a stand-up comedian, writer, and producer based in Los Angeles who came out of her hometown Chicago comedy scene in the early 2000s. Her first big break came when NBC cast her to play Victoria Beckham's personal assistant in the reality series-turned-special, 2007's Victoria Beckham: Coming To America . Gauthier has performed stand-up on Last Call with Carson Daly as well as Stan...

Filmmaker Kristian Mercado has worked with some of the biggest names in music, including Billie Eilish and Bad Bunny. Since 2020, Mercado also has become one of the biggest names comedians turn to to shoot their stand-up comedy specials — starting with Hannibal Buress: Miami Nights , and going on to direct Sam Jay: 3 In The Morning , London Hughes: To Catch A Dick , Ilana Glazer Presents Comedy on...

New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman has joined me every year since 2015 for our own traditional December To Remember the year in comedy. On the one hand, I try to pin Zinoman down on who we might vote for if comedy, like sports, awarded an MVP for the Most Valuable Performer.   But we always also get into the meaty issues, themes and headlined the year. So what made 2023 special for comedy?...

Jen D'Angelo is a comedian, actress and screenwriter in Los Angeles. Originally from the Philadelphia area, she graduated from Northwestern before heading to LA and joining the UCB system as a writer and performer. Her stand-up credits include appearances on @midinght, Last Call with Carson Daly , and Adam Devine's House Party . D'Angelo also worked with Devine as a performer, writer, story editor...

Chris Turner is a stand-up comedian and freestyle rapper from England who made his debut as a solo artist at the Edinburgh Fringe with 2014's Pretty Fly , which won the Amused Moose People's Choice award. Turner made his New York City debut five years later with 2019's White Boy — later that year, he uploaded a 6-minute clip of himself improvising a live rap based on audience suggestions at The Co...

Actress and comedian Sasheer Zamata may be most familiar to comedy fans from her four years on Saturday Night Live , but she has kept busy on-screen since then, too — co-starring for two seasons on Hulu's WOKE , and for the past three seasons on ABC's Home Economics . She's also due to co-star alongside Kathryn Hahn in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe series,  Agatha: Coven of Chaos , for Di...

Courtney Pauroso is an LA-based actor, writer and comedian, who traveled the world and the United States as the child of a military family. She co-wrote and appeared in Two Pink Doors , a series of 5-minute shorts for FX, directed by Dr Brown, and has appeared onscreen in projects such as Jackass Forever , Reno 911 , Key & Peele , and 2 Broke Girls . She's also a former member of the Groundlings S...

Jared Freid is a stand-up comedian based in New York City whom you've most likely heard on one of his two highly popular podcasts — U Up?, a dating and relationship series he co-hosts with Jordan Abraham of Betches; and The JTrain Podcast, where he welcomes fellow comedians to help him answer questions and give advice to listeners on all sorts of topics. Since appearing as a New Face at Montreal's...

Martin Urbano is a comedian who grew up in southern Texas on the border with Mexico, but he's based now in New York City, where he has found much of his success since being named a New Face for Montreal's Just For Laughs festival in 2017. That includes performances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and The CW's annual Howie Mandel Gala , and Will Smith's comedy showcase for Roku, This Joka . Urbano was part of...

Kiran Deol is a comedian and actress whose show business career began auspiciously enough when she followed up her college thesis with a documentary short, Woman Rebel, that was shortlisted for the Academy Awards. As an actress, she co-starred in the 2019 NBC sitcom, Sunnyside , and before that, chalked up numerous guest-starring roles on shows such as Modern Family, The Mindy Project, How to Get...

As president and chief distribution officer of Hartbeat Productions, Jeff Clanagan runs Kevin Hart's LOL! Network — which includes radio programs and podcasts on SiriusXM, as well as short-form content, TV shows and movies with partners such as Peacock, Roku, Tubi, and PlutoTV. He's also a producer on projects such as Die Hart, Hart to Heart, Olympic Highlights, So Dumb It's Criminal , and tours s...

Christina Catherine Martinez is a writer, actor, art critic, comedian and Los Angeles native who was named in 2020 to Vulture's Comedian You Should Know as well as TimeOutLA's Comic to Watch lists. Martinez has performed on FXX's late-night showcase, Cake , and has written for Adult Swim's The Eric Andre Show . She is the creator and host of the live comedy talk show Aesthetical Relations . Martin...

Sophie Zucker was the youngest writer on staff at The Daily Show when she started in 2023, only to find herself and all of her colleagues out of work this summer due to the ongoing Writers Guild strike. Zucker got her comedy start in New York's Brooklyn scene, forming a sketch collective called Ladies Who Ranch. She picked up her first gig onscreen in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel , and followed that...

Morgan Jay is a first-generation American, the son of an Italian man who was a famous pop star in Argentina before Morgan was born. Morgan got his start in comedy upon arriving at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and eventually dropped the normal set-ups and punchlines for a guitar, crowd work and improvised songs. He has built up a following of about 1 million on TikTok, and he released his newest...

Allison Raskin is a writer, director, comedian, YouTuber, podcaster, and mental health advocate — she's perhaps best known for her collaborations with Gabe Dunn, which began with their YouTube channel, "Just Between Us," and has included co-writing a New York Times best-selling novel, "I Hate Everyone But You," and developing TV series with MTV, FX, YouTube Red and Netflix. Raskin sat down with me...

Kyle Kinane is a comedian who was the voice of Comedy Central for a decade. Kinane released his first album, Death of the Party , via AST Records, followed by a half-hour and two hours on Comedy Central, and another half-hour on Netflix. His most recent hour, Shocks & Struts , was released on YouTube in March 2023 via 800 Pound Gorilla Media. Kinane sat down with me while on tour to support the ne...

Ryan Williams was a segment producer and talent booker for all eight-plus years of The Late Late Show with James Corden , booking all of the stand-up comedians on that show. Before that, Williams held similar jobs at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Show with David Letterman . Williams joined me over Zoom during his first week of unemployment after the end of Corden's show to talk a...

Jamie Loftus  is a comedian, Emmy-nominated TV writer, animator and podcaster. She's worked as a staff writer on  Teenage Euthanasia ,  Robot Chicken , and  Star Trek: Lower Decks , and wrote and starred in her own web series for Comedy Central. She has written and hosted several popular limited-run podcasts — among them, "My Year In Mensa" (2019), "Lolita Podcast" (2020), "Aack Cast" (2021), and...

Jeff Hiller is an American actor and comedian. He currently co-stars in HBO's Somebody Somewhere as Joel, who welcomes Bridget Everett's Sam back to their Kansas hometown and becomes her best friend through thick and thin. Hiller is originally from a small town in Texas, but has made his home in New York City since 2001, when and where he quickly found his comedy family at the Upright Citizens Bri...

When you hear the words Tape Face, what do you picture? Sam Wills began his comedy career in his native New Zealand as a teenage clown in training, complete with a diploma from a circus school in Christchurch. But after an initial foray into stand-up comedy, his friends challenged him to stop talking so much — so he became The Boy With Tape On His Face. He received a Best Newcomer nomination at th...

Sarah Marshall is the co-creator and host of the award-winning podcast, You're Wrong About ,  Podcast of the Year at the 2022 I Heart Radio Podcast Awards. You're Wrong About revisits what we think we know about history and cultural events that have lodged themselves into our brains, and how that compares with what actually happened. Marshall sat down with me to talk about how she got into podcast...