You’ve seen him in “Wet Hot American Summer.” You’ve seen his shows on MTV and VH1, such as “The State” and “I Love the 70’s/80’s/90’s.” He’s hilarious, he’s Jewish, and he was on campus Thursday night, July 22. Continue Reading

“Kick Ass” blows up the boundaries between comedy, action and superhero movies with wit, style and ass-kicking action.

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is an avid comic book fan and self-admitted high school nobody that has a simple question. Why has no one ever tried to be a superhero? His friends, Todd (Evan Powers) and Marty (Clark Duke), quickly inform him that it would be completely impossible to survive such an experiment. After our main character is mugged, he continues to question the society in which he lives. Continue Reading

Steve Carell and Tina Fey are amongst the most reliable comedians working in television today. Carell got his start on the “Daily Show,” before hitting it big with one of the few decent adaptations of a Brit sitcom, “The Office.” Continue Reading

LOS ANGELES — News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said it’s up to Fox Broadcasting to make a case that a late-night show hosted by Conan O’Brien can make money. Continue Reading

LOS ANGELES — Fox, never one to miss an opportunity to make a competitor’s life more difficult, has indicated that if Conan O’Brien wants to leave NBC, it would be happy to talk.

O’Brien, who is being asked to move “The Tonight Show” from 11:35 p.m. to 12:05 a.m. to make room for Jay Leno’s return to late night, has not made up his mind on whether he’ll take one for the team or take a walk. Leno’s moving back to late night because NBC affiliates are beyond frustrated with his 10 p.m. show and what its ratings are doing to their late local news.

Of course, Fox has toyed with late night before (Chevy Chase, anyone?), and quietly telling inquiring reporters that “Conan would be a great fit for Fox” could be just as much about annoying NBC chiefs Jeff Zucker and Jeff Gaspin as about trying to start its own late-night franchise.

Fox couldn’t just jump into the late-night game. It would have to ask, and in some cases beg, its affiliates for the time to carry a late show. The stations won’t hand over that time just out of the goodness of their hearts. Furthermore, Fox is already asking (or is it demanding?) that its affiliates give it a cut of any money they get from cable operators for carrying their signals. The logic is that because Fox provides the affiliates with programming, it should get a cut of any money distributors pay them to carry the signal.

While Fox is spinning one thing, it is unclear whether the brass at its parent company News Corp. are really that interested in getting into this game. It’s true the network made a run at Conan six years ago (a move that led NBC to anoint Conan as Jay Leno’s eventual successor, which led NBC to put Leno in prime time, which led to the mess NBC currently finds itself in), but the company may have different priorities now.

If Fox does seriously go after O’Brien, it won’t be cheap. Yes, NBC may have big penalties to pay O’Brien if he were to be bounced from “The Tonight Show.” But right now NBC is only talking about bouncing O’Brien out of his time slot, not the show (so tricky!). NBC could even bench O’Brien for a couple of years if he does want to leave, although it would be more likely to try to extract big payment from whoever wants his services.

(MCT)

LOS ANGELES — Jay Leno’s prime-time career on NBC will end Feb. 12. Whether Conan O’Brien’s late-night career with the network will also be ending next month remains to be seen.

Speaking to reporters at the semiannual Television Critics Association’s press tour, NBC Universal Television Chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed the network will move Leno back to 11:35 p.m., when the Winter Olympics concludes at the end of February.

Although Leno’s weeknight 10 p.m show was performing at an acceptable level for the network, “it did not meet our affiliates’ needs,” Gaspin said. NBC’s big affiliate groups, including broadcasters Hearst Corp. and Gannett Co., had been very vocal about how Leno’s show was hurting their late local news. A movement was afoot among the groups to push Leno’s show to 11 p.m. and put local news in the 10 p.m. slot.

“This was not going to go well if that was the case,” Gaspin said regarding the threat of preemptions from affiliates. NBC’s audience had dropped about 30 percent in the three months since Leno went on at 10 p.m. The effect on the affiliates, he said, “forces them to force our hand.”

Gaspin said the network still is trying to finalize deals with Leno, O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon. NBC’s hope is to put Leno back at 11:35 p.m., followed by O’Brien at 12:05 a.m and then Fallon at 1:05 a.m.

“As much as I’d like to tell you we have a done deal, the talks are still going on,” Gaspin said. Leno is on board with NBC’s shift in direction. O’Brien has not yet been sold on the idea of his show being pushed to 12:05. Gaspin said Leno and O’Brien have been “incredibly gracious and professional” about the whole situation.

Although O’Brien would technically keep the title of host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” a 12:05 a.m. program was not what he signed on for and his camp may try to test the waters. There may be costly penalties to him and NBC if he decides to go that route. Fox has whispered it may be interested in O’Brien, but that network would have a tough time persuading their affiliates to jump into late night. Fox may just be trying to make a complicated situation for NBC even more difficult.

ABC has indicated it is not interested at the moment in changing its late-night lineup of “Nightline” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Gaspin said Comcast Corp., the cable giant that is buying a controlling stake in NBC from parent company General Electric Co., had no role in the Leno-O’Brien decision.

(MCT)

Fans packed the Birmingham Jefferson County Concert Hall Saturday night to hear comedian Robin Williams take on subjects ranging from Larry Langford and Bear Bryant to Twitter and his recent heart operation.

Williams appeared at the BJCC Saturday.

His rescheduled “Weapons of Self Destruction” performance opened like a hail of machine gun fire into a thundering wall of laughter.

Williams is a comedian who clearly keeps up with the news, or at least has someone to do it for him, spending over 10 minutes on freshly funny material about the Magic City.
“I saw your mayor wants to host the 2020 Olympics. Never mind that Chicago just lost the bid, but it’ll be 2020 so he just might get out of prison by then,” Williams said.
At no point did the crowd stop laughing during the two gut busting hours including asking the audience if Bear Bryant would be made a saint if a section of the Vatican was dedicated to football and leaving the field wide open to make a few passes at Catholics.
“The cardinals go into a small, dark room to pick the next Pope and smoke comes out the top. I want in on that! And you know they were in there saying ‘Oh this will be good…so the last Pope was Polish so let’s make this one a Nazi,’” Williams said.
The man delivered all the goods with his ideas of methane powered cars (“give me a bean burrito and stick a tube in me”) and Scottish-accented GPS devices (“you f***ing missed the turn you idiot”).
He opened up about his new found emotional side after his recent heart surgery and how strong the drugs were remarking “my doctor is my dealer.”
Using the age card may seem cliche, but Williams plays it with such panache the audience nearly died laughing as he described trying to coax his three kids to stop Twittering long enough to talk to him.
It goes without saying Williams presented a fair share of sex jokes including human reproductive organs designed by committee leaving the wholesome family comedy at the door.
While watching Williams in action on the silver screen may be pure unadulterated fun it is better to see him spring across the stage live like a hyperactive six-year-old on a sugar high.
The physical routines hearken back to his days in San Francisco when he worked as a mime and later as the out-of-this-world Mork from Ork.

Williams closed the show with a tribute to famed anchorman Walter Cronkite saying that the CBS broadcaster always appreciated a good dirty joke.
Williams appeared at the BJCC as part of the rescheduled 2009 tour due to cancellations for open heart surgery.
He receives 4.5 out of five stars for the ceaseless creative bombardment that explodes like unholy hand grenades.
Not bad for a guy who was voted “Least Like to Succeed.”

Alyssa Mitchell
Editor in Chief
editor@insideuab.com

Theatre UAB’s latest prodution, “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” is a contrast between light-hearted comedy and dark tale of disaster set in Western Ireland. Continue Reading