Oscar Wiles: A Roundup of Delights, Disappointments

The 78th Annual Academy Award ceremonies started off as a standoff between “niche” host Jon Stewart and the old, tired Academy audience with its nervously glazed smiles—a far cry from the perpetually hysterical banshees at Comedy Central to which Mr. Stewart is normally accustomed. But then the Comedy Central banshees never have to worry about Read More

Oscar Wiles: A Roundup of Delights, Disappointments

The 78th Annual Academy Award ceremonies started off as a standoff between “niche” host Jon Stewart and the old, tired Academy audience with its nervously glazed smiles—a far cry from the perpetually hysterical banshees at Comedy Central to which Mr. Stewart is normally accustomed. But then the Comedy Central banshees never have to worry about Read More

New York World

Some Yuks

In a North Carolinian drawl, his eyes sparkling, Bobby Tisdale yelled “Yaaaayyyyy!” into the microphone. Mr. Tisdale must say “Yaaaayyyyy!” 15 times a night; it’s the “yay” of an overly zealous camp counselor.

Each week, Mr. Tisdale emcees “Invite Them Up,” an hour and a half of comedy at Rififi, an Read More

Strolling in the Aftermath

Time to hit the blogs:

Bloomberg’s voters were wildly outnumbered… by registered voters who didn’t cast ballots, laments Andrew Friedman at DMIBlog.

Doug Forrester, the failed Republican candidate for New Jersey governor, blames his defeat on Bush. But over at the New York Young Republican Record, Rick Brownell doesn’t buy it. Forrester’s finger-pointing, Read More

Anthony Targets White Guys

Based on his planned spending on cable TV, Anthony is planning what The Politicker’s outside expert considers the upscale white guy vote:

He’s planning to spend about $500,000 over the last two weeks on these networks: Comedy Central, CNBC, CNN, ESPN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, TNT, YES (including 11 Yankees games), and USA.

The Read More

Dave Attell: Comedy’s Angry Insomniac, Happy at Last?

During a recent performance at Caroline’s Comedy Club in Times Square, Dave Attell-the 37-year-old stand-up comic and host of Comedy Central’s late-night carousing show, Insomniac -told a joke about the time he was playing a nightclub and started riffing on shark attacks, and a woman in the audience cried out in pain.

“This woman-let’s call Read More

The Evolution of Jimmy Kimmel

“This may make me sound like a dickhead,” said Jimmy Kimmel, “but I am not surprised at all. In fact, I was disappointed that it took this long.”

It was Monday, May 13, and Mr. Kimmel, 34, was talking from his office in Los Angeles, where in a few hours he would hop a plane Read More