I live in New York. I am a comedian, writer and actor. My day job is blogging for VH1.com. I write about the silly things celebrities and pop stars do, so you know...God's work.
You may have seen my writing on many other reputable websites (The Huffington Post, Hello Giggles, xojane.com, The Hairpin, Splitsider, The FW, etc.). I also write crazy blogs about Game of Thrones, Magneto and Jeff Goldblum.
I don't want to talk about anything with you except Star Trek Into Darkness.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
So I go in there one night and he was evoking gods of the East and demons of the West and forgetting what my goal was, why I even came in the first place, I was so mad! He was so creepy. I went up to him and I was like, “You’ve got nerve evoking demons in front of all these people!” No one was protected. No one was white lighted. I knew so much, you know, I was at least a three-week student in meditation. And he said “I protected the building” and I said “You can’t do that!” and he was like “Yes I can!” and I just walked off in a huff. I went “Ugh, that’s not what my goal was at all.
Charna Halpern describes how she first met Del Close
In 30 years, some comedy legend (improv/stand up/writing/whatnot) is going to be asked in an interview how they first met some other comedy legend and the answer is going to be, “Huh…I don’t know…like he started following me on tumblr and he liked some of my posts about Phil Hartman and then I started following him one day and then I disagreed with a post he made about Girls and then we had a minor argument, but then we both liked a gif set from Parks and Recreation and so, when we finally ran into each other at some party in Brooklyn, we were like, ‘Yo. I know you.’ And it was awkward and then we did some dumb show together that fell apart and five years later Fuse gave us a small budget and we made a breakthrough alt comedy show that was cancelled after two seasons.”
We’ll never meet over fighting about demons again.
Talking to Molly McNearney, the co-head writer of Jimmy Kimmel Live | Splitsider
Molly McNearney is pretty effing awesome, guys. She quit her advertising job to get a producer’s assistant job at Jimmy Kimmel Live and then worked her way up to the co-head writer position. She wrote Josh Groban sings Kanye West tweets. Oh, and she was nice enough to talk to me about what it’s like working in late night. Whatever.
When the women joked that it would be interesting to see how their male co-workers would function if the gender count was swapped, they collectively looked to [Larry] Wilmore who deadpanned, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t listening to anything you were saying.” I personally was not sure if he was just trying to be funny or if he was revealing something deeper by suggesting that the idea that men wouldn’t listen to women speak is funny.
— Talking Shop With Some Female Late Night Writers at the WGA West Diversity Panel | Splitsider
I wrote this about the super cool panel I got to go to while I was in LA last week.
[Nasim] Pedrad has remarkable versatility — she can play typical mothers and girlfriends as well as more flawed, post-gender roles, such as mom-enthusiast Bedilia.
“…she can play typical mothers and girlfriends…”
Oh, thank God. I was beginning to worry that men didn’t notice how much ladies consider playing “typical mothers and girlfriends” as a real stretch for us and a true test of our versatility.
Pedrad also has some fabulous impressions, endearing characters and can play against gender, age and race. She also possesses ridiculous on screen poise, great comic delivery and can dance the shit out of everyone else in the cast (except maybe Taran Killam). She also excels when given straight roles in scenes. I think that’s what you were getting at.
Skottie Young made some art about Marc Maron interviewing Fozzie Bear. Thanks to Splitsider for pointing it out.
I used to LOVE LOVE LOVE Young’s work on New X-Men. It was one of my favorite Marvel series until it was canceled after the Messiah Complex crossover. :sigh:
Welcome to April Fool’s Day, one of the most annoying days of the year. It’s the one day in which you can’t trust anything that you see on the internet, because everyone is trying to trick you. Hilarious! But here’s the thing: there’s a pretty huge distance between making a joke and lying, and most April Fool’s Day pranks fall distinctly in the latter camp.
- Adam Frucci, “Ugh, April Fool’s Day”, Splitsider.com
Remember folks, lying to people isn’t funny. Taping fish to their backs and saying something in French and then running away totes is, though.
The Case For The Tonight Show with Ellen DeGeneres
Leila Cohan-Miccio shares her theory that — after Leno (actually) retires — Ellen DeGeneres could take over as host of The Tonight Show.
DeGeneres’ talent and skills, however, aren’t even the top reason I’m convinced she’ll get The Tonight Show. To put it mildly, last time Leno “retired,” it didn’t go so well. When he gives the show up for real, NBC is going to have to control the narrative. Moving Fallon to 11:30 would set up some uncomfortable parallels: Leno says he’s retiring, the eccentric guy beloved by college kids gets The Tonight Show, but is he ready? We’ve all heard that story before. If DeGeneres got the job, however, the conversation becomes about the first female (and the first openly gay) host – a much more satisfying narrative.
I’ve heard a lot of names tossed out by people about who’s going to replace Jay Leno and I’ve heard a lot of silly reasons to go along with those names. This is the first name and the first argument for that name that makes sense.
It’s also the first one that doesn’t make me want to shoot someone.
Twitter is For Strokes Lovers, Or How The Internet Isn't All Bad | Splitsider.com
It’s kind of surreal to see a nice person I know write about nice people I brought hot chocolate to on Splitsider.
Just saying.
Traffic Light Recap: “Pilot” | Splitsider
I reviewed Fox’s new sitcom Traffic Light last night. If you saw it, you might correctly assumed that I DID NOT CARE FOR IT VERY MUCH.
So Halle kind of kills it in this review. She explains very eloquently why relationship comedies need to stop playing with the same “wives and girlfriends are soul-sucking demons” trope and try something a bit more modern on for size. Between reading this and my good friend Perich’s latest on OverthinkingIt.com (in which he examines why Modern Family approaches gay marriage in such a un-modern and conservative manner), I’m beginning to wonder if I should blame my dueling fears of commitment and dying alone on sitcoms. Or maybe I should blame it on how after cramming my precocious little girl head with fairy tales, my mom gave me an illustrated storybook about Henry VIII and his six wives.
Either way, I’m blaming mass media.
