Kevin Hart’s Plastic Cup Boyz Special on Comedy Central

Comedy Special premiers this Saturday, April 11th, 11 PM on Comedy Central

Producing and distributing Philly comedian Keith Robinson’s special for Comedy Central wasn’t the only endeavor that Kevin Hart has planned in terms of producing new comedy specials. Kev’s touring crew, The Plastic Cup Boyz, have been opening for Kev ever since he reached his mega-status as an acclaimed comedian. It would only make sense that the next special he produces be his own team, who also come from Philly.

Will “Spank” Horton, Na’im Lynn, and Joey Wells are seriously funny guys and rank at the top tier of Philly’s Funniest. Those lucky enough to see these guys in the early days of the Laff House can vouch that they’ve come a long way from those Thursday night shows to playing sold out arenas.

Kevin Hart Presents: The Plastic Cup Boyz premiers this Saturday, April 11th, 11 pm on Comedy Central. Check out the promo featuring Kevin and the Plastic Cup Boyz:

Comedy For A Cure with Artie Lange and Chris Cotton

 

For those of you who don’t know, comedian Chris Cotton is not only the co-host of the Artie Lange podcast (and our impromptu IAFIP Podcast), but also the producer of the Comedy For A Cure benefit show that happens once a year in Philly. Every year, Chris puts together a show where the proceeds go towards efforts to support Multiple Sclerosis research. This year is no different in that Chris is putting together another show at Helium comedy club with none other than his podcast co-host and all-around great comedian Artie Lange and the rest of the Artie Lange podcast crew. The show will have none other than H. Foley as the host as well as some other supporting spots such as Philly comedy legend and my personal favorite, TuRae Gordon. This line-up is something that shouldn’t be missed so make sure to grab your tickets as soon as possible!!

The Comedy For A Cure show is Saturday, April 11th at Helium comedy club, located at 2031 Sansom St.

You can buy tickets for the show and find any updates on it here. 

You can also check out Artie’s podcast here. From what I hear, it’s some of the best mouth breathing ever recorded on a podcast.

ArtieQuitter.com

Official Patrice O’Neal Documentary Crowdfunding Campaign on Indiegogo

Recently, news about an official documentary about the late Patrice O’Neal made its way around the internet and got everyone, including myself, excited to hear more about it. If you remember a post from a few years ago, I made an exception on my “Philly Only” rule for the site and posted an article about my thoughts on Patrice’s untimely death.

Patrice O’Neal is by far one of my favorite comedians of all time. He optimized the notion of head-on-no-bullshit comedy style that too many comedians today have strayed from.

So that’s why I was ecstatic when I found that the rumored documentary about Patrice has started a crowdfunding page on Indiegogo. Patrice’s long time partner Von Decarlo has even taken on the role of producer for the project and is part of the project’s outreach campaign. I couldn’t think of anyone better than her to help tell the story of one of comedy’s greatest performers.

You can visit the documentary’s crowdfunding page here. If any of you are as big a fan of Patrice O’Neals comedy as I am, I strongly encourage you to contribute to the campaign.

I’d usually put my favorite clip of the comedian featured in the article at this point, but I’m going to change it up a little and post something I think is a perfect example of Patrice’s genius point of view on a ton of topics. Here’s an interview he did with Marc Maron on the WTF podcast.

Kevin Hart Presents: Keith Robinson – “Back of the Bus Funny” special on Comedy Central

Comedian and Philadelphia native Keith Robinson

If you remember our post a few months ago, we were promoting the taping of Philly comedy legend Keith Robinson’s new special, Back of the Bus Funny. At the time of the taping, the particular network that would be airing the special wasn’t announced, but Kevin Hart had just recently posted a tweet regarding it’s air date and channel:

Kevin Hart produced Keith Robinson’s new special, which will air this Saturday at 11 pm EST on Comedy Central

Keith Robinson is by far one of Philadelphia’s most prominent and successful comedians and is a known mentor to an endless amount of comedians new and experienced. Having taken Kevin under his wing in the beginning of his comedy career, it only makes sense that Kevin would pay it forward and produce Keith’s special, being the superstar that he is.

Check out a clip from Keith’s new special below:

Keith Robinson’s new special Back of the Bus Funny will air at 11 PM EST on Comedy Central.

Follow Keith Robinson on twitter 

Derek Gaines Stars in Broke Ass Game Show on MTV

Broke A$$ Game Show – Thursday Nights @ 11 on MTV

We’re well through the beginning of the series premier, but for those of you who don’t know, Philly Native and our good friend Derek Gaines is starring in a hilarious new game show on MTV called Broke Ass Game Show with his co-host David Magidoff as they stroll the city streets to find unsuspecting participants to perform shameless antics all for a few bucks and some well deserved screen time.

Derek Gaines is one of the funniest guys we know so seeing him as a comedian who got his bearings in Philly to making the entire country laugh on TV is another testament to Philadelphia’s comedy scene. But don’t take my word for it, check out this preview of the show:

Broke A$$ Game Show is on Thursdays at 11 PM on MTV

Follow Derek Gaines on Twitter @Derek1Gaines

Follow David Magidoff on Twitter @DavidMagidoff

Laff House Comedy Club to Re-open September 6th

It’s been just over a year since the Laff House comedy club, a landmark in our comedy scene, had shut down due to a variety of reasons we won’t go into. Since then, the Philadelphia comedy scene had changed course in a number of ways, some better than others.

For instance, a lot of the Laff House’s regularly booked comedians became more determined to keep their booking schedules as full as possible, this lead to some of the now very popular weekly and monthly comedy shows that span through way more parts of the city such as  Josh Kosh’s Funny Money show at the Legendary Dobb’s in South street (on Tuesdays), and, of course, TuRae’s Soul Comedy show at Warmdaddy’s off Columbus Avenue (every Wednesday). These are only some of the few comedy spots that are helping the Philly comedy scene grow that were indirectly spawned by the Laff House’s closing last July.

I recently received an email from Rod Millwood, the owner of the Laff House, informing me that the Laff House comedy club will be having it’s grand opening comedy show on September 6, at Harrah’s Casino in Chester, PA at 8 PM.

At first, I thought the email I received was sent as a joke by a begrudging reader who fell for one of our prank-articles, but was convinced once I visited the Laff House’s new and improved website, presumably maintained by Harrah’s casino.

The grand opening show will consist of headliners that the Laff House was most known for booking such as A.G. White, Mike Troy, and Reginald “Brother Man” Ballard. According to Millwood, the club also plans on rebooting the Laff House’s annual Philadlephia comedy festival shortly after.

Time will tell how this new location will work in terms of helping Philly Comedy grow, but at the very least, the prospect of being able to see some of my favorite comedians on a Laff House stage again is extremely exciting to hear.

We will be posting more information on the Laff House’s re-opening as it comes.

 

Tina Fey to Attend the Upper Darby Performing Art Center’s Summer Stage Benefit with Q&A, Special Screening of “Mean Girls”

For those of you who aren’t as crazy about useless Philly entertainment facts as I am, Tina Fey was an Upper Darby girl before she moved on to becoming SNL’s first female head writer, 30 Rock’s creator and star, and an award-winning actress and screenwriter. In fact, she wrote extensively about her earlier days in Philly in her best-selling book, Bossy Pants.

Fortunately fans of Tina’s amazing writing will be able to buy tickets to an event at the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center that she will be attending. The event is to raise money for the center’s new sound system, so being an UDPAC alumni herself, Tina will be screening her movie that she wrote and co-starred in, Mean Girls, for it’s tenth anniversary, as well as conduct a Q&A after the showing. The event will take place on Saturday, August 16th at 7:30 PM

I remember meeting Tina when she attended Conan O’Brien’s “Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television” tour and asked her about her early days in Philadelphia. I’ll Never forget her response:

“Get the fuck out of my dressing room, you maniac!”

To be able to to attend and speak with Tina Fey is an amazing opportunity for a TV writing and Tina Fey fan like myself, and telling by how fast the tickets are going, I think it’s safe to say that I’m not the only one who thinks so too.

You can purchase tickets to Tina Fey’s UDPAC event here. I’d like to say that we’ll be able to give out free tickets to this event as we always try to do, but that won’t be the case this time.

Here’s a video of Tina’s last public appearance in Upper Darby during the Conan O’Brien “Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour:

 

 

Funny or Die’s Oddball Comedy Festival Returns August 16th

Last years Oddball Comedy Festival tour was a huge hit when they went to some of the country’s biggest cities with a huge lineup of great comedians and the in-demand headliners Flight of the Concords and Dave Chappelle. When they came to the Susquehanna Bank Center, a near-sold-out audience came and spent an awesome day watching some of the best comedians in the country, as well as some of Philly’s funniest.

This year, Funny or Die upped the ante by booking an ungodly amount of huge acts to headline different parts of the nation-wide tour, and Philly lucked out again this year by getting Louis CK and Sarah Silverman as headliners, as well as Dave Attel, Amy Shumer, and Hannibal Burress as opening acts.

Last year, many were dissapointed when they found out that Hannibal Burress wasn’t on the Camden stop of the Oddball tour, so it’ll only be that much better to see him this year on the same stage as comedy giants Dave Attel, Sarah Silverman, and Louis CK. Amy Shumer is also not a stranger to Philly’s admiration, being that her hit show Inside Amy Shumer has launched a successful stand-up tour, which stopped into Philly last March.

Tickets are already on sale for the Camden show at this link. Being that Louis CK tickets always sell-out fast, I suggest that you buy yours as soon as possible.

Monroe Martin Amongst the Final Ten Contestants in NBC’s Last Comic Standing!

For those of you who haven’t been watching this season of Last Comic Standing on NBC, Philly native and our good friend Monroe Martin has been moving up the ranks on the hit competition-styled show and will be performing in the top-ten finalist bracket. If Monroe wins the grand prize of $250,000 and an NBC development deal, it would be a giant win for not just for him, but Philly Comedy.

Monroe’s dedication to comedy since our days at the Laff House can only be matched by a select few in the comedy world, and I’m personally ecstatic for him as a friend and a prominent figure in Philly Comedy to see him achieve the status that he’s worked so hard for.

Regardless of the show’s results, keep up with Monroe by following him on Twitter @MonroeMartinIII or by visiting his website MonroeMartinComedy.com

You can also read one of our first “Featured Comedian” articles that we ever wrote right around the beginning of this website for Monroe here.

Keith Robinson to Film New Comedy Special in New York

It’s no secret that we;re huge fans of comedian and Philly native Keith Robinson. More than enough comedians will testify to his comedic talent and ability to inspire others in being funny.

If Keith hasn’t been featured enough on this site, then I don’t know any other site that does. When the term “Philly Comedy” comes up, his name is embedded into it along with the others such as TuRae and Kevin Hart.

That’s why I’m excited to let you guys know that Keith will be filming a new comedy special, appropriately titled Back Of The Bus Funny for an unspecified network in New York, at the Gramercy Theatre (located at 127 East 23rd street, New York, NY).

What’s great about this special is not only will Keith be performing a new hour of material, but Kevin Hart is producing the event, which couldn’t exactly hurt with promoting the show and selling it to a prospective network. What’s great about Kevin Hart being the huge success that he is it that he’s not letting his massive commercial success in Hollywood take him away from the very thing that got him where he is today. I think that other comedians who reach that level of success should do the same as Kevin Hart and Louis CK in promoting the comedy of other great comedians that they know would make their fans laugh just as much as they do with themselves. We all have a list of celebrities that we wish would love to see go back to their original form of comedy in stand up, like Eddie Murphy, Jim Carry, and more. What Kevin Hart is doing is making sure that he doesn’t abandon his comedy roots by making sure that he’s still putting out great comedy, even if it’s someone else’s that he produced.

You can buy tickets to Back Of The Bus Funny at this link. 

Check out this video of Keith with Kevin Hart and the late Patrice O’Neil: