-
Jon Stewart: It’s Not McCain and Obama’s Lack of Humor, It’s the Media’s
Posted 08/26/08 in Daily Intel: Early and Often
Who cares if the candidates can’t tell what is funny and what is not. That’s our job!
-
Caroline Hirsch Watches All the Late-Night Shows
Posted 11/02/07 in Daily Intel: 21 Questions
Name: Caroline Hirsch
Job: Proprietor, Carolines on Broadway, the legendary Manhattan comedy club. Caroline founded the annual New York Comedy Festival, which begins next week and will feature performances by Rosie O'Donnell, Denis Leary, Sarah Silverman, and Artie Lange. Click here for our advance coverage of the fest.
Neighborhood: Midtown East Who's your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional? Edna St. Vincent Millay. What's the best meal you've eaten in New York? My mother's pasta on Sunday. In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job? I am constantly trying to discover what new talent is about to emerge. -
What We Learned on the Night Before ‘The Ten’
Posted 08/03/07 in Daily Intel: Party Lines
Last night was yet another party for The Ten, the commandments-spoofing movie from the Wet Hot American Summer–slash–The State–slash–Stella crowd, and we learned several important things smoking and drinking backstage with Janeane Garofalo, Amy Poehler, and Rashida Jones. Among them: • Garafalo, who makes an uncredited cameo in the movie, dislikes gossip magazines but can accept their right to exist. "There's journalism and there's dirt digging," she said after a stand-up stand. "It's not real journalism. But gossiping is, I guess, just part of the human condition." • Poehler, who was onstage barely longer than it took her to mimic jerking off, had little to say about the human condition but lots to say about our fear of getting older. "You know what the best years are?" she asked. "28 to 30. Ooh, they're good." (Somehow we think her 1998–2000 Comedy Central show had something to do with that.) • And Jones revealed that she hasn't always been funny. "I took a class with the Groundlings in L.A.," she recalled. Before that, "God, I was so bad." • Also, David Wain has a fake tooth, and Ken Marino is in full support of breast-feeding, though he thinks National Breast Feeding Week could be replaced by a tasteful liquid lunch. And now you know. —Jocelyn Guest
-
Big Laughs and Small Food at ‘The Ten’ Premiere
Posted 07/24/07 in Daily Intel: Party Lines
The Wet Hot American Summer gang — the Stella gang? Part of the State gang? — is back with a new movie: The Ten. It's ten sketches, each inspired by one of the Ten Commandments, and it premiered last night at the DGA Theater in midtown. The after-party was at Avalon in Chelsea, and our Party Lines crew reports it was particularly late and particularly boozy, with a D.J. playing oldies, lots of small food (mini-burgers, mini–croque monsieurs), and big crowds on the smoking porch. What did David Wain, Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, Paul Rudd, Kerri Kenney, Gretchen Mol, Winona Ryder, and lots of others have to say at the party? Why was Chris Meloni wearing that ridiculous hat and Janeane Garofalo that crazy jacket? Why was Winona wearing an overcoat and a hat? (Does she have her own weather system?) All those answers at our Interactive Party Lines. 'The Ten' Screening [NYM]
-
Computers, Comedy Further Destroy Lower East Side
Posted 06/14/07 in Daily Intel: Intel
Everyone has his own personal milestone for when the Lower East Side was, irrevocably, over. Maybe it was when the Hotel on Rivington went up, or when Tonic closed, or when you first overheard one I-banker telling another about the Annex. Two new options now present themselves. First, there’s VLES, a Second Life–esque “virtual version” of the neighborhood wherein you, via your own hipster avatar, can walk from “Katz’s” down “Ludlow” and “watch” “bands” “play” “clubs.” And then there’s HBO’s Lower East Side–set new series, The Flight of the Conchords (which is likely being advertised inches from this item). Think Tenacious D with the added deadly touch of Wes Anderson/Demetri Martin/Eugene Mirman deadpan. (Robot obsession? Check.) Yes, it sounds like the perfect TV embodiment of the neighborhood — but it also makes us want to never, ever set foot there again. Thankfully, we don’t need to; we’ve got it on our desktop. Virtual Lower East Side [VLES.com] Flight of the Conchords [HBO.com]
-
Live from ‘New York’
Posted 05/08/07 in Daily Intel: In the Magazine
If you were watching NBC over the weekend — and, actually, Nielsen numbers from the last few months suggest you probably weren't — you saw the Lorne Michaels version of what Saturday Night Live was like in the nineties, a Sunday-night prime-time clip show of the comedy franchise's Clinton-era highlights. ("Must have been a short show," quipped a New Yorker.) Want the non-hagiographic take on SNL in that era? We bring you back to the March 13, 1995, issue of New York and Chris Smith's cover story, "The Inside Story of the Decline and Fall of Saturday Night Live." Smith spent a month in and around Studio 8H, and he discovered a show with falling ratings, increasing expenses, mediocre writing, a miserable cast, and a detached executive producer in Michaels. "What's really killing SNL," he wrote," is a deep spiritual funk." From the archives, here's his account of that funk. Comedy Isn't Funny [NYM, 3/13/1995]
-
Conan Returns to New York, and Thank God
Posted 05/07/07 in Daily Intel: Cultural Capital
After a week in San Francisco, Late Night With Conan O'Brien returns home today to the cozy hearth of Rockefeller Center. Like previous trips to Toronto, Chicago, and Finland, the San Francisco sojourn was marked by high spirits and top-notch japery. (Particularly enjoyable: the outing to Intel headquarters; repeated references to Mayor Gavin Newsom's sex scandals delivered as ingenuous expressions of gratitude to the city government.) The return to boring ol' Studio 6A is welcome, however, because it means relief from the overeager Bay Area audience.
-
Comic Mo Rocca Makes Oatmeal But Not Dinner
Posted 05/03/07 in Daily Intel: 21 Questions
Name: Mo Rocca
Age: 38
Job: Imp; currently appearing in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Neighborhood: Chelsea Who's your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional? Isidore Itzkowitz, a.k.a. Eddie Cantor. What's the best meal you've eaten in New York? Currently I'm in love with the buttermilk fried chicken at Dirty Bird on 14th Street. In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job? Bite my nails and try to think of funny things. -
Sex Diaries: The Attached Villager
Posted 04/23/07 in Daily Intel: In the Magazine
It's the Sex and Love issue of New York this week, and for it six New Yorkers kept Sex Diaries that chronicled their sexual lives (or lack thereof) over a period of seven days. Daily Intel has even more diaries, and we'll bring you a new one each day this week. Today, Jessica Delfino: 30, comedian and dirty folk rocker, East Village, straight and in a relationship. DAY 1 Midnight: Reunited with boyfriend after he was out of town all week. Trade wet kisses. 12:30 a.m.: Boyfriend tells me we should go home and 69. 12:57 a.m.: Get fondled in the foyer, followed by some love pecks and pokes in the elevator. Steven Tyler would have been proud. 1:27 a.m.: Attack my boyfriend in bed wearing nothing but a softball jersey. He's watching That '70s Show and isn't responding. 1:32 a.m.: After five minutes of kissing him, he's still not with the program. Warn him that I'm documenting our sex life. He calls me weird. He caresses my vagina and thighs between eating chocolate-covered raisins while he watches the show. 2:07 a.m.: Sex o'clock. We both win. Me first, as usual.
-
In the Colbert Nation, We're All Young and Invincible
Posted 04/11/07 in Daily Intel: In the Magazine
Last night, Stephen Colbert devoted his show's prime real estate — his "The Word" segment — to the "Young Invincibles," the health-insurance-forgoing twenty- and thirtysomethings David Amsden profiled in a recent issue of New York. "This is an encouraging trend," the faux-conservative faux-blowhard commented about Amsden's piece, "but we have to make sure that forsaking health insurance stays sassy and rad." With your help, Stephen, we're sure it will. Comedy Central has the clip, and we've got the article. Hip Replacement [Comedy Central] The Young Invincibles [NYM]
-
‘Daily Show’ Correspondent John Oliver Fears We're in the End Times
Posted 04/10/07 in Daily Intel: 21 Questions
Name: John Oliver
Age: 29
Job: Daily Show correspondent and advisory-board member to Dave Eggers's writing program, 826NYC. Oliver will perform tonight at Symphony Space at an 826NYC fund-raiser, McSweeney's Presents: The World, Explained.
Neighborhood: West Village Who's your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional? I like the sound of Emily Warren Roebling. Anyone who can finish building the Brooklyn Bridge whilst finding time to be a member of Daughters of the American Revolution is okay by me. Although her implied support of the Boston Tea Party is appalling. The only time throwing tea into the sea would be acceptable would be if you'd pre-boiled the ocean. And added a splash of milk. -
Conan O'Brien Owes His Career to a Crank
Posted 04/06/07 in Daily Intel: Cultural Capital
Four things about Conan O'Brien and his show that we're pretty sure haven't been published before, which we learned last night at his rare public appearance — with four of his writers — at the Museum of Television and Radio: • The character "Preparation H Raymond," played by Brian McCann, was originally conceived because the Preparation H people sent a box of their signature product, for more or less no reason, to the Late Night offices. It was the holiday season, and McCann walked through the office distributing samples, calling himself “Preparation H Santa.” The writers decided to put the bit on TV, but it didn’t come to fruition until January, hence the replacement of “Santa” with “Raymond.” Raymond/McCann later contacted Preparation H about filming a segment at their factory. “They wouldn’t even return our calls,” he said.
-
New ‘Onion’ Fake News: Actually Fake, Not So Funny
Posted 03/27/07 in Daily Intel: Cultural Capital
Here's the remarkable thing about the Onion News Network, the satire stalwart's first foray into video content: It's the first televisual product to literally fit the wrongheaded moniker "fake news." The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, which are regularly saddled with that descriptor, don't fake the news; they fake the format. ONN — as of this writing, less a network than a Web page with four clips and a Dewar's ad — finally takes that extra step. Its news items are, indeed, mocked-up rather than simply mocked. This means that both the anchors and the subjects are played, hammily, by actors, and the "news footage" is as scripted as the banter around it. Sadly, though, it is not particularly well scripted, nor particularly amusing.
-
David Cross Is Both 12 and 42 Years Old
Posted 02/23/07 in Daily Intel: Grub Street
In the fall and winter, David Cross drinks red wine with "almost every meal." (In the spring and summer, apparently, it's beer.) We'd assume he means every non-breakfast meal, but, then, he also has chili for breakfast, so who knows? He even likes red wine with his favorite snack, pretzel rods dipped in Smucker's all-natural peanut butter, chunky. What else did he have red wine with last week? Find out in the latest New York Diet at Grub Street. Comedian David Cross Likes His Peanut Butter and Pretzels With a Glass of Wine [Grub Street]
-
Reno 911: New York!
Posted 02/22/07 in Daily Intel: Party Lines
Reno 911: Miami!, the new movie based on the Comedy Central hit about an incompetent police force, screened last night as part of the Tribeca Cinema Series. The cast — um, we mean the Reno Police Department — was there, and afterward they sat for a Q&A with the audience. New York's intrepid party reporter had a few questions of her own. Do you have any advice for the NYPD? "Lt. Jim Dangle": My advice for anyone out there who wants to get into law enforcement is learn a trade. "Deputy Travis Junior": Learn a skill. Dangle: Do something valuable. Junior: Go into like … Dangle: Soft-core porno. Junior: Get a Webcam video. Do something that matters and makes a difference … Dangle: Because crime doesn't pay, but you get to make your own hours. Junior: Crime pays better than law enforcement.
-
Naked Comedy: Less Arousing Than It Sounds
Posted 02/06/07 in Daily Intel: Cultural Capital
"Clothing required on your left, clothing optional on your right," greeted the usher for the Naked Comedy Showcase at the PIT over the weekend. One middle-aged woman shimmied out of her skirt (and everything else) to the tune of "Hey Ya!" with about as much fanfare as someone getting ready for a shower, which provoked not whistles but rather indifference. Host Andy Ofiesh, a pudgy redhead who notes that "my penis is fun size; you can fit the whole thing your mouth," introduced Tommy D., who's proud of his copious body hair and man boobs, and had his cell phone tucked into his white socks and sneakers. He read poetry while a tiny bead of a mysterious white substance dripped off his balls onto the ground — the first clue that although this was indeed naked, it wouldn't necessarily inspire hooking up after the show.
-
Eugene Mirman Is An Excellent Noticer
Posted 02/06/07 in Daily Intel: 21 Questions
Name: Eugene Mirman
Age: 32
Job: Comedian; appearing in tonight's Laugh Don't Destroy, a comedy benefit for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn
Neighborhood: Park Slope Who's your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional? It's a toss-up between FDR and Spider-Man. What's the best meal you've eaten in New York? I love Brooklyn Fish Camp — lobster knuckles, Louisiana lump crab au gratin, whole fried fish that's been punched in the face and yelled at — it's all delicious. Blue Ribbon is also great, and open till 4 a.m. Their foie gras is to die for (at least for the geese). In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job? I hold a mirror up to society, and also drink a lot. And I break rules, or at least guidelines. -
Al Franken Decides He's Good Enough, Smart Enough to Run for Senate
Posted 02/01/07 in Daily Intel: In Other News
It's semi-official: Al Franken is running for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota. This info, coming from a "senior Democratic official," retroactively explains the former Upper West Sider's hasty exit from Air America earlier this week. (He'd already moved himself and his show back to his home state two years ago.) But those that expect the race to be a nice comic diversion from the other 2008 carnage should look elsewhere. Franken is not a novelty candidate — not that that would be a problem in Minnesota, post–Jesse Ventura — and Republicans there, rather than dusting off old Stuart Smalley clips, are already saying unfunny things like "Minnesotans will reject Franken's divisive, scorched-earth attacks." He was also a close friend of Minnesota's liberal, lamented Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash in 2002; a Franken candidacy is likely to invoke the specter of the popular senator. At any rate, this should be interesting. Franken to Run for Senate in Minnesota [USAT]
-
Lewis Black Lost It for Charity
Posted 01/26/07 in Daily Intel: Party Lines
Poor Lewis Black. It's his shtick to be irritated, yes. But usually it's because he wants to be irritated. At Jon Bon Jovi and Kenneth Cole's R.S.V.P to HELP benefit last night, the Tribeca Rooftop crowd was so noisy Black couldn't get a word in — and he wasn't pleased. The comic launched his act with a tirade about the long Christmas season — and we can't imagine why that bit didn't grab the crowd in late January — before growing frustrated with the noise. He first tried to just laugh it off, telling people go ahead and talk, it's not like anyone's onstage or anything. But partygoers — who seemed so unfamiliar with the benefit scene that one gal bid $50,000 on a Harley only to rescind it seconds later — took the joke as direction and turned up the volume of their chitchat.
-
Janeane Garofalo, Mellower With Age
Posted 01/12/07 in Daily Intel: Cultural Capital
A diminutive, slightly disheveled, and seemingly mellowed with age Janeane Garofalo officially returned to standup last night -- and had her first headlining gig in years -- at Comix, the new comedy club in the Meatpacking District. “Don’t ask to borrow any money from me,” the notoriously angsty and self-deprecating comic said. “It’s not like that now. My career tanked in 1998. After Mystery Men it was over.” She went on to talk about her dilapidated co-op (an impulse buy circa 1996), her herniated disk (a 2000 injury endured after drunkenly falling off a golf cart), and her decision to quit drinking entirely (see previous parenthetical). She said she now spends her time taking copious notes while watching the History Channel, ruminating on the Big Bang Theory, finding Rachael Ray’s $40 A Day “horribly offensive,” and swooning over any and all incarnations of Pride and Prejudice’s Mr. Darcy. (“I’m not made of wood, people. Come on!”). And Garofalo has even discovered beading; she tossed out handmade necklaces to the eager yupster crowd. —Rachel Wolff
Advertising
Edited by Chris Rovzar and Jessica Pressler
Daily Intel Features
Media | Politics | Business | Real Estate | Parties
21 Questions: The New York questionnaire.
Company Town: Daily media, fashion, finance, and real estate news.
Developing: Real estate news.
Gossipmonger: Your daily dose of tabloid.
Ink-Stained Wretches: News from the world of print media.
Intel: Our scoopage, for your pleasure.
Neighborhood Watch: Hyper-local news delivered daily.
Party Lines: Celebrities say the darnedest things
Sex Diaries: A New Yorker's week between the sheets.
White Men With Money: Read all White Men With Money posts
Your Complete Guide to the Best of Fall
Why Is Lieberman Really Supporting McCain?
Why People Leave New York for Buffalo 
Bill and Hill Won’t Ruin the Convention
Most Commented
Daily Intel
Last 7 Days
Vulture
Last 7 Days
Grub Street
Last 7 Days
The Cut
Last 7 Days