Hot off of Twitter folks. Sounds like Mary Lynn Rajskub and some of her co-stars on 24 will be appearing at the Laugh Factory next Thursday the 27th of August. More details when I have them.

Last week I couldn’t find a show to recommend for the weekend…and this week…I’ve been plain lazy with my recommendations.  That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore live comedy on your own.  See what’s out there.  Discover someone funny.  You know what I mean.

So, to help out, I decided to add the RSS feed from A Special Thing to the site.  There is a section on AST where many comedians list their comedy shows in Los Angeles.  You can see the feed in that widget thing on the right hand side on this site.

I don’t necessarily recommend all these shows…but hell…if you feel like being adventurous…definitely starting hitting a few up and let us know what you thought.  Maybe you can do a guest write-up or something.

January 26 – February 1, 2009

Monday – 1/26
What’s Up Tiger Lily / Cuba Libre Bar / 8pm / Free
Still haven’t seen this show, but I will be there this week. It’s a bigger line-up than I usually like but Maria Bamford and Duncan Trussell are in the house, and I love them a lot. Plus Matt Champaign who I really enjoyed seeing at Ballgame’s last week is also in the line-up. Looks like Dov Davidoff will also be there among others.

Tuesday – 1/27
CDR – Patton Oswalts 40th / UCB LA / 8:30pm / $5
Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Karen Kilgariff, and the great Dana Gould. No wonder it’s already sold out. But hey, if you’re in the neighborhood…give it a shot.

Ignorance is Bliss / Melrose Improv / 10pm / $14 (but hit up Daryl Wright on Myspace for a discount)
Another show with a bigger line-up than I’d like to see, but Bret Ernst, Ian Edwards, Wright, and Dov are all very good.

Wednesday – 1/28
Comedy Juice / Melrose Improv / 10pm / $7 (email guestlist@comedyjuice.com)
Dane Cook and Dwayne Perkins are good to go for this one. And Ben Gleib will be there. Comedy Juice is always a great show.

Thursday – 1/29
Shang / Melrose Improv / 8pm / FREE (email shangism@pacbell.net)
Shang is awesome and a really fun comedian. I dig him and recommend checking out this show.

Check our Weekly Picks page for more recommendations this week.

Reading Live Comedy L.A. will give a good idea of who the top up and coming stand-up comedians are in Los Angeles.  Improv and sketch are a different story though because I have not gone to as many shows.  I’m trying to change that in ’09.  Hoping that all forms of comedy and all comedic performers get equal time here at LCLA.

For the second time this year, I saw improv/sketch duo Jamie Denbo and Jessica Chaffin perform as Ronna and Beverly at UCB LA this past Thursday night.  It’s clear that I am behind on this train of success because Jenji Kohan (who was in the audience), creator of Weeds, is already writing a series for them for Showtime.

Clearly Hollywood knows about these two and so do many others (the show was absolutely packed…and at $5 why shouldn’t it be)…but if you don’t, you need to see them.  Their characters are so developed and so convincing…that you think they are actually two middle-aged Jewish women from Boston.  They have blurred the line between acting and reality right infront of you.  It looks effortless.

Thursday’s show featured guests Ed Helms and Mindy Kaling from The Office.  Both were great sports as Ronna and Beverly poked at them about dating and relationships.

Writing about how good they are does not do these two justice.  So keep an eye out for their shows at UCB and definitely check out their videos at UCBComedy.com.

Show Count: 4.  Total Ticket Cost: $13.  Total Min. Drink Cost: $12

The ’09 Comedy Season opened a little earlier than expected. On my way to see Morgan Murphy and Jen Kirkman at UCB last night, I discovered two comedic performers that I will most certainly go see again. Jessica Chaffin and Jamie Denbo in character as Ronna Glickman and Beverly Kahn, co-authors of You’ll Do a Little Better Next Time: A Guide to Marriage and Re-marriage for Jewish Singles. If you’re Jewish, if you know someone Jewish, if you’ve heard of a Jew…you’ll love them. They are very convincing in their roles as two older Jewish women (it’s odd because they’re both kinda hot younger girls). They have tons of clips on UCBComedy.com, including the one below.

Their next show is on Thursday, January 15th. It’s called Ronna and Beverly’s All Jew Review. Make a reservation here. It’s only $5.

The Upright Citizens Brigade is a great place to go laugh in L.A. They offer great stand-up, improv, and sketch and the most expensive show they have is $8. Perfect for that newly created ’09 entertainment budget (try to stick to it at least till February folks. Then blow it all on Valentines Day on that guy or girl you just met…that’s always smart).

Check out UCBComedy.com for a glimpse at videos of the shows and the talent going through there on a nightly basis. It’s a terrific site. I would hope to see some of this content on Hulu sometime soon. The complete show schedule can be found at UCBTheater.com.

I like this set from Natasha Leggero.

I picked up the Rolling Stone Comedy issue in the Vegas airport this weekend on my way home from BlogWorld (yeah…I was at BlogWorld). If you can still grab it, it’s a good read. My biggest take away from the issue was how opinions differed on the importance of the internet to comedy.

It’s 2008 folks. This isn’t debatable anymore. The internet is extremely important to comedy and comedians. Some quotes:

Dane Cook
“It’s the most important tool any comedian can implement into their career. It’s up to you to gather your fans for your own personal personal programming. That’s powerful.”

Katt Williams
“I think it’s been wonderful for comedy – a gold rush. It happened with the comedy clubs in the Eighties and Nineties, and it’s happened again now with the internet. Whoever thinks differently is looking at it the wrong way.”

Craig Ferguson
“I think it’s actually bad for performers who are starting out. They’re not getting a chance to fail in private.”

Zach Galifianakis
“The little bit of success that I have is due to the internet. It has nothing to do with me guest-starring or being on a sitcom at all.”

Albert Brooks
“I think the internet is slowly going to take down all creativity.”

A driver plowed through the front door of IO West on June 26th. Here is the official word from the IO via Myspace and the official video tribute:

On June 26th at about 4 p.m. an SUV crashed through the front window of our beloved iO West Theater. The SUV took out the entire front door, window and a good chunk of the bar. The only good news is that no one was injured.

However the extensive damage to the exterior and interior of the building has forced the Mainstage and Bar to be

CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

Our phone service also got knocked out, so please check back at our web site and here on myspace for online updatesTHERE WILL BE NO SHOWS IN ANY OF THE IOWEST THEATERS UNTIL AT LEAST JULY 7TH MAYBE LATER KEEP CHECKING THE WEB SITE FOR UPDATES.

Classes will still go on as scheduled.

Thanks for your patience while we repair the theatre.