Tonight marks the debut of the new stand-up showcase series The Very Funny Show, premiering at 11 p.m. CT (midnight ET) on TBS.

I had the opportunity to see two episodes of The Very Funny Show at this year's Just for Laughs Chicago Festival (they were all taped at Zanies in Chicago during the festival; you can read my review of the shows here), and it was exactly the mixed bag I expect the series to be. We're going to get a mixture of club comics who are consistently strong and have earned their reputation. We'll get club comics who are still playing clubs after 20 years doing comedy for good reason. We'll get young comics looking for a break who we'll be talking about a whole lot more a year or two from now. Such is the nature of every stand-up showcase series going back to the '80s; considering we haven't had a good one in a while, I'm happy about The Very Funny Show being on the air.

Tonight's debut will air two episodes back-to-back. First up (at 11 p.m. CT), you'll get Henry Cho and Nick Thune (one of those comics we'll be talking about a lot more in a year); at 11:30, it's Whitney Cummings and Danny Bhoy. I've gone on record here before as being a big fan of Whitney Cummings, and still fully expect a big breakout from her. I also got to see Danny Bhoy live over the summer and thought he showed a great deal of promise. If anything, his set needed to be shorter and tighter, and that's exactly what The Very Funny Show will provide for him.

• Read my review of "The Very Funny Show" during the 2009 Just for Laughs Chicago Festival
• View the schedule for The Very Funny Show

Photo of Whitney Cummings by Edward M. Pio Rida/Getty Images

It's pretty much science fact at this point that the Judd Apatow-directed Funny People was considered a commercial disappointment, despite the fact that it got the writer/director some of the best reviews of his career. Unfortunately, it didn't make the amount of money that his past films made, much less the amount usually raked in by an Adam Sandler movie. It doesn't help that the film was billed solely as a comedy, despite the fact that it's very dark and often pretty heavy. I can't really blame the studio's marketing people, though. I don't know exactly how a movie like this should be sold to a wide audience. In the middle of summer. Against the stupidity of Transformers.

Anyway, that's all in the past now, as Funny People will be hitting DVD and Blu-ray next week. I suspect the movie will find a second life on home video; people that stayed away from it in theaters will be more willing to give it a shot and those that saw it and were potentially mixed about it may revise their opinions once they're able to see it for the movie it is and not the movie they were expecting. I really liked it when I saw it this summer, but I'm curious to revisit it myself.

In the meantime, let's all watch Funny People's writer/director Judd Apatow talk about the film on Funny or Die today. Beginning at 2:30 p.m. CT (3:30 p.m. ET, 12:30 p.m. PT), Apatow will answer viewer-submitted questions about the film during a live stream webcast. I, for one, am really interested in what he has to say about the film in the wake of its reception. Let's all watch together! It's a shared experience.

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It's a bit like beating a dead horse at this point, but I'll go ahead and say something I've said a dozen times before: reviewing stand-up comedy is particularly challenging because of how subjective comedy is. Comedian Gabriel Iglesias is a terrific example of this: he has a huge, loyal following, several successful comedy specials and on his newest stand-up DVD, I'm Not Fat...I'm Fluffy, it's very obvious that there's an audience that finds his every word hilarious. The fact that I don't agree doesn't make these people wrong or Iglesias any less funny -- it's just that we happen to part ways on what we choose to laugh at...(Continue Reading Gabriel Iglesias: I'm Not Fat...I'm Fluffy Review)

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Comedian Ken Ober, best known as the host of the MTV game show Remote Control in the '80s, was found dead on Sunday at the age of 52.

Ober was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, and raised in Connecticut. He started out as an actor and comedian before landing the gig that would make him famous, hosting the pop culture game show Remote Control in 1987. That show also helped launch the careers of comedians like Adam Sandler, Colin Quinn and Julie Brown. Ober worked as a disc jockey in the 1990s (co-hosting a radio show with former Brady Bunch star Susan Olson) before returning to game shows as the host of a revived Make me Laugh in 1997.

More recently, Ober served as a producer on the short-lived Comedy Central talk show Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn and the CBS sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine. He was found dead on Sunday, reportedly complaining of flu-like symptoms on Saturday before having a heart attack (this according to The Comic's Comic).

As someone who used to watch Remote Control with a good deal of devotion, I can say that Ober always seemed like a really nice, happy guy, and I always enjoyed his relaxed comic energy. He's way too young to be gone.

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Comedy fans rejoice. There's something for everyone hitting store shelves this week, including the new special from Dane Cook, a new album and DVD from Howard Stern Show sidekick Artie Lange, a whole box set of stuff from accused burglar Katt Williams and more. Time to start your holiday shopping, yo!

CD

• Artie Lange - Jack and Coke
• Katt Williams - The Katt Box

DVD

• Brüno (Read the review)
• Margaret Cho: Beautiful
• Artie Lange: Jack and Coke
  
• Dane Cook: ISolated INcident (Read the review)

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This week's episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Madmen star January Jones, was the worst of the season so far. That's interesting, because it was almost this exact week a year ago that the show hit its season low with its Tim McGraw-hosted installment. Is it something about Thanksgiving? A post-Halloween sugar crash?

I have never seen an episode of Madmen (I will, I promise), but I have to assume that January Jones is very good on it. That show is the most critically acclaimed on TV, and she's a professional actress. It's her job! (Continue reading "Saturday Night Live Recap: January Jones/Black Eyed Peas")

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No new comedy albums this week, but a number of comedy specials and DVDs hit shelves this week. I haven't seen any of them (though look for my review of I'm Not Fat...I'm Fluffy soon), so I'll just go ahead and recommend the new volume of the Three Stooges Collection. Sure, it's still covering the Shemp years, but these are the best possible versions of the Stooges shorts we're going to get and Shemp Stooges are better than no Stooges. I may change my tune once we get to Curly Joe and Joe Besser, but for now I'm backing the Stooges.

DVD

• The Three Stooges Collection Vol. 7: 1954 - 1952
• Gabriel Iglesias: I'm Not Fat...I'm Fluffy (Read the review)
• Mike Epps: Under Rated and Never Faded
• Greg Behrendt is That Guy from That Thing

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In what appears to be the continuing backslide of his career thanks to a string of bizarre behavior, it's being reported that comedian Katt Williams was arrested near Atlanta, Georgia, on Sunday on burglary charges. If you need to read that again, I'll understand.

Not many details are known right now other than that a resident of Newnan, Georgia, called police Sunday night to report a break-in and that some jewelry had allegedly been taken. As of Monday morning, Williams was still in custody and was expected to post bond by Monday afternoon.

This isn't Williams' first brush with the law. Last November, he pulled out of a headlining performance at the Comedy Festival in Las Vegas just days after being arrested on weapons charges in New York (though his management cited "exhaustion" as the reason for the cancellation). He was also arrested in November of 2006 after bringing a gun into Los Angeles International airport, for which he received three years probation. At least he waited until those were up, right?

Is it something about November for Katt Williams? Or is he just losing his mind? Maybe there's something much more serious going on. Maybe I shouldn't make jokes. Whatever the case, Williams once showed a great deal of promise and was easily one of the most popular comedians working today. That's all going to get pissed away pretty fast with stories like this. His is turning out to be one of the more fascinating career trajectories in recent years.

This much is certain: we can expect Carlos Mencia to try and get arrested for jaywalking by the end of the week. Mark my words.

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I was expecting this week's episode of Saturday Night Live, featuring host and musical guest Taylor Swift, to be a kind of disaster. Swift is untested as an actor and pretty young, but while she did act (at times) like a singer trying to act, she was the least of the night's problems. In fact, she managed to win me over with her willingness to commit to bits and a certain goofy spirit. She turned out to be one of the brighter spots in a episode that once again succumbed to utter laziness, an issue that's plagued SNL for the entire season so far. Most of the sketches were repeated and failed to supply any new twists from what we've come to expect, making them placeholders designed to fill out 90 minutes. Like it's often said: Saturday Night Live doesn't go on each week because it's ready. It goes on because it's 10:30...(Continue reading "SNL Recap: Taylor Swift)

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Jon Reep's comedy isn't for me. He makes sure of that on his first stand-up album, Metro Jethro, in which he creates the divide that defines his comedy early and often -- it's small town versus big city; Us versus Them. Where you fall into either one of those two groups is likely going to determine how much you're able to enjoy Metro Jethro.

It's not that comedy can't be funny simply because you're unable to relate to it. It's that Reep doesn't seem all that interested in making it accessible to those who can't relate -- unless you simply want to laugh at the exaggerated "backwards" ways of the small-town South...(Continue reading Metro Jethro review)

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