Splitsider

The City of Angels. La-la Land. Lipstick City. Tinsel Town. Hollyweird. I could list hokey nicknames for LA all day long, but maybe it’s just best to describe the town as an overcrowded mess of traffic, pollution, street gangs, broken dreams, and one of the most vibrant and active live comedy scenes in human history.

Because Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the world, most of your favorite comedians from movies and TV live here, and a lot of them make it a habit to, despite their busy day jobs, continue to perform live stand-up or improv to keep their chops up. Celebrities aren’t the only ones taking [...]

The Book of Mormon will play a twelve-week run in LA starting next Sept. 5 as part of its national tour. "LA will finally get to see what real culture feels like," say hordes of pretentious New Yorkers.

"This sculpture of Louis C.K.'s head as a melting scoop of ice cream will pair beautifully with the de Kooning in my collection," muses a small goateed private art curator in my imagination, as he walks around the second annual "Is This Thing On?" exhibit in LA this Friday. "And this ink and watercolor painting of Whitney Cummings, a clear descendent of Cézanne's Bathers, to be sure, but with its own charms-" He stops in his tracks, almost spilling his tiny clear plastic cup of wine on his many pewter rings. "Why, look at the clarity of the birds' wings, the vibrancy, the immediacy of their flight, as [...]

This essay by Conan writer Todd Levin about the status obsession in LA is a fun, if slightly depressing, read. Here's what he has to say about parking on a studio lot:

It’s not just people; even the places in Los Angeles are designed with subtle status-checking devices. The studio “drive on” versus “walk on” is a classic example. Those invited to drive directly onto a studio lot are imbued with higher status, while the rest are forced to park across the street in a (filthy! disgusting!) parking structure, then exit said structure, cross the street (for everyone to see!) and walk through the studio to your meeting [...]

Russell Brand will don the stage actor's powdered wig for a few performances of What About Dick?, a play by Eric Idle, in LA this April. The rest of the British cast is pretty fantastic too: Eddie Izzard, Jane Leeves, Sophie Winkleman, Tracey Ullman, Tim Curry, and Billy Connolly – plus Idle as the play's narrator. It's a "farcical romp" set in the early 1900s, which means there will surely be endless, interminable, unceasing naughty plays on the word "dick." You'd be an absolute fool to not attend this show if you have the chance.

It was inevitable that a city so saturated with comedians would stumble onto a storyline so unexpected from their jaded ironies and hipster quips. New York is in the middle of its own romcom and, true to form, the object of its affection is the very thing it always swore it hated: Los Angeles. But if New York is all about the bookish grad-schooly dry wit of, say, Jon Stewart and LA quintessence is the vain bubblegum blather of a Kardashian, then what kind of drama unfolds when the two lock eyes? Turns out: none.

This is not drama. Drama has mystery and tension, and what’s going on with [...]