Ardie Fuqua is worried that he's been too funny. “I didn’t get too many laughs, did I?” he asks, sliding into a seat next to me in the back row.
He has just finished a 25-minute set at Caroline’s on Broadway, the argyle-patterned comedy club steps from Times Square, where he is opening Tracy Morgan’s lineup of Thanksgiving Weekend shows. The sound of applause is still ringing throughout the 300-seat club, and Ardie is visibly out of breath, his forehead drenched in sweat from the heat of the spotlights.
It’s easy to understand why overshadowing Tracy would not be on Ardie’s to do list. This is one of their [...]
“'When you first hear it,' says Mr. Hart, a compact, energetic comedian, 'you’re like: "What? Your dad was on drugs? That’s crazy."' Still smiling, he adds: 'It’s not that bad. I’m going to tell you why.' Among the advantages to his father’s habit? 'There’s no such thing as a bad idea to a cokehead,' Mr. Hart explains. Among the downsides? When your dad shows up stoned to a spelling bee and roots for it like a sporting competition." – The New York Times profile of the soon to be world dominating Kevin Hart.
Newsweek knew that they needed someone pretty tough to go profile Charlie Sheen, so they skipped the standard roster of entertainment reporters and went with someone who they knew could handle a disaster: Australian war reporter Michael Ware. And it sounds like he was the right man for the job: We break away and scamper up the carpeted steps, ostensibly to grab a suitably warm addition for my ill-prepared outfit, the same as I wore the day before and have evidently slept in. The movie star scoops up my jacket without breaking stride, and we slam to a halt in one of the domain’s smaller en suites. We [...]
This profile of Todd Barry is a master class in backhanded compliments. (He's funny, but not because of his material or delivery. I love this one joke of his – and it's not even that good!) But it also does an impressive job of labeling the slippery cadences and qualities of delivery that make Barry a great standup, and pointing out the similarity between standup comedy and music. Other than the main similarity that they get people laid a lot! (Except for comedy.)
This New York Times profile cements our already healthy admiration for Mindy Kaling. For one thing, she writes scripts while sitting at Johnny Rockets. A woman of the people! The article touches on her skill at navigating the "central contradiction of her career thus far, which is that she is a smart, ambitious woman who has excelled in the still-macho arena of comedy at the same time that she’s most widely recognized for playing the part of a materialistic, ditzy customer-service rep." And her new show for NBC might feature her as a gossipy OB/GYN based on her mom, which sounds kind of amazing.
