Relativity Media announced today that Peter Farrelly (of the comedy directing team the Farrelly Brothers), Brett Ratner, actress Elizabeth Banks, Bob Odenkirk and Griffin Dunne are each directing segments for a sketch comedy feature film. More directors are expected to be announced shortly. Originally set up at Overture Films, the yet-to-be-titled comedy project has a unifying storyline and is in the vein of previous sketch films like "Kentucky Fried Movie", "The Groove Tube", and "Amazon Women on the Moon". Not much more is known about the premise at this time, however.
The growing cast includes Elizabeth Banks, Gerard Butler, Kieran Culkin, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Knoxville, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Liev Schreiber, Sean William Scott, Tony Shalhoub, Emma Stone, Matt Walsh, Patrick Warburton, Naomi Watts, and Kate Winslet. The producers will announce additional cast members as further deals are solidified, and production will continue through late May 2010.
Peter Farrelly, Charles Wessler, GreeneStreet Films’ John Penotti and Relativity Media’s Ryan Kavanaugh are producing the project. “Relativity has been the perfect partner through the extraordinarily complicated process of putting this movie together. We are thrilled to be underway,” commented Farrelly. Farrelly and Wessler are long time collaborators, working on many of the classic Farrelly Brothers comedies including "There’s Something About Mary" and "Dumb and Dumber".
From @ConanOBrien: "Hey Internet: I'm headed to your town on a half-assed comedy & music tour. Go to http://TeamCoco.com for tix. I repeat: It's half-assed."
And with that tweet, Conan O'Brien today confirmed the rumors of a tour that begins April 12 in Eugene, Oregon. Promising "A night of music, comedy, hugging, and the occasional awkward silence," The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour will visit 30 cities in a span of just over two months.
Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster. At the few venues I checked, standard ticket prices seem to start at around $35 and escalate to $75. Meet & Greet packages are also available ($695 in Los Angeles and San Diego). "Hot Seat" and "Hot Sound" packages are also available, although we're not quite sure what those entail at this time.
Update: not all tickets are being sold through Ticketmaster. For best results, visit teamcoco.com.
You may know comedian Chris Fairbanks from his appearances on "Last Comic Standing" or "Reality Bites Back", or from appearing on podcasts like "Never Not Funny" and "Comedy and Everything Else". His first CD, "Fairbanks!", from Rooftop Comedy Records, is now available through the Itunes store.
Continuing in their tradition of poorly promoting their own material, the CD is not mentioned on Rooftop's site, and even finding a picture of the album's cover art on the Internet proved difficult. (The picture accompanying this story is close, but not quite the cover art). You can keep track of what Chris is up to by going to his site, chrisfairbanks.net, however.
This is it! If you didn't call in or log on last week to donate to WFMU, the world's greatest 100% listener supported radio station, then this is your LAST and ONLY chance to get Tom Scharpling's unreasonably amazing donation premium: The Chump Steamroller Fun Pack.
What's in this thing? Well, only a DVD called Fantasia in Best Show Minor, featuring AST favorites Patton Oswalt, Paul F. Tompkins, Zach Galifianakis, Tim & Eric, Todd Barry, Jason Woliner, Scharpling and Wurster and many more known associates of the Best Show. Also in there? A full set of Best Show trading cards, the first Best Show bumper sticker, and for pledges of $1000, some kind of super secret premium that's so secret that I can't even finish thi
That's not all: appearing live in studio, Patton Oswalt and John Hodgman! This thing is crazy! Tune in to WFMU tonight at 8 PM EST, on your radio dial at 91.1 Mhz FM in the NY/NJ area or on WFMU.org around the world and pledge, either by calling in to 1-800-989-9368 or going online at www.WFMU.org.
For more details from the man himself, Tom Scharpling, read on:
In 2003, the Upright Citizens Brigade filmed their first full-length improvised movie, "Wild Girls Gone". After several years of being unreleased, the long-awaited film is now available for digital download on iTunes.
The movie takes place in the spring break capital of White Sands, Florida. Sheriff Terry Moran (Matt Walsh) outlaws the town's world famous Ass Contests in a bid to win the elderly votes in his campaign for mayor - even though he is married to the town's former Ass Contest Queen, Doreen (Amy Poehler). Unhappy with how her husband and her town is changing, Doreen breaks out of her bored drunk housewife existence to recapture her youth and sabotage her husband's campaign. Meanwhile, Stevie (Ian Roberts), a video store clerk and aspiring documentary filmmaker, gets goaded into making a movie about spring break by his scheming stoner friend Ray (Matt Besser). But Stevie's lofty ambitions for a documentary about human behavior are constantly derailed by Ray's offensive behavior, shady connections and criminal acts.
Jimmy Kimmel, Jay Mohr, Joe Rogan, Kevin Smith, Aziz Ansari, Sarah Silverman, Jeffrey Ross, Adam Carolla and Bill Burr are all slated to appear on Kevin & Bean's 2nd annual April Foolishness Saturday, April 3 at L.A.'s Gibson Amphitheatre.
Tickets ranging from $116 to $42 (including fees) go on sale tomorrow, Saturday, March 6 at noon. The $116 "Fancy Pants Section" seats include a pit seat, backstage access, backstage parking, a one hour reception with The Kevin & Bean Show and a Fancy Pants T-shirt. Proceeds from the show benefit Boarding for Breast Cancer, a snowboard-inspired Breast Cancer foundation, and Camp Laurel, a camp focused on people and families affected by HIV & AIDS.
For the (fortunate) uninitiated, Kevin & Bean are the morning team on KROQ, L.A.'s "world famous" alternative radio station. The show will also feature Jimmy Kimmel Live! house band Cleto & The Cletones. And the whole shooting match is somehow affiliated with the Macgruber movie.
Tickets are available at Ticketmaster and at the Gibson box office.
NBC's under-appreciated comedy Parks and Recreation is taking two handsome dark-haired men from their precious normal jobs on other television shows. Star of Wayne's World Rob Lowe is being stolen away from his normal gig as Robert McCallister in ABC's Brothers and Sisters, which is apparently a show. Adam Scott, best known as the complete dick of a brother Derek in StepBrothers, is presumably leaving the acclaimed Starz comedy Party Down. I assure you that Starz exists, it is a premium cable channel. Wiki it.
Both actors are rumored to start their roles late in the current season and then become regular cast members in the third season.
According to Hitfix, Comedy Central has confirmed a June 24th, 2010 air date for the first new episode of the revived "Futurama." Despite a brief contract dispute last year, the show is returning with its entire original cast intact. 26 episodes are being produced, and despite talk of the show potentially airing on Fox (its original home) first, it looks like Comedy Central will be premiering the new content exclusively.
FunnyorDie.com has taken celebrity stunt casting in web videos to a whole new level with this Ron Howard(!)-directed short featuring every major Saturday Night Live alum who did a presidential impression on the show, from Chevy Chase (Gerald Ford) to Fred Armisen (Barack Obama). To replace the late, great Phil Hartman (Ronald Reagan), the production had to settle for a former road comic and Fox sketch show performer named Jim Carrey. Rounding out the cast: Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, Dana Carvey, Dan Aykroyd and Maya Rudolph as Michelle Obama (the sketch was written by an equally impressive roster of SNL and Simpsons alums: Al Jean, Adam McKay, Tom Gammill, Max Pross, Dan Greaney & Michael Price). Those names alone will behoove you to watch this, but they probably also make you a little skeptical that this could live up to its pedigree and actually be funny. Well, against all odds, it is. Now we wait for the sequel, in which Terry Sweeney leads the illustrious roster of SNL first ladies.
Friend of AST Chris Hardwick (aka @nerdist) returns to G4 at 8 PM tonight with a new season of "Web Soup", the show that captures the "best of the worst" moments on the web and brings viewers a no-holds-barred look at the week's Internet mayhem. In each episode, Hardwick presents a selection of crashes, bloopers, accidents and more, along with his wry commentary, signature sketches and side-splitting reenactments. Writers on the show include Blaine Capatch and Jonah Ray. For more info, check out G4's website for the show.
Spike TV expands its comedic slate tonight with "Players," a series created by and starring two of the founders of the acclaimed improvisational comedy troupe the Upright Citizens Brigade, Matt Walsh and Ian Roberts. "Players" follows two brothers (Walsh and Roberts) with conflicting personalities trying to run a successful sports bar. Walsh is Bruce Fitzgerald, a free-spirited, fun-loving guy's guy who is living out his fantasy of owning a sports bar that allows him to bet on games, drink for free and date the cocktail waitresses. His older, uptight brother, Ken (Roberts), tries to keep the focus on turning a profit while avoiding lawsuits and health code violations. The series also features Krista (Danielle Schneider), the promiscuous waitress who has an affinity for B-list athletes and married men; Barb (June Diane Raphael), the insecure and neurotic waitress who falls in love with Bruce; Hickey (Jack McGee), a retired cop who got Bruce out of a gambling debt and was rewarded with a job where, instead of actually working, he spends most of his time bidding on sports memorabilia on eBay; and Calvin (James Pumphrey), the young, simple-minded bartender who lives in the store room and is an aspiring sports model who idolizes Bruce.
The 10-episode series was improvised based on outlines, similar to "Curb Your Enthusiasm", and is executive produced by Walsh, Roberts, and Jason Woliner (who directed the pilot as well as multiple episodes). The players.spike.com site will include exclusive outtakes, cast bios and photos for each of the main characters. After the series premiere tonight at 10:30 PM, fans will be able to catch sneak peek scenes leading into each week's new episode and other episodic content.
Shout! Factory has revealed today that they have acquired the rights from Sony to release The Larry Sanders Show - The Complete Series on DVD. Shout! representatives have confirmed this with us, telling us to expect the release some time in September. Show star Garry Shandling, who participated in DVD extras for Shout! Factory's 2009 release of It's Garry Shandling's Show - The Complete Series, was reportedly pleased with the studio's efforts for that DVD collection, and it is hoped he will again be available for bonus material on the new Larry Sanders release. Stay tuned for further details, as developments occur! [ TV Shows on DVD ]
AST Home
Relativity Media 
You may know comedian Chris Fairbanks from his appearances on "Last Comic Standing" or "Reality Bites Back", or from appearing on podcasts like "Never Not Funny" and "Comedy and Everything Else". His first CD, "Fairbanks!", from Rooftop Comedy Records, is now available through the Itunes store. 
This is it! If you didn't call in or log on last week to donate to WFMU, the world's greatest 100% listener supported radio station, then this is your LAST and ONLY chance to get Tom Scharpling's unreasonably amazing donation premium: The Chump Steamroller Fun Pack. 
Monday, March 8th:
In 2003, the Upright Citizens Brigade filmed their first full-length improvised movie, "Wild Girls Gone". After several years of being unreleased, the long-awaited film is now available for digital download on iTunes. 
Jimmy Kimmel, Jay Mohr, Joe Rogan, Kevin Smith, Aziz Ansari, Sarah Silverman, Jeffrey Ross, Adam Carolla and Bill Burr are all slated to appear on Kevin & Bean's 2nd annual April Foolishness Saturday, April 3 at L.A.'s Gibson Amphitheatre.
NBC's under-appreciated comedy Parks and Recreation is taking two handsome dark-haired men from their precious normal jobs on other television shows. Star of Wayne's World Rob Lowe is being stolen away from his normal gig as Robert McCallister in ABC's Brothers and Sisters, which is apparently a show. Adam Scott, best known as the complete dick of a brother Derek in StepBrothers, is presumably leaving the acclaimed Starz comedy Party Down. I assure you that Starz exists, it is a premium cable channel. Wiki it.
According to 
Friend of AST Chris Hardwick (aka 
Spike TV expands its comedic slate tonight with "Players," a series created by and starring two of the founders of the acclaimed improvisational comedy troupe the Upright Citizens Brigade, Matt Walsh and Ian Roberts. "Players" follows two brothers (Walsh and Roberts) with conflicting personalities trying to run a successful sports bar. Walsh is Bruce Fitzgerald, a free-spirited, fun-loving guy's guy who is living out his fantasy of owning a sports bar that allows him to bet on games, drink for free and date the cocktail waitresses. His older, uptight brother, Ken (Roberts), tries to keep the focus on turning a profit while avoiding lawsuits and health code violations. The series also features Krista (Danielle Schneider), the promiscuous waitress who has an affinity for B-list athletes and married men; Barb (June Diane Raphael), the insecure and neurotic waitress who falls in love with Bruce; Hickey (Jack McGee), a retired cop who got Bruce out of a gambling debt and was rewarded with a job where, instead of actually working, he spends most of his time bidding on sports memorabilia on eBay; and Calvin (James Pumphrey), the young, simple-minded bartender who lives in the store room and is an aspiring sports model who idolizes Bruce.
Shout! Factory has revealed today that they have acquired the rights from Sony to release The Larry Sanders Show - The Complete Series on DVD. Shout! representatives have confirmed this with us, telling us to expect the release some time in September. Show star Garry Shandling, who participated in DVD extras for Shout! Factory's 2009 release of It's Garry Shandling's Show - The Complete Series, was reportedly pleased with the studio's efforts for that DVD collection, and it is hoped he will again be available for bonus material on the new Larry Sanders release. Stay tuned for further details, as developments occur! [ 
Monday, March 1st:
