“My name is Michael Ian Black. You might know me from such shows as Cancelled, Comedy Central’s No Longer on the Air and my sitcom Two and a Half Episodes.”

This is how M.I.B. starts his album Very Famous. But in all reality you might recognize him—keyword might, how’s your obscure TV memory?—from the TV shows Ed, Comedy Central’s Michael and Michael, and his previous 2007 stand-up album I Am A Wonderful Man. Regardless of his iffy TV career, Ian Black is a polished and well-crafted stand-up comedian.

Black’s mantra throughout this CD is, “Aha! Opportunity to be hilarious.” Because as far as he’s concerned he should be paid every time he makes a joke in the real world. Even if it may seem rude or crass or downright exploitative of others it doesn’t matter as long as there is some kind of joy or hope generated, however false and fleeting it might be.

Black does not have to rely on his Hollywood career and tales of the seedy underbelly of TV sitcoms. His material instead, comes from a mixed batch of triumphs and humiliation stemming from his personal life to his favorite hypothetical game called “Ambien Racing.”

His material tends to be long form and structured like a story. He goes through tales of airports—which he hates—saying, “I have decided that if I cannot make air travel pleasant for myself, the least I can do is make it unpleasant for somebody else.” He’ll then move to the topic of his children’s Halloween costumes to the time he thought he had blood in his stool.

Black has that moment in his life that we all have sooner or later: the moment you are disappointed in your children. Actually for me it’s more like being disappointed in my Transformers or Star Wars Play-Doh figurines, but I feel the pain nonetheless. His children have dressed up in generic Halloween costumes. But luckily he finds redemption. When it turns out that the neighbor kid has dressed up as a much more creative idea he exclaims, “I did not give that child candy. I gave him a hug and wrote him a check for a hundred dollars.”

Some facial expressions get lost in the translation to audio CD. Actions such as feigning the last seconds before he dies to emulating a supposedly adorable cat’s face delight the crowd, but mystify the listening audience.. The kind of things that we all paint with our imagination brush but fail to ever confirm. It’s probably just Comedy Central’s diabolical plan to get me to pay for the DVD.

Very Famous is on sale in stores and on Itunes. Black does a masterful job finding his opportunities to be hilarious as well as relaying his autobiographical embarrassments in equal measure. If things continue to be bleak on the TV and movie front, then stand-up comedy fans might be the benefactors. Follow him on Twitter @MichaelIanBlack.

For more comedy reviews and exclusive interviews visit our AmericasComedy.com Facebook fan page and follow us on Twitter @AmericasComedy!

If you thought comedian Mitch Fatel couldn’t get any more personal, think again.  The comedian explains in a CNN comedy interview how he wouldn’t mind trading wives with NFL quarterbacks Eli Manning or Aaron Rodgers.  Given that Manning lives in the same building as Fatel and his fiancé Jessica,  it came as no surprise why the comedian thought of such a proposition. It takes a man with a huge set of balls  to propose a swap like that on national television.

Fatel is not afraid to say what’s on his mind, especially when the topic involves sex and women. During his interview, Fatel defends the idea of being a swinger by comparing a monogamous relationship to ice cream flavors. “If you eat chocolate ice cream every day and love chocolate ice cream, it doesn’t mean that if one day you have butter pecan, you still don’t want your chocolate ice cream,” he said.

Forget Dr. Phil, I’m going to Mitch Fatel for relationship advice.  The comedian and his fiancé are expected to wed this June in Thailand where he proposed to her.  Best of luck to the couple and to the journey they are about to embark!

For more comedy news and exclusive interviews visit our AmericasComedy.com Facebook fan page and follow us on Twitter @AmericasComedy!

If laughter can save the world, maybe it can brighten our politics as well. American comedienne and TV actress Roseanne Barr has announced she is running for the Green Party’s presidential nomination.

A long-time supporter of the party, Barr looks forward to being with people that share the same values as herself. Barr feels the two major parties are just not doing enough to serve the American people.

“The Democrats and Republicans have proven that they are servants – bought and paid for by the 1% – who are not doing what’s in the best interest of the American people,” the comedienne said.

The 59-year old Roseanne alum has been politically involved for decades. Presently living on a 46-acre macadamia nut farm in Hawaii where her reality show Roseanne’s Nuts was filmed, Barr is no stranger to the living green concept.

“I am no wing. I am an American,” she said during an interview with TheWrap. “I believe in people-ism. Solutions that work for everybody.  I think we should stop dividing ourselves and get food to the hungry and decent food to people all over the world. Clean water. Decent fuel that doesn’t poison us. We’re so smart. We can regenerate limbs with stem cells. We can grow safe and good food and get along.”

The party’s presidential nominee will be selected at a convention in Baltimore, Maryland, in July.

Watch Barr try to sing the national anthem here, courtesy of YouTube:

Grace Helbig has made a career out of being funny. Lucky for her, she’s had this talent most of her life. She remembers first thinking of comedy as something she should pursue on a family roadtrip the same year Comedy Central’s Southpark made it’s debut.

“I was sitting all the way in the back, in the car, because they didn’t let me sit with them,” recalls Helbig. “And I started doing an impression of Cartman… and my older step brother started cracking up hysterically and kept asking me to do it again and again. And I thought that was the best moment ever. So from there I just wanted to make them laugh all the time.”

As a young adult, Helbig attended Ramapo College and began interning at various places throughout New York City. She reached out to the People’s Improv Theater (PIT), in order to take classes at significantly cheaper rates. Although Helbig has been on a house improv team for over 3 years now, her original intentions didn’t lie in performing.

“When I originally went to the PIT, I never wanted to be a performer. I went to take sketch writing classes, because I wanted to be the next Tina Fey. I interned for the theater, and because I was interning I was able to take classes really cheaply and they had a level one improv class that didn’t have a full roster on it, so they asked if I wanted to take it. I said no for a while then I finally agreed. After a couple classes I just fell in love with it. I loved it so, so much, and I became really addicted to the spontaneity of it.”

After a summer of falling in love with improv, Helbig came back to her school with a new goal: to start her own improv team.

“It was pretty dumbly ambitious to be like, ‘I know everything about improv now, lets start a team!’” explains Helbig. “I came back and I was actually friends with a couple of older students who had taken improv classes themselves and wanted to do improv, and a bunch of other actor/comedy friends who wanted to learn about it. We all basically understood the principles, but we created an episodic improv team called ‘The B.C.’ which was a play on ‘The O.C.’ because we lived in Bergen County. We each played characters and we would do one hour episodes once a week on campus. We would play characters but the entire episode was improvised. We would get an event that would happen throughout the episode from the audience and then we knew at the end of the show where we wanted to end up. So we would improvise all of our dialogue throughout the show. It was really fun. It was a nice, easy way to do long form improv without doing actual long form improv.”

Starting one new project on campus wasn’t enough though. Helbig still had aspirations as a sketch writer, and pursued them in the form of making a sketch TV show with a few friends. It turned out to be a big undertaking with which they had a lot of help.

“It was like closed circuit campus television, and it was so bad but it was so great at the same time,” remembers Helbig. “We luckily had a professor that really liked our ambition, and dedicated an entire TV production course semester to creating our television show. So he sort of forced this entire TV production class to work on our show for a semester, which was a very awkward feeling, but we got a lot done.”

After school, Helbig was working in New York and needed a place to live. What she found was not only a place to live, but a way to make more money, and an idea that significantly helped shaped her life, bringing her to where she is today.

“I got hired to house sit…in New Jersey for a month,” said Helbig. “And it was a great way to have a place to live and to be making money, because I was working for Viacom at the time. The house was big and empty so I had (my friend) Michelle come over and stay with me. We both had saved up and bought iMacs. We wanted to use our newfound editing knowledge – we took like two editing classes in college and thought we were pros. We had watched a couple of girls do vlogs online and we thought we could do this, and we’re in a transitional state, so lets make a vlog series about our transition from New Jersey to Brooklyn.”

The vlogs caught on fairly well, and helped Helbig move from being a girl just posting videos to the web for fun, to a girl posting videos to the web for an actual paycheck.

“From there I got hired by…MyDamnChannel.com to host their website, to basically transition these vlogs I was doing with Michelle into v-logs about things on their website…They hired me basically as a way to interact with their audience, to ask them how they thought about different shows, what they wanted to see more of…From there it grew into DailyGrace that lives today, which has nothing to do with MyDamnChannel, and it gives me complete creative control now to do whatever comedy things I want to do.”

DailyGrace is Helbig’s current vlog project where she posts videos of herself online discussing random situations and happenings. Check out the Facebook fan page for it here.

While all this was occurring, Grace was still doing sketch and improv, had picked up agents and managers, and was auditioning for different TV jobs. One of these auditions was to replace Olivia Munn as cohost on Attack of  the Show. While it didn’t pan out exactly that way, she still ended up having a significant role.

“I was in L.A. for other reasons and I met with Attack of the Show and pitched them concepts for correspondent pieces. They said ‘Oh, well you’re on the east coast, we don’t have an official east coast correspondent, so what would you say to us sending you out on stuff on the east coast?’”

Helbig accepted the job immediately, and found herself deeper in the celebrity pool than she was expecting.

“The first interview I did for them was with Lonely Island, which was so overwhelming, because the first thing I’m doing, I’m sitting down with three comedic geniuses and I’m just like ‘Uh, I make internet videos, too!’”

When asked if she had any other Lonely Island experiences, where she felt overly nervous before an interview. She explained that while a lot of topics she does pieces on aren’t really part of her everyday life, the interviews she did for Harry Potter were nerve-wracking because she was in love the cast and story.

“Going in during those auditions, I had to really check myself before I went into the room because I was older than all these boys that I was interviewing, but I was fan-girling like a twelve year old, and I had to contain myself, it was insane.”

For now, Helbig has complete creative freedom and control of her career. She explained that while it has been fantastic, there are also some unforeseen drawbacks.

“I’m in LA now, to audition for shows and films for a pilot season out here, and it has been somewhat of a wakeup call that I have so much creative freedom that sometimes I forget how to audition for other people’s things. You definitely don’t want to offend a writer by not reading their dialogue in the audition, but I do have this improv hair in my body that doesn’t go away when I want to make up my own stuff. So its been, actually, an exercise in classic auditioning out here, which is something I’ve gotten away from so much because someone’s been giving me too much creative freedom.”

When asked what advice, if any, she would give to someone trying to begin their own career in show business, Grace was nice enough to lend this advice.

“Make sure you’re always having fun, no matter what you’re doing,” she said. “Because if its not fun, why are you doing it? Its like eating food. If you don’t like a piece of pizza, don’t eat it. Also, create content. Thats really why I wanted to do Dan Bower’s Inside the Actor’s Studio Apartment, because I really admired his ambition for just wanting to create content. And create content that you would want to watch yourself. And start creating content now, because it evolves, and it gets better as time goes on. I’ve been vlogging for four years now, and I look back to the first year of vlogging, and they were bad, they were so bad and I thought they were awesome. Let it evolve and find a voice.”

Check out Grace Helbig on Twitter @GraceHelbig. For more comedy news and exclusive interviews visit our AmericasComedy.com Facebook fan page and follow us on Twitter @AmericasComedy!

How funny would you have to be for 1.5 billion people to watch your YouTube videos?

The man who can answer that question is comedian Ray William Johnson. According to one news outlet, Johnson averages 5 million views per week on videos he uploads. Each video is a riff on other trending YouTube videos and features Johnson’s in-your-face brand of humor and commentary.

Johnson studied at Columbia University but apparently did not graduate, adding him to the growing list of millionaires without a degree.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Johnson refuted claims he made that much money, saying, “Maybe someday, if I work hard enough, entertainment will be a career for me, but right now making videos and uploading them to the Internet is just a hobby. I run advertisements and sell T-shirts to cover overhead costs and pay the few people who help me out behind the scenes. Anything left over is spent on production costs, animation costs, etc.”

One expert, David Cohen, who is a global digital officer of media buyers Universal McCann, said that, ‘This is a microcosm of what’s going on in the overall media landscape. We’re moving from a scaled mass media to more hyper-local, niche media.”

My advice to people who think they’re funny? GET ON YOUTUBE ALREADY! Send me a thank you check later.

You can follow Johnson on Twitter here @RayWJ.

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Fact: bears eat beets.

Fact: bears beats Battlestar Galactica.

Fact: a Dwight Schrute spinoff beats any prank that Jim has pulled on Dwight in the hilarious eight year run of NBC’s The Office.

The Office has not been picked up for a ninth season and with stars John Krasinski, Ed Helms, Mindy Kaling and Rainn Wilson all unsigned it might be time to shift the focus from the Dunder Mifflin/ Sabre Incorporated Scranton branch to the infamous beet farm of one Dwight K. Schrute.

Reportedly it is the brain child of Wilson who has called the potential show and characters, “even more far out than The Office.” The spinoff could potentially be an Office test episode aired sometime later this spring. Being called a family show, it would feature a multi-generational Schrute family at the Bed & Breakfast Beet farm that has been seen on multiple episodes.

But many critics are quick to ask, “Is this really a good idea?” Spinoffs rarely ever work (the most notable exception is probably Frasier, a spin-off of Cheers). Wilson has carved out one of TV’s most unique and oddly hilarious characters, but it remains to be seen whether that character can drive an entire show.

For more comedy news and exclusive interviews visit our AmericasComedy.com Facebook fan page and follow us on Twitter @AmericasComedy!

While we can appreciate a hot date or even a one night stand, AmericasComedy.Com has finally matured enough to realize that the best relationships are long term and mutually beneficial.

We are looking for writers who love writing in general and about comedy in particular. You should be a comedy fan with a working knowledge about the stand-up comedy scene both present and those who blazed a trail before them.

Comedian Interviews
Well known for our in-depth interviews with comedians like Pablo Francisco, Cedric the Entertainer, Whitney Cummings, Bob Saget, Nick DiPaolo, Kevin Pollak, Tammy Pescatelli, Dat Phan, Andy Kindler, Michael DeStefano, George Wallace, Jimmy Pardo, ANT and many others, each interview has been an experience for both our readers and our writers.

Comedy Album Reviews
They say everyone’s a critic.. but is that true? We are looking for articulate writers that can listen to and review comedians like Louis C.K., Patton Oswalt, Lewis Black, Pete Holmes, Kurt Metzger, or Amy Schumer. We often receive promotional copies of CD’s, DVD’s and digital CD’s that you can add to your collection while enlightening our readers.

Comedy News
AmericasComedy.Com also includes a daily dose of comedians in the news. We are seeking writers who can write breaking stories and provide short (250-400 word) blog posts, three to four times a week. Our comedy news section is updated daily and blogging is a great way to add to your byline or your writing portfolio.

Super Secret Facebook Group
Our writers get to join our private and super secret Facebook group, which we use as our “water cooler” to pitch story ideas, share news stories, and talk about ways to grow our website. Staff meetings (WebEx conference calls) are kept to a minimum with most communication between writers, editors, and the publisher via email.

Compensation
As a non-revenue generating site, AmericasComedy.Com is unable to pay for each article submitted. We do, however, have a financial reward for those writers that get the most traffic both weekly and monthly. Though not enough to quit your day job, it does allow a payout of a couple hundred dollars a month for those writers that take an active role in using their social media (Facebook sharing, Tweeting, Blogging, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, etc.) to spread their proverbial writing “seed” to the internet winds.

Interested?

People who have a background in writing, communications, journalism, or just love comedy are welcome to send in a cover letter with two writing samples to CortTafoya@AmericasComedy.com. Please include any experience you have using social media. The most important qualification for writing for our website is a knowledge and passion for comedians and their craft.

 One Time Submission

If you are a rouge, uncommitted sort and feel that you might just have one good story in you, we offer an article submission process for those that just want to freelance. Please remember however, we are looking for stories ABOUT comedy and comedians, not just funny stories (though a funny story about a comedian works!)

Come and join AmericasComedy.Com as we change the world one laugh at a time!

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On Wednesday night, David Letterman celebrated the 30^th anniversary of hosting the Late Show, combining his time on NBC and the show’s current run on CBS.

In true Late Show fashion, some of the staffers, including some that have been there all 30 years, read the show’s nightly “Top 10″ list. The topic: “Top 10 Things Staffers Would Like to Say to Letterman on His 30th Anniversary.”

Some of the best? “I stopped watching in ‘92” and “Thirty Years – - We’ve never met.”

Guests for the night included Howard Stern and Bill Murray. Howard and Dave looked through photographs and made fun of each other for their haircuts during one of Howard’s 41 appearances on the show since the 1980s. Murray, who was Dave’s first guest on the show on February 1, 1982, brought out a cupcake with 30 candles on it and almost set the stage on fire.

Barack Obama, Justin Bieber, and George Clooney offered “anniversary greetings,” or the staff just took video from their appearances on the show and dubbed them with some guy’s voice saying anniversary greetings.

Dave takes the record for hosting a late night show. Johnny Carson, Dave’s idol, hosted the Tonight Show for 29 years and eight months.

Happy 30^th Anniversary, Dave. The Late Show With David Letterman airs weeknights on CBS at 11:35 p.m. ET.

Check out a clip from Dave’s anniversary show here, courtesy of YouTube:

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Reality shows have taken our flat screens by storm, offering a gamut of topics from pint-sized divas to bounty hunters. Many celebrities have jumped on board this fast growing genre of modern television, and the public loves to watch their favorite stars make fools of themselves.

Comedian Joan Rivers, who is known for her sharp tongue and ridicule of fellow stars, shocked viewers of her WE reality show Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?, when she lit up a pipe filled with medical marijuana while sitting in a parked car with her friend Lynne. The two got a prescription for the drug, which is legal in the state of California, without much effort.

I guess when you’re a celebrity it’s not hard to find a dodgy doc to write you a permission slip.

“Well, I had a very difficult moment there after the surgery and I got medicinal drugs. In California you get medicinal marijuana. You go to a doctor and you say I’m blue and he says here. It’s amazing, I was in shock. And I got it and I smoked it and had a great time,” Rivers shared with the Huffington Post.

After a smoke session, the pair stopped by a fast food joint to satisfy the munches that followed. In the end, the 78-year old actress finds herself fully clothed in the jacuzzi drinking pool water from her shoe. In the episode that aired on Tuesday, Rivers’ daughter Melissa compares the gals to Cheech and Chong – the 70′s stoner film comedians.

The best part about Rivers is she doesn’t give a crap about what others think, and she’ll continue lighting up crowds…And joints.

Check out Joan lighting up here, courtesy of YouTube:

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The British are the best when it comes to TV comedies, so it’s not surprising that another U.K. remake is on the horizon. An American version of the hilarious British sitcom Only Fools and Horses is making its way to ABC. The alphabet network announced that the new version will keep it’s original BBC name. The show will be penned by Scrubs scribes Steven Cragg and Brian Bradley. No actors have been confirmed but Steve Carell and Jason Biggs are rumored to have lead roles.

The American version, which is coming 30 years after the classic first aired on the BBC, will center on the adventures of two brothers, Del Boy and Rodney, and their grandpa as they to get rich quick. The creators are hoping it follows in the footsteps of The Office and becomes a huge success. Ironically, Carell, who played the main character in the first seven seasons of the show, has previously said playing Del Boy was his dream role.

“The British do sitcoms better than anybody else in the world,” Carell said in his recent interview. “I think with the right scriptwriters and cast we could do Only Fools and Horses justice. If anybody wants to help me do a remake, I’d love it.”

Carell offered Anchorman star Paul Rudd as Rodney, Wedding Crasher’s Vince Vaughn as Boyce and Zoolander star Ben Stiller as Grandad.

Remakes of the show have already seen the light of day in the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia. However, none of them kept the original title.

Check out some clips from the classic comedy here, courtesy of YouTube:

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