Holliston: Talking to Adam Green about horror-comedy (interview)

Filmmaker Adam Green is pioneering a new hybrid of television sitcom with the creation of his new original series Holliston which has been described as Wayne’s World meets Saw. Holliston is set in the town in Massachusetts of the same name where Green and Joe Lynch play two friends who desire to be successful horror movie filmmakers post college as they work at a local cable access station. Green’s offbeat twisted horror-comedy (a.k.a. ‘horror-com’) is his attempt to turn the traditional TV sitcom into something differ. Holliston debuted on the horror-themed cable channel FEARnet as part of its Tuesday night Twisted Comedy block and was so successful that it was commissioned for a second season set to premiere tomorrow night, June 4th.

We caught up with Green to talk about his love for comedy in horror TV shows and films including his work on films like Coffee and Donuts, and the Hatchet series which has a 3rd installment opening in theaters on Jun 14th. Read More

2013 Just For Laughs Chicago Comedian Spotlight: Sean Flannery

Sean Flannery (nah, not that guy from Boondock Saints) makes bad life choices…but not on purpose. Chronicled famously in his critically acclaimed one-man Chicago show, Never Been To Paris, Sean’s comedy consists of hilarious, jaw-dropping stories about misfortunes that happen to him because he simply never pays attention to his surroundings.

Flannery is also the creator and host of The Blackout Diaries, a show where comics and real people like priests, teachers, and cops share drinking stories and answer questions from the audience. You’ve also seen him on Comedy Central’s Mash Up with TJ Miller. Read More

Laughing at Last Week: May 31st with Idol judges and happy countries

See this guy in this picture? That’s Phil Rothermich. Phil is one of The Laugh Button’s great contributors. In addition to working open mics and hammering out the comedy thing around New York, Phil also produces a weekly video comedy digest called Laughing At Last Week.

We decided to give Phil some real estate on The Laugh Button and bring Laughing At Last Week to you each and every week. In it, he’ll cover the fun news of the week, talk to some people on the streets, and relay some headlines from the site in case you missed it.

This week, Phil tackles the tough issues, like the judges on American Idol, the happiest countries on the planet and gives all other comedy news fit to print.

Watch it and leave some comments on what you think of Laughing at Last Week with Phil Rothermich. Read More

Dropping in on Tom Papa’s live ‘Come To Papa’ radio show at the Village Underground

Earlier this week we had the chance to roll out to the Comedy Cellar at the Village Underground for a live Come to Papa taping. For those that don’t know Come To Papa is a radio show on SiriusXM hosted by comedian Tom Papa who played host to a variety hour radio show. The night featured radio sketches voiced by comedians like Robert Kelly, Kurt Metzger, William Stephenshon, Dan Soder, and Cynthia Koury. Comedian Rick Crom was the announcer for the olde tyme radio show. In between sketches Mike Vecchione, Robert Kelly, and Greer Barnes did stand-up sets and a jazz trio provided the soundtrack for the evening. Read More

2013 Just For Laughs Chicago Comedian Spotlight: TJ Jagodowski

Unless you’re an improv nut, you probably wouldn’t know that the guys who act in those quirky Sonic Drive-In commercials are actually some of the most respected performers in the improv game. One-half of those characters is TJ Jagodowski, former Second City Theater improver and current iO teacher/performer.

He’s been in films like Will Ferrell’s Stranger Than Fiction and most recently Oz The Great and Powerful alongside James Franco and Zach Braff. He’s won a boatload of awards and his classes at iO have been some of the most cherished. Read More

2013 Just For Laughs Chicago Comedian Spotlight: Moshe Kasher

Moshe Kasher In the days leading up to the Just For Laughs Chicago Festival we’ll be shining the spotlight on comedians performing that we dig and hope you like too. Some you might know, some you might not. By the end of all this we hope you will know them all. Dive in.

Moshe Kasher is kind of a hipster jew comedian, but he wears the title proudly. He caters to the younger kids with his flavor of sarcastic wit and often sardonic comedy. His upbringing feels more like a made for Lifetime movie, which includes being abducted by his own mom, drug use even before he was a teenager, and living in a Hasidic Jewish community. All the life experiences make for amazing and hilarious dark tales.

Moshe has peformed on Conan, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Chelsea Lately. He’s appeared on Shameless and NBC’s Whitney. He is currently a writer on NBC’s The New Normal. Read More

Watch video from Robert Kelly, Joe DeRosa and Bill Burr’s ‘Cheat’ book release party

TLB Live: Cheat Last October, The Laugh Button presented the book release party for the Robert Kelly, Joe DeRosa, and Bill Burr book, Cheat: A Man’s Guide to Infidelity. We gathered with a few hundred people for screening of the short film and some stand-up comedians told stand-up and shared their own cheat stories from the book.

On hand that night was Kelly Fastuca (from Robert Kelly’s YKWD Podcast) and Riotcast TV to document the night and get some interviews from comedians who were performing that night and others who were just around to join in on the fun.

It took a while to get this clip to you because of that a**hole Hurricane Sandy. The videographer who was on hand that night with Fastuca suffered a series of setbacks from the storm that hit just days after the night. The footage/clips were thought to be lost for a while, but later they were recovered, re-formatted, and put into the hands of a new editor and here we are a few months later bringing it to you. Read More

Development Arrested: What we learned from watching all 15 episodes of ‘Arrested Development’ at once

Well how are we all feeling after “the binge”? Process it all? Doubt it. But man it felt good to see Arrested Development back with fresh episodes. Yes, we know Mitch Hurwitz warned us about opening up and playing with all 15 new toys at once. Saying we’d get fatigued and tire quickly but did he really expect us to behave ourselves in such a way after 7 years of waiting? Sorry uncle Mitch, we did it anyway.

Arrested Development was the ultimate DVR show. The thing was, it was on the air when nearly nobody had a DVR. Had it aired a few years later, it might’ve gotten the public recognition it deserved and still been on the air, but by now we know the fate of the show.