Colin Quinn to deliver keynote at Just for Laughs Montreal, Silverman, Meyers, Izzard, and others to headline

Colin Quinn With Spring wrapping unofficially this weekend, details about countless summer festivals are popping up with one of the biggest being Just for Laughs Montreal. Professional comedians, businessmen, armatures, and industry icons are always in attendance at the premier festival. While passes for the festival range in price and access, one of the coolest is the Conference Pass. It gives access to young professionals, comedy enthusiasts, and students who are trying to learn more or trying to enter the industry of comedy. With the pass one can attend discussion panels, keynote speakers, award presentations, and Comic Pro series. I have to admit, it’s a cliché thing to say but this pass certainly does give the ultimate experience.

The idea of Just For Laughs can be a doozy if you aren’t ready for it. The nearly month-long festival offers up the best in the arts and comedy nightly with the culmination of the industry festival at the festival’s end.

What comedians are performing at this thing you as? Well you, here’s your answer.

Sarah Silverman, Seth Meyers, Joan Rivers, Eddie Izzard, Taran Killam & Bobby Moynihan, Nick Kroll, Amy Schumer, Colin Quinn, Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood, Kristen Schaal, Bo Burnham, Hannibal Buress, Danny Bhoy, Marc Maron, Pete Holmes, Tig Notaro, Maria Bamford, and Judah Friedlander highlight the opening lineup announcements for the festival. We’re not bullshittin’ ya when we say it’s the biggest comedy festival in North America. Well established and emerging talent all in one place. Boom! Read the rest of this entry

Comedy Central inks multi-faceted development deal with Hannibal Buress

Comedy Central is in the Hannibal Buress business. For they announced that they’ve signed Buress to a multi-platform development deal to be a key lynchpin of the brand. The deal works on many different levels including putting Buress on a recurring role for the network’s upcoming Amy Poehler scripted comedy, Broad City. But it doesn’t stop there, they also have a pilot development deal with Buress that he’ll executive produce, his next one-hour stand-up special, as well as nationwide Comedy Central Live stand-up tour. Buress’ stand-up special Animal Furnace was aired and released by Comedy Central just last year.

“Hannibal Buress has one of the great names in comedy,” said Kent Alterman, president of Comedy Central Content Development and Original Programming. “I pray he doesn’t change it.”

“This is really exciting,” said Buress. “I can finally quit my day job at Quiznos. People talk down about the Illuminati a lot but this is proof that membership has its benefits.”

This is a great opportunity for Buress and looks to be the formal version of what Comedy Central’s been doing for the last few years with other comedians such as Daniel Tosh, Anthony Jeselnik, and Amy Schumer. Not only do those comedians have record/DVD deals with CC, they’re given shots to make shows and then rolled out for launch with national touring strength and marketing for the comedian and shows. It harkens to the 360 deal model that’s become relatively popular between record labels and musicians the last few years. Read the rest of this entry

New comedy albums for you to check out: Davon Magwood and Tom Shillue

Two new comedy albums were just released this week that you should check out.

Davon Magwood – Yeah I Said It
The first album we recommend is by Davon Magwood and is titled Yeah I Said It. The name of the album is relevant to Magwood’s style as he is known for his unconventional raw style to traditional comedy. With over 30,000 Twitter followers, Magwood is known for sharing his direct and unregulated point of view. Last year during the Indie Comedy Tour, Magwood hosted and opened for national acts like T.J. Miller, Hannibal Buress and Gary Owen, so he’s been around the block. He has also appearances on the SiriusXM’s ”Raw Dog” channel and has been featured in articles in the Huffington Post. His unique point of view complimented by his entertaining style makes Magwood a comedian you should definitely check out. Read the rest of this entry

This Week In Comedy: With Ghost Bouncers

HBO has renewed Girls for a third season. [Huffington Post]
Who wants a PeeWee Herman inspired cycle suit? [Hide Your Arms]
That time Hannibal Buress went on AM television in San Diego and got his dance on. [Youtube]
W Kamau Bell and George Takei in a room talking about stuff. [Totally Biased]
The Whitest Kids U’ Know are going on tour. [The Comedy Bureau]
Julie Klausner and Paul Giamatti read scenes from Magic Mike. [Vulture]

Read the rest of this entry

25 Captions of Christmas: December 24, enter to win John Mulaney, Hannibal Buress, and Nick Kroll prizes

For 25 Captions of Christmas we’ll be offering up some sweet comedy prizes that you can win with just a snarky comments. Prizes will include autographed books, DVDs, CDs, TV shows and the like that are all from funny people. Every morning we will post a photo for you to caption, you enter by leaving your caption in the comments. Funniest comment wins a prize daily.

You get the chance to win every day for 25 days. Here’s our running list of items that you can win.

TODAY’S PRIZES
Since it’s so close to Christmas, we’re going to offer up three pieces to our prize pack which will include stand-up comedy from 3 terrific comedians – John Mulaney, Hannibal Buress, and Nick Kroll.

It’s Christmas Eve! This is almost over. Read the rest of this entry

25 Captions of Christmas: December 20th, enter to win Hannibal Buress, Norm Macdonald, and John Mulaney prizes

You get the chance to win every day for 25 days. Here’s our running list of items that you can win.

TODAY’S PRIZES
The prizes you can win today include the latest specials from Norm Macdonald as well as Jon Mulaney and Hannibal Buress. Both albums that just landed themselves on the #3 and #1 spots on our Top 10 Comedy Albums of 2012.

It’s day 20, just one left until the Mayan calendar ends. These might be your last captions, make them count. Read the rest of this entry

The Laugh Button’s Top 10 Comedy Albums of 2012

The year is nearly over so it’s time to recap just how terrific 2012 has been for comedy. It’s always difficult to put together these lists because the medium is so subjective. If we wanted to, this list could be populated by a completely different handful of 10 comedians and we’d be totally fine with that. But we all gathered into a room to figure out what the best comedy albums were this year and this is what we came up with. Some selections represent comedians continuing to dominate the genre while others are snapshots of a moment specific to the comic’s life.

We’re also sure that not everyone will agree with every selection on this list so we invite you to debate and comment on your own favorites of the year in the comments. Read the rest of this entry

Talking Comedy with Hannibal Buress (video)

Hannibal Buress had a very busy 2012 – a new stand-up special, development deals, TV appearances, that time he took extacy and peed himself at an SNL wrap party, had a beef with a school newspaper and release a gibberish rap. He even picked up a few awards along the way including “Best Club Comic” at the Comedy Awards and Just For Laugh’s “Rising Star” award.

We spoke briefly with Hannibal about the rising star award at JFL 2012 and his acceptance speech and his opinions on putting on his weekly Comedy At The Knitting Factory show.