Happy DAG Day 2011!

In honor of Sir David Alan Grier appearing on both The Adam Carolla Show and The Champs with Neal Brennan and Moshe Kasher, I (under the authority of the World Podcast Federation and National Podcast Society), do hereby proclaim October 24th: David Allan Grier Day on the World Wide Interwebs.

For those who don't know much about DAG, I wrote a song 'bout it. Like to hear it? Here it go. Grier hails from Detroit, Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan, where he encountered the template for his blues singer character: the late Shakey Jake. He went on to earn an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and act on stage, television, and on film before exploding onto the scene in 1990 as a cast member of In Living Color.

In Living Color was a perfect convergence of Fox's then-experimental programming, comedy, and hip hop. No network show has simultaneously reflected and influenced the culture the way In Living Color did except potentially Saturday Night Live, which was experiencing its "Bad Boys of Comedy" period at the same time. Not to mention The Simpsons was roaring into its second season. It was a great time to be a 13 year old comedy fan. But I digress.

DAG is a rare combination of a classically trained actor who is unbelievably funny both on the page and unscripted. That is what makes him such a great podcast guest. One minute he can be recalling his days as a youth in Detroit and the next minute he could be improv-ing a Maya Angelou poem. Since In Living Color, he has appeared in many movies, tv shows, and plays. He is most proud of his work in the Broadway production of David Mamet's "Race."

DAG, we here at ComedyK.com salute you. Happy DAG Day!

The Champs with Neal Brennan & Moshe Kasher

The Champs is a podcast created by Neal Brennan and Moshe Kasher. Providing sound effects is Dj Dougpound.

You may know Neal Brennan as half of the duo behind Chappelle's Show. He and Dave met while they were both performing as stand up comedians in New York City. They wrote the script for Half Baked and when that movie was corrupted by the studio and wound up not resembling the movie they wrote, they stopped working together. A few years later, they rekindled their friendship and Chappelle's show was born. As you know, the show became a huge hit and eventually Dave decided to call it quits. Neal went back to stand up and started this podcast.

Moshe Kasher has lived an interesting life. He was born to two deaf parents and went to rehab and twelve step programs as a teen. He's a great up and coming stand up comedian who has performed at many of the big comedy festivals and on a bunch of the late night shows. He's a perfect addition to this podcast.

The Champs, like Craig Mack are bringing some flavor to your ear in the normally lilly-white world of comedy podcasts. Guests such as Blake Griffin, Donnell Rawlings, and Robert Townsend talk about their life experiences. If you enjoy hearing about the world of television and movies from a different perspective than you normally hear, check out this podcast.

Road Trip

Sorry for the delay in posting, folks. Comedy K is going on a road trip this weekend and I've needed to prepare for it. I will be back to my regularly scheduled posting next week. If you enjoy this website, please let me know in the comments section. I intend to post on a better schedule when I get back. Until next time, America...

What's Good with Freddy Lockhart

The first of the Deathsquad Podcasts I'm featuring on this site is What's Good with Freddy Lockhart. Freddy is a stand up comedian who performs at The Comedy Store and has been seen on Frank TV and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He is a great impressionist, with spot on mimicry of Morgan Freeman, Ice T, and Biggie Smalls. Freddy seems like the kind of guy you would have been friends with in college. And by you, I mean me.

Freddy and Redban talk about many issues on What's Good. But each week there are segments about the history of Hip Hop (as told by Morgan Freeman) and the history and current state of video gaming. Recently, the pair has even taken to some live gaming during the podcast. What's Good is a great podcast if you like 90's Hip Hop, video games, and Redban fighting with Morgan Freeman.

Check it out, dun.

The David Feldman Show

David Feldman is a comedy writer. He has the resume to prove it. Feldman wrote on such shows as Roseanne, Dennis Miller Live, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and the Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen. His humor is expertly crafted, dry, edgy, and often political. But its Feldman's expertise as a writer that shines through on this podcast.

The David Feldman Show is a mix of monologue-type jokes, live comedy, and pre-recorded sketches. The podcast features the talents of Eddie Pepitone, Jim Earle, Jimmy Dore, and may other comedians. This is a different kind of comedy podcast. The Show is not a comedian interviewing other comedians. It is a written and performed show, done by professional writers and performers. It is (I assume) closer to the old radio plays... except funny.

The David Feldman Show is, in my opinion, kind of like an evening activity performance at a Jewish sleep away camp if your camp employed professional comedy writers as counselors. Even though it is aired on one of the California radio stations, it feels more intimate and inside. It belongs to our little group of comedy connoisseurs. And if you don't believe I really like it, consider the fact that I had to look up how to spell connoisseur. Take a listen. This is what professional writers can do.

Sklarbro Country

Remember when SportsCenter itself was a must-see nightly event? Randy and Jason Sklar would have been the ultimate mid-nineties SportsCenter anchor team. With their encyclopedic sports knowledge and comedy chops, the pair could have taken that show to a whole other level. As it was, ESPN hired them to make Cheap Seats, which was more of a comedy show about sports. The Sklar Brothers have taken that format to podcasting.

Randy and Jason Sklar hail from St. Louis, where they were bitten by the comedy bug at a young age. They then went to the University of Michigan, where they joined AEPi fraternity (house of such notable television stars as Judd Winick from The Real World, Brad Meltzer from Decoded, and Adam Mesh from Average Joe). When Andy Kindler came to Ann Arbor to perform, he encouraged they two to pursue a career in comedy, rather than attending law school.

The brothers moved to New York after college and starred in the show Apt 2F. The show only lasted one season, but provided the pair valuable tv exposure. They honed their stand up comedy skills and worked on other shows such as The Oblongs and Battlebots. Then came their big break with Cheap Seats, as show kind of like MST3K, in which the Sklars would watch and make fun of early ESPN programming.

Sklarbro Country brings the sports world back down to reality. Sports have a tendency to take themselves way more seriously than they should. The Sklars bring out the humor in situations most at media outlets such as ESPN have been trained to downplay. They have comedy guests who talk sports and sports guests who talk comedy. They have figured out the formula that SportsCenter forgot years ago: sports can be funny.

And one more thing... Henderson!