Anthony D'Alessandro

Soon after moving to L.A. in early 2002, Matt Besser did what most New York comedy transplants do: He went to an open mic at a coffee shop. "The woman running the night recognized me from my Comedy Central show, but when I asked to sign up, she said, 'Oh,......

In his job as a game writer for such Silicon Valley companies as Zynga, the creators of Farmville, Sammy Wegent has seen a heavy dose of PowerPoint presentations gone wrong. Not only do some powerful tech executives posses poor public speaking skills, but sometimes the wrong slide pops up and their......

Like Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy, Queens native Hari Kondabolu tells many stories of the tomfoolery of white people. Some of the tales he relates onstage involve the comedian of Indian descent embroiled in a racist situation. Such as the time when his father picked him up at LaGuardia Airport......

Committing to the character is one of the oldest rules of thumb in comedic improv and on a Thursday night in late August at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, there were a number of performers sublimely submitting themselves to celebrity imitations. One of the impersonation-driven shows anchoring was Seinfeld: The......

At first one thinks it's the shrooms — because only a noise like this can be manufactured psychedelically. Then you think "Nah, I’m just waking up from a weird dream and the radio is on." And before you can pinch yourself into reality, you realize "No, I’m wide awake and......

As two thirds of the famed Twelfth Night quote goes, "Some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them" and in the case of the comedy-producing team behind the alternative show Sleepaway Camp, the saying couldn't be more true. Last July, the freshman stand-up quintet of Jay Weingarten, Austin......

Back in 2005, MadTV alum Craig Anton wrote, directed and starred in the absurdist play The Idiots with co-writer and star Ron Lynch, about two out-of-touch, heroin-addled scientists. The play savored a long underground life for nine years in Chicago and  Los Angeles, drawing heavy support from marquee comedians like......