I can’t believe I forgot to post this earlier.. Our own Nate Bargatze made his first appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, June 13, 2013 with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Val Kilmer. As always, it went well! Jimmy Fallontweeted that Nate is, “My new favorite comedian.” Here’s the video:
Nashville-based animator Mike Salva has started a crowd-funding campaign to fund an animated comedy series starring comedian Jonathan Katz called Death Row Diet. Katz is best known for playing the title character on Comedy Central’s Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, a role for which he won an Emmy. Salva’s previous work includes award-winning shorts “Max The Hero” (which stars and was written by Mystery Science Theater 3000 and RiffTrax.com’s Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett) & “Pound Dogs” (which features Nashville-based comedians Sean Parrott and Ryan Williams plus Atlanta’s Andy Merrill, who played Brak on Space Ghost and Oglethorpe on Aqua Teen Hunger Force).
In Katz and Salva’s animated short ‘Death Row Diet’, Jonathan plays a man on death row and Weight Watchers, where he consults with his lawyer (played by Tom Leopold of “Seinfeld” and “Cheers”). The cartoon was a big hit at film festivals and won a lot of awards, including a television pilot award from the New York Television Festival.
Work began to expand Death Row Diet into an animated series about the main character’s life in prison. A number of scripts were written but as they were ready to begin recording the dialogue, their funding source for the project backed out. The creators immediately began planning a Kickstarter campaign to fund the series. They are offering rewards to backers, including a “special thanks” listing in the credits, an “associate producer” credit, a speaking part in the cartoon, DVD copies of Death Row Diet autographed by Jonathan Katz.. and having the director & a voice actor come to your house to clean your bathroom.
Complete details of the campaign can be found on the project’s Kickstarter page and at DeathRowDiet.com. Here’s the original short:
Comedian / pancake juggler / contortionist Scot Nery called Nashville home 1998-1999 & 2001-2002. While here, Scot hosted the Tuesday night open mic at Bar Car for a while and toured with Brooks & Dunn’s “Neon Circus.” He has since moved to San Francisco and now lives in Los Angeles. He once did a trick on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and has appeared on various other tv projects.. memorably in the DIY Network’s Nailed at Nine hammer juggling promo and as “Mama” in Scary Movie 5. In case you’ve never seen his stage show or street performances, they’re pretty spectacular. NOBODY else does what Scot does. Here’s a video he uploaded yesterday:
The Daily Show visited Nashville again on May 16, 2013 to shoot a story about how Tennessee’s governor has rejected Obama’s Medicaid expansion money in favor of a wacky health care lottery designed to fail. Correspondent Jessica Williams interviewed three Nashvillians and shot a sketch in which Nashville’s own Chad Riden appeared as a Publisher’s Clearing House prize patrol guy.
This is just about as sweet as it gets. You’ve seen Rory Scovel on Conan, Comedy Central, The Nerdist, Jimmy Fallon, at Zanies, at Bonnaroo, at Corporate Juggernaut shows and in your dreams.. but now on June 22nd you can see him Live at Third Man Records.
Even if you’ve seen Rory every time he has played here, you still have no idea what to expect, unless you expect to see a brilliantly funny improvisational genius who uses his already excellent prepared material as a loose framework on which he builds a unique one of a kind experience that leaves the audience feeling like they’ve just started to peak on their magic mushroom fueled comedy trip. He’s one of the most innovative live performers of this generation and if you miss this show for any reason, then you are a fool.
Here’s some clips:
Third Man’s website says, “..Rory Scovel one of our favorite stand-up and improv comics around, will be stopping by Third Man Records on June the 22nd to grace us all with his quick wit and and absurdist perspective. Tickets are available now, so mark your calendars and prepare yourselves, mind, body, and soul for the hilarity that will soon ensue…”