ENTERTAINMENT
March 3, 2010 | By Gina Piccalo
Until recently, Fahim Anwar had a pretty big secret. He carried it around for three years, from his colorless Long Beach office cubicle to the crowded Sunset Strip. He was, in fact, leading a double-life: Aerospace engineer by day. Comedian by night. "Having a dream like this is very fragile," Anwar reasoned. "It's very easy for people to write it off. It's better to keep that to yourself." Yet there was no sign of this mysterious duplicity Feb. 24 as the wiry 25-year-old bounded onstage for his first televised stand-up set on Comedy Central's "Russell Simmons Presents Standup Comedy at the El Rey Theatre."
BUSINESS
November 5, 2012 | By Meg James, Los Angeles Times
Anna Nikita Doroshina, described as a Russian Martha Stewart, was the inspiration for Moozfly, an online comedy channel that features Spanish-speaking comedians from around the world. That might seem odd - because it is. But almost everything about Moozfly is unorthodox. Its studios are located in a 3,300-square-foot Rancho Palos Verdes home overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The executive director, a linguist from Colombia, joined the company after answering a Craigslist ad. And the brains behind the venture is Doroshina's 56-year-old husband, a discouraged land developer who was looking for something new. PHOTOS: Celebrities by the Times Serge Doroshin came up with the concept for a Spanish-language video site because of a boom in Latino media and decided to pursue comedy because, he said, "comedy is always relevant.
ENTERTAINMENT
June 22, 2012 | By Deborah Vankin, Los Angeles Times
He's been called "the Charles Bukowski of comedy," as well as a pot-bellied "bitter Buddha" at the epicenter of the alternative comedy world. Cult comic Eddie Pepitone has been performing his spontaneous, rant-heavy brand of humor onstage for more than 30 years, including regular appearances on "Conan" and "The Sarah Silverman Program. " Over the decades, the "comic's comic," as he's often called, has inspired the likes of Zach Galifianakis, Patton Oswalt, Marc Maron and Silverman — as well as a generation of newcomers through his Twitter feed ( @eddiepepitone )
ENTERTAINMENT
September 18, 2012 | By Deborah Vankin, Los Angeles Times
You may have seen the two-minute PSA parody on YouTube. In the somber, black-and-white mash-up, dozens of well known Los Angeles comedians - Patton Oswalt, Marc Maron and Jimmy Pardo among them - stare the camera down, addressing the urgent question of why Los Angeles needs (needs!) an alternative comedy festival. "No one is laughing at all," says Rory Scovel. "The problem is ginormous," warns Kyle Kinane. "Every day Americans are fake laughing," grimaces Maron. The suggested directive?
ENTERTAINMENT
January 5, 2012 | By Deborah Vankin, Los Angeles Times
Fifty of L.A.'s comedians will band together this week to kick off the new year the best way they know how: with a new politically biting, socially acerbic or self-eviscerating joke. "50 First Jokes," a popular New York show that's making its second annual appearance in Los Angeles, is Friday at the Downtown Independent theater. The show's concept is simple: Each comedian has 2 minutes to unleash his or her first joke of the new year. Only qualification: It must have been written after the ball dropped, in 2012 proper.
NATIONAL
February 15, 2007 | From Times Wire Reports
Al Franken announced that he will run for the Senate in 2008, making it clear that the comedian and author of "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot" wants to be taken seriously as a political figure. Franken, 55, said he would seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. Franken, who grew up in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park, first gained national exposure as a writer and performer on "Saturday Night Live."