Jordan Brady

Poise and talent. Comedian Jordan Brady possesses large amounts of both, though sometimes the poise--considering he just turned 24--is the more striking, on stage and off. That combination of traits may help explain why Brady--who performs Friday and Saturday at Coconuts in Anaheim--has experienced a blast of career acceleration and some high-profile media exposure just in the last few months: * He signed with a management firm in August.

As host of "Turn It Up," MTV's fast-paced rock 'n' roll game show, comedian Jordan Brady dishes up what he calls a "veritable potpourri" of music trivia questions, complete with video clips and songs from a live house band. Brady taped 65 episodes of the show, which airs at midnight Monday through Thursday, during marathon taping sessions last June. And how good at music trivia is the young man with all the answers?

As host of "Turn It Up," MTV's fast-paced rock 'n' roll game show, comedian Jordan Brady dishes up what he calls a "veritable potpourri" of music trivia questions, complete with video clips and songs from a live house band. Brady taped 65 episodes of the show, which airs at midnight Monday through Thursday, during marathon taping sessions last June. And how good at music trivia is the young man with all the answers?

Poise and talent. Comedian Jordan Brady possesses large amounts of both, though sometimes the poise--considering he just turned 24--is the more striking, on stage and off. That combination of traits may help explain why Brady--who performs Friday and Saturday at Coconuts in Anaheim--has experienced a blast of career acceleration and some high-profile media exposure just in the last few months: * He signed with a management firm in August.

The one thing that can be said of "Waking Up in Reno" is that it's rigorously consistent. Every note rings false, for writers Brent Briscoe and Mark Fauser have overlooked no stereotypes or cliches of small-town blue-collar speech, behavior or tastes.

Culture Monster headed to Maria Bamford's Eagle Rock kitchen on a recent Saturday evening. It was a relatively intimate affair: just Bamford and her parents, Joel and Marilyn Bamford, who live in Duluth, Minn., Bamford's two pugs and us.  Oh and about a dozen production crew members mulling about. Why? Bamford was shooting her first direct-to-fan comedy special, which she will release on Nov. 28 through Chill.com , an L.A.-based social video site. With the hour-long “Maria Bamford: The special special special!

Maria Bamford shuffles across her Eagle Rock kitchen, shoulders hunched and arms slack at her sides, as a video crew of nearly two dozen mills about. "'Scuse me, 'scuse, um, 'scuse …" comes her meek, trembling voice. The sink is piled high with dirty dishes, the floor strewn with empty pizza boxes, script notes and a mess of filmmaking equipment. Bamford's blind pug, Bert, scurries by just as a smoke alarm goes off. The scent of freshly burnt cookies fills the room. Just a few days before Halloween, Bamford is shooting her newest comedy special, an hour of stand-up in her living room for a rapt audience of two: her parents.

The biggest news--or at least the biggest names--on the Orange County comedy scene this fall evoke a sense of deja vu : Both Jay Leno (who headlines Anaheim's Celebrity Theatre on Nov. 20) and Gallagher (who plays the same venue Dec. 2-3) are returning to the area less than a year after their last local appearances.

Out on location at a high desert trailer park, costume supervisor Patti Cohoon Friedman groaned between takes. The shoot for "An American Girl," a dark comedy about a dysfunctional family, had kept Friedman on the dusty and rusty set 14 hours a day for weeks. "Oh, the stress," she said. That was a cue for Anne Wilde, a traveling masseuse who kneads away the kinks and knots of Hollywood's well-knowns and unknowns.

Devan Downey scored nine straight points down the stretch, including a tying three-point basket and six foul shots in the final 1:14, to help South Carolina to a 67-65 win over UC Irvine on Friday night in Columbia, S.C. Downey's three-pointer with 2:19 remaining tied it at 60-60, and his first of six straight free throws gave the Gamecocks (7-5) the lead for good in a game in which they trailed by 13 early in the second half.

One teen-age boy attended NASA Space Camp; one girl went to training camp for the FBI. An aspiring Broadway star matched steps with Gregory Hines, while a hopeful young ballerina worked out with dancers from the Joffrey Ballet. A "City Slickers"-style cattle drive? Kick boxing with Jean-Claude Van Damme? Teens from across the nation are getting the chance to indulge their fantasies on network TV as part of "Name Your Adventure," a Saturday morning series that premieres today on NBC.

Tatyana M. Ali, who plays sweet but very privileged Ashley Banks on NBC's popular "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," may attend a private girls' school, but that's where her lifestyle and Ashley's part ways. "My real life isn't anything like hers," she says from her modest San Fernando Valley home, where she lives with her mother and two sisters, Anastasia, 11, and Kimberly, 8.