MichaelShowalter-related stories
Posted Aug 27th 2009 3:01PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free
Last night was the season finale of
Michael & Michael Have Issues on Comedy Central. Which means fans of the show can look forward either to its second season or its quiet death. With rare exceptions (like
Important Things with Demetri Martin), shows come and go on Comedy Central with little fanfare.
Mind of Mencia and
Lewis Black's Root of All Evil weren't renewed, but their cancellations were never really announced, just mentioned by the players on the shows themselves.
So here's your chance to weigh in. Did you like
MMHI? Were you one of the fans who attended the "blarties" and "twarties" (blog parties and twitter parties)? Did you pick up
The State on DVD and watch for nostalgia? What did you think of the sketch show within a show format?
Continue reading Did you watch Michael and Michael Have Issues?
Posted Jul 29th 2009 5:02PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Web, Reality-Free
If you're a fan of
Michael and Michael Have Issues, you may want to have your Twittering device handy watching tonight's episode.
Michael Ian Black and
Michael Showalter will both be doing a "pre-Tweet Town Hall" at 9:30 PM ET, and then continuing through the show, which airs at 10:30 PM ET, looking for questions from the audience and commentary on the show. Officially, they're calling it their Town Hall Twitter Twarty, or "twarty," short for "Twitter Party."
The plan is for the audience input to be featured along with commentary from the Michaels themselves and from writers Jessi Klein and Kumail Nanjiani, The Real Jim Biederman, and writer's assistant Stephie Grob, on the show's blog,
www.michaelandmichaelhaveissues.com. The Michaels will post their favorite stuff on
ComedyCentral.com during the week. Tweets can be sent to @mshowalter or @michaelianblack.
Continue reading Michael and Michael invite you to twarty
Posted Jul 15th 2009 8:35PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free
When
Michael and Michael Have Issues premieres tonight at 10:30 PM on Comedy Central, it'll be a return to sketch comedy of sorts for Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter. The pair started out with
The State on MTV, as
this week's boxed set release reminded us. Their most recent TV project,
Stella, the show, with former
State member David Wain, wasn't really sketch as much as it was an exercise in absurdist slapstick.
Comedy Central has been showing episodes from the single season the show lasted in the run up to
Michael and Michael Have Issues, and it has been a pleasant reminder of Stella's brief experiment with a half-hour TV comedy. It's hard to imagine keeping that premise going - Wain, Black, and Showalter free associating with different guest stars season after season. But it's been fun to watch it again.
Continue reading Hoping for a healthy dose of sketch comedy from Michael and Michael Have Issues
Posted Jul 14th 2009 3:05PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, Reality-Free
TV bloggers get a lot of free DVDs to review. They range from the dull and drab to titles that some people would run over someone on the way to the movie store to get.
It's very rare, however, for anyone to get their grubby little hands on a title powerful enough to reverse the polarity of the universe and restore order to chaos. I managed to score that very thing a week before anyone could and I didn't have to sell my soul, my first-born child or any of my bodily objects to get it.
Continue reading The new State DVD: You'll wanna dip your balls in it!
Posted May 14th 2009 12:02PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Programming, Reality-Free
If you're a fan of Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black and you've been looking for information on their new Comedy Central show,
Michael and Michael Have Issues, you've probably been a bit confused lately. Any press the pair have done for the show has been fairly vague.
And then you have the site dedicated to the show,
www.michaelandmichaelhaveissues.com, which offers plenty of blog entries, including one from earlier this month titled "Photos of the Promos Shoot" that feature dancers holding up Michael and Michael heads on a stick (see photo).
Maybe this clip will help give a better clue. Poorly veiled tension has always been a part of the act with Stella (which also includes David Wain). But here we get to see Michael and Michael actually attack each other in a studio when Showalter takes issue with Black's impression of a butterfly fart. This is supposed to be from the series pilot, which premieres in July, but who knows? Maybe it's here to distract you from what they're really working on. (Oooohh! Conspiracy!)
Continue reading A possible preview of Michael and Michael Have Issues
Posted Feb 19th 2009 12:02PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black (who made up the cast of
Stella along with David Wain)
are returning to Comedy Central with their new series
Michael and Michael Have Issues.
The premise is somewhat similar to that of
30 Rock in which the two friends have a sketch-show-within-a-show. The comedy style of the duo has been somewhat hit-or-miss for me. I enjoyed
Stella but didn't think that much of their stand-up comedy when I saw them perform live. Their scripted work (such as the movies
Wet Hot American Summer and
The Baxter) remains their strong suit so I have high hopes for this series.
I do wonder if the characters are going to have the same names as the actors. Showalter and Black seem to have no problem with blurring the lines between fantasy and reality for the sake of television. Hopefully this show will last longer than
Stella's single season.
Posted Aug 14th 2008 12:15PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, Pickups and Renewals, Casting, Reality-Free
Comedy Central is giving some alumni of
Stella and
The State another crack at a show. Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter
will be the co-stars of the half-hour pilot Michael and Michael Have issues.
The premise is a show-within-a-show, with segments from the stars addressing issues that the Michaels have with "themselves, each other and the world at large."
I missed
The State, but I did catch episodes of
Stella (also starring David Wain), which was another attempt by the same comedians to create a show that blurred the line between reality and fantasy (such as having character with their actual names. You know, the old Jerry Seinfeld trick).
I liked
Stella, but didn't think it would last more than a season (and it didn't) because the humor is very abstract and cerebral (sort of the anti-
According To Jim). My gut instinct is the same for this show even though I want it to succeed. Is it better to have a good show that lasts one season or a mediocre-at-best show that lasts eight? I vote for the former.
Posted Mar 9th 2006 9:21AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Talent
If you're lucky enough to live in New York City
and have an unusual sense of humor, you will totally dig this. Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain are
judging a parody of
American Idol, called
American Schmidol. They're teaming up with Heeb Magazine and
JDUB Records for a "giant-screen karaoke competition" at the
Bowery
Ballroom on Monday, March 13. I can't figure out which one will be the Simon character. Any of them could pull it
off.
If you're like me and you don't live in NYC, but you're missing
Stella and you're wondering
when it'll be back (Hello? Comedy Central?)*, you can get your David Wain fix on
his website. He has put up a scan of an article in Tokion Magazine called
"Writing Comedy", which features Wain and David Cross. Or, you can download the audio version of the
interview
here.
*Thanks to commenter, Matt, who
pointed out that Stella is not getting a second season on Comedy Central (despite its title as one of the best TV shows
of 2005 by EW magazine). The
official Stella website confirms it.
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