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      Joe Flaherty, ‘SCTV’ and ‘Freaks and Geeks’ Actor, Dies at 82

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      Mr. Flaherty was known for playing a series of oddball characters on the sketch series “SCTV” and for his role as the father of two teenagers on “Freaks and Geeks.”Joe Flaherty, the comedic actor best known for his performances in the influential sketch comedy series “SCTV” and as a father on the short-lived NBC ensemble series “Freaks and Geeks,” died on Monday. He was 82.His death was confirmed by his daughter, Gudrun Flaherty, who said that Mr. Flaherty died after a “brief illness.” She did not specify a cause, or say where he died.Mr. Flaherty played a variety of characters on “SCTV” as part of an ensemble that included John Candy, Martin Short, Rick Moranis, Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara. The concept of the series, which aired in the 1970s and ’80s, was that its sketches were “shows” for a low-rent TV station in a fictional town called Melonville.Former “SCTV” cast members at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo., in 1999. From left, Dave Thomas, Mr. Flaherty, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin, Harold Ramis, Eugene Levy and Martin Short.E Pablo Kosmicki/Associated PressAmong Mr. Flaherty’s characters were Guy Caballero, the sleazy president of the station, and Sammy Maudlin, an unctuous late-night talk show host. His character Count Floyd wore a cheap vampire costume while hosting a horror movie show, “Monster Chiller Horror Theater.” The joke was that the movies the program showed — such as “Dr. Tongue’s Evil House of Pancakes” — were seldom very scary, leaving Floyd holding the bag and often having to apologize to viewers.Gudrun Flaherty said in a statement that her father had an “unwavering passion for movies from the ’40s and ’50s,” which influenced his comedy, including his time on “SCTV.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 100 Shares146 Views

      in Television

      Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show Review: Out and Open

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      Have you heard the one about the comedian who tried to live truthfully?Midway through “Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show,” the comedian tries to convince Jamar Neighbors, his longtime friend and fellow standup, to deepen his act by using his unhappy past as material. Neighbors, who prefers an energetic, joke-focused performance (his act includes doing back flips onstage), is skeptical about what he calls “therapy comedy.” Why should he dwell on his foster mother, he asks, when “Jeff Bezos is going to space”?“Yeah, but also Jeff Bezos is going to space because it’s some [expletive] he can’t talk to his mama about,” Carmichael says. “It always comes back to that. You’re not just going to space.”In “Reality Show,” a captivating, introspective, sometimes uneasy docuseries beginning Friday on HBO, Carmichael does not go to space. But he does go boldly, bringing family, friends and lovers on an exploration of what it means to live honestly and how it feels to deal with the repercussions.In “Rothaniel,” his 2022 comedy special, Carmichael came out publicly as gay. But that intimate and revelatory show was about more than sexual identity. It was about secrets, not just Carmichael’s being gay (and its effect on his relationship with his conservative Christian mother, Cynthia), but also his family history of deceptions, including his father, Joe, having had a second family when Carmichael was young.“Rothaniel” (the title comes from Carmichael’s actual first name, which he also revealed) was in part about how even open secrets can be corrosive, about what living in a state of knowing-but-not-saying does to you.“Reality Show” is an effort to undo that, in front of an omnipresent camera crew. The Carmichael that we see here is making up for lost time. “I came out late in life,” he says. “I was like basically 30. So I’m like, in gay years, I’m 17.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      6 Terrific Comedy Specials Worth Streaming

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      Jenny Slate, Dan Soder, Cara Connors, Tig Notaro, David Cross and Dave Attell stamp these hours with particularly rich sensibilities.Jenny Slate, ‘Seasoned Professional’(Amazon Prime Video)Wearing a bow tie, pocket handkerchief, crop top and shorts, Jenny Slate stands on a shiny circular platform on the distressed BAM Harvey theater stage. It’s an image of sharp contrasts, the kind you find in her comedy, where commonplace subjects are imbued with manic, absurd charisma. Her version of relatable is asking: “You know that one feeling when you can tell you’re going to pass away?”Whereas her debut special incorporated documentary elements, this hour effectively captures the improvisational eccentricity of her live act. Slate is blessed with a spectacularly nimble comic voice. She’s also a deft physical comedian, and her best bits show off both traits. When trying to describe the strangeness of giving birth, she likens it to the discomfort of being invited to audition for Pennywise the evil clown. Rattled, she expresses the shame at being considered for the part by flapping her hands, looking perplexed (“That couldn’t be the murdering, kidnapping, balding male clown, right?”), doing a creepy impression of the character as well as the meeting among producers that led to this offer. It’s a screeching, sputtering display of kvetching that builds runaway comic momentum.Dan Soder, ‘On the Road’(YouTube)While most specials go too long, this one, at 39 tightly funny minutes, is just right. Punchy, diverting, varied, it’s a perfect pick-me-up for your lunch hour. In clothes as casual as his delivery, Dan Soder presents himself as a laid-back people-pleaser, the kind of guy aiming for a specific kind of dumb. As he puts it, he wants to see a trailer for a new “Fast and Furious” movie and be shocked that they found a way to go faster. But make no mistake: His lightness requires heavy effort. And his comedic tool kit is full, featuring sharp impressions (Batman villain, Enrique Iglesias), melancholy notes and clever phrasemaking. In a story illustrating the childhood joy of curse words, he says this line with a genuine (and ridiculous) sense of nostalgia: “I was 8 years old, just out having a cuss.”Cara Connors, ‘Straight for Pay’(Apple TV+)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Kevin Hart Receives the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

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      The prolific comic was honored at the Kennedy Center for a 25-year career that has included movies, TV series and many live events.The Kennedy Center honored the comedian, who said he “fell in love with the idea of comedy” as something he could do for the rest of his life.Paul Morigi/Getty ImagesKevin Hart stepped into the spotlight on Sunday night with his usual swagger to accept the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, occupying a stage lit up with his signature pyrotechnics.“Can I pee?” Mr. Hart said after a heartfelt tribute from his friend the comedian Dave Chappelle, before waddling offstage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. He then reappeared to accept a bust of Mark Twain from David M. Rubenstein, the retiring chairman of the Kennedy Center.Mr. Hart, 44, is the 25th comic to receive the prize from the Kennedy Center, an honor given annually to the greatest humorists in American comedy. Mr. Hart was joined by his wife and four children, and grinned broadly even as he teared up at bitingly funny roasts and emotional tributes from friends and colleagues in the industry.“I played arenas with Chris Rock, and I would never play an arena before I saw you do it,” Mr. Chappelle said, crediting Mr. Hart with changing the business of stand-up comedy after a career selling out arena tours and even a football stadium in his hometown, Philadelphia. “You made me dream bigger, and you’re younger than me — it’s humiliating.”Over a roughly 25-year career — it was noted that he had been doing comedy since the inception of the Mark Twain Prize in the late 1990s — Mr. Hart has sold millions of tickets. He has built a loyal fan base through movies, TV series and many live events — some enhanced by fireworks — including eight comedy specials on relatable narratives, physical comedy and goofy re-enactments. But even when he rags on the cast of characters who file in and out of his life, he is usually the punchline of his own jokes.His peers also lauded him on Sunday for his work ethic, which includes appearing and casting friends in a slate of Hollywood movies, like the “Jumanji” sequels, dramedies such as “Fatherhood” and “Night School,” and a number of comedic action films.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Free Time’ Review: Take This Job and Shove It. (Now What?)

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      Colin Burgess carries this comedy by Ryan Martin Brown about a 20-something who quits his job and finds that life without work isn’t all that thrilling.In “Free Time,” a movie written and directed by Ryan Martin Brown, it quickly becomes clear that Drew (Colin Burgess), a New Yorker in his late 20s with a steady job in data analysis, doesn’t like how his work is defining him. So one day, after querying his boss, Luke (James Webb), on his options, Drew just up and quits.“I think I’m going to go out and live life. Live life to the fullest,” Drew proclaims to his roommate Rajat (Rajat Suresh), who works from home “writing clickbait,” Rajat says, which Drew briefly considers as a new employment option.Drew spends an afternoon biking, downs four edibles before going solo bar hopping and annoys his roommate’s hostile girlfriend, Kim (the comedian known as Holmes, who’s very funny throughout) with his loud television. He is soon desperately bored and in need of another job.This may be because Drew, played with dry, middle-class-Everyman goofiness by Burgess, appears to have no interests — a cursory involvement in an unpromising music project notwithstanding — and a barely discernible inner life. He unexpectedly finds himself a guru to the unemployed before the movie winds down.Burgess carries this succinct (and arguably slight, narratively disjointed) comedy without making you want to strangle his often willfully naïve character. Which is no mean feat, especially in the scene in which he obliviously squanders an erotic opportunity that almost literally drops into his lap.Free TimeNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 18 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Ramy Youssef Mixes Vibes and Politics in His New Special ‘More Feelings’

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      In “More Feelings” on HBO, the comic takes a nuanced look at his own role as a Muslim celebrity and at the American response to conflict in the Mideast.In his new special, “More Feelings,” a captivating comedy that speaks fiercely to this political moment, Ramy Youssef maintains a mannered tentativeness, tiptoeing from setup to punchline, becoming quieter as the laughs grow. Underneath his gentle cadence hides a firm conviction, one fed up not just with the horrific tragedy in Gaza, but also with the conversation in America in response to it.Because this is an election year, he can feel the pressure coming his way. “I know Biden is going to call me,” he says in the special, debuting Saturday on HBO. He means the campaign will be asking for help, but he makes it sound more intimate, like an annoying friend checking in.The comic Hasan Minhaj told a similar story on his recent tour about the peculiar anguish of being a Muslim celebrity asked to help get out the vote. They both mock their own momentary vanity of thinking a comic could save the country, but Youssef is a different kind of performer. He approaches his subject more indirectly, leaning into confusion and abstraction. His stories blur into and echo off one another. He describes himself as being at a loss in an argument, because while others have facts, “I just have vibes.”This sounds overly modest, the old comedian trick of playing dumb, but it’s not only that. The most effective tools of political art are different from those of an op-ed. And artfully expressed vibes can be a powerful thing.Youssef, the child of Egyptian immigrants, grew up in New Jersey where he filmed this intimate special. He begins by saying the proceeds from his shows will go to humanitarian aid for Gaza, before complaining about supporting charities. Then he describes the unrealistic expectations put on him, including knowing the right way to speak out on Instagram (it’s trickier than you think) and finding a way to convert Taylor Swift to Islam. (Her attendance at Youssef’s show in Brooklyn led to a minor right-wing controversy.)Then there are the appeals from establishment contingents like the Biden campaign looking to win Muslim and Arab votes in Michigan. The emotional turning point of the special comes when Youssef remembers a call three days after the Oct. 7 attack from a friend casually asking where he stands on Hamas.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 163 Shares109 Views

      in Movies

      Ramy Youssef on His New Special, ‘More Feelings,’ and the Push to Represent

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      In the week after he appeared as a presenter at the Oscars, the comic Ramy Youssef, a creator and director of the Hulu series “Ramy” and Emma Stone’s co-star in “Poor Things,” was taking meetings in Hollywood on what’s known as a water-bottle tour — “except without the water bottle,” he said. He is fasting for Ramadan.Youssef, who will turn 33 this month, has been a rapidly rising star since the 2019 debut of “Ramy,” a semi-autobiographical award-winning show in which he plays the son of Egyptian immigrants in suburban New Jersey — as he is in real life — struggling to define himself amid the sometimes conflicting pull of Muslim faith and young adult, Tinder-era life. When Youssef won a Golden Globe for best actor in a comedy in 2020, he accepted the trophy by saying, “Allahu akbar. This is thanks to God — and Hulu.”Now his ascent is even sharper. He is following his surprising turn in the Oscar-winning “Poor Things” — as a thoughtful scientist and cast-aside love — with a standup special, his second for HBO. The program, “More Feelings,” due Saturday, mines personal territory, religious and cultural stereotypes, and his budding friendship with Taylor Swift (a pal of Stone’s), who went to see his set. He will also host “Saturday Night Live” on March 30.Those are only a few of the many projects he has going, he said in a video interview from Los Angeles, before he taped “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” He and his buddies “always joke that we make TV like immigrants,” he said. “We’re always working. We’re not going to outsource too much. We’re just figuring out how to do what we can, small budgets. So that’s my expectation for my career. I’ll just, you know, figure that out.”Youssef’s HBO special, “More Feelings,” will premiere on Saturday; the following week, he’ll host “Saturday Night Live.”HBOBut he is also mulling the advice he got from Yorgos Lanthimos, the “Poor Things” director, to get out of TV and start making movies. Then again, an invitation to direct an episode of “The Bear” led Youssef to Copenhagen and a daylong stint staging at the fabled restaurant Noma. “It’s such a hard table to get,” he said. “I felt bad for whoever had waited a year to eat there and then I made their plate.” (The episode garnered him a nomination for a Directors Guild of America Award.) A fourth season of “Ramy,” delayed by the Hollywood strikes, will happen, he promised. “The question is, when?”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Taylor Tomlinson Is the Perfect Late-Night Host for The TikTok Era

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      ‘After Midnight’ is not a conventional late-night show with monologue, desk and A-list guests. But that may be a good thing.If you picture a modern late-night show, you’ll probably envision a heavy, glossy desk next to an armchair or a couch, with an artificial city vista twinkling behind them. A man, most likely a white man, dressed in a dark suit. Maybe a button-down with the sleeves casually rolled up, if that man’s name is Seth Meyers.“After Midnight,” a CBS late-night show that debuted in mid-January, is altogether different. Based on Comedy Central’s “@Midnight With Chris Hardwick,” “After Midnight” pits three celebrity panelists against one another in a series of games about the latest oddities of the internet. Its host, the 30-year-old stand-up comedian Taylor Tomlinson, described it as “the smartest comedy show about the dumbest things on the internet.” Indeed, “After Midnight” looks like the screen-addicted grandchild of “Jeopardy!,” with colorful pixelated designs floating behind the contestants’ lecterns. On Tomlinson’s right, like a glowing idol, is a gigantic phone-shaped screen that displays the videos and social-media posts that serve as fodder for the show’s jokes.The first episode of “After Midnight” elicited confusion and disappointment from some fans, who thought Tomlinson would be hosting a more traditional entertainment talk show, with an opening monologue and celebrity guests. She had, after all, taken over the time slot vacated by “The Late Late Show With James Corden,” which followed that format and ended last year. At least one commenter wondered if Tomlinson had been hoodwinked by the higher-ups at CBS. In a later episode, she explained that she had not been duped: “You think I want to ask Daniel Day-Lewis about preparing for his role as an 1800s Polish butcher? No! I want to make him do #fartsongs.” Still, “After Midnight” added a winking “Talk Show Portion,” in which the host asks each panelist silly questions, simultaneously trolling the trolls and poking fun at the promotional nature of the late-night celebrity interview. A question posed to the comedian Riki Lindhome is a breezy non sequitur, not selling anything: “Riki, did you ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?”Tomlinson has emerged as one of her generation’s leading comedians; her third special, “Have It All,” was the sixth-most-watched English-language TV show on Netflix the week of its Feb. 13 debut. She’s known for her preparation and precision, with an affinity for crowd work that translates well into riffing with the contestants on her show. Tomlinson brings an easy confidence to “After Midnight,” and at its best, it feels like hanging out with a group of very funny friends. The internet is dumb and the joke parade is fun, but there is something heavier riding on “After Midnight.” That is, of course, the well-documented fact that Tomlinson is the lone woman headlining a late-night network show, a form historically dominated by men. Although a number of women have won a late-night slot in recent years, only a couple of their shows have lasted more than a few seasons. After a while, news coverage of their appointments tends to have a “Groundhog Day” effect. The title of “only woman in late night” sure has been applied to a lot of people.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More