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  • Watch Jimmy O. Yang & Alex Moffat in an exclusive clip from ‘The Opening Act’

    Watch Jimmy O. Yang & Alex Moffat in an exclusive clip from ‘The Opening Act’

    In this exclusive clip for ‘The Opening Act,’ aspiring stand-up Will Chu (Jimmy O. Yang) joins comic star Chris Palmer (Alex Moffat) for an appearance on a morning zoo-style radio show.

    The film is written and directed by Steve Byrne, and produced by Vince Vaughn and Peter Billingsly. It also features an impressive amount of comic co-stars including Cedric the Entertainer, Bill Burr, Ken Jeong, Neal Brennan, Debby Ryan, Jermaine Fowler, Whitney Cummings, and Iliza Shlesinger.

    Here’s the official synopsis for the film:

    Will Chu is stuck in a thankless job while trying to pursue his true passion in life, becoming a stand-up comedian. When he gets the opportunity he’s been waiting for, the emcee slot on the road opening for his hero Billy G., the realities of life on the stage come crashing in. Between relentless hecklers, drunk comedy groupies and hard-to-impress morning radio DJs, things get off to a rough start. Even if he can learn from his idols and overcome the challenges, he’ll have to prove he has what it takes to make his dream a reality.

    ‘The Opening Act’ will be in theaters, on digital and on demand on October 16.

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  • 5 Best Comedy Roasts of All Time

    Comedy Central Roast Of Donald Trump - ShowIf Betty White has taught us anything, it’s that being old doesn’t mean you’re not hilarious. It also doesn’t mean you’re not really, really vulgar when the battlefield of comedy needs you to drop some serious F-bombs.

    By entertainment standards, the roast — a concept originated by the Friar’s Club fraternity way back in 1907 — is an absolute dinosaur. But it’s like a T. rex that assaults you with politically incorrect character assassination and ridiculous celebrity humiliation instead of killer jaws and tiny arms — old as it is, the roast walks the razor’s edge of “too funny” and “too far.” Here are five times the comics got that balance exactly right.

    1. Charlie Sheen (2011)

    “I respect Charlie Sheen, I do … not his body of work … it’s all been very Christian Slater-ish … he sucks, but he’s good, but he sucks at the same time.” And so it was that the late Patrice O’Neal immortalized Charlie Sheen at his own 2011 Comedy Central roast. The whole night was lightning in a weird bottle, mixed with tiger’s blood and Twitter meltdowns, and shaken till it foamed over. “How do you roast a meltdown?,” asked Jeff Ross. You do it just like this: A madman who set his own world afire giggles along as the sharpest comics in the industry point and laugh at the blaze.

    As a bonus, this one helped put the brilliant Amy Schumer on the map. We’ll take that.

    2. Joan Rivers (2009)

    The late, legendary Joan Rivers was made to be roasted on Comedy Central. She had the perfect combo of comedic icon status paired with plenty of ammo for her roasters, from her famously numerous plastic surgeries to her cringe-worthy red carpet interviews.

    “Joan, I loved you in The Wrestler.” With that intro, Whitney Cummings summed up what made Joan’s roast the perfect dish — the veteran comedienne’s night in the chair not only cemented her well-earned relevance, it shined the world’s spotlight on new talent. Even though most of that spotlight was focused on jokes about Joan’s vagina.

    3. Hugh Hefner (2001)

    Hef’s New York Friar’s Club roast could’ve been a disaster. The nation was still reeling from 9/11, and the minefield of cliched old-man jokes just seemed too obvious. But thanks to the power of comics like Drew Carey and Sarah Silverman, it turned out to be the cream of the roast crop. Carey started out with a cathartic string of mega-profanity aimed at none other than Osama bin Laden, priming the audience for a combo of airhead-Playboy Bunny gags and old-age digs that moved at a clip and somehow managed to avoid any semblance of cliche. Silverman solidified the one-two punch with a short set centered on — wait for it — butthole waxing that was so left-field, it was clear she’d be a comedy queen by the time the roast ended.

    4. William Shatner (2006)

    Sometimes, it’s the truth behind the jokes that makes a roast truly great. And it’s that dose of reality that made Star Trek” co-stars like George Takei and Nichelle Nichols certainly had enough USS Enterprise drama to load their comedic cannons, completely apart from the former Captain’s bizarre forays into spoken word albums and TV commercials. When Takei looks right at Bill and straight-up says, “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on” in that outrageous baritone of his, we laugh, because we know it comes from a place of truth. Feels good to let it all out, doesn’t it, Mr. Sulu?

    5. Donald Trump (2011)

    We’ll admit it. The thing that makes Donald Trump’s Comedy Central roast so great is that it’s a catharsis for the audience — in 2011, we loved seeing the uber-rich, business tycoon get his just deserts, and in 2016, we love seeing it even more.

    But it wasn’t just seeing Trump get towered that made the night a standout — it was the evening’s completely unexpected roasters. A Marlee Matlin / Gilbert Gottfried double-team isn’t something we knew we wanted till we got it, and Snoop Lion (aka Snoop Dogg) once again proved his comedic prowess with razor-sharp jabs like, “Donald says he wants to run for president and move on into the White House. Why not? It wouldn’t be the first time he pushed a black family out of their home.”

    Enough said, Snoop. Enough said.

    Sources

  • Best of Late Night TV: Lucy Hale’s ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Censorship, Stephen Hawking’s Whitney Houston Crush (VIDEO)

    If you’re like us and value your sleep, you probably nodded off into your Ambien dreamland before the party started on post-prime time TV. Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. Here’s the best of what happened last night on late night.

    “Pretty Little Liars” star Lucy Hale was on “Conan” Tuesday night, and she talked about how her sexy Cosmo cover embarrassed her father. It wasn’t the photo as much as the cover words. Her dad saw the headline “Best Sex Ever” and he thought that was her interview. He texted her to say she looked great but he wasn’t too excited about the articles. (He probably read them all, though.) Lucy also talked about “Pretty Little Liars,” which is Conan’s “neighbor” in the studio lot. PLL has a pink golf cart that’s all decked out. On the show, they say “bitches” a lot, and they put it on the back of the golf cart. They got a complaint from Warner Bros. human resources so they had to censor it, and blocked out part of the “b-tches.” Rainn Wilson was on “Conan” and he went off on the foodie obsession in big cities. “Have we not learned a lesson from history, Conan? What was the last great civilization that gorged and vomited over and over again? … The Romans!” He said it’s just wrong to fetishize food that way. But then he discussed the octopus pastrami he had for his birthday, which was exquisite. Kevin Costner was on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” discussing how he just turned 60, and his daughter gave him a really thoughtful gift. He talked more about his kids, and his career. Jimmy asked if he’d give advice to a newbie on the scene like Eddie Redmayne, who was nominated for an Oscar. Kevin got to meet Stephen Hawking, whom Eddie played in “The Theory of Everything.” It was kind of an awkward meeting, from Kevin’s retelling, but apparently Stephen was a big Whitney Houston fan and the entire point of him randomly stopping by Kevin’s house was to get intel on Whitney. Interesting! Jimmy noted that someone should’ve just told the guy about e-mail, ’cause that would’ve solved it. Eddie Redmayne was also on JKL, and Eddie shared his own story of meeting Stephen Hawking. He didn’t ask Eddie about Whitney but Eddie said he’s one of the most charismatic men you’ll ever meet, and definitely a ladies man. Eddie also shared his excitement at being part of the 2015 awards circuit. “A Most Violent Year” star Oscar Isaac was on “Late Show” with David Letterman discussing his roles in the upcoming movies “X-Men: Apocalypse” and “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.” He said “Star Wars” comes out first, but he can’t say anything about the movie or they’ll descend and execute him on site. But Dave still played a scene from the new movie. Except not really. Whitney Cummings was also on Dave’s show, talking about how she keeps busy shooting all her canceled shows. She’s joking, but she also joked about how she’s become a professional talk show guest, just going on different shows to promote her upcoming appearances. “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” are still on repeats, but David Letterman pulled double duty, hosting his own show and also acting as a guest on “The Late Late Show,” which was guest hosted by Regis Philbin. Dave shared a classic memory from his show, tied to a musical guest.

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  • Adam Sandler Lines Up All-Star Cast for His Netflix Movie ‘Ridiculous 6’


    When Adam Sandler secured his lucrative deal with Netflix, it was unclear what the first project from this groundbreaking union would be. Well, The Wrap is reporting that the first film will be Sandler’s long-gestating western comedy “Ridiculous 6.” What’s more, the site is reporting that Sandler has lined up an all-star cast. Apparently, with his first Netflix outing, Sandler wants to go big.

    “Ridiculous 6,” co-written by Sandler and regular collaborator Tim Herlihy, will star Blake Shelton, Whitney Cummings, Luke Wilson, Steve Zahn, Nick Nolte, Danny Trejo, Chris Parnell, Lavell Crawford and returning Sandler favorites Steve Buscemi, Rob Schneider (so I guess he patched up whatever beef he had with Sandler that kept him out of “Grown Ups 2”), Dan Aykroyd, Nick Swardson, Terry Crews, John Lovitz and Vanilla Ice. Whew, that’s a lot of people.

    What’s somewhat more iffy about the project is the fact that it’s a comedic western, with the title an obvious riff on “The Magnificent Seven” (itself a western take on Akira Kurosawa’s immortal “Seven Samurai”). This must have been the reason it had such a long and problematic production history, having first been developed at Sony before moving on to Paramount, who too reached an impasse with the expensive and unproven genre.

    This project seems even riskier coming so closely after “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” Seth MacFarlane’s costly bomb that was also a western comedy. Still, “A Million Ways to Die in the West” didn’t have Vanilla Ice playing Mark Twain or Blake Shelton playing Wyatt Earp… So we’re willing to give this one the benefit of the doubt, especially since we presumably won’t have to pay for it, it will just appear on our Playstation 3 in 8 months (or whenever it comes out).

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