10 Comedy Events We're Looking Forward to This Fall

Chris Saunders

Doug Stanhope

The leaves are turning, the pumpkin lattes are over-caffeinating and the comedy calendar is packing in shows and releases like snot-nosed children onto the back of a hayride wagon. Here are a few of the upcoming highlights.

BSeen Media

10. Myq Kaplan and Micah Sherman's release party for Please Be Seated, Nerdist Theater at Meltdown Comics
The second album from Last Comic Standing finalist Myq Kaplan (following 2010's Vegan Mind Meld) is a somewhat surprising musical pairing with Second City alum Micah Sherman. Fortunately the results are much more Garfunkel and Oates than Rodney Carrington, with 22 tracks of smartly neurotic, up-tempo acoustic ditties bolstered by adept harmonies and faux-contentious banter. (A point-by-point takedown of Alanis Morissette's "Ironic" is among the highlights.) Pals including Maria Bamford, Henry Phillips, Baron Vaughn, Shane Mauss and MC Mr. Napkins will be on hand to help celebrate. Fri., Sept. 28, 7522 Sunset Blvd., Hlywd., (323) 851-7223, www.nerdmeltla.com.

Grand Central Publishing

9. Stephen Colbert's America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't, Grand Central Publishing
A new book by Emmy-winning political parodist Stephen Colbert so close to the election? Huge coincidence or omnipotent act of a marketing-savvy God? Either way, if it's anything like 2007's I Am America (And So Can You!), the Colbert Report host will have another chart-topper on his hands. Quoth Amazon.com, "America Again will singlebookedly pull this country back from the brink. It features everything from chapters, to page numbers, to fonts." In a season rife with quixotic promise-making, Colbert alone can fabulist it up with the worst of them and yet remain one of the few talking heads we can all agree to trust. Tues., Oct. 2, www.hachettebookgroup.com.

YouTube

8. The Sixth Anniversary of What's Up, Tiger Lily?, Hollywood Studio Bar & Grill
What a long, strange, eclectic, rowdy and occasionally unbelievable trip it's been for the stalwart weekly created by Maria Bamford and Melinda Hill. Fitting that the planned festivities would be just as epic: booker Jazz Ponce promises a double-dose celebration stretching over two Mondays that will feature confirmed talent including Bamford, Greg Proops, Nick Kroll, Brendon Small, the Sklar Brothers, Matt Braunger, Blaine Capatch and Nick Turner, plus prize drawings for merch donated by favorite Tiger Lily talent. Comics themselves will also get to take part in the mad rafflin' fun, as they are eligible to win sets of time on future shows varying from regular spots up to a full month-long residency. Mon., Oct. 15 and 22, 6122 Sunset Blvd., Hlywd., (323) 466-9917, www.whatsuptigerlily.tumblr.com.

Comedy Central

7. Dave Attell, Brea Improv
He was a guileless, ever-roving barfly on Comedy Central's much-loved Insomniac with Dave Attell. On Showtime's Dave's Old Porn, he's a giddy, starstruck fanboy of all things filth. But live and onstage, that's where the real Attell shines through: dangerously dark and impossibly quick-witted, yet always belying a certain wistfulness and vulnerability. Dude's got top-notch dick jokes, too. Witness the continuing evolution of one of the finest performers populating the current comedy landscape when Attell makes a rare West Coast appearance for two nights only. Fri.-Sat., Oct. 12-13, 120 S. Brea Blvd., Brea, (714) 482-0700, www.brea.impov.com.

Next up: A podcast fest