Randall Mills

Cast of Monster Party, winners of the Sketch Cage Match at the 1st Annual LA Scripted Comedy Festival on the iO West Theater Mainstage

See also:
*10 Best Stand-Up Comedy Shows in Los Angeles
*12 Comedy Acts to Watch in 2013

Over the weekend, Improv Olympic became a Scripted Olympic. From Thursday through Sunday, Hollywood's iO West Theater hosted its first annual L.A. Scripted Comedy Festival, featuring a collection of talent from across the country showcasing sketch, variety, storytelling, stand up and short films.

The event marked a departure from the improvised comedy that defines iO. According to James Grace, the coordinator of SFC, this venture was an organic evolution for the theater.

"iO West has had an explosion of sketch, solo, storytelling and stand up shows over the last year," explained Grace during a pre-festival interview. "So featuring all the talent at this theater in L.A., and across the country, seemed like a natural progression. The industry is always looking for product and scripted comedy is the best way to consistently showcase talent."

More »

Todd Cole, Courtesy of Center for the Art of Performance At UCLA

"Grab the nearest stranger..." Oh shit. Here we go.

This is how film director and artist Miranda July chose to begin her performance piece Auction last night at Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA's Freud Playhouse.

Where we were sitting, the nearest stranger didn't want to be touched, and the next-nearest stranger, a winsome elderly woman, was a little too cool with it.

July then proceeded to list all of the things that may or may not happen with this stranger, everything ranging from the possibility that we may end up dating one of their friends, to losing this person to the ravages of drug addiction. We were certain she had all of it wrong with our particular next-nearest stranger -- until she got to death. "This person may die soon..."

Double shit.

Then we had to sit there for the next 90 minutes thinking about how our nice elderly next-nearest stranger might actually get there sooner than everyone else in the room. July asked us all to squeeze that person who we'll one day let go of.

We'd already let go. Physically.

More »

Jessie Rosen

Funny or Die writer Erin Gibson tells a story about an unexpected night in a hotel room with a man who lied better than she did.

See also:
*10 Best Standup Comedy Shows in L.A.
*Our Calendar Section, Listing More Great Things to Do in L.A.

Apparently the hormones that doctors give you when you donate eggs make you so horny that you want to be gang raped, rotating from man to man while lying on a giant lazy susan.

Or so I learned last week at the one-year anniversary of the no-boys-allowed storytelling show, Sunday Night Sex Talks, which takes over the Red Room in the back of Bar Lubitsch on the first Sunday of each month, doesn't allow men to perform or watch and asks the audience to take a vow of privacy to prevent racy details about well-known female performers like Jennifer Hall from NBC's Up All Night and Stevie Ryan from VH1's StevieTV from going viral. (Hence my inability to share the name of the performer who said she wanted to be gang raped. The organizers said we could divulge details as long as they didn't have names attached, and allowed some other details with names, below.)

Other lessons? Doing lines of coke off a toilet bowl with the stripper who just gave your husband a lap dance will not make you feel better about your sexless marriage. At least one straight man out there loves to play with dildos. If you get ringworm the day after you realize you're a lesbian, God is probably not punishing you. And at least one woman in Los Angeles considers her gynecologist the only man who "actually really" knows her before he puts his hands inside her.

More »

Garfunkel & Oates

See also:
*10 Best Standup Comedy Shows in L.A.
*5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week
*Our Calendar Section, Listing More Great Things to Do in L.A.

Another great week for live comedy, including Florence Henderson and a comedy smackdown.

5. Garfunkel and Oates
The wickedly funny and adorable duo of Riki Lindhome and ukulele-player Kate Micucci celebrate their fourth anniversary and the release of their new Slippery When Moist CD. Largo at the Coronet, Thurs., Oct. 18, 8 p.m.

More »

Adrian Todd Zuniga

See also:
*10 Best Standup Comedy Shows in L.A.
*5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week

Literary Death Match is ready for its close-up. The acclaimed reading series presents LDM TV: The Pilot at Largo on Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 7:30 p.m. with a slew of special guests, including Michael C. Hall, Diablo Cody, Moby, Jenny Slate, Jillian Lauren, Moshe Kasher, Ben Loory, Jeanne Darst and Adrian Wyatt. LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga explains.

So you're pitching Literary Death Match to the networks. Do you have a handy slogan to describe the show to these execs? 

We'll stick with the usual "four authors, three all-star judges, two rounds and one epic finale" but pitchwise, it really comes down to: There's a reality TV show for everything on the planet -- from cooking to picking apart abandoned storage lockers -- but not the books? When everyone on the planet is a writer these days? Well, we have just the show for you.

More »