News
Kathy Griffin on surviving controversy, skewering celebs and coming back to Tampa
2+ hour, 59+ min ago (788+ words) Kathy Griffin was once known for telling gossipy stories about celebrities. By the mid-aughts, her reality show, "My Life on the D-List," won two Emmys for Outstanding Reality Program. It now streams on Peacock. The blowback was fierce. She lost…...
Julian Barnes' playful new book is also his 'official departure"
2+ week, 2+ day ago (616+ words) Departure(s) explores several of Barnes' lifelong obsessions " mortality, memory, and time. It's slim but weighty, digressive yet incisive. Barnes, who just turned 80, says it will be his last. Julian Barnes' playful new book is also his 'official departure' In Departure…...
Improv comedy: Why this spontaneous art form is gaining new audiences
5+ mon, 2+ day ago (1011+ words) Standing on stage without a script in front of dozens " even hundreds of people " might sound like a nightmare. But that's improv comedy, and it's gaining popularity around the country as in-person events draw crowds and reels on social media…...
In 'The Roses,' Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman play a couple at odds
5+ mon, 2+ week ago (1045+ words) Many movies that have been made detail the start of relationships. Those dizzying first moments of love " flirtation and the spark of attraction, first kisses and the will-they-or-won't-they tension of so many romantic comedies. The movie, directed by Jay Roach,…...
'SNL' castmember Bowen Yang shares a piece of 'cultural contraband' from his youth
5+ mon, 3+ week ago (484+ words) For Bowen Yang, joining SNL as a writer in 2018, and then becoming a castmember the following year, was the fulfillment of a prophesy: during his senior year of high school, Yang had been voted "Most Likely to be on SNL....
Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie on family, legacy and 'Freak Out City"
5+ mon, 4+ week ago (589+ words) Bret McKenzie built his music career on a foundation of comedy. As a young artist, he played in multiple bands spanning a variety of genres, though he's best known as one half of the musical comedy duo Flight of the…...
Chappell Roan's thick-skinned 'The Subway' captures a survivalist New York mood
6+ mon, 1+ week ago (629+ words) Her latest single has a new sound (wistful '90s acoustic pop), and a new vibe (toughing out whatever NYC public transportation throws at you, from rats to trash to unexpected encounters with your ex). Chappell Roan's thick-skinned 'The Subway' captures a…...
Remembering composer and musical satirist Tom Lehrer
6+ mon, 1+ week ago (404+ words) (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "POLLUTION") TOM LEHRER: (Singing) See the halibuts and the sturgeons are being wiped out by detergents. A fish got to swim, and birds got to fly. But they don't last long if they try. Pollution. Pollution. You…...
Wes Anderson peers into the hollowness of extreme wealth in 'The Phoenician Scheme"
8+ mon, 1+ week ago (535+ words) It's become customary to describe a new Wes Anderson movie as "more of the same," but it says something about the sheer richness of his visual imagination that he can make two movies set in roughly the same era that…...
Mike Birbiglia admires his mom's 'Forrest Gump' energy
8+ mon, 3+ week ago (211+ words) Comedian Mike Birbiglia says he absorbed a lot of lessons from his parents " whether he realized it or not as a kid. From his mom's ability to talk to everyone, to his dad's drive and ambition. Mike Birbiglia admires his…...