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Arab News
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Arab News
GEA announces lineup for Riyadh Comedy Festival in September
LONDON: Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, announced on Monday the lineup of stand-up comedians who will perform at the inaugural Riyadh Comedy Festival in September. Award-winning Hollywood actor Chris Tucker, critically acclaimed performer Pete Davidson, and Emmy-award-winning Aziz Ansari are among over 50 top comedians from around the world who will be performing at Boulevard City in the capital, Riyadh, from September 26 to October 9. Tom Segura, known for Netflix specials like Ball Hog and Bad Thoughts, will star at the two-week festival, joined by popular podcast hosts Andrew Santino and Bobby Lee, Emmy-nominated writer Nimesh Patel, late-night favorite Sam Morril, and UK actor Omid Djalili, recognized for his global stand-up performances. Caption This year's Riyadh Comedy Festival will also feature Chris Distefano, who recently released his special It's Just Fortunate; Mark Normand, known for his Netflix special Soup To Nuts; Hannibal Buress, a veteran writer and comedian; Louis C.K., a six-time Emmy and three-time Grammy winner; and Jimeoin, recognized for his observational comedy. The comedians listed are among the first 26 artists to confirm their participation in the festival this week. The Riyadh Comedy Festival will also announce additional performers in the coming weeks. Confirmed acts also include Andrew Schulz, Bill Burr, Bobby Lee, Gabriel 'Fluffy' Iglesias, Jessica Kirson, Jimmy Carr, Jo Koy, Kevin Hart, Maz Jobrani, Russell Peters, Sebastian Maniscalco, Whitney Cummings, and Zarna Garg.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Marc Maron Reveals the Cost to Use a Taylor Swift Song — and the Mutual Celebrity Friend Who Helped Him Get Access
The comedian and podcaster used Swift's 'Bigger Than the Whole Sky' for his soon-to-be-released stand-up special Marc Maron said getting the rights to Taylor Swift's music doesn't come without a hefty price tag. The comedian and podcaster, 61, spent major dollars in order to use a specific song from the pop star's catalog for his upcoming stand-up special, he revealed on the July 25 episode of Vulture's Good One podcast. Licensing Swift's song 'Bigger Than the Whole Sky' — a bonus track on the 3am Edition of her 2022 album Midnights — cost about "$50,000," Maron said. He added that he felt he needed the specific track for a pivotal moment in his HBO special, Marc Maron: Panicked, so he reached out to a mutual friend, Jack Antonoff, for help. 'I know Jack Antonoff enough to text him — and he's the co-writer on that song,' Maron explained. 'I said, 'I don't know what's proper or how to do this, but we're running out of money on this thing. It's probably going to come out of my pocket. Is there anything you can do about this song or talk to Taylor?' ' Maron said Antonoff, 41, advised him to go through official music licensing channels, and he was ultimately able to get approval to use the track. The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now! 'It was doable,' Maron said, adding, however, that the tens of thousands of dollars only covered the use of one minute of the song. 'I would have gone over the minute, [but] it would have been more money,' he explained. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Maron said he doesn't know if Swift, 35, has heard the specific joke in the special that her team signed off on, but he was 'manifesting' that she would indeed like it if she did — for the sake of his project. 'It had to happen,' Maron said. 'The real fear [was], like, [if] she doesn't let you use it, and then what do you do? You can't do the bit on the special.' While Maron didn't reveal the content of the bit in question, he has spoken about Swift's music — and his journey to becoming a Swiftie — in the past. 'I'm an open-minded guy, and I like music. I [wanted] to try to figure out what it is about Taylor Swift that everyone never shuts up about," he said on a May 2023 episode of his long-running podcast, WTF with Marc Maron. Maron said he ended up listening to Swift's Midnights album on a hike, and he was impressed with what her heard. 'I'm like, 'Alright. I get it.' It's pop music, but it's not dance music [and] it's, sort of, emotional. There's a lot of longing and sadness and isolation and processing these overwhelming feelings of melancholy," he recalled. When previously discussing the new special, the comedian said, per Deadline, that he felt like 'this is the best work' he's ever done, adding, 'Everything came together." Maron's latest creative endeavor comes two years after his last HBO special, the critically acclaimed From Bleak to Dark, which explored grief and the experience of losing his partner, filmmaker Lynn Shelton, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Marc Maron: Panicked premieres on HBO on Friday, Aug. 1, at 8:00 p.m. EST. It will also be available to stream on HBO Max. Read the original article on People
Arab News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Arab News
GEA announces comedian lineup for Riyadh Comedy Festival in September
LONDON: Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, announced on Monday the lineup of stand-up comedians who will perform at the inaugural Riyadh Comedy Festival in September. Award-winning Hollywood actor Chris Tucker, critically acclaimed performer Pete Davidson, and Emmy-award-winning Aziz Ansari are among over 50 top comedians from around the world who will be performing at Boulevard City in the capital, Riyadh, from September 26 to October 9. Tom Segura, known for Netflix specials like Ball Hog and Bad Thoughts, will star at the two-week festival, joined by popular podcast hosts Andrew Santino and Bobby Lee, Emmy-nominated writer Nimesh Patel, late-night favorite Sam Morril, and UK actor Omid Djalili, recognized for his global stand-up performances. This year's Riyadh Comedy Festival will also feature Chris Distefano, who recently released his special It's Just Fortunate; Mark Normand, known for his Netflix special Soup To Nuts; Hannibal Buress, a veteran writer and comedian; Louis C.K., a six-time Emmy and three-time Grammy winner; and Jimeoin, recognized for his observational comedy. The comedians listed are among the first 26 artists to confirm their participation in the festival this week. The Riyadh Comedy Festival will also announce additional performers in the coming weeks. Confirmed acts also include Andrew Schulz, Bill Burr, Bobby Lee, Gabriel 'Fluffy' Iglesias, Jessica Kirson, Jimmy Carr, Jo Koy, Kevin Hart, Maz Jobrani, Russell Peters, Sebastian Maniscalco, Whitney Cummings, and Zarna Garg.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Rosie O'Donnell's Dublin world premiere review: Head-scratching stand-up set has a weirdly rose-tinted view of Ireland
Rosie O'Donnell: Common Knowledge 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin ★★☆☆☆ Rosie O'Donnell 's new show opens not with jokes but with a long, sad story. It's St Patrick's Day 1973, and young Rosie is called home from a play date to find her Irish-American Catholic family gathered with devastating news: her mother has died. 'I know what you're thinking,' the actor and comedian quips to the audience at 3Olympia Theatre on Sunday night, where the set is getting its world premiere. 'Did I buy tickets to the wrong show?' It's a good opener, but it's a question I find myself asking in earnest as the show goes on. O'Donnell is an assured presence on stage, and the production is polished: sound effects, well-timed slide shows, family photographs, archival footage. Her comic timing and rhetorical skill are considerable, even when the content veers more towards memoir than comedy. READ MORE The show is structured around her fifth child, adopted later in life, whom O'Donnell presents as a nonbinary, autistic, truth-speaking prodigy. Photographs of this undeniably cute kid accompany her anecdotes, which she delivers with warmth and reverence. The show's title, Common Knowledge, comes from a line O'Donnell's child uses whenever correcting their mother with bemused exasperation: 'It's common knowledge, Mom.' It's touching stuff, though not side-splitting. If the show were reframed not as stand-up but as an autobiographical monologue by a witty, charismatic performer, the expectations would land more fairly. Rosie O'Donnell at 3Olympia Theatre in Dublin on Sunday. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Rosie O'Donnell at 3Olympia Theatre in Dublin on Sunday. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Eventually, O'Donnell moves to the show's emotional core: her loathing of Donald Trump . Here the tone shifts. A slide show features paintings of the US president, his face rendered demon-red, words such as 'TRAITOR' and 'HYPOCRITE' etched across them. These are paintings O'Donnell began to make during his first term; they now apparently number in the hundreds. There's a comic opportunity here to say something about the quality of the art, but she doesn't rise to it. [ Rosie O'Donnell: 'People say, you moved to Ireland, just forget about Trump. I can't. The crimes are endless' Opens in new window ] Given recent, more interesting reckonings on the left about how liberal discourse may have helped fuel Trump's re-election, this section feels not only dated but counterproductive. O'Donnell's rage and disbelief, however sincere, feel lazy. Rosie O'Donnell at 3Olympia Theatre in Dublin on Sunday. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Rosie O'Donnell at 3Olympia Theatre in Dublin on Sunday. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Rosie O'Donnell at 3Olympia Theatre in Dublin on Sunday. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill What's missing is a deeper confrontation with the possibility that such disdain might not only fail to persuade but also, in fact, deepen the fractures it claims to lament. Admittedly, it would be difficult to craft a comedy capable of confronting these tensions but not, you'd like to think, impossible. Perhaps a less complacent-seeming comedian might attempt it, or at least gesture toward complexity, rather than defaulting to familiar material that flatters the audience but challenges nothing. [ Are we really going to pass up the chance to do the most hilarious thing in the history of world leaders? Opens in new window ] O'Donnell's vision of Ireland, meanwhile, is ridiculous. She praises the lollipop lady, the kindly pharmacist, the atmosphere of 'calm and peace', the country's incredible 'hospitality'. Has she read the news? 'I think Sandymount is amazing. We ended up buying a home there,' she says. Her joy at no longer paying $78,000 a year for her child's US education also rankles. It's easy to sentimentalise from within a bubble. O'Donnell closes the evening with a little homily on how we must get through the hard times with endurance and laughter. Then Angels, by Robbie Williams, booms from the speakers as a slide show shows her kid hugging a dog in their nice Sandymount home. It's the most I laugh all night.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Marc Maron Reveals the Cost to Use a Taylor Swift Song — and the Mutual Celebrity Friend Who Helped Him Get Access
The comedian and podcaster used Swift's 'Bigger Than the Whole Sky' for his soon-to-be-released stand-up special Marc Maron said getting the rights to Taylor Swift's music doesn't come without a hefty price tag. The comedian and podcaster, 61, spent major dollars in order to use a specific song from the pop star's catalog for his upcoming stand-up special, he revealed on the July 25 episode of Vulture's Good One podcast. Licensing Swift's song 'Bigger Than the Whole Sky' — a bonus track on the 3am Edition of her 2022 album Midnights — cost about "$50,000," Maron said. He added that he felt he needed the specific track for a pivotal moment in his HBO special, Marc Maron: Panicked, so he reached out to a mutual friend, Jack Antonoff, for help. 'I know Jack Antonoff enough to text him — and he's the co-writer on that song,' Maron explained. 'I said, 'I don't know what's proper or how to do this, but we're running out of money on this thing. It's probably going to come out of my pocket. Is there anything you can do about this song or talk to Taylor?' ' Maron said Antonoff, 41, advised him to go through official music licensing channels, and he was ultimately able to get approval to use the track. The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now! 'It was doable,' Maron said, adding, however, that the tens of thousands of dollars only covered the use of one minute of the song. 'I would have gone over the minute, [but] it would have been more money,' he explained. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Maron said he doesn't know if Swift, 35, has heard the specific joke in the special that her team signed off on, but he was 'manifesting' that she would indeed like it if she did — for the sake of his project. 'It had to happen,' Maron said. 'The real fear [was], like, [if] she doesn't let you use it, and then what do you do? You can't do the bit on the special.' While Maron didn't reveal the content of the bit in question, he has spoken about Swift's music — and his journey to becoming a Swiftie — in the past. 'I'm an open-minded guy, and I like music. I [wanted] to try to figure out what it is about Taylor Swift that everyone never shuts up about," he said on a May 2023 episode of his long-running podcast, WTF with Marc Maron. Maron said he ended up listening to Swift's Midnights album on a hike, and he was impressed with what her heard. 'I'm like, 'Alright. I get it.' It's pop music, but it's not dance music [and] it's, sort of, emotional. There's a lot of longing and sadness and isolation and processing these overwhelming feelings of melancholy," he recalled. When previously discussing the new special, the comedian said, per Deadline, that he felt like 'this is the best work' he's ever done, adding, 'Everything came together." Maron's latest creative endeavor comes two years after his last HBO special, the critically acclaimed From Bleak to Dark, which explored grief and the experience of losing his partner, filmmaker Lynn Shelton, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Marc Maron: Panicked premieres on HBO on Friday, Aug. 1, at 8:00 p.m. EST. It will also be available to stream on HBO Max. Read the original article on People
