COMEDY: This weekend marks the 9th Annual Del Close Marathon. Del Close, if you don't know by now, "was the driving force behind improvisational comedy in Chicago for over 30 years influencing Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Mike Myers, John Belushi, Chris Farley and the Upright Citizens Brigade to name a few." The annual weekend began after Del's passing in 1999. All Weekend // Various Times // UCB Theater [307 W 26th St] // $10 shows,......

COMEDY: The Del Close Marathon is happening this weekend, the full schedule is here. "Del Close was the driving force behind improvisational comedy in Chicago for over 30 years influencing Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Mike Myers, John Belushi, Chris Farley and the Upright Citizens Brigade to name a few. After Del's passing in 1999, the UCB started the Del Close Marathon to celebrate their mentor and keep alive his name and teachings for future generations"......

Did Mayor Bloomberg brind the Country Music Awards to NYC to get some of the heartland vote? Earlier this week, the Norwalk, CT paper "The Hour" asked our Mayor about his presidential aspirations, if any. Mayor Bilng said, "Absolutely not... And anybody who's running will say exactly that." Plus, he made it clear he could pay for a presidential run. Well, duh - he could probably pay for a couple presidential runs, but we thought......

Queen Esther, Unemployed Superstar...

With many shows that "suck," NBC will premiere Tracy Morgan's sitcom, The Tracy Morgan, in the Tuesday 8PM time slot on December 2. Take a look at NBC's description of The Tracy Morgan Show: Morgan stars in the sharp-edged family comedy as father, husband and small-business owner Tracy Mitchell, who, with his beautiful, no-nonsense wife Alicia (Tamala Jones, “Head of State”), share their modest apartment with their two kids, 13-year-old Derrick (Marc John Jefferies, “The......

The best thing about Virginia Heffernan's New Yorker profile of Tina Fey, besides feeding our Tina-Fey-starved minds, is the breakdown of the different comedy styles of SNL performers and writers: Second City (Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler, Horatio Sanz) - known for their aesthetic perfectionism Groundlings (Laraine Newman, Chris Farley, Will Ferrell, Julia Sweeney, Maya Rudolph, Chris Kattan) - creation of vivid and eccentric characters Harvard Lampoon (Dennis......