Transitioning Alternative Comedy to TV
IFC creates and champions authentic, original comedies that are “Always On. Slightly Off” including the hit series Portlandia, the fan favorite Comedy Bang! Bang! and the upcoming new original Maron. The network is also developing a scripted comedy with Chris Gethard based on his book A Bad Idea I'm About To Do. This panel of alternative comedians,Fred Armisen, Scott Auckerman, Marc Maron, and moderator Chris Gethard will explore the creative process, personal experiences and successes of taking their comedy to television.
Presenters
Chris Gethard is a writer, actor, and comedian living in New York City. A mainstay performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, he has performed at the Just for Laughs festivals in both Montreal and Chicago, at South by Southwest, and at various colleges and theaters throughout the United States. He was named one of Variety’s Ten Comics to Watch in 2010, and has told stories on This American Life.
Chris was a guest writer at Saturday Night Live. He was also an original writer on The Onion News Network, which launched its online platform with a sketch he wrote that was written about in The New York Times. He also sold a pilot to Comedy Central.
Chris is the creator and host of The Chris Gethard Show, a variety and talk show that began as a stage show at UCB before becoming a weekly live public access show during the summer of 2011. The show has a fervent cult following, and is known for staging amazing stunts such as using a Twitter campaign to book Sean “Diddy” Combs as a guest on the show. Chris also once granted a young fan the night of her life by devoting an entire episode to her and booking all of her favorite celebrities. The Chris Gethard
Show has been written about in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and dozens of other publications. Chris has also promoted the show as a guest on both Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Conan.
Chris is the author of the book A Bad Idea I’m About to Do, named one of the Huffington Post’s ten books to read for the month of January upon its publication in early 2012. He is also the author of the book Weird NY, and the co-author of Weird NJ volumes one and
two, Weird US, and Weird VA.
As an actor, you can see Chris this summer in Iron Man 3, and later this year opposite Mila Kunis and Robin Williams in The Angriest Man In Brooklyn. Chris can also be seen in multiple episodes of the final season of NBC’s The Office.
Fred Armisen is the co-creator, co-writer and co-star of Portlandia. In 2012, he received an Emmy® nomination in the “Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series” category for his work on the series.
Armisen is also in his eleventh season of Saturday Night Live. On SNL, he has engaged audiences with memorable impressions of former New York Governor David Paterson, Larry King, Libyan
Dictator Muammar Gaddafi, President Barack Obama, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the popular digital short “Iran So Far Away,” and Prince, the often-silent host of the musician’s talk show “The Prince Show.” Other unforgettable characters of Armisen’s include the distracted court stenographer Elinda Nade, the political comedian Nicholas Fehn and Mr. Vogelcheck in the “too close for comfort” kissing family.
Armisen has landed on Rolling Stone's "Hot List" and has been included several times on Entertainment Weekly's "Must List.” He has appeared in countless feature films, including the animated feature The Smurfs, Cop Out with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, Easy A alongside Emma Stone, The Rocker opposite Rainn Wilson, Confessions of a Shopaholic with Isla Fisher and The Promotion with John C. Reilly. He has also appeared in the films Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny with Jack Black, The Ex with Zach Braff and Jason Bateman, as well as Eurotrip, and Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
Armisen began his career as a musician in the Chicago-based post-punk band Trenchmouth as well as playing with the Blue Man Group. His transition to comedy came with the 1998 underground short film Fred Armisen's Guide to Music and SXSW which followed him through the Austin, Texas "South By Southwest Music Festival" posing as a music journalist. In 2006, he interviewed Cat Power for the influential music website Pitchfork.com. He then combined his love for music and comedy by creating the role of drummer Jens Hannemann and releasing an instructional DVD, Complicated Drumming Technique, in 2007.
He has made guest appearances on NBC's 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation, and the cable comedy shows The Sarah Silverman Show, Human Giant and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! He was also seen in the smash kids show Yo Gabba Gabba on Nickelodeon.
Armisen lives in New York City. His birthday is December 4.
For over twenty years, Marc Maron has been writing and performing raw, honest and thought-provoking comedy for print, stage, radio and television. A legend in the stand-up community, he has appeared on HBO, Conan, Letterman, Craig Ferguson, Real Time, John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up, The Green Room, two Comedy Central Presents specials and almost every show that allows comics to perform. He has appeared on Conan O’Brien more than any other comedian (a record 48 times and counting). He has penned a collection of essays titled Attempting Normal to be released by Spiegel and Grau in 2013. Marc’s first book based on his solo show, The Jerusalem Syndrome: My Life as a Reluctant Messiah, is available on amazon.com. Marc’s first three CDs, ‘Not Sold Out’, ‘Tickets Still Available’ and ‘Final Engagement’ are comedy cult
classics, while his newest album, ‘This Has To Be Funny’ (Comedy Central Records), which was recorded live in Brooklyn, was named #1 Comedy Album of 2011 by LaughSpin.com and named in The AV Club’s Best Comedy Albums of 2011.
His podcast “WTF with Marc Maron,” featuring compelling monologues and in-depth interviews with iconic personalities such as Conan O’Brien, Louis CK, Robin Williams, Anthony Bourdain, Judd Apatow and Ben Stiller, premiered in September 2009 and is a worldwide phenomenon averaging 2.5-3 million downloads each month. The show regularly hits #1 on the iTunes charts, was named the #1 Comedy Podcast by LA Weekly as well as The AV Club, and has been called a “must-listen” by Vanity Fair and New York Times, among many others. Select WTF episodes began airing
on public radio stations across the US in June 2010. A limited edition collection of the first 100 episodes of “WTF with Marc Maron” with video from Live WTF recorded in Brooklyn is available as a two-disc DVD box set on aspecialthing Records.
Marc’s half hour scripted series MARON was picked up by IFC for ten episodes and will premiere in Spring 2013. Marc was included in TIME Magazine’s 100 short list of the Most Influencial People 2012. He was nominated for two Comedy Central 2012 Comedy Awards: Best Comedy Podcast and Best Comedy App. He also travels the world performing sold out stand up shows as well as Live WTF stage shows, and was given the honor of delivering the Keynote Address at the 2011 Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal.
Scott Aukerman [skot ok-ur-muhn] is a chap from Los Angeles, and the host and creator of both the TV show and podcast
versions of Comedy Bang! Bang! The television version, on IFC, has appeared on many critics "Best Of TV" lists, and the AV Club said there "wasn't another show like it on television." The podcast has been downloaded over 30 million times and is consistently named as one of the best examples of the medium.
Scott got his start as a writer and performer on the HBO cult classic Mr. Show with Bob and David, for which he was Emmy-nominated. He is the producer and director of the acclaimed web series Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, the episodes of which been viewed over 100 million times. He is the co-founder of Earwolf - one of the world's most prominent podcasting networks and also a television production company.
Tuesday, March 12
