Angry online movie critics achieved a new level of mouth-frothing fervor over director Paul Feig’s all-female reboot of the classic 1984 horror comedy Ghostbusters that can only be matched by a riot at a British soccer stadium or a Donald Trump primary rally. Users of Facebook, Twitter and Reddit doomed…
It’s often been said that “Weird Al” Yankovic’s legacy on the music industry is how he’s become a stepping stone for new pop musicians. They hope to score more than just another “song of the summer” for their musical careers by becoming the target of his next parody. He might…
Comedian and musician Craig Robinson probably doesn’t have to do stand-up comedy anymore. He’s been a recognizable name since his breakout role as warehouse foreman Darryl Philbin on NBC’s American remake of The Office. That led to memorable roles in hit movies such as Knocked Up, Pineapple Express and This is the End…
If you’ve been on Facebook in the past few months, then chances are you’ve received at least one virtual invitation to a fake concert. The trend started back in April when a Facebook user’s fictitious invitation to a secret Limp Bizkit show at a Sunoco gas station in Dayton, Ohio, on…
It’s hard to escape the sound of fireworks on the Fourth of July. Even if you’re not attending a fireworks show or lighting the fuse of a black powder-packed explosive in your backyard on July 4, you’ll still spot the unmistakable burst of light or hear the occasional cacophony of…
A movie like Hello Gangster shouldn’t have turned out well. If you ask director Richard Krause, who co-wrote and helmed the local indie comedy, he seems a little incredulous that he and his team were actually able to finish it. “It’s kind of an impossible film that shouldn’t exist, but…
In the summer of 2012, the internet went out of its collective mind over a new game that became the undisputed sleeper hit of the E3 video game convention in Los Angeles. Game publisher Ubisoft released a trailer for Watch Dogs that easily overshadowed any other blood soaked, trigger-happy game…
If you dedicated your free time to playing video games on a computer in the 1990s, then you remember the first time you played the groundbreaking first-person shooter Doom. It’s hard to forget a formative moment that involves using a chainsaw to cut open a horned Hell minion like a…
Stephen Tobolowsky’s strength as an actor is that he finds complexity in all of his characters; he doesn’t believe stories can always be reduced to a struggle between good and evil. Take, for instance, the Dallas native’s role as “Action” Jack Barker in the current, third season of Silicon Valley, the…
Comic conventions have become snarling, hungry beasts that can never be sated. Every year they get bigger, with more parties, famous faces and costumed fans ready to declare their love for their favorite movie, show or comic book franchise. If this metaphorical beast was itself a comic book character, it…
Comics are a cynical breed. Their goal is to make an audience laugh and one common way to do that is by pointing out holes in our beliefs and behavior. Ryan Singer uses a different technique to get guffaws from the crowd. He thinks a sense of humor is necessary to…
There’s no doubt you’re watching a live radio drama when you watch The Intergalactic Nemesis. The actors bring their characters to life behind an old-timey microphone and a sound effects operator uses the whirl of a Little Tykes cement mixer to mimic the sound of a robot scuttling across a…
Standing out as an artist in the comic book industry seems like a near impossibility. Not only does the medium have more artists than it needs but it can be difficult to develop a unique style when editors expect another rehash of muscle-bound superheroes and bosomy superheroines. Robert Wilson IV…
Video games are more a part of our daily lives than ever. Those cranky parents who complained about their child’s sedentary gaming habits never saw this coming. We can not only frag strangers from the comfort of our couches through an Xbox One or PlayStation 4, we can also kill…
The notion that wrestling is staged isn’t a new one. Even hardcore WWE fans who lived in denial for years that their heroes were just part of a pre-determined storyline designed to yank on their emotions like a Franciscan monk ringing a church bill on Christmas have accepted that fact. …
When a Comedy Central rep reached out to comedian Josh Johnson last October about appearing on the new season of “Adam Devine’s House Party” on Twitter, he treated it the way most people might expect a comedian would. “I thought it was a joke,” Johnson says. “I thought it was…
Improvised comedy is experiencing another renaissance of sorts thanks to television and for once, I’m not talking about another reincarnation of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” The TV Land sitcom “Teachers” about a group of barely functional educators who let their personal lives bleed into their work came from the…
When comedian Ithamar Enriquez walks on to a stage, his presence commands an audience’s attention. He doesn’t capture it by yelling obscenities into a microphone to punctuate his jokes or screaming like a banshee to exorcise some deep seeded emotional pain that brings some comics to a stage. Enriquez never…
Even if you aren’t familiar with the drunken, poetic stories and words of comedian Kyle Kinane, you’ve at least heard his voice. The Chicago native who has three very funny comedy albums and two Comedy Central specials to his name has also done voices on animated series such as “Aqua…
The annual pop culture convention Fan Days brings together fans of all genres and media and gives them a forum to discuss and celebrate the TV shows, movies and comics they’ve loved for most of their lives. So it provides a natural segue to meet someone who shares similar passions,…
When Jared Guynes of Rockwall launched his “Epic Party” in 2014, he hired a bunch of acts, attractions and activities that looked like the kind of birthday party that Veruca Salt would demand her daddy throw for her if she didn’t fall into the furnace of Willa Wonka’s egg sorting…
Another NFL season is about to come to an end and if you’re a Dallas Cowboys fan, it’s probably not a good time for you. Not only did Jerry Jones’ storied franchise come to a dismal end with a 4-12 record but it also saw a list of season ending…
