The Dallas VideoFest falls just before Halloween. A spooky season worth tapping into, at least for one of the fest’s signature events. “We thought maybe we should go in a Halloween direction,” says Brian Satterwhite, a composer and film aficionado who served as a consultant for this year’s live silent…
The historic Texas Theatre prides itself on being one of the few movie houses in town that can still screen films in their original 35mm and even 16mm formats, but even this historic theater has to change with the times and that means making the jump to digital distribution. Such…
James Ellroy is responsible for some of the greatest crime fiction and even one of the greatest crime movies in the history of medium, a talent that developed from a very dark place in his life. His mother was murdered when he was just a boy and her case has…
The term “hate speech” gets thrown around a lot by politicians who confuse constructive criticism of their attitudes and opinions with an incitement to riot with literal torches and pitchforks. There is, however, a line that people can actually cross and incite a wave of violence and the Dallas Holocaust…
October means many different things to many different cultures. For most of America, it’s about celebrating the window of opportunity that Satan has to enslave our children by giving them candy. For Germany, it’s all about Oktoberfest, that glorious celebration featuring fatty meats, lively polka music and endless amount of…
There seems to be a new unwritten rule of comedy that if you want to make an audience laugh, you have to show them that you have enough energy to bounce around the room like a pinball on a meth bender. Comedian Margaret Smith can get twice as many laughs…
When you think about it, wrestling isn’t a sport where athletic prowess wins the day. It’s all about presentation, style and keeping the crowd at a certain level of enthusiastic insanity. It’s like ribbon dancing but with more machismo, less clothes and a better storyline. It’s also a sport of…
Every year, the Dallas VideoFest gives an award of special achievement to a pioneer of television and film in honor of the late TV comedian Ernie Kovacs. This year, that supreme honor will go to comedian, writer, musician and Richard Nixon impersonator Harry Shearer. The Dallas VideoFest announced that the…
Last Friday’s Oddball Curiosity and Comedy Festival at the Gexa Energy Pavilion wasn’t as memorable as the first time Funny or Die brought a comedy showcase to our town. That’s not to say it wasn’t good. For a lot of comedy nerds in attendance, it will be one of the…
For it to be an event, every fan convention has to have a guest of honor. The San Diego Comic-Con employs Peter Jackson, who spends his time persuading attendees that they want a 15th movie based on a J.R.R. Tolkein novel. The E3 convention brings in every Nintendo executive, who…
Every comedy fan has a bucket list of famous funny people in their heads that they have to see on a stage before they die. It’s a hard list to achieve because so many things that happen to great comedians that can keep them off of a stage: nervous breakdowns,…
One of the joys that rarely happens to today’s budding comedy nerds is watching the reaction of their parents when they happen upon one of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. Few things can produce such a strange facial mixture of bewilderment and confusion. Imagine how they would look if they…
Most critics of comedians who love to take their audiences to dark places usually have a single criticism in mind when they prepare to launch their arsenal of self-righteous indignation. “The dark, sad things you’re trying to make people laugh about wouldn’t seem so funny if they happened to you,”…
One of the first shows that comedian Chris Tellez organized sounds like the nightmare scenario of any aspiring comic. He started a regular monthly stand-up show called “Pillow Talk” at a dive bar in Oak Cliff that didn’t have working air conditioning. The place was packed with sweaty people trying…
It seems that every fair, food “palooza” or gluttony fest is dedicated to some kind of food that’s really not healthy to eat until it starts oozing out of your ears. We’ve got nothing against chili cook-offs or rib fests but it would be a nice change of pace for…
Comedian Doug Stanhope once told us in an interview that “there’s nothing fucking worse” than performing at huge theaters because they ruin the intimacy of a room or a comedy club. Unfortunately when you’re big enough to get on the cover of Rolling Stone’s comedy issue like comedian Aziz Ansari,…
The Six Flags theme parks are known for giant roller coasters and drop rides that are designed to pull whatever you’ve been eating out of you in new and curious ways. It’s an ingenious business model when you really think about it. The less food in your system, the more…
At the biggest comedy event in Dallas/Fort Worth this year, three names on the bill are a little bit more local than the rest. Stand-up comedians Christopher Darden, Josh Johnson and Clint Werth have been touring the local clubs, bars and any other places that will let them set up…
The man with the most distinctive voice in comedy defines the concept of a “comic’s comic.” Gilbert Gottfried did more than just spend a lifetime doing comedy and spending a season or two on Saturday Night Live. He stuck to his comedy no matter where his career took him through…
The Jewish Community Center of Dallas’ annual film festival is one of the smaller jewels in the DFW’s cinematic crown. It may not take up as much real estate as the USA Film Festival or the Dallas International Film Festival but it still sparkles when the light shines upon it…
Drinking and comedy have always gone together like peanut butter, jelly and soft, white bread with the crusts carefully removed. Comedy club drinks, however, aren’t the tastiest or most reasonably priced concoctions. It’s part and parcel for the business and not just for the club’s bottom line. Sometimes all it…
The summer is winding down and pretty soon it’s going to get rainy and cold. Well, cool. Or at least cool-ish. Sure, you’re sweltering now, but you’re going to miss all the parties, concerts and other outdoor events you didn’t take advantage of because you were inside, hugging an air-conditioning…
