About a month ago we reported that late comic Mike DeStefano would rightly be honored for his work at a special event during the 2011 New York Comedy Festival. Well, honored he was, and by a host of great comedians and a packed crowd to boot! As Jeffrey Gurian reports over at Laughspin, the fellows from Cringe Humor put the evening together in fine fashion, with stand-up contributions from Colin Quinn, Eugene Mirman and many others. Watch an interview with Gurian and Cringe's Cris Italia below, which includes some great clips from the event:

Props to the organizers of this event. Mike will be missed.

I am an expert when it comes to Ass Energy. For those of you who don't know, Ass Energy is a quantifiable force that can be detected using techniques seen on Ghost Hunters. There are a lot of skeptics who don't believe Ass Energy is real. For those doubters, I present you with Exhibit A.) Kurt Braunohler at the New York Comedy Festival interviewing Russell Peters on his life-changing experience absorbing Patrice O'Neal's ass energy by sleeping on his couch during their early days in comedy.

Between 30 Rock, Workaholics and Archer, Chris Parnell is pretty much a guest-spot as a merman on The Vampire Diaries away from having his finger in every pie on television. But what if he wasn't on TV? It's a chilling thought, but that's just one of the topics raised by Kurt Braunohler in this exclusive video interview with the cast and creator of Archer from The New York Comedy Festival.

This week, The Download invaded the New York Comedy Festival, shooting on location and snagging a couple of the tour's headliners for exclusive interviews. Amy Schumer sat down with host Jordan Rubin to talk about the pitfalls of inter-comedian dating, and Jim Gaffigan swung by to make fun people who take Twitter far too seriously. Meanwhile, intrepid man-on-the-street Owen Benjamin hit the streets of New York to do some real-life Facebook stalking, poking and friending.

Catch it in all its Internetiness below:

Last week, we shared an excellent photo slideshow from Michael Ian Black's New York Comedy Festival show. And if you're like me, it just made you wish you could see some video of Michael at NYCF, so you've spent the ensuing days trying to construct a stop-motion film from the images. Well, friends, cancel the voice auditions, because today we're doing you one better with this exclusive behind-the-scenes video wherein MIB talks to Kurt Braunohler about the technical challenges of his performance. No assembly required.

Visit Comedy Central's NYCF site for more exclusive videos from the festival.

People don't talk anymore — it's all texts, tweets and arguments with Siri. But last Sunday at the 92nd Street Y, Ricky Gervais sat down for a conversation with Bill Carter from the New York Times for the New York Comedy Festival.

The main topic quickly turned to Karl Pilkington, who Gervais remarks, "is as big as Gaga now." Pilkington's latest journeys (An Idiot Abroad) will be available January 2012 in America. One audience member asked "just how round" Karl's head is, to which Gervais replied, "when shaved looks eggish."

Ricky expounded on his early pop-star days, stand-up as a hobby and the success of The Office around the world. Most importantly, however, was the mention of Gervais and Stephen Merchant's new show Life's Too Short, starring Warwick Davis (Willow), which premieres on HBO in February.

After the jump, you can see a slideshow of pictures from the event.

Read more »

Imagining what it would be like if Roast Master General Jeffrey Ross roasted himself is a little like wondering if God could make a boulder so heavy He couldn't lift it, except watching a deity pick up a rock wouldn't be super hilarious. In any case, you can see Jeff talk about which attributes of himself he would skewer in this exclusive New York Comedy Festival interview with Kurt Braunohler.

My friends are usually imaginary and criticize my haircuts. Sarah Silverman's friends are great stand-ups who put on a great show for the New York Comedy Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Which, in some countries, is basically the same thing.

Sarah opened with some stand-up and did small bits for the rest of the evening. She shared secrets that she only tells to little girls, memories of curly showers with her mother and the realization that she shot out of her father's penis hole. She railed against vaginal deodorant and sang a song about cunts who call themselves divas. She created a fun mood for the rest of the evening and even threw in a Holocaust joke.

Read more »

by Mike Henneberger

Last Thursday, a sold-out crowd filled the Beacon Theatre in New York as Tracy Morgan celebrated his birthday (and mine) with a headlining performance for the New York Comedy Festival. Those who aren’t familiar with Tracy’s stand-up may have been shocked that ninety-percent of his set could never be repeated by his primetime network persona Tracy Jordan without the risk of FCC fines. Most of it is even too hot for basic cable, so I’ll assume the same goes for a basic cable blog. Let’s just say he offered his, um, positions on relationships: “You don’t put your hands on a woman, man. You beat her brother’s ass.” And love: “You don’t know what love is. Love is she gives you Chlamydia twice and you go back.” And sex, sex and more sex.

Here are some pics from the show including host Cipha Sounds and comedians Steve Wilson and Dominique Witten.

You can catch Tracy Morgan in back-to-back episodes of 30 Rock every weeknight at 7/6c on Comedy Central.

(Photos by Mike Henneberger)

In this world you can be certain of three three things: death, low taxes for the 1% and great stand-up from Louis C.K. Lucky for me and a sold out crowd at the New York Comedy Festival last night, we were able to experience one of these things.

People were still taking their seats as Louis C.K. strode out on stage saying, "Fuck it, I'm not waiting for you. Let's just start." The hour-and-a-half that followed was a combination of flawless stand-up and a lot of jerking off motions. Louis C.K. launched into his feelings on Clifford the Big Red Dog, the boredom of parenthood and the "deep grown-up hatred" he feels for a boy in his daughter's class.

Watching Louis C.K. live is something that everyone must put on their bucket lists. Unfortunately, the rest of his New York Comedy Festival shows are sold out. Beg, borrow, steal, sleep with whoever you have to, in order to see Louis C.K. in person.

The New York Comedy Festival continues through the weekend, and tickets are still available to some shows. Follow @jokesdotcom and @nycomedyfest on Twitter using the #NYCF hashtag to keep up, dudes.