Sid Caesar built the SNL formula 25 years early, and his writers' room gave us Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Carl Reiner, and more.
Community, managers, agents, attorneys, and the resources that help stand-up comedians build a career team.
Every working comic is a small business with no HR department. A Labor Day salute to the working comedian.
The producer of Bob Newhart's Grammy-nominated album On the Record on what Newhart's silences taught him, for Bob's 97th birthday.
More venues and corporate bookers require performer liability insurance. What comics need to know about COIs and E&O coverage.
The comedy LP built modern stand-up. The producer of Rhino's American Comedy Box on why the album is where stand-up grew up.
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose made parody fair use, even commercial parody. But the parody-satire distinction matters more than comics think.
Royalty disputes usually turn on contract language written years before anyone was famous.
Lucille Ball was a brilliant businesswoman as well as a great comedienne, and the reason the National Comedy Center is in Jamestown, NY.
Howard remembers interviewing Mel Brooks in 1981 for WKCR's The Laugh Track, in honor of Mel's 100th birthday.
Copyright protects a joke's exact wording, not its premise. What that means for working comics.
An entertainment lawyer who owns 5,000 comedy records explains why comedians deserve a lawyer who actually knows comedy.