February 2026
Our monthly update from the world of emerging comedy, hyping up the live shows, festival films, and rising digital creators you should know.
Hi, everyone! I don’t have a ton of time to write a long introduction teeing up the free digest this month with my meditations on the “State of Comedy” as it were. Life itself can get so busy, and with the overwhelming abundance of worthwhile, funny content out there (a lot of which I still really need to get around to, tbh), there truly is no rest for the real comedy lovers.
And on that note: check it out!
New York
Digital creator and Brooklyn standup Ryan Ciecwisz is crushing it in live bit shows and on reels (at the very least he is making me laugh). He hosts a show at Friends and Lovers with Claire Siemietkowski — this past Friday had a fun lineup — follow Ryan to see if he does another one!
After a beloved international tour in 2025, the “mustachioed Aussie oddball” and Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee, Josh Glanc, has returned to SoHo Playhouse with his show Family Man. Glanc reliably serves up “wackily inventive absurdism” — here is a perfect example of what he do.
Los Angeles
Sam Taggart (formerly a writer for After Midnight and co-host of Straightio Lab) is workshopping an hour at the Lyric Hyperion in March/April, and it doesn’t feel too soon to get tickets for something this inevitably fun.
You should really just go follow Underground Monk Show, so I don’t have to tell you about every single upcoming live show they have coming up in this newsletter. That said, I would do that. And I will do that. Until you go. (Next one is February 11th at the Elysian.)
The team at JFL is starting up their 2026 New Faces showcases in LA, New York and London (so far, that I’ve heard). After JFL rebooted last year, the New Faces program underwent a particularly cool change: all the stand ups are auditioning together and showcasing in Montreal together (in contrast to previous years where showcase categories separated the unrepped, repped and international comics). Last Friday night’s early show at the Improv Lab my two favorites were (ironically, both repped) Kat Bird and Cooper Lyden. We’ll see if the bookers agree….
Fun lil fact: way back when, this newsletter originally “premiered” (in our February 2024 newsletter) the short film version of The Musical, Alex Heller & Giselle Bonilla's story about an elementary school teacher who finds out that his coworker ex is now dating the school principal. A few weekends ago, the feature length adaptation (which we alluded to in 2024…) premiered at Sundance. Not not cool!
FHP (I’ll just let you click on that link to figure out what FHP stands for) recently released the short proof of concept for their film, Supern***a, a “Blaxploitation and superhero inspired romantic comedy,” written & directed by Daddy. The short’s cast is stacked — featuring Marie Faustin, Mary Beth Barone, Gavin Matts, Rachel Coster, and more — and FHP has said that there will be a feature length version set to release in 202
SXSW has announced many of the comedy film and TV projects that will screen in its upcoming festival in Austin this March. One hot (opinion), must-see (hype) comedy premiere is Pizza Movie (pictured below). This feature debut, written/directed by Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher of BriTaNick, chronicles a college friend group’s perilous trip downstairs to get a pizza after ingesting a craaaaazy drug. Unrelated, there is a documentary short that sounds funny (pun intended): Eructation is about a competitively loud burper, directed and produced by debut filmmaker, Victoria Trow.
Sorry not sorry: I have written multiple blurbs about the self-produced and self-financed animated feature Boys Go to Jupiter (including here, in my Best of 2025 roundup), but I hope this update motivates SOMEONE to watch it: it’s available to stream on HBO Max!!! Which means now? You really, truly have no excuse not to check out one of the most original comedies from last year. Julian Glander took four years to create the film (using Blender, a 3D software), and after premiering at Tribeca it landed a distribution deal with Cartuna and Irony Point — offering a strong case in favor of the “go out and do it yourself” ethos.
I recently caught the short film, Don’t Get Me Wrong, from writer/director Corey Sherman and animator/illustrator Tommy Fleming, and I was immediately taken by the premise (a man inherits an abandoned flat screen TV from his hallway to discover every channel is transmitting video of his friends… and they are all talking about him.) Fleming’s animation style is a perfect compliment to Sherman’s story, both of which go harder and darker than you might expect them to.
In light of recent ICE raids in their neighborhood, Drew Spears Productions (AKA DSP Studios) along with the Elysian Theater rallied their comedy community to livestream a marathon show-slash-fundraiser. They raised over $50K to buy out local vendors in Frogtown, providing direct aid to help ensure that none of their neighbors would have to work unsafely and publicly on the street. The fundraiser is still open here, and the livestream is available to watch below.
Abolish Everything! is unscripted comedy debate show (hosted by Chandler Dean and taped live at Caveat) which tasks comedians with powerpoint presenting something — anything — that they think should be abolished. Abolish Everything! recently released its second season, produced by Wendover Productions, and it’s currently available to stream on Nebula. [And if you’re remotely confused or curious what Nebula is? I chatted with Chandler recently about the emerging streaming platform geared toward indie creators — which basically means: stay tuned for an incoming premium article!]
Regular readers will recall I’m a big sucker for a well executed character comedy format (that is to say, I cannot shut up about Dropout’s Very Important People) Recently I stumbled on a show from ForeverDog hosted by what appears to be a queer woman’s version of Jiminy Glick or Tony Clifton: Bert Berkosky, played by comedian Ryan Asher.