January 2026
Oh this? It's just a comedy digest: free and chock full of comedy you'll be happy to have discovered. NBD.
Hi, everyone! Welcome, to 2026.
If you missed the most recent newsletter featuring the Best Picks of 2025, you might wanna go check that one out. And get excited: every bit of talent coverage in this (free) monthly newsletter may in fact be a Best Pick of 2026… only time will tell…
And if you haven’t considered becoming a paid member of this newsletter, here’s one last appeal. We have some really exciting premium articles coming up this month!
Before we jump in, here are some rapid-fire, miscellaneous updates from me re: the wide world of comedy:
San Francisco Sketchfest takes place at the end of this month! LMK if you’ll be there. Full lineup here.
If you trust my taste in dark comedy (which comes with a high tolerance for the disturbing), you really should see No Other Choice in theaters. It’s so good. Sure it’s about the inherent violence of capitalism, but you gotta believe me when I say I was laughing.
It is that time of year again: JFL New Faces submissions are being accepted and last-minute Edinburgh Fringe venue applications are being turned in. Go after it, comics! (And comment if you need more details.)
Alright folks: here are the spotlights for this month!
New York
Charlene Kaye is a comedic musical force to be reckoned with — in her own words she’s “a menace to society as a queer Asian guitar shredder.” She’s been named a “Breakout Comedy Star” by Rolling Stone Magazine and recently I was struck dumb with delight by her metal rendition of Sondheim’s most lyric-packed song She’s got a new work in progress show at Union Hall on January 16th, a follow up to her first solo show — Tiger Daughter: Or, How I Brought My Immigrant Mother Ultimate Shame — soon to be filmed as her first comedy special.
Jenny Gorelick is one of the few comedians whose dating advice I’d actually trust. She’s been a contributing writer at Cosmopolitan for a while now and her Substack Night Out chronicles her dating life in New York, sort of like if Carrie Bradshaw were from New Jersey (instead of Connecticut). On January 19th at the Strand, she’ll be celebrating the release of her first book, The Book of Red Flags.
Los Angeles
All LA stand ups should be aware: Beth Stelling is hosting a punch-up mic at the UCB annex on Monday nights. Comics will get 3 minutes to perform and 2 minutes of feedback from Beth. Sounds pretty priceless to me, if you’re looking to get funnier onstage…
Loose is a weekly comedy show at Baby Batista in Atwater Village that has been consistently putting together solid lineups (they are particularly good at knowing which New Yorkers are in town).
Gwyneth Goes Skiing is returning to the Elysian in January for four performances — now, I haven’t personally seen this one yet, but the hype has been going on for some time now and I’m curious. I truthfully don’t expect it to be brilliant (Reddit told me not to), but I do anticipate something gay, campy and witty (in the vein of Titanique). We’re talking culturally on point, but ultimately stupid.
The newest Silverlake Shorts Film Fellowship recipients were reecently announced: Chike Robinson (JFL New Faces) and Alix Bloom (Haunted Hotel). Congratulations to them, and look out for their shorts!
I was able to catch a very fun short film called Your Own Flavor, directed by Alisha Ketry and starring Alyssa Limperis, at the first of a new short film screening series from UCB and Abso Lutely Productions. RuPaul famously says, “Everyone loves puppets,” but after seeing this hilariously triggering short I don’t know what to believe. New Yorkers can check it out at the upcoming Dances With Films festival (Jan 15-18).
Absurdist SNL writer Jack Bensinger wrote and starred in a “12 minute feature film” called Straight Line. He plays Ian, a guy who has committed to walking a perfectly straight line through New York City, resulting in a series of unexpected encounters. Imagine if the character vignettes of High Maintenance were in the tonal vein of Conner O’Malley. Pretty cool!
Daniel Pritchard is an animator from New York who recently started animating scenes from comedy podcasts and digital series audio. He recently put out a call for suggestions of audio he should animate (and comedy podcasters should think long and hard about this offer…)
The Elephant is an animated special from Adult Swim and Titmouse that, inspired by the game “Exquisite Corpse”, was co-created (separately) by Pendleton Ward (Adventure Time), Ian Jones-Quartey (OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes) and Rebecca Sugar (Steven Universe) and Patrick McHale (Over The Garden Wall). There’s also a corresponding behind the scenes docu-short from the creators for any process geeks out there…
In light of all the corporate merging and acquiring (and general confusion) going on in entertainment these days, Dan Toomey created what I’d describe as the best comedy reel of December 2025.
ICYMI: Logan Potter (a comedy and digital manager at Authentic Talent) spoke on Deadline’s Comedy Means Business podcast a while back about the importance of Reddit for comedians looking to develop their audience online, calling it “the smartest place comedians can go to find their fanbase.” You can watch the entire interview here.
A few months ago, Chloe Troast launched a new digital series, Spilling Your Seed, produced by Lisa and presented by Stapleview. Troast delivers grounded buffoonery as a Philomena Cunk-style host of a genetic reveal show (a la Finding Your Roots). A recent episode with the hilarious Jake Cornell put my jaw on the floor with this rapid-fire run of repartee that demonstrates his insanely quick wit.
Writer, director and American High alum Julia Dicesare recently released the final installment of her five episode web series, Playwrights, co-starring Stephen Brower (a Broadway-credited performer and creator who I’ve featured in the newsletter before, specifically for his brilliant series cataloguing whether he would date inanimate objects and concepts). Inspired editing and moments of improv provide the largest laughs of the series, but the characters are fun to spend time with — one commenter nailed it: “they are so insufferable and I’m still rooting for them.”
I’ll stop writing about Very Important People when it stops being my favorite character comedy digital format (of all time? potentially?) Recently they had Dropout’s Mickey Mouse, Brennan Lee Mulligan, and “Regular Guy” Jacob Wysocki on the show as hideous babies named Archimedes and Ollie. Disturbing to behold, pitch perfect alt comedy.
That’s literally it for this month. If you’ve gotten this far, maybe consider leaving a comment about something/anything. One of my New Years resolutions was to “invite engagement.”
Happy Circle Back Day, to everyone who celebrates! Thanks for reading.