Comics Unleashed

The Original Kings of Comedy achieves the seemingly impossible task of capturing the rollicking and sly comedy routines of stand-up and sitcom vets Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and Bernie Mac and the magic of experiencing a live concert show. Director Spike Lee and his crew plant a multitude of cameras in a packed stadium and onstage (as well as backstage, as they follow the comedians) to catch the vivid immediacy of the show, which is as much about the audience as it is about the jokes.

Four of today's hottest black comedians headline this Queens of Comedy video special, a follow-up to Spike Lee's "The Original Kings of Comedy". Adele Givens, Mo'Nique (from UPN's The Parkers), Sommore, and Laura Hayes (from BET's Comic View) present a very provocative adult program with riffs on everything from the size of various body parts, to the habits of men, to former president Bill Clinton.

Richard Pryor delivers monologues on race, sex, family and his favorite target—himself, live at the Terrace Theatre in Long Beach, California.

Jerry Seinfeld returns to the club that gave him his start in the 1970s, mixing iconic jokes with stories from his childhood and early days in comedy.

Few comedians can stir up controversy like the legendary Paul Mooney -- writer for Richard Pryor, creator of In Living Color's Homey the Clown and featured guest on Chappelle's Show. With his characteristic brutal honesty, Mooney passionately and hysterically charges into the electrified currents of racial tension. In this magnificent standup performance at Hollywood's Laugh Factory, Mooney earns a standing ovation with his relentless no-holds-barred observations on black history, stereotypes and prejudices, living in White America, celebrity divas and much, much more!

A 1983 stand-up comedy film featuring the comedy of Bill Cosby. Filmed before a live audience at the Hamilton Place Theatre, in Hamilton, Ontario. Cosby gives his comedic views on people who drink too much and take drugs, going to the dentist, marriage and parenthood.

Eddie Murphy delights, shocks and entertains with dead-on celebrity impersonations, observations on '80s love, sex and marriage, a remembrance of Mom's hamburgers and much more.

Comic Hasan Minhaj of "The Daily Show" shares personal stories about racism, immigrant parents, prom night horrors and more in this stand-up special.

Dave Chappelle takes on gun culture, the opioid crisis and the tidal wave of celebrity scandals in this defiant stand-up special.

Chris Rock brings his critically acclaimed brand of social commentary-themed humour to this HBO Special, extolling his razor-sharp wit and wisdom on such topics as gun control, President Clinton, homophobia, racism, black leaders and relationships.

In this HBO special, comedian Martin Short appears in a series of sketches, vignettes and musical performances about Hollywood, featuring some of his classic characters like Ed Grimley, Jackie Rogers Jr., Lawrence Orbach and Troy Soren, and co-starring some of his colleagues from "SCTV" and "Saturday Night Live."

An inspiring, triumphant and wickedly funny portrait of one of comedy’s most enigmatic and important figures, CALL ME LUCKY tells the story of Barry Crimmins, a beer-swilling, politically outspoken and whip-smart comic whose efforts in the 70s and 80s fostered the talents of the next generation of standup comedians. But beneath Crimmins’ gruff, hard-drinking, curmudgeonly persona lay an undercurrent of rage stemming from his long-suppressed and horrific abuse as a child – a rage that eventually found its way out of the comedy clubs and television shows and into the political arena.

Iconoclast Lenny Bruce appears at San Francisco's Basin Street West in what was his next-to-last live appearance. His act that night consisted of reading allegations and transcripts from one of his several obscenity trials and then commenting on what he'd actually done or said. While there are some "bits" in the performance (including the prison riot with Dutch, the Warden, Father Flotski, and Sabu, the prison doctor), this is much more a social commentary on government intrusion and censorship than it is a comedy routine. (IMDb)

While Rudy Ray Moore is best remembered today for his outrageous blaxploitation movies, such as Dolemite and The Human Tornado, he started out as a standup comedian who broke barriers for off-color comedy on such "party" albums as Eat Out More Often. Rude is a performance film which captures Moore on-stage at a comedy club, delivering the rhyming rap routines and epic tales of sexual conquest that first made him famous.

A retrospective of the classic game show, What's My Line, in which a four-member celebrity panel attempted to identify a contestant's occupation through yes or no questions. In addition, each episode featured a celebrity mystery guest that the panelists tried to identify the guest while blindfolded. The show ran from 1950-1967 and prominently featured John Daly, Bennett Cerf, Arlene Francis, and Dorothy Kilgallen. This documentary looked back on the show 25 years after it premiered.

Best Week Ever is a weekly television program on the United States cable/satellite network VH1. It started airing in 2004 and was put on hiatus in the summer of 2009. In January 2010, it was announced that the show was cancelled. On August 3, 2012, VH1 announced the return of Best Week Ever. New weekly episodes began January 18, 2013. On the show, comedians analyze the previous week's developments in pop culture, including recent happenings in entertainment and celebrity gossip. The show's tagline is, "It's everything you love, everything you missed, and all the stuff you need to see again."

Chocolate News is a satirical news show hosted and head written by David Alan Grier with an emphasis on African American culture. The show aired on Wednesday nights at 10:30 PM on Comedy Central as a lead-in to their other news satire programs, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. The show also aired in Canada on The Comedy Network. On March 10, 2009 a Comedy Central representative confirmed that Chocolate News would not be renewed for a second season.

Def Comedy Jam is a HBO television series produced by Russell Simmons. The series had its original run from July 1, 1992 to January 1, 1997. The show returned on HBO's fall lineup in 2006. Def Comedy Jam helped to launch the careers of several African-American stand-up comedians.

Comic Garry Shandling draws upon his own talk show experiences to create the character of Larry Sanders, a paranoid, insecure host of a late night talk show. Larry, along with his obsequious TV sidekick Hank Kingsley and his fiercely protective producer Artie, allows Garry Shandling and his talented writers to look behind the scenes and to show us a convincing slice of behind the camera life.

These half-hour specials showcased some of the best up-and-coming comedians of the moment. The show was a pivotal stepping stone for many of today's stand-up stars.

See Dr. Steve learn about restaurants, spend time with his family, conquer his fears, and more. Featuring guest appearances by Jan Skylar, Wayne Skylar, and David Liebe Hart.

John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show is a stand-up comedy television series that currently airs on Comedy Central in the United States. Hosted by British comedian John Oliver, who is best known for his work on The Daily Show, the show features new material by both up-and-coming and established comedians. Each episode features four performers, including the headliner but not Oliver.

Based on Scott Aukerman’s popular podcast of the same name, COMEDY BANG! BANG! cleverly riffs on the well-known format of the late night talk show, infusing celebrity appearances and comedy sketches with a tinge of the surreal. In each episode, Aukerman engages his guests with unfiltered and improvisational lines of questioning, punctuated by banter and beats provided by bandleader, one-man musical mastermind Reggie Watts, to reinvent the traditional celebrity interview. Packed with character cameos, filmic shorts, sketches and games set amongst an off-beat world, COMEDY BANG! BANG! delivers thirty minutes of absurd laugh-loaded fun featuring some of the biggest names in comedy.

It's a comedy revolution -- unite in uproarious laughter with the "fluffy" comic in the Hawaiian shirt! Filmed at the Stand Up Live club in Phoenix, this series features Gabriel Iglesias and a bunch of his funny comedian friends performing routines, plus music from Grammy Award winners Ozomatli, the house band. Iglesias begins each episode with a set of all-new material before introducing a guest comic, some of whom include Cristela Alonzo, Tommy Chunn, Noe Gonzalez, Maz Jobrani, Rudy Moreno, Carlos Oscar, Paul Varghese and Thea Vidale. Martin Moreno is the show announcer and guest commentator.

The First Family is an American sitcom that debuted in first-run syndication in the United States on September 22, 2012. Created by Byron Allen and produced by Allen's production company Entertainment Studios, the series is the first situation comedy to air in first-run syndication since the 2000 cancellation of Malibu, CA.

The prodigiously talented Gleason became a TV icon after he joined CBS from DuMont, where his work on `Calvalcade of Stars' had established many of his trademark characters, including Reginald Van Gleason III, the Poor Soul and Ralph Kramden, featured here, along with Art Carney, in `Honeymooners' sketches. The Emmy-winning mix also featured guest stars, musical comedy, the glitzy June Taylor Dancers and Frank Fontaine's Crazy Guggenheim character.

We the People with Gloria Allred is an American nontraditional/dramatized court show that debuted in first-run syndication on September 12, 2011. The series is presented by famed celebrity lawyer/attorney Gloria Allred, who also serves as co-producer with series creator Byron Allen through his production company Entertainment Studios, LLC. John Cramer does the narration of the judge's final verdict.

While working as a staff writer on The Red Skelton Show, local Los Angeles television comedian Carson filled in as host when Skelton was injured during a show rehearsal. As a result of Carson’s performance, CBS created the primetime variety program: The Johnny Carson Show, a traditional potpourri of comedy, music, dance, skits and monologues. The short-lived 1955-56 series served as a precursor of what would come later for Carson, planting the seeds for sketches he would perform on the later The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson such as "Mighty Carson Art Players".