Kickstarting: Nashville’s Mike Salva’s “HG Chicken” cartoon stars Bobcat Goldthwait, Jonathan Katz, Maria Bamford and Todd Barry

HG Chicken

“HG Chicken” is a cartoon with a voice cast that stars comedians Bobcat Goldthwait, Jonathan Katz, Maria Bamford and Todd Barry. A Kickstarter campaign has been launched for the animated production about an evil, mutant, time-traveling chicken (Goldthwait) and his robot sidekick (Katz).

The voice cast also includes filmmakers Lloyd Kaufman (Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke ‘Em High), Herschell Gordon Lewis (Blood Feast, 2000 Maniacs), as well as Samantha Newark (Jem) and Trevor Lissauer (Sabrina the Teenage Witch).

The cartoon is being produced, directed & co-written by animator Mike Salva, who’s made a handful of animated shorts that have had over 100 film festival screenings. Salva plans to make HG Chicken into the length of a half hour show, and to use it as a pilot for a proposed animated series. The video on the Kickstarter page includes a 30-second scene from the cartoon:

In exchange for supporting the project, backers can choose from rewards including digital downloads of the cartoon, onscreen thanks credit, posters, t-shirts, associate producer credit, and more. There are even options for backers to be drawn as a character in the cartoon. (One option even promises the backer’s character can “die a horrible and grisly” onscreen death.)

The project is live on Kickstarter until Nov. 20, 2014. During this time, backers can become part of the animated project and get access to the rewards at www.HGChicken.com (that URL redirects to the Kickstarter page).

For more information, contact the creator, Mike Salva, at www.projectmeatball.com.

Todd Barry: The Final Crowd Work Tour @ The High Watt – 4/6/2014

Todd Barry at The High Watt - 4/6/2014

For far too many stand-up comedians, crowd work is a crutch to lean against when you don’t have material. For far too many audience members, crowd work means a fear that a stand-up comedian will make fun of you.

But it’s something special when Todd Barry does it.

You’ll find out just how special when Todd Barry: The Crowd Work Tour comes out in March. Barry revealed the release date a few days ago, noting that Lance Bangs directed it, and it’ll cost $5. We learned last night that Louis C.K. financed Barry’s special and will release it exclusively online via C.K.’s website at buy.louisck.net.

Barry also talked about his new special in an interview on “The Goddamn Dave Hill Show” on WFMU. “In September I did a Crowd Work tour where I just interacted with the crowd. No jokes. No material. Just kinda walked up there and started… talking to people. You’ve seen comics do crowd work,” Barry told Hill. “I filmed this tour. It was seven cities. Lance Bangs, who you may know, has directed a lot of cool stuff… we had a whole film crew, and we filmed seven shows, starting in San Diego, going up to Anchorage, Alaska.”

Todd Barry: Final Crowd Work Tour
The High Watt, 1 Cannery Row, Nashville, TN, 37203

8pm April 6, 2014

18+ / Standing Room Only
Tickets: $15 GA | $20 VIP
866-468-7630 or http://www.ticketweb.com/fb/4093654/mercylounge

2009 Bonnaroo Comedy Tent Line-up

bonnaroo 2009

Manchester’s four day festival of commercialism, filthy stinky crowds and incredibly bad traffic runs June 11-14, and the published Comedy Tent line-up looks pretty good: Jimmy Fallon, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Presents Bonnapoo 2009, An Evening (or Afternoon) with the Daily Show featuring John Oliver & Rob Riggle, Michael Ian Black & Michael Showalter, Aziz Ansari, Kristen Schaal, Arj Barker, Todd Barry, Rory Albanese, Wayne Federman, Nick Thune, Nick Kroll, Kurt Braunohler, Amy Schumer, Kumail Nanjiani, and Pete Homes.

As always, we’ll do our best to add all the Comedy Tent shows to the N’Sup schedule, but for specific times and line-ups and the latest info, you should probably check the schedule at Bonnaroo.com. Tickets are on sale now.