An AmericasComedy.Com Video Interview – Editor’s Note: This interview was originally published 12/25/11. Catch Paul Mecurio at the Punchline in Sacramento this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. 

You may not recognize the name of stand-up comedian Paul Mecurio, but if you’ve ever watched “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” you certainly know his writing. Mecurio, the winner of two Emmy awards and a Peabody award, takes to the stage like it is the only thing he is meant to do.

AmericasComedy.Com was able to secure an interview with the award winning writer/producer/comedian and began with a very benign question: “So, how did you get into the business?” The answer will intrigue you, captivate you and maybe even make you tear up just a little bit.

This video series encompasses an almost one hour session with Mecurio as he takes us through the process of going from an Ivy League law school graduate and a Mergers & Acquisition attorney, then as an investment banker, and ultimately to one of the hardest roles in the entertainment business today; that of stand–up comic. If you’re a fan of going behind the scenes in understanding what makes an award winning comedian tick, then watch all three parts of this video series. The fourth part is a “name association” of some of the many stars that Mecurio has been in contact with over the years.

So let’s get this party started. In this video Mercurio talks about his family, his wiseguy and drug addled family, his rise to fame in the investment banking business and ultimately giving in to the nagging knowledge that this wasn’t what he was supposed to be doing.

Fish or cut bait? It’s decision time

In part 2, Mecurio takes us from an open mic slashing (at the aptly named Downtown Beirut 2 bar), to an IRS audit and a girlfriend who thinks that Mecurio is cheating because he comes home at night smelling like beer and cigarettes. Watch as he goes full circle from banker to comedian and then back to being a banker.

“Hey everyone! My investment banker is a comedian!!”

In part 3, we watch as Mecurio receives the vindication and approval he was always looking for. How his commitment lead to being a long term writer for “The Daily Show” even before Jon Stewart came on board. Today, you can see him headline at comedy clubs across the country (he is appearing May 12-15 at the Miami Improv). Mecurio has written and produced shows and pilots and appears regularly on Fox’s Redeye and Sean Hannity shows and will be seen this month on the Joy Beyhar Show on CNN.

And now for something completely spontaneous!

We thought we would round off our interview with some name association with some of the superstars that Mecurio has met. These are the only ones that we could publish!

While we can appreciate a hot date or even a one night stand, AmericasComedy.Com has finally matured enough to realize that the best relationships are long term and mutually beneficial.

We are looking for writers who love writing in general and about comedy in particular. You should be a comedy fan with a working knowledge about the stand-up comedy scene both present and those who blazed a trail before them. New writers will not be exclusively positioned into one of the categories below and they’ll be expected to contribute where necessary.

Comedy Album Reviews

They say everyone’s a critic.. but is that true? We are looking for articulate writers that can listen to and review comedians like Louis C.K., Patton Oswalt, Lewis Black, Pete Holmes, Kurt Metzger, or Amy Schumer. We often receive promotional copies of CD’s, DVD’s and digital CD’s that you can add to your collection while enlightening our readers.

Comedy News

AmericasComedy.Com also includes a daily dose of comedians in the news. We are seeking writers who can write breaking stories and provide short (250-400 word) blog posts, two to three times a week. Our comedy news section is updated daily and blogging is a great way to add to your byline or your writing portfolio.

Press Releases

Whether from Comedy Central, TV Guide Network or some other huge media power, AmericasComedy.Com is always happy to break news for our sources and promote entertaining comedy for our fans.

Super Secret Facebook Group

Our writers get to join our private and super secret Facebook group, which we use as our “water cooler” to pitch story ideas, share news stories, and talk about ways to grow our website. Staff meetings (WebEx conference calls) are kept to a minimum with most communication between writers, editors, and the publisher via email.

Build Your Resume

At AmericasComedy.Com we believe in the value of staff training and development. And why wouldn’t we? The more you understand about web publishing and social media, the better you will be at your position with our website. Through videos, emails, screenshots and educational links, you’ll be provided with great knowledge on how to take advantage of WordPress publishing, search engine optimization and your own social media accounts. We’ll make sure your resume is beefed up with skills that employers in the online world of journalism want to see.

Compensation
As a non-revenue generating site, AmericasComedy.Com is unable to pay for each article submitted. We do, however, have a financial reward for those writers that get the most traffic both weekly and monthly. Though not enough to quit your day job, it does allow a payout of a couple hundred dollars a month for those writers that take an active role in using their social media (Facebook sharing, Tweeting, Blogging, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, etc.) to spread their proverbial writing “seed” to the internet winds.

Interested?

People who have a background in writing, communications, journalism, or just love comedy are welcome to send in a cover letter with two writing samples to Cort Tafoya, Co-Owner and Editor-in-Chief, at CortTafoya@AmericasComedy.com. Please include any experience you have using social media. The most important qualification for writing for our website is a knowledge and passion for comedians and their craft.

 One Time Submission

If you are a rouge, uncommitted sort and feel that you might just have one good story in you, we offer an article submission process for those that just want to freelance. Please remember however, we are looking for stories ABOUT comedy and comedians, not just funny stories (though a funny story about a comedian works!)

Come and join AmericasComedy.Com as we change the world one laugh at a time!

For more comedy news and exclusive interviews visit our AmericasComedy.Com Facebook fan page and follow us on Twitter @AmericasComedy!

Our talk with comedian Cathy Ladman is filled with gems. Ladman is true sweetheart who’s not afraid to share about her on going fight with anorexia or that she was at first scared to take the stage.

What helped her find the inspiration to do stand-up comedy? Believe it or not it was comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who Ladman had a real crush on when they met as teenagers on a trip to Israel.

Ladman is currently working on a movie called The Naked Truth. See what else she has going on in our latest interview here.

AmericasComedy.Com: You’re in a new show on TV Guide Network called StandUp in Stilettos – have you already taped your segment?

Cathy Ladman: Yes. It was fun! It was a live audience, it was small. The room was much larger – it was a high ceiling room. I guess I expected more people in there and they were great. They were very eager to participate.

AC: I guess we call that an intimate crowd.

CL: Right. Very intimate.

AC: You were a big fan of Nichols and May, and some of the early comics.  What gave you the incentive to actually get up on stage? Give us a little background of your first stand-up experience.

CL: I’ve told the story many times but I’m sure not everyone has heard it. I started to listen to comedy albums when I was about 8 years old. My parents had some albums. I listened to that Nichols and May album they had which is called ‘Nichols and May Examine Doctors’ – and I used to love to watch comics on the Ed Sullivan Show…and I remember at the age of 13 I decided I wanted to be a stand-up comic slash actress – but definitely stand-up comedy was my first love.

I was really scared to do it and it took me until I was close to age 26 to really start doing it. Jerry Seinfeld is the person I really credit with giving me the gumption to do it. He and I had met when he was 16 and I was 15. We had met on a teen tour to Israel. He was my first love, and we used to talk about doing stand-up. And he’s said to me that I’m the person who really introduced stand-up to him as a viable path. So really both did this for each other at different times.

So what I did was I took a class – with Jerry’s encouragement – this stand-up class, and you would write stuff and you would come into class and put it on stage and then when the teacher thought you had five minutes of viable material, he would tell you to take it to this club called Good Times. And you would pick a number out of a bucket and you would go on stage, and that’s how it started.

AC: New York was a great breeding ground in those days.

CL: It really was. It was a great place to get stage time. You could get on stage every night of the week.  There was such great talent to watch and to learn from.

AC: Today that’s kind of not the case. With so many different multi-media avenues and YouTube, has the New York or L.A. comedy scene changed radically for the experienced and up-and-coming comics?

CL: I’m kind of not the best person to ask that. I think there are other people who could answer that question better. I’m finding it hard to discern between how much of it is that stuff changing, and how much of it is my personal life changing. Being single and doing stand-up is very free, you can do whatever you want and go wherever you want. But once I had a kid that changed so much. I don’t know how people do it and have kids and remain active at the same level.

The main clubs are still there in L.A. But I haven’t really been going to them for a long time. I’ve changed, the audiences have changed. They’re not good breeding grounds for me. They don’t help me grow in the direction I want to grow in.

AC: Well, I’ll segue there. You’ve done a lot of television. A lot of stand-up. What is the direction you want to grow in?

CL:  I was not on stage a lot last year and I’m getting back on stage now and it’s feeling great. The venues – you know I haven’t found like a regular venue I can go on a regular basis to keep me well oiled. But I do a lot of different things, I do a lot of story telling shows, a lot of podcasts, I do this thing called Set List (with Paul Provenza) and it really is a good fit for me.

When a show like StandUp in Stilettos comes along I’ll do a show like that. I’ve been filling in on a show called Three Blonde Moms.  

When I started I had such a singular focus. All I was doing was stand-up and clubs and now my energies go to several different arenas.

AC: Are you still doing, Does This Show Make Me Look Fat?

CL: I’m just getting back to developing it now with my director. It’s basically my story about my eating disorder which is anorexia. People have been aware of anorexia for a while now but it’s still not really talked about. I’m talking about it in a personal way not a clinical way. My goal is to make it accessible and to enlighten people, and to make people laugh at it.Because we’re all insane. Everybody has something.

AC: (Laughs) Some of the greatest people are born out of dysfunction.

CL: Right. Some of my biggest gripes about the public perception with anorexia is that some people actually wish they had it if they’re trying to lose weight. They just don’t get it. Society almost encourages it because thin is so worshipped in our culture that we almost don’t care how people get there. We kind of want to turn a blind eye to it.

AC: Now does this tie into The Naked Truth movie?

CL: Yes. I’m trying to merge the two projects because they both deal with my eating disorder. I don’t want every single project I do to be about that. It just so happens that I started working on these two at about the same time. The show came first and then the movie afterward.

The movie at this point is just me going to a nudist resort and doing a show there and speaking to people there and learning about why they are nudists and how they feel about their bodies. It was amazing to me how comfortable they felt walking around naked. I mean, I’m just not like that.

AC: I don’t think most people are. I don’t think most of us have that comfortable a view of our bodies.

CL: But why is that? Why are we in such discomfort about our naked bodies?

AC: Because we don’t live up to the skinny ideal.

CL: I think a great deal of it is that. I think a smaller degree of us have been raised with kind of a sexual shame – I think most people are ashamed they don’t look like the people in the magazines.

AC: After StandUp in Stilettos and a little bit of touring with Three Blonde Moms what’s on your agenda?

CL: My real goal right now is to get Does This Show Make Me Look Fat? up again and to see how I can meld The Naked Truth and that. That’s really my most important project right now.

AC: Thank you we’ll get the message out.

CL: Thanks Steve! Take care.

 Follow Cathy Ladman on Twitter @Celadman and visit her personal website here! She will be appearing on TV Guide Network’s StandUp in Stilettos tonight at 11 p.m.

Actress and comedian Susie Essman is amazingly cool.

She’s a brash New Yorker and a confident woman. She has a great heart, and can make you laugh as easily as she can make you think. Essman is smart and honest – the only way she knows how to be.

Her body of work is familiar to millions of comedy fans. Essman plays the character Susie Greene on Curb Your Enthusiasm, where she’s famous for cussing out actors Jeff Garlin and Larry David for their ridiculous (and of course hilarious) antics.

It’s been said that people will stop Susie on the street just to have her yell, “You fat fuck!” at them – that’s how famous her character is. Essman also released a critically acclaimed book in 2009 called What Would Susie Say? Bullshit Wisdom About Love, Life and Comedy.

In this interview we talk with Susie about her rise in comedy and the evolution of treatment toward women comedians, as well as her upcoming role in the New York City Comedy Festival, where she’ll sit down for a conversation with one of her childhood idols David Steinberg at STAGE 72.

AmericasComedy.Com: I have a picture here I wanted you to identify for me.

Susie Essman: Well tell me what it is, maybe I can.

AC: It is a school kindergarten picture from the William Holmes School in Mount Vernon in 1961.

SE: Yeah, I’m on the second row, on the right. I believe I’m the last one on the right, maybe the second to last one…Where did you get that picture?!

AC: (Laughs) One of my business partners shared it with me – Doug.

SE: Oh, I know Doug very well. Doug’s cousin Lisa has been my best friend since first grade. Give him my love.

AC: (Laughs) I will.

SE: Thank you.

AC: In the wake of Hurricane Sandy – I know you’re on the east coast – did everything work out O.K.?

SE: Yeah, well I’m in upstate New York right now and we really did not get hit at all. We were very lucky. We were hard hit by Irene – but this whole thing is just heartbreaking. Seeing my city underwater is heartbreaking.

AC: I totally understand. I was Buffalo on Monday and luckily got out of town. 

SE: I had a gig in Ridgefield, Connecticut that got cancelled because they’re underwater there.

AC: Yeah, it’s terrible. I want to talk about both your book and the comedy festival coming up in November. What prompted you to write “What Would Susie Say?”

SE: Yeah, you know there’s a couple of people who were hawking me – bothering me for years to write a book and I kept thinking, ‘I have nothing to say! I have nothing to say!’ I think finally I sat down one night – in the middle of the night – you know, menopause is a great thing for writers, so I just sat down at my study one night and I thought, ‘What can I write about?’ and suddenly I had a book.

And there were things also that I wanted my children to know about my life that I can’t tell them because they don’t really listen. They’re teenagers and they just role their eyes. So part of it is funny and comedic, and stuff from my act, but part of it is serious – about my struggles as a stand-up comic, about being a female stand-up comic in particular and coming up in the 80′s. There was a lot of stuff they don’t know about.

AC: Do you think stand-up comedy is getting better for women?

SE: I do, I think it’s getting easier because there’s more of a visual. You know once you change the visual everything changes. It’s like President Obama, it’s not going to be so weird to have another African-American president – the visual is there.

When I started, the guys that I started with that were there before me, they just didn’t believe that women were funny at all. And from people like me and people like Judy Gold, and Joy Behar and all the women I came up with, that changed the visual for the younger guys coming up and they weren’t nearly as sexist as the older guys were.

So I think that it’s different and hopefully I trailblazed a little bit.

AC: I think you were one of the most influential female, jewish comics of that era.

SE: Haha, maybe. I don’t know.

AC: So did you enjoy the whole book writing, were you ghosted? Did you do the whole thing yourself?

SE: No, I wrote the whole thing myself. I enjoyed it but it was incredibly stressful. Luckily I had deadlines – I work best with a gun to my head. I really enjoyed the rewriting process, where I could really hone it. I’m going to write another one.

AC: I’ve heard you kind of mentioned as the next Joan Rivers. What you feel about that? (Laughs).

SE: I’ve never heard that before (laughs). I’m a great admirer of Joan – talk about a trailblazer. There were no women doing it at that time.

AC: I think it was brought up in the aspect of Jewish women who speak their mind openly, talk about sex and are just unapologetic and shoot straight from the hip.

SE: I have to say, honestly, none of that was calculated, it was the only way I knew how to be. I didn’t know how to do anything but tell the truth and be honest about stuff like that. It was the only way I knew how to be funny, and growing up I was always the big mouth that was saying what I wasn’t supposed to say. I just couldn’t help but speaking the truth.

AC: I’m going to jump forward a little bit to the New York City Comedy Festival. “A Conversation with Susie Essman hosted by David Steinberg,” (at STAGE 72) tell us about that.

SE: Right, David is one of my very best friends in the whole world. One of the gratifying things about my career is that I get to meet my childhood idols – and he was one of them – and then on top of that, I get to be friends with my childhood idol.

And David is one of the directors of Curb, so we get to work together every year. I so vividly remember when I was a kid staying up late every night to watch (Johnny) Carson with my brother and one of our favorite times was always when David was guest hosting – which was a lot, he was like a permanent guest host for them. And never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be interviewed by him – sitting with him – it’s just great.

I think it’s going to be a very interesting conversation with David. It’s a great venue, a very intimate space. And it’s going to be a lot of fun. He knows me so well, he’ll pull all the dish out of me (laughs).

AC: The last thing I want to ask you about – you married late in life. Were you just too busy?

SE: I guess I was so career focused, I always had boyfriends but I never had any interest in getting married and having kids. I think when you’re a funny women, you need to find a really secure guy and they seemed to be few and far between when I was looking. But finally I met the man of my dreams and I decided to marry him.

AC: Susie, thanks so much for taking the time this morning to speak with us, we certainly appreciate it.

SE: You’re welcome. Alrighty, bye!

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Read More Comedy Here!

From her breakout role as the “stripper with a heart of gold” in Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat, to her recurring roles in movies starring Adam Sandler, to her most recent appearance in the blockbuster film Taken 2, Luenell has established herself as a legitimate Hollywood celeb.

After a killer stand-up performance at Tommy T’s in northern California, filled with storytelling and an abundance of raunchy sex jokes, we invaded Luenell’s greenroom to talk comedy, movies, and her plans for the future.

Luenell will be taking over your television Saturday, November 10 at 11:30 p.m. with an appearance on TV Guide’s StandUp in Stilettos, as well as a starring role in a new, riveting LGBT program called DTLA.

You can read more about Luenell at her website www.heyluenell.com and by following her on Twitter here!

Luenell Interview AMC by AmericasComedy.Com

For those that don’t know comedian Mike E. Winfield, it must look easy. On one recent weekend he was headlining at a comedy club and spied an audience member sound asleep center stage. Winfield immediately brought his mic into the audience and began to torment the poor sleeping guy. (His name we learned, is Ruben).

While it is impressive that that video (see below) has garnered over a quarter million YouTube hits in the last 5 days, it was that same weekend that Winfield was told he just landed a plum reoccurring role on the hit TV show, “The Office.”

Winfield is no stranger to performing on television. He’s been featured on the pilot, “The Bobby Lee Project” in 2008, Showtime’s “Comics Without Borders,” hosted by Russell Peters, “Comicview” on BET, “Comics Unleashed” with Byron Allen, “Last Comic Standing” on NBC and “Live at Gotham” on Comedy Central.

When AmericasComedy.Com last spoke with Winfield in November 2010, he was interrupting his college tour to fly to New York to film his first appearance on  “The Late Show with David Letterman.”

Today, we caught up with Winfield again flying from a college appearance in Texas to one in Florida.

So, tell us a little bit about the role that you play.
“His name is Wes, and he is one of the new warehouse workers at Dunder Mifflin. Without telling you too much, the fact that he is a new warehouse worker plays into the plot.

He (Wes) doesn’t really care, he’s just having fun, you know, having fun with the new guys at work. We are just funny people who cut-up at work.  And you know, it’s cool because the character has a lot of funny stuff to say and the best part is, he gets a lot of camera time.” (laugh)

With this new credit (The Office) behind you, you are destined to play some of the comedy clubs “A” rooms now. Are you looking forward to that?
“The role is an amazing, great role and I have many lines, it’s a funny character and not only is the office big around the world, but it is very popular on college campuses. They might have me doing even more colleges.”

Yeah, but probably only those with huge auditoriums. When we last talked in November, you had just done a college “room” that was underground and only had room for about 40 people and the ceiling was so low that it kept bumping your ‘fro’.
“Oh man, that was one of my greatest shows! I loved it. I think I did over 2 hours that night. It’s so much fun.”

How was the audition process?
“The audition was in southern california at 10:00 AM on a Wednesday. I decided to drive it rather than fly in and rent a car. I left Sacramento around 1:00 AM and arrived around 8:00 that morning. The audition went OK. Nowadays, when I audition, I don’t even plan on getting it. I just go in and do as good as I can and read, and forget about it.”

When you left the audition, how did you think you did?
“I thought, ‘Wow! That was a big opportunity I just had!’ Then I just forgot about it went on to set up a show I had scheduled in Ventura.”

How is your family holding up under your growing stardom?
(Laughing) “You know man, my family is cool. I find ways to be there. And when we are together, our time is so productive. I mean, you know, we have kids in soccer and we just stay busy and active.”

Some of your greatest bits were based on your family, but last time we talked, you said you weren’t doing much family based material, is that still true?
“I want to say that now that I have been home more, I’ve been back on it. (laughs). I’m not sure if that is my niche, but it is easy to talk about things that go on in the house, so I have a lot more stories about that.”

When will your character be appearing?
“The season starts September 22nd, on Thursday nights at 9:00 PT. I know I am not in the first episode, but I have a feeling it will be in the first 3 episodes. ”

How many episodes have you done so far?
“I have already filmed one episode and I will be heading back for a second in a few weeks.”

We love to watch the ascent of Sacramento based comedians (AmericasComedy.Com is headquartered in the California capital) and other than Jack Gallagher and Brian Posehn, we can’t remember the last local comedian with such national exposure.

If you would like to follow Mike E. Winfield’s career, you can subscribe to his newsletter by texting the letters MEW to 22828, or his SuperFanPage on Facebook. (Read our more recent interview with Winfield here.)

Watch Mike harass the hell out of this very tired audience member.

For more exclusive interviews and comedy news visit our AmericasComedy.com Facebook fan page and follow us on Twitter @AmericasComedy! 

Oh, how I am going to miss those buggy eyes! I just heard that Vic Dunlop, one of the nicest men I have ever met in comedy has passed at age 62.

I began watching Dunlop perform on what was one of my favorite shows, the original Make Me Laugh TV show. On that show, I used to love to watch him with Bruce Baum, Gary Mule Deer, Murray Langston (as The Unknown Comic) and others use plain silliness to make the contestants laugh. No swearing, no racial references, just silliness. Even as a kid I knew that if I were ever to become a contestant on the show, I would buckle under Dunlop’s buggy eyes prop.

In the late 70′s and 80′s, Dunlop appeared on many shows, including The Richard Pryor Show, An Evening at the Improv and even appeared (as did a young Robin Williams) in a very cheesy sketch comedy movie called Can I Do It Til I Need Glasses?

In 1993, Dunlop, with the help of writer David Lee Miller, wrote and produced the movie, Breakfast of Aliens, where, as it is summarized in IMDB.com as “A lovable loser, Walter Clydepepper (Vic Dunlop) eats an alien from outer space in his cereal and becomes a deadly stand up comic.” Not surprising, I didn’t get to see it but it had appearances by both Murray Langston as The Unknown Comic, but also Jamie Masada, the owner of The Laugh Factory as the Porno Director.

Throughout the 80′s and 90′s Dunlop appeared as a character actor in movies, (The Devil and Max Devlin), TV shows, (Adam-12) and on many comedy shows.

In the mid 90′s I had the privilege of meeting and hiring Dunlop to perform in the small town of Modesto, in a Holiday Inn that was lovingly converted to an “Evening at the Improv” setting for a Friday night. The shows were sold out and the small rural community talked about it for months. It wasn’t until December 2009 that I got to see Vic again. He was performing at a regional comedy club in the Sacramento area and as I head a Meetup group here in town, I brought about 20 people out to see him. The amazing thing was that Vic took one look at me and remembered me and when I came up to him to shake his hand, he gave me a massive bear hug and asked me whether I still had the Modesto room.

My Meetup group, who have been coming to shows with me for almost 2 years marveled at Dunlop’s creative ability to elicit a laugh by being silly and performing one liners. Of the original kings of silliness, (Baum, Langston and Dunlop), I think I am going to miss Vic the most. Because not only was I never able to NOT laugh at his jokes and his plastic buggy eyes, but I will never forget his kindness and his bear hug.

We’re going to miss your clean comedy, your huge heart and your great big buggy eyes Vic. Thank you for making me laugh.

Enjoy Vic’s Clean Comedy Show. It IS Suitable for Work and Family!

An AmericasComedy.Com Video Interview

The comedian known as just ANT tells us about how he chose that name, (Andromeda?), about his pre-comedy career (Lynda Carter, yes, WonderWoman, got him fired!) and how he stranded his parents in Europe!

Join ANT and AmericasComedy.Com’s correspondent, Carin Beede as he was preparing to go on stage in celebration of pride week at Sacramento State University (Sac State according to ANT).

A special thank you to Zenia LaPorte, Director of Sacramento State’s UNIQUE program.

Connected Comedy, stand-up comedy’s rapidly growing advice and consultant site, in conjunction with the new website, Squabbler, is offering the opportunity for publicity and cash prizes.

“I’m really excited to announce the first of what I hope will be many opportunities to bring you the chance to get some great exposure AND win some money by showing off how funny you are,” states Josh Spector, founder of Connected Comedy.

They’ve teamed up with new video site Squabbler, to run a contest in which the best “Squabble” will win $250!

In case you’ve never heard about Squabbler, here’s a little background about the site:

It’s a new website from the guys behind the insanely popular Awkward Family Photos blog. Squabbler is the place for people to settle their everyday debates with family, friends, co-workers, etc. Each squabbler submits a 30-second video stating their case and then the viewers decide who’s right. Squabblers can debate about anything and everything and we encourage them to be creative with their 30 seconds. Only limitation is that they don’t publish squabbles with offensive language… bleeps are okay.

“Squabbler’s a great site that’s growing quickly, and it also could be a really good place for comedians to showcase how funny they are in a unique manner. That’s why I thought they would be a great partner for this first Connected Comedy contest,” says Spector.

Here’s a breakdown of all the contest details:

HOW TO ENTER THE CONNECTED COMEDY SQUABBLER CONTEST

All you have to do is find somebody that you disagree with about something – another comedian, a friend, a family member, your dog, your alter-ego, whatever – and the two of you each shoot a 30-second video of yourselves debating something and upload it to Squabbler.

When you submit your Squabble, please include the word “CONTEST” in the title – for example, “CONTEST: The Hammer Debate.”

Here’s everything you need to know about how things work on Squabbler.

And here’s some examples of the most popular Squabbles on the site, to give you some inspiration.

The contest begins March 21 and you can enter any time through April 3, 2011. You’re welcome to enter as many times as you want.

HOW TO WIN THE CONNECTED COMEDY SQUABBLER CONTEST

The winning squabble will be chosen by a panel of judges including Spector and the Squabbler staff. The winner will be chosen based on a combination of originality, humor, views, comments, votes, and likes. Basically, the more awesome your Squabble, the better your chance of winning.

WHAT YOU CAN WIN

The winning Squabble will receive three prizes that include:

• A $250 gift card to the Apple Store will go to the winner of the winning Squabble (so if you have the best Squabble AND you win your Squabble argument based on the votes, you get the big prize)

• A $100 gift card to the Apple Store will go to the loser of the winning Squabble (it takes two to Squabble, so you should get something even if you don’t win your argument based on the votes)

• The winning Squabble will be featured on the Squabbler home page in the “Top Squabble” spot

• All Connected Comedy Squabbles will be featured in a post on ConnectedComedy.com

So, if you like the idea of things like this and would like to see more, then take a moment to enter this contest and have some fun. Also, feel free to email Josh Spector once you’ve uploaded your Squabble if you want to make sure that it’s entered correctly.

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Comedian Louis Katz new digital album If These Balls Could Talk just hit all digital outlets this week via Comedy Central Records. The album is a wild barrage of twisted stories and jokes.

“One would never expect Louis Katz would be the guy that offers you opium after a show but it’s certainly an effective way of marketing yourself. Katz is funny to the point that Hitler would have given him a sleeper car on the train. I’ve re-told his menage a trois joke to people so many times I feel like it’s mine. Just buy the fucking CD and shut up.” – Doug Stanhope

“I relate to Louis Katz. He’s a sensitive, thoughtful, filthy, funny Jew. What’s not to like? His CD is hilarious. I hope he keeps what’s left of his hair long enough to enjoy the type of success he wants. If not, he can always write. Enjoy him now! While he still has hair.”- Marc Maron

If These Balls Could Talk was released in conjunction with the premiere of Katz’ Comedy Central Presents special, debuting March 11 at 11:00pm ET/PT. Katz discusses why he hates hippies, how he lands women and exactly what street chocolate is.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Katz’s comedy career began at the incredibly early age of 9 when, as part of a school project, he submitted several jokes to The Tonight Show, two of which were read on air by Johnny Carson.

Katz went on to performing at clubs and colleges across the country. He has appeared in the Montreal Comedy Festival, the Amsterdam “Toomler International” Comedy Festival, the Vancouver Comedy Festival and Atlanta’s Laffapalooza Comedy Festival.

Katz’ credits also include appearances on “Last Call with Carson Daly,” COMEDY CENTRAL’s “Live at Gotham,” Jamie Foxx’s “America’s Funniest Comics” and HBO’s “Down and Dirty with Jim Norton” In addition, he has produced a series of short films for Adult Swim.

Enjoy listening to a few of the tracks from Katz new CD: