This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2018) |
Comedy Central Records | |
---|---|
Parent company | Paramount Global |
Founded | 2002 |
Founder | Jack Vaughn Jr. |
Distributor(s) | Alternative Distribution Alliance |
Genre | Comedy |
Country of origin | U.S. |
Location | New York City, New York |
Official website | cc |
Comedy Central Records is a record label based in New York and owned by Paramount Global. The label specializes in stand-up comedy albums and is distributed by Alternative Distribution Alliance, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The label has released albums from artists such as Aziz Ansari, Louis C.K., Amy Schumer, and Kevin Hart. As of December 2016, Comedy Central Records has issued over 200 albums.
Comedy Central Records was founded in 2002 by American multi-Grammy winning record and television producer, Jack Vaughn Jr. along with Comedy Central.
The first release under the label was Comedy Central's Crank Yankers, an uncensored album featuring human-like puppets voiced by comedic talent such as Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman and Fred Armisen, making off-color crank calls to one another. Upon its release, the album sold more than 80,000 copies, prompting network executives to release three more volumes of calls, including The Best Uncensored Crank Calls, Vol. 2 and the two part The Best Crank Calls.
In the early years, the label signed talent such as Dave Attell, Daniel Tosh, Dane Cook, Lewis Black and Mitch Hedberg to record deals. Their early releases included Daniel Tosh's True Stories I Made Up (RIAA-certified Gold) and Dane Cook's Harmful if Swallowed and Retaliation (RIAA-certified Platinum and 2× Platinum, respectively).
Comedy Central Records received its first Grammy Award nomination in 2006 for Lewis Black's Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues and won its first Grammy a year later for Lewis Black's The Carnegie Hall Performance. The label also received Grammy nominations for albums from Steven Wright, Stephen Colbert and George Lopez, and won Grammy's for A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! as well as Lewis Black's Stark Raving Black . Other notable releases during this period include Jim Gaffigan's platinum-selling King Baby and Demetri Martin. Person. , the follow-up album to the RIAA-certified Gold, Martin's These Are Jokes .
Dane Cook continued to be one of the label's biggest names during this time, with his 2007 release, Rough Around the Edges: Live from Madison Square Garden debuting at #11 on US Charts and selling 90,000 copies in its first week. Two years later, the label released Dane Cook: Isolated Incident , with Cook opting to tape this album in front of a smaller crowd of 400 at The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. Dane Cook's greatest hits album I Did My Best was released on the label in 2010.
Comedy Central Records posthumously released Mitch Hedberg's Do You Believe in Gosh? in 2008. The album was recorded just two months before the comedian's death in 2005.
After ten years with Comedy Central Records, Jack Vaughn departed in 2012. Steve Raizes and David Derrick, who were at the time overseeing other businesses within Comedy Central Consumer Products, assumed label management.
The label continued to receive critical acclaim for its top performing talent, including a Grammy win for Louis C.K.'s Hilarious in 2012, and nominations for Lewis Black's In God We Rust in 2013, and Patton Oswalt: Tragedy Plus Comedy Equals Time and Jim Gaffigan's Obsessed in 2014.
Dara Frank, who oversaw production and creative direction for the team began signing new artists to the label in 2015 such as Liza Treyger, Andrew Santino, Sam Morril, Randy Liedtke, Joe List and Michelle Buteau. In 2016 she was promoted to oversee the business.
In 2016, the label partnered with Milan Records, Matt FX, Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer of Comedy Central's Broad City to produce and distribute the original soundtrack for the television show, featuring never before released songs and original artwork by Mike Perry.
That same year, Comedy Central Records released Mitch Hedberg: The Complete Vinyl Collection. The box set was a joint effort with Producer, Michael Slaboch and the late comedian's wife, Lynn Shawcroft who served as an Executive Producer. The collection included never before heard recordings, bonus videos, and a book of rare photos and essays.
Since 2012, the label has released over 100 albums, including releases from Maria Bamford, Chris Hardwick, Marc Maron, Aziz Ansari and Hannibal Buress.
Artist | Album | Award | Format |
---|---|---|---|
Dane Cook | Harmful If Swallowed | Platinum | Album |
Retaliation | Platinum 2x | Album | |
Rough Around The Edges | Gold | Album | |
Nick Swardson | Party | Platinum | Video Longform |
Daniel Tosh | True Stories I Made Up | Gold | Video Longform |
Happy Thoughts | Gold | Video Longform | |
Bo Burnham | Bo Burnham | Gold | Video Longform |
Demetri Martin | These Are Jokes | Gold | Video Longform |
Jim Gaffigan | Doing My Time | Gold | Video Longform |
Year | Artist | Album | Result | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
2006 | Lewis Black | Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues | Nominated | |
2007 | Lewis Black | The Carnegie Hall Performance | Won | |
2008 | Steven Wright | I Still Have a Pony | Nominated | [1] |
George Lopez | America's Mexican | Nominated | [1] | |
2009 | Lewis Black | Anticipation | Nominated | [2] |
2010 | Stephen Colbert | A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All! | Won | [3] |
George Lopez | Tall, Dark & Chicano | Nominated | ||
2011 | Lewis Black | Stark Raving Black | Won | [4] |
2012 | Louis C.K. | Hilarious | Won | [5] |
Patton Oswalt | Finest Hour | Nominated | [5] | |
2013 | Jim Gaffigan | Mr. Universe | Nominated | |
Lewis Black | In God We Rust | Nominated | ||
2014 | Jim Gaffigan | Obsessed | Nominated | |
Patton Oswalt | Tragedy Plus Comedy Equals Time | Nominated |
Lewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy routines often escalate into angry rants about history, politics, religion, and cultural trends.
Mitchell Lee Hedberg was an American stand-up comedian known for his surreal humor and deadpan delivery. His comedy typically featured short, sometimes one-line jokes mixed with absurd elements and non sequiturs.
Comedy Central Presents is an American stand-up comedy television series created for Comedy Central. It is the network's main half-hour program which highlights either one or a series of stand-up comedians each episode. In 2011, the series ended and Comedy Central replaced it with the revamped The Half Hour, now called Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents, a series of 30-minute stand-up specials.
Dane Jeffrey Cook is an American stand-up comedian and film actor. He is known for his use of observational, often vulgar, and sometimes dark comedy. He has released six comedy albums: Harmful If Swallowed (2003), Retaliation (2005), Vicious Circle (2006), Rough Around the Edges: Live from Madison Square Garden (2007), and Isolated Incident (2009).
Patton Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His acting roles include Spence Olchin in the sitcom The King of Queens (1998–2007) and narrating the sitcom The Goldbergs (2013–2023) as adult Adam F. Goldberg. After making his acting debut in the Seinfeld episode "The Couch", he has appeared in a variety of television series, such as Parks and Recreation, Community, Two and a Half Men, Drunk History, Reno 911!, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Archer, Veep, Justified, Kim Possible, Modern Family, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. He portrayed Principal Ralph Durbin in A.P. Bio (2018–2021) and Matthew the Raven in the TV series The Sandman (2022–present).
Shorties Watchin' Shorties is an American adult animated comedy television series that aired on Comedy Central from April 28 to December 16, 2004. The show is made up of various short animated clips with audio from comedians' stand up routines. It also features two "shorties," a pair of babies voiced by Nick DiPaolo and Patrice O'Neal who watch and comment upon the routines on TV. For many of the episodes, the babies only stayed in the house, but in later episodes, they were shown walking around the city.
James Christopher Gaffigan is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. His material often addresses fatherhood, laziness, food, religion, and general observations. He is regarded as a "clean" comic, using little profanity in his routines. He has released several successful comedy specials, including Mr. Universe, Obsessed, Cinco, and Quality Time, all of which have received Grammy nominations.
Louis Alfred Székely, known professionally as Louis C.K., is an American stand-up comedian, actor and filmmaker. C.K. won three Peabody Awards, three Grammy Awards, six Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as numerous awards for The Chris Rock Show, Louie, and his stand-up specials Live at the Beacon Theater (2011) and Oh My God (2013). In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked C.K.'s stand-up special Shameless number three on their "Divine Comedy: 25 Best Stand-Up Specials and Movies of All Time" list and ranked him fourth on its 2017 list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.
Premium Blend was a stand-up comedy series created and directed by Paul Miller that aired on the American cable television channel Comedy Central from 1997 to 2005. In 2005 the show was changed, and now known as "Live at Gotham".
Retaliation is the second album by American comedian Dane Cook. It was released on July 26, 2005, by Comedy Central Records.
Augenblick Studios is an independent animation studio founded in 1999 by Aaron Augenblick, and located in Brooklyn, New York City. The company has created a wide array of animated shorts for television, film, and the Internet, with the target audience typically being adults. Their clients include Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, Adult Swim, the TED conference, PBS, MTV, and Nickelodeon.
Punch Line San Francisco is a comedy club located at 444 Battery St in San Francisco's Financial District. It has a sister club in Sacramento, California, and is also associated with Cobb's Comedy Club, now in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. It is San Francisco's oldest running comedy club.
The club was originally a restaurant during the day and the backstage hangout for The Old Waldorf nightclub next door at night.
Brian Volk-Weiss is an American film and television producer and director. He is the founder and current chief executive officer (CEO) of The Nacelle Company and its subsidiary company, Comedy Dynamics.
Gotham Comedy Club is a venue for stand-up comedy in New York City. The comedy club is located on 208 West 23rd Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues in Chelsea, Manhattan.
Stark Raving Black is a stand-up comedy film starring Lewis Black and directed by Adam Dubin. The 80 minute show was filmed in HD and 5.1 Surround Sound in Detroit, Michigan at The Fillmore Detroit on August 2, 2009. In the film, Black discusses politics and current events from the state of the economy to alternative energy. The DVD has 70 minutes of unedited and uncensored content, which is 40 minutes more than the television special.
This is a comprehensive discography for Comedy Central Records, the record label of American cable channel Comedy Central.
Live at the Beacon Theater is the fourth full-length comedy special/concert film by comedian Louis C.K. The special takes place at the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan, New York.
Mr. Universe is the eighth album by American stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan. Released on August 28, 2012, it was made available on Gaffigan's website for $5 following previously successful $5 experiments by fellow comedian Louis C.K. One dollar from every purchase of the album was donated to the Bob Woodruff Foundation.
Dan Schlissel is an American record producer from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and founder of the record labels Stand Up! Records, which specializes in comedy, and -ismist Recordings, which focused on punk and alternative rock from Nebraska and nearby Midwestern states. Schlissel won a Grammy as producer of Lewis Black's 2006 album The Carnegie Hall Performance, and was nominated for his work on Black's two Grammy-nominated albums, Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues and Anticipation. He is known for his work with Black and other comics including Doug Stanhope, Maria Bamford, Marc Maron, and Mitch Hedberg, and helping release the debut record of Iowa metal band Slipknot.
Barry Katz is a television producer, film producer and talent manager. He was the owner and founder of the Boston Comedy Club in New York City and helped launch the careers of many successful comedians, including Bill Burr, Dane Cook, Louis C.K., Kevin Brennan, Bert Kreischer, Wanda Sykes, Dave Chappelle, Whitney Cummings, as well as Saturday Night Live alumni Jay Mohr, Jim Breuer, Darrell Hammond and Tracy Morgan.