Friday:
A sketch comedy show gets all meta on your ass with Employee of the Month & Friends at the Westside Eclectic. (8pm, $8) Wyatt Cenac and Ian Edwards show the UCB just how up-and-coming they are when they take over the Stand-Up Spotlight. (9:30pm, $8) Immediately afterwards, Brody Stevens takes the stage for an hour of having his comedic way with you, whether you like it or not, in All Things Brody. (11pm, $5)

Saturday:
Edmund drops some truth serum (roofies!) in the pre-show coffee at the Alumni Invitational over at the Second City. (9:30pm, $10) Steve O’Donnell — who’s written for just about everything ever — and Dino Stamatopolous — who’s had sex just about everywhere ever — are welcomed to the oddly-named talk show Morgan Murphy presents Jen Kirkman (and other guests) at the UCB. (10pm, $8) Paul Goebel, Matt Dwyer, John Carney and Radioactive Chicken Heads intimidate one other with their fierce stares in the Tomorrow Show at the Steve Allen. (midnight, $5)

Sunday:
While the rest of America is enjoying their barbeques, the folks over at ASSSSCAT at the UCB are working hard for your money, so hard for it honey; jokes on them, the show’s free! (7:30pm, Free!) Josh Fadem makes his triumphant return to his namesake show with guests Craig Anton, Michelle Biloon, Erik Charles Nielsen and others at the Acid Reflux Hour. (9:30pm, Free!) Learn all the best toe-tappin’ ways to indicate you want a bathroom stall sexual liaison at Big News. (10pm, $5)

And, since we plan on taking Monday off, here’s your Labor Day agenda as well:

Monday:
Neil Flynn from “Scrubs” hosts the improvisational mayhem of The Armando Show at iO West. (9pm, $10) Sit back, relax, and let the Harold Night performers at the UCB work (clap) for you! (8pm, $5) And finally, we’re sure that Garage Comedy (9pm, Free!) and What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (8pm, Free!) are worth checking out as well. As long as they’re not taking Labor Day off.

“Stop Snitching!” by Comedy by the Numbers:

“Disaster on Santa Monica Beach” by Dan Bialek, whom The Coming is so gay for:

“Beyonce Unhurt After Stray Bullet Miraculously Hits Passerby Instead” by The Onion News Network:

Beyonce Unhurt After Stray Bullet Miraculously Hits Passerby Instead

“Celebrity Justice” by Phillip Wilburn:

“Blind Faith” by PoliceCat:

This Friday night, at 11pm, in the confines of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre:

A theatrical and digital dissection of Brody Stevens featuring variety and comedy.

What will this “theatrical and digital dissection” include? Will there be a panel of experts analyzing what exactly makes Brody so hilarious? Are they going to critique his air-drumming, possibly comparing him to the other great faux drummers of our time? Will they use electrodes to find out which parts of his brain are stimulated when an audience member mentions the high school they graduated from? Is this just going to be an hour of Brody practicing his curveball?

So many questions need to be answered, the most important being how in the hell did this slip under our radar until just now? C’mon, people! This is what we need your tips for. Don’t make us hire an intern; we’re far too stupid to run this thing by ourselves.

(Photo courtesy m. berru)

A few days ago, we ran a review of the latest Kasper Hauser extravaganza at the UCB, during which we promised to get photos of the event. While the price was a bit steep — two of our toenails (fresh), six fingers, three papercuts to our navel, twenty dollars of ice-cold cash, and our ear virginity (don’t ask) — hopefully they’re worth it. We apologize for their tardiness, but it’s been tough writing this post with only four remaining hand digits. Especially when two of those are thumbs. But, as long as you enjoy them, our massive blood-loss will be completely worth it!

(All photos by Mike Carano)

Plenty more after the jump.

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Friday:
Jen Smedley and James Mastroianni promise not to charge you $45 to change your air filter in their sketch-tastic J&J Tune & Lube at Second City. (8pm, $10) If you’re an avid newspaper reader, and an alcoholic who has no interest in recovery, you’re going to love the Friday Forty at iO West. (10pm, $10) Jamie Flam and Hugh Moore force jazz and comedy to procreate at gunpoint, giving the audience a night of jamedy they’ll never forget with the Be-Bop Heroin Hour at the Westside Eclectic. (10:30pm, $5)

Saturday:
The country’s greatest original voices, Jerry O’Hearn and Jason Yellow, welcome a whole bunch of their friends — most of them played by James Adomian — in the season two premiere of America’s Best Comic at the UCB. (10pm, $8) We’d usually copy-and-paste the names of comedians performing in the EffinFunny show over at the Empty Stage Comedy Theater, but the new flash animation prohibits this action, and we’re far too lazy to actually type out all of the names. It’s good, though. Trust us. (10pm, $5) Matt Kaye, Competitive Awesome, Wyatt Cenac, Stephanie Escajeda and others stay up real late at the Tomorrow Show at the Steve Allen. (midnight, $5)

Sunday:
If you’re exciting about key phrases such as “improv veteran”, “stage and screen” “single suggestion morphs”, “intimate therapy session, ” relation-based scenes” and “your fancy”, then you’re going to fill your pants with the sexual fluid of your gender while watching The Sisters Baldwin at iO West. (8pm, $5) Will Jeff Garlin’s Combo Platter include a variety of cheeses on it? Will he find a warm soul in the crowd to eat said cheeses with? Is Garlin even going to be there to host the show? Why not pay a buck and take the risk? (9:30pm?, $1?) Something tells us Michael Vick — and possibly the phrase “rape stand” — will be mentioned at this week’s Big News at iO West. (10pm, $5)

by David Pardue

Ali Mafi
Chris Garcia
Tim Lee
Nato Green
Mark Silverman
John Hoogasian
Mike E. Winfield
Kurt Pappas
Reggie Steele
Connor Cellicutt
Ali Wong
Jason Wheeler
Mo Mandel

As Eddie Pepitone once said in someone’s sig line, “there’s nothing between Los Angeles and San Francisco but despair and artichokes.” Well, if you survive the drive through the fields of misery and ‘chokes, it’s comforting to know that there’s some excellent comedy waiting for you at the other end. This weekend The Coming extended its purview by sending your intrepid reporter to the far-flung reaches of Northern California to check in on the state of comedy from our neighbors to the north.

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“Trailer Trash 3: Rush Hour 2″ by StudioFred.com:

“Funny Names” by Comedy By The Numbers:

“Elvis & Merv Secrets” by Phillip Wilburn:

“Dogs Respond To Michael Vick” by Whip It Out Comedy:

Oldie, but goodie: “Giraffe Facts” by Blerds:

Note: You can see TJ Miller and Jordan Vogt-Roberts — along with Matt Braunger and Kumail Nanjiani — tonight at Mashup at the UCB. (8pm, $5)

Last week, Horatio Sanz, Paul Scheer and Robs Huebel and Riggle headed out to Iraq to help take the troops’ minds off their freedom-protecting by subjecting them to some humor. Paul had a plan of blogging all about the Iraq tour while he was over there, but:

However, my plan of picture and video blogging was severely hindered by the fact that Iraq’s infrastructure doesn’t really support high speed DSL. Who knew?

Instead he plans on spending this upcoming week updating his blog with a bunch of photos and videos of the event. Needless to say, it’ll be worth a visit or three. Any comedy done in a barren desert wasteland is worth checking out.

Those who went to the last Match Game Live show at the UCB (the August 10th episode) should remember this guy:

The fella, whose name we cannot recall, was one of the two contestants that night. Officially, he was the “female” contestant — the producers of the show were tricked by his feminine-sounding name — but the big shock of the night was when host Jimmy Pardo learned about the young man’s job: Professional air guitarist. Later on in the night, he showed off his skills by air-riffing to some Guns N Roses while Pardo wowed the crowd with his own air bass technique.

While he ended up losing the Match Game, the young man can console himself by being recently featured on Countdown with Keith Olbermann in a story about this year’s US Air Guitar awards in New York. Well done, young sir.