John Mulaney, Billy Eichner, Bill Burr to Perform at ‘Netflix Is a Joke’ Festival (TV News Roundup)

Sasha Urban, Wilson Chapman and Carson Burton
·6 min read
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John Mulaney, Billy Eichner, Bill Burr and other comedians have been added to the growing roster of performers headlining events at the inaugural “Netflix is a Joke: The Festival,” the streamer announced on Tuesday.

The festival will host over 250 live shows in over 30 Los Angeles venues over the course of 11 days, featuring A-list names in stand-up and comedy. Previously announced performers and events include David Letterman, Gabriel Iglesias, Dave Chappelle, Amy Schumer, Tim Robinson and Aziz Ansari.

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Highlights from the newly announced shows include stand up sets from Mulaney, Sebastian Maniscalco, Franco Escamilla, Neal Brennan and Jacqueline Novak. In addition, Eichner will host a celebration of LGBTQ+ comedians with special guest such as Wanda Sykes and Margaret Cho, while Snoop Dogg will host an event for Black comics such as Katt Williams and Mike Epps. Burr will host an event featuring surprise guest comedians at the Hollywood Palladium, and there will be an international stand-up showcase featuring comedians from Brazil at Laugh Factory. Select shows will be recorded to air on Netflix at a later date.

Netflix will also host several special events featuring the casts of popular Netflix series over the course of the festival. The cast of “Never Have I Ever” will hold a live table read of the upcoming third season, the cast of “Cobra Kai” will host a fan celebration party and the cast of the upcoming series “Blockbuster” will moderate a movie trivia night. In addition, there will also be special advance screenings for the premiere of Mike Myers’ “The Pentaverate” and Season 5 of Phil Rosenthal’s “Somebody Feed Phil.”

Netflix also announced a special mini-festival, “Outdoors At Hollywood Palladium,” that will take place free of charge for seven days during the main fest. The space will include merchandise, a comedy museum and drag brunches with Alaska Thunderfuck and Willam, as well as a nightly show “The Drop In” with surprise sets from big name comics. Janelle James, Mark Normand, Joel Kim Booster, Bob The Drag Queen will be some of the nightly hosts of “The Drop In.”

Before the festival officially begins, Netflix will also host “Introducing…” at The Avalon, a spotlight event for up and coming comedians. The performers –– Darius Bennett, Michael Longfellow, Nataly Aukar, Julio Diaz, Kenice Mobley, Nico Carney, Irene Tu and Luke Mones –– will have their sets filmed and aired on Netflix is a Joke’s YouTube channel and Sirius XM.

“Netflix is a Joke” takes place in Los Angeles over the course of two weekends, from April 29 to May 1 and May 5 to May 8. View the full schedule and lineup of events on the official website.

Also in today’s TV news roundup:

PREMIERE DATES

Season 2 of Apple TV Plus’ “Physical” will premiere on June 3 with new cast member Murray Bartlett (“White Lotus”), the streamer announced. Rose Byrne stars as Sheila Rubin, who just launched her first fitness video. She is torn between her husband (Rory Scovel) and a risky attraction to someone else, and as she struggles with her values, she simultaneously has new competition to defeat. The show also stars Dierdre Friel, Della Saba, Lou Taylor Pucci and Paul Sparks, with Bartlett joining in the role of “Vincent ‘Vinnie’ Green,” an outgoing fitness instructor. “Physical” is created and written by showrunner Annie Weisman and directed by Stephanie Laing, both of whom also serve as executive producer alongside Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements for Tomorrow Studios, Alexandra Cunningham, John McNamara, Sera Gamble, Craig Gillespie and Byrne. The series is produced by Tomorrow Studios in an ITV Studios partnership. Check out first look images below.

. - Credit: Courtesy of Apple
. - Credit: Courtesy of Apple

Courtesy of Apple

. - Credit: Courtesy of Apple
. - Credit: Courtesy of Apple

Courtesy of Apple

TRAILERS

Amazon Prime Video dropped the trailer for “Outer Range,” its new neo-Western thriller series starring Josh Brolin. The eight-episode series premieres on April 15 with two episodes and two more each week thereafter. “Outer Range” tells the story of Wyoming rancher Royal Abbott (Brolin), who, after the disappearance of his daughter-in-law, discovers a mysterious black void at the edge of his ranch, and a host of other secrets come to light. The series also stars Imogen Poots (“I Know This Much Is True”), Lili Taylor (“Perry Mason”), Tamara Podemski (“Four Sheets to the Wind”), Lewis Pullman (“Top Gun: Maverick”), Tom Pelphrey (“Ozark”), Noah Reid (“Schitt’s Creek”), Shaun Sipos (“Krypton”), Isabel Arraiza (“The Little Things”), Olive Abercrombie (“The Haunting of Hill House”), and Will Patton (“Yellowstone”). Creator Brian Watkins is executive producer, alongside Zev Borow, Heather Rae, Josh Brolin, Robin Sweet, Lawrence Trilling, Amy Seimetz and Tony Krantz. Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Brad Pitt are executive producers for Plan B Entertainment. Watch the full trailer below.

PROGRAMMING

Freeform announced three new original non-fiction series, premiering later this year, that will be available to stream on Hulu the day after. Premiering May 18 at 10 p.m. ET, “The Deep End” is a four-part docuseries that explores a controversial spiritual teacher and her followers. The series is directed by Jon Kasbe and produced by Bits Sola, along with executive producers Tom Yellin and Gabrielle Tenenbaum from The Documentary Group. “Dear Pony: Keep This Between Us” is another four-part docuseries premiering June 15 at 10 p.m. ET. The series follows one woman as she examines a former relationship with a teacher, and explores the epidemic of grooming in high schools. The series is directed by Amy Berg, Jenna Rosher and Kristi Jacobson. Executive producers are Vox Media Studios’ Chad Mumm, Mark W. Olsen and Dana J. Olkkonen; Thalia Mavros from The Front Media alongside Cheryl Nichols, Ari Basile, Berg and Sarah Gibson. Finally, “Day to Night” (working title) explores the workings of the creative NYC underground community, and follows a new generation of artists as they emerge from the scene. Premiering this summer, “Day to Night” is produced by Cousins. Megan Sanchez-Warner serves as the showrunner and Jessica Chermayeff, Ana Veselic and Anne Alexander are executive producers. Chermayeff and Veselic are also series directors.

STREAMING

The Roku Channel and Digital Media Rights (DMR) launched AsianCrush in the U.S. on Tuesday. The free ad-supported streaming television channel, also available as a video-on-demand web experience and a free app, is dedicated to showcasing the best of pan-Asian entertainment. Content will range from popular TV dramas to blockbuster movies to cult classics from South Korea, Japan, China, Thailand, Vietnam and more.

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