Sketch Comedy

Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson are cast members in the Canadian sketch comedy show, The Kids In The Hall. It's is produced by Lorne Michaels, and often features gender-bending humor.

Grier is a regular cast member of the popular sketch comedy show, which has been hailed as a black alternative to Saturday Night Live.

Comedian Nora Dunn. Dunn was a cast member of Saturday Night Live for 6 years, and portrayed such roles as the vapid talk show host Pat Stevens, the lounge singing Sweeney Sisters, and French sex kitten Babette. She was also at the center of controversy when she refused to appear on SNL when Andrew Dice Clay was the guest host. Dunn has written a new book, in the personas of her characters, called "Nobody's Rib." (It's published by Harper Perennial).

Television critic David Bianculli reviews "The Carol Burnett Show," which premiered last Friday on CBS.

Comedian Chris Rock. Rock's a cast member on Saturday Night Live. He also played the junkie in the movie "New Jack City."

Actor Rowan Atkinson. Atkinson's one of England's best-known comic actors. He starred in the TV series, "Black Adder," and co-starred in the 1990 comedy, "The Tall Guy." Atkinson stars in his own H-B-O Comedy hour special throughout March. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Comedian Jon Lovitz. He played the pathological liar on Saturday Night Live, among many other characters, such as Annoying Man and Harry Chanukah. Now he's got a comedy special coming up on May 17th on the Fox Television Network (right after "Married With Children").

Stiller is the son of the comedy team of Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara. He's acted in the Lincoln Center's revival of "House of Blue Leaves," and appeared in the films, "Fresh Horses," "Stella," and "Empire of the Son." He's got a new comedy show "The Ben Stiller Show," which grew out of his work as a writer-performer with "Saturday Night Live."

The comedian plays the sensitive twelve-stepper Stuart Smalley on "Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley" -- a Saturday Night Live skit based on Franken's own experience with a 12-step group. Franken is a co-producer of SNL and works on the cable network "Comedy Central," where he anchored the Democratic and Republican Conventions for "Indecision '92." He has a new book (written by Stuart Smalley) called "I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me."

O'Hara is one of the co-founders of the comedy series, "SCTV," and started her acting career with Toronto's Second City comedy troupe. She's best known for her role as the distraught mom in "Home Alone." There's now a sequel, "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York," in which O'Hara reprises her roles as the mother.

Palin is best known for his comedy work with England's legendary Monty Python troupe. But his new movie, "American Friends," is a romance based on the life of his great-grandfather. Edward Palin was a 35 year-old tutor at Oxford University when he met 17-year-old Brita, an American girl touring Europe. Oxford tutors in the Victorian era were sworn to chastity, so Edward Palin left his job to marry Brita. Michael Palin found the story in his great-grandfather's journal.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews two new comedy shows that that look at humor from a woman's point of view -- ABC's "She TV" and Showtime's "National Lampoon's Attack of the 5 Foot 2 Women."

TV critic David Bianculli reviews the new shows "Madman of the People," with Dabney Coleman, and "The Martin Short Show."

Most people would call Ullman an actor and comedian. She was the star of "The Tracey Ullman Show," where she played characters including "girls half her age and matrons twice her age; ...

Al Franken is a writer and actor on "Saturday Night Live." His characters have included the one-man mobile uplink unit, Pat Robertson, Paul Tsongas, and Stuart Smalley, host of "Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley." In 1992, Franken published a book under Stuart's name; Stuart's new project is an upcoming movie called "Stuart Saves His Family."

T.V. critic David Bianculli explains how two programs are making changes to appease their respective audiences: "Murder One" and Dana Carvey's Variety Show.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews Saturday Night Live's new late-night comedy show competitor: Saturday Night Special on FOX.

Saturday Night Live celebrates its silver anniversary this Sunday, with a prime time special. Fresh Air's TV critic David Bianculli has a review.

Stand-up comic David Cross co-created the 1995 HBO cult hit Mr. Show (an amalgam of live sketch video pieces and occasional animation). He also wrote for the short-lived Ben Stiller Show. One reviewer writes of his act, "foul mouthed and razor sharp, doesn't shy away from vicious social criticism and outright political dissent."

MTV's new Thursday-night sketch-comedy series Human Giant got its start as a collection of Web shorts, and the rise of MySpace and the viral-video explosion helped it develop a big following online. Terry talks with Aziz Ansari, Rob Heubel and Paul Scheer, three of the comics who power the show's alterna-comedy antics.