Comedy Central Returning To Showcases With ‘Stand-Up Selects’; 14 Comics To Tape Short Sets In August

EXCLUSIVE: Comedy Central, long one of stand-up’s most important institutional launchpads, is returning to talent incubation with the launch of Comedy Central Stand-Up Selects, a new series of short sets from 14 comics that will tape in August and launch exclusively on the Comedy Central Stand-Up YouTube channel this fall. Following up Comedy Central Stand-Up Featuring, the digital short-form series that kicked off in the 2010s, Comedy Central Stand-Up Selects‘ inaugural edition will feature stand-up from both newer and more established talent: Adam Ray, Daniela Inés Calvo, Fumi Abe, Ian Edwards, Jay Jurden, Jeremiah Watkins, Jessie “Jetski” Johnson, Joey Cerone, Katherine Blanford, Leslie Liao, Mandal, Ryan Goodcase, Sammy Mowrey, and Skyler Higley. The series is being produced in partnership with Hoff Studios. Tickets to tapings can be secured here. Watch on Deadline Building on Comedy Central’s legacy of championing emerging comedians, while reestablishing the brand as a producer in the digital space, Stand-Up Selects is the latest in a long line of stand-up showcase formats from Comedy Central, which has been more or less dormant as a champion of new stand-up for some time, as Don’t Tell Comedy has taken over the emerging stand-up scene. Comedy Central became one of TV’s most reliable stand-up farm systems beginning in the 1990s, implementing a mix of showcases, half-hours, roasts, late-night blocks and festival tie-ins to elevate the medium. In the process, they helped launch or accelerate the careers of everyone from Dave Chappelle and Amy Schumer to Kevin Hart, Ali Wong, Hannibal Buress and many others. Comedy Central gave a vast generation of rising headliners their first half-hour televised solo special with formats like Comedy Central Presents before transitioning to the likes of Stand-Up Featuring, which featured tighter sets from emerging and mid-career comics, built for the internet age. Generating over 143M views to date across social platforms, Stand-Up Selects‘ predecessor, Stand-Up Featuring, showcased more than 200 comics, providing them with a nice calling card and career stepping stone that is more difficult to come by these days. While Comedy Central has been missed in the last decade so as a go-to destination for new stand-up — with the rise of Netflix and YouTube specials and the proliferation of unrelated comedic social media content — what the Stand-Up Selects launch represents for Comedy Central as a whole, post-Paramount/Skydance merger, is not yet clear.