Stella

[Ravi]

The first episode of Stella

Dumb comedy dressed up in a suit.

The comedy here is manic, random, and nonsensical.  It was extremely funny, though I don't know how long they can do this type of humor.  It seems like either they would wear out their welcome or they or they would run out of good ideas.  But the first episode was hilarious, and I hope I have another show that I will look forward to seeing each week.


About the Show

Stella features the comedic trio of Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain as three characters whose travels through everyday life are unlike anything else on television. With a perfect blend of cleverness and absurdity, Stella satirizes everyday experiences like finding an apartment, hanging out at a coffee shop, going camping and trying to meet women. What are common, normal situations for most people quickly end up in the most unexpected realms when these guys are at the helm.

Even though they're always dressed in suits, their maturity level doesn't always fit their attire. These modern day Marx Brothers spread their non-sensical comedy to everyone they meet and everywhere they go. Their sensibilities are tinged with both sarcasm and wit; the characters, and the show in general, find a way to be both smart and sophomoric.

Stella

Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain make up the unique three-man comedy group, Stella. The Black/Showalter/Wain co-venture began in 1997 as a weekly nightclub comedy show that quickly became New York's premier showcase for alternative and mainstream comedy. Running for seven years at Fez in New York's Greenwich Village, the trio hosted such regular guests as Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller, David Cross and the Upright Citizens Brigade. The show has been praised by Time Out, The New Yorker and Entertainment Weekly.

Stella has spawned a series of short films online at www.stellacomedy.com (one of Entertainment Weekly's top ten Web sites of 2001). As a comedy trio, they have performed at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen and hosted the NBC show Late Friday. Stella's live performance special, Comedy Central Presents Stella, aired on Comedy Central in 2004.

The three have been writing, producing and performing comedy, together and apart, for sixteen years. They met at New York University in 1988, where they helped create the sketch comedy troupe The State which went on to a successful television run on MTV as well as a prime-time special on CBS, a book, State by State with The State, several tours and a comedy album for Warner Brothers Records. After The State, Michael Ian Black co-created the Comedy Central series Viva Variety and was a regular on the NBC series Ed. He as well as Showalter and Wain, was also seen on VH1's I Love the 80's and I Love the 70's.

Showalter and Wain co-wrote and co-produced the feature film Wet Hot American Summer, (Wain also directed) a comedy about the last day of summer camp in 1981, starring Black, Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Molly Shannon, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper among others. The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001 and was released theatrically that summer. It is now a regular midnight movie at theaters across the USA.

[Sleuth]

I've been trying so hard to keep from seeing that pilot, even wehn it was illegal to do so.  I just have to make it to Tuesday like a good child

here's a sample of Stella i made from the DVD









ALSO, it's not so much 'random" as it is just good ol' absurdity

[Ravi]

There is a free DVD of it included in the current Spin magazine.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

They had a funny set in a Comedy Central Presents, but I'm not sure how a show about them would turn out...

Only time will tell.

[Pubrick]

ALSO, it's not so much 'random" as it is just good ol' absurdity

it only works cos they hav funny lookin faces.

[Sleuth]

I'll have your kneecaps

[Pubrick]

see

[Sleuth]

I'll skin your hands

[Pubrick]

the show's not on the site anymore.

BUT just the clip convinced me, these dudes are my new favorite gay comedian trio.  

[Redlum]

Damn, I thought this might be a "Stella Street" topic.
http://www.totalcress.co.uk/stellastreet/information/gallery.html

[Sleuth]

Tonight after Reno (a The State powerblock!)

damnit, I keep editing this post

I guess all of the videos (that had all of the shorts from the Stella DVD [not the pilot DVD] and then some) aren't online anywhere anymore

[Pubrick]

damnit, I keep editing this post

I guess all of the videos (that had all of the shorts from the Stella DVD [not the pilot DVD] and then some) aren't online anywhere anymore

yeah, i almost caught u saying the ARE. what a jip.

oh well, i guess i hav no option but to hate them now.

[Sleuth]

I'll cane your ears

[modage]

has anyone seen the Stella shorts they made?  they were all online till just recently i guess, but my roomate has a dvd of it.  i watched a handful and they're pretty funny/absurd, though awfully low-budget.  i got the dvd of the Stella pilot a week or so ago when they screened the new Showalter movie The Baxter http://www.thebaxtermovie.com/ in Rockefeller Center.  Black, Showalter and Wain along with Joe Lo Truglio and Ken Marino were there to introduce the film.  i hope the show does well, and i hope i get tv before the next episode comes on.

[Pubrick]

has anyone seen the Stella shorts they made?

sleuth will hav ur kneecaps, hand-skin, and ear wax.