Listen to the characters from Fred Van Lente's novel, Ten Dead Comedians, as they read their monologues from the book! Can we request a drumroll?
It's one thing to read a comedian's performance, but it's an entirely different experience to hear those words brought to life. Check out the monologues below and the incredible individuals who helped to bring these fictional comedians to the stage.
Janet Kahn is many things—brash, angry, and unapologetic—but what else would you expect?
She's one-third insult comic, two-thirds silicone. And she kills the Vegas scene, baby.
Janet's complete monologue is performed by Karen Xerri (@chattergirlgo):
Karen has an extensive background in theatre (On and Off-Broadway), VO, Film and Television. (Credits include: Into the Woods, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Upright Citizen’s Brigade, Peter Pan, Nine.) As a musician and vocalist, Karen has toured internationally and collaborated on soundtracks and live projects with some pretty neat people including a number of notable Grammy, Tony, Emmy & Peabody-Award winners. (Credits Include: Strangers With Candy: The movie, Elliot Sharp’s 2017 Q-Mix with Steve Buschemi, The Colbert Report’s FMU Variety Show, and various spots for Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV.) Having recently returned from touring South America, Karen is currently developing a rock musical and grant-funded screen adaptation of her newest work, Chattergirl. Visit her at www.playgroudproductions.
Billy the Contractor is performing, folks.
Hold on a second while he grabs his corn whiskey and Colorado Kool-Aid, because this blue collar comic is about to fix 'er uuuuuuup!
Billy's monologue is performed by the great Ben Fine (@benfine).
Ben Fine is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and Vassar College. He's been working on screen and off in New York for the last twenty years. He has appeared in countless commercials and films. Notably, he can be seen in Run All Night with Liam Neeson and costars in the indie thriller Detonator. He is currently working on Hotcakes, a comedy web series about a crime solving stack of pancakes and The After Party, a feature film about the last day of a circus.
Zoe Schwartz is the hot new It Girl of comedy on every movie trailer and TV promo — but it doesn't seem to have helped her self-esteem any.
Make her feel better by listening to this clip.
Zoe's monologue is performed by Amanda Van Nostrand.
Amanda is co-host of the weekly 'Late AM Podcast' and monthly stand up show 'Wine and Sleaze'. She can be seen on TruTv's 'Hack My Life' and was recently a guest on the podcast 'There Will Be Drinking'. Keep up with her at @amandavannos on Twitter.
TJ Martinez ruled Late Nite for years at the top of the ratings heap,
despite persistent rumors he used a laugh track instead of a live audience for his milquetoast jokes. Listen for yourself and see.
TJ Martinez's monologue is performed by Dino Antoniou.
Dino Antoniou is a NYC based Film/TV and Theater Actor, Film/TV producer as well as an established leadership professional in the tech world. Network credits include roles on GOTHAM opposite James Frain, MOTIVE opposite C. Thomas Howell, HE LOVES ME opposite Heather Locklear, HUMAN TARGET opposite Mark Valley and ENDGAME opposite Torrance Coombs. While living in LA, he produced a number of award-winning short films along with a full season of a webseries that he also starred in. Dino is also an experienced stage actor in both contemporary and classical repertoire with an MFA from the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting and he was a company member of the Shakespeare Lab at The Public Theater in 2008. Theater highlights include playing Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Voltaire in The Dome, The Cardinal in The Duchess of Malfi and Camilo in The Winter’s Tale.
Ruby Ng does not want you to have heard of her, or listen to her clip, because that might destroy her hipster indy cred.
So don't do it. Don't! Or do, whatever, she doesn't care.
Ruby Ng's monlogue is performed by Sooyah Jun (@SooyahJun).
Sooyah Jun is stand-up comic based in New York City. She is a founding member of a monthly produced stand-up show called "Comic Diversity". She has produced and performed all over New York and across the country. She has had notable performances at Gotham Comedy Club, New York Comedy Club, Stand Up New York, The Standing Room, The Purple Onion, The Laff House and Caroline's Comedy Club featuring for the late Charlie Murphy.
Dan Nuxoll (sound designer) is Artistic Director of Rooftop Films and has with the organization since 1998, helping to turn the independent film non-profit into one of the most popular film organizations in the country. He has organized events across North America and been named to Indiewire’s Influencers list as well as Brooklyn Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture. Sometimes he still has time to make music and work on sound design.
Special thanks to Clark Chang and everyone at NYAVPOST for all their time and effort.
Fred Van Lente’s brilliant debut is both an homage to the Golden Age of Mystery and a thoroughly contemporary show-business satire.
As the story opens, nine comedians of various acclaim are summoned to the island retreat of legendary Hollywood funnyman Dustin Walker. The group includes a former late-night TV host, a washed-up improv instructor, a ridiculously wealthy “blue collar” comic, and a past-her-prime Vegas icon. All nine arrive via boat to find that every building on the island is completely deserted. Marooned without cell phone service or wifi signals, they soon find themselves being murdered one by one. But who is doing the killing, and why?
A darkly clever take on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and other classics of the genre, Ten Dead Comedians is a marvel of literary ventriloquism, with hilarious comic monologues in the voice of every suspect. It’s also an ingeniously plotted puzzler with a twist you’ll never see coming!
Fred Van Lente is the #1 New York Times best-selling writer of the comics Odd Is on Our Side, Archer & Armstrong, and Action Philosophers! He also cowrote the graphic novel Cowboys and Aliens, which was made into a film starring Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig.