Laughter Is HBO’s Best Medicine
Home Box Office is looking to turn up the funny quotient.
The premium service July 30 will air Bill Maher: I’m Swiss, a 90-minute special, bowing at 10 p.m.
Taped before a live audience at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Ore., Maher’s special sets the stage for upcoming standup from George Carlin Nov. 5, Robert Klein in December and Dennis Miller early next year.
Speaking at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, HBO officials touted Carlin’s 13th performance on the network and his fifth live show, this one from New York’s Beacon Theatre.
Klein -- who headlined the first HBO comedy special 30 years ago -- returns for his eighth concert and first since 2000. It will be taped in October.
Miller will tape his seventh solo special for HBO in Las Vegas this November.
The network will also roll out One Night Stand, a series of 10 half-hour stand-up performances, starting Aug. 19 at midnight, following new editions of Real Time with Bill Maher.
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Presenting up-and-coming comedy talent, as well as seasoned performers, in front of live audiences, the show will feature Kevin Brennan, Bill Burr, Louis CK, Omid Djalili, Earthquake, Flight of the Conchords, Bonnie McFarlane, Jim Norton,
Patrice O’Neal and Caroline Rhea, according to HBO officials.
On the series front, the 10-episode fifth season of Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm is slated to bow at 10 p.m. Sept. 25, leading out from an installment of Rome.
New series Extras -- starring Ricky Gervais (The Office) as a bitter, aspiring actor who gives up his day job only to find that no big movie parts await him -- will follow Curb at 10:30 p.m.