Lots of folks will be heading to Montreal in late July. Including Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Bill Hader, Bob Saget, John Pinette, Lewis Black, Jim Gaffigan, Patton Oswalt, Mario Cantone, JB Smoove, Jeff Garlin, Jim Jefferies, Jimmy Carr, Mike Birbiglia and Tommy Tiernan. Chelsea Handler will be receiving the Comedy Person of the Year award and Hannibal Buress will be named Rising Comedy Star for 2012. And the Muppets will be celebrated with their own gala. Tickets go on sale for all events May 11th. More to come at the Just For Laughs website.

And holy shit, I live in New York and I'm jealous. Tributes to Eddie Izzard and The Upright Citizens Brigade. A live radio play version of the cult comedy Wet Hot American Summer. Reggidency: A 4-part series featuring Reggie Watts. Adult Swim's Delocated Witness Protection Program Variety Show. Plus tapings of podcasts like Doug Loves Movies, WTF with Marc Maron, Never Not Funny, and The Nerdist. And those were just the highlights I gleamed from a quick glance. A Special Thing's got an exclusive run down of all the events. Tickets go on sale Sunday, December 11th at 10 AM.

Much respected and highly neurotic stand-up Marc Maron will pen a book of comedy essays entitled "Attempting Normal" for Spiegel and Grau, which previously published Artie Lange's "Too Fat to Fish." More details and pained elation to come on Maron's WTF Podcast, to be sure.

If you're in NYC, you could find out tonight when Patrick Carlin, the older brother of George Carlin, performs stand-up for the first time at the Comical Live show. At the Habibi Hookah Lounge @ 8 PM. Full details here.

H. Jon Benjamin gets his own sketch comedy / mockumentary showcase on Comedy Central with Jon Benjamin Has A Van. Benjamin plays a reporter who hunts down soft news in his own customized van. The 1st of 10 episodes premieres in summer of 2011.

Daniel Tosh's "Tosh.0" makes him the highest-rated host on Comedy Central, ahead of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Sure Stew-Beef appreciates the lead in. Come for the nut shots, stay for the fake news.

Folks tried to count all the crimes Ferris committed in the course of his day off. Includes fraud, impersonating a police officer, disorderly conduct... Fun day. Full conversation here. (Via Paul Scheer)

Conan O'Brien's new talk show for TBS will premiere November 9th.

Conan O'Brien has a new home - and surprise - it's on cable. He'll be airing on TBS in November at 11PM, a half-hour ahead of the other guys. Conan: "I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable. My plan is working perfectly." Triumphant video from TBS proclaiming they have Conan is here.

The taping of Lee Camp's second DVD "Chaos for the Weary", will have a special intro by Kelly Carlin, George Carlin's daughter. Perhaps not a torch passing, but something bright and burning is getting handed off here. The taping tomorrow night at the Tank Theater is sold out, but an encore performance has been added for April 29th. Get tickets here.

In a recent note to Facebook fans, David Cross mentions the new special filmed during his tour for I Drink for a Reason will air on the new pay cable network Epix. No mention of airdate as of yet. Epix previously premiered Lewis Black's special "Stark Raving Black."

Louis C.K.'s next special "Louis C.K.: Hilarious" will premiere as a film at the next Sundance Festival, marking the first time a stand-up comedy concert film has ever been presented at the fest. Sundance begins January 21st and runs to the 31st in Park City, Utah.

In February, Jake Johannsen shot a new hour special that was to be titled "Overnight Comeback." Eleven months late, it has both a new title "Jake Johannsen: I Love You" and an airdate - New Year Day 2010 at 9:30 PM on Showtime (which has really picking up it's stand-up offerings as of late).

Director and former stand-up Judd Apatow will be answering questions live on Funny or Die at 3:30 EST / 12:30 PST today, all in advance of the DVD release of "Funny People" next week. So go ahead, ask him anything.

Steve Martin: "It’s strange, I just don’t have a reason to do standup... It would always be a blend of banjo at this point, I think." (Rooftop Comedy) If you want to see Steve Martin perform mostly banjo, you can check out his tour dates here.

A script for an "Arrested Development" movie is in the works and will be penned by creator Mitch Hurwitz and former show co-producer James Vallely. Everybody probably suspected this, but the announcement of the trades makes this little comedy nerd fantasy seem just a little closer to reality. Fingers crossed that work on the movie itself can begin in Spring 2010. (Hollywood Reporter)

During last night's Daily Show, David Cross announced a stand-up comedy tour to support his upcoming book "I Drink for a Reason." It gives me as good as reason as any to pull back the veil on a project I'm working on for the Stand-Up Comedy Database that will aggregate comedians live performance dates. Check out David Cross' Upcoming Tour Schedule, as of today. More to come.

The producers of The Goode Family are resolved to find a new network after ABC aired their last episode this weekend. It took a while for them (or me) to get the show's voice. The characters stopped being targets along the way and it's finding that right balance of sympathy/send-up that marked King of the Hill. I'm glad they're not letting this one go. Onward to Adult Swim hopefully, where Comedy Central can poach it a year later. (via TV Squad)

John Hughes died of a heart attack during his morning walk in Manhattan yesterday. The filmmaker had a pretty solid lock on film comedy for much of the time, writing and directing "Ferris Bueler's Day Off", "Sixteen Candles", "The Breakfast Club" and "Planes, Trains & Automobiles." His humor roots began with the National Lampoon, where he penned the story "Vacation '58", which became the basis for the film "National Lampoon's Vacation", which he also wrote. You can read the original "Vacation '58" here. The New York Times obituary is here.

Comedy Death Ray's Scott Aukerman will bring stand-ups together for a Comedy Death-Ray anthology comic book under the brand new American Original imprint. Among the writers: Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt, B.J. Novak, David Cross, Zach Galifianakis (finally succumbing after riding around with "nerds" during Comedians of Comedy). Premises with promise may get produced as movies/TV for the less nerdy (but probably, considering the talent, culty).

A new CD from Doug Stanhope is coming this Autumn from Stand-Up Records. Tentative title: "Live from Cape Fear" He's recording it August 11 in Wilmington, NC at Level 5 at City Stage. Tickets available here.

If you're going to San Diego for Comic Con, here's a couple of panel if you're looking to explore the other meaning of the word "comic." Here's some of the Humor and Satire Panels of Comic Con.

• Friday:
  The most unlikely pilot preview in Comic-Con history: Patricia Heaton's family sitcom "The Middle."
  Plus: Two Funny Frebergs - featuring satirist Stan Freberg and partner in crime (and life) Hunter Freberg
• Saturday:
  Panels on Family Guy and a "first look" at the spinoff "The Cleveland Show." Seth MacFarlane will be a part of both.
• Sunday:
  Seth MacFarlane finishes his hat trick with nerds with a panel on American Dad.
  More promising are panels on Indie comedies "Paper Heart" (with Charlyne Yi) and "Mystery Team."

Comedy Central producing a movie for it's canceled animated series "Drawn Together." The characters of the reality show realize they've been canceled and go on a road trip to win their place back on the airwaves. They're having a panel for "The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!" at Comic-Con in San Diego tomorrow, so during Q&A go for a spoiler and ask if they'll succeed! (Nope. It's going straight to DVD and the "Secret Stash")

Ayman Abu Aita, who was interviewed and labelled a terrorist in the Brüno movie, is considering legal action. Some of his complaints seems to be more pulled from comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's description of meeting him on Letterman, particularly about him carrying a weapon or having a bodyguard. If he does sue, he'll join Richelle Olson, who just

Comedy Central's not dipping, but diving into traditional three camera sitcoms by ordering a untitled effort from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay that will star Jon Heder. The setup sounds a little standard: Heder is an IT guy who returns home to his small town, moving in with his parents and younger brother. The prove will be in the execution of the 10 episodes order. And if it's executed well, like the brilliant "Eastbound and Down", Comedy Central has committed to order 90 more episodes, setting it up for syndication. It's the kind of deal Tyler Perry has made twice with TBS. That's borrowing from Black artists in the age of Obama.

Robin Williams will shoot his 5th HBO Special in Washington in November. It'll share the title of his current tour - "Weapons of Self Destruction." HBO has got a quick turnaround on this one - it should air in December of this year. The tour itself is set to resume in September, making up for lost dates after Williams' emergency bypass in March. It'll be interesting to see what new material will spring from that obviously scary event. (Variety)

Kathy Griffin has been tapped to be the roastmaster for the upcoming Comedy Central roast of Joan Rivers. Here's hoping this is the beginning of a mostly female dais. Not for equality sake, but because Roasts are celebratory. Rivers should be hailed/destroyed by those she blazed a trail for. The Roast will tape June 26 and air on Sunday, August 9th.

Not necessarily a funny man in and of himself, but a great comic foil to Johnny Carson. Some info on McMahon's life: New York Times Obituary, Los Angeles Times Obituary and here's video of the one time McMahon lived up to all those jokes Carson told about him.

Ricky Gervais, along with Tracy Morgan and Bill Maher, will be among the headliners for this years New York Comedy Festival. Comedy Central will also shoot their 2010 season of Comedy Central Presents during the event as well. The fest will run for November 4th to the 8th and tickets begin going on sale August 5th.

To celebrate its 35th year, New York comedy club The Comic Strip will be the subject of a documentary entitled "Eat, Drink, Laugh" from Letterbox Pictures. Besides interviews with the comics who've performed there, there's promise of never-before-seen footage of the club. The doc will see release next summer.