Comedy

One second, Patti LaBelle's getting flowers from front row fans ... the next she's getting rushed off stage to avoid a possible explosion at her show.

That's the alarming scene that played out Saturday night in Milwaukee, where Patti was performing at the Riverside Theater. She had just taken a pause between songs to talk to the crowd, and accept a bouquet from one of them ... when suddenly 2 bodyguards appeared onstage.

Patti had no clue what was happening as they quickly hauled her backstage -- she yelled out, "Hold up, wait!!!"

The confused audience was immediately evacuated after that moment of panic, and the venue eventually pulled the plug on Patti's show. Officially, it was postponed and will be rescheduled.

Trevor Noah said his final farewell to "The Daily Show" Thursday night and on his way to the exit, he got pretty emotional talking about who he credits for his knowledge and success.

Trevor ended his 7-year run hosting the Comedy Central series by paying tribute to all the Black women in his life who took the time “to inform me, to educate me, to argue with me.” Specifically, he cited his mother, grandmother and aunt for having grand ideas that nurtured him.

As he put it, "I tell people if you want to truly learn about America, talk to Black women cause, unlike everybody else, Black women can't afford to f*** around and find out."

Trevor added, "Black women, in particular, they know what s*** is. They know what happens if things do not go the way it should."

He also gave props to several "brilliant" female Black leaders ... Roxane Gay, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Zoé Samudzi and Tarana Burke.

In his opening monologue, Noah thanked his fans for tuning in and got emotional as he went down memory lane, listing all the celebrity guests he had on the show since 2016, including Oprah, Issa Rae, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and Bill Gates.

Vince Staples is boosting his acting resume with a cameo on the award-winning sitcom, "Abbott Elementary," and fans are demanding an encore!!!

The Long Beach-bred rapper guest starred as Maurice ... a potential love interest for show creator Quinta Brunson's character, Janine.

The Wednesday night episode also featured NBA champ Andre Iguodala, and it had fans doing double takes all night ... with some even getting all googly-eyed over Vince.

'Abbott' is one of the hottest tickets on TV, winning 3 Primetime Emmys after its first season on the air.

Pete Davidson is back on Instagram, but there's a catch ... it's a joint page with Eli Manning!!

Yes, the former Giants star quarterback and comedian joined forces to launch the IG page together ... debuting the account Wednesday night with an IG video in Davidson's apartment.

"Hello Instagram," Davidson said on his Giants-themed bed, "I have decided to come back, but only with the GOAT."

"Stay tuned for more photos on the gram!"

The duo shared a video and a couple of photos, including a pic of Davidson's small helmet tattoo. Eli captioned the post, "confirmed ... Pete's a Giants fan."

The guys also worked on one-handed catches (a la Eli to Odell Beckham Jr. vs. the Dallas Cowboys) ... and Davidson has hands!

Fans loved the idea of the joint account ... they flooded their comments with support, with one saying, "lmfao the link up I never knew I needed 🐐".

FYI, Pete -- who's been MIA from IG since 2018 (he occasionally returns before deactivating again)  -- and Eli already have over 17k followers, as of Thursday morning.

Seth Rogen had no problem letting the jokes fly as he took part in a ceremony to honor women in showbiz ... taking a playful jab at Kim Kardashian for missing the occasion.

Seth took the stage Wednesday during The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Breakfast -- and true to form, he cracked a few jokes about folks in the audience.

A source with direct knowledge tells us, "The wrong event date was given to Kim’s team several weeks ago. The error was realized only on Monday and unfortunately, her schedule could not be moved around at the last minute due to a prior work commitment. She was incredibly disappointed to not be able to attend since she never cancels."

He joked, "Are we going to talk about how Kim Kardashian didn’t show up?" He continued, "I have seen every episode of ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’ I know she doesn’t have anything more important to do than this."

He made it clear it was all fun and games ... telling folks she was probably going through a lot and had good reason to skip.

Chelsea Handler also joked about the 'SKIMS' founder missing the event ... saying the extra security at the event wasn’t for Kim cause she didn’t show up.

Chris Kattan is hospitalized after a scary health situation forced him into emergency surgery ... and as a result, he'll miss some upcoming dates in his comedy tour.

Sources connected to Chris tell TMZ he recently came down with Streptococcus Pneumoniae, an extreme case of pneumonia, and on Sunday was rushed to the hospital. From there, he needed emergency surgery, but thankfully the operation was successful.

We're told as long as things continue to go well, Chris will be released from the hospital Friday, and can hopefully return to work sometime in the near future.

Unfortunately, Chris had a show lined up for this Friday in Valparaiso, IN ... which we're told will have to be rescheduled, along with some other upcoming tour dates.

As you know, Chris stayed out of the limelight for a while, but is back to doing standup.

Of course, he had an 8-year run on "SNL" where he was featured in some iconic sketches, playing Mango or boppin' his head with Will Ferrell during "A Night at the Roxbury."

BTW -- we got Chris at LAX earlier this year telling us how he was champing at the bit to revive the 1990s cult classic comedy -- he said he'd wanted a "Roxbury" sequel for years, and had ideas about how to bring it into the 21st century.

Stand-up comic George Wallace says if Herschel Walker gets elected to the U.S. Senate, a lot's gonna change -- like his home address, and also ... he's officially off ALL Walkers!!!

The comedy legend talked politics with us Monday at LAX, but with a heavy dose of humor. He says as much nonsense as there is going on in L.A., it looks like ATL is up against way worse.

Of course, Tuesday is Georgia's runoff election ... which will decide once and for all if HW takes the cake, or incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock stays put.

It's pretty obvious who George is endorsing -- the dude is definitely not a fan of Walker whatsoever, and he made that perfectly clear to us with a list of others similarly named who aren't good in his book any longer. Sorry, Johnny ... and even you, Jimmy.

When we ask what'll happen if Herschel wins, he didn't hesitate to offer up the ol' "I'm leaving the country" reply we've heard from countless celebs.

American actress Kali Rocha was 29 years old when she was cast as the annoyingly friendly flight attendant -- who demanded oversized luggage be checked and not carried on -- in the 2000 comedy/romance film "Meet The Parents."

Kali shared the big screen with Ben Stiller as the nurse who is intimated by his future in-laws, Greg Focker, Robert De Niro as the retired CIA agent, Jack Byrnes, Teri Polo as the elementary school teacher, Pam Byrnes and Owen Wilson as Pam's ex, Kevin Rawley.

The film's success led to two sequels, "Meet The Fockers" and "Little Fockers."

Travis Kelce better prep his monologue ... 'cause "Saturday Night Live" alum Taran Killam tells TMZ Sports the NFL superstar would be the perfect pick to host the comedy sketch show!!

"Travis Kelce is one of the funniest, coolest dudes and a legend," Killam said at LAX.

"It's just not fair to be that strong, fast, good, charismatic, handsome and hilarious. I hate him. He's coming for my job," he joked (or is he?)

Killam knows about both comedy and football -- he actually has an Amazon Prime show, "The NFL Pile On," where he puts a funny twist on the sport's biggest stories of the week.

Killam has spent a ton of time at 30 Rock -- he was on "SNL" from 2010-2016 ... and had several memorable sketches during his stint.

Killam even thinks Kelce could take his talents to acting if he really wanted ... and says if "SNL" were to come calling, he'd thrive as the celebrity host for an episode.

"I'd love to see Travis Kelce host," Killam said, swallowing his pride as a Rams fan. "I think he'd kill it."

Comedian and actor Affion Crockett thinks Will Smith has another Oscar contender on his hands for his work in "Emancipation" ... and says it would be unfair if the "mistake" of slapping Chris Rock leads to award season snubs.

We got Affion Thursday at LAX, where he told us about getting to see Will's slavery-era drama, and he's certain the movie will be in Oscar contention, and ditto for its lead actor.

As you know, Will's 10-year Oscars ban doesn't prevent him from getting nominated or even winning -- a fact Affion thinks Academy voters should keep in mind, because he sees Will's "Emancipation" performance as "masterful."

As for that beyond infamous Oscars slap of Chris ... Affion's genuinely shocked the world's still focusing on it now that it's over 8 months later.

Despite that fact, he thinks there's a shot the Academy could reevaluate that 10-year ban.

FYI, Affion's also dealt with stage stormers before ... as we reported, he was performing in Florida last year when a woman charged onstage to criticize his act.

Jonah Hill is gunning to legally change his name, but you won't need to call him anything different -- it just means lots of paperwork for him ... or his assistant.

According to docs, obtained by TMZ, the actor -- whose real name is Jonah Hill Feldstein -- filed a petition this week in L.A. to legally drop Feldstein from his name. So, he's just making his stage name official.

The docs say Jonah simply wants the name he's publicly gone by for years to be his legal handle. It is all the rage these days.

As we reported, Aaron Paul, whose last name is actually Sturtevant, also filed for a legal change to Paul earlier this month.

AP's wife Lauren, and their son Ryden Caspian, also want to change their last names. One big happy, legal Paul family.

Jay Leno's miraculous return to comedy -- just 2 weeks after getting severely burned -- is officially a smash hit ... just ask the cops whose car he clipped!

It's the kinda Murphy's Law moment ya just have to laugh off, and Jay did, but Sunday night, as he pulled up to the Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, CA ... he really did graze a cop car's tire with his Tesla.

Jay arrived with his wife, Mavis, and everyone -- HBPD included -- got past the near-fender bender quickly, and the comedian immediately made it clear he's ready and willing to joke about the garage fire.

Check out the video ... Jay dropped 2 or 3 one-liners at his own expense on his way into the club.

TMZ broke the story ... Leno was working on one of his vintage cars in his garage when the fuel line burst on him, and about half of Jay's upper body -- including his face -- caught on fire.

After suffering 2nd and 3rd-degree burns on his face, neck, arm and hands ... he went to the Grossman Burn Center, where he underwent skin grafts and got treatment in a hyperbaric chamber.

Just a few days after the accident, Jay told us he'd be back doing standup within a couple of weeks.

Very few people thought was realistic, but Sunday night he proved all the doubters wrong.

BTW, Jay's been doing Sunday nights at this club for decades, and it quickly sold out when he announced he'd be returning. Appropriately, there was a ton of media outlets outside, waiting to see his astounding comeback.

Pete Davidson and Emily Ratajkowski have gone as public as you possibly can in Hollywood -- attending an NBA game together ... sitting courtside, no less.

The new couple -- who've been maintaining a relatively low profile lately -- blew the doors wide open Sunday by crashing the New York Knicks' showdown with the Grizzlies, snagging the best seats in the house ... and not trying to hide the fact they were a pair whatsoever.

While there didn't seem to be any obvious PDA between them ... Em and Pete were all smiles, and not shying away from cameras either. In fact, the Knicks' own Twitter account posted a photo of them cheesin' it up, and tagging EmRat too.

It's pretty funny ... their presence was actually acknowledged during the broadcast, although the TV guys didn't seem to know who Emily was, 'cause they skipped over in the namedrop.

They also didn't seem to know PD all that well either ... completely butchering his name.

They were sitting next to Ben Stiller and Jordin Sparks -- so there was a lot of star power in the house. But for Pete and Emily to pop is a big deal, seeing how they've seemingly been trying to lay low as they've hit the town in and around NYC.

They were spotted hanging 2 weeks ago in Brooklyn -- the first time they'd been seen on camera amid rumors they were linking up. Pete did something similar with Kim Kardashian ... trying to keep it on the DL for a while, then finally embracing the spotlight.

Seems like he's fast-tracking things this time around, though ... nothing says we're dating like a night out at MSG during primetime TV.

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Jay Leno clearly lives by the credo ... if you get injured doing what you love, you gotta get back in the buggy!!!

Jay, who was seriously burned when a fuel leak on a 1907 steamer triggered a fire that burned his face and hands, was back at it again Saturday, taking a spin in a vintage Bentley on the streets of L.A.

Some of the burns are apparent ... you see the scarring on his right hand. Jay suffered both second and third-degree burns.

Jay jumped in his Tesla a few days ago and went back to the Grossman Burn Center in West Hills ... cookies in hand to thank the medical staff for treating him.

The comedian then beelined it to a Chick-fil-A for a sandie.

It's pretty remarkable ... it seemed impossible Jay would bounce back so quickly, but people we know who are close to him were never in doubt.

We were told he'd be back onstage in a week or 2 and that's exactly what's gonna happen. Jay's scheduled to perform at The Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach in the L.A. area on Sunday. It's a sold-out show.

Freddie Roman -- an OG comedian from New York City, and a beloved figure in showbiz -- has died ... TMZ has learned.

The actor/writer/producer and all-around funny man passed away Saturday afternoon at a hospital in Boynton Beach, Florida, this after suffering a heart attack earlier this morning at his country club home ... according to his daughter, Judi Levin.

We're told he died in bed with his family around, including his wife of 63 years, Ethel, who was with him until the end.

Roman might perhaps best be remembered as a Friars Club staple -- he was once at the helm of the famed NYC club, which has afforded membership to tons of comics/celebs over the years. FR was the dean dating back to the '90s until Larry King succeeded him in 2014.

A well-versed and seasoned comedian himself, Roman had performed at countless high-profile venues over the years ... including Caesars Palace in Vegas and Harrah's in Atlantic City, among others. Roman has also been part of several big-time roasts via Comedy Central.

Some of the stars he's chided on the past ... Drew Carey, Rob Reiner, Hugh Hefner, Chevy Chase, Jerry Stiller and many, many others who've had a Roman joke thrown their way.

Roman has also starred in a handful of shows and movies, including "Red Oaks," "The Comedian," "Bittersweet Place," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "Finding North," "Sweet Lorraine" and more. He's also famous for writing and starring in a well-known revue, "Catskills on Broadway."

Freddie continued to perform well into his later years, and was a fixture in New York comedy for a long, long time. He's survived by his wife and daughter ... Roman was 85.

Jay Leno can't stop, won't stop -- unbelievably, he's back on the open road less than 2 weeks after he was severely burned in a car fire, and his first stop ... the same garage where it happened.

Tuesday, the comedian drove himself -- still visibly scarred on his face and hand -- to his Burbank garage where he keeps most of his famous car collection.

He briefly chatted with photogs as he pulled in at the gate ... tellin' them he'll back onstage telling jokes as soon as this weekend.

He also jokes around about a much-needed BBQ. Too soon, Jay!!!

As you know, Leno was working on a vintage car that had a clogged fuel line when he got sprayed with gasoline, which then ignited and set him on fire. Luckily, his friend was there at the time to extinguish the flames, and save Jay's life.

Jay was released from the Grossman Burn Center Monday, where he underwent 9 days of treatment. He seemed to be in great spirits in photos alongside the staff ... and this new video confirms he's continuing an amazing recovery.