Howdy, all! I’ve been swamped lately (and too burned out even to blog – horrors!), but I hope you all can forgive my neglect and enjoy a little bit of Six Degrees commentary. I can’t call it all “news” any longer — some of it’s been out for quite a while — but it may still be somewhat news-y. To business!

Jon Stewart

• You can catch Jon — his voice, anyway — this weekend when he makes a cameo (as himself) on American Dad. From the blurb on Fox.com: “Roger and Steve set their sights on fame and fortune in New York City, but it doesn’t take long for Roger to lose everything on Wall Street. Steve contemplates prostitution after Jon Stewart shoots down his comedy routine.” The scheduling info is here; thanks for the tip, Jenny with a Y!
• Jon also lends his voice to Twisted – A Balloonamentary, narrating the history of balloon animals. You can check out screening and/or DVD info here.

David Javerbaum (Executive Producer, The Daily Show)

• You may recall that DJ Javerbaum has been a busy little bee this year; not only has he been helping to run things over at TDS, he’s been co-writing the Broadway show Cry-Baby. Now that Cry-Baby’s been nominated for a handful of Tony awards, DJ has penned an amusing letter to the prospective voters. Here’s just one of the “invalid” reasons to vote for his show: “It is customary for winners to thank their families during their acceptance speeches. However, if given a chance to make such a speech, Adam [Schlesinger, co-writer] and I are willing to thank yours.” Read the full letter here.

Lewis Black (Contributor, The Daily Show)

• Lewis has a new book — Me of Little Faith– coming out on June 3rd, and if you follow that link, Amazon’s got some video for you. To coincide with the book’s release, Lewis has some events planned. We mentioned his appearance at BookExpo already; here are just a couple more that I stumbled across:
• June 7th at the First Parish Church Meetinghouse (sponsored by the Harvard Book Store), Boston, MA
• June 10th at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue (co-sponsored by Politics & Prose and DC Comedy Fest), Washington, DC
• The Onion A.V. Club posted an interview with Lewis last week, too; he talks about the book, his show and more. Read it here.

Garrett Reisman (“Friend of the Show”)

• Okay, I don’t normally mention former show guests (there are only so many hours in my day), but Reisman was so much fun that I thought it would be worth throwing this little tidbit out there. From Marvel: “Astronaut Garrett Reisman, currently orbiting Earth in the International Space Station (ISS), apparently couldn’t wait to get back home to see Iron Man. So, he’ll be watching a copy of the film being beamed up the ISS for his viewing pleasure!” That? Is wicked cool.

Demetri Martin (Contributor, The Daily Show)

• Demetri’s got some shows at Rififi in the coming weeks, and he did a little Q&A with Gothamist in anticipation. From Gothamist: “What’s the weirdest fan interaction you’ve had? One time I was jumping on a bed and almost hit my head on a ceiling fan.” I seriously love Demetri. (Well, I already loved him because of his ridiculously cool palindrome poem, but this just reaffirms it.)

John Oliver (Correspondent, The Daily Show)

• Not too much to say about John at the moment — aside from the usual, gee, it would be great if you’d update your gig list more than once every three to six months, that is — but I happened to see him last week at the recording for “Political Animal” at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, and he was brilliantly entertaining, as ever. (And by the way, if any of you UK fans know how to get me a download of the “Political Animal” shows containing this material, I’d be very interested.)
  
  He repeated a lot of material I’d heard before — which I’m not complaining about, as I wouldn’t continue to go to his gigs if he didn’t make me laugh, and it’s still quite hilarious — but he incorporated some new jokes, too. For those of you who know what I’m talking about, I thought the Sara Lownds bit (“Sara, oh Sara/Scorpio Sphinx in a calico dress …” — Bob Dylan) was wonderful, and his long rambles first about dollars vs. pounds and then from the end of the show were delicious!
  
  For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, take heart, because John also dropped this little tidbit: Comedy Central was filming some “DVD extras” that night. Dare we hope that some of that material makes it onto the DVD version of his special? Because I’ll be the first to tell you, I would absolutely shell out good money for that!

Here’s my usual disclaimer: I get all of this scheduling stuff from various sources around “the internets”, NOT from the performers. Thus, I can’t really vouch for the accuracy of it all, and I’d strongly recommend contacting the venues themselves for their official information. Since I’m still a bit crazy at work and couldn’t run all the searches I’d normally do, I’m sure I’ve missed a few items; feel free to comment away if you see errors or omissions. Cheers!

UPDATED TO ADD: Oh sure, right AFTER I post this big ol’ entry … anyhow, Comedy Central Insider just noted that John Oliver (and Laura Krafft!) will perform in a gig benefitting puppies — literally — NEXT Friday (June 6th). This looks like a fantastic show, y’all (I’ll note that the only other performer in that lineup I’ve seen, Christian Finnegan, is also absolutely hilarious). BE THERE!

FURTHER UPDATED: The recurring “Tell Your Friends” show at Lolita Bar will feature Demetri Martin next Monday (June 2nd) and John Oliver the following week (June 9th). Thanks for the tip, SCORPIO!

• Difference Makers: The Story Pirates hold second “After School Special”
• Jon Stewart to emcee BEA breakfast for ‘Earth (The Book): A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race’
• Six Degress: Post Vancouverage Blue’s Edition.
• Six Degrees: Vancouver Edition.