Impressionist and entertainer Fred Travalena passed away this week. I remember watching him on TV when I was a kid and being completely blown away by his impressions. He made me laugh and laugh. The news reported this week that he was such a good impressionist that filmmakers used him when they needed to rerecord dialogue in films, rather than calling the actors back in. That's a good impressionist. Funeral arrangements have been announced for Travalena, and I asked a couple of NCV columnists to share their thoughts about Travalena, who was a Christian. Bananas' host Thor Ramsey also c...

Tony Guerro, Director of Creative Arts at Saddleback Church and monthly columnist for Worship Leader Magazine, is compiling a book of funny stories about worship, and he's looking for stories. It doesn't look like there's any compensation, but instead he's taking short blog-comment-style entries. To check out the project, head over to A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Throne. ...

USA Today writer Mark I. Pinsky penned a piece this week about religious humor, and included in the editorial is our own columnist Brad Stine. Pinsky called Brad "an angry, braying stand-up comic whose best-known venues are Promise Keepers rallies that have drawn thousands of evangelical Christian men to coliseums. He once admonished conservative churches that were burning Harry Potter books: 'Here's a good rule of thumb: If Hitler tried it — maybe go the other way.' His first book was titled Being a Christian Without Being an Idiot: 10 Assumed Truths That Make Us Look Stupid." ...

On my blog at Beliefnet.com, I did a post called You Might Be A Christian Music Fan If ... In it, I listed some stereotypical Christian music things, like: ... you didn't let your kids listen to the Jonas Brothers, until you found out they were Christians. ... you did let your kids listen to David Archuleta, until you found out he was Mormon. ... you cried when the American Idol contestants sang "Shout To The Lord" on national television. ... you'll go see Third Day play at a mega-church but won't go see them at your local concert arena.  Can yo...

Our own ventriloquist and comedian Taylor Mason hits the Big Apple next week for a month-long run at HA! Comedy Club in NYC. The show starts next Tuesday, December 9th, and runs through January 4th. Taylor brings his collection of puppets for this all ages holiday spectacular. If you've seen Taylor perform live, you know the show is not only loaded with laughs, but involves a lot of audience participation, so this promises to be a great time.  For more information, including ticket prices, visit HA! Comedy Club's website. To learn more about our favorite ventriloquist, vist Tay...

I'm having some fun over at my Gospel Soundcheck blog at Beliefnet.com, piggybacking on a fun blog post Matthew Paul Turner did on is Jesus Needs New PR blog. Head over to the Gospel Soundcheck blog and share your answer to "You might be a Christian music fan if ..." It's all in good fun. Hey, we're allowed to poke fun at ourselves. If we don't, someone else will ... ...

Our own Taylor Mason makes another appearance on the third installment of "Thou Shalt Laugh," hosted by Sinbad.  Taylor has appeared on all three "Thou Shalt Laugh" DVDs.  The DVD sold 5,000 in it's first week of release, with no advertising! The "Thou Shalt Laugh" franchise is the best selling Christian comedy. That's great, and just further proves that we've stocked our NCV columnist line up with the best of the best.  You can get "Thou Shalt Laugh 3" in stores now. ...

I KNEW IT! ABC has "not renewed" the shows "Pushing Daisies" and "Eli Stone," both extremely well-done, humorous shows that are done with style, intelligence and class. So of course they have to cancel them. Whenever I find a show that I like - and trust me, I actually plan my evening around these two shows - they're canceled. "Joan of Arcadia" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" are two that come to mind right away. Rats. I'm really disappointed. ...

Christian artist Go Fish hit the road this month on their "Christmas With A Capital C" tour. The tour takes its title from a song on their 2006 Christmas album, Snow. “This song unapologetically reminds people that Christmas is about the birth of Christ,” says Go Fish founding member Jamie Statema.  “The whole point of 'Christmas With A Capital C' is to show that this annual debate is about something much bigger than just whether or not to say ‘Merry Christmas.’  It's about an ongoing effort to remove God from our American culture.  We decided it was time to take...

Hey, NCV readers! Now you can network with NCV on your favorite social networking site: Become a fan of NCV on Facebook Be our friend at Shoutlife Follow us on Twitter Be our MySpace friend ...