Comedy Central to Debut New Special ARI SHAFFIR: PAID REGULAR, 1/22

Ari Shaffir will take over the Comedy Central® airwaves this winter with three premieres: the world premiere of one-hour stand-up special "Ari Shaffir: Paid Regular" debuts Friday, January 16 at Midnight ET/PT, followed by the premiere of storytelling stand-up series "This Is Not Happening" on Thursday, January 22 at 12:30 a.m. ET/PT. Shaffir rounds it out with the network television premiere of his first one-hour stand-up special "Ari Shaffir: Passive Aggressive," on Friday, March 13 at Midnight ET/PT. For fans that just can't wait, the premiere episode of "This Is Not Happening" will be available on Amazon Instant Video on January 12 and in the Comedy Central App on January 13.

Shaffir's second one-hour special, "Paid Regular," is a tribute to his origins as a stand-up comic. Shot in the Original Room of The World Famous Comedy Store in Hollywood, California, the special shows Shaffir at home on stage as he explores the "hackiness" of racism, camping on mushrooms, UFC fights on acid, and all the small ways you too can challenge authority.

"This Is Not Happening" features Shaffir and his comedian friends telling hilarious and true stories in front of a live audience at Cheetahs in Hollywood. Throughout the eight-episode season, comedians including Rob Corddry, D.L. Hughley, Keegan-Michael Key, Bert Kreischer, Marc Maron, Steve Rannazzisi, Joe Rogan and Paul Scheer will tell their favorite, most embarrassing, or just plain funniest true-life tales around topics including Drugs, Emergencies, Wonder Years, Battles, Romance, and Travel. Each episode features a custom opening that puts Shaffir into a ludicrous situation, dreamed (nightmared) up by madman director Jeff Tomsic. "This Is Not Happening" originally debuted as a digital series developed by CC:Studios, Comedy Central's in-house creative initiative for the development of original digital comedy.

New episodes of "This Is Not Happening" will air on Thursdays at 12:30 a.m. ET/PT, and will be available the day after air in the Comedy Central App, and two days after air on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Xbox Video, Sony Entertainment Network, Vudu, Verizon Flexview and Google Play.

"Ari Shaffir: Paid Regular" will be available on January 17 in the Comedy Central App to fans that sign in via their cable or satellite provider. The Comedy Central App is available for free for iOS on the App Store, for Android on the Google Play store, and for Xbox One. The "Paid Regular" album will also be available on January 20.

Leading up to the on-air premieres, Comedy Central Stand-Up will feature preview clips from the special, and cc.com/TINH will feature preview stories from the series. Additional digital-only stories from "This Is Not Happening" will also be available on cc.com/TINH throughout the season, and extended versions of many stories will appear in the weeks following the season finale. Fans can follow Shaffir on Twitter at @AriShaffir, and tweet using the hashtags #PaidRegular and #ThisIsNotHappening to join the social chatter around the special and series.

Shaffir is a regular panel guest on "@midnight" and has appeared on "Comedy Underground with Dave Attell," both on Comedy Central. He has also been featured on Showtime's "The Green Room with Paul Provenza," Comedy Central's "Brody Stevens: Enjoy It!" and HBO's "Down & Dirty with Jim Norton." Shaffir performs stand-up to sold out crowds nationwide and has been featured at the prestigious Montreal Just for Laughs Festival, San Francisco SketchFest, SXSW, the Bridgetown Comedy Festival, and the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival. His stand-up album "Revenge for the Holocaust" was released in 2012 and went to number 1 on iTunes and Amazon.Com the week of its premiere.

In addition to his TV and stand-up projects, Shaffir also hosts the wildly popular podcast The Skeptic Tank, a weekly interview show on which he chats with everyone from parents to comedians to prostitutes "to help better understand humanity and also to make fart jokes." The podcast is consistently among the top-rated podcasts on iTunes and averages over 100,000 downloads per week.

"Ari Shaffir: Paid Regular" is executive produced by Shaffir, Michelle Caputo, and Avalon's Sam Saifer. Anne Harris is the Executive in Charge for Comedy Central.

"This Is Not Happening" is executive produced by Ari Shaffir, Eric Abrams, Avalon's Sam Saifer, and Jeff Tomsic, who also directed. Anne Harris is the Executive in Charge for Comedy Central.

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