Locations

Topics

Comedy

Razzing the Nerds

by | Oct 1, 2024 2:50 pm | Comments (0)

Agustín Maes Photos

Jackie Keliiaa: Outing the visitor from Dorkistan.

Chuckling Beer
Degrees Plato Tap Room Bottle Shop & Kitchen
4251 MacArthur Boulevard at High Street
Oakland
Sept. 28, 2024

Vexillology: That’s the study of flags, in case you didn’t know. It’s an interest of mine, one I never imagined could be used as a comedic weapon — let alone against me.

But that’s how it went down at the Chuckling Beer stand-up comedy show at Degrees Plato Tap Room Bottle Shop & Kitchen in Oakland’s Laurel District.

I blame the beer for loosening my lips about my dorky leisure pursuit when comic Jackie Keliiaa took the stage asking if anyone had any nerdy hobbies. But hey, as the emcee Rafi D. Susman said at the beginning of the show, ​“Drink lots of beers and ciders. The more you drink the better the show’s gonna be. No empty glasses! You! Empty glass! Go get something! Also, no talking. You can talk during the other comics’ sets but not my set. For my set I want RAPT ATTENTION!”

Continue reading ‘Razzing the Nerds’

Reggie Watts Isn’t Going To Get To The Point

by | Sep 3, 2024 2:15 pm | Comments (0)

zb reeves photo

Reggie Watts at the Blue Whale Comedy Festival.

Reggie Watts, With Openers Casey Rocket, Simon Fraser, Cepeda Cheeks and Val Werner
Blue Whale Comedy Festival
Cain’s Ballroom
Tulsa
August 24, 2024 

Reggie Watts tickled me first through YouTube. Clips of his specific brand of disorientation humor were going viral one after another in the early 2010s, and as the kind of neurotic, acid poetry-obsessed, alcoholism-adjacent college graduate that Watts makes his bread off of, I was instantly struck by the brilliance of his work. You can hardly call it stand-up: His is a brainy, free-association comedic act, which relies less on punchlines than on red herrings, the diversion as the point. Listeners are taken through a range of accents, registers, made-up songs, and stories with little or no punchline, simply for the fun of it. 

Continue reading ‘Reggie Watts Isn’t Going To Get To The Point’

Thunderwof’s Hip-Hop Is No Joke

by | Jul 26, 2024 3:44 pm | Comments (0)

MITCH GILLIAM PHOTO

Thunderwof (on the right, with DJ $ir Mike at left) rolls out a new mixtape

Thunderwof Mixtape Release: ​“Boys Don’t Cry But, Wofs Shed Tears.”
Heirloom Rustic Ales
Tulsa
July 19, 2024

If you’ve been to a comedy show in Tulsa in the last few years, there is a high probability a man named Thunderwof made you laugh. With his new mixtape called Boys Don’t Cry But, Wofs Shed Tears., that man — the government-named Chaz Stephens — aims to get your head nodding too. Last Friday’s release set at Heirloom Rustic Ales showed his move into hip-hop is far from a joke. 

Continue reading ‘Thunderwof’s Hip-Hop Is No Joke’

You Might Be A Redneck If…

by | Jul 19, 2024 4:49 pm | Comments (0)

CASSIDY MCCANTS PHOTO

Trae Crowder visits flyover country.

Trae Crowder
The Loony Bin
Tulsa
July 12, 2024

If you were on social media in 2016 and missed Trae Crowder’s ​“Liberal Redneck” series, the algorithm might’ve determined you weren’t ​“liberal” or ​“redneck” enough to want to see it (or the algo knew you wouldn’t angry-click). The viral videos tackled American issues like the opioid epidemic, racism and the Black Lives Matter movement, and the rise of MAGAism. Crowder was celebrated for breaking stereotypes, offering a progressive take on these topics with his signature small-town Tennessee twang.

Continue reading ‘You Might Be A Redneck If…’

Our Pun-dolences To The Losers

by | Jun 28, 2024 1:49 pm | Comments (0)

ZB REEVES PHOTO

Host Evan Hughes far left, winner Chelsea Green far right

Welcome To PUNderland: The Great Philbrook Pun-Off
Philbrook Museum of Art
Tulsa
June 21, 2024

I love it when Philbrook does something outside their realm of expertise. During his eight years as its CEO, Scott Stulen — who recently announced that he’s taking a job as Director of the Seattle Museum of Art — made a point of positioning the museum as a fun space, not just as a museum, and that tactic works well in terms of crowd accumulation, even if the Fun Things themselves are sometimes a little awkward. The Philbrook Pun-Off was no exception. 

Continue reading ‘Our Pun-dolences To The Losers’

Butterslutz The Sex-Ed Clown Gives The LowDown

by | Apr 12, 2024 4:39 pm | Comments (0)

LACEE RAINS AND RIK CLEMENT PHOTOS

Tulsa comics Lacee Rains and Thunderwof, and Butterslutz the Sex-Ed Clown

Lacee Rains Comedy Special: ​“Face/On”
LowDown
April 5, 2024

Tulsan Lacee Rains is a former slam poet turned self-described clown — ​”the president of idiotville!!!!!” as her Threads profile puts it. In ​“Face/On,” her first comedy special, filmed live at LowDown, she took a sold-out audience on a fascinating journey that proves she is also a triumphant comedian.

Continue reading ‘Butterslutz The Sex-Ed Clown Gives The LowDown’

TJ Miller Sets Bro Straight

by | Apr 1, 2024 11:10 am | Comments (0)

The Comedy Cellar
West Village
NYC
3/29/24

Comedy is always a gamble. And that’s part of the thrill, no doubt. The threat of a bomb looms over every set, and jokes that land are miracles. The ones that really kill, the laughter is religious in its ecstasy.

It was my brother’s last night in the City, we’d yet to do anything big and touristy or standard only-in-NYC. Not monuments, museums, or anything like that. I just showed him the City as I live in it. So it was only right that we did at least one thing that everyone who comes into town ought to do. We linked up with some friends and stood in the windy cold, waiting to be let in to the legendary Comedy Cellar. 

Continue reading ‘TJ Miller Sets Bro Straight’

Sheryl Underwood's Straight Talk Hits Home

by | Mar 4, 2024 8:51 pm | Comments (0)

Sheryl Underwood
Raleigh Improv
Raleigh, N.C.
March 2, 2024

Laughter, cheers, and applause boomed from the Raleigh Improv Saturday night as Sheryl Underwood and quick-witted comedians stole the stage. Fans filled the comedy club located in the Parkside Town Commons shopping center in Cary, North Carolina, eager to see the storytellers, commentators, and critics, doused in humor. 

Continue reading ‘Sheryl Underwood's Straight Talk Hits Home’

"Hella' Funny Comedians Walk Into A Speakeasy

by | Feb 20, 2024 11:23 am | Comments (0)

Breezy Bratton Photos

Our host for the evening, Big T

Hella Funny Comedy Collective
Fluid510
Oakland
Feb. 16, 2024

A jubilant man half-riding a bicycle called to me, ​“Why did the scarecrow outspend his Christmas bonus?” After I replied with the obligatory, ​“Why?” he said smugly, ​“He was outstanding in the field!” We both cackled as he rode away. The streets gave me a dap and a snug embrace as I walked from the 19th Street BART station and felt the electric Friday night energy in downtown Oakland.

I was en route to ​“HellaSecret Speakeasy Comedy & Cocktail Night” by the Hella Funny comedy collective. The ​“hella secret” location was a swanky bar with a bright pink neon sign, Fluid510. As I’d bought my ticket in advance, when I was greeted at the door by comedian and co-producer of the event, Bryant Hicks, he needed only my last name for admission. 

Continue reading ‘"Hella' Funny Comedians Walk Into A Speakeasy’

Freaky Teenage Foibles Flaunted For Laughs

by | Feb 16, 2024 11:19 am | Comments (0)

The "Mortified" Valentines-themed show at the New Parish in Oakland.

Mortified’s ​“Doomed Valentines” Show
The New Parish
Oakland
Feb. 10, 2024

Ah, the foolishness of youth. Is the ability to laugh at your own adolescent follies evidence of your own emotional evolution and present magnanimity? Or is it just an excuse to be a ham and include everyone and anyone — strangers, partners, and friends — in on the joke? 

Why not both? 

Teen angst is big business these days. Just ask the makers of the long-running ​“Mortified” show. Started in 2002 as a project among friends to share excerpts from their teenage diaries on stage for the amusement of all, it’s grown into a national live show, a Netflix series, podcasts, books, storytelling workshops, and online merch. You never know — that high school crush you swooned over in your diary may have audiences rolling in the aisles. 

Continue reading ‘Freaky Teenage Foibles Flaunted For Laughs’

Comedic Insights: Beans, Being Uncool, & The Perils of Masturbation

by | Feb 13, 2024 1:45 pm | Comments (0)

Agustín Maes Photo

Sam Skolnik, Ray Lau, and Stoney McBlaze at Drake's Dealership.

Stoney McBlaze Comedy
Drake’s Dealership
2325 Broadway
Oakland
Feb. 3, 2024

Comedy is an art form I revere with profound admiration. Maybe it’s because I can’t tell a joke to save my life, butchering even a quippy grade school knock-knock. But comedians, people who understand timing and delivery and whatever magic it is that makes a crowd laugh, possess not only the skill to (potentially) kill, but the courage to get in front of an audience in an effort to tickle folks’ chuckle bone. That bravery is inspiring. I mean, if you’re balls-out enough to get onstage and try to get people to laugh along with you, you’ve already succeeded. The trio of aspiring young L.A.-based yuksters at Drake’s Dealership — Stoney McBlaze and his fellow travelers Ray Lau and Sam Skolnik — brought it with balls of brass.

Continue reading ‘Comedic Insights: Beans, Being Uncool, & The Perils of Masturbation’