Though most Deverites prefer to while away their hazy August days with poolside day-drinking and late-summer languor, their ventures into the temperate night will reward them with a bounty of belly laughs. Our city’s fine comedy clubs, theaters and breweries have shows to suit every taste and budget. Despite the…

Most comedy nerds are already familiar with Marc Maron’s biography, since he’s perhaps the world’s most renowned podcaster. Maron rose to prominence in the alt-comedy scene of the ’90s before floundering through a few TV and radio gigs that never felt like a perfect fit; despite racking up over forty…

As the final High Plains Comedy Festival draws near and the final lineups are announced, Sexpot Comedy returns to Denver after an exploratory sojourn to Los Angeles, boasting another fine show packed with local talent and a nationally celebrated headliner in Sean White. White, a Chicago based comedian whose album…

July is known for balmy days when the sun lingers in the sky like a drunken barbecue guest. Luckily, comedy fans can retreat to air-conditioned comfort in our city’s fine clubs, bars and theaters while merrily chortling at the rogue’s gallery of stand-ups visiting Denver. The whole month is packed…

Podcasts are in tune with the democratized spirit of Internet media; anyone with a microphone and a computer can offer their listeners unlimited hours of recordings, usually for free. Limited only by their imaginations, podcasters have a freedom of expression unrestricted by commerce, censorship or geography. Several great podcasts have…

Margaret Cho is a multi-talented entertainer whose massive skill set includes singing, burlesque, acting, writing and standup comedy. From her early days as a teenager at the zenith of San Francisco’s comedy scene, Cho has brought a fearless honesty to her many endeavors. While Cho is a performer first and…

Uncalled Four is a homegrown comedy success story. From its unsteady origins in dive bars (with the prototype name “Comics Against Civility” standing in until a punnier title emerged) to its current status as a full-fledged brand, Uncalled Four has maintained its gleefully irreverent comic voice while continually branching out…

Jordan Wieleba runs a monthly standup-and-burlesque showcase, designs many of Denver comedy’s most eye-catching posters, and illustrates books and advocates for LGBTQ causes in between her own stage-crushing sets. While Wieleba has been performing standup since 2006, her life and career really took shape after 2011, when the Denver native…

Ben Kronberg is among the most successful of Denver comedy expatriates, having amassed an impressive list of credits and accomplishments since moving to New York. With his high-profile appearances on Late Night with Seth Meyers, John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show and the Comedy Central Half Hour, it’s a surprise…

As waterlogged Denverites take their first tenuous steps out into the sun after an unexpectedly soggy May, a bounty of fine comedy shows await. The torrent-quenched giggle gardens are blooming anew with more opportunities than ever to laugh away the balmy evenings. Between the reunion of a cult-favorite sketch comedy…

For the past two years, the Crom Comedy Festival has drawn comedians from across the country to the frown-furrowed plains of Omaha. The festival’s co-organizers, Zach Reinert and Ian Douglas Terry, have recently upgraded hometowns and decided to expand their annual festival while maintaining its original Nebraska base. Enter this…

Between promising upstarts from the local scene and internationally famous headliners dropping in at our clubs and theaters, Denver’s comedy scene will blossom in May — before closing out the month with a new comedy festival. More so than in other months, the list was difficult to narrow down to…

Sam Tallent has made an art form of non-traditional performance gigs for a standup comedian. Whether traveling on the cheap across unloved American landscapes or hustling for shows in dive bars or house parties, Tallent adapts to whatever stage is beneath his feet — at his best when he’s untethered…

Brent Gill, a boisterous paragon of the Denver comedy scene for close to a decade, has been delighting area stoners and milfs alike with his raunchy jokes. While some of Gill’s efforts, such as the now-defunct Marijuana Radio or the stage name “Brent the Great,” have gone the way of…

As Denver’s scruff-speckled comedy scene prepares itself for something like a changing of the guard, some of the more hysterical corners of the blogosphere have bewailed and bloviated about a “Denver comedy exodus.” Biblical hyperbole aside — a half-dozen comics departing for Los Angeles is about 600,000 Hebrews short of…

Simon Amstell is a comedian and television personality who’s honed his craft over years in the public eye. Stateside, Amstell is mostly recognized for his standup, having performed sets on Conan, The Tonight Show and the Late Show with David Letterman. In his native U.K., however, Amstell is a household name…

Few performers have careers as varied as that of Marlon Wayans. An actor with a filmography that veers wildly from genre to genre, including outliers like the heart-wrenching Requiem for a Dream, he specializes in ribald horror parodies and high-concept comedies that require elaborate special effects make-up, like White Chicks and Little…

Unabashed in its own gleeful puerility, the once-ubiquitous “Dr. Fart” tag was cheekily crowned Best Unofficial New Public Art in the Best of Denver 2014. Some people saw the tags as an almost dadaist joke, others saw them as petty vandalism — but nearly everyone saw them. The good doctor has…

As the first meek rays of April pierce through the gray clouds of March, comedy blossoms in the hopeful light. This month’s calendar overflows with shows to suit each and every comedic taste, from sophists to sophisticates. Such national names as Godfrey and Norm Macdonald will return to our fair…

Jim Norton is an advocate of brazen uncompromising honesty. A comic’s comic who honed his skills in the unforgiving rooms of New York city, Norton has developed a cult following over his long career. In addition to his longstanding co-hosting gig on the massively popular radio program The Opie Show…

While cross-country tours are a cornerstone of comedian’s dreams, they require a bit of quixotic insanity to attempt. Comedy competitions, a rare chance for fledgling comedians to stand out from their peers, are similarly stressful. So combining both the delirious highs and spirit-crushing lows of a tour and a contest…