After more than 25 years in the comedy industry, Dave Attell has witnessed a lot of changes. “Everyone’s on camera today,” says the comic, who worked with the best in the New York club scene before improvising on the streets with his bar-hopping travel show, Insomniac. “Everyone wants to be…
Although the Raven and the Writing Desk has created some richly textured songs that vary in style and tempo, when it comes to aesthetics, there’s little about the group’s new EP that’s groundbreaking. There’s no doubting the bandmembers’ musicianship on songs like “Cutting the Lime,” which impressively blends a Little…
While some may prefer the fantasy, sci-fi or superhero aspects of Denver Comic Con, which wraps up today, you can’t totally geek out without a bit of blood-bursting horror. “I tend to think that comic-book and horror fans are often one and the same,” says horror comic artist Dan Crosier…
Nerds aren’t known for their extroversion and spontaneous wit, but over this Comic Con weekend, Impulse Theater will cast of spell of dork dominion over its monthly improv show, bringing in two stars from the gamer-comedy web series The Guild to perform some insider humor for the Orcs, Ewoks and…
Sex stories are almost always funny. But what if the sensual yarn involves characters from The Facts of Life, or Jeopardy — can that be funny? The brain behind Nerdist Theater’s Competitive Erotic Fan Fiction comedy show thinks so. “It’s just a good subject to make an audience uncomfortable,” says…
While the rest of the country is celebrating a revival of standup comedy, Boulder has had a difficult time establishing a laugh track of its own. “It’s amazing to me that for such a famous town, there’s no local standup comedy,” says James Gold, a Boulder promoter who was surprised…
For the past eight years, Curious Theatre has been honoring local icons who’ve been key players in shaping Denver’s cultural landscape with short plays about their lives. This year, it’s focusing on music-business luminary and AEG Live Rocky Mountains president/CEO Chuck Morris, the man responsible for bringing such national acts…
Comedian Ron White is a cultural anomaly. He’s a tough cigar-and-scotch man’s man who supports the troops, but also a dope-smoking marriage-equality advocate who believes that everyone’s a little gay. He’s toured with Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, yet he’s never self-censoring…
Denver comic Ben Roy is relentless. Since his first album, I Got Demons, was released last summer, Roy has performed countless shows with both his band and his comedy team, the Grawlix – which has received glowing reviews for its Amazon-produced pilot Those Who Can’t. This week, Roy recorded a…
Standup comic and Parks and Recreation star Aziz Ansari hates texting girls. “There’s always miscommunication,” he says. “I’ll text a girl, she texts me back right away, I text her back right away. Then I’ll say something like, ‘Cool, you wanna get pizza on Tuesday?’ And I don’t hear anything…
Standup comic Chris Hardwick has a bone to pick with a certain urban demographic. “There is a growing contingency of ‘hipster nerds’ that is threatening our very lifestyle,” says the host of the Nerdist podcast and BBC America series, who starts a three-day run at the downtown Comedy Works tonight…
Combining music and comedy is a juggling act that most event organizers would rather avoid. But the Greater Than Collective has tackled this cultural juggernaut head on — not only with its label (which includes bands and standups), but also with its monthly showcase, the Greater Than Social Club, at…
It’s difficult to tell who loves marijuana-themed shows more: comics or the comedy fans. The former get to dust off material they can’t use at “clean” shows, and the latter get to hear jokes tailored to their taboo habits. On the annual sacred stoner holiday, 4/20, comedy promotion team United…
While members of various subcultures, from MMJ patients to juggalos, mingle in Civic Center Park during today’s 4/20 event, vinyl geeks will be celebrating Record Store Day. Many will have been up all night waiting in line for their favorite music dispensary to open, dreams of the Flaming Lips’ Zaireeka…
While the “clean comedy” label may turn some people off, it’s far and away the most popular form of standup, pioneered by comics like Ray Romano, Bill Cosby and Jerry Seinfeld. And now Comedy Works has rolled out a Clean Comedy Contest, with forty amateur stand-ups competing to represent Denver…
For the past year, Lowbrow has been rescuing art from the clutches of intellectuals and handing it back to inspired but untrained mortals. The gallery/art-supply store’s latest community-art project? Coloring. “We’re kind of coloring pushers,” explains Lauren Seip, Lowbrow co-owner. “People will hang out here, and we’ll be like, do…
Allowing each member to pursue solo and side projects has clearly improved the aesthetic of the Paper Bird sound. Employing the Stones-esque organ and ’60s dream-pop guitar from Eye and the Arrow and the dark beauty of Esme Patterson’s solo recording, the band has strengthened its songwriting while retaining the…
In an age of increased cynicism about the supernatural, Source Theatre Company has assembled a series of stories by authors who bring sincere tales of spirituality to life. In the Presence of God, which was two years in the making, includes seven vignettes that touch on issues of body image,…
Since 2004, The SFJazz Collective has been taking the classic work of musicians like Ornette Colman, John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk and reinterpreting it for modern audiences. This time around, the international collective of celebrated musicians is putting the music of Chick Corea through its sophisticated machinery. “Making something that…
First gaining national attention in 2006 with his Senior Youth Correspondent appearances on The Daily Show, Demetri Martin has developed a multi-layered persona that includes both long-form, TEDTalks-style commentaries, and Mitch Hedberg-inspired micro-jokes aided by a guitar, a harmonica, and a few campy visual aides. One of the most unusual…
We haven’t heard much from Chris Tucker in the last few years. After his arresting performances in Friday, The Fifth Element and the Rush Hour franchise, he took an extended break from Hollywood, only recently reviving his name in celebrity circles with a role in the Oscarific Silver Linings Playbook…
Once dominated by cocky oafs, standup comedy has made way for the pop-culture nerds. A look at the top comedy podcasts on iTunes (the late-night television of our time) is guaranteed to reveal a handful of BuzzFeed-style chat shows — often standup and Super High Me star Doug Benson’s cinema-drenched…
