Last week Kanye West dropped a promotional video for his Yeezus album in the form of a (comedic?) tribute to the film American Psycho. The clip is a near mirror image of the unforgettable scene in which Christian Bale axes Jared Leto after torturing him with a pedantic speech about…
This week’s feature points out that for those living off the grid, the world is full of free stuff — and freedom. At the heart of the radical movement is an emphasis on community — because it would be difficult to maintain a lifestyle of conversation, creative projects and no…
This week’s cover story, “Free for All,” talks about living off the grid and anarchism in the radical community — topics of great interest to Stephen Polk, who not only lectures on political science, ecological crisis and the Occupy Wall Street movement at University of Colorado Denver, but has over…
Never one for settling down, Roseanne Barr has kept very busy since her days changing the face of TV and women’s comedy with her hit sitcom, Roseanne. In the last two years alone, she’s starred in a reality TV show about her macadamia-nut farm in Hawaii, run for president, and…
While the UMS weekend was packed with sexy locals flaunting their primal lust for aesthetics and scenester flirting on and off the stage, on Saturday afternoon I was part of a significantly geekier and less arousing event: the UMS Funny Face Off, a panel of comedians debating comedy journalists at…
Combining his love of pop-iconography with a classical and surrealistic aesthetic, Marcus Renninger’s paintings leave the viewer dizzy from the contrast of their unsettling beauty with their cultural familiarity. Renninger, a guitarist with Fingers of the Sun, is showing a new round of work that will be celebrated with a…
The ultimate aim of good satire is to parody an unintentionally funny event as accurately as possible, while spicing it up with a little exaggeration and sarcasm. But sometimes the comedy gods throw you something so ridiculous, so shockingly unreal, that all you have to do is xerox it and…
Returning to the Boulder Book Store for the first time since 2006, Chuck Klosterman was a new breed of literary animal on this visit. Now the author of two fiction novels and a new essay collection about the dark truths of self-deception, Klosterman is no longer the dismissable pop nerd…
He’s gay, he’s Republican, and he’s one of Denver’s greatest standup comedians. Talk to anyone who’s been in the scene for more than a few years, and they’ll tell you: Chuck Roy has been instrumental in creating what is now known as Denver comedy. After years spent warming up crowds…
Denver’s Dave Shirley has taken his multi-faceted act of magic, juggling, comedy and music from busking on the Sixteenth Street Mall to performing for NBC’s America’s Got Talent. After years of street performances and depressing corporate gigs, Shirley built his own sketch comedy club, The Rattlebrain Theater, in what has…
There’s really no reason for Christopher Titus not to be as famous as Louis C.K. or Marc Maron. After his brilliant sitcom, Titus, was cancelled in 2002 following a dispute with the network president, the bleached-blond comic has released five brilliant comedy specials, addressing his profoundly dark childhood with a…
Becoming a comedian will get you laid, and becoming an author will get you respect, but from the perspective of a professional audience member like myself, the two really aren’t all that different. When I’m doubled over by the lyrical whimsy of local comic Jordan Doll, I could be cracking…
Denver comedian Sam Tallent has been a rising star in the standup scene over the last few years, hosting The Squire open mic and performing as part of the Fine Gentleman’s Club at the comedy quartet’s wildly popular Wednesday night show, Too Much Fun. Still, many fans may not know…
Over the last seven years, Matthew Brown and Fancy Tiger have been supplying Denver with stylishly modern and subtly classy clothing and house decor. As the store prepares to celebrate its seventh anniversary next weekend, Brown is also getting ready to unveil a hodgepodge of new endeavors. With a store-within-a-store…
Over the past seven years, Achille Lauro has become a band that’s essentially synonymous with the Denver scene. A founding act in the Hot Congress collective, the quartet has been witness to an exciting evolution in the scene, watching fellow acts rise and fall while its own sound has evolved…
Being a 21st-century comedy fan, I love nothing more than watching standup comics geek out on whatever esoteric subjects they’re into — the weirder the better. Establishing an audience for the niche topics of history, tabloid gossip or D&D is what living in the Internet age is all about, and…
Composer and conductor Steve Hackman isn’t limited by time or culture when it comes to his musical taste. As a part of the Colorado Music Festival this weekend, Hackman has been invited to bring his mash-up of the Radiohead classic OK Computer and Johannes Brahms’s first symphony to Boulder, linking…
With two all-female shows, two very masculine comics and two actors from Back to the Future, July will serve up a buffet of comedy with something to suit almost any laughter palate. The squeaky-clean comedy of John Crist will satisfy those looking for less spicy options options, while the Fine…
Most identical twins will go to great lengths to convince you that while they may look the same, inside they are very different. But while the Sklar Brothers actually looked quite different at Comedy Works on Friday night — with Randy in plaid shirt and beard, and Jason in black…
Comedian Rusty Z has hypnotized tens of thousands of people over the last fifteen years. So when I was talking to him about his Comedy Works South shows this weekend and then asked him to hypnotize me, it was nothing out of the ordinary. For him, at least. I had…
Now recovered from her kidney transplant, Mara Wiles is teaming up with fellow comedian Kristin Rand in a new sketch comedy group, Moxie!, which debuts Saturday at the Voodoo Comedy Playhouse. Although both Wiles and Rand are solo standup performers, they’ve also worked together before in the female sketch-comedy group…
As we all know by now, gluttony diplomat Paula Deen was fired by the Food Network last week after some weird details surfaced involving a plantation-themed wedding, where Deen allegedly wanted “a bunch of little niggers to wear long-sleeve white shirts, black shorts and black bow ties, you know in…
