The LIDA Project is teaming up with Metropolitan State University of Denver for a two-part project on an issue that hits close to home: global warming. The project will illustrate the realities of both too much water (the first installment) and not enough (the second) by using the actual physical…
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…
Collected Stories. Donald Margulies’s Collected Stories is a small, tight play about a relationship between two women. But beneath the cozy, familiar milieu and the smart dialogue, there are evocative questions, and there’s also a sea of feeling. Ruth is a respected and important writer, though her reputation rests primarily…
With Nigel Gore — an actor who comes to Shakespeare with a lot of authority and a willingness to take all kinds of risks on stage — playing the lead, and advance publicity that alluded to guns, smoke, Afghanistan and gruesome death scenes, I was expecting a thrilling Macbeth from…
As the proprietor of the Fine Gentleman’s Club, and host of the Squire’s ignominious tuesday night open mic, Denver comedy fans already know Sam Tallent, but what they may not know is the he contains multitudes, and not just within his corpulent frame. Surprisingly well-read for a public goofball, Tallent may instinctively eschew any pretentious-seeming affectations, but he’s often already devoured a literary classic or two before I wake up in the morning. An example of what persistent dedication and self-starting can achieve, Tallent is local treasure and a good friend. Not incidentally, he helped me come up with the idea for this very column. This week, Westword checks in with Tallent to discuss his love for Southern Gothic literature, how existentialism warped his adolescent mind, and the biographies of his Falstaffian forebears.
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…
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…
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…
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The cast for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the first offering in this year’s Colorado Shakespeare Festival, has many strengths. When did you last even notice who played First Fairy? Or Peter Quince? When the former is Nicole Bruce and the latter Greg West, you notice and…
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival staged a pretty good version of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) five years ago — so I’m not sure why the CSF decided to bring it back this season. The show, written in 1987 by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, does make…
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…
The Sklar Brothers stand apart in the current comedy scene with their unique style of two-man storytelling and accessibly nerdy material. Primarily known for their hilariously analytical take on sports with ESPN’s Cheap Seats and the History Channel’s Freakanomics-style look at U.S. data, The United Stats of America, Randy and…
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The cast for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the first offering in this year’s Colorado Shakespeare Festival, has many strengths. When did you last even notice who played First Fairy? Or Peter Quince? When the former is Nicole Bruce and the latter Greg West, you notice and…
Donald Margulies’s Collected Stories is a small, tight play about a relationship between two women. But beneath the cozy, familiar milieu and the smart dialogue, there are evocative questions, and there’s also a sea of feeling. Ruth is a respected and important writer, though her reputation rests primarily on a…
Over the last year Denver comedians have shown they’re not the selfish bastards they sometimes claim to be, organizing several charity benefits for people like Mara Wiles and Mike Marchant. And tonight Timmi Lasley will keep that communal comedy spirit alive, hosting a benefit for the Denver Voice at El…
Comedy festivals are the perfect antidote to a nasty breakup. Not only because laughing activates several different sections of the brain, strengthening neurons that lead to insight and emotional balance, but because so many comedians love to bitch about heartbreak. Like Morrissey records or the films of Charlie Kaufman, a…
Men in fedoras and women in pencil skirts took over the Boulder County Airport Saturday night for the fifth annual 1940s Era World War II Ball. Guests danced the night away to ’40s swing music as vintage airplanes from the period helped set the mood. To top the night off,…
The work of composer Libby Larsen is some of the most performed in American history. She created more than 500 pieces of music — and more than fifty CDs — spanning every major genre, from opera and chorus, to orchestral and classical. USA Today referred to her as “the only…
Pretty much everyone who loves food has read Michael Pollan, knows about the argument by Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham in his book Catching Fire that cooking is what made us human in the first place, and understands that food is more than a bunch of inert substances whose only function…
Early this year, it looked as if the Colorado Shakespeare Festival might be on its last legs. But after some re-organization, a strong marketing push and a tightening of the festival’s focus, the New York Times named the CSF one of the summer’s hot tickets — and A Midsummer Night’s…
God of Carnage. Let’s start with the setting, so pristine, white, minimal and tasteful — chairs with gracefully curving legs, a glass table on which art books are meticulously arranged, a vase of white tulips, nicely grouped. Even if you didn’t know the play’s title, you’d know what’s about to…
