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…
Between his tireless work on the comedy scene and as co-host of pop-culture podcast These Things Matter, Kevin O’Brien has collaborated with a lot of creative folks in the city. For his latest live show endeavor, Service Stories, O’Brien wanted to tap into this collection of interesting people and curate…
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…
There’s a lot more than drag-queen bingo and karaoke on the entertainment menu at Hamburger Mary’s; at the end of each month, the bar is transformed into a space where members of the deaf community can perform in front of a live audience for ASL SLAM. This Saturday, March 28,…
Ariann Black has worked as a professional magician since 1990, and she’s a master of her enchanting art form. The Canada-born magician began practicing the art of illusion when she was just four years old, working her way through magic school and onto the world’s stage. She’s performed on television…
Spring has sprung, and theater is blooming across town. This weekend a world premiere will launch this year’s greatly expanded Athena Project Festival, while the longstanding Evergreen Players light up the foothills with a collection of one-acts and the Arvada Center puts audiences on the edge of their seats with…
Mike Bartlett’s play is titled Cock, and, yes — to get the snickers out of the way up front — the title does refer to the male organ, and it feels pretty odd to call the Edge Theater Company’s box office for two tickets or tell your friends you’re off…
The Catamounts are the wittiest theater troupe around — and, in many ways, the most charmingly inventive. When artistic director Amanda Berg Wilson learned that space at Boulder’s Dairy Center for the Arts, their usual venue, would eventually be unavailable because of construction, she put the current production, A Public…
For Denver theater company ScreenPLAY, less is more. Each of its one-time-only performances sees a rotating cast of established Denver actors take on the script of a cult-classic film using no sets and only minimal props and costumes. Instead, the production relies on acting skill and audience interaction to create…
On local stages this weekend, you can catch everything from songs of the Harlem Renaissance to the wit of the late Molly Ivins in the final performances of Red Hot Patriot revival. Here are capsule reviews of five productions this weekend. Ain’t Misbehavin’. “The Reefer Song,” performed by Leonard E…
Playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney grew up in a Miami housing project, attended graduate school at Yale, where he worked as August Wilson’s assistant, and went on to fame and acclamation as an entirely new voice in theater while still in his twenties. Curious Theatre Company staged McCraney’s The Brothers Size…
Talk about a reefer of five feet long Not too fat and not too strong You get high, but not for long If you’re a viper. Or — as sung by Leonard E. Barrett, on a luxuriously long exhale in Ain’t Misbehavin’ — a vipah. This number, performed with languid,…
Those who’ve only seen Denver comedian and Westword cover boy Ben Roy his brief television appearances are missing the singular experience of watching him perform live, when they can hear his jokes in their windy entirety. But between moonlighting as the frontman for local music-scene champions Spells and winging his way across…
Improv is a particularly entertaining segment of Denver’s booming comedy scene, one in which actors working without a script play off the audience to create characters, jokes and even songs. Last year a new improv troupe joined the funny fray: Queerbots, which has a particular and fresh slant behind its mayhem…
The Phamaly Theatre Company has been going strong in Denver for more than two decades, producing shows like Fiddler on the Roof, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and this season’s The Fantasticks, which just wrapped up a run at the Arvada Center. Now the company has a chance to take its…
Get out of the cold and into a warm theater! Here are capsule reviews of recently reviewed productions — including four that close this weekend, and are all worth seeing. 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche “At the center, it’s a really sweet love story — and the funniest show of…
When Catherine Barricklow joined the first class of the Tara Performing Arts School in 1997, there were fewer than a dozen students, and instruction was in the basement of a home in Boulder. As the school’s population expanded, Tara became nomadic: The students were taught on makeshift stages around the…
Haus of Dollz brought a hot variety show of of burlesque, drag and comedy — something for everyone — to the Exdo Event Center over the weekend. Here’s a sampler of Brandon Marshall’s photos from the show; if you like what you see, check out the full Haus of Dollz…
A wealth of talent and ingenuity has gone into the Aurora Fox production of Big Fish — too bad the musical itself is no big deal. Based on Daniel Wallace’s novel, which became a 2003 film directed by Tim Burton, Big Fish is a story about tall tales. Edward Bloom,…
In most places, March is a month of renewal, of freshness and growth. In Denver, however, March exists merely to taunt snow-wearied Coloradans with the false promise of spring. Though the sun may continue to forsake our fair city, Denverites are fortunate to have plentiful opportunities to bask in the…
This Sunday, the Black Actors Guild will launch Soul Food Standup at the Savoy — and that’s just one of the busy group’s projects. Last week Westword profiled the Black Actors Guild, a multi-faceted performance troupe that has been working hard on stages around Denver for the last few years. We spoke…
For over ten years, Deacon Gray has mentored young comics as the New Talent Coordinator at Comedy Works. Under his stewardship, the scene has flourished, with hundreds of new comics flooding the stage, eager to test their mettle and benefit from Gray’s experience. One of the blessings of a career…
