Performing Arts

January is an overrated month. Resting on its New Year’s laurels until Martin Luther King Jr. day, January battens against the treacherous snow and punishing cold, assuaging its regret over resolutions broken with indica, hot toddies and Netflix marathons. Comedy, however, has the dubious fortune of being impossible to over or underrate. Either you’re laughing or you’re not. Whatever it is that happens to tickle your fancy is at once both entirely subjective and impossible to equivocate with rhetoric. With that in mind, here’s a collection of comedy shows for you to laugh or not laugh at. With perennially listed local favorites and returning visits from high profile headliners, there are plenty of reasons to bundle up and check out a comedy show this wintry month.

Anything Goes. Anything Goes premiered in 1934, after a hasty rewrite: The original plot concerned a shipwreck, and shortly before the scheduled opening night, a fire broke out on a cruise liner and 137 passengers were killed. By then the writing team, which included P. G. Wodehouse, had moved on,…

Miss Saigon Vintage Theatre 303-856-7830 Miss Saigonis one of those ponderous English musicals that lumbered onto West End and Broadway stages during the 1980s and early ’90s. Like Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables, it’s reliant on a throbbing score, big displays of emotion and stunning special effects –…

In a world where nearly nothing is free, especially at Christmas, the comedy sketch team Urban Brain is giving it away, complete with charitable messages, on its website, where you can watch the Holiday Hoopla Comedy Show at your leisure. It’s just a click away, but if you need convincing,…

Josh Blue is truly a singular talent with an undeniable facility for hilarious riffs that seem casually tossed off. He has an uncanny ability to be instantly likable from the moment he grabs the mic, even as he doesn’t shy away from challenging suspects. Blue has been a pillar of the Denver comedy scene for several years now, but he first broke out nationally when he won NBC’s Last Comic Standing in 2006. Throughout his illustrious career, Blue has found triumph mining his cerebral palsy diagnosis for comedic gold. A man of multitudes, Blue is also a skilled athlete who played on the U.S. Paralympic Soccer team.
Blue is closing out a pretty stellar 2014 at the home club where he developed his skills. Aside regularly performing in state and across the world, he also appeared in a prominent role in the baseball comedy 108 Stitches.

Anything Goes. Anything Goes premiered in 1934, after a hasty rewrite: The original plot concerned a shipwreck, and shortly before the scheduled opening night, a fire broke out on a cruise liner and 137 passengers were killed. By then the writing team, which included P. G. Wodehouse, had moved on,…

The Familiars Edge Theatre Company Serious about working with local playwrights, the Edge Theatre Company commissioned a holiday show from Ellen K. Graham, whose enigmatic, razor-sharp How We May Know Him won a Best of Denver award some years back, and who has since earned national recognition. The result is…

Songs for a New World Miners Alley Playhouse Musical theater takes many forms, and a small, heartfelt evening can be every bit as satisfying as a glittery Broadway effusion. Composer Jason Robert Brown’s intriguing The Last Five Years, produced in Denver in 2005 by Modern Muse and at the Garner…

In addition to providing the pizza-soaked lifeblood of the Denver comedy scene and sponsoring some of the town’s best local showcases, the SexPot brand has really hung its hat on its namesake showcases at the Oriental Theater. Producer Andy Juett has pulled out all the stops for the one-year anniversary show, “A Chilly Evening with Todd Barry,” and thusly landed SexPot’s biggest headliner yet. Barry is a veteran standup best known for his appearances on such TV shows as Flight of the Conchords and Louie, as well as films like The Wrestler. Fresh off his last special, The Crowd Work Tour— which consisted of nothing but crowd-generated riffs and good-natured mockery — Barry has a fresh bundle of jokes for SexPot’s loyal crowd. Although this month’s showcase concludes SexPot’s monthly engagement at the historic Oriental, (which will hitherto be reserved for high-drawing headliners and special occasions) the brand is charging forward, and relocating the monthly show to the Baker staple, 3 Kings Tavern.

In celebration of SexPot’s special showcase, Westword caught up with Todd Barry to discuss working on new jokes after spending last year focusing on audience riffs in his Crowd Work Tour special, his European podcast fans and his most well-known film and TV roles.

Anything Goes. Anything Goes premiered in 1934, after a hasty rewrite: The original plot concerned a shipwreck, and shortly before the scheduled opening night, a fire broke out on a cruise liner and 137 passengers were killed. By then the writing team, which included P. G. Wodehouse, had moved on,…

Moulin Scrooge Bug Theatre Moulin Scrooge mashes together the well-known story of A Christmas Carol with the plot of Baz Luhrmann’s overheated Moulin Rouge, a film about the love between a writer and a consumption-wracked cabaret dancer named Satine. With songs. The primary claim to fame of the play’s author,…

Anything Goes.Anything Goes premiered in 1934, after a hasty rewrite: The original plot concerned a shipwreck, and shortly before the scheduled opening night, a fire broke out on a cruise liner and 137 passengers were killed. By then the writing team, which included P. G. Wodehouse, had moved on, and…

Fiddler on the Roof BDT Stage Do we really need another Fiddler on the Roof? Since being amazed and delighted by the movie many years ago, I’ve attended several stage productions — high school, professional and, recently, a very good Phamaly version. So when BDT Stage (formerly Boulder’s Dinner Theatre)…

Strippers and standup comedians have more in common than it would seem at first blush. Both performers take to the stage –usually alone– trying to evoke a reaction from an audience full of creeps they’d avoid in other circumstances. Bridging the gap between these two disparate art forms, in much the same way as cocaine did in the 80s, is comedian and host of “Ball Bustin’ Bingo”. Less of a Drag Queen than a Drag Empress, Mona Lott seized upon the idea to have comedians and strippers share the stage in “a game of strip poker that uses jokes instead of cards.” The show, called “Stripped Down Standup” has been packing the house with crowds of over 200. The next show is happening very soon, on Wednesday, December 3rd at the Denver Improv. Doors open at 6:30pm for the 7:30pm show. Tickets cost only $7.50 on the Denver Improv website.

Nate Bargatze has been on the cusp of stardom for a few years now. For a comic whose fanbase includes luminaries such as Marc Maron, Bargatze’s act is much more approachable than his comic’s comic reputation might suggest. Affable and generally TV-clean, Bargatze has a playfully dark sensibility that’s buoyed by the innate comic timing of a Southern accent. He’s appeared on Conan, Maron and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, who also brought Bargatze along to feature on his Clean Cut Comedy Tour. His debut album Yelled at by a Clown made it to the Billboard Top Ten Comedy Charts and he’s toured extensively with the USO, performing for deployed troops in Iraq and Kuwait. Bargatze has already endeared himself to Denver crowds with a strong showing on last year’s High Plains Comedy Festival. Westword caught up with Bargatze ahead of his upcoming headlining weekend at Comedy Works Downtown to discuss comedy festivals, seeing comedy scenes grow, and playing pizza box baseball at High Plains.

Whether you’ve been staunchly making merry since Halloween or crankily sneer at the holiday cheer each year, December is unquestionably dominated by its traditions. Driven by consumerism, religiosity, and compulsory family bonding; for many, December is a month spent in frantic shopping malls and airports. This year, amid economic anxiety, polar vortexes and heartbreaking news reports, people might find themselves in dire need of a laugh. Entertainment is usually an afterthought in December, typically limited to agreeably mediocre Hollywood spectacle. Denver comedy, however, bundles up and trudges on through the month. While we may have fewer high-profile visitors than last month’s banner programming calendar, we have a proliferation of locally-produced showcases, including two live sketch comedy shows, for fans to enjoy. Our city’s comedy clubs and theaters are hosting on-the-rise comics and international TV stars with a devoted cult following. With events geared towards all sorts of audiences, ranging from the family-friendly to the 420-friendly, Denver comedy runs the entire giggle gamut this snowy month. So brave the polar vortex and take a break from the seasonal doldrums at one of these fine comedy shows.

Anything Goes Littleton Town Hall Arts Center Anything Goes premiered in 1934, after a hasty rewrite: The original plot concerned a shipwreck, and shortly before the play’s scheduled opening night, a fire broke out on a cruise liner and 137 passengers were killed. By then the writing team, which included…

Hamlet, a Gypsy Tale The Betsy Stage The ending of the Betsy Stage’s Hamlet, a Gypsy Tale is appealing: Having taken their bows with the aid of various eccentric moves and magic tricks, the performers circle the space to the fast, compelling rhythms of “L’Orient Est Rouge,” which the program…

Buried Child. Sam Shepard’s Buried Child, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979, still carries a creepy wallop. The story of a violently dysfunctional family — a drunken, abusive father who has destroyed his sons and is now being destroyed in return — it was hailed in its time as…

Lucky Me Curious Theatre Company 1080 Acoma Street 303-623-0524 Curious Theatre Company’s participation in the National New Play Network has been a boon for Denver audiences, in particular the company’s loyal cadre of regulars, who tend to be the kind of people who want to hear new voices and are…

Buried Child. Sam Shepard’s Buried Child, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979, still carries a creepy wallop. The story of a violently dysfunctional family — a drunken, abusive father who has destroyed his sons and is now being destroyed in return — it was hailed in its time as…