Hampton Yount, a rising star on the national comedy circuit, will bring his hilarious laugh-attack to Sexpot Comedy at the Oriental Theater tonight, when Sexpot cofounder Andy Juett will be celebrating a birthday — not to mention the imminent launch of sexpotcomedy.com and the upcoming one-year anniversary of the live…
Lord of the Flies. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is an anguished meditation on the nature of evil. Golding, who fought in the Royal Navy during World War II, was acutely aware of the horrors of which humankind was capable when he wrote this novel, which was first published…
For Christopher Durang, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is pretty weak tea. While the play is relatively funny and does have some outrageously inventive moments, the black humor, zany surprise, sheer unfettered impudence and break-the-dishes iconoclasm of Durang’s other works is missing. Which may explain why this is…
To get in the mood for Halloween, you can head up to Colorado Springs for a campy combination of ’60s slasher and beach movies, or hear spooky stories come alive onstage in Denver; meanwhile, dance aficionados can get their fix at an intergenerational mashup in Boulder. Keep reading for details…
I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I like reality television — up to a point, at least. Wife Swap fascinated me with the rich stew of dissonance it routinely created: the prissy perfectionist wife trying to adjust to a home where teenagers spent all day playing video games and eating…
When you were a teenager, a journal was your best friend and confidante. You told it all your secrets, as well as plenty of banal details about your day. You shared your dreams — and sometimes even imagined that your words would one day be immortalized, read around the world…
In today’s world, the art of storytelling has been diminished by quick texts and 140-character tweets. So Nina Rolle and Johanna Walker are crusading to keep storytelling alive with the Truth Be Told story slam. “I think that people really crave stories,” Walker says. “They help us build community and…
Lord of the Flies. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is an anguished meditation on the nature of evil. Golding, who fought in the Royal Navy during World War II, was acutely aware of the horrors of which humankind was capable when he wrote this novel, which was first published…
Take a wild ride with the dysfunctional family from hell, revisit the legacy of Robert F. Kennedy and begin following a three-part serial sitcom at Denver theaters this week. Read on for the details. See also: Vox Phamalia: Pity Pity Bang Bang at the Avenue Theater…
My friend Geoffrey Stern, who taught international relations at the London School of Economics, used to try and tease out of his students a definition of the word “nation.” Was a nation simply its physical boundaries? A group of people living under a specific government, or with a common language…
Bob Saget has a famously dichotomous public image. While he’s still most widely recognized for his ’90s television ubiquity, Saget was a standup long before he became a huggy surrogate father to a generation of Full House viewers. While the ribald nature of Saget’s act is less shocking now, thanks to his appearance in The Aristocrats and a role that subverted his family-friendly image on Entourage, what stands out about Saget’s humor is how defiantly strange it can be. Saget’s penchant for the absurd shines through, whether he’s onstage or behind the camera for the underrated cult comedy Dirty Work. With his first book, Dirty Daddy, due out in paperback later this month, Saget is really hitting his stride. Westword caught up with Saget over a rambly and digressive phone conversation to discuss Dirty Daddy, his dichotomous public image and why you shouldn’t have sex with things.
The Unsinkable Molly Brown. The Unsinkable Molly Brown is one of the Denver Center Theatre Company’s most ambitious productions to date: The company has spared neither pains nor expense in having Meredith Willson’s 1960 musical, which was fairly insipid, reworked and remounted. This iteration began life as part of the…
In the debate over gun safety, regulation and ownership, people keep firing off their partisan politics without giving the conversation a whole lot of thought. The LIDA Project wants to change that, says Tommy Sheridan, director of the troupe’s latest production, Happiness in Warm Gun, a six-part series of abstract…
The first thing you see is the Manhattan skyline — but it’s viewed from across the river, in Hoboken, New Jersey: a symbol, perhaps, of thwarted aspirations. An elderly man, Ralph Bellini, is sitting on a bench in a dog park. Carol Reynolds, an elderly woman, enters; she’s giving her…
“Once upon a time,” “heroes,” “villains” and “happily ever after” aren’t good enough for Shana Cordon, the Boulder-based solo performer and writer of Dancing With Demons: A Fractured Fairytale, a play about a writer held hostage, a demon gone wild and a narrative structure that vanishes. Cordon, who has been…
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is an anguished meditation on the nature of evil. Golding, who fought in the Royal Navy during World War II, was acutely aware of the horrors of which humankind was capable when he wrote this novel, first published in 1954 — a time when…
A family on the move, another troubled clan scrutinized by television cameras and an uprising of the undead will all take local audiences for a wild ride this weekend. Keep reading to learn more. See also: Taking Aim: Happiness is a Warm Gun…
An opera star for the ages, funny family dynamics and Shakespeare — as well as stage innovations, from unusual venues to free admission — are all part of this weekend’s theater openings. Keep reading to learn more. See also: Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play…
A Steady Rain. A Steady Raintells the striking story of a rogue cop. Denny is not above petty infractions; he has his scams; he’s on the take from prostitutes. Yet in his own sick way, he’s committed to logic and the motto to “protect and serve.” At the play’s beginning,…
October is a month for costumed ghouls and seasonal melancholy. As the autumnal leaves drift wanly into the dampened streets and crumble under the indifferent feet of passersby, many listless Denverites may find themselves in dire need of a laugh. Fortunately, this October promises a bountiful giggle harvest from Denver’s comedy crops, with the return of some of our most creative local showcases, laudable fundraising efforts, and visits from comic luminaries drifting into town on the tide of several decades’ worth of nostalgia. Though the confluence of sporting seasons means firecer competition for the wandering attention of local entertainment-seekers, comedy is bringing its A-Game this month. Whatever your fancy, Denver comedy is poised to knock the touchdown right out of the park for a ha-ha-hatrick this October.
The Unsinkable Molly Brown is one of the Denver Center Theatre Company’s most ambitious productions in its thirty-year history: The company has spared neither pains nor expense in having Meredith Willson’s 1960 musical reworked and remounted — and the results are impressive. See also: The Unsinkable Margaret Brown Was a…
Ryan Hamilton has been around the block a time or two; the resident of New York City (who grew up in Idaho) was named one of Rolling Stone’s Five Comics to Watch in 2012 and appeared on two seasons of Last Comic Standing, where he gave a good showing. He’ll…
