Like an infant growing into an Olympian athlete overnight, this weekend the Denver comedy scene went from an impressive-but-small collection of local talent to a nationally recognized force with its own annual rendezvous. The High Plains Comedy Festival was more than just a killer weekend of ab-crunching hilarity; the heavily…
This weekend Denver’s funny business will mark a significant milestone with the High Plains Comedy Festival. While the scene has put together a handful of notable comedy fests over the years with Laugh Track and the Fine Gentleman’s Club’s Too Much Funstival, High Plains will be the first nationally recognized…
We’ve all heard of the concept of paying it forward, but Erin Rollman, one of the creators and mainstays of Buntport Theater, is taking it several steps further than most of us could ever have imagined: She’s donating a kidney to someone she’s never met. Evan Weissman, longtime Buntport collaborator…
We’d both been to some pretty amazing comedy festival setups ranging from Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, Oregon to the now defunct HBO US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado and we both agreed that Denver deserved a truly sustainable festival that would be uniquely “Denver.” We thought by joining forces with creative fire stokers like Pete and Virgil Dickerson that we could make something special. Between our collective backgrounds and interests it just ended up being a pretty great team. It’s like Sesame Street. Cooperation is a real fucking thing.
50 Shades of Loud. Heritage Square Music Hall will close down at the end of the year after more than two decades of hilarity in its Golden home, where a unique small company evolved an equally unique performing style. The shows are simultaneously bumbling and brilliantly staged, professional and apparently…
Full fathom five thy father lies. Of his bones are coral made, These are pearls that were his eyes. Nothing of him that doth change But doth suffer a sea change Into something rich and strange. — Shakespeare, The Tempest This summer, Geoffrey Kent directed one of the best Colorado…
Comedian and Westword feature subject Ben Roy is about as widely known as comedian can get in Denver. In addition to performing at the upcoming High Plains Comedy Festival, Roy will be headlining a show at Comedy Works downtown at 7:00pm on August 25th. Westword caught up with Ben to discuss his politics, being a comedy outsider, his motorcycle, his non-fictional reading habits, and how he’s like Bill Cosby.
The next four weeks in Denver will see a tsunami of comedy events. There are four killer standups at Comedy Works (Craig Ferguson, Mike Birbiglia, Marc Maron, Kevin Nealon), two comedy festivals (High Plains, Funstival) and the Oddball Comedy Tour (Dave Chapelle, Flight of the Conchords). It’s raining microphones in…
If you believe that podcasting saved comedy, then Marc Maron is a messiah of humor. After enduring divorces, a flaccid comedy career and losing his job on Air America, in 2009 Maron launched the WTF podcast, recorded in the same garage he often contemplated killing himself in. Today WTF is…
In 2012 Peter and the Starcatcher left the Tony awards ceremony with five trophies, including best performance by an actor, best sound design of a play, best costume design of a play, best scenic design of a play, and best lighting design of a play. Now the company is on…
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). The Colorado Shakespeare Festival staged a pretty good version of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) five years ago, so we’re not sure why the CSF decided to bring it back this season. The show, written in 1987 by Adam Long, Daniel…
Steel Magnolias was inspired by the death of playwright Robert Harling’s diabetic sister, and I’ve tended to think of it as a pale-pink, Hallmark-card production — which is appropriate, since the ailing Shelby is obsessed with pink and is busily planning a sugar-pink wedding while ensconced in the home salon…
A lot goes on in three days in Washington Heights, Manhattan — at least as portrayed in In the Heights. Graffiti Pete gets driven away from Usnavi’s bodega — where everyone stops for light, sweet coffee in the morning — before he can make his mark on the door; Usnavi…
“I came to the decision that the album has to be called Greg Baumhauer: Live at the Squire Lounge. It has to. That’s why it came about so quickly because I found out that the renovations were happening, and I wanted to record this while the Squire was still the Squire. It’s going to be more than just my album, it’ll be a eulogy to what the Squire was.”
Nathan Lund, a comedian in the Fine Gentleman’s Club, may not strike Denver comedy fans as a man of letters, but those who listen closely will be unsurprised. However, there’ a lot going on beneath Lund’s direct, unvarnished style of joke-telling and his wooly appearance. An integral figure in the Denver comedy scene, Nathan Lund is right at the center of what promises to be a banner month for Denver comedy, as he’s performing at the High Plains Comedy Festival and mounting a festival with the other fine gents. Lund is also the host of a weekly open mic on fridays at Three Kings. As one of Denver’s most unique comedians, it’s always a treat to see Lund perform new jokes. He’s also a good friend who volunteered to help me out by doing an interview at the last minute. This week, Westword caught up with Lund outside of a dreadful comedy show in Aurora to discuss wrestling, serial killers, Vonnegut and politics.
Germinal Stage Denver is leaving the building: Late last year, Germinal Stage founder Ed Baierlein announced that after 26 years in the now-crumbling north Denver theater at 44th and Alcott, he was selling the property and the forty-year-old company would vacate the space after one last golden season. See also:…
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). The Colorado Shakespeare Festival staged a pretty good version of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)five years ago, so we’re not sure why the CSF decided to bring it back this season. The show, written in 1987 by Adam Long, Daniel Singer…
The Phamaly production of Fiddler on the Roof did something miraculous: It made me forget all the hackneyed productions I’ve seen over the years and reminded me of how great the music is, how evocative the story. “Sabbath Prayer” brought an image of my mother — now long gone —…
Though drag has been a part of the Denver County Fair’s programming since it started in 2011, the county fair-style beauty pageant has now become a full-on production. Crowned Miss Queen of the Denver County Fair 2011 and host of last year’s drag contest, Nuclia Waste will head up the…
Simply put, Lucha libre is fun. Stand up comedy is fun. Put them together, and you have fun overload. The idea came to me after the 2012 Too Much Funstival, during which we put together a few tag team lucha libre matches from the MxW Pro Wrestling promotions before the stand up comedy and music at a show. The crowd was entirely a comedy crowd, but they ate it up. They were loud and rowdy, cheering the good guys and booing the bad guys. Seeing this planted the seed in my brain that eventually sprouted Lucha Libre & Laughs.
While previous summers have given comedy fans a handful of semi-decent shows to look forward to, this August is so packed with top-shelf talent that it’s difficult to limit a list of the highlights to just ten shows. In the month ahead we have two female comedy duos, two local…
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). The Colorado Shakespeare Festival staged a pretty good version of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)five years ago, so we’re not sure why the CSF decided to bring it back this season. The show, written in 1987 by Adam Long, Daniel Singer…
