It’s hard for any actor to hold the audience’s attention when he’s on stage with a fantastic pro like Larry Hecht. Oh, wait. I’d meant to begin with this: It’s hard for any actor to hold the audience’s attention when he’s on stage with a fantastic pro like Nigel Gore…
In February 1941, some two months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, designating certain areas of the country as military zones. As a result, many Japanese people, immigrants and citizens, were interned in dismal, isolated and primitive camps. They lost their homes,…
“Let’s all just acknowledge for a moment that: This. Is. Weird,” John Oliver said last night, opening his first round of hosting The Daily Show for the summer. While Jon Stewart will be away for the next twelve weeks directing his debut film, Rosewater, the most celebrated comic to come…
While he may be world-famous and seven years sober, the streets of Bed-Stuy Brooklyn still ring in the voice of Tracy Morgan. Coming from a childhood of poverty and crack-dealing, Morgan built a respectable career in standup, performing on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam before reaching TV mega-stardom on Saturday Night…
The people who lined up outside the Seawell Grand Ballroom to purchase tickets for The Book Of Mormon’s second Denver run may have been the lucky ones. At least they could hold onto their purchases. But dozens, if not hundreds of people, who tried to buy online at the Denver…
While he’s definitely a throwback to another era of standup comedy, Dave Attell’s debased style of humor still resonated with the crowd at Comedy Works South Saturday night. Deadpanning about vegan strip clubs, Chinese youth assembling sex toys, and what illegal Mexicans can bring to the game of baseball, Attell…
In each piece of theater she creates, Betsy Tobin tries to find an unusual way to present her work. For her newest show, METAPHOR, she delves into the complicated realm of relationships using circus arts, puppetry, video projects and more to portray the tangled webs woven by human interaction. In…
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, with just one flower swaying slightly out to the side. Even if you…
There was a time when many young people believed they could levitate the Pentagon by surrounding it, holding hands and chanting; dissuade a soldier from killing by placing a flower in the barrel of his gun; and put an end to war, corruption, racism, repression and pollution through nakedness, love-making…
For any local comic who has yet to appear on Conan or negotiate a sitcom, the New Faces Competition at Comedy Works is the ideal way to gain recognition and earn some cash with your humor. Winning first place in the four-month tournament not only puts a thousand bucks in…
On last Thursday’s Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, comedian Jim Norton got in a verbal sparring match with Jezebel writer Lindy West. For the most part, their positions were fixed and predictable — but rarely have two people in the reactionary careers of standup comic and feminist author achieved…
The disappointing news that the Grawlix pilot got the thumbs down from Amazon didn’t keep Adam Cayton-Holland down for long. Just days later, he announced the August 23-24 High Plains Comedy Festival, which will raise the bar on previous summer comedy jams like Laugh Track and Too Much Funstival by…
Reading is about more than following a narrative or learning facts; it can also be a profound shared experience that culminates in a better understanding of ourselves and each other. In that spirit, welcome to the Westword Book Club, a weekly feature that celebrates the books that inspire Denver artists…
Typically found at L.A.’s Nerdist Theater, the Erotic Fan Fiction competition made itself at home at the Bug Theatre last night, dirtying the minds of a roomful of comedy fans with its unsettlingly hilarious mix of pop culture and hardcore pornography. Troy Walker earned himself the top ranking in the…
Update: Congrats to JamesB7! Check your email with details on how to claim your prize. Original post: Have you seen the lineup for Comedy Works this summer? The schedule includes Drew Carey, Jim Belushi, Dave Attell, our own Josh Blue and more big names than we’re going to list inside…
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, with just one flower swaying slightly out to the side. Even if you…
Amazon gave the green light to several video series this morning, but Those Who Can’t, created by Adam Cayton-Holland, Andrew Orvedahl and Ben Roy of the Denver-based Grawlix comedy group, wasn’t on the list. Instead, Amazon will go forward with two other comedy pilots, Betas and Alpha House, as well…
The Erotic Fan Fiction competition will bring its twisted competition to Denver this Thursday. Led by Bryan Cook, comedy writer for Joan Rivers’s Fashion Police, the contest tasks professional comics to arrive with their own piece of erotic fan fiction on anything from Facts of Life to Of Mice and…
After ingesting almost nine straight hours of the newly revived Arrested Development series, I’ve come to two conclusions: 1) The cast and creators of AD still got it, and 2) This show was made for hermetic losers like me. The “story of a wealthy family who lost everything” was nothing…
Dividing the Estate. Dividing the Estate is a quietly incisive play about a large and contentious family. Stella Gordon, the 85-year-old matriarch, rules over a grand old house in the fictional town of Harrison, Texas. She is strong-willed and authoritative but essentially kind — and she’s determined that the family…
At the end of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the audience members at Germinal Stage did something I’ve never seen at that theater: They stood up and applauded. It’s not that Germinal hasn’t staged excellent works in the past — works worthy of a standing ovation. It’s just that audiences…
While big-name comedy acts like Aziz Ansari will draw a large crowd in Boulder, getting a local comedy scene going in Colorado’s hippie hamlet has faced some challenges — whether money, politics or apathy. Now James Gold is hoping to put Boulder’s anti-comedy stigma to rest with his Dairy Comedy…
