[ATTENDED: February 2, 2026] Jim Gillespie / Hannah Trav
Despite all of the comedians we have seen, we’ve never been to a comedy club. Technically when we went to City Winery, we had to buy food, but that’s not a comedy club. Helium, on the other hand, is. And it was our first experience with a two-drink minimum. Helium changes it somewhat and has a two item minimum–so food or drinks (and I guess food is actually more expensive?). So we did indeed by (watered down) drinks–even my ginger beer was watered down. And we got some apps. A surprisingly expensive night out for relatively cheap tickets.
So I assumed we’d see Rhys Nicholson and be home by like ten. But instead, there was a host and an opener. And I guess this is standard practice.
The host does a short set, then introduces the warm up and then comes back to introduce the headliner.
Our host was Jim Gillespie who implied that he is fairly new to Philly. He was very funny. I enjoyed his jokes quite a lot and I was intrigued to see that he looked at his phone a bunch–notes, I assume. I assume he is somewhat new to stand up because the jokes were great but the transitions weren’t very smooth. But that’s what fine tuning is all about. As I said the jokes were great and I laughed a lot.
Jim is a big guy and he made some good and (to me) original jokes about being big. The first was about going thrifting and why are there no large clothes at thrift stores–he knows that fat old people are dying all the time–where are their clothes? I also enjoyed the jokes about how he doesn’t want to die and become a fat ghost. Who only haunts the kitchen. (more…)
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