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Archive for the ‘Comedians’ Category

Comedy Bang! Bang! : Ground Beefing Tour (Miller Theater, Kimmel Cultural Campus, Philadelphia, PA, June 25, 2026)

Posted in Comedy Bang! Bang!, Erin Keif, Funny (ha ha), Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Miller Theater, Paul F. Tompkins, Philadelphia, PA, Scott Aukerman, Will Hines on June 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 25, 2026] Comedy Bang! Bang!

I enjoyed Comedy Bang! Bang! when it was on TV (2012-2016).  I know I didn’t see all of the episodes.  I mostly saw the ones with Reggie Watts (and a few with Weird Al).  I didn’t know it was a podcast because I don’t really listen to podcasts.  But I was shocked to find out that it had been a podcast since 2009–I didn’t even think podcasts existed for that long.

Since I didn’t know this had been a podcast, I genuinely didn’t know what to expect at this show.  I knew Paul F. Tompkins would be there (which is 90% of why I wanted to go).  And when we were talking to someone before the show, he told us it was a live taping of the podcast with special guests.  I assumed that the special guests would be local comedians–completely forgetting that the show is a parody of talk shows.

And so, we were given a sibling, a theater critic and a foreign exchange student as the guests.

But first was the balcony report.  (which had the audience going crazy chanting TBR!  It was then that we realized that people there knew this show way better than we did.

So I had gotten us seats in the middle.  But they were tight and crowded, so we snuck to the back where there were comfy open seats–note to self if you eve go back to the Miller, unless you need a close up of the stage, choose the back couple of rows.  And this way we kind of felt like the outsiders we were. (more…)

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Ilana Glazer (Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ, June 4, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Broad City, Ilana Glazer, Montclair, NJ, Wellmont Theater on June 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: June 4, 2026] Ilana Glazer

I loved Broad City.  But I haven’t really been that interested in seeing Ilana Glazer live.  Not sure why.  But these show announcements haven’t excited me that much.

And yet, she’s really funny.  So after missing the show at Helium in April, I thought about seeing this show at the Wellmont.  The Wellmont is not my favorite venue, although we’ve seen some comedians there and it’s not bad if you’re seated on the floor.

But then this show turned out to be on the same night as an Awards Night at my daughter’s school.  So, obviously that takes priority.

I’ll have to watch a bit of one of her specials to see if I like her stand up.

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James “Murr” Murray (Helium Comedy Club, Philadelphia, PA, May 22 & 23, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Helium Comedy Club, James "Murr" Murray, Philadelphia, PA on May 23, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 22 & 23, 2026] James “Murr” Murray

Both of my kids like Impractical Jokers.  And, of course they both like Murr.  A couple of years ago, Murr took out a billboard for his wife in an intersection near my house.  If you took a photo of yourself fin front of the billboard, he’d send you an autograph.  My kids did and he sent one.  So that’s cool.

We have no idea what his stand up would be like.  Neither of my kids wanted to go (I’m no even sure if you can go into Helium if you’re under 21).

But once again I marvel at Helium getting a big (ish?) name star to do two nights there.

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Emo Philips (Helium Comedy Club, Philadelphia, PA, May 13, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Emo Philips, Helium Comedy Club, Philadelphia, PA on May 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 13, 2026] Emo Philips

Now that I’ve discovered Helium Comedy Club I am blown away by how many famous comedians do stand up there.  I really have no sense if it’s a typical sized club for comedians–most of the ones I’d been to before were in seated concert venues which are much larger.  Can someone like Emo Philips not draw a bigger crowd?  Or is this just business as usual for a comedian (I mean Patton Oswalt was there too).

Anyhow, I saw Emo Philips open for Weird Al and he was hilarious.  I would absolutely have gone to this gig except I had two other shows already lined up that night.  And I really wanted to see The Joy Formidable again.

Maybe Emo will tour again.

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Ilana Glazer (Helium Comedy Club, Philadelphia, PA, April 21, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Broad City, Helium Comedy Club, Ilana Glazer, Philadelphia, PA on April 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 21, 2026] Ilana Glazer

I loved Broad City.  But I haven’t really been that interested in seeing Ilana Glazer live.  Not sure why.  But these show announcements haven’t excited me that much.  This show happened to be between two nights when I was already going out, so I didn’t really consider it.

Although now that I have been to Helium, and I see how small it is, I think it would be really fun to see someone like Ilana there.    Especially since she did at the much larger Miller Theatre last year.

By the time I realized that we should probably go to this, it was sold out (no surprise there).

She’s playing in New Jersey in a few months though so, maybe we’ll go there instead.

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Atsuko Okatsuka (McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, April 9, 2026)

Posted in Atsuko Okatsuka, Maddy Kelly, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ on April 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 9, 2026] Atsuko Okatsuka

I had not heard of Atsuko Okatsuka when this show was announced (with the striking image to the right).

I have been going to a lot of comedians this year and reading the blurb and the fact that it was so close I thought it might be worth checking her out.  After buying the tickets, I watched some of her special on TV and wasn’t that excited by the opening moments.  But since I didn’t know if this was the routine she was going to do, I didn’t watch anymore.

So I wasn’t that excited going in.  And it turned out that my wife had a commitment that she couldn’t get out of.  So I almost stayed home.  But again, it was close, so I went.

And I’m so glad I did, because she was hilarious.

She started with a routine about her playing a video game in which you own restaurants.  I didn’t think this could be an extended riff, but it was and each level of the joke made it funnier.  From the fact that she is very very busy (she has so many restaurants) to the part where she is making so much money (in the game) but losing so much money (in real life) as she upgrades.  To how her husband found out about her spending on the games (snitch accountant) to a hilarious joke about her caveman cafe and the dinosaur that runs it with her.   Any paleontologists in the audience?

She spun this off into a series of jokes about how having a phone and doomscrolling is very healthy because otherwise you are left alone with your own thoughts!

I really enjoyed her take on depression commercials–do you really want to be like the people in the “after” scenes?  I really enjoyed the sequence (and the big payoff at the end) about the white man who is excellent at kendo.  She explained that this man has trained for years and is really impressive.  At first she thought it was racist, but realized that he is so sincere and devoted that it is honoring rather than appropriating.  Although she acknowledged that if he hurt himself and someone asked her to finish the routine, THAT would be racist.

The only person who is more Japanese than this man is her father, who is the quintessential Japanese man.  She went to visit him and that’s when she learned she had a brother (from her father’s first marriage).  She was unsure if she wanted to meet him, but when she did and he said, do you want to pretend po be cats while waiting online, that she knew she’d found a kindred spirit.

She crammed so much good material into an hour.  It was a great set.  At the end she did a brief Q&A which turned into a fan fest of people who went to the show wearing a wig that looked like her hair.  I had no idea this was a thing.  Apparently it is.  And she loves it.

I’m sorry my wife couldn’t make it, but I’m really glad I went.

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Maddy Kelly (McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, April 9, 2026) [ATSUKO OKATSUKA]

Posted in Atsuko Okatsuka, Maddy Kelly, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ on April 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 9, 2026] Maddy Kelly

Maddy Kelly is a comedian from New York. As with most unannounced opening acts,

She had a funny setup to the fact that she looks really young.  People ask if she’s still in school and she says no, I do stand up.  The reply is that always amusing.  I also got a real kick out of her blood donation story.  She went to the bathroom after having given blood and the blood hadn’t clotted.  When she told the nurse she bled in the bathroom, the nurse was concerned and asked if it was her first time.

She coupled the age joke with the fact that she’s half Indian and half Irish but that she looks like a teenaged Latina girl.  And her poor all white Irish grandparents who just don’t understand her at all.

She opened the show by asking if anyone was brought there not knowing who the comedian was.  The person who brings you to a show like this just looks at you the whole time trying to see if you’re enjoying it.

After a few minutes of personal jokes she switched to politics and was delightfully brutal to ***mp.  It’s so surprising that someone so good looking could be so evil.

Her political jokes were really funny–coming at the evil folks in charge from a slightly different angle than usual.

Her set was short, but I could have listened to her for twice as long.  I’d like to see her if she comes around again.

 

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Puscifer / Dave Hill (Wind Creek Event Center, Bethlehem, PA, April 3, 3026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Bethlehem, PA, Dave Hill, Puscifer, Wind Creek Event Center on April 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 3, 3026] Puscifer / Dave Hill

I saw Puscifer this past summer as part of a triple bill with Primus and A Perfect Circle.  I didn’t know much about Puscifer except that it was one of Maynard Keenan’s bands.  But their live show was so great that when they announced this tour, I immediately grabbed a ticket to the Bethlehem show–Bethlehem?  Amazing.

But this show also fell within our Minnesota trip dates.  So I would miss this one too.  There were really some special shows to be missed in these few days.  Alas.

I saw Dave Hill open for Kevin McDonald Superstar.  HE was really funny and was a great guitar player as well.  I was really looking forward to seeing him too.  Interestingly Dave played at a small venue in Frenchtown (a venue I have yet to go to even though it is so close).   But that show was on the same night as my Baroness show. So, no luck for me.

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Nish Kumar: Angry Humour From a Really Nice Guy (McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, April 2, 2026) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in McCarter Theatre, Nish Kumar, Princeton, NJ on April 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 2, 2026] Nish Kumar

I missed a lot of shows when we went to Minnesota.  No one should have that many shows lined up, but this one hurt doubly.

Tonight I had a ticket for Dirty Three, a band I desperately wanted to see.  But when Nish Kumar (whom my wife and I had seen last year) announced a stop in Princeton!   Well, I wanted to check it out.  It conflicted with Dirty Three, but then my son said he really wanted to see him.  So I got us tickets for that show.  But we couldn’t make either.  Gah.

Nish is hilarious and I would definitely see him any time he came back to the area.  I hope Princeton treated him well and he wants to come baclk

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John Miller Giltner (Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, March 28, 2026) [THE TEETH]

Posted in John Miller Giltner, Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, PA, Purples, The Kinks, The Teeth on March 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 28, 2026] John Miller Giltner

I was delighted when I saw that The Teeth has comedians open for them on the last time they played Johnny Brenda’s.  They did the same this time.  Although last night’s show opened with a magician (which sounds awesome), I got a kick out of John Miller Giltner.

They are a young comedian (meaning he uses a bunch of young person slang) and they used a powerpoint presentation (which was really funny).  It opened with a slide that said Comedy set for The Teeth.  Which is pretty spot on.

The main point of their comedy was about how they had a bed with no frame (it’s amazing how much material you can get out of that).  This included a phot of said bed and a lengthy story about the person he was dating’s reaction to the lack of bed frame.

But it started off funny when John said that in order to get through this set they were going to need to borrow someone’s vape.  A woman nicely obliged.  If they didn’t have the vape it would induce a panic attack for sure (the panic attack graphics on the powerpoint were hilarious).

An unintentionally funny part came when they clicked the wrong button and reset the whole PowerPoint.

There was a funny part about being nonbinary and the way his dad was supported but said the worst things.

The end of the set featured a long call with Amazon help.  He called up to say that he had given his then girlfriend a video game controller and she broke up with him and he wondered if he could get some kind of rebate since she broke up with him.  The woman on the other end of the call was confused but polite and ultimately sweet.  It was a funny bit of reality in a wild set.

I do rather like the idea of a comedian opening for a rock band and think more bands should consider it.

Here’s an article about another of Giltener’s performances.  I think our night was maybe a variant of this but cut much shorter.

 

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