Comedian Zac Maas Brings the Phone It In Film Festival to Denver

Few comedians in Denver (or anywhere, for that matter) are as industrious and self-starting as Zac Maas. Whether toiling away at open mics, snatching up any emcee and feature spots that come along, doing improv, shooting sketches or co-hosting the Whiskey & Cigarettes podcast, Maas always seems to have several…

Review: This Dracula Doesn’t Suck — Fangs a Lot, Aurora Fox!

The vampire flies on, and our fascination with him never seems to falter. We find him in television shows, teenage novels and the pulsing hearts of teenage readers, and in films both serious and camp — from F.W. Murnau’s subtle, haunted Nosferatu to Roman Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers, with…

Remembering Terry Dodd, a Theater Man for All Seasons

Somewhere in the mid-1970s, when we were both students at the University of Colorado, Terry Dodd worked with a feminist theater group I’d co-founded, playing the unnamed man who absconded with a beautiful store-room dummy in Joanna Russ’ one-act, Window Dressing. My mother was dying of cancer at the time…

Review: This Frankenstein Is a Monster Smash!

We’re so used to camp and comic versions of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein that it’s a bit of a shock to encounter a theatrical experience that takes the story seriously as a statement about scientific hubris and an exploration of love, loneliness, hatred, good and evil — and what it really…

Josh Androsky on Spongebob Squarepants and the Fine Art of Trolling

Josh Androsky is a writer, standup comedian and karaoke enthusiast who hails from Los Angeles. After a precocious career in television that brought him into contact with human rights-violating despots, Androsky began pursuing comedy, eventually running his own regular shows and becoming a festival favorite around the country. A viral video wherein…

Lebanese Comedian Nemr Abou Nassar on Unity Through Laughter

Nemr Abou Nassar is widely known as “Lebanon’s King of Comedy.” By far the most famous comedian in his country, Nassar — who’s often billed as simply “Nemr” — regularly performs for crowds all over the world. He’s recorded five standup specials, been on the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour…

Review: Arvada Center Breaks Out of the Box With Tartuffe

The Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, which turned forty this year, includes art galleries, meeting rooms, community gathering places and two theaters: the original Main Stage, which usually hosts big musicals, and the newer Black Box Theater, which is as large and well-appointed as many companies’ main stages…

The Ten Best Comedy Events in Denver in October

October, a month of harvest moons and costumed goons, is upon us. While there’s perhaps no better month to take in the natural beauty of our fair state, the early sunsets and evening chill leave plenty of time for comedy. Fortunately, a bountiful joke harvest awaits leaf- and laugh-peepers alike this…

Review: BETC’s Ripcord Takes Off at the Renovated Dairy Arts Center

The mood was celebratory at the opening of the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company’s Ripcord, the first show of the company’s eleventh season, and also the first at the Dairy Arts Center after the building’s year-long renovation. Over the past twelve months, BETC has performed in the Boulder Chamber of Commerce…

Remembering Jordan Wieleba — a Brave, Brilliant Comedian

Family, friends and fans are mourning the loss of Denver comedian Jordan Wieleba. Rushed to the hospital after a severe asthma attack left her in comatose last week, she remained unresponsive and unaware of the well-wishing throngs of visitors she received. Few knew of the seriousness of her circumstances; Wieleba herself had tweeted…

Review: Spotlight Theatre Shines With Suddenly, Last Summer

New Orleans grande dame Violet Venable is interviewing Dr. Cukrowicz. A young researcher, he is setting up a lobotomy clinic and needs money, money that she’s willing to supply if he’ll agree to lobotomize her niece, Catharine. Catharine was on vacation in Europe with Violet’s son, Sebastian, when he died…

Tour and Taste at the Denver Performing Arts Complex Saturday

The fall arts season is under way, and the Denver Performing Arts Complex is offering a major sneak peak on Saturday morning — complete with mimosas — that promises to show you where the stars of Book of Mormon get ready, as well as the secret passages that ballerinas use to…

Actress Regan Linton Is Back at Phamaly — as Artistic Director

Denver’s Phamaly, the first national theater company comprised of actors with varying disabilities, has been a local treasure since it was established in 1989, producing serious theater and regular summer musicals. Through many of those years, actor Regan Linton was at the center of the company’s productions. She was an…