It’s no secret that Denver’s comedy scene is thriving, and today the seventh annual Denver Improv Festival begins a five-day run of shows, workshops and parties that has attracted comedians from across the U.S., including Convoy from Los Angeles and Switch Committee from Chicago. See also: James Clark of Governor…
It’s probably the biggest cliche in the history of dating: You’re looking for someone with a sense of humor. But since it has nothing to do with money, social stature or good looks — things people are often most insecure about in dating — why is humor such a big…
It’s been a long ride since last spring, when the Comedy Works New Faces Competition 2013 began. And now, with 130 comics eliminated, we’re down to the final ten, who will compete tomorrow night for a cash prize and the prestige of joining the ranks of previous winners, including Ben…
Every comedian has to deal with being vulnerable in front of a crowd of strangers. But few of them have as tough a job as transgender comedian Jordan Wieleba. While her comedy colleagues and large swaths of the Denver scene are endlessly supportive of, and charmed by, Wieleba, the club…
Anyone over 25 remembers him as heroic single dad Danny Tanner on Full House, or the jolly host of America’s Funniest Home Videos. But anyone plugged into standup comedy over the last decade also knows him as the desperately foul-mouthed comic with jokes so vivid and foul he makes William…
Eve Ensler — who will be in Boulder for a benefit for LOCAL Theater Company on Friday, October 11, is known to Coloradans primarily as the author of that raucous, liberating and unflinching theater piece, The Vagina Monologues, which has been performed several times in the Denver area — as…
Yes, it’s true. Over the weekend, one of the interchangeable blond anchors on Fox and Friends reported that, despite the WWII memorial being closed during the government shutdown, “some things are continuing to be funded . . . President Obama has offered to pay out of his own pocket for…
After the Revolution. Playwright Amy Herzog enters a very specific world in After the Revolution: the passionate, close-knit, hyper-idealistic world of Jewish Communism in New York City during the early decades of the twentieth century. For these activists, Soviet Russia was a model. But when Khrushchev denounced Stalin during the…
I’ve never liked Death of a Salesman, but I figured that maybe I’d just never seen a really first-rate production. With their current production, the Denver Center Theatre Company and director Anthony Powell have fielded the perfect cast: Mike Hartman — whose performance as the ethically compromised protagonist of All…
Anyone who has ever attended a writers’ workshop (guilty!) will recognize the characters in Theresa Rebeck’s Seminar, and also the dynamics among them. There’s Douglas, the apparently confident son of a somewhat well-known writer, who’s a few steps ahead of the other students in terms of his literary career: He…
After the pilot’s debut, comedians Ben Roy, Adam Cayton-Holland and Andrew Orvedahl thought their Amazon-produced Grawlix comedy series, Those Who Can’t, was dead in the water. While two other shows were picked up, The Grawlix crew heard….nothing. But now Amazon has commissioned the Denver comedy team to write six new…
In Who Killed Jigaboo Jones?, Jeff Campbell dissects the current state of hip-hop through the fictional story of a fallen rapper. His “one-man mockumentary on the hip-hop industrial complex” is an exploration on the exploitation of hip-hop culture, taking aiming at the industry in a humorous, thought-provoking way. After the…
After the Revolution. Playwright Amy Herzog enters a very specific world in After the Revolution: the passionate, close-knit, hyper-idealistic world of Jewish Communism in New York City during the early decades of the twentieth century. For these activists, Soviet Russia was a model. But when Khrushchev denounced Stalin during the…
World-renowned choreographer Karole Armitage is recognized for bringing non-traditional elements to the stage with her radical modern dance pieces. The performance tonight at Macky Auditorium will be no exception, as the dancer and her company, Armitage Gone! Dance, present Fables on Global Warming. Using costumes, puppetry in the traditions of…
Adam Milner wants you to spend the night with him. He wants to take your picture. He wants to record Internet chats with you and, more important, he wants to talk to you. Milner’s latest show, Wave So I Know You’re Real, is now on display at the Emmanuel Gallery…
“I fired a manager after he said to me, ‘Do something crazy and it’ll get on YouTube and your career will take off!'” comedian Christopher Titus told me in an interview this summer. “I looked at him and was like, ‘Really, that’s your plan? Really?'” While Titus may be cynical…
As much an icon of African-American comedy as Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy, Keenen Ivory Wayans pioneered a new style of televised sketch comedy with In Living Color, introducing mainstream Americans to the stylish humor of early ’90s black culture. The show also launched the careers of Jim Carrey, Jennifer…
With two Halloween events, three filthy shows and three comedy contests, October humor is shaping up to be scary, sexy and heavily competitive. After a summer of record-breaking comedy festivals, you can fall into the autumnal weather with some bone-chilling monologues of creepy copulation with Bob Saget and Competitive Erotic…
After the Revolution. Playwright Amy Herzog enters a very specific world in After the Revolution: the passionate, close-knit, hyper-idealistic world of Jewish Communism in New York City during the early decades of the twentieth century. For these activists, Soviet Russia was a model. But when Khrushchev denounced Stalin during the…
You wouldn’t expect this production of The Full Monty at a dinner theater — not so much because of the script, but because of the daring with which it’s staged. Places like Boulder’s Dinner Theater are kept alive in large part by church groups and Rotary-type clubs, and they need…
Defending the Caveman is a low-key, low-budget one-man show, part standup comedy, part nightclub act. Written by Rob Becker, the piece has been appearing in intimate venues around the country for several years, promoted as a fun way to pass an evening with a drink in your hand and your…
For this year’s Now Showing, Westword’s fall arts guide (you’ll find it tucked into our September 26 issue), we asked artistic movers and shakers to answer a few questions about the state of the arts, both locally and around the world. We’ll be rolling out their answers over the next…
