What popular radio show is hitting the road for a night of comedy that’s not subject to FCC scrutiny? It’s the Wait Wait Stand-Up Tour, hosted by show regular Alonzo Bodden. The audience can snark and snicker along with some of the show’s regulars, and really get to know what their favorite “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me” panelists think.
$27.50-101.50, 7:30pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net.
It’s a laugh: As any comedian knows, there’s no rush like standing in front of a roomful of strangers and making them laugh. At the weekly Comedy Open Mic Night, hosted by local comedians Heather Kilburn and John Rad, you can work out all the material you perfected at home during the pandemic. Preregister, and try your monologues and one-liners on an outdoor, socially distanced audience.
Wednesday 3/31, Free, 8:30pm. IX Art Park, 522 Second St. SE, 207-2355.
A new relationship during the holidays is a recipe for hilarity and high jinks. There’s meeting the family, heavily enforced traditions, and all sorts of other religious and historical wrenches to throw into the spokes of what could be cozy couple time. Happiest Season takes on all of these elements, plus the added layer of hidden identity—with mixed results.
The hidden part of this Christmas comedy is thanks to Harper (Mackenzie Davis). She loves the holidays and her family—and her girlfriend Abby (Kristen Stewart). The fact that Harper has not come out to her family is not only a shock to Abby, but waiting to tell her until they are driving to Harper’s family Christmas puts Abby in the position of lying on Harper’s behalf and hiding her own identity as well. When Abby asks, “It is five days, how bad can it be?” she soon gets her answer.
Harper’s family is not only completely unaware of her sexual orientation, they are intense. Mom Tipper (Mary Steenburgen) is obsessed with posting pictures of their perfect family online. Dad Ted (Victor Garber) is running for mayor. Sister Sloane (Alison Brie) seems to be more uptight than everyone else, and sister Jane (Mary Holland) is the black sheep, though that is a fairly low bar in this high-profile, wealthy suburban Pittsburgh family.
From here we get the usual dose of expected family gags. Sloane has a pair of creepy twin kids who pop into rooms silently and judge. A trip to the mall ends in a massive miscommunication between Abby and the mall security. Ice skating bonds the three sisters through competition and knitted garments. And Harper has incidents with not one but two exes who still run in similar circles as her parents. We’ve seen this before.
Happiest Season shines when it takes its time to deal with the uniqueness of its premise. But the film insists on spending far more time on the less remarkable moments. Ted and Tipper forcing a dinner with Harper’s handsome and successful ex Connor (Jake McDorman) is awkward enough, but adds little to the plot and doesn’t deepen Harper’s character—things would be just as awkward were they all straight. It’s the moments Harper is with her secret high school girlfriend Riley (Aubrey Plaza) that help us understand how Harper got Abby into this situation, and bring nuance into the film. These brief windows into the complexity of their lives, more so than people who never have a closet to come out of, humanize and emphasize. This is not merely a white lie, it is Harper living in fear of being rejected for being her true self.
To that end, Davis feels a little wasted in this role. Aside from the inevitable emotional climax on Christmas morning, she plays a bland woman who is concerned with family appearances, and seems quite happy in her hometown. She effortlessly rises to the demands of the character, but as one of the more interesting actresses working today, the rest of the film feels like a lost opportunity. Others have to do the heavy lifting to make Harper seem intriguing and torn, as she glides through the visit relatively unscathed.
While Stewart does an incredible job of managing a smiling but disappointed visage throughout, Holland and Daniel Levy are the ones stealing the scenes. Holland takes what could have been a throwaway, comic sidekick and turns her into the confident but quirky sister standing in the shadows of Harper and Sloane. She seems aware of their differences but assured of her value in the world—and that confidence makes her the one to watch in any ensemble scene. Levy, as Abby’s best friend John, is the fast-talking supportive rock that Abby needs to get through these five days. He’s the only one looking out for her, and their chemistry sells the friendship.
Happiest Season should be lauded for not only addressing the complicated and weighty issues around coming out, but also for having a queer relationship at the heart of a traditional Christmas family comedy. Yet, it still stops short of condemning hatred and homophobia. There are hints of the negative impact that such outdated and ignorant beliefs can have on lives, thus justifying Harper’s reluctance to express herself, but the film never goes so far as to identify these beliefs as the real villain here. Sure, Harper’s repeated lies are problematic and the source of funny antics, but Happiest Season avoids connecting the dots to the homophobia that drove her to lie for all these years.
Happiest Season is a solid addition to the legions of heteronormative Christmas movies. Had Harper been a more engaging character or if it focused on what sets it apart from other holiday films, it might have been a great one.
When I reach politically enraged comedian Lewis Black by phone on an early February morning following the Iowa caucus, I expect he’ll be ready with one of his signature rants, and after a polite exchange of salutations, he does not disappoint. Black immediately unleashes a torrent of frustrations. Clearly he wants me to listen—which is really the only choice, as he does not pause often for breathing or questions. He tosses out fuck and schmuck like confetti, and his quick-witted cultural jabs change lanes like a getaway car.
Black’s bringing his It Gets Better Every Day tour to The Paramount Theater on February 28, and he says that sometimes audience members don’t get his live act. They comment after the show that he didn’t mention “him” enough, or sometimes the show wasn’t political enough. (He refuses to call Trump by name or title.) But Black is a master craftsman in the art of wry exposition. In a career that began with playwriting, then took off through standup and a recurring role on “The Daily Show,” his agility at doling out whip-smart observations in the guise of a cranky narrator has earned Black legions of fans who do get it.
C-VILLE Weekly: Here we are in an election year and you’re a political guy…
Lewis Black: I would consider myself more of a social satirist than a political satirist, because it’s more of what these guys do than who they are. It’s a big differential, it’s literally an endless list of jackasses.
I have an inordinate amount of trouble with both parties. With the Democrats, I’m so astonished, I mean you’re impeaching the president..and that night you have a debate…and you go after each other. It was more important for you to be elected than for you to deal with what was happening historically. Seriously.
They can be just as tone-deaf as the Republicans. There’s no defense of it. None. …Screw you! I’m sick of it.
This must be a good time for your social commentary?
It is to a point. People say he must be good for comedy…about “the leader,” as I call him. I say he’s good for comedy in the way that a stroke is good for a nap.
Who is the funniest person in politics?
I don’t think any of them are funny. I think there’s not an adult among them. …The basic behaviors, the basic lack of a sense of history, and the lack of you know, basic knowledge.
Do you think the last election was rigged?
No. No! Seriously? No. You know why? They’re not that competent. None of them. No, it wasn’t rigged. You know what was unbelievable. Nominating two candidates that no one liked…You’ve got to show up in states you’re supposed to show up in to win! The arrogance on both sides is beyond belief.
Have you always been angry?
About the state of government? Somewhat. I was born and raised around Washington, D.C., so yeah. Stupidity has always gotten to me. From the time I was a kid and they said “In case of nuclear attack get under your desk.” I said, “Really?” …That was literally when my train went off the rails. I’ve never been big on authority. You have to take authority with a grain of salt…most authority tries to be about its power and you know, “Fuck you!”
You’ve logged 23 years on “The Daily Show.” Who’s your favorite host?
There’s something I like about all of them. I have more freedom now. But the most freedom I had was in the beginning. They needed material and I had material…I would go on and improv.
Who opened the door for your brand of humor?
All sorts. Carlin, Pryor, Bruce. I think I pale in comparison.
I met George a couple of times, and he was really instrumental in my career because he started to tell people to come and see me…and that was just huge to me. At that point it didn’t matter how I did…if he liked what I was doing, then fuck ’em.
These days you are well-known, but who do you get mistaken for?
Franken.
So do you ever just pretend you’re Al Franken?
No. I get livid. I know Al and I say, “Really?” First off, I’m better looking than Al, so get over it.
Any regrets about the Opie and Anthony Naked Teen Voyeur Bus stunt? Would you do it again today? (Black and 14 others were arrested in 2000 for a radio show bus ride that featured nude or semi-nude models in the windows.)
I wouldn’t do it now, because essentially, I don’t need to. It was advertising. But I’m not embarrassed by it on any level.
To be honest, if I was sitting on the bus ogling them that would be one thing. Here’s the choice: Sit in a studio with two schmucks, or get in a bus that’s going around New York City with five topless girls.
Those are the choices?
Those are the choices. What are you gonna do? You tell me? I’m not selling anything, I’m making nothing off of it. …Also, there was nothing against the law!
Those women chose to be topless…I’m watching the reaction of the people on the street to see if that bothers them…and nothing. There’s old ladies waving, happy. It was just before Christmas for god’s sake. It was spectacular.
Which is worse, that I did that, or that Giuliani had us stopped because Bill Clinton, of all people, was going to be coming on the road we’re on a half an hour later. We were three minutes from the studio when we got busted. We were taken in and held for a day and a half.
What were you charged with?
Disrupting the public, and public nuisance, and some other thing. I got off that bus and had a show that weekend. You couldn’t get a ticket to my show. For me, it flipped everything around.
Tell me about The Rant is Due, which takes place at the end of your shows.
That I am very proud of. …For the people in Charlottesville, anybody in the state of Virginia, or folks around the country…the audience is asked when they come in, is there anything you want to yell about or include about your town? I pick the ones I think will work…and it’s livestreamed throughout the world for free. It becomes a show written by people in the town.
Lewis Black / The Paramount Theater/ February 28
Life stories: Ross Mathews, the renowned television personality most famous for appearances on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The Insider,” and “Celebrity Fit Club,” engages his audience with hilarious tales and spicy anecdotes from his extensive time in show business. From spending a Christmas with the Kardashians to his TV chat with Omarosa, and his experience judging “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Williams has no shortage of memorable incidents to share when he comes to town on his Name Drop tour.
Talking hands: Self-taught ventriloquist and comedian Lynn Trefzger brings more than four decades of experience to a routine that’s polished but unpredictable. Her cast of characters includes a recently potty-trained toddler excited to share, a confrontational drunk camel, and an old man who keeps things fresh in the bedroom with Saran Wrap. Trefzger’s performances, which rely on audience participation and improvisation, have been seen on television networks like ABC, Comedy Central, and VH-1.
It’s a Saturday morning in Richmond, and L.E. Zarling has ordered a chocolate croissant to go with her latte at Lamplighter Coffee. She looks at the pastry, covered in a heavy-handed sprinkle of powdered sugar. Then she looks at her black turtleneck sweater. “Fuck it,” she says before taking a bite. “I’m going to enjoy the hell out of this thing.”
This sort of just-go-with-it-and-own-it-while-you’re-at-it attitude is the way Milwaukee-born and Richmond-based comedy performer and instructor L.E. (Lilith Elektra) Zarling approaches most things in life. It’s certainly how she approaches comedy, which she brings to IX Art Park on Thursday, in the form of a two-hour improvisational workshop geared toward trans and non-binary people. After the workshop, Zarling will perform her one-person improv show, Wisconsin Laugh Trip.
Zarling started in comedy in 2003, when she was 33 years old. She realized that if she was the one with the mic, everyone in the room had to listen to her; and she wanted to be heard. A few years later, while living in Charlottesville, she pivoted to improv comedy and storytelling, where it’s always something new.
“The level of control that [improvisational comedy] brought to my life, being on stage and being an improviser, where you just have to go” and let go, rocked her world. Over time, performing helped Zarling, a trans woman, find her own voice and be completely honest with herself and her audience about who she is.
“I finally unscrewed the jar and let my real self out,” she says.
To hear Zarling talk about her life in comedy is to witness an animated retelling of some of her favorite performances. There’s the time she made a little kid laugh so hard, he puked (“I should have just retired then and there,” she quips). And the time when she led her 60-person audience in an impromptu singing of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” where some audience members got so into it, Zarling handed the stage over to them. During that sing-along, she realized that being “in the middle of this happiness” is her dream.
Zarling’s workshops and shows are about community, positivity, and having fun, but within that, she does some pretty serious work.
Most spaces in the U.S., theaters and comedy clubs included, are not queer-friendly, says Zarling, and she hopes to change that, even if it’s just making venues (such as IX) more aware of the importance of having gender-neutral bathrooms. She holds improv workshops geared toward trans- and non-binary people to say “you are welcome here,” in this physical space and in this artistic space. There’s a lot of confidence to be found in “having an audience and holding it and having people interested in what you have to say,” she says.
“Comedy is your chance to be in front of people, to have your voice and say what you feel,” says Zarling. “Yes, there are forces trying to work against you. But no matter who the president is, that doesn’t stop you from making your friends’ lives better. That doesn’t stop you from reaching out and making your community better,” even in seemingly small ways.
When Zarling performs, she doesn’t talk much about being trans. “When you’re a performer, there are things you want to talk about…[and] being trans is sometimes the least interesting thing about me,” she says. She has a vibrant social life and loves to travel (so far this year, she’s visited Dublin and Belfast, Ireland, and driven across the continental U.S. twice); she teaches improv for business; every summer, she runs the comedy unit at a weeklong leadership camp in Alabama for kids ages 10 to 18.
But, she’s aware that in many cases, she’s the first trans person some of her audience members will get to know, and when they leave, this little piece of her will leave with them. At the very least, “they’ll be like, ‘Okay, maybe trans people just want to go pee?’” she says with a laugh.
At the show, Charlottesville fans can expect a bunch of characters, created with help from the audience. There will likely be a blind taste test (of…something), definitely a sing-along to the Violent Femme’s “Blister in the Sun” (“Wisconsin’s most famous band,” says Zarling), and a bit formed around a character created from a prop that Zarling will find in a local thrift store the day of the performance.
The thrifted prop bit has proven to Zarling that with comedy, she’s accomplishing exactly what she hopes.
While performing the show in California, she found a luchador mask and created a character called the Luchador Life Coach. “Who hates their job?!” she yelled out to the audience. A woman raised her hand—she was a paralegal dreaming of being a costume designer. “Who needs a costume designer?!” the Luchador Life Coach yelled. Four or five people raised their hands—one of them, a burlesque dancer, gave the paralegal her card. Zarling returned to that same comedy group about a year later, hoping to see the paralegal—but the woman couldn’t make it; she was working on a costume for one of her design clients.
Now Zarling doesn’t just say she changes lives through comedy—she knows she actually does it. “I have tangible evidence!” she cries, throwing her arms to the sides, sending a small cloud of powdered sugar onto her black sweater. But she doesn’t even notice—she’s just going with it.
When New York-based comedian and actress Ashley Gavin met Jerry Seinfeld, she asked him when he last bombed a show. Seinfeld’s answer? “At a party last New Year’s Eve.”
“I bombed a show last week. Everybody bombs,” Gavin says. “People think it stops happening.”
She feels less likely to fall flat when performing stand-up comedy than improv. For Gavin, stand-up offers fewer logistical barriers, it’s easier to practice, and there’s no one to blame but yourself if you fail. That’s why five years ago, she left Upright Citizens Brigade—the sketch comedy group whose original cast included Amy Poehler and Matt Walsh, among others—to pursue her stand-up, acting, and writing career.
Before joining the Brigade, Gavin studied computer science at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. After graduating, she designed and taught a computer programming course at the nonprofit Girls Who Code, partnered on a project with Google, and worked at a another tech company. While Gavin calls her tech experience “really fun,” she says it’s not funny, so audiences at her shows don’t hear much about her early professional pursuits.
Gavin delivered her first stand-up routine during an open mic night at The Lantern in New York City. It went so well that once she finished, she remembers thinking, “Oh. This is what I should be doing.” The performance launched a flourishing career. She’s on the heels of a recent sold-out show at the Times Square comedy club Carolines on Broadway, and her current tour takes her up and down the East and West coasts, headlining at colleges and clubs nationwide.
Gavin is also working on a movie script, and her online miniseries, “Gay Girl Straight Girl,” has received over 400,000 views on YouTube. The show provides an absurd yet realistic representation of the dynamic between two female friends with different sexual orientations. In episode two, “Gay Girl Teaches Straight Girl How to Work Out,” Gay Girl (Gavin) takes a reluctant Straight Girl (Gavin’s writing partner Lee Hurst) on a run. Straight Girl, wearing a “Resting Brunch Face” shirt, doesn’t fare well on Gay Girl’s athletic regimen.
Gavin performs on November 17 at the Paramount, as part of the eighth annual United Nations of Comedy Tour along with comedians Mike Recine, Antoine Scott, and Funnyman Skiba. So what might you hear at her show?
“A lot of stuff on feminism. That’s my most-covered thing. There will be some stuff on my being gay, some stuff on race and class,” Gavin says. “I’m offering my unique perspective on topics that have been talked about thousands of times. Like Oreos.”
Lately, Gavin likes to talk about the “deeply emotional” aspects of daily life—like her dad dying when she was a child, the ups and downs of her career, and a recent terrible breakup.
“They’re dark, but I think about those things as weird social commentary. We all have those things in common. I don’t think we talk about those things very often and in public,” says Gavin.
Gavin’s sexuality is another aspect of her identity that she feels gets caught in a cycle of receiving too much or too little attention. As a gay female, it’s been difficult for her to book acting spots. She must choose whether she wants to be “flamboyantly gay,” or totally avoid the topic.
“I’m not visually gay enough to play a gay woman on TV,” Gavin says. “In auditions where I play a woman in a young [heterosexual] couple, or a mom, I have a tell. The only roles I ever land are ones where sexuality is totally not present.” And Gavin says that’s difficult, because, “People don’t realize how present sexuality is. If you look at any commercial ever, it’s there.”
Gavin’s routine doesn’t focus entirely on her sexuality. The jokes that explore her experience as a gay woman take place during her routine’s first few minutes, to “get them out of the way,” Gavin says. But even a short bit creates challenges.
“I could do a joke about loving Oreos and it could become a joke about how gay people love Oreos,” says Gavin. “Not being a straight white male, my jokes are filtered through the thoughts that other people have.”
She is especially frustrated by the cycle movie studios create when they hire heterosexual and cisgender big-name actors and actresses to play LGBTQ+ roles in order to draw crowds.
“There are no gay actors in that category because there are so few roles for gay people. Those parts simply don’t exist for gay actors in a truly significant way,” Gavin says. “How could those gay actors ever get to the point where they’re taken seriously for an Oscar film about being gay?” Despite the hurdles, she’ll continue to push against the stigmas and typecasting. It’s another facet in Gavin’s career where she is not afraid to fall flat.
New York-based comedian and actress Ashley Gavin performs at the Paramount as part of the United Nations of Comedy Tour on November 17.
There’s a lot to discover about stand-up comedian Cliff Cash, a self-declared explorer and lover of the outdoors. On his Blue Ridge Parkway Comedy Tour, the North Carolinian travels 590 miles from Greenville, South Carolina, to Fairfax, Virginia, stopping at seven locations where he takes his audience on an intense, emotional journey through topics of death, loss, divorce, racism, homophobia, and war—all while keeping the laughter afloat.
One of the most popular syndicated radio shows in America is helmed by Bobby Bones, something that country music fans have known for years. The Arkansas native is funny, honest and unscripted—Bones once got Taylor Swift to offer dating advice to his show’s intern and do a reading from the Titanic movie script. Since 2013, his self-deprecating humor and candor about his personal life have accompanied the morning drive for millions of fans across the U.S., and now he’s dishing it live in a stand-up format on the Red Hoodie Comedy Tour.