Grand Rapids finally has its very own live, late-night talk show. Tonight Tonight premiered at The Holiday Bar, back in August 2016, created by local comedians Andy Bledsoe and Stu McCallister. The show features guests such as Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, Eric Zane and rotating local comedians.
There was a time, only a few years ago, when the Grand Rapids Improv Festival didn’t have a single all-female group in its lineup.
Taking note, a group of women came together in 2015 to fill that void with Funny Girls, a mixed-media collective of female-identifying comedians, writers, bloggers, vloggers and more.
On a random Wednesday in December, I decided to meander down to Louie's Trophy House Grill to participate in Open Mic Night, not having done so for months. After ordering the first of my standard Bell's Two Hearted Ale pre-game beers, I sat down with host Megan Dooley to chit-chat for a bit and catch up on life. But before too long, she let me in on this particular night's little secret.
It’s safe to say that rising stand-up comedian Shane Mauss has been on the best trip of his life over the last year.
If there’s one thing longtime stand-up comedian Alonzo Bodden knows, it’s the healing power of humor. From donating a kidney to his brother to confronting institutionalized racism onstage, Bodden is a big believer in laughter as medicine for those who are hurting in mind, body or soul.
Many will remember him best from his two seasons on NBC’s reality competition series Last Comic Standing, where he won the grand prize during season three back in 2004.
When you have Canadian actor John Dunsworth on the phone with friend and fellow actor Pat Roach, don’t expect to get in too many serious questions. The Trailer Park Boys duo talk about their tour in and out of character — all while bantering back and forth with each other like they have for 11 seasons. Here’s just some of our conversation, discussing drinking, legalizing marijuana and even this month’s election.
Kathleen Madigan is eager to celebrate her 51st birthday on stage in Kalamazoo.
A veteran of standup, Madigan already knows about the area’s great beer selection, asking fans to tweet bar recommendations for her post-Mermaid Lady Tour performance birthday festivities.
Hannibal Buress is full of surprises — just look back to this past February. The comedian made a special unannounced guest appearance at Dave Chappelle’s show in DeVos Performance Hall, then upped the ante by headlining his own pop-up show the next day at the Pyramid Scheme. And to make matters more interesting, he did all of this in the midst of a snowstorm.
If you asked a teenage Michael Kosta what tennis meant to him, he’d tell you, “It’s no laughing matter.”
After all, the now 36-year-old comedian grew up in Ann Arbor playing competitively before going on to win four Big Ten titles with the University of Illinois. It was getting serious. But when it came time for the pro circuit, Kosta topped at number 864 in the world, earning around $11,000 over four years. That’s when he began to see some humor in competition.
Music comedy legend and pop culture icon “Weird Al” Yankovic has titled his latest adventure the “Mandatory World Tour.” It’s a joke, of course, on the cyclical nature of the entertainment industry, which he finally found himself free from after 32 years under a major label recording contract. His latest LP, 2014’s Mandatory Fun, was his first to ever debut at Number One on the Billboard Charts, and solidified his status as the biggest-selling comedy recording artist in history. REVUE had the rare chance to pick Al’s one-of-a-kind brain last month, and found out why he reluctantly embraced social media, why he turns to his teenage daughter for tips on new targets to spoof, and more.