Hey Portland! Eli Braden is in town for one night only (Friday, May 18), and you should try to go see him. Braden hilariously blows up the Twitters every day @EliBraden, and his music-based comedy is actually funny. I don’t say that lightly. I find most music-based comedy not funny and annoying because it’s, well, […]
Temple Lentz
Posted inComedy
Seriously, Check Out This Show
Curious Comedy Theater makes comedy. Improv, standup, sketch—you name it, they got it. A lot of their shows focus on improv, but once a year or so they do a show that’s all scripted. And the current show, Sketch Party Bingo, is fan-freaking-tastic. It’s been a bang-up month for comedy here in Portland, and because […]
Posted inComedy
Jon Benjamin Has a T-Shirt, and He Wants to Give It to You
Unless you’re a superfan, you may know Jon Benjamin better for his voice than for his face. He’s the voice of Sterling Archer on the awesome FX animated series Archer. He’s the voice of Bob Belcher on Fox’s Bob’s Burgers. And he’s been a voice in pretty much every weirdly funny animated series that got […]
Posted inComedy
WTF?! Marc Maron’s in Portland this Weekend
A week after Bridgetown, Marc Maron is coming to Portland. “I’ve got great timing,” he says about the fact that he’s showing up at Helium just days after our biggest comedy weekend of the year. “Maybe I should call it the Marc Maron Solo Comedy Festival.” Even though Maron missed Bridgetown, fellow comic James Adomian […]
Posted inBlogs
Bridgetown Comedy Fest: We Made It through Sunday
Everyone was dragging on Sunday, but the funny kept coming. The Delocated panel at the Bagdad had no shortage of technical difficulties—videos wouldn’t start, the lighting and mics were weird, but everyone seemed too exhausted to make a big deal about it. Watching Jon Glaser, Ali Farahnakian, Janeane Garofalo, Amy Schumer, and the rest of […]
Posted inBlogs
Bridgetown Comedy Fest: Silver Hot Pants and Danner Boots
The room was surprisingly packed when I got to the Mt. Tabor Theater on Saturday afternoon for the Humor Code. They were featuring four great comics (Pete Holmes, Myq Kaplan, Mary Mack and Jordan Morris), but the topic was kind of academic for 4pm on the third day of a 4-day comedy binge. Peter McGraw […]
Posted inBlogs
Night 2 at Bridgetown Comedy Fest
Comic Mike Bridenstine has a show. That show and occasional podcast, out of L.A., is called Roast the Week. He gets a handful of comics together, adds in some current events, and together they make fun of the week’s news and each other. Mostly, they make fun of each other. And it’s great. Last night, […]
Posted inBlogs
Bridgetown Comedy Fest: Hollywood Theatre Primetime
The sidewalk in front of the Mt. Tabor Theater was sick with comics last night, as people showed up to get their lanyards and wristbands, comics greeted old friends and bummed cigarettes from fans, and everyone tried to figure out where the hell they were supposed to go next. As soon as I got through […]
Posted inBlogs
Take a Class with a Bridgetown Comedy Fest Performer!
Okay, comedy nerds—this is pretty cool. Two of the guys who’ll be performing at this week’s Bridgetown Comedy Fest are each teaching a master class at Curious Comedy Theater this weekend. Matt Besser, a stand-up comedian who’s best known for his improv, is teaching a class in long-form improv on Saturday afternoon. He was one […]
Posted inComedy
This Weekend in Comedy: You Like Laughing, Don’t You?
Okay, so the Bridgetown Comedy Fest is less than a week away. That’s a whole lot of laughing, and if you’re not trained-up, well… things could get ugly. Get a few laughs in this weekend to keep things primed. Ben Bailey, that guy from Cash Cab, is at Helium this weekend. He’s pretty amusing, and […]
Posted inComedy
Local Comic/Chick Magnet Wins World Palindrome Championship
Mark Saltveit, a damn funny local comic who performs regularly at Helium, is also a palindromist. Which, he insists, is not only an actual word but also the title of his website and zine for palindrome enthusiasts. (For those playing at home who don’t know what a palindrome is, it’s a word or phrase that’s […]
Posted inComedy
Spicy News: So Dumb It’s Actually Kind of Funny
Q: What do you get when you take a handful of Portland comics, a bowl of spicy peppers and (I’m just spitballing here) more than a few bowls of weed? A: The Spicy News! Let’s not mince words here: The Spicy News is really fucking stupid. But it’s also weirdly compelling. In a nutshell, the […]