Comedy

Ton Johnson talks storytelling, comic collaboration, 2016 goals

November 5, 2015

//Though he says he tried and failed to be the class clown in high school, Milwaukee comedian Anton "Ton" Johnson eventually developed his material enough to give stand-up a belated try. Since he made his ...

Author Patrick Tomlinson prepares to launch ‘The Ark’

November 2, 2015

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo if you’re into the whole brevity thing, began yesterday. Writers throughout the country go on something of a creative crash diet to do the one thing everybody needs to...

Ozmi Osbourne talks comedy, honesty, Palestine

October 30, 2015

With about a year to his credit, Azmi Abdel-Hamid (better known as "Ozmi Osbourne") has no problem admitting he's new to doing stand-up. However, he's no stranger to the Milwaukee comedy scene. Before he steppe...

Bill Burr takes Riverside Theater on a wild ride

October 28, 2015

In this ongoing epoch of never-before-seen comic saturation that finds Netflix and iTunes releasing new stand-up specials at an astounding rate, every person who has ever told a joke beginning a podcast to talk...

Addie Blanchard starts strong in Milwaukee stand-up scene

October 27, 2015

During a six-month stint of comedic mass exodus that saw four of the city's strongest stand-up comics relocating to Chicago, another four funnymen heading to L.A., and one comedian even moving to Washington D.C...

Amy Schumer is coming to BMO Harris Bradley Center December 4

October 26, 2015

In a year that saw Amy Schumer partnering with Judd Apatow on Trainwreck, hosting SNL, winning an Emmy for her eponymous Comedy Central series, putting out her Live At The Apollo special on HBO, and crossing th...

Andy Kindler is coming to Club Garibaldi next year

October 14, 2015

Even if Milwaukee's comedy clubs are utterly failing to book notable comedians (unless you count Pauly Shore), you have to hand it to a small-yet-passionate group of independent promoters for filling the city's...

Sklars, Glaser, Dore bring laughs to Adler’s Fall Comedy Classic

October 12, 2015

Say what you will about the station's music rotation that pretty much ranges from The Offspring to Pearl Jam to that song where the dude yells "SAIL!" and back to The Offspring again, but FM102.1—and, more spec...

Kaitlin McCarthy produces results in local comedy

October 8, 2015

In the world of stand-up, the producer is one of the more thankless roles involved with a comedy show's execution. When an event goes as planned, kudos are almost exclusively allocated to the on-stage talent, w...

Tim Higgins talks improv, acting, elaborate beer passing

September 23, 2015

//If you've spent enough time in Milwaukee, you've probably seen Tim Higgins. The humorist has been teaching and performing improv at ComedySportz since 1992. He's dabbled in stand-up and acting. Perhaps h...

Barry Crimmins adds a comedy show to his Milwaukee Film Festival itinerary

September 23, 2015

On Monday, the Milwaukee Film Festival announced that veteran comedian Barry Crimmins would be coming to town to attend two screenings of Call Me Lucky, the Bobcat Goldthwait documentary about the influential h...

Steve Martin and Martin Short will bring double the Martin to Riverside Theater in November

September 21, 2015

// There are comedy legends, and then there are Comedy Legends. Steve Martin and Martin Short clearly belong in the latter, capitalized category. Alone and together, the two Martins have redefined stand-up co...

Hannibal Buress rises to the occasion at Riverside Theater

September 21, 2015

// Hannibal Buress is having a moment right now.Since packing Turner Hall in February of 2014, the comedian/actor's star has grown exponentially, oddly, due in part to being among the first to publicly re...

Nate Seek returns home with new perspective

September 16, 2015

// Milwaukee's stand-up comedy scene experiencing a state of transition. This summer alone has seen four of the city's best and most active comedic performers leave Milwaukee to see how their material fares i...

Jen Kirkman is manic, magnificent in Turner Hall debut

September 10, 2015

// With her New York Times best-selling book I Can Barely Take Care Of Myself: Tales From A Happy Life Without Kids, her self-flagellating Netflix special I’m Gonna Die Alone (And I Feel Fine), and her Drunk ...

Mike Berg is impressing with depressing comedy

August 28, 2015

The struggle many comedians face is the task of harvesting laughs from difficult topics. However, if framed and delivered correctly, literally no topic is off limits. Less than a year into stand-up, Mike Berg h...

Kevin Nealon and Norm Macdonald bring SNL cachet to Northern Lights Theater

August 24, 2015

Though neither Kevin Nealon nor Norm Macdonald presently boast the status of internationally quoted body builder, network sitcom namesake, and edgy ESPY Awards host that, between them, they once did, the twin b...

Bill Burr will perform a pair of Riverside Theater shows on October 27

August 20, 2015

With all due respect to Louis CK, Aziz Ansari and other top-tier contemporary comic talents, you'd be hard-pressed to find a comedian in today's saturated stand-up comedy market who has more loyal fans than Bil...

Jacob Bach’s Yeah, Bro! podcast straightens out gay misconceptions

August 20, 2015

As part of long-running The Improvised Musical (aka T.I.M.) and a variety of other ComedySportz productions, Jacob Bach has honed his ability to pulls laughs out of audience-inspired unfamiliarity. Having a fir...

The Ryan Rumble: Comedy from a common name

August 19, 2015

You have to hand it to Milwaukee comedians for continually churning out new, interesting, and sometimes just plain weird ideas for stand-up showcases. In recent months, comics have ridiculed videos of their old...