Comedy

KC Michelson looks back on his time in Milwaukee before L.A. departure

May 22, 2015

Though he got his start in stand-up when he was growing up in the Twin Cities, KC Michelson says Milwaukee shaped him as a comedian. After taking time off to study film, Michelson returned to stage in 2013. Sin...

Holy crap! Norm Macdonald is coming to Milwaukee in August

Tyler Maas

May 18, 2015

Our recent Tracklist outlining 12 non-festival Milwaukee shows worth checking out this summer has one especially egregious omission. We're not sure how we missed this last week, but Saturday Night Live alumnus,...

The Kids In The Hall come back to Milwaukee better than ever

Tyler Maas

May 18, 2015

Seminal Canadian sketch troupe The Kids In The Hall is still among the most quoted, referenced, and revered commodities in all of comedy. Though the comedic quintet's collective influence continues, now 20 year...

Have jokes, will travel: Matty Field’s material finds an audience in Milwaukee

Tyler Maas

May 13, 2015

Matty Field can be counted upon to regularly take to area stages to delight Milwaukee audiences with his rapidly growing and ever-improving arsenal of risque, unabashedly absurd, and downright hilarious materia...

Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally delight in poetic, profane Riverside Theater sellout

Tyler Maas

May 11, 2015

Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally are regarded as something of a power couple in contemporary comedy. The unconventional pairing of comic actors—put on amplified display in the uncomfortable and uproariously fun...

Chris Hardwick makes dick jokes for science at Pabst Theater

Rob Wieland

May 9, 2015

Scott Fitzgerald is famously misquoted as saying there are no second acts in American lives. Anyone can prove the folly of that quote by jumping onto the Internet where celebrities reinvent themselves as the su...

Brian Posehn will anchor the Milwaukee Comedy Festival on August 9

Tyler Maas

May 1, 2015

The Milwaukee Comedy Festival has been a late summer fixture in the city since, to be perfectly honest, before Milwaukee even had a viable comedy scene worth celebrating. A decade after what was jokingly referr...

Underwear Comedy Party strips stand-up to the bare essentials

Tyler Maas

April 30, 2015

Given the daunting task of stepping on stage armed with only a microphone and a batch of deeply personal thoughts, feelings, and past experiences in effort to make a room full people laugh against their will, s...

Janeane Garofalo turns digression into comedy gold at Turner Hall

Matt Wild

April 29, 2015

Bob Dylan famously bucked at the notion of being the voice of his generation. He was simply a song and dance man, the eternally grouchy singer-songwriter would tell reporters, not an icon or a prophet. To this ...

Haircuts and hilarity: The Jessie Mahne story

Tyler Maas

April 23, 2015

Jessie Mahne does it all. Since first taking the stage in 2007, the Swiss Army Knife of Milwaukee comedy has done stand-up, sketch, improv, musical comedy, and character acting. Off stage, the versatile humoris...

Gary Zajackowski plans to bring laughs to Midwest Gaming Classic

Tyler Maas

April 9, 2015

During his four years on stage, Gary Zajackowski hasn't shied away from taking his material to strange, off-putting, and occasionally very alienating places. The unofficial wild card of Milwaukee comedy's body ...

Kevin Hart matches the hype in first show of Riverside Theater run

Tyler Maas

April 3, 2015

Seeing how quickly tickets sold for what became a six-show Pabst Theater occupation by Dave Chappelle last September, the theater group decided to go ahead and immediately book six shows—at the even higher capa...

Nathan Timmel turns loneliness into literature

Tyler Maas

April 2, 2015

Back in December, we introduced you to Johnny Beehner, a Milwaukee based stand-up comedian who makes a living in comedy clubs throughout the U.S. and Canada. Like Beehner, Iowa City-based career comic Nathan Ti...

Maria Bamford takes Turner Hall on a weird, wonderful ride

Tyler Maas

April 2, 2015

Over the course of her quarter-century comedy career, Maria Bamford has earned her reputation as one of stand-up's most erratic, dynamic, and altogether strange talents. Known for her cavalcade of cooky charact...

The Goodnight Milwaukee Show revamps, returns

Tyler Maas

March 27, 2015

As we're learning with the ongoing hunt for Jon Stewart's eventual Daily Show successor, witnessing James Corden enter his first week in a late night job once held by Craig Ferguson, and seeing David Letterman ...

Bob’s Burgers LIVE! brings comedy, music, butts to Riverside Theater

Rob Wieland

March 23, 2015

Shows like Family Guy and The Simpsons are the anchors of Fox’s Sunday night of animation. Other shows have come and gone, but few have built a cult audience like Bob’s Burgers. The cartoon chronicle of the Bel...

Jim Jefferies takes on guns, immunization, his own fans at Pabst Theater

Tyler Maas

March 16, 2015

Over the course of his 15-plus years on stage in his native Australia, the United Kingdom, and, now, here in the states, Jim Jefferies hasn't shied away from speaking his mind (usually with humorous results). A...

Josh Ballew makes the most of hosting

Tyler Maas

March 13, 2015

When last you read direct mention of Milwaukee comic Josh Ballew on Milwaukee Record, he was boldly joining us for "The Longest Brunch" at Ashley's Que. Yet beyond that ill-fated feast, Ballew's name can invari...

Bo Burnham comes back to Pabst Theater better than ever

Tyler Maas

March 12, 2015

Sure, Bo Burnham may have gotten his comedy career off the ground as a teenager with a flurry of goofy songs posted to YouTube. However, it quickly became apparent that those viral music videos berthed in his a...

Kids In The Hall will perform at Riverside Theater May 15

Matt Wild

March 3, 2015

The list of influential ’80s/’90s sketch comedy shows runs surprisingly long—The State, The Ben Stiller Show, Mr. Show, a season or two of Saturday Night Live—but nothing comes close to the influence and surrea...