It was recently announced that Todd Barry will bring his Crowd Work Tour to Philadelphia early next year when he will perform at The Urban Saloon on Sunday, January 20th. As the name suggests Barry’s performance on the show will be completely crowd interaction instead of his usual written material. You can find more information on Facebook.
This Wednesday Tight Six expands from their weekly open mic to present Not Jazz at Chris’ Jazz Cafe (1421 Sansom St.) a show featuring “a mix of stand-up, music (not jazz), fun, not jazz, games, and other spontaneous insanity.” The show will feature comedy from Doogie Horner, Juliet Hope Wayne, Alex Grubard, Jim Ginty, Sidney Gantt, and Robert X.
Comedian and storyteller Juliet Hope Wayne has been nominated for the 2012 Philebrity Award for General Fabulousness. The Philebrity awards are determined by online poll that will be open until Wednesday, December 19 at noon.
This Tuesday Rittenhouse Comedy at Noche will put on its final open mic at the Chestnut Street bar. The night will be a celebration and a good-bye to the Tuesday night stage stand-ups have been testing out material on for the past two years.
This Thursday, Philly Improv Theater will host the return of Bing Supernova’s Cavalcade of Fools, a stand-up comedy showcase hosted by the legendary comedian himself. This time around Bing will share the stage with guests Brendan Kennedy, Juliet Hope Wayne and Mike Rainey, with more surprise special guests promised.
The First Ladies of Comedy Fundraiser will take place this Friday at PHIT. The show will feature jokes performed by the significant others of some of Philly’s best comedians. All proceeds will go to Angel 34, a charity set up by Michelle Somishka, whose 2-year-old daughter Aubrey recently passed away from neuroblastoma. The show will be hosted by Mary Radzinski and jokes will be performed by Jaime Mulhern (Mike Rainey), Timaree Leigh (Carl Bocutti), Shannon Brown (Brendan Kennedy), MaryJo Butterly (Tim Butterly), Kim Broadbent (Chip Chantry), Lorraine Dean (Darryl Charles), Dennis Nguyen (Steve Miller-Miller) and Samantha Russell Craig (Fastball Pitcher Bob Gutierrez).
This Saturday, Rookie Card at The Raven Lounge will return with a show featuring stand-up comedian Brandon “Ketchup” Wilson, opening improv group The Self-Esteem Motivators, and Rookie Card will headline with a set inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. Rookie Card will also be saying goodbye to founding member Jake Alvarez, as it will be his last performance with the group.
Tickets are now on sale for Marc Maron’s return to Helium Comedy Club. The comedian, known for his WTF Podcast, will be performing at the Philadelphia club December 6-8. Get your tickets now, as the shows are sure to sell out.
Tonight, Polygon Comedy continues their series of independent comedy shows at a new venue: Milkboy Philadelphia (1100 Chestnut St.). Tonight’s show will feature improv from ApocaLips, Rosen & Milkshake, Adrift, and Rintersplint. Doors open at 7:00pm and showtime is 7:30. You can purchase tickets for tonight’s show online.
Tickets are available now for a stand-up comedy benefit show for the Childrens’ Hospital of Philadelphia. Pat Barker has put together a lineup featuring Chip Chantry, Darryl Charles, Tim Grill, James Hesky, and Doogie Horner to perform on Saturday, June 2 at the Stone Grill (1300 Blackwood Clementon Rd, Clementon NJ). Tickets are $20 and can be purchased by emailing Pat at pat@patbarkercomedy.com
This Saturday, May 19, Rookie Card‘s monthly show at The Raven Lounge (1718 Sansom St.) makes it’s weekend debut. The free show begins at 7:00pm and will feature stand-up comedian Tommy Highland, a secret improv team, and will end with an jam open to anyone in attendance.
This weekend, High Dramma Sketch Comedy will host another round of shows at the Walking Fish Theater (2509 Frankford Ave.) The show will run May 17-19 at 8:00pm and May 20 at 5:00pm. Tickets are $15 at the door and are also available online with a special “pay what you can” showing on May 17.
The 2012 Troika championship was held Saturday at The Sideshow with 3AM (Rob Baniewicz, Maggy Keegan, Jason Stockdale) taking home this year’s title. The team utilized a more traditional style of improvised scenes with their hook being that they all took place at, you guessed it, 3:00 AM. Runners up in this years competition were the CB Radio improv of the Mother Truckers (Mandy Dollar, Jess Snow, Sue Taney) and the improvised first date of Chaperone (Frank Farrell, Steve Kleinedler, Meredith Weir)
Rittenhouse Comedy‘s 2012 March Madness Comedy Competition continued last night at The Famous International Variety Show with Mike Logan and David Ray Ageykum moving on to the finals. Round 3 continues this week where four comedians will compete each night to move on to the finals, held on Tuesday, April 3 at Helium Comedy Club. Tonight, Laughs on Fairmount will feature Josh Bennett, Tim Ryan, Kevin Hurley and Alex Grubard. Tuesday’s show at Rittenhouse Comedy will feature Gordon Baker-Bone, Jeff McManus, Steve Lichtenstein, and Alex Pearlman. Thursday’s show at Center City Comedy will feature Steve Miller-Miller, Lisa Yost, Omar Scruggs, and Trevor Cunnion.
Submissions are still open for the 2012 F. Harold Comedy Festival. Interested stand-up comedians, sketch groups, and improv groups can email festival producer Rick Horner at ick1019@gmail.com. This year’s festival will be held April 24 through 29 at The Walnut Street Theater’s Studio 5.
Tonight, Rookie Card‘s monthly show returns to the Raven Lounge (1718 Sansom St. Philadelphia) with Rookie Card Presents: Obsessive and Compulsive. Tonight’s show will feature improv comedy from Rookie Card and Angry People Building Things and the stand-up comedy of Hillary Rea.
Philadelphia Improv group Rookie Card is on a search for new members and will be holding open auditions to add to their ranks. The group, which holds monthly shows at The Raven Lounge will hold auditions Saturday, April 7 from 11:00 AM until 5:00 PM. Interested improvisers should email RookieCardImprov@gmail.com to be scheduled for an audition time and location.
Rookie Card’s cast currently consists of Jake Alvarez, Darryl Charles, Marc Reber, Sue Taney and Tom Whitaker. They are two-time performers at both the Del Close Marathon and North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival as well as a 2011 selection to the Philadelphia Improv Festival and invitee to the 2011 Toronto Improv Festival. Rookie Card Presents: Obsessive and Compulsive is next Monday, March 26 at 9:00 PM at The Raven Lounge (1718 Sansom St. Philadelphia).
For a sample Rookie Card performance you can check out the video below, or see more on Rookie Card’s YouTube Page.
Signups have already begun for the second annual March Madness Comedy Competition. Comedians will compete in opening rounds held at various open mics throughout the city where audience vote will determine who moves on to the next round. To sign up, send an email with your name, phone number, email address, and how long you have been performing stand-up to bobbyfinstock77@gmail.com.
Improvisers can throw their names in the hat for the 2012 Troika tournament. Nine teams of three performers will be chosen at random to form new trios and compete to be named champion. Interested performers can send their name, contact info, and names of groups they have performed with (one interesting twist, the teams will be made of people who have never performed together before) to troikashow@gmail.com.
Finally, this week marks the return of a full two-week schedule of shows at Philly Improv Theater. You can find their full schedule on the PHIT website and, as always, the shows are also listed on our calendar.
Tonight, Rookie Card‘s monthly show at the Raven Lounge has a special Halloween theme. What does that mean? It means they will be giving out candy to those in attendance and will be giving out special prizes to audience members in costume. Joining them on the stage will be improv group Safe-Weird and stand-up Aaron Hertzog.
Chip Chantry’s One Man Show (With Special Guests) returns to the Philly Improv Theater tonight with it’s Halloween show featuring performances by: Eric Todd, Pat House, Tom Cassidy, a sketch from John Kensil, James Hesky and Mike Rainey, Story Time with Mike Rainey, The Feed with Jim Grammond and the first ever stand-up performance by Alex Dingley. Costumes are optional, but a prize will be given out for the best one.
Nominations for the 2011 Witout Awards will continue until this Friday night at 11:59 PM. Members of the Philadelphia comedy community are encouraged to make up to three nominations in each category – and to make sure they include their own name in parenthesis after their nominations. Nominees will be announced next week, with online voting taking place after that.
The Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania is starting a new political satire website FLACKcheck.org. A sister site to factcheck.org, Flack Check is designed to use the ancient art of humor to hold politicians accountable for what they say and do. More information about the project can be found online.
Auditions are being held at The Raven Lounge on Monday November 14 from 6:00 to 10:30PM for Quarter Life Crisis, a sitcom project described as “a narrative of transition and self discovery about three best friends who drop out of college during a quarter-life crisis”. Interested actors can contact deckmetellus@gmail.com to secure an audition slot.
Tonight at the Raven Lounge at 9PM, improv group Rookie Card will do a little something different with their monthly show. Rookie Card Presents: Not Rookie Card will feature groups that feature members of Rookie Card, got it. So, instead of seeing the gang all together you will get to see Sue Taney and Darryl Charles, along with the rest of Hate Speech Committee, Marc Reber will join the fellas of Rintersplit, Tom Whitaker will perform with I Do, and the night will be hosted by Jake Alvarez.
This Thursday, also at the Raven Lounge, Center City Comedy will celebrate their Third Anniversary with a show featuring favorite comics from around Philly. After the show, the guys will have a party upstairs at the Raven. More details to come later this week.
Philly Mag’s G Philly recently ran this article about the upcoming Q Festival. In it they talk to festival producer Alejandro Morales, as well as Greg Maughan of PHIT. Shows run at various venues throughout Philly from Monday, October 10 through Saturday, October 15th.
October will be a busy month for Philly comedy. In addition to the six week PHIT run and the Q Festival it is also the second annual Comedy Month. The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theater will feature three weeks of comedy from the Seventh Annual Philadelphia Improv Festival, The Fourth Annual Philly Sketchfest, and the first ever City Spotlight. We posted about the Improv Festival last week, and added all the shows to our calendar – and we will add more info about the rest of Comedy Month soon!
Super DPS wrote this review of Alex Gross and Ian Vaflor’sPro Mania Fringe Festival show. The review mentions performances by James Hesky, Joe Dougherty, Brendan Kennedy and Dennis Trafny. Check it out.
After a recent pizzadventure, I took a few minutes to shoot the breeze about pizza, comedy and pizza with prolific improv-ist Thomas J. Whitaker. Thomas has an affinity for acting, a knack for laughing, a quick wit, and has an emotional attachment for a movie from the 90′s featuring both Ninja’s and Turtles. He also used to sneak pies when his mom wasn’t looking… Hell yeah Thomas!! Thomas and his fellow improvsarios in Rookie Card are all over the place for Philly’s Fringe Festival. Be sure to check the out this Friday at their Philly Fringe Festival HOUSE PARTY!
Here’s the good stuff:
Pizza Pal Joe Moore: How much do you like pizza:
Thomas J. Whitaker: I love pizza! When I was a kid, my mom never let us have it because it was so fatty. But when she went out of town, my dad would grab a large pie for my brother and I.
PPJM: What is your favorite slice in Philly?
TJW: Mad Greek in West Philly.
PPJM: How often do you eat pizza?
TJW: Once a week, I will eat a large pizza in an evening.
PPJM: Are you into plain pizzas or toppings? Which toppings?
TJW: Pepperoni has always been my default, but I love black olive, mushroom, and anchovy.
PPJM: What is your favorite use of pizza in film, television or music?
TJW: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, when Mike and Don do the funeral music when they find the rotten pizza.
PPJM: Did your family have a pizza day? What day was it?
TJW: Friday, when everyone said “To hell with cooking!” or Tuesdays when mom was out of town.
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Welcome to WitOut, a blog about the Philadelphia comedy scene. Get in touch with us at contact@witout.net.
