Comedy | Live Culture | Seven Days | Vermont's Independent Voice
Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Posted By on Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 12:35 PM

In celebration of the annual Vermont's Funniest Comedian Competition, which runs Wednesday through Friday, October 26 through 28, at the Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington, all this week we're posting a daily version of our weekly Joke of the Week feature. Today's dose of local hilarity comes to us from Burlington's Paul Church. Take it away, Paul …

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Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Posted By on Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 1:05 PM

In celebration of the annual Vermont's Funniest Comedian Competition, which runs Wednesday through Friday, October 26 through 28, at the Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington, all this week we're posting a daily version of our ongoing Joke of the Week feature. Today's dose of local hilarity comes to us from Winooski's Beth Norton. Take it away, Beth …

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Monday, October 24, 2016

Posted By on Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 6:00 AM

It's Monday, which means it's time for your weekly dose of locavore levity: the Joke of the Week! But guess what? In celebration of the annual Vermont's Funniest Comedian Competition, which runs Wednesday through Friday, October 26 through 28, at the Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington, we'll be posting a new joke every day this week. Kicking off our week of local hilarity is Burlington's Annie Russell. Take it away, Annie…

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Thursday, October 20, 2016

Posted By on Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 6:30 AM

click to enlarge On Jealousy, Jokes and English Muffin Pizzas: Dan Bolles and Steve Waltien Interview Mike Birbiglia
Courtesy of Mike Birbiglia
Mike Birbiglia
Mike Birbiglia is a comedian, actor, director, writer and English muffin pizza savant. His latest film, Don't Think Twicecenters on a close-knit NYC improv comedy troupe that begins to splinter when individual members attract the attention of a network sketch-comedy show called "Weekend Live." It's a not-so-subtle stand-in for "Saturday Night Live," long the holy grail for improv comedians. 

In the thoughtful, shambling style that has become his signature, Birbiglia explores themes of jealousy and ambition. Perhaps most potently, he also ponders the inevitable moment when aging artists are forced to confront Peter Pan syndrome and reconcile creative passions with the desire for conventional stability.

Birbiglia stars in the film alongside the likes of Keegan-Michael Key ("Key & Peele") and Gillian Jacobs ("Community"). Among the film's other notable comedic talents is Vermont's Steve Waltien, who plays the supporting (OK, minor) character Hugh Finn. Waltien is a Shelburne native and an alum of the iconic Chicago improv theater Second City. He's presently a writer on Jon Stewart's forthcoming animated HBO series. (Full disclosure: He is also one of this writer's oldest and dearest friends.)

On Sunday, October 23, Birbiglia brings his new show, "Thank God for Jokes," to the Flynn MainStage in Burlington. Ahead of that performance, we checked in via email to ask him about comedy, his new movie and his mastery of English muffin pizzas. 

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Monday, October 17, 2016

Posted By on Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 4:00 AM

It's Monday, which means it's time for your weekly dose of locavore levity: the Joke of the Week! This week's joke comes from Burlington expat and current Baltimore resident Richard Bowen. Take it away, Richard…

"I ain't goin' out like this." — The last words of a guy who was about to go to the club but realized his outfit was whack and then died.

About that joke
Says Bowen: "If I had a nickel for every time I have turned a popular phrase or idiom into a joke, I would guess that I would have 50 to 60 nickels." 

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Thursday, October 13, 2016

Posted By on Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 1:25 PM

click to enlarge Comedian Jim Breuer on Heavy Metal and Baseball
Jim Thorpe
Jim Breuer
When Jim Breuer swings through Burlington this weekend for a two-night, five-show run at the Vermont Comedy Club, he'll be doing so as part of his current standup comedy tour, "Marriage Warrior." He will not, sadly, be bringing his band.

That's right. Breuer, the veteran comic and actor — you might know him as Goat Boy from "Saturday Night Live" or the stoner Brian from Half Baked — has a band. And good one at that. Jim Breuer and the Loud & Rowdy recently released their debut album, Songs From the Garage, on heralded heavy metal label Metal Blade Records. That Breuer is now label mates with the likes of GWAR and Cattle Decapitation should give you some idea of just how legit his new venture is. The record itself will fill in the rest.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Posted By on Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 1:54 PM

click to enlarge Seven Questions for Judah Friedlander
Courtesy of Judah Friedlander
Judah Friedlander
Comedian Judah Friedlander is the World Champion. Of what, you ask? Try every-goddamn-thing. Best athlete? Check. Most tender lover? Check. Impossibly snazzy steez? Check, check.

Friedlander has been performing standup since 1989 and is known for roles in films such as Zoolander and Wet Hot American Summer and the TV comedies "30 Rock" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." He developed his World Champ schtick as a pointed satire of narcissism and braggadocio in modern culture. But over the years, Friedlander has shifted his critiques of American and global exceptionalism and begun to use his excellence at everything for good. He's become not merely the champion of the world, but a champion for it, a gruff voice of reason and righteousness in increasingly uncertain times.

Friedlander performs a two-night, four-show run this Friday and Saturday, July 29 and 30, at the Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington . Seven Days spoke with the Champ by phone to play a quick round of Seven Questions.

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Saturday, April 9, 2016

Posted By on Sat, Apr 9, 2016 at 9:00 AM

What I'm Watching: Duane Roelands' "Joke Life" Vines
via vine.co/DWRoelands
Duane Roelands, internet comedy genius
Twenty years ago, when I first stumbled across a website that comprehensively listed all of the samples and arcane references on the Beastie Boys’ masterpiece Paul’s Boutique, I remember thinking, Aha! Someone has figured out what to do with this “internet” thing!

I know Paul’s Boutique backwards and forwards, and for years have marveled at and puzzled over its array of funky, witty samples. The album’s producers, the fabled Dust Brothers, plucked basslines from the Eagles, single guitar notes from Mountain and scads of musical and verbal ephemera from decades of American music, television and film. The album remains a remarkable achievement. But, as enjoyable as it is, Paul’s Boutique is also incredibly densely layered, its musical fragments and obscure name-checks fairly begging the listener to unpack them.

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Thursday, October 22, 2015

Posted By on Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 1:24 PM

Bernie Sanders Plays The Bongos To Ben Harper's ‘Burn One Down’

Bernie breaks it down with "Burn One Down."

Posted by The Huffington Post on Wednesday, October 21, 2015
There has been no shortage of funny Sen. Bernie Sanders videos throughout the early presidential primary season. There was the "Bernie Sanders Is Not Boring" sketch for Funny Or Die. There was the "Bernie Damn Sanders" mashup. And, of course, there was the cold open segment with Larry David as Sanders last weekend on "Saturday Night Live." (BTW, Bernie responded to SNL's sketch with his own impression of David on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" last night.) But yesterday, while everyone else was getting their Back to the Future on, the folks at the Huffington Post quietly raised the bar for bizarro Bernie bits with what might be the funniest Sanders video yet: Sanders playing the bongo part to Ben Harper's "Burn One Down" at last week's Dem debate on CNN.

Obviously, the title of Harper's earnest stoner ballad makes the song rife for a Sanders parody. And that proves doubly true given the weed legislation segment of the debate, which HuffPo video editors Oliver Noble and Ben Craw handle masterfully. But the real brilliance of HuffPo's video is that it tweaks a key Sanders trait that most parodies have thus far overlooked: his emphatically percussive gesticulation. Brilliant.

Click here to watch the video on HuffPo.    

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Thursday, July 23, 2015

Posted By on Thu, Jul 23, 2015 at 3:42 PM

Vermont Comedy Club to Open in November
Dan Bolles
Natalie Miller and Nathan Hartswick in front of the future VCC
Stop me if you've heard this one before. A horse, a priest and Donald Trump walk into a bar, look around and say, "Holy shit. It's a comedy club in Burlington!"

OK, so maybe my punchline needs a little work. But starting the third week of November I could brush up on my joke construction at the Vermont Comedy Club. No joke. Co-owners, comedy moguls and sickeningly cute married couple Natalie Miller and Nathan Hartswick — seen above in a photo taken by a guy named Dan Bowles, which is kinda freakin' me out — announced earlier this week that they have finally broken ground on their long-awaited comedy club.

The venue, which will take up residence in the old Armory building on Main Street in Burlington — formerly home Sh-Na-Na's and Hunt's and also occupied by the Hilton Garden Inn — will open in November with the 2015 Vermont's Funniest Comedian competition. Appropriate for the soon-to-be epicenter of local comedy. (Obviously, based on the previous joke, I will not be competing.)

In a press release announcing the groundbreaking, Miller and Hartswick and developer Erik Hoekstra said a bunch of stuff you'd expect to see in a glowing press release. ("We're totes pumped, you guys." "This will be great for the children." "I just wanna thank God and give 110%." "Feel the Bern." And so on.)

OK, I made up those quotes, because I hate reading press releases. But the point is this: After well more than a year of planning and speculation, VCC is going to open. For real. And that's great news. (Also cool news: The team behind hot BTV eatery Butch + Babe's is designing the VCC menu.)

Stay tuned for updates — and better jokes — as events warrant.


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