Ah, politics. This election cycle has been more of a cluster than usual, and it’s got most of us feeling a little overwhelmed. But, rest assured, you won’t find any impressions of the current candidates on the stage at Studio Theatre — your monotony will be thoroughly broken by POTUS Among Us: Beyond Belief. This provocative production will be there for the next few weekends with a rotating cast of talented improv performers curated by Washington Improv Theater. And, if the performance I attended is any indication, they will spend every show playing the most ridiculous personas possible, characters who very well might rival even the most ludicrous nominee the U.S. currently has on offer.

If you’ve ever done improv, you’ve dreamed of the reward of being in a challenging show like POTUS Among Us. If you’ve never done improv, but you have an inkling of how hard it is, multiply that rating by a lot to get to the difficulty level of planning and executing a production like this. Every story needs a structure, and although improv usually requires the performers just wing it, this concept demands a framework. And guiding the troupe through that outline takes a deft directing hand — fortunately this piece is steered beautifully by longtime vets John Carroll and Meghan Faulkner.

The show is framed as a whirlwind political tour of the country, starring a motley panel of candidates who bring all their tumultuous history, impractical ideas, and emotional baggage with them. As with all good improv, audience participation is part of the process of creating the magic, and each character gets an initial input (a stance, belief, or personality trait they have to incorporate). The audience gets the profound pleasure of making up these inputs, plus silly monikers for each candidate. They’re also involved in some other fun games as the evening evolves.

Cast and audience interactions are handled by the Moderators, played by Alex Kazanas and Kate Symes. These two strong personalities definitely have the authoritative juice they need to anchor this wildly gyrating spectacle, and it helps that they are both stalwart improv experts. I’d trust them with a real debate. On the evening I attended, the rest of the cast included Darnell Eaton, Sarah Herhold, Eva Lewis, Turner Meeks, Jordana Mishory, Erick Acuña Pereda, Chelsea Shorte, and Ali Stahr. Each of these seasoned performers found their groove early on, and absolutely nailed the task at hand. The picture is made complete by some wonderful ‘atmospheric’ actors who play secret service agents and sundry on the edges of the action: Mark Chalfant, Caroline Chen, Lauren Gabel, Abby Haverty, Carly Kraybill, Anna Nelson, Chris Olinger, Alissa Platz, Kelly Shannon, Mikki Smith, and Nick Tschernia.

It’s exciting to see this cast bop all over the stage, approaching mics on the side for disembodied “breaking news bulletins” and “attack ads” (some of the audience requested attacks on certain candidates), improvising answers for the Q&A portion, battling their opponents during the debate, nimbly pivoting for walk-on offers, serving as talk show hosts, etc. It’s easy to see they are having as much fun as the audience. One by one, the candidates are whittled down by audience votes, until just two remain, and these will be different every night.

The other component that changes for each show is the special guest. Washington Improv Theater has gathered an impressive list of important political luminaries to attend specific nights. The night I attended, I was shocked to see a face I had seen on TV just a few days before — Allan Lichtman. This globally recognized lecturer and author is known for his method of predicting election winners, known as the “13 Keys” to a successful election campaign. If a nominee manages to pass his test, he declares that they will be the winner, and he’s been correct 9 out of the last 10 elections.

The guest gets their moments throughout the show, greeting the audience, making fun choices for the cast, and contributing suitable knowledge to the story. It’s a feat that could only be accomplished in DC. The list of guests is visible on WIT’s ticket page, and I encourage you to check it out and see if there are any local heroes you gravitate toward before committing to buy tickets for a certain evening. But, for me, the guest is just a bonus — my heroes are the ones leaving it all out there between the curtains.

When you see a lot of theater, you become accustomed to seeing certain faces. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, the actors recognize you, too. The dynamic becomes an unspoken agreement: we’re all here to support one another, so don’t sweat anything. It’s all good. This forgiving familiarity is automatically built in to an improv performance. Admittedly that’s disarming, but it’s also what makes the art form so unique and valuable. If this sounds intriguing to you, give POTUS Among Us: Beyond Belief a few hours of your time.

Running Time: Two hours, including a ten-minute intermission.

POTUS Among Us: Beyond Belief plays through November 2, 2024, presented by Washington Improv Theater performing in the ground-floor Shargai space at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th Street NW, Washington, DC. Purchase tickets ($20) online.

COVID Safety: Masks recommended but not required. WIT’s complete policy is here.

SEE ALSO:
WIT’s hit election-year satire ‘POTUS Among Us’ returns this fall (news story, September 6, 2024)

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I know it’s not proper theater criticism to say this — but Alison Leiby’s story about having an abortion does not need the critique of a cis-white man to highlight its successes. So I’ll simply tell you: go see it.

You have through June 24 left to see it at the Kennedy Center Theater Lab. I’ll even do a solid and include the link to buy tickets. There are still spots available for this show, and this show deserves to be sold out during its stop in DC.

So go see it, really. You can stop reading. We have your clicks logged.

Still here? Need additional convincing? From me?

Alison Leiby is a comedian you haven’t heard of… yet. She’s a writer for Broad City and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Her humor is personable, relatable, and charming enough to generate nonstop laughter from the audience. But she also gives the feeling that you would want to be friends with her. My colleague in attendance remarked how much she would like to grab dinner with Leiby.

The show is only peripherally about abortion. I’m pretty sure I will use the word abortion more times in this review than Leiby does in her story. The topics she talks about (spoiler-free list) go from Barbie, her mom, neurosurgeons, birds, sex education, and jeans. When she comes to the topic of her abortion, it is as anticlimactic as you wouldn’t expect, given the title of the show, and this is the crux of the show’s message: “Abortion should be anticlimactic.”

Leiby’s stories remind us with a gentle, empathetic, and very inclusive approach (she comments on her perspective as a cis white woman with blue-state access to abortion) that sharing her personal experiences with abortion is the way she finds the most effective method for removing the taboo over the topic: “The more we talk about it openly and honestly, the less of a catastrophe it is.”

She shares, in a familiar and comforting fashion, how her specific experience did not evoke a sense of drama for her, detailing how the biggest challenge was choosing what to wear. She went with leggings, as did the others in the Planned Parenthood waiting room.

The format of the show is not quite stand-up, not quite theatrical performance. This is the format of adopting comedy shows as a vehicle for storytelling, à la Hannah Gadsby stand-up. Leiby is sharing a personal story, on the one-year anniversary of Roe v. Wade being struck down by the Supreme Court. Against this backdrop, Leiby ends the show by suggesting that we should open up the conversation for others to share their stories on abortion.

This is an audience that is receptive to her message. This isn’t an audience that needs to have its mind changed. Leiby acknowledges these privileges in her show: “This is not the experience for women in red states, or women of color or people who may not have the money or time to travel across the country for this procedure.” And maybe Leiby does not intend to change anyone’s mind. She’s just telling a story.

This is an important story to share. I hope to hear Leiby’s message spread far and wide.

Running Time: 70 minutes.

Alison Leiby: Oh God, A Show About Abortion plays through June 24, 2023, in the Theater Lab at Kennedy Center, 2700 F Street NW, Washington, DC. Tickets (starting at $39) are available at the box office, online, or by calling (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-1324.

The program for Oh God, A Show About Abortion is online here.

COVID Safety: Masks are optional in all Kennedy Center spaces for visitors and staff. If you prefer to wear a mask, you are welcome to do so. See Kennedy Center’s complete COVID Safety Plan here.

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I saw David Sedaris at the Kennedy Center in mid-October, and the performance has been simmering in my head. The performance has been a unique challenge to write about, both in terms of its medium and in terms of its content. This show’s premise is an unusual one for a night at the Kennedy Center for the “Performing Arts”: a figure primarily known for his dry-witted essays and radio work reads aloud from his work on stage. It wasn’t a poetry slam, and it wasn’t stand-up comedy — it was something entirely different, but certainly still entertaining. Also, as someone who thinks a lot about the convolutions that come when someone who calls themselves a comedian attempts to use irony, contrast, parody, and/or satire to comment on deeply complex and sensitive issues (I focused on how political comedians with big platforms can ethically explore complex topics in my Georgetown English Honors thesis last year), and as someone who is new to David Sedaris’ work, I was surprised and confused by core narrative elements of his presentation. I am eager to better understand his core ethos as a humorist, and one of the most popular and successful humorists working in America today. I want to give him credit where credit might be due, while also pointing out major issues that appear to be inherent in prominent elements of his storytelling.

The show was a one-night-only stop on his tour promoting his new collection of personal essays about life during the pandemic, Happy-Go-Lucky, his first personal essay collection since 2018. This performance consisted of Sedaris reading several essays and a few short passages, and taking some questions from the audience. Many of the stories he presented had to deal with recent experiences he’s had while traveling and working recently, dealing with unpleasant, frightening, or otherwise thought-provoking people with different sensibilities. 

For those who may not be familiar with his work — you are. You’ve seen that book of his in Barnes and Noble with a painting of a skeleton smoking a cigarette on its cover (that one is titled When You Are Engulfed in Flames), or that other cover featuring a piece of wood with a face (that one is Sedaris’ collection of semi-autobiographical essays entitled Calypso). You may have also heard of Sedaris’ other bestselling titles like Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, or Me Talk Pretty One Day.

Sedaris’ particular “comedic” style feels like a bittersweet coffee sipped at a quiet university coffee shop, or stories told among friends in which frustrations and anxieties are expressed with honest, quiet dignity and staunch opinions. He is undoubtedly funny, but offers a different palette of definitions for what “funny” can be. His is a unique brand of humor you don’t typically find outside of the comedic essay genre. His work isn’t a laugh-a-minute generator, which sitcoms, The Onion–style satire, late-night comedy, and Twitter comedians have trained many of us to expect from things that market themselves on their humor. In long moments without a joke, sometimes you’ll wonder where the humor was in a Sedaris story — but sitting and thinking about the core issues at play will eventually lead you to the realization that yes, modern life is indeed inherently confusing, and many of the cultural conceits we have come to abide by are inherently absurd.

It is odd, for example, to expect young children to endure blatant personal disrespect from adults simply on account of their age. It is also odd to expect that everyone ought to fall into line believing that “formalwear” should constitute a narrow set of specific clothing items, under a rigid set of gender norms — and Sedaris played with this concept in his own ebullient fashion selection for the performance. Whether or not you agree with his specific conclusions about issues with particular conceits, he makes the act of hearing him out quite entertaining. Sedaris’ most frequent subject across his work seems to be frustration with unspoken societal demands for propriety when something demands what he views to be “common sense”; he explores this subject with a subtle, confident wit that doesn’t seem to care whether you disagree. If there ever were a cat person — and I don’t know if he has cats, but I stand by that assertion — or a person who reminded me of a cat, it’s Sedaris.

If you fancy yourself a fan of “comedy,” “humor,” and ha-has generally, it is worth investigating Sedaris’ work to broaden your palette. He comments on social issues and the mundane in such a subtle way that you forget he’s writing “about” something while you’re reading — or listening to, in a theater or on the radio — his work. In this way, Sedaris feels like the introvert’s Larry David. Instead of being upset in the moment about the trope as it is being inflicted on him, he smiles and waves while it’s happening and then waits until he’s in front of an audience to complain.

I have to say: some of Sedaris’ commentary on cultural issues left a bitter taste in my mouth. One “joke” was him asking why when a person of color commits a crime, “we” are terrified of mentioning their race, but when a person of color does something admirable, “we” are eager to revel as much as possible in the fact they were in fact a person of color. End of “joke” (a paraphrase, but barely). That line felt like something Charlie Kirk might say. I was surprised to hear commentary like this from Sedaris that seemed so willingly blind to key social contexts, especially as someone who writes for highbrow literati and presents himself as one, if an offbeat, funny one. Some of the most memorable stories Sedaris told on stage framed women or people of color as the individuals we’re supposed to laugh at, for what Sedaris perceived as their inability to abide by particular norms — all while he, the comedic straight-man, attempted to deal with their “antics.” In one extended story, he described how during a visit to a city a woman of color who may have been mentally ill sexually harassed him. He described in depth how he had to duck into an apartment building and pretend to be a resident in order to get the doorman to help him evade her. Sedaris did acknowledge explicitly as part of his narrative that he felt the weight of his privilege as a white man who would not immediately be barred from using the building to escape, but this caveat was not enough to counteract the core ethos of Sedaris’ interpretation of the anecdote. He also addressed the fact that it is odd to joke about sexual assault but continued to tell the story anyway. Why tell a story like that? Who does that help? Why is it worth our time to laugh at the mentally ill, or the impoverished? Why frame a story like that in a way that makes light of any part of it? 

I may need to listen to the story again to attempt to gather more of the nuance of Sedaris’ humor — but self-satire is unlikely, and the bulk of the story was spent describing this woman’s outlandish behavior. It is hard to know what purpose that kind of story serves besides punching down. While I don’t think his more concerning stories during this performance were intentional satire of those who lack a sense of nuance and compassion toward underprivileged groups — given that his style’s key rhetorical technique is analytical, even overanalytical thought — maybe there is something I’m missing.

I am interested in looking into more of Sedaris’ work in order to better understand his approach, which would be fascinating to write a paper on. I think he’s somewhere on a political-incorrectness-whether-you-like-it-or-not spectrum between Wanda Sykes and Philip Roth. I was entertained by an enormous amount of the show, and apart from that, anyone interested in fodder for rich “what is the responsibility of comedy?” conversations with friends should definitely spend time in Sedaris’ work.

Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.

David Sedaris performed on October 14, 2022, in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall, 2700 F Street NW, Washington, DC. 

The David Sedaris program is online here.

Information about future comedy performances at Kennedy Center is online here.

COVID Safety: Masks are optional in all Kennedy Center spaces for visitors and staff. If you prefer to wear a mask, you are welcome to do so. See Kennedy Center’s complete COVID Safety Plan here.

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The Second City, the renowned improvisational comedy theater based in Chicago, has produced some of America’s finest comics, including Bill Murray, Stephen Colbert, Mike Meyers, Tina Fey, Jordan Peele, Chris Farley, Aidy Bryant, Amy Poehler, and plenty more. Now, six members of their new guard have once again stormed the Kennedy Center (am I allowed to make insurrection jokes?) for The Revolution Will Be Improvised. The show offers a blend of political humor and just plain silliness while all the time presenting a refreshing message to treasure during our apocalypse: All we can do is our best.

The show consists of a series of improvised sketches, executed by six formidable Second City performers: Sarah Dell’Amico, Sayjal Joshi, Yazmin Ramos, Adam Schreck, Jordan Stafford, and Brittani Yawn. Under the direction of Director and Head Writer Frank Caeti, the cast executes nearly two hours of improvised (and some scripted) sketches. Per how many improv shows are structured, many of the sketches seem to be built within a basic pre-planned format and/or with an end goal in mind for each storyline, while audience recommendations influence how the cast arrives at those ends. The show, after all, does list writers under its cast and crew separate from the six actors: the sketches we see were originally designed by Edgar Blackmon, Peter Grosz, Allison Reese, and “the casts of the Second City,” with the help of Musical Director and Sound Designer Stuart Mott. Mott also provides original songs for the show, which might not be earworms but serve their purpose thanks to the cast executing them with relish. While Dell’Amico, Joshi, Schreck, and Yawn consistently steal the show whenever they’re given a leading role, Ramos and Stafford feel underused in spots, and I would have loved to have seen their takes on more of the show’s main characters.

The Revolution Will Be Improvised offers audiences a fine buffet of political and apolitical comedy. As a rare blessing, the show’s most original, poignant, and comically effective pieces fall into both categories. One sketch that deserves the frequent callbacks it receives throughout the show is a campaign ad for an audience member who the cast declares is now running for office. The sketch then leads into a negative ad starring the audience member’s opponent. Dell’Amico plays this contrarian character as a fact-averse, star-spangled-fedora-sporting cowboy — whose look is well-enhanced by Wardrobe Stylist Sarah Albrecht’s choice of a blue denim jumpsuit — and somehow manages to make the character’s “underlying” (note the heavy air quotes) anti-Trump commentary fresh and quite funny. This is achieved primarily through her all-in performance style and the quick-witted writing of her character. And the fact it’s impossible to tell which jokes were potentially prepared before the show or improvised by Dell’Amico is a credit to her comedic ability. This sketch’s immersive quality — it really feels like you’re inside a political ad, watching Dell’Amico embody a self-consumed, totally hubris-driven buffoon — is enhanced by the stage management of Rebecca Talisman and the flashing colors of the light-up stage, conceived by Lighting Designer Colin K. Bills.

Another strong sketch shows a prospective couple — played by the effortlessly charming and sympathetic Schreck and Joshi — purloining audience members’ résumé bullets to inform what personalities they claim to have on a first date. Another standout, perhaps the show’s most effective piece, is a conversation held decades in the future between a member of Gen Z, now elderly, and her grandchild, whose activism is certainly passionate but uninformed and practically misguided. The Jewish New Yorker grandmother, played by a crotchety Dell’Amico, and her grandchild, played by Ramos, being pitch-perfectly gloriously irritating per what the character demands, argue over which of their generations committed the most political sins and which did the most to help fix their society given the resources available to them. The pair ultimately arrives at the conclusion that each generation is indeed responsible for major cultural and political sins, but collective blame is emotionally harmful and ultimately impractical, and all we can do as individuals to improve our world is to engage in the best faith we can with the issues of our respective times.

This message is one I have heard from the wizard Gandalf — who, as people who like motivational Instagram posts will know, once said, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us” — but so far as I can remember, never from comedians, or many activists, for that matter. I’ve mostly just heard it from my pastor. I applaud the Second City for not only finding an original message for their political comedy show to lean on but also for sharing a profoundly true message that will bring great comfort to the demoralized citizen who seeks simply to operate in good faith during these times.

This particular sentiment is echoed throughout the show, but the grandmother-granddaughter sketch feels like the night’s clearest and most memorable embodiment of the night’s thesis — even more than the show’s extensive beginning and ending number, which centers around one millennial’s search for truth in Washington, DC. This number (the pieces individually and the two as a unit), in its attempt to be a laugh-a-minute overture for the show’s sketch-comedy feel, feels scattered and unfocused and lacks the ideological clarity of the key grandmother-to-granddaughter centerpiece. Of course, it’s a big ask for the show to be both a comedy variety show and enlightenment for the downtrodden in catastrophic times, but the show very nearly achieves both with flying colors anyway.

Per the norm for political comedy shows, the show is at its best when it makes original arguments like the one described above for how individuals should handle the crisis-swamped, social media–drowned world we live in. The show is at its weakest when it takes easy shots at the usual suspects and standard punching bags, like Trump, Joe Manchin, and Netflix’s new show Is It Cake? And it goes without saying that these things deserve to be punched. Each of them equally. Where was Is It Cake? host Mikey Day on January 6th?

Per the norm for comedy shows in general, some of the sketches don’t land quite as well as others or will be for an acquired taste. The show’s sketches about conception and abortion seem to rush and skirt around serious issues for an easy one-off laugh when a broader philosophical (while still comedic!) discussion could have been had. As proof this is possible, I’d point to what Trevor Noah just did in a Between the Scenes segment of The Daily Show around abortion from June 2022 (that I was in the audience for).

I had the pleasure of seeing a Second City troupe perform America: It’s Complicated at the Kennedy Center in summer 2019. This year’s show felt stronger. While it is easy to take shots at Trump, and it is easy (and healthy, in moderation) to moan about how truly awful the times are, it is another thing to offer real solace and original solutions for our despair through comedy. And that is indeed revolutionary.

Running Time: 115 to 120 minutes, including intermission.

The Second City’s The Revolution Will Be Improvised plays through July 31, 2022, presented by The Second City performing at the Kennedy Center Theater Lab, 2700 F St NW, Washington, DC. Tickets ($59–$65) are available at the box office, online, or by calling (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-1324.

The program for The Second City’s The Revolution Will Be Improvised is online here.

COVID Safety: Masks are required for all patrons inside all theaters during performances at the Kennedy Center unless actively eating or drinking. Kennedy Center’s complete COVID Safety Plan is here.

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The Kennedy Center is hosting some of America’s top female comics this weekend in honor of Women’s History Month at RIOT!, a showcase of some of the best current and up-and-coming female headliners. Each of the three nights — Thursday, March 3; Friday, March 4; and Saturday, March 5 — features a different set of three comics performing two shows each night, at 7:30 PM and 9:30 PM. 

RIOT! originated with sold-out performances in 2018 and 2019 — the pandemic shut it down for two years — and has since become a national platform for female artists to explore their womanhood in risk-taking comedy and creative experimentation, with a focus on identity-based intersectionality. Previous RIOT! performers have included comedy giants the likes of The Daily Show’s Dulce Sloan and SNL’s Melissa Villaseñor. All of this year’s selected performers are standouts in their own right.

Thursday, March 3: Cristela Alonzo, Sydnee Washington, Jenny Questell
Alonzo created and starred in the ABC sitcom Cristela, making her the first Latina woman to create, produce, write, and star in her own American primetime comedy show; Alonzo is also releasing her second Netflix special later this year. Washington recently appeared on Comedy Central’s Up Next showcase. Jenny Questell has performed standup at DC Improv. 

Friday, March 4: Natasha Leggero, Liza Treyger, Brittany Carney
Leggero is a regular performer in sitcoms for networks including Comedy Central, NBC, and CBS. Treyger recently appeared in the Judd Apatow film starring Pete Davidson, The King of Staten Island.  Carney was a staff writer for That Damn Michael Che on HBO Max and performed in Comedy Central’s stand-up series Featuring. 

Saturday, March 5: Megan Stalter, Ali Kolbert, Denise Taylor
Stalter has worked as a cast and writing staff member of the reboot of The National Lampoon Radio Hour, as well as a cast member on the Stephen Colbert–executive-produced animated show Tooning Out the News and the sitcom Hacks. Kolbert has performed on A Little Late with Lily Singh and NBC’s Bring the Funny, and has written for The Onion. Taylor, who has opened for comedy greats including Patton Oswalt and Nicole Byer, is also currently a contributor for The Onion. 

DC natives to keep an eye out for on the RIOT! stage this weekend include Denise Taylor, Brittany Carney, and Jenny Questell. DC Theater Arts had the opportunity to interview Jenny Questell and Brittany Carney about their career paths, what most fascinates them about comedy, and their views on the state of the industry.

What subjects most interest you and inspire your comedy? How did you develop your style?

Brittany Carney: I think human nature is funny. When I first started, I had a lot of material about history and things I saw or learned working in museums. I still love to wrench historical topics or people into my writing; after all, it’s human experience. Body parts are very silly to me. I’m not sure exactly how I developed my style. It’s something that feels like it formed without my conscious control, though that can’t be accurate. Early on, an experienced DC comic got on stage after me and announced, “You need to be on acid to understand Brittany.” I’d argue that not to be the case — maybe a strong tea. Just kidding. 

Jenny Questell: That’s an interesting question because I feel like I’m just now really starting to develop my voice. It definitely has changed as I progressed from my early 20s. I think it’s fun when people can take mundane everyday things that happen to them, and turn an experience like at the grocery store into a really good bit. I still have so much to learn and grow in comedy. Something I’m trying to do is explore my childhood more. I was a pretty anxious kid and I think that led to me getting overwhelmed and handling a lot of situations in really ridiculous ways. I’m from a small town in North Carolina, and I have a lot of pride and fondness for where I’m from that I’m excited to talk about more. 

How do you write and rehearse your comedy? What is your creative process?

BC: I always have a notebook with me, in my bag or coat pocket. I’m not as diligent as I’d like to be about blocking out set times to focus and write. Writing feels more natural when something occurs to me out in the wild, and I’m able to jot it down/type a word into my Notes app. Once I’ve written out the beats of a joke, or even just a premise, I will write it over and over, like Nicholson in The Shining. This helps me memorize, tighten, and edit. COVID masks are helpful for reciting bits aloud, incognito. I think I feel more creative at night. I love bringing a notebook to a quiet bar — a touch of wine never hurts. 

JQ: I usually have an idea of something I want to talk about, and I’ll sit down and try to write a punchline before I try it out. Other comics will just kind of improvise and figure it out on stage; I’m not really like that. I like to have a plan. Comedy is a live wire though; you don’t really know if something will work until it does.

How do you balance between using comedy to discuss serious issues and purely entertaining your audience?

BC: I find that for me personally, incorporating some inane element into a more serious issue is key. It’s still entertainment, after all. I’ve figured out a few bits on slavery, and for a topic like that to work in front of a sensitive liberal crowd, you’ve got to commit to a silly angle. 

I was two years into comedy when Trump won, which brought this question into hyper-focus for sure. I had an old joke about how when he entered office, several of my white exes reached out to me in… chivalrous support? In the joke, I said something like, “Just give me back my Yoko Ono poetry book.” 

JQ: A comedian’s primary job is to entertain the audience. I feel very strongly about that. I think if you have a huge platform, the goalposts definitely move; but at the end of the day, your job is to be funny. That’s not to say that those with a large platform don’t have a duty to be responsible with it. I definitely have topics I’ve only scratched the surface in, so I’m excited to challenge myself more. It comes down to asking yourself how can I connect with these people, how can they find me relatable so I can talk about this.

What led you to your career in comedy? 

BC: After a show in an art space (vacant apartment?) called the Dunes (RIP), a friend challenged me to try an open mic. Terrified, I signed up in advance to do five minutes at a now-closed vegetarian restaurant in Dupont. I wrote some “‘jokes.” Two weeks later I did my first set. I went back the next week and it steadily took over my life. 

JQ: Haha, well, it’s not really a career right now. Like, I’ve had some cool opportunities and sometimes I get paid. A lot of the time I get paid nothing or in chicken tenders. I have a full-time day job. I did a lot of theater and I played the violin growing up, and then I did competitive public speaking at a high level in high school and college… I had recently graduated from college and just found myself really missing performing so in 2016 I signed up for a couple of classes, like storytelling and satire. And then I did my first open mic. I didn’t immediately start hitting the mics every night, I was just like, “Oh, that was interesting, I kind of liked that.” Over the subsequent year, I found myself coming back to it because standup is something that while it’s hard to become good at, it’s easy to start by yourself, like you don’t need a sketch team or rehearsal space. DC already had a thriving comedy scene, so it was pretty easy to find open mics.

What comedians are most interesting to you at the moment?

BC: Some comedians I love to watch/find most interesting include Daniel Simonsen, Yamaneika Saunders, Rosebud Baker, Joe Pera, and Gary Gulman.

JQ: In terms of big names, Anthony Jeselnik is one of my all-time favorites. My sense of humor is much lighter, but I love throwing a mean joke out there. He’s such an incredible writer and his delivery is spot on. I love Ali Wong. She has such a specificity to her delivery. I like comedy coming from anger. I’m also a big fan of Nicole Byer. Nobody crushes like her. She’s just really amazing to watch. One of my favorite comedy writers is Natasha Rothwell. I also grew up watching Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler, and Tina Fey on SNL so I really appreciate character comedy.

What are trends that you do and don’t like in standup comedy at the moment?

BC: This is small, but bugs me — it’s a body language thing. It’s trending (maybe it always has?) to stand still with the mic in one hand and your elbow in the other. It’s this locked, protective stance that communicates to me: “I’m not comfortable.” I have lots to work with on my own stage presence, so I’m aware of my own body; the elbow thing grinds my gears. Otherwise, edge for edge’s sake is kind of lame. Re: the growing world of anti-PC comedians… I feel if you’re going to be contrarian, cool, but have it come from authentic experience or at least be funny. 

I love, love, how more women comics are dressing more feminine telling jokes. I think historically, many women (myself 100% included) felt compelled to dress more masculine/modest on stage. This is for a number of reasons, but I’m noticing trends toward finding power in dressing femmy on stage. 

I also love seeing the growing success of Black comedians from all nuanced walks of Black experience — it seems the industry is beginning to embrace/capitalize on the “Blackness is not a monolith” idea and, well, that’s sweet. 

JQ: TikTok is a whole other beast that can be challenging. It’s hard when there is so much pressure to constantly be posting on social media to try to build an audience, but we’re lucky we have so many more creative options today. Comedians are pushed to be so much more than just a standup; everyone has a podcast, or they’re writing satire, producing a web series, etc. It can feel very overwhelming because there are so many options, but it does push everyone to be better.

RIOT! Funny Women Stand Up will run from March 3 to 5, 2022, with two shows each night, in Studio K at the REACH at the Kennedy Center – 2700 F Street NW, in Washington, DC. For tickets ($29), call (202) 467-4600 or go online.

The RIOT! digital program is online here.

COVID Safety: The Kennedy Center Vaccination and Mask Policy is here.

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The Landless Theatre Company’s Artistic Direction team, Andrew and Melissa Baughman, have taken on a new project this season: they formed a comedy band called The Bingle Jells in the spirit of Weird Al and Dr. Demento, and dropped their first album, A Latchkey Kid’s Christmas Album, on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Music on December 14, 2021.

It’s 14 twisted tunes and it’s free for the listening. We sat down with the Baughmans to talk about this unusual project:

Where on earth did this idea come from?

As theaters and performance venues were starting to open up, we thought it would be neat to form a holiday parody-music group for performances this season. We reached out to a number of musician friends that we work with regularly. Most of them weren’t ready to get back into the performing saddle just yet, but Melissa had already written a lot of funny lyrics, so we decided to start off with an album. It was quite a project, but a bit more manageable than the All-Sock Puppet virtual production of Urinetown that we took on earlier this year (still available online through April 2022 — see the DCMTA review).

Tell us about A Latchkey Kid’s Christmas Album.

At the heart of the album is our original song “Latchkey Kid at Christmas,” which is also our single. It is a paean to our generation, Gen X, who have weathered this pandemic era in silence, drawing strength from our latchkey kid roots, and perhaps even enjoying the ongoing excuse to avoid social gatherings and to work from home. We are so often overlooked between the wailing of the Boomers and the gnashing of the Millennials, and we’ll soon be eclipsed altogether by the self-righteous indignation of our own Gen Z children. “Latchkey Kid at Christmas” is a song that is beautiful, sad, and funny. We actually liked it enough to expend a little more time and care into orchestrating and recording it than the rest of this album. It lays the foundation for an album that may be more evocative of Festivus than Christmas in its countless odes to mundanity.

Our holiday parodies are the product of too many years spent consuming Weird Al and Dr. Demento. “True Crime TV” exploits our collective paranoia from being shut in with too much time for Netflix. “Joy to the World (the Food Has Come)” captures that rollercoaster of bliss and disappointment we experience in our turbulent relationships with GrubHub and DoorDash. Likewise, “Oh What a Night” extols the devastation of a holiday meal gone wrong. Can you tell we like to eat? “Away in a Trailer” is the political song we swore we wouldn’t write, but we did it anyway, so you can just suck it up and deal with it. “Oh Well” is a song that asks the question “Is ‘friending’ everyone you went to high school with on Facebook really worth the risk to your mental and physical well-being?”  “Whose Child Is This?” and “One You All Know” will both be very familiar to parents everywhere. “Why Is Grandma Always High?” is a song written especially for the kids of today.

Did you notice our cool explicit-content warning? Our two “Unnecessarily Censored” versions of Harry E. Humphrey’s classic holiday archival radio recordings actually have no explicit content other than whatever pops up in your own filthy minds. We just wanted to be edgy.

Our other original song is “HorrorHound Holiday,” a catchy little ditty we repurposed from a song we wrote years ago for Ningen Manga Productions’ web series Helena Hussy of Horror (originally titled Hussy Holiday), which is still lurking on the internets for your enjoyment. Fun fact: in spite of this being a Christmas album, “Horrorhound” is one of only two Christmas songs, and it is more an inclusive secular holiday song for “Christmas, Hanukkah, and Ramadan.” Wait, does that make this the first Ramadan song? And the second Hanukkah song?

Finally, since we want you to sing our songs, we have included bonus karaoke sing-along tracks for two songs with “hard to find accompaniments.”

Who is the ideal audience for The Bingle Jells and this album?

A Latchkey Kid’s Christmas Album is a perfect holiday gift for your mom, your grandma, your aunties, and little old ladies everywhere. Also, for weirdos in general.

Anything else you’d like to tell us?

We hope you’ll check it out! Quick closing recap:
On the 14th Day of December The Bingle Jells gave to me:
12 True Crime Junkies
11 Botched GrubHub Orders
10 Kids Melting Down in Malls
9 Dads in Debt
8 Covidiot Karens
7 Stoner Grandmas
6 Horror Nerd Anthems
5 Facebook Trolls From Your High School
4 Ruined Meals by Aunt Sue
3 Unnecessarily Censored Holiday Classics
2 Bonus Karaoke Tracks
and a Latchkey Kid Alone at Christmas!

The Bingle Jells’ debut LP A Latchkey Kid’s Christmas Album will be released on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon Music on Tuesday, December 14, 2021. The song “Latchkey Kid at Christmas” will also be released as a single.

About Landless Theatre Company: The Landless Theatre Company is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating new and diverse audiences for live theater.  More information online at landlesstheatrecompany.org

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John Oliver has accomplished the impossible. He has personally won 13 Emmy Awards and doesn’t have a six-pack. Do you have any idea how hard that is?

While most of the seats for his upcoming stint from Tuesday, December 28, to Saturday, January 1, at the Kennedy Center appear to be sold out at this point, it is absolutely still worth a shot to try to get a ticket if you can.

Oliver is, of course, the titular host of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO, which has won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series six years in a row, as well as two Peabody Awards. Oliver was included in the 2015 Time 100, and was described as a “comedic agent of change… powerful because he isn’t afraid to tackle important issues thoughtfully, without fear or apology.”

He also used to get heckled out of comedy clubs.

Oliver started his career with stand-up comedy (after being a member of the famous Footlights while in college at Cambridge) and, perhaps surprisingly, did not succeed in the UK. For whatever reason, his stylings didn’t fly there. Why?

Some have argued that the most popular brands of humor in the UK tend to be more surreal, or dry, or slightly less bold and direct in their messaging. Meanwhile, Oliver’s humor tends to lean more into a blend of Pythonesque wit and the Daily Show’s style of “direct observation made humorously” rather than drier, even passive-aggressive observations.

Also, very few people actually ever define the word Pythonesque when they use it, so out of the sheer goodness of my heart I will tell you specifically what I mean: Oliver too uses a highly creative, ebulliently, and unabashedly silly approach to juxtaposing the formal with the absurd. Yes, the Pythons were frequently surrealist and dry, undoubtedly. But they also made the sketch “How Not to Be Seen,” where a British government spokesman delivers a droll PSA on how citizens can avoid, simply, “being seen.” As the off-screen spokesman courteously directs the volunteers to reveal themselves from behind bushes in a Windsor-accented voiceover, each is shot, one by one, without any elaboration or explanation whatsoever.

This specific sketch demonstrates the value of not being s–…uh, of combining “dry” British humor with a (literally) “point-blank” approach to directly attacking an opponent. 

Oliver has in many ways fueled Last Week Tonight with this very approach. And while the show seems to have changed its comedic style somewhat in the last two to three seasons, this technique, nay, superpower (its then-innovative power helped catapult the Pythons to a footnote in history books… in fairness, it’s probably the best comedians can hope for), is still very much present.

More broadly speaking, perhaps this is why British humor tends to be so successful as a comedic template. The wild and exaggerated, juxtaposed with the dampened, organized, and understated — i.e., the British “stiff upper lip” — is objectively funny. It is. I won’t be taking comments about subjectivity; it absolutely, objectively is.

And given that many traditional stereotypes of the British include some degree of formality and stiffness, to have a disenchanted Brit using that stiffness and incredulity in his personal idiosyncrasies, whilst still delivering the news and commentary with an unabashed furiousness, ultimately combines into a genius juxtaposition of traits for an engaging comedic performance. And even if Oliver (or his director on Last Week Tonight, Christopher Werner, whom I got to interview last year on my late-night show at Georgetown!) are not even actively or purposefully trying to achieve this — if Oliver is reciting the news items with a degree of measured formality and then flying into a rage driven by how he actually feels, or drolly reading off a very silly joke that might make even him break — he’s hitting all the points that make up an ideally designed comedic performance regardless. So kudos.

Setting aside Oliver’s joke-to-joke stylings and thinking now about the format in which those stylings can thrive, and have best thrived: some have observed that Oliver’s more direct, point-blank style of addressing an event or attacking a public figure works more effectively in a one-man comedic monologue on a late-night show (or as the co-host of The Bugle), than if they were shoehorned into “side quips” on a panel show like Mock the Week (where he was a frequent guest on the first two series when he was based in the UK). You can find clips of his appearances on the British news panel show Mock the Week from 2005-ish, where the audience can be heard, deafeningly, not laughing.

It may very well be this “directness” that helps Oliver thrive in his semi-journalistic (sans the semi, really) sphere of Last Week Tonight. On this show, he is essentially a cable news host reading off an op-ed into a camera — except that op-ed is more comedic in nature than your standard David Brooks or Thomas Friedman fare. Direct transparency in discussing facts and commenting on them is fundamental to clear journalism — or the clear setup of a joke that will make the punchline hit all that harder.

Sadly, it seems that Oliver hasn’t had much extra time to engage with his first love of stand-up for much of the last decade and a half. And during that time, his own personal “voice” has largely been at best filtered, and at worst, obscured by the voices of other talented writers. While Oliver hosts Last Week Tonight and is credited as one of its writers, for those who are aware of his authentic personal style from his early years, it feels that, while the Last Week Tonight writing team is certainly writing in “his voice” — or at least in a voice that works well with his style — his unique brand of observation and language only peeks through some of the time. Based on what we understand of the Last Week Tonight writing process, John Oliver, who has personally won 13 Emmys, is currently a talking head for a team of roughly 10 twenty-, thirty-, and maybe forty-something writers. We haven’t gotten to hear from him, unadulterated and unsullied, since 2014, when he hosted the last of four seasons of John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show: a gig that consisted of him usually opening each episode with a very brief set. (This is of course sans a three-shows-in-three-nights stint at the Kennedy Center in 2016, but no recordings, not even bootlegs — bummer — were released, not giving those who weren’t in the theater much to work with.) 

Ultimately, we only have concrete evidence of his own actual “voice” from his pre-Daily Show work, John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show, and interviews with the press and other late-night hosts. We don’t know much about who John Oliver — the host of the show that has been credited with potentially impacting American legislation, court rulings, and regulation — really “is” now, sans those 15-minute interviews with Stephen Colbert every six months. Given the impact he’s having, it would be really nice to actually meet this guy.

It has of course been quite interesting to see Oliver evolve from his earlier self to his present persona. Interestingly, the comedy in Last Week Tonight is ultimately quite a different product than his stand-up work, with far more structure. Last Week Tonight’s comedy is commentary oriented around news items, constructed as such: news item, commentary, commentary, joke (the “point-point-point-joke” model, a technique Last Week Tonight has used since Season 1, Episode 1 that some friends and I have thus observed, titled, and submitted for a patent).

Stand-up comedy is structurally quite different from this: it doesn’t rely on a model that demands joke-less analysis of multilevel marketing to arrive at a punchline. While there is certainly a formula that comprises a (good) set, there is far less mandated structure for a stand-up set than a pseudo-newscast, monologue-slash-desk bit. So yes, these are two concretely different art forms. 

It is interesting to watch Oliver’s 2014 interview with PBS, in which he is asked, “When did you first decide that you wanted to focus on current events?” and he responds: 

“When you do standup, you are just concerned with trying to leave with some semblance of human dignity at the end of your performance. Once you learn how to make people laugh, then you get to choose how exactly you want to make them laugh. So then you get to make jokes about things you actually care about. So rather than doing anything to make people laugh, you can then select, ah, well, maybe I’m interested in talking about my life, or about politics, or about sports. You can direct your comedy.”

Perhaps this serves as a clue to why he started to go into more political-based news instead. Did he see a market he felt had an opening for him, and left stand-up for said market? Or was he bored by the focus of apolitical stand-up? Did he feel like he’d “graduated” from stand-up and was able to move into using the comedic skills he’d developed to talk about something he cared about, like “politics,” as he described? Has he found a way, in the quiet recesses of his busy, 13-Emmy-winning career, to write and deliver apolitical standup in a way he finds interesting and worthy of performance? Even his pre-Last Week Tonight standup tended to be explicitly or implicitly political, with much of it explicating on his delighted fascination with “that special quality in Americans.”

As he said in one 2012 stand-up set performed in Canada: “Americans are heroes, and I’ll tell you why… They don’t waste time overthinking things. Do you honestly think any other country could have put a man on the moon? Of course not. That is a stupid thing to do. Only America could pull that off. ‘Cause only America would send his friend up a few years later with a set of golf clubs so they could wack a few balls around up there. It makes complete sense if you don’t really think about it.”

Again, to my knowledge, we haven’t really seen John Oliver perform stand-up since those 2014 clips — since before Last Week Tonight premiered. How has writing for his 23-Emmy-winning show changed his style? And given that Oliver’s standup is what got him into this business in the first place in the early-to-mid-2000s, one can only imagine how good he is at it in 2021, now that he’s won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Talk Series, i.e. the “late-night-show Emmy,” six years in a row, and Vanity Fair writers are now hosting roundtables that all but beg the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to please give it to someone else for a change.

He’s had two children since 2014. How has fatherhood changed his style? 

Has his primary public-facing “persona” being an on-screen “character,” which is in many ways a parody of a newscaster (after all, Jon Stewart was his mentor, via The Daily Show, a “news parody show”), changed his “natural” stand-up voice?

Did that voice have a tragically short life from 2001 to 2014, with its glorious last stand being some decade-old YouTube clips where he has Beatle-y bangs, a noticeably different accent, a weird beaver-colored button-up, and Levi jeans? 

Or will we finally see Beatle John’s glorious Lazarus-esque resurrection here in DC? Or will he be a… somehow apolitical (??!? error 404) version of the John Oliver that’s won 13 Emmys by yelling about net neutrality, immigration reform, the Sackler family, municipal violations, paid parental leave, corporate consolidation, a certain unsavory president, and lethal injection?

We’ll have to see. What we do know is that it’s going to be funny. If it’s not, in his own words, he will be “spewing off a series of factually inaccurate statements and then pausing for silence.” While he will be funny, he does need an audience to prevent said silence. So if you could get a ticket (I just had a friend tell me there’s just a few dozen left), that would be super. 

I say all this to make the point that if you get laughed out of pubs when you’re fresh out of college, you will subsequently win 13 Emmys. That’s clearly the lesson of causality to take away here.

Running Time: TBD.

John Oliver will perform from December 28, 2021, to January 1, 2022, in the Concert Hall at the Kennedy Center – 2700 F Street, NW, in Washington, DC. For tickets ($79.50 – $99.50), call (202) 467-4600 or go online. Recommended for mature audiences.

COVID Safety: The Kennedy Center Vaccination and Mask Policy is here.

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This is my first time experiencing the Improvised Shakespeare Company, and as I sit down to write a review of their performance, I have to be honest — I’m almost speechless. Seeing this group perform feels like witnessing a whole new art form: their work is a combination of improvisational comedy, poetry, sketch comedy, and theater all in one. I feel like I need to buy tickets for another show so I have something to judge them against. Simply comparing them against other improv comedy performances feels almost unfair.

The work these comedians are doing is far more than simple “yes, and…”-ing. For those not in the know, the Improvised Shakespeare Company is an improvisational comedy troupe — they take an audience suggestion and make up a comedy sketch on the spot — but they do it in iambic pentameter, in Elizabethan English (with only occasional modern-sounding quips, which I never felt were overused or relied upon for a break from the more complicated language), and create a full hour-plus-long, multi-act play out of it. Regular improv is hard enough. I didn’t get into Georgetown’s improv troupe. It’s really hard.

In my (relatively brief) experience, most regular “long-form improv comedy” shows consist of three to five “scenes,” which, sans a few callbacks, are more or less unconnected to one another in terms of plot and characters. The Improvised Shakespeare Company has tasked themselves with not only improvising each scene but also creating characters with distinguishing personality traits, catchphrases, running jokes, and satisfying arcs — who also speak in Shakespearean English. Oh, and they have to play these characters while also playing a whole gamut of others over the course of the show.

Almost immediately into the show, one finds oneself thinking: there has to be some secret here. I have worked in satirical writing, sketch comedy, and comedy podcasting, and I have to say: the only way these guys could possibly do this is to have some kind of preordained template to keep the plot moving along at the pace necessary to have the play finish up, with all arcs completed, i’s dotted and t’s crossed, in an hour and a half. They have to have some kind of plan for what needs to happen in which scene of the show, having pre-planned characters who simply adjust their motivations to the audience suggestion who accomplish X, Y, or Z. What I am ultimately saying is, of course, this show is bafflingly impressive, with all that “how’d they do that?” charm.

I also think that given the troupe has been active since 2005, they likely have taught themselves Shakespearean English like a foreign language, and now speak it fluently. Translating a thought to a language in their heads would simply be too hard. 

Hopefully, I am painting a picture of the absolutely stunning display I witnessed at the Kennedy Center. I am stuck at my laptop, puzzling like a mad scientist over how they could possibly have pulled this off. That’s what you’re in for. Go. 

I have hardly anything to critique. The show began with a soliloquy from one of the five players (Ross Bryant), who built off of the audience’s suggested phrase (at this show, that phrase was “Just Say No,” which was, of course, the anti-drug advertising campaign in the ’80s and ’90s created and championed by Nancy Reagan). Perhaps my only real critique of this show — and perhaps my only clue to its execution — is that the soliloquy (summed up, in crude modern language, of course) boiled down to “Just say no to drugs… and love is a drug! Here’s a play about love.”

The play itself was a look at the troubled romance between Helena and Ajax of ancient Greek (and Spartan… and Shakespearean) ilk, and called back specifically to the phrase “Just Say No” on multiple occasions. Still, the slight, noticeable drift from the original audience-generated prompt was hardly noticeable until it came up in the post-show discussion I had with the friend I went with. 

Occasionally, there seemed to be more characters than I could keep track of (the five actors played far more than five characters over the course of the show), and the complicated language didn’t help me get back on track — but ultimately, I was getting too much entertainment value at all times from the whip-smart comedy for character confusion to become a real issue. 

The show was laugh-out-loud funny, profoundly impressive on a technical level, and inspiring to me as a young person in comedy. If I have time next week I’m going to try to go again, so I can judge this group against themselves. I really have no other frame of reference for the art form these guys have created, so it’s only fair.

The Improvised Shakespeare Company is a traveling seven-player comedy troupe: each performance features five performers. The show I saw December 10, 2021, included Brendan Dowling, Greg Hess, Ross Bryant, Joey Bland, and troupe founder Blaine Swen.

Running Time: Approximately 80 minutes, with no intermission.

The Improvised Shakespeare Company plays through December 19, 2021, in the Theater Lab at the Kennedy Center – 2700 F Street, NW, in Washington, DC. For tickets ($35–$45), call (202) 467-4600 or go online.

COVID Safety: The Kennedy Center Vaccination and Mask Policy is here.

The digital program can be viewed here.

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You know that guy who walks in on the first day of school every year and makes the whole class smile? The guy who’s friends with the popular, the awkward, the nervous, the sullen, the cast of The Breakfast Club? The guy who should get sent to the principal’s office for being disruptive in class but doesn’t because the teacher is cracking up as hard as the students? You know that guy, right? That guy, what’s his name again? Yeah, the goofy guy with the funny laugh?

That guy is Patton Oswalt, and I can think of no better way to celebrate the Kennedy Center’s 50th Anniversary and the reopening of their full campus for the performing arts than to have this super spreader of hilarity kick off their comedy season.

Oswalt walked on stage with a crack in his voice and declared that this was his third live show since the pandemic began. He referenced his first two shows as his rehearsals for the Kennedy Center, clearly said to prepare the audience for what he deemed a “rough” set. He then proceeded to slay the audience for over an hour, earning a standing O that shocked no one except him.

The audience crackled with excitement and delight. At one point, Oswalt takes a sip of water and an audience member whooped. He looked up, pointed at them, and said “no.” He riffed with audience members and quickly found himself squatting on stage with his face in his hands, lamenting the fact that “this is going nowhere!” His genuine and authentic frustration with his rusty set is what made it gold. He’s a regular guy who can’t remember how to interact with other people. Just like the rest of us. He normalized our entire pandemic life within the first few minutes of the set and by the end left us feeling validated and hopeful.

Oswalt’s genius is his complete and total relatability. He is no one other than himself, always. Where there is an opportunity to look away or put on a glossy finish, Oswalt does the complete opposite, and we are the lucky recipients. He’s a “pasty white guy” who binge-watched Deadwood and kept Postmates and DoorDash in business. He’s a “Honda Civic running into a semi-truck” who is performing at “40% capacity” while doing crowd work. His credits are massive, and yet he has the humility to refer to his setlist. His true talent and maturity as a performer are on display in how he is able to seamlessly work that into his act, and draw the audience in closer. And like most diverse performers, his career is at its peak, again. His other stand-up shows are reflective of what is happening in his life and in the world, and this show takes it to a whole new level.

The show begins with two opening acts. Orlando Leyba, who has been touring with Oswalt for years, endeared himself to the audience immediately. His pattern of repeating sentences twice was effective in punching his point, and his peace and love attitude mixed with his “I know crazy. I can smell it” bits hit all the right notes. Paris Sashay followed Leyba with a flash of rhinestones and leather. Subtle she is not, thank goodness. Introduced as an “up and coming” talent, Sashay commanded the stage with her bold and unapologetic set. She immediately hits the ground running talking about her experience as a gay woman. She declared that she is “picky about my gay” and has to date a good-looking woman because “I’m not gonna date an ugly girl. I ain’t gonna disappoint my mother twice!” This writer would love to tell you more about her set, but it needs to be experienced live, if you’re 18 or older, and are willing to bust your stitches.

Should you be fortunate enough to see Oswalt perform live, be prepared to wear a mask and show proof of vaccination. He works only with venues that adhere to COVID safety protocols. A must-see performance — so good you’ll forget you’re wearing a mask.

Patton Oswalt Live: Who’s Ready to Laugh? played one night only September 17, 2021, at The Kennedy Center Concert Hall, 2700 F St., NW, Washington, DC. For information about his tour dates, visit pattonoswalt.com. For other Kennedy Center performances visit kennedy-center.org.

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Four writers behind the Emmy-winning Daily Show with Trevor Noah are touring their own stand-up comedy show, and they’re stopping at Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse September 3 and 4, 2021, to give the nation’s capital a taste of TDS’s trademark political humor … and jokes about “their failed dating lives” as well. 

The Daily Show Writers Stand-Up Tour will feature writer-comedians Randall Otis, Matt Koff, Joseph Opio, and Kat Radley. Otis has performed around the United States—including at the New York Comedy Festival—and has been featured on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, VICE, and The Huffington Post. Koff is an Emmy-winning staff writer on The Daily Show, and has toured with John Oliver and Bo Burnham. Opio, a Ugandan satirist, has performed stand-up on three different continents and has written over 360 episodes of The Daily Show. Radley’s debut comedy album, The Important Thing Is That I’m Pretty, premiered at #4 on the iTunes Comedy Charts. 

Audiences will be in for a treat seeing the satirists behind one of television’s top late-night shows show off their individual comedic styles. Maybe afterward we’ll tune into The Daily Show and finally get a sense of which jokes are whose. Sometimes we forget that there are tens of individual writers who spawn the words that come out of a host’s mouth. 

For reference: according to an article in Vulture, the Daily Show with Trevor Noah writing staff is 19 writers strong, including one head writer, two senior writers, and Trevor Noah himself. That’s the thoughts and commentary of 19 people going into the monologue that one man delivers. Perhaps that’s why the practice of bringing a writer out for one of a show’s “interview” segments, giving them a soapbox of their very own, has become increasingly common. Amber Ruffin’s soapbox on Late Night got her a show! 

I’m both a fan and a practitioner of satire — albeit a young one. I’m lucky to have been the political cartoonist for The Lincoln Project this past year, and I host and show-run The Hilltop Show political comedy show and satire publication operated by over 50 undergraduates and graduate students from around the world, based at Georgetown University. As a college student who wants to go into this business, I for one am especially excited to meet the actual humans who come up with this stuff, and perhaps better understand how their individual comedic stylings blend together to become what we know to be The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. 

I know (based on many, many informational calls) that many if not most late-night writers have to “write for the host.” In September 2019, I took the Hilltop Show team to a lunch in New York City with a group of writers from various late-night shows, and a Daily Show writer was in the mix (I remember the writers collectively asked us to not attribute their names to any advice we gave, and I will obviously respect that). She told us that Noah plays a prominent role in directing the course of the show, and that writers suggest and comment on subjects they predict Noah will be interested in, hoping those subjects will make it to the teleprompter. Who knows how that system has or hasn’t changed over the past two years? But regardless, the writers aren’t the stars of the show. I’m excited to hear right from the writers what topics they’re interested in, and hear their individual takes on those topics in their stand-up. 

The Daily Show Writers Stand Up Tour comes at a time of reckoning for the late-night genre. With late-night shows returning to in-person audiences, many have wondered what COVID-era elements will stay, and which will be replaced with February 2020 fare. Seth Meyers’s Late Night and even The Daily Show — both among the more newsy and political late-night shows, and nominated for the Outstanding Variety Talk Series Emmy this week — have been critically acclaimed for their adjustments to the medium of late-night-sans-audience. Many critics have gone so far as to say these two shows’ current audience-lessness plus the resulting adjustments outclasses their old ways.

Meanwhile, Comedy Central has announced that The Daily Show will have a “brand-new look and feel” starting September 13 after a summer hiatus. Trevor Noah recently mentioned in an FYC Chat with Arsenio Hall that he and his team have a “few surprises” in store.

“As for going back to the studio, I have a few surprises as to what that will look like. I’m working on a few things with the team, and we’re really excited because I want it to be intentional. People always say, ‘When are you going back?’ I’m never going back, I’m only moving forward.’” 

That last bit caused me pain, but awesome, can’t wait. 

What is this “new look and feel”? Will The Daily Show change the elements that have gone over well during COVID? Will they have audiences? As the delta variant surges, this is not guaranteed.

In the FYC conversation, Noah suggested that he might not even wear a suit when he’s back in the studio. “I might never put on the suit or the shoes or whatever. I don’t know. This is who I am. I think the pandemic has stripped a lot of people of that pomp and ceremony. I think it’s a good thing. We see each other a little bit more. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to the suits and the leather shoes. If I do, I do. If I don’t, I don’t — but I will no longer think this is something I have to do.”

This Daily Show viewer kind of likes the formalities, but I understand his point. I also understand as an aspiring host myself that hosts can more easily lean into their strengths in particular clothes. For example, John Mulaney’s old-fashioned suit, his 1930s-radio-host vocal intonations, and his contemporary, oft-indecorous material have frequently been cited as a genius combination: a meeting of the old and new. 

Noah seems to be in his element when he’s in a hoodie instead of a suit. To each his own. I like suits.

Retrospectively, the pandemic, despite all the struggles it imposed on them, also gave the late-night hosts a unique time where they and their staff were “allowed” to flounder, be vulnerable (see: Jimmy Fallon’s inclusion of his children in his bits, which is objectively charming), and experiment. And that allowance gave them time to better understand their personal strengths — where they, as people, and their respective show formats shine, and where they struggle. 

In a recent conversation with Uproxx, Seth Meyers asked Late Night producer Mike Shoemaker if the audience-less version of the show is “the most natural version of the show we’ve ever done,” to which Shoemaker said, “Yeah. Definitely, yes … I think we always took how something would play to an audience into account.” 

While some hosts like Stephen Colbert are self-professed audience-needers (at least according to his wife), other hosts like Seth Meyers have hit their stride speaking right to the camera, cutting out the middleman of the studio audience as an additional group to entertain, in addition to millions of viewers online. Late-night is weird.

Shoemaker elaborated in the Uproxx interview: “Pre-COVID, we had a test audience, which is, basically, during our rehearsal, we would invite people from the building, 25 tourists. And we didn’t always rely on it, but that [drove] a lot of the choices. We tried everything that way, and then that was kind of the barrier to entry. And that’s all gone. It’s really like brain-to-mouth to television.” 

Perhaps this has to do with the fact that the more political late-night shows play out closer to the style of a monologue delivered by a cable news host. If Chris Cuomo, a host known for his reporting combined with comedic commentary, had to play to an audience, his show would have quite a different pace and feel (it would not work). And yet, it seems that late-night hosts and Cuomo are merging their styles into a similar genre of left-leaning, facetious news commentary, all ingested by, typically, the same audience … but that’s a Pandora’s Box if there ever was one. Focus, me!

Ultimately, the audience-less approach to late-night comedy has turned the hosts into YouTubers. The Daily Show has frequently opted for images swooshing across the screen, quick cuts between bits, zoom cuts for emphasis, and hoodie-wearing hosts. You know, YouTube. 

Today’s late-night shows are frequently critiqued for seeming to want to appeal to young people but feel like Johnny Carson flossing. (Or if you’re older than 20, Johnny Carson doing a particularly rigorous TikTok dance that captivated a nation for a frighteningly extensive period.) The Daily Show with Trevor Noah is less subject to these critiques than other shows, but the late-night genre itself carries an air of tradition, as if it’s something your parents probably like and thus you should cast it back into the fiery chasm from whence it came. Perhaps that’s why I like the suits. 

In a time when YouTube and Twitter audiences are demanding the late-night shows adjust to their appetites, and COVID robbed the shows of their characteristic audiences, it is understandable that the transformation to YouTuber-dom has begun, consciously or unconsciously (you’ll have to ask the showrunners). Frankly, going full Markiplier is a smart move for a commentary show if you can’t get an audience. Why reinvent the wheel if you’re also making audience-less videos where a funny host talks into a camera, to YouTube? And if The Daily Show is attempting to reach young people, which its comedic stylings and political foci frequently indicate, the YouTuber approach might be its ideal medium.  

But it will be up to each show to reflect on its past year and determine what, in a post-COVID (knock-on-wood) world, is best for its team and its host. Part of me fears that John Oliver may never leave his “white void” (I’m still wondering how the Season 7 finale — his exit from the void and its triumphant, Death-Star-explosion-esque destruction — narratively parses with his quiet return to his interdimensional prison in Season 8. We’ve got a continuity error, boys! Tim Carvell, I’d like a word). 

Based on the last year, I think The Daily Show with Trevor Noah would work well as a laugh-track-less series. But, I also want to sit in a Daily Show audience again before I die. I’m happy to duct-tape my mouth if they want.

And who knows? To match their more YouTuber-like style, and Noah’s observation of a genre increasingly “stripped” of its “pomp and ceremony,”  the shows might begin to supplement their political, informational content with increasingly, if you will, secular fare. We’ll see what happens. In the meantime, I can’t wait to see The Daily Show writers’ personal takes on both.

The Daily Show Writers Stand-Up Tour plays September 3 and 4, 2021, at Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse, 2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington, VA. Tickets are available online.

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In the summer of 2020, Faction of Fools Theatre Company bravely forged into the world of virtual Commedia dell’Arte with the first season of Foolish Fridays, a series of dynamic, short, fun videos released every Friday. This season, the Fools will return to YouTube to release more specially crafted episodes, featuring the agony and ecstasy of summer. 

Devised and created by the artists, each episode can be enjoyed on its own, but faithful viewers of all 9 episodes will be rewarded with fun gems, callbacks, and foreshadowing nestled throughout the series. Foolish Fridays Season 2 is a celebration of collaboration, with all the creativity and ingenuity that audiences have come to expect from Faction of Fools Theatre Company. Leading the devising process are Showrunners Francesca Chilcote and Matthew Pauli, with original music composed by Jesse Terrill, costume design by Lynly Saunders, and editing by Kevin Boyce.

Co-Artistic Director and Showrunner Francesca Chilcote noted that “this round of production has been bursting with creativity and collaboration. As a Showrunner, it’s been a joy to partner with Matthew Pauli to facilitate mini-“writer’s rooms” around each episode, to see our Devising Artists go off and make the work they want to make, and then see it all come back and molded into something beautiful by our Production Team.”

Costumer Designer Lynly Saunders consults with each Devising Artist on costumes in order to gain a coherent look for characters from episode to episode. Similarly, each Devising Artist shoots their own raw footage and is then handed off to Editor Kevin Boyce, who accentuates the rhythms that each episode shares. Composer Jesse Terrill creates a soundscape with original music that brings each individual episode into a shared world.

 “Faction of Fools has many wonderfully creative people, so we want to take full advantage of what each has to offer.” says Showrunner Matthew Pauli. “There is an inherent challenge in trying to create something that has the cohesive voice of the company, yet also the distinct voices of each of the artists who comprise the company. By having two Showrunners discuss ideas with each of the Devising Artists, we help keep the ideas connected, while supporting each artist who creates ideas no one else would. Some episodes are more team created while some are the product of an individual, and we want to embrace both processes while also ensuring that each episode reflects the company aesthetic and vision.”

Devising Artist Natalie Cutcher, who created Episode 2, noted that “at Faction of Fools, there’s already a lack of ego in the room. Your artistic strengths are celebrated and you do the same for others. The best idea wins, no matter where it’s coming from, and that’s incredibly freeing as an artist. I felt entirely supported.”

 The creative process began when Chilcote and Pauli brought some general proposals to the artistic and production teams, all themed around summer, to serve as prompts for the Devising Artists. Then, Chilcote and Pauli shifted into a listening mode, helping to clarify the ideas each artist brought to the table and recommended ways that each artist’s work could overlap and build upon one another. In this way, each episode is created by an individual artist, but in an ensemble-minded way.  Pauli expounds on his love for the collaboration process, “Each episode exists independently, and reflects the creative spirit of the person who leads that episode, yet the whole series feels interconnected and of one world. We hope that our world will be familiar and fun for audiences to visit.”

Foolish Fridays Season 2 is created by and starring John V Bellomo, Francesca Chilcote, Natalie Cutcher, Tyler L Herman, Darius Johnson, Ben Lauer, Matthew Pauli, Hannah Day Sweet, and Kathryn Zoerb, with Samantha Owen and Eileen Scandiffio serving as Production Managers. The series runs through August 6, and you can stay up-to-date by checking the company’s facebook page.

Faction of Fools Theatre Company’s mission is to entertain, educate, and elucidate through the practice and performance of Commedia dell’Arte. They use Commedia to bring out the truest sense of a play – in order to rediscover classics, and create dynamic new work. They are traditional yet innovative, international yet familiar, and classical yet accessible. Their Commedia dell’Arte is theatre at its best: physical discipline, spontaneous imagination, collaborative energy, and joyous wonder.

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The Arcanists in co-production with Science Art Fusion (ScienceAF) announce the launch of The Internet: LIVE!!1, an inventive new live comedy game show. In it, player-performers bring web content to life with a series of hilarious, impossible challenges inspired by memes, viral videos, and Internet culture of yore. The Internet: LIVE!!1 happens two nights only, January 31 and February 1, 2020, in the heart of Clarendon’s night life at The G.O.A.T. Sports Bar.

The Arcanists created the cult, interactive variety show The Tarot Reading. The Internet: LIVE!!1 is hosted and co-produced by Rachel Pendergrass, founder of ScienceAF, creator of Solve For X, and host of the popular drunk Powerpoint show Nerd Nite DC along with  Navid Azeez (frontman for nerdcore bands Helephino and Picnibus and Tarot veteran).

It features Kasha Patel (science journalist and comedienne), Shaq Stewart (former Tarot medium, poet, and rapper), Britt A. Willis (playwright and game designer), and Taylor Winkleman (Nerd Nite DC veteran).

“The Tarot Reading was one of the first artistic projects in the area that I fell in love with,” says co-producer and ScienceAF founder Rachel Pendergrass, “so when they [Arcanists cofounders Quill Nebeker and Alan Katz] wanted to team up, it was an instant yes.

“Science Art Fusion is at the core a communications company. Our philosophy pulls from the disciplines of theater, game design, comedy, film, and other arts to communicate complex, often technical topics. We aim to help scientists not only reach their audience but build a connection with them and improve their lives. That said, I personally have a background in comedy. I studied with Second City, and have written for National Lampoon. The Internet: LIVE!!1 is a marriage of those things, using comedy to talk about the Internet, both from a technical perspective and a cultural one.”

“The Internet is something I’m passionate about,” says Nebeker. “I just got married, and my now-wife and I started our relationship via AOL Instant Messenger. I realize that dates me…” Nebeker laughed. “But that’s the heart of the thing. In the same way that Tarot uses the occult motif to form connections, we set out to make a show that celebrates this weird digital thing that has become a part of who we are. Fans shouldn’t necessarily expect the same sort of intimate, personal stories that happen at Tarot, but they should expect some genuine heart. And, of course, a whole lot of absurd comedy.”

The Internet: LIVE!!1 runs January 31 and February 1, 2020, upstairs at The G.O.A.T. Sports Bar, 3028 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA, across the street from the Clarendon Metro. Doors at 6 p.m.; show at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available online.

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