Archive for the ‘Comedy in DC’ Category

Comedy in DC: Brandon Wardell

I had a nice chat with Brandon Wardell, a local D.C. comic who is throwing the comedy showcase, Brandon Wardell and Friends, that is happening Friday, Sep. 16 over at the Velvet Lounge. If you see him there you may notice that he will have black X’s on his hands, because he is not 21. [...]

Podcasts of DC: Oscar Santana Rises Reloaded!

Photo Credit: Mandy Sroka Photography

From left to right: Oscar Santana, Chad Dukes. Drab T-Shirt. Sven Lloyd
Santana felt that he had a good run with their show and that all was lost. He had no idea what to expect next. His phone rang an hour after he found out he lost his job. It was someone [...]

Podcasts of DC: Oscar Santana

Photo by Tommy Lang.
I had a nice sit down with Oscar Santana over at the Wonderland Ballroom outside on the patio on a cloudy Sunday evening. Santana’s friends dubbed him the “Prince of Podcasting” and it is understandable. He is part of the DC based Big-O and Dukes Show, The Mike O’Meara Show, and Tech 411. All of these [...]

Comedy in DC: Adam Ruben

I met up with Adam Ruben who is a local comic and author of the book My Stupid Decision to go to Grad School on an extremely sizzling Sunday over at Teaism in Dupont Circle. We each coincidentally ordered hot tea to drink as we chatted. At first I thought that ordering hot tea on hot day would equal a hot mess; [...]

Comedy in DC: Chris White

I had a beer in a coffee shop with Chris White who will be recording his second album at the DC Improv this month and is the creator of the DC open mic website DCStandup. You may be curious as to why we drank beer at the coffee shop. Well, it’s an amazing story. You should be [...]

Comedy in DC: Eli Sairs

I spent last a nice weekend afternoon getting to know Eli Sairs who is a former DC comic and the producer of the upcoming 3 Chords Comedy Show that’s happening at the Velvet Lounge on June 3. We had a fun chat over at the Tastee Diner in Silver Spring. I got to say that that diner has what I [...]

Comedy in DC: Sheng Wang

I got to know Sheng Wang over the phone recently and found out who he is and what to expect when he headlines the Cool Dudes Hanging Out Show happening at the Velvet Lounge this Friday from 7 to 10 PM. I don’t like to give excuses, but want to let you know that my trusty [...]

Comedy. Tsunami relief. Underwear?

‘yeah! we’re crazy!’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99′
The comics who regularly appear at the Eleventh Street Lounge open mic night in Clarendon (from this point known collectively as “the Lizards”) are having another comedy-for-relief event tonight. This time, it’s for tsunami relief in Japan, and the gimmick is that all the 10+ comics will be performing in [...]

Comedy in DC: Vijai Nathan

Recently I had a fun chat with Vijai Nathan, a local comic who has performed across the planet and is the creator of the monthly comedy party “Fan-Freakin-Tastic” at Chief Ike’s Mambo Room. Vijai is a first generation Indian American and grew up in Rockville, Maryland.
How did you get into performing comedy?
I was a journalist working at the Baltimore [...]

Comedy in DC: Mike Lawrence

I somehow managed to remain coherent enough after my day job to have a conversation with Mike Lawrence. He is coming down to DC this Friday to be the headliner for Cool Dudes Hanging Out at the Velvet Lounge starting at 7:00 and ending at 10:00. Mike, 28, is originally from Florida near Ft. Lauderdale and [...]

Comedy in DC: Allyson Jaffe

I spent a cold Spring Sunday with Allyson Jaffe, the co-owner, manager, and prinicipal of the comedy school at the DC Improv. We met up over at the Caribou Coffee near the club. I was little upset that I had to wear a jacket that day. The planet is definitely taking its sweet time adjusting to the [...]

Comedy in DC: Fan-Freaking-Tastic

There’s a 99% chance of a good time happening this weekend as Vijai Nathan will be throwing the monthly show Fan-Freaking-Tastic over at Chief Ike’s Mambo room this Saturday. The theme for this party is “Freaks & Geeks” and will  feature performances by top DC stand up comics, storytellers, and slam poets for $15. The show starts at 8 PM, [...]

Comedy in DC: Nikki Glaser

I got a chance to speak with Nikki Glaser on the phone while she was cruising over to Sara Schaefer’s apartment to record their hit podcast, You Had to Be There. If you haven’t heard about them then you should go to the Velvet Lounge this Friday and see them perform live for the Cool Dudes Hanging Out Comedy Showcase to get a [...]

Comedy in DC: Jessica Brodkin

I braved the cold last Wednesday evening and found refuge in Dupont Circle’s Teaism to meet with DC comic Jessica Brodkin. I was there pretty early and had a pot of World Peace tea. I must say that Michael Jackson’s “We are the World” started playing in my head. Once all seven of my chakras aligned, Jessica arrived and we [...]

Storytelling In DC: Story League

Photo by Abby Greenawalt
I was almost swept away by the wind on Saturday as I trekked down the curvy streets of Adam’s Morgan to meet up with SM Shrake , one of the founders of Story League, and attend their second workshop.  I had a flash of the opening scene to Shutter Island when I was walking up the [...]

Comedy in D.C.: Brad Ryan and Ralph Cooper’s Awesome Thursdays

I was in the part of town that has Chinese letters beside English ones hanging with Brad Ryan and Ralph Cooper who are the founders of Awesome Thursdays at the R.F.D. in Chinatown. We had a good chat on a Saturday afternoon in the Chinatown Coffee Company and were lucky to be at a table. It took me about twenty minutes to [...]

Comedy in DC: Cool Dudes Hanging Out

The comedy show for cool dudes is back, and as we have already established, you are a cool dude, in the unisex, non-gendered sense of the word, so it seems this comedy show is for you.
On Friday night, 7 PM at the Velvet Lounge on U Street, 5 measly bucks gets you an evening of [...]

Comedy in DC: Seaton Smith

I had the very fortunate opportunity to cruise with Seaton Smith, 29, on Sunday Jan. 30, on his way to do a show over at High Topps in Timonium, MD. We chatted the whole way on the road, which was good, because I didn’t really know the guy and he had no idea who I was, but somehow [...]

Comedy in DC: Chris Barylick

Chris Barylick, founder of the Geek Comedy Tour, met up with me at the very crowded Tynan coffee house in Columbia Heights this past weekend. We were fortunate to find two seats by the coffee machine. For a minute we stared at this knitting club that was hanging out right next to us. That was the first [...]

Comedy in DC: Brian Kerns

It was a cold Saturday evening in DC for me while Brian Kerns was chatting me up on the phone from the cozy climate in the city of Angels. This working comedian grew up in Manassas, Virginia and  has the longest commute to get to his job. Most comedians that live in the area take a [...]