Marc Maron is a mix of an unlikely but outspoken Presidential candidate combined with the homeless dude on your block who is convinced you are Karl Rove’s robot love child and refuses to accept your handouts. His now-sober view of a world ripe with political blunderings and disappointment has landed him frequent guest spots on…
Are you a gambler? No? Well, neither is comedian Maria Bamford, but she will show you How to WIN!, which is not a poker strategy guide, but the title of her second CD on Stand Up! Records. You will, however, learn how to live life as a temp, make a comedy club reservation, deal with…
Maria Bamford speaks in many voices. No, she is not an impressionist, unless you count the stellar impression of her mom. Maria feels her high-pitched voice does not command respect, as a result, she has taken on many voices to help her in her wickedly funny jokes. Decidedly off-beat, Maria has a wide-eyed innocence that…
“Pig Woman,” Mary Mack’s first album with Stand Up! Records, brings the Midwestern native back to the Twin Cities. And don’t let her Wisconsin honk-e-bonics fool you: this comic’s command of the stage reveals a sly wit and quick, nimble instincts. From alcoholistic medicine to DIY raccoon rescues to the romance of a rest-stop proposal, Mack introduces the…
Matt Fugate likes to start with a little amuse bouche of a joke, a little something to whet your whistle for the main event. Oh, and because saying “amuse bouche,” much like the many ways his name is pronounced, just makes him feel exciting. So long as he’s not confused with the “Blue Fugates of…
Wee, pint-sized, impish… here at Stand Up! Records, we prefer to think of Matt Kirshen as our delightful pocket comedian . Sure, if he had been born American, he could just slap Li l in front of his name, become a rapper, and wait for the cash to start flowing, but, as a British Jew,…
What s this life for? In 1968 Robert Kennedy was shot in the Ambassador hotel. Thirty-five years later, Creed shot their video in the same hotel, and they cast Melinda Hill as Crying Motel Girl. Scene after wrenching scene, she dipped into her emotional reservoir to become overcome by salvation. This same emotional reservoir has…
OK Karma. The title of Mike DeStefano s first stand-up CD isn t so much an assessment of his status in the universe, nor is it an open, Bring it on! style exhortation. No, more in keeping with the conflicted Buddhist he represents on the cover (gun in one hand, meditation beads in the other),…
Mike Stanley is back in the Rust Belt, deciding the promise of post-earthquake California looting had nothing on the beauty of late-afternoon Detroit sunlight glinting off the poverty. Even better, he’s got a present for you: an hour of audio, an hour of video, and a lifetime of wondering, “What if alcohol wasn’t his real…
Mike Stanley is a bald, whimsical huckster. No, wait. Mike Stanley looks like a Sears mannequin without the wig. No, wait. Mike Stanley could be mistaken for Popeye’s drunken nephew. No, wait! Oh, who are we kidding? Despite all the self-deprecating humor this Tough Luck Chump sends flying his own way, you can actually see Mike Stanley…
Patrick “Baby Veins” Susmilch hits the stage armed with a solid four minutes on catheters and a long, yet well-informed—nay, college-educated—walk to a 69 Boyz callback, and that’s really all you need to know to give him the validation he so obviously needs. But in case you’re unconvinced, know that Susmilch stands ready to engage…
It’s a little hard to tell if Paul Hooper meant himself or the audience when titled his latest “Tense & Uncomfortable,” but within moments, everyone’s settled right in. It just takes a beat after the rousing opener: “Here comes the negativity!” As if label-mates Jim David and Doug Stanhope made some unholy alliance and then…
Like some brilliant Indian American cross between Margaret Cho and Chad Daniels, Paul Varghese has a face—and a voice—for radio. He offers not only the best question to ask a white supremacist, but also seduction tips for the broke, suggestions for American-tragedy-cocktails (if we can order an Irish Car Bomb, what can the Irish order?),…
Pete Lee s a good, old-fashioned midwestern guy. A stand-up fella, really. You could even bring him home to grandma, so long as you don t think she ll mind getting pushed down the stairs… what s that? Oh, she ll bounce back. Because here s what attention-grubbing grandmas already know about nice, clean-cut boys…
Accidental patriot and award-winning documentarian Ray Harrington (“Be a Man”) understands that his actual job as a comedian is to talk at you, but he’s way more into listening. It’s just so much more interesting—there’s always that electrifying possibility that overhearing a mispronounced word, jumbled phrase, or dangling participle will send him screaming into the hills (just…
“The Worst Is Over” is Ray Harrington’s first stand-up CD. And it shouldn’t be this good. Seriously, we know how to pick great comics (it’s sort of our job), but this isn’t about us. It’s about a relatively green comic with an uncanny confidence and stride, a man who has the maturity and stage presence…