2014

Shortly after the 1980s comedy boom, Milwaukee’s Lower East Side brought a wave of laughter that has rippled throughout the city for the last 26 years. Milwaukee’s Comedy Café, fashioned on the intersection of Water and Brady streets, provides live professional standup comedy and a venue for amateur comedians to reach for the stars. Milwaukee […]

So I get this email the other day from broadminded Comedy, and it’s offering to have Milwaukee’s premier all-female sketch group perform a true story about myself. Turns out, “the broads” as they call themselves (You can’t call them that.) are part of a fundraiser for Ex Fabula, the Milwaukee-based storytelling community. “The broads” (Note

He called himself Mort Snotlocker, and that’s how plenty of Milwaukeeans knew him as he joked around on WKLH-FM (96.5). Plenty more recognized him from his antics as an improvisational comedy performer since the early days of ComedySportz. His given name was Angelo Farina, although he also went by Tony and Blaze. Last month, at

Allen Edge is a Milwaukee treasure. He is a nationally touring comedian, a character actor appearing in such feature films as “Barbershop 2: Back in Business” and “Meet the Browns,” and he calls Milwaukee home. We’ve seen him participate in Milwaukee open mics and Erik Koconis‘s Comedy Conclave, which tells you: Allen Edge is a professional

You’re familiar with the formula, Tragedy + Time = Comedy. Well, Patrick Schmitz waited more than four centuries to follow up a Shakespeare classic with a parody that only Patrick Schmitz could do. So, really, it was “Romeo and Juliet” that waited 400 years for Patrick Schmitz. Either way, we’ve got the Tragedy and the

A once-in-a-lifetime event: Eight hand-picked intrepid women and men of Milwaukee. Each singularly adept at telling stories and joking into microphones. One by one, they shall stand before a live audience and submit their comedic powers to the unforgiving scrutiny of advanced recording technology. Together, they are destined to forge a permanent record of their individual performances.

[su_youtube url=”http://youtu.be/kjGkEa9xtWg”] This time last year, pretty much the only sketch comedy in Milwaukee were two tried-and-true favorites: The all-female broadminded Comedy, begun in 2006; and Patrick Schmitz’s semi-annual crowdsourced Sketch 22, which celebrated a birthday this week and is gearing up for its 13th show July 19. The Comedy Hour Happy Hour was just starting

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA4ZkNjQX7A”] From the ingenious mind of Ryan Lowe comes another form of comedy – Stand-Up Cinema. As he did last month, Ryan Lowe is bringing together some of Milwaukee's funniest talent and showing them alongside a classic movie – this time, it's Back to the Future – for a mult-dimensional performance that combines the silver

Final exams taking their toll on you? Too stressed out by all the political conflict, the NFL draft, the TV sweeps period? All those nasty weather fronts been giving you migraines? Consider the benefits of meditation. And then, take the shortcut: Laugh. As the Los Angeles Times reports, brain scientists have found that a good

[su_youtube url=”http://youtu.be/8jFMlNN9o3M”] It's the third week of May, which means Thursday is another T.I.M. (The Improvised Musical) show. Because T.I.M. plays the third Thursday of every month. That's why. At T.I.M., for only $5 cash, Milwaukee gets to experience a Broadway-style musical complete with singing, dancing and a six-piece band. It's all live. And it's all