Matt Rogers, Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Before it gets too late in the season to miss the jokes, the star of Fire Island and stand-up comic and singer Matt Rogers charms his audiences with stories about randy Seuss characters and lube, along with his own original Christmas season songs. Hey, Christmas lasts until January 6 for Catholics – enjoy.
Matt: Have You Heard of Christmas? on Showtime
Mary McCool’s Stress Exorcist with Rose Luardo, Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Philadelphia experimental theater has long had a friend in actor-writer Mary McCool. She’s been a forever part of Pig Iron Theatre Company, a cofounding member of New Paradise Laboratories and was a performer for the Wilma Theatre’s English language premiere of Vaclav Havel’s Leaving. Yet, as a solo artist and original comedy deviser, McCool scored huge points when she won the Fringies Award for Best Comedy in the 2022 Philly Fringe Festival for her all-shrouded, one-person show, Stress Exorcist. Now, McCool brings her solo comic Stress Exorcist to the stages of an actual comedy club, Helium, and with that vocal-FX heavy mirth and madness, welcomes another of Philly’s master performance art doyennes and character actors, Rose Luardo, though her own journey as a stand-up comedian. And chaos ensues.
Helium Comedy Club, 2031 Sansom Street, Philadelphia PA
Margaret Cho with Atsuko and Daniel Webb, Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Comic, activist, writer and actor Margaret Cho is the Lou Reed of stand-up comedy. She can be a brutally cruel and cuttingly humorous social and cultural critic in her live, stand-up work. Or Margaret Cho can be maddeningly meandering and unfunny. And like Reed, you’re never quite sure what Cho you’re going to get until you get into the weeds with her. Still, you’re always happy to go into the long grass and hear what happens.
Largo at the Coronet, 366 N La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA
John DiCrosta, Monday, January 2, 2023
Starting the year in Vegas with a ventriloquist and a voice-over actor? You are very bold indeed.
Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club, MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, 3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, NV
Catherine Cohen, Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Cohen follows up having one of 2022’s best stand-up comedy specials – Network’s The Twist? She’s Gorgeous and its sophisticated mix of self-confidence and self-loathing with a run at the Wednesday Night Cabernet Cabaret schedule. Here’s hoping that Catherine Cohen wears the same rhinestone-studded outfit she wore on her special – it’s so much a part of The Twist, it should get its own dressing room.
Club Cumming, 505 E 6th Street, New York, NY
Louis CK, Thursday, January 5, 2023
Everybody is pissed off that Louis CK continues to sell out live stand-up comic shows and winning high grade awards for his streaming specials and albums, without having paid due penance for his very real crimes against women. I’m annoyed too. So, why do people – women and men – sell out his shows, buy his streaming shows and live albums and hail his comedy, stand-ups that poke fun at his past sins and circumstance? Look inside and ask yourselves. I’m not a social psychologist.
Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway, Oakland, CA
Colin Quinn: Small Talk, Friday, January 6, 2023
The opening night of his newest longform comic theater piece – or theatrical stand-up, you decide – finds the one-time Saturday Night Live news anchor moving beyond his most recent spate of highly politicized, asides-heavy, plain spoken story sessions (Colin Quinn: Unconstitutional, Colin Quinn: The New York Story, Red State Blue State) and focuses on the human condition and personality – its orders and disorders. Directed by James Fauvell, Small Talk runs until February 11, 2023.
Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher Street, New York, NY
Jay Pharoah, Saturday, January 7, 2023
A recent interviewee of A.D. Amorosi at Philly Weekly/Paradise Media, the stand-up comic, Obama impersonator and one-time Saturday Night Live alum just started to put in his two cents about good guy-gone-bad Bill Murray. Maybe, Pharoah will bring that mean edge to the stages of San Francisco.
Cobbs Comedy Club, 915 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA
Godfrey, Sunday, January 8, 2923
“From Los Angeles to Dubai” as his bio goes, Godfrey has been one of stand-up stalwarts – a die hard, multi-purpose, observational comic dervish great for any occasion. Plus, he was in “Zoolander.” Points.
Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Avenue, Portland OR
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