Gary Gulman at the Burren's
Slightly Better Christmas
Spectacular Wednesday
The usual Wednesday night comedy contest at the Burren is being pre-empted this week for some special guests and a toy drive to benefit the Somerville-based Toys for Local Children. Macone is calling it his "Slightly Better Christmas Spectacular," because "the toys will be helping children have a slightly better Christmas and people can expect, at the very least, the show to be slightly better."
Gary Gulman is dropping in, supporting his new album, All I Want for Chunukah Is Christmas. Also on the bill, Matt D, Rob Crean, Tim Vargulish, Shawn Donovan, Maria Ciampa, Kate Ghiloni, Matt Kona, and Chris Fleming. Josh Gondelman and Zach Sherwin (aka MC Mr Napkins) may also drop by, depending on if they can get to Davis Square from the Wu-Tang show at the Wilbur in time.
Macone says a few more comedians may wind up stopping by last minute.
Like many Boston comedians before him, Chris Fleming is packing up and hitting the road for Los Angeles this month. He's got a leg up, having signed with New Wave Entertainment after an audition at The Comedy Studio in January. Tonight and tomorrow are his last official shows as a Boston resident.
I spoke to him in March about how he developed his particular physical and tangential style of comedy, his background in dance, and the rooms in Boston that have been important to him.
As is the danger when you interview someone in the street, we get a little noise in the background toward the end in the form of a fairly one-sided shouting match with a musician down the street. No one was harmed. At least during the interview.
Enjoy the interview, and afterwards, a video of Fleming performing at the Studio.
The Bombshell Show: Boston Comedy's Blond Invasion hits Mottley's Comedy Club on Thursday with all sorts of blond comedy fury. The reason Jessie Baade and Nicole Luparelli put this showcase together have little to do with hair color, though. Both sport blond locks, but the Bombshell Show is more a good excuse to put some talented comics together on the same bill -- Chris Fleming (who is moving to L.A. soon), Amy Tee, Sara Blodgett, Kaite Lasky, and Ken Reid, who will sport a blond wig for the show.
If you're going to the show, remember blonds get two dollars off the $12 ticket price, and they're not picky. You can wear a wig or dye your hair that day, anything that makes you blond for the duration of the show.
I spoke with Jessie and (The Real) Nicole last week about the show for FGH's cameras. This is the result:
There was some doubt earlier this week over whether there would be a show tonight at the Comedy Studio. Just got this from the Studio's Rick Jenkins, confirming there will in fact be a show, with a great line-up, to boot:
We will have a show tonight (Friday, November 6) at the Studio.
The Hong Kong wasn't sure until Wednesday night. So we quickly put together a pretty cool night. Personally, I feel like it's going to be a great time. Like the old days; small turn out; lots of funny friends.
Renata Tutko will host sets from Chris Fleming, Sarah Heggan, Rick Jenkins, Andrew Mayer, Andy Ofiesh, Sean Sullivan and Bethany Van Delft.
One of my favorite things to do is to find a comedian I really enjoy whom I've never seen before. I got to do that last night at The Dress Up Show at Mottley's, which was part of the Boston Comedy Festival. The comedian in question is Chris Fleming, a 22-year-old comedian that Comedy Studio owner Rick Jenkins tells me has played his club for a couple of years, and whom comedian Jess Baade told me she has seen every so often and thought well of him. He has been to the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, but somehow, I don't remember having seen him before, at least not doing this material.
It was a pretty strong night, with Erin Judge and Bethany Van Delft hosting, Kelly MacFarland headlining, and Ahmed Bharoocha and Karen Rontowski on the bill. Fleming made an impression, speaking a kind of seemless nonsense in an English accent, and doing an impression of birds trying to attract a mate that sent MacFarland from the room trying to control her laughter. The image of Fleming bent backwards, kicking up one leg, and squawking apparently stayed with MacFarland -- she mentioned the bit later on in her own set.
Here's some of the material Fleming performed on the show. But you should probably see it live (you'll have the chance next week at Great Scott on Anderson Comedy's The Gas. Fleming will be on with some other promising comics like Matt D and Shawn Donovan).
