Dan Whitehurst makes “Bob and Tom” debut Tuesday, May 26th

Dan Whitehurst
Dan Whitehurst
Nashville-based comedian Dan Whitehurst will be a guest on the Bob and Tom Radio Show Tuesday morning, May 26th along with Pete Correalle and Bob Zany. This will be Dan’s first appearance on the program.

Whitehurst is a retired veteran member of the Armed Robbery unit with Nashville’s Metropolitan Police Department, where comedy became a tool to ease volatile situations as well as stress relief for co-workers and crime victims. Dan began hitting open mics in and around Nashville in the fall of 1998. Unsure how the police department would react, he did the prudent thing and didn’t tell them. By 1999, he had won the KDF Talent Search and the local news agencies began reporting on the detective with the unusual side job.

Jay Leno, Dan Whitehurst
Jay Leno, Dan Whitehurst
With the police departments blessings, Dan continued to juggle both jobs, traveling and performing on his days off. In February 2001, Dan competed in front of 750 people to win the title “World’s Funniest Cop” at the ASLET World Police Championships in Orlando, Florida. The competition was hosted by Jay Leno who said, “Anyone can write fart jokes, but you have some really smart material.”

As Dan continued to tour, he became known around the country as a funny cop, but it wasn’t all fun and games when he was on duty. In December of 2002, Dan was named the Metro Nashville Investigator of the year for his part in the investigation of a serial robber/rapist described by the Tennessean as “one of Nashville’s most brazen armed robbers.”

In May of 2005, Dan left the police department and began traveling as a full time comedian. Dan’s laid back style, intelligent, unique material and thick southern drawl had the same effect on audiences as it had on co-workers all those years.. and he began building a fan base everywhere he traveled.

These days when Dan has time off from the road, instead of chasing perps down lower Broadway he prefers to spend time chasing his dog around his beautiful cabin in the woods.. but sometimes he’ll drive in to town to stop in at Zanies or one of the Nashville open mic’s where he got his start.

Tune in to hear Dan Tuesday morning, May 26th on The Bob and Tom Radio Show! Visit bobandtom.com for affiliates, or listen live online at Q95.com.

If you’d like to see Dan perform live, he’ll be working this week at Zanies with Andy Dick, star of the stage and screen, and will be back at Zanies the following Wed/Thurs to open for Janet Williams and Lahna Turner.

See Dan’s new website, www.DanWhitehurst.net for his full touring schedule, blog and more.

This week in Nashville: Mary Mack, Jamie Kennedy, James Gregory

2009.05.18 mary mackSunday, May 17
7:30pm Walt Willey (Zanies)
8pm OPEN MIC (Music Row Bar & Grill)

Monday, May 18
7:30pm Mary Mack, Chad Riden (Zanies)
8pm OPEN MIC (Lonnie’s on West End)

Tuesday, May 19
8am – 9am Get Up, Stand Up (91.1 WRVU-FM)
8pm OPEN MIC Contest (Spanky’s Sportsbar & Grill)

Wednesday, May 20
7:30pm Jamie Kennedy, Chad Riden (Zanies)

Thursday, May 21
7:30pm James Gregory (Zanies)
9pm Church Street Comedy (Jesse Zane’s Nashville Nights)

Friday, May 22
7:30pm, 9:45pm James Gregory (Zanies)
9:30pm Chris Loyd & Friends Comedy Show – Andie Lynne, Christy Eidson, Chris Loyd, Holly Amber Swiat Anderson, Brian Bates, Leslie Nash (Music City Bar & Grill)

Saturday, May 23
7pm, 9pm James Gregory (Zanies)

More details can be found in the NashvilleStandUp show calendar in the sidebar.

Unwigged & Unplugged: An evening with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean & Harry Shearer (5/10 @ Ryman)

unwiggedpressphotobSunday night, Nashville cranks it up to 11. The Ryman Auditorium presents Unwigged & Unplugged: An evening with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean & Harry Shearer. Reports from earlier shows in the tour leave us expecting Spinal Tap classics as well as material from A Mighty Wind and Waiting for Guffman.

Rolling Stone reviewed their show at Southern California’s Grove of Anaheim:

The two-hour set alternated songs with brief multimedia bits, such as a clip from Spinal Tap’s first television appearance (on 1979’s The T.V. Show) and a run-down of the edits that NBC’s Standards & Practices department required before the network would air This Is Spinal Tap. (“Shit sandwich” you can understand, but “twisted old fruit”?) Musical highlights included a didgeridoo-enhanced “Clam Caravan”; “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow,” for which keyboardist CJ Vanston and McKean’s wife Annette O’Toole joined the proceedings; a bluegrass rendition of the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up”; and “Majesty of Rock,” introduced not inaccurately by McKean as “a genuine specimen of the rock & roll anthem.” Only “Stonehenge” fell flat, its joke about downsizing done in by the intimate scale of the show.

The trio’s official tour site, Unwigged.com has posted a 13 minute clip on YouTube from their May 1st show at the House Of Blues in Houston, TX:

Sunday, May 10 at 8:00 pm

Ryman Auditorium
116 5th Ave N
Nashville, TN 37208
www.ryman.com

Tickets are $55.50 & $35.50, available from Ticketmaster.

Mike Birbiglia will be in Nashville in the Future Also

Comedian Mike Birbiglia‘s off-Broadway theatrical performance, “Sleepwalk with Me,” has received rave reviews and contract extensions as other shows closed their doors by the droves. The show, which chronicles Mike’s struggles with sleepwalking and the effects that has had on his romantic relationship, was previewed to Nashville at Zanies when Mike was preparing for his run at the Bleeker Street Theater in New York City. More recent bookings at Zanies have been postponed as “Sleepwalk”s run was extended, but fret not! Mr. Birbiglia just touched base with N’Sup to let us know he’s coming back soon-ish:

mike birbiglia: i'm in the future also

Hey Nashville Peeps!

I’ve got big news! My Comedy Central “I’m in the Future Also” Tour is on sale now for Nashville!

I’ll be performing tons of new and awkwarder stories as I prepare to shoot a new television special and record a new CD, plus the best of My Secret Public Journal Live, Two Drink Mike, and Sleepwalk With Me.

Get tix here.

Hope to see you this fall!!

Comedy Central Live: Mike Birbiglia – I’m In the Future Also

TN Perf Arts Ctr James K Polk Theater
505 Deaderick Street
Nashville, TN 37243

Thu, Sep 17, 2009 07:30 PM

$29.50 / ticket

This week in Nashville: “Uncle” Larry Reeb, “Dive Laughing” @ Springwater

dive laughing open mic @ Springwater
dive laughing open mic @ Springwater
Monday, May 4
8pm OPEN MIC (Lonnie’s on West End)

Tuesday, May 5
8am – 9am Get Up, Stand Up (91.1 WRVU-FM)
6pm “Hope Lodge Night of Laughs” (American Cancer Center, Nashville)
7:30pm Rik Roberts + OPEN MIC (Zanies)
8pm OPEN MIC Contest (Spanky’s Sportsbar & Grill)

Wednesday, May 6
7:30pm “Uncle” Larry Reeb, Scott Dunn (Zanies)
9pm Dive Laughing OPEN MIC (Springwater)

Thursday, May 7
7:30pm “Uncle” Larry Reeb, Scott Dunn(Zanies)

zanies-larry-reebFriday, May 8
7:30pm, 9:45pm “Uncle” Larry Reeb, Scott Dunn (Zanies)

Saturday, May 9
7pm, 9pm “Uncle” Larry Reeb, Scott Dunn(Zanies)

Sunday, May 10
7:30pm “Uncle” Larry Reeb, Scott Dunn (Zanies)
8pm OPEN MIC (Music Row Bar & Grill)
8pm Unwigged & Unplugged: An evening with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean & Harry Shearer (Ryman)

More details can be found in the NashvilleStandUp show calendar in the sidebar.