The 2009 edition of “the largest Stand-up Comedy festival in the Southeast” consists of five shows featuring over 40 comics over the course of three days – July 16-18 – in the Diana Wortham Theater in Asheville, North Carolina. The final schedule with dates, times and details of all performances has not been announced yet. See www.laughyourashevilleoff.com for more info.
Famed turkey broadcaster Chip Feingold hosts a very special episode of the Whoopdee-Doo, highlighting clips from the Mangy Dog Live show, featuring Sam Elliott, Walter Cornish, Pip Tinkle, The Dead Dead, and more.
Nashville-native nationally touring comic Keith Alberstadt continues to amaze and astound us with the quantity and quality of projects he’s working on. He is featured in “Stand Up 360” – a movie about New York stand up comedy, has been invited to the Great American Comedy Festival, and has been filmed for Byron Allen’s “comedy.tv”.
It was a big surprise to get the call, especially since in my emails to the producers, I kept calling him Brian Allen. I felt like my mom, who calls comics things like Kathy Mandarin (Kathleen Madigan), Jack Jergensen (Jake Johannsen), and Bill Saguine (possibly Conan O’Brien).
The only bad thing about this whole experience was the timing. I got the invite Thursday last week and had to be in LA Sunday. A trip cross country, connecting in Detroit, sitting in the middle seat between two middle-aged women who laugh out loud at the in-flight movie “Bridal Wars”. . . All of these things are tolerable. What’s not is finding a reasonably-priced plane ticket with only two days notice.
The best rate I could find was $410 which I paid for with 10,000 shares of GM stock. But it was well worth it.
Forty-two comics doing six minutes each. Of course not everyone stuck to six minutes, because there’s still a mentality of “hey, I’m killing so that red light in the back of the room can suck it”. But overall it was amazing. Events like this are fun because it’s like a comedy convention. Comics from all over can catch up on what they’re doing, where they’ve been, and which comedy condos have been de-loused lately.
The Great American Comedy Festival takes place June 14-20 at the Johnny Carson Theatre in Norfolk, Nebraska. Created as a tribute to the legacy of native son Johnny Carson, the festival’s competitors were booked by Late Show with David Letterman‘s Eddie Brill. This year’s line-up features Keith along with 24 other fast-rising comics including Nashville’s own Jesse Case and friend of N’Sup Pat Dixon.
“Stand Up 360” is a series of new big screen productions in theaters now. It’s hosted by Caroline Rhea and spotlights some of the best comics in New York City. Keith’s part of the series will be in theaters June 1-14. Visit www.Stand-Up360.com for more information and to purchase tickets while they last! Check your local listings for select theaters, dates & times of the limited engagement showings.
Dan WhitehurstNashville-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 WhitehurstWith 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.
Sunday 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 3rd annual Laugh Your Asheville Off Comedy Festival has announced this years festival performers. Nashville will be well represented by Chad Riden, Kevin “Renegade” Green, Sean Parrot and Tim Northern. 
