UnCabaret - uncabaret.com

A “SUPER FUN” SHOW FEATURING JOHN RIGGI, CHERI OTERI AND MORE!

Wed, 15 May 2013 06:34:09 +0000

An exciting line up this week. John Riggi, Brian Singleton, Rebecca Corry, Chris Thayer, Cheri Oteri, Moon Zappa and Allee Willis!

Tickets

Yay for our good friend John Riggi (Director/Executive Producer “30 Rock”) who just got the green light from ABC for the Rebel Wilson (“Bridesmaids”) ”Super Fun Night”. We can’t wait to hear all his super fun updates from the Upfronts! Check out the video platform video management video solutions video player">trailer here. John will be performing with….

…his friend and obsessive texter Brian Singleton (“Arrested Development”). Brian is one of the creators and stars of ”Dorm Life,” Hulu’s most-watched web show. It’s so rad that he’s part of our lineup this week! Check him out here.

Super talented Rebecca Corry, Cheri Oteri (SNL), Chris Thayer (You Made it Weird) and musical guests Zack Zotos, Allee “I’ll Be There For You” Willis will be adding to the fun.

MOTHERS’ DAY SUNDAY! BRING YOUR MOM FOR FREE!

Wed, 08 May 2013 15:30:36 +0000

Moms! You can’t live with them, you can’t get born without them.

UnCab is more than a show, it’s a family affair.

So bring your Mom for free. Better than chocolates, flowers or guilt trips — a night of comedy, music and unconditional love from the show that the LA Weekly calls “The Mother Show of Alternative Comedy”. USE CODE MOM for two for ones.

And Mama Mia what a show! Laura Kightlinger, Julie Goldman, Tim Bagley, James Adomian and Christy Stratton, plus musical guests Sabrina Chap and The Dustbowl Revival! Plus it’s Suzanna’s birthday! So we will have cake!

Tickets Facebook Event

A beloved member of the UnCabaret family, Laura Kightlinger is a true original in the world of comedy.Her individual style and vision echoes through her writing, acting and stand up. She was a consulting producer on “Will and Grace,” on which she played ”Nurse Shelia.” She also wrote for “Roseanne” and “Saturday Night Live, where she was also a featured performer. Her first book, entitled “Quick Shots of False Hope,” was described by The New York Times Book Review as a “memorable, disturbing and darkly comic debut.”

Laura’s recent tweet about Mother’s Day : It’s hard to find a Mother’s Day card that isn’t overtly sentimental. I’d like to find one that reads: “Hey, we all make mistakes.” She is as dry as a dry martini! And almost as intoxicating.

The super sweet and sly Tim Bagley has won two LA Weekly Awards as a member of The Groundlings. He’s been cracking people up on TV (“Monk,” “Pushing Daisies, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) and in movies like Judd Apatow’s “This is 40″ and “Knocked Up”. But nowhere is he more wonderful and more Tim than at UnCabaret, where his revealing stories about being an actor, a son and, well, a human, make our hearts sing. Oh yes, and there are those blue eyes!

With Julie Goldman, Christy Stratton, The Dustbowl Revival and James Adomian!

LA CULTURE HOUND – UnCabaret: Fifty Years After Lenny Bruce’s Arrest

Sat, 04 May 2013 01:48:31 +0000

by LA Culture Hound

Lenny Bruce committed his life to telling the truth, but his truth pissed off a lot of people. To those attending his brilliantly profane rants in small clubs and lounges his words were not only sharp and incisive, they were a light in the dark repression of the early 1960s.

Fifty years ago, in April of 1963, Lenny Bruce was in a downward spiral. Considering the night club stage as “the last frontier” of uninhibited entertainment, he uttered his provocative words and was arrested for obscenity in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City and Chicago.

George Carlin was present at Lenny Bruce’s arrest for obscenity. As the police detained members of the audience for questioning and asked for ID, Carlin said he did not believe in government-issued IDs. He was arrested and taken to jail with Bruce in the same car. George Carlin would later be arrested in July, 1972, by Wisconsin police and charged with public indecency for violating obscenity laws by performing the routineSeven Words You Can Never Say on Television, which would become central to the 1978 Supreme Court case in which the justices affirmed the government’s power to regulate indecent material on the public airwaves.

Lenny Bruce and George Carlin weren’t the first artists to be convicted for obscenity. Eighty-six years ago, in April, 1927, Mae West was sentenced to 10 days in jail for Sex, a play she wrote, produced, directed and starred in. The theater was raided and West was arrested and prosecuted on morals charges for “corrupting the morals of youth.” She served eight days with two days off for good behavior and the media attention turned her notorious and only enhanced her career.

It is always a treat to drop in at UnCabaret and see what sort of stellar line-up Beth has lined-up. One of the distinguishing elements of UnCabaret at First & Hope is that everyone is so friendly. From Suzanna’s warm greeting at the door when you arrive to Beth’s curtain speech, the vibe of the night always feels a little bit show and a little bit party.

Rebecca Corry gets the night going. “I’m in the biz and it sucks my dick most of the time.” She continues, “I’m really good at detaching. I can have sex with a person and hate their guts, I’ve done it many times.” To prove her point she shares her Twitter flirtations with a young actor she met at a gluten-free cupcake place in the Valley. The vanilla cupcake man is impervious to her Mrs. Robinson charms. When she learns his name, she says, “I like that name, that’s Michael Jackson’s rat’s name, did you know that?” He says he did not and reminds her that he is only thirty. Her raucous story underscores a theme of the night: she wants to be a whore and he just wants her to follow him on Twitter.

Nineteen-year-old Shelby Fero can’t buy a glass of wine but she can talk to a roomful of grown-ups about her recent rectal exam. She is the youngest performer I have seen on the UnCab stage and the girl’s got chops and potential. She has a strong instinct for material and enough presence of mind to recover gracefully if a joke doesn’t land. (“That’s not fully worked-out,” she observes.) She is so young and undamaged by the ravages of Hollywood, it will be interesting to watch her develop as an artist once she’s got a little life under her belt. But in the meantime you’ve got to love a girl who says, “I had a pregnancy scare, turns out I was lactose intolerant.”

I loved Missi Pyle on Broadway in Boeing Boeing but after seeing her on the UnCab stage I’ve gotta say I’m an even bigger fan now. Making her first UnCab appearance, she takes to the stage and speaks quietly into the mic, “This story can’t leave the room.” She takes a deep breath. You can almost read her mind: Oh God, am I really going to tell it? She speaks of an old boyfriend who “had sexual interests… different from mine.” While trying to be supportive of her boyfriend’s wild sexual pursuits, she is recognized. “Weren’t you in Dodgeball? Didn’t you get in that fight with Queen Latifah?”Irony laces her droll tone when she starts sentences like, “While I was living in a geo-dome…” She talks about driving with a friend at 3 am, taking the Coldwater Canyon exit, and getting hit by a car. Bobby Brown steps out of the other car and asks, “Hey ya’ll, you drunk, too?” She ends her set with two original songs while playing guitar, How Sexy Are You? and I Wanna F—k You Up. Of course she can sing and play the guitar, what can’t she do? With a resume that spans film, television and Broadway, she is a mega-talent who proves to be a natural in this medium.

Tony Award-nominated cabaret performer Justin Vivian Bond makes a rare West Coast appearance at UnCab. Bond, who is also the author of the Lambda Literary award-winning memoir Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels, is best known for the role of “boozy octogenarian” and bitter chanteuse Kiki DuRane, one half of the legendary lounge duo Kiki and Herb.Tonight Bond is dressed smartly in a white linen pantsuit with brooches, looking like a cross between Grace Kelly and Gwyneth Paltrow. She dramatically sighs, “My Didionesque headache,” and continues, “I couldn’t check my Twitter account to find out what was really happening.”“There is no oxygen in the air,” Justin Vivian Bond sings, soulful, full-throated, multi-octave. Everyone in the audience loses their shit. It is an electrifying performance. “We need you back every week!” Beth raves.

Kelly Carlin takes to the UnCab stage and quickly establishes herself as smart and observant, comfortable in front of a mic, with a calm and confident vibe.Admitting she ignored her own creative dreams for too long, she realized she “must have meaning in my life” and stepped away from “the biz” to pursue her love of Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung and mythology. She received her masters in Jungian Depth Psychology and hosts The Kelly Carlin Show on Sirius XM radio and her own podcast “Waking from the American Dream” at smodcast.com.She also happens to be George Carlin’s daughter.Forty-one years after her father was arrested for obscenity, his only child stands at a mic and speaks her truth without fear of arrest.

Blues, jazz and acoustic soul musician Raspin closes the show. While he adjusts the mic he comments, “All these comedians… they’re very political.”

He seems a bit stunned, which is completely understandable. He’s a sincere, intense musician who brings a gruff soulfulness to his songwriting and performance. He plays guitar and sings straight from the heart, losing himself in the music. Songs included King of Fools and Mama’s Got Those Low-Down Blues with guitar back-up. Check him, out at www.RASPIN.com.

Another memorable night of alternative comedy comes to a close. It’s a privilege to watch gutsy artists taking creative risks. Stepping onto the UnCab stage is a high-wire act with no net, requiring honesty and creative risk in order to tell those tragic stories that are ready to be satirized.

Other performers tonight included Melanie Mayron and Tom Lenk. Mitch Kaplan on piano, Denise Fraser on drums. UnCabaret, Sundays @8 pm @FirstandHope.

CINCO DE MY-OH! AT UNCABARET THIS SUNDAY 5/5!

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:14:23 +0000

¡Dios mío! UnCabaret’s Cinco de Mayo show is going to be more fun than a piñata party!

Tickets

We’ll be spicing things up with Sam Pancake, who rescheduled his recently cancelled appearance for reasons to be revealed in a new story definitely worth waiting for!

Sam’s latest sold out show “Wasted on a Boy” proved his talent is definitely not wasted on this boy. Whether he’s stealing scenes on TV and in movies like “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde,” making YouTube relevant with videos like “My Drunk Aunts” Sam Pancake is always delightfully delicious. But never more so than at UnCabaret.

Also returning to UnCabaret this Sunday are hot tamale Kira Soltanovich (the voice of the phone booth on Leno), Emmy Award-winning writer Greg Fitzsimmons (see him in Episode 3 of UnCabaret Amazon) and comic in residence Rebecca Corry – who may finally follow through on her threat to tell her story of being locked in Courteney Cox’s bathroom. Plus soulful music from Sam Morrow! And funny tunes from Karen Kilgariff (look for her in Episode 1 of UnCabaret Amazon) who will be sing new songs.

Grab your serape and help us turn Cinco de Mayo turn into Cinco de My-oh-my-oh!

Facebook Event

3 UnCabaret Debuts!

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 01:30:20 +0000

We’re very excited to have 3 UnCabaret Debuts this Sunday April 28! New new new! It’s spring, a time when stuff sprouts and blooms and explodes and, you know, just grows! Tickets!

Missi Pyle, Tom Lenk, Shelby Fero!

Today The Nerdist called Shelby Fero one of the 4 women comics you should know about! Do you know about her? You should! Not to make you feel bad. There are so many things you should know about. We are here to help! They also say you should know about Tig Notaro who is featured on our UnCabaret Amazon shows.

Tom Lenk’s YouTube video of his call to Tim Gunn is one of the funniest and most endearing videos we have ever seen. You may have loved him on Buffy but you will love him more on UnCab!

Missi Pyle is the rare exception of the blonde bombshell who doesnlt just get by on her looks. In the tradition of one of our other fave blonde bombshells, Jennifer Coolidge!

We’re also thrilled to have Rebecca Corry, Melanie Mayron (30 Something), Kelly Carlin (yes, she of Dad George Carlin) and Raspin!

Tickets and info!

UnCabaret Sunday 4/21!

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:36:57 +0000

It’s don’t-miss comedy from Sam Pancake, Rebecca Corry, John Riggi and Jackie Kashian plus musical guests Judith Owen and Allee Willis!

We’re thrilled to have Grammy, Emmy, Tony and Webby award-winning and nominated songwriter Allee Willis back on stage at UnCabaret. Her hit songs include The Pointer Sisters’ “Neutron Dance,” Earth, Wind and Fire’s “September” and “Boogie Wonderland,” and The Rembrandt’s “I’ll Be There For You” (aka the theme song from “Friends”). She’s a true original artist who works in many mediums, and her performances at UnCabaret bring down the house every time. Find out more at http://alleewillis.com/ or check her out performing “September” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3LOfSBo18s

Allee and the above-mentioned UnCabaret favorites will all be returning to our stage this Sunday, and they’ll be there for you!

https://www.facebook.com/events/180289105457810/

UnCabaret is UnCabachella this Sunday 4/14!

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 03:27:58 +0000

While some people will be getting crazy for three overindulgent days at Coachella in the desert this weekend, the lucky ones will be getting just the right dose of music and comedy in downtown L.A. at UnCabachella — it’ll be like three days of fun rolled into one glorious night.

No road trip, no dirt, no Porta-Potties, no parking hassles, no overpriced beer, no sunburn, no trying to see all your favorite bands on every stage and not miss anything or pass out from exhaustion.

On just one stage you’ll find a star-studded lineup of hilarious comedy from Drew Droege, Cheri Oteri, Rebecca Corry and Casey Wilson, plus cool music from The Ooks of Hazzard, Ellyn and Robbie, and Sharon McConochie.

And it’s all hosted by Mistress of UnCabaret Beth Lapides and featuring Musical Director Mitch Kaplan on keyboards and Drummer Denise Fraser.

Who knows, we might even get a little crazy, too — but at least we’ll be comfortable!

Magic is in the Air at UnCab

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:14:27 +0000

LA Culture Hound review of 3/10/13

Beth Lapides has just returned from a visit to the Magic Castle and thinks magic may be in the air tonight. It’s hard to disagree. Inside the magical speakeasy at First and Hope, time bends and conflates and it’s not necessarily due to today’s time change. Perhaps it’s being in the midst of exceptionally strong talent that allows for time to pass so quickly, or maybe it is magic. “Tonight we’re going there,” Beth announces. And away we go!

I’m embarrassed to admit that I have never seen Julie Goldman before tonight. Definitely my loss. She burns up the stage with a kind of kinetic Kineson charisma. “I’m gonna start it with a lez bang tonight,” she says and man, does she. You can almost feel the white-hot heat emanating from her as she takes to the stage. Whether she is riffing on the smug tendencies of people from the Bay Area (“I’m wearing dirt and tampon strings”) or squeegee-ing her mom’s shower, her humor is raucous, volcanic and sweet. When she picks up the guitar and sings and plays like a rock star, I’m hooked. Her song Commitment Ceremony is seared into my brain. “You can have your commitment ceremonies in the back of the bus.”

It seems everyone is dying in Rebecca Corry’s life, including her 102 year-old grandmother, 42-year-old landlord, a few old dogs, her accountant and a baby bird that fell from the sky and landed right in front of her. “The women who are going to die alone are led onto the stage,” she says, digging into a story about a wedding bouquet toss where she meets her match: Jennifer Love Hewitt. Turns out Rebecca and Jennifer wrestled so competitively for the flower bouquet it split in half, cutting Jennifer Love Hewitt’s hand and forcing her to fall dramatically to the ground. Just imagining Rebecca Corry holding the mangled bouquet while J Love flails on the floor brings a smile to my face. She ends her set with a hilarious story about assiduously trying to avoid wiping her young nephew’s butt to which every childless aunt and uncle can probably relate. When her insistent nephew demands that she wipe his butt, she describes it like this: “You know when you kill a spider?” This girl cracks me up.

Sam Morrow from The Ooks of Hazzard takes to the stage with his guitar and disarming candor. “I don’t normally play at places where my feet don’t stick to the floor when I walk.” Then he adds: “I’m also afraid of comedians.” Ha! He has an unnerving effect on the women in the room. You can feel them leaning in, absorbing him deeply. With a knit hat, scruffy beard and bohemian vibe, he doesn’t at first glance fall into the category of swoon-worthy. But when he opens his mouth to sing it’s a whole different story. With swoony lyrics like “You remind me who I was and who I want to be,” sung with growly perfection, who wouldn’t be cast in his spell?

“I won Best Director in the world,”Jill Soloway wryly tells us. Fresh from her Best Director win at Sundance for her filmAfternoon Delight, she admits that “something was on the back burner while I was at Sundance.” A year ago her father, a 6’4” psychiatrist, interrupted their weekly Sunday morning conversation with a question: “Jilly? Are you sitting down?” She tells a tale that I won’t disclose here, let’s just say that every family has a story and the Soloway story has the good fortune to have an expert storyteller telling it.

Lauren Weedman, in a sloppy bun, pings and ricochets from one subject to the next. Her subjects unfurl in steady stream-of-consciousness. Her digressions have digressions, but she has an uncanny knack to always bring it back and rein herself in. Whether she’s discussing the sloshing cosmo in her aging father’s hands or having a social collision with singer Ani DiFranco, she can’t help but be uproariously funny and achingly self-aware.

Tall and willowy Marcella Detroit (from Shakespeare’s Sister) in an Edith Piaf bob, sings plaintively, “Everyody’s f-cking but me, I just can’t get laid. My sex life is so gloomy even my dog won’t do me.” A tart soprano with a naughty streak, she sings Good Girl Down (“As in you can’t keep a…”), her first single from her album The Vehicle, which will be released on April 22. Birthday boy Mitch Kaplan on piano and Denise Fraser on drums tore it up.

If there is one take away from tonight’s edition of UnCabaret, it’s that situations aren’t funny, it’s the people observing them. What’s funny about wiping your nephew’s butt? Squeegee-ing your mom’s shower? Your aging father drinking a cosmo? Nothing. But when these performers are talking about it? Everything. Tonight’s line-up demonstrates that there is power that comes from diving into the stories and feelings that most of us prefer to avoid. And comic gold. Perhaps Jill Soloway sums up tonight’s theme during her set: “Good and bad, they go together.”

LA CULTURE HOUND

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 07:30:40 +0000

Review of 2/17/13 UnCabaret by LA Culture Hound

Each UnCabaret show is different. Some nights are raucous and profane, others are gutsy and confessional. Tonight’s show struck a certain elegiac tone. As always, Beth Lapides displayed her gifts at alchemy by assembling the perfect blend of talent to make for a mesmerizing night.

Kira Soltanovich speaks of sitting beside her 101-year-old grandmother, dying in hospice. The others have gone out to smoke “because all Russian Jews legally have to smoke.” Kira kisses her grandmother’s forehead, whispers in her ear. “It’s okay, babushka, everyone went to smoke. Go now, it’s safe.” Her cousins are coming out of the elevator, and she’s thinking go, go, go! “And she passed.” The rabbi in attendance mentions that he also does Bar Mitzvahs. “The rabbi is networking in front of my dead grandmother,” she sighs.

Patton Oswalt at UnCabaret

More about Patton Oswalt, Kira Soltonovich and Judith Owen here.

SAY THE WORD: BLEEDING HEARTS

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 09:20:47 +0000

WE WERE SKIRBALLING!

Great time tonight at Say The Word: Bleeding Hearts at The Skirball Cultural Center. Thanks to a great line up: Tim Bagley, Carlos Kotkin, Cindy Chupack, Wayne Federman, Jon Kinnally and making her stage debut 18 year old Natalie Lindeman with a truly lovely story about falling ad falling in love that is slated to appear in the New York Times’ Modern Love column in March.

We looked at love from so many different angles: first love, bad boy love, having a crush on someone with a heart transplant, the death of a loved one, STD’s, on line dating, divorce, red flags. Laughed. Feel better.

Here’s a pic of the crazy space ship room! Next Say The Word April 21. The New Me!