Before The Show

On Episode 6 of Before The Show, Connor, Liz, and Dave interview Alana Gonzalez. As a previous host for Ugly Brothers Comedy’s shows, we’re already familiar with how raucously hilarious her material is. She explains how she found her comic voice when being genuine about her experience being a mom. Alana says she’s only been doing stand-up for about a year, but she had previous experience with radio and not being able to contain her verbal excesses in grade school. She believes that the best way to get more women into stand-up is for more women to be seen doing stand-up, normalizing comedy as something women can do. After a show, Alana says she likes to go for ice cream.

If you’d like to see her perform for us, she’ll be at The Avenue Bar & Grill on April 19th at 9 PM. Maybe we can all get ice cream afterward. 

 In the latest Episode of “Before The Show”, David, Elizabeth, And Connor take Samantha Rager through “the gauntlet”. We learn what got her started in the underground comedy scene around Metro Detroit 7 years ago. Connor hijacks Liz’s questions. Sam talks about finding her voice, cliché misogyny, and the rising voices of underground female comedians. Rising up from causing chaos in classes as a student to pranking her coworkers one Halloween, Sam is a riot. From her favorite color (Purple) to her thoughts on hecklers, the India-Pakistan Conflict and what she does after a show, We dig deep.

 Ugly Brothers Co-Founder, Dave Chrenko says “hello” in the fourth episode of Before The Show and Connor interviews David Sutherland. Starting out at Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle in Royal Oak, David initially took lessons to “improve his social skills”. He never imagined he could have a chance as a stand-up comic but decided it was worth a try. One thing he wasn’t expecting was how short 5 minutes seems to be when setting up a few good jokes. He says he finds a lot of his inspiration listening to the radio while delivering pizzas, turning it up simulate a disinterested audience while rehearsing his set.

 In Episode 3 of Before The Show, we have an entertainer from all the way out in sunny California. Jonathan Flanagan is a California native, who actually went to college to stand on a stage. From his improvisation classes, to being able to hide within a character in theatre, he’s experiencing stage-fright for the third time doing stand-up. “It’s a light, a mic, and you up there,” summarizes Connor. There is a little inspiration everywhere, but Jonathan says his favorite comedy topic is sex. Whether or not you're doing it, there's always some subversion of expectation to find humor in. Jonathan believes no topic is strictly off-limits, but some topics are harder to make genuinely humorous. One thing we haven't heard too much about here in Michigan is jokes about homelessness, apparently a much more common topic in California.

 n Ugly Brothers’ second Before The Show interview, Connor talks to our favorite Navy vet, Jay Hunter. Having done possibly 200 or more shows and open mic shows in the last year, he agrees that several topics in comedy are very overdone. He says his own inspiration comes from personal life experience and observation. One of his observations is how his stature (“Six-six, black man”) causes people to judge him before getting to know him. We love him though, he is a very popular repeat comic at our shows and always cracks up the crowd. To hear him for yourself, catch a preview by listening to the entire interview then come out to see him... 

 In the first Before The Show interview by Ugly Brothers Comedy, Timothy Locke talks about his experience as a stand-up comic. Starting out at an Open Mic Night, he is now headlining for Ugly Bros Comedy at The Avenue Bar & Grill at 9 PM on Saturday, February 16th.