Laugh It Up at this Monthly Alternative Comedy Showcase
Nancy Guppy goofs off with the co-hosts of the Laugh Riot comedy showcase
By Nancy Guppy August 24, 2015
This article originally appeared in the September 2015 issue of Seattle magazine.
If you need a break from Seattle’s unfailing earnestness, let your irreverent side fly free at Laugh Riot, the monthly alternative comedy showcase that takes place at Capitol Hill’s Chop Suey (9/2. 9 p.m. $5. 1325 E Madison St.; Facebook, “Laugh Riot”). You’ll be in good hump-day hands the first Wednesday of every month, thanks to cohosts and funnymen-about-town Derek Sheen and Ryan Casey.
LOCATION: Green Bean Coffeehouse in Greenwood
DRINKS: Sheen: double-shot dirty chai. Casey: iced Americano with half ’n’ half
Nancy Guppy: Laugh Riot is…
Derek Sheen: A 90-minute showcase where we bring comics in from all over.
Ryan Casey: Really good comics that you wouldn’t normally see at comedy clubs.
DS: It’s a show for underdogs. Really funny underdogs.
NG: Are there any women in the lineups?
DS: Yes. We try to feature at least one or two women in every show so it’s not just a bunch of bearded white dudes.
RC: Like us.
NG: How do you make cohosting work?
DS: We are very good at listening to each other and allowing each other to have a moment to build on something.
RC: It’s a genuine friendship. We like each other and I think people can tell.
NG: What did you want to be when you were little?
DS: A comedian. For third-grade show-and-tell I did one entire side of a George Carlin album from memory.
RC: I wanted to be a filmmaker, but going to film school scared me, and also filmmaking is a lot of work. Being a comedian is just saying words into a microphone.
NG: What makes you laugh?
DS: Tragedy, like the kid who just got eaten by an alligator. The sign said, “No swimming alligators,” but it didn’t have a comma in it, so…
NG: Are there topics that are off limits, comedy-wise?
DS: You can joke about anything as long as you have a sense of empathy and you understand where the joke is.
RC: Punch up. Don’t punch down.
NG: Anything you can’t live without?
DS: Validation.
RC: Moisturizer.
Nancy Guppy showcases Seattle artists on her TV series, Art Zone (seattlechannel.org/artzone).
Follow Us
Ferry Tales: Eight Indie Bookstores Worth the Ride
Plan a summer day around these bookshops in Seattle, Bremerton, Bainbridge Island, Kingston, and Poulsbo.
Independent bookstores tend to be cornerstones of the communities in which they reside, and Seattle is no exception. In addition to helping customers discover their next read, these neighborhood hubs host weekly gatherings and events, like publication release parties, author talks, and book clubs. Many of them have cafés and reading tables that encourage lingering…
Rearview Mirror: Seattle Art Fair is Back, Nordstrom Throws a Block Party, and a Must-Try Ice Cream Sundae
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
SEATTLE ART FAIR RETURNS The buzziest event of the summer (well, aside from the World Cup), is returning next week. Now in its 10th edition, the Seattle Art Fair will once again take over the Lumen Field Event Center, packing it to the gills with art from 101 local, national, and international galleries. This year,…
Studio Sessions: Jennifer Leigh Harrison
Seattle artist Jennifer Leigh Harrison uses layers of paint and abstraction to explore what we carry beneath the surface.
Jennifer Leigh Harrison’s paintings are dense with movement. Color and texture gather into mosaic-like fields, as if they have been fractured and reformed. There are places in the work where a frenetic buzz seems trapped between the canvas and the first layer of paint. That energy runs through Patterns of Belonging, her current exhibition at…
ENHYPEN’s Jay Has K-Pop Stardom and a Seattle Heart
The Federal Way-raised singer talks hometown memories, Ivar’s clam chowder, and how it feels to perform in the place he grew up.
Long before he was performing in sold-out arenas around the world and representing brands like Prada, ENHYPEN’s Jay called the Puget Sound region home. Born Jay Park (not to be confused with the other famous K-pop star of the same name, who is also from Seattle) in Seattle and raised in nearby Federal Way before…