HOPS & HAS COMEDY SHOW
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Night Lizard Brewing Company, 607 State St.
Cost: $5
Information: www.nightlizardbrewingcompany.com
Santa Barbara’s comedy scene comes in waves. Some years there are a lot of venues, and sometimes there’s a drought. But the constant remains: a large pool of stand-ups looking to our town as a place to visit and try out new material. In the last few years we’ve had No Indoor Voices, Comedy Hideaway, and the LOL Comedy Fest. And now add to that Julie Weidemann’s comedy shows at the Night Lizard Brewing Company, one of the newest breweries to open on the 600 block of State. She and five other comedians will take the stage Solstice Parade evening to deliver a round of laughs from some of Los Angeles’s rising stars.
“This just sort of fell together,” Weidemann says, after one of her sons alerted her to the brewery’s interest in bringing comedy to their downtown location. “I thought it would be an opportunity to bring more diversity and eclectic acts to Santa Barbara.”
Weidemann is originally from Oxnard, and after college started working in theater and and then for the last nine years has been getting more and more involved in stand-up.
It will be a chance to see some brand new talent as well as acts they might see the next day on Comedy Central.
The line-up this time includes Bri Pruett, J.B. Ball, Michael Malone, Christine Medrano, and Ben Gonzalez.
Malone has been around for a long time. He’s been on Fox, Hulu, and plays a part on “I’m Dying Up Her” for Showtime. Bri Pruett is originally from Portland, and apart from stand-up has done a TedX Talk on beauty standards, as well as appearing on Comedy Central, NPR, and Dan Savage’s LoveCast.
Ben Gonzalez and Christine Medrano have both recently appeared on a HBO Latino series called “Entre Nos,” and Medrano has been involved in several skits for Funny or Die and opened for Maria Banford.
J.B. Ball has been popping up on YouTube suggestions with a skit he created for Comedy Central called “Who’s the GOAT: LeBron or Jordan?”. He’s also on Kevin Hart’s streaming channel LOL.
The first show, in February, was “out of control, room filled to capacity,” but since then it’s become a bit more manageable and breathable. Still, a very good start to a monthly series.
Weidemann has spotted some return customers each month, including UCSB students, and she’s included some “repeat offenders” in the line-up.
“Since that first month the crowds have been very attentive, very mindful,” she says. “Especially for a bar, that’s great…And we’ve gotten a wider variety of people from the young to couples in their 70s. Something for everyone.”
