Comedian Shayla Rivera will be returning to Sacramento to perform at the Punch Line Comedy Club for four nights beginning on Thursday. It’s been over a year since the former aerospace engineer performed at the same venue last February. Rivera describes her comedy brand as observational. Even though she is, as she puts it, “a Latino, supposedly,” she said that anyone and everyone can enjoy her comedy. “I do talk a lot about cultural differences, gender differences, whatever strikes me,” Rivera said. Rivera describes her act as “make fun of myself” kind of comedy. It comes from the truth, she said. “I might talk about farts,” Rivera said, “nothing brings out more emotion than a fart: ang

“Laugh at yourself first before anyone else can.” Sure, those words were written over five decades ago by gossip columnist Elsa Maxwell, but they still ring true in every comedy club today. The ten talented comedians who performed at the Punch Line Comedy Club Wednesday night showed how self-depreciation can be one of the most entertaining elements of the show. Stand-up comedians are notorious for having the gift of somehow making all things taboo sound hilarious, and there certainly was no shortage of racial insults and sexual innuendos directed at each other as well as the audience members. A few of them poked fun at a friendly couple sitting up front who shared that they had been dat

You know that comedian, Anthony Jeselnik? Yeah, me neither. At least, I didn't until I saw him steal the show during the recent broadcast of the “Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump,” where he created some buzz for himself by deftly skewering the guest of honor and the other roasters on the dais, like Larry King, Snoop Dogg and Jersey Shore's "The Situation.” I had a chance to see him in action myself Thursday night at the Punch Line. Fremont's Sammy Obeid was the emcee and first act, mining his Lebanese ethnicity for some killer jokes about being mistaken as Mexican and Indian, as well as plenty of great sex-related material, which appeals to everyone and is always a crowd-pleaser.

Josh Blue has refused to let cerebral palsy keep him from doing what he loves – exploding onto the stage and making people laugh. Although his disability is clearly evident, Josh uses it to his advantage and propels himself into the limelight with off-putting jokes that would make many blush. In 2006 Josh won NBC's ‘Last Comic Standing’ in part due to his ability to laugh at himself and in part to being able to make others laugh. In general, he wins the audience over by being comfortable with the person he is and the hand he was dealt (figuratively and literally) in life. Friday night’s performance at the Punch Line in Sacramento was no different; Josh got up on stage and immediately mad

When a comedian who has performed on NBC’s The Tonight Show, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live, CBS's The Late Late Show and BET's Comic View comes to Sacramento for a night of comedy, it is a laugh waiting to happen. Steve Byrne started off his four day run at the Punch Line Comedy Club in Sacramento tonight and did not fail to entertain the nearly sold-out crowd. Steve, a comedian with a notable television and film career, used his Irish and Korean heritage as a stage for many of his off-center jokes. Whether he is insulting (imitating) his mothers way of speaking or making fun of his Irish family, he does so in a way that is relaxed and funny at the same time. Although many of the jokes would b

  The recipe for the evening at the Punchline Comedy Club in Sacramento : a lot of self-reflective humor, a pinch of mid-life introspection, a sliver of parental issues and satire to taste. The combination together, along with the awkward silences and comedic breaks makes Marc Maron, the host of the WTF Podcasts, so interesting. Maron is notorious for his self-criticism and very little in his set is deprived of it. At one point he looks at the audience and says, “Recently, my wife brought it to my attention that I have an anger problem. She did not say that, she just left me.” It is in this personal humor that Maron’s true comedic genius shines. Each line, each blurb is based on some me

Punchline Comedy Club in Sacramento put on a night of laughs with Steve Mazan and headliner Dennis Gaxiola. The show, an hour and a half of non-stop laughs, runs through Sunday and is well worth your time. Starting the night off was the emcee John Ross. John brought a fresh comedy routine to the club and prepared the audience for the upcoming comedians. Although this was John’s first time at the Punchline he commanded the stage and showed a keen insight into the audience.   After a fifteen minute set John introduced Steve Mazan, a comedian from Southern California, who has appeared on The Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Steve has a distinct comedy style that is fast-paced, gritty and situ

What does one do the night before Thanksgiving? Prepare your food, meet with family or head down to the Punch Line Comedy Club and watch five nationally featured comedians make you laugh out loud? Option three was what happened Wednesday night at the Punch Line Comedy club in Sacramento. Kevin Munroe, Bryan Yang, Ray Molina, Keith Lowell Jensen and Ngaio Bealum performed as the ‘Sacramento Comedy All Stars’ and what a show it was. To start the evening Kevin Munroe jumped on stage and told the audience he was from Trinidad – a country so small that the 100 meter dash has a left turn. He continued with what he was told when he first moved here, “we are taking you to the land of opportunity

  Get ready for to be offended – in a good way that is. In a world of political correctness, Louis Katz is anything but; without skipping a beat Louis single handedly left no race or religion out of his comedy routine Thursday night at the Punch Line Comedy Club in Sacramento. Louis delivers a flat-out edgy and funny set that you will be talking about at the water cooler for weeks. His comedy is the type were you stop and look at your date, mouth open, and say – “did he really just say that?” The answer is YES, he said it so close your mouth and start listening again. Not only does his comedy have you rolling on the floor laughing, it pushes the limits with a witty and smart probe. Wit

  While many were gearing-up for an evening of trick-or-treating, Doug Benson was preparing to take the stage at the Punch Line Comedy Club. Doug continued his ‘Pot The Vote’ tour Sunday afternoon with fellow comedians Ngaio Bealum, David Huntsberger and Graham Elwood. The tour was designed around Proposition 19 and Doug’s belief in the legalization of marijuana. The show itself was not your typical comedy routine; instead it was similar to the way Doug does his podcasts – a string of irrelevant thoughts tied together with other comedians interjecting. This is done by Doug inviting each guest comedian up one at a time to showcase their comedy while Doug sits on the stage and interjects

Get ready for some fun – Michael Ian Black delivers comedy you just have to laugh at. Michael was the headliner at Sacramento’s Punch Line Comedy Club this last week and without fail he brought the house down. His fast-paced yet perfectly timed situational comedy routine entices the audience into a sometimes uncomfortable yet hard-not-to-laugh position. Michael started the night by reading a twitter post on his account that said, “Headed out to the Michael Ian Black show, ….I’m going to lick his face or get arrested trying.” Michael then proceeded to ask the audience if someone had written it. When a young lady was pointed out by her friends, he joked that although he did not want his fa

Comedian Doug Benson smokes pot. That fact is well documented in his stand-up routine and his 2007 documentary "Super High Me." In the movie, Benson eagerly offers himself up as a test subject to document the effects of smoking massive amounts of marijuana for 30 days. In his stand-up act, it appears that his experiment is still unofficially continuing. Playing mid-week to a full house at the Sacramento Punchline, Benson began his set with his eyes half closed and a stoner grin. He immediately showed the audience his notes that he claimed to need so he didn't meander through his material. However, as the evening wore on, you began to wonder if the "stoner" persona was just a well-played

A SacramentoComedy.Com Interview If you listen to comedian Felipe Esparza, you'll hear a cross between Cheech Marin from Cheech and Chong and your funniest "homeboy." They both have the East L.A. accent and down to earth sense of humor that comes from growing up in the barrio. "I'm not a tough guy, but I can beat up everyone at Trader Joe's, but at Food-for-Less I shut up," he said. "They don‘t have aisles, they have alleys." Sacramento Comedy spoke to Esparza recently just after his advance to the semi-final rounds of NBC's Last Comic Standing, Season 7. "The next step is to have a big battle between the semi-finalists in New York and Los Angeles," Esparza said. We asked him if he ant

By Mikhail Chernyavsky By the amount of Mohawks and Affliction shirts sported by audience members at the Punch Line Comedy Club Friday night, a spectator could only assume a five-minute bout in the octagon was about to commence. And, you wouldn’t be too far off. Joe Rogan took to the stage of a sold out audience – cheering and whistling him on – for what would be two hours of dirty, raunchy, intellectual and simply hilarious stand up comedy. Now, intellectual is not exactly what you would expect from a man who is best known for hosting a reality game show that had contestants wolfing down the sexual organs of animals. It is easy to say this Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) commentator is nothin

A SacramentoComedy.Com Interview What do you call four male comics packed into a pink van, touring the country for four months performing stand-up comedy and raising funds and awareness for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure? I guess you could say that we are just "boobs for boobs," laughed Brendan T. Gleason, one of the four comics coming to the Sacramento Punchline April 14. "We thought about naming the tour that, but decided that the subject deserved a little more serious demeanor." Gleason, Law Smith, Nick Hoff and pretty pink van owner Kevin Richards are on the last legs of this 57-show tour. After Sacramento (performance No. 55), there are two performances in Fresno, and then the tou

Though he's not onstage at the moment, comedian Pablo Francisco is already warming up. A little after 8 a.m. Thursday, Francisco is on the phone telling dirty jokes, making fun of himself and impersonating celebrity actors Michael J. Fox and Shia LaBeouf. Francisco brings a fresh and diverse persona to comedy, with sound effects, slapstick impressions and fast-paced non-sequiturs peppering his routine. Thursday through Sunday evening, the Chilean-American comedian will perform at the Punchine with Matt Claybrooks, Sean Savoy and Ashley Fils-Aime opening. Originally from Tuscon, Ariz., Francisco's career choices didn't always go over well with his parents. He recalled delivering pizzas in

If there is a lesson to be learned from Keith Lowell Jensen’s headlining set at the Punch Line, it’s to never solicit religion at his door, lest you wish to be treated to an all-nude male revue starring the local comic. The hypothetical situation was one of the older bits that made it into KLJ’s hour-long routine on Aug. 26. The show was in celebration of his first album of stand-up, To the Moon… Live at Luna’s. Hosting the night and warming up the crowd was Marcella Arguello. At 6 feet 2 inches tall, the hard-hitting San Franciscan towered over her male counterparts, a fact she didn’t shy away from. “I can kick all of your asses if you back-talk me,” she joked before introducing the fi

Dat Phan won the first season of NBC's Last Comic Standing and has since catapulted himself into the headlining spot in a comedy tour across the U.S. Besides television appearances on Comedy Central and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Phan is going to be in an upcoming movie called "When in Rome" with Kristen Bell, Jon Heder, and Danny DeVito. Though originally from Saigon, Vietnam, Phan grew up in San Diego, and according to his website, his mission is to bring a more positive portrayal of Asian Americans to mainstream entertainment and Hollywood. He will be headlining a row of four shows every night at the Punch Line on the corner of Howe Ave. and Arden Way from Thursday, March 12 unti

"I'm not a doctor, although I do play one in the broken dreams of my parents."  So says Brian Malow, a Bay Area-based comic and "day shift astronomer".  Combining a sharp but down-to-earth sense of humor with a subject matter that ranges from the bottom of the ocean to the farthest reaches of the universe, Malow is "Earth's premier science comedian," and this Thursday he can be seen at Sacramento's very own Punch Line comedy club.  Although he has performed many times before in Sacramento as part of a standard three or four person bill, January 22nd marks the first time Malow will bring his full show, "Rational Comedy For An Irrational World."  While local comedian Kieth Lowell Jensen wil