Tag Archives: Humor

Sunday Night Funnies’ Kingpin of Comedy competition enters final round on Oct. 26

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SNF K.Pin weekly poster (Courtesy, Brian B.)


By WKTV Staff

deborah@wktv.org



Kingpin competition finalists (Courtesy, Brian B.)

Ninety-eight comedians are now down to eight as the seventh annual Sunday Night Funnies (SNF) Kingpin of Comedy competition enters its final round on Sunday, Oct. 26.

“We have a good mix of comedians performing in the Kingpin finals this year,” says Brian B., MC and founder of the SNF.

Participating comedians hail from the Grand Rapids and Detroit areas, Holland and Buchanan.

“It’s a diverse lineup as well,” says Brian B. “Of the eight comedians performing, two are women and four of the comics are of color.”

The Kingpin of Comedy final round will also feature a drawing for a pair of tickets to comedian Adam Degi’s first standup comedy special recording on Nov. 14 at the Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids.

Degi will also be closing out the Kingpin Finals while the votes are being counted.

Prizes galore!

(Courtesy, Brian B.)

The Kingpin of Comedy winner will receive a prize package worth over $1,000.

“Seeing that Wyoming is the 14th largest city in Michigan, I thought that the overall winner deserved a prize package worthy of the title Most Humorous Human in Town,” says Brian B.

The prize package includes $500 cash, gift cards from LaughFest and GLC Live at 20 Monroe, as well as prizes from various Wyoming businesses and competition host Spectrum Entertainment Complex.

The winner also receives a bowling pin trophy and personalized “Kingpin” bowling shirt.

About SNF

The Sunday Night Funnies is the creation of Grand Rapids stand-up comedian Brian B. The weekly live stand-up comedy performance is free admission and features a variety of local and national comics. Now in its 16th year, over 1,275 different comedians have entertained SNF audiences.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with each show beginning at 7:30 p.m. at Spectrum Entertainment Complex in Wyoming.

Sunday Night Funnies seventh annual Kingpin of Comedy competition enters quarterfinal rounds

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The seventh annual Sunday Night Funnies (SNF) Kingpin of Comedy competition continues its quarterfinal rounds (Courtesy, Brian B.)


By WKTV Staff

deborah@wktv.org


Ninety-eight comedians are now down to 42 as the seventh annual Sunday Night Funnies (SNF) Kingpin of Comedy competition continues its quarterfinal rounds.

The competition began May 11 with its first of fourteen qualifying rounds. Six quarterfinal rounds will run Aug. 17-Sept. 21 with three semifinal rounds held Sept. 28, Oct. 5 and Oct. 19. Competition finals will be held Oct. 26.

Previous Kingpin of Comedy competition winners (Courtesy, Brian B.)

How it works

Seven comedians are given eight minutes to perform in each round. The line-up of comedians is random, with the order drawn as the show progresses.

Audience members are given a ballot before the show begins. After the last competing comedian of the night performs, the audience picks three comedians they feel should advance to the next round. Ballots are counted while a non-competing comic performs for the audience. Comics moving on to the next round of the competition are announced at the end of the show.

Prizes galore!

The Kingpin of Comedy winner will receive a prize package worth over $1,000.

“Seeing that Wyoming is the 14th largest city in Michigan, I thought it deserved its own stand-up comedy competition with the overall winner getting a prize package worthy of the title Most Humorous Human in Wyoming!” says Brian B., Founder and MC of the SNF.

The SNF Kingpin of Comedy winner will receive a large check for $500 (Courtesy, Brian B.)

The prize package includes $500 cash, gift cards from LaughFest and Midtown GR, and prizes from various Wyoming businesses and competition host Spectrum Entertainment Complex. The winner also receives a bowling pin trophy, personalized “Kingpin” bowling shirt, and will headline the SNF 2026 LaughFest performance.

About SNF

The Sunday Night Funnies is the creation of Grand Rapids stand-up comedian Brian B. The weekly live stand-up comedy performance is free admission and features a variety of local and national comics. Now in its 16th year, over 1,275 different comedians have entertained SNF audiences. Each show begins at 7:30 p.m. (winter/spring) and 8:30 p.m. (summer/early fall) at Spectrum Entertainment Complex in Wyoming.

On the shelf: ‘Live Right and Find Happiness (Although Beer is Much Faster)’ by Dave Barry

Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, , , ,

By Grand Rapids Public Library

 

Need a lift? Try a bit of Dave Barry’s humor in his newest book.

 

Born in 1947, in the vanguard of the “Boomer” generation, Barry’s journalistic work has long provided a humorous slant to that demographic lump in the American loaf. As he’s gotten older, it’s worthwhile reading to see what Barry makes of how the overly self-absorbed generation has come to terms with its time on the field.

 

The chapter that resonated with me the most was the one where he is looking back on three generations, with a fourth one just coming onstage, and decides that his parents had more fun than he did.

 

“That’s not how it was supposed to be. My parents belonged to the Greatest Generation; they grew up in hard times. My mom was born in Colorado in an actual sod hut, which is the kind of structure you see in old black-and-white photographs featuring poor, gaunt, prairie-dwelling people standing in front of what is either a small house or a large cow pie…”

 

Dave speculates that the Greatest Generation may have triumphed by not realizing all the mistakes they were making — mistakes that the Boomers rectified by turning “parenting” into a verb, among other things. The laughter has a poignant bite to it, as Barry admits that “The harsh truth is that happiness is an elusive thing.”

 

But that does not slow the author down, as he travels to Brazil with his daughter for the World Cup, and goes to Russia with Ridley Pearson for a literature tour (the State Department tapped them to go). He meets David Beckham, tries Google Glass, and reveals a stunning secret confided to him by Johnny Carson about do-it-yourself home improvements. Great stuff!

 

Going back to a Dave Barry book was like meeting an old friend for lunch — you realize how much you’ve missed them and wondered where the time went.

On the Shelf Book Review: ‘When You Are Engulfed in Flames’, by David Sedaris

Books, Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, , , , ,
when-you-are-engulfed-in-flamesOn the Shelf Book Review
By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main

When David Sedaris, the famous humorist, was in Grand Rapids last spring, the Grand Rapids Press reviewer summed up his type of comedy as “NPR funny”— an excellent term, which perfectly describes an addictive style that touches on the poignant absurdity of life.

Along the lines of Woody Allen and James Thurber, with a bit of Jack Benny and Phillip Roth thrown in, Sedaris takes the melancholy and self-absorbed male to new heights. He’s honed an intense, but not mean-spirited voice over the years, and it is quite unique.

With a self-depreciating eye, he looks over topics like his childhood, family life, a checkered career path, being obsessive, being gay, travel, and his long-term relationship with his partner, Hugh, among others. If the topics seem a little mundane, it’s really about what he does with them.

If you haven’t discovered Sedaris yet, try a couple of his more recent works. One of my favorites is Dress Your Family in Denim and Corduroy, which has the small chapter, The End of the Affair, where David and Hugh take in a movie. It becomes clear to Sedaris that watching romantic movies is just plain dangerous, for reasons that may not have ever occurred to you. These four pages alone are worth the price of the book, and of course his works are available in print or audio at the library for free.