If there’s one thing that I love about Witching Hour, it’s the comedians who perform. Tonights performers were Caribbean-born comedian Janelle James and Chicago-bred Liza Treyger.

The night started right off the bat with Janelle James opening statement being “Ima talk about my titties and shit,” which received numerous laughs from the audience.

James was an amazing performer, speaking as if she were talking to close friends, anything and everything rolling off her tongue. Those are my favorite kinds of performers — ones that don’t sound too scripted and are able to create a feeling of closeness with the audience.

James had the audience rolling with the themes she was talking about, one notable one being the topic of catcalling. She recalled a time that a man in NYC told her “You look like you got a juicy pussy!” and other horrendous tales of men in New York.

She briefly touched on more political issues, like the Me Too movement and Louis CK, but for the most part strayed away from political humor. She went on to talk more about her family life and relationships.

If you thought that Janelle James had a vulgar set, then you were in for a treat when Liza Treyger came on stage.

Liza Treyger came out on the stage, guns blazin, show ready to start. Her comedy routine started out talking about her time at Iowa State University getting arrested for drunk driving (longer bit below).

She has a particular style of comedy that is kind of self-demeaning but very self-aware. Personally, I have a terrible sense of humor where nothing is off limits, so I find this type of comedy funny. Not to mention, it seems all-too-relatable right now, as that self-deprecating type of humor is sort of “in” right now.

Treyger continues on talking about a getting out of a previous relationship and described her depression as “Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka but instead of other people in bed with me, there were food and dildos.” I honestly don’t think I have laughed that hard in quite some time.

Treyger also talked extensively about porn — the kind she likes to watch, some porn subscriptions she has, and the difference between when men finish versus when women do. If you’re not the kind of person that likes to talk about or hear about porn, then Liza Treyger is probably not the comedian for you. She’s very open about her sexuality and porn preferences, like ai deepfake generators and the like, which made it fun to laugh along with her about these things.

One of her best acts was getting some audience interaction and asking different questions for the men and for the women. For context, she created a situation where you hook up with someone and then are telling your friends about it later.

For the men, she said “Clap if your buddy asks you if you came,” followed by silence. When she asked the women, nearly every woman in the room clapped. It was totally a “You had to be there” kind of moment, but I think she really put her sociology degree to work there.

If I were you, I would definitely check out some of their comedy on YouTube and Netflix because there was not a moment where I wasn’t bubbling up with laughter.

The post Witching Hour: Janelle James and Liza Treyger @ The Englert 10/13/18 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Writers of Color Reading

Fatimah Asghar, a Pakistani-Kashmiri-American poet and Fulbright fellow, leads with Writers of Color Reading Series for this year’s Witching Hour. Asghar co-created and wrote an Emmy-nominated web series called “Brown Girls”. Other readers include Natalia Reyes, Siyanda Mohutsiwa, Bruna Dantas Lobato, Aimee Fredericksen, Leon Pan, and Joe Emanuel.

This reading series will take place at The Englert Theatre on Saturday night starting at 8pm.

Julie Byrne

Julie Byrne, performing a concert co-presented with UI student organization SCOPE, is an atmospheric guitarist and vocalist. She has released two albums and two EPs in her career, the most recent titled “Not Even Happiness”. This recent album is inspired by Byrne’s first time witnessing the Pacific Northwest, and it is clear that nature drives her as soon as the album starts playing. Along with being a musician, Byrne is a seasonal park ranger at Central Park in New York.

Byrne will begin her set on The Mill’s stage Friday at 9:30pm after Squirrel Flower plays at 8:30pm.

Puddles Pity Party

Puddles Pity Party is described as “the sad clown with a golden voice.” He remains completely silent when he isn’t singing in a deep, melancholy voice, which caught public attention after his cover of Lorde’s “Royals” went viral. Puddles has performed his acts around the world and was a runner-up on America’s Got Talent. Puddles is an entirely emotive artist, and his work can reach everybody’s heart in some striking way.

The event will begin at The Englert Theatre at 8:30pm on Friday night.

Jack Lion and Jaimie Branch

Electronic, jazz-infused trio Jack Lion will be opening for Jaimie Branch, an experimental jazz trumpeter. Jack Lion, based in Iowa City, draws from each member’s formal jazz training for musical inspiration. Jaimie Branch, also a recording engineer and presenter will be performing with a band full of long-time collaborates for Witching Hour.

The concert begins with Jack Lion at Gabe’s on Saturday at 10pm.

Janelle James and Liza Treyger

Janelle James is a comedian, providing hilarious commentary on aging and family life along with her raunchy storytelling. Liza Treyger recently released her first half-hour Netflix comedy special, used to work on Chelsea Lately, and was a cast member on MTV’s “Joking Off”. The two female comedians’ sets will meld together to create a perfect, humorous evening.

James and Treyger will perform at The Englert Theatre starting with James at 9:30pm on Saturday night.

Parts Unknown Dinner

In the wake of chef Anthony Bourdain‘s death earlier in 2018, the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program and the Chef de Cuisine of St. Burch Tavern, Gabe Branch, collaborate to present the Parts Unknown Dinner. Bourdain was not only the host of a food-based television show, but made an extreme effort to fully appreciate and understand the people who showed him cuisine from across the word. He wanted to know the people, not commodify their food.

The dinner will take place at St. Burch Tavern on Saturday at 5pm, but has sold out in advance.

Passes are still available, and some events have individually priced tickets. For the first time this year, Witching Hour Festival is also selling student passes at a discounted and very affordable price. If you’re interested in attending the festival, check out passes here!

The post Witching Hour: KRUI’s Top Picks appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Attending comedy shows in today’s political climate always seems like a bit of a risk to me, but after seeing Hasan Minhaj recently at The Englert, I felt more open to the experience. Mission Creek Festival brought Daily Show Correspondent Michelle Wolf, comedian Janelle James, and two local comics Spencer Loucks and Arish Singh to The Mill on Saturday night.

The night began quite awkwardly. Loucks (the only white guy performer of the night) got on stage and dramatically declared “Guys… Stop thinking about sex… Hostess sells ice cream!” His first joke was met with mostly silence and confusion. After his weird bit about short orgasms and eating Twinkie ice cream, he became more comfortable on stage and got more laughs with some self-deprecation about embarrassing acting auditions and awkward dates.

Loucks introduced the first guest comedian to Iowa City, Janelle James, whose performance consistently drew laughs. James, who has been opening for Chris Rock’s comedy tour, shared uncomfortable but hilarious thoughts about the transition from “pee-pee” to “dick” in her thirteen-year-old son, and racist casting calls for angry black women.

One of my favorite jokes regarded the popular reality TV show The Bachelor, and how the sought-after single man of the title is just some “basic white dude named Ben.” She also pointed out that in the “900 seasons” of the show, the token black woman and token Latina woman get cut in the second week of the show, even though “minorities put up their best” to audition.

James joked about her confrontations with white people having lived in the Midwest, confessing that she likes white men: “Not as human beings or as people, I mean in a sexual fetishizing way.” She transitioned from this joke to discussing how disappointed she felt when she realized that a bonfire is just a fire, despite the “hype” by white people.

After a short intermission following James’ set, Arish Singh, a comic who splits his time between Chicago and Iowa City took the stage. Having seen Singh perform before, I knew about his provocative jokes that many white neo-liberals of Iowa City respond to with tight lips and discomfort. When half the room did not laugh at James’ joke about the whiteness of The Bachelor, I was curious how they’d respond to Singh’s request that Republicans in the room chant “race war, hell yeah” followed by a minority group they hate.

Unsurprisingly, those audience members did not appreciate his frankness, but the majority of the room did. They laughed at his plea to eradicate the evils of ventriloquism by calling their senators and exposing Jeff Dunham as a cheap racist hack. Then, he introduced the headliner, Michelle Wolf.

Like Singh, she wasted no time before getting political. Wolf brought up how politicians are “trying to figure out where trans people should go to the bathroom,” suggesting an ingenious idea: “bathrooms.” She explained that the only thing women worry about in bathrooms is making sure no one knows they’re the ones pooping: “I tried to cough a lot and only go when the hand dryer was on.” Wolf suggests that pooping loudly in a bathroom is a great way to avoid predators, though; she said that farting on the whole walk home could ensure one’s protection.

Wolf told one of my favorite jokes of the night when she described the “fatal flaw” of women: wanting to help other people. She tells a story of sitting in a meeting and seeing a man who needed a napkin, and becoming so distracted with this “poor baby” and wanting to help this man so badly. “I know where the napkins are, I have legs, I could go get him the napkins and I could save him!” I’ve had this thought so many times before, and while I don’t know about generalizing all women, I could definitely identify with this joke.

While Wolf had some great high notes to her set, she also had numerous moments during her performance when I felt confused about her jokes. Several times in her set, she compared the gender identity and sexuality of gay men to straight women in problematic ways. Wolf included a joke in which a trans women wore a shirt better than her, and told the woman to “stay in her lane.” When Wolf began a joke with “there are some jobs immigrants are just better at,” I really felt disconnected to her comedy.

While she revealed her problematic feminism, I still appreciated some jokes about so-called feminist movements like the Free The Nipple campaign, which she suspected originated from a creepy man wanting to see nipples on the internet. She suggested that Instagram and other social media platforms simply ban male nipples instead.

While Janelle James was my favorite performer of the night, the other comics all had great moments in their set. Thanks to Mission Creek for bringing them to Iowa City!

The post Mission Creek: Michelle Wolf @ The Mill 4/8/17 appeared first on KRUI Radio.