Latest news with #BigDumbEyes'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fun to Do: Comedians, Yo-Yo Ma, waterfront concerts and more
Looking for something to do during the next week? Here are just a few happenings in Hampton Roads. Comedian and actor Kevin James brings his 'Owls Don't Walk' tour to the Oceanfront. 7 p.m. Friday at The Dome, 400 20th St., Virginia Beach. Tickets start at $30. To buy online, visit 'I Want My '80s' will feature full sets by Rick Springfield with John Waite, Wang Chung and John Cafferty. 7 p.m. Friday at Portsmouth Pavilion, 16 Crawford Circle. Tickets start at $30. For more information or to buy online, visit An afternoon with cellist Yo-Yo Ma: 'Reflections in Words and Music,' presented by Virginia Arts Festival. 3 p.m. Sunday at Chrysler Hall, 215 St. Paul's Blvd., Norfolk. Tickets start at $172.75, which includes fees. For more information, visit Comedian, director and producer Nate Bargatze brings his 'Big Dumb Eyes' world tour to Norfolk for two shows. 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday at Scope arena, 201 E. Brambleton Ave. Tickets start at $52.55, which includes fees. To buy online, visit Ynot Wednesdays returns for the summer season, featuring various artists weekly from 5-9 p.m. June 11 through Aug. 27 on the outdoor plaza at Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, 201 Market St., Virginia Beach. The performances are free. For more information, visit Celebrate Juneteenth across Hampton Roads with events, ceremonies and festivals Sunset Thursdays: Concerts on the Water will feature various artists for the summer from 6:30-9 p.m. June 12 through Aug. 28 at Festival Park, 16 Crawford Circle, Portsmouth. For a weekly schedule, visit Events may change. Check before attending. Want more information about what's happening around Hampton Roads? Sign up for our Weekend Scoop newsletter. Patty Jenkins,
USA Today
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Sarah Silverman's tender 'PostMortem' finds humor in the thing 'we're all terrified of'
Sarah Silverman's tender 'PostMortem' finds humor in the thing 'we're all terrified of' Show Caption Hide Caption What's next for Nate Bargatze? USA TODAY's Erin Jensen caught up with Nate Bargatze on his new book 'Big Dumb Eyes' and what's next after stand up. There's an art to transforming the worst days of your life into causes for laughter. In Sarah Silverman's latest standup special, she turns an unimaginable gut punch – the 2023 deaths of her dad and stepmother, just days apart − into punchlines, and her heartbreak into wisecracks. 'I worry that people are going to think it's soft, (but) if anything it's the opposite because it's the hard stuff,' Silverman says, looking cozy in a gray sweater with a bubblegum pink beanie atop her raven-colored locks. 'It's something that we're all terrified of, that none of us can avoid.' Silverman's father, Donald 'Schleppy' Silverman and her stepmother, Janice, both died in May 2023. Her dad, who she has described as her best friend, had kidney failure, just nine days after Janice's bout with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer came to an end. Sarah Silverman devotes time in the 63-minute 'PostMortem' (now streaming on Netflix), to each of her parents, including her mom, Beth Ann O'Hara, a stickler for enunciation and blunt honesty, who died in 2015. From the stage of New York's Beacon Theatre, Silverman remembers her dad's days as owner of Crazy Sophie's Factory Outlet, his enthusiastic Yelp review for their dentist and the days leading to his death. Silverman shares stories of Janice, 'just the sweetest lady you could ever meet,' and her parents' starkly different reactions to Janice's diagnosis. Janice's 'reaction is so Janice,' Silverman, 54, says in 'PostMortem.' 'She just goes, 'Well, I'll just do everything you tell me. I'll just do every single thing you say, and I'll fight it.'' Meanwhile, Silverman's dad had 'the craziest' response. 'You just hear him go, 'I'm alone!'' Silverman says. 'Then he goes, 'I'm a widow!'' 'As awful as those last weeks were, it was really cathartic to spend, like, a year on tour talking about it,' Silverman tells USA TODAY. The PostMortem tour began Sept. 19 in St. Louis and wrapped in London April 28. Donald and Janice's deaths coincided with the release of her HBO special 'Someone You Love,' in May 2023, after which Silverman needed material for a new hour of comedy. So she pulled out the eulogy she delivered at her dad's funeral. 'When I started doing standup, this was all that I was thinking about,' she says. 'I would get to Largo (a club in Los Angeles) after cleaning out my parents' apartment with my sisters and just unload." Near the beginning of the tour, it felt 'heavy to get myself onstage and to figure it out,' she says. She had to finesse bits that weren't working. 'And then once I had it together, I was so excited to tell people about my parents every night.' Silverman and her dad grew closer as she got older. 'He was always really funny, but he was really scary when I was a kid,' she says, remembering his 'screaming out of control. ... He had a lot of rage issues,' but over the years he became 'a very chill, joyful, grateful man.' In 'PostMortem,' she says family and joy filled Donald's final days. 'We all got into bed with him,' she says. 'It was a great death. We were singing old camp songs. He loved camp. And telling funny Silverman family stories.' Behind those 'Big Dumb Eyes': Nate Bargatze's comedy and plans for after standup is over The honesty with which Silverman shares her stories has allowed her to connect with fans on a deeper level. 'One of my last shows, I think it was New Jersey or something, I could see a woman just losing it,' she remembers. 'And then when the show was over, she couldn't even get up because she was just sobbing.' Silverman called the woman over and the two embraced. 'She had just lost her dad and taken care of him just on her own. She didn't have any siblings,' Silverman says. 'I could feel her tears at my whole side (getting my) shoulder wet. 'Everybody relates to it in one way or another,' Silverman adds. 'Even if they go, 'I didn't have that relationship with my dad,' it seemed to really connect with people, and as a comedian, that's your dream.'
USA Today
13-05-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar recalls meeting Martin Luther King, Jr. at 17 in new book about change
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar recalls meeting Martin Luther King, Jr. at 17 in new book about change Show Caption Hide Caption What's next for Nate Bargatze? USA TODAY's Erin Jensen caught up with Nate Bargatze on his new book 'Big Dumb Eyes' and what's next after stand up. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was working to change the world long before the 7-foot-2-inch center became one of the greatest NBA players ever, and one of the most politically outspoken. In his 20th book, 'We All Want to Change the World: My Journey Through Social Justice Movements from the 1960s to Today' ($30, out now from Crown) the prolific author and one-time Time magazine columnist looks back at America's protests movements – from free speech and civil rights to the national protests following the murder of George Floyd. At age 78, the NBA Hall of Famer has seen them all, often first hand. His personal journey effectively starts in the turbulent summer of 1964 when, as a 17-year-old high school senior, he participated in a journalism program sponsored by Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited (HARYOU). When Martin Luther King, Jr. announced a Harlem press conference in June, the son of a jazz-loving transit cop threw up his hand to cover the inspirational leader. Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. (Abdul-Jabbar changed his name in 1971 after converting to Islam) felt out of place among the professional reporters, "the serious men in serious suits.' 'I showed my press credentials to the burly men at the door and wandered in, afraid that at any minute, someone would grab me by the arm and drag me out, shouting, 'Who's this punk kid pretending to be a journalist?'' Abdul-Jabbar writes. 'I was at least a foot taller than everybody else in that room, so I would be easy to find.' Abdul-Jabbar posted a throwback photo of the meeting on his Instagram page for Martin Luther King Day. He has never forgotten King's eloquent response to his standard press conference question, even though he was fully "focused on not passing out" as his smiling hero directed his answer to him. Abdul-Jabbar cites the encounter as the start of his civil rights activism, leaving the meeting with "a renewed allegiance to Dr. King's optimism about humanity's innate goodness," he writes. That feeling did not last long. In July, he made a spontaneous decision to cover a Harlem rally protesting the shooting death of a fifteen-year-old African American, James Powell, by a white off-duty police officer. When the student journalist emerged from the subway, "the city was already in chaos." "I'd never experienced a riot before, and I was terrified," Abdul-Jabbar writes. "I did what I did best: I ran as fast as I could away from the danger. Spurring me on was the knowledge that I was a pretty big target and that I didn't know whether a bullet hitting me would come from a rioter or a cop." The Harlem riot of 1964, a part of which he witnessed, left him filled with rage and confusion over the effectiveness of King's message. Abdul-Jabbar has never stopped searching for answers or using his superstar status to protest injustice. As a rising star at UCLA in 1967, he was personally invited by NFL Browns football star Jim Brown to participate in the Cleveland Summit. Brown gathered prominent African-American voices, primarily star athletes, to discuss and ultimately support heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali's refusal, a month earlier, to enter the Vietnam War draft. The press conference photo shows him at the table with his personal hero, Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell, Ali and Brown. Even as one of the serious men wearing a serious suit, Abdul-Jabbar, the youngest invitee, writes that he "never felt more out of my depth." "But I had been picked to join the team, and there was no way I would give it less than my all," he writes. Abdul-Jabbar has never stopped giving his best or believing in the importance of protests. For the critics, he often cites the national roots of dissent, starting with the 1773 Boston Tea Party, which is "celebrated in schoolroom textbooks as a political protest that helped establish the United States." The author still wonders if his work, or his new book, will make a noticeable difference in the arc of history. "Whether it does or doesn't isn't the question. Rather, the question we all face is 'Have I at least tried to make this country a better, more humane, more compassionate, freer place?'" Abdul-Jabbar writes. "I think I have."
San Francisco Chronicle
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Book Review: Nate Bargatze tries to bring his comedy from screen to page with 'Big Dumb Eyes'
It's a rite of passage for all comedians: Work like crazy on the stand-up circuit, hit it big, record live specials for a streaming platform, and then write a book that can never quite measure up to your live act. Consider 'Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind' by Nate Bargatze. I laughed so hard I cried during parts of his Netflix special 'Your Friend, Nate Bargatze.' But I can count on two hands the laugh-out-loud moments I experienced as I read 'Big Dumb Eyes.' That's not because Mr. Bargatze isn't funny. Books just aren't the funniest mediums for stand-up comics. Bargatze's live act flows from his droll, self-deprecating delivery. And while he tries right there in the book's subtitle — 'Stories from a Simpler Mind' — the humor just doesn't have the same impact on the page as it does the screen. Bargatze seems to realize this, writing in his introduction that he is 'very on the record about not liking to read books.' Alas, the publisher, and good ol' fashioned capitalism, apparently convinced him that he should write one. All that said, for super fans or anyone who would rather read funny stories than watch Bargatze tell them on TV, 'Big Dumb Eyes' is a quick read. There are even grainy, black and white photos of Bargatze through the years with his family. If you haven't already watched his specials, you'll learn a lot about his upbringing — from the sense of humor and theatrical nature he inherited from his father, the greatest clown and magician to ever work in Old Hickory, Tennessee, to the role his decade-younger sister, Abigail, played in keeping him from being completely self-centered growing up. My favorite chapter, the one with the most LOL moments, is called 'My Sister the Alien' and recounts the time when Nate, his brother Derrick and their dad forgot to bring Abigail home from church one Wednesday night. They all realize when they get home that Abigail isn't with them and dad's first words are 'Do not tell your mother.' When they drive back to the church, Abigail is with a couple, who found her in the church cemetery 'passing from tombstone to tombstone communing with the dead like the devil's phantasm.' Bargatze tells quite a few stories about his wife, Laura, as well, and near the end Laura even chimes in via footnotes, as if she's reading the book along with you. 'Obviously I knew about this, too. Now that I think about it, go ahead and tell Nate. I can't wait to see the look on his face,' reads one after Nate shares how he had to ask his parents to pay for her engagement ring. At the end, in a two-page 'Conclusion,' Nate offers his congrats to readers who make it that far, scolding anyone who got through all 222 pages in one sitting. 'You should probably move around some more. Or sprinkle in some other healthier activities, like watching TV,' he writes. It's good advice. I suggest 'Your Friend, Nate Bargatze.'
Hamilton Spectator
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Book Review: Nate Bargatze tries to bring his comedy from screen to page with ‘Big Dumb Eyes'
It's a rite of passage for all comedians: Work like crazy on the stand-up circuit, hit it big, record live specials for a streaming platform, and then write a book that can never quite measure up to your live act. Consider 'Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind' by Nate Bargatze. I laughed so hard I cried during parts of his Netflix special 'Your Friend, Nate Bargatze.' But I can count on two hands the laugh-out-loud moments I experienced as I read 'Big Dumb Eyes.' That's not because Mr. Bargatze isn't funny. Books just aren't the funniest mediums for stand-up comics. Bargatze's live act flows from his droll, self-deprecating delivery. And while he tries right there in the book's subtitle — 'Stories from a Simpler Mind' — the humor just doesn't have the same impact on the page as it does the screen. Bargatze seems to realize this, writing in his introduction that he is 'very on the record about not liking to read books.' Alas, the publisher, and good ol' fashioned capitalism, apparently convinced him that he should write one. All that said, for super fans or anyone who would rather read funny stories than watch Bargatze tell them on TV, 'Big Dumb Eyes' is a quick read. There are even grainy, black and white photos of Bargatze through the years with his family. If you haven't already watched his specials, you'll learn a lot about his upbringing — from the sense of humor and theatrical nature he inherited from his father, the greatest clown and magician to ever work in Old Hickory, Tennessee, to the role his decade-younger sister, Abigail, played in keeping him from being completely self-centered growing up. My favorite chapter, the one with the most LOL moments, is called 'My Sister the Alien' and recounts the time when Nate, his brother Derrick and their dad forgot to bring Abigail home from church one Wednesday night. They all realize when they get home that Abigail isn't with them and dad's first words are 'Do not tell your mother.' When they drive back to the church, Abigail is with a couple, who found her in the church cemetery 'passing from tombstone to tombstone communing with the dead like the devil's phantasm.' Bargatze tells quite a few stories about his wife, Laura, as well, and near the end Laura even chimes in via footnotes, as if she's reading the book along with you. 'Obviously I knew about this, too. Now that I think about it, go ahead and tell Nate. I can't wait to see the look on his face,' reads one after Nate shares how he had to ask his parents to pay for her engagement ring. At the end, in a two-page 'Conclusion,' Nate offers his congrats to readers who make it that far, scolding anyone who got through all 222 pages in one sitting. 'You should probably move around some more. Or sprinkle in some other healthier activities, like watching TV,' he writes. It's good advice. I suggest 'Your Friend, Nate Bargatze.' ___ AP book reviews:
