Latest news with #LaughBoston
Boston Globe
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
At the best comedy clubs in Boston, big laughs come in small spaces
.bofbpic img { width: 100%; height: auto; } Improv Asylum Improv Asylum Since 1997, Improv Asylum has produced one of the area's most reliably funny shows. Its Main Stage show is the heavy hitter, running Thursdays through Saturdays, but there's a variety of other casts and specialty shows for adults, plus family-friendly shows — 'rated PG-13,' the club says — on weekends. Also under the IA auspices are several trolley tours of Boston, including 'The Massholes Comedy Trolley Tour,' 'Dragtacular Trolley Tour,' and 'The Bliss Bus: A Cannabis Infused Tour of Boston.' Address: 74 Warrenton Street, Downtown Phone: Find online: .bofbpic img { width: 100%; height: auto; } Laugh Boston Laugh Boston Sean Goss At 300 seats, Laugh Boston is the biggest dedicated comedy club in Boston. It books a variety of touring and local acts, mostly stand-up but also some improv and podcast tapings, and is busy all week, but especially weekends. You can see some top local headliners, such as Will Noonan, and bigger names from further afield, like former Saturday Night Live cast member Tim Meadows and Cash Cab host Ben Bailey. It opened in the The Westin Boston Seaport District hotel in 2013. Address: 425 Summer Street, Seaport Phone: Find online: .bofbpic img { width: 100%; height: auto; } The Mendoza Line The Mendoza Line This Saturday-night showcase — in a walk-down basement of the Dugout Cafe on the Boston University campus — is about as intimate as it gets. The room holds roughly 35 people, and the comics walk through the crowd to get to the stage area. It feels like a secret clubhouse in the back room of a bar. Boston comics Sean Rosa, Rob Creen, Ben Keefe, and Zach Stewart take turns hosting, and will often do spots on their off nights, along with other talented locals and out-of-town drop-ins. Address: The Dugout Cafe, 722 Commonwealth Avenue, Fenway Phone: Not available Find online: Related : .bofbpic img { width: 100%; height: auto; } The Rockwell The Rockwell The Rockwell's basement black-box space in Somerville, with close to 200 seats, has been the site of several comedy-friendly venues over the years, including Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway Theater. New artistic director Deby Xiadani keeps that tradition going with her philosophy of 'Funny. Dark. Smart. Great.' She books offbeat comedy, theater, and music acts in the space with emphasis on the funny. It's where you'll find one-person shows, theme nights, and indie musicians. Address: 255 Elm Street, Somerville Phone: Find online: .bofbpic img { width: 100%; height: auto; } Rozzie Square Theater Rozzie Square Theater This 49-seat theater has a variety of comedy programming, leaning a bit toward improv and sketch. It has regular shows, such as the weekly Saturday night ComedySportz competition and a Queer Comedy Night, as well as classes and workshops. Find a cozy, friendly space that puts an emphasis on promoting diverse voices. Address: 5 Basile Street, Roslindale Phone: Find online: Boston Globe Best of the Best winners for 2025 were selected by Globe newsroom staff and correspondents, and limited to Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline. We want to hear from you: ? 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Boston Globe
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
The Boston comedy community rallies for one of their own
Months later, Dorval, 50, is optimistic. Chemo and radiation have destroyed the tumor. He suffered a setback when a procedure to harvest his stem cells for an auto stem cell transplant, which helps bones heal after chemo, didn't yield enough for an effective treatment. He was hoping to be working his way back to the stage over the summer, but that has been pushed back to the fall at the earliest. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up In the meantime, he's resting, watching the new 'Matlock,' and enjoying playing games with his wife and son. And he has felt well enough to record new episodes of the 'Total Dad Movies' podcast, which he hosts with his friends Tooky Kavanagh and Dave Rabinow. 'This is the longest I've gone without performing in my life, I think, since I was a child,' he said. 'So that's a little outlet that's creative.' Advertisement Dorval has made an impression on a few generations of comedians in Boston, both with his gentle but pointed stand-up and his congenial personality. So when he needed help, it wasn't hard to get people on board. Kavanagh started a GoFundMe campaign to help make up for Dorval's lost work, which has quadrupled its original $5,000 goal. She was also part of a benefit for Dorval in February at The Comedy Studio. Kavanagh met Dorval in 2017 when she was just starting to pursue stand-up seriously, and he helped point her in the right direction. 'Mike is just genuinely the kindest, most genuine person ever,' she said. 'He gave me incredible advice with starting out. I do credit him a lot with me sticking to writing and tightening jokes.' Paula Murphy, who has worked with Dorval on shows behind the scenes for a couple of decades, put together a benefit show happening April 14 at Laugh Boston featuring Kavanagh, He remembers a particular gig they both played at a club on Cape Cod. In the audience was a woman who was clearly alone and wearing a plastic tiara. Dorval felt compelled to address her. 'I believe the joke was, 'Are you celebrating something, or are you authentic, plastic royalty?'' In Gondelman's memory, Dorval weaved his material around her story, finally summing up her story at the end of his set. 'He goes, 'Of course, tale is old as time. Boy marries girl. Boy leaves girl for girl's brother, and those two fellas move to Oklahoma together.' [It] truly crushed. And I think about it all the time.' Advertisement Dan Boulger, who was just starting out when he met Dorval in 2003 (and was also at the Studio benefit), was impressed with how he could command an audience. It's a skill that has become more en vogue lately, but not one Dorval tends to show off. 'Mike was the only guy I ever saw really do crowd work when I started,' said Boulger. 'Because that was not the style then, and then it became comedy. Now, if he was Instagramming all that stuff that he was doing, he would have had like ten clips a week.' It speaks well of Dorval's range as a performer that he can get laughs from adults at a comedy club as easily as he can entertain children as The Bubble Man. Brian Kiley, who started out in Boston in the '80s comedy boom, used to take his kids to see Dorval and Jan Davidson do an act at the Children's Museum. He says running into Dorval outside of those shows felt like meeting a celebrity. 'He's [the] kind of guy that exudes that sort of positivity,' he said. 'There just isn't a malicious bone in his body, and that's why he was so good with kids. I'm sure that appeal comes across in his acting and it certainly comes across in his stand-up.' Advertisement Dorval performing as the Bubble Man. Kirsten Sims Dorval does have insurance through his wife, but there are still a lot of hoops to jump through to access the benefits he needs. And there are some unexpected side effects of the cancer, like the neuropathy that has left his hands partially numb and keeps him from performing as The Bubble Man. His doctors are hopeful it will go away in a few months, but that's not definite. 'That is not something I expected,' he said. 'When I found out that I had cancer in my nose, that I might not be able to pick stuff up anymore — that was not a fear. And so, yeah, just dealing with that, you don't totally know when everything gets back to normal.' Dorval is set to start the stem cell therapy process again the week before the show at Laugh Boston, and says there is a slim chance he might attend if his doctors say his white blood cell count is high enough, and he's feeling good enough. But he's not counting on it. A modest soul, he also feels strange about promoting a show on social media when he's the person it's helping. 'I just don't know what the proper etiquette is,' he said. 'There's a part of me that feels really weird going like, 'Hey, come to this thing that directly benefits me.'' He wants to acknowledge the work that Murphy is doing, and ultimately, he knows people will get their money's worth from this lineup. 'It's an amazing show,' he said. 'I mean, these are fantastic comics, so I don't feel at all guilty about people going to this, because it's going to be the one of the best nights of comedy they're ever going to go to.' Advertisement BOSTON COMEDY'S MIKE DORVAL BENEFIT At Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston, April 14 at 7 p.m. Tickets $40. 617-725-2844,
