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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,
Boston Globe
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
The Boston Comedy Festival returns for its 25th year
DiMarzio echoes his language. 'I think we try every year to make it something special,' she says. She highlights the BCF's comedy competition, which brings in dozens of comedians to face off in several rounds, before the winner is chosen from the final eight comedians at the closing at the Finals event that ends the festival. 'The contest has always been the heart of the festival, and so we always just kind of start with that, to get the best people to come into the contest.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The Boston Comedy Festival has been a lot of things over the past 25 years. Sometimes it's part film festival. They've hosted animation and short films. During the pandemic, the festival went virtual for a year, with all of the comedians performing in front of a custom BCF background to make it feel like an actual festival. 'Every year, we do stuff that works and we do stuff that doesn't,' says McCue, 'and we just keep rolling along.' McCue has been doing comedy since the early '90s, while DiMarzio is a creative designer. She can't remember when, exactly, she started helping out, but she has been immersed in comedy for most of the festival's history. They are always looking for fresh talent, but DiMarzio says she sometimes has to remind McCue that a perceived up-and-comer may actually be a ten-year stand-up veteran. 'We have to adjust our idea of who is new,' she says. Advertisement They don't start with a big budget and figure out what talent they can buy; they build each festival show by show with the different venues, which this year includes City Winery, The Comedy Studio, The Rockwell, The Somerville Theatre, and The Berklee Performance Center. The idea is to appeal to the widest possible range of tastes. 'We've always had the feeling of, whoever you think is the best comedian, you're right,' says McCue. 'So we're gonna be trying to get the best of every different kind of thing.' Here's a rundown of what you can see at the Boston Comedy Festival. Check THE CONTEST This starts on April first at The Rockwell, and bounces between there, The Comedy Studio, and City Winery. It runs the length of the fest, with the winner crowned at the finals April 5 at the Somerville Theatre. It's a good opportunity to catch a variety of comedians, but it's also a showcase for Boston comics to host and do 15-20 minutes while votes are being tabulated. You'll see some of the city's best there, including Andrew Mayer, Niki Luparelli, Kathe Farris, Alex Giampapa, Kelly MacFarland, Will Smalley, Robbie Printz, and many others. It's a display for agents and bookers coming to town to scout. 'The whole purpose of this thing [we] started 25 years ago was just trying to get industry to come here and see the acts,' says McCue Advertisement THE FUNNY TOGETHER TOUR If you're looking for clean comedy, this is your show. Providence comedian Rhonda Corey, who created the tour in 2023, is joined by June Bug Colson and Mike Murray. April 3, 7 p.m. $20. The Rockwell. EDDIE PEPITONE If you missed The Bitter Buddha on his co-headlining tour with Chris Gethard in October, you can see him do his own show here. In his 'In Ruins' special, Pepitone says that even though he rails against corporate culture, he's enjoying the space in his new Honda Element. 'I like that, because there's room to weep,' he says. 'I can regret my past life decisions in this car with satellite radio.' April 3, 2:30 p.m. $20-$35. City Winery. CELEBRATING DIVERSITY IN COMEDY This show provides a spotlight on comedians from LGBTQ+ and immigrant backgrounds, hosted by drag performer Miss Uchawi, featuring Ugandan-born comedian Birungi, 'Beer With A Queer' host Jeff Klein, stand-up and speaker Madelein Murphy, and headlined by Boston's own Corey Rodrigues. April 4, 7 p.m. $20. The Rockwell. EMO PHILIPS The off-the-wall comic is a longtime friend of the festival, and a joy to watch. One year, he had a great visual gag where he came out at the Rockwell in a neck-to-ankles trench coat, and over the course of several jokes, without drawing attention to it, took off the coat, and slowly made it disappear into his pants pocket. At another fest, he came onstage after the finals at the Somerville Theatre with a broom and started sweeping the stage as people filed out. 'He was so committed to the bit,' says DiMarzio. April 5, 7 p.m. $25-$30. The Rockwell. Advertisement Jim McCue performs April 5 at the Berklee Performance Center. Courtesy BEST OF THE BOSTON COMEDY FESTIVAL: TO BENEFIT THE COMEDY GIVES BACK FIRE FUND This show best exemplifies to kitchen-sink spirit of the Festival, featuring comics from different generations with different styles. Jim McCue, the crowd work expert. Paul D'Angelo, the '80s Boom comic with a knack for a rant. Storyteller and sometime nerd Bethany Van Delft. The sly but aloof Dan Boulger. Karen Morgan, a Georgia transplant living in Maine. And sharp-eyed former Boston comic and one-time theater kid Erin Maguire. McCue is happy to be able to help comics hurt by the LA fires through Comedy Gives Back. 'Everybody's not up and running out there again,' he says. 'They still need help.' April 5, 7:30 p.m. $25. Berklee Performance Center AMY MILLER 'I think the most 40-year-old thing I do, though, is I do have a special word for when I've had so much white wine I wanna get in a fist fight,' says the Los Angeles-based Miller. 'It's just 'chardonnangry.' Y'all can use that.' She headlines two shows with host Courtney Reynolds and feature act Will Smalley. April 5, 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. $25. The Comedy Studio. BOSTON COMEDY FINALS This is where the final eight (barring a tie) contestants will compete for the top prize in front of a panel of judges. BCF veteran Ryan Hamilton will be on hand to receive the Comedian of the Year honor, and Boston comic Kenny Rogerson, nicknamed The Viper for his savage and inventive wit, gets the Lifetime Achievement Award. Tony V, April 5, 8 p.m. $30. The Somerville Theatre. Advertisement
