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Media Contact: Jill Bourque
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
RING IN THE NEW YEAR WITH SAN FRANCISCO’S MOST ORIGINAL COMEDIANS
Herbst’s New Year’s Eve Comedy Show Features Brent Weinbach & Will Franken
San Francisco, CA, December 10, 2009–This New Year’s Eve audiences are invited to San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre to experience an evening of cutting-edge comedy and midnight 2010 countdown. “Not Your Normal New Year’s Eve” will feature today’s groundbreaking comedians including Brent Weinbach, Will Franken, Moshe Kasher, and hosted by Jill Bourque.
“Not Your Normal New Year’s Eve”, the mind-blowing comedy show and 2010 countdown is Thursday, December 31st at 10pm until after midnight. For tickets ($25-40) and information, call 415-392-4400 or visit www.NYNNYE.com
“Not Your Normal New Year’s Eve” or NYNNYE (”Ninny”) is the brainchild of San Francisco comedian, Jill Bourque. Brent Weinbach, Will Franken, and Moshe Kasher are cutting edge comedy artists, each with their own singular styles. All three got their start in San Francisco’s eclectic underground comedy scene around the same time.
Will Franken, who recently returned to the Bay Area after a year in New York, says, “San Francisco was the best place in the world for me to get started. They were extremely receptive to the sort of experimental stuff I was doing.”
He’s become a cult-phenomenon in the Bay Area with devoted fans and rave reviews from critics. His performances are breathtaking displays of comedic virtuosity, weaving absurd characters through a minefield of socio-political satire. He describes his comedy as “a one-man ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ episode. My transitions will take the audience from point A to point Z to point D to point 15.2. My pieces are always multilayered and audiences laugh at one layer or another layer or all of the layers at once. Yet it is my intention to not only make the audiences laugh, but to blow their minds into different pieces and then reassemble those pieces in strange and unearthly configurations.”
Brent Weinbach developed his unique style in the Bay Area and now splits his time between San Francisco and Los Angeles. He has a very unique delivery, precise timing, and inhabits characters in a spookily channeled manner. The effect is disarming and hilarious. He says, “I’m less interested in words and more interested in the sounds of words. I try to stay away from doing things that require a lot of thinking. I want the audience to not have to do any math to understand a joke. I just want them to experience the comedy and feel it and laugh from the gut.”
As alternative comedy has become mainstream, Bourque feels the phrase has become out-dated. “That’s why we’re calling the show ‘Not Your Normal New Year’s Eve’, It’s a way to communicate that, comedy-wise, we’re going to be heading over in this other direction. It’s about creativity, not the same old cookie-cutter comedy show.”
Weinbach elaborates, “The textbook definition of ‘alternative’ stand-up comedy is comedy that doesn’t seem like an act. It’s comedy that’s meant to seem like the comic is on stage just being funny and telling funny stories. Alternative stand-up, classically, has less to do with telling jokes with a traditional set-up and punch line structure and more to do with telling stories and being spontaneous.”
Franken adds his own perspective, “I’ve heard comedians with pink hair and facial tattoos being described as ‘alternative’, yet when I’ve seen their act, it’s still conventional stand-up. I predict in a few more years that just as mainstream comedy is derided by the alternative crowd for its predictable set-ups and punch lines, alternative comedy will also suffer a similar fate for its own predictability.”
Brent Weinbach’s comedy act is almost defined by its lack of predictability. He is fearless in his exploration of offbeat subjects. “My comedy does not fit into the ‘alternative’ comedy rubric, because it is very much based around rehearsed and calculated bits. I do take a lot of risks on stage sometimes, but I still want to put on a show for the audience and bring entertaining routines to them.” And audiences around the country have responded. He’s in the midst of a national tour to promote his new album, “The Night Shift,” which has earned high praise from critics.
While the comedy of “Not Your Normal New Year’s Eve” is unconventional, some of the evening’s fun will be more traditional. Bourque explains, “We’ll have an exciting 2010 countdown and balloon drop at midnight. I want to start the new decade off right and Herbst is the perfect place.”
NYNNYE will be presented at the beautiful 900-seat Herbst Theatre, which features dramatic chandeliers, a blue and gold-leaf ceiling, and eight large beaux-arts murals, created by vanguard artist Frank Brangwyn.
Franken takes in the dramatic significance of the venue. “When I perform at a traditional stand-up comedy club, I bring the theatre with me in my performance. The highest expression of comedic performance still comes from the theatre as opposed to the comedy clubs. When I walked onto the Herbst stage the other day, I felt that I was home.”
Weinbach added, “I think it’s neat to be performing at Herbst. It’s all classy and theatrical and stuff.”
WHAT:
Not Your Normal New Year’s Eve: A Night of Stand-up Comedy
This New Year’s Eve audiences are invited to San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre to experience an evening of cutting-edge comedy and midnight 2010 countdown. “Not Your Normal New Year’s Eve” will feature today’s groundbreaking comedians including Brent Weinbach, Will Franken, Moshe Kasher, special guests, and hosted by Jill Bourque.
WHEN:
New Year’s Eve Thursday, December 31st at 10pm.
WHERE:
Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, 94102
TICKETS:
For tickets ($25-40) and information, call 415-392-4400 or visit www.NYNNYE.com
PHOTOS:
High resolutions photos available at www.NYNNYE.com
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