Ryan Singer

For those in search of laughter or curious about the goings-on of the comedy scene in St. Louis, we will be making monthly recommendations of shows in (and near) the city. From sure-thing hilarious to fingers crossed, "Oh God! I hope this works," Funny Events is your connection to sketch, standup, improv and everything in between and out of the box.

May is a busy month for Funny in St. Louis and there's a handful of nights where you'll have more than one show to choose from. For a complete list of funny events in May, check out this all-inclusive comedy calendar.

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In this week's print edition we interviewed Jay Chandrasekhar: Director, writer and editor with the Broken Lizard comedy troupe (responsible for suck films as Super Troopers and Beerfest) and standup comic. Chandrasekhar had more to say than could fit in the paper; here is what wound up on the cutting-room floor.

Chandrasekhar will be making an appearance at Vintage Vinyl this Saturday in honor of Record Store Day and will be performing that night, April 20 at the Firebird, at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15.

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Your champ, Jon Venegoni.

Treemen - A compound noun made up of the words tree and semen that is used to describe certain pollinating plants whose odor strongly resembles ejaculate. (These trees are in full bloom right now in St. Louis, btw.)

The term above and its definition comes (ahem) courtesy of St. Louis comedian Jon Venegoni who bested three other finalists last night at Plush to win RFT's 2013 Standup Throwdown.

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Jeremy Essig.

For those in search of laughter or curious about the goings-on of the comedy scene in St. Louis, we will be making monthly recommendations of shows in (and near) the city. From sure-thing hilarious to fingers crossed, "Oh God! I hope this works," Funny Events is your connection to sketch, standup, improv and everything in between and out of the box.

To kick things off, you're going to have to make a choice, because I didn't feel like I could make it for you. The first week of April is a special one, as there are two very different yet most excellent opportunities to appease your comedy appetite on the same day.

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Last week your votes cut the pool in half, leaving just eight aspiring comedians to fend for themselves as the Elite Eight in the Riverfront Times' Standup Throwdown. Now in Round 2 the comics will put both your eyes and ears to the test. They've prepared short videos for your viewing/hearing pleasure, and once again your votes will split the ballot. We'll announce the Final Four in the April 4 issue of the Riverfront Times, and those finalists will then compete live for the title on Tuesday, April 9, at Plush.

Poll closes at 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 27. Vote today!

So what is it you are about to see? Well, we asked the comics to describe a little something about what makes them a standout standup. Here's what they had to say...

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Update: Congratulations to Lisa Rimmert, Jon Venegoni, Nick Branson, Mike Szymanski, JR Moore, Emily Hickner, Conor Hovis and Evan Rowe for making the Elite Eight.

Comics stay tuned; We'll be announcing the specifics of the next round very soon! Thanks also to everybody else for entering, and all you readers for voting!

Original post follows...

St. Louis is a town full of aspiring comics. There are comedy open-mic nights every day of the week, and on any given night anywhere from 10 to 50 people put their names on a list and wait for their five minutes of stage time.

Thus, we bring you the second annual RFT Standup Throwdown, a competition intended to recognize and celebrate this city's up-and-coming comedians. Entry for the competition was simple. All the comics had to do was tweet, addressing the following topic: "That is so St. Louis..." while using the hashtag #so_stl.

Riverfront Times received some 300 tweets from more than 25 comics. Below are what we considered the funniest 16 tweets. Your votes will divide the pool in half and bring the competition to Round 2: The Elite 8.

The Final Four will perform at a special live RFT show on April 9th at Plush, where the winner will assume the title of Throwdown Champion and secure a spot on the May installment of Comedy in the Lou at the Firebird (exact date TBA).

Let's get down to it! Here are their tweets; cast your ballots now. Voting ends at 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 20.

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It's that time of year again. Time for college basketball's March Madness and the second annual installment of Riverfront Times' Standup Throwdown.

Here's how it works:

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benroyyellsalot.com

For those in search of laughter or curious about the on-goings of the comedy scene in St. Louis, Funny Events is a monthly recommendation of comedy shows in (and near) the city. From sure-thing hilarious to fingers crossed, Oh God! I hope this works, this is your connection to sketch, stand-up, improv and everything in between and out-of-the box.

See Also:
-Colorado Comedian Ben Roy's Rise and What St. Louis Can Learn From It
-Stand-Up Comedy: It's Like Rock & Roll but with More Assholes

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In addition to an extensive acting and stand-up resume, Brian Posehn has forged a unique career path for himself by taking on projects that deal with things he truly loves. From Dungeons and Dragons to Anthrax (the band, possibly the substance as well) to Comic books, he's turned nerdiness into an art form -- or several different art forms, actually.

Brian will be making appearances right here in St. Louis, MO this week at the St. Louis Funnybone February 21st-23rd, and will spend Saturday afternoon at the Star Clipper on Delmar.

Among other things, I chatted with Brian about his various projects and his passion for Metal (the music, not the building material.)

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Adrien Goulet

"World Champion" Judah Friedlander

In this week's print edition we interviewed Judah Friedlander: standup comedian, "World Champion", and one of the stars of NBC's recently-wrapped sitcom 30 Rock. Friedlander is an exceptionally engaging and approachable interviewee, and as such we were unable to fit our whole conversation into the paper. Here's what got left on the cutting-room floor. (Friedlander will be making an appearance at the Firebird this Friday, February 8 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $20.)

See Also:
-Stand-Up Comedy: It's Like Rock & Roll but with More Assholes

Judah Friedlander [on the subject of his persona as the "World Champion"]: I've been doing stand up since '89 and I remember probably some fifteen years ago, every comedian was taking the persona of "Hey, you ever notice this?" or "Hey let's all relate on this." It was almost like there was a best friend kind of a thing. It's like "Hey I got this problem and you guys probably do too." That was the angle they were taking and I just decided to take an opposite approach. I couldn't relate to anything anyone's doing because my life is just so phenomenal.

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