Image courtesy of Act II Playhouse
Multiple area comedians will take to the local stage, just as everyone could use a good laugh.
From dramas to comedies, mysteries and musicals, the Act II Playhouse brings a wide variety of presentations to its Ambler stage. With a local assortment of amazing shows, there isn’t much need to trek into the city, battle a lack of parking, and pay far more to see productions when so many shows are right in your own backyard.
This weekend, the Act II Playhouse will put on a show of its own, converting its historic community theater into a comedy club. Since 1998, Act II has racked up 42 Barrymore nominations and six Barrymore Awards. It’s a “star” in its own right.
But it isn’t Act II’s “flair for the dramatic” that will keep the audience coming back this weekend. It is the need for a good laugh. (And who doesn’t need one of those?) The Stand-Up Comedy Weekend runs Friday, Nov. 15 and Saturday, Nov. 16.
The case of the giggles will begin on Friday evening, with two comedic geniuses: Che Guerrero and Alyssa “Dooks” Al-Dookhi.
Guerrero has been touring for the last 16 years, making hysterical jokes about everything from race and politics to family matters. His storytelling style of comedy keeps audiences howling with tales of his own childhood and growing up undocumented. What Act II called “a revolutionary voice on the modern comedy scene,” he’s taken life’s hurdles and made them into a comedic viewpoint, “unseen by the average American.”
Dooks is a Kuwaiti-American comedian, when they aren’t being an educator or activist in the City of Brotherly Love. They’ve been featured in CNN’s “United Shades of America,” and was also a contestant on the Netflix Karaoke game show “Sing On!” They grew up in Kuwait and attended college in Kalamazoo, Mich., but it wasn’t until Philly that Dooks found comedy and honed their “sharp wit and cultivated their theatrical, energetic style.”
Guerrero and Dooks take to the stage at 8 p.m. on Friday. Tickets are for sale online here. Seating is general admission, and the cost for tickets are $25 for adults, $22 for seniors, and $22 for military personnel.
On Saturday night, Mike Egan, Karen Faye, and Kirsten Michelle Cills will take to the stage for laughs all evening.
Eagan has been called a “comedian’s comedian.”
“He tells the most simple stories in the most disarming – and hilarious – manner,” said the Act II round-up. “Whether the topic is driving on a crowded highway, sharing a bathroom with his wife, or visiting the family at Thanksgiving, Mike finds the humor with a quick and very sharp wit.”
Faye brings a set of comedy that you can see with family and or friends, as she treats a show like she is “at a party telling a group of people a funny story.”
Meanwhile, Cills, a Philadelphia-born comedian, actor, podcaster, and docu-series subject, which Act II said is known across mediums for her “bold, dry demeanor.” She “considers herself truly blessed,” as she spends her 20s toting an oxygen tank for her terminal illness who jokes she “will not live to see any consequences to her actions.”
Tickets for the Saturday night line-up are available online here. The cost is the same as Friday night ($25 for adults, and $22 for seniors or military). The Saturday show also begins at 8 p.m.
Seating for both night’s events will be General Admission. The evenings’ shows will also be emceed by Richard Lewis, a 2017 comedy workshop alumnus. To order tickets online for the Stand-Up Comedy Weekend, Nov. 15 and 16, use the website here.
For more information on the comedic performances, call 215-654-0200 or stop by the Act II Playhouse box office at 56 E. Butler Ave., in Ambler. The box office is open for walk-in business on Monday through Saturday, from 2 to 6 p.m.
