PUTNEY — Gordon Clark and his Vermont Comedy All Stars return for a night of stand-up comedy Friday, March 25, at 7:30 p.m., at Next Stage Arts.
Featured performers will include several contest-winning and touring comedians most often seen in the Burlington area.
“We all need reasons to laugh, and the Vermont Comedy All Stars do an outstanding job,” Keith Marks, executive director of Next Stage Arts, said in a news release. “Comedians will be coming from all around the state to perform - partnering with the All-Stars allows them to reach a new audience in the southern part of the state and build a new following.”
The cast of performers includes:
• Julia Colasanti, a Vermont stand-up with Midwest roots, has performed at the Vermont Comedy Club (VCC), Laugh Factory Chicago, and the Lady Laughs Comedy Festival. She was a regular at Shithole Chicago. She also produces Pop Up Stand Up shows for charity throughout the year.
• Nicole D'Elisa, a Burlington-based musician who is new to the comedy scene, has been “ripping it up” at the Vermont Comedy Club, and “what she lacks in experience she makes up for in stage presence and body hair,” states the news release. Nicole was featured in VCC's recent “Best in Vermont Show.”
• Bill Mitchell, a father, actor, punk singer, and Ninja Turtle aficionado who also dabbles in the art of stand-up comedy, has been a performer in the Keene, N.H., area for the past several years.
• Toni Nagy, a comedian who's “quasi-radical, pseudo-philosophical, somewhat existential, and mostly funny,” as described in the release, won the Best New Talent award at the Broadway Comedy Club in New York City in 2017, and again in April 2019. She's also a content creator, and her videos have been watched online over 60 million times.
• Tracie Spencer has been doing stand-up for over a decade and is a founding member of the Vermont Comedy Divas. She's performed in comedy festivals around New England, and was a two-time First Runner Up in Vermont's Funniest Comedian Contest. She produced and performed the one-woman show “60 First Dates” in venues throughout Vermont.
• Liam Welsh, first runner up in the most recent Vermont's Funniest Comedian competition, has featured for national headliners Jay Jurden, Solomon Georgio, and Michael Yo at the VCC and hosts a biweekly comedy showcase, “Free Stuff,” at Lincoln's in Burlington.
• Gordon Clark, the producer and host of the Next Stage comedy shows, directs the Vermont Comedy All Stars, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the comic arts in Vermont. He also produces and hosts the monthly “Second Wednesday” Comedy Jam at Nectar's in Burlington.
Tickets are $12 in advance ($15 at the door) and can be purchased at bit.ly/656-comedy. For more information on current Covid protocols and show updates, visit nextstagearts.org.