Author: Michael Witthaus

Juston McKinney films new special

One thing fans of comedian Juston McKinney can count on is never seeing the same show twice. Another is the promise of a respite from divisive humor. The closest he comes to dipping his toe in political waters was in a recent online video, when McKinney claimed he’d turned down an opportunity to perform in Saudi Arabia.

“It wasn’t for that festival, it was a café,” he said with a smile. “But I’m not gonna do it … so keep your thousand dollars.” Apparently, however, not everyone’s funny meter was turned on. A few fan comments hit pretty wide of the mark.

“People were actually like, ‘Good for you, way to stand up,’” McKinney said in a recent phone interview. “I go, ‘Did you not know that was a joke?’ I guess I should have said two hundred bucks. I think that’s how you know the economy is bad. People were thinking, ‘A thousand dollars? Man, this guy’s making it.’”

McKinney is preparing to film his sixth comedy special, using footage from a pair of upcoming shows in Manchester. His most recent special, On the Bright Side, filmed in 2022 at Concord’s Capitol Center, has amassed over 1.2 million views on YouTube — an achievement that surprised the comic. “I didn’t think I’d get to a million,” he admitted.

The new special is untitled, and no-repeat McKinney is bummed he can’t re-use 2012’s On Midlife Support. “That would have been a good name for this one; I’m actually more in midlife now,” he said. “But I’ve got like half a dozen names that I’m thinking of.”

Family life continues to fuel McKinney’s act. His eldest son is college-bound next fall, and he just added his other son, a high school sophomore, to their auto insurance policy. The lifelong New England Patriots fan also has words for new NCAA coach Bill Belichick, and maybe a story about his youngest son coming out as a Kansas City Chiefs fan.

It’s been a thing since middle school, and much to McKinney’s dismay, only got worse.

“A few years ago, he goes, ‘Dad, can I go to Arrowhead Stadium? I want to see the Chiefs play in Kansas City’ and I go, ‘Maybe in 10th grade,’” he said. “That turned into, ‘You promised!’ So … now I’m taking him to the Detroit Lions-Kansas City Sunday night game.”

The game happened days before McKinney’s planned taping of his special, so he masked up to be safe, and played the experience for laughs, ordering a sign reading ‘things we do for our kids — even if they’re traitors.’ When it was delivered, though, the word “traders” had replaced “traitors,” obscuring its meaning.

Problems with the order, it turned out. “I did talk to text and didn’t realize the typo was there,” McKinney said. However, he did wear his Pats hat and fulfilled a promise to “snap a picture of me sitting in that sea of red.” Both father and son flew back happy. The Chiefs won, and the Patriots beat New Orleans the same day.

Perhaps the hardest-working man in New England showbiz, McKinney will start work on his annual Year In Review the morning after he films the new special. He promises an all-new batch of material for the run of shows, which includes six in Portsmouth, three in Nashua, along with stops in Laconia and Lebanon in the new year.

“All those shows are going to be coming up eight weeks after the special,” he said. “Yeah, this year was a mistake … I should have done it in the spring, and now I’m like, what did I do?”

To keep things fresh and craft new jokes, McKinney spends a lot of time in small venues, including The Winner’s Circle in Salisbury, Mass., and other open mic nights in the area.

“I need places to practice,” he said. He’s also on the road every now and again, most recently doing shows in Atlantic City, New York City and Stamford.

He’s so dedicated to exercising his comedy muscle that he recently did a celebration of life for a longtime fan. Held at a private home next to a pond in Sanford, Maine, the gathering was intimate, with about 40 people attending. “It was the first time I’ve ever done that,” he recalled. “Her daughter reached out…. She told me all about her mom.”

It was a fun time, so much that the folks there asked if he planned to do any similar events in the future.

“‘Yeah, you guys got my number,’” McKinney replied. “‘Call me when the next one goes.’” Though his set was well-received, he declined to use every comic’s favorite way to describe a successful gig.

“I didn’t kill,” he said. “I showed up afterwards.”

Juston McKinney – Comedy Special Taping
When: Saturday, Oct. 18, 5 & 8 p.m.
Where: Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester
Tickets: $42.50 at palacetheatre.org

Featured photo: Juston McKinney and his son. Courtesy photo.

Both Sides Now explores Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen

A tribute act that isn’t exactly, Both Sides Now looks at the music and lives of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. The two were briefly lovers, but remained lifetime friends and mutual muses. Robbie Schaefer plays Cohen, and Danielle Wertz is Mitchell. The cabaret-style concert was first performed last year at the Signature Theatre in Northern Virginia.

Wertz and Schaefer’s paths converged after he’d been asked to do a Mitchell cabaret show himself and declined.

“His response was, ‘That’s kind of a weird fit, and … a heavy vocal lift,” Wertz recalled from a solo tour stop in the Czech Republic. However, Schaefer had been reading up on Cohen, learning about the relationship between the two songwriters. He said, “I think that’s a much more interesting narrative,” and asked them to find him a Joni.

That turned out to be a hard request. The Signature went to its book and couldn’t find a fit, until their director was in New York City working on a new musical. He met Wertz, an old friend, for lunch, and mentioned the show, asking if she liked Mitchell. “I was like, ‘yeah, of course I love Joni Mitchell … she’s been my obsession for the last 10 years.’”

A quick phone call, some emailed links and a few weeks later the two were introduced in California, where both had solo tour stops.

“We met literally on the side of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean,” Wertz said. They played Mitchell’s “A Case of You” together. “Immediately we were like, ‘Yep, this is going to be a great fit, this all is going to work out.’”

Schaefer’s career began in the 1990s with Canadian indie folk band Eddie From Ohio, and he’s made several solo records. The singer, songwriter and guitarist is also a playwright, a recently ordained rabbi and founder of Lamplighters, described as “an online community that cultivates small-batch, relationship-driven, inclusive Judaism.”

Wertz is an accomplished jazz musician and composer who’d earned comparisons to Mitchell before the collaboration. In a review of her second album, 2020’s Other Side, Jazz Weekly writer George W. Harris praised the title song for its “Joni Mitchell’d tenderness.”

The decades-spanning show includes nine Mitchell and seven Cohen songs and opens with the tune that gave Schaeffer and Wertz their first click of musical recognition. The song underscores an idea that reverberates throughout the evening and is emphasized via the easy chairs and lit candles in the stage design.

“Joni and Leonard really did not write music that has tribute show energy; they wrote with such depth and vulnerability,” Wertz said. “I think ‘A Case of You’ does a good job of introducing to the audience what kind of show this is going to be, as opposed to starting with something like, ‘You Turn Me On I’m A Radio.’”

The show touches on interesting intersectionalities such as the fact that both began artistic careers outside of music, Cohen as a poet and novelist, Mitchell as a painter, something she was forced to do after leaving art school when she got pregnant and had to move to a home for unwed mothers. After the birth, the 18-year old new mother gave her baby up for adoption.

“What she had intended to do with the next chapter of her life was to continue being a very serious painter,” Wertz said, explaining that she was moved by the reasoning for Mitchell’s move into music. “After she had the baby, the only way that she knew she could make money was by singing covers of folk songs in coffee shops.”

Cohen’s faith is highlighted in the show. The two have recorded and plan to release “Who By Fire,” a song that includes pieces of the R’tzei prayer sung at high holidays, such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

“Leonard was raised in an Orthodox household and spent a lot of his life leaning into those traditions and then backing away,” Wertz said. “So much of his music asks, ‘Is this about God or is this about lust?’ It’s often both. We weave the prayer into that song, then pull it back out and let the lyrics … speak for themselves.”

Both Sides Now inevitably includes a rendition of the song that embodies Cohen to most of the world — a reluctant choice, according to Wertz.

“When we were putting the show together, we both rolled our eyes and went, well, we have to do ‘Hallelujah,’” she said. “But once we started playing it, really taking time, digging deeper and reading between the lines in the lyrics, we know it’s such a blessing to get to sing it every night.”

Both Sides Now
When: Friday, Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m.
Where: BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $51 at ccanh.com

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.